Just got this email from work, haven't tested this yet, but the guy said he tested it on 3 machines so far:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/download/clients/pc/InstallWoW.exe

DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK FOR WRATH OF THE LICH KING INSTALLER. ENJOY! (Yes this is the full installer to upgrade to Wrath of the Lich King)

With the direct download installer you can install the Wrath of the Lich King expansion RIGHT NOW before its release on November 13th - saving you hours of install time after you buy the game and be able to enter Northrend immediately by putting in the CD-key!

Update: Sorry if the site is going slow - its in the process of moving to the new server and will be done tonight - tomorrow morning. For now if a page isn't loading just refresh it a few times.

Wow lots of questions: This is for the US World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King expansion - after the installation you can use this to still play The Burning Crusade - you also can NOT access Northrend until 1) you tie a valid WOTLK CD-key to your account and 2) Blizzard flips the switch for the zeplins/boats to head to Northrend which will not happen until around 12pm EST 11/13/2008.

Enjoy!

Andist

I'm getting the file from him and will put it up on another server for direct download for the files. It will push you back to 3.1 so you'll need the two patches to push you back to 3.3.

I'll update a link as soon as I have it somewhere. I remember someone said they had some server space somewhere?!? Can I get some credentials? I've got a box, but it's not the greatest/fastest and I pay for anything beyond 25g

Andist

Downloaded the .exe and took a look at it in a hex editor. It talks about "when the Burning Crusade is released", so I wouldn't rely on it working. It's not getting executed on this computer at any rate....

I've got the file on an external drive, attempting to install now. I'll post in a few

Andist

http://wtbblue.com/site-updates/38-site-updates/448-wrath-of-the-lich-king-direct-download

also, for your reading...

ok, that downloader gave me the option of installing WoW, BC, or WotLK -- then had some issues with the internet (possibly cause I'm at work), or maybe because of Bliz's issues today.

Andist

Ok, heres the latest scoop.

Those files are the wotlk installer files, however, blizz has taken down the link (which should be back online at midnight EST, for those people getting the game). The installer file that I have still talks to blizz to find out what to install, that link now shows a 404 error (page not found). That file is the manifest list that tells the installer, "install this verison, install this mpq file etc". Without that file, no install. I searched around to see if google happened to cache the contents of that file, no love there.

I looked through my coworkers log files to see if it saved that information locally, of course, nothing. so, I cannot replicate the install -- looks like it was available for a short window. If anyone knows any other places to look for the manifest list for WoW installers, please let me know.

Andist

Meh I wouldn't worry too much about it all. You shouldn't really expect to play much that first day anyway.

Andist? Shouldn't you be working?

*grumbles* I wish I had a job where I get to sit around and play WoW and post on forums and goof off.