Classic Update (Hype)

[lonely zergling]

New signs of life from blizzard at the offical classic forum:

Classic Update

(only some quotes, click link for full post)

Another issue players reported was that Warlock demon summoning was broken – lots of players said that you shouldn’t lose your current demon until the new one appears. We double-checked and in the original 1.12 WoW, and there, as soon as you started summoning a new demon, your existing demon disappeared. So the demo actually matched how the game played originally. There were a few other reports – such as “rare mobs do way less damage” and “Kobolds at Jangolode Mine run faster than walking speed when running away” – where we were able to confirm that the gameplay was the same in the demo as in the original 1.12 WoW.

It’s important to point out that there are some bugs we’re going to fix before launch, and there are some bugs that we don’t intend to address. As we mentioned in our BlizzCon presentation, some differences aren’t worth fixing, like differences in how the mail works. Nonetheless, we’ve fixed some fairly high-priority issues

I agree with blizzards stance on not fixing small differences if its not really worth it.

It also doesnt suprise me that some of the bug reports turned out to be false rememberings or probably caused by bad private server scripting (warlock pet summoning). Glad blizzard does take their time to double check everything important with their original 1.12 client.

I expect a lot of whining from certain people who got used to certain things on certain servers tbh.

Hope we get more information and the release date soon(tm)!

Edit1 - added new blue post

At BlizzCon 2018, we proposed a plan to give Classic four content phases. These were planned to be centered primarily on raid power progression.

Currently, based on both your feedback and our own deliberations, we’re now planning to increase it to six phases. Our focus is still primarily on player power-progression, but we’re also aiming to capture what it felt like to play in a realm community in original WoW. To do that, we’re planning to mirror the approach taken by original WoW, with patches paired together. We’ll launch Classic with content from original WoW through patch 1.2.x, then the second update will include content that was in original WoW 1.3 and 1.4, the third Classic update will have 1.5 and 1.6 content, and so on.

Our first phase primarily focuses on launching Classic with Onyxia and Molten Core, but we’ve decided to hold off on Dire Maul for a while. Maraudon is still in the first phase, because it was originally released on December 18, 2004, just two weeks after the first player hit level 60, but we recognize that Dire Maul is in a different category. Some of the loot that’s attainable from Dire Maul is so good that it would affect progression through those early raids. We’re also planning to hold off on releasing Kazzak and Azuregos at launch as well, for the same reasons.

The next change we’re targeting addresses two concerns. First, Zul’Gurub and Blackwing Lair unlocking at the same time would differ from how they originally came out, and it makes sense to not have gear and enchants from Zul’Gurub available during early progress into Blackwing Lair. Secondly, the Emerald Dragons should be available earlier than the opening of Ahn’Qiraj, as they give us a way to start preparing nature resist gear for some of the encounters in AQ.

Along the way, we’ve taken a close look at items that provide the biggest power gains, many of which were introduced in 1.10 as part of a sweeping dungeon itemization pass. That patch was when Tier 0.5 gear was introduced, and Relics were added to the drop tables of many bosses. It also adjusted drop rates and drop locations of a lot of gear (to make room for the Relics). We’ve gone back and reconstructed many of the most heavily affected drop tables as they existed prior to the 1.10 patch, and we’re planning to update the drop tables alongside the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort. Prior to the Ahn’Qiraj unlock, most of the drop rates and locations will look as they did in the patches prior to 1.10, with exceptions—there are lots of little changes made in earlier patches that don’t have a big effect on player power, and in those cases, we’re planning to use the 1.12 drop rates and locations.

One example of the many items we’re planning for is: Titanic Leggings, which is a world drop that first appeared in 1.10. We can confirm that it will be controlled by the same content unlock that restricts the other 1.10 loot changes.

Here’s what the release order currently looks like:

Phase 1 (Classic Launch)

Molten Core
Onyxia
Maraudon

Phase 2

Dire Maul
Azuregos
Kazzak

Phase 3

Blackwing Lair
Darkmoon Faire
Darkmoon deck drops begin

Phase 4

Zul’Gurub
Green Dragons

Phase 5

Ahn’Qiraj War Effort begins
Ahn’Qiraj raids open when the war effort dictates
Dungeon loot reconfiguration: Tier 0.5 Dungeon gear, Relics, drop rates and location changes

Phase 6

Naxxramas
Scourge Invasion

We haven’t yet determined exactly when phases 2-6 will occur, and PvP content is notably missing from the list above. That’s because we’re still evaluating our options regarding PvP rewards, as they also changed over time (both in power and in terms of which PvP reward items were available).

