How does your experience in classic compare to vanilla?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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I was watching The Guild today, and it made me really nostalgic for the old days of WoW. It got me thinking about how much different my personal experience was from 2004-2006 than it is now during classic. Back then I played way more. I clocked like 6 hours every day at the minimum, being young with limited responsibilities, versus being in my mid 30’s with kids and a wife etc, however I achieved way less, or maybe just a different type of play.

During vanilla I was really big into the PvP side of the game. I ran MC only a handful of times, but never did any other raiding beyond that. I managed to hit Rank 13 after being an a motorcycle wreck that left me basically confined to a bed for 4 months but unfortunately never managed to hit rank 14.

This time around, I have been much more involved in the PVE side of things. I have two well geared, near BiS (for phase 4) toons, and I’m working on this one now. In a way, I’d say the game feels just as new today as it did back then, just because I played it so differently.

One thing that definitely isn’t as prominent is the amount of people I play with. Back then I had five or six real life friends who I worked with and we all played together. These days I have one old Army buddy I play with, but we haven’t seen each other in person in years. It’s funny how much different having a group of real life friends who all play make the game, and I really miss that element of the game. With that being said, the game for me still feels really fresh and I’m having loads of fun. I get excited for every new raid because to me, that’s brand new content.

How is your classic experience different from your vanilla experience? Are you following the exact same path, or are you playing an entirely different way like myself?

I guess I’d like to hear about everyone else’s experiences, just because nostalgia is a helluva drug.

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I’m having the same kind of experience as you it seems. I played like 12-18 hours a day back in 2005. I only raided MC a handful of times back then on 1 toon, think I entered BWL once. Never stepped into AQ20 or AQ40.

Today I play 3-4 hours a day at most. However I have 3 L60s that have epic mounts, raid gear, and I’m sitting on a pile of gold that I likely won’t spend before TBC. I knew more real life friends/family in 2005 that played than I do now as well.

All that being said I’m having just as much fun playing Classic today as I did playing vanilla in 2005. Doing quests I never did back then, raiding BWL, AQ40, etc etc. I have got the full paladin BiS RP set with my 8/8 T2 and Sulfuras Hand of Ragnaros. I sell mara 300 pulls on my mage. I play around on my warlock alt. (my main in 2005 was a warlock) and I’m already researching strats, professions, raid strats, dungeon drops, BiS lists, etc etc for Classic TBC! Can’t wait to keep it going.

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This time around I got a horde to max level first instead of an Alliance. That has been a fun experience, because by the time I tried getting a horde past 30, Cata blew up Azeroth and made me loathe lowbie questing. I’ve done numerous quests I never knew about.

Now I’m to 50 on my highest alliance, and really digging to find all the quests. This gal had most of the alliance quests for loremaster, but there are still a few here and there that I never did or don’t remember finishing.

This time around I’ve played more on my PvE realms than my RP realms, and just haven’t put the time and effort into building connections in RP which is unfortunate. I’ve found a great guild that I have a blast with, tanking dungeons, exchanging things we need, etc.

This time around I have meta knowledge so I catch little oddities like Trias joking about Deathwing coming to Stormwind during a quest. (Like … did someone read that quest and go “Yeah, let’s do that!” for Cata?)

This time around I started Day 1. When I originally started in Vanilla, without knowing I did so, I started the day the Naxx patch dropped, so I missed out on a lot of the earlier changes and had the most questing available. I also switched to a newer RP realm and unwittingly participated in the AQ effort for a couple of months, reaping the rep benefits.

Phase 5 has probably been the biggest letdown, just because I knew the realms I was on would have the gates open in the first couple weeks, and players had been stockpiling, so there was no value to going out and farming while it was going on. All good, though, because I had a blast in the PTR stress tests getting to see the AQ gate opening in a way I knew I never would in the actual game.

The second biggest letdown is the number of players who can’t seem to shed the mindset of speedracing and complain about long dungeons, rush pulls, and those who behave disrespectfully in the world because only their experience matters to them. I keep telling myself they’ll be gone about 6 months after Naxx releases, but that’s a long way away.

