Predictions on Classic Rollout

[solinari6]

I've seen this mentioned from time to time, but I don't think there was a dedicated thread, so here goes.

How do you think Blizz will roll out Classic?

My guesses:

Will launch with the 1.12 changes, but bosses from the ealier tiers will be buffed to compensate.
Molton Core will unlock around a month after the game is released, but will be tuned so that there is actually some challenge. You will need to farm earlier MC bosses in order to defeat later ones.
After a couple months of MC, or a significant number of guilds defeating MC, then the next raid will open, which will require being decked out in MC gear to complete. Raids will continue to be staggered like this, and will require the previous tiers gear to complete.

The war effect will be tweaked, either the actual mats or the amounts will change, so that the war effort takes at least few weeks at least to complete.

Bottom line is, I don't believe blizz will just release all of classic in one big swoop and say "have at it!" Blizz is the kind of company that when they decide to do something, they do it well. So they will treat Classic almost like it's own expansion. They have a vested interest in dragging this out as long as possible. I think the worse possible case would be for Blizz to release Classic, and have some guilds defeat Nax within the first month or 2.

[Chaelexi]

I've seen this mentioned from time to time, but I don't think there was a dedicated thread, so here goes.

How do you think Blizz will roll out Classic?

My guesses:

Will launch with the 1.12 changes, but bosses from the ealier tiers will be buffed to compensate.
Molton Core will unlock around a month after the game is released, but will be tuned so that there is actually some challenge. You will need to farm earlier MC bosses in order to defeat later ones.
After a couple months of MC, or a significant number of guilds defeating MC, then the next raid will open, which will require being decked out in MC gear to complete. Raids will continue to be staggered like this, and will require the previous tiers gear to complete.

The war effect will be tweaked, either the actual mats or the amounts will change, so that the war effort takes at least few weeks at least to complete.

Bottom line is, I don't believe blizz will just release all of classic in one big swoop and say "have at it!" Blizz is the kind of company that when they decide to do something, they do it well. So they will treat Classic almost like it's own expansion. They have a vested interest in dragging this out as long as possible. I think the worse possible case would be for Blizz to release Classic, and have some guilds defeat Nax within the first month or 2.

I will put it here, MC will be cleared in 2 weeks from when people hit 60. Ony shortly after than(by alliance first because fear ward).

[The Stormbringer]

I will put it here, MC will be cleared in 2 weeks from when people hit 60. Ony shortly after than(by alliance first because fear ward).

Two weeks seems unlikely. People have to get to max level, have to farm up food, potions, gear from dungeons and the like, then run through Molten Core after everyone has their attunements. Maybe you'll have one group that manages it, but I doubt it. A month, or even three weeks, sounds more reasonable.

But I could be wrong and they could blaze through it as fast as possible!

[solinari6]

I will put it here, MC will be cleared in 2 weeks from when people hit 60. Ony shortly after than(by alliance first because fear ward).

I'm sure there will be a few super guilds that can do that, but my guess is that Blizz will be balancing things so that the vast majority can not. The "real" vanilla experience was not doing MC one or 2 weeks, and them moving on to the next raid.

[Chaelexi]

I'm sure there will be a few super guilds that can do that, but my guess is that Blizz will be balancing things so that the vast majority can not. The "real" vanilla experience was not doing MC one or 2 weeks, and them moving on to the next raid.

THe real vanilla experience will not happen because most players understand the concepts of raids now. For the majority of players coming into wow in vanilla it was their first MMO, first raid and first time having to work with 39 other complete strangers to get to a common goal. With the way addon's can be made now things like boss mods, raid frames, weak auras and quality bar setups will trivialize this content that was already very simple. The biggest catch will be the FR requirements for Rag and getting people to have enough rep to get patterns. But you will see trash farming runs at first with killing a few bosses. You surprisingly will not want to kill Mag because core leather will be significant

- - - Updated - - -

Two weeks seems unlikely. People have to get to max level, have to farm up food, potions, gear from dungeons and the like, then run through Molten Core after everyone has their attunements. Maybe you'll have one group that manages it, but I doubt it. A month, or even three weeks, sounds more reasonable.

But I could be wrong and they could blaze through it as fast as possible!

