Why Vanilla WoW?

[hulkgor]

As much as people keep spewing that is sucks, no one would play it, etc... fact is, there are tens of thousands of players interested in playing it. The success of Nostalrius and other private projects are just proof of it.

No point arguing about its pros and cons since people keep repeating them over and over again... just leave it at that. Some people enjoy it. It does not affect you in any way, shape or form... so, why bother with it?

Personally? Vanilla was amazing, and i often feel the urge to play it, a couple of months each year, or something close to it. In all honesty, if Legion wasn't as good as it currently is, i'd probably be looking for a vanilla alternative.

[Constraint]

I loved Vanilla because:

It WAS imbalanced. It wasn't obsessed with every single spec within an archetype outputting the exact same numbers/utility. This led to a uniqueness amongst classes that's completely unheard of these days.

Questing WAS chaotically awkward. I loathe 'quests on rails' beyond believe. I liked having to explore to find new questing areas, and having to see more of the world than just a set-in-stone path from one hub to the next.

Leveling took a long time. I'm a firm believer in the idea that nothing gives you a sense of accomplishment without a bit of effort.

World PvP was actually interesting. I can remember as if it were yesterday SO MANY of my great times out in the world. I remember having fun with a rogue friend of mine outside Ironforge (we were Horde), and seeing who could 1-shot the most people after they'd lost a duel. I remember having a 20-man stealthed rogue raid outside Booty Bay. I remember my first invasion of the Crossroads on Alliance when my brother was levelling his first toon and wanted to hunt some Horde. I remember Darnassus being invaded on my first Night Elf char and thinking "holy SHIT i want to be like these guys!"

There were heaps of really shitty things about Vanilla too, don't get me wrong. But damn, it felt like an MMO a million times more than the current content we have now. We just have menu bars, difficulty levels, layered RNG, achievement tracking and timers. It's just artificial and feels so awful to me.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Lol, if I wanted to play a game as shit as vanilla wow by todays standard I'd just go and buy the next asian grinder mmo in some form of beta or alpha stage. If you have such incredibly low standards then that is pretty much what you are looking for.

[melodramocracy]

Because a good number of players don't enjoy the QoL / streamlining that has happened to the game over the past several years.

[Kantoro]

Short memories.

[eros701]

I like when "the list goes on" yet it doesn't

[Deleted]

Hasn't all of this been said thousand times already in the 2000 post long Nost megathread?
What on earth can there possibly be left in this topic worth its own thread?

Really - if you want to go through this - read through the first 500 posts off the Nost thread - and if you still haven't had enough, read 500 more. And after that, you're still only half way through it. The same arguments keep repeating every 10 pages or so. Keep going until you've read and re-read them about 100 times.

This discussion is a dead horse. Stop flogging the corpse already.

[Echo of Soul]

Nostalgia is one Hell of a drug. About time these people went to rehab.

So all these people that are playing it right now (although illegally) and enjoying it are still suffering from nostalgia? I'm not sure nostalgia applies to things you did few hours ago, however I could be wrong.

[Deleted]

Server community was a thing. People cared about what other people thought about them, and therefore were less toxic / more helpful.
The leveling also mattered and every piece of gear was important. Some quests was hard , and you couldn't just ROFL-solo everything.

[lavaalamp]

Nostalgia.

Then there's nostalgia.
And of course, nostalgia.
Nostalgia.
Have I mentioned nostalgia yet?

And finally, nostalgia.

Guess i Don't have nostalgia seeing as i never played Wow until Wrath, and i'm enjoying Vanilla a lot more than legion. Why is it so hard to accept that some People actually like Vanilla more than current wow? they're Two Completely different games. Same Shell, completely different game play.

[chronia]

Guess i Don't have nostalgia seeing as i never played Wow until Wrath, and i'm enjoying Vanilla a lot more than legion. Why is it so hard to accept that some People actually like Vanilla more than current wow? they're Two Completely different games. Same Shell, completely different game play.

