Yeh the goal should 100% be to keep the original art style. I agree Retail has drifted from the original source material. But there is still a bunch of stuff in retail that could be reused. Good example, the BFA warfront armor sets.
Since they use custom geometry for the legplates and chest it just wouldn’t work in classic and the effort involved to re-implement it in classic wouldn’t be worth it. Which goes back to my original point. In retail when they redo the zones and modernize everything that would make it easier to add new content on the classic side.
So spitballing here. Say they take the updated Elywnn forest map. Functionally make it like the classic version, but atheistically has an HD look. Under the hood it makes it easier to add say a small kobold dungeon in Jasperlode mine that might otherwise take way too much effort via legacy classic assets/code. So it gets scrapped and we end up with less content.
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Lmao classic has worse graphics take off your oldman shades and embrace change.
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Wow, people feel really strongly about this. Personally, I think it would be super weird to do a Classic+ with low res textures. As much as I love Classic as a whole, you can’t deny that some stuff is just ugly bottle-necking due to hardware at the time.
And I mean, why would you want Classic+ to literally be classic? Just play classic. Classic+ done right should simply capture the pace, difficulty, and impact of your choices from Classic, but the entire game should feel like a new. Is that not the point?
Ideally, we will get decent art direction with some vision that will use more modern assets and textures but ground them so things feel less… Disney cartoony and more like Classic stylization.
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Nope, classic is peak wow graphics…the cartoony water colour and horrid animations in retail are terrible. Orcs run like shrek, night elf’s look like they have something somewhere it shouldn’t
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And no, classic + should be classic graphics and animations otherwise it’s a retail +
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naw, retail plus would suggest lfg button that ports you into dungeons, scaling difficulty so nothing is challenging, arrows pointing you to quest objectives, classes on trianing-wheels, etc. Ya know, the things that make retail suck and take you out of the world. It’s actually wild to me people think graphics play that big a role in why classic is good-- because graphics are important but also like, SO many things are fundamentally better game design completely unrelated to graphics.
I actually hate quite a bit of the animations in retail.
Their change to orcs, gnomes, hmans, night elves running is horrible. Making gnomes shoulder armors bigger is horrible. The cast animations are ok. Melee they did a pretty awesome job tho
Believe the first batch came in WoD, and were the re-makes of the original races. Believe Worgen and Goblin came in Legion.
Now, supposedly, Cata Classic was suppose to have a graphical update. - Basically, from the sound of it, they were just going to re-export the textures in a higher resolution. Much like how the official Skyrim HD was done. Think there was also talk of a shader update.
Worgen and Goblins in Legion
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Whoops, looks like it was 8.2.5 (BfA) that the update happened.
In my defense, I did pretty much checkout a month-ish into BfA. 
It sounds like you don’t actually want “modern” WoW because polished, beautiful zones with smooth combat animations is core to retail’s design.
I actually think TWW’s dungeons and raids have been some of the coolest looking stuff they’ve made in years. Especially the zones, like Hallowfall.
Have you ever seen and heard Zandalari Troll Warlock winding up a Chaos Bolt? Retail attack and cast animations are good. It feels like you’re blowing someone’s head off. They have meat and ‘umph’ behind them and the sound of an Arms Warrior smashing the earth or Windwalker Monk channeling fists of fury are unmatched with headphones on.
A Templar Ret Paladin calling down Empyerian Hammers hits your headphones with bass hard.
I actually think combat sound effects and animations are better than they’ve ever been. Combat/Gameplay in retail is very fun and addictive.
Why are you replying to me with what I’ve said?
I don’t play Retail. I want Retail’s content pipeline, art pipeline, M+, a few other content systems, and the overall release cadence of Retail. But I want it for Classic
That’s literally retail. You want to play retail without playing retail. Lol. You can’t just translate ‘retail content’ into classic. Classic is just old and recycled content because enough people enjoy the more basic versions of the game and they don’t have to put cash shops in the game as they don’t make new content.
Anyway, that would be an impractical ask for the devs and there would be no interest. The community can barely handle Scarlet Enclave - Mythic+ would be disastrous. Imagine watching 5 Classic players attempt timed content without taking breaks between bosses lol.
How would they monetize Classic so that the devs can hire the huge team it would require to make this content that most would enjoy?
WoW tokens, toys, pets, mounts, mogs.
Obviously this may not resonate with the masses.
If you want the game to die then go ahead and update the graphics. Half the population who are playing this game on old laptops and potato computers will be gone. Many people can already barely handle naxx and se without massive frame drops
It seems like certain people doesn’t understand the difference between graphics, artstyle, and animations. Those are 3 different categories. No one is talking about artstyle or animation changes. Get it right
you checked with half the population? I need that tech
I don’t trust Blizzard to replicate the Classic art style. Look at the Judgement set remaster, it’s terrible compared with the original. Or the fact they haven’t made a good looking 2h sword in how long.
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The graphics are pretty sharp if your system can handle it. I don’t see any need to update anything.
i think some of the effects should be updated. like the sparkles and flare (some of the druid skin effects in retail for example) would be fine in a classic+ version.
but I think just having retail graphics would contrast too much with the world art which would make everything look outdated.