What made classic wow better than current?

[Deleted]

Actual class fantasy.

Even though half of it was barely functional, it still felt somewhat unique.

It's the small things that were taken away as "quality of life improvements" that made me feel special playing my class. As a rogue I had to brew and carry poisons, I would make Thistle tea, I would spend effort leveling my lockpicking (it took enough effort that most alt rogues wouldn't bother) and then helping people in cities pick their boxes or I could pick a lock that normally needed a key to enter, I had my swirly ball, and I would occasionally go visit Ravenholdt (even though there was nothing there). It all added to immersion and attachment to my character, which I played as my main form my first day in vanilla to my last day when I quit in Cata.

[Sylvaeres]

I'm doing some research and I'd like to hear your opinions guys and gals

Nothing about Vanilla WoW was better than Legion WoW

[Fauxpaws]

What I liked about release WoW was that many elements of the game were connected and somewhat necessary. For example, leveling. It wasn't possible to just sit in a capital city and level up through a queue system. A player had to go out into the world and explore. There was a need to always be moving on. Sometimes, a player would reach a point in which he couldn't advance further by just following the yellow-brick-road. At that time he would go to a new continent and see the homeland of different races, and earn experience in these exotic zones. He might need to go to a different trainer to learn something, because not every trainer is an expert on everything.

There was more value in going to different zones and cities. Players were allowed to make bad decisions. Quest rewards weren't always "perfect" for each spec. Oftentimes, those rewards weren't all that great, and players might make a poor choice even worse by choosing something based on a perceived benefit rather than an actual one. This was a good thing. It made players think. It rewarded people on multiple levels. Not just output.

Travel was an integral part of the early WoW experience. It made the world feel more grand. Not just because it took longer to get around, but there was a reason to travel. It felt like a world, and it was a world worth immersing oneself into.

The design theme behind today's WoW is that the players should be protected from themselves and the game should shepherd them as much as possible. That's not really good for an RPG. It's fine for a corridor shooter, but in a world setting it's terrible.

[Kuntantee]

Nothing made Vanilla WoW better as a game. At best, the community was more vibrant then, within the confines of the game. But if you look outside the game, there's still an extremely vibrant community, it's just more visible on Discords etc.

What a load of crap. Classic WoW was a better RPG. Period. Anyone who fails to see it is blind.

[Eleccybubb]

What a load of crap. Classic WoW was a better RPG. Period. Anyone who fails to see it is blind.

That's entirely subject to opinion and you damn well know it is.

[Kuntantee]

That's entirely subject to opinion and you damn well know it is.

Not really, considering current WoW is not an RPG.

[Eleccybubb]

Not really, considering current WoW is not an RPG.

Well it is. Just because you don't like it doesn't suddenly change the genre of a game.

I hate Starcraft 2. Does that mean it's not an RTS anymore? Didn't think so.

[Kuntantee]

Well it is. Just because you don't like it doesn't suddenly change the genre of it.

WoW is completely absent of character customization, be it stats, items, gear, talents, anything regarding a character, mechanically speaking. I am not sure which game you are playing, but it is not an RPG.

They homogenized the fuck out of everything, professions, items, stats, classes and what we've ended up with is a dull and boring game.

[Eleccybubb]

WoW is completely absent of character customization, be it stats, items, gear, talents, anything regarding a character, mechanically speaking. I am not sure which game you are playing, but it is not an RPG.

So I can't choose talents?

I can't go after specific items/gear?

I can't prioritise my stats how I want?

Oh wait.....

Hell I can even transmog in terms of visual customization.

Again just because you don't like a game for the way it's changed over the years it doesn't mean the genre has.

Saying one game is better than the other is an opinion. Saying one game isn't an RPG anymore because you dislike it is also an opinion.

[Tackhisis]

Classic WoW was a better RPG.

Classic and modern WoW are essentially the same. How can one be "a better RPG" when they share the game mechanics, the game rules, etc.?

[Eleccybubb]

Classic and modern WoW are essentially the same. How can one be "a better RPG" when they share the game mechanics, the game rules, etc.?

Because apparently people hate it so much it's not an RPG anymore....

/logic?

By that logic half the games I played and disliked over time aren't their respective genres anymore.

[Kuntantee]

So I can't choose talents?

No, you are just choosing old skills that Blizzard removed some patch ago. Talents are effectively more skills, not a unique system in the game and hardly ever changes gameplay. This wasn't the case when they first introduced this particular talent system. They basically dumped it down.

I can't go after specific items/gear?

Meaningless, considering each class and spec favors certain stats. Haste could be completely useless for your spec.

I can't prioritise my stats how I want?

Meaningless, see the above point. This was always a problem in wow tho.

Hell I can even transmog in terms of visual customization.

You can walk/run on World of Warcraft too, it must be an awesome game.

Again just because you don't like a game for the way it's changed over the years it doesn't mean the genre has.

I like the game, I played it a lot. The problem is the current state of the game, it's not an RPG.

