I think I’ve made my initial opinion on the existence of World of Warcraft Classic very clear in certain articles I’ve written throughout my tenure here at Phenixx Gaming. When WoW Classic was first announced and revealed to be in development, I was quick to scoff at the entire idea.

Being the cynic that I am, I almost immediately concluded that WoW Classic was just Blizzard greedily trying to capitalize on the nostalgia factor present within the portions of World of Warcraft’s player base; specifically those who have been clamoring for something like Classic for years now. I was unshakably convinced that the nostalgia-induced joy harbored by anyone who actually played Classic would deplete exponentially as they spent time with it.

I’m quite hesitant to mention this, but I once wholeheartedly agreed with a certain Blizzard employee who, when asked several years ago whether anything like Classic was on the cards, was infamously quoted as saying something along the lines of, “You think you want that, but you don’t.”

After all, there exists a plethora of modern amenities and quality-of-life updates that have been added to the current, non-vanilla version of WoW throughout its lifespan. In light of that, who in their right mind would voluntarily return to a version of the game as it was shortly after its’ initial release, with just a select few content updates?

Who would want to go back to a game state wherein players had to carefully ration what little money their characters earned to ensure they could afford to learn their new spells and keep their equipment from falling apart? Who would intentionally play as a hunter, knowing full well that doing so would require them to surrender one of their valuable bag slots to make room for a quiver or ammo pouch which would need to be frequently refilled?

Who would willingly forsake such things as heirloom gear, chauffeur mounts, universal level scaling, and everything else that’s been implemented to increase player comfort and autonomy? Who would possibly go on to consider having to contend with everything I’ve just mentioned and then some, only to actually enjoy their experience in doing so?

Well, as it turns out, I would. It has become quite apparent that my initial stance on WoW Classic as a concept was inherently deeply flawed by both my hesitation to experience the unknown and my tendency to prematurely cast judgment in a manner that I now recognize as unfair and misguided.

Within this article, I’d like to spend awhile discussing exactly how my cynical, jaded eyes were opened and first beheld the wonder of WoW Classic. I’ll also do my best to explain why I’ve found myself enjoying it as much as I do despite the absence of virtually everything I take for granted about the current retail version of World of Warcraft.

I reluctantly gave WoW Classic a shot a couple of days after it went live. I primarily did so because my closest friend, who has faithfully played WoW since its initial release, tempted me by explaining that I could become a force to be reckoned with over time if I were to play a paladin as my main character and choose certain talents in a specific order.

Beyond that, this particular friend of mine simply wanted someone to level an Alliance character together with him. Despite my hesitation about trying Classic, I figured things couldn’t possibly be that bad as long as he and I stuck together. I also found solace in the fact that my friend knows a great deal about how the game was played back when Classic was new. Thus, we struck a deal. I would level a character alongside him so long as neither of us out-leveled the other.

Since my main character has been a paladin since Warlords of Draenor, the idea of essentially becoming indestructible in Classic sounded particularly appealing to me. A considerable reason for that is the fact that, as I’m sure our WoW-veteran readers know all too well, the paladin class was exclusive to the Alliance until the release of The Burning Crusade.

That meant my friend and I wouldn’t have to worry about running into any Horde paladins using the same strategy I intended to utilize. I agreed to create a Dwarf paladin in order to play alongside my friend’s Gnome rogue, with the understanding that we would only play those characters together.

In doing so, I could essentially make myself useful by striving to ensure that both our characters remained alive and became slightly more powerful thanks to my healing spells and various minor buffs. Along the way, my much more knowledgeable friend would help me figure out how to eventually turn my paladin into the stalwart, tireless dispenser of justice I wanted to become on behalf of the Alliance.

Initially, I vowed to never play Classic alone. After all, as I’ve established, my friend has a much better understanding of how vanilla WoW operates than I do. As long as we stuck together, I knew I would be relatively safe for the most part.

I was also quite certain he would teach me everything I’d need to know about WoW Classic’s gameplay throughout our journey to level 60. We’ve still got quite a ways to go, but I’ve already learned quite a lot just from what he’s told me thus far.

Before taking the plunge into Classic, virtually all I had heard of the game’s original state were several different “horror stories” about many of its mechanics, for lack of a better description. These anecdotes are the main reason I was initially unwilling to even acknowledge Classic’s existence once it was officially released.

At this point, I’d like to discuss a specific multitude of things I dislike about Classic before I delve into the reasons behind why I’ve come to enjoy it as much as I currently do. The subjects of several of the aforementioned “horror stories” constitute quite a few of the reasons I was originally vehemently opposed to playing Classic.

In an effort to adequately elaborate upon some of the reasons for my previous cold reception to Classic, I feel compelled to once again highlight the existence of a significant list of certain central in-game mechanics. These mechanics are operating exactly as Blizzard intended, yet many players mistakenly reported these mechanics and features as bugs. Among other things present on said list, the lengthened respawn timers for many enemy mobs sounded particularly dreadful to me.

You see, I’ve grown quite accustomed to near-instant gratification within WoW. That mainly meant I was initially certain I wouldn’t be able to tolerate waiting around for quest-related mobs to spawn. That assumes, of course, that I was able to successfully locate any necessary mobs in the first place so that I could remain nearby and prepare myself for combat whenever they finally spawned.

