World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

[Sovereign]

It was announced in this weekend's Blizzcon that WoW:s next expansion will be called the Battle for Azeroth. After the Legion's downfall, the tensions between the main factions have peaked and a new war is upon Azeroth. There will be two new continents: Kul Tiras and Zandalar and many new instances. Personally, I like the fact that Blizzard didn't mess up the lore further and if executed properly, this expansion seems to have some serious potential. I'll look forward to more information about it.

However, the thing that I'm even more excited about is the coming of the World of Warcraft: Classic. Ever since Cataclysm, I've longed for the return of the old questing zones and the dungeon finder tool has made instances completely brainless. If Blizzard also improves the graphics and does some other fixes to the problems of old WoW, this is a dream come true. These titles force me to return to Azeroth once again when they are released! What do you think about these announcements?

[Sneak]

Never played Wow, but I just love of original trilogy. And 'm interested how long are they going to extend Wow? Because nothing is eternal...
For me, normal story ended in Warcraft 3. After that, Blizzard turned world and plot into kinda of mess.  :unsure:

[vonboy]

Like when Nintendo DMCA'd AM2R, before releasing their own Metroid 2 remake, Doesn't look good when Blizzard shut down the biggest fan-run classic WoW server, with hundreds of thousands of members, about a year ago, before announcing their own.

Even more weird when at last years blizzcon, when a developer was asked about closing the server, he said "fans don't know what they want."

I'm sure this renewal of vanilla WoW will be very popular and get many old players to at least come back and try it again, like what happened when Oldschool Runescape came back out a few years ago, but this still smells shitty to me.

[Sovereign]

Never played Wow, but I just love of original trilogy. And 'm interested how long are they going to extend Wow? Because nothing is eternal...
For me, normal story ended in Warcraft 3. After that, Blizzard turned world and plot into kinda of mess.

Well, it's been going on for thirteen years now and it's still the biggest MMO out there. WoW has to end at some point but I truly hope that won't be the end of Warcraft franchise. As for the three first games, I love them too. It's really sad that WoW messed up the earlier games' great plots and lore but the game itself was (at least prior to Cataclysm) an amazing one so I cannot really complain as they respected most plotpoints until that expansion. Only Legion took the lore to a really worrying direction.

   Like when Nintendo DMCA'd AM2R, before releasing their own Metroid 2 remake, Doesn't look good when Blizzard shut down the biggest fan-run classic WoW server, with hundreds of thousands of members, about a year ago, before announcing their own.

I'm not familiar with this but I've heard there were quite many problems with those servers. Anyway, I hope Blizzard will handle this well enough. I don't see a major problem with shutting down those unofficial servers as it's Blizz's game after all. I'm just happy we'll get an improved version of the original game.

[Flathead770]

Only Legion took the lore to a really worrying direction.

I initially got pretty hooked with Legion's lore because it was tied to a lot of 'The War of the Ancients' trilogy. But I'm not really sure what's the deal with Argus. It seems like Illidan also dies for good this time, until Blizzard decides brings him back so he can say that someone is not prepared or that he was betrayed again.

However, the thing that I'm even more excited about is the coming of the World of Warcraft: Classic. dino_wow.gif Ever since Cataclysm, I've longed for the return of the old questing zones and the dungeon finder tool has made instances completely brainless. If Blizzard also improves the graphics and does some other fixes to the problems of old WoW, this is a dream come true. These titles force me to return to Azeroth once again when they are released! What do you think about these announcements?

I must admit it is hard to be a old WoW player and not be a little hyped about this. I never played the game when it first came out but started after BC released so I got to mostly enjoy the vanilla experience (mostly just dealt with updated classes). I do enjoy watching videos of what vanilla was like (mainly with regards to raiding) so it's exciting to see. Whether or not I'll jump back in I'm not too sure.

The main question I am wondering is if they're going to keep it exactly intact or change it up in some ways. From what I've heard, pretty much all classes only had a single viable spec so I personally wouldn't mind seeing changes in this regard (nothing too drastic of course, even though I love the idea they had for Legion's Discipline priests. Such a fun way to heal).

I'm not familiar with this but I've heard there were quite many problems with those servers. Anyway, I hope Blizzard will handle this well enough. I don't see a major problem with shutting down those unofficial servers as it's Blizz's game after all. smile.gif I'm just happy we'll get an improved version of the original game.

The most noteworthy one was Nostalrius, which was apparently maintained quite well until Blizzard shut them down. Last we heard there were going to be some talks between them and Blizzard so this may have well been the results.

[Sovereign]

I initially got pretty hooked with Legion's lore because it was tied to a lot of 'The War of the Ancients' trilogy. But I'm not really sure what's the deal with Argus. It seems like Illidan also dies for good this time, until Blizzard decides brings him back so he can say that someone is not prepared or that he was betrayed again.

I agree completely. I loved the War of the Ancients trilogy and I had wanted to see the Broken Isles for years (ever since I read Beyond the Dark Portal actually) and I liked the zones.  However, the Illidan storyline was extremely stupid as was bringing Argus to Azeroth's orbit. Really?  

