This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.7
PTR
10.2.6
Beta
What was Vanilla WoW like? I am curious to know...
Post Reply
Return to board index
Post by
PhantomScourge
The point that I'm trying to make is that the community has nothing to do with the version number of the game. The community is
us
. If you want the game to feel the same way now as it did back in Classic, just seek out like-minded people, add them to your RealID friends, and go raiding/ganking with them. Ignore that little green eyeball in the lower right corner of your screen. Join an RP guild/realm and stay in character. You get out of this game what you put into it.
Yes, but the whole point is that the 'us' has changed.
No, the whole point is that you can find "us" who don't suck if you're willing to look.
Post by
Eccentrica
Well I guess that entirely depends on what you mean by 'suck'. I'll gladly take a mature and decent person in the process of learning and improving any day of the week over a rockstar jerk. The jerks seem to be in the majority nowadays however for the reasons I stated earlier.
Post by
895430
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
517094
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
ChaosDecides
I'm glad I started playing WOW towards the tail end of Lich King. Grinding in Vanilla and TBC must have been a PITA in comparison.
Post by
1141347
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Adamsm
Don't mean to necro, but this was worth it. Vanilla was, simply put the best WoW variant. It was fast paced in BGs and raids were exciting. There was no badge gear, so if you had epics your were revered. There wasn't a lot of being ganked by higher level player because of deranking, Alterac Valley was at least a one day commitment, and best of all, there was a lot of raiding of main cities. It did have one down side...Molten Core.
Um...what? Vanilla was a gankfest; you only lost points for killing NPC's. BG's could last for days with no one winning since everyone was just scrumming in the center, racking up HK's. Raids may have been exciting...but only about 40% saw ZG and MC, about 30% saw BWL, about 20% saw the AQ's, and 4% saw Naxx...for everyone else? Yeah have fun running the dungeons and trying to find groups to actually do them.
As for the main city raiding: That's opinion. During the days when the only AH was in Ironforge, it sucked ass when the Horde attacked and kept the auctioneer's dead for hours upon hours. Even when they added in more, same problem happened in Stormwind; the only 'safe' AH was Darnassus, since no one wanted to go to the back end of nowhere.
Post by
Jkpman
Raids may have been exciting
In terms of seeing new things, yes, just like BC was for the new dungeons, and Wrath, etc
In terms of preforming a class role, I kinda wanted more to do than press Sunder Armor as a tank.
(AoE Tanking... What AoE tanking?)
Or Paladins, The Holy Avengers sent to smite down evil...um not so fast hotshot, Stand there and buff the raid.
"Sure then I get to fight right?" NO, keep buffing the raid that is your ONE job!
I could go on but I think I've made my point.
Post by
Azrile
Don't mean to necro, but this was worth it. Vanilla was, simply put the best WoW variant. It was fast paced in BGs and raids were exciting. There was no badge gear, so if you had epics your were revered. There wasn't a lot of being ganked by higher level player because of deranking, Alterac Valley was at least a one day commitment, and best of all, there was a lot of raiding of main cities. It did have one down side...Molten Core.
1. What are you talking about ´fast paced in raids´? that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. You can still go into MC right now and tell how boring it was with the 1 hour of trash between bosses. Most raids literally had AFK rotations for trash. Groups 1-4 will clear trash for the first 30 minutes, then they will go AFK while groups 4-8 clear the second 30 mins of trash. There was literally no chance of dying on trash, but it just took forever.
2. Name a boss that had any mechanisms at all compared to what we have now? Most bosses didn´t even require players to move, or switch targets.. The entire boss fight was dps just standing in one place doing their dps rotation.. which is next
3. DPS rotations and procs - Go! name them.. tell me about your spec and what it´s rotation was during a boss fight? I can´t think of any spec that used more than 4 buttons an entire fight. As someone mentioned above, for warrior tanks ( the only tanks that raided).. it was basically one ability and a lot of tabbing. Now there were some specs that had fairly complicated rotations similar to what we have today.. for instance Cat Druids.... but (and on we go to #4)
4. There were very few specs that raided. Cat druids, Bear druids, moonkin? ha NEVER seen. If you wanted to raid as a druid, you healed. Ret Pally? ha! as a pally, your entire job was to stand OUTSIDE the raid and buff players. Fury warriors? Arms warriors? Ha
Excessive trash mobs, excessive death runs, No boss mechanisms, 1 or 2 button dps rotations, very few viable specs and just a lot of time-sink grinding ( potions etc). The raids were long and boring, the difficulty to them was all about enduring the time-sinks and boredom of the trash.
Post by
PhantomScourge
Let's not forget the total lack of a feeling of progression when questing in a zone, or not having any gold ever, or the sucky automap, or...
Post by
978011
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Adamsm
Also,in terms of lore,you could not 'jump episodes' in questlines that belonged in the same zone.Actually you could; you could skip entire quest hubs in Vanilla, and see things that happened after the fact before you had done the first part.
