Old-time WoW players : Do you still play it now?

[Pawnless Endgame]

How did you get on with vanilla WoW and for those who still play it, how do you find it now? What's your wargaming or roleplay background before WoW?

I played Warcraft 1 and 2 in the second half of the 90s. Blizzard kept delaying the release date for Warcraft 3, so I jumped ship from Warcraft 2 to Age of Empires 2. So in my opinion, Age 2 is the successor of Warcraft 2. For roleplay, I played Final Fantasy 7/8 and Paper Mario which are both turn-based games. The characters were also quite customisable so there was no real concept of class.

So over to WoW, I rolled 2 warlocks. Silly in hindsight, but I wanted a wizard type character and I wanted to try out both factions. This was Christmas 2005 when I started. I got both warlocks to around level 15 and I figured out that my Alliance warlock was getting into more groups, so I continued with that one to max level which was 60 back then. I joined a social/raiding guild and by the end of 2006, we had BWL on farm and AQ40 was half completed, so Naxx was the only raid that we never saw. In the Burning Crusade, there were guild politics due to the smaller raid sizes, so we became 2 guilds. Both of us managed KZ, Gruul's and Mag's and we were parts way into Sunwell when the clock ran out in late 2008. After that, I lost interest and only got as far as completing the new Naxx raid + all heroics before quitting in late 2009, 4 years on. It was a thoroughly enjoyable game though and I have several friends from it who are now also ex-gamers but we still meet up IRL.

I heard now that mounts can be had at earlier levels and the levelling is faster? Also, max level is 120 but I've no idea what the latest expansion is called! I think warlocks no longer have soul shards? Did warlocks get any new pets after the imp, voidwalker, succabus and so on? What's the community like? I guess the youngsters prefer Fortnight to WoW?

 

[Qel]

I've played since Vanilla and taken breaks at several points over the years but still play a bit today. Lots of questions, I'll try and answer as best I can.

You get the ground mounts at 20 and 40, flying at 60 and 70 and different speeds/flying in other continents after that.

Max level is indeed 120 now, latest expansion is Battle for Azeroth and there is a thread on here for that.

Warlocks don't have soul shards in the vanilla sense of an item in your bag. Things have changed in various ways several times over the years but the current system is basically you have 5 soul shards to use for certain abilities.

The demons you remember, Imp, Voidwalker, Fel Hunter, Succubus are still there, Demonology has those + the Felguard that was added back in TBC I believe? In the present iteration each spec has a 'big' demon like the Infernal as a 3 minute damage/resource cooldown.

Community is different these days, there is much more stuff done with people from multiple servers so there isn't as much of the old server specific communities from vanilla - RP servers are probably the exception here. The game is 14 years old now, the playerbase is generally older than other games and most people have less time than they used to thanks to real life responsibilities. The key is to find a like minded guild to play with then you can just explore the content you want to do together.

At the moment the latest expansion isn't in a great spot, a combination of the end of the current raid tier (so people are bored) and new systems/content/class changes not working as well as they should have which mean compared to the last expansion (Legion) it hasn't been received as well by the playerbase.

If you were thinking of trying it again it is currently on sale, just keep in mind you last played 10 years ago so it has changed considerably, in many ways it will be simpler but that doesn't always mean it's worse. Alternatively in the summer they're re-launching servers running vanilla so you could just wait and try that if its more your thing.

 

[Nasher]

I tried going back a couple of months ago (after being away about 6-7 years) and wasn't impressed at all really. It seems like they just continued in the direction which was the reason people were quitting when I did years ago.

It feels like a cheap, boring copy of it's old self. The population is very clearly lot sparser than the old days.

Try ESO instead, that's where most of the MMORPG players are today. It's also free to play excluding the expansions.

 

[Mr.Stu]

Played heavily from 2004-2008, almost 200 days played time. Don't have time to fart these days never mind RAID, 2 kids and lifes other trappings sorted any concept of free time out. Still, I regret nothing, so many great memories, especially from Vanilla.

 

[.Lethal]

It's not the same game, and compared to vanilla I certainly wouldn't recommend it now. It's been on decline since the end of Wrath - I don't just mean the number of players, but rather the systems added and things changed, it's gotten much worse since the end of MoP.

