Coming back to WOW after 11 years, retail or classic?

[oplawlz]

Why choose? Spend the hour it takes you to do everything in retail then switch to classic.

[deenman]

Classic is a more fun journey to the endgame than retail in regards to leveling and dungeoning, but retail has more challenging and less repetitive endgame. I'd honestly just try both for a while and make your decision from what you enjoyed more.

wile the feel of the leveling experience is better in classic,you cant rly deny that the way the story is presented and flows has evolved pretty well,wod and legion both had excelent ways of presenting the story,bfa also made some advances in this,now if only the actual story was worth all these efforts lol

[Holydork]

In that case I'd have to recommend retail, as there's just so much more to do outside of a raiding environment.

after reading your comment and few others, I think I am leaning towards Retail.

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LOL the fact that WOTLK is considered by literally anyone to be "hardcore" is a bad joke. It was the very opposite.

Hardcore is more a play-style and mentality I guess, wasn't referring to any expansion. I raided hardcore in Classic up to 4H in Naxx, in WOTLK, completed H25 LK and Yogg 0 light, that is hardcore to my standard.

[Ghostile]

For everything but leveling a character for the nostalgia, retail.

[Tumile]

You said you will not be able to raid. Then there is no other option than Classic. Retail is 99% about raiding. The raids are amazing, but its common census that most of everything else has been lost in the chase of the perfect raids. no point playing BFA if you cannot raid.

[Holydork]

You said you will not be able to raid. Then there is no other option than Classic. Retail is 99% about raiding. The raids are amazing, but its common census that most of everything else has been lost in the chase of the perfect raids. no point playing BFA if you cannot raid.

Thank you for this, few post earlier in this thread said oppisite, I should play BFA if cannot raid, everyone has different perspective and experience I suppose.

Not here to argue who is the right or wrong here, I appreciate everyone's insight.

[Dahij]

Thank you for this, few post earlier in this thread said oppisite, I should play BFA if cannot raid, everyone has different perspective and experience I suppose.

Not here to argue who is the right or wrong here, I appreciate everyone's insight.

Classic end game is raiding, retail end game is whatever you feel like doing.

[iinverse]

Hardcore is more a play-style and mentality I guess, wasn't referring to any expansion. I raided hardcore in Classic up to 4H in Naxx, in WOTLK, completed H25 LK and Yogg 0 light, that is hardcore to my standard.

Consdiering "outside of raiding".
WotLK was super-casual except for some group quests, even 5-ppl dungeons on any difficulties was a breeze.

As for raiding/endgame - any xpac had its pretty hardcore moments.

Retail tends to more casual/pug style, but it has many more to do both in open world and dungeons. Also it has hardcore moments too - even outside raiding (for example, high m+ keys if you cant allow to do schedule raiding due to real life isues).

You said you will not be able to raid. Then there is no other option than Classic. Retail is 99% about raiding. The raids are amazing, but its common census that most of everything else has been lost in the chase of the perfect raids. no point playing BFA if you cannot raid.

Outside of leveling there are no solo content in classic. BFA offers alternative endgame pve progressing through m+, and a lot to do in the open world after hitting max level.

[TJ]

Best advice to say is try both and see what you prefer. I prefer Classic by a long shot and wouldn't touch Retail with a barge pole, but that's me. You might dislike how the current game has evolved and enjoy the old style of Classic more, or you might enjoy the changes. Won't know until you give both a try.

[Lochton]

Hi all,

Planning to come back and play a bit, not sure I should focus on classic or retail.

have not played since WoTLK, watched fair bit of classic stream on Twitch in past few months, like some aspects of it and dislike some. but at least I know what I will be getting in classic wow.

Is retail worth trying out? how does it compare to WoTLK days?

TIA.

Your journey is long, you have much to explore. I'd suggest taking a journey through Retail before committing too much to Classic - unless you wish to not see anything but the old world.

[Laqweeta]

I'd go for Classic. Retail is absolutely terrible and has been put on the farthest back burner until Shadowlands.

Every class in Retail is a Rogue, you've got a builder and a spender. They're extremely boring.

Activision's idea of end-game involves pretty high time played metrics. Expect tiresome, horrendous rep grinds to unlock features that were easily unlocked before (flight), Azerite Gear was and still is a terrible idea. You finally got that 435 Azerite Piece? Oh wait it's got the wrong traits? Into the scrapper it goes. Professions are non existent in retail too.

[Xykotic]

I don't like BFA and would never willingly spend my time on that. That being said, the subscription does cover both, and I'd recommend trying both.

My personal choice is Classic though.

[Ange]

Thank you for this, few post earlier in this thread said oppisite, I should play BFA if cannot raid, everyone has different perspective and experience I suppose.

Not here to argue who is the right or wrong here, I appreciate everyone's insight.

Just a small hint, MMO-C does not have any active player req, so you get answers from people that dont play the game, never played or not played the content you ask for.

Leveling in both versions of the game takes more or less the same, its a bit shorter in retail wow but you are looking at 65-70 hours at min. Retail got multiple END GAME progressions, that means you get the BEST GEAR in the GAME from different activitys (PVP, GROUP, RAID) it gives you the freedom to choose the path you have time for.

Classic runs on version 1.12 of the game, the overnerfed TBC patch, so there is no challenging content, there is only raiding on the easiest mode possible and the old R14-pvp grind.

If you just want to level up and quit, you cant choose wrong, both games are more than ok for that. Retail offers you more choices for difficulty modes, so you dont have to deal with the casual mode if you dont have fun with that - classic offers no choice there.

Retail is getting the soft-content-gear reset this week/next week, so its a good time to start new if you want what this version offers.

[Tojara]

You should play retail, considering a new patch is just releasing, which is generally the best time to play it.

Classic will always be there, and if you find yourself bored with retail you can literally just hop over and start playing classic (they share the same sub anyway).

[Teech]

Hi all,

Planning to come back and play a bit, not sure I should focus on classic or retail.

have not played since WoTLK, watched fair bit of classic stream on Twitch in past few months, like some aspects of it and dislike some. but at least I know what I will be getting in classic wow.

Is retail worth trying out? how does it compare to WoTLK days?

TIA.

I would recommend retail. It is more casual friendly imo and you can farm/grind more stuff outside of raiding.
And Retpala is fun to play in retail (opinion).

[rrayy]

Hi all,

Planning to come back and play a bit, not sure I should focus on classic or retail.

have not played since WoTLK, watched fair bit of classic stream on Twitch in past few months, like some aspects of it and dislike some. but at least I know what I will be getting in classic wow.

Is retail worth trying out? how does it compare to WoTLK days?

TIA.

Give both versions a try and decide for yourself. There is a lot of bias and toxicity here that you should never base your decision off of this forum.

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You said you will not be able to raid. Then there is no other option than Classic. Retail is 99% about raiding. The raids are amazing, but its common census that most of everything else has been lost in the chase of the perfect raids. no point playing BFA if you cannot raid.

lol. This is absolutely wrong. Retail is his only choice because once you are done leveling all you have in classic is raiding. YOu have a ton of non raiding activities to do in retail. Reatail is nowhere close to 99% about raiding.

[muto]

Classic. Retail doesn’t feel like an MMO like Classic does.

[Aucald]

As this is devolving into a "Game vs. Game" argument, it doesn't seem very germane to the subforum. Closing this.