Post by
JoshRichh
Hiya!
I see it's been a few years since the last post on here. I thought I'd chip and give m perspective on things. Some of my points may have been mentioned already (I didn't actually read all 9-plus pages of content here.)
I will be gushing about my experience. I am a bit of a Vanilla fanboy. But, I'm a wow fanboy in general.
I'm happy to find a post like this, because I get to tell my experience with a version of the game that shaped me as a gamer. A game I spent countless hours on just because I got to play friends from around the US and world.
The game will be 11 years old come November, which is incredible to think that I've been playing off and on for that long. I picked the game up when I was 15 years old, thanks to my ex-girlfriend and her Father (thanks for the addiction, guys!) In that time, as it's been mentioned, the game has undergone so many changes. The world seems so much smaller. There was a time you had to run to a dungeon (or wait for someone to use the dungeon stone to summon you) before you could access it. And while I do like the convenience of dungeon finder now, with me not having quite as much time to dilly-dally around, I actually do miss that exploration aspect of the game. The world is huge, and having to travel made it seem that much larger and more majestic. Dangerous even, with higher level gankers always seeming to be lurking nearby. Dungeons were also more rewarding feeling. You'd have to hash out time to do each one. There was strategy involved in each pull. The stakes seemed higher. You'd need to stun one member of the mob's group(usually a healer or something like that), take out the others and finish up the sapped one. Then repeat. ALL the way through the instance. It was tedious, but I loved it. You were part of a team with Odds stacked against you, because you weren't over powered and elites in these instances actually gave you a fight.
Leveling definitely tested my patience. I dedicated hours into grinding a character up through quests, dungeons and strait up mob grinding, and only a quarter way through my experience bar to show for it. Admittedly, I actually never made it to 60 until JUST before BC was launched. I didn't get to experience the original raids too much, but I did get to do Onyxia before the first xpan. This was basically due to me changing characters constantly. I would tell my friends about this magical world I was a part of while I was at school or skating with them. They'd be so convinced and join and I'd be starting a new character with them. I absolutely LOVED it.
I think, at least for me, the reason I loved Vanilla WoW so much was because it was completely new to me. It was a new experience to play an MMO. I've never been around so many people in a game at once. I remember being in the Hillsbrad Foothills, coming just outside of Southshore, just passing through in my lvl 40's. There was ALWAYS a huge battle going on in the field just north(ish) of town. It would always start (for me anyway) with a Horde member ganking players in the town. Higher levels would fly in and duke it out. It was like being in the battlegrounds. Players of all levels there fighting for their faction. It was absolutely EPIC. It's where I learned to hate (well...dislike.) and respect the Horde xD
The game just felt fuller and more lively back then. I still love the game. I always find myself coming back. I do miss the old days of WoW The Wanderlust of the game. The vast feeling of the it. Everything just seems smaller and less exhilarating these days.
I'm really glad I found this post. I've missed talking with Vanilla players about the game and the feelings it brought about. I like hearing about everyone's experience with the game, old player or new.
Thanks guys,
JR
Post by
hemisphere
from Vanilla to Wrath of the Lich King, when I was away from the computer, I COULDN'T WAIT to get back on the computer and play again.
From cataclysm to warlords of draenor, I jus log on, because, what the heck, im doing nothing. .
I couldn't wait to PvP, I couldn't wait to join raids and fail miserably. Raiding in Molten Core was very prestigious for me.
I also remember exploring areas for mining and herbing, and selling my prized hard work on the auctino house.
Also, if you wanted to get geared in PVP, you had to grind battlegrounds VERY, VERY, VERY hard.
I reached grand marshall status, by clocking in 16 hours a day in the past. I don't know how long I played, but gearing up took way longer than it is now. And the progression was something to live for.
Post by
skumbananer
I don´t know if this is regional or even just server based, but the community was way different than it is today, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse. As i am a pessimistic fellow i will focus on the negative.
The Main Tanks: For some odd reason one of the tanks was revered as a god. I think every guild had one of those. The Main Tank always got the best gear, actually all gear he wanted and every "offtank" had to get by from the crumbs that got tossed at him/her. The main Tank also was a greedy fellow who used like 4sets of gear. So gearing, as a OT was just insane. MT could waltz around in full epics while the OTs never got any raid loot and had to tank in their LBRS/Strat/Scholo/Dire maul - blues while the MT had 4 sets of epics.
If the MT swapped guilds you simply couldnt raid so everyone had to kiss his feet, cater to his every need and never ever disrespect him. All MTs developed a absolutely awful narcissistic personality .
The Hunters: Hunters back then had some use for every single stat in the game, and therefore needed everything. Strength? Hunter stat! Int? Hunter stat? Spirit? Hunter stat? Melee weapons? Yeah those too.