How do you know that you actually play Vanilla though, i've tried some privateservers over the years but none actually were authentic to vanilla. There were always tuning errors (wrong HP / Dmg values on mobs, either to low or to high), Often mobs gave to much XP so grinding was not needed, Quests either not working, not implemented, mobs in the world, dungeons or world/dungeon/raid bosses not working correctly (if at all), skewed droprates so stuff that was rare in vanilla actually drops more often. All in All it never was a truely authentic experience. Sometimes it was fairly close, sometimes it was off by miles.

Also they all seem to focus on patch 1.12, which argueably is the most fleshed out patch of Vanilla and removes alot of struggles players had to face over the course of Vanilla. It would be better if Private servers started at he release patch and then slowly (while respecting the original release schedule of patches) so that players (esp the ones that never did play Vanilla) get the whole experience, with all the class revamps etc.

[Deleted]

It was something totaly new never seen before. Thats only reason. If blizz would do expansion now in vanila style, everyone would loose his mind about how baaaaad it is.

[Echo of Soul]

How do you know that you actually play Vanilla though, i've tried some privateservers over the years but none actually were authentic to vanilla. There were always tuning errors (wrong HP / Dmg values on mobs, either to low or to high), Often mobs gave to much XP so grinding was not needed, Quests either not working, not implemented, mobs in the world, dungeons or world/dungeon/raid bosses not working correctly (if at all), skewed droprates so stuff that was rare in vanilla actually drops more often. All in All it never was a truely authentic experience. Sometimes it was fairly close, sometimes it was off by miles.

Also they all seem to focus on patch 1.12, which argueably is the most fleshed out patch of Vanilla and removes alot of struggles players had to face over the course of Vanilla. It would be better if Private servers started at he release patch and then slowly (while respecting the original release schedule of patches) so that players (esp the ones that never did play Vanilla) get the whole experience, with all the class revamps etc.

Depends on the server really. I won't name any names but there are servers that provide the authentic vanilla experience (as of 1.12 obviously), but they are VERY few.

[Sturmbringe]

Why Vanilla WoW?

Since you wanted to know why we prefer Vanilla, here's why:

• 1 - Tank Threat is irrelevant
• 2 - CC in content is irrelevant
• 3 - LFR/LFD Tools
• 4 - Class homogenization
• 5 - Profession value
• 6 - Durability of content
• 7 - Existence of Heirloom and related items/mechanics
• 8 - CRZ
• 9 - Multiple "dificulty" levels on raids
• 10 - Legendary items design and philosophy
• 11. No spell ranks.
• 12. Some original spells have been removed.
• 13. Certain specs such as Survival Hunter (melee/ranged hybrid) no longer exist.
• 14. Azeroth and Kalimdor changed after the Cataclysm and thus not the same original world.
• 15. Outland is not the same with the original WoW 2.0 Outland.
• 16. Ammo, quivers no longer exist.
• 17. Talent trees no longer exist in their 2.0 form.
• 18. There is no mana management.
• 19. There is no aggro management.
• 20. There are no class quests to learn spells.
• 21. Levelling experience has been trivialized.
• 22. No debuff limits in boss fights.
• 23. No Community.
• Furthermore:
• 
  
