When did Modern WoW start?

[caractacus]

If I had to put it down to a specific point it would be the introduction of the Timeless Isle in mists

[baskev]

With Cataclysm.

Yeah think you are right. Maybe MoP. but think cata. Maybe WoD.

[sam86]

You can make a very strong argument for the introduction of LFG during a patch in WOTLK as well as Cataclysm, a distant bronze would be MOP.

lfg was introduced in last patch, and its early days ppl still drop hard dungeons like HoR
lfg was introduced at end of wrath where most dungeons were already easy in first place with high gear, and ppl forgot how no one do HoL due to Loki has most kills as npc (yes back then blizz tracked npc kills, and Loki had most kills in wow)

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It's funny how everyone tries to lump in WotLK together with Vanilla and TBC, when in fact it was the one expansion that transformed the game the most into what it's now during its course. The only thing it was missing from being pretty much more or less the same thing as what came next (besides being the last expansion that could easily build on top of Warcraft 3 story) is Mythic+.

how was it the most changes? U still had weapon skill, u still had spell ranks, u still had the BEST talent system and was even FAR better than classic, u still had reagents
Wrath last patch introduced lfg, which was the start of death of social part of wow, but that was in last patch
wrath did make lot of things easier, so did tbc, in fact if i must pick one thing that made the biggest easy drop i'd give it to tbc patch 2.3 when they removed most world elite quests and me questing in general a solo content instead of a mix of solo and group quests in almost every zone (do ppl remember dwarf quests in Hillsbrad or troll quests in Hinterlands? even Barrens ambush quest needed group if i remember name right, or that f8cking elite from Ashenvale)

[Morgaith]

The first age of WoW was vanilla-wotlk

The second age was Cata-WOD.

The modern and third age of WoW is legion to now

Very fitting.

[mihai25]

Now are three big era of WoW:
Vannila-Wotlk (classic)
Cata - Wod (Modern Era)
Legion - Shadowlands ( Advanced Modern Era )

[Noctiphobia]

how was it the most changes? U still had weapon skill, u still had spell ranks, u still had the BEST talent system and was even FAR better than classic, u still had reagents

Well, perhaps to you those were significant parts of the game, but I really don't see the difference. All that weapon skill did was make you spend some time (once per character) if you played a melee character and dropped a weapon of type that you haven't used yet. Spell ranks were irrelevant for basically anyone besides healers and maybe in PvP mages with rank 1 Frostbolt. The talent system didn't actually bring any value, almost every player who did end game content (which besides vanilla was basically the only content that ever mattered) just looked up a cookie cutter build and went with that. Kind of like after the whole talent system overhaul, except now people actually sometimes swap out some talents depending on the fight (PvE) or matchup (PvP).
Reagents were just clutter in the bag, not anything that actually changed the game in any relevant way.

Perhaps it's just a difference between the way we play the game, but to me, the only changes that actually affect the game significantly were the ones that changed the way I did (relevant end-game) content. Having to spend some additional time grinding something (whether it's weapon skills, professions, going to buy reagents, or grinding artifazerite power) is hardly something I consider the part of the core gameplay, just additional chores. If they suddenly removed summoning stones now, it wouldn't be a revolution in gameplay to me. Just another chore to do if I want to do PvE, but ultimately (besides wasting my time) not affecting the gameplay I care about.

[HitRefresh]

I would say:

Vanilla-BC: WTF are we doing - era
WOTLK-Cata: We could kill every lorecharacter left - era
MoP - WoD: lets try some weird shit era
legion - BfA: I heared you like grinding - era
SL - ??: Lets just take stuff from every other era- era

SL-??: WTF are we doing - era

[WowIsDead64]

It's funny how everyone tries to lump in WotLK together with Vanilla and TBC, when in fact it was the one expansion that transformed the game the most into what it's now during its course. The only thing it was missing from being pretty much more or less the same thing as what came next (besides being the last expansion that could easily build on top of Warcraft 3 story) is Mythic+.

Because WotLK was in the same curve of content improvements, that were bringing more players into game. Vanilla's endgame was about "kill 100500 mobs to get 0.0001% rep", while only 1% of players was doing dungeons and raids. Not because they were hard and we already know it, but due to complex logistics. TBC improved endgame content a little bit. It introduced daily quests. Dungeons and raids became more accessible, but still were done only by tiny amount of players. And WotLK simply opened access to all that content to 100% of playerbase. There were plans to improve content even further. But all of a sudden in Cata Blizzard started to backpedal to that "old sweet Vanilla", because Cata is nothing but first Vanilla's rehash. So, all that "Vanilla is only true MMO" crap actually started in Cata. So, Cata is in new category. And MOP is more like "GW2 clone". That's, when Blizzard started to shift their attention towards all that "sandbox" crap, like dynamic events, treasures, jump puzzles, vistas, etc. WOD is some sort of experiment with trying to double development resources, removing all time gating and releasing new xpack every year. It failed mostly due to parallel changing of other game systems, making them less casual-friendly, such as shifting towards "sandbox" concept, removing flying, etc. And Legion is new modern era. Era of content, that exploits players in all possible aspects. That is stretched and gated as much, as possible. So, it's standard "MMO" principle. There are "lots" of content, but all this content has bad quality. Something similar to grinding 100500 mobs for 0.000001% from Vanilla. Who doesn't like this content - doesn't like MMOs.

