Despite losing some subscribers, WoW is still the big dog on the MMO block and everyone has been looking at Blizzard to see how they’ll react to Guild Wars 2. With ArenaNet’s sequel hitting on August 28th it’ll naturally take some WoW players with it, but Blizzard is making sure they have a reason to give the Guid Wars sequel pause.

Blizzard has revealed that the big pre-expansion patch for World of Warcraft will hit US servers on August 28th. That’s the same day as Guild Wars 2, and the patch gives WoW players most of the expansion features; except the ability to level to 90, the Pandaren, the Monks, Pet Battles, or the new zones and challenge modes. But they do get to play around with the new talent system and participate in the pre-Mists world event that sees Theramore Isle being destroyed by the Horde, which kicks off the new war between the two factions.

And just like Warhammer Online before it, Blizzard plans to deliver it a crushing blow by releasing the actual expansion a month after its release. The Guild Wars 2 blow is even worse, as Blizzard waited two months after the release of WAR to release Wrath of the Lich King.