Jump to content
FORUMS
Sign in to follow this  
Staff

WoW Classic Season of Mastery Preview: Faster Leveling, Content Cadence, QoL Improvements

Recommended Posts

isqUNJ3.jpeg

The Season of Mastery is coming soon to WoW Classic Era realms, giving all players an opportunity to start fresh, but with slightly more changes like faster leveling, disabled world buffs in raids, removal of the 16 debuff limit, and more. Read on for details.

Highlights

Players who wish to start anew on WoW Classic Era realms will notice a few changes in the forthcoming season titled: Season of Mastery. These include:

  • Faster phase unlocks; the plan is to have a 12-month cadence, with phases unlocking every couple of months.
  • Raid bosses will be more challenging. Some boss mechanics that were removed will be restored.
  • The 16 debuff limit on bosses will be removed.
  • World buffs will be disabled in raids.
  • The health of raid bosses will be increased to offset the debuff limit and world buff removal.
  • Leveling from 1 to 60 will be faster. The plan is to have TBC XP rates.
  • Meeting Stones will be converted to Summoning Stones.
  • Increased Mining and Herbalism nodes.

Blizzard Logo(Source)

Greetings, adventurers! WoW Classic Season of Mastery is coming, giving all players a chance to start fresh and a level playing field. This time around, we’re planning #slightlymorechanges.

We will launch new WoW Classic realms for Season of Mastery. These realms will invite new and current Classic players to begin fresh at level 1 for a complete reset of WoW Classic’s content, starting again at the very beginning of the World of Warcraft saga.

What’s different in WoW Classic Season of Mastery?

As with the first release of WoW Classic, we’re planning six content release phases. In WoW Classic Season of Mastery, however, phase unlocks will happen faster. We’re planning for a 12-month cadence, with phases unlocking roughly every couple months. Here’s the current outline for the six phases:

Phase 1 (WoW Classic Season of Mastery Launch)

  • Molten Core
  • Onyxia
  • Maraudon
  • PvP Honor System and Battlegrounds (up from Phases 3 and 4)

Phase 2

  • Dire Maul
  • Azuregos
  • Kazzak

Phase 3

  • Blackwing Lair
  • Darkmoon Faire
  • Darkmoon deck drops begin

Phase 4

  • Zul’Gurub
  • Green Dragons

Phase 5

  • Ahn’Qiraj War Effort begins
  • Ahn’Qiraj raids open as the war effort dictates

Phase 6

  • Naxxramas
  • Scourge Invasion

Raid Boss Updates

The original release of WoW Classic was made to re-create the difficulty and challenge of patch 1.12 from the original World of Warcraft release. While we strived to bring a faithful re-creation of that release, many raid encounters turned out to be easier than the first time around—players simply were more experienced and prepared, and patch updates greatly increased player power.

With that in mind, we’re planning a few changes to make those early raid bosses pack a bit more of a punch, and attempt to recapture the original challenge they presented. These changes currently include (but are not limited to):

  • World buffs (like Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer and others) disabled in Raid instances
  • Restoring mechanics that were removed early on to some Raid bosses
  • No boss debuff limit (up from 16 debuffs in WoW Classic)
  • Increased health on bosses, to offset player buffs and the removed debuff limit

Our intent with these changes is for this experience to feel somewhat more challenging than WoW Classic did in 2019.

Due to Season of Mastery’s faster content release cadence, we’re also planning several improvements and changes. These include:

Faster Leveling

We’re planning on increasing experience gains from what they were in the first iteration of WoW Classic. Our current plan is to set them close to what the 1-60 XP rates are in Burning Crusade Classic™ with a bigger focus on quest XP increases.

Quality of Life Updates

In addition, we’re planning on introducing certain improvements that weren’t in the original WoW Classic release, but that we think can help create a better experience, such as:

  • Meeting Stones converted to Summoning Stones
  • Increased Mining and Herbalism nodes

Realms tend to be more densely populated in WoW Classic compared to the original 2005 design. Increasing gathering node spawns should provide a more consistent economy this time around.

WoW Classic Season of Mastery will have an Open Beta beginning on October 5. We look forward to hearing your feedback on these changes and many others as we continue to iterate on them. Keep an eye on the forums and https://worldofwarcraft.com/news for the latest developments.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No thanks. This is Golden Classic_Era, not the Simplified Retail that's been converted to please all the lazies for manyyy years now. Surely hope that many of these that prob. are added even if people say no, would be optional as in can disable from settings. If not then most likely to drop sub & no more cash to Blizzard from my wallet. That is unless they're removed, new IP comes out or Remaster of WC3 gets reworked. It's release was shameful & Devs who worked on it should be put to GOT's 'Walk of Shame' :/

WoW's gameplay received some dumb simplifications even on Shadowlands expansion & Blizzard had guts to call them as part of 'QOL' changes :D To Dear Blizzard who seems to be doing a lot of these 'wasted time' changes around Azeroth: Please merge many Golden Classic_Era realms on all continents. Thanks :P