[VinceVega]

SL-??: WTF are we doing - era

Well i don't think SL is bad and they made what they told us they would do. Just very slow.

[mojusk]

it didnt happend over night

[Thunderball]

When did it start? Late TBC. Didnt happen overnight tho. In Cataclysm the game lost it's original audience so there's no going back anymore.

[ek0zu]

I would like to see a thread that you list your favorite aspects/features of the various WoW's eras in order to make your all-star expansion. Following one very simple condition, you don't add any new made-up features but you only add those that have already appeared in the game.

On topic, i agree with the people written before that the main eras are three, Vanilla - Wotlk, Cataclysm - WoD, Legion - Shadowlands. Obviously all expansions have features that were initially released on previous expansions and have slowly involved/iterated through the years (prime example is the world/daily quests which started in TBC and they were pretty fine up to the atrocity that we have the last few years).

However, in Shadowlands we have seen that they use things that worked in the past which might lead in an all-star Expansion in the future that will appeal to even more people, with quality engagement and not generic.

[Relapses]

I would like to see a thread that you list your favorite aspects/features of the various WoW's eras in order to make your all-star expansion. Following one very simple condition, you don't add any new made-up features but you only add those that have already appeared in the game.

On topic, i agree with the people written before that the main eras are three, Vanilla - Wotlk, Cataclysm - WoD, Legion - Shadowlands. Obviously all expansions have features that were initially released on previous expansions and have slowly involved/iterated through the years (prime example is the world/daily quests which started in TBC and they were pretty fine up to the atrocity that we have the last few years).

However, in Shadowlands we have seen that they use things that worked in the past which might lead in an all-star Expansion in the future that will appeal to even more people, with quality engagement and not generic.

Do you really need a thread for that?

It'd be 45% people saying that they want Legion back and another 45% saying they want WotLK back. The other 10% would be arguing about why either of the people in these groups are unquestionably wrong.

[intenz]

I would say late-cata. I remember quitting during firelands and then coming back at the end of the expansion and it felt like a different game with LFR and transmogs. I like transmogs but LFR has no doubt seriously harmed the game.

[wargone]

The first age of WoW was vanilla-wotlk

The second age was Cata-WOD.

The modern and third age of WoW is legion to now

Pretty much this. When was the first Major shift? cata, i would say when they changed taltent system spoke a lot about the change in mind to gameplay and choices.

but then it did also change agian with legion

[RobertMugabe]

The first age of WoW was vanilla-wotlk

The second age was Cata-WOD.

The modern and third age of WoW is legion to now

It's actually quite fun how you guys don't remember what the game was like at all.

You will all be up for a surprise once you notice just how similar Wrath and Cata actually. Like srsly, Cata feels like an expansion to Wrath itself and not WoW, they're this similar. Everything from class design to professions, leveling, quests, dungeons, raids/progression, even pvp. Cata is literally wrath with a different theme and some QoL changes.

I especially came again to this realization when I've recently played both a wrath and cataclysm private server.

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Pretty much this. When was the first Major shift? cata, i would say when they changed taltent system spoke a lot about the change in mind to gameplay and choices.

but then it did also change agian with legion

And here's another one...

[Sondrelk]

WotLK is where the game changed forever.
Vanilla is the only true outlier and TBC changed massively on that with the deemphasizing of the open world content, however it still had some synergy between open world and raids with attunements.

WotLK is where the game split into two distinct halves. The open world where you level, and instanced content is where the game really matters.

People might say that Cata is where everything changed, but Cata did honestly just continue on the trajectory set by WotLK, minor RPG mechanics like weapon skills might sound impactful but it was really just a grind that was deprecated way back in TBC.

Beyond that we had the biggest paradigm shift going into MoP, as it removed talents and attempted to streamline classes. WoD went further with that.

The latest paradigm shift came in Legion with placing more emphasis on the open world similar to what we once had.

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Really there is no one big bag expansion that changed everything. At best we have 3 big upsets, those coming in WotLK with less open world synergy. MoP with changed talent trees. And finally Legion with a return to open world content and a more holistic approach to the game.

[Ghitza]

WoW is like Fast & Furious

Vanilla, TBC, WotLK were the best, then everything changed.
Same thing with the movie, first 3 were the best then it changed to sci-fi.

[Blackmist]

In Vanilla.

I mean, WoW was designed to be the dumbed-down, easy-mode, less-hardcore alternative to Everquest.

Vanilla added welfare epics (Darkmoon Faire, "Tier 0.5" dungeon set). They added smaller 20 man raids for those scrubs that couldn't get a small army together to play a game.

Accessibility has always been a goal in WoW. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have survived past TBC.

[Dastreus]

People saying cata started it, but cata kept much of the familiarities and just added LFG for raids. It still had the old talent system. MoP is truly where at least the second, if not current, age of WoW began.