the way im looking at classic era is sort of a giga longterm project. its a place where your characters go to truly get full bis without the stress of an upcoming expansion completely invalidating all your work. its also a place where you can dip in and out of without actually missing anything because nothing is gonna be added to this version of vanilla
Yeah. this is actually a point I left on the cutting room floor. The only thing there is to miss out on is the current boom of players that make the game fully playable. I have a feeling we will see ebs and flows as more Seasonal servers begin and end. either way, im loving it.
110 % agree with your gear point. I feel like this part gets rarely mention, when discussing Vanilla. For me personally the best part about Vanilla are all those super whacky items, the devs put in the game on a whim. It was truly the Wild West. If it sounded cool, they would just add it to the game without consideration of balancing. Everything from TBC onward felt so hyper balanced, which was really boring and lacked flavour. An in depth video from you about all the cool items/armors/weapons would be great!
Just started on era a couple weeks ago and so far it feels more like old school wow than 2019 classic did. The min maxxers are playing wrath or retail. The community is feeling pretty good. Not seeing too many arm biters in chat. Definitely a stop and smell the roses kinda vibe. Really enjoying it so far.
@sneezydeezymcdeluxe7015 at this point I think people are basically back to calling it classic but when I wrote the original comment, alot of people were calling it "era" in reference to the new cluster servers that kinda reignited the whole classic scene. Short answer: classic/era are the same thing but it seems no one really calls it era anymore.
Was having fun in LK classic, got all my drops from Naxx 25, but now I'm completely immersed into HC vanilla. It's just amazing, it really brings the nostalgia from 2005 for me. I have a lvl 26 rogue right now, and I'm taking it super easy.
I’ve been on Wotlk since it came out, but I’m itching for Classic again. I played back in Vanilla, then Nostalrius, then Classic, and I still want to go back.
So what’s the deal? Is there gonna be a massive spike in Classic servers? I went to a medium populated server, went to IF and SW and there didn’t seem to be much people
So what’s the deal? Is there going to be a spike in classic server population? I created a toon on Blameaux and Whitemane, went to IF and SW and there didn’t seem to be much people
The beautiful thing about hardcore vanilla is that it takes you back to the same feeling you had back in 2004 and has since been lost in current iterations of the game. The world around you feels so much more alive and dynamic, you feel attached to your character and end game progression has the awe factor again. Imagine an official hardcore server where instead of having a single guild on the server progressing, there's multiple competing to be the best. Main tanks are getting poached from rival guilds, etc. It's also a proven investment for Blizzard. I didn't dislike SOM but the slow burn pay off of hardcore is a more reliable outlook for classic than taking risks with another SOM that players may dislike or rush and not keep coming back to
I just jumped into it for the first time, I’m a level 7 human mage and I’ve never felt so immersed in the world. There’s something beautifully simplistic about farming boars on a farm. Playing classic almost feels meditative, it’s hard to explain. I’m greatly enjoying my experience so far.
Meditate for 8+ years and I can't agree more with you, there's something with the slow pace, the way we know our limits / boundaries therefore don't stress about FOMO the environment (the barren's music at 4am god damn) the "stop to smell the flowers" type of vibe as you described the nostalgia ... It feels like meditating in a video game, just be present and enjoy the moment
Couldn't agree more. Level 8 night elf warrior. What I love is how you start off as a nobody and every piece of new gear actually feels earned. Even if it's crappy. The vibe the world gives off is amazing, and the community is great. Within two mins of playing I was invited to a guild and the chat was so much more active than anything I saw in retail. The vibe, pace, world, community etc are unmatched. Really surprised how hooked I am on it.
This about sums up my feelings of WoW right now. I came back to classic a couple weeks ago to try out hardcore and it’s been such a blast. Leveling up a hardcore character and also leveling/playing a character on Whitemane PvP server. There’s no game like vanilla WoW.
I just really want a vanilla where blizzard does what it can to prevent botting which would force people to actually play the game instead of buy gold.
"when you stop earning those little things, the big things dont feel as big". You just entirely summed up why I am playing on Classic Era again and its the best WoW has been in years.
This second-coming of Classic Era is actually much better than the 2019 release. Here is why: Vanilla has always been about exploration, trying out new things and the journey. I think that is the core mechanic of the game. In 2019, the game was filled with top-tier raiding veterans, who wanted to go back, only to show that they are the best. Now, they already showed off, so now the game is basically just left for the "noobier" players who are interested in that journey part of the game, instead of rushing 60. Because we've all seen that, we want to try something else now.
The line you used I agree with the most is "trading a sense of accomplishment for convenience" I feel that that phrase is the embodiment of retail. Blizz knew that plowing through all that content would take time that the more casual player base would gravitate towards. Thats why gold farms exist and the wow tokens exist. Good work man
It's not just the randomness with vanilla gearing, it is the realism. The realism is the truest form of RPG, when combined with fantasy and lore of a game, it produces some specific vibe that no balancing can give you.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. Yes, the raids in Wrath might be better but Vanilla offers the best overall experience from levling through the Zones of Azeroth on foot to World PvP, itemization and community. It's the most RPG-like version of WoW and I fell in love all over again on Classic Era
Good video Nilly. I'm in the returning player group, after a 10 year leave. Been thinking whether Classic revival is due to nostalgia or the fact Vanilla might be a better gaming experience than present day retail, and I think it's a bit of both. It comes down to what you say about replacing accomplishment for convenience... The new expansion is good and I'm having fun in it, and being such a time consuming game I don't think I can play both classic and retail, but I wonder if I'll switch back to the old game. Also, Hardcore vanilla does sound amazing and it's the polar opposite of convenient, so must be extremely rewarding. That's what was and remains so good about Vanilla WoW: it felt really rewarding.
I don’t think it’s just nostalgia. People want these grindy, rewarding, slow paced games. It’s the same reason why games like RuneScape, Albion Online, Valheim, and many other slow and steady games do so well. In a world of constant hyper stimulation, people genuinely enjoy a chance to slow down and just have fun with no pressure to rush to the end.
I always wanted to finish all quests in all zones playing as horde, as an alliance, always wanted the Wintersaber mount and furlbog trinket. Might give it a chance. I ranked to field Marshall (r13) back in the day, so i just played bgs non stop and missed all the other things.
You should make more videos, your rants in this one were just right not too far with whatever people rant about. When you lost me on the thesis of the video it was still captivating. Great video.
@nilly I believe it. Good video Keep them coming. One thing I have to add is not to edit an record so much see how a more natural flow will work, cut down on the work side of the video might help.
I started playing Turtle WoW a while ago and fell in love with WoW again. Classic+ done right with around 3k players online, 2k on the lower end and even hits 5k. New zones, new quests, specs slightly rebalanced, new professions (Survival is amazing as people get under tents to get rested exp faster. You end up getting into tents with strangers while out in the world) all of it just feels so good and alive. I quit Classic WotLK and can't see myelf playing regular Vanilla anymore. Even Classic servers tend to have that modern WoW mindset sometimes, where they min/max and aren't friendly. The community at Turtle WoW is amazing. Classic+ is what I always wanted and Turtle WoW is the first time I see it done right! It even has a dungeon finger, that simply just helps list and find groups, you still have to run to the dungeon. Getting a group together to do dungeons while leveling in Classic is a pain in the ass compared to Turtle WoW. I find myself grouping with people to do quests with and going through the world like back in the day. All classes feel viable and it all just feels truly fresh. SoM is just Vanilla with a couple different modifiers. I'm done with dead Classic servers. Turtle WoW has exploded over the past couple years. There are people leveling all over Azeroth, it's amazing. The fact that people all over the world play allows the server to feel alive at all times. Even capital cities in Classic feel dead at off times (I'm talking about night owl times). If anybody decides to play, make sure you run the fovexe so you're not stuck with the old tight fov of the vanilla client.
I tried Turtle but I DC so much, it's unplayable. Went back to official classic and love it (and love running dungeons without multiple dcs). Classic era is far more populated than Twow.
@@wmcarter6096 When did you play? There were periods of DCs due to the server experiencing huge influxes of new players. I sometimes hop onto classic era and it's definetly not more populated.
