Reminders of what vanilla was like

[adamzz]

Every second in the search for a single black lotus was priceless, call me an idiot but it brought tears in my eyes the very first time I looted it. The tears of joy. The same tears I shed when I first bought my epic mount, the same tear when going through the dark portal first time, the same tear when I entered the sewers of karabor, riding amani war bear into sunwell plateau, achieving "alone in the darkness", obtaining shadowmourne, beating the LK on heroic after 6 months of endless wipes, and finally bringing the thunder king down..time sadly gone past, you may call it nostalgia but it is not. It is not the vanilla I'm missing, it's the feeling of real warcraft, not the plain casual facebook game as it has become long ago.

Killing mythic KJ didn't feel as good as taking the thunder king down or kill LK?

[garicasha]

Heh although a massive accomplishment of guild organization, I guarantee your H-LK wipes ended after 50 pulls every week. :-)

[Explicit Teemo Nudes]

Yo. Ey yo. I have some questions:
# Which is the best mage spec for leveling and dungeons(not raids) at max level? Frost or arcane? Or does fire work best as long as you don't do MC/BWL?
# Is warrior one of the worst dps specs to level because or rage starvation(I've been told this once, but I don't remember if it was in Vanilla or TBC)?
# How does the "defense" stat work? Does it reduce overall damage taken from melee attacks or what? Or is it like versatility but without the damage bonus?

[Discopew]

Killing mythic KJ didn't feel as good as taking the thunder king down or kill LK?

not even close, mechanics make bosses hard, not epic.

[garicasha]

One thing your post points out is the intangible differences between vanilla and now. For example, people back then wouldn’t have asked what was the fastest spec to level nor which did the best DPS in dungeons. People didn’t really know about raiding or the importance of DPS, so there was less of a rush to get there and far less desire to min/max a toon you hadn’t even rolled yet.

To answer your questions:
Evocate was pretty important, but again players weren’t arcane mages, they were mages with more talents in arcane than other trees.

I don’t think warriors had it any worse than any other class. They were lacking ways to exit combat...but they’re warriors!!!

All mobs had a 5% chance to crit a player, defense reduced that. % damage reduction ... maybe a few prot talents had it but it wasn’t on gear.

[Deleted]

For example, people back then wouldn’t have asked what was the fastest spec to level nor which did the best DPS in dungeons.

That is not at all true. When I started in vanilla, the first thing I did was to go online to find out which class did the highest DPS and chose that as my main (turned out to be the rogue). The Internet was full of discussions about the best DPS specs and fastest ways to level.

[Toxigen]

OP spent hours writing paragraphs just to have it fall on deaf ears.

Clearly angry, clearly a shitter casual.

[Lollis]

Yo. Ey yo. I have some questions:
# Which is the best mage spec for leveling and dungeons(not raids) at max level? Frost or arcane? Or does fire work best as long as you don't do MC/BWL?

Really depends on how you define a spec, it is by talents or by used spell? If by spell, although fire was theoretically better (if i remember correctly) most of us went Frost because it was just easier for killing stuff. Killing elites outside Ulduman was far far easier with a slow for instance. You also had Frost Channelling that reduced the mana cost of frost spells and therefore lowering downtime.

Many people went 31 or 30 arcane and then 20 or 21 in either fire or frost, usually frost. You would also see people going the reverse with a frost spec to get the deep frost survivability.

[Aphrel]

im okay with this description, its enticing enough without giving it all away.

[Coffeh]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but we had BigWigs even back then. You know who wouldn't know that? Someone who never experienced it.

I don't even know what you're trying to say. BigWigs? What does that even mean? Anyway, fact remains WoW was harder back then. Numbers don't lie.

[Linri]

2h fury warrior... that will sure be fun

[Biggayshammy]

Idk why people are butt hurt and calling OP salty. This is literally how it was in Vanilla; just facts.

Ive been trying to figure this out as well.

- - - Updated - - -

Why are people trying to understand why Blizzard is making this when it's obviously being released because of the demand for it

I guess because theres a group of us out there that didn't want this and we feel resources could've been better spent? Blizzard has never been able to make the majority of players happy. Im not happy with the idea of classic servers but I also don't have to play on classic servers. The ONLY thing I miss about any older version of this game is the skill trees. I had so much fun with the skill trees back then.

