Which do you prefer: WoW Retail or WoW Classic?

[Devilyaki]

What if I like both. I like the new fun and qol changes in retail and I like the set in stone gear goals in classic

[Yuli]

100% Retail, I gave Classic a chance, but it just isn't for me.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Retail, classic is quaint and all but the classes and figure are way to simple for me at this point and I’ve seen all the content before.

[badaku]

I prefer retail. Classic is really boring because everybody knew everything a decade before it's release. Also spamming 1 button while standing still is not my kind of raiding.

[Valandale]

I prefer Classic over Retail, the story and questing is overall more engaging than a good chunk of retail. There's huge arcs that take you all over the place, and it feels more alive. Gameplay is odd to be sure, but I find it more interesting when leveling and trying dumb talent builds out of the norm is weird just to see what they do, even if you can tell they are suboptimal they still could have niche uses that makes them interesting. I also enjoy the slower pace, and as some have said, gear is gear, it doesn't have 6,000 permutations of which only a handful are actually good or useful. That and there is a LOT of RPGness in Classic that's been lost in Retail. Cooking takes you all over the world to learn from the next master, so do the crafting profs. BfA and Legion tried that, and some were good, some were overly cheesy or immersion breaking, but in classic it's grounded in concept for learning to be a skilled craftsman or chef. I also like going to meet with the class trainer every other level, i don't just magically know my next spell, I was taught it or discovered it through a quest chain. I just like stuff like that. That and the server community, you know the greats and you know the infamous.

[heartless8604]

Retail: I'm in team "You think you do but you don't"

The reality was, the private server folks ruined Classic. And the phase system was complete 100% garbage. Would rather have patched releases instead. So balance and tuning changes, item strengths change and such. I just don't think it was implemented with any thought process behind it.

Not that retail is either mind you. I barely play it. And don't see myself playing shadowlands for much past a month or two. Torgasht doesn't interest me, looks like a stupid new islands. Beyond that there isn't any new features to look forward to. No new class, no new race and please piss off with the stupid allied race concept.

[Dalheim]

I like both games for different reasons, but I'd pick retail over Classic anyday. I have too much time on my characters + more things to do.

[Gamingsince1981]

Retail , it has its grinds and time gates but all of them put together arent even close to as boring as classic with how long anything takes to do.

[Caardamus]

I actually prefer the simplicity of classic right now. After my old guild died at the end of MoP and a lot of my friends stopped playing my interest in WoW just hasn't been there. I'll play for a bit to see the new stuff, but I'm just never get as hooked as I used to be.

Classic is an absolute mess thanks to the bots, pserver min maxing, world buffs, and general horrible balancing issues but I feel attached to Azeroth again which is kinda nice. I'm moderately excited for SL, so we'll see if they get the hooks in me this time. But I'm honestly more excited at possibly getting TBC. I'm sure a lot of the same issues from classic will persist, but at least I can have my old shaman back and that's enough for me

[jackofwind]

And it still is today. That's why I don't care that I didn't experience it when it was current. I would have really loved to experience Burning Crusade back in 2007, though.

BC was just as much of a grind if not more, plus the constant attuning of new raid members.

[Neotokyo]

I made my old Hunter on classic... I threw up at how bad it was... Minimum range, Zero help with quests... ammo bag... Eurgh... I get it people wanted the classic experience but the retail quality of life is just light years ahead.

[Exedore]

Both.

Classic has issues. Anyone who played vanilla should have remembered that. For example, certain specs just aren't that good for end-game. But classic/vanilla has a lot of appeal too: enemies feel dangerous if you aren't careful, quests don't feel like a railroad, your character isn't the center of everything, no "daily quest" grind, item progression was much flatter.

Retail makes all specs functional, and SL did a little to make it feel like a class with some variation instead of 3 classes. But most of retail feels like brainless doing it just to get it done - there's no discovery or challenge for most of the game. Retail also makes you play catch-up with each new content tier and makes the previous tiers obsolete.