Started playing Classic again a few weeks ago (Era Server: Firemaw (EU), and I really love it. The cities are packed with players, even in the leveling areas you constantly meet someone.
OG's like dwarflord :) Great video, its catching fire. LOL I have spent about 10 hours per week over the last year making videos on classic and I think your single video has trumped all of mine
I have no idea why but I just started playing classic era 2 weeks ago. After quitting wotlk couple weeks after launch. Having a really enjoyable time exploring the world with players and experiencing vanilla for the first time. Ive explored azeroth a long time ago but that's when BC was just released. Never experienced it where azeroth was the main area. It's amazing
I'm fully intending to return to WoW Classic Era / Vanilla. Just trying to decide if I should wait a little for an announcement or jump straight in. I just want to live in that original world and stay there now. The expansions are good, but Vanilla is WAY better.
I couldn’t agree more friend. We needed to finish the trilogy before we can go back and watch fellowship of the ring again. Visiting wrath was fun but it wasn’t home!
Great points. Thanks for making this video. Your breakdown of gear and talents helps. However I do feel that this video, along with many other videos like it, miss the number one reason myself and many others are back in Classic. In classic you are playing a game with an actual real, tangible endgame. A beginning, middle, and end. That concept does wonders for mental fortitude for people who simply dont have time to spend 60 hours a week dinging and raiding. People want to log into the game, play the amount they want to play, and feel comfortable knowing the in-game egg timer isnt ticking down to a new content release. You get to scoot through the game at your own pace. But with other forms of WoW, TBC became Wrath. Wrath classic will undoubtedly move to Cataclysm Classic. To myself and others, the prospect of shifting the end game goalposts alone is enough to deter me from investing heavy time into Wrath or Retail.
I actually mentioned this in another comment. I don’t know why, but I left this exact point on the cutting room floor. It’s so strange, because it’s one of the things that draws me to to the game as well, there also is no rush, no reason not to smell the roses, we’re all here for as long or as little as we like. I love it, thanks for pointing that out, and thanks for watching!
I think some other comments touched on it a bit. Wotlk is not THAT far away from being finished and people can see the end is in sight and it has finally been enough time to actually consider classic again
Yeah, Vanilla just hits different. They honestly just need to rally all the old farts that worked on the original game, lock them up in a basement and let them finish all the loose ends that Vanilla has. Scarlets, Furbolgs, Hyjal, Gilneas... all that jazz. That would be the best gaming news for me, maybe ever.
I played classic and TBC back in the day. When it rereleased I did t have time to play. I’m currently playing wrath because I never played that content and I want to get a character to 80. Super excited about the buzz around classic and HC!
Just starting out in vanilla. The community is so much better. We group up for elites. We group for hard quests. Random players will straight up save your life when they see you struggling. We pay it forward for the next guy. You see a druid while questing? She's probably going to buff you. Etc etc. Wotlk and retail are so cold. Vanilla is warm.
Amen. Started again a few weeks ago on a well populated era server, and that's exactly my experience. The community is awesome. This game feels like a warm hug.
Ive been playing as a dedicated PvP player since original vanilla. Im leaving wrath classic for vanilla now. The pace is far too quick in Wrath Classic to bother spending hours to get the best pvp gear for BGs. I wish each phase would last longer and I really dislike not being able to use the gear I get for a while before worrying about new upgrades.
I’m back on it because of hardcore. I just quit wrath, because hardcore is now my main game mode I love it. I’m on my 3rd attempt as warrior only lvl 19 but I’m learning so much about the game. I think I can do it this time around the trick is to go slow killgreen mobs
My issue with Wrath is that the leveling in Northrend was boring. I came into Wrath with a lvl 70 warrior, rogue, mage, priest, druid, warlock, and shaman. I had gotten the warrior, rogue, mage, and priest up in vanilla classic and because I couldn't really get into the vanilla end game, most toons like retired at 60, mostly using prof cds and it freed me up to level other toons. Or the fact that in vanilla, you can max a profession at lvl 35, so you could have alch, LW, and tailoring and use their cds and generate funds. In TBC, my toons had more of an endgame and the Kara key questline was interesting. Wrath doesn't have a questline like that, so I am not motivated to do that. My warrior, rogue, priest, and mage all got kara keyed, and my rogue got to run kara, gruul, and mags, a few times, and my mage got to run gruul once. On Vanilla, it was a bit too hard to get to BRM on the horde, and in TBC, Coilfang, Citadel, and Auchindoun were very close to Shatt and TK was reasonably close enough. In Wrath, my warrior got to 80. My rogue is like 77, mage is 75, priest is 72, and I have no motivation to continue. I didn't feel this kind of a wall in Outland and I got seven toons through it.
I hear you on wraths end, leveling is one of my favorite parts of the game, and wraths grind was soul sucking. What I do like about vanilla's end game is that there is something to do even if you cant get into raiding. They did include the teir 0.5 epic version of the dungeon blue set that could be upgraded through a series of quests. I did these back in 2019 classic on most of my toons, even though they weren't always preraid BIS they would make for a great jumping off point in PVP and especially world pvp, my favorite endgame activity (Also dead in wraths endgame.) If you're ever bored in vanilla's end game, its always fun to scan local defense channels and defend your faction's levelers
I loved playing the seal twist from TBC and the uniqueness that it brought, also making the ret pally a really good dps to bring to the raid, the rythm and sync gameplay that seal twist brought was amazing compared to the others just spamming 1 or 2 keys over and over again
DF so far is awesome imo. But i started playing classic era yesterday and allready feel like there's something about it that DF and also wrath are lacking.. even tho i cant really define what exactly that is besides of course the lovely community
I think, from what I’ve seen about dragon flight, is that it still has all of the retail tools that separate the continuity into their own little stories. Retail might just be too far in that direction of players being able to get through 100% of the content with out needing to speak to other players. They still see and need other players to raid and group. They just don’t need to interact with them. This just can’t be done in vanilla
The R14 grind has to ease up! I think alot more people would want to join Classic for the sake of more than a level experience which is out of date & actually stay within the community & join up on PvP battlegrounds & World PvP. I myself has played WoW since 2005 I have grown alot older since that I have a totally diffrent life than that, I am very out going & do excersice, also spends time with friends & kids, I think (VANILLA) classic community has to open up & let people in they have since the beginning been very introvert & very stuborn. For the sake of health aswell
theres so many more gearing play styles not mentioned, like the polearm from brd that procs a fire thorns effect that scales with spell power so pallies would stack spell power and take it into battlegrounds
Agree with you completely. The sense of accomplishment you get from playing classic has not been matched since BC. I understand why people would be incline to ask that certain conveniences be added to the game (leveling a warrior now and it sucks), but what they don't realize is that the grind is what makes getting that sweet endgame gear so worth it.
It’s hard to find it anywhere else. It’s why I can’t play wrath or DF. If I’m going to justify spending countless hours on something I need to feel gratifying
@@quatanos I’m saying the grind in retail doesn’t feel gratifying because items are not unique or special, especially when compared to the itemization in vanilla. So, just because something is a grind doesn’t mean it won’t feel like a waste or time or feel like an accomplishment.
This is what the original people who wanted vanilla back wanted, just the game capped at 60 there to be played without seasons expansions or any such events.
Hey man, i really liked your video, and i agree with all your points, but i belive there is one more thing that must be added as a reason why players come to classic era. The myth of Sisyphus tells the story of a man who is punished by the gods to roll a massive rock up to the top of a mountain, only to see it roll down hill again when it reaches the top, over and over for the rest of eternity. World of warcraft players have reach (or at least atempted to) completely min-maxed optimization of their characters multiple times, only to see their characters become obsolete with every new patch and expansion. In classic era, your rock doesn't roll down the hill anymore. Wille said that classic era servers are doomed to die because they won't have any new content updates. My answer to that is that he is wrong, and he understimates the apeal of the freedom to explore the game, without the constraints of having to hurry before an impending new version of the game changes everything.
I seriously couldn’t agree more! Finally the kids can just play the way they want to play. There are still meta’s and sweats but for the most part we are free to just be! Thanks for your feed back, buddy
They should just let classic era item max power level on Naxx item levels and start putting out more "horizontal" contest as new dungeons(+HC dungeon versions) and raids which are on +/- the same power level but have set bonuses which allow for more different builds/playstyles that would be what I would look forward most for a classic+.
