The Anniversary launch of World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade Classic and the transition from Classic change the pace of the game a lot. The first days are crucial for setting your character up for optimal progression. You’ll need quite a lot of gold, and your character’s skills need to be leveled appropriately to jump straight into dungeons and raids. In this article, we’ll cover all the things to do before the TBC Classic Anniversary release to prepare you for the road. Everything here is based on issues players consistently run into during the first week in Outland.
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Things to Do Before TBC Classic Anniversary
Killing mobs is what you’re going to be doing a lot during leveling, so having your character prepped for it is essential. Besides that, movement takes a considerable portion of your leveling time, so getting it optimized is crucial to getting to the endgame ASAP. The main things to do before TBC Classic Anniversary release are:
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Leveling Weapon Skills to 300
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Talent Setup Before TBC Leveling
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Flight Paths and Route Coverage
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Mount Speed Improvements
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Professions and Gold Setup
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Inventory and Gear Cleanup
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Preparing Consumables and Buffs
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PvP, Alts, and Final Preparation Checks
Not everything from this list needs to be done, but the more you do, the smoother your early progression will be.
Defense Skill Leveling
As always, leveling up the Defense skill matters a lot, especially during open-world questing. Higher defense stat reduces the chance to get critically hit and increases your dodge, parry, and block chances. The result is noticeably smoother leveling process - less damage taken, and fewer unexpected deaths during large pulls and elite mob fights.
Of course, this stat is an absolute priority on the list of things to do before the tbc classic Anniversary release for tanks, but it also benefits solo players in world content and melee DPSs who can occasionally pull threat in dungeons. The safest way to level defense is by letting low-damage enemies hit you repeatedly in controlled areas. Zones with large spawns work well - try Deeprun Tram rats (Alliance) or Silithid Swarmers in Southern Barrens (Horde/Neutral). Using passive healing effects or Troll’s Blood Potions during defense leveling allows you to AFK while continually getting hit.
Leveling Weapon Skills to 300
Weapon skill preparation saves a surprising amount of time later. TBC quest rewards weapons will make you frequently replace weapons, and switching to a new weapon type with low skill feels awful. Misses increase, damage drops, and leveling slows.
Before launch, train every weapon type your class can use and push each one to 300. The fastest method is to attack the endlessly respawning enemies near the Dark Portal. Since they cannot die out, you can level weapon skills without pressure. If you already own a strong Naxxramas-tier weapon you plan to use well into Outland, this becomes less urgent, but it still helps to have alternatives trained.
Talent Setup Before TBC Leveling
Getting your talents right is another important thing to do while preparing for the Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary release. Respec costs are low now compared to the benefits of leveling with the right build. Dungeon leveling strongly favors tank and healer specs, as groups form quickly and experience flows steadily. Open-world leveling benefits from efficient DPS builds that reduce downtime.
Keeping a raid-optimized spec for leveling might slow your progress by a lot. It is easier to adjust talents now and respec again at 70 once your gold income stabilizes.

Flight Paths and Route Coverage
Unlocked flight points save time constantly, even if the benefit feels small at first. Before launch, it is worth flying across Azeroth and unlocking every available route. This reduces travel friction when preparing quests, moving between dungeons, or repositioning for Outland content. Flight paths unlocks are especially helpful if you plan to enter TBC with completed quests ready to turn in, as they allow faster positioning before launch.
Mount Speed Improvements
One of the main things you should get optimized during the Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary preparation is your movement. Mount speed affects leveling more than most players expect. Over dozens of quests, small speed bonuses add up to a massive amount of time saved.

Professions and Gold Setup
As per usual, professions are one of the strongest gold sources during early TBC. New ores, herbs, and materials are especially expensive during the first week, and demand heavily outpaces supply.
Pushing all primary and secondary professions to 300 before launch is strongly recommended. This includes cooking, first aid, and fishing, which all provide long-term utility. Gathering professions perform exceptionally well immediately, while crafting professions unlock powerful Phase One gear crafting and cooldown reset-based income.
The table below summarizes profession preparation priorities and their early benefits:
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Preparation Step |
Why It Helps Early TBC |
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Professions at 300 |
Immediate access to Outland recipes and materials |
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Character level 50+ |
Unlocks key profession cooldowns |
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Stockpiled Classic mats |
Avoids inflated launch prices |
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Crafting specializations |
Access to early epic and pre-raid items |
Gold farming before launch is also an important step to take during your WoW TBC Classic Anniversary preparation. Spending on skill training, consumables, and flying mounts quickly drains savings. Normal flying costs 800 gold, while epic flying requires normal flying plus a 5,200 gold upgrade. Reaching that total later is much easier if you already have a sizeable classic gold buffer.
Inventory and Gear Cleanup
Bag space becomes a constant issue in Outland. Greens, vendor trash, and crafting materials fill inventories quickly, and taking extra vendor trips wastes your valuable time. Sell unused items beforehand, mail long-term storage to alts, and upgrade to larger bags if possible. More space directly translates into more gold and less unnecessary downtime.

Preparing Consumables and Buffs
Many Classic consumables remain useful in TBC. Healing and mana potions see constant use in Hellfire Peninsula. Tanks benefit from Greater Stoneshield Potions, while Swiftness and Invisibility Potions provide utility during difficult pulls or dungeon skips.
World buffs can be stored using Chronoboom Displacers and activated right before entering Outland. While they do not last forever, they significantly speed up early questing and dungeon runs.
Rogues should also finish leveling lockpicking. Several TBC dungeons and shortcuts rely on it, and skipping long key quest chains saves time for entire groups.
PvP, Alts, and Final Checks
With rank requirements removed in Anniversary TBC, farming honor during pre-patch allows instant access to strong rare and epic items later. Many of these sets perform reasonably well in early PvE content as well, making running PVP a must during your TBC Classic Anniversary prep.
Players planning to main Draenei or Blood Elf characters can prepare gear ahead of time. Well-chosen rares and epics noticeably improve leveling speed in starting zones.
Before launch, repair all gear, clear unnecessary quests from your log, and make sure your addons and keybinds are ready. Joining an active guild ahead of time also helps with dungeon leveling and early group content.
What Usually Goes Wrong After the Dark Portal Opens
Most frustrations in early TBC come from small oversights carried over from Classic:
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Low weapon skills make gear upgrades feel unusable.
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Unfinished professions turn into missed gold opportunities.
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Poor inventory management forces time-consuming vendor trips.
These issues are easy to solve beforehand and annoying to fix later. Preparing beforehand means spending the first hours in Outland actually playing the game to the fullest instead of correcting old mistakes.
Conclusion
As we’ve covered in our Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary preparation guide, weapon skills, professions, travel options, and inventory space are all important in setting up the best leveling experience possible. Handling them now means spending less time fixing problems and more time enjoying what makes Outland memorable.