WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2 features Gnomeregan as the new 10-player raid with re-vamped mechanics and more!

World of Warcraft Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2 is now live, opening the way for players to level their characters to the new cap of 40. Those who reach the level 40 cap can immediately jump into the new level-up raid, Gnomeregan, re-designed as a 10-player raid experience where the five old bosses have returned with new mechanics while a new sixth boss has been added. Players will also need to navigate through new environmental mechanics on their way to new level 40 gear, new class sets, and a new world buff.

To help players with unlucky drops, Gnomeregan will have tokens you can turn in to an unknown vendor to get missing pieces. There’s also a new profession questline in the raid that will unlock the ability to craft some of the twenty new recipes added in Phase 2. Everyone will be able to tackle Gnomeregan as soon as they hit the level 40 requirement but to maintain a level of parity between all, there will be lockout rules for the first two weeks. This means once players complete the dungeon, they will be locked out until the next weekly reset, scheduled for the weeks of February 13 and February 20, before lockouts lift altogether the week of February 27.

During the Phase 2 preview, the WoW Classic team dropped some hints about the changes made to Grubbis, Crowd Pummeler 9-60, and Mekgineer Thermaplugg but it wasn’t long after Phase 2 went live before Gnomeregan was cleared. Now we know about the new mechanics and the new bosses, so if you’re planning on diving in yourself here is what you need to know about how to defeat them!

Grubbis

Classic mechanics: Grubbis and its pet basilisk, Chomper, emerge from one of the tunnels that Blastmaster Emi Shortfuse tries to demolish. Players need to protect Emi Shortfuse while she closes the tunnel by managing the waves of troggs, staying out of tunnels before they collapse, and killing Grubbis and Chomper.

Updated mechanics: New radiation vents are positioned on different walls in the arena above the enemy spawn points. They’ll occasionally activate and spew a cloud of dark green radiation which causes damage players standing near them. There are also bright green balls of energy that spawn occasionally and move slowly. Adds can be kited towards these green balls and they’ll explode. Around 20% health, Grubbis will enrage.

Viscous Fallout

Classic mechanics: This is a relatively simple fight. Viscous Fallout occasionally hits players with Toxic Volley, but otherwise, the focus is burning its health down.

Updated mechanics:

• It looks like radiation clouds pump into the arena during the fight, limiting the safe areas you can be in.
• Viscous Fallout will periodically spawn Irradiated Goo that will move towards the corpses of Desiccated Fallout and revive them — destroy the Goo before it revives an enemy or destroy that enemy once it does revive. Moving Viscous Fallout away from crowds of corpses and away from radiation clouds helps manage the Goo.

Electrocutioner 6000

Classic mechanics: Like Viscous Fallout, the Electrocutioner 6000 doesn’t really have complicated mechanics but does have a chain lightning attack.

Updated mechanics: Electrocutioner 6000 will periodically hit the furthest player from it with two debuffs — Static Arc, which causes damage and jumps to different players and increasing the amount of damage they take from Static Arc, and Negative Charge, which buffs other allies who are also negatively charged but damages those aren’t. You need to manage your proximity to others when you have any of these applied to you to buff or mitigate damage for your allies accordingly.

Crowd Pummeler 9-60

Classic mechanics: Avoid being smacked off the ledge by Crowd Pummeler 9-60.

Updated mechanics: Crowd Pummeler 9-60 is in a new area on a raised platform with 6 bleachers full of spectators on it. At the start of the fight, Walking Bombs block the way out so you have to stay on the platform. First, gears will spawn and begin spinning on the platform, moving slowly around. Touching these gears knocks you around and could knock you off to your death. As the fight goes on, more gears spawn at the same time. Second, Crowd Pummler will still do it’s best to knock you off with a frontal blast attack but it has added The Claw attack which will cause it to charge forward in a spinning motion, causing damage and sending you flying.

Mechanical Menagerie

Mechanics: The Mechanical Menagerie are a group of mechanical animals that each have a special ability and are located in the last boss arena. The sheep rotates between an area explosion and silence attack, the whelpling does a cone of fire attack, the chicken gives the others a 50% attack speed buff, and it looks like the squirrel throws explosives. All need to be killed at roughly the same time or else they will revive themselves with roughly 30% hp.

Mekgineer Thermaplugg

Classic mechanics: While fighting Mekgineer Thermaplugg, prevent the creation of Walking Bombs that attack your party by pressing a button on each of the six bomb dispensers. Alternatively, kill the bombs when they’re created before they kill you.

Updated mechanics: After defeating the Mechanical Menagerie, Thermaplugg spawns and begins the fight immediately. He implements his own House Party protocol, adding new mechanized suits that join the battle. Each suit has an elemental type (poison, frost, and fire) that players need to burn down while continuing to handle the bombs, which now have the element type corresponding to the suit on the field. Periodically, Thermaplugg will cast Toxic Ventilation which needs to be interrupted to prevent a group wipe.

Originally published on February 7, 2024. Updated on February 9, 2024.