Loading screen

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For Warcraft III loading screens, see Warcraft III loading screens.

This article lists all of the loading screens found in World of Warcraft and its expansions over its history.

Login screen

  • World of Warcraft

    World of Warcraft

  • The Burning Crusade

    The Burning Crusade

  • Wrath of the Lich King

    Wrath of the Lich King

  • Cataclysm

    Cataclysm

  • Mists of Pandaria

    Mists of Pandaria

  • Warlords of Draenor

    Warlords of Draenor

  • Legion

    Legion

  • Battle for Azeroth

    Battle for Azeroth

  • Shadowlands

    Shadowlands

  • Dragonflight

    Dragonflight

  • The War Within pre-patch

    The War Within pre-patch

  • The War Within

    The War Within

With the user interface

  • World of Warcraft

    World of Warcraft

  • The Burning Crusade

    The Burning Crusade

  • Wrath of the Lich King

    Wrath of the Lich King

  • Cataclysm

    Cataclysm

  • Mists of Pandaria

    Mists of Pandaria

  • Warlords of Draenor

    Warlords of Draenor

  • Legion

    Legion

  • Battle for Azeroth

    Battle for Azeroth

  • Shadowlands

    Shadowlands

  • Dragonflight

    Dragonflight

  • The War Within pre-patch

    The War Within pre-patch

  • The War Within

    The War Within

Classics

Other

Music

Each login screen featured a variation of a 10-minute long piece of orchestrated score that features a medley of other music pieces that are heard throughout the game, with the beginning of the piece setting the main tone for the expansion. The theme for Cataclysm was called "The Shattering" by Russell Brower. Mists of Pandaria had a Chinese-like remix of The Shattering that replaced most of the hard drum beats with wind chimes.

In interviews in the past, Russell Brower has discussed how he likes to keep the original idea of the login music (the theming and key elements) and build on it with each new expansion. There's an expectation of hearing a certain style of music that says to people that they're logging in to World of Warcraft. It evokes emotions in many people and so he's said he doesn't want to take that away but instead, enhance and add to it with each of the expansions. If you sit and listen to the whole thing, you'll find that you've ended up on a journey of sorts through World of Warcraft history. It tells you about where you've been and where you are now or are going to depending on where you are in your gameplay.[1]

Login screen trivia

  • When information the players need to know about game service comes up, a "Breaking News" panel opens up in the upper left side of the screen.
  • Warlords of Draenor marked the third login screen out of eight to feature the Dark Portal, making it the most iconic and common theme so far. Though it is tied with dragons, featured in Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Dragonflight screens, and thirdly Icecrown Citadel, featured in the login screens for Wrath of the Lich King and Shadowlands.
  • The Wrath of the Lich King screen opened with the frost wyrm, Sindragosa flying into the frame, flapping her wings, landing with a thud, and emitting an infamously powerful roar, all repeating at a set interval. That often irritated players who were trying to log in quietly, to the point "roaring dragon screen" complaints were rumored to have influenced the randomized and much quieter roar of Deathwing in the next expansion's loading screen.
  • The widescreen support has been available since Vanilla, but was set on by default since Wrath of the Lich King.
  • The Cataclysm login screen is so far the only one that displayed a still-image while the rest of the game files finish downloading.[2]
  • The vanilla login screen was used as a placeholder for the beta and alpha of the following expansions: Cataclysm, Warlords of Draenor, Legion.
    • During the Warlords of Draenor alpha and beta test before patch 6.0.2, the vanilla login screen was used but heavily modified.[3] The same heavily modified version was used during Legion until the last alpha patch for 7.0.3.[4]
  • Four login screens showcased things which spent most of the expansion damaged or destroyed: the two main towers of the Valley of Heroes in Stormwind City (Cata), the Twin Monoliths in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms (MoP), the alternate Dark Portal (WoD), and the Ruins of Lordaeron (BfA).
    • You could also include the rest of Stormwind City as it is actively being damaged on the login screen - however it still stays operational during the expansion.
  • Wrath of the Lich King was the only one that used a different color for the buttons other than red. Shadowlands updated the buttons to a newer high definition.
  • Dragonflight was the third expansion to include a dragon in the login screen, albeit added in the second patch with patch 10.0.2 instead of the pre-patch.
  • The War Within had the first-ever major change to the login screen in patch 11.0.2 after the pre-patch, with the center circle opening up to reveal the Isle of Dorn.

