The gating + limited attempts thing is really stupid imo...

Hardcore will be blocked by the gates

Casuals will be blocked by the limited attempts...

I am pretty bummed by that... 5 attempts is really low. For sure all the best guild will have played on PTR and all so they won't be bothered by it too much, again it's mot casual that will get blocked by the attempts...


All I see is a way for Blizzard to make ICC last longer so they can roll in the cash a bit more and get ready for Cataclysm...

If you don't see the launcher at all you can tick the box for it at the login page of WoW.

Restart and it will starts.

Or you can directly go to the wow folder and run the BackgroundDownloader exe there.