World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery phase two goes live on Feb. 8, and Blizzard Entertainment has shared what we can expect. Here’s the full list of early patch notes.
WoW Classic SoD phase two changes
WoW SoD phase one focused on activities that WoW Classic players experience from levels one to 25. Phase two is going to focus on activities from 25 to 40. Just like in the first phase, some changes will be added to make the experience feel fresh and exciting, even for veteran players.
New level cap and catch-up
First of all, if you haven’t played WoW Classic SoD during phase one, you will be able to catch up because Blizzard is giving all players a 50 percent experience boost until level 25. Additionally, Waylaid Supply boxes will provide more experience points when turned in.
Gnomeregan raid
The long but beloved Gnomeregan five-player dungeon is becoming a 10-player end-game raid. Players need to be level 40 to enter this raid. It’s made up of six bosses with new mechanics and locations. Just like with the Blackfathom Deeps raid in phase one, there will be two weekly resets for Gnomeregan.
New equipment and items
Loot scarcity was a huge issue in phase one, and Blizzard has fixed this somewhat by adding new equipment and items into the game. While I can’t say for sure the same mistakes won’t happen again, it’s nice to have some new items and equipment to look forward to. There are new rare weapons, special Gnomeregan armor sets for plate, cloth, and mail armor, and even a pair of Epic Sunglasses called “Radiant Ray Reflectors.”
New Runes and skill books
One of the biggest new features of Season of Discovery was the introduction of runes. Runes added new passive or active abilities to each class in WoW Classic, making them more dynamic. Unfortunately, some of these runes were hard to get. In phase two, each class is getting at least two new runes, and I hope that getting them will be straightforward. With that said, some five-player dungeons will also drop skill manuals. We don’t know much about them yet, but we do know they won’t take up a Rune slot, which is nice.
New PvP event
The Battle for Ashenvale PvP event was one of the most enjoyable aspects of Season of Discovery. This event always gathered plenty of players from both factions and had them race to see who could kill the opposing faction bosses first.
The new PvP event is called The Blood Moon and will take part in Stranglethorn Vale. Unlike The Battle for Ashenvale, this event will occur every three hours and lasts for 30 minutes, so you won’t have to wait for the other faction to catch up with yours. What’s interesting about the Blood Moon is that it won’t have any PvP objectives and will only focus on killing other players. If you don’t want to participate, you can opt out by speaking to an NPC. The event will allow groups but will punish raid groups. Those who participate in the event can work towards new raid mounts.
Profession skills
All Profession Skills are raising their cap to 225. There will be around 20 new recipes. Many of these will have quest chains before they unlock, and players can sell them at the Auction House. I really hope they don’t break the economy like in phase one.
No more GDKP runs
In case you don’t know, a GDKP run is when players do a dungeon or a raid and then split the loot at the end. But instead of determining who deserves each piece of loot, players bid on the loot they want using gold. This gold is then split between all other players. According to Blizzard, this goes against the spirit of Season of Discovery, and it will implement a policy that forbids GDKP runs.
