WOW Classic Season of Discovery has been released, and if you are getting ready to start the journey of Phase 1, then you must not miss this complete guide with all the information about Phase 1 of Season of Discovery. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Content Phases

There are currently four content phases planned for Season of Discovery. Each phase will have a new level cap and new challenges in the form of revamped vanilla content.

The level cap for Phase 1 will be 25. For Phase 2, it will be 40, Phase 3 will be 50, and Phase 4 will bring us to 60, which is the max level in vanilla WoW. We may eventually see additional phases featuring Molten Core and other classic raids.

Level 25

For Phase 1, a level cap of 25 means that many classes will be missing key abilities, such as Divine Shield for Paladins and Chain Heal for Shamans. It also means that many Talents will not be accessible in Talent Trees.

We’ll only have 16 talent points to spend at level 25, and Capstone Talents require 30. That means no Moonkin Form for Balance Druids and no Shadowform for Shadow Priest.

It will also cap skills at skill level 225, or Expert level. That includes Weapon skills, Professions, and Lockpicking for Rogues. This will limit the kinds of items you can gather and craft.

Rune Engravings

Also, they are adding new abilities through Rune Engravings to make up for some abilities we are missing.

Rune Engravings are abilities that can be applied to your gear like Enchants. In Phase 1, we’ll have Rune Engravings available for Chest, Hands, and Leg slots, with more Rune slots to be added in future phases.

Each slot will have between 3-5 Runes that can be applied. You can apply Runes any time you’re out of combat and are not restricted to any particular role or specialization.

Roles

The abilities being added by runes will expand the roles that are available to play, including a brand new building never before seen in World of WarCraft, Mage Healer. Rogue, Shaman, and Warlock Tanks will also be fully viable for the first time.

Several builds that were previously weak in vanilla WoW will get an enormous boost from Runes, including Paladin Tanks, Melee Hunters, and pretty much all Druid specs.

Race And Faction Abilities

Efforts are being made in Season of Discovery to equalize the different factions and races so you can play what you want without sacrificing key abilities.

Through the new Rune Engravings, Horde will gain access to Blessing of Kings through Hunter and Alliance will get Windfury Totem through druids. In addition, Priests will gain access to all Priest Racial abilities. They are also plans to compensate for racial differences in weapon skills through new gear items.

Travel

Once you reach level 25, you’ll need to run around on foot, as mounts aren’t available until level 40. The exception is a special mount you’ll be able to earn through Ashenvale PVP, which can only be used in that zone.

Mages won’t be able to make portals for other players until level 40, although they will be able to teleport themselves. Warlocks will summon people, although doing so requires farming Soul Shards and having two other characters to click on the portal.

Since you’ll be hoofing it all across Azeroth in this phase with no mounts and no portals, class abilities that help you get around faster will be at a premium. In particular, abilities like Shaman’s Ghost Wolf and Rogue’s Sprint will undoubtedly see a lot of use. Even abilities like Slow Fall can be useful for getting across the map more efficiently.

Inventory

As well as getting around, managing your inventory will also be a little harder. The biggest bag available will have 12 slots, and it requires Mageweave Cloth, which is going to be tough to get since it mainly drops from enemies above level 40.

Most players will probably be stuck with Small Silk Packs for Phase 1. Tradeable backpacks will be in the game, but they also only drop from higher-level mobs, so don’t expect to see too many of those.

Also Read: WoW Classic Season Of Discovery Is Awesome! - Overview & Guide

Zones

Since you won’t be able to level past 25, you’ll be spending a lot of time and WOW Classic SOD Gold in lower-level zones, completing quests, farming materials, and hunting for Rune Engravings.

Then, you will enter higher-level zones, but there isn’t much reason to go there, and you’ll probably have a bad time if you try.

Nevertheless, we’re sure that we’ll see some clever strategies for acquiring higher level items and materials from those areas.

Here’s a look at all the zones you’ll be able to find quests in at level 25. Some zones will be harder to reach or have very few quests for you depending on your faction. For example, Redridge Mountains is considered contested, but only Alliance characters will find quests there.

Discoveries

Exploring these zones will be necessary in order to make discoveries. Discoveries are the core feature of this season and are the method by which you will unlock your class’s Rune Engravings.

With no PTR or beta for this season, we won’t know where any of these discoveries can be found until after launch. That should make for a fun launch experience, with players exploring every nook and cranny and sharing what they find.

Dungeons

All the dungeons that are available at this level are located in single-faction zones, which could make it tricky to get to some of them. I hope you like Shadowfang Keep, because you’ll probably be running it a lot.

There are a few dungeons that you’ll technically be able to enter at this level, but they will only have a few usable items in them, and fighting your way through them will be extremely difficult.

Keep in mind, you can bring up to 10 players into dungeons in vanilla WoW. Meeting Stones in vanilla WoW could not be used to summon other players, but they added Summoning Stones in Season of Mastery, so it’s possible they will be present in Season of Discovery as well.

Raids

Each phase of Season of Discovery will have new content in the form of level-up raids. You may have noticed Blackfathom Deeps was missing from that last list. That’s because they have revamped it as the first raid for Season of Discovery. This will be a 10 player, level 25 raid with 7 bosses and all new loot.

PVP

Two PVP battlegrounds are available at level 25: Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin. Ashenvale will also offer some new PVP content in the form of region-wide events.

Players will earn WOW Classic SOD Gold through this event and reputation with their Warsong Gulch faction, which will allow them to access some of the best level 25 gear in the game.

This event will also unlock the only mount that is available in Phase 1, which will increase your movement speed by 50% and will only be usable in Ashenvale zone.

Future Phases

Beyond Phase 1, Developer has hinted at some of the content they have planned for future phases. At BlizzCon, they teased a few more revamped vanilla dungeons that could become raids. They will also be adding new world PVP events in each phase. They have also mentioned dual talent specialization as a possibility for the future.

That’s it for our Phase 1 overview! We’ll see you in Azeroth!