WoW SoD timeline and phase release schedule: All Season of Discovery phase launch dates

WoW Classic’s Season of Discovery has been a total hit with the game’s player base as it has completely revolutionized the way we play Classic WoW.

Through level-banded content, progressive versions of the endgame that evolve with each phase, and all-new spells and runes to play around with, Season of Discovery might just be the freshest take on WoW ever produced in the game’s long-running history.

And this upcoming year, players should expect to be completely engaged in the further evolution of the new season. Before 2023 came to a close, Blizzard released its full intentions for WoW SoD (as well as Classic altogether) via a roadmap that detailed release time frames for each SoD phase, as well as a brief look into the content that players should get ready for. In short, Blizzard plans to keep WoW Classic fans sated with completely new content throughout the entirety of 2024. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the release timeline and roadmap for WoW’s Season of Discovery in 2024, including the estimated release dates for each of the season’s phases, as well as the content you can expect to see in them once they hit the live servers.

When does Phase Two of WoW SoD come out? 

The second phase of WoW Season of Discovery will be released on Feb. 8, according to Blizzard. The second phase of SoD will be released during the second week of February, meaning just over two months will have passed between the launch of the season and its first major update.

We expect that since there are going to be four phases of SoD (plus an extra endgame update at the end of 2024), Blizzard will likely evenly space out the season’s phases throughout the year. In Dragonflight, updates are pushed out every two to three months, and SoD may work on a similar schedule. With phase two’s Feb. 8 launch date in mind, we expect that further phases will come in April and July, respectively, judging by past WoW releases.

WoW SoD Phase Three release timeline

Naturally, after phase two of WoW SoD releases, players will turn their eyes toward the third phase of the season. Blizzard has promised that the third phase of Season of Discovery will launch at some point in the spring. Phase three will increase the level cap to 50 while introducing another new raid to the game, although the instance has not been announced at this point. 

WoW SoD Phase Four timeline and future roadmap 

The final phase of the Season of Discovery, phase four, will bring the level cap to 60 and will open up the full endgame to players who have stuck with the level-banded system. This phase will likely include all of the raids players are familiar with at the end of WoW’s leveling process, as well as new runes that continue to evolve the SoD gameplay system. 

Blizzard has slated phase four of WoW Classic Season of Discovery to release in the summer of 2024. 

What will happen once Season of Discovery ends? 

There is no definitive answer to what exactly Blizzard’s plan is for the period that exists once players reach level 60 in Classic Season of Discovery. Although there is one additional “endgame update” slated for the end of the year on the WoW devs’ roadmap, it’s unclear what exactly that will entail.

Some players have been requesting Blizzard for the Classic+ game mode (or some alternative of it), which adds further content to WoW at the end of the leveling process and the endgame content cycle. Following the Naxxramas and Ahn’Qiraj raids, Classic+ would theoretically add never-before-seen zones and raids, although this idea feels like more of a pipedream than anything else, considering how much new and reinvented content has already been added with the Season of Discovery. 

It’s more likely that SoD servers will go into a state of dormancy before the next seasonal WoW Classic idea launches into the public’s hands and another version of the longstanding MMO comes to fruition. Still, we’re a long way away from the end of SoD, which is slated to keep players fed with content throughout all of 2024.

This piece will be continuously updated with new information throughout the year as more details regarding WoW Classic SoD’s release timeline are brought to light.