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Try to explain to me WoW vanilla
- Thread starter MrMatt555
- Start date
SirMossyBloke
Member
PVP had a ranking system where only a few people had access to the highest level PVP gear, meaning each server had one guy who would stomp everyone, it was pretty badass. Until people figured out that they could win trade and manipulate who was at the top and rotate it around, taking the achievement and prestige out of it.
There are a lot of old fun high warlord videos on YouTube, my favorite is this one:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FrnzhjNtPrg
There are a lot of old fun high warlord videos on YouTube, my favorite is this one:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FrnzhjNtPrg
Having a lot of epic items or a lot of gold was actually a sign of dedication.
The world felt ENORMOUS because of the limited transportation options.
People were generally more excited about the game and less concerned with getting things done as fast as possible.
You had to actually talk to other players to do anything that was not solo play (other than battlegrounds). Five man dungeons could take a couple hours with a PUG and by the end you knew who was who.
Talking to others was the biggest difference in terms of the community - that and the lack of cross-realm activity. There's a lot less room for toxicity when you have to interact with other players directly.
It wasn't a perfect game but it was a really fun time.
The world felt ENORMOUS because of the limited transportation options.
People were generally more excited about the game and less concerned with getting things done as fast as possible.
You had to actually talk to other players to do anything that was not solo play (other than battlegrounds). Five man dungeons could take a couple hours with a PUG and by the end you knew who was who.
Talking to others was the biggest difference in terms of the community - that and the lack of cross-realm activity. There's a lot less room for toxicity when you have to interact with other players directly.
It wasn't a perfect game but it was a really fun time.
Flying mounts did not exist. Battlegrounds or arena did not exist. You had to spend your time on the ground and in the world.
Basically, World PvP died once Battlegrounds came in.
When the honor system was first released, a patch before battlegrounds. It was fucking incredible.
Basically, World PvP died once Battlegrounds came in.
When the honor system was first released, a patch before battlegrounds. It was fucking incredible.
BreezyLimbo
Banned
I remember seeing a screencap of craigslist around 2006-2007 of a person who said 'I had sex with this person and they gave me enough gold to buy 3 mounts' or something like that
so I imagine vanilla wow was freaking wild.
so I imagine vanilla wow was freaking wild.
jchap
Member
It was a few patches in before Paladins and Warlocks got their free mount. I paid for my fast mount way before they were given out for free.
NameGenerated
Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
More cooperation was required to do basically everything. The expansions made everything much more convenient for better and worse.
Alterac Valley was fucking epic.
Alterac Valley was fucking epic.
immortald3ath
Member
Best gaming experience ever.
MrMatt555
Member
Jesus Christ. 40!? I can barely get 6 for destiny lol
You're one of the lucky ones. Most people had to grind mobs, sell a ton of crafted shit, or get super lucky with world epics. I didn't get my 100% speed mount until a patch or two before BC.
Seriously. If you were well geared enough you could 5 to 10 man those fights though. I remember 7 manning Onyxia with full BWL gear once, just so a hunter could get his bow done. MC needed between 20 and 30, depending on gear.
I had a lot of fun with pre-LookingForGroup dungeons. Just fuckin' around in Westfall outside the mines to put together a Van Cleef squad. Took aaaaaages to get anything done and often wasn't "worthwhile" in an investment for reward sense but that kind of community out in little pockets of the world was cool.
Yep, your reputation on a server actually mattered back then and, to me atleast, it felt like a community. Nowadays... not so much.
Also, itemization back in vanilla was, at times, ridiculous. As an example, you could find high-level warrior gear with +spirit on it, for that sweet extra health-gen or cloth gear with +strength. Or the very tail end of vanilla, when you had shaman gear dropping for Alliance and paladin gear dropping for Horde in Molten Core. Good times, good times.
Abilidebob
Member
Most people didn't know what the fuck they were doing. Some game design choices were incredibly stupid, and so were the stats on quite a few items(geez Blizzard I sure love having spirit on every single item!). Most of the actual "fun" content couldn't really be soloed, and that lead to a community that was in need of each other. Some of my best memories is just grouping with randoms in my zone to do some hard quest, or hiding the fuck away with other lowbies inside in the cellar of an Inn because a Horde player was destroying everything.
