Blizzard is priming something new for WoW Classic this week with the Season of Mastery release date.
Unlike in the past when new phases have ushered in fresh content, this week's World of Warcraft TBC update will make it possible for players to start fresh on a level playing field, allowing new and current Classic players to begin anew at level 1 for a complete reset of WoW Classic's content.
This is linked to the WoW Classic realms launch, a big part of the Season of Mastery, that will see these realms 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.
WoW Classic Season of Mastery will be divided into Phases, this time however these phases will go through all of the WoW Classic content in just one year.
This will be a much faster timeframe than the original WoW Classic launch and matches with the theme of difficulty and challenge in Season of Mastery.
Here's what the WoW Classic Season of Mastery phase schedule will look like, and our estimates for their release dates:
Phase 1 (Nov. 16 - Jan. 15)
Molten Core
Onyxia
Maraudon
PvP Honor System and Battlegrounds
Phase 2 (Jan. 16 - March 15)
Dire Maul
Azuregos
Kazzak
Phase 3 (March 16 - May 15)
Blackwing Lair
Darkmoon Faire
Darkmoon deck drops begin
Phase 4 (May 16 - July 15)
Zul'Gurub
Green Dragons
Phase 5 (July 16 - Sept. 15)
Ahn'Qiraj War Effort begins
Ahn'Qiraj raids open as the war effort dictates
Phase 6 (Sept. 16 - Nov. 15)
Naxxramas
Scourge Invasion
Blizzard has yet to reveal the release dates for the WoW Classic Season of Mastery phases, but the company has clarified each will take a "couple of months".
And with Blizzard launching content faster this time around, they have also confirmed that there will be faster leveling and other improvements that weren't in the original WoW Classic release.
WHEN DOES THE WOW SEASON OF MASTERY START?
Blizzard has confirmed that the WoW Classic Season of Mastery Release Date has been scheduled for Tuesday, November 16 in North America.
Due to how server rollouts are conducted, there will be a slight difference for those playing on European servers.
The WoW Classic Season of Mastery release time has been set for 3 pm PDT on Tuesday, which works out as 11 pm GMT and 12 am on November 17 for those playing in the rest of Europe.
After WoW Classic Season of Mastery is live, you'll be able to create additional characters up to a maximum of 50 characters in each of the three games:
Up to 50 characters total in World of Warcraft Classic (includes Season of Mastery)
Up to 50 characters in Burning Crusade Classic
Up to 50 characters in World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
However, it should be noted that characters that were created for the WoW Classic Season of Mastery Open Beta will not be available to use in WoW Classic Season of Mastery.
A message from Blizzard explains: " 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), and Increased health on bosses, to offset player buffs and the removed debuff limit.
WoW Classic Season of Mastery is almost upon us, and with tons of changes, picking a class will be harder and more important than ever!
So which class should you play in the new WoW Classic landscape?
Here Mmopixel will continue to share some important WoW Classic guides. If you need more TBC Classic gold, you can contact us at any time.