Season 4 speculation

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April 3, 2023
thundersquat

Season 4 speculation

I get people's frustration with the lack of info regarding Frostmourne Season 4, although at the same time it's a bit interesting to do some detective work / speculation on what may be happening next. In the past, Frostmourne resets followed a similar pattern, ie:

March 29 2020: Season 1 announced, launches on April 15th
March 26 2021: Season 2 announced, launches on April 15th
March 26 2022: Season 3 announced, launches on April 15th

This year, as of April 2nd, we've received:

March 29 2023: Vanilla>tbc>wotlk realm announced

Which was accompanied by:

"Many of you have been wondering about the news about our next Frostmourne season or what is next in store for Warmane in the future. Well, there is no need to wonder any further.."

Which seemed to imply that there would not be news about the "next Frostmourne season", ie "no need to wonder about it further" - that this vanilla>tbc>wotlk realm would replace the year long, tier 7-10 experience that we had in Frostmourne seasons 1-3

However, we then got somewhat contradictory (though reassuring) clarification along the lines of:

"It'll be separate from Frostmourne. Details on this and Frostmourne are to come in the near future." [from discord]
"This is a realm unrelated to Frostmourne, details and information about what we will do with Frostmourne may come at a later date"

Along with:

"With its seasonal model, we feel quite free to experiment and we might offer a shorter new season but with differences in gameplay. Stay tuned!"

And, hidden (using black text) at the end of Proterean's message:

"(hardcore Frostmourne?)"

Just wondering what other players' interpretations/speculations are so far. Any other bits of mod/admin messages that have hinted at things? For those who played Season 3, did you find it less popular/populated compared to other seasons, such that they might feel the need to scrap Frostmourne or alter it to be quite different from Seasons 1-3?
April 3, 2023
LezChap1

A few days ago some people on the Unofficial Discord have pointed out that when Proterean announced Phase 4 release of Frostmourne (ICC's raid tier), he mentioned it would run for four months.

Most people didn't give it much mind at the time...but looking back, most phases were historically 3 months long, and 4 months would put it ending in May (instead of the middle of April as has been historically the case).

No official word (Beside that phase 4 announcement back in January(?)) on whether this speculation is accurate.
April 3, 2023
rycia

I hope it's not the case, the server is dead atm and most people want to transfer already, waiting for 15 may would simply make it even less populated than frostwol
April 3, 2023
PorkBacon

Ikr 2 weeks for 7x kekekekek, it takes 2-3 days at most if you play a few hours each day.

Also, no epics before raid isnt that huge of a deal. Except when you deal with patchwerk and that's about it.
April 3, 2023
thundersquat

Quote:

Originally Posted by LezChap1

A few days ago some people on the Unofficial Discord have pointed out that when Proterean announced Phase 4 release of Frostmourne (ICC's raid tier), he mentioned it would run for four months.

Most people didn't give it much mind at the time...but looking back, most phases were historically 3 months long, and 4 months would put it ending in May (instead of the middle of April as has been historically the case).

No official word (Beside that phase 4 announcement back in January(?)) on whether this speculation is accurate.

I get the logic behind the 4 months thing (4 months from Jan 5th meaning a fresh launch of May 5)

However, from Frostmourne season 1 we saw transition to the last phase on Jan 2nd, and they also said it would be 4 months long. However, they still ended up launching the next season on April 15th

So I don't really see the timing/duration of Season 3's ICC tier as a reason to assume we wouldn't have an April 15th fresh launch
April 3, 2023
LezChap1

Quote:

Originally Posted by thundersquat

I get the logic behind the 4 months thing (4 months from Jan 5th meaning a fresh launch of May 5)

However, from Frostmourne season 1 we saw transition to the last phase on Jan 2nd, and they also said it would be 4 months long. However, they still ended up launching the next season on April 15th

So I don't really see the timing/duration of Season 3's ICC tier as a reason to assume we wouldn't have an April 15th fresh launch

