Some things you didn't know about WoW...

[palladiamors]

Oh the memories...WAIT, WRATHGATE NO LONGER CULMINATES IN THE BATTLE FOR UNDERCITY?! But that was...epic....

I remembered most of these, was THERE for most of them. The alpha and beta stuff was a bit before me, but god I still remember those times. And miss them.

[rojam2]

very interesting

[Deleted]

Pretty great list Learnt alot : o

[Eggers]

Wow. That was a BIG OL' LIST. Really interesting information.

Just to add my 2 cents, I wish the list was organized into expansions like part 1: This is how it was in Beta. part 2: This is how it was in Vanilla. part 3: TBC... etc...
I've been playing since the beginning of TBC so I already knew a lot of it.

Thanks for this informative list.

[Netherspark]

Some really interesting stuff in there. The game certainly has changed... for the better, mostly. And no wonder this game takes up so much memory, blizzards to lazy to delete abandoned areas like the underground HFP, which I wish was the real HFP

It wasn't underground, it was in the middle of the ocean. Either way, I thought it was actualy removed with Cataclysm?

[sharkee]

Can't belive I only found this thread now. Coolest thread on MMO-C hands down.

[Deleted]

Indeed a very nice post! Kept me busy all night

[Abe]

This brought back a lot of memories.

[Aitias]

This thread is amazing.

[Guenhwyvaria]

I just spent 2 hours reading the whole thing awesome thread

[jahasafrat]

This was a great thread. I started playing in December of '05, this list reminded me of all kinds of things I'd forgotten all about. I particularily enjoyed the little tidbits about abandoned or unused areas, there's very little mystery for me in Azeroth these days.

[Cfyhx]

-Haste rating didn't exist on gear at all.

I have to disagree with this one. The classtrinket for mages in Blackwinglair granted 33% casting speed when used. When stat ratings where introduced, this was changed to 330 haste rating afaik.

[Deleted]

thanks for the effort, good information!

[Thousandsons]

didn't deadmines used to be able to go in a 10 man group, sure i saw/read that some where, could be mistaken on that though

at one point instances could fit as many players as you could fit in a raid group, so you could 40 man Zul'Farrak.

Also Master Elemental Shaper Krixix a hostile mob in BWL when mind controlled could teach a skilled miner how to Smelt Elementium. Now he drops a pattern for it.

There was once a keyring!

[Ortheka]

I think Naxx is STILL visible. Fly to Stratholme's gates and turn your visibility (or how it's called) range to maximum. You'll see that thing from that alpha Strat photo there...

[Deleted]

Got a few things that wasn't mentioned

-Night elf racial spell (shadowmeld) didn't get you out of combat (If you are solo or last one in the party/raid and some away from the elites that in combat with your group) as it does today, it just melded you back in the day and was hoping that your target didnt see where you hided but they still had you on target.

-Some times a npc could bugg so he was unkill-able, it stopt on 1/5400 something, when this happend people rushed from if/sw with white staves,daggers,fist weapons. anything that wasnt on high weapon skill.

-as a warrior you had too learn how too use weapons, there was a weapons trainer in sw who thought 2H Swords and polerarm, In IF for 2H maces and something and so on with other capital cities.

-Training dummies existed but got target-able in late wotkl, only npc's could hit them back then.

-Repair bills wasn't balanced which means a warrior with red gear had a bill on 110G (vanilla prices) meanwhile a full-red priest got a bill on 40G and he was still mouning about that like a cow with a arrow too the knee.

-Back in vanilla you was coincided a millionaire when you had around 10K gold meanwhile today 3x epic str gems + enchant lands on 10-15K Gold.

-The winter-spring mount for alliance took around 1-2 mounths of play time for being able too buy it, today you do 20 dailies and your done(5min max for a qst, Maybe 15 if you are new too that particular dailie-quest).

-only Alliance had a rare mount that could be obtainable by questing too Exalted and then buying it for full epic mount price, Horde got their raptor later but don't know in which patch.

-In duskwood on every bush there were nightelf eyes blinking (probably a bug but it was still there after tbc realsed)

-A rumor was that the "old iron forge" part was added in 1.2 (part that have opened its doors now in cataclysm).

-there was a 1hand axe (still is maybe) that had a chance on hit: Next melee attack will be instant.. So a ench shammy with windfury and dual wielding thouse had a chanse too get 3 melee swings

-On early resale people was able too name their characters with only 2 letter.. that's why you can find ppl with a name like Ed or Bs and so on.

-Nighelf preists had a spell named starcall or starfall meanwhile dwarfs had fearward (this was added in the list but in multiple parts).

-Zul gurub seems too be a place thats been there from the start but it was added in 1.2

-EE Oo PAL something was "I love you" on a hordes screen(got fixed from what i know)

-The legendary Thunder fury weapon was only usable for: Warrior, Rouge, Paladin and Hunter which made almost every guild leader a hunter that would snatch it eventually. to day you can find a mage loling around in stormwind with a thunder fury but you will never see a warrior with Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest

-there was a legendary bag linked around for ages in vanilla (becouse people had a addon named lootlink) "Paris hiltons stupid bag bbla bla with its damn shioaua"wont bother too google for a dog race for help with spelling when you know what im talking about.

-There was addon in early wow that made it possible too know what a certain npc will drop before you killed him. so people was running around in tyr's hand and silithius with no killing in mind just mouse-over killable npc until they found their prey.

-Being cowered in epic gear was a sign of that you were skilled at wow or that you spend an insane amount at this game which made you skilled in the end.

-Warrior Taunt had a 10 seck cooldown after a spec in prot lowerd it too 6 seconds, Sunder armor was able too stack up 5 times and gave an insane amount of threat which resulted in 2 spells only needed by warrior tanks.

