- Author: OrinDac
- Date: October 3, 2019
- Updated: October 7, 2020
- Expansion: WoW Classic
In an interview with PC Gamer, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas gave some input on what was forthcoming for World of Warcraft Classic in the months to come.
With all all of the awesome content for Classic that came out between launch and The Burning Crusade being available to players in six main phases, hardcore players – who have largely already completed the current end game content – are itching to know when these dungeons, raids and so forth will be arriving. Hazzikostas says that the wait won’t be long at all, as the plan is to bring Phase 2 to fruition by the end of the year.
While the Game Director was very enthusiastic, he did say that when within the rest of 2019 it would be released will depend heavily on a number of factors. Not the least of which being the ever present Layering situation, which is apparently one of the biggest hurdles to the next phase. As most players already know, the servers were highly overpopulated at launch and are still bursting with players now. The solution of layering brought relief in the form of multiple copies of a server being used to spread players out over a number of different layers on one server. This helped to stabilize populations, but it also creates a few problems in the long term, which is why Blizzard has been working so hard to get all servers down to a single layer.
One of these problems has to do with World Bosses which, according to Hazzikostas, will be a major feature of Phase 2. Roaming World Bosses like Azuregos and Kazzak are supposed to be one of a kind on a given server, or realm, but with layering active, there would be multiple copies of them running around and nobody wants 2 Kazzaks. It also makes it a lot easier to simply farm these, supposedly, one of a kind bosses for loot and diminishes them to being just another mob. A really difficult to KILL mob, but still. The Game Director stated that they only want one World Boss up at a time in the Outdoor World.
The good news is that Blizzard is still hard at work on dismantling layering, which should not only solve the World Boss problem, but also increase the visible world population to players. Since layering was implemented, the game world in general, but especially capitol cities have felt deserted and lonely, with only a few players being visible to one another on the same layer. Once layering is completely dismantled, Stormwind and Orgrimmar will once again feel like the busy centers of commerce that they are.
World Bosses aren’t the only thing for players to look forward to, either. Another great feature coming with Phase 2 is the massive Feralas Dungeon Dire Maul which, from this writer’s perspective, should probably just be spelled out in its entirety, instead of abbreviated at all. Just so there’s no confusion. It’s not like it’s that hard to type anyway. Also with the next phase will come the Honor system, which offers player’s who aren’t yet max level or kitted out something interesting to do.
The news of Phase 2’s imminent arrival is great news indeed and will have more than one level 60 L33t foaming at the mouth for more giant demons to slaughter.
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