Is it worth starting classic now as someone with 0 classic experience?

[ZazuuPriest]

No it isn't, especially not if you don't have a group to progress with.

Classic is essentially over now, guilds aren't recruiting for anything, there's barely anyone at leveling zones and dungeons (that aren't just carries) - people are waiting for TBC. Catch that wave.

wrong, super wrong, wrong.
but it is too late to expect to experience classic raiding how you probably would want or expect to.
But do level up to catch the tbc wave

[A Chozo]

wrong, super wrong, wrong.

Said the man without arguments.

[Firefall]

I am looking for a slow-paced game that where my character is not the ultramarine destroyer of worlds who facerolls trough astral planes.

Then you don't want to play WoW at all? In WoW vanilla you kill gods, major lore figures, and crossdimensional demons *while leveling* and reach DragonBall Z heights by the end of the first raid tier. WoW has never been about a simple adventurer. (And to be clear I love classic, it is the game I raid on, not retail, but this idea is nothing more than a nostalgia-fueled myth. You were young and inexperienced when you first played WoW, but our characters were superhuman gods with more feats than most major lore figures by level 10)


That said yes, you can still start now. Plenty of casual guilds are still recruiting, and with the economy/phase/ect what it is it is much easier to start and progress and catch-up now. You can get a full set of raid-ready gear in like a week, it is honestly faster gearing than Shadowlands at the moment.

[ZazuuPriest]

Said the man without arguments.

classic isnt over just because the neckbeard pserver boys have cleared nax and you say so. guilds are still recruiting, for nax especially. there are plenty of people leveling and in the zones as well as running normal dungeon groups (not boosts). the pvp community is still strong as ever. guilds still do older tier raids for gear.

the only point you're not full of shit on is that yes, many are waiting for tbc.

[Matmcc]

This. Sorry pal, you are too late, the ship has sailed and the game is losing heaps of popularity and players in anticipation for TBC.

Hang on... So the game is losing heap of players, but no guilds are recruiting for anything? Do you actually play classic right now?

Sure, the amount of people leveling and doing lower level dungeons isn't what it used to be, but there's still many players leveling ALTs.... There's also tons of higher level content being done on a regular basis, it's not just naxx. My guild has recruited about 10 new player in the last 6 weeks... And guild recruitment is still getting spammed everyday in LFG.

[ablib]

All of these people saying Classic is dead, must be on low pop realms. On my realm, everything is still normal. Tons of people leveling, trade active, LFG channel active. Constant pugging.

There is never a bad time to start playing. If anything, now is the time to get ready for BC when it comes out.

[varren]

Classic is essentially finished now. A lot of Classic players using SL as a TBC waiting room atm.

[Aleksej89]

If all you want to do in classic is Raid then NO, it is not worth it at all.
In modern days Classic raids are the worst part of the game since they are neither difficult nor exciting - all you get to experience is drama over item looting.

But go for Classic if you want to:
- enjoy difficult questing and slow but beautiful adventuring through the great open world of warcraft
- interact and cooperate with random people (pick biggest servers, you can google "wow classic population")
- go through awesome dungeons that will break your soul and you will love every moment of it
- do some world pvp (if on pvp server) or some battlegrounds... nothing like good old Alterac Valley.
- wrangle with some unpolished classes that while deranged still have a lot of style and flavor
- try your sanity with the various professions and faction reputations or obtaining rare items

Classic WoW is a great game if you play it as an older RPG like Neverwinter Nights or Baldurs Gate but with a multiplayer component.
However if all you are interested in is raiding then you will have a HORRIBLE time since by today standards vanilla raids are basic, boring and trivial... and some classes perform SIGNIFICANTLY better in raids than most others.

[Devilyaki]

If you think SL is a chore, not going to enjoy classic.. lol

[SinR]

If you recently started playing SL and already find it is a chore, then the same will happen in classic.

Your time will be spent Walking from point A to point B, grinding mobs and farming for consumables.

Also, Blizz hasn't said anything about what will happen with BC. I would wait untill we have a clear picture.

and /Thread...

[Mirishka]

As the title states. I am looking for a slow-paced game that where my character is not the ultramarine destroyer of worlds who facerolls trough astral planes. However, I have NEVER played classic, started WOW only recently (in bfa to be precise) and have some toons on retail, but SL is slowly boring me and feels like a chore.

Is it worth starting now? I mean, classic is already out for a long time and I worry there won't be enough likeminded people to slowly progress and enjoy the game together. From what I've seen, people playing classic know this game inside out and I'm definitely not one of them. Will I fit?

