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[AV]

Launching August 26th / 27th 2019​

What is WoW Classic?

On November 4th, 2017, at that year’s Blizzcon, Blizzard announced the release of WoW Classic. Classic refers to the base version of World of Warcraft, or vanilla as it’s commonly known. This version of the game is vastly different to the current iteration, and long-term fans have been asking for the ability to go back for many years. Finally, Blizzard have answered our prayers.

Why would I want to play an old version of WoW?

Many veteran players agree that World of Warcraft has seen a steady decline in quality over the course of its lifetime, with most agreeing that this began somewhere during the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard’s vision for the game shifted from an expansive, connected massively multiplayer world full of adventure, difficulty, challenge, rewards and community, to a theme park of instant gratification, ease of access, handouts and shortcut taking where everyone is a winner and nobody talks to each other.

Can’t I just play a private server?

You can! Most people (other than Blizzard, of course) have nothing against the use of private servers. However, these are fan-run servers that have never quite been 100% accurate and faithful to the original game, though some have come close. Many offer cash shops and gameplay modifiers that a lot of potential players find offputting, and even the best private servers have bugs that simply cannot be fixed without the full source code. There is also always the potential that Blizzard will shut down these servers, meaning you could potentially lose hundreds, if not thousands of hours of progress. Blizzard aren’t just creating their own private servers; they have a dedicated team working on the development of WoW Classic. Their idea is to integrate the old assets and database values into the modern WoW client, meaning that the game will be functionally identical, while retaining some more modern implementations such as Battle.net chat and support systems. More than that, because they're official, the servers won't be going away any time soon.

What’s changing?

From what we’ve seen, hopefully, very little. There are many aspects of vanilla that will completely turn off players who joined later in the game, and that’s fine – Classic is probably not going to be for those people. Classic fans want the game as close to the real thing as possible. However, there are some exceptions. For example, the ability to automatically retrieve an item from a piece of mail by control-clicking was added after vanilla. But there is no meaningful impact on gameplay by including this quality of life change, so this feature is making it in. Anything that remotely compromises the integrity of vanilla WoW seems to be excluded. Dungeon finder? Nope. Cross-realm? Nope. Achievements? Nope. For more on this topic, I strongly suggest watching the Blizzcon panel in the links below.

What will stay the same?

Again, the team seems to want to make the experience as close to true vanilla as they can, within reason. Some key aspects of vanilla compared to the current game include:

• 8 races, 9 classes, 60 levels, 2 Continents, 20 dungeons, 7 raids, 3 battlegrounds
• Leveling is a long, slow process that will take people weeks, probably months, to finish
• Without resorting to addons and guides, you have to find quests and read the text to find out what to do and where to go
• The minute-to-minute gameplay is much more difficult and enemies are a constant threat
• The sense of community is much greater; people work together on quests, buff each other, save one another from death and ganking, and generally communicate much more
• Dungeons and raids are challenging, vast, lengthy and greatly more rewarding
• The economy is much more balanced and make more sense – gold is actually important and requires time and effort to make, no more level 6 greens to 20g
• Raids require up to 40 people, and good teamwork is essential

Of course, there are many, many more great features about Vanilla, and plenty of things that people won’t like – but that’s all in the game, and I’m sure everything will be discussed at great length below.

So will this be the very first version of the game?

WoW Classic will use version 1.12 (the final vanilla patch) of the base game as the client version, meaning that many bugs found in the original version will be fixed. Many other aspects of the game changed between version 1.0 and 1.12, mostly class and item balances, and these will also be present. However, Blizzard plan to stagger the release of raid content – this means that all raids will not be available from the start, and will be gradually rolled out over the months following the game’s launch.

Sounds great! So when’s it out?

So far, our window of release is “Summer 2019”, meaning that if development the game is on track, it could be out somewhere in the next 3-6 months, roughly. In a recent post on the WoW forums, Blizzard promised more information soon (not soon™) , and finished the post with “get ready for a classic summer”, implying that development is going well! The game will be included as part of the standard WoW subscription, meaning you will have to pay to play Classic, but will also have access to the current retail experience.

Will The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King etc. servers come later?

We don't know yet. Right now, people are mostly glad that we're getting vanilla, and it makes sense to get that right first. However, it's not unreasonable to think that down the line, TBC and maybe WotLK servers will be a thing. TBC/WotLK is widely regarded as the peak of World of Warcraft, as is also when the player base reached its peak. It's also not unreasonable to expect the classic experience to stop after that, as Cataclysm is when some huge, irreversible changes were made to the world, and most players consider Cataclysm as the start of what we know as modern WoW.

Got any links for more information?

Affirmative.

Official Announcement Trailer
Official Forum
March 2019 Update Post
Classic WoW Reddit
"Restoring History" Blizzon Panel (Fascinating, all eager fans should watch)
Esfand's Classic WoW Podcast
Dev Watercooler Post
Find people you used to play with

All of this is very overwhelming. How do I prepare for Classic?

The main reason I wanted to start this OT, and start it now, was so that anyone interested can prepare for Classic in plenty of time. Even if you're a returning player, there's a lot you might not have thought about, and no-one wants to log in on launch day and stare at menus for an hour. Here's a checklist of things you should consider if you're serious about returning to Azeroth, or visiting for the first time.

• PvE vs. PvP servers: some find the prospect of world PvP at all levels exhilarating; others find it a nightmare. Make sure that if you choose a PvP server you're prepared for what the decision entails. Some areas will quickly become all-out warzones, including some mid-level places like Redridge and Ashenvale.
• Do you plan on playing with friends? You'll need to all choose the same server and faction. Regardless, are you going to be an Alliance or Horde player?
• The above will dictate which of the 4 races you can choose. Those races then dictate which classes you can play, though your class should be your top decision making priority.
• After that, what spec will you play? Dual spec is not a viable option in Vanilla. Are you ready to level as a healer and sacrifice some damage outside of dungeons? What will you play at end game? Remember that in Vanilla raiding, the viable specs are far more limited than at retail. You will likely not be tanking Naxxramas as a Paladin, nor DPSing as a boomkin.
• What professions will you take up? Do you want to make buckets of gold by farming, or craft the best gear possible?
• Do you have the time to play? Leveling alone will take hundreds of hours. Then you'll spend hundreds more gearing up, farming materials, and raiding. Most raid guilds raid 3 nights a week for 4 hours or so. Can you commit to that?
• Are you going to plan a leveling route for getting to 60 quickly, or are you going to take your time and decide where to go on a whim?

Whatever you want to do, however you want to play, we're all in it together. Please feel free to ask any questions you have in this OT, pre-organise guilds and battleground groups, find other players in your timezone, post your character, launch and progression plans, whatever you like.

We're going home.

 

[AV]

Feel free to send any feedback/corrections on anything I've posted / do post in the OP above. I'll try and remember to update with major news, but won't be checking back every single day.

Me personally, I'll be rolling a Night Elf Druid. Not a big Nelf fan, but I absolutely want to play Alliance, and Druid is the only class I never played much. The jack-of-all-trades thing really sounds appealing to me in vanilla; level as a Tank/DPS feral hybrid for easy dungeon grouping and questing, switch to a healer at 60 for end-game raids, since that's basically the only viable spec. Be the designated flag carrying bear in WSG. Abuse my travel form and gather up herbs quicker than anyone else. Spend far too much gold on a Warden Staff at level 43.

