Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Finding Flexibility in the Classic World of Warcraft Experience

• Gabriel • Season 4 • Episode 73

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Unlock the secrets to thriving in Classic World of Warcraft, even with a packed schedule! We're breaking down the barriers that keep you from enjoying the Classic Anniversary and Hardcore WoW servers to the fullest. Discover how optional tweaks like a modest 20% XP buff and accessible rare mounts could transform your gaming experience without diluting the essence of Classic WoW. Our conversation is packed with intriguing ideas that promise to cater to both the time-strapped gamer and the purist who relishes the original pace.

Embark on a journey through the multifaceted realms of Classic Era, Anniversary, and the innovative Season of Discovery. With player behavior and varied schedules in mind, we're exploring how to maintain the game's cherished core while introducing flexibility for modern needs. Join us as we discuss the potential for level 20 mounts and optional XP boosts, aiming to strike a balance that respects every player's unique circumstances. Whether you’re a traditionalist or someone seeking a more adaptable experience, there’s something here for everyone who loves Classic WoW.

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

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Speaker 1:

Music do. Hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go for a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft. If I grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this midweek episode we'll be going over. Classic classic anniversary is still ongoing. Same with hardcore wow. Um, it's still all ongoing and it's still living up to like what people thought the release would be, which is good. I I very much endorse that and I think that it's a very good thing, but there are starting to be problems that rear their ugly heads, as always. So we'll start off on the forums here with a post that says everyone deserves to play the anniversary servers, not just you. Now, firstly, I agree with the title. I very much agree with the title. I think that, um, everyone deserves to be able to play it. I don't think that there's a problem with that. Before you say anything, no, not everyone has the ability to play the new Classic Anniversary servers. The first time the Classic servers were reintroduced, back in 2019, a lot of people missed their chance to raid and enjoy all the content, which is good Not good, but you know which is good that they've re-released it. This is what I think that people should be playing it for to experience that. Why? Because some of us work jobs or have family to take care of and any other personal reason, and there is no reason that you should tell us that we don't get to play because of this. A lot of you will be offended to hear this, but you're not better at classic. Well, you just have more available time to level up and farm. Make a chance to allow those with a 40 hour work week and or kids, the ability to fully see the game this time around. I completely agree. I do agree with him so far. I could write a book about the bad gearing design in classic wow, but the main topic to cover is to give everyone a chance in these new anniversary servers is mounts and xp game.

Speaker 1:

Having a mount does not take away from the viewing of the world of warcraft, as some people put it, whatever that means. It's not like I can't view the world while on horseback. A mount is not a gameplay mechanic but a tool to avoid excessive travel times. Keep the epic mount at 60 and at a thousand gold, but the rare mount should be level 20, 10 gold or free, with a voucher given to you if you reach honored with your racial faction. Amount is not prestige, it's a tool. Stop acting like it's something special and just help people who have two hours a day to play not spend half of their waking walking from point a to point b. I agree to a certain extent.

Speaker 1:

Firstly, I think that the mount shouldn't be level 20. It should be level 40. It should stick with the classic idea. But I think that what should happen is towards the back end, maybe when BWL comes out, they do implement a small XP buff, not massive, maybe something along the lines of 30% or 50% for those that don't have the time to level and, uh, you know, want to experience the end game. Um, I personally don't think change the mounts.

Speaker 1:

But again, people will complain because leave classic untouched and, you know, stop messing with classic. Some people want to play it but just don't have the time and that's not their fault. They have to, you know, provide it like for their family. They have to work. They have to, you know, they have IRL stuff and it's one of them things. People who will not want this are people who can, like, put in the time to level in classic wow and stuff, which is fine.

Speaker 1:

I think you are more than welcome to disable and enable the joyous journeys buff, in my honest opinion, and I think that should come out towards blackwing lair. I don't think it should be crazy the amount that you get. Um other than that, I would actually suggest playing classic uh, season of discovery. In my honest opinion, I get that you might not want the abilities, but that means that you don't have to. You can do this without any sort of runes in your gear. You can play season of discovery the classic way and this will allow you to have the joyous journeys buff. This will allow you to have all of them bits and bobs and you get to experience the classic leveling. Because you can disable the joyous journeys, you don't have to use the runes at all and you can go about your business while leveling the classic version of it. So I think that that might be the best way to do it. Um, look, classic is one of them things that you need to sink time into. It's a 2004 game and sadly, the MMOs in 2004 were very grindy when it came to levelling, so unfortunately, I don't think this is going to change, but it is what it is.

