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World of Warcraft Season of Discovery Phase 2 Details Unveiled

Blizzard confirms new runes, new systems, and rules for WoW: SoD Phase 2
by Tit Krajnik on January 30, 2024   

World of Warcraft: Season of Discovery is confirmed to launch on February 8, 2024; however, since it was first announced, not many details were known about what the second phase will bring. That changed on Tuesday, January 30, when Blizzard unveiled more information about SoD Phase 2.

While some basic details about what new changes World of Warcraft: Season of Discovery Phase 2 will bring were revealed, much remained unknown, including which new runes will be added, what planned changes Blizzard has for Battlegrounds, the new raid, and how the new PvP zone event will work. Now we have the answers.
 


New Gnomeregan Raid

As already confirmed previously, SoD Phase 2 will introduce Gnomeregan as a new raid. Now it was confirmed that the raid will be 10-man and have six bosses, much like Black Fathom Deeps in Phase 1. This will include one additional new boss, while all previous five have been redesigned to present new challenges.

Besides new and redesigned bosses, Gnomeregan will also have a variety of new items and rewards. That includes a new class set and quest rewards adjusted for level 40 players. Like BFD, Gnomeregan will include new profession quest chain, leading to new materials that can be used to craft even stronger items.

Dungeon Updates

Season of Discovery Phase 2 will also add new skill books as a part of five-man dungeons. These skill books will drop from various creatures, serve as quality-of-life improvements, and not take up a rune slot.

The skill books will address some things, such as totem control for Shamans, short aura durations for Paladin blessings, and more. Three confirmed skill books include:

  • Testament of Enhanced Blessings – Paladin
  • Revelation of Totemic Projection – Shaman
  • Manual of Redirect – Rogue

 

New Runes

WoW: Season of Discovery Phase 2 will include new runes, and on Tuesday, Blizzard offered a sneak peek into which new runes will be added to the game. Notably, the new runes will be engraved into boots and belt, meaning that the second phase will add two new rune slots for the players, bringing the total number to five.

In the blog post, Blizzard shared 19 new runes for nine classes.

  • Druid Runes: Eclipse, King of the Jungle
  • Paladin Runes: Sheath of Light, Guarded by the Light
  • Hunter Runes: Melee Specialist, Trap Launcher
  • Warrior Runes: Rallying Cry, Blood Surge
  • Rogue Runes: Master of Subtlety, Shuriken Toss
  • Priest Runes: Mind Spike, Pain Suppression
  • Warlock Runes: Invocation, Dance of the Wicked
  • Mage Runes: Missile Barrage, Chronostatic Preservation
  • Shaman Runes: Maelstrom Weapon, Spirit of the Alpha, Two-Handed Mastery

 

New PvP Event

The second phase of Season of Discovery will introduce a new PvP event – The Blood Moon. The new event will take place in Stranglethorn Vale and introduce some exciting changes, including a more predictable timetable.

As confirmed, the Blood Moon event will occur every three hours and last 30 minutes. During the event, killing players will allow you to earn currency, which can be traded for various rewards. While grouping is possible, the announcement states that the event will “punish those in raid groups.”

Those who don’t wish to participate in the event can opt out of Blood Moon by talking to the Zandalari Emissary.

Most notably, there will be no PvP objectives, like in the Ashenvale event, in Stranglethorn Vale’s event. Instead, it’ll focus solely on PvP, awarding players for killing the opposite faction.

There are also new faction-agnostic mounts added to WoW: SoD Phase 2, which the players can acquire by participating in the event. These new mounts have new appearances of a brown tiger and an orange-red raptor for Alliance and Horde, respectively.

PvP Updates

One of the most significant PvP changes coming with WoW: SoD Phase 2 is an adjustment to matchmaking. Throughout the first phase, players have been asking Blizzard to do something about matchmaking in battlegrounds, which were overrun by premade groups with an unfair advantage over solo players.

To address the issue, Blizzard implemented two changes

  • Players in groups of five or fever will have a higher chance to match against groups of five or fewer
  • Players in groups of six or more will have a higher chance to match against groups of six or more


This change will help match more premade groups with premade groups or non-premades with non-premades when possible. Blizzard acknowledges that this could lead to longer PvP queues and will monitor the change and adjust it if needed.

No More GDKPs

With SoD Phase 2, Blizzard decided to prohibit any GDKP (Gold Dragon Kill Points) runs. The new policy was added due to concerns surrounding the erosion of traditional guild and social structures, which are a big part of the Season of Discovery.

GPDK runs have also been heavily criticized by the players as a way to promote gold buying, so the addition of this rule hardly comes as a shock. Blizzard has stated, however, that the new policy is experimental – as most things in SoD.

Season of Discovery Phase 2 will launch on February 8, 2024, meaning there’s just over one week before the second stage starts. However, even those who’ve missed the first phase aren’t missing out and will be able to catch up with the rest of the player base quickly.

To help new players, Blizzard added a 50% experience buff between levels 1-25 and an increased experience gained within the Blackfathom Deeps raid dungeon.

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