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Overall in 5 years I think I’ll look back on this just like I do the vanilla experience…

Met some cool people, and some super…memorable…people.

Had a lot of loot drama. A lot.

Had a lot of guild/raid team drama. Mostly related to aforementioned loot drama.

Routinely trolled those 2-3 ninja/racist guys that everyone hates on the server.

What I did different this time though:

Got multiple toons to 60 this time vs just focusing a LOT on one char in 2005.

Said screw the PvP grind this time around because I remember being super unhealthy depressed by it in 2005.

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You gotta remember how much different society was 16 years ago, the age of constant connection to the internet has done some strange things.

May even cause cancer in california

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Yeah playing WoW without 3 sec internet delay is much more enjoyable.

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A lot of things that used to be fun in Vanilla feel like they’ve just had their soul ripped apart.

AV games used to be fun, now if you play Horde you’re stuck waiting in 2 hour queues, and if you play alliance you’re stuck with AFKs, griefers, throwers, and rep farmers. Battlegrounds used to feel fun and competitive but now it’s just pay 2 win whoever brings the most consumables wins. World PvP is now just about purging as many world buffs as possible whether through dispel or actual killing.

In actual vanilla I think I’ve maybe seen 2 people ever use FAPS in a battleground? Never saw a single person use a LIP in a BG, Sappers were rare too. People used to only really use thorium grenades outside of some other engineering gadgets like the rocket helm.

Things that used to feel epic and competitive like the scarab lord grind were turned into megatoxic collusion events where numerous guilds agreed to screw over their own entire faction and server.

All in all the game is still the same in essence but this playerbase is completely different, and I’m not sure if the playerbase will ever be the same again because gamer mentality today is completely different.

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It doesn’t.

I didn’t play Vanilla.

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Interesting, did you play retail later? Or did you specifically try classic as your first WoW experience?

Also, I agree about the community and really think that’s the worst part of WoW and my only real current turn-off. I really hate the min/max culture and the world buff meta, the boosting etc. but I understand that for some people, replaying the game they loved at peak efficiency is fun. Kindof like being given the opportunity to relive your life and not make the same mistakes. For me though, I just play for fun and don’t worry to much about any of that.

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I was a keyboard turning, clicking noob who didnt know anything about how the game worked. Its a bit different these days.

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Was a much better experience back then. Less crowded servers, cheap mats, no cross server nonsense, almost no transferring. Plus people didn’t min-max all the fun out of the game.

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I would say, this time around, everything is easier. Even if u aren’t part of the speed running crowd, it’s all just easy. Not because the game is easy, but because all the information on every detail to the game is available for everyone to view. Nothing is a secret. I guarantee if classic was released and there were no guides online, players would have struggled a lot more.

I would also say the toxic play has evolved. But ultimately I have fun at times so I play. But back in vanilla, if I had free time, you bet I would be online. Now I really could take it or leave it

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The social aspect isn’t the same for me, and the sense of wonder and amazement at the sheer size of the world.

I had more fun when I didn’t know so much about the game.

Not saying I haven’t enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the same.

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My experience with wow started with me playing to lvl 20 on a trial account during MoP.

I only played a sub during WoD, and I only ever purchased the current Xpac before BFA launched during the pre-patch at the end of Legion.

I started playing wow during its dieing breaths, and I was disappointed with the experience I got.

Classic was a new start for me, and it was so much better than retail was during my experience.

Unfortunately I also realize that the launch of classic will never be the same as the launch of Vanilla. It’s still plenty fun to enjoy though.

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Originally, I thought I wouldn’t stand being able to come back. I play retail and I was here during WoW’s launch.

Admittedly, Classic is fun for me purely because of the Nostalgia. Normally I play once every two weeks on a weekend. I only play when I want. (This char was leveled to 12 a year ago when Classic hit). I love coming back to take my time and smell the roses. I’m sure once Shadowlands hits I’ll be gone another year. Maybe this Dwarf will hit 60 in 5 years.

