
Two months. It’s now been two months since WoW Classic did a huge re-launch of its progression servers under the widely mocked “Classic Classic” label (or, if you want to get technical, the 20th Anniversary Servers). And it’s been a really great time! I log on daily for that long journey up to 60 because I genuinely want to, not because I feel pressured in any sense. I keep rediscovering and discovering all sorts of little things about the core game that I adore.
I also think it was a big mistake to hit the reset counter on these servers so hard. In my opinion, which you can feel free to disregard as quickly as you read it, Blizzard should have gone back not to the beginning but rather to the first expansion.
Adjust expectations accordingly
Rewinding the clock a bit to November 2024, Blizzard’s announcement of these new progression servers was both a surprise and an expected answer to a growing demand for fresh worlds. A lot of players interested in Classic felt as if they missed the boat with the initial surge back in 2019 and hadn’t seen the same sort of rollout until now. For others, including me, it was a good time to hop back on board the MMO after an absence and go through the whole journey again.
The problem is that Blizzard simultaneously announced the creation of these servers (with some welcome changes) and revealed that these shards would be progressing at least into The Burning Crusade by the end of 2025. Other than the hardcore ruleset, these weren’t meant to be vanilla-only, so players could adjust their expectations accordingly.
Now we don’t know whether it’s going to stay Burning Crusade only after that (doubtful), or move into Wrath and simply stay put after that (possible), or repeat what we’re seeing in the 2019 Classic where it keeps marching through all of the expansions (also possible). So expectations can’t be fully set, and different camps are bound to be disappointed when a decision is eventually made in regard to this.
A problem of classes
However, as much as I appreciate a fresh realm, the 20th anniversary servers should have begun with the first expansion — or at least the pre-patch. Yes, the old world is a goofy, janky, immersive delight with loads of content that’s certainly enough for a year or so worth of exploration. It’s not as if I’m in a supreme rush to leave it all behind and get to flying already.
The issue I have is wrapped up in classes. For all of its many virtues, the vanilla era of WoW has the worst iteration of its class roster. Classes are pigeonholed into very specific and constraining roles, many talent trees are broken or underperforming, certain skills don’t work as they should, and it has the fewest class/race combos of any version of the MMO.
On top of that, as players are told to set their eyes set on the first expansion — fostering the joke that these servers are “The TBC Waiting Room” — they’re reminded that they can’t actually roll up Draenei, Blood Elves, Paladins for Horde, or Shaman for Alliance. Any player (including me!) who have plans to do this must sit on their hands for the better part of a year until they get to play what they want for these realms.
Starting with the pre-patch or Burning Crusade itself would have given us vastly improved (though not perfect) classes with revamped talent trees, skills, racials, and more balance across the factions. I truly wouldn’t have minded getting to roll up my Draenei Shaman with the Burning Crusade improvements while being confined to old world content (plus the newer starting zones, I presume) for the year. I think a lot of people would’ve been pretty OK with that as well.
Could this still be fixed?
What’s done is done, I suppose, but that doesn’t mean that Blizzard is without options to remedy this misstep. There’s nothing stopping the studio from enacting the pre-patch early this year while continuing to roll out the level 60 endgame content. It could also accelerate the phases faster than originally stated — something that would probably irk a portion of the crowd while delighting others. If we ended up in TBC by summer instead of winter, that would be just ducky.
As it currently stands, we remain in the waiting room, making plans, and looking to a rather predictable future. I say it’s time for Blizzard to shake us out of that complacency.