The total time that each login screen was used is listed here. Note that originally the loading screen would be determined by the expansions installed on the user's computer, but this was changed during Wrath of the Lich King so that all players see the current login screen regardless of which expansions they own.

Game Duration
1 - World of Warcraft 743 days
(2004.11.23~2007.1.14)
2 - The Burning Crusade 679 days
(2007.1.15~2008.11.12)
3 - Wrath of the Lich King 770 days
(2008.11.13~2010.12.6)
4 - Cataclysm 644 days
(2010.12.7~2012.9.24)
5 - Mists of Pandaria 777 days
(2012.9.25~2014.10.13)
6 - Warlords of Draenor 686 days
(2014.10.14~2016.7.18)
7 - Legion 732 days
(2016.7.19~2018.7.16)
CN version: 2400+ days
(2016.7.19~2023.1.23)
8 - Battle for Azeroth 820 days
(2018.7.17~2020.10.12)
9 - Shadowlands 730 days
(2020.10.13~2022.10.24)
10 - Dragonflight 621 days
(2022.10.25~2024.7.23)
11 - The War Within Pre-patch - 21 days
(2024.7.23~2024.8.13)
Current expansion
(2024.8.13~Present)

World

World of Warcraft (Vanilla)

The Burning Crusade

  • Kalimdor loading screen

    Kalimdor loading screen

  • The Eastern Kingdoms loading screen

    The Eastern Kingdoms loading screen

  • Azuremyst Isles, Outland and Quel'Thalas loading screen

    Azuremyst Isles, Outland and Quel'Thalas loading screen

Wrath of the Lich King

Cataclysm

Mists of Pandaria

Warlords of Draenor

Legion

Battle for Azeroth

Shadowlands

Dragonflight

The War Within

World screen trivia

  • Prior to Mists of Pandaria, the continent loading screens were updated with fresh artwork in each expansion. Afterwards, only the logo changed to reflect the current expansion up until Legion when the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor loading screens were finally updated to stick with the vanilla logo.

Instances

World of Warcraft

The Burning Crusade

Wrath of the Lich King

Cataclysm

Mists of Pandaria

Warlords of Draenor

Legion

Battle for Azeroth

Shadowlands

Dragonflight

The War Within

PvP regions

Battlegrounds

Arenas

Scenarios

Mists of Pandaria

Legion

Battle for Azeroth

Garrisons

Class Halls

Warfronts

Maps

Azeroth travel map

Miscellaneous

  • Fallback (used when no other loading screen is available)

    Fallback (used when no other loading screen is available)

  • Cave

    Cave

  • Old Cave

    Old Cave

  • Dungeon

    Dungeon

  • Old Dungeon

    Old Dungeon

  • Environment, used for A Dark Place

    Environment, used for A Dark Place

  • Old Environment

    Old Environment

  • Raid

    Raid

  • Old Raid

    Old Raid

  • Ruined City

    Ruined City

  • Old Ruined City

    Old Ruined City

  • BlizzCon 2009 loading screen

    BlizzCon 2009 loading screen

  • Temporary Warlords of Draenor alpha loading screen

    Temporary Warlords of Draenor alpha loading screen

  • BlizzCon 2013 loading screen

    BlizzCon 2013 loading screen

  • Plunderstorm loading screen

    Plunderstorm loading screen

  • The Nazjatar loading screen showcasing the dynamic scaling support introduced in patch 8.2.0

    The Nazjatar loading screen showcasing the dynamic scaling support introduced in patch 8.2.0

Patch changes

  • Battle for Azeroth Patch 8.2.0 (2019-06-25): Added dynamic scaling support for loading screens in ultra-wide resolutions.

References

 
  1. ^ Login Music
  2. ^ Login Screen Cataclysm still-image.
  3. ^ Boubouille 2014-04-04. Warlords of Draenor Alpha Coming Up. MMO-Champion.
  4. ^ File:Login screen Legion alpha.jpg
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