Which do you prefer: WoW Retail or WoW Classic?

[Sider]

I prefer retail right now. I don't think classic is a bad game, but I don't want to play the same game I have played a lot of years ago. I feel it very old also. I prefer the new content retail has, although I think it could be better.

The only thing I think it is better in classic it's that classes feel more like they are the same class no matter which spec you're playing. Now some specs makes the class feel so different than they look another class rather than the same.

[Nnyco]

Not even a competition at the slightest. Retail over classic a million times.

[Nutri]

Doing research without a poll, okay.

OT: Retail.

I tried classic when it was released but very quickly realized that I cherrished the memories more than reliving the experience. That solidified even more with how faceroll everything is - which is natural since the content is so old and holds no secrets anymore, people have a much better understanding of everything in classic and are far more progressed than during vanilla.

I won't even try any followups on classic, I have good memories of TBC/WotlK and the very same will happen there; everything is theorycrafted to it's core and it'll all be faceroll.

[Amerissis]

I'm conducting some research for an assignment, so all answers are appreciated!

Use a poll.

[vlange]

Retail, predicted classic would be nice for a short nostalgia trip. Got bored before even reaching level 50 and stopped at 52 or something. No reason to play a sluggish game when the modern version has way more content and plays better. And this is saying something because in modern WoW I already feel sluggish compared to WoD because combat mode is not always dropping for unclear reasons and you get stuck on perfectly camouflaged rocks or twigs.

It shows nostalgia only makes you remember the fun times you had. But when actually returning you realise you can't do without the progress the game has made.

[ClassicPeon]

I’ve been preferring classic over the past year, dipped my toe into (the recent installment of ) retail. The leveling was fun, but the rest couldn’t hold my attention everything was too easy.

Also the endgame in classic is much more linear and doesn’t feel like it’s designed by a 15yr old on Ritalin. By this I mostly mean the gear/character progression.

I respect being of the opinion that classic is better for various reasons. But saying everything besides the leveling was too easy in retail compared to classic objectively makes no sense. Like it just doesnt. Its literally the other way around. Everything bar leveling in classic is way too easy, so easy in fact that my entire guild just ended up quitting classic because it was such a borefest.

Even lfr in retail is harder then most raids in classic.

[Hashtronaut]

I respect being of the opinion that classic is better for various reasons. But saying everything besides the leveling was too easy in retail compared to classic objectively makes no sense. Like it just doesnt. Its literally the other way around. Everything bar leveling in classic is way too easy, so easy in fact that my entire guild just ended up quitting classic because it was such a borefest.

Even lfr in retail is harder then most raids in classic.

I’m not saying everything besides the leveling is easier in retail than classic, the leveling in retail was also super easy. I mean the leveling in retail was easy but also fun, while the rest was easy but didn’t hold my attention.

Aside from mythic raiding which I didn’t get to try because I got bored before finding a guild compatible with my schedule.

As for your other points, I plain and simple just disagree I didn’t find retail difficult at all. Just seemed like everything was overly complex in order to give the illusion of difficulty. But the actual performance wasn’t anymore difficult than classic.

[Muxtar]

Classic all the way. Retail is boring, stale, with awful awful lore. It has not any danger to my character at all (outside instances). It just doesn't have any freshness to me, all is repeatable, even what I can see in SL doesn't inspire me.
Despite its old age and mechanics, Classic has good story, immersion and danger of outside world, and feels more alive.

[slime]

I prefer retail. I did enjoy leveling to a point in classic, there is something to that mundane style of leveling but it eventually gets old.

[ClassicPeon]

I’m not saying everything besides the leveling is easier in retail than classic, the leveling in retail was also super easy. I mean the leveling in retail was easy but also fun, while the rest was easy but didn’t hold my attention.

Aside from mythic raiding which I didn’t get to try because I got bored before finding a guild compatible with my schedule.

As for your other points, I plain and simple just disagree I didn’t find retail difficult at all. Just seemed like everything was overly complex in order to give the illusion of difficulty. But the actual performance wasn’t anymore difficult than classic.

Being able to do most fights in vanilla literally without having to move your character once - versus one shot mechanics on most bosses in retail from heroic and up.

I'm not sure how you define difficulty but complexity sure isnt the only thing that makes it more difficult.

Rotations and mechanics are basicly what you are looking at in determining difficulty in pve. Both have a vastly higher skill requirement and skillcap in retail - even for lfr.

Saying "i dont find retail difficult" and insinuating retail and classic wow has the same difficulty for endgame content isnt the same thing

[Thage]

WoW Retail or WoW Classic? Why?

