WoW Classic Season of Discovery phase 3 is live—with a raised cap of level 50, 54 new runes, a fresh 20-player raid, and an unruly Emerald Dream

A night elf faces off against a satyr and a felhunter in World of Warcraft Season of Discovery Phase 3.
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

WoW Classic's Season of Discovery has been a chaotic, but overall impressive experiment, all told. While it's had its speed bumps when it comes to grappling with older server tech and designing its world PvP, it's also got that harebrained vibe usually reserved for private servers and the like. Tanking rogues, healing mages—spaghetti is meeting the wall at an unprecedented pace.

In case you're unfamiliar, Season of Discovery takes the framework of Classic WoW and throws in a bunch of spice to shake things up, delivering its content in phases that are more akin to the seasons of Diablo 4.

Each season, the level band gets a little higher and more runes—gear modifiers you have to do certain quests or tasks to unlock—are added. Each class will be getting six or more runes this time around, which is around 54 new flavours of weird total.

For this phase, the Sunken Temple has been chosen to be elevated into a 20-player raid. As shown earlier in the month, it also comes with bespoke loot unique to Season of Discovery, such as an axe that's also a gun. A gun axe, if you will.

Since the Sunken Temple has lore links to the Green Dragonflight, the Emerald Dream is also fittingly on the fritz. Nightmare Incursions make use of the portals to the Dream scattered across WoW Classic—which allow players to venture inside, fighting in a "realm seeping with corruption and overrun with dragons, treants, and other poor souls driven mad".

The neat part? These incursions are available to players from levels 25 to 50, meaning they can be used to level up as well. As is Classic tradition, there's also a rep grind involved. The Emerald Wardens faction will bestow upon you trinkets and armour with enough bonuses to keep the WoW forums arguing for a while. They'll grant you one of your class runes, so you'd best start dreaming big.

As promised back in February, Season 3 also has an improved Discoverer's Delight, giving players from levels 1 to 39 a 100% XP boost, and players from 40 to 49 a 50% XP buff—which all makes sense. Season of Discovery's inherently less concerned with the long road to 60 of Vanilla WoW yore. If you'd prefer to go slow and steady, though, you can turn it off at an inn.

Phase 3 is live, so you can go and slay some imagined dragons right now, if you'd like. To access Season of Discovery, you'll need an active subscription on a World of Warcraft account. Download Classic via the Battle.net app, make a character on the Season of Discovery realms, and you're good to go.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

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.

Read more
World of Warcraft's most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough
World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots
Dragonflight got WoW back on its feet, now we get to see if Blizzard can make the Worldsoul Saga run
World of Warcraft Mythic Plus screenshot
World of Warcraft's competitive dungeon mode is struggling
World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots
Delves have given WoW's devs the confidence to put mandatory grinds firmly in the rear-view, says game director Ion Hazzikostas
Plunderstorm screenshot
WoW's Plunderstorm battle royale mode is much more popular the second time around: 'I can just play and screw around'
Two goblins go for a joyride via the D.R.I.V.E system in World of Warcraft: The War Within.
WoW next big patch, Undermine(d), gets a release date, starting the countdown clock until my gaming time is entirely consumed with doing donuts in my new ride
Latest in World of Warcraft
Three goblins from the goblin cartels smile confidently in WoW: The War Within's Undermine(d) patch.
WoW's new Undermine(d) patch had a live jazz ensemble recording its big-band bangers, and they got to improvise: 'Usually those were the takes that ended up in the final version'
Two goblins go for a joyride via the D.R.I.V.E system in World of Warcraft: The War Within.
WoW's new DRIVE system probably won't be used outside of its GTA-style goblin zone, but devs are 'going to think about' recycling its parts elsewhere
World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots
Delves have given WoW's devs the confidence to put mandatory grinds firmly in the rear-view, says game director Ion Hazzikostas
A goblin stands proudly in front of her terrifying-looking machine of death in Undermine(d), the upcoming patch for World of Warcraft.
WoW promising 3 expansions with a bunch of roadmap deadlines has, paradoxically, helped its devs slow down and take their time: 'The team is really energized'
Two goblins go for a joyride via the D.R.I.V.E system in World of Warcraft: The War Within.
WoW next big patch, Undermine(d), gets a release date, starting the countdown clock until my gaming time is entirely consumed with doing donuts in my new ride
Bobby Kotick in 2008, after the Vivendi merger that made Activision into Activision Blizzard.
Bobby Kotick says he'd never have raised World of Warcraft's subscription by even a dollar because 'it's a prickly audience, you don't wanna do too much to agitate them'
Latest in News
Pedro Pascal as Joel in a coat in winter looking unhappy
'Don't you know what he did?': The truth comes out in The Last of Us Season 2 trailer
Aloy
'Creepy,' 'ghastly,' 'rancid': Viewers react to leaked video of Sony's AI-powered Aloy
Split Fiction trailer still - Zoe and Mio standing side by side, wearing glowing neon sci-fi jammies
Split Fiction sells 1 million copies over 2 days
A soldier looks out over the Verdansk map, as a single tear rolls down his cheek.
The original Verdansk map is returning to Call of Duty: Warzone, to celebrate which we get a soldier crying to Nat King Cole
More than 5 years after launch, Control gets a surprise patch that lets everyone play the Hideo Kojima mission
Swen Vincke
Swen Vincke stamps seal of approval on Stardew Valley mod that yoinks the Baldur's Gate 3 cast out of D&D and into a cosy pastoral life