Speaker 1:

As for XP, you have some dude in every major city give you the option, after reaching level 10, to get a 20 xp buff that you can turn off whenever you want. That's it. Just 20. Just enough where you don't have to do every single quest in uh in a zone to get enough xp to do the next zone completely optional too. You want to enjoy the original classic level in progress, more power to you. Some people out there wouldn't mind the extra little nudge. Yeah, I think that this is fine.

Speaker 1:

Like I just said, you can have something that can obviously be enabled or disabled. You have to actively go and enable it, though you cannot be the ones to um, or you cannot enable it for everyone, and then the people who don't want it have to disable it. I'd say that you have to enable it for uh, no one, and then those who want to opt in can um. But again, this just leads to problems like oh my god, you're like you have the 20 xp boost, you're cheating and it's like, not really, you have the option there, you just don't want to. If you want to, you play by the classic rule set. That's fair enough. You know, it's one of them things. Please consider tossing aside this notion of hashtag no changes. Let's be real. The true classic was once the true classic we once knew won't exist again. Let's just make it available for everyone. If any part of the community community can be brought back, it's the part that truly did try to work together to make the game fun for everyone and not just themselves, because if we don't, then we'll just make the same mistakes a third time.

Speaker 1:

These aren't catastrophic core gameplay changes being requested, just simple leveling attunements giving everyone a chance to play classic at a better pace. Now I don't think that anything bad has been said in this. I I genuinely don't. I think that he's given his reasoning as to why he doesn't have the time and a lot of people don't. A lot of people do not have the time to level in classic and they want to experience it. Um, so this is just a small nudge and it will help them in that like direction. Now I bet the comments below this are going to be horrific.

Speaker 1:

Okay, let's see tldr. Add mounts at 20 and give xp boosts. Uh, not needed. Lots of us work and have kids. It's okay to take a longer journey to 60 compared to others. We don't need handicaps because we're busy. I'm level 30 and my friend is all level already level 60 but I'm getting there slow and steady. Okay, yes, I get it. Some people like don't want the xp boost, but again, by the time that molten core is come out and has actually finished and you're onto blackwing lair, suddenly that's when you hit level 60, because level 30 is not the halfway point. Level 44 is the halfway point for classic wow, for leveling in classic wow.

Speaker 1:

Um. So, look, it's down to the person really whether or not it's too slow. Um, okay, so those who missed out on 2019 should have the opportunity to experience the game as 2019. That's what you're saying. In fairness. He did say that, like, people should be able to experience the 2019 release, which is like it was a good release. It genuinely was.

Speaker 1:

Um. Wall of entitlement from a lazy person. Most of us have jobs and slash, or kids, slash pets. It's called time management. It's not wall of entitlement from a lazy person. This person says that they're like managing, like their family and their work and stuff, but he just doesn't have a lot of time and people are in different circumstances. So it's not entitlement. It's just simply asking, like is this possible? Um, the bad news is that you'll be that you'll find leveling this way boring. When it takes 12 weeks at a casual pace, you will also find out. Or you also find it boring if it takes 10 weeks. No, probably not. Um, the good news is that, even if you don't touch, uh, don't reach 60 until zul grub phase, you can see all the raid content. That's what happens to me in 2020.

Speaker 1:

Yes, this actually makes sense, like there are catch-up roads in zul grub. But the thing is, with the community, people want you raid geared already when they go into zul grub. That's the problem because, like on season of discovery, you have all of these different abilities and these like new and improved, like mechanics and stuff. But I did a molten core run, got binding, did everything, killed rag, I tanked it and I was in like blues and stuff and you know I was tanking it relatively well. The next week I wanted to do another binding run, not binding run, but a full Molten Core run. I was making the group and people didn't want to join because of my gear. And it's like, bro, I've literally done this before. I've literally did it last week, got a binding, got a piece of gear and stuff. Like. It's absolutely crazy and that's the problem.

Speaker 1:

When it comes to classic, these catch-up raids aren't catch-up raids because people want you to be fully raid geared in order to go into them, and it's ridiculous. Um, I would think era realm solved this problem. The content is already done, so why rush? Um? Mainly because era is dying because of the anniversary realms, okay, and because the state in which this guy's, or the statement that this guy's making, is that he didn't get to play it back in 2019 when it was released, so he should be able to experience the release, which I think is a fair enough point. Um, this one is just ridiculous. Stop being being so damn entitled. Most of us work and have kids and don't want the game ruined Like it's. I don't know.

