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Try to explain to me WoW vanilla
- Thread starter MrMatt555
- Start date
I recommend checking out the mechanics when you have a chance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FP8GBXsAe0
Warlocks are in an ok spot right now: they played better last expansion but the specs all feel different and unique. Also, Affliction absolutely dominates in PvP. Demonology was reworked and now you summon a shitload of demons. Destruction just feels like a half-baked fire Mage. I hope they improve on it next expansion.
Tawney Bomb
Member
Leveling took forever. Getting anywhere took forever. It felt like I was constantly broke and couldn't afford anything. Paladins were OP, had huge DPS at one point, could heal themselves and become invincible for a few seconds. Doing raids was fun but require a lot of organization. I miss those days. I know a lot of people say it changed for the better, but I can't get back into it.
I wasn't there for vanilla wow sadly as I was an Everquest addict. This thread though is making me remember so many memories of Ultima Online when it launched, the sense of exploration and wonder. Then the launch of Everquest happened and I had that all over again. I've never had that experience or feeling since and probably won't.
Tawney Bomb
Member
Leveling took forever. Getting anywhere took forever. It felt like I was constantly broke and couldn't afford anything. Paladins were OP, had huge DPS at one point, could heal themselves and become invincible for a few seconds. Doing raids was fun but require a lot of organization. I miss those days. I know a lot of people say it changed for the better, but I can't get back into it.
Edit: I remember when there were very few auctioneers and they were only located in the big cities they got killed by the horde and everyone complained about waiting for them to respawn.
Edit: I remember when there were very few auctioneers and they were only located in the big cities they got killed by the horde and everyone complained about waiting for them to respawn.
And to some extend Shamies for the wolf!
OT: It was the best of times. I remember having a blast leveling up, and then a friend told me " Have you heard about raids? You get epics there"
That was a fucking shock. Was the GM back then and mybroomate and me pushed the guild towards raiding. And the first raid, oh man, we got some purple bracers from the first trash mob we killed in MC. What a rush.
Was a long hard road until we killed Ragnaros, with a guild full of noobs, french whiners, spanish slackers, italians that showed half the raids and tha was carried by a few good man but oh mab was totally worth it.
After that the guild collpased, joined some top 5 server guilds, was top dps as Enhancement during Burning Crusade, had a blast. Shamie offucer for years. More than 10.000h played with my shamie
For me Icecrown Citadel was the peak, with Burning Crusade being fantastic also.
Left the game after Cataclysm. I still have many friends all across EU from those days
PS: I loved playing the AH. Had 6-7 alts that were camping some recipe vendors, you could buy them for 1-2g and sell them for 10g, made a fortune that way
Pheace
Member
Haha, I'm aware, but at the time even a million was unrealistic, so the fact that it reached 10+ had my mind blown, it was like that game just didn't stop growing. It was really amazing following such a unique phenomenon.
Cool thanks will check out the video. Interesting, yeah I'll have to look into that more too, I remember a lot of people weren't happy with Locks at the beginning the xpac. Either way I might be interested in returning to the game since I'm at a better point in my life right now.
As a Mage, making endless water and portals for people. I couldn't walk 5 min through IF without someone stopping me and asking for a portal to somewhere.
We got our revenge though. After a raid was over, everyone needed a portal to get back to IF or SW. So me and my buddy mage would open up two portals one on top of the other, where the top portal LOOKED like it lead to IF or SW but you were actually clicking on the other portal that led to an elf city so far away that it would literally take you 30 minutes and at least 5 griffin connections to get back to IF or SW. It never failed to be funny as hell.
That was Vanilla WoW.
We got our revenge though. After a raid was over, everyone needed a portal to get back to IF or SW. So me and my buddy mage would open up two portals one on top of the other, where the top portal LOOKED like it lead to IF or SW but you were actually clicking on the other portal that led to an elf city so far away that it would literally take you 30 minutes and at least 5 griffin connections to get back to IF or SW. It never failed to be funny as hell.
That was Vanilla WoW.
I had that too, man.