Now, compared to 2004? It’s not even close to being the same for me. My friends and brothers all played and it was my first MMO. Nothing will ever recapture that feeling this game gave me back then, I’m just glad I have Classic as a true reminder of those times.

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I like the game the same, but it’s different. I’m not one of those “Classic is terrible” people. It was literally the game I was trying to find when I kept playing expansions that went further and further away from it (by the time Private servers really went big I had pretty much given up on WoW so I didn’t play on them).

Raids: I was in a raiding guild in Vanilla, we got up to about half way through Naxx. I remember the raids being harder but that was due to a number of things: Computer and internet connections, nobody knowing what they were doing, gear not being optimized and world buffs not being used. That was most if it. In Vanilla it was all definitely progression, meant more and only around 20% of the server really raided BUT our raid leader was very demanding and yelled at people frequently. He was just like the famous Ony guy, and there weren’t a lot of guild choices. I like the raiding more now but only because I love raiding with my guildies whereas before it was stressful. If the same people were with me before I’d say I liked raiding more in Vanilla. I’ll say Classic though due to the people.

Cheating/botting: I remember the fishing bots and I remember speed hacking being a thing, but there weren’t as many bots around. I don’t know when Glider etc came out but i don’t remember seeing that kind of botting - at least in early Vanilla. We had the gold farmers though, often found in Mauradon, and the gold seller ads with the dead corpses. This is worse on Classic IMO with less action taken so I’ll give that one to Vanilla.

Phases vs Patches: There were actual patches with actual changes and bug fixes which aren’t really seen any more as it’s all 1.12 with phases. I would have preferred this be more authentic but I understand why it was not. Everything was a question mark which was kind of exciting. So I’ll give this to Vanilla.

World PVP: Literally my favorite part of Vanilla and why I rolled on a PVP server. I loved roaming around and fighting the same people and I especially loved fighting the squads with my squad. I never thought I’d like World PVP more than I did pre-BG release after the honor system was announced but I actually loved phase 2 so much on my server that I’ll say Classic in this case. I was always running around with my PVP friends and running into others and the world was really alive, more than it was in Vanilla. I’d say I ganked more in Vanilla and the fights were more competitive in Classic in phase 2. My server was 60% alliance and I played my horde here so we were the ones outnumbered. I loved world PVP in Vanilla from the release, with and without honor, and it’s the same here.

BG PVP and ranking: I’m going to pass on saying which one was my favorite because I never did enough BG PVP to really say vs in Classic where spent a lot of time in there. I found the original AV very boring because it lasted for days and it was a zerg the whole time but I know many have fond memories. I don’t think the Vanilla AV is much less boring though for both sides. WSG either in Vanilla or Classic I just like more with a premade team. I didn’t have a group in Vanilla so I didn’t like it. I did like AB in Vanilla as a BG a lot running with whoever.

I think that’s it, this is long anyway.

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It was all brand new. In Vanilla, I never did enter RFC, RFK, RFD, Uldaman, SFK, BFD, and ran Mara and SM maybe once in my entire life. I didn’t quest very much either. It was my first MMO and my everquest friends told me to grind to 60 since it was the quickest. This time my goal was to level up tanking these dungeons to help out my guildies and other people. 2 Months later or however long it took me, I hit 60.

Then I quit. My endgame was over. I didn’t really try gutted Scholo/Strath either. In this day in age with gated content (not progressive), patch 1.12, world buffs, the internet culture, etc i knew what was coming and frankly didn’t want my lasting memory of anything that resembled Vanilla to be Classic.

People love Classic which is totally cool. To each his or her own. The rest of the game in its Classic form just isn’t for me. Neither is Retail.

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Back then I used to do whatever I felt like it, it was super fun learning new stuff and everything made me curious and interested. None of these things happened now… But seeing how far the game can get is also fun but will never beat the first experience.