Frisson rendered concrete.
The impending release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic has sent a prevailing wind of ennui through my being. A little over a year ago I deleted my Battle.net account. Activision Blizzard's handling of the Blitzchung situation, the news breaking of their abuses towards employees, the disaster that was Warcraft III Reforged, the patronising announcement of Diablo Immortal, Heroes of the Storm entering maintenance mode, the unmitigated mess that was Battle for Azeroth, the notion of an Overwatch 2, the ballooning of the WoW cash shop, the insistence on annual subscriptions, the time gating of content, the borrowed power systems, the lore trash fire of Shadowlands, and the ostentatious claim of Eternity's End being the 'Final Chapter' of a supposed Warcraft 3 saga, in an attempt to combat Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker's Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga all broke the proverbial camel's back. This was not a spontaneous act. This was a deliberate decision on my part to fundamentally erase the record of my participation in a game I spent over half my life with. I've permanently denied myself the possibility of returning to something I loved with my entire being. Wrath of the Lich King Classic theoretically extends a hand from the beyond to welcome me home, but despite what Blizzard might propose, I can never go back. No one can ever go back.
It is this memory of Arthas that I choose to keep in my heart.
Others learned of the unlivability of a reborn nostalgia with World of Warcraft Classic and Burning Crusade Classic, but that original game and its expansion were before my time. They were antiquated in comparison to Wrath of the Lich King. Wrath of the Lich King was a direct continuation of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, rather than just a tale within that realm. This wasn't some hodgepodge of rote item collection to counter minor threats, or the battling of foes so literally alien as to be largely irrelevant to me and my character. This was a considered effort to contend with the horrors of the past, an opportunity to feel like an active participant in an era-defining event.
Wait... I remember you... in the mountains.
The issue of reviving these past experiences is that their original forms were borne into a more naive time. Old School Runescape demonstrated before World of Warcraft Classic the ills of older MMO design in a hyper-online world. Whereas our playing of Runescape in 2007 was informed by rumours and assumptions of what was and could be possible, 2007scape exists in a world where every iota of information is readily documented. 2013 and 2022 are not the time of Zezima, of Unregistered HyperCam 2, of proto-Machinimas, of frag videos, of fishing for lobbies in Catherby for hours, of playing the game for the fun of itself rather than to 'succeed'. What Old School Runescape taught us a decade ago was that, as Sid Meier put it, "Many players cannot help approaching a game as an optimization puzzle. Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game." I am not so oblivious as to claim people had not already done this in Runescape, but without the omnipresence of YouTube open-mouth thumbnails and Reddit megathreads, your average player probably wasn't min-maxing then as they would now. Old School Runescape is perhaps the most perfect representation of efficiency being the game itself, like Factorio if it were a fantasy MMORPG. It has become an antisocial MMO experience, because socialising is itself inefficient. And yet, World of Warcraft Classic came out only to suffer the exact same problems.
A hero, that's what you once were.
The core issue with recuscitating the original World of Warcraft experience is, I think, one of iteration rather than of inversion. Players clamored for a return to 2007 Runescape because the game had fundamentally changed in no small part because of Summoning and the Evolution of Combat update. It was no longer the point and click, set and forget MMO of yesteryear, but an involved, cooldown based, hotbar experience. World of Warcraft on the other hand has always been basically the same game, improving (mostly) with each patch and expansion, iterating on that foundation. To be sure, the WoW of 2019 was radically different from its 15 years gone forebear, but it wasn't a completely different package sold as something else. Reduced to its base elements, both versions of the game are the same. A different flavour of chocolate, but chocolate all the same. What made the 'Classic' experience so great when remembered was that WoW was novel for so many. The notion of a massive world you could explore with others, all interconnected with no loading screens (outside of instances/teleporting), with forty player raids, with an air of discoverability was specific to the time period. Thottbot existed, but not everyone needed (or felt they needed) to use it, and its data was primarily anecdotal rather than informed by hard statistics. With fifteen years of info at our fingertips, the Classic experience quite literally can't be reproduced, just as the Runescape of 2007 remains firmly in historic memory.
This is the hour of their ascension. This is the hour of your dark rebirth...