Raids weren't necessarily harder, just that organizing 40 people to not stand in the fire was way more frustrating than recent mechanics, especially after waiting HOURS for all 40 people to be online at the same time.
If you invested time in the game and had a good group of friend and guild, your results(epicx) would attract attention wherever you went, so there was a bigger feeling of satisfaction.
Raids weren't necessarily harder, just that organizing 40 people to not stand in the fire was way more frustrating than recent mechanics, especially after waiting HOURS for all 40 people to be online at the same time.
If you invested time in the game and had a good group of friend and guild, your results(epicx) would attract attention wherever you went, so there was a bigger feeling of satisfaction.
Disagree. World PvP was killed by flying mounts and stuff like dungeon finder.
Yup. So few players ever saw Naxxramas (Vanilla WoW's final raid before Burning Crusade) to the point that they brought it back in Wrath of the Lich King with few changes and it was the first time for most players.
Ricerocket
Member
It took month+ to max level.
Grinding was a way to level up beyond quests which couldn't carry you to max.
Dungeons didn't have a cap so we were doing 40 man UBRS/Scholomance etc.
Shamans were out of combat rezzers.
Paladins >>>>>> Shamans (only benefit was AQ with totems)
My favorite moments as a raider was having full giantstalkers + Ashjre'tul xbow and dominating with the insane burst dmg in AV.
Grinding was a way to level up beyond quests which couldn't carry you to max.
Dungeons didn't have a cap so we were doing 40 man UBRS/Scholomance etc.
Shamans were out of combat rezzers.
Paladins >>>>>> Shamans (only benefit was AQ with totems)
My favorite moments as a raider was having full giantstalkers + Ashjre'tul xbow and dominating with the insane burst dmg in AV.
You could ask for help from pretty much anyone for anything and they would probably be down to help. It was a much more friendly atmosphere in my experience at least. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that there was no auto match making for anything, so you kind of had to be social and be nice if you wanted to do dungeons or group quests. That's kind of just gone now with the dungeon finders in my experience, no one really gives a fuck anymore.
World PVP on vanilla wow was the most appealing thing back in the day, asking your guild for help because a fucking high level alliance motherfucker was camping Stranglethorn Vale, the sense of adventure and exploring the unknown.
It's all gone now, people dont quest anymore, you can random dungeon all the way up.
It's all gone now, people dont quest anymore, you can random dungeon all the way up.
nogoodnamesleft
Banned
One of the best gaming experiences In my life
Sherlock00
Neo Member
This is a pretty concise explanation, but could obviously expound on it. I have been playing WoW since launch, and j dearly miss the community from back in the day. People couldn't be punces and just leave groups or be an @$$, or else you would get blacklisted from groups. Things took more time for sure, but for some reason it was still more enjoyable. Getting to know the server people was just an amazing sense of community, and I have some really fond memories of those years.
Basically if you enjoy getting to know people, it was leaps and bounds better then. I still keep in touch with some of them even though they don't play the game anymore. I kind of liken it to dating these days, which I would never survive with. Apps like Tinder have made it easier and more available, but finding someone to talk to and getting to know them is just more appealing and enjoyable to me, albeit more time spent.
The cross-realm thing definitely put the nail in that coffin. In vanilla, and even BC to an extent, your rep on a server was practically everything. If people liked you, you'd get invited to damn near everything.
Everything seemed more dense because of how long things took to get done. Not necessarily a "better" gaming experience but it was definitely unique.
I also liked and hated World PvP. People wear rose tinted glasses about it. It usually consisted of getting your ass handed to you by higher level characters or 3-12 other enemies and then having to call other higher level people to come help you out. Then you'd sit there in that area and have a one sided war.
It was by no means perfect.
Also, the having to run a dungeon with a "random" group that you looked for in trade chat for an hour would end up taking you 2+ hours to complete. It's not really an exaggeration.
Was it a better experience? ehhhh, idk. Everyone who played it has great memories of it sure. I also remember all the really shitty things too.
