Although we have to do without World Buffs in WoW Classic: – Season of Mastery, and also the class balancing of the vanilla era will not be touched. Still, raid groups should be able to average pretty good damage. Reason number 1 (and long known): The debuff limit of 16 debuffs on a target will no longer be active. Reason number 2 (and freshly confirmed): Players will get access to a lot more potential item upgrades at launch than they did in WoW Classic.

The developers recently revealed what the latter point means in concrete terms in an extensive forum post:

• Bleak Quarry is available at launch (and thus also more loot, new recipes, class trinkets and book bands)
• Customized Phase 5 dungeon loot available from launch (new loot / customized loot)
• You can get from day 1 the Tier 0.5 class sets earn.
• To facilitate the completion of Dungeonset 2 questlines at the beginning of the Mastery – Season , the Shadowhammer camp in Silithus can be used to summon elemental Templars and Dukes.
  • Please note that the rest of the activities in Cenarius Castle and Silithus related to Anh’Qiraj will not become available until the start of the Anh’Qiraj War event.
• Level 50 and above class quests will be available at the beginning of the championship – Season .
• The changes and additions made to armorers and loot rates in patches 1.6 to 1.11 will apply from the start of the Championship – Season , with some exceptions:
  • Items from vendors or those related to reputation factions that will not become available until a later content phase, such as the Zandalari tribe.
  • The (world loot) plans for Spats of the Titans and Sage Blade will become available in a later content phase.
• The Honor System and Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley battlegrounds will be available from launch (and with them the corresponding reputation and rank items.