Speaker 1:

The replies to this are very. They're not hostile, they're not stupid, they're just very negative. Okay, they're very negative on basically what he's saying is just make it, you know, amount level 20 and 10 gold. That's fine, um, and give us a optional 20 xp boost. Now, to put that into perspective, 20 is nothing in classic. Wow, okay, it will get you up instead of six hours, from level 50 to 51. It will be five hours. You know it's going to be something like that, which is good In my opinion. That is good because it allows people to take less time leveling if they want to do the end game of classic, which is fine, but the leveling is still meaningful. And again, this is a pure optional thing that he's saying. You can enable and disable it. But I completely understand keeping classic as classic I really really do.

Speaker 1:

But you now have two classic wows. You have classic era and anniversary realms, as well as Season of Discovery, which is based in classic. Okay, retail has one wow, and classic Cataclysm is Cataclysm only. So you don't have a TBC, you don't have a Wrath of the Lich King, you don't have Mists of Pandaria. You don't have, you know, ward of Satranor. You don't have any of these. But you have three classic realms, okay, not to mention hardcore realms, not to mention, like you know, all of that stuff. So you need to be able to change one of them to enable people who don't have as much time, in my opinion, because you can't just say, oh, classic era shouldn't be changed as it was here first, oh, anniversary realm shouldn't be changed because they're fresh and you know they need to replicate the 2019 release and you know all of this stuff.

Speaker 1:

Season of discovery is the one to go to if you don't have the time, in my honest opinion, because you can still level at your pace. Okay, you can do it every other level, or something like enable joyous journeys and disable joyous journeys. You know, you can enable and disable as and when you want and you do not have to use the runes. So, in my opinion, for this fellow um, price is in a discovery I get. You might not be able to experience the raids as they were, but you will still get that classic experience and you have the option for joyous journeys, um, as well as the mount um, because it does cost 10 gold, but it's still at level 40, but you get to level 40 a lot quicker, okay, so that's my opinion for this guy, and I just think that you know it's not a bad post. It's quite well written, it states the points that it wants and it states why he can't like do the timing well, and it is what it is. Next, I want to move on to this one, though. Okay, now this one um will link into the next um.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of bad players in classic these days, locks, basically life tapping themselves to death. Passes with buffs not buffing, other in others, in dungeons, mages not even offering water to healers slash other casters in group content, pvp just as bad. I've been ganked by some atrocious people like I ask myself, what are they thinking? Conversely, conversely, people on my side doing the most brain dead stuff. Uh, it's like the player base took a huge step back in 2024. Okay, now this guy's just saying like yes, these players are bad.

Speaker 1:

Some people some players in classic, are bad, some people in retail are bad. It is what it is. Um, majors don't offer like food and water. Sometimes you have to ask them and when you do, they give you 10 water and when they can make stacks of 20. Um, I've never seen a paladin buff more than once in a dungeon. I swear to god. Um, and you know warlocks do life tap themselves and then just stand there waiting for a heal. You know they can eat, they can bandage, you know they can do whatever, but they don't. They wait for a heel.

Speaker 1:

That people are annoying in classic and people are annoying in retail as well. I'm not just saying this is a classic thing, but the comments down here oh, it's you again complaining uh, life taps on locks. Seriously, get help, get good or uninstall and stop being a liberty tip in wow classic. You're the type of player that belongs in garbage, retail or minecraft. Firstly, retail is more player base than classic. Secondly, retail is good. And thirdly, this person's complaining about someone playing wow classic like and saying to go and play a different version of WoW again. You've never seen anyone in retail. Go, oh, go play WoW Classic. No, because we understand that both WoWs are a good game. We do.

Speaker 1:

And the thing is, the comments or the statement that this guy made at the top is not wrong. There are bad people in WoW Classic like there are. It's a fact. I've seen so many bad people in WoW Classic Like there are. It's a fact. I've seen so many bad people in WoW Classic. But you know this guy's just saying oh, you're shitting on WoW Classic, you've got to get out of here.

