I agree with almost everything in this post, but I would flip two of your points. I thought arena was an awesome addition, I hate how the arena system has worked the past few expansions. TBC and Wrath were some of my favorite PvP experiences if only for arena. Staying up all night, for hours on end on teamspeak or ventrilo with my arena partner was a blast, just trying to grind enough rating to get the next piece of gear. Loved it.
However, flying mounts kind of killed WPvP. Sure being below 70 youād still see lots of WPvP in Outland with other <70ās. Hell, a couple zones even had open world PvP objectives. But it seemed to me by time you acquired that flying mount, WPvP, and giant raids on the opposite faction were a distant memory.
Another problem with flying is that it really makes the world feel so much smaller. Having to walk everywhere and really explore the landscape was a huge part of the game for me.
Like I said, I do agree with you for the MOST part, but those two things are definitely flipped for me.
TBC was basically Vanilla++. Most of the mindset, mechanics, and concepts were similar but upgraded.
It sounds like the only thing you didnāt like about it was 10 man and 25 man raiding. Anyone that paid attention to patches and other details about Blizzard knew that raids were a pain point. They released details that only a small percent of players reached the new raids they were delivering, and needed a way to increase the amount of folks experiencing that content, or forego it altogether.
Blizzard was spending large amounts of money on content that almost no one was experiencing. Anyone familiar with business knows that spending large amounts of money on a feature very few people experience is not a good business decision. This culminated in the 10-player and 25-player raids, and eventually evolved into the Looking-For-Raid system we have today.
TL;DR Blizzard needed a way to justify spending money on developing raids, so they decreased the raid size and hoped this would encourage more people to play them.
def do not agree with this. i hated the parting from 40 man raids. This is one reason that every class started to get homogenized. In 40 mans you needed members from every class to complete and you had room for them as well. 20 mans not so much.
Classic with (and only with) TBC classes and Karazhan would be the perfect world.
ā There are really only 4 and a half classes in 1.12 that scaled well or had gear (Aff locks being the half class), which means the rest are left in the cold after MC.
The change to raiding was far from the only thing I didnāt like about BC. Some of those things I stated in an above post that I donāt have time to retype right now.
While I didnāt like the change from 40 man raids down to 10 and 25, it isnāt what I disliked the most and isnāt what made me quit mid-BC. Again, I explained in more detail in an above post why I didnāt like the expansion. Even in that post I didnāt list everything because it was easier to name the very few things I did enjoy, which is literally very, very few.
The gameplay of Vanilla and the game in general was just so much better in my opinion and for me personally. I liked Vanilla, not vanilla +++.
Also in classic, a lot of classes only had one viable role/spec. Not saying all, but most. If you think being forced to play X spec as Y class NOW is bad, just wait until you play classic and you donāt invited to anything because you refuse to play a certain spec, or refuse to tank or heal.
Content was great, some classes changes were good but BCā¦
Hell no. BC did a huge part in ruining WoW for me.
Horde went from Orcs and other BA races to the pansy Blood Elves.
Both factions got all classes, having paladin and shaman as faction specific classes added so much to the game.
Flyingā¦ Nothing needs to be mentioned here.
Arenasā¦ ^^
Reduced time to lvl.
Heroics became a thing wtf?
Yay spaceā¦
BC was the better game but
Classic was the better experience
I have so much memories of Vanilla after all these years that i could probably write a book but I barely even remember my time in BC even though i played through the whole xpac. Same goes for all expacs after. The only time after vanilla that I remember i had so much fun playing was when I quit retail and played Nostalrius.
Disagree with Arenas. Itās just another bracket to compete in.
But introducing PvP Specific Stats was a mistake. Flying ruined immersiveness. Shamanās and Pallyās shouldāve stayed faction-locked.
If I might add: Leveling process was sped up drastically. I liked the slow leveling of Vanilla. Forced you to enjoy the moment rather than seeing leveling as a dreadful chore.
Couldnāt have said it better myself. I think one of the reasons people think that BC was so awesome is because that is the content when they started playing.
While TBC was the only expansion I truly liked, it still doesnt hold a candle to Vanilla for me.
Resilience was a horrible addition to the game. Arenas are not my thing and making them required for the best pvp gear was not good design.
Removing 40 man raids was also a step back for me. Road bosses were supposed to be some of the most powerful forces on Azeroth and 20 people taking them down just didnt sit with me well.
There were positives though. A lot of builds were more viable and it didnt feel like only certain classes were just better.
I liked the Vanilla dungeons better. BRD was just expansive and interesting. They were less linear and larger. Less streamlined.
Another thing to mention was that in TBC, everyone was allocated to one continent and this made the world feel way too small, add in flying mounts and the game completely changes.
Well thatās also the thing.
The content was actually really good, I for one LOVED how they did the blood elf starter zone. Specifically their 11-20 one. They took a huge note of how people loved Stitches being a threat and added two smaller stitches and then made this huge end boss that awarded an amazing looking sword and everything. I also loved the BE island where we began dailies!
BC did not suck by any means, it was still a great expansion, but anyone saying it was the best while beloving Vanilla for every reason we do is fooling their self unless they do not mind the changes made by BC knowing how those changes effected the game.
WLK is the greatest example. I LOVED WLK especially the first half. And I LOVED the trial of the crusader stuff. But wlk introduced us to the first long content drought alonjg with exp killing mechanics and the concept of redoing raids and instances was introduced via Onyxia.
And thatās another thing about Vanilla.
Back then Blizzard still had these sorts of ideas where you did extra things in the instances. BRD for example. Dungeon cells to open, get keys to open all the bank doors inside the one location, running into the bar room. Stratholme with itās mailboxes and the special side entrance.
You can really tell that the vanilla team thought outside the box a lot.
I liked BC. Also, wicked idea, make all raids in retail scale up sorta like how Bungie did with their old raids at the end of Destiny 1. My clanmates and I raided the ever living hell out of all those raids.
![:stuck_out_tongue:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue.png?v=6" ":stuck_out_tongue:")
![:rofl:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/rofl.png?v=6" ":rofl:")