There’s a lot.
- Making friends in Vanilla
- WPvP in Vanilla, BC, Cata, MoP
- BGs and fun guild events in vanilla
- Dungeon/raid mishaps with friends
- Keys in SL with a chill guild
1 Like
It was all the way back in Vanilla.
One of the pervasive realities of Vanilla was simply that nobody knew anything. The world was a big unknown. It hadn’t been datamined and youtubed to death. Not yet.
But somehow I had got into a Molten Core attunement group. BRD was a huge, dangerous, unknown maze. There were some areas that were routinely run by groups, but full runs were pretty rare. What we were doing was even rarer.
I don’t know how the folks knew about this path we were taking, but it was exotic, dangerous, and mysterious.
In order to attune to MC, you had to find the entrance. The attunement allowed you to jump into MC from outside the dungeon (by jumping through a window – of course! What else would it be!). And apparently this path we were taking was easier than just fighting our way through the dungeon to the entrance. This was the “shortcut”.
The path basically took us through the lava. We had to jump down off of a bridge, into the lava, and then there were a couple of very small islands. The plan was to work our way from island to island until we got to the bridge before the MC curtain, and you could climb up the other side of it, then cross the bridge and you were done.
The problem, however, was two fold. First, the lava cooked you. Very hot. “Don’t stand in the fire” hot. And, there were packs of elites on the islands.
The core mechanic was simply that you likely would not survive the trip through the lava from one island to the next, so we couldn’t just all swim from island to island. Instead, you had to swim across, and then be constantly healed. Eventually you would be out of range and on your own on the island, with a big chunk of your health gone. So, it was an experiment is ferrying folks from one to the other.
On top of that, of course, is when you did arrive to the other island, half dead, singed and smoldering, there was some fiery elites waiting to pound you into paste. So the other game was timing the elites so that you would arrive with them pathed on the other side, trying to not pixel pull them.
So, in the end, these passages were harrowing experiences. You didn’t know if you were going to make it. You were going to be out of res range if you died, the healer had to work madly to keep you (and themselves) up all while trying to not pull the elites. Inevitably, we sent the tank across first, then another DPS, then the healer then the rest. It was quite exciting, but we made it.
The combination of being in a unknown place, going on an unknown path, with of bunch of folks where we’re just making it up as we went along. No Wowhead post telling us what to do, no video with arrows and what not. Just us, there in the moment, on a lark with a “I heard from a guy who heard from a guy to go this way”, figuring it out, in a dangerous place. It took us a couple hours all told to get it done.
That was an epic experience, very difficult to achieve nowadays. And it was a PUG to boot. Frankly, it didn’t get more WoW than this.
3 Likes
the most fun I’ve had lately has been doing the dragon races
2 Likes
When I was very new and got invited into a pug raid to try for “For The Alliance” achievement, and learned on the way exactly what we were doing and was scared to death, but luckily the horde didn’t know we were coming and couldn’t get enough people to defend. So much fun.
Only way it could have been better is if the mount reward was a flying bear.
1 Like
Raiding Zul-Gurub with my previous guild. We were not dedicated raiders by any means, but we manage to clear all of ZG. I’m not really a fan of trolls, but the scenery and ambience of ZG was so much nicer than MC.
1 Like
This is the one and only argument I can see in favor of a WoW 2. Classic wasn’t the same as Vanilla, not because of all of the excuses that everyone states, but because it wasn’t new anymore. No amount of classic restoration will make it new.
My one regret in gaming is choosing Civ IV over WoW back then. I have/had a s**t ton of hours in Civ 4 so I’m not complaining. But I never got to experience the novelty of the vanilla WoW world as a result.
1 Like
This was so real back in the day. I remember another anecdote. There was a story about a hut at the top of a hill in Stranglethorn. It was hard to get to, you had to do some wall walking type of tomfoolery to get up there. But the rumor was that if you got up there, there was a chest, or a mob, or whatever that had chance to drop a mount.
And the key point is that this kind of folklore was able to be made in the game. There was mystery. In the southern part of Winterspring was an elite area. Powerful elites. And I happened to be on Kalimdor when the world server crashed, but my connection remained. I could wander Kalimdor with no mobs. And I got to go into that area to look around.
There were lots of moments like that. Sitting on the edge of an area, looking in, wanting to go in, knowing all it brought was death, so you didn’t. But you wanted to. You just wanted to see inside.
2 Likes
I’m having fun right now
2 Likes
The best time was back in MoP during SoO. We had a great cross realm group and hung out in game raiding on alts and mains every day. Lots of laughs 
The most fun I had playing WoW was in Wrath and it wasn’t because “omg it’s the best xpac ever”, it was because I had an amazing guild.
I tanked, my husband healed, my off tank was a really good person and the guild lead, and I was friends with the majority of the raiders.
I still have fun here and there, which is why I still play, but nothing beats those two years in Wrath.
Mop & Legion were the best times, the game felt amazing and your efforts felt rewarding. Now the only fun I have is just socialising with friends, the game keeps going downhill.
1 Like
Meet me at the Crossroads?
barrens chat yes!
In the cata days I used to live spending time solo farming the raid trash in forelands for epic boes as a frost dk. You could drag huge pack around for days spamming howling blast for dmg/slows but had to be semi careful as making mistakes were unforgiving, as it was all current tier solo raid trash and solo. Was also doable with a hunter alt via frost traps.
Also twin peaks battleground as a dk. I’m would lour ppl to the waterfall side of the map and stand right on the edge. And then deathgrip them in and watch and /laugh as they jump off the waterfall falling to their demise. Best executed on the enemy flag carrier of course 
Barrens chat circa 2004-2005 would get most of us banned these days.
Satchel clue, I’m onto you