Classic Era or WOTLK?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Hello everyone, I will start by saying that this will also be posted on the Wrath forum to also get feedback from the people there that wish to share, i hope you guys here can share your thoughts.

I wasn’t playing WoW as many were back in 2004, I didn’t get to experience that Vanilla vibe that World of Warcraft provided back in the day and that many love to this day.
When it came out Vanilla was competing with games like Everquest 1 and 2 (maybe it’s greatest rival), Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, i guess that they did something right in order to leave Everquest down on the dust.

My biggest dilemma in these past couple of days has been “Vanilla or Wrath?”, now i know that many can possibly suggest for me to play both i bet many people do and that’s ok, me personally i just can’t, i just want to dedicate myself to one mmorpg, i have been playing EVE online but i want to try a different landscape and setting, i was also thinking of giving GW2 a go because it seems to be very much alive.

I have read some topics and articles here and there, i understand if one day Blizzard will release Cataclysm, i was never part of the old world or classic Azeroth but i don’t see Cataclysm as part of classic but i understand that in these days a lot moves on based on money.
I’m saying this because i have to be honest here, my heart is flowing more towards playing Vanilla or Era (i guess it’s the same thing) in the sense it’s here, it’s available for me to get a taste of how things were in 2004, I’m not saying it’s the same game, i understand some changes happened but it’s still a snapshot; on the other hand Wrath will probably vanish when Blizzard releases Cataclysm, the content will still be there of course but it will be irrelevant, maybe they will leave a few server for Wrath maybe not, either way i don’t what Blizzard plans to do.

The thing about Wrath is that i know it was the time when the game had the biggest amount of subscriptions, i guess around 12 million? It’s impressive for sure, but it doesn’t mean quality, popularity generates more popularity, i wonder how many of those 12M people were playing the game because everyone else was and it was just popular? The opinions about Wrath also see a divisions, people love, best expansion ever etc on the other hand others say it was the starting point for WoW’s downhill trend, the entire world feels empty except for Northrend, i read a lot about raid logging…I’m at a crossroads but again leaning more towards vanilla.

If i chose vanilla in terms o f content that there is to do, like quests, the dungeons and raids, i imagine that there are dailies as well how many hours can one see poured into classic era?

I would love to hear your opinions about this, what do you think of both versions, why you play on or the other or even if you were playing vanilla and went to wrath or vice-versa.
I have also been curious about this, recently Classic Era has witnessed another peak in interest in it that they are even releasing Hardcore only server - I have no interest in hardcore - but if Wrath was super popular, the time when the game had the biggest amount of player count why it seems that people prefer to play Vanilla to Wrath?

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Play both!
They are both great in their own ways yet very different.

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As i mention at the beginning, i can’t dedicate my time to both.

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Era is Evergreen. Wrath is not so good, neither as fun as could have been because easy-mode - build on last patch. I would 100% gi Era if I have time for one lonly = What I do :slight_smile:
All PvE servers in Era is clustered, take the one where your name is free.
If your poison is PvP - not ask me :smiley:

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In short start with Wrath, when you hit progressing celling go for Vanilla. In Wrath once you are able to weekly clear or run out of raid time for current top end raid, there is nothing to do except achievements and alts, thus people are raid logging.
Instead of Wrath alt you can go for Classic Era (or Classic HC when it launches).

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I don’t have time to play both games as much as i would like to do it, i can’t.
As for hardcore i have no interest in that.

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Wrath is rotten. Vanilla starts to rot.

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Play Era. Its more investing because it will probably stay forever and nothing changes. Its a very relaxing feeling! I still play Warcraft II aswell and that i started on demo 1994/95 , still going strong. Why change good things right!

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Ok…so might as well not play WoW i guess.

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Ive been here since vanilla and seen the game progress.

My suggestion is go for ERA because it’s the best mmorpg experience out there, especially now. There’s people at all levels and all dungeons are being played.

Wrath is nice but the levelling experience is lacklustre, thee aren’t nearly as many players. Edit: there are plenty of players but the dungeon and questing experience at lower level is sooooo much better in era

Era has the feel of old times and it’s full. I suggest you pick up one of the more populated servers like firemaw (which is PVP and it can get rough but that’s part of the game)

The world is alive and it’s a fun, relaxing experience all in all.

Wrath has its charms but if you ever grow bored of ERA you can always start again on wrath and experience it (if they keep it that is)

Glhf

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why would you play retoilet lite when its ending after the next patch, all your progress and gear is reset with the first greens from cataclysm quests and the rat race cycle repeats from there.

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I don’t know i just feel like skipping Wrath can be something i will regret later at some point, especially if Blizzard, because we don’t know their plans, doesn’t leave a few wrath servers behind for those who wish to play that.

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Play Wrath because it has limited time remaining if you wish to take part in ICC.
Vanilla will still be here after ICC and Blizzard is working on a new season of Classic due to be announced at the end of the year.

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This not at all bad advice.

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Pick Era if you want to get stuck at endgame, otherwise pick Wrath.

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If you are afraid of skipping bots swarms in open world and pvp, garekeeping, 95% raid as gdkp, no one leveling, token, empty world, monofaction worlds then yes play wrath

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Classic, wotkl is lame

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Uh oh, maybe because you won’t get official progression ICC patch in the nearest future, while Era stays static. Also some items are going to be removed with Cata and you could add em to collection, including items for transmog.

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All true, but on EU realms. Flamegor PvP has

  • 2 factions
  • less bots in open world and none on our team in PvP
  • MSOS Ulduar 10 and 25 normals still existing (literally got my rogue alt from 4K to 4,3K yesterday. Need some conquest badges an 245 PvP neck to storm heroic Beta and Ulduar 25 and ToC 10 HMs)
  • have some battle net friend who just finished leveling. Yes, most people leveling with JJ buff only, especially alts. But I was surprised that people do gather common heroics an heroics alpha, since usually these are skipped with PvP abuse, AH BoEs and T7 10ppl raids.
  • Token does exist however it is available only for EU residents, like myself or anyone with shop currency other than Russian ruble. So essentualy most of Flamegor can only buy subs with gold and not vise versa. However, even as someone with Euros set in shop currency, you do not need to buy token if you play in a guild as consumables, enchantments and gems prices are reasonable and can be covered with some dailies here and there. PUG scene on the other hand is dominated with GDKPs, but only in ToGC 10/25 and Ulduar 25 full HM, mostly because organisers and raid members there are better motivated and prepared than any MSOS PUG members can be.

The only problem is that you need to know somewhat Russian to play here. BTW I’ve met one foreigner while being on a bench with my 5,2 mage and found some 25HM guild’s second raid team that needed a temporary replacement in Ulduar. It was funny how raid lead gave him calls mostly in Russian with few English sentences in between.

You can say most of the things above for Classic as well.

  • Bots and GDKPs exist in Era.
  • there is a significant drop off in available raid slots, especially for a hunter, in Naxx.
  • Leveling in Classic usually somewhat alive untill lvl 30ish. Then there is a drop off with someone disenchanting in Era as it is not fresh hype wave as in 2019. HC RP realm is basically the same: buzzing with players on low levels untill you survive lvl 30 mark, when majority starts dying and starting over.
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Wrath is pure asZ game is halfway through retail.