Couldn't agree with you more for wrath leveling. I have my main (leveled from classic) sitting at level 78 and I just cant bring myself to level in northrend anymore. Whereas I'm back in classic leveling toons and having a great time.
In vanilla, the world was the main character. It had heart and soul as a living, breathing world. Starting from TBC, a ton of the flavor/heart was lost, the world was now tiny and flying killed it completely. The gear is linear and forgettable, as are the instances, which are basically all long hallways. Compare that to the flavor and depth of Blackrock Depths, Sunken Temple or Blackrock Spire. Throw in cash shops, level boosts, pay to win with gold buying/WoW token. Is it any wonder a lot of people prefer vanilla?
I leveled a priest when classic first dropped. Farmed MC FOR MONTHS. Saw one eye of divinity drop that whole time. Other priest won the roll. I’ve still never owned Anethema and I’m shook over it.
I missed Classic in 2019. I don't know why I stuck with retail... I started playing Classic Era a month or two ago though and have been loving it. I have really considered stopping playing retail, but I really do enjoy playing it as well. I love my HE holy priest, and doing raids, M+, and rated PvP. But I definitely quit playing alts in retail. Once I am done with what I want to do, I log off and go to Classic Era, where I play my NE holy priest. I am lvl 33 as of tonight and am really enjoying it. The gearing, the experience, the dungeons. It has all been so fun again. The nostalgia and memories are just icing on the cake. I can't wait to go through end game gear progression again. I already joined Paradigm and can't wait to raid. I even tried out Turtle WoW earlier today. That was really cool! I'm probably going to play that once or twice a week as well.
I played in Vanilla and TBC. Wrath was the expansion that caused me to stop playing back in 2008. I always believe that the rot started with Shamans/Paladins being available to both factions in TBC. It was a small sign of what was to come. This month I downloaded retail and classic. Retail just seems like an incomprehensible mess. I’m currently levelling several characters in Classic and enjoying every minute.
I do think Wrath is a happy medium between the jank and grind of vanilla and easy killing/poor scaling of retail but great points. I do love vanilla and especially the vanilla leveling experience.
It keeps dividing the player base. They are making a killing as far as $. However everyone is now having a much harder time forming groups and sustaining them. Some are in classic, some wrath classic, some doing hardcore, some in Dragonflight.... Results in a LOT of dead servers.
The best way I can put it is that the longer that WoW went on, and this includes Wrath of the Lich King, the more it became less of an MMORPG, and more of a single player RPG you play parallel to other people, with the exception being raids. In actual vanilla WoW, there were very few people who raided compared to the rest of the population, but there were plenty of things for other people to do. This is especially true for the leveling experience. The leveling experience of Vanilla was actually very well designed. Lots of the quests that gave good rewards were almost impossible solo. So you needed to get help from others. Mobs themselves were difficult. If you agroed more than one you were likely going to die. Leveling was actually difficult and engaging; having leveling being a difficult experience actually encouraged people to group up and make it easier.
To be fair, the Legendary system in Legion allowed for a similar “this item changes your playstyle” paradigm. I’d argue it’s the only version of WoW that factually can compare to Vanilla.
But at the end of the day - these are Blizzard servers, rife with unchecked bots, GDKP, and RMT that is just an accepted part of the culture. If people are legitimately looking for a vanilla home, then they should instead consider coming to Everlook, which is a vanilla private server that is ran by the same people that ran the highly successful Light's Hope server. You can expect 4-7k players on each and every day with active GMs that will respond to your tickets, proper itemization that progresses by patch, GDKP and boosting for gold is completely banned, not to mention how active the GMs are in handling bots. BWL is coming out soon so there's still plenty of time to get in on the progression.
Sounds wonderful. I’ve just always been iffy about private servers. Worried my progress will be taken down by big bad blizz. Also isn’t lights hope client locked to 60fps? Not a big deal but there is a lot of platform tech put into running the game at a higher level than any P server. I played a few for a while and it was very noticeable going back to blizzard servers
@@nillytv There's a downloadable 1.14 client that people can use, but the 1.12 client can be set to 119hz. It's sort of buggy and doesn't stay, though, since the client is literally from 2005.
it's simple why vanilla will always be the best wow: it's because it actually feels like a world, a big world, all the rest of the expansions, might I say even max level progression in vanilla are just instanced content.
i enjoyed every minute of wow classic , but with tbc it didnt feel right, so i quited, but now with turtle wow exploding with almost 5k player i am there fully commited.
I'm a hardcore player at the moment, a lvl 27 enh shaman, and im in agreement that vanilla wow is the best because it is the only version of wow with the clasic zones but with the difficulty I crave. My only wish is that I could play as my Draenei in classic.
Holy crap dude, jay im a huge fan! I just started back in January after taking a break from wrath. I just couldn’t get back into it and was was wishing I played SOM, as it had just been announced that the servers were closing. I’m so glad I was able to talk my friends into re rolling with me on era, as they didn’t get to experience vanilla during classic. We are only in our 40’s (lvl wise) as making this video, and the video I’m working on now, have taken up a lot of my playing time :,((
@TNPdual I mean its simple. Make Vanilla 2 with Unreal Engine 5. Keep cartoon graphics, but show more love to the world. Make it feel more alive. Maybe add small things but keep it dedicated for the most part to the hardcore Vanilla players
Your comments about Wrath and what you noticed about it this go-around are spot on. In fact, I argue that as early as original TBC, Blizzard had already started down the wrong path (with flying mounts, alternate currencies, vehicle quests, valor/honor, welfare epics….). I noticed those things back then, and they’re even more pronounced today. As for Wrath Classic, as much as I enjoyed the lore, scenery, and music back in the day, I had no interest in playing it again this time around. I’ve stayed with Vanilla Classic and have been loving it. I can take my time and progress at my own pace-one of my characters is finally ready to enter Naxx!-and I don’t have to worry about all of my effort and gear being rendered obsolete overnight due to a new expansion. The one and only good thing about Classic TBC and Wrath is that Blizzard released them as separate and optional games, not as expansions. If only they had done that back in the day. I despised expansions. At the Cata release, as far I was concerned, the game was total garbage, and it only got worse later with phased content, garrisons, followers, railroad-style questing and progression, homogenization of classes, a buggered-up talent system, and on and on and on. Modern WoW is such a hot, steaming pile of excrement now that I don’t think it’s redeemable. Edit: I forgot to mention that you made another great point. When you no longer have to do and earn the little things, the big things cease being so special. Bravo!
TBC is a definite step in the wrong direction. Even the theme is bad. my friends who played classic with me, as their first experience with wow, were like “so this is an outer space game now.” I liked that the classes were given more of a chance to participate but I genuinely have a problem with it taking the players out of the old world and this just being the trend for every expansion to follow. They should have eventually tied it back to the old world some how but we just stayed in Outland until it was time to go to northrend. There was no homecoming and it killed the old world forever
Here's a little thing for you: TBC Chests and rare spawns! so few and far between and rarely is there anything special or difference making in them. At least non that i've encountered. Still to this day in the old world, when I see a well guarded chest or rare, I start formulating a plan, checking out my avalible cooldowns, and preparing my consumables, because I know every sweet little drop I've gotten, how much is sold for or how long I used it. Hands down one of my favorite aspects in the game!
Sweet vid man I agree with mostly everything except.. I feel like I'm the only one who likes 40 man raids better 😂 idk they are just more fun to me. And I like the 20 man dungeons a lot too
I never really cared about end game in WoW even though I had reached it and tried it. Both PvP and the raiding felt just too boring. However questing and world PvP was something I always enjoyed. This is why Vanilia wow was best for me. Since there were still loads of people actually traveling around the world and PvP conflict in questing areas kept me on my toes. World PvP is what kept world alive and that's something that loads of MMORPG's lacks. Yes it feels frustrating while being ganked but the thrill of existing escape or getting someone ganked in return was something special and unique in WoW. PS: I was one of those asshole's who ruined people's escort quests. Especially group escort quests. I loved doing 1v5 with same level people by using guerilla tactics while they were trying to escort or defend a spot. There was some special feeling by "siding" with mobs and being a villain. Never actually died while doing this.