Two months ago, I would have said Classic. BFA will be remembered by me in the same breath as WoD, an expansion with extremely troubled class design, with BFA's issues exacerbated by an overreliance on borrowed power systems. Right now, most specs I play on a regular basis are in a good place, so leveling in the prepatch has been as fun as playing Classic, albeit these are two great tastes for different reasons in much the same way a well-prepared steak and a well-baked cake are different but great tastes.

[shise]

Any Warcraft fan loved classic, regardless of it being a bit broken here and there... It was FUN.

Now, that being said, current wow is retail. Classic is nice but there is no progress on it, it is some sort of a twink character to play.

[Redroniksre]

Retail, for sure. I played classic up until level 30ish on a rogue, but the magic just wasn't there. I never expected it to come back after all these years and it really didn't. Glad so many people are enjoying it though, shame about how some of the community is (but to be fair, the WoW community in general can be dogshit, at least in retail you can kind of avoid it/ignore it)

[Thelyron]

Hate them both. WoW, to me, started out as absolute garbage, became slightly more acceptable in BC but was still pretty bad, and became a fun game in wotlk, then, for a couple of expansions, they added stuff that i personally liked, and improved the game, and then they started to take away the stuff that i liked, made the game worse, and added new stuff that i absolutely hate, like mythic+. WoW's life is pretty much a bell curve for me, with wotlk/cata/mop being the high point of it. Legion was a surprise, and was absolutely fantastic in most regards. First time i levelled all classes to max and had fun with every spec i tried. I loved artifact weapons, i loved the order halls, all the story content for the classes, i had a lot of fun with it, but judging by bfa, and what i've seen so far of shadowlands, that was just one last hurrah, at least in my book.

[Easyclassictopkeklel]

Retail.

Even tho the quick deepdive into the nostalgia pool was fun, the gameplay, raid and dungeon design and pretty much everything about it is just way too outdated, slow and boring. I highly doubt that BC will motivate me more. I recognized mostly how much fun I had in retail just playing m+ with friends or helping/boosting others and how much more I enjoyed even the shittier raids compared to classic. Also the worldbuff meta felt ridiculous, while this was the only way to make the raids feel challenging when you tried going for server first speedruns.
Also the absurd amount of bots and multiboxers made the economy a living hell.

It felt good to see it all again. Leveling with open pvp was fun most of the time. But in the end even in bfa I had more fun in the long run...

[Unlimited Power]

Leveling a shaman in classic was an amazing experience. I also enjoyed running dungeons for a while. Unfortunately my spec of choice is and always will be enhancement, but as I have no interest in pvp and absolutely no interest in healing PvE content, there's very little actual room for progression at level cap.

I participated in a Ragnaros kill a month or so into Classic launch. Then I got my epic mount and felt content, so I quit playing. Never looked back.

If I was to go back to classic, it'd be to level a retribution paladin and see the Alliance leveling experience. I don't care for Classic endgame.

Retail on the other hand I mostly play as a collection simulator. I just like to expand my collection of transmog, mounts, pets, toys and whatever else one might collect in WoW.

I still manage to complete some personal goals every expansion like Curve in the final raid and Keystone Master, 5-mask solo runs etc. Legion was especially fun in that regard as the class halls and Mage Tower challenges gave me plenty of content to do solo.

[Duroga]

Retail.

Because in Classic at Level 60 there is no "I got 1 Hour to play" Content
Dungeons take forever, raids take forever, leveling takes forever.
1. Mistake: i leveled a Paladin, because that was my first class in vanilla.
2. Mistake: i leveled a Druid
3. Mistake: i only got 1 hour time a day, so no dungeons and more.

In retail in 1 hour i can do dailys, weeklys oder a dungeon or Worldboss or level an alt.

[Itori]

Classic, retail even after the lvl squish is still just a boring, lonely, single player "adventure" and the only reason i log on is to do a few world quests to upgrade my alts that the only reason i have them is to fight off boredom.

Classic ill log in with nothing really to do but grind rep or mats for coming raids but ill still enjoy it because of the ppl to talk to, can help a few lvl their alts or engage in some fun pvp.

[khazmodan]

I wanted to keep it pretty general, and I'm still happy with the responses that I've gotten already!

so what responses did you expect in the retail WoW forum?

- - - Updated - - -

Classic, retail even after the lvl squish is still just a boring, lonely, single player "adventure" and the only reason i log on is to do a few world quests to upgrade my alts that the only reason i have them is to fight off boredom.

Classic ill log in with nothing really to do but grind rep or mats for coming raids but ill still enjoy it because of the ppl to talk to, can help a few lvl their alts or engage in some fun pvp.

Exactly right, the better community design of Classic leads to a happier experience even with all the other flaws of Classic.

[Accendor]

Until BfA I would have said Retail, but that expansion kinda killed it for me. So I'll go with classic here.