I also liked and hated World PvP. People wear rose tinted glasses about it. It usually consisted of getting your ass handed to you by higher level characters or 3-12 other enemies and then having to call other higher level people to come help you out. Then you'd sit there in that area and have a one sided war.
It was by no means perfect.
Also, the having to run a dungeon with a "random" group that you looked for in trade chat for an hour would end up taking you 2+ hours to complete. It's not really an exaggeration.
Was it a better experience? ehhhh, idk. Everyone who played it has great memories of it sure. I also remember all the really shitty things too.
It was also pretty grindy. There were some quests but not enough to actually level up from quest xp alone. Well, at least past level 20-25. So you'd do some quests, hit a wall, and have to spend a little while grinding just for xp. I quit around level 30 because it was taking so long. Still better than Everquest grind though. Later I came back and got to 0-30 in an afternoon.
Both vanilla wow and the first few years of FFXI always made me feel like a part of a community and that I actually mattered in those world. I made plenty of friends that ended up being friends outside of the game too. The sense of community in the early days was what made it for me. Now its just a bunch of people who get randomly teamed up and dont even speak to each other, or a bunch of elitist ass holes making new people feel like shit.
FFXIV is the closest to that these days. I don't play it too socially, but when I do play I never run into ass holes. Everyone is generally nice and helpful
FFXIV is the closest to that these days. I don't play it too socially, but when I do play I never run into ass holes. Everyone is generally nice and helpful
You could only play with people on your server. To form parties you spammed in town until you had enough people. If players were good you would typically add them to your friend list to make finding people quicker in the future. This led to getting to know people and having a sense of community.
Raids required 40 people and often had some walls you hit like getting resistance gear. Patches did not have catch up mechanics every few months so you had to progress through all the raids to get gear. While my guild was doing the hardest raid there were always guilds doing the previous raids on the server. This led to content lasting a lot longer.
Raids required 40 people and often had some walls you hit like getting resistance gear. Patches did not have catch up mechanics every few months so you had to progress through all the raids to get gear. While my guild was doing the hardest raid there were always guilds doing the previous raids on the server. This led to content lasting a lot longer.
Certainly one of them
It was legitimately magical
Expansive exploration, adventurous, wonderous, dangerous
People didn't know every nook and cranny, there weren't endless databases to tell you every micro detail about every pixel in the world
It was a close to true adventure as a gamer could have, and I doubt there will be anything that matches it anytime soon
WoW is still fun because it's foundation is so strong, so solid, but it doesn't have that "unknown" aspect that made it such a great time
Speak for yourself! I had an odd moment. I went to an auction hall one day just looking around and I remember seeing Essence of Water go up for 20g each at the time. This was way early before it started becoming common. I would go to Felwood and farm Thay and come out with 7-10 an hour. I had my mount in no time! 😃
Alterac Valley games would last over 24 hours.
I could polymorph people for over 50 seconds (and in a particularly douchey moment, did it to our guilds warrior in a duel just after he completed Thunderfury).
I also had to arrive to raids 20 minutes early in order to generate enough food and water for the entire 40 man group.
EDIT: The game in general was super rough, but in a super charming way. Abilities like Dampen Magic had no % cap, so as a mage you could get a particular Air Elemental in Sithilus to hit you for 1 damage. I managed to solo farm the entire zone by kiting and killing 25+ of the things per pull, driving everyone else out of the area. In turn, I single handedly crashed the Air Essence (valuable enchanting material) market on my server by severely undercutting the competition.
I could polymorph people for over 50 seconds (and in a particularly douchey moment, did it to our guilds warrior in a duel just after he completed Thunderfury).
I also had to arrive to raids 20 minutes early in order to generate enough food and water for the entire 40 man group.
EDIT: The game in general was super rough, but in a super charming way. Abilities like Dampen Magic had no % cap, so as a mage you could get a particular Air Elemental in Sithilus to hit you for 1 damage. I managed to solo farm the entire zone by kiting and killing 25+ of the things per pull, driving everyone else out of the area. In turn, I single handedly crashed the Air Essence (valuable enchanting material) market on my server by severely undercutting the competition.
arts&crafts
Member
Before there was cross realm LFG people would know everyone on the realm 
CrashPrime
Member
The biggest change for me was you had to be social to be successful and not everyone was able to see content. Servers were filled with faces you recognized and not countless strangers. People were (in) famous and you would know them for their appearance in pvp, by their presence in Ironforge/Orgrimmar, and by their forum posts, because people actually had identity with their server and posted to their individual realm forums.
