[2021] Development Notes -- Season of Mastery Beta

As outlined in our Season of Mastery blog post, there are a number of changes coming in this new Season of WoW Classic. In this Beta, testers can expect to experience the following today and over the next several weeks:

Week 1 of open Beta (October 5)

• Player Levels will be capped at 30.
• Character templates will not be available.
• The Rate of XP gain from Quest turn-ins has been increased by 25% globally.
• Mining and Herbalism Node availability is increased.
• The PvP Honor System is enabled.
• Warsong Gulch is enabled.

Week 2 of open Beta (October 13)

• Player levels will now be capped at 45.
• The “Adventure Awaits” buff now grants 40% increased experience from Quest turn-ins (was 25%).
• Meeting Stones can now be used to summon appropriately-leveled party members for the associated dungeon(s).
• There is now a PvP realm available.

Week 3 of open Beta (October 19)

• 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.

Week 4 of open Beta (October 27)

• Many groups of Guard NPCs that were removed from Alterac Valley in patch 1.11 have been restored for Season of Mastery.
• The denizens of Blackrock Depths have grown more leery of criminal activity and will now attempt to stash their most valuable items away if they suspect that a thief is in their midst.
• Many adjustments have been made to the raid encounters in Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair.
• The PvP honor system has been adjusted to accelerate the rate at which players rank up.
  • Developers’ notes: Each week, the Honor system keeps track of players’ PvP participation, and at the end of the week, player-characters with at least 15 honorable kills are sorted by PvP participation. Once sorted, the system decides how many points to award that week, and the sorting is independent of the character’s current PvP rank. The system then awards a calculated number of expected points, and the calculation uses the character’s current PvP ranking points. This can be simplified to: (this_week’s_expected_points - current_ranking_points) * rate_factor. The result is then added to the character’s current_ranking_points, so each week, every player-character approaches their deserved rank. In Classic Era, the rate_factor (i.e. the percentage of the previous week’s expected points that will be awarded) is 20%. In Season of Mastery, we are increasing that rate to 40% to match the faster pace of content.

The latest test versions of World of Warcraft include new code and data related to forthcoming improvements to our methods and systems for handling player misbehavior. This does not include anything testable at this time.

Thank you for participating in the WoW Classic Season of Mastery open Beta!

The “Adventure Awaits” buff that gives a 25% bonus XP to quests only applies to player characters at levels 1-59. This will not cause an increase in extra gold at level 60 for quest completions.

Week 2 of open Beta (October 13)

• Player levels will now be capped at 45.
• The “Adventure Awaits” buff now grants 40% increased experience from Quest turn-ins (was 25%).
• Meeting Stones can now be used to summon appropriately-leveled party members for the associated dungeon(s).
• There is now a PvP realm available.

Week 3 of open Beta (October 19)

• 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 XP while in an overpowered group, along with gameplay tweaks 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.

Week 4 of open Beta (October 27)

• Many groups of Guard NPCs that were removed from Alterac Valley in patch 1.11 have been restored for Season of Mastery.
• The denizens of Blackrock Depths have grown more leery of criminal activity and will now attempt to stash their most valuable items away if they suspect that a thief is in their midst.
• Many adjustments have been made to the raid encounters in Molten Core and Onyxia’s Lair.
• The PvP honor system has been adjusted to accelerate the rate at which players rank up.
  • Developers’ notes: Each week, the Honor system keeps track of players’ PvP participation, and at the end of the week, player-characters with at least 15 honorable kills are sorted by PvP participation. Once sorted, the system decides how many points to award that week, and the sorting is independent of the character’s current PvP rank. The system then awards a calculated number of expected points, and the calculation uses the character’s current PvP ranking points. This can be simplified to: (this_week’s_expected_points - current_ranking_points) * rate_factor. The result is then added to the character’s current_ranking_points, so each week, every player-character approaches their deserved rank. In Classic Era, the rate_factor (i.e. the percentage of the previous week’s expected points that will be awarded) is 20%. In Season of Mastery, we are increasing that rate to 40% to match the faster pace of content.

November 12

Here are some adjustments that were implemented into the Season of Mastery Beta over the last couple of weeks, that deserve to be noted.

• The cost to train riding skills and the cost to purchase level 40 mounts have been reduced.
• The Gordok Tribute chest in Dire Maul can no longer be looted by players that are not on King Gordok’s tap list when he’s defeated.
• The healing provided from the Diamond Flask trinket on-use effect no longer benefits from bonus +healing or spellpower.