I was so excited for Wrath as a Druid / war tank I hated DPS being stupid and then having to apologize that I wasn’t a paladin. But leveling up in Wrath I was so bored I didn’t even want to continue playing at max level. The talents are overpowered and or the mobs are too nerfed. There is no reason to group with anyone outside of a dungeon ever. It doesn’t feel like an MMO. It figures back in the day I just used dungeon finder and never went out into the world ever again. Maybe if they added dungeon finder to wrath I’d play my level 80 toons but maybe not. Classic has enough people now to do dungeons etc.
You mention dungeon finder being in original wrath. You seem to miss the point that it was simply not present. Only towards the end patches of wrath did dung finder get introduced, in one of the very last content patches (with the icc dungeons Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection and Forge of Souls). When wrath was more or less over already and you only had ruby sanctum left. Soooo ehhh? you want retail go to retail imo.
Wait I could have sworn I cloned by warlock when moving from classic to TBC but I can’t find him anywhere? Or was that not a thing? Like I can’t find any of my classic guys
Classic era realms were not empty/dormant, I have been playing on Classic era for over 3 years now(maybe even 4?) Things got a little slow for a bit when TBC was released but people still played both. People came back to Classic to do their classic raids with their guild, or to play with their friends ect...there was always a reason to come back, but a chunk of of stayed in classic. I love classic, I love the challenge of playing WoW again. Sometimes I go trying retail, and or Wrath. BUT Mostly I play on classic!
This will be huge post but if you are interested in SOM read it. I can tell you didn't play SOM, I played till the end, SoM can't last 1 year for many reasons. 50% of the player base quit as soon as they announced BWL because it was too fast and then most of the people left as soon as they announced AQ for the same reason, too fast, and an additional raid to farm all the extra consumes. Also 70% of people were not even 60 when they released phase 2, and if you take any break from the game, vacation or anything you miss a lot and you can feel it, so people felt under pressure all the time. If you are taking advice about som, talk to the people who played it for most of the time and saw everything. They made the game 2x faster, with harder raids + no world buffs, there was no need to do all three things, at the end there was only 1 hardcore guild left, not even hardcore people wanted to play that mess it was a shit show. Game should have lasted 2 years, so people could be relaxed while playing also some bosses needed tweaking because you could see that they were done in a rush, mechanics made no sense. SoM felt like having a toxic job there was no time for fun, all the free time went to farming consumes if you wanted to raid, because it was necessary to have them all. As the server was dying and the population dropping, my guild had many conversations with the people and many other guilds about the situation, yes there was TBC and other stuff to take from the population, but the MAIN reason for people leaving was absolutely no fun, it was a job, no1 wanted to farm every consume for every raid, and game went too fast, like you would do certain raid couple of times and bam here comes next one and you didn't even adapt to the last one, it felt soo rushed and this created a toxic environment and people just left and those are pure facts because I saw them all first hand. SoM couldn't even come close to the feel of a classic release, most of the people wanted classic experience with bit of something new and they got toxic sludge. P.S. never listen the 1% on the forums, they are the loudest and usually have no idea what they talk about, and if you do, you get the SoM experience... always listen to the majority of people and only If it is in huge numbers. If it is small grp of people yelling for something just ignore it.
I have nothing but love for this game and all of the people I played with had nothing but love for the game. That's why I'm taking my time to write this, as population is starting to rise on classic era servers and as private servers are starting to boom again, it is clear that from all of the classics: Vanilla, TBC and WOTLK, the vanilla is the OG and will always be replied, that being said, blizz for sure will release something again, either SoM or fresh Classic, and I just don't want to see another SoM like last one, because it will start to kill the game, and people will just move to private servers again. If blizz and the community can't agree on what to change, then don't change anything, release the classic as it was (2 years in length and no rushed raid releases, I remember that even in classic release they did rush AQ release, where people also complained) and be done with it, or if you do any changes only do the ones that 99% of the player base agrees upon, eg.no world buffs In raids.
Yeah I said in the video I didn’t play SoM. I agree with what you’re saying. I think blizzard thought the changes they made would be enough to support seasonal play in a yearly time frame. Clearly it did not. But there was a lot working against SoM ex. TBC and Shadowlands. But you’re absolutely right. All of this has proven that vanilla is more than just nostalgia
New to wow. Played retail for a week, felt meh. Then i installed wotlk...now that's a game. Im having one of the best gaming experience i had in many years.
So many things that make this game very special and I think a lot of the retail players who thought of PvP as nothing more than a 2004 fragmovie and called it unbalanced or not fun really did damage to the prospect of the vanilla PvP community growing more than the same few thousand people that play every single fresh. Sure it's not something you would want to have rated competitive play ( which still exists in certain forms, just on the macro ) but I would look at it more like an MW2 lobby where everyone's just trying to hit the sickest combination of plays or trickshots. Also the knowledge of things in the game outside of your class and how they interact with your class is extremely important. I can't count on a single hand how many times someone grenaded me through a BoP/LiP while ranking because it never happened. Era has about everything except a healthy PvP scene and I hope this changes at least before SoM comes out. Naxx patch certainly won't do anyone any favors and I hope they further decrease the time in ranking for just era servers so people can atleast get to Rank 12 and have their foot in the door with a nice stam bonus. Edit: Also vanilla paladin > TBC/Wrath paladin
the way im looking at classic era is sort of a giga longterm project. its a place where your characters go to truly get full bis without the stress of an upcoming expansion completely invalidating all your work. its also a place where you can dip in and out of without actually missing anything because nothing is gonna be added to this version of vanilla
Yeah. this is actually a point I left on the cutting room floor. The only thing there is to miss out on is the current boom of players that make the game fully playable. I have a feeling we will see ebs and flows as more Seasonal servers begin and end. either way, im loving it.
@@nillytv me and my guild are here for the lows.
@@joshw3719 good to know! Are you guys on the pvp cluster?
@@nillytv yes with Whitemane!
I would love this, I NEVER got to raid classic, not even now. I would love it if I could finally do one.
110 % agree with your gear point. I feel like this part gets rarely mention, when discussing Vanilla. For me personally the best part about Vanilla are all those super whacky items, the devs put in the game on a whim. It was truly the Wild West. If it sounded cool, they would just add it to the game without consideration of balancing. Everything from TBC onward felt so hyper balanced, which was really boring and lacked flavour. An in depth video from you about all the cool items/armors/weapons would be great!
Just started on era a couple weeks ago and so far it feels more like old school wow than 2019 classic did. The min maxxers are playing wrath or retail. The community is feeling pretty good. Not seeing too many arm biters in chat. Definitely a stop and smell the roses kinda vibe. Really enjoying it so far.
Yeah the Wailing Caverns run I did last night was way more chill than anything I’ve done in ages.
Wait I thought this was classic? Only like two mins into the vid but is era something different?
@sneezydeezymcdeluxe7015 at this point I think people are basically back to calling it classic but when I wrote the original comment, alot of people were calling it "era" in reference to the new cluster servers that kinda reignited the whole classic scene.
Short answer: classic/era are the same thing but it seems no one really calls it era anymore.
Was having fun in LK classic, got all my drops from Naxx 25, but now I'm completely immersed into HC vanilla. It's just amazing, it really brings the nostalgia from 2005 for me.
I have a lvl 26 rogue right now, and I'm taking it super easy.
I’ve been on Wotlk since it came out, but I’m itching for Classic again. I played back in Vanilla, then Nostalrius, then Classic, and I still want to go back.
I'll always have unfinished business in the old world.
Me and two friends are getting back into classic now also for the same reasons.. hope it’s worth it!