Now the game is more rewarding to casual players and that makes the game infinitely more accessible but ultimately not as prestigious.
There were e-celebrities, so like in real life, there was a sense of social hierarchy.
Now you have a select few streamers and youtubers who still are known, but its spread so much more thin.
Now the game is more rewarding to casual players and that makes the game infinitely more accessible but ultimately not as prestigious.
There were e-celebrities, so like in real life, there was a sense of social hierarchy.
Now you have a select few streamers and youtubers who still are known, but its spread so much more thin.
Duxxy3
Member
It took months and months of grinding mobs to get from 1 to 60.
We played lots and lots of dungeons.
Raids were a giant mess, if you were lucky enough to do any of them.
Alterac Valley was an enormous grind and I loved it.
I didn't get my level 60 mount until just before BC.
Screwing up on the UBRS kite was always hilarious.
Dancing on the Orgrimmar bank.
We played lots and lots of dungeons.
Raids were a giant mess, if you were lucky enough to do any of them.
Alterac Valley was an enormous grind and I loved it.
I didn't get my level 60 mount until just before BC.
Screwing up on the UBRS kite was always hilarious.
Dancing on the Orgrimmar bank.
That feeling of leaving an Alterac Valley match because you've been playing in there for two hours....Then you come back on 2-3 hours later, queue up for another Alterac Valley match and they put you back in the exact same match...
Platinumstorm
Member
The biggest difference was that the main driver of the game was the community. So many systems exist now that have erased major portions of the community, which frankly has been happening since WotLK.
Vital Tundra
Member
The community and coming together to do things. If you weren't with the community you didn't get to play the end game content. Man it was a great time, a pure time, a grindy as fuck time. The game adding a duty finder was the early starts of the end of old wow. No longer was it about finding people through communication to get things done, but just clicking a button and joining randoms. Cross server shit further ruined what made things worse. Hey look at these people you are playing with that you will never see again, FUN!
Also while it doesn't actually make sense to have so much control over how you spec'd your character because of how much usless junk there was, it was really great to have in an RPG standpoint. I didnt care for optimization and had made some weird ass builds that, if you found the right people to hang around, appreciated your wack ass.
Also while it doesn't actually make sense to have so much control over how you spec'd your character because of how much usless junk there was, it was really great to have in an RPG standpoint. I didnt care for optimization and had made some weird ass builds that, if you found the right people to hang around, appreciated your wack ass.
Gunslinger
Member
One of the greatest gaming experience of my life. From exploring the magical Elwyn Forest to Raiding BWL. WoW vanilla IMO is probably something that I will never get to experience again in my lifetime. And you know what that's ok. The great memories of friends I made and playing the game will always be there. PvP was all about one shot lol. As an arcane mage POM pyro with Arcane power on = one dead character instantly lol. I miss those crazy PvP days.
Imagine being able to recognize the other players on your 10,000+ pop server. Players not only interacted, they developed reputations, rivalries, accountabilities, and even just passing acquaintances. Even with players on the other faction!
You can't really replace that kind of human interaction, and it was the core of why people got so hooked on it (and probably don't anymore). When people get down on Destiny for trying to push the same vibe, WoW is why I don't agree with them.
You can't really replace that kind of human interaction, and it was the core of why people got so hooked on it (and probably don't anymore). When people get down on Destiny for trying to push the same vibe, WoW is why I don't agree with them.
Or sit in a city spamming and watching /trade like a hawk for an hour or two.Before there was cross realm LFG people would know everyone on the realm
I mean, you make friends with tanks and healers. Dps like me were a dime a dozen
Nah, that was the nail in the coffin.
It's the same as SWG. A lot of people blame the NGE, but it happened much sooner once the tone of the game changed with the Jedi revamp. WoW, once Battlegrounds got put it. PvP became instanced and it was the downfall. Adding in queuing from cities, Arena PvP, and flying mounts just killed it more each time.
