A cool PvP event in WoW Classic's Season of Discovery has spiralled into a complete zergfest—with huge swarms of players ending it in minutes

A night elf faces off against an orc warrior in World of Warcraft Classic, amidst the dense shadowy woodland of Ashenvale. — (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

I really like the idea of WoW Classic's Season of Discovery (SoD)—it's a genuinely fresh take on what it means to make a classic server. Not just rehashing the old, but remixing it too.

In case you haven't been keeping tabs, WoW Classic's new seasonal realms will go through a Diablo 4-style cycle of seasonal adjustments which raise the level cap bit-by-bit. SoD currently has a level cap of 25, turning Blackfathom Deeps into a whole new raid, and has added runes which can be collected and applied to your gear for funky effects.

It's a neat concept that's turned WoW Classic into its own unique MMO, built out of recycled old expansion content. Though with that innovation comes the danger of players figuring out the most efficient way to break something. As is the case with SoD's new world PvP event in the ye olden zone of Ashenvale.

I haven't been able to get my boots on the ground and experience it for myself just yet—while I did roll up a shaman out of curiosity, there are just too many good games getting killer updates now, and I've been torn in a thousand different directions. Thankfully, WoWHead has a great explainer which I'll summarise here.

When enough people bite it in Ashenvale, two faction leader bosses will spawn. They're buffed by three lieutenants who (in theory) should be killed before players tackle the boss. The faction who kills the enemy boss first wins the event, earning faction rep and items in the process.

The issue? Get a big enough raid, and these bosses melt in minutes. Seconds, in some cases.

Like slime mould finding the most efficient route through a maze, SoD players have started ignoring the lieutenants entirely, opting to swarm the boss itself right when it spawns. Here's a post from the Blizzard forums where one player claims that the Horde on the Crusader Strike server can down their boss in under two minutes: "I timed it."

A post that reads: Yeah totally, we were off the mark on several things with ashenvale and we are both working on some adjustments now and taking the lessons forward for future events. — (Image credit: @AggrendWoW on Twitter/X.)

Just under 12 hours later, Greenfield posted a follow-up. "An adjustment is coming for the Ashenvale PvP event very soon. Let's just say it might not be advisable any longer to zerg the faction leaders as the event is starting." What this means, it's hard to say—though I can imagine these roving warbands of boss-killers are in for a nasty surprise when it happens.

Greenfield also notes there'll be more changes to come, including adjustments to graveyard locations, rep rewards, plus how frequently the event will spawn. The transparency's refreshing, but considering the experimental nature of SoD I figure it's warranted. The entire selling point of SoD is that these changes are weird, funky, alternate-universe takes on a beloved game—and when you're mixing expired back-of-the-cupboard chemicals, things'll explode sometimes.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.