With the fun optimised out of World of Warcraft, and without substantive novel content outside of forty player raiding and untouched questing, the playerbase rather quickly turned apathetic towards Classic. It did not, and could not, live up to that memory, and it left Blizzard in a tricky position. Without updates, Classic had little to keep players invested. With Old School Runescape style updates, it would not be the World of Warcraft of yore. The solution, it seems, was to have a divergent path. World of Warcraft Classic would persist, with players having the option to continue to Burning Crusade Classic. This is well and good on the surface, but it was soured by the Digital Deluxe edition's inclusion of a character boost, in-game cosmetic items, and a new mount. Even ignoring the addition of items which didn't exist in the original release, the character boost alone betrayed the supposed ethos of the Classic experience. As a means of preventing players from missing out on that initial rush of the expansion's release, a boost isn't intrinsically a bad thing, but it being locked behind a paywall made the playing field uneven. This was no longer about reliving bygone days, this was about a fear of missing out, this was a chance to rush to the destination, rather than revel in the journey itself.
I will treasure it always - a moment of time that will be lost forever.
The same thing is going to occur with Wrath of the Lich King Classic. I was only 11 when I started playing WoW. Ulduar had just been added to the game. I couldn't have cared less about optimisation. I made numerous characters and ambled around aimlessly. I played comically poorly. I drew my characters on looseleaf. I was so excited and enthralled by this world which stretched before me. Eventually settling on a Tauren Hunter, every moment of the game was precious. As a child, it was a formative experience. I can still remember struggling with the quest Mazzranache, entering the Barrens for the first time, seeing gold sellers float auspiciously in Orgrimmar, killing dinosaurs in Un'Goro Crater, wondering where all the quests were in Silithus. Outlands never grabbed me quite the same way perhaps because of its contrast with Azeroth itself, with its inhabitants whose problems were literally a world away. When I reached the prerequisite level, I created a Death Knight. The random name generator bestowed upon me a moniker I still use to this day, Chuulimta. The starting zone genuinely shook me, at once appealing to my prepubescent desire to commit virtual atrocities while making it crystal clear that these horrors exacerbated the problems of the realm. I was hindering the world I wished to save. And when I eventually stepped on the zeppelin bound for the Howling Fjord, and gazed upon those verdant cliffs, I was agog at the quiet beauty of it all.
For you, I would give my life a thousand times.
I was actively helping an effort to rid the world of an unspeakable terror. And yet, I was also able to find moments of levity and calm. It's almost laughable in retrospect, to think I was having an appreciable effect on anything in this virtual landscape at the peak of WoW's popularity, but it felt and feels real after all this time. Even imagining the nyckelharpa of the Grizzly Hills theme, or those claustrophobic peaks in The Storm Peaks, or the amber grasses of Borean Tundra, or the bustle of Dalaran, those recollections rend my heart in twain. This frigid land clinging to life in the face of decay was home. At a time of change for me and my family, Northrend was my constant.
Do with it as you please, but do not forget those that assisted you in this monumental feat.
At a time of friendlessness, Wrath of the Lich King afforded me social opportunities, however fragmentary, that kept me moving forward. Names flitter away from my grasp, their recall an impossibility by now. The familiar faces when I would fish, those smile-inducing comrades who would greet me when I logged in, those scant few who would run content with me for no gain outside of the pleasure of the act itself. They will never return to me, nor I to them. And that atmosphere will not for anyone. The compartmentalising of social gaming into Discord servers and group chats forbids that earnest connection with the unfamiliar other outright. Just as in Old School Runescape, the game might be massively multiplayer, but it has become more solitary than ever.
Leave me. I have much to ponder.
I didn't kill the Lich King until much later, around Mists of Pandaria. I had seen so much of Icecrown Citadel, completing every fight up to the Lich King, but its mechanics were beyond me until I vastly outleveled, and outgeared it. Even with a statistical advantage, I wasn't able to do it alone. I brought along a friend who had just been getting into WoW. For him it was the first time starting ICC, for me it was the first time bringing the tale of Arthas to a close. When Arthas was felled and that iconic cutscene played, I was moved to tears. I had closed the loop on such an important part of my life. From then on, I would and could only have the memory, for there was naught left for me to find.
Alas... you give me a greater gift than you know.
Each expansion of World of Warcraft sees the outgoing content largely deprecated and abandoned. This only compounds, making it all the less likely you will encounter someone in an old expansion as time shambles on. Like revisiting your childhood home, this makes going back to see what once was gut wrenching. It was such a simple time, one of joy. It was an experience that can never be relived, by me or by anyone.
At last, I am able to lay my eyes upon you again.
Shortly before I logged out of World of Warcraft for what would, unbeknownst to me, be the last time, I flew across Northrend, descending into Wintergrasp to take in one of my favourite pieces of music. Crested on a snowy mound, an unfamiliar face landed beside me silently, and offered to me one word.
"Hey."