Tanking trash and adds: Remember trying to tank just 4 mobs as a warrior with dps using aoe? Keep shield block up, tab sunder, stance dance for thunder clap (to do some aoe threat), stance dance for ww (for aoe threat). The only reliable way to trash tank (atleast for me) was to gear yourself so you did really high damage, and sacrifice your survivability. Then the mobs stuck and dps was happy and said "your the best tank ever!", but the healers absolutely loathed you.
Post by
twsX
I guess the main reason for the "main tank" thing is that most bosses didn't have significant tank swap mechanics.
Also, back in the day, there were looser, fewer, or no enrage mechanics, meaning that an exceptional main tank that can survive until hell freezes over could often carry an entire raid group.
Post by
JoshRichh
Glad to see people still posting on this! Awesome!
from Vanilla to Wrath of the Lich King, when I was away from the computer, I COULDN'T WAIT to get back on the computer and play again.
From cataclysm to warlords of draenor, I jus log on, because, what the heck, im doing nothing. .
I couldn't wait to PvP, I couldn't wait to join raids and fail miserably. Raiding in Molten Core was very prestigious for me.
I also remember exploring areas for mining and herbing, and selling my prized hard work on the auctino house.
Also, if you wanted to get geared in PVP, you had to grind battlegrounds VERY, VERY, VERY hard.
I reached grand marshall status, by clocking in 16 hours a day in the past. I don't know how long I played, but gearing up took way longer than it is now. And the progression was something to live for.
There definitely was something to be said about working that hard for the prestigious titles, the epic PVP/PVE gear. The AV matches that took HOURS to complete, but worth every minute of it. I still remember getting that Polearm that lasted me a few levels into I started getting my end game gear, the Ice Barbed Spear, I think? I even remember having to train to use Polearms with my warrior, then smacking around lowbie mobs until the skill was high enough to be relevant!
The reagent farming was always an odd joy for me. I don't know why, but it was nice just G-chatting with friends while I roamed around leveling up my skinning/herbalism/mining when I wasn't questing.
I don´t know if this is regional or even just server based, but the community was way different than it is today, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse. As i am a pessimistic fellow i will focus on the negative.
The Main Tanks: For some odd reason one of the tanks was revered as a god. I think every guild had one of those. The Main Tank always got the best gear, actually all gear he wanted and every "offtank" had to get by from the crumbs that got tossed at him/her. The main Tank also was a greedy fellow who used like 4sets of gear. So gearing, as a OT was just insane. MT could waltz around in full epics while the OTs never got any raid loot and had to tank in their LBRS/Strat/Scholo/Dire maul - blues while the MT had 4 sets of epics.
If the MT swapped guilds you simply couldnt raid so everyone had to kiss his feet, cater to his every need and never ever disrespect him. All MTs developed a absolutely awful narcissistic personality .
The Hunters: Hunters back then had some use for every single stat in the game, and therefore needed everything. Strength? Hunter stat! Int? Hunter stat? Spirit? Hunter stat? Melee weapons? Yeah those too.
Tanking trash and adds: Remember trying to tank just 4 mobs as a warrior with dps using aoe? Keep shield block up, tab sunder, stance dance for thunder clap (to do some aoe threat), stance dance for ww (for aoe threat). The only reliable way to trash tank (atleast for me) was to gear yourself so you did really high damage, and sacrifice your survivability. Then the mobs stuck and dps was happy and said "your the best tank ever!", but the healers absolutely loathed you.
Like I said, I didn't get to do TOO much end game raiding before BC came out. Which is sad, because I got the game like 3 or 4 months after it originally launched. I just goofed around a lot. But I know for a fact that there were always those players who were "entitled" to the best gear, for whatever reason. I was fortunate enough to have met a really cool person on Gorefiend when I first started (Ellian, I miss yew! D:) who was like my WoW mentor. She got me into some good guilds that actually evenly distributed the loot. Granted, the 40 mans, was almost like a free-for-all from what I remember. Or maybe I was just unlucky in my drops. Either way, you're always going to run into the "entitled" people, either in real life or WoW. I wouldn't trade a single minute of my WoW experience in raids, even with those narcissists.
Post by
skribs
I think BC was the pinnacle of WoW in terms of pacing, balance, and difficulty. Vanilla was too far on one side, and we've been going further and further the other way since. I think if you started in BC, you saw WoW at its absolute best.
I would much rather have a Vanilla server than anything Cata or beyond, but Vanilla is third to BC and Wrath IMHO.
Post by
1545391
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
banokawow
Running until you turned lvl 40 and received your first very slow mount was the equivolent of Christmas on your birthday. Now, with the addition of heirlooms, you literally get a mount at lvl 1. Leveling to 40 took months to accomplish. Now with heirlooms, it only takes a couple of days if you take your time. Yup, Vanilla.... soooo much better.
Post Reply
You are not logged in. Please
log in
to post a reply or
register
if you don't already have an account.