Speaker 1:

And then this one they are retail players. Who are what the guy making this post? The people in Classic who are being shit. I thought that all retail players should go play retail. You know it's absolutely ridiculous. Um, that's just wow overall classic. Wow just highlights bad plays so more often than retail does, because it does not have all the training wheels installed to make terrible players appear competent. Be thankful they are using quite a few tbc ui changes, otherwise their play would be even worse.

Speaker 1:

Firstly, you don't see how bad retail players are because you don't do any of the retail content we have. I've done so many mythic keys, I've done so many arenas, I've done so many different end game content and even leveling content in whale, and I see how bad people are at the game. I was doing stratholme in an anniversary dungeon and I pulled a boss. Um, you know how you have to kill the bosses outside these ziggurats. And then you kill the ziggurats, um, like acolytes inside to unlock the gate to the end boss. Well, this tank was like why are you pulling that? We don't need to pull that. And it's like yes, we do, we need to kill the mobs inside here so that you know we can go to the last boss. And he was adamant that you didn't. And it's like yeah, you're, you're an awful player, but you're playing retail and I'm not going to tell you to go back to classic. Wow, like it's ridiculous. Um, look, there are bad players in both retail and classic. But people's defense when they have made a logical point that people are bad in classic. Okay, I have classic players mainly who have said that classic players are bad. Are you going to tell them to go back back and play retail? No, you're not, are you? So? Yeah, it's absolutely crazy that this is the like go-to response and I want to follow this up with the last forum page, which is um about classic.

Speaker 1:

By the way, this is about classic that I was g kicked. I was g kicked from omen on the fresh realms pvp for pointing out that five mans are not main spec off spec. Not that those designations mean anything there. The toxic nature of classic wow seems to demand paladins, druids, shamans and priests to heal and and an ex-guildy lost the healing robes in strat to a druid tank. I'm level 25, I have no teeth in the game. I just pointed out that the obvious that five mans are not main spec over off spec. I think they kind of are. Um, I was only g kicked, or I was not only g kicked, but when I raised an issue in their discord on why I was g kicked, I was kicked from that. This is exactly why people hate classic Andes. This is a classic guild.

Speaker 1:

Okay, look, I don't agree with what he said. I think main spec and off spec does apply in dungeons. I think it very much does so, but for them to get no response and get instantly G-kicked for saying that one thing is crazy and then, when they brought it up in their Discord, got kicked from from that. So you're telling me that classic players aren't toxic? Are you telling me that these people do not ruin classic? The people who just g kick and you know, tell people, like essentially to be on your way when given no explanation as to why the g kick happened and you, uh, you know this is why people clip, uh, classic, wow, and that's your part of a community which you've been in for a while. You're going to get singled out and be picked on almost because it's like oh my God, this is the masses and you spoke up against the masses. Albeit, I don't think that his statement was correct. I think main spec and off spec is certainly within the dungeon, like player rules, almost. Um, if you need some for aspect, you just simply ask. And the druid, from what I seem, didn't. Um and the other healer actually did and just lost the role, which is a bit shit, um, but simply just get g kicked for saying this.

Speaker 1:

Is that the classic community you guys want, where it's just toxic? No, it isn't. So why do we see it so often? Okay, why do we see it in not only just people getting G kicked for random stuff, but, like in the comments that you make on the forums like, go back to retail, this isn't for you and it's? Yeah, it's one of them things.

Speaker 1:

It's absolutely ludicrous to think that people think classic is a non-toxic wow. Okay, every wow is toxic in some way, shape or form. I've said this so many times. People see the toxicity more than they don't. Okay, because you don't see people posting on the forums like, oh my god, this game is so good, you've done such an amazing job. I love this feature. No, it's always. This class needs a nerf, this class is busted. I got kicked. This guy's a dickhead, this guy's. You know all of that.

Speaker 1:

So that's what you see, but a lot of it like is from classic. I don't see a lot in retail, not nearly as much anyway. In my honest opinion, everything in classic has road rose tinted goggles on. I'm really sorry, but sometimes you need to take off the rose tinted goggles. I did it myself. Back when I left my first guild from classic, I realized that the classic experience wasn't great. Um, when I went through it the first time and I'm sad to say that I am because I felt like at the time I was enjoying it. But after looking back at it I realized that if I joined a different guild I might have enjoyed it a lot more. That's the sad thing. But that is where I will end this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. You check out all of the socials down below constant stuff happening over there as well, as Etsy got a few bits and bobs that are constantly going up on there. But thank you all very much once again and go with valor friend. Goodbye all. Thank you.