This cannot be overstated. It felt like any guild I joined, even with friends, was always on the verge of collapse. Drama was endless, scheduling a nightmare, simple instructions for members to follow may as well have a different language to many or an act of war to others. One of the prime reasons I cooled on the game in year 2 and 3, just got so tired of the drama and bouncing between guilds only to see the same problems repeat.
That said, amidst the chaos you really do tend to forge good relationships with a certain few that rise above the chaff. Feels like this will never happen in WoW again with the broad changes its underwent. Four years of FFXIV and it hasn't happened either. As accessibility and variables are set in place to ensure success and the most bare minimum requirement for progression and rewards, the sense of bonds and community really takes a hit. Game will never be the same again and it's one case where the flaws helped bring us closer just as much as it pushed us apart.
You mean they don't now??
That was my experience in Vanilla too but when you overcame that and were succesful.in any way, oh man.
Then I found a great Guild in BC, and we played toguether until Cataclysm, being top 5 Horde.
Ofc there was always drama because you lost some players to RL or Top 1 guilds, but all in all it was possible to have solid guilds
Requider lots of effort from the Officera though, but was well worth it
Somewhere down the line after adding the achievement system they added a special mount that you could only get from raiding major cities from the other faction and killing their leaders. WotLK tried to push some degree of cooperation between the two and then that all went away after Cataclysm, then came back near the end of Pandaria, then went away again at the beginning of Legion.
Frozenprince
Banned
At no point is that funny.A time where we could laugh at pictures like this:
You're laughing at blackface.
Velcro Fly
Member
For a long time after the nerfs started, one of the reasons you could give Blizzard as to why you were quitting the game was Will of the Forsaken nerf. Whenever I would cancel my subscription I would always put WotF nerf as the reason I was leaving the game.
I didn't start playing until the summer after TBC came out and so many of the things mentioned about vanilla I remember about the game.
The thing I think I had forgotten the most about was the keyring! Needing the Scarlet Key to get into other parts of Scarlet Monastery back in the day. You'd get a group together finally and then find out no one had the key.
Thinking about all the quests and NPCs and areas from this early time that are either no longer accessible in the game or completely unrecognizable makes me a little sad. The sense of wonder and amazement and at the very least a tiny bit of fear not knowing what lies ahead in new zones will never be there again for me. That mix of nervousness an excitement the first time I did the Wailing Caverns on my lowbie mage was amazing.
I sometimes find it fun to go back and read patch notes from early patches or to try and find pictures of skill trees and things from this time. It was really fun how much you could fuck your character up by having taken awful skills.
I didn't start playing until the summer after TBC came out and so many of the things mentioned about vanilla I remember about the game.
The thing I think I had forgotten the most about was the keyring! Needing the Scarlet Key to get into other parts of Scarlet Monastery back in the day. You'd get a group together finally and then find out no one had the key.
Thinking about all the quests and NPCs and areas from this early time that are either no longer accessible in the game or completely unrecognizable makes me a little sad. The sense of wonder and amazement and at the very least a tiny bit of fear not knowing what lies ahead in new zones will never be there again for me. That mix of nervousness an excitement the first time I did the Wailing Caverns on my lowbie mage was amazing.
I sometimes find it fun to go back and read patch notes from early patches or to try and find pictures of skill trees and things from this time. It was really fun how much you could fuck your character up by having taken awful skills.
Pilgrimzero
Member
Despite being a different game, I recommend Project 1999. Old school EverQuest as it was up through the first couple of expansions.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Starting as say a Night Elf and making the trek to meet up with the rest of your alliance for the first time was epic. Having to roll from Darn all the way to Ironforge so you could be with everyone in IF or SW (via the train) was crazy.
There were similar feelings for Undead trying to get to Ogimar too.
Also your first treck to Tanaris was a similar epic journey.
Also if you were alliance going to do the Scarlet Monastery was a trek, and you were always worried that your group wouldn't show or would take 30 mins to show up.
Plus you were always worried about being ganked on the way.