 

[JaWalks]

I played vanilla heavily, raided up to and including Naxx. Then I dipped in and out of the game but played every expansion up to WoD. I've not played now for over two years. For me several things have combined over the years to spoil the game. It started with flying mounts, then the cross server battlegrounds, dungeons and raids.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Thanks a lot guys Good mix of responses from players and ex-players. It seems like it did start to go downhill at around Wrath then, after I left in 2009.

What I did notice when I was leaving was that epics was getting easier to obtain. So this might be a reference to the same player base starting to have family responsibilities and more work in the work-life balance.

It never struck me that it's 14 years old now until I read the replies! Graphics were amazing at the time though. I was running it on a Geforce 6800 which handled the game well on high settings.

I did hear about a launch for vanilla servers, but I thought that was a few years ago. Didn't realise it's still slightly in the future, so I might have mis-read / mis-remembered what I saw. I will look into ESO (Elder Scrolls) as well

 

[Jonnybmac]

I started in vanilla. I remember it all from when the battlegrounds came about and alteric valley or whatever it was called where you actually had to walk there to start a game.

I quit when WoW basically took over my life. I remember raiding in a group and my partner at the time turning up trying to drag me on the bed for sex but had to turn her down due to being mid way through a raid and couldn't.

I had a rank 1 gladiator priest during the wotlk and sold it for I think a few hundred quid and it went back up not long after for over 800. Was gutted I couldn't sell it private and selling through a site at silly knock down prices was the only way to part ways with my account. I needed to sell the account and be done with WoW otherwise I would keep going back and I felt there was no place for a casual gamer in WoW. To experience end game you needed to commit serious hours within a serious guild.

 

[Tute]

Played on and off since Vanilla beta.

I'd say the game is a shadow of it's former self. There just doesn't seem to be any passion being put into the current game design, it's all done cookie-cutter style with prebaked mechanics and whilst it still can be fun, it's slipped a long way. I can't ever see there being a dungeon on the epicness scale like BRD, for example.

I actually gave up with my subscription a couple of days ago. BFA is well put together in terms of art and sound, and the levelling is excellent, but just about every end game system is crap. Warfronts are just another pre-determined outdoor instance, islands are a grindfest with a healthy dose of RNG and even the story war campaign feels like it was rushed together last minute given the lack of depth and voice acting. Then there's M+ and raiding which feel hollow and baseless.

I remember calling this when Activision took over, they really are the living embodiment of gaming cancer. I just hope that when they hit the wall Blizzard will somehow be saved on it's own as a separate entity. Until then I don't hold out much hope.

 

[Jonnybmac]

Anyone remember this or these guys?

 

[Jonnybmac]

I played vanilla heavily, raided up to and including Naxx. Then I dipped in and out of the game but played every expansion up to WoD. I've not played now for over two years. For me several things have combined over the years to spoil the game. It started with flying mounts, then the cross server battlegrounds, dungeons and raids.

The cross servers were a necessary evil in some ways. On our server (skullcrusher) the horde was almost always more skillfull and would steamroll the alliance pre cross-server. It was better as server only as it meant fights were more personal and you met the same groups of people but it balanced fights being cross server

 

[Karathez]

Played vanilla & tbc heavily, was in 2 top end raiding guilds, we split just before wotlk tho, & i didnt really feel like starting over a 3rd time in such a short space, then I heard how they were getting very dumbed down raids to the point where it could be done with a pug, & lost interest pretty much forever, tho I did try it once when there was some free welcome back thing on, & it just didnt feel interesting at all.

 

[DanF]

played on and off since vanilla wow. I've always been on the more casual side of it with only small amounts of raiding and no pvp. I find I'll get pulled back for what looks like good expansions, play through to max level and then quit after a few months

Current issues I've noticed with this xpac

- simplification of all classes, everyone has lost lots of abilities and spells
- a lot of abilities and spells are also locked behind class specialization, will feel very apparent with classes like rogue where older builds specced in to all 3 specializations
- most abilities share a GCD now, makes every class feel clunky, slows down rotations etc
- old content areas have horrible lag, your connection to server will be fine at say 12ms but looting etc can take seconds to complete. I had to give up trying to level a 100 char through legion content as it was so frustrating
- new phasing system, you'll be running around and other players will just phase in and out around you. Generally feels much less populated than the old xpacs

on the good side

- pretty nice story arc
- amazing graphics, the world really does look good this xpac
- very smooth leveling 110-120, you are always provided with gear so no having to visit vendors or auction house for an upgrade
- multiple options for gearing up at 120, from warfronts, battlegrounds, pvp, dungeons, raids, world quests

neutral

- professions have taken a back seat, good for people with less time, bad for people who like the older systems

 

[DampCat]

I started in Korean Beta then EU Beta before rolling on release day. I'd previously been playing a browser based game Utopia and my "clan" were super excited for the WOW release so we jumped on every opportunity to play.