That was, and always will be, enough.
The impending release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic has sent a prevailing wind of ennui through my being. A little over a year ago I deleted my Battle.net account. Activision Blizzard's handling of the Blitzchung situation, the news breaking of their abuses towards employees, the disaster that was Warcraft III Reforged, the patronising announcement of Diablo Immortal, Heroes of the Storm entering maintenance mode, the unmitigated mess that was Battle for Azeroth, the notion of an Overwatch 2, the ballooning of the WoW cash shop, the insistence on annual subscriptions, the time gating of content, the borrowed power systems, the lore trash fire of Shadowlands, and the ostentatious claim of Eternity's End being the 'Final Chapter' of a supposed Warcraft 3 saga, in an attempt to combat Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker's Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga all broke the proverbial camel's back. This was not a spontaneous act. This was a deliberate decision on my part to fundamentally erase the record of my participation in a game I spent over half my life with. I've permanently denied myself the possibility of returning to something I loved with my entire being. Wrath of the Lich King Classic theoretically extends a hand from the beyond to welcome me home, but despite what Blizzard might propose, I can never go back. No one can ever go back.
It is this memory of Arthas that I choose to keep in my heart.
Others learned of the unlivability of a reborn nostalgia with World of Warcraft Classic and Burning Crusade Classic, but that original game and its expansion were before my time. They were antiquated in comparison to Wrath of the Lich King. Wrath of the Lich King was a direct continuation of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, rather than just a tale within that realm. This wasn't some hodgepodge of rote item collection to counter minor threats, or the battling of foes so literally alien as to be largely irrelevant to me and my character. This was a considered effort to contend with the horrors of the past, an opportunity to feel like an active participant in an era-defining event.
Wait... I remember you... in the mountains.
The issue of reviving these past experiences is that their original forms were borne into a more naive time. Old School Runescape demonstrated before World of Warcraft Classic the ills of older MMO design in a hyper-online world. Whereas our playing of Runescape in 2007 was informed by rumours and assumptions of what was and could be possible, 2007scape exists in a world where every iota of information is readily documented. 2013 and 2022 are not the time of Zezima, of Unregistered HyperCam 2, of proto-Machinimas, of frag videos, of fishing for lobbies in Catherby for hours, of playing the game for the fun of itself rather than to 'succeed'. What Old School Runescape taught us a decade ago was that, as Sid Meier put it, "Many players cannot help approaching a game as an optimization puzzle. Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game." I am not so oblivious as to claim people had not already done this in Runescape, but without the omnipresence of YouTube open-mouth thumbnails and Reddit megathreads, your average player probably wasn't min-maxing then as they would now. Old School Runescape is perhaps the most perfect representation of efficiency being the game itself, like Factorio if it were a fantasy MMORPG. It has become an antisocial MMO experience, because socialising is itself inefficient. And yet, World of Warcraft Classic came out only to suffer the exact same problems.
A hero, that's what you once were.
The core issue with recuscitating the original World of Warcraft experience is, I think, one of iteration rather than of inversion. Players clamored for a return to 2007 Runescape because the game had fundamentally changed in no small part because of Summoning and the Evolution of Combat update. It was no longer the point and click, set and forget MMO of yesteryear, but an involved, cooldown based, hotbar experience. World of Warcraft on the other hand has always been basically the same game, improving (mostly) with each patch and expansion, iterating on that foundation. To be sure, the WoW of 2019 was radically different from its 15 years gone forebear, but it wasn't a completely different package sold as something else. Reduced to its base elements, both versions of the game are the same. A different flavour of chocolate, but chocolate all the same. What made the 'Classic' experience so great when remembered was that WoW was novel for so many. The notion of a massive world you could explore with others, all interconnected with no loading screens (outside of instances/teleporting), with forty player raids, with an air of discoverability was specific to the time period. Thottbot existed, but not everyone needed (or felt they needed) to use it, and its data was primarily anecdotal rather than informed by hard statistics. With fifteen years of info at our fingertips, the Classic experience quite literally can't be reproduced, just as the Runescape of 2007 remains firmly in historic memory.
This is the hour of their ascension. This is the hour of your dark rebirth...
With the fun optimised out of World of Warcraft, and without substantive novel content outside of forty player raiding and untouched questing, the playerbase rather quickly turned apathetic towards Classic. It did not, and could not, live up to that memory, and it left Blizzard in a tricky position. Without updates, Classic had little to keep players invested. With Old School Runescape style updates, it would not be the World of Warcraft of yore. The solution, it seems, was to have a divergent path. World of Warcraft Classic would persist, with players having the option to continue to Burning Crusade Classic. This is well and good on the surface, but it was soured by the Digital Deluxe edition's inclusion of a character boost, in-game cosmetic items, and a new mount. Even ignoring the addition of items which didn't exist in the original release, the character boost alone betrayed the supposed ethos of the Classic experience. As a means of preventing players from missing out on that initial rush of the expansion's release, a boost isn't intrinsically a bad thing, but it being locked behind a paywall made the playing field uneven. This was no longer about reliving bygone days, this was about a fear of missing out, this was a chance to rush to the destination, rather than revel in the journey itself.
I will treasure it always - a moment of time that will be lost forever.
The same thing is going to occur with Wrath of the Lich King Classic. I was only 11 when I started playing WoW. Ulduar had just been added to the game. I couldn't have cared less about optimisation. I made numerous characters and ambled around aimlessly. I played comically poorly. I drew my characters on looseleaf. I was so excited and enthralled by this world which stretched before me. Eventually settling on a Tauren Hunter, every moment of the game was precious. As a child, it was a formative experience. I can still remember struggling with the quest Mazzranache, entering the Barrens for the first time, seeing gold sellers float auspiciously in Orgrimmar, killing dinosaurs in Un'Goro Crater, wondering where all the quests were in Silithus. Outlands never grabbed me quite the same way perhaps because of its contrast with Azeroth itself, with its inhabitants whose problems were literally a world away. When I reached the prerequisite level, I created a Death Knight. The random name generator bestowed upon me a moniker I still use to this day, Chuulimta. The starting zone genuinely shook me, at once appealing to my prepubescent desire to commit virtual atrocities while making it crystal clear that these horrors exacerbated the problems of the realm. I was hindering the world I wished to save. And when I eventually stepped on the zeppelin bound for the Howling Fjord, and gazed upon those verdant cliffs, I was agog at the quiet beauty of it all.
For you, I would give my life a thousand times.
I was actively helping an effort to rid the world of an unspeakable terror. And yet, I was also able to find moments of levity and calm. It's almost laughable in retrospect, to think I was having an appreciable effect on anything in this virtual landscape at the peak of WoW's popularity, but it felt and feels real after all this time. Even imagining the nyckelharpa of the Grizzly Hills theme, or those claustrophobic peaks in The Storm Peaks, or the amber grasses of Borean Tundra, or the bustle of Dalaran, those recollections rend my heart in twain. This frigid land clinging to life in the face of decay was home. At a time of change for me and my family, Northrend was my constant.
Do with it as you please, but do not forget those that assisted you in this monumental feat.
At a time of friendlessness, Wrath of the Lich King afforded me social opportunities, however fragmentary, that kept me moving forward. Names flitter away from my grasp, their recall an impossibility by now. The familiar faces when I would fish, those smile-inducing comrades who would greet me when I logged in, those scant few who would run content with me for no gain outside of the pleasure of the act itself. They will never return to me, nor I to them. And that atmosphere will not for anyone. The compartmentalising of social gaming into Discord servers and group chats forbids that earnest connection with the unfamiliar other outright. Just as in Old School Runescape, the game might be massively multiplayer, but it has become more solitary than ever.
Leave me. I have much to ponder.
I didn't kill the Lich King until much later, around Mists of Pandaria. I had seen so much of Icecrown Citadel, completing every fight up to the Lich King, but its mechanics were beyond me until I vastly outleveled, and outgeared it. Even with a statistical advantage, I wasn't able to do it alone. I brought along a friend who had just been getting into WoW. For him it was the first time starting ICC, for me it was the first time bringing the tale of Arthas to a close. When Arthas was felled and that iconic cutscene played, I was moved to tears. I had closed the loop on such an important part of my life. From then on, I would and could only have the memory, for there was naught left for me to find.
Alas... you give me a greater gift than you know.
Each expansion of World of Warcraft sees the outgoing content largely deprecated and abandoned. This only compounds, making it all the less likely you will encounter someone in an old expansion as time shambles on. Like revisiting your childhood home, this makes going back to see what once was gut wrenching. It was such a simple time, one of joy. It was an experience that can never be relived, by me or by anyone.
At last, I am able to lay my eyes upon you again.
Shortly before I logged out of World of Warcraft for what would, unbeknownst to me, be the last time, I flew across Northrend, descending into Wintergrasp to take in one of my favourite pieces of music. Crested on a snowy mound, an unfamiliar face landed beside me silently, and offered to me one word.
"Hey."
That was, and always will be, enough.
o melhor mmo que joguei, nenhum se compara a ele em questão de universo, o melhor!
tentei por anos jogar vários mmos rpgs e nenhum de fato conseguiu me pegar, foi então que um dia no segundo ano do Médio um amigo cujo o Char se chamava Kenjutso, na época me convidou para dar uma olhada, e eu digo, foi paixão a primeira vista.
o fato de eu ter entrado no mundo e ter visto um local cheio de vida e rico por mais simples que área era(antiga darnasus), eu vi que alí tinha muito carinho envolvido na parte do desenvolvimento.
tive uma imensa aventura nesse jogo, upei, raidei e tirei pvp e não me arrependo de nada.
e nunca, em nenhum jogo multiplayer eu terei uma sensação tão épica como eu tive quando eu derrotei o lich king pela primeira vez.
tentei por anos jogar vários mmos rpgs e nenhum de fato conseguiu me pegar, foi então que um dia no segundo ano do Médio um amigo cujo o Char se chamava Kenjutso, na época me convidou para dar uma olhada, e eu digo, foi paixão a primeira vista.
o fato de eu ter entrado no mundo e ter visto um local cheio de vida e rico por mais simples que área era(antiga darnasus), eu vi que alí tinha muito carinho envolvido na parte do desenvolvimento.
tive uma imensa aventura nesse jogo, upei, raidei e tirei pvp e não me arrependo de nada.
e nunca, em nenhum jogo multiplayer eu terei uma sensação tão épica como eu tive quando eu derrotei o lich king pela primeira vez.
muchas veces recuerdo una interacción que tuve con un tío en una cordillera de rasganorte que me terminó diciendo "amigo, es imposible aburrirse jugando al wow!". me pregunto qué será de él. seguirá jugando?
Wow (WOTLK) é o melhor MMO que joguei e o mais completo, mesmo em private server, 4 anos viciado nessa praga...
Sempre fui do PvE, joguei com todas as classes e focava sempre o DPS bruto (Warrior e Mage main), mas todas as classes/roles são divertidas, exceto a classe Priest.
O PvP é difícil pra caramba.
Você faz bastante amizade e depende de trabalho em equipe.
Fiquei jogando até enjoar e, assim como comecei a jogar por causa de um amigo, recomendei para vários outros. Cuidado para não se viciar.
Sempre fui do PvE, joguei com todas as classes e focava sempre o DPS bruto (Warrior e Mage main), mas todas as classes/roles são divertidas, exceto a classe Priest.
O PvP é difícil pra caramba.
Você faz bastante amizade e depende de trabalho em equipe.
Fiquei jogando até enjoar e, assim como comecei a jogar por causa de um amigo, recomendei para vários outros. Cuidado para não se viciar.
Northrend slaps, full stop. It may not have the environmental diversity or incredible skyboxes of Outland, but the consistency of tone across the entire continent is pretty impressive when you consider how much content is available in that space. The overarching story ain't half bad either for an MMO expansion, feeling properly climactic for the end of a narrative started all the way back in Warcraft 3. The quality of the content and storytelling in Northrend is a bit more mixed, but there's still plenty of experiences I had in this expansion that hold a good amount of nostalgia for me. This was WoW's golden era, and it's hard not to see why.
There must always be a putrumptler
Mixed feelings for me. On one hand, represents the peak of WoW's popularity, a significant step up in visuals, a story and setting surrounding Warcraft's most popular antagonist(s).
But on the other, i can't help but feel this is where the rot set in. Here the game got noticeably more linear, and the introduction of the dungeon finder basically removed the main incentive to join guilds and form communities, and also took away the need to travel physically around the world to visit dungeons, making the world feel much more empty. There's a reason they didn't bring it back for WotlK classic.
But on the other, i can't help but feel this is where the rot set in. Here the game got noticeably more linear, and the introduction of the dungeon finder basically removed the main incentive to join guilds and form communities, and also took away the need to travel physically around the world to visit dungeons, making the world feel much more empty. There's a reason they didn't bring it back for WotlK classic.
-"Father! Is... it over?"
-"At long last... No wrath baby rules forever, my son."
-"At long last... No wrath baby rules forever, my son."
THE GREATEST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED.
The early days of WoW were one of its brightest. From the leveling journey, discovering Northrend for the very first time, the zone, the story, and the music, it was Warcraft.
The Wrath of the Lich King experience was phenomenal, every content was just fun, raiding, dungeons, PvP, and many more.
All dungeons were fun encounters, fun mechanics with each having amazing designs. Even the last three dungeon releases; Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, & Halls of Reflection, were all amazing and beautiful story-wise.
Raids were also a lot of fun, Naxxramas had a set of great Tier Set designs, Ulduar is arguably one of the best raids in the game. Trial of the Crusader was a good feature with Argent Crusade content. And Icecrown Citadel was the cherry on top.
PvP was also a lot of fun, great reward system, 5v5 Arena still existed, Isle of Conquest & Wintergrasp was one of the best big PvP areas the game produced.
Overall WotLK was just a great experience for everybody. It was easy to play and it was a lot of fun while playing it. And fans will always shout how they positively feel about this expansion. THE BEST.
The early days of WoW were one of its brightest. From the leveling journey, discovering Northrend for the very first time, the zone, the story, and the music, it was Warcraft.
The Wrath of the Lich King experience was phenomenal, every content was just fun, raiding, dungeons, PvP, and many more.
All dungeons were fun encounters, fun mechanics with each having amazing designs. Even the last three dungeon releases; Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, & Halls of Reflection, were all amazing and beautiful story-wise.
Raids were also a lot of fun, Naxxramas had a set of great Tier Set designs, Ulduar is arguably one of the best raids in the game. Trial of the Crusader was a good feature with Argent Crusade content. And Icecrown Citadel was the cherry on top.
PvP was also a lot of fun, great reward system, 5v5 Arena still existed, Isle of Conquest & Wintergrasp was one of the best big PvP areas the game produced.
Overall WotLK was just a great experience for everybody. It was easy to play and it was a lot of fun while playing it. And fans will always shout how they positively feel about this expansion. THE BEST.
Honestly, I don't know what all the fuzz is about.
I get that a lot of people started out with Wotlk, and the nostalgia factor is therefore very strong with this one. But I think you have to be coping at least somewhat to think that these patches were the best ones to ever go live.
This expansion is like the awkward-teen-phase of wow for me. They tried alot of new stuff with wotlk, throwing new things at the wall, to see what sticks. It's undeniable that this expansion, more than any other shaped what WoW would become. This factor alone gives the original devs some leeway in terms of criticism in my opinion. You can clearly see the team wrestle with some of the more problematic aspects of the genre and the formula. Trying to find new ways to improve both, I really believe they gave a fuck at the time.
This all being said, I think the expansion is middling at best. While I can appreciate the story and lore from start to finish, the raid tiers are really what kills it for me. Wotlk is stuck between Classic and Modern WoW. While the Class-Design has leaped forward, providing interesting and diverse types of gameplay for different classes, the Boss-Design is still stuck in the past. The Raids provide generally little challenge. The most dense and difficult encounters are The Lich King and Yogg-Saron (Hard mode), both the Endbosses of their respective Raids. Every other encounter felt barebones to me. However considering the time in which they released Wotlk this might be an issue specific to playing the expansion in the modern era. I did most of my WoW playing between Cataclysm and Legion, which means that I was always used to more complex and difficult encounters. I lack the experience to grasp the difficulty these encounters presented at the time of release.
Which gives me a perfect segway into the Classic Wotlk Servers by Blizzard Entertainment/Activision supervised by Microsoft. They're gargabe, absolute trash. Having game-breaking bugs and glitches which were present in the original is one thing, but introducing new ones is flat out embarassing. The WoW Token and Chinese Bots have completley ruined the economy, GDKP is a travesty and every Server is filled with elitist, who have been playing the game since 2008 and are still somehow wiping on Professor Putricide.
If you wanna dive into WoWs teenage years, I can't recommend the "official" servers. Warmane is all I'll say.
I get that a lot of people started out with Wotlk, and the nostalgia factor is therefore very strong with this one. But I think you have to be coping at least somewhat to think that these patches were the best ones to ever go live.
This expansion is like the awkward-teen-phase of wow for me. They tried alot of new stuff with wotlk, throwing new things at the wall, to see what sticks. It's undeniable that this expansion, more than any other shaped what WoW would become. This factor alone gives the original devs some leeway in terms of criticism in my opinion. You can clearly see the team wrestle with some of the more problematic aspects of the genre and the formula. Trying to find new ways to improve both, I really believe they gave a fuck at the time.
This all being said, I think the expansion is middling at best. While I can appreciate the story and lore from start to finish, the raid tiers are really what kills it for me. Wotlk is stuck between Classic and Modern WoW. While the Class-Design has leaped forward, providing interesting and diverse types of gameplay for different classes, the Boss-Design is still stuck in the past. The Raids provide generally little challenge. The most dense and difficult encounters are The Lich King and Yogg-Saron (Hard mode), both the Endbosses of their respective Raids. Every other encounter felt barebones to me. However considering the time in which they released Wotlk this might be an issue specific to playing the expansion in the modern era. I did most of my WoW playing between Cataclysm and Legion, which means that I was always used to more complex and difficult encounters. I lack the experience to grasp the difficulty these encounters presented at the time of release.
Which gives me a perfect segway into the Classic Wotlk Servers by Blizzard Entertainment/Activision supervised by Microsoft. They're gargabe, absolute trash. Having game-breaking bugs and glitches which were present in the original is one thing, but introducing new ones is flat out embarassing. The WoW Token and Chinese Bots have completley ruined the economy, GDKP is a travesty and every Server is filled with elitist, who have been playing the game since 2008 and are still somehow wiping on Professor Putricide.
If you wanna dive into WoWs teenage years, I can't recommend the "official" servers. Warmane is all I'll say.
Best epansion for WoW! Achieved good amount of server first kills and obtained unique titles including Malygos, Obsidian Sanctum and Naxxramas. Good Old Days
Peak.
Truly, this was the peak of World of Warcraft. Northrend is the finest collection of zones ever added to the game. The quests populating them are significantly more interesting than those of Outland or the base game. Classes and specs finally, for the first time, feel truly balanced and well designed. The RPG mechanics are at their most robust with complex talent trees, gem slots, and glyphs. The dungeons are easy but numerous.
The raids consist of soaring glorious highs, and lame lows. The first tier with the reuse of Naxx is pathetically easy, and a huge bummer. The second tier is Ulduar, the best raid in history. The third tier is ToC, a one-room parade of only 5 average bosses. The final tier is Icecrown Citadel, the glorious culmination of a decade of hype. It's no longer necessary to raid previous tiers of content due to the presence of catch-up gear, and there's now a choice between raiding with 10 people or 25. Hard modes ensure that casual and hardcore players alike can find what they're looking for, and Blizzard's encounter design has hit its full stride. Wrath really feels like the great compromise between what WoW was and what WoW became.
The raids consist of soaring glorious highs, and lame lows. The first tier with the reuse of Naxx is pathetically easy, and a huge bummer. The second tier is Ulduar, the best raid in history. The third tier is ToC, a one-room parade of only 5 average bosses. The final tier is Icecrown Citadel, the glorious culmination of a decade of hype. It's no longer necessary to raid previous tiers of content due to the presence of catch-up gear, and there's now a choice between raiding with 10 people or 25. Hard modes ensure that casual and hardcore players alike can find what they're looking for, and Blizzard's encounter design has hit its full stride. Wrath really feels like the great compromise between what WoW was and what WoW became.
no lo juegue todo lo que me habría gustado, pero es que simplemente me canse, aun así es la expansión que mas mejoró el juego
Never was super into WoW, but I think this was the best expansion.
i can still feel the bumpy box from this image
they expanded upon previous ideas, added a bunch of stuff, added a whole new area, flying mounts and multi-person mounts, etc.
best of all, they added glyphs, socketing, and a better enchantment system. really allowed for some amazing customizations
fantastic expansion, probably the peak of WoW for me
they expanded upon previous ideas, added a bunch of stuff, added a whole new area, flying mounts and multi-person mounts, etc.
best of all, they added glyphs, socketing, and a better enchantment system. really allowed for some amazing customizations
fantastic expansion, probably the peak of WoW for me
My Ogre just died of booze
There are no words to describe how impactful this game is for so many people, including myself. There is not and will never be a better MMORPG and I'm not even exaggerating, this is how good and how high Blizzard got, this is what ever single MMO tried to be before and after WotLK came out, the cream of the crop, but you know, "the higher they get the harder they fall", and they fell hard. HARD. And they never stopped falling, because they were that high. They turned from one of the best gaming companies in the world to... part of Microsoft Teams. Sad stuff.
The thing is, you can't critique this game in a vacuum in 2022. To truly experience this game you would have to teleport back to 2008 and play it live, it was a cultural phenomenon at the time. You will have fun and enjoy it if you find some private server with 100+ people playing but it wouldn't be even close to the real experience. If you were there you would understand how amazing this game was, if you weren't you just won't. And yes I'm gatekeeping, and no I don't care. That's the thing with most MMOs, you need play it live or make a very deep analysis of it to truly understand it.
