I’m honestly so defeated when it comes to classic. I’ve tried to find leveling guilds with players my level, and everyone is 70+ right now. I’ve tried to friend the few folks I find in dungeons and they just aren’t having it. I just want to be able to level like normal, and I can’t even do that. Quests are spread so few and thin that you are travelling for 15+ minutes each time you level or complete a quest hub, and now I can’t even find dungeon groups since the release of wrath. I understand I started late into classic, but I started in wrath and wanted to start in wrath again. I first tried as a shaman, but was getting declined for every party because I was enhance. I was told to just “heal as enhance” but tanks quickly died because I was in enhance gear. I was met with a “wow you are so undergeared for healing” like…duh? So I switched to a mage. Now I’m invited quickly if there’s a group forming, but even then those are so few and far between. It was a saturday evening and I couldn’t find a healer for BRD for over 2 hours, even when I whispered folks I was met with “I’m just questing leave me be” or something much ruder.
I tried the guide I saw posted here about starting my own parties, and it went fine and dandy until I /who’d folks and started whispering. I’ve never met such a toxic player base just from innocent whispers. This is 100% something I won’t recommend to anyone, and honestly it has killed my spirit to ever be a party leader again. I’ve always been casual, not really interested in raiding, and it seems like WOTLK is completely different than I remember. No one wants to party up for questing, no one has a guild with players my level. Everyone is max and wanting to GO GO GO for everything.
The worst part though is the “go back to retail”. This has 100% demotivated me. I don’t think the people who say this even understand what retail is anymore. To me, wrath is retail. Shadowlands is something not even close to WoW anymore, it’s got extra systems and every class plays the same with 5 2 minute cooldowns and your class feels like absolute underpowered garbage unless you have fully enchanted heirlooms while you level. I couldn’t even get to 60 in Shadowlands because my shaman just felt awful to play because I didn’t have my covenant ablities. WOTLK classes feel great. Telling me to go back to retail is the same as telling me to just quit the game. Is that what is intended? Why do classic players not want their game to be accessible to a new player base? There’s literally so many changes being made to the game, this isn’t the same WOTLK that was released in 2004, why is there this awful 2004 attitude of “if you don’t like it don’t advocate for change, just quit”? At this point all the people saying to just wait out the queue it’ll be gone in a few weeks are absolutely right, because no new player is going to pick up the game like this.
The problem is, the community as a whole has changed to what the community was when it was 2008, and Blizzard doesn’t even look at that. This is why the biggest topic here in Wrath classic forums is about RDF. People saying “go back to retail” or “go play retail” is just using it as a counter argument because they just rather be toxic.
Honestly, people shouldn’t be demotivated from playing classic, they should be motivated, and it isn’t the systems Blizzard puts in, but the people themselves. Sorry that this has happened to you, but don’t be demotivated from playing Classic because of the toxicity of a few individuals.
I second everyone who says to solo. I’ve been solo questing and having a blast. Not even playing with the toxic dungeon community. I plan on pvping, dailies, farming, and alts. All for me!
I just returned from vanilla days and so far the community has been pretty good, but I am seeing all of the complaints about gatekeeping end game content which is silly. As the GO GO GO culture seeks to dominate end game content, they then turn around and complain that there’s nothing else to do.
This is probably a function of the evolution of gaming over the last 18 years where players no longer appreciate that WoW is at its core about hanging out with other people in a fun virtual environment, not dominating the game. Dominating end game content is a goal, for sure, but if it’s done without building quality relationships then the game ends much sooner than the more community-minded folks.
Keep looking. I understand server populations are a concern now too, so be mindful of that.
The sad part about this is how toxic the player base in general has become in classic. I have seen everything from sexual, derogatory, racist and just plain rude comments from players in all areas of the game including out in the open in trade chat and have yet to see Blizzard address it in anyway. Remember the new social contract everyone agreed to at the beginning of wrath:
The vast majority of players looked at it as a joke and most didn’t even read it. Blizzard wont enforce much of anything unless it is something that directly impacts them, ie Boosting(Takes away from their profits for the level boost). The truth of the matter is what made vanilla WoW amazing and magical was the players that dont exist in classic wow.
Literally telling me to go back to retail on the post…honestly screw this game. I’m just going to go back to GW2. Hopefully when RDF gets added the toxic folks will have realized it’s their turn to get told to play a different game.
Perhaps go back to vanilla? Stop trying to ruin wrath for those who are left.
Sometimes I wonder if the people who complain about toxic behaviour are the ones being toxic or socially awkward to people. I never had any bad experience in the entirety of classic.
I’d only lump “toxic” players into node thieves, ninjas, and same faction griefers. I’m okay with words.
When it comes to these people who are so use to convenience they break at the very moment something becomes unconvenient for them. They expect the world to shape around their weaknesses and failures rather than trying to improve themselves. They want WoW to be their phone game that always tosses dopamine spikes at them and want a simplistic game that they need only press a button to do something.
In conclusion the phrase “Go back to retail” isn’t used often enough on people who aren’t meant for this game. No one should drastically alter a game for someone’s convenience. If you want to play basketball and you have no legs go play in a wheelchair league and don’t expect the NBA to recruit you. The OP is not suited for this gameplay as they’re unwilling to learn and they should go back to retail.