[Lulane]

In the end, Classic vs current WoW comes down to:
- Good community, reputation was important, several guilds working together to achieve something great, you know the guys you're riding to a dungeon with.

- Toxic community, players behaving like total douches, everyone thinking for his own wealth first, addons to make everything easy and every dungeon four new people you probably won't see again anyway.


All the listed "bad" stuff in classic couldn't stop me to enjoying it like crazy, going through the stress of leading two raid groups within one big guild and being the mt for them.... every new boss we left behind felt better than anything after that (except maybe for the pre nerfed BC bosses).
Less items, longer motivation!

[Deleted]

Don't forget that there are a few quests that we haven't discovered yet, that were in vanilla, but not in cataclysm. We're getting another chance

[Dhrizzle]

Reminder of what retail is like - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok7_F5_dRFI

Reminder of what Vanilla is like - https://youtu.be/HM40cK5tu7w

Now show a video of 37 people standing around doing nothing for 2 hours because they can't find enough tanks for a raid...

- - - Updated - - -

This was still the case in burning Crusade. When levelling as a Warrior or Paladin in BC you'd keep a reasonably current shield and 1-hander in your bags in case you needed to tank. As a ret pally when levelling I also kept about half a set of +healing Int gear in my bags for healing 5-mans, though usually I tanked them. It wasn't until actual BC 5-mans that being Prot spec made a huge difference. Given vanilla's talents the big difference would be survivability and having a better Righteous Fury in an actual tanking build.

Also don't forget "off-tank" was a viable role in Vanilla (and TBC) 5-mans, basically it was a CC option for Warriors, Paladins, Druids and Rogues with Evasion on cooldown.

- - - Updated - - -

RFK and RFD sure, but Dire Maul was farmed quite often at 60. Not only because of the librams which were used for enchants, but also for the chance at Foror's Compendium of Dragonslaying and the Dire Maul North Tribute run.

Maybe with friends (or in the Horde) but the vast majority of PuGs forming in Ironforge were for Strat (usually UD,) Scholo or one of the Blackrock Instances.

- - - Updated - - -

Not those, Thunderfury didn't even come into game until much later and sub/shadow wasn't viable early on.
Curse of Shadows
Curse of Recklessness
Winter's Chill
Faerie Fire

and probably Judgement of Wisdom if you're playing alliance. Not sure what the horde use.

Wouldn't CoElements be taken over CoShadows?

[Deleted]

Yo. Ey yo. I have some questions:
# Which is the best mage spec for leveling and dungeons(not raids) at max level? Frost or arcane? Or does fire work best as long as you don't do MC/BWL?

Most mages went Frost/Arcane. For PVP once you were powerful enough you could go Arcane /Fire so you could use the arcane power - pyroblast - prescence of mind - pyroblast and something to instant kill every 3 minutes or so.

However I wouldn't recommend going a mage for vanilla unless you like having to stop and either conjure food and water 1 at a time then stop to eat it after every second mob.

Let's not forget that mages died all the time and were targeted first in battlegrounds. If you had a dot or bleed I don't think you could even run away and heal up because it kept breaking you out of eating.
They weren't good for soloing dungeons when you were high level enough.

[Lollis]

Maybe with friends (or in the Horde) but the vast majority of PuGs forming in Ironforge were for Strat (usually UD,) Scholo or one of the Blackrock Instances.

I don't dispute that the majority were going to Plaguelands or Blackrock, but there was still plenty of activity in Dire Maul at level cap, especially by raiders.

Wouldn't CoElements be taken over CoShadows?

I think he was simply listing those that the op missed, we definitely had both CoE and CoS in our raids.

[DaveL]

Read whole OP..
things to add - Onyxian Scale Cloak....

Well you needed that cloak for BWL last boss Nefarian to even survive his first spell when he lands. Your 40man guild needed that cloak. Even it had kind of feeble fire resist, you couldnt add an +20 fire restist enchant, due to how ilvl of item vs level requied worked. It granted immunity to his Shadowflame (which basically gibbed your MT and then everyone else). You made it from Onyxian scales, wich dropped while skinning Onyxia, but to learn it, you (as the LW) had to turn the head to learn the recipe first! Then you add Cindercloth Cloak (which is made by tailors) and some Rune Threads. And then make it for the rest 39 people.

[xero5141]

superior character customization

Do tell.
/10char

[Mazeari]

5 second mana regeneration rule. Good old times