Blizzard has already stated that SoD (Season of Discover) is an experimental version of the game that could potentially lead to a classic+. This post isn’t directed at the “no changers” crowd, but more toward Blizzard so if they do Classic+ they do it correctly and not the mess that SoD is today.
The below are things that I have collected from sources that tend to be the main agreements between a majority of Classic+ advocates.
A designated developer team. Classic+ needs a dev team that can have it’s main focus be just that, classic+. Many feel SoD started of amazing in phase 1, and was praised by many. (It was) However, lost its fire and drive in later phases when the dev team was split between multiple classic projects.
NO MAJOR CLASS CHANGES. (Changes that alter how a class plays completely.) In SOD, there were so many changes that completely changed how classes played. (Rogue tanks, shaman tanks, mage healers, adding completely OP rune spells that make old spells obsolete) Other than Shaman tanks, no one asked for these other changes.
Class Balancing. Changes to make every spec viable while leveling and end-game raiding. Class balancing does NOT alter how a spec plays, but yet makes them viable to just play and have a fun experience.
Minor QoL Feature that don’t alter gameplay. Instant mail, barbershops, smarter Flight Paths, LFG tools like retail (Don’t get LFG confused with LFD).
Below is a list of some more controversial changes that I’ve collected that where the classic+ advocates become more split.
Dual Spec. Many would love dual spec and tag it as a QoL feature. This is to make it so that end-game raiding is less tedious when you have to completely redo and pay to respec to fit your guild’s needs. On the other side, many feel Dual spec is over-stepping and completely alters how classic was designed to be played. They see that spending gold to respec is a major part of classic because 1. it’s a gold sink 2. It gave more importance to the class and spec you chose.
New zones, quests, and raids. Many want Blizzard to “finish” or create completely new content for classic+. The new content will ensure that classic+ doesn’t meet the same fate of classic era servers. (Eventual death or extremely low population numbers). On the other side, many also feel that Blizzard will take this too far, and that classic doesn’t need new content simply because this new generation of Blizzard developers will find a way to ruin it.
With new content comes new loot and gear. Many people want a reason to do the new content and are asking that Blizzard makes new content have VERY SLIGHTLY better stats than previous content. Think of TBC gear, but way less inflated stats. On the other side, many feel that new content should not award any gear that’s better than what’s already in the game because it makes all previous gear and raids irrelevant.
Classic+ Beyond. Many want Blizzard to have classic+ to have a completely different timeline of expansions but strictly keeping them “classic feeling”. Ex: new expansions with simply content. No class changes, No new spells, No changes to talents, etc. This is simply to keep the classic+ dev team financially suitable for Blizzard not to shut them down or move them to other projects. On the other side, many say moving beyond what was in 2004-2006 WoW is not true to the full classic experience and that having expansions will just lead to a retail 2.0. Plus the whole, “just go play retail” thing.
Level cap stays 60 even with expansions.
Transmog. Many want transmog in the game because some gear just looks so good you don’t want to change how your character looks. This would also keep old content alive because raids would not be able to be solo-able. On the other side, transmog takes away from how horrible characters look in WoW. The unmatching armor types is what gives classic it’s joy. Transmog also gives a false sense of how geared someone can be in terms of PvP. (Ex: In TBC you could look at someone and be like, “Oh they’re geared, I’m staying away from them.” just by seeing their armor.)
10 man and 20 man raids. Many people want raid sizes reduced in Classic+. This would make managing and doing raids less stressful and more enjoyable because you have less roles, slots, and people to manage. On the other side, 40 man raids are what make classic, classic.
Again, obviously these changes are subjective. I’ve posted these changes completely objectively. Obviously, everyone has a different idea of what classic+ should be. These are just some of the more popular/controversial ideas’ that have been posted across numerous social media outlets.
My ideal classic+ is literally just smaller raid groups, tbc esque class design, more raids that don’t invalidate previous raids and more world events like scourge invasions
SoD is their proof of concept. And they’ve proved to us they still really don’t know what would draw the players in without dividing the base up 10 different ways.
Personally, I just wanted content in Classic +. I like to think of it like driving a car around different race tracks. I don’t need 50 different cars and 20 different models of each of those cars to enjoy the same old track, just let me perfect that one then use that same car for some different tracks. I don’t need car A to perform just like car B, I can just swap cars instead.
If that analogy is to obscure, I think keeping the player classes and toolkits nearly the same would be BiS so players don’t feel the need to constantly relearn their toons. Era is a joy for me because I know exactly how my classes should handle. It would be fun to take them into new zones with those same abilities they have currently.