Edited by Fedaygin
Clarified Things.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Fedaygin said:

No thanks. This is Golden Classic_Era, not the Simplified Retail that's been converted to please all the lazies for manyyy years now. Surely hope that many of these that prob. are added even if people say no, would be optional as in can disable from settings. If not then most likely to drop sub & no more cash to Blizzard from my wallet. That is unless they're removed, new IP comes out or Remaster of WC3 gets reworked. It's release was shameful & Devs who worked on it should be put to GOT's 'Walk of Shame' 😕 WoW's gameplay received some dumb simplifications even on Shadowlands expansion & Blizzard had guts to call them as part of 'QOL' changes 😄

For all the anti-vanilla, those recent time were great

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

  • Similar Content

    • By Staff
      We have some details on difficulty tuning coming with this week's maintenance in Season of Discovery, with specific changes coming to individual Heat levels and bosses!
      Molten Core (Source)
      We’re working on a series of hotfixes to adjust Molten Core, and we don’t expect to get these changes implemented until some hours have passed after weekly maintenance tomorrow morning.
      Ragnaros no longer submerges twice on Heat 1. Baron Geddon now casts Armageddon at 5% on Heat 1 (was 10%). Baron Geddon now casts 2 Living Bombs at a time on Heat 2 (was 3 casts). Living Bomb no longer leaves Living Fallout pools on Heat 1. Flamewaker Protectors now cast Dominante Mind much less frequently. We’re maximized the cast and recast times of several dispel mechanics. We’ll let you know when these changes go live tomorrow afternoon.
    • By Staff
      Blizzard have announced there was an issue with non-boss mobs in Molten Core not having the correct immunities in the first few minutes of the raid's launch. A hotfix has been deployed, but players that entered the raid in that period can also resolve the issue by soft resetting the instance or switching Hear level. 
      Molten Core (Source)
      About 5 minutes after Molten Core opened, we deployed a hotfix to correct immunities on non-boss enemies. Players who zoned in during the first few minutes can expect to find boss adds that have unexpected immunities.
      If you wish to, a soft reset of the instance should result in the non-boss enemies spawning correctly. Also, quickly swapping to a different Heat level and back to your original Heat level at the Hydraxian NPC near the entrance will reset the boss add immunities without needing an instance reset.
      Thank you!
    • By Staff
      The new Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair are now live in SoD Phase 4! 
      (Source)
      It's time to put on your fire resist gear to face Onyxia in her lair and Ragnaros, the fire lord, in the Molten Core.
      World Bosses Now Live
      Experience Lord Kazzak and Azuregos as brand-new instanced versions of these encounters. These encounters can be experienced with up to 40 players but will be tuned as 20-player content, making them both pick-up-group-friendly with 40 players, but also giving players the option to maximize their rewards by attempting them with 20-players.
      Onyxia's Lair and Molten Core Now Live

