What I suggest to Blizzard is to announce Fresh Classic+ at Blizzcon in 2022.
Regarding Classic+ I don’t think Blizzard should fundamentally change the classic experience, for example, I don’t think they should reduce XP requirements. There is actually plenty of content in Classic, you can comfortably get to level 60 only doing every quest and dungeon once, with no grinding, with still pretty much all 55+ quests to spare. Yes it’s a long slog, but it’s what makes Classic classic, it’s not a bug but a feature.
However, there are QoL things which I think can be changed in classic that don’t change it fundamentally. Here’s a few examples:
- Stop world buffs from applying in raids (which bumps the difficulty slightly also which is welcome). Alternatively, reduce how effective world buffs are and convert them raid wide only buffs (so Onyxia/ZG are still worth running for guilds)
- Remove the debuff limit (perhaps buff raid bosses slightly to compensate, but this is probably not required as removing world buffs probably balances this).
- Add guild banks (to reduce account sharing)
- Instant mail between characters of the same account
- TBC style AoE caps
- Allowing summoning stones to work TBC style.
- Removing decay from the PvP system, still ensuring rank 14 is a lot of work but can be done over a longer time period.
- A change to XP calculation to reduce/eliminate absurd examples of boosting and encourage players to do dungeons with characters in a sensible level range.
Here’s some other things I might consider also:
- Add a version of Velium which is buyable from vendors (obviously not craftable because we don’t have inscription) but also bind to account (addressing the absurd situation where the only characters on the server you can’t enchant are your own alts)
- A dungeon finder UI, that doesn’t do any teleporting but is just a LFG matchmaking alternative
- Maybe even a barber shop
Note, pretty much all of these changes were quality of life changes introduced in TBC. And I think they’re essentially bug fixes. For example, Blizzard has been quite explicit saying they never intended world buffs to be used for raids like they are, and I’m sure they also didn’t intend people to share passwords for their accounts to emulate guild banks. Nor did they intend kiting 100s of mobs and AoEing them down all in one pull. And I don’t think they designed the game on purpose so you had to buy two accounts to enchant your own alts gear, and if they did design it that way on purpose it’s a bad design. These are “bugs” and were mostly fixed in TBC. The PvP system is also nuts and life destroying and it’s clear they got that wrong which is why they changed it in TBC.
Announcing Classic Fresh+ in 2022 means they’ve got til 2024 to actually start developing new content for it. A two year cycle is fine because as now they have TBC out (and probably WoTLK in 2023). As a result the content releases can be at different times so more hardcore players can be in both games and still have new content regularly whilst more casual players can play one game.
Come 2024 at the end of the scourge invasion, realm transfers will open for “old” classic characters to have free transfers into Classic+. They will then join forces and face new Classic+ content.
Classic+ raids should release at a fairly slow pace, perhaps once every 6 months or so. Maybe even once a year, and Classic+ could just be seen as a game you play alongside other versions of WoW.
They should also be designed not to make old content irrelevant. To do so they should be:
- Difficult enough to require most of the raid to be geared up with the previous raid tier gear.
- Generally only provide each spec with one BiS item.
- Have an attunement requirement that at the very least requires killing the last boss in the previous raid tier.
Yes, this means progression will be slow and hard, and new players will have to go through the slog from the start, working their way up through MC, BWL, AQ40, Naxx etc. But that’s Classic. The alternative is there, it’s retail.
I don’t think the specs should be balanced, except through perhaps better itemised gear to underperfoming specs in Classic+ raids. But the imbalances should largely remain. What I think Blizzard should work towards is the following:
In a 40 man raid, each spec is worth having at least one of.
Some of this will be addressed naturally by removing the debuff limit, as then more specs will be able to apply their debuffs. Some of this could be addressed with items from future raid tiers. And finally, perhaps minor skill modifications could be made to give certain underperforming specs enhanced (preferably) or new buffs/debuffs, which makes it worth bringing one to the raid, even if their DPS is poor.
This should be a minimum changes approach, which doesn’t aim for complete balance and indeed preserves the imbalances, but just tries to ensure everyone has a place and part to play, and encourages diverse raids instead of 25 warriors.
Yes, this is very much a different style to retail. Retaining the slow leveling, no catch up raids, retaining much of the imbalance between specs, etc. And for Classic+ not to just become another retail it needs to retain those differences.
Even releasing new raids once every six months or even every year, no-one is going to run out of content in Classic+. They can start an alt and have heaps of content to work through. With this design, you’ll need to go through all the raids to gear up, probably multiple times until your BiS item drops. So whilst a 6 month or 12 month patch cycle seems bad when you think about it from a retail perspective where you have catch up mechanics and the old content is basically dropped. But from a classic perspective, where the old content stays relevant, these sort of release cycle is fine. They’ll be lulls but unlike retail, people will be actually pretty excited for a new raid release I think.
Anyway that’s the approach I’d use Blizzard. This wouldn’t be too much work, you could even just once every six months/year pull some raid from some expansion and whack it into classic, and just playtest it so it’s balanced. And you’ve got til 2024 until you actually have to do anything other than turn on servers with some mixed in TBC code.
I’ll be expecting my cheque in the mail.