Until then, I'm satisfying the cravings by powerleveling a hunter on a private server. Boy, did I forgot how easily they chew through the solo content compared to other classes.

 

[-MD-]

I played from 2006-2010, I'll probably jump back in for awhile with some friends I met in the game that I still play with.

Not sure what I'll roll, I played an Affliction lock in vanilla/BC and a Shadow priest in Wrath.

 

[Ownage]

Dwarf Hunter.

 

[niilokin]

Enjoyed warrior on private server so most likely that. Rogue too, which has been my main since vanilla.

 

[cr0w]

Ah, vanilla WoW. Played the shit out of it and was along for the ride up until Cataclysm. Lots of good memories there, but I have a feeling about 75% of players logging into Classic when it launches will last about a week and bolt after the nostalgia goggles come off. It just takes so long to do anything, most people who played the OG game just don't have that kind of time anymore. I know I don't.

Still might sub for a little while just for the feels going into Elwynn, Ironforge, Undercity or Org for the first time. I wonder if Barrens chat is going to be a thing again.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Why did communication and teamwork/helping others die as the game “advanced?”

 

[AV]

Why did communication and teamwork/helping others die as the game “advanced?”

Many reasons:

• In vanilla, you could not solo many quests, and would have to find people to do them with, generally by using that zone's general chat. This is even true for many "1 player" quests in areas with big clusters of enemies. In the current game, basically all quests are not only achievable solo, but incredibly easy.
• Because of how easy enemies were to kill, you didn't need buffs from other players, and would rarely ever need to save anyone from a tight situation.
• The addition of dungeon finder meant you could click "join group", get instantly teleported to the dungeon, faceroll through it without paying much attention, and leave without saying a word, no teamwork necessary.
• Dungeon finder also meant nobody manually looked for groups - in vanilla, you might take a while to do this, but you'd get talking to the people in your group while you made it.
• Dungeon finder also meant that people would just sit in cities and level by doing nothing but dungeons, so you'd never see these characters out in the game world. Fuck dungeon finder.
• LFR (babby's first raid difficulty) could almost be done blindfolded. You need basically no communication to finish it, there are players who only do LFR, which is fine for casual players, but they never have to speak to anyone in the raid about what's actually happening in the fight. Vanilla, of course, didn't have this. If you were raiding, you were raiding, one difficulty level, that's it.
• People these days have so many side characters, due to how easy it is now to have many, they will usually do any trade work (crafting armour etc.) on one of those. Back in the day, you could become well known on your server as, say, a master tailor, advertising in the trade channel, getting tips for doing work, etc. I had people on my friends list because they were best-on-server enchanters, for example.

Of course, there are still guilds in the current game, so people do still communicate, and mechanically speaking raiding is harder than ever (at the top difficulty level), so you will need to employ great teamwork. But outside of those walled-off instances with your guild, you never need to speak to or see another person in this "MMORPG".

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Many reasons:

• In vanilla, you could not solo many quests, and would have to find people to do them with, generally by using that zone's general chat. This is even true for many "1 player" quests in areas with big clusters of enemies. In the current game, basically all quests are not only achievable solo, but incredibly easy.
• Because of how easy enemies were to kill, you didn't need buffs from other players, and would rarely ever need to save anyone from a tight situation.
• The addition of dungeon finder meant you could click "join group", get instantly teleported to the dungeon, faceroll through it without paying much attention, and leave without saying a word, no teamwork necessary.
• Dungeon finder also meant nobody manually looked for groups - in vanilla, you might take a while to do this, but you'd get talking to the people in your group while you made it.
• Dungeon finder also meant that people would just sit in cities and level by doing nothing but dungeons, so you'd never see these characters out in the game world. Fuck dungeon finder.
• LFR (babby's first raid difficulty) could almost be done blindfolded. You need basically no communication to finish it, there are players who only do LFR, which is fine for casual players, but they never have to speak to anyone in the raid about what's actually happening in the fight. Vanilla, of course, didn't have this. If you were raiding, you were raiding, one difficulty level, that's it.
• People these days have so many side characters, due to how easy it is now to have many, they will usually do any trade work (crafting armour etc.) on one of those. Back in the day, you could become well known on your server as, say, a master tailor, advertising in the trade channel, getting tips for doing work, etc. I had people on my friends list because they were best-on-server enchanters, for example.

Of course, there are still guilds in the current game, so people do still communicate, and mechanically speaking raiding is harder than ever (at the top difficulty level), so you will need to employ great teamwork. But outside of those walled-off instances with your guild, you never need to speak to or see another person in this "MMORPG".

Fascinating.

Most of my experience with with WoW was well past Vanilla days. I might have to give this a shot

 

[Kathanan]

Im will roll a orc enhancment shaman, undead/human mage , human paladin and nightelf feral druid. Its going to be sweet.

 

[nkarafo]

I applaud this since vanilla was the best but i had my time with it. No time or energy anymore to return. Especially considering the dedication it needs.

I have my good memories and thats all i need.

 

[cubicle47b]

One of the other big issues with the modern game is sharding and cross-realm raids/dungeons/battlegrounds. You used to actually build relationships with people on your server (both friendships and rivalries). Now you rarely meet the same person twice out in the world.

 

[Silver Wattle]

Is patch 1.12 before the burning crusade pre expansion patch? Because I don't see the point if it is the BC patch.

Concerning "nostalgia goggles", vanilla wow is a journey not a race, this is exactly what we want.

 

[lefty1117]

WOTLK would make sense as the cutoff point in terms of subsequent expansions, both for gameplay and also story reasons.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Many reasons:

• In vanilla, you could not solo many quests, and would have to find people to do them with, generally by using that zone's general chat. This is even true for many "1 player" quests in areas with big clusters of enemies. In the current game, basically all quests are not only achievable solo, but incredibly easy.
• Because of how easy enemies were to kill, you didn't need buffs from other players, and would rarely ever need to save anyone from a tight situation.
• The addition of dungeon finder meant you could click "join group", get instantly teleported to the dungeon, faceroll through it without paying much attention, and leave without saying a word, no teamwork necessary.
• Dungeon finder also meant nobody manually looked for groups - in vanilla, you might take a while to do this, but you'd get talking to the people in your group while you made it.
• Dungeon finder also meant that people would just sit in cities and level by doing nothing but dungeons, so you'd never see these characters out in the game world. Fuck dungeon finder.
• LFR (babby's first raid difficulty) could almost be done blindfolded. You need basically no communication to finish it, there are players who only do LFR, which is fine for casual players, but they never have to speak to anyone in the raid about what's actually happening in the fight. Vanilla, of course, didn't have this. If you were raiding, you were raiding, one difficulty level, that's it.
• People these days have so many side characters, due to how easy it is now to have many, they will usually do any trade work (crafting armour etc.) on one of those. Back in the day, you could become well known on your server as, say, a master tailor, advertising in the trade channel, getting tips for doing work, etc. I had people on my friends list because they were best-on-server enchanters, for example.