Soon brother
So what’s the deal? Is there gonna be a massive spike in Classic servers? I went to a medium populated server, went to IF and SW and there didn’t seem to be much people
So what’s the deal? Is there going to be a spike in classic server population? I created a toon on Blameaux and Whitemane, went to IF and SW and there didn’t seem to be much people
The beautiful thing about hardcore vanilla is that it takes you back to the same feeling you had back in 2004 and has since been lost in current iterations of the game. The world around you feels so much more alive and dynamic, you feel attached to your character and end game progression has the awe factor again. Imagine an official hardcore server where instead of having a single guild on the server progressing, there's multiple competing to be the best. Main tanks are getting poached from rival guilds, etc. It's also a proven investment for Blizzard. I didn't dislike SOM but the slow burn pay off of hardcore is a more reliable outlook for classic than taking risks with another SOM that players may dislike or rush and not keep coming back to
I just jumped into it for the first time, I’m a level 7 human mage and I’ve never felt so immersed in the world. There’s something beautifully simplistic about farming boars on a farm. Playing classic almost feels meditative, it’s hard to explain. I’m greatly enjoying my experience so far.
Meditate for 8+ years and I can't agree more with you,
there's something with the slow pace, the way we know our limits / boundaries therefore don't stress about FOMO
the environment (the barren's music at 4am god damn)
the "stop to smell the flowers" type of vibe as you described
the nostalgia ...
It feels like meditating in a video game, just be present and enjoy the moment
Ahh the farm full of boars in SW Elwynn.. great place to level new weapon skills, gain a little XP, and level up skinning and LW
Classic wow is a masterpiece.
Couldn't agree more. Level 8 night elf warrior. What I love is how you start off as a nobody and every piece of new gear actually feels earned. Even if it's crappy. The vibe the world gives off is amazing, and the community is great. Within two mins of playing I was invited to a guild and the chat was so much more active than anything I saw in retail. The vibe, pace, world, community etc are unmatched. Really surprised how hooked I am on it.
This about sums up my feelings of WoW right now. I came back to classic a couple weeks ago to try out hardcore and it’s been such a blast. Leveling up a hardcore character and also leveling/playing a character on Whitemane PvP server. There’s no game like vanilla WoW.
I just really want a vanilla where blizzard does what it can to prevent botting which would force people to actually play the game instead of buy gold.
"when you stop earning those little things, the big things dont feel as big". You just entirely summed up why I am playing on Classic Era again and its the best WoW has been in years.
This second-coming of Classic Era is actually much better than the 2019 release. Here is why:
Vanilla has always been about exploration, trying out new things and the journey. I think that is the core mechanic of the game. In 2019, the game was filled with top-tier raiding veterans, who wanted to go back, only to show that they are the best. Now, they already showed off, so now the game is basically just left for the "noobier" players who are interested in that journey part of the game, instead of rushing 60. Because we've all seen that, we want to try something else now.
The line you used I agree with the most is "trading a sense of accomplishment for convenience" I feel that that phrase is the embodiment of retail. Blizz knew that plowing through all that content would take time that the more casual player base would gravitate towards. Thats why gold farms exist and the wow tokens exist. Good work man
It's not just the randomness with vanilla gearing, it is the realism. The realism is the truest form of RPG, when combined with fantasy and lore of a game, it produces some specific vibe that no balancing can give you.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. Yes, the raids in Wrath might be better but Vanilla offers the best overall experience from levling through the Zones of Azeroth on foot to World PvP, itemization and community. It's the most RPG-like version of WoW and I fell in love all over again on Classic Era
Couldn’t have said it better myself ❤️
Great video
Good video Nilly. I'm in the returning player group, after a 10 year leave. Been thinking whether Classic revival is due to nostalgia or the fact Vanilla might be a better gaming experience than present day retail, and I think it's a bit of both. It comes down to what you say about replacing accomplishment for convenience... The new expansion is good and I'm having fun in it, and being such a time consuming game I don't think I can play both classic and retail, but I wonder if I'll switch back to the old game. Also, Hardcore vanilla does sound amazing and it's the polar opposite of convenient, so must be extremely rewarding. That's what was and remains so good about Vanilla WoW: it felt really rewarding.
Every chest, rare spawn, and bag drop can turn your day around in hardcore. You do get death nightmares though 😅 it can be pretty intense
I don’t think it’s just nostalgia. People want these grindy, rewarding, slow paced games. It’s the same reason why games like RuneScape, Albion Online, Valheim, and many other slow and steady games do so well. In a world of constant hyper stimulation, people genuinely enjoy a chance to slow down and just have fun with no pressure to rush to the end.
I always wanted to finish all quests in all zones playing as horde, as an alliance, always wanted the Wintersaber mount and furlbog trinket. Might give it a chance. I ranked to field Marshall (r13) back in the day, so i just played bgs non stop and missed all the other things.
You should make more videos, your rants in this one were just right not too far with whatever people rant about.
When you lost me on the thesis of the video it was still captivating.
Great video.
Thanks my man, it was hard not to become side tracked, there’s so much I have to talk about. I’m working on a few more now
@nilly I believe it.
Good video
Keep them coming.
One thing I have to add is not to edit an record so much see how a more natural flow will work, cut down on the work side of the video might help.
I started playing Turtle WoW a while ago and fell in love with WoW again. Classic+ done right with around 3k players online, 2k on the lower end and even hits 5k. New zones, new quests, specs slightly rebalanced, new professions (Survival is amazing as people get under tents to get rested exp faster. You end up getting into tents with strangers while out in the world) all of it just feels so good and alive. I quit Classic WotLK and can't see myelf playing regular Vanilla anymore. Even Classic servers tend to have that modern WoW mindset sometimes, where they min/max and aren't friendly. The community at Turtle WoW is amazing. Classic+ is what I always wanted and Turtle WoW is the first time I see it done right! It even has a dungeon finger, that simply just helps list and find groups, you still have to run to the dungeon. Getting a group together to do dungeons while leveling in Classic is a pain in the ass compared to Turtle WoW. I find myself grouping with people to do quests with and going through the world like back in the day. All classes feel viable and it all just feels truly fresh.
SoM is just Vanilla with a couple different modifiers. I'm done with dead Classic servers. Turtle WoW has exploded over the past couple years. There are people leveling all over Azeroth, it's amazing. The fact that people all over the world play allows the server to feel alive at all times. Even capital cities in Classic feel dead at off times (I'm talking about night owl times).
If anybody decides to play, make sure you run the fovexe so you're not stuck with the old tight fov of the vanilla client.
I tried Turtle but I DC so much, it's unplayable. Went back to official classic and love it (and love running dungeons without multiple dcs). Classic era is far more populated than Twow.
@@wmcarter6096 When did you play? There were periods of DCs due to the server experiencing huge influxes of new players.
I sometimes hop onto classic era and it's definetly not more populated.
Started playing Classic again a few weeks ago (Era Server: Firemaw (EU), and I really love it. The cities are packed with players, even in the leveling areas you constantly meet someone.
OG's like dwarflord :) Great video, its catching fire. LOL I have spent about 10 hours per week over the last year making videos on classic and I think your single video has trumped all of mine
Hey man just saw this! Thank you so much!
Love your channel!
Love the vid man. Hope you keep pumping out content!
I’m working, and not sleeping right now, just for y’all!
Really good video! Nice discussion/comparison of the different iterations.
Thank you!
I have no idea why but I just started playing classic era 2 weeks ago. After quitting wotlk couple weeks after launch. Having a really enjoyable time exploring the world with players and experiencing vanilla for the first time. Ive explored azeroth a long time ago but that's when BC was just released. Never experienced it where azeroth was the main area. It's amazing
I'm fully intending to return to WoW Classic Era / Vanilla. Just trying to decide if I should wait a little for an announcement or jump straight in. I just want to live in that original world and stay there now. The expansions are good, but Vanilla is WAY better.
I couldn’t agree more friend. We needed to finish the trilogy before we can go back and watch fellowship of the ring again. Visiting wrath was fun but it wasn’t home!
Its a good time to jump in. Servers are buzzing!
Now is the time to get in, while people are still leveling like crazy and dungeons are filling every 10 minutes
Great points. Thanks for making this video. Your breakdown of gear and talents helps.
However I do feel that this video, along with many other videos like it, miss the number one reason myself and many others are back in Classic.
In classic you are playing a game with an actual real, tangible endgame. A beginning, middle, and end. That concept does wonders for mental fortitude for people who simply dont have time to spend 60 hours a week dinging and raiding. People want to log into the game, play the amount they want to play, and feel comfortable knowing the in-game egg timer isnt ticking down to a new content release. You get to scoot through the game at your own pace.
