WoW Season of Discovery: Release Date, Start Time, New Features

In World of Warcraft Classic, the Season of Discovery will release today, on November 30. Find out about the exact start time here, as well as which new features SoD brings to Azeroth.

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World of Warcraft: The Season of Discovery will release on November 30. | © Blizzard

With Season of Discovery, World of Warcraft Classic is about to enter an exciting new era. SoD will turn some game mechanics upside down, allowing you to play as a Warlock tank or mage healer, for example, as well as offering a level 25 raid instance.

Let's delve into the highlights and most important information of what the Season of Discovery will offer.

Season of Discovery: Release Date And Start Time

Season of Discovery will start on Thursday, November 30, 2023. There won't be any testings on the PTR; instead, so it's still a big mystery what the SoD experience will be like. Be aware that the launch could result in connection issues on Battle.net or in the game itself.

Meanwhile, the official start time has been revealed by Blizzard: The Season of Discovery will start at 1 pm PT / 3 pm CT / 10:00 pm CET!


WoW Season of Discovery: New Features

Discoveries

Discoveries will be hidden secrets in the world of Azeroth. From what we've heard so far from the official site, discoveries will be tasks that you might stumble over during your journey; they won't appear in your questlog or on your map and some of them will only be doable as a group.

New Class Skills

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WoW Season of Discovery will add modern and totally new World of Warcraft class skills to the game. | © Blizzard

With SoD, every class will get a bunch of new skills that have not been available in vanilla WoW before. Some of them are already known from later expansions (like Prayer of Mending and Penance for Priests), but some skills will also be totally new (like Homunculi).

Rune Engraving

Rune Engravings will allow players to "enchant" new class abilities to their equipment. You can unlock up to three Rune Engraving slots during the level phase. The probably most exciting aspect of Rune Engraving is that certain runes will allow you to play in a different role that would usually be impossible to play. For example, you'll be able to tank as a Warlock or heal as a Mage with the fitting rune activated.

Low Level Cap And Raids

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World of Warcraft: The Season of Discovery will transform the Blackfathom Deeps into a 10 people raid instance.. | © Blizzard

The Season of Discovery will undergo several content phases. During phase 1, the level cap is 25. As soon as you reach that level, you'll be able to enter the Blackfathom Deeps, a 10 people raid version of the iconic dungeon originally known to be a 5 people instance. The raid will reset every three days, similar to Zul'Gurub, and will also offer the ability to enable a world buff.

Zone Wide PvP Events

Players will be able to join special PvP events. The first event will take place in Ashenvale and is intended to work similarly to the rules of the Alterac Valley: There will be a Horde and an Alliance NPC Boss that the other faction has to kill, and the more bases in Ashenvale you conquer, the higher your chances are to defeat the enemy leader.

New Loot

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WoW Season of Discovery: Some new Trinkets bosses can drop in the Blackfathom Deeps. | © Blizzard

No matter whether you're more into WoW Retail, Classic, Classic Hardcore or Classic SoD, World of Warcraft has always been about hunting for the best loot. With the Season of Discovery, Blizzard will implement new loot that should be much more powerful that what you're used to from WoW Classic (just think about the green Cloth stuff with +Strength on it..).

World of Warcraft's SoD realms will be accessible via the Classic game version, so make sure you've downloaded the game data before. And that's everything you need to know about the Season of Discovery in WoW Classic right now! Stay tuned!

Kim Berkemeyer

Ever since he got his first Game Boy in the late 90s, Kim was into video games. Besides many other games, he has a fable for Zelda and a love-hate relationship to World of Warcraft. Apart from work, you will find him playing football, watching sci-fi-shows, enjoying video games or just hanging around with friends....