-(was mentioned earlier but not in this syntax) Horde got zeppelins going from og too stv and undercity, Meanwhile alliance only had thier boats and mount's which was a major pity if you was a nightelf and had plans to visit the Action house or just simply wanted too quest in barrens.

-Black rock deeps was and still is by far the longest instance(was a 3-5 hour epic journey if you wanted too slay all bosses)Not counting Lbrs,Ubrs since its 2 different lvl parts.

-Thrall didnt have hes wolf's showing up randomly on the sides of hes throne in early wow.

-Spirit was usable(a preist that stacked only spirit regained hes mana before mages sat down for a drink)

-Barley no one got too see the ahn'quiraj opening becouse of the laggs and server crashes.(sunstrider EU, server crashed 30 mins before the event when ppl was stacking up in silthius)

-Epic world drops was much much higher in vanilla.(lvling 1-60 ended with at-least 1 epic on that char for me)

-Any dmg recived while mounted get you dazed and dissmounted you, so when you jumped of medium cliffs you got dismounted on impact (epic chases in alterc valley), Not sure anymore but i think you was able too use some spells, Rage+Shield wall was the only way too get in ZG when a horde raid was summing outside

-Stv was more known of the gank zone ratther then the only 29-42 place.

-Dire maul was allso added in a later patch.

-alcaz island in theramore was barley visited due too the 1-shotting lvl 64+ dragons owing that island.

-Spectral sabre also known as the ghost sabre(obtainable by looting cat figurines in north darkshore) was the only hunter pet with some alpha which makes it the only pet with prowl

-Hunter pets had too be on a happy status for grate dps from them (feeding them a stack of quill which was a fortune)

-Rouges did nothing else then prio stun lock's on you and then jumping right and left auto attacking you too death.

-Between Dun morogh and ellwynforest (behind stormwind) was a UN-clickable map piece that got removed in cata, just like it is bettwen EPL and Shadow forest or what thous damn blood elfs named it ^^. same as for the gillneas part was un-clickable but was there still.

-The gillenas island wasn't there in 3.0 release but then it got added and then removed before wotkl or cata

-The only weapon that made a priest look like a priest from far away (benediction) got removed.

-A shadow horde priest could mindcontroll a ally buff him with fort and didnt lose the MC, now days you lose the mindcontroll channeling so you might get your ass whopped because you buffed your enemy...

-A combat between a paladin and shaman (vanilla) took around 5-10 minutes too finish, The winner was always paladins due too the 2-part-panic-button (Bubble and hearthstone).

-Paladins were able too give anyone the raid a bubble but you were stuck until the bubble wears off or you right clicked it off (workt as a repair bill saver for tanks), and the pally lost hes life on buffing that person but didn't lose any durability.

-There were no teleportation or dungeon tab so it was /trade LFP or LF4M, and you had too get too the instance by your self, which was a half hour travel for people too get from ironforge too maraduon or Stratholme. and fly there required you too be by the comp so you could ask next flight master too fly too next one, resulted in lots and lots of rqs

-The skill cap was 300 back in the days. which is 5 skill lvls on eache char lvl (5x60lvls=300), so when you hit lvl 90 it should be 450 which we have today on lvl 85...

Don't know how many re posts there is this text but there sure are things that were never mentioned

And for thouse that wonder Yes you can still take a look on the alpha Naxx but that requires you too get past a invisible wall that shields whole stratholme. you can take a far peak of it if you are on the ocean side strat.

[Aronaz]

I remember getting marks from pvp. And you could turn them in for different awards at different places.
The AB marks could be turned in to an vendor in Arathi Highlands.
The AV marks could be turned in to an vendor in Alterac(there is an camp there, not sure if its still there).
And the WSG marks could be turned in to and vendor in Ashenvale.

Not sure when this was removed.

[rabbimojo]

I remember getting marks from pvp. And you could turn them in for different awards at different places.
The AB marks could be turned in to an vendor in Arathi Highlands.
The AV marks could be turned in to an vendor in Alterac(there is an camp there, not sure if its still there).
And the WSG marks could be turned in to and vendor in Ashenvale.

Not sure when this was removed.

Those vendors are still there (last I looked), but now sell for honor. Decent gear for some characters, less decent for others. Have always wished Blizz would make that "gear from pvp while leveling" system more robust - it works well in other MMOs, why not here?

[Aronaz]

Those vendors are still there (last I looked), but now sell for honor.

Ah, cool! I can remember running there on the slow 60% mount in level 40 to buy some 'awesome' gear

[Raerianna]

-Back in Vanilla closed Beta, Warriors tanked by spamming taunt. It was changed before open beta.

-Hurricane used to be a talent

-The restoration tree for druids in vanilla was only really needed for innervate. Quite a few druids in the not so high end raiding guilds got away with healing in feral spec due to the higher mana pool. (Sometimes we were even allowed to tank trash!)

-The first Onyxia raid ever wiped for hours, repeatedly on the trash mobs to Ony. Once there, I remember as a tank staring at Ony saying "You want me to tank that?!"

-The decursive addon used to be required for raiding due to being able to spam one button to decurse the entire raid during Lucifron.

-Azuregos used to be kited to the graveyard even by 40 man guilds so that they could res and run back to the fight easily. This caused blizz to put in a debuff upon dying to the dragon.

-Mounts and pets used to be items carried around in your bag. They were also deletable.

-Resilience used to reduce bleed effects and thus was coveted for certain boss encounters.

-Shortly after a patch in TBC (don't remember which one), druid tanks were gods that could barely be harmed due to over buffing armor and dodge. (Ah, the memory of 45 minute duels while waiting for the raid to start with my prot pally friend..)