Try this:
Manual Update
First you should try to get your launcher up and running. (Tips on how to fix the launcher) But if you decide to update the game without the launcher here's how:
Get the patch you need from
patchup.info/downloads/ and follow the instructions below.
Since patch 4.2 the MPQ patches update the game from any version to the version of the patch you're installing. But if, for whatever reason, you want to install a patch released prior to 4.2, you need to install all the patches one by one.
Installing .MPQ patches:
Download the patch you need. (The patches are the .MPQ files like this 'wow-0-14545-Win-final.MPQ')
Copy the file to the World of Warcraft folder. (You can save the file there when downloading)
Rename the file to wow-patch.MPQ
Run Blizzard Updater.exe - Blizzard Updater.app if you're on a Mac - (Right click, Run as administrator if you're on Win7 or Vista)
If you get an error on base-Win.MPQ or base-OSX.MPQ you can get the file here. (Save the file in the Data folder)
After applying the patches your game will be up to date, but you may also have to install the tools patch.
Also, the fact that your game is at the latest version does not mean the download is complete, after patching the game you still have to stream the data files you don't have and the ones that are incomplete. To do that you can use the Launcher, the Background Downloader or you can launch the game to stream the data while you play (In-game streaming usually takes longer because the game doesn't use all available bandwidth)
To download the data files using the Background Downloader all you need the WoW.tfil file. Be careful though, because the BackgroundDownloader will use any tfil regardless of it's the one you're supposed to use or not, so if you use the wrong tfil it will replace your data files with whatever is in that torrent.(Check "Dont throttle Background Download" if you want it to download faster)
Possible errors:
If you see something like: "This update does not need to be applied. It requires version 4.0.#.##### of "WoW.exe", but you already have version 4.1.#.#####." It means your game is already at or ahead of the patch you're trying to install. If the version shown is the latest version but you still get the "Patch Required" when trying to log in, you probably need the tools patch.
* LOCALE = the language of your game, example: "enUS", "enGB", "deDE", etc...
- wow-update-#####.MPQ files go in the Data folder. (These files aren't needed to patch the game, so you can just let the game/launcher stream them after patching the game. But you can also download them if you want.)