The main question I am wondering is if they're going to keep it exactly intact or change it up in some ways. From what I've heard, pretty much all classes only had a single viable spec so I personally wouldn't mind seeing changes in this regard (nothing too drastic of course, even though I love the idea they had for Legion's Discipline priests. Such a fun way to heal).

I started in 2008 with Wotlk's release so I don't really know much about WoW when it was released either. However, the original zones and dungeons which were still intact before Cataclysm were mesmerizing and if nothing else, I'm dying to do the old Ashenvale and Scarlet Monastery again!

As for whether Classic will be the same game as the original WoW, I got the feeling that isn't completely the case. Didn't they say they wanted to give us the "experience" of the original game? No details have been given but I hope to see improved graphics and perhaps blood elves/draenei kept in the game. If Classic was completely the same thing as WoW when it was released, it would have been easy to just re-release it. I've got the feeling there are some improvements Blizz is working on but we'll see in due time.

[Flathead770]

It's funny, I ended up talking to my boss today for about 30 min past my shift and we started talking about WoW and the differences between then and now. It's a hard thing to say with confidence that a lot of the past mechanics were actually good or not. I always think back fondly of what the earlier game was like but if I really start to try to remember, I recall hating a lot of that stuff when I was actually doing it. One example is with the quests not having map markers. I liked it back in the day having to read the quest to figure out where to go but at the same time being extremely frustrated when I waste a whole day looking for it, only to find that I was in the right place but the drop rate was so low that none of the quest items would drop. Or how accomplishing it felt to put that much work to something but remember literally grinding hundreds of mithril deposits to get your armor-smithing specialization for blacksmithing.
 
A lot of the positive experience could have also stemmed from the fact that it was the first MMO that I played so the whole thing just blew my mind. I'm kinda interested to play it to see what my resultant feelings will be, whether it matches my nostalgia or gripes. At the same time I'm also not sure if I have the time to dedicate to it as well. We'll see I guess.

As for whether Classic will be the same game as the original WoW, I got the feeling that isn't completely the case. Didn't they say they wanted to give us the "experience" of the original game? No details have been given but I hope to see improved graphics and perhaps blood elves/draenei kept in the game. If Classic was completely the same thing as WoW when it was released, it would have been easy to just re-release it. I've got the feeling there are some improvements Blizz is working on but we'll see in due time.

It seems like it would be a hard balancing act. Some would probably welcome small improvements here and there (myself included) while others will almost certainly cry foul and blasphemy. I feel like the best of both worlds would have 2 types of servers to satisfy both but that could be more effort then Blizzard might care to do.

And if they want to go for the original "experience" they could always make the servers so full and unstable at launch that no one can play

[Sovereign]

I've also heard that not all features were good ones back then but I liked the times before quest marker. Questing feels too streamlined these days when you know exactly where to go. And if there are too many problems with the location, you can always use Wowpedia for that. As for professions, they never were my main thing. I was always a grinder and a retro raider.

It seems like it would be a hard balancing act. Some would probably welcome small improvements here and there (myself included) while others will almost certainly cry foul and blasphemy. I feel like the best of both worlds would have 2 types of servers to satisfy both but that could be more effort then Blizzard might care to do.

Yeah, there might be some complications with that kind of compromise but I see no other reason to assign a new team for the project for this long time. Also, it makes me wonder: is Blizzard going to update the Classic server later on when it's out? I know it's mainly a nostalgia server but it would make sense if Blizz wanted to keep it alive and running alongside with main WoW in some way. Well, we'll see in due time.

[Flathead770]

I've also heard that not all features were good ones back then but I liked the times before quest marker. Questing feels too streamlined these days when you know exactly where to go. And if there are too many problems with the location, you can always use Wowpedia for that

I admit that I was a little too stubborn sometimes when it came to quests. I would never look up where to go and wanted to figure it out on my own Overall I would say that I actually like the old quest system and not having everything hand fed to you. There was just a few noticeable times where it got really bad. I recall being lost near Dire Maul in the area just west of Thousand Needles and another in Winterspring. I don't remember what the quests were only that they didn't seem to make any sense.

[Sovereign]

Yeah, it added another layer of adventure to everything you were doing. Even if I rather overused the old Wowwiki with the quests, it was rather funny to search for things in the first time you were questing. For me the fondest memories memories come from Ghostlands, being a blood elf main, and it was really fun to search for stuff on your own. I'd say that today's questing is pretty much a simple grind as you are just told where to go and what to do instead of being sent to brave fields full of ravenous hyenas and raptors in search of some troll village. The old Thousand Needles is another nostalgic place for me and I can't wait to get there again.

Another thing I liked in the classic questing system were the extremely long quest chains that forced you to travel through many zones over many levels to complete it. For example, there was one quest chain in Tanaris that had to first be "completed" only to learn that it continues when you've gained 10 more levels. They were like today's legendary quests but held fewer dungeons. Not even mentioning the old paladin/warlock epic mount quests!

