Blizzard Entertainment announced the Season of Discovery for World of Warcraft Classic at BlizzCon 2023. However, once the update went live on November 30, 2023, the servers struggled to keep up as players rushed to create their characters on servers and dive into a new way to enjoy their favorite online game.
It isn’t the most populated I’ve seen the game — I play Classic Hardcore which has seen a massive uptick in activity — but it’s a close second. To be fair, I didn’t roll a character on Crusader Strike, the server some of World of Warcraft’s most popular streamers and content creators have chosen to level on. Instead, I opted to play on Lava Lash with a handful of friends. I’ve found role-playing servers in World of Warcraft to have some of the most relaxed and active players, so we all decided that this is where we wanted to play.
And while it was really crowded for those first few hours, with many of us partying up with strangers to kill specific amounts of zombies or obtain bat carcasses, it wasn’t the worst experience. Instead, it had that sense of community I always feel is missing from many modern MMORPGs where players band together and create these unspoken rules to help one another progress. For example, standing in line to turn in a quest that impacts an NPC.
And while Season of Discovery is a crystallization of this experience, it’s the Rune system that adds a level of variety and depth that further enhances the Classic experience. Granted, I’ve only been playing about six or so hours, but allowing me to slot skills into my gear (like Path of Exile) to access a wider range of abilities is really cool. It makes playing classes like Mage, Shaman, or Warlock unconventional in a way.
For example, one of the members of my group is going to be a Tank Warlock, which will definitely prove interesting. I’m not sure what I plan to do with my Undead Mage, whom I’ve named Branthony, but I’m having a lot of fun with the Runes I’ve acquired. These being Ice Lance and Living Flame. But with the changes to Lone Wolf and Sniper Training for Hunters, I’m contemplating rolling an Alliance player or a Horde Troll just to see how powerful a Marksman Hunter is in the Season of Discovery.
Runes are also acquired at random for the most part. Killing enemies dropped scrolls for me to obtain Living Flame, which was really neat. It makes questing and farming for experience exciting since you never know when one of these scrolls will drop. I even got a scroll that I couldn’t read that was in what I assume is “Common” — my Undead only speaks Orcish and Gutterspeak — that turned into something else when I deciphered it. It’s this sense of mystery that keeps the game fresh. And I like it a lot. Especially since I’ve dedicated a fair amount of time to Classic Hardcore and have more or less gotten into the swing of things.
I’ll probably keep playing the Season of Discovery as I play more World of Warcraft. It adds something interesting to the already solid foundation World of Warcraft has. Yeah, it’s old and kind of clunky in Classic, but there’s a charm to it there that I love and have missed in modern MMORPGs.
Even if everything gets discovered and an onslaught of guide coverage details how to obtain every single Rune in the early phase of the Season, I think Season of Discovery will manage to keep my attention. Especially since level caps will be raised periodically. So I’m excited to see what’s to come and what these Runes will mean for end-game content and raids.
World of Warcraft is available on PC.