But with other forms of WoW, TBC became Wrath. Wrath classic will undoubtedly move to Cataclysm Classic. To myself and others, the prospect of shifting the end game goalposts alone is enough to deter me from investing heavy time into Wrath or Retail.
I actually mentioned this in another comment. I don’t know why, but I left this exact point on the cutting room floor. It’s so strange, because it’s one of the things that draws me to to the game as well, there also is no rush, no reason not to smell the roses, we’re all here for as long or as little as we like. I love it, thanks for pointing that out, and thanks for watching!
I think some other comments touched on it a bit. Wotlk is not THAT far away from being finished and people can see the end is in sight and it has finally been enough time to actually consider classic again
Yeah, Vanilla just hits different. They honestly just need to rally all the old farts that worked on the original game, lock them up in a basement and let them finish all the loose ends that Vanilla has. Scarlets, Furbolgs, Hyjal, Gilneas... all that jazz. That would be the best gaming news for me, maybe ever.
I played classic and TBC back in the day. When it rereleased I did t have time to play. I’m currently playing wrath because I never played that content and I want to get a character to 80. Super excited about the buzz around classic and HC!
Just starting out in vanilla. The community is so much better. We group up for elites. We group for hard quests. Random players will straight up save your life when they see you struggling. We pay it forward for the next guy. You see a druid while questing? She's probably going to buff you. Etc etc. Wotlk and retail are so cold. Vanilla is warm.
Amen. Started again a few weeks ago on a well populated era server, and that's exactly my experience. The community is awesome. This game feels like a warm hug.
Ive been playing as a dedicated PvP player since original vanilla. Im leaving wrath classic for vanilla now. The pace is far too quick in Wrath Classic to bother spending hours to get the best pvp gear for BGs. I wish each phase would last longer and I really dislike not being able to use the gear I get for a while before worrying about new upgrades.
Let's get baldy a react on this
Oh gawd pls no. He will not like what I have to say. Love the guy tho.
I’m back on it because of hardcore. I just quit wrath, because hardcore is now my main game mode I love it. I’m on my 3rd attempt as warrior only lvl 19 but I’m learning so much about the game. I think I can do it this time around the trick is to go slow killgreen mobs
I'm back playing classic vanilla, I quit wow for good after I leveled my main in retail but missed classic.
Sometimes we need to go back. Now’s the time! Can’t play alone!
My issue with Wrath is that the leveling in Northrend was boring. I came into Wrath with a lvl 70 warrior, rogue, mage, priest, druid, warlock, and shaman. I had gotten the warrior, rogue, mage, and priest up in vanilla classic and because I couldn't really get into the vanilla end game, most toons like retired at 60, mostly using prof cds and it freed me up to level other toons. Or the fact that in vanilla, you can max a profession at lvl 35, so you could have alch, LW, and tailoring and use their cds and generate funds. In TBC, my toons had more of an endgame and the Kara key questline was interesting. Wrath doesn't have a questline like that, so I am not motivated to do that. My warrior, rogue, priest, and mage all got kara keyed, and my rogue got to run kara, gruul, and mags, a few times, and my mage got to run gruul once. On Vanilla, it was a bit too hard to get to BRM on the horde, and in TBC, Coilfang, Citadel, and Auchindoun were very close to Shatt and TK was reasonably close enough. In Wrath, my warrior got to 80. My rogue is like 77, mage is 75, priest is 72, and I have no motivation to continue. I didn't feel this kind of a wall in Outland and I got seven toons through it.
I hear you on wraths end, leveling is one of my favorite parts of the game, and wraths grind was soul sucking. What I do like about vanilla's end game is that there is something to do even if you cant get into raiding. They did include the teir 0.5 epic version of the dungeon blue set that could be upgraded through a series of quests. I did these back in 2019 classic on most of my toons, even though they weren't always preraid BIS they would make for a great jumping off point in PVP and especially world pvp, my favorite endgame activity (Also dead in wraths endgame.) If you're ever bored in vanilla's end game, its always fun to scan local defense channels and defend your faction's levelers
Is classic era a private server? Why do people keep calling vanilla wow, classic era?
Honorable mention to Hand of Edward the odd. Instant casting hearthstone to get out of a sticky situation was always a good time
I almost put that in the video!
Love this video - you should make more content!!
I loved playing the seal twist from TBC and the uniqueness that it brought, also making the ret pally a really good dps to bring to the raid, the rythm and sync gameplay that seal twist brought was amazing compared to the others just spamming 1 or 2 keys over and over again
DF so far is awesome imo. But i started playing classic era yesterday and allready feel like there's something about it that DF and also wrath are lacking.. even tho i cant really define what exactly that is besides of course the lovely community
I think, from what I’ve seen about dragon flight, is that it still has all of the retail tools that separate the continuity into their own little stories. Retail might just be too far in that direction of players being able to get through 100% of the content with out needing to speak to other players. They still see and need other players to raid and group. They just don’t need to interact with them. This just can’t be done in vanilla
It's got a soul.
The R14 grind has to ease up! I think alot more people would want to join Classic for the sake of more than a level experience which is out of date & actually stay within the community & join up on PvP battlegrounds & World PvP.
I myself has played WoW since 2005 I have grown alot older since that I have a totally diffrent life than that, I am very out going & do excersice, also spends time with friends & kids, I think (VANILLA) classic community has to open up & let people in they have since the beginning been very introvert & very stuborn.
For the sake of health aswell
I can never get tired of these type of videos where why people go through WOW and how it was so important to when they were growing up
theres so many more gearing play styles not mentioned, like the polearm from brd that procs a fire thorns effect that scales with spell power so pallies would stack spell power and take it into battlegrounds
Agree with you completely. The sense of accomplishment you get from playing classic has not been matched since BC. I understand why people would be incline to ask that certain conveniences be added to the game (leveling a warrior now and it sucks), but what they don't realize is that the grind is what makes getting that sweet endgame gear so worth it.
It’s hard to find it anywhere else. It’s why I can’t play wrath or DF. If I’m going to justify spending countless hours on something I need to feel gratifying
So what you guys are saying people don't need to grind in retail ? Lol I did 100 M+ just for my shoulder drop...
No that’s not what we are saying at all.
@@quatanos I’m saying the grind in retail doesn’t feel gratifying because items are not unique or special, especially when compared to the itemization in vanilla. So, just because something is a grind doesn’t mean it won’t feel like a waste or time or feel like an accomplishment.
@@nillytv like if you open your eyes you know every sort of game is a waste of time, but I understand what you mean now ... that's why I hate classic
This is what the original people who wanted vanilla back wanted, just the game capped at 60 there to be played without seasons expansions or any such events.
Hey man, i really liked your video, and i agree with all your points, but i belive there is one more thing that must be added as a reason why players come to classic era.
The myth of Sisyphus tells the story of a man who is punished by the gods to roll a massive rock up to the top of a mountain, only to see it roll down hill again when it reaches the top, over and over for the rest of eternity.
World of warcraft players have reach (or at least atempted to) completely min-maxed optimization of their characters multiple times, only to see their characters become obsolete with every new patch and expansion.
In classic era, your rock doesn't roll down the hill anymore.
Wille said that classic era servers are doomed to die because they won't have any new content updates. My answer to that is that he is wrong, and he understimates the apeal of the freedom to explore the game, without the constraints of having to hurry before an impending new version of the game changes everything.
I seriously couldn’t agree more! Finally the kids can just play the way they want to play. There are still meta’s and sweats but for the most part we are free to just be! Thanks for your feed back, buddy
Exactly! A game is no fun when the referees continue to change the rules and move the goalposts.
They should just let classic era item max power level on Naxx item levels and start putting out more "horizontal" contest as new dungeons(+HC dungeon versions) and raids which are on +/- the same power level but have set bonuses which allow for more different builds/playstyles that would be what I would look forward most for a classic+.
I hope your video will blow, perfect explanation!
I’m just so happy you like it! I don’t need everyone!