Beyond that, even when any mobs I need to slay appear within my general vicinity, I strongly dislike the sense of pressure I typically get from having to scramble to be the first one to “tag” an enemy so as to ensure I received experience and any necessary loot from killing it.

Of course, in order to “tag” an enemy and lay claim to experience and loot, I would first have to make sure I’m actually capable of landing an attack on said enemy without my strike missing or being sufficiently repelled. That idea leads me to the second of many gameplay aspects with which I struggled quite a bit at first.

The mechanic in question, whose existence I had completely forgotten about until it made its presence known, dictates that characters basically start out completely unskilled with their starting weapon in most circumstances. That is, unless your character’s race provides them with a trait which passively increases their skill with a given weapon type; even in those cases, however, you obviously won’t exactly be an expert combatant right off the bat.

You must increase your proficiency with any weapons available to your class over time by actually managing to land hits on enemies. As you begin that process, you’ll find that your attacks miss with increasingly annoying frequency. It was rather difficult for me to get used to this mechanic without significant frustration, as you might have gathered.

Additionally, I soon realized that no character starts with the ability to use every weapon type for which their class is known. I figured that out the hard way when my paladin acquired a decently-powerful one-handed ax, which I intended to eventually pair with an adequate shield.

Before I could equip my new weapon, however, the game informed me I’d have to make my way to the nearest capital city and pay ten silver to one of several weapon trainers residing therein. As if that didn’t constitute enough of a detour, I then discovered that each weapon master in any capital city only offers training in the use of a select few specific weapons.

This, in turn, meant I’d have to make sure I forked over my hard-earned coin to the correct NPC depending on which weapon type(s) I sought to use. I don’t mean to complain too loudly about these mechanics, but I suspect our WoW-veteran readers might empathize with me when I say ten silver usually isn’t exactly easily-replaced pocket change in Classic, especially at my paladin’s comparatively low level.

In my experience, having to make the trek to and from Stormwind or Ironforge often isn’t nearly as dreadful as I had originally anticipated. My friend and I visit both cities relatively frequently throughout our adventures, mostly for routine things like bank access, class and/or profession training, as well as several quests that required us to pay a visit to certain NPCs for various reasons.

Journeying to the nearest capital can easily prove tedious and time-consuming due to the absence of mounts for characters under level 40, not to mention the scarcity of flight masters and the potentially high costs of their services. To my surprise, though, I’ve somehow found myself able to tolerate the monotony of every trip I’ve made thus far.

I haven’t quite managed to pinpoint any specific reason why I don’t mind these increasingly lengthy trips to either capital considering how boring each trip tends to be. If I had to guess, I think I would start by pointing to the overall senses of community, belonging, and camaraderie I’ve experienced throughout my time within Classic.

For example, I’ve passed a few friendly priests and druids on my travels who were nice enough to stop for a moment and cast one of their comparatively more powerful and useful class buffs on me, like Mark of the Wild or Power Word: Fortitude. In an effort to pay these small acts of kindness forward, I’ve also been known to cast Blessing of Might or my healing spell on any player I encountered who I thought would benefit from my actions.

Small, pleasant interactions like those I’ve just described have made me feel as though the majority of players in Classic often actually want to work together and help one another whenever possible, rather than being needlessly indifferent or outright hostile toward each other. That’s honestly something I haven’t seen in retail WoW for quite some time, and the generally positive environment I’ve experienced within Classic thus far is a very nice change of pace compared to what I’m used to seeing.

Every act of teamwork I’ve witnessed or directly participated in has increased the enjoyment and fulfillment I get from a significant portion of my time within Classic. I’ve seen quite a few “looking for group” messages in the general chat channels in most zones I’ve visited. These messages are typically intended to form groups so that several players can help each other complete quests which involve slaying tougher elite enemies.

My friend and I have joined a small handful of these groups throughout our adventures. Something that pleasantly shocked me whenever I was a part of most groups has been the willingness of players to make sure everyone gets completion credit for whatever quest(s) the group wanted to tackle.

I was particularly appreciative of the fact that if anyone in a group somehow doesn’t get completion credit for a given quest, I’ve seen entire groups gladly agree to wait around and accomplish the quest’s objective again until every group member has what they need. Call me cynical if you will, but something tells me it’s highly improbable that something like that could happen in the current state of retail WoW.

I’m also quite glad to see that primary production professions seem to be genuinely meaningful and lucrative compared to what I’ve seen within retail WoW lately. I don’t mean to suggest that selling such things as bags and raw materials on the auction house in retail WoW isn’t profitable, but I’ve personally felt virtually no desire to bother with production professions in non-vanilla WoW compared to Classic.

Since my main WoW Classic character is a paladin, I decided to take the most obvious route and learn Mining and Blacksmithing as my professions. That way, I could forge my own armor and provide my friend and I with more powerful weapons whenever I had gathered all the necessary materials. On the same token, my friend took up Skinning and Leatherworking on his rogue.

