January 26, 2026

Things to do before TBC Anniversary release: Full TBC checklist

Waiting for TBC Anniversary? We’ve got you covered with a complete guide of things to do before TBC Anniversary release to help you.

Key takeaways

Prepare your character early: Have a level 60 (or 58) ready, consider alts for professions, and be aware that GDKP is banned.
Invest in gold and professions: Flying mounts, crafted gear, and leveled Classic professions will give you a head start in TBC Anniversary.
Leverage Classic content: Zandalar enchants, attunements, and select Classic items remain strong in TBC, giving you an edge.

Planning ahead can make your TBC Anniversary experience much smoother and more enjoyable. In this guide, we cover the essential things to do before TBC release. From leveling strategies and gold farming to professions, flying mounts, and must-have items.

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Now let’s proceed on our things to do before TBC Anniversary guide.

Leveling before TBC

The first thing you should worry about before the TBC release is having a ready-to-go level 60 character (or level 58, to be exact). Luckily, Blizzard introduced several XP nerfs that make the leveling journey much faster. We’ve listed some of these changes in our TBC Paladin leveling guide. Aside from that, the leveling process remains mostly the same.

Tip

You may also want to consider preparing extra level 60 alts to spread professions across multiple characters, or leveling new Blood Elf or Draenei characters.

That said, leveling is still a time-consuming process. One crucial change to keep in mind is that GDKP runs are banned on TBC realms. Don’t waste gold paying Paladins or Mages for GDKP runs, as this will not only hurt your leveling experience but could also put your account at risk.

Farming gold before TBC Anniversary

Unless you are a Druid with Flight Form, you will need gold in TBC Anniversary, and a hefty amount of it. Let’s list some of the expenses:

To use a flying mount in The Burning Crusade, you must first learn the appropriate riding skill. Flying works much like professions or weapon skills and is trained from a dedicated NPC for a gold cost. Alliance and Horde players train flying at different locations in Outland.

Alliance characters learn flying from Ilsa Blusterbrew at Wildhammer Stronghold in Shadowmoon Valley, located at [37.4, 56.2].
Horde characters train with Olrokk at Shadowmoon Village in Shadowmoon Valley, located at [29.2, 29.2].

Once trained, you can purchase a flying mount that matches your riding skill. Both the skill and the mount itself require gold, as shown below.

Mount quality	Flight speed	Riding skill required	Riding skill cost (Gold)	Mount cost (Gold)
Rare	60%	Expert Riding	800	100
Epic	280%	Artisan Riding	5,000	200

In addition to mounts, many classes benefit from crafted gear. This equipment is often expensive when bought from the Auction House, or requires a significant investment of time and gold if you choose to craft it yourself.

Leveling up professions for TBC Anniversary

Classic professions work differently from retail. Before you can start leveling TBC professions, you must first level their Classic counterparts, ideally all the way to 300. Only then will you be able to learn most TBC recipes. This is one of the most time-consuming things to do before TBC Anniversary, but it is also one of the most profitable in the long run.

To put this into perspective, you’ll need to level two main professions of your choice. On top of that, you’ll want to level Cooking, First Aid, and Fishing if you plan to make extra gold or reduce your Cooking costs.

Zandalari enchants for TBC Anniversary

Now that we’ve addressed the elephants in the room, let’s shift focus to quality-of-life things to do before TBC Anniversary.

The Zandalar Tribe is a familiar faction if you’ve run Zul’Gurub on your characters. They offer some of the best and easiest-to-obtain enchants in the game, many of which remain competitive even in TBC. The only faction that eventually offers better enchants is the Aldor, but those require Exalted reputation and take significantly more time to earn.

Enchant Name	Slot	Reputation required
Animist’s Caress	Head/Leg	Friendly
Falcon’s Call	Head/Leg	Friendly
Zandalar Signet of Might	Shoulders	Exalted

Luckily, reputation with Zandalar is easy to gain, and reaching Friendly only requires a single Zul’Gurub run. If you’re aiming for the Zandalar Signet of Might, keep running ZG regularly, roll need on Bijous, and be patient. These raids are usually quick, as Zul’Gurub is one of the easiest and least time-consuming raids available in Classic. Doing this will make your character noticeably stronger compared to less-prepared players.

Items to get before TBC Anniversary

Finally let’s list some of the best items you can get for TBC Anniversary. Due to the nature of Classic boss design those items will still be relevant in certain TBC encounters. The list is:

Item name	Note
Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian	Has Power of the Guardian buff that will be relevant through the whole TBC
Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker	Generally strong slot for Warriors, Paladins, Rogues and Hunters
Petrified Scarab	Situational trinket that will help on some TBC encounters
Scarab Brooch	BiS Healer trinket
Badge of the Swarmguard	Good trinket for melee characters
Styleen’s Impeding Scarab	Good trinket for tanks

Note

Can’t get these items? Don’t overthink them. Getting those as extra things to do before TBC Anniversary release is a healthy approach. The expansion is well-optimized even if you didn’t manage to do/get any of these beforehand.