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Immer
Gentleman
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join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

[Vanilla] What Was Vanilla WoW Like?

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

What Was Vanilla WoW Like?
I was actually chatting just last night with someone who had started playing shortly after Cataclysm launched.

I have lots of great memories of adventures that have spanned from when World of Warcraft first launched through to the present day. The game has evolved quite a bit over the years, and I’m especially thankful for the many quality of life upgrades that were made along the way.

Way back when, you could only get a mount starting at level 40, so it took quite a bit of time to travel around Azeroth on foot. Flight points were by far the fastest modes of transportation, but you could only use them if you first hoofed your way over and discovered each Flight Master individually. When you used flight points you also could only travel directly from one to the next. They didn’t automatically connect to your final destination like they do now. So you’d have to make your way to the first point, talk to the flight master, fly to the next point, talk to the flight master, and so on. Accessing dungeons or raids also required additional travel time, as you had to make your way to them manually, and there were no mass summons or personal flying mounts back in that era that could speed up the process, either. So assembling five people for a dungeon run involved quite a bit of waiting around while people slowly made their way to the particular dungeon. It often took even longer for raids to get up and running because you’d be waiting for 40 people instead of just 25 or 10.

Battlegrounds and Arenas (both of which I relish) also did not launch with the original game. The first two Battlegrounds areas, Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch, went live on June 7th, 2005, and you had to physically travel out in the world to the particular Battleground portal for each location in order to queue for them. As there was no time or resource limit on those games, they could run very long, and indeed some Alterac Valley matches on the servers I played on at the time could span multiple hours or even, in some cases, multiple days. For Battlegrounds, specifically, there were no cross-realm Battlegroups originally, so you could only face-off against opponents from your individual realm that were on the opposite faction. Way back then, you also couldn’t step up and challenge another guild on your own faction to an all-out War Game in Warsong Gulch, either, because War Games didn’t even exist until shortly after Cataclysm launched.

Travel around Azeroth and assembling groups for anything from PvP to dungeon runs and raiding is much more efficient now than it was in classic times. I think it’s especially fantastic being able to freely roam around the world and do other activities while you wait. Then, once the group is assembled, you can teleport directly into battle with your comrades as well as your friends from other realms (thanks to the advent of Real ID’s cross-realm support). And that’s, well… awesome. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Global Writing Contest
Instead of the Global Writing Contest this year, would you all be interested in a poetry contest?

If so, what kind of parameters would you like to see set on the contest entries? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

I remember actually being relieved when I found a boat headed to a new continent.

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil

Premium Member

I think they could still improve travel. lol.
inside zone travel. use a flight path or your mount. Flying more then 2 zones away, should be about to hop into a gnome teleporter. Some nights, I spend more time flying then anything else.

But ya, I remember some of the Vanilla stuff.
For example:

Warlocks had to do quests to defeat and control their demon minions.
Rogues had to do quests to learn/gain lock picking and poison.
Hunters had to learn ow to tame a pet, before they got one.

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

I wish you could pay more for a "direct flight". I would also like the flight masters to form a guild, and offer frequent flyer perks for players based on faction reputation. Whenever you reach new milestones you'd get novelty items (unique buffing food on par with holiday goodies) in your mail... at exalted rep, taking a long, direct-flight will grant you a Slight movement buff (2% or so).

Zyncotl
Zed X
Premium Member
join:2002-09-13
Wayne, MI

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Epic mounts were 1000g. That's not a lot now, but back that it was a ton of gold. Getting an epic land mount was a worthy achievement.

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to Immer

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There is that too. Why must the flight go to every damn flight master, instead of point A to B. Maybe fire the animals and use gnome rockets with parachutes? launch you high up in the sky.. rocket "explodes" over landing zone, and you float on down. lol.

Nick D
Premium Member
join:2010-02-04
Orange, CA

Nick D

Premium Member

Programming. Means a lot less flight paths to program and set.

Skittles
Premium Member
join:2011-03-31

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So much I remember about the game "back in the day". I remember having to have improved sap (you stayed in stealth after you sapped) being required if you expected an invite to UBRS, which was the Endgame back before MC.

Other things that pop up:

Dying to the zone in in maraduon if you hit the ground before the water graphic loaded.

Bloodfang set on intial release was a reddish orange recolor of shadowcraft.

Running 2 MCs at the same time in our guild and having people online waiting to fill a spot....can you imagine 90+ raiders in a guild on at the same time raiding or waiting too.

