I decided to come back to take WoW Classic for a spin, after having not played WoW in many years (apart from tooting around on my own WotLK solo server). I’ve enjoyed my month of play in WoW Classic, so I thought if I’m going to stick around a while, I may as pop into normal WoW to see what’s new there.
This was my main character in WoW. At one time I was intimately familiar with every facet of his operation, including using the Healbot Continued, DBM, Recount, and Bejewled addons. There was a lot to manage in WotLK, but really I wouldn’t say the experience was much different than playing Guild Wars 2, SWG, SWTOR, or most other MMOs. Yet when I logged in last night to use the free level 100 boost and organize the mishmash of characters I used to play, I was overwhelmed (in a negative way), because there was just too much of everything.
Too many options and highlights in every UI window.
Too many UI windows!
Too many golden popups and crazy whizbangs flying all over that can’t be disabled.
Too many characters running around with so many effects and raid mechanics (in the Legion intro, which bugged out on me on the last stage, of course…).
Too many items…
Too many levels!
It was all just TOO MUCH.
While I think I would probably prefer to play a WotLK version of WoW, I can definitely say with confidence that I would absolutely rather play WoW Classic than the current version of the game. I now appreciate the existence of WoW Classic in a very real way that I didn’t before. I didn’t expect to be moved by the difference between the two versions of the game.
WoW Classic is a different game, almost entirely, from current WoW. Thanks for bringing it back!
Sincerely,
A worn out old Shaman.
Ps. The graphics improvements in current WoW are impressive, I didn’t think they would be that nice. Similarly, running WoW Classic on ultra settings looks really, really neat - there’s just something appealing about the art style and the lighting improvements in the new client make the world “pop”.
I don’t think the second part is true but the first definitely is. Retail has a lot more things to do, but none feel satisfying. The content is way more interesting and harder, but feels even less satisfying. It’s hard to explain. It’s like eating an amazing 5-course meal that looks great, but doesn’t actually sate your hunger, while Classic is like a simple steak and potato that isn’t cooked amazingly or with a lot of flourishes, but is still delicious.
I haven’t played BFA, I was messing around in the previous expansions and haven’t played seriously since LK.
I agree though, the simple feel of vanilla is preferable to me. I don’t want it to feel more like an action game than a RPG. I can see where the modern style with all the more involved rotations and procs and all that could be exciting for certain players but it’s just not my style.
Leveling 1 to 120 in retail has no pacing and is completely uneven.
The expansions were all designed to be self-contained 10-level progressions with ilvl upgrading, not a over-arcing 1 to 120 journey.
Classic WoW, on the other hand, is a self-contained 1 to 60 progression. It’s well rounded, takes you all over the world and has properly paced progression.
One minor point, the amount of levels eventually becomes irrelevant once you reach max level because they only ever introduce 10 new levels or so with each expansion. So it’s easy to deal with, unfortunately.
To me it is like loving Oreos, then having them now stock 18+ varieties of Oreos on the store shelves. I was happy with the first one, they gave me pleasure. Having so many choices kinda invalidates your enjoyment of the Original. Causes anxiety because you feel guilty that you haven’t tried them all, and guilt because you know you found the one you love and don’t want to try the others just because they are ‘new’. And resentment that they are trying to force you to experience all the others when the original gives you all the enjoyment you need or want.
It’s odd because to me the difference between retail and classic is retail is like a chore. There is x amount of time to do activity so you feel you need to do it else you are being unproductive. Forcing us into habits and job like structures makes for an unfun game.
Meanwhile classic offers huge amounts of open world to explore, gather, open world pvp, slowly grinding out your professions to really give yourself that extra boost or help your guild out with those bags or pots they are needing. It all offers a reward for effort and is by no means a chore but a fun activity that is entirely optional because we have a choice of what we want to do.
