I know that Classic means “Pre-Cata”, that it brings back the zones and quests that were changed/removed from the launch of Cataclysm. But when Wrath Classic hits, and that killing the Lich King in Classic ICC would be the last thing to do in the Classic servers, what should people do to make sure that Classic would still be around to stay relevant with any current or future expansion of retail? I think that it would be interesting if Blizzard decided to do a Cata Classic. Even though you can still do Cata content in retail right now, the low-level experiences and the higher level zones added in Cata. But hey, you can still do Outland and Northrend in retail, and yet there’s Classic Outland and soon-to-be Classic Northrend. So I guess we can do a Cata Classic. Then a MoP Classic, WoD, Legion, BfA, Shadowlands, and any expansion after that.
Yea, but make the dungeons as hard as they were at launch
Just see everyone get absolutely destroyed by trash backs
If it were up to me, I would have at least one server locked in every patch! I don’t imagine that there would be many players, but it’s more for the fun of it. Then your characters could move up to the next patch whenever they’re ready.
No… Stop wasting resources on Classic…
I agree with this. Nothing against the classic community, but I’d personally like new content. I understand nostalgia, but something’s gotta give.
Vanilla->WotLK is a very clear “Legacy” era. The game changed drastically after that. And while I often say that WoW has come in 3 sets (Legion - BfA - Shadowlands is a very distinct design philosophy too), the change after WotLK is by far the most notable.
I don’t think Classic should continue after WotLK.
If the plan is to just continue forever, trailing behind Retail, at what point will the Classic content release schedule slow down? Because it’ll catch up eventually at the current rate. And do we really want a “Classic” server that’s just an expansion or two behind Retail eventually?
Nah. Keep it to Vanilla -> WotLK.
I don’t see why there would be. A massive amount of the resources in Cataclysm went into revamping the leveling experience and the end game suffered for it.
The Classic crowd largely doesn’t care about leveling so the glaring issues with the expansion would just be that much more obvious
Which is weird to me. This is like the biggest reason to play Classic IMO.
It does? I thought it just meant “experience an older version.”
I want Cata Classic. We still had talent trees in some form and I loved Cata.
I loved the Cata raids. I thought they were great. And I loved the legendary questlines. It didn’t feel like anything suffered to me.
It’s possible. Outland and Northrend are still here today too and those are getting Classics. Wrath’s pretty likely to happen. Cata still had different classes and systems.
Blizz has said Classic is entirely dependent on player feedback. Enough people were asking for BC that they decided to green light it. It wasn’t just an obligation do all past expansions. They’re only moving forward by player opinion, which is why Classic even exists at all right now.
So I guess if at the end of Wrath many people are asking for a Cata one then it could probably happen. It’s not off the table. Or vice versa if there’s very little requests then they’ll just keep it at Wrath. But that decision’s like 4 or 5 years from now so it wouldn’t matter any time soon.
Indeed. And it’s not as if people have to play Cata Classic. If they loved Wrath and want the old world, they can stay there. Heck, they can go back to the other two versions, too!
Personally I don’t think so. Cataclysm is too similar to retail for it to make much sense, and that’s even more true for every following expansion.
What I think they’ll end up doing will be either:
- They’ll have a handful of “seasonal” servers that regularly wipe and do the Vanilla → TBC → WotLK progression
- They’ll use WotLK as a springboard for an alternate timeline WoW that takes a entirely different direction in place of Cata and beyond, while keeping the “original formula” spirit from the first three iterations
Hoping for the latter, the game’s story has been progressively more of a head scratcher with each expansion after Cata. Lots mistakes to avoid in hindsight.
Not really. We had a different form of talent trees back then, class specific legendary questlines, no World Quests, flying instantly, etc.
If they did this, it means they’re done with retail.
Systems are different, but with the world revamp suddenly a huge chunk of the content is identical, with 99.999% of it being available as old content in retail.
If they could do some kind of thing where they took Cata’s systems and class designs but applied it to the old world, perhaps with non-wrecked versions of the high level cata zones that might be interesting though. I’ve always wanted to see Twilight Highlands without the stupid tentacles.
Cata’s dungeons, especially in 4.0 and 4.1, were deemed “not for casuals” by a lot of players. For people who felt that way, there was essentially no content at that time, because dungeons were typically what they could do instead of raiding.
Then there’s the fact that the dungeons we got in 4.1, still not super accessible to more casual players, were just revamped old content. No new assets, mostly.
4.2 was fine for raiders. I have no idea what it offered for others. I raided, and I came back in the 2nd half of it, so I don’t really have a good picture.
4.3 might be the first patch that felt decent for both sides of the fence. 3 new dungeons, all easier than what came before, and a new raid with fairly unique mechanics.
But the raid reused assets again, just like 4.1.
If you’re a raider and don’t care about reused assets, Cata was totally fine other than Deathwing’s fight being underwhelming, which IMO is super minor to judge an entire expansion over.
If you’re a casual - as in, LFD/LFR-only, looking to relax after work, not put their all into performance in a video game - Cata was probably pretty bad until at least the halfway point, if not 4.3.
At that point you are playing retail. Just play retail.
after classic cata then they want the next expansion
Not sure why. My RP guildies who really aren’t good at the game were clearing them on heroic. I don’t understand why anyone would hold themselves back like that.
I found them plenty accessible. So did my guilds.
I honestly don’t get it.
LFR didn’t exist until DS. And people were busy in guilds getting guild perks, so they had people to run with.
I feel like people are seriously misremembering a lot of stuff.
Except you aren’t. I don’t have talent trees and glyphs and flying in retail.
I mean, I loved them, and Cata was literally my first time playing endgame in any MMO other than Runescape (and I was only level 60 or so there, years before WoW). And I healed, with that apparently being the “worst hit” role after WotLK.
I’m thinking it was really an almost culture shock kind of thing after WotLK, rather than them actually being particularly hard in a vacuum, maybe?
I’m just parroting what I remember people talking about at times back then.
I know, but it still existed during Cata so I included it.
I’m ready for shadowlands classic tbh. Even buy the deluxe edition for the unicorn recolor.