Wrath of the Lich King is where WoW Classic starts diverging from WoW

pcgamer.com:

World of Warcraft Classic will soon be receiving the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, which is a big deal because for some folk (and I'm one of them) this was WoW's greatest era(opens in new tab). But the expansion also introduced some features, most notably the 'Looking For Group' option, which have long been blamed for WoW losing that early sense of community (rightly or wrongly).

In other words, some see WotLK as WoW's golden age. And others see it as the moment when WoW began to change from something they loved into more of a randoms' theme park, culminating in the game-changing and incredibly divisive Cataclysm expansion. Which really couldn't have a better name.

This is the tension that Blizzard currently faces with WoW Classic and Wrath of the Lich King. Players want it, but it's debatable whether they want all of it.

The developer is trying to thread the needle of keeping WotLK as what it was, while also tweaking the things it (maybe) got wrong first time. The 'Looking For Group' option, for example, is gone(opens in new tab). And that's just the start: Blizzard's stated philosophy with WoW Classic has been "#NoChanges". Now it's "#SomeChanges".

«When World of Warcraft Classic first launched, it followed a very strict design pillar: #NoChanges,» says a Blizzard blogpost(opens in new tab). «At Blizzard, we faithfully recreated World of Warcraft as it existed in 2006, with as few changes as possible, while still making it able to run in the more modern environment of 2019. But World of Warcraft didn’t stop in 2006. It continued to evolve and change over the years.

»[...] However, as we re-release these expansions, we find the design pillar #NoChanges isn’t sufficient anymore. With World of Warcraft’s expansions