Reminders of what vanilla was like

[Wannacookie]

I would guess they are going to do ´vanilla´ at the point right before BC launched, so it would have all the QoL and bug fixes up until that point.

I certainly hope so - it will make Garr in garbage gear less painful!

For those saying it needs to be pure release - keep in mind, that doesn't include a LOT. Such as marking targets via UI.

[Bigbazz]

Some specs that werent popular in Vanilla are popular on Vanilla Private servers shows you are wrong with some stuff here, people approach the game differently these days and many of the norms from the old days will be different now as the natural progression of knowledge and player trends and perceptions has changed. You can be sure that non tank dps Warriors will be very popular this time around.

[ringpriest]

The one thing the OP missed: most players didn't raid, and the RPG element was much strong than it was in recent years.

[garicasha]

OMG I forgot about no mounts until 40!

[Projectmars]

OMG I forgot about no mounts until 40!

I didn’t because I wasn’t able to mount up until about 43 or so due to not being able to afford the mount.

[garicasha]

And how many guilds actually killed Kel’Thuzad?

[Marxman]

Psure flasks weren’t really a thing because elixir combos were better and cheaper.

Elixirs and flasks stacked in vanilla. You used everything for Loatheb, Patchwerk, Sapphiron, and KT. Hell, we went and got world buffs (Rallying Cry and ZG buff) for Loatheb sometimes.

[Deletedaccount1]

notice me staysafe

[Deleted]

This whole "classic server" stuff is gonna be messed up. There are so many questions..

Will every raid be available right away? Or will they patch the servers every few months like they did back then?
What about PVP? Wil it be the same system with no BGs for months and then 24/7 nolife grind for the ranks?
What about raids? Will they be 100% identical? Dungeon bosses these days have significantly harder mechanics than Naxxramas bosses.
- Look at Thaddius which was considered "hard", Thaddius isn't even half of the Maiden fight in TOS.
What about class balance? It sucked ass. All the current druid/pala tanks etc., are gonna be surprised when they find out there's literally only one tank viable, warriors.
- Same with DPS. From what I recall it was 100% fury warriors, fire mages, rogues and maybe warlocks that stood a chance. Forget about your moonkin or elemental spec.

Without any raid re-designs, it'll be boring. With the amount of knowledge, simcraft etc. available these days, your average guy will have significantly more DPS, so you wont need every buff in the world to beat Loatheb etc etc.

[Moggie]

Elixirs and flasks stacked in vanilla. You used everything for Loatheb, Patchwerk, Sapphiron, and KT. Hell, we went and got world buffs (Rallying Cry and ZG buff) for Loatheb sometimes.

True, my memory is super vague when it comes to all the buffs that were available tbh.

[garicasha]

I updated this again today and made sections for specific classes. Also added things like weapon skill and meeting stones.

[GorkAndMork]

I updated this again today and made sections for specific classes. Also added things like weapon skill and meeting stones.

> Had 30 min cooldowns: Shield wall, recklessness, and I forget the arms one
Retaliation. Parry all melee attacks and counter attack for each one.
'Bout dps for rogues and warriors. As far as I remember things, might be mistaken though: Thunderfury was good for rogues, but I think there were AQ40/Naxx weapons that are better. Specs that worked: combat swords and combat daggers (at AQ40 level gear), at some point in MC or BWL seal fate daggers were decent.

Warrior PDS requires something like naxx level gear to be competitive with rogues.

[Deleted]

Warlock:
--Were the only way to summon someone.
--Soulstones did not function as a battle rez back then. But it did allow popping out-of-combat.
--Soul shards were items that were stored in bags. Many abilities required them, but the only way to get them was to be casting drain soul on an enemy as it died. This meant for raid progression there was no way of getting them mid-raid, so it was important to farm them before raid. This had to be done on mobs that weren't gray to the player, so it was level 49+.
--Banish was very useful on Garr in Molten Core, and was the only ability that could control elementals.
--I think they had a very powerful 30-minute cooldown, but I forget if they had doomguards or infernals.
--I believe only one spec was viable, the 16-debuff limit was extremely punishing to warlocks. Some bosses were immune to fire and/or shadow.
--Had some curse of doom ability that did no damage for one minute but then delivered a massive hit.

They had both infernals and doomguards (the later being a ritual involving several people, whom one would be killed randomly at the end of it), and quests needed to be completed in order to unlock those two spells (the infernal quest did involve the temple of atal hakkar). Both had to be mind controled with the control demon spell (I haven't used it for so long I forgot how it was called).

Also, there used to be several specs for warlock back then but all involved ruin in the destruction tree and either demonic sacrifiice or shadow mastery (the cookie cutter raiding build used to be hybrid affliction destruction SM/ruin build).

Warlocks were used as a ranged tank on the twins emperor in AQ.

