Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home. That’s been the mantra of the last few months as the world continues to be afflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The luckiest of us have been able to practice exactly that, and a good bit of that has been thanks to gaming companies.
The gaming community has come together pretty strongly in recent times, with some developers just full-on giving their content out for free to help encourage people to stay home and practice social distancing. Blizzard is getting in on the supportive action, having recently announced that they’ll be giving everyone bonus experience to encourage them to stay in.
“If you’re staying inside and find yourself returning to Azeroth, or if you’re leveling another character (or two), you’ll be getting a special bonus to help you on your way,” Blizzard announced. “Beginning today through April 20, 2020, all players in Battle for Azeroth will gain an experience buff called ‘Winds of Wisdom’ which will increase experience gains by 100%!”
Doubling experience is one heck of a way to get people to hop back in, especially considering that much of the player base makes certain to log out in rested areas just to get a small amount of bonus xp when they come back. The buff will also be applied to players who’s account is still in the Legion edition and any who have the Starter Edition as well.
Best of all, they buff will be stacking with any heirlooms you may have. A full set of heirlooms gives a sizeable buff to your experience gain for sure, and when that gets stacked with a buff that doubles experience, you’ll be hitting max level before you even know it.
It’s important to note that the buff won’t affect players on the Classic servers of World of Warcraft, which is probably for the best. Blizzard is very dedicated to ensuring that the experience on the Classic client is as similar to the original Vanilla experience as possible, and a mandatory buff that doubles experience certainly wouldn’t fit that goal. Frankly, most Classic players are likely relieved about this, and applying it only to willing players could create a massive rift, so keeping it out of Classic was likely a wise move on Blizzard’s part.
At this point, there’s no telling how long we’re going to be needing to practice social distancing. The supportive efforts of companies like Blizzard are much appreciated and are helping to make these incredibly stressful times just a bit easier to bear.
