The newest World of Warcraft Classic season, the Season of Discovery, brings a ton of changes to the game players fell in love with all the way back in 2004. One of the biggest changes is a new level cap – when the season launched into its first phase on November 30, the level cap was a mere Level 25.
WoW SoD: All Phase 1 & 2 Warlock Runes
Though players are most excited about Metamorphosis, Warlock runes in WoW SoD are going to be powerful across the board.
As later phases are released every few months, the Class meta will change as the level cap increases, opening up new areas to explore, new content to check out, and of course, new runes, Raids, and PvP areas to take on. This guide explains what each SoD level cap will be for every Phase, as well as some details on new max-level content in each Phase.
Updated February 13, 2024 by Erik Petrovich: WoW Season of Discovery has been out for nearly three months, and Phase One finally came to an end in early February. With the launch of Phase Two comes a new SoD level cap, but players are still a ways off from hitting the original maximum level of 60. With the new Phase Two level cap for WoW SoD, players have access to new Runes, a new Raid and PvP event, and more zones to quest and complete dungeons in. Though we don't know much about future phases, we do know what the level cap will be for Phase Three and Four – this guide has been updated to be current for Phase Two of WoW SoD, as well as provide more details on past Phases and what to expect later in 2024.
WoW SoD Phase One Level Cap
Level 25
- Level-up Raid: Blackfathom Deeps
- Outdoor PvP Zone: Ashenvale – Battle for Ashenvale event
- Rune Slots Unlocked: Chest, Legs, Gloves
With the launch of the Season of Discovery came its first phase, which limited players to a max level of 25. Each class was given 12 new SoD Runes to Discover for the Chest, Legs, and Gloves slots across newly heavily-populated low-level zones, setting the tone for what players could expect from the massively overhauled WoW Classic.
The Blackfathom Deeps dungeon was converted to a Level 25 raid, and now functions as a Level-Up Raid. Though you won't be heading to the Zoram Strand at max level post-Phase One, it's still a great way to get XP on the way to Level 40.
WoW Season of Discovery: How To Get Cozy Sleeping Bag
The Cozy Sleeping Bag is a new XP-boosting item that players can use as many times as they like, available in WoW Season of Discovery's Phase Two.
Alongside the new Runes and Raid is the Battle for Ashenvale event, which saw players duke it out against the other faction's bosses across the zone. From Phase Two onward, the Battle for Ashenvale time has changed, and will now occur every three hours starting at midnight server time.
WoW SoD Phase Two Level Cap
Level 40
- Max-Level Raid: Gnomeregan
- Outdoor PvP Zone: Stranglethorn Vale – Blood Moon event
- Rune Slots Unlocked: Belt, Boots
Phase Two released on February 8, 2024, and will likely stay current for around the same amount of time as Phase One – about two to three months total. Phase Two once again brings new Runes, for the Boot and Belts slots, new SoD-exclusive content, and raises the Season of Discovery level cap from 25 to 40. This level bracket is where most builds come into their own – Rogues have access to their full toolkit for PvP, Shadow Priests come online at 40 thanks to Shadowform, and most other classes gain build-defining abilities.
The Phase Two SoD level cap gives players tons of new zones to explore, including Desolace, the Badlands, Thousand Needles, Darkshire, Hillsbrad Foothills, and all the dungeons that they include. New dungeons, like the Scarlet Monastery wings and Razorfen Kraul, become available too.
The SoD Phase Two max-level raid is a revamped Gnomeregan, turned into a 10-man raid with new bosses, mechanics, and much more. It will take around two hours to complete, though as time goes on that time is likely to go down as players figure out new strategies.
The max level SoD Phase Two PvP event is called the Blood Moon event, and occurs every three hours starting at midnight in Stranglethorn Vale. Throughout the zone the sky will turn red, and all players will become hostile – your goal during the Blood Moon is to kill other players to earn a new unique PvP currency. As a much more PvP-oriented event than the Battle for Ashenvale, it can be a real bloodbath, but the Blood Moon rewards make it worth the chaos.
WoW Season of Discovery: Grizzby Quest Walkthrough (All Ratchet Runes)
In Ratchet, every class must complete a series of quests offered by Grizzby, a new NPC in WoW SoD who demands lots of items.
Phase Three, Phase Four, & Beyond
Level 50, Level 60, & More
Thanks to official Dev streams and reveals from the WoW SoD team, we know what the level cap for the third and fourth SoD phases will be. Though we don't yet know what the max-level Raid or PvP event will be for either Phase Three or Four, we do know that players will be able to get to level 50 in Phase Three, and reach the WoW Classicmax level of 60 in Phase Four. According to the official 2024 World of Warcraft release timeline, Phase Three will release in early Summer 2024, while Phase Four will release in late Summer or early Fall.
In the announcement for SoD, the SoD team teased some kind of Scarlet Crusade and Karazhan Crypts content in later phases, which could imply that players will see once-cut content from vanilla WoW in Season of Discovery.
But after Phase Four, when a max level of 60 will be attainable, SoD won't be over. In fact, a fifth Phase is shown on the official WoW release timeline for late 2024. Very few details are known about the fifth phase at this point, but we do know it will introduce new endgame activities for max-level characters.
