Actually, MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus just wanted to take a few rounds in the new WoW BC Classic and reminisce. Now he plays almost daily. How can a 14-year-old MMORPG that one has played for hundreds of hours be so fascinating?
When The Burning Crusade first launched back in 2007, I probably played it more often than my parents would have liked. Multiple characters at max level, daily dungeons, raids every week… and it was great.
I have certainly invested several hundred or even thousands of hours, visited Karazhan regularly, even when I didn’t need anything from there anymore, and even got into roleplaying. Burning Crusade is the expansion that made me a permanent WoW fan.
Accordingly, I was very happy when in 2019 WoW Classic was announced first and then finally Burning Crusade Classic was announced in 2021. Since June 2nd, the first expansion of World of Warcraft can be played again on the Classic servers.
Of course, I knew from the start that it wouldn’t be the same as before. Still, I wanted to check it out. I just didn’t expect that The Burning Crusade could captivate me a second time.
I fell in love – for the second time
I had planned to revive my old characters: a gnome warlock and a draenei paladin. I bought a somewhat hated boost because my plan was:
- to start my draenei at the pre-patch on June 19
- to boost the warlock first – he will be my main anyway
- to play the paladin until BC finally starts
- to switch at release and then catch up with the paladin later
The thing is… I fell in love with my paladin. For the second time. The first levels were a bit tough, but the further I got, the more I remembered why I liked the class back then.
Leveling takes a long time, I probably needed an hour per level from level 30 or 40, sometimes more. But it was worth it. The experience wasn’t just slow; it was decelerating.
At a time when the next big thing is always on the horizon, and you expect something to happen all the time, and you’re always under pressure… it’s nice to take your time. To have to take your time to achieve something you want to achieve. A nice bonus: every new piece of gear is a little highlight for that extra dopamine boost – or whatever that stuff is called that makes you happy.
… and then I reached level 40
As a tank, the paladin in BC is really strong. With the pre-patch, he receives proper taunts and some adjustments that allow paladins to hold aggro quite well in a group – thus preventing the DPS buddies from taking all the hits by standing in for them.
At first, it’s a bit tricky because the actually strong abilities are still missing. The first few levels, I also played with a two-handed weapon despite being a tank – it was easier.
Then I reached level 40 and got a core talent of the tank paladin, the holy shield. With this ability, the paladin increases his block value and deals holy damage with each block, generating additional threat.
With 2-3 seconds to “initiate” it is now almost impossible for DPS to take the “aggro” from me. That was the point when I realized what I am generally missing today in MMORPGs and in retail WoW: communication.
I am talking to people again – how strange … and wonderful
As a tank in Classic, it is important to communicate with your teammates. Briefly stating what you plan to do with the enemies, where you position them, or when the DPS players can start dealing their damage is just part of it.
In retail, this hardly happens anymore. In random dungeons, it is usually enough for a tank to just stand in front of the enemies and give them an angry look. There are hardly any threat issues anymore. Chats in dungeons often show only a “hey” and a “bye,” if they are even used.
The only big exceptions are rated PvP matches, mythic raids, and the toughest dungeons. Here I still talk with my guild and the group, even over the microphone, but in general, communication in WoW and many MMORPGs is hardly necessary anymore in this way.
In classic content as well as in the BC content, there were always moments where I did some quests together with people from the surroundings or even talked to them after dungeons. Especially in times when much communication is only digital, if at all, such encounters are simply something beautiful.
The world is full and I want more of it
What I noticed while leveling, but especially in Outland, is the sheer number of players. Even though there is “layering” that divides players into different phases, there are tons of characters everywhere.
This is something you don’t see in retail anymore. If at all, you might still meet in dungeons, but the outside world and the cities are largely empty due to phasing and because everyone is wandering around somewhere but has little reason to gather.
This made it clear to me why so many people preferred Classic over Retail. It’s a nice feeling to see that the world is lively, and you are not standing alone.
Before the release, I already wrote that I welcome the changes of BC Classic and even wished for cross-realm features. By now, I have to revise that opinion: I truly understand why people enjoy seeing and meeting “their own people” again and again.
However, I still believe that layering is still useful to a certain extent, after all, it led to an excellent start for BC Classic – at least until the trolls showed up.
The unexpected: new old memories
My big fear about BC Classic was that only a few old memories would come flooding back and I would set the game aside again after a while. Just a quick nostalgia kick and then on to the next game.
What I didn’t expect was that I would have completely new experiences. After all, I basically completed TBC back in the day, so what new could I possibly discover?
In fact, while leveling alone, I had a few situations that have already burned themselves into my memory. Things I never noticed before or maybe had already forgotten.
This was helped by Questie, one of the best addons I could find for BC Classic. Questie shows available quests – even completely off the beaten path. I found several tasks that I didn’t even know existed.
“Damn, they’re taking my wrath away?!”
However, one particularly memorable situation arose in Burning Crusade itself, more precisely in the Blood Furnace, one of the first dungeons of the expansion. There are indeed enemies that can remove players’ buffs (“purge”).
With a paladin tank, it can happen that they remove Wrath of Justice here. The spell increases the threat that the paladin generates with holy damage and is the reason he can tank at all.
I used to be a healer, not a tank. It surely took three or four DPS deaths for me to realize that I was missing important buffs. Annoying, but after the “Aha” moment, I learned something about my class. A nice feeling!
Now I am all the more looking forward to reliving all instances and especially my favorite raids – this time from a completely different perspective.
BC Classic will be great, but it won’t last forever
As much as I am looking forward to grinding the heroic instances, visiting Karazhan, and kicking both Illidan and Kil’jaeden’s butts (again), I know very well: it will eventually come to an end.
TBC is completed content, just like WoW Classic. I know what will come and I won’t be surprised by much, even if I can have new experiences. I already know which items I will need later and what I will need to work towards.
The feeling of “new” is therefore not completely there anymore, but I also don’t need that. I don’t want to think about the fact that this will all be over one day; I just want to live in the moment.
That’s why I am taking my time leveling, looking for a guild to play with at 70, grabbing a few friends, and simply experiencing BC Classic… for the second time. Because the last thing I want is a complete “rush” to level 70 and experience everything immediately – like the players who finished all content within 24 hours.