[God Save The King]

For leveling alone, Classic is nicer. Most classes have a wide array of tools by level ~40 (not even halfway to max in terms of time) and there's a lot of different paths to take to max level. I enjoy the journey: learning my class, using all my different abilities, leveling my tradeskills, exploring, running dungeons, et cetera. I enjoy the slower pace compared to retail.

For dungeons, PvP, raiding, end-game, and alts: Retail. Convenience is king.

[kamuimac]

WoW Retail or WoW Classic? Why?



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

Retail .

the only way i would prefer classic is if i could buy char boost - im to old to spend half of year on leveling each toon to max level .

now if i could buy char boosts i wuld play classic a lot more.

[Nayami]

I am just happy to have access to both Would really love to play TBC again too!

[Greengrim]

Vanilla was purely broken. Entire classes were incomplete like coming out not from a beta or an alpha but from a random ideas drawer. You had a mage that had to drink every single mob to get mana and a rogue stunlocking it for 20 seconds ffs.

Oh, so you mean to say it's just like it was back in the day?

Anyway, on topic. Retail - Classic is just too boring. Played for a month after launch. Gor few laughs. Never returned.

Should have made a poll for this though. The results would have been interesting to track.

[Jericho21]

Vanilla/Classic when it was relevant but Retail easily because of the QOL changes (area-auto-loot, 1 click flight path that continued to your destination, welfare epics (yeah I mean it. I make casuals look like hardcore players), etc).

I did like revisiting places and quests like the Ony attunement chain, Strat 10-man raid, BWL attunement, being on Medivh and being the first server to open the AQ Gates and watching the server fall to its knees with the entire server in one zone. Rogue Dungeon 0.5 set. Shit like that. There aren't many of those types of moments in Retail anymore which is why I miss those Vanilla days.

Btw, you all know this is the 3rd scourge invasion of cities since Vanilla right? Naxx40 being released was 1, TBC Dark Portal being opened was 2, and this makes 3. Should be 4 with Wrath's launch but they didn't do that to my knowledge.

[Nalam the Venom]

I like both for different reasons.

[crusadernero]

Played my pala to lvl 41 at launch. Quit for 6+ months. Returned, got to lvl 48. Right now, doubt i'll come back.

But who knows.. Maybe i'll return one day and actually reach lvl 60

[PenguinChan]

Classic shines in different ways than retail. Because of how classic functions it's a lot more unique in how things work and operate - something retail lacks entirely. IE: Spellcasters not needing gear as often, but don't scale as hard as melee. Ranged and spellcasters being the safer options by far, but melee definitely getting into the thick of things and being enabled allows them to go ham.

Buffs, debuffs, unique weapons with effects that you can enjoy without caring as much about stat sticks. Talent trees that meant something and added progress to your leveling - instead of it being baked in and boring. Varied builds exist depending on your class as well, even though old-talents were 'cookie cutter' and 'illusion of choice' (Some were, others weren't). With how undertuned Classic is / was, you don't need to be a try-hard either to basically beat everything in PVE (Despite what the try-hard idiots like to proclaim). Just enjoy the classes and their unique takes on how they deal with things.

Gear actually means something in Classic as well, compared to retail. Right now I can just go buy an entire epic stat geared character by level 17. They all have two secondary stats, full main stats, and of any kind or combination I want. Meanwhile in Classic? You nutted for even a rare shoulder-pad that had your stats on it - fuck, even if it was just armor. It's a different feeling compared to now where you absolutely expect every single piece of gear and then some.

All that said, a majority of this involves the open world content and dungeons. Once you hit end-game for PVP and PVE a lot of the magic dissipates naturally due to how the mechanics work. Not entirely, of course but it does hamper the enjoyment a bit.

I still prefer Retail for all the QoL changes and how I've played Classic like, 8 times over now. Still enjoyable from time to time and relax with leveling, as slow as it is.