Can WoW Classic Season of Mastery Revitalize Blizzard’s Game
Blizzard is releasing Classic once again, but this time under a different name and with a few significant changes. The goal is to provide the community with an opportunity to start a fresh new journey in the world of Azeroth and experience the old zones as they were back in 2004.
Initially, Blizzard was adamantly against the idea of releasing WoW Classic, but ended up relenting after they saw how much the community was asking for it, but also due to the decline of the current version of the same game. WoW Classic was finally released in 2019, and now, after two years, the game’s coming out again as WoW Classic – Season of Mastery.
WoW Classic Season of Mastery goes live on November 16th. If it’s anything like the release of WoW Classic in 2019, it should revitalize the WoW community and gain Blizzard some sympathy points after all the recent lawsuits.
What is the Season of Mastery About?
In short, Season of Mastery is essentially the same game, albeit with several major changes.
Firstly, the idea behind Season of Mastery is to turn the classic version of WoW into a seasonal WoW Classic. As such, the Season of Mastery will last for about a year, and the players will progress significantly faster than they did two years ago.
The content drops will be much more frequent, and several key features that were absent during the release of the original game, will now be present. The pvp ranking system is going live from day 1, which is a major change. This means that players will be able to obtain much better loot early on, but Blizzard is changing some of the Raid encounters to balance things out.
In the Season of Mastery, raiding will be quite different. The bosses will have more health points and some of them will have additional mechanics, which will force the groups to approach the fights in different ways. The debuff limit was lifted, which will enable damage-over-time classes to thrive and possibly create new rotations that were previously impossible.
All in all, Season of Mastery will offer a faster pace with increased rewards. After a year, the servers will shut down and all the characters will be transferred to the original WoW Classic servers. If successful, Blizzard will continue releasing new seasons with new changes, and possibly new content in the future.
The Potential of Classic
WoW Classic is a timeless masterpiece. It is the first version of WoW, and one that many still consider to be the best. The latest version of WoW has introduced way too many systems and cluttered the game to the point where it no longer feels like the same WoW many grew up with.
WoW Classic Season of Mastery is the complete opposite, and it gives Blizzard the freedom they don’t have with the retail version. So what could Blizzard do with it?
Well, the Season of Mastery is a great first step. The majority of the changes so far have been received positively by the community. In the future, the game could explore some of the content that was scrapped from the first 2004 release. New zones, dungeons, and even races are a possibility.
Blizzard could also introduce some form of WoW esports into Classic, as we’ve seen how the community was organising their own dueling tournaments during WoW Classic. The hardcore leveling mode has also been gaining popularity lately, and Blizzard have even acknowledged it by adding several achievements tied to it. If they wanted, Blizzard could expand on this in the future and potentially create something truly unique.
Should You Give Season of Mastery a Chance?
We believe you should, and here’s why. The faster pace will make things more interesting throughout the entire lifespan of the game – the patches will arrive quicker, many features you’d usually have to wait for will be there on release, and just the simple fact that everyone starts fresh from level 1.
It’s a unique opportunity to begin a fresh journey, meet new friends, and create great memories. If you’re a retail player and never tried Classic, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. Both versions of WoW share the same name, but they are completely different. The pace is much slower, which allows you to fully immerse yourself into the world.
And not to mention the faction war. Alliance and Horde clashing whenever they meet is something that defined WoW. Of course, if you prefer your peace and quiet, there’s also PVE and RP servers, so the choice is yours.
WoW Classic Season of Mastery is out on November 16th so make sure not to miss it. Get in early and secure a strong head start, but don’t rush it too much. You don’t want to burn out before you even get to 60.
