This is a sticky for those who want a summary of the most important official information we have about Season of Discovery, including responses from Blizzard to frequently asked questions from around the web.
- When does Season of Discovery Launch?
- What are Discoveries?
- What is Rune Engraving?
- What are the phases & level cap for each phase?
- Will there be a debuff cap in SoD?
- What dungeons will be available in Phase 1?
- Does Horde get Paladins/Alliance get Shamans?
- Will there be Hardcore servers for Season of Discovery?
- Will Battlegrounds be available in Phase 1?
- Are Runes tradeable?
- Will there be Dual Spec?
- How long will Phases last?
- Can I reach Rank 14?
- Will we have mounts in Phase 1?
- Will we be able to go to higher level zones?
- Will I be able to keep my Season of Discovery characters when the season ends?
- Will we eventually be able to run Molten Core and other vanilla raids?
- What is the max level in professions in phase 1?
When does Season of Discovery Launch?
The game will launch simultaneously in all time zones at 1 PM PST on Thursday, November 30th.
Blizzard Entertainment
Yes! It will be 1:00 p.m. PST on Thursday, November 30.
That’s:
Time Date Timezone
11:00 a.m. Nov. 30 Hawaii
12:00 Noon Nov. 30 Alaska
1:00 p.m. Nov. 30 Pacific
2:00 p.m. Nov. 30 Mountain
3:00 p.m. Nov. 30 Central
4:00 p.m. Nov. 30 Eastern
5:00 p.m. Nov. 30 Nova Scotia, Puerto Rico
5:30 p.m. Nov. 30 Newfoundland
6:00 p.m. Nov. 30 Brazil, Argentina
5:00 a.m. Dec. 1 Perth
6:30 a.m. Dec. 1 Darwin
7:00 a.m. Dec. 1 Brisbane
7:30 a.m. Dec. 1 Adelaide
8:00 a.m. Dec. 1 Sydney
10:00 a.m. Dec. 1 Wellington
What are Discoveries?
Discoveries are special loot found throughout the world in which you’ll find Rune Engravings. These Rune Engravings will allow you to obtain new class abilities by applying them to your gear similar to enchants.
What is Rune Engraving?
Rune engraving will allow players to apply and remove abilities. Available from level 2 onwards, each class will have a total of 12 Runes available split among Gloves, Legs, and Chest. Each Rune will grant a specific ability or passive, these abilities range from something like Warbringer, allowing Warriors to Charge in combat, to other things like Regeneration, a healing spell for Mages.
Most classes currently have 12 Runes split evenly among the 3 slots, a select few have a split of 4-5-3, giving them fewer options in one slot in exchange for more in another.
What are the phases & level cap for each phase?
The developers revealed that there are 4 content phases planned for the game. They also revealed what the level caps will be for each phase:
- Phase 1: Level 25
- Phase 2: Level 40
- Phase 3: Level 50
- Phase 4: Level 60
Will there be a debuff cap in SoD?
No, this was confirmed as removed by Senior Game Producer, WoW Classic Josh Greenfield (@AggrendWoW) on Twitter
@Darkindk - Nov 9
So, with hardcore realms you guys got rid of the debuff cap, is that on the table for season of discovery as well?
@AggrendWoW - Nov 9
Replying to @Darkindk @WarcraftDevs
Yes it is. No debuff cap in Season of Discovery.
What dungeons will be available in Phase 1?
Here's a summary of the dungeons available at level 25 in World of Warcraft Classic's Season of Discovery:
- Ragefire Chasm
- Level Range: 13-18
- Minimum Level: 8
- Entrance Location: Orgrimmar
- Wailing Caverns
- Level Range: 17-24
- Minimum Level: 10
- Entrance Location: The Barrens
- The Deadmines
- Level Range: 17-26
- Minimum Level: 10
- Entrance Location: Westfall (Alliance Territory)
- Shadowfang Keep
- Level Range: 22-30
- Minimum Level: 14
- Entrance Location: Silverpine Forest
- The Stockade
- Level Range: 24-32
- Minimum Level: 15
- Entrance Location: Stormwind City (Alliance Territory)
While Gnomeregan, Razorfen Kraul, and The Scarlet Monastery are technically accessible at level 25, they pose a significant challenge for a party of that level, with few usable items. Notably, Blackfathom Deeps, previously a level 24-32 dungeon, is being replaced by a new level 25 raid in this season and is not included in the list.
