How long will the Classic servers actually last?

[Hotsforyou]

Ssshhhh, don't talk about it. Grinding lotus is CONTENT. Getting 40 people to stfu and log on at the same time is SKILL. Don't you be disrespecting vanilla raiding, the pinnacle of SKILL and CHALLENGE in WoW raiding in general.

I mean 40 >> 25 >> 20 >> 10, it's simple math really, checkmate.




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To be honest, Wrath Naxx was just extremely undertuned. Like, extremely. We cleared it first week it was released. There was nothing really dangerous in there.

[Swalload]

Just wondering - what happens when the content is cleared (yes, it will take months to gear up), and everyone is decked out in T3?

What are the actual plans for these servers long-term?

I'm expecting raids to be delayed or something, we won't have all raids opened on release. So it will last longer that way. Also the only logical time window to open Classic is during the dead time of retail xpack and this is where they would potentially add TBC as well, so Classic should last at least 2 years before we get TBC or anything new. By "last 2 years" I mean it will be the way it is until the next retail dead time, Vanilla itself won't last 2 years, people will have cleared it long before that.

[Moozart]

Just wondering - what happens when the content is cleared (yes, it will take months to gear up), and everyone is decked out in T3?

What are the actual plans for these servers long-term?

only 2% of the Original wow population ever cleared Vanilla Naxx... I do hope you realize that. and that was with 10 million+ players ALL playing Vanilla. I would wager that we will be lucky to have a few hundred thousand playing on classic servers IF that.

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I'm expecting raids to be delayed or something, we won't have all raids opened on release. So it will last longer that way. Also the only logical time window to open Classic is during the dead time of retail xpack and this is where they would potentially add TBC as well, so Classic should last at least 2 years before we get TBC or anything new. By "last 2 years" I mean it will be the way it is until the next retail dead time, Vanilla itself won't last 2 years, people will have cleared it long before that.

You do understand the whole point behind the classic server is NOT to get TBC right?

The word "Vanilla" seems to mean something completely different AFTER the Classic announcement than it did before.

[Vladar]

The answer is new high level content after Naxx. Didnt hear a good argument against it yet. TBC is not an option because they started to mess with the game systems in TBC (removing 40 man raids, heroic dungeons with epic loot, more instanced arena, optimization of gear, 10 more levels, new skills, flying, etc.)

[Boricha]

PvP will likely be the mainstay once all content is cleared by most of the playerbase.

[Swalload]

only 2% of the Original wow population ever cleared Vanilla Naxx... I do hope you realize that. and that was with 10 million+ players ALL playing Vanilla. I would wager that we will be lucky to have a few hundred thousand playing on classic servers IF that.

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You do understand the whole point behind the classic server is NOT to get TBC right?

The word "Vanilla" seems to mean something completely different AFTER the Classic announcement than it did before.

People want it now cuz they miss it and that nostalgia is overwhelming. No one wants to STAY in vanilla for 5 years, regardless of what they tell you, it's not what anyone wants. Best case scenario after 2 years of Classic we get the option to keep going in TBC or stay in classic and it will split in 2... making 2 communities of a few thousand people lolz.

[Serenais]

My estimate is that it can last actually quite long. The eventual population will be small, so I do expect realm mergers (or, well, CRZ of sorts) after, say, year and a half, but there will be, in my opinion, enough people still playing even after that to keep Classic going, at least for several years.
Mind you, that is under the assumption that Classic launches with 1.12. If it launches with 1.1 and keeps going with additional patches over time, then it will reach the point where the number dwindles down after a longer time.

[Moozart]

People want it now cuz they miss it and that nostalgia is overwhelming. No one wants to STAY in vanilla for 5 years, regardless of what they tell you, it's not what anyone wants. Best case scenario after 2 years of Classic we get the option to keep going in TBC or stay in classic and it will split in 2... making 2 communities of a few thousand people lolz.

That is the thing no one is getting.... I dont think Blizz has ANY plans to go beyond vanilla in classic. Making a "Set it and forget it" server for vanilla is one thing, dedicating the manpower to starting 14 years of the game all over and going back through all the content is a WHOLE other animal I really do not think they will dedicate valuable resources too. As it is the team that will be doing classic wow will most likely be a SMALL handful of employees.

[Swalload]

That is the thing no one is getting.... I dont think Blizz has ANY plans to go beyond vanilla in classic. Making a "Set it and forget it" server for vanilla is one thing, dedicating the manpower to starting 14 years of the game all over and going back through all the content is a WHOLE other animal I really do not think they will dedicate valuable resources too. As it is the team that will be doing classic wow will most likely be a SMALL handful of employees.

Yes it won't be that many people but once they get going there's no reason they can't work on TBC during the minimum 2 years Classic will run without changes. Also I really don't think they will go beyond Wrath, no one wants that. Cataclysm was the turning point for a lot of stuff that no one wants to relive. I'm expecting either a rotation of Classic TBC and Wrath or just have all 3 xpacks opened and people can just pick what they want.

[Kikazz]

Why the hell would anyone wait for threat on Patchwerk? The entire idea with Hateful Strikes is that threat is a non-issue. I only saw one case of overaggroing on that fight, and that was when our eight mages built up the biggest ignite the north had ever seen.