Attunements are easy, you clear it with a 5 man and then have a lock summon everyone in to get attuned. and you missed from when people hit 60. So after a guild gets the majority of players to 60 they will be in MC. Hell my first kills in MC was with 2 56 dwarf priests and a 58 pali(OOC reser)

[solinari6]

The biggest catch will be the FR requirements for Rag and getting people to have enough rep to get patterns. But you will see trash farming runs at first with killing a few bosses. You surprisingly will not want to kill Mag because core leather will be significant

And what I'm saying is that these types of numbers are easily tweaked to make things like fire resist much more mandatory. Or slow down rep grinds. And it is in Blizz's best interest to do so.

[Oakshana]

I will put it here, MC will be cleared in 2 weeks from when people hit 60. Ony shortly after than(by alliance first because fear ward).

Seriously doubtful. If it's released as classic was, even with the class changes that took place up to 1.11, there is still a tremendous amount of farming and gearing that has to be done.

And, yes... Molten Core and such are a cakewalk by even Wrath's standards, you are still going to have people undergeared coping with mechanics & debuffs that were crippling. Unless they massive buff class abilities, you aren't going to see MC cleared until 2 to 3 months in. At least.

[melodramocracy]

There will be enough concessions made that many people will no longer consider it a legitimate 'classic' experience.

[Oakshana]

Seriously doubtful. If it's released as classic was, even with the class changes that took place up to 1.11, there is still a tremendous amount of farming and gearing that has to be done.

And, yes... Molten Core and such are a cakewalk by even Wrath's standards, you are still going to have people undergeared coping with mechanics & debuffs that were crippling. Unless they massive buff class abilities, you aren't going to see MC cleared until 2 to 3 months in. At least.

EDIT: Adding to this, it was over 5 months from release that Rags was killed for world first at release. The problem isn't that players aren't better. Its that you are going to be faced with the same limitations as back in the day. DPS walls, fire resist, coping with debuffs, etc. And this is all from people geared out of UBRS, Strath, BRD and Scholo in the beginning.

[Kralljin]

I honestly wouldn't mind if they start at earlier patch - at least class wise, content (excluding raids) can be set to the latest (1.12) stage.

Would be cool to see how classes evolved over classic and Blizzard has the advantage that they can patch the game far easier than any private server could.

[Alydael]

I think they roll it out somewhere in the middle of the BfA cycle (after the newness and excitement has worn off).

I expect it to be basically as it was at launch with some small QoL changes (like graphic update and bug fixes, maybe small things like the in game group finder *(not LFG- the one where you post your own group, so you don't have to spam trade). I think they will "patch it" but they will first wait to see how launch goes and maybe make adjustments as needed.

I am not sure if the patches will be the same as they were in Vanilla.

I think it will be a pay 2 play game with no sub and just a box price or they will offer it as free game with a slight increase to your sub to play (maybe 20/ month for both BfA and Classic access).

[Wildpantz]

Onyxia patch is a good start point. 80% fail lfr so yeah its gonna be a shit show. I remember stepping into naxx having bis gear it was a rude awakening that there were ALOT of people being carried. I was in a server first top 150-200 we still struggled with naxx compared to all other content which you could piss drunk and high.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I am guessing major drama from the usual major drama folks because the whole world didn't march there their drum on this. Like SUPER zoomed in photos that show one extra pixel. Screaming about they ruined the game.

[Chaelexi]

And what I'm saying is that these types of numbers are easily tweaked to make things like fire resist much more mandatory. Or slow down rep grinds. And it is in Blizz's best interest to do so.

It is not plausible to push the need for more fire resist much higher than it was because when many guilds were killing it they were sitting at an average of 150(or higher through the BRS buff) and getting higher relies on random drops. Back then people did not understand the concepts of hard farming trash for mats, now there will be pug groups doing it as you could kill most of MC trash with 25 players, the only bad pulls were double destroyers.

- - - Updated - - -

Onyxia patch is a good start point. 80% fail lfr so yeah its gonna be a shit show. I remember stepping into naxx having bis gear it was a rude awakening that there were ALOT of people being carried. I was in a server first top 150-200 we still struggled with naxx compared to all other content which you could piss drunk and high.

This was due to a couple things, no videos showing strats, lack of definitive knowledge of abilities and it was the one of the first times where failure of raid mechanics beyond stand in this spot would kill you and wipe the raid. Today's raiders have been training at this for 10+ years now and every expac the mechanics get tighter.

