WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 3 has been active for nearly 6 weeks now, accompanied by 6 resets of Sunken Temple, bringing us closer to reveal the Phase 4. As the upcoming Phase 4 promises an array of rewards, fresh profession recipes, elevated PvP ranks, and other exciting additions, now is a great time to start laying the foundation.

Gain Reputations

Firstly, let's focus on reputations. In Phase 4, there are several reputations worth grinding, but the PvP faction reputations with Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin stand out. If you haven't reached Exalted yet, it's advisable to work towards maxing out these reputations.

Warsong Gulch will continue to offer and upgrade current epic braces available for levels 40-50, extending into Level 60. These braces, particularly the plate versions, have historically remained powerful, often considered BiS even in later content phases like Ahn'Qiraj.

Additionally, at Level 60, players will gain access to epic leggings, with some armor types proving notably stronger than others. Even if new itemization emerges early in Level 60 that surpasses these rewards, there will still be an immediate power boost compared to current gear.

Arathi Basin will also provide compelling rewards at Level 60. Each armor type will have a three-piece set available, offering a decent upgrade. Casters, in particular, will benefit from access to potent spell power weapons, such as the spell power dagger, which rivals the Azuresong Mageblade dropped in Molten Core.

Onyxia Attunement Chain

The Onyxia Attunement quest chain is notable for its length, offering access to the Onyxia'a Lair upon completion. Alliance players initiate this achievement in Burning Steppes with the quest 'Dragonkin Menace', which leads to subsequent quests culminating in 'A Shred of Hope'.

However, progression halts here as further advancement requires quest items from defeating the General Angerforge and Golem Lord Argelmach in Blackrock Depths - currently unavailable because of their revelry in the Grim Guzzler. Unfortunately, Horde players cannot commence this achievement yet, necessitating patience until the next phase.

Farm Demonic Runes

For mana players, acquiring Demonic Runes should be a priority. While you might currently feel that mana isn't a concern, recent statements have highlighted the importance of managing mana as a crucial gameplay element. This implies that mana will once again become a valuable and finite resource in Phase 4, especially considering that raid encounters are likely to be lengthier.

Given this context, stockpiling Demonic Runes is advisable. Unlike other mana potions, Demonic Runes do not share a cooldown, making them a versatile resource. Although they share a cooldown with Mage mana gems, they can still prove useful for Mages during prolonged fights.

Profession Planning

The next thing you could be preparing is professions. While we currently cannot get many of the high-level recipes that drop from certain dungeons or raids, we can always be prepared by having our professions at the max level of 300 ready for Phase 4. With this, the chances are that any new craftable from your selected profession will probably require 300 to learn and craft.

If your profession is already at Level 300, you should instead be aiming to gather some materials for certain crafts. Some crafts have always historically proven to be very powerful and would be extremely hard to replace, even with new itemization. A great example of this would be the Lionheart Helm from Blacksmithing.

Some materials you could gather right now or even get from the auction house with your WoW SOD Gold while the prices are cheaper could be materials such as Arcanite Bar, Blue Sapphire, Azerothian Diamond, Wicked Claw, Mooncloth, various different Essences, and Golden Pearls.

There will be many more materials you could also aim to grab early, so I'd highly suggest looking into what you'd be able to craft in the coming phase and plan accordingly to your profession.

Get Honor Tokens

Preparing honor tokens for PvP advancement can be a wise move as you progress to higher levels. In the Blood Moon Stranglethorn Vale PvP event, you have the opportunity to accumulate these tokens, stacking them in anticipation of the upcoming WoW SOD Phase 4.

However, it’s essential to note that this event has undergone significant adjustments, particularly in terms of the tokens acquisition. Unlike before, where you could stack up to 250 Copper Blood Coins, now you can only stack up to 99 commendations, each costing 1 Silver Blood Coin.

Despite the nerf, accumulating these tokens remains beneficial. A boost of 25,000 honor can significantly aid your progression. Additionally, since the specifics of PvP rewards for the upcoming phase remain uncertain, having a head start in accumulating honor ensures readiness for any new rewards introduced.

As we all know, the quality of life features in Vanilla Classic have been criticized for a long time. Even though there are some changes in Season of Discovery, features like a full UI that displays statistics and locating mission objectives are still lacking.

However, the existence of addons greatly improves the player’s gaming experience, and choosing the best SOD addons can often make players feel that the season is more meaningful and easier to understand.

Currently, addons have a variety of functions, whether you want to improve the mission experience, automate repairs, or get hints on raid mechanics. In this guide, we’ll provide 8 of the most worth-trying addons in SoD Phase 3.