Played solid through to TBC when I stopped raiding, then played casually until Wrath. After that I logged on for a few months each expansion. I'm out now. Hate what it's become.

 

[kthula666]

From Diablo 2 to WOW was the best gaming my warlock (necromancer) went through as for play time I must have around two years (hours played) on two accounts and up to Cata in a good guild but now does not interest me.

 

[LewisRaz]

I reactivated 3 days ago and have played about 30minutes. It doesnt feel the same anymore.
Little to no socialising in the world, PUGS might as well be bots as none of them talk.
I know BFA has been out a while but I might see 1 or 2 players in the world wile out questing the game almost feels single player now.

I miss the vanilla/bc days where you had to work with others just to achieve much more minor things.

 

[chroniclard]

Not played for about a year. It's never going to match that vanilla experience again.

Levelling is just too easy and quick, it's all just a rush to end game grinding.

 

[Drollic]

The worst thing about it now compared to vanilla days is the lack of interaction with other people on the same server due to cross realm gameplay. From purely a gear perspective, the pay to win element is also a lot stronger. The fact pugs ask for curve achievement for heroic uldir when so many will have purchased a run gets silly fast. The artwork, graphics and general gameplay and balancing are all still very good I think.

 

[Vexr]

I reactivated 3 days ago and have played about 30minutes. It doesnt feel the same anymore.
Little to no socialising in the world, PUGS might as well be bots as none of them talk.
I know BFA has been out a while but I might see 1 or 2 players in the world wile out questing the game almost feels single player now.

I miss the vanilla/bc days where you had to work with others just to achieve much more minor things.

This^. I joined when TBC just launched and played intensively, going from level 1 to an end game raiding guild during that expansion. I remember raiding being an amazing experience where it was white knuckle stuff wiping at like 0.1% on a boss, and the cheers that went up when it was finally downed. We'd cleared BT/MH and were up to Brutallus in SP, having a good time despite him besting us a few times too many. Then that final TBC raid-nerf patch hit, and we pretty much rolled over him like he wasn't there. Instead of the big cheers that came with achieving something, TeamSpeak virtually went silent. We went on to clear SP in no time and it was a hollow victory for all involved.

WOTLK hit and it seemed like more of the same with all sense of achievement and difficulty gone out of the game. I left shortly after.

I rejoined in the last expansion for a stint. My end game was basically soloing old content for transmog and pugging battlegrounds, as well as the chores of doing daily-type stuff/world events. PVE dungeons/raiding is repetitive and dull with the same content just at higher difficulties, and same loot just with higher item levels. Interaction with other players is pretty much reduced to looking at dungeon finder and hitting the apply button, hoping that your class, spec, and item level with the appropriate achievement are deemed sufficient for a decent PUG.

The questing/PVE content is a horribly grindy too. If you liked flying in TBC, you may miss that. You have to complete a ton of storyline type quests/rep grinds in the world to be eligible for flying, which wasn't even activated until way in to Legion; I'd left the game again before it was allowed.

I doubt anything in the new Battle for Azeroth has changed. I'd potentially be interested in WoW: Classic personally, as I never got the Vanilla experience, but won't be caught playing anything newer than TBC again, that's for sure.

 

[Raoh]

Played from WoW beta in a small guild that was originally a Planetside guild - we enjoyed it right through BC too but then all lost interest in it; I think the cross realm stuff and flying mounts were early warning signs off the direction it was going.

I understand some changes were needed with low or un-balanced servers, but many of the changes from what I've seen seem to make things easier but take most of the soul and what made the game actually good out of it.

Heck I even enjoyed it so much I went to work at Blizzard Europe in France as a GM for a year or so and I'm glad I saw it in its heyday then rather than what it is now.

Personally I'm waiting for classic WoW in the summer (hopefully they don't screw it up!) and would suggest other early days players do the same tbh, if you want anything even semi-close to those times.