[Fauxpaws]

Classic and modern WoW are essentially the same. How can one be "a better RPG" when they share the game mechanics, the game rules, etc.?

That's like saying a human and a chimpanzee are essentially the same, because we share 98.8% DNA.

[Kuntantee]

Classic and modern WoW are essentially the same. How can one be "a better RPG" when they share the game mechanics, the game rules, etc.?

Same game rules? You must be joking.

[Eleccybubb]

No, you are just choosing old skills that Blizzard removed some patch ago. Talents are effectively more skills, not a unique system in the game and hardly ever changes gameplay. This wasn't the case when they first introduced this particular talent system. They basically dumped it down.


Meaningless, considering each class and spec favors certain stats. Haste could be completely useless for your spec.


Meaningless, see the above point


You can walk/run on World of Warcraft too, it must be an awesome game.


I like the game, I played it a lot. The problem is the current state of the game, it's not an RPG.

Again your opinion. Stop trying to pawn it off as fact. Calling something meaningless because you don't like it is again your opinion.

Also yeah Vanilla talents were so awesome right? Not like every single lock went SM/Ruin is it? With the rare DS/Ruin lock. SO MUCH CHOICE YO! Hell let's not forget specs that were either broken or didn't work. I mean you obviously like those talents so you were aware that some specs were not viable at all or completely worthless yes?

People followed the meta mostly back then and they do now. Key word being mostly.

If you want to keep going down this road of "game isn't an RPG anymore" and try and keep throwing it out as fact then I won't bother with you because it's a waste of time. You want an actual discussion and to throw around some opinions? Well then I'm happy to.

[Kuntantee]

Look what they've done to engineering profession. You can't even effectively use nitro boost in everywhere now. Good job on homogenization, it's a product of true intelligence.

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Again your opinion. Stop trying to pawn it off as fact. Calling something meaningless because you don't like it is again your opinion.

Also yeah Vanilla talents were so awesome right? Not like every single lock went SM/Ruin is it? With the rare DS/Ruin lock. SO MUCH CHOICE YO! Hell let's not forget specs that were either broken or didn't work. I mean you obviously like those talents so you were aware that some specs were not viable at all or completely worthless yes?

People followed the meta mostly back then and they do now. Key word being mostly.

Meaningless as in mechanically meaningless. That means, a stat is so fucking useless for you that even if you stack it up it doesn't diverge to a unique combat style that you think it would.

And for the record, you had more options in Vanilla talents then you have now. The current talent system is a complete joke.

[Eleccybubb]

Look what they've done to engineering profession. You can't even effectively use nitro boost in everywhere now. Good job on homogenization, it's a product of true intelligence.

Good thing movement speed isn't a major necessity.

I mean outdoors you have mounts. In raids people are doing fine without movement speed on gear.

[Dontrike]

WoW is completely absent of character customization, be it stats, items, gear, talents, anything regarding a character, mechanically speaking. I am not sure which game you are playing, but it is not an RPG.

They homogenized the fuck out of everything, professions, items, stats, classes and what we've ended up with is a dull and boring game.

Because I totally remember back then that there wasn't the best gear, talents, or anything else regarding your character. Oh wait....yes, there was. You still had to pick the best stuff, because that's how it always is.

Character customization - How?
Stats - Oh yes, nothing like taking plate spirit gear for your warrior just because that's how you wanted to play and thereby hurting your tanking ability and ruining your groups/raids experiences. Yep, totally had the choice to piss others off.
Item - You literally had to go out and find specific items, like you do now, with flasks, elixirs, potions, tubers, etc., except now you have less to get. Remember how you could use every single flask and elixir at the same time and you did it to gain an edge?
Talents - Again, you had to pick specific builds. Sure you could go rogue and play it your way, but the reason you went the same way as everyone else was because that was the best way to accomplish certain things.
Gear - You're right, back then you totally had the choice. You had the choice to play a Hunter and actively steal gear from clothies because you wanted spirit, int, and arcane damage increase. You definitely never had "the best gear" or were force to get certain pieces just to raid (resistance gear). Nope, never happened.

[Eleccybubb]

Look what they've done to engineering profession. You can't even effectively use nitro boost in everywhere now. Good job on homogenization, it's a product of true intelligence.

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Meaningless as in mechanically meaningless. That means, a stat is so fucking useless for you that even if you stack it up it doesn't diverge to a unique combat style that you think it would.

Again your opinion. I can still go after specific stats for each of my classes. Also you really want to tell me Mastery is worthless for a Resto Shaman? Considering it increases my healing against lower hp targets I'd say it's very unique.

You really want to tell me Crit cap wouldn't give me a better experience as Frost mage if I didn't have that 33.3%? Because it bloody wouldn't considering Frost needs it for it's procs.

[Tackhisis]

Same game rules?

So what are principal differences in game rules between then and today? Do we have 6 people groups now? Do we have a skill-based progression system instead of experience one?