Ladies and gentlemen, theys and gays, Forever is not Classic.
On one hand, of course it’s not Classic. Classic still exists. Forever is a whole other game mode.
But on the other hand, Forever sure looks a lot like Classic, it feels a lot like Classic. And it should, because it’s based on Classic. Many of the abilities, mobs, NPCs, quests, zones, are very much the same or at least very similar.
Make no mistake, though. It is not Classic. It is not the same game that came out in 2004, 22 years ago. Do you realize that World of Warcraft, were it a person, could legally drink in the United States as of last year? (Their minimum age for alcohol is 21.)
The thing about a game that came out 22 years ago, the thing about a game that was then re-released in 2019, is that it’s basically a solved game. Everyone knows all the optimal things to do, or, at the very least, it can be found fairly easily. Quick, how much defense do you need to be uncrittable at level 60 by a raid boss?
440 defense. Check out this cool site and all the math:
But that’s exactly what I’m saying. The fact that this exists, along with other sites, shows how much time we’ve had to absorb the math behind the game, the concepts put into play by the designers, and it shows that the generally-available knowledge by the population who wants to know something is incredibly high.
Meanwhile, what are some mobs in Blackmaw Hold? How about Alcaz Prison?
Right now, we don’t know those things because they’re locked behind the level 30 cap on WoW Forever’s Beta. We don’t know what mobs look like, much less what they drop. And they’re going to maintain a type of secrecy, too — things that have not dropped yet should not be able to be data-mined.
And I, for one, welcome it. I haven’t done a ton of reading about WoW Forever in terms of what drops from where or which boss or anything like that. I’m curious, of course, but I want to find out for myself, largely. I remember what it was like to know absolutely nothing about WoW! And learning stuff was half the fun. “Who are these Silverwing Sentinels?” I remember asking myself.
“What is a weapons master?”
“Ooh, there’s a NEUTRAL auction house in Gadgetzan? How on earth do I get there???”
The hours I spent at thottbot, trying to piece everything together. Glorious.
So for the forseeable future, remember that no one has it figured out and that includes me! We’re all going to be testing and testing and testing some more to see what happens in X, Y and Z scenarios!
In my latest video, about the legacy system, I say something about how the points that get earned by one character get given to all the other characters. But as I sat down to record that, I wasn’t sure. So I logged on and double-checked. Here’s the video, by the way.
But like, no one knows anything. We certainly don’t know anything beyond level 30. We absolutely don’t know what items and itemization and such will be like at 60. We don’t even know all the legacy skills/talents/perks yet just for these trees. Are more trees coming? WHO KNOWS?
And that, folks, is part of why I’m psyched for WoW Forever. It feels similar to the game I fell for in 2005. It looks similar (but better!). And I think it’s going to capture people’s imaginations the way World of Warcraft once did.
You know, in the old days, there was always talk of new, upcoming games that would be the WoW-killer: Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars 2, Elder Scrolls Online, Wildstar (! hahaha)…
What if WoW Forever is the World of Warcraft killer? What if it proves so much more popular than retail that most people play Forever?
It makes sense to me that the only game that can truly kill WoW is WoW itself.
Anyway, that was just a tangent. No one knows anything yet and part of the fun is going to be figuring stuff out. Enjoy it. Stop trying to solve the game before it’s even out.