The best bits of Vanilla

[Deleted]

• Running from Darnassus to Stormwind because Kalimdor Alliance quests were terrible
• Spamming "LFG NEED 1 TANK 1 HEALER 2 DPS For DM" in /trade
• Sacrificing a bag slot for arrows and soul shards
• Spamming SMC for gold to buy your first mount
• Running the Duel Request gauntlet everytime you left or entered SW or Org by foot
• Getting killed by an elite worgen in Silverpine
• Running MC for 4 hours till the group disbands
• Killing 100 mobs for the 20 items required for quest
• Grinding mobs and dungeons for exp because you ran out of quests and are till too low for next zone
• Ignoring quest text because the story was rhubarb

What's your 'best' bits about Vanilla

[alabaster jones]

Well I- Oh no! I've walked into a carefully laid trap!

[RyanEX]

LF Key for UBRS. No more hunters.

[Deleted]

Many many many bad people who made you look good just by being average. I mean you were a fucking hero if you knew how to level in less then 8 days. The game was so simple back then, you had to put very little effort to be part of the cutting edge (excluding last 2 pvp ranks *sigh*)

[TheWorkingTitle]

• Running from Darnassus to Stormwind because Kalimdor Alliance quests were terrible
• Spamming "LFG NEED 1 TANK 1 HEALER 2 DPS For DM" in /trade
• Sacrificing a bag slot for arrows and soul shards
• Spamming SMC for gold to buy your first mount
• Running the Duel Request gauntlet everytime you left or entered SW or Org by foot
• Getting killed by an elite worgen in Silverpine
• Running MC for 4 hours till the group disbands
• Killing 100 mobs for the 20 items required for quest
• Grinding mobs and dungeons for exp because you ran out of quests and are till too low for next zone
• Ignoring quest text because the story was rhubarb

What's your 'best' bits about Vanilla

Found the noob who toiled away in ZG/MC for all of Classic. lolol

[Narbootz]

Mounting had a 3 second cast time and often enough a level 60 character might only have a regular mount. The glory days of ganking out in the world.

[Dhrizzle]

Having to take a Hunter out to a dangerous area without a pet, tame a new animal, watch it fight until you learned something, dump the new animal (which would attack you,) go back to the stable master, retrieve your pet and teach it the new skill you learned. Just to get the next rank of Claw.

[Regalbeast]

Hunters. Everything about Hunters was so much fun and awesome in Vanilla.

Except when I ran out of arrows during a dungeon.

[Kazgrel]

Agility on plate?

You mispelled spirit...j/k, plate could be found with either agi or spirit (or both, as early renditions of the Valor set had).

Unrelated note...this thread's gonna go places.

[Colmadero]

Hunters. Everything about Hunters was so much fun and awesome in Vanilla.

Except when I ran out of arrows during a dungeon.

Or having to keep food on you to keep your pet happy, otherwise it would do subpar dps.

[kary]

Or having to keep food on you to keep your pet happy, otherwise it would do subpar dps.

That's why you had a boar, you could feed it anything.
Only thing I miss about vanilla was the sheer amount of rl friends I had back then. Still have a bunch of friends, but it's a little different being able to do a 5man with everyone in the same room.

[Deleted]

the adventure

[solarfallz]

Agility on plate?

Gave crit, armor, and dodge! Pretty good stat.

[Tomana]

As my first character (hunter), getting up to 50-ish with Bite rank 2 on my bear before discovering I could get and train new pet spell ranks.

[Revi]

I'm going to add something they I actually liked: Having to read quest text for explanation and directions.

I liked how a quest would tell me to go for some measure of distance to the north-east and what to look for when I got there. Now that all explanation is removed from quest text and put into map markers, area markers, big glittering attention-catchers and text on mobs themselves, questing feels like a completely brain dead and repetitive exercise.

[Dhrizzle]

Or having to keep food on you to keep your pet happy, otherwise it would do subpar dps.

If you let it get unhappy enough it would turn hostile and you'd lose it.

[Irian]

SMC? SMC didn't exist in classic, unless this is a different abbreviation that I'm not familiar with. Also people didn't really spam trade in classic either, LFG was still around. LFG was removed later and then people took to trade chat.

That said, I think my greatest "best bit" (both sarcastically and seriously) of classic is how you could just, out in the world, stumble into something 10 or even 30 levels above you that would downright kick your ass if you weren't paying attention. My biggest gripe about cataclysm's revamp is how safe it made the world feel, with a lot of dangerous areas removed or downgraded to the appropriate level. I personally enjoyed being 20-23 in Ashvenale, taking a wrong turn and being greeted with level 30 mobs, or thinking "hey what is this 'azshara' place" and wandering through it only to get one shot by every random wildlife creature that exists. It actually kinda reminded me of a real and wild world, where each zone didn't have an individual purpose and questline.

