I’ve never played WoW until a few days ago and I am really enjoy the lore and story and all of that. I have played the free trial as a Draenei paladin on BfA up until level 13 and then went ahead and bought the complete collection (my transaction has completed) So here are some novice questions:
-If I want to chronologically experience all of the story that WoW has to offer, do I make a Classic account and play through that each expansion? (I’m aware that Classic and BfA are to be treated as 2 completely separate entities)
-If so, do I then use my 110 boost on my BfA Draenei paladin I first started with?
It was one of those starter accounts that you only get to level 20 with and I’ve
heard some things about heirloom armor and/or different perks for using the
boost on a starter account rather than a fresh account. I’m unclear about all of
that and what that means.
-Does Classic let me play all of the expansions up to Legion?
-If so, do I use the same character the whole time through all of the expansions
or am I given the option to create a new one with each expansion?
-How does each expansion work within Classic?
-Do I just go find someone who gives me a quest that starts the next expansion
or something else?
-At what level am I able to interact and meet up with my friends who are different races in both Classic and BfA?
Really treat them as two different entities. They are very different games. Many people do not like both of them. It might be a good idea to try out both games and see which one you like and then stick with that for some time.
Or if you find that you are one of the people that can enjoy both games, then I would just say play whatever you feel like that day.
I do think that If you spend some more time playing BFA (especially if you are starting now) that you would not enjoy it very much and that it would be hard to get into it this late in the expansion. But I could be wrong of course.
If you want to enjoy classic in all its glory I would recommend grobbulus we are an RPPvP realm. Come here for the full experience:
Classic and BFA are two different strands of World of Warcraft. WoW was originally released in 2004 and over the years they released several additional expansions. What you call BFA is the most recent one and within it you can find the content for all previous expansions.
Classic WoW is WoW from 2004 with no additional content. You cannot experience any expansions in this version.
It will be hard to truly explore all of WoWs lore since these expansions have been played over 15 years, but you can definitely revisit the quests, areas and dungeons/raids for all of the old content in what we call retail or BFA.
Classic is just 1-60, and basically all of Azeroth is totally different than it is on BFA because at the beginning of wow’s 3rd expansion cataclysm a dragon (deathwing) went around destroying everything.
Tbh to get the whole story is really eclectic and almost impossible through just regular playing of the game, and there’s entire expansions that took place in different timelines to further confuse. I’ve been playing this game since 2005 and I still don’t really know all the ins and outs of the lore. Reading the books would help you more in that respect.
Tbh I would just play and muddle through the game your first go round and try to pick up little bits and pieces as you go. Then at 60 (if you choose to play classic primarily, but the same generally applies for bfa) focus more on minmaxing and learning the ins and outs of your class. We were all clueless/overwhelmed at one point and the only way to get past it is to just push through and keep playing/learning
Classic is the game as it was BEFORE ANY EXPANSIONS. If you want to chronologically experience all the expansions in order as if you’d been playing ever since 2004…well, you can’t have that. You can have BFA and see little bits of earlier expansions, or you can have Classic and see the closed Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands.
I got back to WoW last year for the BFA expansion. I came from Europe so I had to start from the beginning - no items called heirlooms to speed leveling or anything of the sort. Leveling up was really good. All of the old areas were revamped with a system where mobs level with you until 60. This implies that you can fully finish every area and explore its story because you will never out level it. In addition, they did a good job of stringing quests together into something that makes sense. In these forums people will tell you to play classic when most of them never experienced the vanilla zones in BFA. They are very entertaining.
@ Zenona
How do I experience the older content? It would seem impossible because the rift already exists and the previous expansions it doesn’t happen yet, right?
You will not be able to experience classic. What you can experience are the earlier zones in classic after the cataclysm. The earliest you can experience is TBC when you hit lvl 60 and go through the dark portal. After that every expansion added its own zone and you can revisit those. I would recommend not skipping mista of Pandaria since it looks beautiful.