• Class & combat:
• Rogues had to craft their own poisons
• Rogues could deactivate traps
• Rogues had to train lockpicking by opening lockboxes around the world. Special gloves even existed to help you.
• Stealth used to have levels and could be more or less effective. Items such as Nightscape Boots helped you being less detectable.
• Hunter started without any pet and had a quest to teach them how to tame one, enchancing the link between them. Now they automatically start with one.
• Hunter could use Eyes of the Beast to see through the eyes of its pet.
• Hunter's pet needed to be feed and had an happiness bar to manage.
• Hunters had 3 pets max. Each ones feel special. Now they carry a whole zoo in their bags.
• Hunters couldn't attack in melee range with ranged weapons.
• Bows and guns require ammunition you had to craft/buy and put in special ammo bags.
• Warlocks had to get and carry soulshards in special bags.
• Warlocks had a Detect Invisibility spell. Now it's integrated in the UI for everyone.
• Priests had 2 unique racial abilities.
• Mages have a Detect Magic spell and even a Khadgar's Unlocking (in beta) to crack lockboxes.
• Enchanters and blacksmiths could craft various oils and grindstones to buff weapons.
• Paladins could be played only by Alliance while Shamans were only for Horde.
• Weapons required skills, including hand fighting. If you equipped a kind of weapon that you didn't know yet, you needed to use it a lot before doing max DPS. You also needed to see a weapon trainer first.
• Speaking of trainers, you had to see a trainer in town to learn your new class skill/spell. Now it automatically spawn in your action bar as you level.
• Some spells only worked on specific mobs, strengthening the lore. Paladin's exorcism for example was to be used against undead/demons while now it works the same on any mobs.
• Magic/fire/frost resistance gears were useful against specific boss. Once again it strengthen the lore. Some mobs had fire resistance too and/or were weak against frost spells.
• Classes were a lot more different: in term of rotation, but also some didn't have any interrupt, or any cc, or any group buff etc. In the same way, lots of class, especially pure DPS, didn't have a single heal. Now almost every class has the same set of interrupt/cc/heal/group buff.
• Mana and health regenerate way slower, so you NEEDED to stop and eat/drink every few fights. Food and drink actually mater, and mana for DPS caster mattered too. When's the last time you bought normal food in game?
• Spell levels (Holy Light 1, Holy Light 2 etc.) were useful to manage your mana.
• Each classes has unique quests to unlock specific stuff: mounts for warlocks and paladins, postures for warriors, druid's forms, poisons and Certificate of Thievery for rogues etc.
• Every classes had a extra equipement slot where you put your libram, sigil, throw, totem, idol, wand etc.
• Original talent tree allowed hybrid class to freely mix healing, tanking and dps abilities (even if it wasn't often imba!).
• World & quests:
• Basic campfire required simple wood and a flint
• Reagents (candle, feather, stone...) were needed to cast lots of utility spells. Some could be simply bought but others needed farming all around the world.
• Goblin's AH were neutrals.
• You need to travel to dungeons and battleground. Now you don't even need to know where they are.
• Breathing bar was shorter and quests that required you to go under water didn't auto-give you water breathing buff like now.
• There was no instance in the world: If people were in the same place they see and could help each others.
• Quests objectives weren't displayed on your map.
• Lots of group quests so you have to, well, make group while leveling.
• Four Dragons of Nightmare were hidden around Azeroth and required raid-sized groups to be defeated.
• Some of the most powerful spells were only learnable from rares Codex. They dropped from dungeons or raids but weren't BoP so you could trade/sale them.
• Expansions or some raids used to be announced with huge pre-release events, like The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj, Dark Portal Opens or the Scourge Invasion. This was abandoned after Cataclysm.
• One of the most epic quest-chain had a cook recipe reward. You needed a group to loot the mats from elite chimeras.
  
