With World of Warcraft Season of Discovery dropping soon, game producer dashes hopes of supply box XP farmers

Getting the edge via a World of Warcraft XP grind is a practice as old as the game itself, and with a new phase coming to World of Warcraft: Classic's Season of Discovery, folks have been brainstorming ways of earning a chunky initial bump in progress as soon as the new content is released. However, thanks to a Tweet from one of the game's producers, their plans and hopes for a headstart have been dashed.

The focus of this situation: Waylaid Supplies. These boxes drop from any and all enemies and chests you can find right now in Season of Discovery, and provide some XP and reputation when handed in to a specific NPC in capital cities across Azeroth. They can also be filled with specific items allocated to the supply box as you acquire them, increasing the XP and reputation gains at the cost of the time and money it takes to do so. With this is mind, the plans of grinders were simple - stock up on as many filled-up supplies as possible, then hand them in as soon as the next phase drops and a new level cap is implemented.

It's at this point producer Josh Greenfield swoops in to put a damper on things. Responding to a user on Twitter who raised concerns around the matter, he wrote the following: "The previous level band's crates just don't give XP once you are 25 or above. The new crates you'll find on higher level mobs/chests/etc starting on thursday give you experience. Stacking the current crates won't be much benefit (past rep, if you still need it).

This will likely come as some surprise to those who have already stockpiled the boxes. These can't be traded between characters, cannot be farmed too quickly, and can cost quite a bit to fill up depending on the random requirements they generate. Those who currently find themselves with a full bag of waylaid supplies have essentially wasted their time.

This sort of scheme isn't new though, nor is it actually particularly bad. World of Warcraft has a rich history of such acts. In fact, right now you can bet there are folks who have a quest log packed full of completed quests ready to hand in, just so they can soak up a lot of XP straight away, just as the Waylaid Supplies farmers hoped to do. I, having completed every quest available at cap bar a few challenging exceptions, will instead find myself grinding dungeons for a few levels. To each their own, I suppose.

Phase 2 of Season of Discovery is looking like a damn fun one. Not only are we getting another dungeon-turned-raid with Gnomergan, but with a new level cap players will be sent flooding into numerous new zones packed with secrets that'll drastically alter their character. Those on a PvP server can expect a blood bath in Stranglethorn veil too. February 8 can't come soon enough.

What do you think of this matter - should the boxes at least give a little bit of XP to reward those who put in the time? Or, is this just the inherent risk of trying to play it smart with in-game systems? Let us know.