WoW Classic Season of Mastery Beta Updates - October 19

[Stoy]

WoW Classic Season of Mastery Beta Updates - October 19

The Season of Mastery Beta is back online for testing with the following updates:

• Test characters can now be leveled to 60.
• The “Adventure Awaits” buff now grants an additional experience bonus to Dungeon quests and quests flagged as Elite.
• High Elf Watchers have made an appearance in the Ironforge Library and Undercity Apothecarium, seeking to chronicle those who bear a “Soul of Iron”.
• World Buffs such as Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer, Warchief’s Blessing, and many others will now be removed inside of raid instances.
• The Debuff limit on enemy units is no longer capped at 16.
• Significantly less experience is now awarded to players who kill a creature while in a group with one or more players who are at a much higher level than the creature that was slain.
• The Looking For Group tool from Burning Crusade Classic is now present in the Season of Mastery.
• Adjustments have been made to some dungeon enemies:
  
  • Stratholme – All Undead creatures in Stratholme will now gain an immunity to snares 30 seconds after entering combat and gain immunity to roots after an additional 30 seconds of combat.
  • Maraudon – Many creatures in Maraudon will gain an immunity to snares 30 seconds after entering combat and gain immunity to roots after an additional 30 seconds of combat.
  • Mauradon – 30 seconds after gaining immunity to root effects, enemies gain 50% increased movement speed.
  • Maraudon and Stratholme – Any type of crowd control (except snares or roots) will reset the snare immunity, root immunity, and speed buffs.
  • Zul’Farrak – Zombie Trolls in Zul’Farrak now drop fewer lucrative treasures. Most of the loot previously dropped by Zombie Trolls has been redistributed to other enemies in the dungeon.
• Adjustments have been made to enemies in Onyxia’s Lair and Molten Core:
  
  • All creatures have had their health increased.
  • Several mechanics that were removed in early versions of original World of Warcraf have been restored to certain bosses in both raids.
• Developers’ notes: The adjustments to the group experience in Stratholme and Maraudon are the first round of changes meant to curtail “boosting” or “powerleveling” of low-level characters in Season of Mastery. These changes should be largely invisible to groups who complete this content at an appropriate level with an appropriate group composition, while making many methods of kiting, gathering, and killing large groups of enemies much more precarious and inefficient. Please note that in Stratholme and Maraudon, the auras that grant immunity to slows and roots can also be reset if a creature is afflicted by a “hard” CC such as a Polymorph or Shackle Undead.

In addition to the changes above, we are planning to open Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair on Thursday, October 21 at 2:00 p.m. PDT for raid testing. To facilitate that, we will make level 60 character templates in Rare quality dungeon gear available on Thursday morning, before the raids become available.

[MiiiMiii]

mostly good changes.

I really like this one:
"Significantly less experience is now awarded to players who kill a creature while in a group with one or more players who are at a much higher level than the creature that was slain."


However the 40% buff to XP is too much in my opinion. "Adventure Awaits" buff? The leveling is the adventure... Maybe it would feel better if the buff only appeared in the later levels progressivly more? The 1-30 pacing is way too fast and rushed.

But it's not a dealbreaker, if you think it makes this a more successful project with the buff go for it.

[ryjkur]

Immunity to snare in Stratholme, Maraudon and ZF? Why not other instances? Doesn't make sense to add for one 58+ instance and 2 low lvl dungeons??? I guess it's time to move on to another dungeons before they add that aura to them (BRD).

[Ju1ceB0x]

Wow, they're finally trying to kill Mage boosting.. If only they could add that to BC Classic as well huh..

[Kralljin]

However the 40% buff to XP is too much in my opinion. "Adventure Awaits" buff? The leveling is the adventure... Maybe it would feel better if the buff only appeared in the later levels progressivly more? The 1-30 pacing is way too fast and rushed.

My thoughts as well.

The leveling experience from 1-~30 is actually reasonably paced in Classic, it usually starts to fall apart past that where you then had to resort to insane zone hopping in order to get new quests.