Thing is, you are the ultramarine slayer of worlds even in classic. Not at levels 1, 2, 12 etc obviously - but eventually you're walking into raids like MC, BWL and AQ and smacking down some of the most powerful beings in WoW lore, no different than today. Ragnaros, Nefarian, Hakkar, C'thun, Kelthuzad and countless more all fall before the player.

A lot of people pretend that vanilla is about simple adventurers solving simple problems: it is at first, but that doesn't last.

[ifrah]

Classic, severity depending on the server, is having the same issue that SL and every other xpac has had in the past. The population are saturating towards the far end of the gear/content curve, meaning that the funnel leading there has thinned down to a fraction of its heydays. Not all realms have lively pugging going on for any sub-60 content. On plus side though, you won't be spending 90% of your time waiting for respawns and hoping to get a tag on that (un)fortunate boar that finally spawned within your reach (only to get disappointed on the lack of quest item drop for the 12th consecutive time).
Finding a guild for raiding will be a challenge, if that's on your wishlist. Already now pretty much anything prior to Naxx is pugged, raiding guilds don't bother any more. How successful those pugs are, and how easy/tedious it is to tag along, I have no experience. By the time you reach the grind to 60, things will be different.
Ultimately whether this journey is for you depends on what exactly feels like a chore in SL. Aside from the tedious and painstakingly slow (don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it back then and it was a fun experience to do once more in classic) leveling, you won't face much jawdropping stuff at 60. Oneshotting content in a breeze is the standard. Once the ~1hr raid is over, you can pick some herbs, go farm meaningless honor (unless you fancy the life-threatening R12-14 grind), do some mind-numbing gold farming, and... and....
Not saying classic is bad or worse/better than SL or any other xpac, but just to warn you that if the game feels boring, it just might not be about the current version alone. I've hit quite quickly the same brick wall of "this is dull, boring and repetitive" on each expansion since a very long time ago. Solution, take a break until the next one is out.

[Atherions]

If you level a healer you will find yourself inside naxx within the first week of hitting 60. If you level anything else you can enjoy 1-60 (the best part of classic). But you will have a much harder time finding a guild

[Rusken]

It'd be a good timesink, if you got into it. Playing fully solo you'll probably take about a month to hit 60. Your endgame will consist mostly of 5 mans with the occasional raid pug. One of the great things with Classic is everything is fairly easily pugged and providing you choose a populated server, those pugs run consistently throughout the week.

The biggest downside is that Classic, specifically the Classic playerbase is not very newbie-friendly. Once you're at endgame people will expect you to know the entire game back to front and upside down. Not that there's a huge amount to know, but that sort of plays into the elitist attitude of a large portion of the playerbase.

My suggestion would simply be; Play at your own pace and try to find a guild that fits your playstyle. There's a wide variety of Classic players so it shouldn't take you too long to find. If you're really interested in raiding, try to research as much as possible. Most "serious" raiding guilds aren't interested in teaching new players how to play and as I mentioned before, they'll largely expect you to know everything you need to beforehand.

[Koward]

There are tons of people leveling right now, I think it's a really good time to start. Much better than a few months ago.
Looking at the chans (Horde, Earthshaker-EU), it should never be an issue to find groups for dungeons at levels <60.
If you have any worry about this pick an high pop server, demographics are on ironforge.pro.
Note this forum is heavily anti-Classic, you have a lot of people sprouting nonsense about it.

[threads]

depends on the server. mine is very much alive and you can pug almost any raid throughout the week. you might not have time to clear naxx but you should still be able to enjoy questing and some of the earlier raids.

[Schmilblick]

Just wait for TBC Classic that is arriving this year.

[Farora]

If you think SL is a chore, not going to enjoy classic.. lol

I don't agree. Classic wow is very much a journey, not a shopping list of chores with instant rewards like retail.

[TJ]

Hang on... So the game is losing heap of players, but no guilds are recruiting for anything? Do you actually play classic right now?

Sure, the amount of people leveling and doing lower level dungeons isn't what it used to be, but there's still many players leveling ALTs.... There's also tons of higher level content being done on a regular basis, it's not just naxx. My guild has recruited about 10 new player in the last 6 weeks... And guild recruitment is still getting spammed everyday in LFG.

Yes... Classic is the only game I play, currently progressing in Naxx. We are also recruiting a lot of players, but this is due to them coming from other guilds that are disbanding due to players quitting and not having enough to raid. Mirage Raceway, EU.

[Droyda]

I've started playing on most populated Normal EU Server (Pyrewood Village) and there are a ton of players on Alliance side that are questing and running low level dungeons.

Unfortunately can't say the same on biggest PVP servers where majority that play there are 60 players. You can even check this if you:
Normal server: /who 1-10: there are more than 50+ players
PVP server: /who 1-10 - there are about 20 players

So I would say pick the most biggest Normal server and more populated faction, you will have people to play with.