Or sit in a city spamming and watching /trade like a hawk for an hour or two.
I mean, you make friends with tanks and healers. Dps like me were a dime a dozen
Oddly, I never had any problem as a mage. I remember coming back and in a month or two, everyone who ran groups knew me. It eventually got me invites to raids like Karzk, which let to invites for Sunwell and Black Temple.
Gunslinger
Member
I miss SWG very much too. Even NGE.
th4tguy
Member
World felt bigger because of limitations to flight.
Community was tighter because of the greater effort it took to complete objectives and save for mounts. Also you didn't have matchmade runs so you would build a friends list of people who were useful for either professions or good at runs.
Raids were more serious because of how many people were involved and how difficult it was to get attuned and gain gold and supplies.
People took the game seriously and took pride in their characters.
It was a good time to play.
Community was tighter because of the greater effort it took to complete objectives and save for mounts. Also you didn't have matchmade runs so you would build a friends list of people who were useful for either professions or good at runs.
Raids were more serious because of how many people were involved and how difficult it was to get attuned and gain gold and supplies.
People took the game seriously and took pride in their characters.
It was a good time to play.
-It was the first MMO for probably most of the people who played it the scale of everything was left people in awe.
-Theorycrafting was in its infancy for a lot of vanilla so nobody really knew how everything worked for a while, and then those who did know were a small minority. People having terrible specs was more common than it wasn't. Servers had tribal knowledge of gameplay mechanics that were inaccurate if not entirely wrong.
-Way less viable specs than now. If you could heal, that's the only thing you were good at. Mages basically had to be frost spec for MC and BWL. There was a significant gold cost to re-spec so you had people bringing PvP specs into raids because they didn't want to pay to bring in a PvE spec.
-Rogues were a dime a dozen and most were awful so they had a terrible reputation until probably BWL when you absolutely needed the DPS.
-heres a graff
1 2 3 4 5
rogue rogue
-Half your 40 man MC raid could be healers because nothing had an enrage timer. Enrage timer mechanics absolutely broke guilds on my server because it changed their raid dynamic immensely.
-If you played too much and talked to people, you had a server reputation (because of that, vanilla WoW legit got me two jobs.). As such, actions actually had a modicum of consequence.
-If you didn't/could raid, your vertical progression basically died if you got all your tier 0 gear and the game became boring/frustrating.
-It released unfinished. Silithus had no quests and the mobs had no drop tables for months.
-The PvP was never good. People liked the organic raids of TM/SS and the Barrens but it wasn't good.
-Ganking was less frustrating because people couldn't just drop out of the sky and shit on you and fly away without consequence.
-It was an amazing experience that I would absolutely never want to do again.
-Theorycrafting was in its infancy for a lot of vanilla so nobody really knew how everything worked for a while, and then those who did know were a small minority. People having terrible specs was more common than it wasn't. Servers had tribal knowledge of gameplay mechanics that were inaccurate if not entirely wrong.
-Way less viable specs than now. If you could heal, that's the only thing you were good at. Mages basically had to be frost spec for MC and BWL. There was a significant gold cost to re-spec so you had people bringing PvP specs into raids because they didn't want to pay to bring in a PvE spec.
-Rogues were a dime a dozen and most were awful so they had a terrible reputation until probably BWL when you absolutely needed the DPS.
-heres a graff
1 2 3 4 5
rogue rogue
-Half your 40 man MC raid could be healers because nothing had an enrage timer. Enrage timer mechanics absolutely broke guilds on my server because it changed their raid dynamic immensely.
-If you played too much and talked to people, you had a server reputation (because of that, vanilla WoW legit got me two jobs.). As such, actions actually had a modicum of consequence.
-If you didn't/could raid, your vertical progression basically died if you got all your tier 0 gear and the game became boring/frustrating.
-It released unfinished. Silithus had no quests and the mobs had no drop tables for months.
-The PvP was never good. People liked the organic raids of TM/SS and the Barrens but it wasn't good.
-Ganking was less frustrating because people couldn't just drop out of the sky and shit on you and fly away without consequence.
-It was an amazing experience that I would absolutely never want to do again.