World of Warcraft Classic's Season of Mastery will bring a number of changes to the original version of Blizzard's landmark MMORPG, and players won't have to wait long to experience it. New seasonal servers for the game will be going live November 16, Blizzard has announced.
The servers will share the same game client as regular WoW Classic, but with players having the ability to choose to create a character on a Season of Mastery server. Character name reservations will start on November 11 for players with game time on their account or an active WoW subscription.
Season of Mastery will feature tougher raids (something that Blizzard is still testing), changes to world buffs, adjustments to combat the game's "Mage-boosting" meta, and tweaks to make certain popular farming spots often used by bots less lucrative. Whereas content for WoW Classic rolled out in different phases every three months, Season of Mastery content will release every two. As a result, players will be able to earn PvP ranks faster.
WoW Classic Season of Mastery comes as Activision Blizzard continues to deal with fallout from multiple sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits and investigations. Blizzard recently canceled its annual BlizzCon event for next year, with the company looking to take extra time to reimagine the future of the event. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick recently outlined the numerous ways in which the company is looking to improve in the wake of the lawsuits.