WoW devs confirm Season of Discovery raid lockouts for Phase 4

Season of Discovery was widely seen as World of Warcraft‘s first attempt at Classic+, and the mode is about to enter its conclusion in Phase 4. As part of that, several raids come into play, and the developer behind the game has now confirmed how often they can be farmed for loot.

Though the general setup of the raids should be fairly familiar for Classic players, there are several key changes in the Season of Discovery versions. Specifically, Onyxia’s Lair and Molten Core are being described as raid dungeons, with the latter aimed at 20-man groups with ten separate boss encounters.

For the first time, players will also have access to a variable difficulty modifier, with the loot quality increasing along with the challenge. With so many changes already, players were unsure if the weekly raid lockout would be decreased, but that is not the case, for Molten Core at least.

In a blue post on the official World of Warcraft website, senior game producer Josh Greenfield confirmed that Molten Core would be on a weekly lockout in Season of Discovery. Lord Kazzak, Azuregos, and Onyxia will all be on a twice-weekly lockout, as single encounter instances and world bosses.

For Onyxia, this isn’t a huge departure from the formula in normal Classic WoW, with the lockout for that being five days. According to Greenfield, the decision was taken after extensive feedback from the community and was likely made to prevent players from farming large volumes of loot from the extensive Molten Core instance.

With a ton of other additions outside of raiding, Season of Discovery Phase 4 is looking like a return to form after a bit of a lull in Phase 3. With new runes, dungeons, currencies, and rewards, it’s the most extensive offering yet.

Season of Discovery Phase 4 is set to release on July 11, with servers live at 1pm PDT. There is currently no end date set for the mode.