[kary]

SMC? SMC didn't exist in classic, unless this is a different abbreviation that I'm not familiar with. Also people didn't really spam trade in classic either, LFG was still around. LFG was removed later and then people took to trade chat.

That said, I think my greatest "best bit" (both sarcastically and seriously) of classic is how you could just, out in the world, stumble into something 10 or even 30 levels above you that would downright kick your ass if you weren't paying attention. My biggest gripe about cataclysm's revamp is how safe it made the world feel, with a lot of dangerous areas removed or downgraded to the appropriate level. I personally enjoyed being 20-23 in Ashvenale, taking a wrong turn and being greeted with level 30 mobs, or thinking "hey what is this 'azshara' place" and wandering through it only to get one shot by every random wildlife creature that exists. It actually kinda reminded me of a real and wild world, where each zone didn't have an individual purpose and questline.

LOL.
People spammed the fuck out of trade chat in vanilla, what are you talking about? back when there was no cooldown on trade chat?

[Pariah]

• Interacting in a new and exciting world-- a game type I had never experienced before with a lore I already loved.
• The interactions I had and friendships I made mattered a great deal. Being courteous carried weight. I was rewarded for acting like a civil human being.
• Lack of knowledge to a particular subject was far more likely to find you a tutor than a jerk.
• Upgrades felt meaningful even if they were not large.
• Large groups for raid made for large groups of friends.
• Reading a BradyGames guide at school to gain knowledge from beta testers in order to go home and do it myself.
• Completing an attunement felt like serious character progression-- I didn't mind an instance being gated if I hadn't earned it.
• The legendaries we had truly felt legendary. They were awe-inspiring and took at minimum 40 people to earn, if not more.
• Being a tank in Vanilla fed my ego quite nicely!
• Farming for mats was a lot less boring when I had 4 other people with me almost every single time.
• My epic mount was a huge milestone. My epic mount from another race was even moreso.
• My mistakes in easier content were still punished.
• More importantly, I had fun. I had more fun. And that's what it's about.

I enjoy Legion. It seems to be a mark up from WoD. I don't enjoy the requirement of M+ spam as a raider for AP and legendary chasing. I don't enjoy the legendary system. I think the artifact system is great outside of the inability to truly master more than one spec in a useful amount of time. Or never being able to change my loot spec. Or dedicate more time to an ALT that will feel inadequate because of power loss. I have not enjoyed the decrease in raid size over the years but I've rolled with the punches. I've never been a 10m raider but I was saddened when they stripped it from the game. I don't like that content is trivial outside of Mythic and it shows in the player base. We have more knowledge, information, and improved interfaces and while we play better than we did in the past, most don't play as well as they should with access to what is available. I don't enjoy that my character is praised a true hero of Azeroth yet no one outside of my guild remembers any interaction they had with me.

I love the art department. The Mythic raid designs. And the cinematic team. There the only three groups I can count on to deliver solid content every single patch and expansion. And I love my guild. Great group of people and despite still thoroughly enjoying the raid content, I would not play if it was not for them.

I don't think Vanilla was the greatest version of the game. IDK if I could answer what version really was. But Vanilla had tons of great moments and insulting people's memory, especially a memory that is very accurate for some because of the availability to continue to play it, seems off putting.

Anyways, figured I'd contribute.

[saeros]

the long leveling experience in crowded zones. you had to spend DAYS in a zone, instead of a few hours.

the endless spam for a dungeon group. on my server we also used to /who a range of level and then whisp to everyone (i don't know if it was a common thing to do)

having no idea of what we were doing. i remember i was a holy paladin and i use to tank in dungeon, while my friend was a feral druid that used to heal. but we did just fine

but he actually wasn't a "friend", he was just a guy i've randomly met doing some dungeons->
doing a dungeon with some guys at lvl 20, met them again 2 weeks later at a higher level, then play with them a lot.

having to buy food/drink all the time, as you had to sit down and drink every few mobs.

the walking trips i had to take with my friends only to unlock some gryphons to connect some travel paths.

getting your first mount (i was a paladin)

every few level you had to visit your trainer to learn new skills or new ranks, and they were not exactly free.

silver and copper were a thing in the game, now you only use them to undercut in ah.

hang out in sw and admire higher level player with t2 or some cool weapon, now everyone gets everything, and transmog also ruined that aspect for me.

getting your FIRST cool looking items (i remeber, as a paladin, i was dying to get the zul'farrak plate shoulder while leveling up)

hunter pet system. (my first alt)

edit: also having to go on thottbot to see how and where to do some quest, as there was no in-game indicator.