Also everyone wanted to do the plagueland dungeons cause they were easy. You knew if someone was legit if they had the key for UBRS, and if you could get enough people to beat the Dragon in UBRS.
Also the world event for AQ was insane.
Oh and if you wanted to queue up in front of a raid dungeon that was redonkulous especially if there were multiple guilds around. A lot of people lacked the computer hardware to keep up when multiple guilds were queueing outside for 40 man raids. 200 people outside a portal would make people's shit crawl to a halt lol
There were similar feelings for Undead trying to get to Ogimar too.
Also your first treck to Tanaris was a similar epic journey.
Also if you were alliance going to do the Scarlet Monastery was a trek, and you were always worried that your group wouldn't show or would take 30 mins to show up.
Plus you were always worried about being ganked on the way.
Also everyone wanted to do the plagueland dungeons cause they were easy. You knew if someone was legit if they had the key for UBRS, and if you could get enough people to beat the Dragon in UBRS.
Also the world event for AQ was insane.
Oh and if you wanted to queue up in front of a raid dungeon that was redonkulous especially if there were multiple guilds around. A lot of people lacked the computer hardware to keep up when multiple guilds were queueing outside for 40 man raids. 200 people outside a portal would make people's shit crawl to a halt lol
Also, severs had huge discrepancies on Horde to Alliance ratio, which affected the PvP, BG and the ability to recruit good players, so there were this things called migrations were you had a certain window to move your guild froma your server to a choice of 3 servers.
We moved from Dragonmaw EU to Frostmane at the end of Vanilla. That was for the best at the time,but something was lost on the move for sure. I miss Dragonmaw Vanilla :/
We moved from Dragonmaw EU to Frostmane at the end of Vanilla. That was for the best at the time,but something was lost on the move for sure. I miss Dragonmaw Vanilla :/
Played until Cataclysm and we never stopped hating the Alliance. I remember we never considered Palas true "hordies"
HackTheSlash
Member
I played on Gnomereagan. I remember the Alliance outnumbered Horde like 3-1 at least. It was a huge imbalance. But in PVP we (the horde) would win 9 time outta 10 on battlegrounds. We had the smaller numbers, but better players. I created a nightelf once to play a bit on the Alliance side. Stepped into PVP and got 'rekt'. Alliance in battlegrounds was just so unorganized. Most people yelling at eachother not knowing their roles. And i thought, "Ah! so this is why."
I remember the first time as a low level running into Stitches. Not knowing what that was about was crazy.
Or seeing dead bodies and skeletons all over Stormwind only to step inside and see someone kited Teremus into the center of town.
I remember the first time as a low level running into Stitches. Not knowing what that was about was crazy.
Or seeing dead bodies and skeletons all over Stormwind only to step inside and see someone kited Teremus into the center of town.
RedSparrows
Member
Killing Rag and Nef for the first time = incredible experiences.
RedSparrows
Member
Dragonmaw EU represent! What guild were you in?
Bleh paladins where so freaking op against shamans (same with warlocks and rouges
Gunslinger
Member
I recall the first time I won this in a PUG raid:
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Ephemeral_Power
I had to /roll against almost 30 people. I rolled a 100 and I was jumping up and down with joy that now I am officially a trinket mage lol.
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Ephemeral_Power
I had to /roll against almost 30 people. I rolled a 100 and I was jumping up and down with joy that now I am officially a trinket mage lol.
Started a horde druid on a PvP server. Feral spec. Man I went everywhere with eyes and ears listening for rogues.
Then endgame I saw I was just suppose to be a mana battery for priests -.-
I also remember the queues, server downtime with game time compensation, and that loot lag where you stuck in the looting animation yet can move around.
What got me into WoW was my mother's friend's husband. I watched him create an Orc and mountain climb into a city I didn't know the name of (Ratchet) and go in the water to be instantly killed by a shark. I was like oooooh I got to have this.
Then endgame I saw I was just suppose to be a mana battery for priests -.-
I also remember the queues, server downtime with game time compensation, and that loot lag where you stuck in the looting animation yet can move around.
