Blizzard confirms WoW Season of Discovery megaservers and PvP faction balancing

Blizzard has shared that at least two highly requested features have been confirmed for Season of Discovery in news that will undoubtedly be encouraging to the World of Warcraft community.

Earlier this week, Dexerto reported on large sections of the WoW Classic player base calling for faction balancing on PvP servers in Season of Discovery. The exact details of how this would work were up for debate, but many wanted to see a concerted effort from Blizzard to prevent huge imbalances like those seen in the original Classic.

With the game set to release on November 30, it seemed unlikely that those wishes would be granted in the limited time left. Now, an update from Blizzard has confirmed not only that but also a mega server system similar to the lauded launch of Classic Hardcore.

Season of Discovery will launch with fewer servers than original Classic

Blizzard Entertainment

Senior Game Producer Tom Ellis shared several exciting updates with expectant fans in a post on the official Blizzard Forums.

Ellis details the technology behind the launch of Classic Hardcore, explaining breakthroughs in Patch 1.14.4 enabled servers to host far more players than they could previously.

The dev then went on to detail how they are applying these lessons to Season of Discovery, saying: “For Season of Discovery, we’re going to repeat this process. We will launch a handful of realms that can support a lot of players, so you can feel confident in your choice of realm.”

Additionally, Ellis did want to clarify that this doesn’t mean the dreaded issue of significant queues at launch would be entirely alleviated, saying: “We will actively manage the realm sizes at launch, so you might see sporadic queues as the populations spread out and we ensure realm sizes remain roughly equal. If Season of Discovery proves hugely popular (as we think it might!), we will of course be ready with additional realms if needed.”

However, the good news did not stop there, with the developer confirming that balancing will be actively pursued on PvP servers. Ellis stated: “This Season’s PvP realms have been designed to maintain faction balance as they grow. However… if one faction is significantly more dominant on a PvP realm, there is a very real likelihood that faction selection may be temporarily limited on that realm.”

There is little doubt that all of the above will be seen as hugely encouraging by the Classic WoW community. With the Season of Discovery imminent, fans won’t have long to wait to see how successful Blizzard has been in their endeavors.