Zone wide world PVP battles in eastern Plaugelands.

Building up Zandalari zep in the original ZG for gear enchants.....fucking bijous.

First time Ony was downed on our server.

Finally getting DalRends sacred charge after running UBRS atleast 80 times......only to have Ony drop VisKag the next week and replace it.

Having a full Tier set in Vanilla was hardcore raiding.

Grinding out AV rep for the epic dagger....The Lobotimizer.

Seeing a tauren warrior with an Arcanite reaper and knowing death was on it's way....then killing said Tauren and thinking this guy must not have read the Arcanite Reaper owner's manual.....still one of my favorite PvP moments.

Warlocks were jokes, druid tanks did not exist , ret pallys were lame....shamans ruled everyone....I swear Blizzard developers played shamans.

....good times
bpoff17
join:2009-03-31

bpoff17 to Immer

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Nelf Hunters....EVERYWHERE!

saillaw
Premium Member
join:2007-05-08
Dismay

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I was an mmo virgin when I purchased WoW shortly after launch of vanilla. I remember being pissed that I couldn't play it when I wasn't connected to the internet.

It took me several days of playing to get to level 10. Something i can do now in a little over an hour.

As a hunter I was really attached to my pet and didn't want to ever replace it (if I remember correctly, you could only have three. The active pet and the two with the stable master). Hunter pet stats varied from mob to mob. For example, my wolf I tamed in AV could outrun people on their mounts and hit hard. My cat the rarespawn Brokentooth, had a 1 sec swing timer, so casters had a hard time getting any spells off.

The first time I went into a BG, or even knew they existed, was when I stumbled across the entrance to AB and jumped into the middle of a battle. I had no idea wth was going on in their and got my ass kicked.

I could go on and on....

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

said by saillaw:

The first time I went into a BG, or even knew they existed, was when I stumbled across the entrance to AB and jumped into the middle of a battle. I had no idea wth was going on in their and got my ass kicked.

OMG I did that too! on my warrior (my first toon... before immer was born)

Treebark
Premium Member
join:2010-03-04
Havelock, NC

Treebark

Premium Member

I remember being on my alliance Pally in a BG wondering why in the hell my flee undead wouldn't work. Can't remember the exact name of the spell.

Taino
join:2010-10-15
Port Richey, FL

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Almost every class had a quest chain specific to it. I remember when I first made my warrior I had to go to some little island off the barrens to learn berserker stance. I also remember having to defeat your demon as a warlock to obtain it as a pet after first completing a chain of quests. Getting the succubus as horde at lvl 20 sucked. You had to make it through arathi highlands to get to the wetlands to kill the guy for his heart. I remember trucking all about the wetlands too. Guy was right near the bridge too. You almost had to have questhelper at times. Mobs, nodes, and areas of interest did not sparkle.

What I remember most about vanilla though was the constant hoofing it from place to place. No mount until lvl 40, and there were a lot of mobs roaming near the roads. Just sticking to the roads and you still had a very long hard walk from point a to point b. It took 10 - 15 minutes to walk from the Sepulcher in Silverpine to Tarren Mill and that was assuming you weren't going to get ganked by alliance from southshore on a pvp server. It was this experience that made me switch to strictly pve servers. While leveling you also had to find and talk to the flight master. None of these magically connected dots you get these days.

Treebark
Premium Member
join:2010-03-04
Havelock, NC

Treebark

Premium Member

World PVP in Tauren Mill was the shit. Sucked if no buddies were on but there was plent of /1 Any allies ganking?

mettachain
Goblineer
join:2011-09-27
Azeroth

mettachain

Member

said by Treebark:

World PVP in Tauren Mill was the shit. Sucked if no buddies were on but there was plent of /1 Any allies ganking?

Always funny to see clueless Alliance players type that as TAUREN Mill. It's TARREN Mill. There never was, nor ever will be Tauren at that town. It was Human then Undead....sheesh

Nick D
Premium Member
join:2010-02-04
Orange, CA

Nick D

Premium Member

racist

Treebark
Premium Member
join:2010-03-04
Havelock, NC

Treebark to mettachain

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Wow, I totally mistyped that, I was horde.

Venom14
join:2011-10-21
Augusta, GA

1 edit

Venom14 to Immer

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said by Immer:

said by saillaw:

The first time I went into a BG, or even knew they existed, was when I stumbled across the entrance to AB and jumped into the middle of a battle. I had no idea wth was going on in their and got my ass kicked.