[Flathead770]

Another thing I liked in the classic questing system were the extremely long quest chains that forced you to travel through many zones over many levels to complete it. For example, there was one quest chain in Tanaris that had to first be "completed" only to learn that it continues when you've gained 10 more levels. They were like today's legendary quests but held fewer dungeons. Not even mentioning the old paladin/warlock epic mount quests!

I remember the first time having a quest that made me go to Kalimdor (since I started as Alliance). What an adventure that was. The class quests were always highlights. Learning Furry stance for a warrior involved traveling to a random island and fighting enemies in a small arena. All of the warlock pet quests were also quite in-depth as well. Unfortunately the priests never got too many exciting class quests that I can remember.

and the dungeon finder tool has made instances completely brainless.

I forgot to comment on this and I can't agree more. The new dungeon finder and the currency you gained from daily dungeons turned it into something I felt I had to get out of the way for the day. Instances originally felt like they had such a build up to them when you gathered a group and traveled to the summoning stone and even from there it was usually a cool walk into the instance itself. Black Rock Depths had such an amazing entrance, walking down the chain to the bottom of the lava pit in Black Rock Citadel.

[Sovereign]

I remember the first time having a quest that made me go to Kalimdor (since I started as Alliance). What an adventure that was. The class quests were always highlights. Learning Furry stance for a warrior involved traveling to a random island and fighting enemies in a small arena. All of the warlock pet quests were also quite in-depth as well. Unfortunately the priests never got too many exciting class quests that I can remember.

Indeed! I, too, loved the class quests as they always had some very specific places to go and the thought how you were slowly but surely learning to be a respected member of your class group always brightened my day. Blood elf paladins had a lot of those and they always came with a promotion in the Blood Knight order. One quest told me to do all the level 20 dungeons and brave the extremely dangerous Scourge stronghold of Deatholme and as a reward I got a weapon that served me fell for almost 20 levels! It felt pretty good!

I forgot to comment on this and I can't agree more. The new dungeon finder and the currency you gained from daily dungeons turned it into something I felt I had to get out of the way for the day. Instances originally felt like they had such a build up to them when you gathered a group and traveled to the summoning stone and even from there it was usually a cool walk into the instance itself. Black Rock Depths had such an amazing entrance, walking down the chain to the bottom of the lava pit in Black Rock Citadel.

In the early dungeons, I didn't care too much what I got from them as the overall layout and deep lore of the instances were enough for me. Blackrock Depths (and the whole mountain) was so perfectly designed that you could feel yourself going ever deeper into the mountain and closer to Ragnaros, a servant of the Old Gods. The whole dwarven city, the lava rivers and the way the instance was created still amaze me. Also, the fact that they put a raid inside a dungeon was a great idea. Other dungeons I remember extremely fondly are Shadowfang Keep, Maraudon and Sunken Temple (and pretty much all the others! ) The only problem was that, realistically speaking, I would have never been able to complete most of them in the original game due to the time they consume. I rarely play for over 2 hours and that wouldn't even be enough for half of Blackrock Depths.

[Flathead770]

One quest told me to do all the level 20 dungeons and brave the extremely dangerous Scourge stronghold of Deatholme and as a reward I got a weapon that served me fell for almost 20 levels! It felt pretty good!

I had the Staff of Westfall from completing Deadmines all the way up to Uldaman because I wasn't able to find anything better. That did not feel good. I've always had terrible luck with drops.

Blackrock Depths (and the whole mountain) was so perfectly designed that you could feel yourself going ever deeper into the mountain and closer to Ragnaros, a servant of the Old Gods. The whole dwarven city, the lava rivers and the way the instance was created still amaze me. Also, the fact that they put a raid inside a dungeon was a great idea. Other dungeons I remember extremely fondly are Shadowfang Keep, Maraudon and Sunken Temple (and pretty much all the others! ) The only problem was that, realistically speaking, I would have never been able to complete most of them in the original game due to the time they consume. I rarely play for over 2 hours and that wouldn't even be enough for half of Blackrock Depths.

I think the idea of putting a raid in a dungeon is a pretty cool idea as well, though I've never actually have experienced it myself. But it certainly gives the feeling that your going in deeper and deeper.

Out of all the groups I was in, I never was able to finish Black Rock Depths. Most of the time we would end up getting lost for hours and then someone would have to go. It wasn't until I powered through it at 80 with a dungeon map that I was finally able to finished it.


Ungh, you can be clean from playing WoW for years but all it takes is a conversation like this to get back into it. At this rate, it feels like I'm gonna jump back onto the bandwagon when Classic is out

[Sovereign]

Yeah, Blackrock Depths is truly a massive dungeon and it's really difficult to find the way through it if you don't know it.  I can only guess how long it took for the first groups to complete the dungeon but that's part of the fun if you have enough time!

Ungh, you can be clean from playing WoW for years but all it takes is a conversation like this to get back into it. At this rate, it feels like I'm gonna jump back onto the bandwagon when Classic is out

Indeed! I've returned to it with every expansion but sadly it hasn't sparked the same flame as when I first played the game (during Wotlk). Maybe Classic is the expansion that will truly draw many players back to the game for many more years! I'll try both Battle for Azeroth and Classic and I truly hope one of them will breathe new life to WoW!