Hello, I am a proud Classic+ advocate and SoD was definitely a starting point as far as I’m concerned. Basing more Classic+ content off of SoD isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. I have had a lot of fun with SoD, seeing the team add additional quests as well as instances and more. I appreciated them coming up with additional aspects to existing classes unique from retail. Mage healer? Lock/Rogue/Shaman Tanks? Oh HELL yes. Especially when treated as a rough draft these additional play styles have a lot of potential.
If I’m in the minority then I’m proud to be but seeing as how Anniversary servers launched and had Dual Spec within two weeks I think Blizzard sees the writing on the wall.
This is one of the reasons why I didn’t play SoD. Too many changes to the point it started to feel like it’s not a classic game. I wish they only did a tuning pass on classes and added a couple of QoL changes and that’s it.
SoD is a test bed and they are testing a lot of what you are asking. its not an alpha for classic+ they are testing player response to different development ideas
dual spec- been mostly positive and they further incorporated it into fresh where the impact will be limited to one year before tbc includes it anyway. thats a clear development step that suggest dual spec is being considered for classic+
New zones, quests, and raids- also being tested in SoD as well as optional hardmodes in both SoD and cata. these results have been mixed
beyond- SoD hasnt gotten to final phase yet but the devs are being coy and hinting at something.
transmog- hasnt been tested which suggests its not being considered at all.
as to your top 4 issues
new major class changes are pretty mixed tank shaman and mage healers have been viewed as net positives. tank warlocks are mixed and rogue tanks have had issues. just because no one asked for it doesnt make it a bad addition.
as far as class balancing- if youre going to balance classes that may mean changing playstyles. paladin tanks for example basically invalidate most treat based classic systems once given adequate mana regen and a taunt. the playstyle will have to change to fit into the classic+ system.
If they do this again the game will be DOA. Everyone thinks mage healers and warlock tanks are stupid.
Then don’t call it classic+. It’s a new game at that point.
I’m telling you, if classic+ is even remotely similar to sod it is DOA. Very few people like sod. The game is henious. It’s not “a testing ground” for anything. They legitimately launched sod as a fun classic season like SOM. They only said “it’s a testing bed” after barely anyone came back at level 60. People think the game is so bad they didn’t even go back at max level which is arguably the best of the game at that point.
Classic+ is just people wanting to play another wow expansion without retail models, yet completely different than classic. They just use the classic tag to justify a completely different game while saying they’re playing “classic”
-people have no issue with mage healers that’s a you thing and warlock tanks have been largely ambivalent with the only real criticism being pvp related. If you quit in phase 1 then you didn’t experience the full implementation and any judgement youve been made has been tainted by lack of information.
-the devs literally said they were testing things before the launch of SoD not at level 60. they said specifically in the beginning that they were experimenting and to expect inflated non normalize numbers. Also, max level has never been the best part of the game as shown in era, private servers, SoM, and now SoD. There is also always a fall off after the preMC gear phase and then another falloff after BWL. Its not “arguably” other than in your head cannon…the best part of the game is the leveling experience and preraid bis gear by almost every metric.
and no dog poo? the “+” implies this. as in “in addition” to classic. you are either going to get no changes or a relatively different game because every change has ripples. which i highlighted with the paladin (tank paladins being highly requested in classic essentially since 2019) for example.
No, most definitely not. You are living under a rock to think people do not think these roles for those classes are childish. This is not “a me” thing.
I quit in phase 3, but nice assumption. I didn’t even care to try phase 4 the game was so haphazardly put together and bad. And no that’s not just a me thing either, the amount of players that returned to level 60 is monumentally embarassing
No they most definitely did not. They said they would not be putting up a ptr for any tests at all. And the game shows. This was never considered a “classic+ testing ground” until phase 4 came with nobody returning. I remember this very clearly.
It’s not “in addition” to literally entirely revamp class playstyles. This is a new game. This is not “plus” vanilla. And yes, the pvp is very bad. And it will continue to be into whatever they do next. Which will just lower participation even further
This isn’t really the place to be talking about this anyways. We’re all playing the real game right now, not some kiddie pool fun server.
Imagine thinking these people are going to produce an entirely new expansion, or “+” for this gsmr when they can comfortably make seasons and relaunches and the masses will play it and they know what they’re getting
Classic+ will not satisfy enough of the already slim classic playerbase to be of any real success.
for me sod works as classic+ they need to keep the servers up and keep adding onto it with often fresh seasons. just keep adding runes and content keep lvl cap 60 and make the gear more horizontal and have the classes have ALOT of various playstyles
the dream is dead