Blizzard has started sending out a new player survey asking a big question: what comes after Mists of Pandaria Classic? But it doesn’t stop there! The survey also lists a wide range of experimental features, hinting that Blizzard might be exploring a complete reimagined Classic experience. And if what’s in this survey becomes reality, it could mark the biggest shift Classic WOW has seen to date! Something even bigger than Season of Discovery!
Season of Discovery Closes, and a New Classic Chapter Begins
In a recent blue post, Blizzard officially confirmed that Season of Discovery is coming to an end, but it’s not the end of Classic The team reflected on SoD as a wildly successful experiment, one that proved players are eager for fresh content within Classic WoW.
Blizzard says the SoD servers will remain online in a Classic Era-like state, but internally, they’re shifting focus. Development has already begun on a new project set in the Classic version of the game, one shaped by everything they learned from SoD.
Greetings,
As you may have read here, we’re excited to offer those of you who have completed the Balnazzar encounter in the Scarlet Enclave raid a free Mists of Pandaria Classic Boost!
We believe that it would be a great capstone for Season of Discovery to offer those of you who are looking to embark on your next classic adventure this opportunity to hop into Mists Classic right away when it launches.
When we look back on the journey we’ve taken in Season of Discovery, we are incredibly proud of the time we got to spend with all of you in this unique take on the original version of World of Warcraft. From the first moments that players sat down at the demo stations at Blizzcon in 2023, we knew we had something special, and it’s wild to think that it has been over 18 months since we announced it.
When we think of the impact that Season of Discovery will ultimately have on World of Warcraft, we think about how it helped prove something that a lot of us already knew: there is an enormous appetite for new experiences set against the backdrop of original World of Warcraft. As soon as the realms went live and we saw the response, we knew we had an unprecedented opportunity to immerse ourselves in new concepts and ideas, and see what works and what doesn’t.
Several months ago, as we wrapped up development on Naxxramas and Karazhan Crypts, we had originally planned for that to be the final content update to Season of Discovery. However, we couldn’t let go of the one major unrealized dream for Season of Discovery: the Scarlet Enclave. We looked at our schedule and decided to take a risk in order to make time to create this new raid tier and really punctuate the Season of Discovery experience with something special. We are very glad we did. It’s been incredibly fun to play and progress through the new content with you.
Season of Discovery was a success beyond our wildest imagination back in 2023. We learned so much, we grew as a team both literally and figuratively, and we’ve been invigorated for the future like never before. That future for Season of Discovery is somewhat bittersweet, as we’ve made the decision to slow down on Season of Discovery and begin work on our next major project in the original WoW design space.
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. Season of Discovery was always meant to be an ephemeral seasonal experience, and while it became so much more for a time, we’re extremely excited about the things we’re working on for the future.
We have no plans to shut down the SoD realms, and we hope to see the game mode continue to operate similar to WoW Classic Era for many months (if not years) to come. We’ve all grown attached to our characters just like you have, and we’re happy to continue to adventure with you for as long as you’d like.
We sincerely thank you for joining us on this incredible journey in Season of Discovery. Thank you all for playing with us, making new friends with us, for giving us feedback, for pushing the boundaries of what content set in original WoW could look like, and more than anything– thank you for being passionate about World of Warcraft.
-The WoW Classic Development Team
Experimental Features Blizzard is Exploring for Classic’s Future
The first part of the survey dives into uncharted territory, asking players what kind of features they’d welcome in a hypothetical new version of Classic WoW. According to Blizzard, these ideas come from a mix of sources, including past player feedback, and not all of them are guaranteed to be in development. Instead, the goal is to gauge what players would want in a reimagined Classic, a version that doesn’t just revisit Vanilla, but builds something new from the ground up.
Proposed Features in Blizzard’s Survey
Here’s a list of proposed features in Blizzard’s survey:
Character & Class Options
- Playable Shamans on the Alliance side
- Playable High Elves
- New race and class combinations
- Entirely new class (not DKs, Monks, or Demon Hunters)
- New class abilities and spells unique to this version of Classic
- Updated player character models
Combat & PvP Systems
- 1v1 Duel Arenas
- War Mode
- Honor reward redesign (moving away from the original system)
- Ground-up redesign of the Honor system
- Class talent tree changes for better viability and flow
- New battlegrounds
Social, Utility & Progression
- Collections UI (storage for pets, mounts, toys)
- Account-wide collections
- Account-wide perks and progression systems
- Achievements
- Cross-realm play
- Cross-realm guilds
- Transmogrification
- Player housing
- WoW Token support
Worldbuilding & PvE Content
- Brand-new zones
- Revisited unexplored zones (Mount Hyjal, Uldum, Gilneas)
- New in-game world events
- 10-player raids
- 20-player raids
- 40-player raids
- New tradeskills
- Leveling profession improvements (craft usable gear as you level)
Visual Upgrades
- Graphical improvements (lighting, shadows, surface reflections)
What’s Next After MoP Classic? Blizzard Wants to Know
One part of the survey asks players what they’d like to do after Mists of Pandaria Classic, and the options reveal how flexible Blizzard is willing to be. Players can choose from:
- Continuing on a Classic Era-style realm using their MoP characters.
- Starting fresh in a different version of Classic without their MoP characters.
- Moving to retail WoW with their MoP characters.
- Reverting to an earlier expansion, like Wrath Classic.
- Continuing their journey in Classic Warlords of Draenor, if released.
- Staying permanently on a frozen MoP Classic server.
- Or simply stepping away from WoW entirely.
It will be exciting to see what Blizzard has in store for Classic!
Source: Reddit