I think the Classic leveling experience starts to really drag on from 30 and onwards, there are some points when you enter a certain zone (Tanaris, Searing Gorge, Hinterlands for Horde) that provide some decent xp but those are more the exception, there xp increase should kick in, not before.

[Algorath]

Several mechanics that were removed in early versions of original World of Warcraf have been restored to certain bosses in both raids.

And so the cracks begin to show. Soulless shell of a game.

[Bramickias]

"High Elf Watchers have made an appearance in the Ironforge Library and Undercity Apothecarium, seeking to chronicle those who bear a “Soul of Iron”."

Are they adding some form of recognition for people getting to lvl60 without dying? If yes, that's a nice little addition.
Otherwise, im curious to know what that Soul of Iron is about.

[ThiagoTorres]

Sorry for asking, but those classic season of master is the new classic server?

And how it works? Reset level every season?

[MiiiMiii]

Sorry for asking, but those classic season of master is the new classic server?

And how it works? Reset level every season?

It's "fresh" servers. It will start at "phase 1" but it will go faster this time, Naxx will be out within a year after it's released. We don't know what happens after the year is over. Probably the success of the project will determine the next steps.

If it's successful, Blizzard will invest in new content so people can continue playting their character in new content?
If it's unsuccessful, it will go into Diablo 3 mode, releasing new "seasons" every now and then with no real new content added.
My interpitation.

[McNeil]

What is this ‘Soul of Iron’ and what are all these restored abilities from Onyxia and MC?

[Biomega]

However the 40% buff to XP is too much in my opinion. "Adventure Awaits" buff? The leveling is the adventure...

Well, that's a matter of opinion. To many people, the adventure is what you do at max level; getting there is the warmup, and a chore for those people.

[Spotnick]

Immunity to snare in Stratholme, Maraudon and ZF? Why not other instances? Doesn't make sense to add for one 58+ instance and 2 low lvl dungeons??? I guess it's time to move on to another dungeons before they add that aura to them (BRD).

Because it's dungeons mages and paladins are boosting people in.

Missing Shadowfang Keep and Scarlett Monastery though.

[Onikaroshi]

"High Elf Watchers have made an appearance in the Ironforge Library and Undercity Apothecarium, seeking to chronicle those who bear a “Soul of Iron”."

Are they adding some form of recognition for people getting to lvl60 without dying? If yes, that's a nice little addition.
Otherwise, im curious to know what that Soul of Iron is about.

According to Wowhead that is exactly what it is about.

When you die, the buff is changed to "tainted soul"

[Tankorr]

What is this ‘Soul of Iron’ and what are all these restored abilities from Onyxia and MC?

Ironman Challenge most likely.

As an example of restored abilities, I believe when Classic came out, they used a nerfed version of Ragnaros where the sons did not appear until much later. I would assume they will use the earlier version where Ragnaros submerges at his original point, forcing the raid to have to deal with the Sons of the Living Flame.

[relaxok]

To me, this is the start of 'Classic+' - ways to experiment with the classic shell and change things without #nochanges shrieking... They're already adding new NPCs/abilities/items - if it goes well they will keep going in this direction, probably new content of all sorts.

[psiko74]

so no boosts (im fine with) but we cant aoe dungeon farm either. guess i wont be playing a mage in som.

[Mhyroth]

Mage tears in 3...2..1...

[SinR]

Mage tears in 3...2..1...

To go with the Warrior "NO WORLD BUFFS IS A DEALBREAKER" tears

[ryjkur]

Because it's dungeons mages and paladins are boosting people in.

Missing Shadowfang Keep and Scarlett Monastery though.

It doesn't stop ppl to farm other dungeons. Should add them to every dungeon right from the start so they don't have to nerf those dungeons after launch.

[MystclickNL]

so no boosts (im fine with) but we cant aoe dungeon farm either. guess i wont be playing a mage in som.

If you cant kill the group within 30 seconds of pulling you shouldnt be playing a mage anyway :P