Of course, there are still guilds in the current game, so people do still communicate, and mechanically speaking raiding is harder than ever (at the top difficulty level), so you will need to employ great teamwork. But outside of those walled-off instances with your guild, you never need to speak to or see another person in this "MMORPG".

A few things, even though you pretty much had to group up to do certain quests at a decent pace and for elite quests - you could very well do many of the quests solo. For the few that you didn't, you would find a group in the zone quickly knock out the quest and disband. This was very common during Vanilla. You most certainly didn't need buffs to succeed, but they did help speed up the process.

As for dungeons, outside of a handful of the later game ones - you really didn't need to pay much attention. Ragefire, Zul'Farak, etc - all very easy with little thought needing to go into it. Also finding groups was rather tedious. Could take anywhere between 2 minutes to multiple hours, not counting the time you needed to spend inside of the dungeon. You rarely spoke with the people in your group while finding others. The most common phrase was "Hey, do you know anyone in your guild that is willing to tank/heal/dps [dungeon]?"

As for the "people only sit in cities to do dungeons", it sounds like you haven't played Legion or BFA as that has not been the case for a long time. If you wanted to Mythics, which you pretty much need to, you need to rely on "classic" vanilla modes of going to the entrance, summoning, and finding people outside of dungeon finder.

Your denigration of LFR, while apt, is also a bit silly considering many of the raids were just as easy to knock out. Once you got past Molten Core and Onyxia, you could sleep walk your way through everything, even in pugs with half decent leadership. Yes, there was only one "difficulty", but that difficulty was pretty bloody easy. The hardest parts of the vanilla raiding experience was ensuring you had 40 people geared and ready to play. Lose one, and you had to spend the time to find another and have them geared up in old, easy raids like MC.

As for crafting, that is still a thing. Not many will have the Alchemist Dragon mount or the 3 star ranking (at least in Legion) of certain recipes, which makes things a lot easier and cheaper for the user. They were well sought after and in high demand.

I am excited for Vanilla, just to be able to play in the old world again - but I don't have my rose-tinted goggles on. There were tremendous issues with Vanilla and many of them got remedied through subsequent patches and expansions.

 

[haxan7]

During the years a lot of people were playing WoW, I was playing Final Fantasy XI, so never really gave it a shot.

Was always curious about it (tried it for a around 2008 few weeks which culminated in me getting a bad migraine, so dropped it to play FFXI on console). I'll definitely at least buy this version to see how it is.

 

[Acerac]

Dang I got excited when I saw this thread that it may have been moved up timewise.

Had a Hell of a time playing on Nostalrius and a couple other servers. Leveling on a PvP server and doing all the dungeons as you go is an experience.

*Edit*

Pro-tip: If you are ever getting camped go make a sandwich and take your time getting back. Nobody waits that long if the player doesn't look like they'll rez, and if for some crazy reason they did you won anyways cuz they just wasted ages staring at your dead ass.

 

[EviLore]

Great thread! Just a heads up, though, the convention is |OT|s for games within a day of release. I've changed the thread title so that folks don't get confused.

 

[Joe T.]

I skipped over WoW when it was released and didn't get a taste until WotLK went live (Arthas may be my all time favorite video game villain) because I was absolutely glued to Final Fantasy XI at the time, but the idea of officially run classic servers is very appealing to me, so I may give it a go if I can convince a friend or two to dive back in with me. I may have to wait it out until the cooler autumn months, though, don't want to find myself glued to my monitor during summer.

 

[ThatGamingDude]

I'll give it a taste when it does come up, but I've done the WoW private vanilla server thing a few times now and never get myself to the end game, so I personally don't think I'll end up sticking with it

Not saying I love WoW's current state of things either, and there's a lot about vanilla that was awesome, I just find the time sink a little more tedious as I got older.

Personally, I'd be looking for a more fresh experience but in the vanilla engine and balances etc; I did the raid thing for too long back then for it to be appealing to me, so something new with that version of the game would be pretty cool imo.

Hope it turns out to everyone's likings! Though I will probably pass in the long run

 

[Orenji Neko]

I hope the summer 2019 window ends up being accurate. The thought of playing classic WoW is immensely appealing to me because, admittedly, I was so into this game several years ago.

 

[Bogey]

Great thread! I played wow on and off since vanilla beta, but stopped for good somewhen halfway though the previous add on.

A while ago I was stumbling upon a vanilla video from nost, just random leveling. Was a slow weekend and I thought I'd just hop onto that server. Truth be told, I didn't expect to play longer than an juror two, as I thought the game would sick by modern standards. Even longer ago, I revisited dark age of Camelot, and boy did that suck. I played that to death when it released, but couldn't last more than 30 minutes anymore. Thought the same would happen for wow vanilla.

By the end of my first Friday evening, barely a few hours in, I already had bit more than 5 people on my friend list. More than I ever added in the 5 or so preceding years of retail wow.

That weekend went by without me seeing much daylight. I was HOOKED. That was around a year before nost shut down.
When that happened, part of me was relieved. At that point I was even postponing business trips just so I could rank up more in pvp. I wasn't just hooked, but properly addicted.

In spite of having had seen already during real vanilla already, the sense of exploration was still real. Vanilla was so long ago that I had forgotten much of the cool stuff, and I even discovered plenty of things and places I had never seen back then.

The community was phenomenal. Found a ton of great friends, and was in 2 exceptionally cool guilds - also something I hadn't experienced in the previous 5 years or so of retail. Which I was surely to blame for too, but I guess that is exactly the point. There seem to be game elements in classic that most really encourage socializing, and that was just the consequence then.

Tlr; played private servers not expecting to even enjoy that longer than for more than an hour. Ended up totally addicted and maybe even having more fun than during original vanilla.

 

[Fuz]

Dungeon finder also meant nobody manually looked for groups - in vanilla, you might take a while to do this, but you'd get talking to the people in your group while you made it.

Yeah, the talking part was usually insults because of rolling.
And if you were a DPS you had to wait 3 hours sitting in a single fucking place to find a group for those insults.

Dungeon finder also meant that people would just sit in cities and level by doing nothing but dungeons

No dungeon finder meant that people would just sit in cities while spamming "LFG! LFG! LFG!", "PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CAN A TANK JOIN US? WE'RE HERE SINCE THURSDAY!" and the likes.

No thanks.

Your rose tinted glasses are gonna be shattered soon.

 

[Fuz]

The most common phrase was "Hey, do you know anyone in your guild that is willing to tank/heal/dps [dungeon]?"

Ahahahah oh god yes.

 

[AV]

Great thread! Just a heads up, though, the convention is |OT|s for games within a day of release. I've changed the thread title so that folks don't get confused.

Ah okay, thanks for the change. I think I misread something in Cormack's claim thread.

A few things, even though you pretty much had to group up to do certain quests at a decent pace and for elite quests - you could very well do many of the quests solo. For the few that you didn't, you would find a group in the zone quickly knock out the quest and disband. This was very common during Vanilla. You most certainly didn't need buffs to succeed, but they did help speed up the process.

