So my last post talked a bit about things that were, well, not particularly amazing from back in the old Vanilla days, which I anticipate will be there in Classic. Obviously, regardless of those things, I’m very much looking forward to Classic, so I thought I’d talk about some things that I’m really eager to relive and experience again in Classic. Again, I’m not actually in the Classic Beta, so if I’m mistaken about anything here, please do comment and let me know.
Talent Points & Old Talent Trees
I know that a lot of the old-school talent trees were bloated. There were a ton of talents where you weren’t being “creative” or “thinking outside the box”, if you didn’t take them. You were just bad. It’s true that there wasn’t a lot of room for error.
This was a fairly standard Marksmanship Hunter build, where you grabbed Improved Aspect of the Hawk from BM, got all the way down into Clever Traps in Survival and put the rest into Marksmanship. That said, this doesn’t have Scatter Shot, doesn’t have Improved Arcane Shot or Improved Serpent Sting and you can take a point out of Entrapment to pick up, say, Scatter Shot.
Meanwhile, this is a terrible Marksmanship Hunter build. Why? Well, you’re not saving mana by skipping Efficiency, your damage is gimped because you don’t get Lethal Shots, Mortal Shots, Aimed Shot, Ranged Weapon Specialization or Monster Slaying. You’re wasting points in Parry and Improved Wing Clip and Deterrence — which was quite different back then — and there’s no reason for Thick Hide in BM when you could pick up more useful MM stuff elsewhere.
That’s not to say that there aren’t times when you might want to use an “unconventional” spec. If I were going to run the 45 minute Baron run for the Tier 0.5 quest chain all over again, without anyone but my pet tanking, I’d probably go for a build like this. (I did not, in fact, change my spec or even my pet at all when doing so, and he did surprisingly well, but this is largely because I had an amazing priest healing. <3 Cryptkikr.)
So I don’t necessarily miss the bloat of the old trees, but I miss having the ability to tweak a spec for a given situation. I also miss getting talent points every level! That was one of the main perks of dinging!
All The Abilities
The last several expansions all seem to blur together in my head, so forgive me if I’m mistaken, but I think it was in Mists where certain long-time core abilities became locked to specific specs. Exorcism for paladins is something that I miss regularly. Not having it available to me as a holy paladin was just wrong, in my mind. Of course, it was a damage spell and I suppose a holy paladin isn’t “supposed” to be a damage-dealer, but Exorcism being used on undead only didn’t really make it OP. It was situational. Same with Turn Undead (later, Turn Evil). And I didn’t like the lack of Cleanse for prot or ret pallies, either. (And I still hate the cooldown.) So I am really looking forward to my paladin having all of these core abilities again in Classic. What core ability are you looking forward to regaining?
No AOE Looting & Single Tags
But Kurn, you must be saying, why on earth don’t you like AOE looting?
It’s simple — I’m a skinner. There is nothing worse than rounding up a bunch of mobs, AOEing them down and then looting ONE, which loots them all, and then having some jackass come along and start skinning your mobs. It can still happen without AOE looting, but it’s much more difficult to do. It’s also just as annoying when someone takes one shot at your mob or mobs and then WALKS AWAY without looting, so you’re unable to skin the mob, so I’m very much looking forward to going back to single-tagging mobs. Like, no, sorry, that mob is mine, kindly GTFO.
Knowing What the Hell I’m Doing
When I think about some of the more complex raid encounters I’ve done in my life, like, oh, Heroic Blackhorn 25 or Heroic Sindragosa on 25, Firefighter 25, Heroic Putricide 25… then it truly boggles my mind that it used to take me hours to finish a Scholomance run. I used to come home from class on Tuesday nights and run a Scholo run with guildies that would take HOURS because we’d wipe so often. And yes, part of it was that we were clearly just bad in some senses, but other parts certainly had to be that we just didn’t know what we had to do.
I feel like I understand all the mechanics so much better now. Like, I’m PRETTY sure that Alexei Barov wouldn’t decimate my Scholo group if we were halfway geared, because I understand that he has a damage aura and has a curse that reduces healing, so you’d want a mage or a druid to decurse afflicted people and go tank the guy in the corner.
So even aside from my familiarity with the instances and bosses and such, I feel like I understand things a lot better and I am SO looking forward to taking this knowledge back into Classic with me.