Couldn't agree with you more for wrath leveling. I have my main (leveled from classic) sitting at level 78 and I just cant bring myself to level in northrend anymore. Whereas I'm back in classic leveling toons and having a great time.
Love to hear it
In vanilla, the world was the main character. It had heart and soul as a living, breathing world. Starting from TBC, a ton of the flavor/heart was lost, the world was now tiny and flying killed it completely. The gear is linear and forgettable, as are the instances, which are basically all long hallways. Compare that to the flavor and depth of Blackrock Depths, Sunken Temple or Blackrock Spire. Throw in cash shops, level boosts, pay to win with gold buying/WoW token. Is it any wonder a lot of people prefer vanilla?
&100 Agree
Hardcore is amazing. Makes the game feel like new again.
I leveled a priest when classic first dropped. Farmed MC FOR MONTHS. Saw one eye of divinity drop that whole time. Other priest won the roll.
I’ve still never owned Anethema and I’m shook over it.
I’ve seen it drop a shot ton recently
I missed Classic in 2019. I don't know why I stuck with retail... I started playing Classic Era a month or two ago though and have been loving it. I have really considered stopping playing retail, but I really do enjoy playing it as well. I love my HE holy priest, and doing raids, M+, and rated PvP. But I definitely quit playing alts in retail. Once I am done with what I want to do, I log off and go to Classic Era, where I play my NE holy priest. I am lvl 33 as of tonight and am really enjoying it. The gearing, the experience, the dungeons. It has all been so fun again. The nostalgia and memories are just icing on the cake. I can't wait to go through end game gear progression again. I already joined Paradigm and can't wait to raid. I even tried out Turtle WoW earlier today. That was really cool! I'm probably going to play that once or twice a week as well.
I played in Vanilla and TBC. Wrath was the expansion that caused me to stop playing back in 2008. I always believe that the rot started with Shamans/Paladins being available to both factions in TBC. It was a small sign of what was to come. This month I downloaded retail and classic. Retail just seems like an incomprehensible mess. I’m currently levelling several characters in Classic and enjoying every minute.
I do think Wrath is a happy medium between the jank and grind of vanilla and easy killing/poor scaling of retail but great points. I do love vanilla and especially the vanilla leveling experience.
Fair enough!
It keeps dividing the player base. They are making a killing as far as $. However everyone is now having a much harder time forming groups and sustaining them. Some are in classic, some wrath classic, some doing hardcore, some in Dragonflight.... Results in a LOT of dead servers.
Im taking this time to play Alliance for the first time ever. Been horde since original wrath. Fun to experience something different.
The best way I can put it is that the longer that WoW went on, and this includes Wrath of the Lich King, the more it became less of an MMORPG, and more of a single player RPG you play parallel to other people, with the exception being raids. In actual vanilla WoW, there were very few people who raided compared to the rest of the population, but there were plenty of things for other people to do.
This is especially true for the leveling experience. The leveling experience of Vanilla was actually very well designed. Lots of the quests that gave good rewards were almost impossible solo. So you needed to get help from others. Mobs themselves were difficult. If you agroed more than one you were likely going to die.
Leveling was actually difficult and engaging; having leveling being a difficult experience actually encouraged people to group up and make it easier.
To be fair, the Legendary system in Legion allowed for a similar “this item changes your playstyle” paradigm. I’d argue it’s the only version of WoW that factually can compare to Vanilla.
I played it a little bit and I’d heard about that. There are just too many other factors in retail that keep me from playing it.
Great video, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your videos in the future.
Classic Ära is alive Boys and girls just join us, and have some major FUN
But at the end of the day - these are Blizzard servers, rife with unchecked bots, GDKP, and RMT that is just an accepted part of the culture. If people are legitimately looking for a vanilla home, then they should instead consider coming to Everlook, which is a vanilla private server that is ran by the same people that ran the highly successful Light's Hope server.
You can expect 4-7k players on each and every day with active GMs that will respond to your tickets, proper itemization that progresses by patch, GDKP and boosting for gold is completely banned, not to mention how active the GMs are in handling bots. BWL is coming out soon so there's still plenty of time to get in on the progression.
Sounds wonderful. I’ve just always been iffy about private servers. Worried my progress will be taken down by big bad blizz. Also isn’t lights hope client locked to 60fps? Not a big deal but there is a lot of platform tech put into running the game at a higher level than any P server. I played a few for a while and it was very noticeable going back to blizzard servers
@@nillytv There's a downloadable 1.14 client that people can use, but the 1.12 client can be set to 119hz. It's sort of buggy and doesn't stay, though, since the client is literally from 2005.
Great content from a small channel. Earned my sub for sure
Thank you so much! Took a lot longer than I had thought but I’m glad you were able to enjoy it. That makes it worth it
it's simple why vanilla will always be the best wow: it's because it actually feels like a world, a big world, all the rest of the expansions, might I say even max level progression in vanilla are just instanced content.
Same reason some still play old EQ emulation servers. Nostalgia, maybe? Something that is missing in the current versions.
i enjoyed every minute of wow classic , but with tbc it didnt feel right, so i quited, but now with turtle wow exploding with almost 5k player i am there fully commited.
Man the nostalgia I feel is unreal
I started playing a few weeks ago on highly populated Classic Era Server. It's just amazing. Feels like 2005 again.
I'm a hardcore player at the moment, a lvl 27 enh shaman, and im in agreement that vanilla wow is the best because it is the only version of wow with the clasic zones but with the difficulty I crave. My only wish is that I could play as my Draenei in classic.
Do u pvp
Awesome video pacing, love it! When did you get back to Era?
Holy crap dude, jay im a huge fan! I just started back in January after taking a break from wrath. I just couldn’t get back into it and was was wishing I played SOM, as it had just been announced that the servers were closing. I’m so glad I was able to talk my friends into re rolling with me on era, as they didn’t get to experience vanilla during classic. We are only in our 40’s (lvl wise) as making this video, and the video I’m working on now, have taken up a lot of my playing time :,((
Love to see people getting back to Era! Keep it up with the videos, surely you will blow up in no time! Do you plan to stream too?
@@ClassicJay I’m really bad at talking and doing things at the same time so I’m not sure about that. Maybe one day!
I loved the Dungeon Finder in Live Wrath because most of the time I didn’t have friends or guild mates to do dungeons with.
Vanilla for life, no other expansions can compare, the grind is addicting, i hope they do classic plus
@TNPdual I mean its simple. Make Vanilla 2 with Unreal Engine 5. Keep cartoon graphics, but show more love to the world. Make it feel more alive. Maybe add small things but keep it dedicated for the most part to the hardcore Vanilla players
Can’t wait for som2. In the meantime I’m playing era, love the attention vanilla is getting again
Your comments about Wrath and what you noticed about it this go-around are spot on. In fact, I argue that as early as original TBC, Blizzard had already started down the wrong path (with flying mounts, alternate currencies, vehicle quests, valor/honor, welfare epics….). I noticed those things back then, and they’re even more pronounced today.
As for Wrath Classic, as much as I enjoyed the lore, scenery, and music back in the day, I had no interest in playing it again this time around. I’ve stayed with Vanilla Classic and have been loving it. I can take my time and progress at my own pace-one of my characters is finally ready to enter Naxx!-and I don’t have to worry about all of my effort and gear being rendered obsolete overnight due to a new expansion.
The one and only good thing about Classic TBC and Wrath is that Blizzard released them as separate and optional games, not as expansions. If only they had done that back in the day. I despised expansions.
At the Cata release, as far I was concerned, the game was total garbage, and it only got worse later with phased content, garrisons, followers, railroad-style questing and progression, homogenization of classes, a buggered-up talent system, and on and on and on. Modern WoW is such a hot, steaming pile of excrement now that I don’t think it’s redeemable.
Edit: I forgot to mention that you made another great point. When you no longer have to do and earn the little things, the big things cease being so special. Bravo!
