Human starting zone

[xslikvikx]

i'm a farily new player to wow(introduced to this server by a friend of mine) and i'm working through the human vanilla starting zone right now and i must commend how amazing this whole experience is. Starting from elwynn, to westfall, redridge and currently in duskwood.. stormwind. The immersion into the story line, the ambiance, the music, the quests. Certain parts like questing in the westfall farms, the run up to stormwind from elwynn and he change in music when you enter the inn in duskwood- there is an incredible rush it all feels so epic.

I am going to continue my adventure here and flip over to blizzards subscription servers after i hit max level but i can see why this game has such a hold despite being 10 years old... bravo!

[Diametra]

10/10.

If you could, I'd hold out on the retail version and instead, transfer to the TBC server if it comes out in a timely fashion (from your personal perspective). Will be much more epic-er that way.

[SnakeXT]

U won't find any epic experience on retail server, it's like a browser game right now - everything is instanced/automatic, like "click - garrison, click - raid, click - dungeon, click - bg". Most of the zones are useless and empty there. There's no journey or world exploration. So I'd suggest you to explore vanilla more, from both fractions, from different classes.

[Celonius]

U won't find any epic experience on retail server, it's like a browser game right now - everything is instanced/automatic, like "click - garrison, click - raid, click - dungeon, click - bg". Most of the zones are useless and empty there. There's no journey or world exploration. So I'd suggest you to explore vanilla more, from both fractions, from different classes.

Agree.

[Crossbreed]

Glad to hear you're enjoying this game. Classic WoW is just a milestone of MMORPGs.

I am going to continue my adventure here and flip over to blizzards subscription servers after i hit max level but i can see why this game has such a hold despite being 10 years old... bravo!

I'd join the others in recommending to stick around here for a while. "Modern" WoW is a very, very different kind of game - essentially, you can take the "MM" and "RPG" out of MMORPG. If feels more like a 3d lobby with a few short-lived minigames; most of what classic WoW offers won't be there anymore, unfortunately.

My advise would be - take your time with classic. Don't rush through the game, the journey is your goal. Take your time leveling, taking in the zones. When you're at the cap, run through all the dungeons (not raids), they're absolutely amazing. Get your epic mount, do a little open and instanced PVP. Move on to raids if you like. Ahn'Quiraj opening will be in some time too, and that will be an absolutely epic event that should not be missed. In any way, just take your time and don't rush through the content.

And yea, eventually BC will hopefully be around the corner, with a TON of high quality content both for PVE and PVP. And if you're still around after that, you may see why wotlk is known to be one of the most popular expansions too. If Nost keeps going well, there'll be years full of extremely well crafted, enjoyable content.

[Sharax]

The leveling zones/experience in WoD, the latest retail expansion, was exceptionally done. The only problem is that it doesn't consume that much of your time and the end game experience is terrible (though, the raids were well done from what I heard).

If you're interested in retail, I'd wait for the Legion expansion (probably around a June release). You'll get an instant 100 so you can enjoy the new leveling content. Playing WoD at this point is pointless and the content is poor.

[JJAyx]

Don't play retail. It's complete garbage now.

You will be SORELY disappointed. nothing is the same, there is no epic feel like you described (I remember that 10 years ago, exact same feelings).

[xslikvikx]

well this is a little disappointing... the general consensus seems to be that the experience doesn't quite hold up in future expansions, well i wont let that deter me from enjoying the content here. At the pace i'm goign it'll probably take something close to 6-7 months anyway- on the plus side im enjoying the sheer number of people you see int eleveling zones and a majority of the community seems fairly helpful. Thanks for the input folks

[FiveWeeksOneMinute]

well this is a little disappointing... the general consensus seems to be that the experience doesn't quite hold up in future expansions, well i wont let that deter me from enjoying the content here. At the pace i'm goign it'll probably take something close to 6-7 months anyway- on the plus side im enjoying the sheer number of people you see int eleveling zones and a majority of the community seems fairly helpful. Thanks for the input folks

remember, leveling is a small part of the game... Vanilla content provides enough endgame to occupy you for quite a while after you level to 60. Truth is the game doesn't even truly begin until you hit 60

