World of Warcraft – Classic

And finally, the opening of Blizzard’s servers for the old world of Azeroth, as it was on vanilla (the first game version before any expansions) is almost there. Just next 27^th of August and the anxiety of elder players, like me, it’s up high. Until then, it’s possible to reserve 3 character names, by creating 3 characters, for those who have their account active.

It’s true, I admit I’m addicted to WoW, but it’s also true that lately, I don’t enter the game for months. For those as purists as me, it’s easy to understand why. We are almost reaching World of Warcraft 15^th anniversary and a lot of things have changed. Those who play WoW now and also played on vanilla would feel the same. I started to play around February 2007, shortly after the first expansion was launched – The Burning Crusade – and I remember well that only by the next summer I reached level 60. Then I bought TBC and, to reach the new level cap of 70 I took some weeks. Of course, I was playing with a normal regularity and without spending entire nights playing. Currently, it’s easier to level up. As new expansions were launched, the experience points (XP), needed to level up, were getting progressively lower for each level (only for levels previous to the new expansion, of course).

First release

The first release was launched on November 23^rd of 2004 in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Next it was released on Korea by January 18^th of 2005 and, finally, in Europe by February 11^th of 2005. The first versions and patches still had some bugs and there were some significant differences between the strength of each race and class. But, as time went by, Blizzard was able to tune these issues and the game was considered more stable since patch 1.12.0, released by August 22^th of 2006. It’s precisely this version – 1.12 Drums of War – that WoW Classic will be based upon it’s release.

World of Warcraft timeline

Since the original version – vanilla – until today, with information about the character’s level caps:

Azeroth in vanilla

For those who know the current expansions, the world of Azeroth has been growing over the 7 expansions. On vanilla time, Azeroth only had the continents of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.

The zones that were affected by some expansions, like the huge devastation occurred in Cataclysm, are all in their original state. There are also areas that are not yet reachable, like Mount Hyjal and Uldum in Kalimdor and Gilneas and Twilight Highlands in Easter Kingdoms. The cities affected by Cataclysm are also in their original state, with their zones undamaged, specially the city of Stormwind (Alliance).

Factions, races and classes

The game presents two major factions, the Alliance and the Horde. Long time ago, they united to fight a common foe, the Burning Legion. But today, the drums of war are sounding again and the two factions are in war.

NB: The available races and the combination of races and classes are much lesser than in the current expansion.

Alliance

Horde

Professions

Leveling up zones and factions

Kalimdor

Eastern Kingdoms

Remember that contested zones are those were normally exist villages from both factions. In PvP servers (Player vs. Player) it’s where most of the fights between players, from different factions, occur, since it’s extremely easy that those players cross each other paths. But in normal servers, role play and PvE, it’s only possible to attack an enemy player if they have their PvP flag enabled.

WoW Classic phases

Although in version 1.12, some advanced dungeons, raids, events and zones already exist, Blizzard wants to offer the same old vanilla experience in terms of phasing them. So, upon Classic release, in a first phase, only 3 instances will be available. Throughout time, more instances will become progressively available on a phasing base.

To learn:

Talents

On vanilla, the talent’s system is very different from the current system that exists in earlier expansions. In my opinion, it was the best talent system ever on WoW. It is build based on a tree of improvements that can be updated, as players level up, according to their strategy. Below, you can find more information in the recommended links.

WoW Classic will also bring some improvements in relation to vanilla, specially on graphics. For further information, find below a list of recommended links and some references.

Recommended links:

• https://classic.wowhead.com/guides/classic-wow-classes-and-talent-overview
• https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/wow-classic-races-vanilla-horde-alliance/
• https://classic.wowhead.com/guides/classic-world-of-warcraft
• https://legacy-wow.com/vanilla-addons/
• https://vanilla-wow.fandom.com/wiki/World_of_Warcraft:_Classic
• https://classicwow.live/
• https://classic.wowhead.com/
• https://www.wow-petopia.com/classic/ (for hunters)

References:

• https://vanilla-wow.fandom.com/wiki/Zones_by_level
• https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/world-of-warcraft-classic-will-be-split-into-six-phases/
• The game itself…

Copyright information: The images on this post belong to the game World of Warcraft and they are property of Blizzard.