Someone could have several healthstone in their inventory if the warlocks in the raid had different amount of talent points in the healthstone buffing trait.

[BloodyAngel12]

Azuresong Mageblade

Paladin: I need this its an upgrade.

Mage: No its for mages because its got mage in its name.

[AshenEdict]

I really need to stop browsing these forms, all the snide and uneducated responses really just make my blood boil. Don't fucking tell us what we will and won't enjoy. I'm not directing this at the OP, I'm directing it at the people posting "Oh, I can't wait for people to realize how shit it is 2 months in! hehehehe!". Do you have a personal stake in this project failing? Is your life so sad that you need to hang out here and tell people that their idea of fun, which impacts you in absolutely no way, is inferior and they shouldn't be allowed to enjoy it? Shame on you. Shame!

But, to address the point about people leaving two months in. Do you know who those people who will be? Those will be the people that started in WotLK, Cataclysm, MoP, and WoD that decide to go back and try it. They'll leave once they see the lack of modern convenience, but do you know who will still be there? Us. The people who have spent the lack DECADE playing on Unofficial, bug riddled, ephemeral servers that could be shut down at any moment because it was our only option. OUR version of the game doesn't exist anymore. We don't care about spamming Trade Chat for an hour to get a SFK group. We don't care that Mages have to be Frost in MC and BWL. We don't fucking care that we will be living without the QoL changes that you so desperately cling to. We've been fine for this long, and we'll continue to be fine. So if you don't want to play classic, then fucking don't. We don't want you.

[Lollis]

Rogue:
(?) Was combat the only raiding spec? I'm pretty sure subtlety wasn't raid-viable.

Combat and Assassination were viable, both were dependant on gear though, with people switching fairly often, and combat tended to push slightly ahead on dps in my guild. Sublety was taken for haemorrhage by one, maybe two rogues, because it buffed raid physical damage.

- - - Updated - - -

Azuresong Mageblade

Paladin: I need this its an upgrade.

Mage: No its for mages because its got mage in its name.

Priest: I want it.

Everyone: You cant use swords mate

Priest: Shit.

[Eleccybubb]

Combat and Assassination were viable, both were dependant on gear though, with people switching fairly often, and combat tended to push slightly ahead on dps in my guild. Sublety was taken for haemorrhage by one, maybe two rogues, because it buffed raid physical damage.

- - - Updated - - -



Priest: I want it.

Everyone: You cant use swords mate

Priest: Shit.

Hunter. ALL LOOT IS MINE!

[Deleted]

People were nice and the community was good. I doubt that'll be a feature of these new servers though.

[Lollis]

Psure flasks weren’t really a thing because elixir combos were better and cheaper. Also, potions were on a 5 min cd or something like that. You still really only used HS, HP, Resists or Mana Potions...

Guilds focused on using flasks for Tanks first because of black lotus rates, 1200hp from titans was a massive bonus. We might use some on other people for certain bosses that had a bigger dps check but it wasn't really an expectation that you will flask until later content, you used elixirs though certainly.

People were nice and the community was good. I doubt that'll be a feature of these new servers though.

There were plenty of assholes in classic too, don't you worry. I remember when Dark Edge of Insanity was ninjaed by one of them.

[garicasha]

Updated the post even more...man there is just so many things they've changed in 13 years.

Nowadays there's basically 6 major types of loot or 10 minor ones:
--Plate
--Mail
--Leather
--Cloth
--Necks and rings
--4 kinds of trinkets: tanking/healing/melee dps/caster dps

Back then there were about 14 major ones and almost 50 minor ones:
--Plate for tanking (prot, prot)
--Plate for DPS (ret, fury, arms)
--Plate for healing (holy)
--Mail for caster DPS (elemental)
--Mail for healing (resto sham)
--Mail for melee DPS (hunter, enhancement sham)
--Leather for healing (resto)
--Leather for caster DPS (moonkin)
--Leather for melee DPS (rogue, feral)
--Cloth for healing (priest)
--Cloth for caster DPS (shadow, mage, warlock)
--4 kinds of trinkets: tanking/healing/melee dps/caster dps
--31 different kinds of weapons: Caster DPS 1H Swords and wands, caster DPS off-hands & shields, Caster healing 1H maces and wands, Caster healing off-hands and shields, Caster staves (which may have been both DPS and healing), 1H strength swords/maces/axes, 2H strength swords/maces/axes/polearms, 1H agility swords/maces/axes/daggers, 2H agility maces/axes/polearms/staves, prot shields, strength bows/crossbows/guns (warriors used them as stat sticks), agility bows/crossbows/guns (hunters main weapon, stat sticks for rogues). For certain classes (combat rogue, arms warrior) it mattered if a weapon was a sword or mace because the talents for different weapon types were completely different. There might also have been 1-2 strength daggers but those were a joke even at the time.