World of Warcraft Patch Archive

Classic content patches

• 1.2 Mysteries of Maraudon
  Maraudon opened in Desolace, the first new dungeon after launch, along with the first round of talent and class fixes.
• 1.3 Ruins of the Dire Maul
  Dire Maul opened in Feralas, and the first world bosses, Azuregos and Lord Kazzak, started roaming Azshara and the Blasted Lands.
• 1.4 The Call to War
  The honor system arrived, laying the groundwork for PvP ranks and the battlegrounds that followed.
• 1.5 Battlegrounds
  Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley opened. Alterac Valley shipped instead of the planned Azshara Crater, which never went live.
• 1.6 Assault on Blackwing Lair
  Blackwing Lair opened at the top of Blackrock Spire, and the Darkmoon Faire started touring Azeroth.
• 1.7 Rise of the Blood God
  Zul'Gurub and the Arathi Basin battleground were added, and the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza began.
• 1.8 Dragons of Nightmare
  Silithus was rebuilt for the Cenarion Circle, and the four Emerald Dragons began appearing at the Great Trees.
• 1.9 The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj
  The server-wide war effort opened the Scarab Wall, followed by Ruins and Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.
• 1.10 Storms of Azeroth
  Weather effects came to many zones, and the class dungeon sets got a long questline to upgrade them.
• 1.11 Shadow of the Necropolis
  Naxxramas floated in over the Eastern Plaguelands, along with the Scourge invasion world event.
• 1.12 Drums of War
  Cross-realm battlegrounds and world PvP objectives in Silithus and the Eastern Plaguelands arrived just before The Burning Crusade.

Reading old patch notes

Full patch notes for every version, including the small bug fix releases between the big ones, are collected on Warcraft Wiki. When you read them for exploration, look for lines about collision, flight paths and "areas players should not be able to reach": they usually mean a hidden place was found and closed.

For the places these patches touched, see Azshara Crater, Caverns of Time and Hyjal.