1. RestedXP

The first thing we want to mention is RestedXP. Although it’s technically a fast-running addon, it doesn’t run like a plugin unless you want it to.

It’s essentially a GPS that’s reminiscent of more modern gaming quality-of-life tools, with brief explanations about what you have to do in certain situations. It will provide you with detailed routes from mission to mission and area to area.

It works really well and saves you a ton of time and WOW Classic SOD without making you feel like you’ve been rushed through it all. RestedXP is your experienced guide leading you through the seemingly endless regions of Azeroth.

2. Ranker

PVP is the core function of Season of Discovery. Each Phase will have a new SoD level cap and new vanilla battlegrounds. Besides this, they will also add new open world PVP activities such as Battle for Ashenvale or Blood Moon in STV.

With Ranker addon, a new button appears on Honor screen that shows your progress in PVP in more detail. This way, you can know exactly where your ranking will be when the weekly PVP resets based on your current honor.

You can also set a target level and see how many honors you need to earn to reach that target. The base game doesn’t offer an easy way to tell you your weekly PVP progress, so if you plan on doing a lot of PVP in SoD, Ranker is a must-have tool for efficiency.

3. Atlas Loot

If you’ve ever played Retail WoW, you may be familiar with Dungeon Journal. It shows you information about every raid and dungeon in the game, including all boss battle mechanics and loot pools. Unfortunately, Dungeon Journal did not appear after 2004, so it does not appear in Season of Discovery.

This is why Atlas Loot is a must-have. While it doesn’t have a fight-side of Journal, it does have a very detailed list of all the loot present in every dungeon and raid, with some sweet rewards attached.

4. Leatrix Plus

As one of the most useful quality of life mods in vanilla WoW, Leatrix Plus is still a must-have addon for most players in Season of Discovery.

It provides a set of options that provide greater control over the game’s UI and backend systems. Examples include the ability to mute specific sounds, automatically repair and sell vendor items, display remaining time on Flight Paths, and customize the size and position of various UI elements.

5. Better Bags

The bag system in Vanilla WoW can be visually unpleasant and requires players to carefully sort items piece by piece to feel organized. And Better Bags has an overhaul of the bag and bank UI that automatically sorts items into various categories, completely simplifying inventory management in SoD.

Better Bags will divide your inventory into sections such as Consumables, Reagents, Crafting Materials, Armor, Weapons, and Junk. While it doesn’t quite correctly sort all new items in SoD, it does allow you to create custom categories and assign items to them for future organization.

6. Extended Character Stats

For players who want to maximize their character’s stats, one of the most frustrating things in Classic WoW is the lack of information on the character screen.

Typically, you only see basic stats and some secondary stats, such as Attack Power and Block Chance, depending on your class. However, Hit Chance, Crit Chance, Crit Damage and other stats cannot be viewed directly.

At this time, the importance of Extended Character Stats addon is self-evident. It adds a new window to the character screen that displays all this information.

You can customize which stat groups are visible. For example, if you typically play DPS in SoD, you probably don’t care about your healing stats. This makes it easier for you to calculate whether a piece of gear is actually an upgrade without having to simulate the build outside of the game.

7. Deadly Boss Mods

Besides new PVP events, each new phase introduces new PVE content in the form of improved raids.

In Phase 1, the developers offered a Raid version of Blackfathom Deeps for level 25 players, in Phase 2, Gnomeregan has become a level 40 raid, and in Phase 3, it’s Nightmare Incursions!

But since these raids are retreads of older content, players can’t rely on their previous knowledge of how to run these dungeons.

Deadly Boss Mods is an all-in-one package that guides players through Raids and other PVE content in Season of Discovery. It is one of the most popular SoD addons because its tips are useful for both new and experienced players.

During boss battles, DBM will remind you of the mechanics you must follow. It also has regular updates for SoD, able to walk players through the mechanics of Nightmare Incursions less than a week after Phase 3 launched. Ultimately, DBM is just as useful to new players as a regular walkthrough because it’s both intuitive and customizable.

8. Questie

As mentioned before, since there is no quest log in Season of Discovery, the only indication the player gets of where to go comes from the pointers in the quest text.

The benefit of Questie addon is that it adds a full-fledged task tracker to the game. Questie displays your target in a side window, highlights the quest location on the map, and displays quest information about the target creature itself.

For SoD, Questie also provides tips on how to get new runes for each class. Of course, you can turn this off to retain the mystery, but it’s great for getting runes for your alts quickly.

Those are all the addons worth trying in Phase 3. Is there anything else that you think would be a better addon option that I haven't considered? Might as well share it!