Is retail is a horrible reference point for deciding a main in Classic?

[MiiiMiii]

I don't want to play on private servers. So I have to just go off 12 year old memory on how classes were in Classic.

I first wanted to really play a Shaman in Classic. I therefore decided to level a Shaman to 120 in BfA. I gave all 3 specs a good chance. Tried for 4 months enjoying it. Did the heroic raiding and the M+ grind. Did the 3v3 grind. In the end, they all felt incredibly boring. I really can't put my finger on why, so I try a new class.

Then I turned to Druid, leveled one to 120. Played Resto for about 2 months. Had a period of about 2 weeks where I really enjoyed it in RBG PvP. Then it just became really boring. On to the next candidate I guess?

I then went on a spree of leveling every single original class to 120 and play them for about a week. (No tank specs though, not interested)

The only spec I found even remotely fun of those was Disc Priest.

But today my sub ran out and I don't feel like resubscribing. It's just not fun.

Is it me that has changed or is retail classes just really boring to play compared to in Classic?

I am getting worried. Anyone can give me some good insight in how "fun" classes play today vs back then from a "less than 14 year old memory" perspective?

[Veggie50]

I advise deathknight!

[Adoxe]

Not a single class plays the same as they did in Classic, fun is subjective so can't comment on that but you're not remembering things wrong. The general thought is that retail classes are boring as fuck to play in BfA compared to Legion and MoP, and that is most certainly the case, the lack of legendaries/artifacts/set bonuses/glyphs/actual talents/extra pruning has led to that, but again Legion and MoP both, while a lot more fun, were miles different from Classic playstyle. Your best bet is either trying a private server or just waiting and figuring it out in Classic, there's no way you'll make a decision based on the present day classes, even the one that you liked on retail (Disc Priest) you might end up not enjoying as much in Classic because their design has changed so many times since 2004.

[lonely zergling]

Stay away from pservers as they are shit compared to real vanilla. They cant even get all the talents to work how they were in vanilla. Your best bet is watching old videos or hope for a official beta to test classes.

Playing retail wont really help you either as its a completely different game now.

[MrKnubbles]

Every class is very different from how they were in Classic. As far as Shamans go, you could do a 2h Enhancement build in PvP or you could raid as Resto, that's about it. If your class had a healing spec, you were a healer. It was pretty lame.

[Pieterman]

Yes, terrible. Roles dont even work the same as they used to. A much better reference point would be Dungeons & Dragons or something.

[Khallid]

I advise deathknight!

^

Although I think Demon Hunter would also be quite good.

[EnclosedOne]

retail classes are pretty much completely different than how they were in original and I wouldn't bother with pservers as their math is usually way off the mark so they too would play differently from original. Honestly all anyone can do is just wait for classic and mess around with classes then to figure out what they like. back then I always recommended people to play a class till lvl 20 to see if they liked it enough to stick with it

[Lochton]

Private servers are about as bad a reference point as retail.

[vashe9]

If you find current classes boring, dont even bother with classic, in pve you press 2 or 3 keys max if you are lucky (one if you are frost mage). Don't listen to people saying class design was better, it wasn't. It was better in expansions (I really liked BC/Woltk)

[ReaperOwnz]

Only way for you to know what main YOU want is either private server (they arent perfect but the good ones are still damn good) or waiting for Classic Beta tests.

[MiiiMiii]

If you find current classes boring, dont even bother with classic, in pve you press 2 or 3 keys max if you are lucky (one if you are frost mage). Don't listen to people saying class design was better, it wasn't. It was better in expansions (I really liked BC/Woltk)

Mate, my favorite time in WoW was playing a Resto Shaman in TBC. I literally spent all my time putting down totems and spamming Chain Heal. I don't need complex rotations to have fun raiding.

[vashe9]

Mate, my favorite time in WoW was playing a Resto Shaman in TBC. I literally spent all my time putting down totems and spamming Chain Heal. I don't need complex rotations to have fun raiding.

Your OP is "BFA classes are not fun, they are boring" and then you say that... OK, stop asking then... You're just contradicting yourself. Explain why BFA is boring but BC chain heal spam is fun... I know the answer... NOSTALGY...

[Malacrass]

Private servers are about as bad a reference point as retail.

Care to elaborate why?

[Coldfrostzero]

Classic is like playing all 3 specs of a class at once, but they are generally only propped up as one spec that really works well, one spec that is better in PVP, and one spec that is either dead or requires a decent driver to make it work. So you are playing the "class' rather than the "spec." Granted, some specs don't perform well without a certain talent selection, but that doesn't even require you to fill out an entire tree sometimes.

Things of note:
All classes with a healer spec can do that with the right gear. While talents benefit you, they aren't exactly required to be successful. Question that always popped up in the old talent system days were "what can your class do if it had 0 talent points entered?" Healing.

Warriors could make use of all 3 specs and could tank as all 3 to an extent. Eventually, you'd not go as far down in the prot tree so you could stay ahead in threat, unless you were the Main Tank and even then you would sacrifice some talent space for damage.

It was more in BC and WOTLK that true "hybrid" specs started to emerge and shine like Shockadin. Mainly because having 20-40 talents (depending on expansion) to throw in another tree allowed you some breathing room to cover another role, but at some disadvantages.

[tikcol]

Care to elaborate why?

Pay no heed to those people. When they're getting corpse camped and owned by private server players and all the best guilds came from private servers they'll blame the lag and rage quit on mass

[MoanaLisa]

Closing this:

1. Too much discussion of private servers.
2. "I Quit" thread.

It's enough to say that retail isn't a good reference point without starting up discussions about illegal private servers.