• Professions:
• Rare recipes required you to travel all over the world, either to find/buy them or to do special quests and even dungeons to unlock them. For example you needed a priest to mind-control a mini-boss to teach you Enchanted Elementium; now it's just a drop.
• Some crafting recipes (Sulfuron hammer, engineer Jeeves/Chopper, some food...) required lots of work and mats. Now it's just a couple, rarely 3, max.
• Sound logical, but you actually needed a fishpole to fish, a knife to skin, a hammer for blacksmith etc.
• You had to level gathering before getting to the next zone. Now you can skin/gather in Draenor even if you're level 1.
• You need the actual mats to be in your bag. Now you can have them in your bank and craft anything in the wild.
• Alchemists and jewelcrafters needed alchemy lab to make some of the best flasks and reagents.
• Some professions had sub-specialisations: Blacksmith could specialize in weapon-smith or armor-smith; Alchemist could become transmute, potion or flask masters; Engineers could focus on goblin or gnome recipes. (some of those specialisations still exist but aren't updated anymore)
• Skinners could skin either normal leathers or scales (used for mail armor). Now only normal leather exist.
• Some creatures (like Onyxia) required special tools to be skinned, which rewarded you with very rare scales to craft unique gear.
• Blacksmiths and engineers could craft keys and bombs that you could buy to open lockboxes or doors.
• Only enchanters could, well, disenchant items.
• PvP:
• World PvP ranks with specific rewards like gear but also repair discount or access to a special World Defense channel.
• Alterac Valley lasted for hours with lots of PvE quests included, You could even summon bosses to fight for your side! (You can still technically do it but it's not relevant anymore)
• You could loose honor if you killed civilians from opposite faction.
• Flow of time:
• Gold was scarce, it took a LOT of time to save up 10g. Now you can literally make thousand of gold in a day.
• Mounts had different speeds. Now they all go to your max speed. Also summoning mount took twice as long (3 sec vs 1.5 sec now)
• Leveling took way longer.
• Mobs were harder to kill. While leveling you could pull a couple of them but more without CC often meant death. Same for rare mobs who required a group.
• No instant mail, even to alts. Now there are mailboxes every 20 yards in every cities.
  
• Misc:
• You couldn't have Alliance and Horde chars on the same PvP server, which helped faction pride.
• Keys existed. To open special doors you had first to find the key, ask a rogue to picklock it, have a blacksmith craft a key or use an engineer's charge.
• Dungeons were real mazes that could take hours to complete. Now it's mostly 3 bosses separated by corridors that took less than 20 minutes to defeat.
• Realm reputation mattered.
• Being part of the Brew of the Month Club rewarded you with a monthly sample beer.
• Some raids couldn't be entered directly, you first had to do some questline to unlock them. Now you can even kill a boss *before* knowing about his story

[lavaalamp]

How do you know that you actually play Vanilla though, i've tried some privateservers over the years but none actually were authentic to vanilla. There were always tuning errors (wrong HP / Dmg values on mobs, either to low or to high), Often mobs gave to much XP so grinding was not needed, Quests either not working, not implemented, mobs in the world, dungeons or world/dungeon/raid bosses not working correctly (if at all), skewed droprates so stuff that was rare in vanilla actually drops more often. All in All it never was a truely authentic experience. Sometimes it was fairly close, sometimes it was off by miles.

Also they all seem to focus on patch 1.12, which argueably is the most fleshed out patch of Vanilla and removes alot of struggles players had to face over the course of Vanilla. It would be better if Private servers started at he release patch and then slowly (while respecting the original release schedule of patches) so that players (esp the ones that never did play Vanilla) get the whole experience, with all the class revamps etc.

True, I may not be playing The True vanilla experience But what i can get from it is that 1.12.1 is more Enjoyable For me than Legion is at the moment. The lag is pretty Accurate to Vanilla's history though From what i've read, Probably doesn't help that 10k people are on 1 Server lol.

[Zeta333]

Of all the expansions to compare to <insert current expansion to complain about here>, why is vanilla WoW the one many people argue are the best? I can kind of relate to WotLK/BC even though there is still vastly much more to do now than back then, but vanilla onestly was a sad attempt of a game compared to Legion. Maybe it was cool back in its time, but when I look back, I see a game that:

-Has ridiculously imbalanced classes/specs, and by far worse than now to the point that hybrids couldn't DPS, plate wearers were only useful as tanks, and DPS classes only had one viable spec.
-There was 3 less classes (DH, DK, monk) with the first 2 being widely popular.
-Horde didn't have paladins, alliance didn't have shamans.
-Only 8 races, and let's face it, without blood elves, we'd lose half the current horde population.
-Terrible graphics and character models compared to now, with horrible facial animations.
-Ridiculously long and grindy dungeons/raids with next to no mechanics and way too much trash.
-The only reputations were very time-consuming and boring mob grinds, or item turn-ins with items from mob-grinding.
-No flying, which apparently is a ridiculously massive problem for many players.
-On that note, no mounts until level 40, like ffs, fuck leveling with that, I don't know how i did it as a warlock...
-Clunky, long, and unintuitive quests that sent you across the globe (again without mounts, hello shaman class quests) and forced you to often use Thotbot to figure out what to do.
-No quest voice over besides the very most important characters, no cutscenes (which are amazing), and no interesting quests, literally only killing, gathering, and escourts.
-No max level content besides raiding/dungeons, and PvP. (Wait isn't the problem now that there isn't enough to do? Weird...)
-Having to walk all the way to altarac/hillsbrad to queue for AV, or arathi for AB, etc.
-PvP incredibly unbalanced, enh shamans one shotting people with windfury procs, warlocks being ridiculous, etc.
-Waiting around in the main cities for an hour trying to get a group for the specific dungeon you want.
-Without a good guild, you could just forget about doing raids and thus not having any reason to do dungeons.

I mean I could go on all day and the only benefits I see are from nostalgia goggles and can never be fixed outside of a completely new game:

-The game is new, so everything is interesting and unknown.
-People first playnig the game were much younger, so things are of course going to be more "magical" to younger kids. I myself was like 12-13 at first.

Honestly that's all I can even think of, after staring at my screen for 5minutes. Outside of nostalgia, vanilla is just objectively the worse "expansion" (yea, it's not an expansion, w/e). I'm legitimately curious to hear what anyone has to say that was nice about vanilla as opposed to now. Oh, and try not to say things that blizzard has tried reintroducing recently and it tanked horribly because nobody liked it.

becuase the amount of hand holding and shit thats given to players now is appalling, people dont work for or earn the basic shit that those of the past did. You didnt simply walk into a raid, you worked to earn it. You shouldnt be and were not entitled to see the raid unless you ptu the work in to actually get there. There was no lfr mode, it was one mode. Beat it or you didnt see it die.

[Saluun]

I feel like about vanilla and previous expansions that they are over. It's so pointless to cry about it everytime and if people want to go and play on a private server just go and do it but please don't brag about it on the forums because Blizzard won't make you legacy servers and I don't want them to. I began in BC I loved BC but I don't want to go back at all and I don't miss it. I didn't play in Classic but I don't want to because it wouldn't be the same as back then. At the beginning everyone was a noob, alot of players just began to play, now if you go back everyone knows most quests and how to play WoW, it wouldn't be an epic experience anymore. I really wish that people would stop bragging about Vanilla and just play it illegaly if you want if not then don't.

[Nnyco]

[Deleted]

Why My Little Pony? Why are grown up adults walking around and playing that? Why don't they play the newest toy franchise and make a big deal of that?

Simple. Nostalgia and desperate attempt to preserve it. People gets stuck in a limbo for whatever reason.

[Fokstar]

There is more world by far than there was in Vanilla - so factually, your opinion is irrelevant.

Your score, very / wrong.

You are correct that there are more continents in the game, BUT -
New continents void the old ones.
They exist in-game, but they are not needed.
Most of our time is spent on the new continent which is WAY smaller than the original Azeroth.
This is what they mean when they say "world".
Continents today are small islands of like 5-6 zones, in the original Azeroth you had like 40?
Think about wanting to level again through those 5 zones, it gets boring FAST.
And then having to level in Vanilla through let's say 20-30 zones, not so FAST right?
It's all about QoL, some prefer them, some don't, such as flying for example and many others.
Those that don't, advocate that since everything takes so long, there is value in playing for many months, as it takes forever to get anything meaningful done, and on your way you have a journey that never ends.
QoL improvements get stuff done quicker AKA instant gratification, but the issue is that you run out of stuff to do quickly, and just cancel till next patch.
WoW then and WoW today to me is like simple carbs vs complex carbs for those into nutrition and bodybuilding.
Nowadays WoW is like a Snickers bar, tastes good, looks good, gives you that quick boost, and then your energy level drops.
Original WoW was like buckwheat porridge, nothing special about looks or taste, but gives you sustained energy for a long time.