TBC is a definite step in the wrong direction. Even the theme is bad. my friends who played classic with me, as their first experience with wow, were like “so this is an outer space game now.” I liked that the classes were given more of a chance to participate but I genuinely have a problem with it taking the players out of the old world and this just being the trend for every expansion to follow. They should have eventually tied it back to the old world some how but we just stayed in Outland until it was time to go to northrend. There was no homecoming and it killed the old world forever
Here's a little thing for you: TBC Chests and rare spawns! so few and far between and rarely is there anything special or difference making in them. At least non that i've encountered. Still to this day in the old world, when I see a well guarded chest or rare, I start formulating a plan, checking out my avalible cooldowns, and preparing my consumables, because I know every sweet little drop I've gotten, how much is sold for or how long I used it. Hands down one of my favorite aspects in the game!
Sweet vid man I agree with mostly everything except.. I feel like I'm the only one who likes 40 man raids better 😂 idk they are just more fun to me. And I like the 20 man dungeons a lot too
LFG was not in the original. If memory serves it was a pre patch for Cataclysm.
I never really cared about end game in WoW even though I had reached it and tried it. Both PvP and the raiding felt just too boring. However questing and world PvP was something I always enjoyed. This is why Vanilia wow was best for me. Since there were still loads of people actually traveling around the world and PvP conflict in questing areas kept me on my toes. World PvP is what kept world alive and that's something that loads of MMORPG's lacks. Yes it feels frustrating while being ganked but the thrill of existing escape or getting someone ganked in return was something special and unique in WoW.
PS: I was one of those asshole's who ruined people's escort quests. Especially group escort quests. I loved doing 1v5 with same level people by using guerilla tactics while they were trying to escort or defend a spot. There was some special feeling by "siding" with mobs and being a villain. Never actually died while doing this.
I’ve been playing duskhaven PS and have been having a blast with vanilla +
Great video!
I was so excited for Wrath as a Druid / war tank I hated DPS being stupid and then having to apologize that I wasn’t a paladin. But leveling up in Wrath I was so bored I didn’t even want to continue playing at max level. The talents are overpowered and or the mobs are too nerfed. There is no reason to group with anyone outside of a dungeon ever. It doesn’t feel like an MMO. It figures back in the day I just used dungeon finder and never went out into the world ever again. Maybe if they added dungeon finder to wrath I’d play my level 80 toons but maybe not. Classic has enough people now to do dungeons etc.
You mention dungeon finder being in original wrath. You seem to miss the point that it was simply not present. Only towards the end patches of wrath did dung finder get introduced, in one of the very last content patches (with the icc dungeons Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection and Forge of Souls). When wrath was more or less over already and you only had ruby sanctum left.
Soooo ehhh? you want retail go to retail imo.
Oooh, that’s a good point. It’s a little fuzzy for me. I still didn’t like wrath leveling at all. That was my only point there
Wait I could have sworn I cloned by warlock when moving from classic to TBC but I can’t find him anywhere? Or was that not a thing?
Like I can’t find any of my classic guys
I did classic vanilla, I did SOM, now I want FRESH Vanilla.
I was going to play vanilla, but at this point, it’s already kind of dead, so I went to wrath classic and I’m having good fun!
Uhhhhh. No, no it’s not. Just reached a server all time high, population wise.
I'm on westfall server pve and it busy all the time having a blast!
Great content and presentation. Keep it up!
Thank you, my guy!
@@nillytv you missed the part where flying mounts ruined the world.
I just rolled a new character on Whitemane Classic Era!
Great to hear! I’ll see you out there
Hey.. Loved this......
I'd love wrath but not going to build a life there just to be forced into cata. Vanilla forever.
Genuinely fantastic video.
Classic era realms were not empty/dormant, I have been playing on Classic era for over 3 years now(maybe even 4?) Things got a little slow for a bit when TBC was released but people still played both. People came back to Classic to do their classic raids with their guild, or to play with their friends ect...there was always a reason to come back, but a chunk of of stayed in classic. I love classic, I love the challenge of playing WoW again. Sometimes I go trying retail, and or Wrath. BUT Mostly I play on classic!
Just subbed, great video
See you out there!
Great video brother
Great vid man
I wish SoM was the Era realm.
This will be huge post but if you are interested in SOM read it. I can tell you didn't play SOM, I played till the end, SoM can't last 1 year for many reasons. 50% of the player base quit as soon as they announced BWL because it was too fast and then most of the people left as soon as they announced AQ for the same reason, too fast, and an additional raid to farm all the extra consumes. Also 70% of people were not even 60 when they released phase 2, and if you take any break from the game, vacation or anything you miss a lot and you can feel it, so people felt under pressure all the time. If you are taking advice about som, talk to the people who played it for most of the time and saw everything. They made the game 2x faster, with harder raids + no world buffs, there was no need to do all three things, at the end there was only 1 hardcore guild left, not even hardcore people wanted to play that mess it was a shit show. Game should have lasted 2 years, so people could be relaxed while playing also some bosses needed tweaking because you could see that they were done in a rush, mechanics made no sense. SoM felt like having a toxic job there was no time for fun, all the free time went to farming consumes if you wanted to raid, because it was necessary to have them all. As the server was dying and the population dropping, my guild had many conversations with the people and many other guilds about the situation, yes there was TBC and other stuff to take from the population, but the MAIN reason for people leaving was absolutely no fun, it was a job, no1 wanted to farm every consume for every raid, and game went too fast, like you would do certain raid couple of times and bam here comes next one and you didn't even adapt to the last one, it felt soo rushed and this created a toxic environment and people just left and those are pure facts because I saw them all first hand. SoM couldn't even come close to the feel of a classic release, most of the people wanted classic experience with bit of something new and they got toxic sludge. P.S. never listen the 1% on the forums, they are the loudest and usually have no idea what they talk about, and if you do, you get the SoM experience... always listen to the majority of people and only If it is in huge numbers. If it is small grp of people yelling for something just ignore it.
I have nothing but love for this game and all of the people I played with had nothing but love for the game. That's why I'm taking my time to write this, as population is starting to rise on classic era servers and as private servers are starting to boom again, it is clear that from all of the classics: Vanilla, TBC and WOTLK, the vanilla is the OG and will always be replied, that being said, blizz for sure will release something again, either SoM or fresh Classic, and I just don't want to see another SoM like last one, because it will start to kill the game, and people will just move to private servers again.
If blizz and the community can't agree on what to change, then don't change anything, release the classic as it was (2 years in length and no rushed raid releases, I remember that even in classic release they did rush AQ release, where people also complained) and be done with it, or if you do any changes only do the ones that 99% of the player base agrees upon, eg.no world buffs In raids.
Yeah I said in the video I didn’t play SoM. I agree with what you’re saying. I think blizzard thought the changes they made would be enough to support seasonal play in a yearly time frame. Clearly it did not. But there was a lot working against SoM ex. TBC and Shadowlands. But you’re absolutely right. All of this has proven that vanilla is more than just nostalgia
Ina gaming world of "more more more" "bigger bigger bigger" I really appreciate going one step back to a slower pace ❤
SoM just made the raids more warrior/rogue.
Yeah harder fights we’re not the solution. Need better prebis for mana users or some of the mana management talents as seen in tbc
i'm going back to era, where i can find groups to do shit. bc right now, i can't find this on wrath mega servers
New to wow. Played retail for a week, felt meh. Then i installed wotlk...now that's a game. Im having one of the best gaming experience i had in many years.
Wrath is 1000 times better than retail
Great video! But next time please turn down the volume of the music as I could barely hear you sometimes :(
So many things that make this game very special and I think a lot of the retail players who thought of PvP as nothing more than a 2004 fragmovie and called it unbalanced or not fun really did damage to the prospect of the vanilla PvP community growing more than the same few thousand people that play every single fresh. Sure it's not something you would want to have rated competitive play ( which still exists in certain forms, just on the macro ) but I would look at it more like an MW2 lobby where everyone's just trying to hit the sickest combination of plays or trickshots. Also the knowledge of things in the game outside of your class and how they interact with your class is extremely important. I can't count on a single hand how many times someone grenaded me through a BoP/LiP while ranking because it never happened.
Era has about everything except a healthy PvP scene and I hope this changes at least before SoM comes out. Naxx patch certainly won't do anyone any favors and I hope they further decrease the time in ranking for just era servers so people can atleast get to Rank 12 and have their foot in the door with a nice stam bonus.
Edit: Also vanilla paladin > TBC/Wrath paladin