Not only would this allow him to create his own armor as well; he could also make armor kits which allow us both to improve our gear, as well as provide any leather I might need for certain Blacksmithing plans.

Of course, since we could both make decent class-appropriate armor for ourselves and I could provide weaponry, the resulting fact that we wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on the less-than-ideal equipment we often acquired as quest rewards was also quite nice.

However, it’s currently apparent to me that Tailoring is among the most lucrative of all in-game professions, and deservedly so as far as I’m concerned. In my experience, various types of cloth usable within the Tailoring profession are relatively easy to come by, and perhaps even stockpile, in certain questing zones.

More importantly, though, I strongly suspect that there will potentially always be a steady market for any type of bags crafted by tailors. There’s a bit of a story behind why I think I can say that with some degree of certainty. I’d like to share that anecdote with you because I think it’s another great example of the sense of community I’ve perceived within Classic.

You see, while playing as my paladin alongside my friend just a few nights ago, I found myself particularly frustrated by how often I was unable to pick up loot or needed to return to a vendor so that I could get rid of unneeded items.

This was due entirely to the fact that we couldn’t get our hands on any extra bags in addition to the standard-issue sixteen-slot backpack. Due to our low levels, we rarely had much more than ten silver to our names because questing typically didn’t pay much more than a few copper at the time.

The vast majority of the money we had usually needed to go towards more pressing matters like class training and equipment repairs. Basically, we were perpetually too broke to buy bags from the auction house, or especially not from a dedicated bag vendor NPC.

It also didn’t help that most raw materials and crafted items have rather paltry maximum stack sizes of 10 or 20, respectively. This meant we often had to carry several stacks of ore, stone, cloth, and leather until we could put these materials to use or stash them in the bank. Combined with these maddening factors was the additional fact that most quest items take up bag space as well.

As a result of all of this, we were reluctant to spend money on any additional bags despite how convenient the extra carrying capacity would be. That remained the case until one fateful encounter during one of our routine visits to Ironforge.

While there, we realized that we both had a considerable amount of linen cloth in our combined possession that we weren’t using for anything in particular. After all, we didn’t need to use it to make bandages since I had access to a decent healing spell, and none of our current Blacksmithing or Leatherworking plans required linen.

In light of this, we asked in Ironforge’s trade chat if there were any tailors around who would be willing to make us some bags if we provided the necessary cloth. Not even five minutes later, we received a response from a friendly player who generously agreed to help us out.

We soon met up with this player, a Gnome whose name and class currently escape me. Nevertheless, with the linen we provided, this fellow was able to make four six-slot bags for each of us. In return, my friend tipped them three silver, and we all parted ways.

Three silver for such crucial items seems like quite a small amount to me considering how liberating our new bags would be; as I mentioned earlier, though, that was likely the most money we could spare without bankrupting ourselves.

Regardless, although I often laughed at the presence of small bags such as these on retail WoW’s auction house, never again shall I question the demand for such comparatively tiny bags as a result of this encounter.

You’ve undoubtedly noticed by now that the screenshots I’ve placed throughout this article don’t feature the Dwarf paladin whose adventures I’ve been documenting all this time. The main reason for that is the fact that, to my tremendous shock, I began to thoroughly enjoy Classic as I allotted myself more time to play it.

This led to me creating a second character, namely the Human rogue whom you’ve seen within this article’s screenshots. In doing so, I granted myself the ability to play on my own while simultaneously allowing my paladin to accumulate rested experience. Then, in another unexpected twist of events, I enjoyed playing my rogue so much that I decided to create two more characters.

One of these new characters happens to be a hunter, who I created specifically so that I could judge whether having to sacrifice a bag slot in order to equip a quiver or ammo pouch would actually be as much of a hindrance as I first thought it would be. To my pleasant surprise, I’ve found that it isn’t anywhere near as annoying a mechanic as I initially expected.

I usually hardly even notice my ammo pouch exists until I eventually have to refill it. Even then, restocking on ammo has been exceptionally painless due to both the very reasonable vendor price of basic ammo and the fact that my hunter can craft his own bullets (as well as guns and scopes, for that matter) thanks to the Engineering profession.

I hope this article has proven to be at least somewhat helpful and informative for those of you who might be on the fence about trying Classic, especially if you’re among those who would have to spend the money necessary to reactivate a dormant subscription to retail WoW in order to experience what Classic has to offer.

I’m well aware that Classic most definitely isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Considering that someone like myself who initially avoided Classic like the plague can end up adoring the vast majority of its gameplay as much as I do, though, I wholeheartedly think giving it a fair try is worthwhile.

Perhaps, like I’ve done, you could enhance your experience by playing alongside a friend or an entire group of allies. I’ve found that the game is much more fun when one isn’t playing by oneself, though I recognize that some among our readers would prefer to go it alone.

Before I sign off, I’d like to pass along a final side note that might tempt you to activate or reactivate your subscription so that you can try Classic. The well-known fan site Wowhead (or Thottbot, as some of you WoW veterans might remember it) was recently able to confirm that players who get at least one Classic character to level 60 will receive what I consider to be substantial rewards from Blizzard. If you need an extra incentive to try Classic like I did, those rewards might be of interest to you.

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