With World of Warcraft: Classic beginning to wind down its Wrath of the Lich King expansion, many players have been wondering where the game would go from here. The answer is…not going to shock anyone, as Classic will be adding the next expansion in line, Cataclysm.
Cataclysm was…a rather controversial expansion in its time. It consisted of a massive revamp to the world of Azeroth, transforming entire existing regions and making old questlines and stories unplayable while adding brand new ones. The giant dragon Deathwing soared across the map, spewing fire on regions and frying players where they stood. Worgen and goblins were added as playable races, Archaelology was added as a profession (and eventually discontinued).
While many of the changes it brought to the game were instrumental in shaping its future, one of the reasons World of Warcraft: Classic exists in the first place was because players wanted to experience the “old world” of Warcraft, the one that existed before this transformation. So it will be interesting to see how Blizzard handles this transition. We do know that some small changes are being implemented such as streamlined leveling,the continuation of the Titan Rune dungeon system from Wrath Classic, and an expanded collections UI.
One of the more surprising announcements from this segment of the keynote was the unveiling of Classic’s Season of Discovery, which was described as “Vanilla World of Warcraft, with a twist.” Season of Discovery is a new way to play Classic, where players will create new characters and bring them up to a level cap of 25 while discovering “class-altering abilities” that allow them to become tanking Warlocks, mage healers, and more twisty renditions of well-known classes. At endgame, players can challenge a new and reimagined version of the Blackfathom Deeps raid. Blizzard has plans to slowly raise the endgame level cap for Season of Discovery over time, adding more content as they go.
Season of Discovery will launch on November 30, in just a few weeks, with no public test phase planned unlike most major World of Warcraft updates.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.