As for dungeons, outside of a handful of the later game ones - you really didn't need to pay much attention. Ragefire, Zul'Farak, etc - all very easy with little thought needing to go into it. Also finding groups was rather tedious. Could take anywhere between 2 minutes to multiple hours, not counting the time you needed to spend inside of the dungeon. You rarely spoke with the people in your group while finding others. The most common phrase was "Hey, do you know anyone in your guild that is willing to tank/heal/dps [dungeon]?"

As for the "people only sit in cities to do dungeons", it sounds like you haven't played Legion or BFA as that has not been the case for a long time. If you wanted to Mythics, which you pretty much need to, you need to rely on "classic" vanilla modes of going to the entrance, summoning, and finding people outside of dungeon finder.

Your denigration of LFR, while apt, is also a bit silly considering many of the raids were just as easy to knock out. Once you got past Molten Core and Onyxia, you could sleep walk your way through everything, even in pugs with half decent leadership. Yes, there was only one "difficulty", but that difficulty was pretty bloody easy. The hardest parts of the vanilla raiding experience was ensuring you had 40 people geared and ready to play. Lose one, and you had to spend the time to find another and have them geared up in old, easy raids like MC.

As for crafting, that is still a thing. Not many will have the Alchemist Dragon mount or the 3 star ranking (at least in Legion) of certain recipes, which makes things a lot easier and cheaper for the user. They were well sought after and in high demand.

I am excited for Vanilla, just to be able to play in the old world again - but I don't have my rose-tinted goggles on. There were tremendous issues with Vanilla and many of them got remedied through subsequent patches and expansions.

Your rose tinted glasses are gonna be shattered soon.

Just for context, I played from 2005 until a few weeks into Cata (really didn't like it), then came back to raid for all of WoD (ouch) and most of Legion (better, but still not what I was looking for). I've also recently spent ~40 hours on a private vanilla server.

Sure, your quest group might be quick, but you'd get to talking. I recently took on those islands in the middle of Loch Modan (not an elite quest, nigh-impossible to solo without out-levelling) with a mage and we chatted for a good half an hour, then made a dungeon group together. That hasn't happened in retail for a long time.

"You rarely spoke with the people in your group while finding others" is bewildering to me, in vanilla we always chatted while making the groups. It's how I made friends, and after you made a few friends, finding dungeon groups no longer took hours. You'd prove yourself a worthy group member and then the tanks and healers would happily make quick groups with you. This was the case all through TBC as well. I can't comment on modern mythic dungeons, I did some up to +12 IIRC but I did them with guildies. They were quite fun, admittedly.

I think saying LFR (where some people literally just auto attack) is "just as easy to knock out" as vanilla Naxx is bonkers and disingenuous, and I think you know that. Yes, experienced raiders will probably find Naxx easy than many others, but it's still a fraction of the population that sees that stuff. I never got to raid Naxx in vanilla, so I'm looking forward to it.

I think this whole "rose tinted glasses" argument is complete bogus, not only considering (what's probably by now) around 1.5 million people that play classic already on privates, but more personally considering those 40 hours I spent on a a private and absolutely loved it. I've spoken to more strangers, made more random groups and died more out in the world than any time since... maybe Wrath? The only reason I haven't played more is because I know the official one's coming. I know it's hard to swallow that some people want this back, and many won't, but many of us really do. It's "you think you want it..." all over again.

Maybe we just had vastly different vanilla experiences, maybe I have a higher tolerance for the bad stuff after finding modern WoW really, really boring outside of raiding. I just think that what you might consider "tremendous issues" that have been "remedied" over the years is what has actually caused the player base of retail to drop steadily over time.

 

[Mecha Meow]

I played about 180+ days (1000+ days /played overall) time in vanilla and will not be returning. I actually really really hated the player models at the time in 2005 and found them to be subpar compared to the ones in GW1 and FFXI at the time.

If it had the option for improved visuals/models I might have leveled up my original female tauren (and female orc, I leveled up two in vanilla) enhance shaman again and stayed PVP only.

FFXIV:Shadowbringers puts a hamper on those plans as well.

 

[Viliger]

I thought they finally announced the release date, but it was just a bait thread. Oh well.

Your rose tinted glasses are gonna be shattered soon.

What are private servers and how do I play them. Inb4 "they are free thought", which is not an argument.

 

[AV]

I thought they finally announced the release date, but it was just a bait thread. Oh well.

Not bait, just didn't know OTs were supposed to wait. Speaking of release dates, though, whaddya reckon? The messaging on the last blue post of "a classic summer" implies we can play during summer rather than at the end, but that's just optimistic speculation.

 

[JohnSpartanLee]

Currently on my way to beating Diablo 2 LoD on Hell difficulty for the first time. It's starting to get boring and I'm really longing for some original World of Warcraft leveling now - the version where it's actually possible to die while doing so. I also hope for the new player models though.

Gonna play every race except Gnome again:
male Tauren Enhancement Shaman (main character), male Orc Warrior, female Troll Hunter, female Undead Warlock, male Human Warrior, female Human Mage, male Dwarf Paladin and a Night Elf Druid

 

[Viliger]

Speaking of release dates, though, whaddya reckon?

July 16 is Tuesday, so I guess it lines up with their release schedule.

 

[AV]

July 16 is Tuesday, so I guess it lines up with their release schedule.

Yeah I saw this, I can buy it as an internal dev "we'll tease it and if we can't make that date, deny it was ever legit" thing. It's the sort of dweebish thing I do as a dev, but I make really boring software.

I've already taken a week off work in June as just a mid-year break, but I think a July release date might cause me to shift that around...

 

[Melubas]

I really want to play this, I loved vanilla and it kind of took over my life for a few years. Sadly I just don't have the time anymore. If I did play I would roll a druid this time, used to play Paladin and I love the hybrid philosophy in vanilla, especially in PVP.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Ah okay, thanks for the change. I think I misread something in Cormack's claim thread.





Just for context, I played from 2005 until a few weeks into Cata (really didn't like it), then came back to raid for all of WoD (ouch) and most of Legion (better, but still not what I was looking for). I've also recently spent ~40 hours on a private vanilla server.

Interesting! I personally played from its beta until a few weeks ago when I cancelled my subscription, mostly due to my mythic raiding team breaking up and waiting until 8.2 before I hop back in and start raiding again. Focusing my time with other games and playing FFXIV.

Sure, your quest group might be quick, but you'd get to talking. I recently took on those islands in the middle of Loch Modan (not an elite quest, nigh-impossible to solo without out-levelling) with a mage and we chatted for a good half an hour, then made a dungeon group together. That hasn't happened in retail for a long time.

"You rarely spoke with the people in your group while finding others" is bewildering to me, in vanilla we always chatted while making the groups. It's how I made friends, and after you made a few friends, finding dungeon groups no longer took hours. You'd prove yourself a worthy group member and then the tanks and healers would happily make quick groups with you. This was the case all through TBC as well. I can't comment on modern mythic dungeons, I did some up to +12 IIRC but I did them with guildies. They were quite fun, admittedly.

