Reimagining Azeroth: What Players Want From a Classic Plus Experience

We explore Blizzard's survey on what players want from a potential Classic Plus version of World of Warcraft while sipping drinks at the cozy Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind.

• Weekly world boss updates: Kordak and the Gobfather
• This week's bonus events: Wall of the Drain Time Walking and World Quests
• Arathiizzard is the featured PvP brawl with unique snowy terrain
• Honor System redesign possibilities that could make PvP more engaging
• War Mode as an alternative to PvP servers to consolidate populations
• New zones entirely unique to Classic Plus in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor
• Potential for new 10, 20, and 40-player raid dungeons
• Graphical improvements that could be toggled on or off by players
• Discussion of new race/class combinations or entirely new classes
• The possibility of transmog limited to rested areas and instances
• Options for what happens after Mists of Pandaria Classic concludes

Check out all of our socials below and visit our Etsy shop where we're adding new items daily! Go with val, friends!

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

Want some 3D printed Merch, find it here!
https://pigandwhistletales.etsy.com

Support the show here:

• https://www.buzzsprout.com/1196870/support
• patreon.com/Pigandwhistle
• https://www.buymeacoffee.com/PigandWhistle

Socials :
Twitch : https://www.twitch.tv/pigandwhistletales
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOi6rHO3x90lOmmb82Jv1w
Website : https://www.pigandwhistletales.com/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/pigandwhistletales/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/PigAndWhistleTales

Try out Buzzsprout yourself! https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1154066

Listen to the podcast on other platforms:
https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/pig-whistle-tales-from-azeroth-gabriel-nsa902LrQVw/
https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/pig-whistle-tales-from-azeroth-1315927
https://open.spotify.com/show/5ZTkLtQvRSm4PStUfZquWk
https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3032607

The Music at the start is from Tony Catch they do many amazing cover songs for games you can find the link here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHiF

The Gaming Blender
We mash genres. We pitch games. You question our sanity.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Chapters

• 19:58 [Ad] The Gaming Blender
• 20:37 (Cont.) Reimagining Azeroth: What Players Want From a Classic Plus Experience

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

Thank you 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, so grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this episode. We will be continuing with the survey that came out a little while back from Blizzard asking the player base what they might want to see in a Classic Plus version of World of Warcraft, but, as always, we have the weekly news to go through. Kordak and the Gobfather are your weekly world bosses for the week. Wall of the Drain or Time Walking, as well as World Quests, are your bonus event for the week. You can get cosmetics, mounts, reputations from Wall of the Drain or Time Walking, as well as getting more reputation for completing World Quests during this week. Arathiizzard is your brawl for the week. This is a different take on arathi basin. This is simply arathi basin that is snowed over by a blizzard. So it's uh, the terrain is actually very different. It's vastly different, and I would very much recommend doing it, because it's quite a cool scene, to be honest with you, but let's jump straight into it. You guys have been waiting a while to hear the rest of this. So we will jump straight into the like rest of this. So to go over this again, the I'm going to be reading out the feature of it and then there is a small description that blizzard have given and I will be giving my opinions on it. If it's good, bad, indifferent, and we'll go from there.

Speaker 1: 2:28

So the first one is Honor System Redesign. Now you might be thinking didn't we cover this one in the last episode? No, they actually did kind of something similar. They did Honor Rewards Redesign. Honor Rewards okay, this is Honor System Redesign. They did on a rewards redesign. On a rewards OK, this is on a system redesign, a ground up redesign of the honor system, removing the hard honor cap, making the system more evergreen and continually engaging. I think this is needed.

Speaker 1: 2:56

I don't think that they go to the retail version. I think they test out a completely different version in Classic Plus, think they test out a completely different version in classic plus. And I say this because if they figure out a way to do this in classic plus, then they can bring this into retail and other versions of world of warcraft if it is successful, because the rating system at this current time in WoW is very bad. Okay, it isn't effective at all and it feels. It feels sad to play sometimes because of how it works. I've gone over how it works so many times, I'm not going to go over again, but it just feels very upsetting.