Reliving My Youth
Okay, obviously, part of my excitement for Classic is the idea of reliving my (sort of) youth. I’m in my 40s now, but I started playing this game in my 20s, and I had SO MUCH FUN playing with various people. I mean, hell, I went to Majik’s wedding. Just last month, I went to another wedding — Huntertoga and Kamilla from my old guild got married and Majik and his wife and me and Darista and her BF all went to the wedding. Daey and Tiandrina were invited too, but couldn’t make it, unfortunately. But playing with these people (and more) made the game a lot of fun. While I might not play with them in the coming Classic version of WoW (who knows if they’ll play or not), I know I’ll have fun remembering doing a Dire Maul West run as I remember Dar’s panic over her first run there. I know that I’ll remember telling Toga how to kite General Drakkisath in UBRS. I’ll remember how my brother feral tanked our Jailbreak run and shifted OUT of bear form to cast Rebirth on our priest who died. (Oh lord, it pains me to think of how many Jailbreak runs I’ve done in total.) So even if my old comrades aren’t with me, I’ll remember them and the times we had. :)
What About You?
Let me know in the comments below what you’re most looking forward to in Classic, most dreading about old-school WoW, and if you’re even planning to play Classic!
I began playing WoW during the last patch of Cataclysm, so because of that I never got to see the old Azeroth before the sundering. I’m looking forward to exploring all the places that changed, specifically Loch Modan. I love leveling in that zone even now, and I can’t wait to see the loch filled with water again and dear old Nessy swimming in it. I only play mages so I’m also looking forward to learning how they played back then as well as having to read the quest text to learn where I have to go in order to complete quests. The main game will still be where I spend most of my time, but I’m very much looking forward to spending some time in Classic as well.
Holy cow, that’s definitely something to look forward to! One of the biggest differences between old WoW and new WoW is the topography. Even aside from the Sundering, things were a lot flatter in Vanilla, haha. I remember coming into Hellfire Peninsula in Burning Crusade and being like “wait a minute, is … is the ground on a SLANT?”
Some of my favourite farming spots in Vanilla no longer exist (or, rather, no longer have the same drops), plus Auberdine and Darkshore and Southshore… definitely looking forward to those. :)
Mages were … well, fire mages in particular were very “glass cannon” like. Lots of firepower (literally) but itty bitty health pools! Frost mages were a bit less fragile, but Majik still somehow died in raids. A lot. ;D
> it was in Mists where certain long-time core abilities became locked to specific specs.
Yes, I hate this so much. We used to be just specialised in certain aspects of our Classes; now we are basically our own sub-classes.
> Exorcism for paladins is something that I miss regularly.
They removed it completely in Legion. Instead we got Blade of Justice. A sword made out of light which shoots up from the ground. No idea how that fits the Paladin class fantasy better.
> but Exorcism being used on undead only didn’t really make it OP
Well, they did change it in 3.1. to be useable on any target and to always crit on Undead and Demons. Still not OP though.
> What core ability are you looking forward to regaining?
Divine Intervention!
And as an honourable mention: Sense Undead. Still salty, they removed it in Cata. It was a quest reward for crying out loud!
Right? I miss the overarching class tools. I mean, sure, maybe I didn’t use Consecrate a lot as a holy paladin but I sure used it SOMETIMES.
And yeah, the removal of Exorcism entirely made me sad. Somewhere around Cata/Mists, my vision of the game diverged entirely from the developers’, which explains why I haven’t played a lot since quitting raiding at the end of Cata.
Sense Undead! What a good talent that was! I loved being able to peek around unfamiliar areas to see if any undeads were there. Very handy when learning Scholo/Strat. (Loved tracking things on my hunter for this reason exactly.)
And yes, Divine Intervention is THE BEST, END OF STORY! :D
I’m looking forward to seeing the old zones again. Some I really miss, such as Darkshore and Azshara. I plan on being quite the tourist, dropping in and out as I feel like it. Given Classic has a definitive endpoint for an MMO, that’s actually a plus. I can let me characters be ‘done’ and not have to worry about any future gear treadmills.
I’m also looking forward to do some of the quest chains I never did. For example, I could never get into a warlock until Cataclysm, so the epic warlock mount chain calls to me. I did the Paladin one, so it will be fun to do the other. If I get into raiding, Benediction calls. I have Rhok’delar, so again, the other one calls to me.
Definitely, I miss the old zones, too. I’m still bitter about Darkshore, Auberdine, Southshore, and yeah, Azshara underwent some major changes, too. I miss old Stranglethorn, too.
Agreed, re: Classic having an “end”, of sorts. I’m interested to know if they’d open up a BC server in a couple of years and allow us to copy characters there. (Not move, but copy.)
The epic mount quests can both kiss my ass, but I understand the draw. ;)
It’s funny, I loved Rhok’delar so much that I want to do it AGAIN. It was one of the most fun things I’ve done in this game. Benediction was hard when I did it (Wrath?), so props to you if you get it in Classic! Also super fun, but definitely difficult.