Those were not near-impossible to solo at the level they were at. You just needed to eat drink as you knock your way through the mobs on the isle and position yourself decently so you don't pull 3-4 different mobs (which would kill you). Don't get me wrong, I did randomly quest with people and converse, but it wasn't like it was 24/7. It happened every couple of days, if that and less and less as you got higher in levels. By the time you were max level, you rarely spoke with people and instead focused your time on one of the various chat applications with your guild. Of course, each person has their own experience and this was the general experience of my friends, former guildmates, and colleagues at the time.

I think saying LFR (where some people literally just auto attack) is "just as easy to knock out" as vanilla Naxx is bonkers and disingenuous, and I think you know that. Yes, experienced raiders will probably find Naxx easy than many others, but it's still a fraction of the population that sees that stuff. I never got to raid Naxx in vanilla, so I'm looking forward to it.

Naxx was an easy raid, but the issue was that there were no catch-up mechanics. If you lose a tank (probably the worst thing to lose), healer, or DPS during progression you would need to recruit someone new and then run 10s of hours of old content to get them the gear so they can do their job. That was the biggest reason why most didn't play Naxx during vanilla.

Also please re-read what I wrote. I did not mention Naxx as a pugged raid. "Once you got past Molten Core and Onyxia, you could sleep walk your way through everything, even in pugs with half decent leadership." Admittedly I did a poor job wording it, but I was referring to raids like MC and Onyxia. They were incredibly easy that anyone could do without requiring the strategies and teamwork that you had suggested in your post.

I think this whole "rose tinted glasses" argument is complete bogus, not only considering (what's probably by now) around 1.5 million people that play classic already on privates, but more personally considering those 40 hours I spent on a a private and absolutely loved it. I've spoken to more strangers, made more random groups and died more out in the world than any time since... maybe Wrath? The only reason I haven't played more is because I know the official one's coming. I know it's hard to swallow that some people want this back, and many won't, but many of us really do. It's "you think you want it..." all over again.

People will play a game for free. If those were paid servers, I guarantee you that number would be less than half. Now, of course there will be people that want the original game back, hell, I am one of them (if only for archival and nostalgic value)! I just don't think the game is still this infallible, perfect thing that I keep seeing from Vanilla-Diehards. It had its problems and, while I enjoyed my time with it, I don't want to experience those headaches and poor design choices in the modern day - at least to the level that I did back when it was relevant.

Maybe we just had vastly different vanilla experiences, maybe I have a higher tolerance for the bad stuff after finding modern WoW really, really boring outside of raiding. I just think that what you might consider "tremendous issues" that have been "remedied" over the years is what has actually caused the player base of retail to drop steadily over time.

Time will cause any game to dwindle. It was 6 years into its run when it started to decline in numbers and it is currently over 14 years old. The fact that it still had 3+ million players as of BFA is a testament to how well the game's designed. I don't know of a single game that has maintained its popularity that long after its launch, especially when it requires a subscription. Even League and DOTA2, F2P games, have declined in numbers over time.

 

[demented waffle]

Hmm either gnome mage mustard face or troll shaman. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Shifty]

This is fascinating. I never got in on WoW back in the day, somewhat conflicted on whether I want to jump into classic to see what I missed.

Maybe I'll just experience it vicariously on YouTube. Hmm...

 

[JohnSpartanLee]

^ Gotta try it, man - it's like the Dark Souls of MMOs!

Spoiler

Someone had to do it.

 

[AV]

Reply

Great response, thanks - I'm not going to quote it all to save space.

I was definitely a little hyperbolic in my "near impossible" stance - I think what I was trying to convey was that realistically, you would do a quest like that with at least one other person because it would save you a lot of time. I'm sure you know, with many mobs you'd have no choice but to pull a group of 3-4 and then run until a few of them peeled back. Rinse, repeat, eat, drink. The main point is that I did that and got into a group & conversation with a random gnome mage, which if I continued to play that server, may have blossomed into a game friendship. That hadn't happened to me in retail since probably WotLK.

We'll have to wait and see on the numbers front. I personally think people are going to be really surprised by the popularity, although yes, a lot of people will absolutely quit before level 20. I think while some people don't want to pay, there's going to be a whole crowd of other people (myself included) who have waited to pay Blizzard for an official classic server, rather than potentially wasting hundreds of hours on a private that will close down. It's super interesting to think how this might pan out one way or another.

And yeah, finally, I can definitely agree that vanilla had its flaws. But some of those flaws are what made it so endearing, even if some are simultaneously frustrating. The idea of having to go back to a major city to learn skills every 2 levels sounds tedious on paper, but after playing a private recently, I loved it - it forced me to actually move around the world more instead of just living zone-to-zone and rushing to endgame.

This is fascinating. I never got in on WoW back in the day, somewhat conflicted on whether I want to jump into classic to see what I missed. Maybe I'll just experience it vicariously on YouTube. Hmm...

Classic is going to be at its most wild and fun in the first few weeks (the first 48 hours might be a little rough) when everyone is progressing together. I would absolutely suggest jumping in at the start - as far as I can tell it's only the subscription, there's no flat fee for the client. Even if you don't have the time to invest in playing a lot, leveling a character out in the world, progressing through that content, through dungeons, is a blast. Definitely give it a go, and if you get to level 15 and hate it, it's not too much time wasted.

 

[Dragagon]

Allods Online still beats it for me compared to WOW. I really tried WOW but the art is off putting, looks so outdated

 

[llien]

Once you got past Molten Core and Onyxia, you could sleep walk your way through everything, even in pugs with half decent leadership.

Erm, while I agree with most of your post, this comment puzzles me.
MC is very basic and, bar Majordomo/final boss quite straightforward compared to what comes next, namely:
1) BWL
2) AQ40

And even 20 men like Zul'Gurub and AQ20 look much more challenging than MC/Onyxia (#moredots) to me

 

[Lanrutcon]

hmmm does this mean we're going back to days where Paladins were god kings and Shamans had a million totem issues? I remember Vanilla. Shamans had issues compared to their Alliance counterparts.

 

[Ulysses 31]

hmmm does this mean we're going back to days where Paladins were god kings and Shamans had a million totem issues? I remember Vanilla. Shamans had issues compared to their Alliance counterparts.

I read it will be based on version 1.12 of the game which was on of the last versions before the expansion.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I read it will be based on version 1.12 of the game which was on of the last versions before the expansion.

I will be interested to see what class changes made it in. Like, wasn't Bloodlust stacking only removed later?

Edit: Nvm, Bloodlust wasn't even in yet. Totems still had to moved and only affected parties. We're going back to Dwarf Priests and Fear Ward. Omg.

 

[llien]

World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.12 - Drums of War
Cross-Realm Battlegrounds
For the first time in the history of World of Warcraft, you will be able to face off against players from other realms in the Battlegrounds. PvP Battlegrounds link Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin so that players from several realms will be combined into one huge matchmaking pool. Replenish your mana, sharpen your blades, and get ready for some brand-new challengers!

World PvP
The stage is set for intense, objective-based land battles as Horde and Alliance vie for control over important strategic positions and resources around Azeroth. Head out for Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands to engage the enemy on the field!



