Vanilla wasn’t balanced though. Some classes had giant gaping holes that the devs knew about but did nothing because “the expansion would fix it”. Cooked take.
Vanilla was popular because of the world and setting, things SoD can borrow from while building an actual good game inside of it.
If they want to play it, then play it as it is. Runes are what sets this apart from classic. If they want classic, play classic.
Balance is the most boring caster in the game IMO
ah hah! I see what you did there.
No one is arguing against runes. The argument is against rune abilities being as powerful as they are.
Honestly, the original class designers were such hacks. Warcraft 3 had such a tremendous lay-up and then Vanilla WoW class devs bungled things so hard. It’s actually testament to how innovative the quest system of Vanilla WoW was that this game didn’t bomb. Vanilla is such a slog to play without the SoD changes.
You seem to have missed the point. please reread:
if in 2004, warlocks had a shadowbolt spell but also a SuPeR dUpEr ShAdOw BoLt spell that cost no mana and did 2x the damage, people would think that was dumb. and if this happened across all the classes, people would be like “what dummies designed this game?” and it wouldn’t be the sensation it is today.
I’m not talking about PvP balance. I’m talking about balance within a class’s spellbook 
The question should be “does this ability have a reason to exist”, and it does because Shadow bolt Volley and Nightfall exist.
Because they get stronger with each level, instead of having to wait 5-10 levels before you can train the next rank, so when you’re comparing a rune ability to something you last ranked up 4 levels ago of course the rune ability is going to be way stronger
Different schools of magic.
Bungled it so hard it is the biggest MMO in history, and still succeeding.
Bungled so hard that Blizzard basically went from releasing a new game every year or so, to not releasing anything at else for 6 years.
You really have a poor sense of history.
The Runes are apart of the Retail mindset. “If it’s not clearly better why would anyone use it?”
They hate when things retain value phase to phase. Thinking horizontally about progression and power levels don’t make sense to them.
You were doing it wrong. But for mages and warlocks yeah, pretty much 1 button spam. I don’t believe that was the intention though, it just ended up being the best way to play. Hence the call for classic + in the first place that led to SoD.
Retune, fleshout lacking specs, create now content that fits the theme and generally improve on classic. Not replace it.
Might as well just play a different expansion if you want to replace it.
Instead we get old mate Aggrend ‘Let’s see what sticks’ Lead dev getting his filthy stickiness all over everything.
There were all sorts of issues people seem to forget within OG classic wow. For one, talent trees looked remarkably different for a lot of classes. See druid Hurricane/Innervate capstone talents for balance/resto. The game wasn’t even remotely balanced until 1.12.
As the other poster said, it succeeded because of world building.
I agree skills changed over the years between 2004-2006 and the world building was important… but vanilla skills still had a certain logic to them that SoD runes do not have.
Growth blew up during BC and WOTLK.
You can see growth start to level out and then surge again during pre-expansion hype. Most people played WoW for the leveling experience, started to lose interest in the game as they approached cap, but then a new wave of players started coming in during anticipation of the expansion.
BC was the first point that WoW’s gameplay was actually good. Before that, it relied solely on the “quest” system as its primary innovation. Raiding and gameplay? Pfft. The number of people who raided Naxx was in the realm of FOUR DIGITS. Imagine thinking that several thousand people were the reason for WoW’s popularity. This was a game that became a cultural phenomenon during BC and Wrath (Night Elf Mohawk), and you think that something a few thousand people played was responsible for its success? Pfft.
Can’t cast moonfire in cat form.
Growth blew up during BC and WOTLK.
Again, WoW was their primary revenue from 2004-2010. TBC came out 3 years after launch. If the game wasn’t successful, that expansion would never have been greenlit. To claim they ‘bungled’ things is completely inaccurate. The game was groundbreaking for the time by being far more player friendly than other successful MMOs of the time.
Most people played WoW for the leveling experience, started to lose interest in the game as they approached cap, but then a new wave of players started coming in during anticipation of the expansion
Mostly because the end game content wasn’t really fleshed out that well. At launch, there was only Molten Core and Blackrock Spire available. Things like Battlegrounds, more raids, expanded dungeons came in subsequent patches. WoW changed the hobby landscape when it came out.
BC was the first point that WoW’s gameplay was actually good.
Gameplay in TBC and Vanilla was largely unchanged. You had more abilities, but the game was still largely static with simplistic raid mechanics.
The number of people who raided Naxx was in the realm of FOUR DIGITS
And? The game was far harder then due to poorer internet connections, not everything having been datamined to death, and without several optimizations and language passes. People who cleared Naxx were legends - I remember chat being alive about DnT beating the four horseman and talk about how Nihilum was on their heels.
This was a game that became a cultural phenomenon during BC and Wrath (Night Elf Mohawk),
It was already a cultural phenomenon prior to TBC. Games that aren’t successful don’t get multiple expansions and become your company’s sole focus for 6 years.
It really wasn’t. Sweeping changes were made to classes in order to chase esports that improved the quality and depth of gameplay.
There’s a reason Aggrend says the Vanilla Classic is not a solid foundation for competitive gameplay. It just isn’t there compared to BC.
It really wasn’t. Sweeping changes were made to classes in order to chase esports that improved the quality and depth of gameplay.
“largely unchanged” doesn’t mean “no changes”. There was some changes especially in PvP, but in PvE there wasn’t that much difference beyond having more abilities.