What got me into WoW was my mother's friend's husband. I watched him create an Orc and mountain climb into a city I didn't know the name of (Ratchet) and go in the water to be instantly killed by a shark. I was like oooooh I got to have this.
To me, vanilla WoW was about choice. I understand there was demonstrably less to do back in ye olde days but hear me out. I've never been a raider. Never will be. I just don't have the time or the will. It makes most MMOs pretty... dull for me nowadays. I like the ones I like and I stay subscribed to FFXIV but ultimately I feel like there isn't really much to do; I'm just grinding out gear so I can see the next raid so I can see the next raid, etc, etc. There's a reason most MMO players say that glamour is the real endgame. It's the only thing to really accomplish outside of raiding most of the time.
Back in vanilla I felt like I always had something to do that didn't have much of anything to do with raiding. Sure, the gear treadmill still existed but there was farming for gold so you could buy your mount. There was farming for mini-pets because they looked cool. There was exploration because without a mount the world felt massive. Hell, doing dungeons with people was fun and exciting because you weren't always there for the drops--or at least not drops to get you raid-ready. Blackrock Depths had quests associated with it that gave blue gear and that was exciting! You got to do quests! Purely inside of dungeons! It never felt like the game was 100% balanced around getting you into a raid to see it and the MMOs I've played (FFXIV & WoW) are completely balanced around that. You log on, do your daily checklist and... probably log off. There isn't a lot of interesting stuff to do unless you're raiding. I can't come home and shoot the shit with friends while grinding away in Feralas to maybe get a hippogriph mount or a sprite dragon pet.
While there was less to do, it felt like I had more options for what I wanted to do. Part of that is definitely because everything was a very long-term goal, but I stand by the fact that most modern MMOs are mainly about ticking off the boxes so you can gear up so you can get into the latest raid.
It was also about shit like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhb2m7eLgYk
In order to start a raid, raiders had to do a questline that had them walking through Stormwind with a coterie of NPCs to uncover one of the primary NPCs as Onyxia, the boss of the raid, herself. It was awesome to see and it got your non-raiding player engaged with the raid and what was happening in the world. Shit, Naxxramas came with a world event that gave cool rewards to people who never set foot in the raid! Some of this extended into Burning Crusade.
...Fel Reavers, man. I remember being so goddamn hype to roll a blood elf paladin. Burning Crusade was also amazing.
(I know GW2 and ESO are more along the lines of that non-raider deal, but I can never get into them for some reason.)
Back in vanilla I felt like I always had something to do that didn't have much of anything to do with raiding. Sure, the gear treadmill still existed but there was farming for gold so you could buy your mount. There was farming for mini-pets because they looked cool. There was exploration because without a mount the world felt massive. Hell, doing dungeons with people was fun and exciting because you weren't always there for the drops--or at least not drops to get you raid-ready. Blackrock Depths had quests associated with it that gave blue gear and that was exciting! You got to do quests! Purely inside of dungeons! It never felt like the game was 100% balanced around getting you into a raid to see it and the MMOs I've played (FFXIV & WoW) are completely balanced around that. You log on, do your daily checklist and... probably log off. There isn't a lot of interesting stuff to do unless you're raiding. I can't come home and shoot the shit with friends while grinding away in Feralas to maybe get a hippogriph mount or a sprite dragon pet.
While there was less to do, it felt like I had more options for what I wanted to do. Part of that is definitely because everything was a very long-term goal, but I stand by the fact that most modern MMOs are mainly about ticking off the boxes so you can gear up so you can get into the latest raid.
It was also about shit like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhb2m7eLgYk
In order to start a raid, raiders had to do a questline that had them walking through Stormwind with a coterie of NPCs to uncover one of the primary NPCs as Onyxia, the boss of the raid, herself. It was awesome to see and it got your non-raiding player engaged with the raid and what was happening in the world. Shit, Naxxramas came with a world event that gave cool rewards to people who never set foot in the raid! Some of this extended into Burning Crusade.