OMG I did that too! on my warrior (my first toon... before immer was born)

I see now where the hatered came from.

I remember playing on a buddies account and making it to level 15. I knew I'd have to make a new account for myself before I leveld to far.

I remember running to the Scarlet Monestary back when there were elites outside of instances. Had my lvl 8 butt handed to me by the 32 elites. I rezzed and went to Eastern Plaguelands. Aggrod a bear from what seemed like 2 zones away. Lvl 54 bear ate my undead butt too.

Now I'd have solo'd them both in BoA's.

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

said by Venom14:

said by Immer:

said by saillaw:

The first time I went into a BG, or even knew they existed, was when I stumbled across the entrance to AB and jumped into the middle of a battle. I had no idea wth was going on in their and got my ass kicked.

OMG I did that too! on my warrior (my first toon... before immer was born)

I see now where the hatered came from.

It started in Ashenvale...

mettachain
Goblineer
join:2011-09-27
Azeroth

mettachain

Member

I was a level 24 Nelf Druid with a mixture of Defias Leather gear with Agility and some cloth healing gear. I was super confused about how to play with or what I wanted to do on a druid as it was my first toon. I happened upon this lodge in Ashenvale where there was this guy on a giant redish/pinkish tiger and had 2 guards on either side of him. Turns out that was the WSG queue guy. I thought that was the most amazing cat horse thingy I had ever seen. This was before I had made into Darnassus I believe. I really wanted that redish tiger mount. Then I started playing a Troll Rogue with a RL buddy of mine who quit the game 3 months later. My rogue was my first toon to lvl 60 and then 3.5 weeks later, Burning Crusade came out. Pissed.

Skittles
Premium Member
join:2011-03-31

Skittles to Immer

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said by Immer:

It started in Ashenvale...

It festered in STV.....hate that place to this day.

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

said by Skittles:

said by Immer:

It started in Ashenvale...

It festered in STV.....hate that place to this day.

it's like you were there!

mettachain
Goblineer
join:2011-09-27
Azeroth

mettachain to Skittles

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said by Skittles:

said by Immer:

It started in Ashenvale...

It festered in STV.....hate that place to this day.

I once got the Gurubashi Arena Master achievement on a lvl 24 Undead rogue. No one was there and I saw a chest lying the middle of the arena. Opened it, got a trinket or somthing and an achievement popped.... good times.

saillaw
Premium Member
join:2007-05-08
Dismay

saillaw to Immer

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Damnit, I used the wrong form of "there" and now its quoted a dozen times.

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

haha... well, my bold comment was more for an emotive exclamation, I wasn't trying to correct your grammar with that bold text. My sig probably didn't help much either. See what pvp does to a person?

mettachain
Goblineer
join:2011-09-27
Azeroth

mettachain

Member

said by Immer:

haha... well, my bold comment was more for an emotive exclamation, I wasn't trying to correct your grammar with that bold text. My sig probably didn't help much either. See what pvp does to a person?

You need to annotate Affect and Effect as well.

saillaw
Premium Member
join:2007-05-08
Dismay

saillaw to Immer

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Its alright, I'll get even one day

Back to topic: Another thing lost is important abilites that were learned by random drops. You'd have to hope some world mob dropped a book to learn a key class ability. I don't miss that.

mettachain
Goblineer
join:2011-09-27
Azeroth

mettachain

Member

Ah yes I remember that, Tome of Gift of the Wild....bitch never dropped

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer to saillaw

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to saillaw
said by saillaw:

You'd have to hope some world mob dropped a book to learn a key class ability. I don't miss that.

agreed.

The more I think about it, the more I miss the class quests. When class quests come back (fingers crossed) I hope the details of the quest vary based on spec. But each toon can only do the quest once... so, "you must choose... wisely".

mettachain
Goblineer
join:2011-09-27
Azeroth

mettachain

Member

said by Immer:

so, "you must choose... wisely".

reference to what? indiana jones? star wars? pokemon?
cymraeg
Thread Killer
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join:2011-06-07
Dodge, NE

cymraeg to mettachain

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no what i dont miss, improved sap, you were laughed at and not even considered if you didnt have that for ubrs, hoping that there were some other pallies that were at the same point of the mount questline were online and would group with you.

i do miss barrens chat while waiting for ppl to run wailing cav.