General

• Threat Reduction Effects
  • This system has been redesigned to eliminate inconsistency in how the effects work. Previously, some were additive (for example: 30% reduction + 20% reduction = 50% reduction) while others were multiplicative (30% reduction and 20% reduction made 44% reduction, from 0.7*0.8). They are now all multiplicative. This also prevents unpredictable behavior when the total reduction percentage was equal to or greater than 100%. Please note that in almost all cases, when stacking multiple threat reduction effects you will experience less threat reduction than previously.
• Haste and Slow effects
  • Previously Haste and Slow effects worked inconsistently, with spells working differently from weapons, and hastes and slows not acting as inverses of each other. We have revised the system so that all haste and slow effects work the same way, and haste and slow percentages of the same magnitude perfectly cancel each other out (30% haste and 30% slow combine to no change). As a result, we had to change the tooltip numbers on all spell haste effects, and on all melee and range slow effects. The numbers in the tooltips are different, but the game functionality is unchanged (other than slight rounding errors). Those tooltips that changed will now display larger numbers than they used to display. Conceptually, haste values indicate how much more of that activity you can perform in a given time. 30% melee haste means 30% more swings in a given time. Slow values indicate how much longer an activity takes to complete. 30% slow means an action takes 30% longer to finish.
• The deserter debuff will now continue to expire even while you are offline.
• Honorable Kills now diminish at a rate 10% per kill rather than 25% per kill.
• Temporary item buffs (e.g. poisons, sharpening stones and shaman weapon buffs) will no longer persist through zoning or logging out due to technical issues. This feature is anticipated to be activated once more with the expansion.

Druids

• [Barkskin]: The tooltip has been changed to 25% due to the haste effect change.
• [Cat Form]: This form now has an innate threat reduction component.
• [Ferocious Bite]: Book of Ferocious Bite (Rank 5) now drops off The Beast in Blackrock Spire. In addition, Ferocious Bite now increases in potency with greater attack power.
• [Furor]: This talent now works correctly with Cat Form again.
• [Improved Shred]: The discounted cost for Shred will now be displayed correctly even when you are not in Cat Form.
• [Rip]: Lesser potency Rips will no longer overwrite greater potency ones.
• Fixed a bug where the incorrect sound was being played by the [Claw] attack.

Hunters

• [Spirit Bond]: This ability will now be correctly reapplied when you resurrect in a battleground and your pet is polymorphed or otherwise unable to act normally.
• [Improved Concussive Shot]: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the hunter is killed before their shot reaches the target.
• [Growl] now correctly initiates combat when used by a pet in passive mode.
• The [Ferocity] talent now correctly applies to non-physical hunter pet abilities such as Lightning Breath and Thunderstomp.
• If a hunter has tamed one of the following creature types, they will no longer potentially change colors if resummoned:
  • Son of Hakkar - Red
  • Frenzied Bloodseeker Bat - Brown
  • Deep Stinger - Red
  • Dark Screecher - Gray
  • Cave Creeper - Brown
  • Bloodaxe Worg - Black
  • Scarshield Worg - Brown

Mages

• [Arcane Missiles]: It is no longer possible to cast this spell on an evading mob. In addition, the animation will now stop when the target is dead.
• [Arcane Power]: It is no longer possible to gain the benefit of this spell and Power Infusion at the same time by careful timing.
• [Frost Armor] Chilled effect: Due to the haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 25%.
• [Ice Armor] Chilled effect: Due to the haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 25%.
• Ignite: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• [Impact]: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• [Frostbite]: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• [Polymorph]: This spell will now be removed when a player leaves a battleground. This prevents some bugs involving polymorph from occurring.
• [Evocation] will no longer be usable while silenced.
• Reduced the number of messages that appear in the combat log when using [Combustion].
• [Winter's Chill]: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.

Paladins

• [Divine Shield]: Due to the haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 100%.

Priests

• [Mind Control]: Due to the haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 25%.
• [Psychic Scream]: This spell now uses the same resistance checks as the Warlock spell [Fear].
• [Spirit of Redemption]: Fixed an issue preventing Twisting Nether from retriggering when the Spirit of Redemption effect runs out.

Rogues

• Due to significant talent changes, Rogues will have all talent points refunded and can be re-spent. Training costs for all talent spell replacements have been significantly reduced.
• [Vanish] now removes effects that allow the caster to always remain aware of their target (currently [Hunter's Mark] and [Mind Vision]).
• [Pick Pocket] can now be used on targets that are in combat, as long as the rogue remains stealthed.
• All manner of rogue reagents can be found in locked junkboxes (obtained from pickpocketing).
• Fixed a bug where the [Slice and Dice] ability wasn't playing an animation.
• [Lethargy Root] has been removed from poison vendors and is now a gray item.
• Reduced the number of messages in the combat log when using the [Vanish] ability.
• Fixed a bug that made Combo Points disappear from your target when using [Vanish].
• [Eviscerate]: Manual of Eviscerate (Rank 9) now drops off Blackhand Assassins in Blackrock Spire. In addition, Eviscerate now increases in potency with greater attack power.
• [Garrote]: The damage from this ability has been increased. In addition, Garrote now increases in potency with greater attack power.
• [Relentless Strikes]: This ability will no longer trigger when your finishing move does not hit your target.
• [Rupture]: Rupture now increases in potency with greater attack power.
• [Sap]: Enemy rogues will now always lose stealth when you Sap them.

Shaman

• [Reincarnation] should now display the cooldown timer when used.
• [Chain Heal] - After the initial target is healed, the healing effect will jump to the most damaged target (by absolute health) within range. In addition, if a raid member is the initial target it will look for valid raid targets to jump to rather than non-raid targets as a priority, making it consistent with group targeted Chain Heals.
• [Lightning Shield]: Air Bubble pockets in underwater regions will no longer consume a charge from this spell.

Warlocks

• [Cripple] (Doomguard): Due to haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 45%.
• [Curse of Tongues]: This spell will no longer debuff the target if they are immune to the spellcast slowing effect
• [Enslave Demon]: Due to haste effect change, the tooltip has been changed to 40%.
• [Health Funnel]: This spell will now work correctly on low-level enslaved demons.
• [Howl of Terror]: This spell now uses the same resistance checks as the Warlock spell [Fear].
• [Siphon Life] will now properly gain a benefit from [Shadow Mastery].
• A soul shard will be refunded to the caster any time a summoned pet despawns rather than dies.
• [Aftermath]: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• [Improved Shadow Bolt]: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the caster is killed before their spell reaches the target.
• [Life Tap]: This spell now benefits from effects which increase your spell damage. At rank 3 and above, the base amount of health lost and mana gained will increase by 80% of your bonus spell damage effects. Talents and items can further modify those values. Rank 1 and 2 receive reduced effect.

Warriors

• [Bloodthirst]: This ability will now correctly benefit from attack power bonuses versus specific creature types.
• [Flurry]: The text on the tooltip has been corrected to indicate it triggers on all types of attacks.
• [Shield Slam]: This ability will sometimes no longer remove more than one beneficial effect from the target.
• [Thunder Clap]: This ability was left at 10% despite the haste effect changes. This means its potency has been reduced slightly.