20 seconds is a bit long it was an exxageration, but i cant see the wow gen of today waiting for a tank to get a lead on threat,

i can see them bursting at 1 on the dbm timer, and then bang, dying to aggro and blaming the tanks for shit threat.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Several years and I would imagine at some point TBC coming out and Blizzard cashing in on character copies to it. Calling it now. Oh.. and I will keep a 20 and a 5 in a book on the shelf for that day.

[Mormolyce]

We should really just make a single "how long will Classic last" megathread.

The answer is obviously "nobody knows".

[Doffen]

People saying they will roll the servers to TBC and so on? Why would they do that? I love TBC but people wants vanilla not the expansions. TBC was as grindy as Legion is and with lots more QoL similarities towards later expansions than Vanilla.

Trust me, I would kill for TBC servers(vanilla sucks) but it wouldnt make much sense. People want sloooow leveling and slooow character-progression. Lets give them that for a long long time.

[Powerogue]

They might eventually add some additional classic-only raid tiers but honestly the old stuff was so ball-crushingly hard and time consuming I don't see anyone making it to the end raid tiers for a good 2-3 years.

[Akka]

People saying they will roll the servers to TBC and so on? Why would they do that? I love TBC but people wants vanilla not the expansions. TBC was as grindy as Legion is and with lots more QoL similarities towards later expansions than Vanilla.

Because TBC is the most popular expansion among the veterans (and WotLK among the newcomers).
The problem with TBC is that it started with one philosophy and ended with another, so deciding which version to use is much more problematic than Vanilla, which was more consistent about its design philosophy. Also, TBC had serious troubles with making content obsolete due to catch-up (badge system) or unintended consequences (typically, PvP weapons being ultra-easy to get and nearly on-par with PvE weapons), which was more of a WotLK design and clash with the Vanilla one.

Basically, TBC is half a better version of Vanilla (much better gameplay, much more interesting bosses, much more balanced classes, while still keeping them truly different) but half the start of the casual rot that ruined Vanilla (with said catch-up mechanism bypassing content). So it's quite harder to decide how a TBC server would be (I would like to have a 2.4 talents tree with 2.1 content, no badge gear above the initial ilvl 105 one and PvP gear only usable in arena, but that's screaming "my controversial opinion", good luck to have everyone agreeing on a common version).

[kamuimac]

Naxxramas isnt even gear though, sure you need to be geared but some if the mechanics are just insane, Thaddius, Gothik, Four Horsemen...it was all nuts

im sorry whenever i read something liek its its just ....

aerage mythic dungeon boss has more and more comlicated mechanics then all of those.

[Doffen]

Because TBC is the most popular expansion among the veterans (and WotLK among the newcomers).
The problem with TBC is that it started with one philosophy and ended with another, so deciding which version to use is much more problematic than Vanilla, which was more consistent about its design philosophy. Also, TBC had serious troubles with making content obsolete due to catch-up (badge system) or unintended consequences (typically, PvP weapons being ultra-easy to get and nearly on-par with PvE weapons), which was more of a WotLK design and clash with the Vanilla one.

Basically, TBC is half a better version of Vanilla (much better gameplay, much more interesting bosses, much more balanced classes, while still keeping them truly different) but half the start of the casual rot that ruined Vanilla (with said catch-up mechanism bypassing content). So it's quite harder to decide how a TBC server would be (I would like to have a 2.4 talents tree with 2.1 content, no badge gear above the initial ilvl 105 one and PvP gear only usable in arena, but that's screaming "my controversial opinion", good luck to have everyone agreeing on a common version).

Well I am one of them, but if that was so much more popular, why dont they make that first then? Vanilla and TBC is widely different in philosophy. The biggest difference is of course the leveling. Level to level going from 60 to 70 was alot faster than 50-60 in vanilla, the philosophy changed over night at TBC launch(and here is the difference, people want the leveling experience)

LFG-tool got improvements pretty fast and badge-gear was there from the start. All this got improved heavily in 2.3 (10 months in) and it was then leveling in vanilla content got boosted massively.

There hasn't been that much demand for TBC-servers, but lots of people wanting classic, I would be surprised if they implement further expansions, but hey, if they do a TBC one, I'll be there. Best expansions by far. Raiding was amazing! Also lots of nostalgia.


So it was catch-up gear in TBC. Mhm your username seems familiar. I might be mistaken.

[Allenseiei]

months to gear up? it will take months to just get to 60.

Then it will take realistically for a "modern mythic raider" around 2 years to get "full naxx gear". Then they can start doing PvP and get High Warlord for around 1+ years.

After these 3.5 years you can maybe concider making an alt. Then you have 3.5 years of content again.

Do this on all 9 classes and you have had 31.5 years of content.

I think 31.5 years of content is pretty good.

What? Do you seriously think that? It would take 1-3 weeks to level to 60, you will clear MC with blues and the gear you pic up from grinding the rep to douse the runes. If they dont lock patches to create a simiar release date from back then, vanilla wont last a year. But since they will, before BWL releases people will have their main and at least 1 alt full t1. With t2 the same.
The only thing that saves longevity is the time gated patch cycle and the very low gear drops.

[Independent voter]

Well, if the Classic servers have patches and expansions just like the current version only 13 years behind, we progress 1.1 to 1.23 in vanilla, then go on to TBC and then Wrath, etc.

I would say the Classic servers would last forever.

If it just stops at 1.1 people will get bored and leave eventually.

[Akka]

Well I am one of them, but if that was so much more popular, why dont they make that first then?

For the reasons explained in the post you quote. Which was, like, entirely about this very subject.