Do any vanilla / TBC WoW players still play WoW?

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Soldato
Joined
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Just this really. Vanilla was my fave, but I extend this thread to include new-starters that started during TBC because I still consider that as being retro material. For those who still play now, what is the game like? When/how did you start, and what are your fondest memories of Vanilla/TBC?

I started in Christmas 2005. Knew nothing about class roles, just that I wanted a wizard-type character. I got to level 60 in May 2006 and joined a guild, which was good as we were all new to WoW, but as mostly friendly 20-somethings, we were familiar with the old Warcraft games from teenage years. We clubbed together with attunements e.g. Jail Break, and 5 months later, we had MC/Ony/AQ20/BWL on farm. We got halfway through AQ40 then we ran out of time as the pre-release content for BWL got released in December 2006. Fond memories though as WoW cropped up on popular media a lot like South Park.

Burning Crusade - again good content, although the reduced raid sizes caused problems with guild politics. So it was partly Blizz' doing, but also the guild was to blame as they ditched the DKP system and instead the officers formed the so-called 'loot council' which generated favouritism. For the 1st Gruul's attempt, the core/favoured players were short and had recruit about 5 of the more casual players like me. Got Gruul down ok after the 2nd wipe, then there was an argument on Teamspeak as the core players / loot council couldn't agree on who should get the drops. Next time I logged in, the guild has disbanded and we became 2 guilds. The core/favoured players formed their own guild and they continued to power through the dungeons/raids. The rest of us (casuals) formed our own separate guild and did things at a slower pace. The irony was though that we got further than them in the end and managed to clear Sunwell :D We just got on together really well and I think that helped.

I quit WoW early on in the Lich King era (some time in 2009), but did "re-lapse" for 3 months during Mists. It wasn't the same though as it wasn't 20-somethings or 30-somethings playing the game. It was now teenagers who weren't even alive when Warcraft 1/2 came out, so very different clientèle... and the attitude that goes with it. Plenty of invites sure, but very little talk between the players which took away the social element of WoW for me. A lot of ninja looting too.
 
I started in vanilla but - and I realise people who played vanilla aren't supposed to say this - I found it quite dull. Levelling was a massive chore that involved endless dull "go get me 30 microscopic apples from the middle of nowhere" quests, cash was hard to come by, broken classes were considered acceptable and getting around was a nightmare. Of course it didn't help that I didn't really have much of a clue what I was doing and wasn't in a guild but still - compared to the improvements that followed I don't think it was the golden age of WoW.

I gave up at around level 54 and didn't come back until TBC - I found that a very different experience with much better designed quests, better rewards and gear so I actually felt like I was progressing. I also started raiding in TBC so the game really opened up for me at that point.

Of course the downside to this increased accessibility is the impact it has had on the social aspect of the game - you can do dungeons and raids without ever having to speak to anyone (either to get into a group or to plan CC, discuss tactics, loot etc). I used to regularly add people that I'd done dungeons with to my friends list. I don't remember the last time I did that (and cross-realm doesn't really help with that, though obviously it's useful for getting groups faster).

I carried on through WoTLK (the real high point of the game IMO), Cata (which largely broke our guild due to people wandering off, bored), MoP (which brought most of our guild back and then sent them off again with the content drought after SoO), WoD (which also brought most of my guild back, but only for about 2 months) and until 2 weeks ago, Legion (which has been a good expansion, but I've found broken shore dailies deathly dull). I don't doubt I'll go back for the next expansion but since Cata there's been a pattern of playing for 6-8 months and then unsubbing until the next one comes out.
 
My timescales are pretty much the same as yours pawnless. Went back recently and just found people in it to be generally purile. It was not fun.
 
I was told a saying in vanilla Rugrat, that the "game only really started when you've maxed out at 60". I think that was true, as I spent most of vanilla doing end-game stuff. The levelling was actually fairly quick for me as I was in groups a lot. Started WoW on 27.Dec.2015 and hit 60 on 1.May.2006. As well as plenty of chatting / online socialising (as if it's MSN Messenger), I also had Winamp on the go, as it was possible to control that via global hotkeys even if you're full screen inside of a game. Obviously once the raiding started, I had to turn the music off and log onto Teamspeak, but I loved being a raider though. Just a couple of raids a week was considered as being a "regular" DKP-wise and we were all in mostly tier 2 gear by December. Except for that damn Nefarian only ever dropped ONE warlock chest, and several shamen chests even though shamen weren't an Alliance class back in vanilla!

