I’ve had this particular character (Nanette) since 2004 when Classic was Retail. I’ve played every expansion with her, and adjusted to all the changes along the way.
However, I was recently asked by a relative to play classic with them. So, I installed it and rolled a character. Actually, I rolled two. I didn’t get the first one past level 15, and I stopped playing the second at level 19.
I am not going to knock the game, because many are enjoying it. But, I honestly don’t see how I ever played it, back when it was retail. Everything is just too hard or too slow.
If you didnt enjoy you didnt enjoy thats about it. I am very against the whole mmo fans idea that you need 100 hours or so to say “i didnt like this game, this game is bad” etc its very delusional imo.
I got tired with retail because I dont grasp where is the fun doing the same dungeon, witht he same character for two years for the same item every patch cycle but with bigger ilvl and now they even recycling 7 year old dungeons.
At least in classic era you can at some point just beat the content, which is very acessible, and doesnt have +4 difficulties, which also makes feel like you arent beating anything if u dont beat mythic.
It’s funny you say that, because “beating” a game is what I prefer, anyway. I’m just surprised at the difference in my personal skill, and what I like, between then and now. Back then, I could get a character to 60 in a few weeks, easy. Now, I die if I get two mobs on me. Not complaining, just realizing how things have changed for me.
But yeah. I’ve seen people complain and gripe about D4 being “bad” after playing for hundreds of hours, and I’m like, “what? It took you that long to decide you didn’t like it?”
I do find it that way as well, while playing Wrath, I do it a little at a time, sometimes in the mornings, but my level 59 mage feels squishy, and still has to stop and replenish a lot.
My Death Knight fares better, but it still feels like drudgery.
That being said, I am looking forward to the H.C Classic realms, because I can make it a personal challenge just to survive without death to level 60.
I switched from EQ WoW in late 2004. The classic version of this game was wayyyy easier and quicker leveling/progressing than EverQuest. It was a breath of fresh air.
Even in WotLK recently I noticed you could grab 5 or 6 mobs at level 4 and it was going to be fine. Everything got nerfed, balanced and tuned to be a mindless chore game with all of the challenge being reserved for an optional level of difficulty in end game PVE which to its credit is pretty tough.
The devs noticed quite a while ago that people weren’t making it to level cap where they can sink their hooks into you with purple loot to chase every patch. So they made everything from character creation to your first raid experience pretty easy. The new Tauren models were just too bad, I can’t.
They transitioned the game from playing like an RPG into playing like Diablo2 where you basically AE everything down without much effort.
AE spells are very possibly the biggest problem in WoW overall, and were generally too cheap (resource cost) for what they accomplish, and generally deal too much damage; especially at level cap where the game breaks because the Stats Spell damage and healing, Healing and attack power were effectively not a thing till later patches.
Wow was not designed for those stats to exist and overall I feel they are a big mistake; something that if Blizzard were wise would remove or at least greatly nerf.
How to balance them.
Attack power stat on gear nerfed by 50%
Spell damage and healing cut into 2 stats and nerfed by 50; this forces player choice.
existing spell healing stat deleted and replaced by spirit.
They’re just different games. Classic has a slower pace but much better RPG elements and social communities. I think the overall design and flavor of the game world is much better and it feels more like a living world that you’re just a part of. The economy is designed better also, at least until the bots trash it (happens in retail too, but retail is designed for the economy to play a smaller role). Classic is when different classes and races actually feel fundamentally different in ability and design also.
Retail has much better mechanical gameplay if you’re into M+ and raiding. The skill rotations, etc. are much deeper and require more decision-making, and it’s satisfying to do it well. I like both versions, but they’re quite different in design.
I have no problem with people who like Retail. I started in 2004 too. Personally, I give each expansion a chance and end up quitting within a couple of months out of boredom.
I tried D4 and quit at level 18 and haven’t been back. I played a lot of D2 back in the day.
This version of Classic (Vanilla) has this “magic” to it that gets me really into it, especially when starting from the beginning, to where I’ll play it a lot and not get bored but instead get more into it. TBCC and Wrath C didn’t do that for me either.
So yeah I’ve got total respect for those who like what they like, and I really like how you have worded your posts Nanette just explaining how YOU like what you like, but I’m glad I can play what I like officially.
I think a big part of the charm of classic WoW is just your place in the world and the story/RP also. You’re just some adventurer for most of the game, you’re not the hero of azeroth or whatever. Even when you do heroic things like killing c’thun, your character is just one of many adventurers doing it as a team, you’re not the chosen one. They shifted a lot in later expansions to where every player is “the chosen one” and it’s less of a sandbox world. The central characters and mystique of everything is still intact also, the legion and old gods are cosmic threats beyond your power as individual mortals, the naga are still mysterious, the scourge is a big threat coming off of TFT, etc. The setting is just much more interesting. They killed off all the major intrigues and threats over time in retail. That’s just how it goes, but now they’re just making up random stuff in dragonflight because everyone except the void lords is gone and they’re tired of doing factional small-scale stories so there’s no sense of intrigue.
Legion was like doing infinity war/endgame and killing main characters for Marvel. It gave you a really satisfying one-time story but then left you missing a lot of the intrigue and mystery that made the setting fun.
Man, could not have said it better. If a game req 100+ hrs before it “gets good” that is not a fun game, its gambling addiction type thing, not a fun game.
Overall, classic is easy mode compared to retail. It took me awhile to acknowlede it. I quit retail because i felt it had become to easy.
That doesnt make sense with what i just said that vanilla is easy mode. What i found was that bits and pieces were easy in retail vs classic. And it was all in the open world. I felt the leveling had become a joke and it was impossible to die. Even the elites, i could just swap to tanl spec and easily solo. Then classic confirmed it. If u pull an extra mob in the beginning it could mean death.
But then we started raiding. And i used to thing the old raiders back then were gods. Like they had super gamer skills. Now i see they were nothing special at all. And the overall classic is rediculously easy compared to retail.
Dont get me wrong. I have always and still do think that wow is a kids game and super easy with only a few areas that can be hard. But classic is definitely the easy mode of the expansions.
My first MMORPG was Star Wars Galaxies and that was GRINDTASTIC, If it hadn’t been a Star Wars game I never would have tried it (or the genre). My second game was Dungeons and Dragons online which you could do nothing without a group and their was no world just instances.
I can see why people don’t like Classic, no explanation needed.
