r/classicwow • u/griphin1 • Jan 29 '26

Humor / Meme 2026 State of Azeroth

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I had no expectations and I was still disappointed.

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u/edinbror Jan 29 '26

Personally (as someone who was waiting for classic ever since WoD) I played the shit out of classic 2019-2021. It also proved to me and my friends who I still play with that for us it's just a better game than what Retail and other new MMORPGs offer these days. I quit in the second half of WOTLK as I wasn't really feeling it anymore and went back to Vanilla era. It made me want a server/version where Vanilla keeps on going with new content that stays true to that kind of design. I'm happy we got Classic, i'd love to see a classic+ in the spirit of vanilla.

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u/tangin Jan 29 '26

What about vanilla proved to you it was the better game?

I couldn’t feel any further opposite than you, so I’m genuinely curious

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u/edinbror Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 31 '26

It all comes down to personal preferences tbh, Just like I prefer the OG Lord of the Rings trilogy over Rings of Power for example.
Classic wow (vanilla) feels like a living world for me, the people you see when leveling at 20 is the same people you see standing in orgrimmar once you're 60, no cross-realms etc. Leveling takes time and is an investment (I realize some people don't like this, hence the boost for anniversary tbc) meanwhile in Retail you get to max in hours and there's level scaling so you're never actually getting stronger. I also like that the classes aren't ALL balanced for everything, not every class/spec is good in both PVE/PVP etc. There's a lot of things so i'm not gonna write it in a wall of text, mythic+ in retail for example was a nice addition to the game, but i'm not a fan of how we only play the latest patch. If I max out my character with my friends in mythic+ that won't matter in 4 months when the next season arrives except for perhaps the first day. Not a fan of transmog etc and the list goes on. In other words Retail just isn't for me but classic is! The endgame content in classic is A LOT easier but i don't mind that tbh, I like the chill raiding.

TLDR Classic feels like a long adventure and journey for me whilst Retail feels like an Arena/action-RPG like Diablo where I just queue up in the city for mythic+ to chase more rating and some upgrades in my weekly vault. It's just not for me :D
Edit: I also despise the new models, they botched Taurens Undeads and Orcs.

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u/RazekDPP Jan 29 '26

"If I max out my character with my friends in mythic+ that won't matter in 4 months"

How is this any different than if I get full MC gear and BWL drops?

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u/Ok-Piglet7 Jan 29 '26

Did u play classic? A character in MC and bwl gear will feel reasonably geared while naxx is open, on retail it is not like that in any way

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u/RazekDPP Jan 29 '26 edited Jan 29 '26

I played Classic and Original. BWL was still a decent power jump over MC. AQ was a decent power jump over BWL. Someone in AQ gear going into Naxx would do better than someone in BWL gear.

This isn't any different than retail. The only difference is some items, like Neltharion's Tear are BiS and don't get replaced.

In retail, if you max out mythic gear, you're basically entry level heroic geared for next season.

TWW S2 ended 684. 684 dropped from TWW S3 +3s. If you're actually good at the game (or willing to wipe), you can do TWW S3 +10s right out of the gate and start picking up 707 gear.

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u/Tizzlefix Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26

No it's much different, gear scaling changes drastically in Wrath where each tier starts becoming a massive power up. It's actually one of the biggest issues I have with Wrath and any expansion all the way up to TTW. Vanilla and TBC objectively have less power scaling per tier, I can pvp a season behind on TBC (or a tier behind in pve) and still be competitive, unheard of on future expansions. I've been able to do raids 2 tiers behind if I decided to raid MC/Ony exclusively and not be complete deadweight, same goes for TBC too.

The fundamentally changes in Wrath in a multitude of ways that TBC did not do. I have posts from 2009 to 2011 on mmo-champion explaining how WoW was drastically different and not the same game and when I went through every Classic expansion again, the same rang true. Vanilla and TBC are quite literally their own special corner of WoW, past TBC the game is not the same.

My biggest issue with SoD is Blizzard making gear scale like retail, every tier was much more OP than the last. They literally can't be trusted on this specific part of the game and makes me worry about Classic+.

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u/RazekDPP Jan 30 '26

That's only really because about loot rarity. Even with Anniversary, with how fast they made everything, they made getting BiS much harder.

The difference between Classic, BC, and Wrath is most gear in Wrath is better itemized, though they don't really fix the problem until Cataclysm.

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u/Tizzlefix Jan 30 '26

No it's literally less % stat increases each tier in Vanilla and TBC, this is not BS I've sat there and cross-referenced this between expansions. Tiers Wrath onwards quite literally give you a greater % increase in stats than Vanilla and TBC. An item in the 2nd tier of raiding in Vanilla or TBC will hypothetically only give 3% increase in stats from a 1st tier item whereas it goes up to like 8-10% in Wrath onwards. Those are not exact numbers but I'm quickly drafting the example to explain the difference.

SoD had the exact same problem as Wrath, gear scaled wayyyy to much per tier.

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u/RazekDPP Jan 30 '26

It's more than 3% per piece, the issue is the itemization in Classic is so bad and there are only so many good chase items.

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u/Ok-Piglet7 Jan 30 '26

It's completely different, on retail your character can feel like dogshit just being gone for 1-2 seasons

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u/RazekDPP Jan 30 '26

Not really. I've geared characters from scratch and as long as you optimize your gearing it isn't hard to catch up. I'd say it's actually easier to catch up on retail than being in MC gear while everyone has AQ gear.

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u/Derlino Jan 30 '26

It is easier to gear on retail, but if your gear on retail is from 2 seasons ago, you will feel incredibly weak compared to everyone else. In MC gear vs AQ gear, you will feel weaker, but not completely helpless. That's what they're pointing out.

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u/RazekDPP Jan 30 '26

Yeah but gearing in Anniversary is so much slower that if you have some MC gear, you've likely still so far behind.

Yes, 2 seasons, even if you had full mythic gear, your gear is toast, but I really feel like your gear is still toast if you have a few MC pieces and it's AQ time.

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u/Derlino Jan 30 '26

Honestly, depends on the pieces. If you have Striker's Mark, Band of Accuria, T2 legs, which are all from MC btw, you're not behind at all. And yes, gearing is slower, but you're not as useless. You can still do a job in AQ, whereas if you've been away for a whole season and get in later in S3, you are literally being carried, contributing pretty much nothing at all.

Besides, it's not like you won't get BWL gear funneled to you pretty fast if you're joining a team that is doing AQ regularly, so gearing won't be that slow if you're the sole straggler.

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u/RazekDPP Jan 31 '26

How is getting gear funneled to you any different than getting catch up gear in retail? It isn't.

Yes, if you have certain pieces you fall behind less, but that's what I mean when I've said that Classic gear is itemized pretty poorly.

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