A large part of the long-established “World of Warcraft” community cheers. At Blizzcon 2017, Blizzard announced the project WoW Classic – an option to play World of Warcraft on classic servers – just like in the vanilla days in 2005. But what’s actually inside the World of Warcraft legacy servers?
Update: This article was first published in November 2017 and updated on October 3, 2018 with new information.
For those who can only vaguely remember Classic or have never played Classic WoW, we at Mein-MMO have created an overview for you. Find out here what to expect when you play WoW like in 2005.
Quick Overview: What are Classic Servers and when is the release?
What is a Classic Server? WoW Classic means playing the MMORPG classic without any expansions. Classic, or Vanilla, is World of Warcraft before the first expansion The Burning Crusade released in 2007.
What are Classic servers good for? Many players associate the time of WoW Classic with their first experiences with WoW or MMORPGs in general. The Classic servers are meant to provide Classic fans with that feeling once again.
How does it work? The Classic servers will run parallel to the live servers of WoW and will have nothing to do with the live version. Classic will run on patch version 1.12.
When will the servers be released? An exact date has not yet been announced. However, a former developer stated that we cannot expect WoW Classic before 2021.
Can I play beforehand? Yes, there should be a demo for Classic available starting in November that you can participate in.
Classic Servers: What does that mean?
The Vanilla servers for WoW have long been a wish of the community, which has manifested itself in private servers. But what exactly is a Classic server?
Anyone who started playing WoW long after the release or has gained many new impressions since then might not know or barely remember what World of Warcraft was like at launch in 2005.
All raids, all Classic content: The Classic server will include patch 1.12 “Drums of War”, the last update of that era. With this status, the Classic servers will be able to offer everything that World of Warcraft had during the Classic times. The features from that time include among others:
- The raid Naxxramas (from patch 1.11)
- Weather effects (from patch 1.10)
- Cross-realm battlegrounds
- World PvP
What races and classes are available on Classic servers in WoW?
On Classic servers, the clocks are set back 12 years to replicate WoW’s status at the MMORPG’s launch. Specifically, this means:
- Level limit: Level 60
- Areas: Continents Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms
- Races:
- Alliance: Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes
- Horde: Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, and Undead
- Classes: Priest, Rogue, Warrior, Mage, Druid, Hunter, Warlock, Shaman, and Paladin.
- Mounts: Only Vanilla mounts. Flying mounts were only introduced with The Burning Crusade.
During Classic, there were fewer classes, as well as more restrictions on class choices. Many races had not as many options as they do today.
Alliance Race/Class Combinations
Horde Race/Class Combinations
Paladins were only available for the Alliance (Humans and Dwarves), while Shamans were only available for the Horde (Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren). Warriors and Rogues could still carry and use ranged and thrown weapons, while Shamans, Druids, and Paladins used idols and the like.
WoW Classic plays so differently
More character stats: The races and attributes had a different distribution as well. There were still resistances, defense value (needed by tanks to avoid being critically hit), hit value, and weapon skill.
A weapon had to be used to increase its skill and no longer miss. Some races had bonuses on certain weapons, such as Humans on swords and maces.
More talents: Talents, on the other hand, were significantly more extensive. At each level, a talent point could be allocated. The talent trees were correspondingly large, allowing for hybrid specializations of multiple specialties.
Spells need reagents: For portals, portal runes were required, for the major blessings of Paladins, symbols of kings, and for the Druid’s rebirth a maple seed, etc.
Classes using ranged weapons also had to carry a quiver or ammunition bag that stored bullets or arrows.
Raids were more complicated: Dungeons and raids also functioned quite differently than today. The group did not meet through the browser but had to ride to the instance first.
Cooldowns were not reset at the start of the fight, which often meant waiting until the boss fight began.
Thus, some of the more comfortable changes are missing – but Blizzard also wants to recreate the game as it was back then, not a polished version.
Is it worth playing Classic?
If you are a newcomer: This question each player will have to answer for themselves. Classic is a completely different experience compared to how World of Warcraft is today. Those who frequently use the dungeon browser or like to frequently adjust their class may not find happiness in Classic.
For newcomers, WoW Classic as a game can only be recommended to a limited extent. However, it is certainly interesting to see how everything began and to explore the world that veterans constantly rave about.
If you have played WoW Classic: Even veterans should clarify what WoW Classic really means. The game and one’s own playstyle have changed drastically since Classic, and many old features may not be as great as you remember them. Just to remind you:
Even the WoW icon Barlow has already commented on Classic. He points out, among other things, that raiding was not inherently harder, just more cumbersome. Generally, Classic seems to be more about the experience – not because it is the better game.
If you want to test how well you remember Classic, take part in our quiz: How well do you know Classic?
Do you have specific ideas about Classic? Then vote: How do you wish for WoW Classic?
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