Items

• +30 Spell Damage Enchantment: Fixed a bug with this enchantment which was preventing it from benefiting healing spells.
• [Blade of Eternal Darkness]: The triggered effect from this weapon will no longer occur when the spell being cast has its effect broken by causing damage.
• [Blazefury Medallion]: The triggered effect from this item will no longer break [Gouge].
• Bonescythe Armor: The [Eviscerate] bonus will no longer trigger when your Eviscerate does not hit your target.
• [Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether]: The dialog for this resurrection will now always reappear after the [Spirit of Redemption] effect has completed.
• Earthfury Set: The mana refund effect can now only occur once per [Healing Wave] spell cast.
• Earthshatter Set: The [Lightning Shield] bonus will now be removed if you lose the set bonus.
• [Eye of the Dead]: [Holy Shock] now interacts properly with this item.
• Ranged Elemental Damage: Our ranged combat system does not allow a ranged weapon to do a mix of Elemental (Fire, Frost, Arcane, etc.) and Physical damage. Many ranged weapons existed which were listed as doing Elemental damage and did not function properly (the damage was dealt, but was treated as Physical). All of those weapons have been changed to deliver the Elemental damage as a chance on hit effect. [Hurricane] was previously changed this way in 1.11. The following ranged weapons are also fixed in 1.12: [Bow of Searing Arrows], [Dwarven Hand Cannon], [Heartseeking Crossbow], [Dark Iron Rifle], [Galgann's Fireblaster], [Quillshooter], [Shell Launcher Shotgun], [Venomstrike], and [Verdant Keeper's Aim].
• [Talisman of Ascendance]: This item will no longer trigger from physical damage effects. In addition, if either of the buffs from the item are canceled, they will both be canceled.
• [Talisman of Ascendance]: [Holy Shock] heals will now trigger the effect from this trinket.
• [Zandalarian Hero Charm]: Item tooltip corrected to match the effect tooltip.
• The Items that summon mounts have been changed in their color/quality. Items that summon normal mounts are now blue (superior)items and items that summon swift mounts are now purple (epic) items.
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to use items which restored health or mana while you were already full health or mana.
• Fixed a bug with the [Jom Gabbar] trinket which was causing it to trigger a category cooldown for a duration longer than intended.
• [Wrath of Cenarius]: This item will now trigger from [Arcane Missiles].
• Clarified the tooltips for the Stormshroud armor and [Kalimdor's Revenge] to explain that they deal Nature damage.
• Fixed a bug that caused the [Blooddrenched Mask] to hide a character's hair.
• [Warbear Leather] now stacks to 20.
• [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker] may now be equipped in either hand.
• [Argent Shoulders] no longer require a [Righteous Orb] to make.
• The cooldown timer on transforming [Anathema] and [Benediction] may no longer be circumvented by zoning or logging out.

Professions

• Engineering: The damage from sapper charges can now be resisted. The overall DPS of the charges should not be significantly altered from what it currently is.
• Engineering: Explosive sheep do fire damage instead of physical damage.
• Goblin Land Mines and Compact Harvest Reapers will no longer lock out using other engineering devices until the land mine/reaper dies. Harvest Reaper was given a 10 min self cooldown to prevent too many reapers from being summoned at once.

Raids and Dungeons
Uldaman

• Reduced the number of Shadowforge Ambushers that attack after looting the quest chest.
• Shadowforge Ambushers are no longer elite.
• The respawn of the Stone Stewards has been changed to 2 hours (from 30 minutes).

Zul'Farrak

• The respawn of the 2 Troll/1 Basilisk patrollers should now be 2 hours.
• Reduced the damage dealt by the Sul'lithuz Abomination and Sul'lithuz Sandcrawler.
• Zul'Farrak Dead Heroes are no longer elites.
• Theka the Martyr will now only remain immune to physical damage for 30 seconds before reverting to normal.
• Antu'sul's Sul'lithuz Broodlings now only hatch 4 at a time and are significantly weaker.
• Witch Doctor Zum'rah will no longer call as many Zul'Farrak Zombies to his aid when aggroed.
• Weegli Blastfuse now has slightly more hit points.
• Antu'sul's Warden no longer attempts to knock adventurers into Antu'sul's lair.
• Sandfury Cretins who engage the party during the pyramid event are no longer able to cast shadow bolt.

Maraudon

• Noxxious Scions will no longer spawn when you cleanse Celebrian Vines.

Ahn'Qiraj

• Lieutenant General Andorov's Aura of Command should no longer generate threat. This will hopefully prevent him from pulling aggro on the entire wave, leading to his untimely death.
• Hive'Zara Hatchlings can now swim.
• Egg Explosion will no longer burn charges from spells such as [Lightning Shield].
• It should no longer be possible for Emperor Vek'lor and Vek'nilash to Unbalancing Strike or Arcane Burst immediately after a teleport.

gamepedia

 

[llien]

User Interface

• V key functionality has been improved in several ways.
  • V key now shows summoned monsters (such as the gargoyles in Stratholme.)
  • V key now shows both monsters and player enemies.
  • V now shows enemies only (no longer shows friendly targets.)
  • Shift-V now shows friendly targets only, not enemies (with a new bindable hotkey.)
  • Control-V shows both friendly targets and enemy targets (with a new bindable hotkey.)
• New floating combat text has been added to the game with a number of options. You can see when you take damage, when you are healed and how much, when you acquire and lose auras and much more. You can turn on the new options in the newly revised options screen.
• There is now an option to turn on the display of your own name above your head. You can find the option in the interface options screen.
• The Need Before Greed and Group Loot countdown timers will now have a 3 minute countdown when there is a bind on acquire item on the corpse. This should allow a bit more time in making a decision to roll for an item.
• Automatic Quest Tracking has been added to the game and is turned on by default. Any time you advance a quest by advancing one of the requirements, the quest information will appear on your screen for 5 minutes before fading. You can turn this option off from the options screen.
• The options screen has be redone and expanded due to space required for additional options. Also the location of various options has been changed in the options screen. They should make more sense now, though they will not be in quite the place you remember them being.
• There is now a confirmation dialogue when you attempt to disband your guild.
• When you destroy a superior quality (blue) or better item, you will get a dialogue that has you confirm deletion of that item.
• Raid Pullout frames are now created on demand and will not take up any memory if you are not using them.
• The player inspect range has been increased to 10 yards.
• New API Functions
  • Add-ons can send hidden chat messages to players in the party, raid or guild, using SendAddonMessage("prefix", "message", "PARTY"|"RAID"|"GUILD"|"BATTLEGROUND"). When players receive these messages, a new event "CHAT_MSG_ADDON" is sent, with arg1-arg3 being the parameters to SendAddonMessage(), and arg4 being the name of the player that sent it. The combined length of "prefix" and "message" must be less than or equal to 254 bytes.
  • Added UnitPlayerOrPetInParty() and UnitPlayerOrPetInRaid().