As noted, most of these dungeons are situated in zones controlled by one faction, which could make accessing them more challenging for players of the opposing faction.
Does Horde get Paladins/Alliance get Shamans?
No, but their most powerful utility spells such as Windfury Totem and Blessing of Kings are available to other classes through the Rune system.
Will there be Hardcore servers for Season of Discovery?
No, Hardcore servers will remain exclusive to Classic Era and will be unavailable for Season of Discovery on launch.
Will Battlegrounds be available in Phase 1?
Warsong Gulch will be available on launch, with other Battlegrounds likely added in later Phases.
Are Runes tradeable?
Rune Engravings are soulbound and cannot be traded to other characters.
Will there be Dual Spec?
It has been hinted at, but is not confirmed for launch.
VideoShow
How long will Phases last?
"Some number of weeks, more than a month, less than three or four months"
VideoShow
Can I reach Rank 14?
You will be able to get PvP ranks in Phase 1, but not all the way to Rank 14.
To answer a question we’ve seen from players who are planning to focus on ranking up in Season of Discovery — we’re adding caps to the rank you can achieve during each phase. We want to enable everyone to push rank at a reasonable pace without worrying about rushing to earn highly lucrative PvP rewards.VideoShow
To start in the first phase of Season of Discovery, at level 25, the cap will be rank 3. Our current plan is to then increase the cap with each new phase, so that rank will cap at 9 for the first few weeks of level 60. Thereafter, we’re planning to increase the rank cap every few weeks along with the release of level 60 content such as Blackwing Lair, finally reaching rank 14 with the opening of The Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.
We’re looking forward to seeing the PvP action in Season of Discovery!
Source
Will we have mounts in Phase 1?
You'll be able to earn a special level 25 mount through Ashenvale PvP that only works in that zone. Standard mounts are not obtainable until level 40, which will be Phase 2.
Will we be able to go to higher level zones?
Yes, you'll be free to explore all of Azeroth. But keep in mind that some zones will be extremely dangerous to travel through at level 25.
Will I be able to keep my Season of Discovery characters when the season ends?
Yes, Blizzard says they always want to let players keep their characters one way or the other. They don't have any concrete plans for where they will go, but they will not disappear when the season is over.
Will we eventually be able to run Molten Core and other vanilla raids?
The developers said they would like to tackle some of this content when we get to it, but we may see some changes. There are still a few phases to get through first, so we don't expect to hear more about them for a while.
What is the max level in professions in phase 1?
Professions are capped at level 150, not 225 as expected. Expert skills were changed to require level 26, so they won’t be available until Phase 2.
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Professions are capped at level 150, not 225 as expected, should add that to the FAQ
There's the XP buff that was added a few weeks ago also now
XP Buff and Leveling
When we first concepted Season of Discovery we knew we wanted alts to be a major fixture of the experience, and so we decided to add an XP buff, Discoverer’s Delight, into previous level bands at the beginning of each phase. This is great for existing characters that were not yet at the current level cap or were new characters created after the phase changes, but if you went into phase 2 with several characters at 25 already, it can be a little daunting to level them right now. We’ve been considering ways to help with this over the past several days and we’ve made adjustments to our existing plans.
Starting next week (March 5th, with maintenance), the Discoverer’s Delight XP buff will be enabled on all realms, increasing XP gained from levels 1-39 by 100% (up from 50%).
We had always intended to increase Discoverer’s Delight to a 100% buff from 1-39 when phase 3 launches, so this is merely moving this change forward from the start of next phase, to a mid-point of this current phase.
Alongside Discoverer’s Delight adjustments, we’ll also be reducing the cost of normal racial mounts and mount training by roughly half at level 40. We do not have changes planned for epic mounts at 60 at this time.
Lastly, we will also be increasing the base gold reward from all quest rewards while players are level 1-39.
Please note that this bonus gold will NOT be in effect at level 40, meaning this will not impact the XP->Gold conversion for quests completed at the current max level. This will help equalize things and make questing while leveling a bit more lucrative, which will help players with things like purchasing new skills and buying their mount, since they will be leveling twice as fast.
Going forward, we are also looking at leveling adjustments for when phase 3 launches and the level cap raises to 50. We’d also like to continue to make mid-phase adjustments like this to help smooth over the leveling curve for alts a bit, or help those leveling a bit slower to get that nudge over the finish line. We think alts are great and we want you to feel good about playing them, and we think this will help.