Speaker 1: 3:38

So if they do manage to do an honor redesign system, I think that it's very good and the way that the honor design happens in classic it's very much. You keep grinding for several hours a day if you wanted to push rank 14. They have obviously made this a bit easier because we're no longer in lockdown in covid five years ago. So, um, yeah, obviously people don't have eight hours to spend just queuing Battlegrounds. But I think that a new redesign would be really cool I really really do and I think that it would allow more gameplay mechanics, because the way that you do the current honor grind is very much go into a Battleground If you're going to win it, great. If you don't, you lose and go next quickly. That's it. That's kind of the it for pvp. There isn't actually a attempt to win at the battleground or win an arena or obviously there's arenas in classic, but there might be, but you know what I mean. There isn't an attempt to win it. It's very much go and get some kills if we win, great if we don't, and kind of meh, but it should have consequences to it. So I would say yes to this, but only a slight redesign, maybe something completely different and out of the blue, just to test it, and they can test multiple set like things with this, I would say.

Speaker 1: 5:00

Next one is war mode as an alternative to PvP servers. This mode would allow you to opt into PvP in open world via a toggle in the main faction cities. Now you're going to say no to this one. A lot of people will, I think yes, and the reason I say yes okay, this is strictly the reason I say yes is this way it will reduce server populations Okay, not reduce them like there will be a shortage of players in terms of there will be less servers. Therefore, the servers that are up allow for more community and more sort of interaction with players, because there's obviously more people on this server. The people who want to PvP are allowed to opt in and out. If you wanted to do some PvP, more than welcome to. But when you get to Stranglethorn Vale and start getting killed by an undead rogue, then you want to opt out and get through that sort of zone, then it's like, okay, yeah, fair enough, and you can do that. So I would say yes to this. I would reluctantly say yes to this and I think that it would be a feature that a lot of people would actually enjoy and this will separate the people who actually PvP and who don't PvP in Classic, because people like to brag that they're on a PvP server but sitting all grimoire all day doing nothing and AFKing.

Speaker 1: 6:23

You know it is what it is Brand new zones, completely new unplayable areas with unique lore added to Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Now we're not talking about Mount Hyjal or Oldum or anything like that. We're talking about new, new zones. We're talking about Gilligum's Island kind of thing. Is that in WoW? No, it was something else, it was named something else, but there were islands in the alpha or the beta of World of Warcraft that were cut from the actual launch of the game. So you could have stuff like this that's a bit more enhanced and can deal with the Gurubashi trolls and lead into Zul'Gurub and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 7:05

I would say yes, because any classic plus would like new zones means that you could get new content. You could have world events there. You can have multiple, like different things that happen there and this will keep the world feeling alive until a new raid comes out. And don't forget, this is obviously potentially where a new dungeon can arise from these, like new zones or a new raid or anything along them lines. So by all means, I think new zones would be amazing, even Dragon Isles, because it was meant to be in classic of the Dragon Isles, strangely enough, but that was cut.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Content as well. That was meant to be level 60 to 70, apparently content, or 60 plus to 70, apparently, uh, content or 60 plus. So very curious to see if they do that, but I would imagine they do. The zones that are there originally, high jow, oldham, stuff like that, you know because it's there, the landmass is there, they just need to add on to it. Basically, next one is 20 and I'm gonna say 40 player rates. I'm gonna throw these two in the same category because I'm just going to go raiding.

Speaker 1: 8:10

But new 20 and 40 focused raid dungeons Are they called raid dungeons? I never knew that, but essentially, yes, these need to be a staple point of Classic Plus because you cannot re-release Montcourt into Blackwing, lair into Uncarrage into Naxxramas again and again and again and again and again and again. You have to have something new. Scarlet Enclave is a great example. It was really good. I never played it and I know that sounds hilarious. It's really good, but I never played it. I watched a lot of people play it and I saw that Blizzard actually put a lot of time and effort into the place, with the boss fights, with the looks, the feels, the whole Ashbringer stuff, everything, and I thought it was so unique and well done that it was the best part of Season of Discovery. Same with Karazhan Crypts, dungeons and stuff. These things that weren't in wow originally wow classic being implemented into season of discovery were so good and well loved by the community that they need to do more raids.

Speaker 1: 9:14

20 and 40 player. This is a no-brainer. Okay, this one. Graphical improvements to lighting, shadows and surface reflections Using modern technology to improve the lighting engine in the game for more realistic lights, shadows, reflections on surfaces like water and glass. I don't think this is bad. I think that people should have the option to turn it off and on because they would like the idea of the OG classic feel, but I don't think that this would be too bad. I think you could throw it in like colorblind mode kind of where, if you need it or want it, like you can have it, but it's not a necessity, because obviously, well, for some people it might be, but honestly it's not that big of a deal. I think throw this one in any way. People can and can't opt to change it as they want. Ok, I think it's very simple New trade skills, new primary and secondary professions.