The bottom line is we generally expected the S4 announcement to be made by this point, based on that same past of official actions...so either it's late and we're going to get less notice than we have in the past, or the season is going to last a little longer than it has in the past. Until we get something official, all we can do is speculate idly.
April 3, 2023
Midde

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grinmash

2 weeks off for leveling on x7 ? o_O

Well if anything I hope they really do implement a hardcore Frostmourne S4 with no epics before raids etc.

i never said we need two weeks for lvling.
we just need it to start at 15th, so we can play a lot more, than normal.
April 3, 2023
CutterWizz

Quote:

Originally Posted by thundersquat

For those who played Season 3, did you find it less popular/populated compared to other seasons

It was crowded as hell during the first phase. You could find a pug raid to Naxx/Sarth/Maly in a matter of minutes playing any class. Once Ulduar got released, almost at the same time with wotlk classic anouncement, it slowly started losing people. Players were leaving on every day basis, guilds has started collapsing etc.

As stupid as it may sound, but im actually speculating on Ulduar [NM] nerfs. I would even say that i want them, for the sake of their own good. If you haven't found a guild by the end of 1st phase, you are in deep troubles brother. Pug raids never make it past Razorscale and Kologarn and let's not pretend that they do (Inb4 "I WAS IN A PUG RAID AND WE KILLED YOGG 0 KEEPERS") Looking bad at 2nd phase, in retrospective i was lucky to end up in a guild that was doing at least some of the hardmodes. Nothing crazy, but at least i was playing Ulduar LOL. How many doesn't? A lot, trust me. I would like to see them not tuning up Ulduar at all, except the hardmodes.

My predictions:

Release date April 5th (don't quote me on that :D)

1. PvE realm (PvE realm type found a great success and feedback from community. Keeping it PvE is way2go. Great job on that one)
2. Working raid browser feature due to February 2023 changelog
3. Hardcore mode with some small rewards for making it to level 80 (I hope no permadeath at hight level)
4. Vanilla timewalking due to future progressive realm release.
5. Crossfaction guilds
April 6, 2023
Trolltotem19

Quote:

Originally Posted by CutterWizz

As stupid as it may sound, but im actually speculating on Ulduar [NM] nerfs. I would even say that i want them, for the sake of their own good. If you haven't found a guild by the end of 1st phase, you are in deep troubles brother. Pug raids never make it past Razorscale and Kologarn and let's not pretend that they do (Inb4 "I WAS IN A PUG RAID AND WE KILLED YOGG 0 KEEPERS") Looking bad at 2nd phase, in retrospective i was lucky to end up in a guild that was doing at least some of the hardmodes. Nothing crazy, but at least i was playing Ulduar LOL. How many doesn't? A lot, trust me. I would like to see them not tuning up Ulduar at all, except the hardmodes.

I play FM S3 from the Naxx release, and we created a Pug Guild, where it was like 4-5 regular people who we raided with and then 20 people we took from pug from globa..
And we successfully cleared 25m's naxx, OS and EOE weekly.
In Ulduar 25 as a PUG RAID we always cleared upto vezax, and 3x we cleared incl vezax and yogg, with adding 2-4 Hms around.
On TOC season, we cleared TOC25 every week twice, under hour and progressed as pug to TOGC25 4/5, then 5/5 and once we acheived Insanity. Once icc been release, still same 5guild +20 random pugs we cleared 8/12 on first week, and progressed to LK, with 15% onwards it was jsut 7-8HC farm, now we do it under 2hrs, with RS25 following in 40 minutes.

all above are 25mans and raids last maximum of 4 hrs (total in a week) as we have busy work and family schedules. so we skipped almost all 10mans.

so again, pug runs are good, you meet some good raiders, and some monkeys.... same as in guilds :D

so dont tell pug raids are bad, I've seen guilds who were failing on kologarn, and we killed upt mimiron on first week. it is all matter of right setup, right people and right leadership.