While we can’t elaborate on every detail of every step we’re going to take (yet), we’re here reading all of your questions and we’re going to keep the answers coming.

Thank you!

[Pum]

I don't remember my Lock pet disappearing when casting a new summon, the new summon just caused the current demon to become disorientated and not be able to do anything during the cast. Was this introduced later into Vanilla?

[Rapti]

Nothing here is "new" news. This has been discussed just after demo.
What will be new is the "soon (without tm)" to come news.
This is not hyping me extra at all (not like I am not already hyped anyway).
Gotta wait for a proper update.

@Pum: Yes, during vanilla it was like this, it got changes later on (think TBC?).

[lonely zergling]

Some things are "new" like the confirmation that miss/hit/dodge/parry chances and health reg were way off, things that made a lot of people freak out over the "impending doom" of classic wow after they played the demo a bit.

The warlock thing was known to active classic fans because of a german interview (not known to most of the community though).

Looking forward to "soon" for more information.

[Armourboy]

Sadly the warlock think is something I wouldn't have a clue about as I didn't level one until late TBC, and in sure it was changed by then ( I generally hate pet classes).

I'm sure there are going to be lots of things people think are wrong just because they have gotten used to how some private servers play. Seems like I do remember those kobold being damn near impossible to get away from, and that crazy pack of morlocks around Eastvale logging camp too.

It's good they found the issue with the regeneration problem as I was a bit worried stuff like that would be off and really change the feel of things. I'd be interested to know what other things they aren't adjusting because it doesn't really matter though.

[Projectmars]

In before "But Private servers can't be wrong. Activision must be forcing blizz to lie about thingssssss" people show up.

[Santoryu]

They have to remove right click reporting.

[Firedemon]

I don't remember my Lock pet disappearing when casting a new summon, the new summon just caused the current demon to become disorientated and not be able to do anything during the cast. Was this introduced later into Vanilla?

Summoning disorentation was added in BC I think. I remember clearly that it was not always there as I noticed when it started happening. Now I cannot remember at all if I didn't notice it because demons despawned when you started another summon cast.

[Master Factician]

They have to remove right click reporting.

Right-click reporting with auto-squelch has been one of their primary strategies to combat Gold Sellers for nearly 12 years now. I highly doubt that they'd be willing to remove it.

[Xemioza]

“I remember it different!!!”
“I want to go back in time”
“I want to be 15 and play wow”
“Its not vanilla wow”

This is best sub forum ever ! Hahah

[Oncereborn]

Did anyone else take the "classic summer" comment as a hint they will release near the beginning of summer or earlier so that we can play over the summer? (or rather winter for me).

"Thank you, and get ready for a Classic Summer!"

[robotusch]

Did anyone else take the "classic summer" comment as a hint they will release near the beginning of summer or earlier so that we can play over the summer? (or rather winter for me).

"Thank you, and get ready for a Classic Summer!"

I raised an eyebrow at that as well. Not going to read too much into it at the moment, but perhaps/hopefully we'll get a slightly more frequent stream of updates as the (northern hemisphere) summer approaches.

[Belize]

They have to remove right click reporting.

They said they weren't bothering to fix small QoL details like mailboxes. Why would they remove right-click reporting?

Inb4: BuT wE wAnT nO cHaNgEs At AlL

[Armourboy]

They have to remove right click reporting.

That's not going to happen. All of those people that used to read your manual reports are no longer employeed. It's the same reason the loot is going to be adjusted as well.

[MuricaIsDead]

There are videos that are confirmed to be during vanilla that clearly shows warlock demons disappearing the second you begin to summon a new one. Also people remembering being angry when they accidentally misclicked the summon icon and lost their current demon right away.

[In Ogres We Trust]

What hype?

[chrisnumbers]

What hype?

Within the silent majority.

[Gavll]

I don't remember my Lock pet disappearing when casting a new summon, the new summon just caused the current demon to become disorientated and not be able to do anything during the cast. Was this introduced later into Vanilla?

This was my recollection too. Your pet would become stunned while you summoned the replacement.

Although, at the same time I remember I used to put my demon on stay, then run far away so it despawned and I got my SoulShard back before summoning a new one.

[~Valen~]

I don't remember my Lock pet disappearing when casting a new summon, the new summon just caused the current demon to become disorientated and not be able to do anything during the cast. Was this introduced later into Vanilla?

I didn't play lock past level 15 or so, but I defo remember the demon disappearing as soon as the cast started. I remember because I was a noob and couldn't understand I was losing my pet right away, which was frustrating at the time.

[Echocho]

This was my recollection too. Your pet would become stunned while you summoned the replacement.

That came in to the game way later. It's not vanilla.