As we continue to exist in a holding pattern for the eventual World of Warcraft Classic-related announcements at BlizzCon, predictions and expectations are zooming all over the place. Everyone seems not only so sure in what they expect from a persistently evolving Classic mode but what Blizzard is actually going to do — even though the actual details are still under wraps and the leaks are wild.
However, it’s not as though prognosticating this anticipated project is without any data points. In fact, Blizzard gave us many clues as to what itmight be considering with Classic Plus thanks to its two-year run of Season of Discovery. So today, let’s take a look back at this experimental ruleset and see what hints it gives about the future of the game.
Looking back at Season of Discovery
Announced and then launched in the same month of November 2023, Season of Discovery was one of the most exciting developments in WoW Classic’s young life to date. Unlike Season of Mastery, this game mode was all about fiddling with the dials of Classic’s ruleset and rolling out a ton of experimental features. While the devs didn’t outright say this was the case, we all got the feeling that this was a “throw a bunch of stuff at the wall — er, community — and see what sticks.”
Over the two-year run, Season of Discovery’s biggest changes from Classic included:
- Introducing level caps and phases (eight in total) to keep the community progressing together
- Adding discoverable (and later, purchasable) runes that heavily modified abilities and opened up new specs and playstyles
- Taking old dungeons and revamping them into raids
- Adding some more world PvP events
- Adding brand-new items and quests, mostly related to runes
- And eventually adding brand-new high-level instances with Scarlet Enclave and Karazhan Crypts
It was ambitious, to say the least, and the initial reception was massive. Even as public opinion fluctuated and numbers declined, the enthusiasm of both the community and dev team carried this server past its planned expiration date into Phase 8 and maintenance mode (versus a shutdown that most players anticipated). The devs’ retrospective called Season of Discovery “a success beyond our wildest imagination,” and I’ve seen several calls for a fresh Season of Discovery server this year.
What did everyone learn from Season of Discovery?
Reading only slightly between the lines of the studio’s retrospective of this server last year, Season of Discovery was the necessary step between Classic Era and Classic Plus. Blizzard needed the runway and freedom to experiment, and having this be a fun promotional ruleset that drew more subscribers back to Classic was more a welcome side benefit than the main point.
And with all experiments, not everything worked or was universally embraced. From a lot of player reports that I’ve read or listened to, one shared opinion was that Season of Discovery started strong but gradually came off the rails before rallying to a solid finish. Fiddling about with the classes so greatly created a lot of broken builds that in turn unbalanced the game and wore away some of the strong identity that these classes once had.
There was also difficulty keeping players continually engaged with what was clearly a testbed. It’s always easy to generate enthusiasm for a fresh server launch with some new ideas, but giving players reasons to keep going after a year or so is much more difficult when everyone could see that this wasn’t going to last for very long. It was kind of like playing an 18-month beta.
Another issue was that if you weren’t into the raiding scene, Season of Discovery offered a lot less to you as a fresh experience. The casuals gamely trudged to level 60 with their new class toys, but it wasn’t as though this mode gave them new zones or ways to progress than what they had before.
What lessons are Blizzard carrying into Classic Plus?
Again, if anyone claims to know with 100% certainty what’s going on behind closed doors at Blizzard regarding WoW Classic, they’re full of it. Pretty much anything could be announced next month at BlizzCon, and I have a feeling that none of it will line up perfectly with predictions.
That said, we do know that Blizzard gleaned a lot of useful info out of Season of Discovery according to the devs’ own admission. In the 2025 letter, the devs said, “We have big plans and big ambitions for this type of ‘found photographs‘ content set in the original world of Azeroth, but in order to realize those ambitions, we need to make sure we’re spending our time where it will make the most impact on the long-term future of WoW Classic. We want to set ourselves up for success by taking take the time we need to get in the proverbial kitchen and ‘cook,’ iterate on, and shape our ideas and lessons learned from Season of Discovery into something truly exciting.”
The “found photographs” is a term that Chris Metzen used for accessing snapshots of major lore moments or characters’ histories through items, quests, and environmental details. That’s interesting because one side discussion about Classic Plus is whether it will exist in a true alternate history of Azeroth, running parallel to retail’s timeline. The devs seem willing to look into changing the stories or taking us in a different narrative direction.
Any engagement metrics and vocalized feedback from Season of Discovery is usable information for a new version of the game. Blizzard no doubt can easily identify what was popular, what broke the game, and what pushed players away. That’s not going to be utterly comprehensive, but it’s vital info to have if the goal is to make a future foundation that’s a lot more stable and promising.
One last thing to note: Blizzard put a massive amount of work into Season of Discovery — far more than I thought. This isn’t the sign of a studio half-hearting some project it doesn’t care about; it’s quite the opposite, in fact, and that bodes really well for whatever it has planned for the main event.
Stepping back into the MMO time machine of WoW Classic, Justin Olivetti offers up observations and ground-level analysis as a Gnome with a view. Casually Classic is a more laid-back look at this legacy ruleset for those of us who’ve never stepped into a raid or seen more than 200 gold to our names.