      Experience Molten core as a 20-player dungeon with 10 classic bosses (+1,) revamped loot, redesigned Tier 1 sets, and more. Players will also be able to turn up the heat with a new variable difficulty mechanic allowing players to earn more rewards from undertaking a higher difficulty. Don’t forget your fire resist gear! You are going to need it. We’ll be adding one more surprise to this classic raid dungeon for intrepid adventurers to discover.
      Onyxia will also be adjusted to accommodate 40 or fewer players along with some additional loot adjustments.
      New Raid Lockout interval
      Raid lockouts for Season of Discovery Phase 4 raids will occur regularly once a week for Molten Core and two times a week on static reset days for Onyxia’s Lair, Lord Kazzak, and Azuregos. Players in North America will have their resets for these bosses on Tuesdays and Saturdays, in Europe, on Wednesdays and Sundays, and in Asia on Thursdays and Mondays.
      Gather your allies and go forth to battle!
    • By Staff
      Blizzard will be increasing the drop rate for Librams of Resilience in BRD and BRS, as well as Burning Essence rates from the Dark Coffer with a hotfix today. They also explained some of the fire resistance numbers found in today's Molten Core post, pointing out that those listed were fully buffed.
      (Source)
      We agree, actually. We are sending a hotfix very soon to add a chance for Librams of Resilence to drop from certain Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire bosses, and increase the liklihood you get Burning Essence from the Dark Coffer in Blackrock Depths. This should help make these items a bit more available, but still require the same process and ceremony to complete the arcanum.
      I want to also take this opportunity to also clarify that the fire resistance numbers listed in the blog post are fully buffed. So that ~100 fire resistance breakpoint for Blistering/Heat 2 only requires you to have ~40 unbuffed if you have a shaman or paladin in your group. For many classes that is a single item and the new +20 Fire Resist cloak enchant from Hydraxian Waterlords reputation. For Molten/Heat 3 you’ll need to do a bit more prep and that is intended, but as alluded in my previous post, Heat 2 should be very approachable for almost anyone.
    • By Staff
      Blizzard have detailed the changes coming to Molten Core in Phase 4 of Season of Discovery, from the new Heat mechanic to the new boss behind it (with no unique loot)! The raid opens tomorrow, July 25th, at 1 PM PDT/10 PM CET! 
      Molten Core (Source)
      The temperature rises with the release of Molten Core on 25 July, at 21:00 BST. Season of Discovery is presented with a unique challenge, as a new “Heat” mechanic is introduced in the Molten Core, which is not to be taken lightly.
      When you first zone into Molten Core, speak with a Hydraxian Waterlords NPC at the entrance to choose one of three different Heat levels—Sweltering, Blistering, or Molten—with an increase in difficulty at each level.
      If things get too hot to handle, you can swap Heat levels anytime. Simply speak with the NPC at the entrance to the Molten Core while not in combat. You will also have another opportunity to swap Heat level again with NPCs that spawn after using Aqual Quintessence to douse boss runes.
      Sweltering Heat – Level 1 The easiest of the three modes is designed to be approachable to almost all groups. Sweltering Heat is for those visiting the Molten Core who are less prepared to handle the Heat—fewer consumables, fewer fire resist buffs, etc. Blistering Heat – Level 2 A normal mode that requires more coordination and basic preparation. For those who have a moderate amount of consumables, enchants, buffs, nominal fire resistance, etc., Blistering Heat should be a breeze. Gear rewards for Blistering Heat are the same as Sweltering Heat, with an additional drop for most bosses. Recommended Fire Resistance: +96 or higher Molten Heat – Level 3 The Heat turns up in Molten Heat for skilled groups prepared to face the fire. The rewards for Molten Heat are the same as Blistering Heat, with a few additional items available from later in the Raid, along with unique weapon cosmetics. Recommended Fire Resistance: +226 or higher Can You Handle the Heat?
      With each heat level comes increased difficulty with additional mechanics, damage, and an increased requirement for “fire resistance.” In original World of Warcraft, Resistance was often an inconsistent statistic. Sometimes, you would fully resist all damage; sometimes, you would resist none, even with the maximum fire resistance being worn. Resistances still work this way; however, once you get to Blistering Heat or Molten Heat, those difficulties will require a certain amount of fire resistance to progress consistently, and the required amount will increase between Blistering and Molten Heat levels. This is an additional layer to the usual “have some resist gear and hope it saves your healers some mana” mechanic from the original WoW. Some mechanics could leave you burnt to a crisp if you don't meet the required Fire Resistance requirements.
      We point this out because the need for resistance and resistance fights has long been contentious in World of Warcraft. While it’s an iconic part of WoW, it’s easy to see in hindsight that it’s not always a great feeling to be incentivized to NOT wear your best gear for appropriate fights. We recognize this, and that’s part of why we felt it important to explain the intended design of this mechanic. One of the most fun and iconic things about Classic is preparation (or, at times, over-preparation) for challenges, and the base game heavily rewards players for that preparation. We want to use fire resistance to play up that aspect of raid preparation and promote healthy and satisfying gear progression as you gear up within Molten Core.
      When you first enter the Molten Core and want to tackle Blistering or Molten Heat difficulty, you may need to wear sub-optimal pieces of gear simply to survive. Fairly quickly, however, more and more gear will drop in the raid that is optimal for you to be wearing, including tier sets, which you will notice all already have a certain amount of fire resistance. The idea here is that as you obtain items you want to wear, they convey much of the same benefit as the less powerful pieces of fire resistance you may have farmed or crafted before your first trips into Molten Core. The eventual goal of this gear progression is to allow you to succeed on the highest difficulty level primarily by using your tier set, appropriate group or raid buffs and consumables, and good group coordination.
      A New Boss Heats Things Up
      Lastly, the Molten Core raid will have an additional not-yet-known bonus boss. When Molten Core releases, this bonus boss will only be available for Molten Heat, requiring players to clear every boss before gaining access. This boss is an optional challenge that groups can work towards over time.
      We do not wish to gate exclusive rewards behind this challenging content. Because this boss will be tricky and require progression through the rest of Molten Core on the highest difficulty, the boss will NOT drop unique or exclusive loot. Instead, he will drop tier gear tokens and a chance at a few other exciting items, but all gear can be obtained elsewhere in the Molten Core.
      We hope to see a wide variety of groups attempt Molten Heat difficulty, have a satisfying progression, and not feel like they are missing out on exclusive power-impacting gear if they aren’t able to clear every boss on Molten Heat each week. Like many things in Season of Discovery, this is an experiment—we hope to use lessons we learn from this boss and the Heat system and apply those lessons to future Classic Raid tiers and potential future content.
      We hope this helps set the groundwork for what to expect going into the Molten Core and also helps illustrate our intentions for resistance fights and Raid difficulty with this raid tier. We want to emulate the feeling of gear progression from original WoW as much as possible, with the added benefit of more powerful, bespoke gear for a wider variety of playstyles within each class.
      We look forward to seeing you beat the heat in Molten Core and Onyxia!
×
×
  • Create New...