Dis86 - agreed, that was how I found the people to be when I tried Mists. A shame really, because the average age of a gamer in the UK is now 37 which is around the average age of OcUK gamers I would imagine.
 
The only way to play this game for me now is with people you know or a re-roll guild, been done here a few times.

The re-roll guilds always end up imploding though as a handful of people think they are better than the rest and then the motivation just dies.
 
Started at the back end of Vanilla going into TBC which was my main playtime and raiding, loved the game back then. Made so many friends and the vibe just felt better playing. I stuck with WoW through LK as it had some awesome raid content i.e Ulduar and the Arthas fight, I quit 2 month after Cata came out as it felt like a new game and most of the people I had played with had already quit, it was at that time it felt like 25 man raiding wasn't one of the main focuses of the game and gear became too easy to get.

I tried returning for a month in MOP as I had full on nostalgia and nothing else to play and I didn't even finish the full month as the game had changed so much from what I remembered and enjoyed playing. I put in over 4500 hours into WoW and I don't think I'll ever get close to that number of hours in any other game.
 
Beta tested Wow and played for a year or so (honestly no idea how long as I just got bored after we had all the original content on farm and Druid was mind blowingly dull in vanilla raids). Switched over to EQ2 as I also Beta tested that and the raids were more challenging. Came back for Burning Crusade and tanked for the most part - we had server firsts for all the raids. beta tested WotLK and quit after it went live with the appalling zero skill aoe fest game play that was now the flavour of the month - cc, team play everything I liked about MMOs was thrown out of the window. As I tank I could literally stand and swipe and hold aggro on everything. It felt almost as boring as the original 40 man raids were the lag was so bad you faced a wall for the whole encounter and played whacka mole with people HP bars (as resto druid - since there was literally no other role for a druid).

I've popped back occasionally for trials because I had some RL friends who still played and ran a little guild; usually hit the level limit and quit as the content didn't grab me.
Came back last year as I'd run out of other games to play and I really enjoyed the trial (you can now play for an unlimited time but are level locked to max 20 - I levelled all the available classes / tried all the new starting areas and decided I wanted to carry on). levelling to 110 will take you 2-3 weeks max now (less if you have access to Heritage items to boost your xp so you can get to the current relevant content pretty quickly. This time round I'm much older and have far more responsibilities so I can't raid at the cutting edge - however I've done all the solo / group content that's available and do the current raid (the Nighthold) in LFR and normal every week (pugging it as I no longer have a regular group).
The levelling content now is as good as I've seen - I recommend everyone do the Broken Island quest line as it's quite interesting and I actually enjoyed the progression - unfortunately the latest invasion stuff is being dragged out as they drip feed content to keep people subbing before the next tier raid opens (Tomb of Sargeras) and it's getting a bit tedious - the main thing that annoys me is the treadmill they've created where you collect AP (essentially experience points) for your weapon - they've just revamped the system and as far as I'm concerned once I open the last trait (should be next week) I'm giving up on it because the percentage value of any increases after that are irrelevant unless you're pushing cutting edge - which I never will any more.

TL/DR Legion is definitely worth coming back for even if just for a few months to level to max and do the new questlines..


My only regret is not having a regular team / guild to experience mid to high end content on any more (I don't have the time for mythic raiding but I'm over geared for pretty much everything I can do)
 
Played since the beta, taken a few breaks here and there, most recently came back halfway through Draenor found a nice guild and played pretty solidly since then. Yes I look back at Wrath and earlier with fond memories and think how the game has changed since then, not always for the better. At the same time the way I can and want to play it have changed. I can't and don't want to raid 3, 4 or 5 nights a week like I did back in Vanilla-Wrath so I don't, its enough for me to raid 1 or 2 nights a week and experience the content up to heroic, try mythic if we have time. If you like Warcraft, Legion is definitely worth having a go at, the class campaigns, wider story, artefact weapons and mythic+ dungeons are good additions. There's pretty much always something to do but as with any real MMO it comes down to finding a decent group of people to do it with which will allow you to do it the way you want and avoid relying on PuGs.
 
played legion for a bit got bored of the "progression" of just the same old dungeons but a little more difficult!
 
