The Luck of the Draw!

Season 3’s Wild Overview

Heroes!

Get ready to roll the dice and trust in Lady Luck: Season 3 is almost here, and it’s going to be Wild! Today, we’re bringing you up to speed with everything you need to dive into Ascension’s next season. If you’d rather catch up with this info in video format, be sure to check out our Season 3 Overview video. If you’re more of a reader-sort-of-folk, then this article is just what you need.

Season 3 Features:

1. Wildcard Realm
2. Hybrid-Risk System
3. Scourge Invasion Throughout the Season
4. New Achievements, World Firsts, and Seasonal Rewards

Wildcard Mode

Get ready to put your skills of adaptation to the test, heroes: Season 3 is a Wildcard season. Roll the dice and gamble with fate as you pick up each and every one of your Hero’s skills entirely at random.

Each time your hero has 2 Ability Essences, they’ll pick a card (any card) and be randomly assigned an ability from all currently available spells (you won’t be able to grab a spell higher than your current level). Once they have it, it’s theirs forever. The challenge players face here is seeing just how powerful they can make their random hero, crushing foes with a chaotic assortment of skills, and choosing talents that best suit the abilities they’ve been assigned (players will still be able to assign talents). It’ll be up to you to take a hard look at your hero, and decide what direction is best to take them.

Hybrid Risk System

For the first time on Ascension, both High Risk and No Risk players will be able to play with each other on the same realm! Introducing the Hybrid Risk System!

The Hybrid Risk system is a brand new mechanic that will allow players to choose whether they want to play with High Risk or No Risk rulesets. At level 20, each player will decide which life they want to lead: High Risk or No Risk. Once they make a selection, they’ll be placed in that style’s ‘Phase’. While out in the open world, questing or slaying monsters, players will only be able to see others who have selected the same phase. If you chose High-Risk, you’ll only see other High-Risk players. Similarly, if you chose No-Risk, you’ll only see other No-Risk players. Additionally, players in their phase will recieve all of the benefits that phase has to offer: High Risk players get more EXP and bonus loot from World Monsters, and No Risk players can safely explore the world without fear of a ganker stealing their gear.

That said, many players on one risk style enjoy occasionally jumping into the other. Players on No Risk might want to try their luck at High Risk, and High Risk players might feel the need to duck into the safety of No Risk on occasion.

With the Hybrid Risk system, players will be able to swap between No Risk and High Risk phases at their leisure!

In major cities, players can find an NPC that can swap their phase, allowing High Risk players to take a breather in No Risk, and No Risk players to dip their toes into High Risk. Essentially, players now have the choice, at all times, of which type of realm they want to play on.  

In Season 3, High Risk and No Risk phases only apply to players in the open world.Cities, Battlegrounds, Dungeons, Raids, Guilds, etc will all be activities that all players can engage in, regardless of what phase they happen to be in. If three high risk players want to run a dungeon with two no-risk players, they can, although the two groups will be unable to interact or even see each other until they phase into the dungeon. Additionally, Battlegrounds will be a place where everyone can test their PvP mastery regardless of phase (for a visual representation of Phasing, check out the Seasonal Overview Video at 4:47)

Finally, players will be able to enjoy FFA PvP and the Karma System, as well as Non-Soulbound items, regardless of which phase they happen to be playing in.

The Scourge Invasion

The Scourge Invasion is an exciting, temporary in-game event leading up to the release of our final vanilla raid, Naxxramas. Like the Silithid Invasion before it, it’s been completely customized on Ascension. The event will be running throughout Season 3, so be sure to look to the sky and push back the Scourge!

Here’s how the event works:

Every so often, Kel’thuzad will send out a Necropolis to plague a certain zone, spawning dozens of undead zombies, skeletons, and necromancers to terrorize the area. As heroes from around the world combat this evil, the Necrotic Crystal summoning the undead will weaken, becoming vulnerable after enough undead have been destroyed. Once vulnerable, a Scourge Commander will spawn--a big boss baddie that will take a larger group to slay. If the boss is slain, the Necropolis is destroyed, returning peace to the area. Players who contribute are awarded a Scavenger’s Crate based on their contribution, containing all manner of fantastic gear..

The more you damage undead while the Necropolis looms, the higher your Hero’s contribution score. Make sure to deal a lot of damage, and heal a lot of allies, to achieve a high score, and get the best rewards!

New Achievements and Seasonal Rewards

To wrap up, Season 3 is bringing a slew of brand new Achievements and World Firsts that heroes can attempt to obtain when the realm goes live on April 12th! We’re also adding two new quest types to the Hero’s Call and Warchief’s Command boards so that players have all sorts of ways to power themselves up.

As with Season 2, many of our new World First achievements are hidden or difficult, and when a player accomplishes them, they’ll be given a shout out in chat as a reward. Completing these achievements is a great way to gain fame on Seasonal Realms, and if you haven’t tackled the Achievement System in past seasons, this is a great one to start on.

Additionally, Season 3 will feature brand new cosmetic items that players can get ahold of with Seasonal Points themed around the Scourge Invasion. New pets, a new mount, and tons of creepy toys will be yours to collect.
That’s it for the Season 3 Overview! We hope you’re excited to roll the dice, and see what type of hero you’ll be playing Season 3 launches April 12th, so start getting your builds ready--April Fools, you have no idea what you’ll be playing.