With World of Warcraft Classic in the thick of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, players still long to return to the Vanilla servers back in the days when WoW had no expansions. Blizzard appeased these players with a Season of Mastery, a server that brought new changes to the Vanilla servers, and fans are wondering when or if another one is launching.
Are there plans for another Season of Mastery in WoW?
Blizzard hasn't said anything one way or the other, but the sense is there will be another Season of Mastery for World of Warcraft Classic. Although the first season is still going on until February, players were allowed to transfer off the server into regular Vanilla servers, so it's essentially over.
The timing might've been a reason the first one wasn't as popular as it could've been. The original Season of Mastery was released right in the thick of The Burning Crusade Classic, resulting in a fractured player base.
With WOTLK being considered to be the pinnacle of World of Warcraft, Blizzard won't want to dilute that experience by releasing a Season of Mastery during arguably the best phase ever with the Ulduar raid. This could mean a summer 2023 release is in the cards, but it's too early to tell for certain.
Players have started to flock back to the Vanilla servers in droves, and the hardcore community on Bloodsail Buccaneers has grown so large that it's taken the server from Low population into Medium. While the population isn't as high as they are on WOTLK, it's clear there's an audience for the original Classic experience and another Season of Mastery.
What is a Season of Mastery in World of Warcraft?
It's no secret that Fresh servers drum up a lot of excitement for WoW players, but the Season of Mastery ramped things up a notch with big changes to the core game. Instead of being a simple server reset, Blizzard mixed things up to help make the experience a bit different. One notable change was the developers increasing difficulty on raid bosses, so Molten Core boss Ragnaros was more difficult than he was in the past, for example.
Perhaps controversially, these changes also resulted in a sped-up leveling process and the removal of World buffs in raids. The goal was to make the game feel more challenging than it did in the past, and while it did that, there's still a lot more that can be done. Fans always cook up new ideas, but it'll come down to whether or not Blizzard wants to give Season of Mastery another shot.
Season of Mastery is essentially a way for Blizzard to experiment with new things. Since the server is only around for a year, players aren't stuck with the changes for long if they don't like them.
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Published: Jan 26, 2023 11:06 am