Vanilla - I miss the good times

[thefunk]

Just ran BRD for the first time with 75 pally & 50ish shamans (group of 5) and realised life was much more fun back in vanilla. Great designs and atmosphere that I find lacking in both expacs. I'm getting worried about the changes in cata but i guess this is inevitable.

Well i'm having a blast revisiting/trying new things in vanilla that the grindfest in northrend is on hold. My worry is once the 1st team hits 80 i'll get frustrated and bored with dungeon/daily grinds and start going to the gym. Or even socialise.

What I don't get is why Blizzard are making things easier to level in the expansions (faster respawn times, levelling in 1 area at a time, slightly more cohesive dungeons in terms of player levels) but then make it basically a grind fest. I think they've lost the magic of vanilla.

Anyone else still exploring the old world, or is it now all about fast levelling, end-game and gear?

[grumpyfish]

Hi your post had me thinking same line that the old content was special. I suppose the downside was that sometimes it was frustrating trying to find a group with staying power to actually get somewhere ! Too many times you would circle the prison complex to then find someone had to leave. Only ever seen the whole of BRD by multi boxing.

[rocnroll]

It seems faster because Blizz wants the user to get to the current end game. I'm an explorer and enjoy taking in the sights (which is why I finally moved from PVP to PVE). There are some great instances in vanilla WoW and I learned a lot leveling through instances. I would hate to get to 80 with a new class and not know how to play the class in an instance, especially with the current attitude about gear score. Oh wait, I multi-box! I'm still working out playing multiple classes, so I still raid solo with my Priest from time to time.

[Zal]

Since i've actually played since the game was released I don't miss vanilla at all. Sure some things were better..... nothing that comes to mind, but back then stuff was more of a grind fest then now. 40 man raids = ~10 people always afk, 5 man dungeons = took hours on end to complete, farming gold = daily quests didn't exist and you'd be lucky to find a good spot to farm since EVERYONE was out farming. Not to mention it took me about 3 months before i got my first lv 60 back then, a level every 3 or more days sucks hell.

[Khatovar]

I'm with Zal on this one. I did NOT enjoy logging on at 10am, immediatly getting pushed into a guild group for Blackrock and spending the next 8 hours running BRD and UBRS. I did not enjoy being a druid who was only useful if spec'd Innervate. I didn't enjoy spending as much time farming mats for raiding as I did raiding {Fire res pots and the never-ending Incendius farms for Fire Res of the Appropriate Class bracers, anyone?}

The only thing that was actually fun back in those days was PvP, where you could spend hours defending/assaulting at SS/TM. And it was fun because it was all regular people looking to have some fun. No one got anything out of it and it wasn't gear vs gear.

[thinus]

When one of my fire elementals chase a healer around in a BG I have deja vu of Baron Geddon when the tank dies.

[Fuzzyboy]

I'll have to chime in with Zal and Khato here. Class balance was pretty horrible back then and 40-man raids are very impersonal. I didn't mind the grind though - i don't really care if I spend my time grinding mobs/mats or grinding dailies.

I think having been a boxer back then could have had some fun advantages, but aside from that, I really like what they did with BC and WotLK (minus vehicles) and I'm looking forward to Cataclysm. I like the idea of re-creationg old content instead of just making new. It's a shame that BC is practically empty except for the odd person levelling up - I'd love to see vanilla-territory repopulated :-)

[mebben]

I agree with Fuzzyboy, Zal and Khatovar. WoW is a much better place for me nowadays. I enjoy the fact that you can be casual and still have fun. The change from 40 man to 25/10 man was the best thing they ever did

[alcattle]

I started very late in Vanilla. I do not think AVs that took days would be fun at all.

[Zamok]

Am with the not so keen on Vanilla.

I raided pre-bc the raids were tough and I enjoyed that part the rest of the game was a grindfest.

As a personal preference I think the gearing has become a bit easy but this suits me as a multiboxer with 4 teams. Very much a fan of dailies,I still have nightmares about the old grinds for mount money for alts.