The thing is, you can't critique this game in a vacuum in 2022. To truly experience this game you would have to teleport back to 2008 and play it live, it was a cultural phenomenon at the time. You will have fun and enjoy it if you find some private server with 100+ people playing but it wouldn't be even close to the real experience. If you were there you would understand how amazing this game was, if you weren't you just won't. And yes I'm gatekeeping, and no I don't care. That's the thing with most MMOs, you need play it live or make a very deep analysis of it to truly understand it.
The best days of WoW.
They'll never come again.
Blizzard, why you fail us now?
They'll never come again.
Blizzard, why you fail us now?
unholy experience
This was where World of Warcraft hit its peak. In terms of playability and feeling like an RPG, this was the best WOW ever got. It's also the best story told in World of Warcraft, though that could just be because I am a simp for Arthas. Cataclysm would come out in 2010 and do arguably permanent damage to the game, so it's a good thing that WOW Classic is currently keeping this version of the game alive in some capacity.
I suppose this expansion was the one which at-least for the widespread WOW community was the crest of the classic MMORPG's heyday, the one which engaged its most popular audience and gaming commercial appeal.
That being said, I feel this popularity was at the great sacrifice of losing some of the more intimate, strategic and rewarding elements of the original games inner workings and painstaking allure.
At the behest of subscribers all around the world to keep up with this franchise, I think Blizzard got slightly ostentatious with its updated interface, adaptations to talents and spell/attack animations which made this feel that one foot was in a arcade setting, something which enabled much easier combat and distinctive faster levelling..
Yes of course I've enjoyed playing as the hero class 'Death Knight', dabbled with the inscription profession, made glyphs and trekked countless hours in the frozen wastes of Northrend. Its still good don't get me wrong! Even the compelling storyline of the Lich King explored fantastical theatrical elements compared to its previous instalments.
However I felt like this was the beginning of something on the horizon coming for this niche gem, that wasn't finished with glossing it to the point of stripping down its foundations to something devilishly mainstream in the future, and unfortunately I was correct..
That being said, I feel this popularity was at the great sacrifice of losing some of the more intimate, strategic and rewarding elements of the original games inner workings and painstaking allure.
At the behest of subscribers all around the world to keep up with this franchise, I think Blizzard got slightly ostentatious with its updated interface, adaptations to talents and spell/attack animations which made this feel that one foot was in a arcade setting, something which enabled much easier combat and distinctive faster levelling..
Yes of course I've enjoyed playing as the hero class 'Death Knight', dabbled with the inscription profession, made glyphs and trekked countless hours in the frozen wastes of Northrend. Its still good don't get me wrong! Even the compelling storyline of the Lich King explored fantastical theatrical elements compared to its previous instalments.
However I felt like this was the beginning of something on the horizon coming for this niche gem, that wasn't finished with glossing it to the point of stripping down its foundations to something devilishly mainstream in the future, and unfortunately I was correct..
The people that didn't play WotLK maybe doubt when we say it's the best expansion WoW had, but we were there, and it's hands down the best expansion.
Obviously nostalgia biassed me.
Obviously nostalgia biassed me.
One of the best expansions to World of Warcraft.
Correctly kept balance between old and new MMORPG, great story and main villian, dungeons and raids were amazing.
Correctly kept balance between old and new MMORPG, great story and main villian, dungeons and raids were amazing.
I want to kiss the lich king on his cold lips
Peak WoW. Arthas did nothing wrong
The pinnacle of video games for me. Countless hours were in the various frozen tundras of Northrend or relaxing in Grizzy Hills enjoying my favorite music off of my favorite videogame OST.
The finale of what many consider the "main" story of Warcraft, the leveling experience was (at the time) top notch with experimental quest design branching out past "kill x y times" to tell a story that takes you from zone to zone before taking you to the base of Icecrown Citadel.
Each content patch added more excellent content in the form of unforgettable raids that would go down as some of WoW's greatest even to this day, until we finally got to ascend Icecrown and finally bring down Arthas.
The game isn't without it's flaws, I just don't care about them.
6/5
The finale of what many consider the "main" story of Warcraft, the leveling experience was (at the time) top notch with experimental quest design branching out past "kill x y times" to tell a story that takes you from zone to zone before taking you to the base of Icecrown Citadel.
Each content patch added more excellent content in the form of unforgettable raids that would go down as some of WoW's greatest even to this day, until we finally got to ascend Icecrown and finally bring down Arthas.
The game isn't without it's flaws, I just don't care about them.
6/5
peak WoW
Amazing expansion
Negative: Dungeon Finder
Negative: Dungeon Finder
guapisimo