[Update]: Season of Discovery has now arrived, and I'm happy to say it's looking quite good!

Blizzcon 2023 is now upon us, and given how massive World of Warcraft is, it should come as little surprise to hear that it has received quite a few announcements so far! The most exciting one for the WoW Classic crowd is the reveal of the upcoming Season of Discovery which will let players uncover new class-altering abilities in the form of runes.

Thanks to these new runes Mages will be capable of healing, Warlocks will be able to tank even the toughest of bosses, and so forth. Not only that, but Season of Discovery will also bring with it a 10-player Blackfathom Deeps raid with new and reimagined bosses, mechanics and rewards. The catch, if you want to call it that, is that the level cap will initially be set to 25 and will only be expanded by a couple of levels with each major patch.

The idea, as you might imagine, is to have a constant influx of new content for players to explore, but without some of the pressure that usually comes with endgame raiding. While this isn't the fabled Classic+ many were hoping to see, I do believe it's a step in the right direction and hopefully only the first in a long line of new additions that will thoroughly shake up the WoW Classic experience without destroying what makes it so much fun.

As for the release date, Season of Discovery will be launching on the week of November 30th. Perhaps most importantly, Season of Discovery won't be going through the usual testing process, so with a bit of luck the majority are going to be equally as clueless about all of the new stuff once it finally goes live. In other words, there might just be some actual discovery involved!

Once Season of Discovery is ready to go I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, it's also worth mentioning that Blizzard has announced that Cataclysm Classic will be launching in 2024 alongside a variety of improvements.