If I choose to play Classic I will only experience the base game, which takes place before the first expansion, Burning Crusade. If I want to experience Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, and Battle for Azeroth then I can do so all through regular World of Warcraft (because each expansion is included in BfA due to the recent pay model). Is that correct?
If so, it sounds to me as though there are different in-game “zones” that I need to go in order to access the content, which can all be achieved with my one character that I have already created? The earliest “zone” that I can access is at level 60 through the Dark Portal, correct? And that starts me out at the Burning Crusade expansion?
Before we offer guidance you should answer a few questions. Do you play fortnite or OverWatch? How do you feel about old-school turn-based RPGs? These questions are important because if you start with classic you have to stick with classic. No transfers.
@Nelthene
I’ve played Fortnight like 4 times and never Overwatch. I’ve been playing Runescape since it came out and wanted to give WoW a shot. I’m not a fan of turn-based games unless they are Pokemon games. I’m not sure I follow about the no transferring thing.
Look, everytime a new expansion releases, everything from the previous expansion, aside from the additional levels required to access that content, essentially becomes irrelevant. Everything is still there, but its old content that is essentially dead and forgotten. Not to mention trivialised by all the changes that came after, you will never be able to truly experience it, as it was.
Your not going to find real raids for cataclysm or mop content, and even if you put one together, because the game is so different now from how it was then, your not really experiencing that expansion, more like walking through a museum of it.
Long story short, you can experience classic wow, as it was in 2005, and you can experience BFA and beyond. Everything inbetween is essentially not currently possible to play in the way it was intended.
1.) If you want the lore chronologically, I recommend getting the Chronicles books. Otherwise, you’ll want to level a toon in each of the various racial starting zones to get everything.
2.) Don’t use the boost at all until you’re leveling your third toon. I’m serious about this. You skip all the content between 1-110 if you do that, and since you’re new to the game altogether, you’ll miss learning how to navigate the game and how to play your class.
3.) If playing Classic (which is best for a new person because it’s the original game), level from 1-60 reading every book you come across and reading your quest stories. Enjoy it. Take your time. In the retail game, when you’re done with Classic and ready to try something different…leveling goes much faster and has been just wrecked for the 1-60 content. Keep that in mind and linger in Classic until you really feel you understand the world.
I mean that unless things change drastically you will not be able to transfer a character from classic to retail. I’m emphasizing this even though you specified you understand because the two games definitely seek to please different crowds.
However given your response you’ll have little trouble discerning which is to your taste after you hit roughly level 10.
They actually partially “corrected” the difficulty recently. You’ll actually have to go through the motions of an ability rotation during combat. Unfortunately you’re just going through the motions, because the enemies will rarely threaten you. You will be spoiled for choice at every turn.
Oh I just realized a fun idea. Start with classic and Max your character out. Then if you wish to still experience retail start a death knight. They begin at level 55.
BfA 1-60 is incredibly fast with a story that follows the events after the Cataclysm. It features scaling, so you can basically do zones completely out of order once you are high enough to quest in them.
Classic 1-60 has no scaling and a less clear story. You’ll encounter no cutscenes and less choice. Once in your mid 30s for example, you have select zones to choose from, rather than those + any zones you didn’t finish beforehand. Monsters are not all your level–you have to group up or quest very selectively. Or you can do purely easy quests–more choice in that sense.
Talent trees between the 2 games are entirely different. That, you need to see for yourself–Classic’s are a lot more fun IMO. They at least offer the illusion of a lot of freedom.
Classic features much that was removed from WoW at this point. Weapon skill ups, the need to talk to trainers for new abilities, much more. If you’re looking to experience a living world in a game, Classic is the way to go IMO. If you’re looking for a streamlined experience with a story to follow, you might enjoy BfA more (or the process to get there at least).
Thanks for all of the help! This forum coupled with a few others that I looked up based upon information found in this one really have cleared some things up for me =)
we are an RPPvP realm. Come here for the full experience: