We are preparing for a new 1.14.4 patch for WoW Classic Era to support WoW Classic Hardcore realms. In addition to official Hardcore realms, this patch will also include a large update to the vanilla PvP honor system for all Classic Era realms.
This patch will completely reset all current honor system ranking progress on all Classic Era realms when it’s released.
While we do not have a specific date to share yet for when the patch will be released, we want you to know that it will likely arrive in the next 8-12 weeks. If you’re in the middle of ranking in WoW Classic Era, you may want to take that timeframe into account before continuing. If you’re about to start ranking a character, you may not have enough time to hit Rank 14 before the patch arrives and your progress is lost.
Please know that we do not take something like a PvP ranking progress reset lightly. The updates we’re making to the Classic Era version of the game are required for the long-term health of that version of the game.
We look forward to providing more information on this when we open the Classic Era patch 1.14.4 PTR sometime in the next several weeks.
I can’t wait for vanilla ranking system to be removed. Bracket breakers and gate keepers stopped many from Rank 14…and that was during a time when we could PVP 24/7 due to CV lock downs.
Yeah there are some no lifers that are able to play 16 hours daily who gate keep rank 14. And if they want they can keep you out of the bracket. They control who gets rank 14 and who doesn’t.
As someone who was waist deep into and got to rank 10 at Classic’s launch year, this is a welcome change. There is a nostalgia for the old system, but the reality of the fact is that it requires a horribly unhealthy amount of gameplay time to get that high into the ranks let alone the final rank of 14.
Even when you are in the honor mafia of the server, and have organized ques for who gets to be High Warlord/Grand Marshal for the week, it requires about 14-18 hours of gameplay a day to rank up. Probably about 8-10 of which is just to maintain your current rank.
You are making the same mistakes you made before… Are you guys ever going to learn what made people want to stay playing WOW? You lost subs because of these types of changes. Wake up!
Before my long post, I do want to say that it is good that people were given this 8-12 week heads up. That’s one of the most thoughtful things I’ve seen out of Blizzard in quite some time.
I think depending on what this is will determine if I come back or not to Era or for future seasons. Or to get really into and play WoW again at all really.
I quit Wrath in mid-March and uninstalled it a month later after having no desire to log back in. I only played that for my guild so when my schedule didn’t match the raid times I was so out. That was after watching the game deteriorate so badly and important things being neglected while the extremely self-obsessed players - the “me, myself, and I” meaning the “I will stab anyone in the back because it’s all about ME ME ME” subset of the player base got catered to. Over and over and over again. These types still are very clearly the target audience.
I really, really liked 2019 - 2021 Classic though before TBCC. Probably too much. Part of what I liked was the old-world experience, the proper server and guild communities where you actually would run into the same people, and because of that the real rivalries.
Part of what I also liked was ranking and everything about that. I REALLY liked the game within a game. There were a lot of hidden layers that take a lot to really dig into and it’s something that you have a tough finding in any other game. It was more about learning social group dynamics and working with a group. I found it all fascinating every time I did it and the people that I got to know the very best from this game, even better than my guildies of three years, people who I still talk to, came through ranking.
If Classic Era changes to some dime-a-dozen currency system for the self-obsessed types who have never learned to work with others and have only ever learned to do things to benefit themselves then “Classic Era” PVP IMO will become just as unfulfilling and hollow as TBCC and Wrath PVP did. Not worth wasting time when there are so many better things to do in life.
Now if it goes to some sort of Rated BG system then maybe I’d try that because I do love premade vs premade BGs but if it’s all about catering to “lone wolf” types who have no clue how to work with others in an MMO then I’ll pass.
I know the decision is already made. I did have my fun already when Classic wasn’t called Era before TBCC. Over the last months and even before when I was raid logging I’ve been doing much more important things with my life, so really not getting deep into the Classic WoW again, or even not playing the game again at all is probably for the best. I just wanted to say all that anyway.
