World Of Warcraft Classic Phase Two Launches Later This Year, Layering To Be Removed In All Realms

World of Warcraft Classic, or have yet to clear the Molten Core and Onyxia end-game raids, then you better get a move on because Phase 2 is coming sooner than you think. In an interview with PCGamer, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas revealed that Phase 2 will be launching later this year.

Phase 2 will feature the Dire Maul instance, Azuregos and Kazzak, along with the PvP Rank Rewards and Honor System, and the space-saving Keyring bag slot. Phase 2 will also mark the removal of layering in all realms. While layering was extremely useful in helping accommodate the massive influx of players at launch, it was never meant to be a long-term feature. In fact, the populations in most servers have decreased enough to allow layering to be permanently removed.

“[. . .] With some of the natural attrition that we've seen, we would've had a number of servers right now that are underpopulated,” says Hazzikostas. “Instead we had servers that were, due to layering, effectively massively overpopulated even with queues, during the first couple of weeks, that have now stabilized at large, healthy populations that can endure for the months and years to come.”

According to Hazzikostas, layering would also make it easier for players to repeatedly farm world bosses like Kazzak and Azuregos which is also one of the reasons why it has to go. “When Kazzak is up, we only want one Kazzak,” he says. "That's kind of a central dynamic of how that needs to play out in the outdoor world.”