I played vanilla, tbc, wotlk, stopped & came back for cata, stopped & came back for mists then gave up for good. We had a very good core of players that kept together throughout but as blizzard introduced more & more of their qol of life features it became harder for me to engage. In the end I was paying a sub just to come on once or twice a week to raid at which point I stopped for good. I think it really died for me with the cata expansion, even wotlk to a degree although I really enjoyed the raids.
 
I played WoW, TBC, WotLK, Cata, then stopped - came back after MoP - whatever that was WoD? For about 3 weeks, then it just wasn't good.
 
I like Legion but random legendary drops and titan forging that scales to the highest ilvl possible needs to be removed.

You've got people who's best in slot items depend on world boss drops titan forging as well as earlier raids and dungeon titan forged.
 
I played in Vanilla and a bit of every expansion since.

In Vanilla I played till level 40. Getting that mount was a massive milestone for me but after that the grind just became too much.
Played in TBC up to end game but didn't really take part in much end game.
Lich King joined back up during Ulduar/ICC and played it to death. This was my favourite WOW era.
Cata - Played a little end game, the first raid.
Mists - Same as above
WOD - Same as above

I've played Legion since release and have completed gone through all the raids in normal/HC. Not really too interested in Mythic just because I don't have the time.

I wish I would have taken part in some more end game during TBC because I think it would have been my favourite era but WOtLK was amazing for me. Legion has been the best expansion since IMO. However, I agree withe the above about tiatnforging/legendaries. IMO there should be no titan forging (or make it 5-10 ilvls at the absolute max) and there should be no RNG legendaries. These are both silly concepts but don't take too much away for me.
 
I left years ago now. Went back for a free weekend last year, but Wow just looks very dated and behind the times compared to newer MMOs like ESO. Which has much better mechanics and systems all round, with lots of content and minimal "grind".

I think wow's original developers/designers left some time around the 2nd expansion, which explains why it went downhill after that. It doesn't have any of its original charm or attention to detail.
 
Last edited:
Nasher said:
I think wow's original developers/designers left some time around the 2nd expansion, which explains why it went downhill after that. It doesn't have any of its original charm or attention to detail.
Click to expand...

They changed who the target audience WoW was aimed for and it became get free loot with no effort.
 
I played when it first got released and I played for about 4 years in total and then got bored with all the changes , I must admit tho when it first come out it was the most fun I have ever had in a game , I loved the fact the horde would turn up at stormwind and attack and then everyone would go fight ! that soon stopped once battlegrounds come out , also people use to arrange in the chat too meet up at the crossroads to fight ! again that stopped , that was great fun, I also use to love the fact that when BG did come out , if you wanted to get the best PVP Gear you would have to get the best rank and most kills in the month , again that stopped , to me the game got killed of with all the changes ! It was a great game that had to much ambition and to many changes , I think its very unlikely anyone who first got in too this game is still playing it too day, as with any game over time you doo lose interest and get bored,.
 
I can see the love/hate from both sides.

Vanilla WOW was hard. Just levelling; if you pulled more than 2 mobs you were a gonner but, the challenge is still there. Not that many guilds have completed Mythic NH (or the previous tiers when they were current). If you've completed all the Mythic raids and it was all too easy then, respect.

They have dumbed down the rest of it though. If raiding wasn't your thing then I can understand (professions, wPVP etc).

They've made all content accessible to everyone but still left (some of) the hardcore content there.
 
I played from Summer 2005 and quit around 2008, before WotLK. I was a hardcore raider.

I returned for Legion, but it just isn't the same game. The world is deathly silent because no-one needs to group for anything anymore, they just use the dungeon finder thing instead. You can just buy your way to max level now too. WoW feels like all the other F2P games out there now, except you have to pay for it.

I uninstalled Legion when I got a legendary drop (Fire Mage bracers) from a world quest. No challenge, no interest.
 
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