...Fel Reavers, man. I remember being so goddamn hype to roll a blood elf paladin. Burning Crusade was also amazing.
(I know GW2 and ESO are more along the lines of that non-raider deal, but I can never get into them for some reason.)
HF2014
Member
Was Everquest addict too, but gave a try to WoW vanilla and it was an amazing experience. I find it funny reading people claiming how hard it was to get money,traveling in WoW vanilla. Christ they would have die in agony just booting up Everquest lol. Getting platinum in EQ was like 10 time harder than geting a gold inwow. Travelling? Well better pay up a wizard for a tp, or wait for the boat to arrive for 20 minutes.You died? Go get back your corpse, naked and vulnerable! Regen? Sit and wait 15 minutes...after one fight. You died in the bottom of a dungeon and cant get back your geared corpse, better have ton of platinum ready to pay a necro to help you. You died? You lose xp, or even a level if you havent retreive your corpse.
Wow Vanilla kinda make it right to be more for the casual player. All this hard shit was remove in WoW, which make it a more confortable experience. But it was not hard. I really dont see that all all, and today, its just too easy. But seriously, if Blizz would decide to make a WoW vanilla remaster, i would jump right back at it.
I was the GL of a "small" 100 man guild called Malevolence (not to confuse with Malevolence Incarnate, which many did
). We managed to kill Ragnaros which was a huge achievement for us at the time. We used to raid with an Italian guild which name I can't recall for the life of me and his GL, Enokabukka, who was a gentleman. We disbanded shortly after starting BWL, a few weeks bfr BC, iirc, about the time of the migratiom The most tight grup formed a guild called Cortello's Crew to raid Kharazan, and then I joined iHORDE, another Dragonmaw classic guild. Ended up.in Sesame Street, a fantastic guild.
What guild were you in?
SatelliteOfLove
Member
There are two types of Old School WoW veterans: those who hated getting MCed into the lava at Blackrock Mountain and those of us who were doing it. WOOHOOHOOHOO
It's kind of interesting to watch in this thread for people who don't play for the chase but for the kill to be done with. They HATE old school MMOs, even old school (pre-WOTLK) WoW, as the goals changed then to favor them.
So you have these voluminous, comprehensive, thoughtful QoL changes and...the play rates tank; so like I have been reminding them for going on 8 years now: it's the goals that have changed, and that they dislike not having what they have more than they like what they have.
It's kind of interesting to watch in this thread for people who don't play for the chase but for the kill to be done with. They HATE old school MMOs, even old school (pre-WOTLK) WoW, as the goals changed then to favor them.
So you have these voluminous, comprehensive, thoughtful QoL changes and...the play rates tank; so like I have been reminding them for going on 8 years now: it's the goals that have changed, and that they dislike not having what they have more than they like what they have.
GrandHarrier
Member
Dead Zone.
No thanks.
You mean where multiple people would play the same account 20+ hours out of a day for even a chance to get that account on top.
RedSparrows
Member
I was the GL of a "small" 100 man guild called Malevolence (not to confuse with Malevolence Incarnate, which many did
We disbanded shortly after starting BWL, a few weeks bfr BC, iirc, about the time of the migratiom The most tight grup formed a guild called Cortello's Crew to raid Kharazan, and then I joined iHORDE, another Dragonmaw classic guild. Ended up.in Sesame Street, a fantastic guild.
What guild were you in?
I remember Malevolence, I think! And iHorde.
I was Ally, Elf Preservation Society. We got to Twin Emps before TBC. We were not hardcore but liked our raids. We once raided Orgrimmar as 50 naked gnomes in honour of Kippertronix, who died. His son played with us too.
Guild is still going,but I don't play. Still talk to my best chums from that time.
Gentleman Jack
Member
"Fun:"
Pet mood
ammo taking up 50% of your inventory
needing mp5 gear and mana pots on a physical dps class
the dead zone
Gunslinger
Member
Almost everyone in my server used botting or multiple people playing to reach grand Marshall. Let's face it no sane person is gonna grind out the last few ranks all by himself.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
Aegis of Fire (Mu)
if you're really old burning blade you might remember Eyelaser Ninja Pirates though.