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused some non-combat pets to be referred to as Minions instead of Pets. Mini Diablo however has escaped this fate and will continue to be referred to as a Minion.
• Fixed a bug that was causing [Ice Block] to trigger a 5 minute cooldown on the [Gnomish Cloaking Device].
• Summon Dreadsteed no longer briefly puts you into combat.
• Chain-targeted abilities cast by creatures no longer hit stealthed or invisible players.
• [Will of the Forsaken] is no longer gray on the action bar while you are charmed.
• Fixed a bug where large amounts of damage could go negative.
• Non-combat pets are no longer affected by environmental damage.
• The dressing room window will remain open and functional while zoning.
• Fixed a bug allowing linked combat groups to be split when pathing fails.
• [Soul Link] will persist across instance boundaries.
• Item bonuses, buffs, and enchants will no longer be lost when swapping an equipped item with another equipped item.
• Stats will no longer fluctuate when putting points into stat improving talents.
• [Devouring Plague] will continue to heal the caster after the target is Mind Controlled.
• Using /assist on a Mind Controlled target works properly now.
• Recasting [Feed Pet] while using Feed Pet will reset the duration of the cast.
• Activating passive pet abilities while targeting an opposite faction player will no longer aggro neutral town guards.
• If a Hunter is unflagged for PvP, an enemy faction rogue won't be able to disarm his trap.
• Fixed a bug causing the floating combat text from a killing blow to be delayed until another unit is attacked.
• Text with a scroll bar should no longer get clipped while in windowed mode.
• Heals from spells such as [Frenzied Regeneration] will no longer close the loot window.
• Casting a spell while a loot window containing a disenchantment is open will autoloot the item.
• Pet spells can now be toggled in the pet spell book.
• Grand Widow Faerlina's [Rain of Fire] no longer damages players outside the area of effect.
• Players can no longer drop from combat by repeatedly placing their pet into passive mode.

World Environment
Cities

• Neutral guards are now able to see through the rogue Vanish ability.

Silithus

• Tortured Druids and Sentinels will now call only one Hive'Ashi drone on death.

Mac

• Added support for controlling iTunes from within World of Warcraft. You can bind a set of keys for play/pause, next track, back track and volume up and down.

Undocumented Changes (compared to the test realm patch notes)
Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=304238



Battlegrounds

• In order to whisper a player from another server in your battleground you must append "-Servername" to the end of their name. These whispers will not show up on your screen, but will show up on theirs.
• Conjured items are the only type of items that can be traded to players from another server (anything else will give an error message).
• When you join a battleground, you are automatically added to a raid group. You MAY NOT leave that group. To speak in this raid, use /bg instead of /ra.
• Leadership of the battleground raid is granted to whomever has the highest PvP rank when the raid is formed (approximately 1 minute before the battleground starts).
• You may be in a battleground group and a regular group at once, but the battleground group will be the one you see in the party frame as well as the raid tab.
• The mini-battlemap in will reopen automatically if closed. (This is likely a bug)

World PvP

• Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands both now have battlemaps like battlegrounds do.

Honor System
Nethaera (Blizzard Poster)

• The curve has been adjusted to allow more people into the ranks. No, I can't give specific details on how many where but it should help at least for now.

Rogue

• Ruthlessness still appears as a Improved Relentless Strikes pre-req but this is just a graphic bug.
• Murder is now only increased damage to Humanoids but by 2/4% instead of 1/2%. (This is a bug [1])
• Expose Armor is now a non-ranked ability and the armor reductions are by % ([2] -- Can someone test whether this still replaces sunder armor or if it now stacks?) -- TESTED: Expose Armor not stacking with and still replaces sunder armor.

Hunter

• Solenor the Slayer's Soul Flame buff can now be correctly removed.

Warlock

• Succubus and Voidwalker now speak when summoned.
• The trick of Demonology specced Warlock Engineers using Jumper Cables to resurrect a pet that's been Demonic Sacrificed, thereby giving both buffs, has been removed. The buff from Demonic Sacrifice now vanishes whenever you have a pet active regardless of how that pet got (back) into the world.

Items

• The eating/drinking buffs are removed once you reach full hp or mana. This has the unfortunate side effect of making you unable to get the food buffs that require you to eat for 15 seconds if you are at full hp. This is probably somewhat bugged. (This is a bug [3])

Interface

• The interface options dialog is now full-screen and opaque meaning it can no longer be used while moving.
• Raid boss emotes are now shown in center of screen like a warning.
• Target of Target can be set to show/hide depending on if you're in a group/raid or not.

 

[DreamsiclesPlz]

I mained a holy paladin and marksman hunter in vanilla. I'm thinking either undead/human Frost Mage for classic. I remember mages being RIDICULOUS in pvp. My buddy will roll a rogue, and our 3rd person will probably roll a warrior, so we will be rolling around trashing noobs. It's gonna be great!

 

[Terce]

I started WoW right before the ZG patch in vanilla and ended in the current expansion before hitting level cap. Few top 50 world guilds during wotlk and cata and a fair amount of time raiding high end in vanilla (5 shards short of atiesh but completed it in BC)

All I have to say about wow classic is that the nostalgia will dissipate fast. The friends and experiences you had together are gone and never coming back to wow. Part of the adventure was not knowing anything, even with sites like thottbot there was not a "standard" build that every single player of that class used. With the overload of information, and sites like icy-veins giving players plug and play specs, this will just turn into the current retail experience quickly.

Classic is desired by a small community of loud players who can't remove their rose-colored glasses, and by new players from MOP or later that seem to think the former are always right and will quit before they can get their attunements done.

 

[AV]

I started WoW right before the ZG patch in vanilla and ended in the current expansion before hitting level cap. Few top 50 world guilds during wotlk and cata and a fair amount of time raiding high end in vanilla (5 shards short of atiesh but completed it in BC)

All I have to say about wow classic is that the nostalgia will dissipate fast. The friends and experiences you had together are gone and never coming back to wow. Part of the adventure was not knowing anything, even with sites like thottbot there was not a "standard" build that every single player of that class used. With the overload of information, and sites like icy-veins giving players plug and play specs, this will just turn into the current retail experience quickly. Classic is desired by a small community of loud players who can't remove their rose-colored glasses, and by new players from MOP or later that seem to think the former are always right and will quit before they can get their attunements done.

Again, the rose-tinted glasses argument is worn out and falls flat. If someone on a private server plays until they've cleared Naxx, they've not done so because they "think" they're enjoying the game, they are enjoying the game. Privates have a fantastic community of dedicated players, it's pretty dismissive to tell them they only enjoyed it because of nostalgia.

A good indicator of this is Old School Runescape - of course, it's not the same game, but the comparisons are similar. When Old School was announced, people used the same "nostalgia goggles" argument up until release. 5 years later, Old School has more than half the current players of RS3. That's not a vocal minority, it's a player base who understand that while some things have improved over time, many aspects have gotten worse. And more to the point, as addressed above, we have absolutely no way way of knowing how popular this is going to be until launch, and then in the following months.

Yes, it won't be the same experience as playing it fresh (unless you are playing it fresh, some folks in this thread sound like they might). Yes, many people will try it and hate it. That's fine. Just don't assume that no-one enjoys the game itself as it was. I played another 4 hours on a hunter last night and loved it.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Only thing I miss is talent trees. I can't go back with all the improvements made to the game over the years.

 

[lefty1117]

Have they clarified if the character models will be the low poly versions from that time period or will we be able to use closer to current models? It's going to be tough going back to those aged graphics.

 

[Threeshotgamer]

Played from 2004 to 2012ish and can't wait to return to this with some of my old guildies