- - - Updated - - -

Seriously doubtful. If it's released as classic was, even with the class changes that took place up to 1.11, there is still a tremendous amount of farming and gearing that has to be done.

And, yes... Molten Core and such are a cakewalk by even Wrath's standards, you are still going to have people undergeared coping with mechanics & debuffs that were crippling. Unless they massive buff class abilities, you aren't going to see MC cleared until 2 to 3 months in. At least.

The issue is that no one knew what to farm back then. Now you know that you should farm in this zone while leveling because you will need..... herb. The BIS pre raid gear comes from these couple places. There are so many guides now and YouTube and streamers will have even more of them after launch to direct people on how to get ready. In Vanilla the only true resources were crappy "sim" spreadsheets, the wow forums, warcraft movies and thotbot/allakhazam.

[darkfire979]

I will put it here, MC will be cleared in 2 weeks from when people hit 60. Ony shortly after than(by alliance first because fear ward).

I can believe that.

There is also a big difference in player commitment to raiding compare to back then. Nowadays you have raiding guilds where all the members are committed to raiding, back then to fill the 40 man roster, raid leaders will sometimes take anyone that is willing to raid. It was very common for raid groups in vanilla to have raids with a mix of committed and casual raiders. And the performance on a raid group with 20 casual+20 committed raiders will be much different compare to a raid group that is 40 committed raiders (which i believe can probably clear MC in greens/blue gear).

I think when classic is release this time round, there will be many more 'raid guilds' which will concentrate the more committed/hardcore raiders into a a few dedicate raids that will be able to clear raids much faster compare to bulk of the general players.

[Rapti]

I think they will release patch 1.11 or 1.12 (no pre-TBC patch event) and gate the content like it was in vanilla times.

MC world first Classic may happen very quickly as people know the content very, very well and there will be HC's dedicated to lvl up fast, get all needed and clear MC. Heck, if I would have the time (which I totally dont have these days) Id be up for that myself.
It will be a new race for WF and SF again.

[Chaelexi]

I can believe that.

There is also a big difference in player commitment to raiding compare to back then. Nowadays you have raiding guilds where all the members are committed to raiding, back then to fill the 40 man roster, raid leaders will sometimes take anyone that is willing to raid. It was very common for raid groups in vanilla to have raids with a mix of committed and casual raiders. And the performance on a raid group with 20 casual+20 committed raiders will be much different compare to a raid group that is 40 committed raiders (which i believe can probably clear MC in greens/blue gear).

I think when classic is release this time round, there will be many more 'raid guilds' which will concentrate the more committed/hardcore raiders into a a few dedicate raids that will be able to clear raids much faster compare to bulk of the general players.

Exactly the player base that is playing this knows how to raid. Much of the player base in MC vanilla times did not even know their optimal rotation yet.

[Kralljin]

Eh, early phase will be fun anyway.

Want to go Ony? Gotta do the attunement.
What does the attunement require? UBRS, and the key for that is one massive pain to farm.

Only one person needs the key and those who have it will be bothered a lot.

[Vineri]

I believe the majority of players will find MC just as long and sometimes frustrating as it used to be. Keep in mind that a large amount of the target audience are those who have not "practiced" on private servers. They don't know what pre-raid BiS actually means. Getting your guildies to watch videos of strategies and boss mechanics will be like pulling teeth. Bosses will be explained and it will still get screwed up. Just like the good 'ol days.

There will be some try-hard guilds out there who will cream content very rapidly, but this is not even close to what the average playerbase can actually accomplish.

As for buffing dungeons or raids, I doubt it. Players like things moderately easy, or 40-man-difficult as it were. Blizzard tried to make Naxx very challenging, and the response was to simply not participate. Besides Blizzard is doing this project for their museum - changes are not their goal (said on dev chat vids and in interviews).

[Rapti]

Eh, early phase will be fun anyway.

Want to go Ony? Gotta do the attunement.
What does the attunement require? UBRS, and the key for that is one massive pain to farm.

Only one person needs the key and those who have it will be bothered a lot.

I remember earning big buck on just joining the group to let people in... The qline itself was actually fun too (minus the really slow farm and ninjas on the key parts).