World of Warcraft: Classic Beta – My Thoughts So Far
As of Thursday 5/16/2019, I was invited to the Classic Beta. Everything has been going great a lot of memories from playing Vanilla. I started out with making a Human Paladin just like my first character, and while the Realms are pretty full especially for starting zones. This is mainly because the current level cap is level 30 on the Classic Beta.
While leveling, there are still plenty of people who run up and tag your mob before you have gotten a chance to do sufficient damage to tag it yourself. However, one thing that is also back is friendly players. What this means is people are more talkative, more likely to group up and help players. It feels like it did in Vanilla vs now in Battle For Azeroth where it feels more like a single player game. While I understand games evolve with people, I still believe that the introduction of the Dungeon Finder, Raid Finder, Cross Realm Zones, and Guild Levels (while they removed levels later) killed the social aspect of World of Warcraft, just like Gear Score did in the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion.
Now since the Beta has been live, many have seen the funny “This is Not a Bug” post from Blizzard. Which is going to happen, what people are not understanding it seems is that it has been fifteen years since Vanilla was live. While Blizzard Entertainment does have a reference server to check numbers, they did port it over to current server technology and architecture. On top of the technology changes, people are mis-remembering many things. This could be due to people who quit the game after the Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King and went to “Private Servers” or just from the fact it has been fifteen years.
Some of the issues also stem from players who never played Vanilla comparing it what they think it should be. I am not saying this is bad, as things could be a bug and it’s good to report it. Which is why the “Not a Bug List” is actually really important as it shows things that might be bugs but they were bugs in Vanilla so in order to recreate the experience they kept them in the game.
Now back to my experience so far, while leveling my Paladin everything was going smoothly I made it through Fargodeep without getting killed. I was thinking at that time something must be bugged I know Fargodeep Kobalds killed me multiple times in Vanilla. Well when I got to the Crystal Kelp Quest killing murloc, I was killing two at a time no issues and I made a comment, in general, it must be broken I haven’t died yet. Within moments I aggroed three murlocs and my Divine Shield was on Cooldown and died. I instantly said nope not broken.
What this is to me is an authentic experience, as World of Warcraft was a Social Game. What this means is you actually have to be semi-social and group up to do quests and take on large mob packs. You have to think carefully and pull select mobs or you will die. On top of that, you need to Crowd Control enemies. These are things that have been lost in the current World of Warcraft.
As of writing this my Paladin is Level 16, I have been enjoying the experience going slow. Doing Professions, as well as leveling up some alts for different Profession Benefits (like Bags). Westfall General Chat is currently broken as well as Barrens Chat (from my understanding). I have also gotten to test out a few addons that work currently in Classic. One of the most important ones to me is Immersion, as it allows you to feel more a part of the world and takes the wall of text of quest and turn it into a conversation.
I will be streaming World of Warcraft: Classic Beta periodically between school, work, and family. As well as posting more write ups of my experience and videos in the future. Happy Gaming everyone.
Here is a list of Addons that work or may not work and where to find them: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gLrmUgzzIxMExATvLdcjf60nHMwEKd4voWDTQB6JTcA/htmlview?sle=true#
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I completely agree with the social aspect of WoW being great back in Classic, but I’m worried that a lot of the players who wanted this are blinded by nostalgia and will end up being disappointed by the gaming experience.
I, for one, couldn’t go back to 40-man raid groups and quest items that were impossible to find. I have turned way too casual for that!
I agree many people are blinded by nostalgia. I am excited for Classic because I want to complete things I missed during Vanilla. People are already noticing dungeons have been easier than they remember because they understand the game better now then they ever did 15 years ago.
That’s a very good point.
I wonder if I would find Classic raiding more enjoyable now I’m a more experienced gamer. My memories of Ahn’Qiraj are blurry, but they invoke a feeling of dread in me.
It’s possible, though the thing to remember is there will be people who have never played Vanilla, as well as people who won’t research/prep for the raids. It’s true in Live now, so I am sure some of those people will carry over to Classic.
Oh yes. And there will be forty of them!
Haha yeah that could be the case, only time will tell. I still find it funny how many people think they will get to 60 in a week. I think maybe a month or so but a week you would need to be doing it nonstop.
Even with a month, you would need either a lot of spare time or a lot of people at hand to group up with for quests and dungeons.
Getting to max level used to be hard, after all.
I will agree it’s more time consuming and you definitely need groups for many quests because pulling one or two mobs is slow. That’s why I think a month which is pushing it will be the fastest players, while a few months for the average player.