After the exciting Phase 4, World of Warcraft Season of Discovery will usher in its Phase 5 on September 26. Although compared with the previous Phases, Phase 5 seems to lack some of the content that players are accustomed to-Level Cap and leveling zones, other aspects will bring players a completely different experience.

In WOW SOD Phase 5, you will experience improved raids and equipment, PVP battlefields with better experience, and quality-of-life updates that player’s value most. This guide will introduce these changes to you so that you can be prepared for the official exploration.

Two New Raids

If you think that the bosses in the first few stages of WOW Classic SOD are very simple and no longer match your strength, then the new redesigned Raids in Phase 5-Blackwing Lair and Zul’Gurub will make you more excited.

The loot lists in these two Raids have been completely revamped, with more gear and items that are more suitable for Season of Discovery, and SOD Gold will be much more than before.

In addition, many bosses have been re-equipped, and you may have to develop some new strategies and combat techniques for them in Phase 5. For example, Blackwing Lair will adopt the same Difficulty system as Molten Core’s Heat system, which brings you more combat challenges.

In Zul’Gurub, Hakkar boss fight has also been redesigned with a new encounter mechanism, in which you can choose the boss you want to challenge in Edge of Madness portion of Raid. This may seem to add a lot of challenges for you, but in fact, the combat experience you gain from it is very worthwhile.

In the player community, many players are looking forward to WOW SOD adding some new 5-man dungeons in this phase. Although it is not known whether this proposal will be adopted at present, we can look forward to it.

New World Boss: Thunderaan

You may have already fought two World Bosses in Phase 4, Azuregos in Azshara and Lord Kazzak in Blasted Lands, and in Phase 5 they will both be in new dungeon areas in their original locations, and you can fight them again. In addition, there is a new World Boss added to the mix, called Prince Thunderaan.

Unlike the previous two World Bosses, you do not need to complete Thunderfury questline in this phase to fight Prince Thunderaan directly, which greatly improves your convenience and makes it easier for you to get his loot and SOD Gold.

Speaking of loot, Prince Thunderaan will drop the equipment that each Class needs before BiS, and there is even a SOD version of Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, which has been greatly improved.

In addition, the standard number of players for this battle is 20, but you can lead up to 40 players to fight this new World Boss. My advice here is to go with a larger group, the better. There is strength in numbers and you will have an easier time against bosses.

New Runes And Easier Ways To Get Them

In the tradition of WoW Classic SOD, each new phase will provide a new set of runes for each class to try, such as the addition of Ring Runes that provide specialization bonuses for characters and builds in Phase 4. So what will you get in Phase 5?

From the information leaked so far, Phase 5 will add more useful Runes that can be used by multiple classes, so that you don’t have to rush when switching between multiple classes and save a lot of time to change Runes. In addition, you can also get more Runes in the endgame content of Phase 5.

At present, we know that there are two new Ring Runes for healing - one increases mana regeneration and the other increases the amount of healing output. In addition, some runes will be swapped to new equipment slots, which will make it easier for you to enhance your build. But these are just speculations, and the specific Runes usage and properties will have to wait for the official release of Phase 5.

Another new change to Runes is the currency. In Phase 5, you will first receive Rune tokens from Booty Bay SOD gear vendor Rix Xizzix, which are bound to your account. You will then need to give them to new vendors in the two capital cities to obtain rarer runes.

These rare runes include runes obtained from Dark Rider Questline and Wild Gods vendor, as well as Ley Lines Runes. This new mechanic will be very useful for both new players who are just beginning to explore WoW SOD and veteran players who have explored several stages, making these rare runes easier to obtain.

The above are some changes in WoW Season of Discovery Phase 5. I hope you will be satisfied with the changes brought to you by the developers in the official version of September 26. If you have questions about Phase 5, you are welcome to ask in IGGM Discord, where many players will be looking forward to it with you. You will also have the opportunity to win some Gold in it. I wish you a happy game!