Blizzard could easily easily easily change this method they’ve adopted in retail and just do away with the systems they think are so great like titan forge spamming for best rng gear or rep grinds
Retail could be overwhelming. It cant be simple. It’s 15 years of WoW innovation. The recent one is like focused more on endgame… Mythic+ and Heroic/Mythic Raiding which has no appeal to many. But for those who loves challenges either a hardcore or casual (less playing time), BFA is like a Heaven.
BFA fails horribly on leveling. It gives bad impression to new players and returning players. Blizz just need to pattern the new expansion’s leveling journey like the Classic. Pristine servers would be a good move but they should also improve the leveling experience.
Blizz is lost on how to improve Retail as there are many little groups that needs to be satisfied…
groups who hate flying… those who want to go from point A to point B escaping conflict in the ground… they want the ground to become snoozefest with no activity while they sit pretty in their flying mount
groups who hate difficult dungeons… who just want to roam around Azeroth and who are just happy making items/selling them… who wants precious pretty purple items which has no use for them becoz they avoid dungeons
groups who hate talents being summarized… they want complex talent trees which is really good in leveling but when they go to raid, they would just pattern it to the most common specs or get kicked by their serious guilds
groups who hate Grinds. They thought MMO are like FPS games or Fortnite. MMO is a game of grind. Heart of Azeroth Grinding doesnt require much of your time. Just do 1 emmisary a day… do table quests daily… doesnt require 30 min to accomplish it. Compared to snoozefest grind of getting the level 40 and 60 mount in Classic in which the mount is far far inferior to many of my Retail mounts: Skygolem, Expedition Yak, Brutosaurus. And there’s a lot of snoozefest rep grind at level 60. And when you raid for AQ40, Naxx40, you are freaking required to farm for your flasks, potions, enchants and food buffs to maintain your competitiveness… requires 2 to 4 hours playtime before raid time. Same in Retail, but I can skip the whole 2 to 4 hours farming becoz I could buy the cheap and legit WoW token and go straight to Raiding.
groups who hate Dungeon Finder. They love running on foot to the dungeons. After riding a train from SW to IF, flying to Menethil, ride a Boat to Dustwallow, fly to Ratchet and run on foot to RFK or RFD. Then when they reach the dungeon, someone left. So one of them portal’d back to SW to find a replacement then redo the whole running on foot again.
etc., etc. etc.
People have specific list of stuffs for their game. They should make their own game. If I am Blizz, I just do my best to cater the game to many people as many as I can. Blizzcant satisfy everyone. Blizz should start believing that WoW is still the best MMO after 15 years whether these haters like it or not.
Tbh that’s what is appealing about Retail to me. There’s so much that it’s easy to get lost if you’re unfamiliar with where to start. That’s the fun in it to me. I don’t just login, level, get to endgame and do dungeons, do the single raid difficulty then the end. That’s relaxing sure and I enjoy Classic for that, but Retail is where a lot of the meat is at when it comes to progressive options.
There’s so much content for me to pursue. I can do Mythic+, or find a Mythic raiding guild if I really want to test my limits. I can pursue acquiring Gladiator gear. Hell if I were into it, I could gather the rarest pets that nobody else has by delving into the pet dungeons. For the adventurer willing to test his limits, Retail has some extremely difficult content out there.
You stand out a lot too since in the plethora of options, majority of the playerbase will do the bare minimum. If you see a guy rocking that Mythic mount and title, you know he went through TRUE hell to get there. The grinds for some of the Mage Tower artifacts were brutal too so those weapons really stand out to me.
But Classic is fun too, it’s like a relaxing walk in the park compared to the noisy streets of NYC.
You login, casually level, turn on some music in the background. You grind some money or gold off minds or do your professions. You slowly work your way to the top and once you get there your goal is clear. Raid, PVP, dungeons, pretty much. It’s a very relaxing and linear path.
“Options are awesome”, I always say, but in my old age I found I was experiencing sensory overload. It was literally too much for me to take in all at once. The Legion combat tutorial was a nice touch though.