BB forums were great to read about all the alliance guild drama from the sidelines. Also:
Goddamn lol, that's a lot of nostalgia packed into one post.
I remember Eyelaser Ninja Pirates, but I can't remember if that was just from stories ya'll would tell or if it was still around when I joined. You were a Tauren shaman right? Or was it warrior? To an awkward teenager who spent a lot of his free time reading the BB forums, you were basically a celebrity.
I remember EPS!! You were regarder as the "cool" allies between the Horde community. Wow, what a throwback.
An honor having played with you, sir. This one goes for Dragonmaw and those endless Tarren Mill and later on AV battles.
PS: Was just talking to my RL ex-rommie about you and he told be you guys were the only ones we didn't fight at the entrance of MC..respect!
PPS: Remember that crazy Bulgarian shadow priest which used to melt ally faces called ThE PlaGuE?? What a legend...
RedSparrows
Member
I remember EPS!! You were regarder as the "cool" allies between the Horde community. Wow, what a throwback.
An honor having played with you, sir. This one goes for Dragonmaw and those endless Tarren Mill and later on AV battles.
PS: Was just talking to my RL ex-rommie about you and he told be you guys were the only ones we didn't fight at the entrance of MC..respect!
PPS: Remember that crazy Bulgarian shadow priest which used to melt ally faces called ThE PlaGuE?? What a legend...
Haha EPS were friends to all! Or tried to be... Me and my warrior friend had a good heal/tank thing going in the BGs for a time. Tarren Mill too...!
ThePlague was nuts. Could never kill him. Then there was Farq and his gnome hunts, Fjeenzy and SECURITY being all leet. Good times.
Vanilla server here I come...! (Again)
You gave up a bag slot for a quiver and you had to carry around a stack of roasted quail for your pet. Frost Mages were annoying in PvP.
On the other hand, your raid rotation wasn't mashing a braindead macro and PvP wasn't a tedious endurance slog. Managing your mana was a skill. Trapping required finesse and CC actually lasted awhile.
It was easy to see the difference in between a good hunter and a bad hunter in a dungeon or BG because of all this and so it felt very rewarding to play. The class lost this as it was streamlined in TBC/Wrath.
GrandHarrier
Member
PVP was literally an endurance slog. You had to either devote your entire life to it or have other people play your account so that it was never inactive, otherwise other people doing that would surpass you.
It's kind of funny how many remember vanilla WoW as some kind of hardcore mmo. I played FFXI at the time and the game felt incredibly casual to me.
But yeah, I would kill for something like vanilla Wow these days. Let's all cross our fingers and hope Pantheon turns out all right.
But yeah, I would kill for something like vanilla Wow these days. Let's all cross our fingers and hope Pantheon turns out all right.
Played until Cataclysm and we never stopped hating the Alliance. I remember we never considered Palas true "hordies"
I'm mostly speaking lore-wise. Garrosh fucked a lot of stuff up, and Sylvanas isn't on good standing with the Alliance right now either
Oh my god, I totally forgot about Soul Shards
The loot sucked though too. I don't remember now how many drops, but a boss was like 2-3 pieces of loot and you had 40 people in raid. We killed Nefarian for soooo many weeks, but only saw the healing weapon twice I think. I got the first one and had friends waiting and it just never happened. It was legit tough back then.
One of my craziest memories was trying to farm enough through the week to do Loatheb in Naxx 40 next kill. The resist pots and stuff were so expensive b/c of demand that it took thousands of gold per week to kill that boss.. and by that time I was as broke as could be. Naxx was brutally expensive until you got most of the place on farm.
Faaaaarq! Lol, I joined in some of his gnome hunts...the dude was hilarious on chat!
Theplague didn't speak english so his legend as "silen assassin" was even bigger
I hated Lexicat on the ally side...damn rogues ;P
molnizzle
Member
Undead rogue here, can confirm.
Rogues were pretty damn broken there at the beginning. Good times.