WoW’s Season of Discovery is about to enter its second phase, and with it comes a plethora of new features added to the game.
World of Warcraft may have a very unstable path regarding its “retail” expansions, but one saving grace of the game has definitely been the introduction of “Classic”, which lets players relive the old expansions in all their glory. However, an even bigger leap forward was the addition of Seasons to the game, with the Season of Mastery being the first and now the Season of Discovery taking players on an interesting journey with five phases slowly increasing the level caps, adding special items, and changing many classes.
With Phase 1, we saw a level cap of 25, but from February 8, 2024, that will move up to level 40, and there is a lot that you want to get done before then if you are someone looking to min-max the experience, and even more coming that you may want to look into.
First things first!
As in any role-playing type of game (RPG), the first thing that you will need to do is level up, if you have not already done so. With WoW’s SoD, the Phase 1 cap requires only level 25, which does not take too much effort. However, new players to the game may find it slightly more difficult than veterans – especially with the addition of runes in SoD. Each class has 12 Runes currently, with some being far more important than others, but it would make sense to get as many as possible (especially the crucial ones) for your specific class.
Once you’re at the cap, you are going to also going to want to fill up your quest log (and complete all the quests without turning them in), max out your professions, and stockpile a nice amount of gold as you get ready for Phase 2 to kick off. Finally, for those of you who may already have a max level character, consider levelling up some alts, as the levelling process will only become more tedious from here on out – but there is a handy 50% experience buff currently available to help with this too which is permanent up until level 25.
What’s new in Phase 2?
Season of Discovery has been a revelation for WoW, giving some new changes to certain classes – which is where the Rune System has come into play. Mage healers, as well as Warlock and Shaman tanks are just some of the weird and wonderful aspects added to the game through this new system, and Phase 2 continues to build on this. Druids will be able to find themselves Eclipse, and Hunters will be allowed to live out their melee dreams with a reduced cooldown on their Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike. There are a ton of other new Runes and you can look at them all in the images below. There also may be a few more that have not been mentioned here, although we do not know much on that front.
Shaman
Rogue
Priest
Warlock
Warrior
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
All above images courtesy of Wowhead
Phase 2 brings with it Gnomeregan as the new raid dungeon, with a maximum group size of ten and six bosses to take down. With boss updates and a variety of new loot to farm, this new raid dungeon is set to be as interesting as Black Fathom Depths was in Phase 1 for everyone brave enough to enter the depths below Dun Morogh. With an updated loot table, which includes a few strong item sets, and changes to bosses to fit, 10-player groups will be quick to enter and clear the raid once they are geared up.
Also coming with Phase 2 is a brand new PVP event, The Blood Moon, which will appear every 3 hours for half an hour in Stranglethorn Vale. Building on the previous Ashenvale event, now we head into a new zone to mercilessly slaughter our enemies for currency which can be traded in for a bunch of rewards. Blizzard has also stated that, while grouping up with allies will be allowed, players forming raid groups will find themselves at some kind of disadvantage – which sounds ominous.
Phase 2 of WoW Classic’s Season of Discovery kicks off on Thursday, February 8, and it comes with a huge amount of updates, changes, and new features for players to utilise. From PVP and PVE updates, all the way through to professions, Phase 2 is set to be a magnificent experience as we head towards Phase 3 and the future of SoD. Just earlier today, the WoW Classic Developers went ahead and released a video where they spoke about the upcoming patch and what the players can expect.
