Following the release of the Burning Crusade Classic, the vanilla version of WoW Classic seemed to run out of steam. Many players left it behind, while those who remained had to deal with low realm populations and stagnant economies. Blizzard’s developers have sought to breathe new life into the first rerelease by introducing the Season of Mastery in November 2021. This version of the game offers most of the same vanilla content, but with several twists. In particular, both character progression and the release schedule are much quicker, while key fights are more challenging. Read on to learn more about the differences between Season of Mastery and the original WoW Classic!

All Content in One Year

Just like all previous versions of vanilla WoW, Season of Mastery servers do not make all of their vintage content available at once. Instead, it is added to the game over several phases. The difference this time is that the phases are compressed to a much tighter timeline than before. All instances, world events, and other content is set to be released over one full year. Each of the six phases will take just two months. Additionally, all PvP features were implemented from the start, letting players start farming Honor and fighting in all three Battlegrounds from day one. Dungeon set quests and the Dire Maul instance have also been made available on launch.

Accelerated Progress

Character progression has likewise been accelerated. Every adventurer now begins with a permanent buff giving bonus experience for all quest turn-ins. Group and dungeon quest turn-ins get even larger bonuses. Meanwhile, the experience requirements for each level have been brought closer to The Burning Crusade thresholds.

Character progression should therefore be even faster than in the expansion. Additionally, several quality of life changes have been introduced to smoothen and speed up the players’ path through the game:

• Players can use the Looking for Group feature from later versions of the MMORPG. As part of this feature, Meeting Stones have received their party member summoning functionality;
• The nodes for Gathering professions have been increased in numbers all around the world. Some of them have been adjusted to offer more numerous and sometimes more varied drops;
• The availability of certain rare Crafting materials has been noticeably increased;
• Some other loot drops have also been made more available, particularly in instances;
• Riding skill and lower-level mount prices have been slashed;
• The upper limit on PvP weekly ranking progress has been doubled.

Greater Challenges

Faster and more convenient advancement is not the only goal of this experiment. Adventurers must also overcome a much steeper challenge in many parts of the game. To that end, the following tweaks have been implemented:

• World buffs no longer function in raid instances;
• Bosses no longer have buff or debuff limits;
• All raid bosses have been buffed in various ways, beginning with a substantial increase in health. Many encounter mechanics and powers have received buffs or more extensive reworks. Some extra abilities have been added as well;
• Many lesser foes in both types of instances have likewise been buffed in various ways, making some of them immune to some effects such as snares and increasing health across the board. Foes in encounters will be strengthened in particular;
• Numerous popular exploits and tricks have become impossible due to mechanics reworks;
• NPC Guards in Alterac Valley have been restored to full numbers.

Hardcore Mode

Players who want a still greater challenge can choose to undertake one by talking to a Watcher in Ironforge or Undercity. Those NPCs can bestow a special buff that grants no mechanical advantage, but signifies the fact that the adventurer who has it never died. If the adventurer does die at any point, the buff is turned into a debuff that lowers all stats by 1%. The debuff can be removed by speaking to a Watcher again, but the buff cannot be acquired again. Neither can it be obtained by characters that had died before speaking to the Watcher.

How CakeBoost Can Help

Season of Mastery is set to continue until November 2022, and there may be more such events in the future. There is still plenty of time to drop in and experience it for yourself. If you are interested, but worried about the grind, lack of reliable partners, or other typical MMORPG problems getting in the way of your enjoyment, look no further than CakeBoost. The company’s WoW Season of Mastery Boosting Services will enable you to enjoy this event in full by removing all such tedious complications. Gold farming, attunements, PvP boosts and more will let you focus on the season’s innovations. Reach out now to place your order!