TBC Anniversary Phase 3: Blizzard Drops Old Raid Attunements on August 27

Blizzard has confirmed that attunement requirements for previous raids will be removed once The Burning Crusade Anniversary Phase 3 goes live on August 27, clearing the path into Karazhan, Gruul’s Lair, Magtheridon’s Lair, Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye for anyone who skipped the grind the first time around.

The change lands alongside the phase’s headline addition: Tier 6 raiding. Blizzard has confirmed that the free-to-play-with-subscription Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary realms will progress to Phase 3 on August 27, 2026 at 3:00 pm PDT, opening Black Temple, Battle for Mount Hyjal, Netherwing dailies, Epic Gems, and the start of Arena Season 3, as reported by MMOs.com.

Black Temple and Mount Hyjal Arrive August 27

Phase 3 brings the memorable Black Temple and Mount Hyjal raids to the game along with a new Arena season and a few more odds and ends, from epic gems to new daily quests for the Netherwing faction, Warcraft Tavern reported. Black Temple houses nine bosses ending on Illidan Stormrage, while the Battle for Mount Hyjal closes with Archimonde.

Neither new raid skips the gatekeeping entirely. Black Temple still requires completing the attunement chain starting with The Tablets of Baa’ri, available from Arcanist Thelis for the Scryers or Anchorite Ceyla for the Aldor, according to MMOs.com. Mount Hyjal remains locked behind the Vials of Eternity questline, picked up from Soridormi in the Caverns of Time.

Karazhan, SSC and Tempest Keep Lose Their Gates

What changes is everything that came before. The confirmation that attunement requirements for previous raids will be removed once Phase 3 goes live means guilds catching up, and alts trying to gear fast, no longer need to clear the old key-fragment and reputation chains for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 tiers.

It mirrors what happened in the original 2007 run of Burning Crusade. Blizzard’s Jeff “Tigole” Kaplan announced at the time that the studio had decided to “remove the attunement requirements to enter Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye,” citing unnecessary stress on guilds attempting the content. Karazhan, Mount Hyjal and Black Temple attunements followed the same fate later in the expansion’s original patch cycle.

The Anniversary realms are compressing that same arc into a faster schedule. Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary launched globally in February, with Phase 2’s Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep arriving in May, meaning the entire Tier 4 and Tier 5 attunement structure will have stood for roughly six months before Blizzard tears it down.

Arena Season 3 Replaces Season 2 on September 1

Phase 3 doesn’t arrive alone on the PvP side either. Arena Season 2 will end on August 18th with realm restarts, and Season 3 will begin September 1st, per Warcraft Tavern’s coverage of the patch schedule.

Players sitting on unspent points should note the conversion rules. Unspent Arena Points will be converted to Honor Points at a 1:10 rate when the season ends, and Season 2 gear will be discounted and have its rating requirements removed, while Season 1 gear becomes available from Honor vendors at the same time.

Netherwing Dailies and Epic Gems Round Out the Patch

Outside the raid instances, Phase 3 opens the Netherwing faction hub in Shadowmoon Valley, the reputation grind that eventually rewards the Netherwing drake mounts. Epic Gems also enter the game for the first time on Anniversary realms, feeding into the socket slots that come with Tier 6 gear.

None of that changes the core arithmetic for raid leaders this week: three days out from launch, the priority is finishing whatever remains of the Black Temple and Hyjal chains, because everything from Karazhan through Tempest Keep opens for free the moment the servers come back up on August 27 at 3:00 pm PDT.

Reported from

• Wowhead
• Warcraft Tavern
• MMOs.com