As what looks to be the final World of Warcraft Classic pre-launch test wraps up today, Blizzard is priming fans for the second coming of vanilla. The studio pushed out a primer to make sure that everyone who is interested in Classic can hit the ground running when it launches on August 26th and 27th.
The primer covers system requirements, installation instructions, the four realm types, everything you need to know about classes and races, and what those “talent tree” things actually do. Blizzard recently opened the Classic forums for business and added an RP-PvP server ruleset to the realm types. Name reservations start on August 12th.
“World of Warcraft Classic is a faithful recreation of the original WoW experience, as it was in 2006,” Blizzard promised. “Everything about the game—from combat mechanics and talent trees, to character models and zone layouts—has been restored to realize a truly authentic experience.”
YouTuber MadSeasonShow put out an even more helpful video guide with many suggestions and tips about planning your Classic run:
And you can get excited about the coming Naxxramas raid with this fan-made trailer:
I’m going full on human warrior! Playing Alliance for the first time.
Call me a masochist, but I actually loved the extra difficulty that warlocks had, having to manage soul shards and a variety of expiring buffs. (BUT I also hope that the old Necrosis mod comes back, since that made it a lot more enjoyable to do this.) Also, hunters were THE fastest leveling class pre-Burning Crusade — by a fairly wide margin. That made up for a lot of the micromanagement that they had to deal with, thanks to ammo and pet feeding. Both of the classes were fun specifically because of the challenge, and I’ll be rolling both.
I won’t be caught dead as a shaman, though. Those totems drove me nuts, even with the help of addons. A well played shaman was a force to be reckoned with, but also few and far between.
It’s a small thing, but I’m looking forward to underwater breathing actually meaning something again. Undead had such a huge advantage thanks to their racial, as did warlocks thanks to their spell. I remember many times as a warlock on a PvP server that I escaped a ganker just by virtue of heading for the nearest water and either waiting them out or heading off unseen to another location.
In retail, everyone’s water breathing is equivalent to what undead used to have, making water pretty much meaningless.
The comeback of class buffs will be welcome, as well. It was always so nice to be going about my business and suddenly be the recipient of an hour long buff granted by some friendly player. I always liked to toss buffs off at friendlies when I’d come across them as well. It was a community thing.
*tosses full talented Mark of the Wild*
Man, that reminds me of how I always had that staff from gnomeregan (edit: Hydrocane), it gave you water breathing and some leveled stats. Absolutely great for grabbing underwater materials as a priest.
And for those of us who don’t plan on playing, prepare for your guilds to die.
Blood Sail Buccaneers!!!!!
The $64,000 question: will MJ be ready? 😜
As someone who played exclusively on the Alliance side during the vanilla period I’m going to be a turncoat this time around and go with the horde .
Probably a Troll priest .
For the Horde!
Lets go hunt some Gnome :P
Especially pink haired ones :P
I’m kind of surprised how close it is. Only anecdotal but nobody i played WoW with during vanilla has mentioned it once since like Blizzcon. I don’t doubt some will be trying it and its gonna get a big day one audience but boy this feels like its crept up when you don’t follow WoW in general much anymore.
Mom! bathroom! bathroom!
Who’s a big boy
Mom get me the bucket!
So…. what’s the cost for those that don’t have a WoW live subscription?
Just the subscription. There is no other way to access it.
It’s one and the same.
This was all the news I had needed to hear. Count me in baby, count me in!