Ascension releases Season 8 Chapter 3. Prepares to release CoA 21 Custom Class Realm and Classic+ Realm

Ascension Classless WoW is one of the most well-known names in the private server community. They’ve been around for 8 years, and their classless system has made a name for itself by letting you mix classes to make your own custom one. Ascension has tried a lot of different gameplay styles over the years, but the two main ones are free pick mode where you pick anything you want, and then Draft Mode, where you draft skills like trading cards and make a character that way. Though it’s a lot more out there than most WoW private servers, it’s stuck around because it has a good team who actually wants to make something cool.

Ascension just released the third chapter of its Season 8 Draft card realm, which brings it into TBC along 

with a bunch of updates. The biggest change is their new Build Draft system, which lets you pick a predesigned ‘class’ so you can get right into the game. This adds a big quality-of-life upgrade to the server by letting people who want to get started pick a class and play. You automatically learn all the spells, talents, and enchantments you need to make the build work, and can exit at any time to have full control over your custom Hero. Since not everyone wants to sit down and design their own custom class, this is a good way to start playing.

The other two big upgrades are changes to their Mystic Enchanting system and Hardcore Trials. The enchantment system looks interesting because it seems like the best cross-class build options come from combining the right enchantments. Before, these enchantments went on your gear, so if you swapped out a piece for a new one it could break your whole build. Now they’re on you kind of like glyphs, so you don’t have to worry about them leaving. 

Chapter 3 also brings Hardcore 1 life trials to the core realms. Just like Hardcore Vanilla, these are extra opt-in challenges that you have to do or you die. You get to pick them yourself, and they’re a lot more unique and more challenging than the standard Hardcore WoW challenges. There’s one where you can only level by professions but your whole group shares crafting and gathering exp, there’s another where you drown on land but not in the water, and there’s even one that gives you a thirst and hunger meter. If you get to level cap with them, you get bonus rewards and even end-game loot to get you started.   

But Ascension is starting to expand their focus to be more of a hub for Custom WoW. They have two new projects in the works. The first is Conquest of Azeroth, which is the 21 original class realm. That one just got a talent tree update that basically took the Dragonflight talent system and dropped it on all 21 of the original classes to make them better. Since it’s a more in-depth talent system, you can now put more of your class’s power where you want it, rather than it being baked into abilities you might not use.

The second is a Classic+ project they’ve been teasing that’s going to put all their custom content into a normal realm. A lot of people just want to play Warcraft’s original classes in a vanilla+ setting, and Ascension is preparing to release that. You can expect it will have the custom features their other realms have like Mythic+ vanilla dungeons, Hardcore Trials, and the four different raid difficulties that are staples of Ascension on this Classic+ realm.

Overall, it seems like Ascension is ready to expand the types of players it caters to from just super custom WoW fans to all WoW fans. With classless being in a good spot, and Conquest of Azeroth and Classic+ original realms on the horizon, Ascension might just blow up in a big way.