Also, the general opinion of most players is that Vanilla and TBC (first expansion, lvl 70 cap) were the golden days of WoW. Myself and plenty of others enjoyed the next xpack, WotLK, but towards the end of that expansion is when the general feel of the game began to drastically change. The following expansion, Cataclysm, marked the death of WoW as oldschool players knew it and the beginning of a totally different experience designed to appeal to a new generation of more casual gamers.

[AngelusPrime]

If I may offer a hopefully less biased opinion, speaking as one who loves both: Give retail a go, but don't expect the same experience. Both are very fun, but in different ways.

I've been playing retail WoW since Cataclysm and have been obsessed ever since. Given I was a late comer, I regretted missing out on all the glory days I had heard about from my fellow raiders, hence why I'm here (and loving it).

Here's the breakdown as I see it: Vanilla's strengths are a large, very friendly and helpful community and an incredibly immersive leveling experience. Vanilla is also much harder, which you may find a strength or weakness depending on your personal mileage. My main draw to Vanilla was lore (I'm a big Warcraft lore nerd, reading all the books as I continue playing), and it has delivered.

Retail's strengths are more versatility and diversity in experience at the cost of a solid leveling experience. The old world goes by in a flash due to how fast leveling is (and has to be now that the cap is 100). You will outlevel old zones looong before completing the stories, and often you'll only touch them before moving on to the next. That said, if you're willing to slow down and stick around in a zone after outlevelling it, post-cata most zones have new stories, and I found a lot of them enjoyable, which makes it a shame they blow by so fast.

Retail offers casual content in spades: Pokemon-like pet battles first and foremost. Pet battles are 100% optional and have no impact on the main game. I enjoy it as a side distraction, but if you hate the idea, it's easily ignored. Questing is extremely casual -- You will not die levelling, period, which sadly leaves many unprepared for their roles end game. Levelling has been revamped to sadly be a single-player experience all the way to level cap.

Levelling new content is a different story -- It's still easy, but the stories are fantastic. I loved Mists of Pandaria and the Warlords levelling 90-100 experience was very theatrical in its story telling and nods to old lore.

Retail is much less grindy than vanilla -- another strength or weakness depending on your preferences. As a married adult with a career, I appreciate the lack of grinding. I want a challenge, but not busy work. On the downside of this, professions are, presently, all but worthless and entirely possible to ignore.

The worst thing about retail, IMHO, is the community is gone. Seeing how vanilla plays, I suspect it's largely due to the newer dungeon finder and raid finder functionality which pairs you with random people within minutes for any instance, then teleports you in from wherever you are. There was something to be said about having to travel to the entrance to a dungeon/raid and meet up with your folks there -- it added to the immersion. The randomness of the finders and the massive drop in dungeon difficulty means lots of rude kids cussing you out all along the way, or complete silence as you blow through. The sense of community is dead.

With that understood, *if* you have a group of friends to play with, this saves the experience. I started a raiding guild with my own friends and we are our own active and fun community. If you can find a good guild, that's where the saving grace is.

Lastly, there's raiding -- raid finder versions of raids are very much "easy mode", but if you have a large enough guild to raid normals, heroics, or mythics, those are a blast and quite challenging (either that or I'm a horrible raider who's easily impressed ). The rewards are not as special as they used to be though -- Your hard-earned purple gear from you guild raid is nothing but a color-swap of the exact same gear from someone else's raid finder run. Even worse, raid finder more or less has to be used repeatedly in order to gear up for normal mode raids.

So that's the gist of it as I see it. I love both and play both. I enjoy strengthens each has that the other doesn't, and I think that will keep me playing both for quite some time. That said, I 100% understand why a lot of vanilla veterans hate modern WoW. They have valid complaints.