So I see Retail, WoW Classic, Season of Discovery, WotLK and soon Cataclysm.
Are these all completely separate games? If so, they essentially took what was in the past an expansion for WoW and made it solely a game in and of itself with no other expansions being added on to them? Like if I played Classic and reached Max level and got bored, I cant evolve that same character to WotLK, and then Cataclysm? I would need to make a toon in each of those 3 and they will never been merged with the other “games”?
Fair question, and one that a lot of newcomers struggle to understand.
In The Beginning, 2004/2005, was World of Warcraft, now called “Classic” or “Vanilla”. It had only 2 continents, Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, and players could level to 60.
Every two years (roughly) since, the game added an expansion. Every expansion added a new continent, EXCEPT Cataclysm, and every expansion added 5 or 10 more levels, EXCEPT that after Battle for Azeroth expansion, levels were “squished” so that level 120 became level 50, and lower levels were reduced accordingly, but about half.
Also, in every expansion, lots of new items were added, and classes and specializations were changed. This change in classes and specs is very important. A level 70 Paladin today doesn’t play much like a level 60 Paladin played in Classic. For that matter, Paladin had a lot of changes even in the first expansion. Sure, there are a lot of basic similarities, but today’s classes have many more abilities and choices, and generally play faster and more smoothly.
Each expansion also introduced other changes. Different people have their favourite expansions.
Correct.
Except that, apart from leaving one small example of Classic as a permanent server, they seem to be taking the process of adding one expansion at a time, and forcing players along it. So, if you start in Wrath now, you will be forced into Cataclysm when it launches.
Wait wait… so WotLK is sorta like a TLP for other games (Time Locked Progression server)? If I were to start on WotLK today, when Cataclysm launches my WotLK toon would then be in Cata as if it was an expansion added to WotLK… and then eventually every expansion past that all on same toon? So theoretically I could make a new toons today on WotLK and be playing that same toon 8 years from now and it would be at the BFA expansion (or whatever expansion)… and it would eventually evolve to where we are today with Retail?
Well … that is speculative. We don’t know how far Blizzard will go with the progression of classic servers. That have only recently announced Cataclysm, and that they are not maintaining a Wrath server. Blizzard have not promised to keep adding expansions up to Dragonflight.
Some people think that Blizzard intend to retore WoW to a sort of Maintenance Mode after the next three announced expansions (The Worldsoul Saga they announced recently). And, if so, that they will maintain the process of adding a new server for an expansion every year or two. But nothing has been announced.
Ahhh, now I get it. Ok, so WotLK servers will evolve into Cata whether or not each player wants them to… and the ability to just play WotLK like it is now, forever, wont exist. Every WotLK server will become a Cata server. People don’t have to transfer their toons or anything like that… it will just be Cata one day… and then how it evolves from there is still unknown.
They did leave a token Vanilla/Classic server behind.
But they removed the others when they launched TBC servers. Then they left no TBC servers when they moved everybody to Wrath. And as far as I know, they will be leaving no Wrath servers behind when they launch Cata; they will just move everybody on to Cata.
Transmog came in in Mists, so if Blizzard continue with the same pattern, that’s when mogging would start.
As for mount farming, I assume you could mount farm in level 60 raids as a level 80 in Wrath, though there aren’t many to farm. I haven’t looked tho.
Transmog will be available at the start of Cataclysm Classic. (It was one of the things they announced at Blizzcon.) It will also use the more modern collection system used in Retail WoW, instead of the older non-collection based system that was originally introduced at the end of the original Cataclysm expansion and that persisted until Legion.
Account-wide mounts are already available in Wrath Classic. (This feature was added mid-expansion.)
Battle pets was a feature originally introduced in Mists of Pandaria (it was one of the expansion features.) So, it will probably be added if they progress the Classic servers to MoP. Non-combat pets (which is what battle pets were called before MoP) are already account-wide using the collection system in Wrath Classic (added the same time as the account wide mount collection) — they just can’t battle as there is no battle pet system.
And just for clarity, here’s a list of all of the current separate WoW game versions — all of which are available with the same sub fee. Pay for one, get them all:
WoW Classic — This currently has 3 different server types with different rules. (If you log into WoW Classic and look at the realm list, you’ll see these as tabs at the bottom.)
Classic Era — these servers are a fairly close approximation of what the game looked like right before the first Burning Crusade patch. The current plan is to leave them in that state going forward, with most changes being about stability/security.
Seasonal — Currently the “Season of Discovery.” There was previously a “Season of Mastery.” These are temporary servers based on Classic WoW, but with changes made to make things spicy.
Hardcore — these use the same game as Classic Era servers, but if your character dies, they can’t resurrect. It’s just the end for them, roll a new character. (You can transfer the character to a non-Hardcore server if you want to keep playing it.) This was originally a self-imposed restriction that some players did on regular Classic Era servers, and Blizzard decided to make official servers for it.
WoW Classic Progression — These are currently Wrath Classic, and soon to be Cataclysm Classic. While originally when Classic and Burning Crusade Classic came out, they stuck pretty closely to the originals, with Wrath Classic, they started making changes that had signficant impacts on gameplay from the original.
Retail WoW, also sometimes called Modern WoW — This is the original game that has been through all of the content and expansions. There are people with characters that have been around since day one of WoW here. Until WoW classic was launched a few years back, this was the only version of WoW.
Wow great explanation, thank you (and thank you Gráinne for all your input). I wanted to start on the “older” experience but I didn’t want to play for 3 years and it is the same game. I was hoping to follow the expansion line that it originally developed from BC to WotLK to Cata etc since I didn’t play back then but I didn’t want to have to create a new toon that is stuck on an expansion only server…
Sounds like if I started a new toon on WotLK today I might be able to use that same chaarcter for the next 10 years as it evolves into each of the expansions… I know that isnt guaranteed but that is sorta what I am after as opposed to Bliz releasing Cata then MOP the WOD or whatever and each time i have to start from zero.
