Maybe 3 or 4, us two included 
I think the #nochangeâers could benefit from understanding that Classic will not be Vanilla. Lots has changed since Vanilla, and Classic will be required to address that to make the game enjoyable. I believe there are changes that can be made to keep the spirit of Vanilla intact while making Classic a truly great MMO.
This is my boilerplate for no changes, except whatâs necessary.
This is 100% the most important. My two games were Runescape and WoW. Iâve seen the rise, fall, and re-rise of Runescape and hope WoW takes the same steps. Classic really could be a greater game than Vanilla ever was, but it will have to adapt and become viable long-term.
Not to toot my own horn, but Iâve been crusading for WoW Classic for a VERY long time. So glad to see it finally come about, but they need to get it right. These #nochangers are trying to destroy its chances.
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/18000060722?page=1The current plan for Classic WoW will not be popular enough. The devs did not have faith in this project, so why should you now? They are smart guys on that stage. They know. Patch 1.12 was a placeholder patch for the expansion. It laid some groundwork. It was a prep patch. It was not vanilla flavor. How do you not see that?
Lvl 20 huh?
No way.
Lvl 12 it should be gone.
Thats enough to give people a few hours of gameplay before they will have to become a part of a community and contest with others, make friends and/or foes.
Sharding zones like the barrens too would hurt the game too much overall.
Also sharding can not be used to reduce que times. Or it will be there far beyond lvl 20 possibly.
The problem is that the issue sharding is fixing in Mulgore and Durotar will be compounded into the Barrens. If more than 50% of the players in each of those two zones hit the Barrens, the same population is in the Barrens.
People get seperated by time investment and the barrens for example are way bigger than zones like durotar.
Fighting for objectives is good.
Barrens would be playable if they dont go for 10k server caps but more vanilla sized servers.
Also they shouldnt shard stuff like orgrimmar or short regions in front of it, as they are iconic places people will meet at for duels and so on.
Sharding will be felt the most around places like that. Increasing its negative effect.
Then Blizzard would going against their word and using sharding beyond those âstarting areasâ.
The pro-sharders canât think past instant gratification. They want uninterrupted questing with no competition, and they want it now.
Letâs not forget that Pservers use dynamic respawns, something that wasnât experienced in vanilla (outside of one random event i think they said on an overcrowded rpserver for a day).
once you get out of the 1-5 areas, quests and mobs are spread out enough that people start to get separated. And should they find themselves with someone else and not group with them, there are other quests that they can complete. The starter zones force you into the same quests everyone are on and you have no option to do anything else to quest.
And the no-sharders sure have this smug sense of entitlement about something they may never even notice.
Itâs obvious you never had to rely upon your community to apply to a good guild - because back then, you had to have good connections (with references and a good application) to be accepted into a good guild to progress in the game - or know someone in the guild who would vouch for you.
A good reputation and friends cannot be obtained through solo gameplay.
If you like solo gameplay, you should try BFA.
Aside from the Barrens, where 3 of the 4 Horde Races funnel together, Iâd believe it, but I really question the Barrens part. Realistically though, they need to plan for dense numbers for 1-20 and only turn it on if absolutely necessary. Rather than not plan and be caught with pants around ankles.
On a separate note, given how much you have to stop and drink after every mob in Vanilla early on (as a caster), dynamic respawns would exponentially increase the number of deaths.
Even with the barrens, the mobs are spread out enough that people could still kills things (outside of the drastically low drop chance).
Not just casters. Even melee classes that need to eat/bandage have that issue.
So is being disconnected or watching a slide-show.
Sounds like you didnât like Vanilla launch. Iâm curious, if it was so terrible, why did you keep playing WoW? (Hint: it wasnât as cataclysmic as you like to pretend. Otherwise, you would have quit if it was a god-awful as you make it sound.)
Please donât come in here and complain about Vanilla or change my Classic launch to make it like your modern WoW. You remind me of the same people who hated those of us for asking for Vanilla WoW.
If you donât want to be inconvencienced by Classic launch or Classic gameplay, then donât play Classic.
There is a game for you, called BFA - with ALL the conveniences you can ever want. No one may care you exist. But at least you can login, get your loot and logoff in 20 minutes with a click of a few buttons - or just stand in your Garrison and watch the loot and gold effortlessly fall into your bags.
To be clear from the outset, I am willing to accept Blizzardâs intention for sharding to handle the initial wave of tourists, for maybe a week. But thatâs because Iâm far more optimistic than Mistwynd. 500k players is what I think will be the non-tourist amount, and 5 million the tourist amount.
In which case, sharding is needed.
If Mistwynd is right (heaven forbid that comes to pass for Classic) then we donât need sharding because there wonât be enough players to require it. At which point Blizzard can just shelve it permanently.
This is probably the crux of it. Anyone claiming sharding isnât necessary, is being very pessimistic about the interest from short term players that Classic will generate. Either the game is a success, in which case Sharding is needed to ensure that, or the game is a tiny blip, in which case we donât need Sharding.
The people who are behind Classic 100% and think it will be a runaway success, but donât want sharding, are intentionally trying to destroy their own hope.
I am behind 100% Classic and, for that reason, DONâT want ANY sharding. Why? It helped kill community and social interaction that is the very foundation of Vanilla.
Simply because sharding works in modern WoW does NOT mean it must be used in Classic WoW.
I believe in the goal of authenticity of this project over any inconvenience of players with login queues, spawn times or loot lag:
We wanted to come up with a framework that would help guide us. First and foremost, really, is authenticity as our guide.
âhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhKkP8LryYM (~30:00)
Design Philosophies:
Key goal was Authenticity - deliver an authentic experience.
https://www.wowhead.com/news=288407.9/blizzcon-2018-restoring-history-creating-wow-classic-panel
Sharding is not authentic Vanilla WoW. Therefore, sharding should not be in Classic WoW.
There are alternatives to consider, such as from Vanilla WoW solutions (queue times) to static sharding with multiple sub-realms:
https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/b74lst/to_the_tenacious_nochanges_posters_thank_you/ejpvewf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app
Acquiessing to Blizzardâs (IMO, short-sighted) desire to use sharding to mitigate touristsâ inconveniences is like restoring âthe Blizzcon experienceâ by giving everyone their own Main Stage at Blizzcon just for you, with only a few dozen others around - so you donât have to be inconvenienced by waiting in line or trying to find a seat.
It logically follows that once sharding is successfully used to manage high population (and provide players convenience) in starting areas, it will be used to manage high population in other areas.
Be careful what you wish for. Modern WoW traded its community for convenience by adding tech like sharding.
I donât want convenience. I just want my old game back.
And if you argue against sharding the starters for a short period to handle the bulge, you will destroy the community you cherish by spreading it among 300 servers instead of 50. Server caps wonât matter when you can only get 200 players online in any given server, and we all know how much arbitrary server merges destroyed communities in Vanilla.
You are being very pessimistic.
This pretty much awnsers it.