WoW Classic Season of Mastery release date revealed

We've compiled all the info you need including registration dates and what you need to know before picking your realm.

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The WoW Classic Season of Mastery release date takes place on November 16th, 2021. Open your Discord servers and start planning with your fellow guild member right now. In what is serving as yet another reboot of the Classic World of Warcraft experience, their aim is to give all players a fresh start and an even playing field. Although it also kind of sounds like WoW is just deleting player progress and starting again, albeit at an accelerated pace?

#WoWClassic Season of Mastery begins November 16th.

⚔ https://t.co/FmMRp6nOyJ pic.twitter.com/UUMKFGCJPl

— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) October 28, 2021

WoW Classic Season of Mastery will open up name reservations on November 11th. Players with an active subscription or game time on their WoW account will be able to create one character per WoW account according to the WoW website. Here’s a world map of staggered reservation times for your quest planning needs:

WoW Classic Season of Mastery release date

We’re looking at a worldwide WoW Classic Season of Mastery release date and time of November 16 at 3 PM PST, or 11 PM GMT. Here’s another useful map with release times for your local timezone:

World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Mastery Features

There’s a wide range of improvements and features coming to the Season of Mastery. Over a twelve-month period, players can expect new phases to unlock every two months. Here’s the current outline for the six phases according to the WoW website: Moreso, we know that Blizzard is actively working on nerfing the things that boomed the Classic economy, such as Mage boosting and AOE farming in instances, along with the recent Rogue BRD pickpocketing thief debug.

Phase 1 (WoW Classic Season of Mastery Launch)

• Molten Core
• Onyxia
• Maraudon
• PvP Honor System and Battlegrounds (up from Phases 3 and 4)

Phase 2

• Dire Maul
• Azuregos
• Kazzak

Phase 3

• Blackwing Lair
• Darkmoon Faire
• Darkmoon deck drops begin

Phase 4

• Zul’Gurub
• Green Dragons

Phase 5

• Ahn’Qiraj War Effort begins
• Ahn’Qiraj raids open as the war effort dictates

Phase 6

• Naxxramas
• Scourge Invasion

Raid Boss Updates

The original release of WoW Classic was made to re-create the difficulty and challenge of patch 1.12 from the original World of Warcraft release. While we strived to bring a faithful re-creation of that release, many raid encounters turned out to be easier than the first time around—players simply were more experienced and prepared, and patch updates greatly increased player power.

With that in mind, WoW is planning a few changes to make those early raid bosses pack a bit more of a punch, and attempt to recapture the original challenge they presented. These changes currently include (but are not limited to):

• World buffs (like Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer and others) disabled in Raid instances
• Restoring mechanics that were removed early on to some Raid bosses
• No boss debuff limit (up from 16 debuffs in WoW Classic)
• Increased health on bosses, to offset player buffs and the removed debuff limit

The intent with these changes is for this experience to feel somewhat more challenging than WoW Classic did in 2019.

Due to Season of Mastery’s faster content release cadence, we’re also planning several improvements and changes. Increased experience gains compared to the first iteration of WoW Classic. Our current plan is to set them close to what the 1-60 XP rates are in Burning Crusade Classic™ with a bigger focus on quest XP increases.

In addition, there are certain improvements that weren’t in the original WoW Classic release but can help create a better experience, such as:

• Meeting Stones converted to Summoning Stones
• Increased Mining and Herbalism nodes

World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Mastery Fine Print

Here are all the instructions and details you’ll need to know when registering your name and realm, and ultimately when the event goes live. Make sure to read the following before making your choice, as this cannot be reversed:

• After WoW Classic Season of Mastery is live, you’ll be able to create additional characters up to a maximum of 50 characters in each of our three games: 
  • Up to 50 characters total in World of Warcraft Classic (includes Season of Mastery)
  • Up to 50 characters in Burning Crusade Classic
  • Up to 50 characters in World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
• Characters that were created for the WoW Classic Season of Mastery Open Beta will not be available to use in WoW Classic Season of Mastery.
• For the name reservation period only, we will have a limit on the number of characters that can be reserved on a realm. When the realms go live, the limit will be removed.

How to play World of Warcraft Classic: Season of Mastery

To create a character and play WoW Classic Season of Mastery, you will need to download and install the client first.

1. Open the Battle.net desktop app and select World of Warcraft in the game selection menu.
2. Select World of Warcraft Classic. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second dropdown for Account. In that column, select the active account you want to play on.
3. Click the Install button. You’ll see an installation progress bar that will show you when the installation is available to play.
4. Once the installation is complete, click the Play button.

You’ll need to select the Season of Mastery realm you want to play on which will be identified in the Realm list. Then select Create New Character. You’ll be able to choose your faction, class, and race, as well as fully customize your new character and name them. If you change your mind about a character and have already reserved one, you will need to delete the one you made. Please note, the name associated with the character you deleted will be immediately available again to be claimed.

Before you put your plans too firmly in place, we encourage you to gather your allies together to select your new home realm. If you’re looking to reconnect with your old friends and guildmates, be sure to check out the Classic Connections forum. Oh, and don’t forget to sync your chronometer with your friends too!