WoW Classic wants to try again. Essentially a “Classic+”, as the bosses will be tougher and there will be many adjustments.
When World of Warcraft Classic launched in 2019, some fans’ expectations were bitterly disappointed. Particularly, the difficulty of the raid bosses was often grossly overestimated, as they were a walk in the park compared to modern WoW. Many years of experience made the bosses easy and rather undemanding.
At the same time, some players of WoW Classic are already longing for a “fresh” start and want to experience the classic era all over again – from the very beginning.
This is where Blizzard has found a compromise: new, fresh classic realms with improvements. This is called “The Season of Mastery”.
The biggest adjustments in the “new” classic realms
Blizzard has already announced some of the changes. We will briefly introduce you to the biggest differences to the conventional classic realms in the Season of Mastery.
World buffs are disabled in raids: World buffs became an extremely important component in World of Warcraft Classic. Players made numerous efforts to stack powerful buffs like “Battle Shout of Dragon Slayers”. Consequently, it often became a matter of collecting as many buffs as possible and then completing the raid in record time. To eliminate this, Blizzard is simply disabling these buffs completely in all raid content.
New, old mechanics: Some bosses in WoW Classic had additional mechanics in development that were removed or never properly implemented over time. Blizzard wants to bring these mechanics back to give the bosses a bit more bite.
Debuff limit will be removed: A maximum of 16 debuffs can be active on an enemy at the same time. This is extremely low for 40 players, including DOT classes. Blizzard is removing this cap so that all classes and specializations can unleash their full potential.
More HP for bosses: The health points of bosses will be increased to counterbalance other adjustments (such as the debuff limit). Fights will thus be a bit longer and harder.
Faster phase progression: The Season of Mastery will stick to the 6-phase system of WoW Classic but will progress significantly faster. A new phase is expected to begin every 2 months, meaning that after just under a year, all content will be playable.
What else is changing?
However, Blizzard also wants to make a few adjustments with the “Season of Mastery” outside of raid content that will affect the player experience.
Faster leveling thanks to more XP: The leveling speed is set to increase. The XP gained in the Season of Mastery will be oriented towards the leveling speed of “The Burning Crusade Classic”.
Summoning stones can teleport: Summoning stones in WoW Classic serve only a relatively minor purpose. In modern World of Warcraft, they can be used to teleport players to the entrance of a dungeon if at least 2 players are already present. This is also intended to work in the Season of Mastery – summoning stones will become summoning stones.
More loot for professions: Herbalists and miners should be able to find more loot in the future, as Blizzard plans to add additional spawn points for ores and herbs. This aims to account for the fact that there are more players on a classic realm than there were back in Vanilla.
When does it start? Blizzard plans to test the “Season of Mastery” with an open beta starting on October 5. You can then take a look at the test realms and get your own impression of whether the Season of Mastery appeals to you or not.
What do you think of this idea of the Season of Mastery? Are you excited to dive into this “harder” classic again? Or does it not appeal to you at all?