Speaker 1: 10:17

I want to say yes and no. The only reason I say yes is if they do the graphical improvements to lighting. Now, what I mean by this is if they do the graphical improvements to lighting and they make Duskwood as dark as it can be and stuff like that, that would open the way for new professions and trade skills such as survival. Ok, now, this was in like very early alpha, but duskwood was pitch black not pitch black, but very, very dark, and the way that you navigated this zone was through survival. Uh, this was a trade skill that essentially allowed you to craft torches to light your way, and it's a really cool little feature and, I think, something that should have been done, but at the same time, the professions are so perfect in how they match up with each other. Herbalism, alchemy, tailoring is kind of just on its own with cloth. You got blacksmithing, mining, engineering, mining, you have herbalism, like, and just everything else. Like it all matches so perfectly.

Speaker 1: 11:26

Adding a new trade skill would be very tough, because then it's suddenly like oh, what do you need more of more herbs, more minerals, or do you add another secondary profession, which is um survival, where it's a mix between all herbing, skin skinning and mining, but you can only choose one at a certain time or day? You know that sort of thing, I don't know. I would say no to new trade skills, I really would, because I think that there's a perfect amount of them and they're all so well done in how they function within the game that it would be tough to throw in another trade skill. Okay, I think that it just would, and I think it would be very messy, to say the least.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Graphical texture improvements and resolution upgrade using modern technology to improve the fiddly fiddly. No idea Of textures used in classic art assets. Again, I think graphical textures. I think they should just be put in anyway and you should have the option to turn them off and on as and when you wish. I don't think this would harm anyone. I think it's just going to be a personal preference and there is no point in not doing it in my honest opinion.

Speaker 1: 12:46

New battleground yes, all right. Next one um, obviously, new objective based pvp instance. This goes without saying. I think that you might need to every other phase of classic. Plus, you can add a new battleground, and the thing is they have loads. Okay, they had one that was in the alpha, which was the azhara battleground, but it never got put to into the game. So they do have these files lying around and could utilize these assets and this map like pull and design. So it is a potential candidate for this, but I I think that they would need to release one every couple of phases, in my honest opinion, and I think that that would only be fair. Um, if new raids get added, then only fair. New battlegrounds get added for those who wanted a new pvp experience.

Speaker 1: 13:41

New race and class combinations, new class race combinations, including those that never before seen in warcraft. Yeah, screw it, I'm down. I'm so down. Maybe the new race and class combinations is a bit weird, I think. Just a new race and a new class, and it can be shared by both horde and alliance, kind of like pandaren obviously not pandaren, but like naga or something I don't know. Um, but it should have its own unique class. You can only be this class with this race kind of deal.

Speaker 1: 14:20

That would be very classic. Okay, it really would. Um, I think it's a no-brainer. No, I don't know. People would be like, oh my god, but how would that affect raiding? How would that affect dungeons? What do they do? Where's their place in? Well, it's classic, everyone places one button rotation, and this class might press two. You know there's going to be something broken about the class, there's going to be something stupid about the class.

Speaker 1: 14:47

It's classic, that's what's going to happen. Okay, mages can aoe, pull an entire dungeon. Warriors can randomly one shot you with an execute. Warriors do an insane amount of damage with world buffs. Rogues can ambush you from 100 oh and keep you cc'd for a minute. You, you know, warlocks are just gods, shadow Priests, gods, unkillable. You know, there's always some quirks with classics.

Speaker 1: 15:10

So, new class, I'm so down to test it out. Just go crazy with it, I'm so down. And obviously, new class. This would be a completely new version to anything. So not a death knight, a monk, demon hunter or evokers. This will be a stargazer, a tinkerer, something like that, and I think that use it as a test run, genuinely use Classic Plus as a testing zone. I know that you had season of discovery to do that, but season of discovery was more the limitations of what they can and can't do to change classic. And now that they know what they can and can't do, this is what's going to happen essentially. So I would say yes to a new class and the combinations of races and classes.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Next one when is it? 10 player raids, new 10 player focused raid dungeons. Yes, I think that they've gotten this idea, obviously from Season of Discovery. They saw how much of a success it was to have 20 man raids and 10 man raids and I think that they've gone. Yeah, you know what this suits the more casual players, better, because it's very tough nowadays to get 40 people all together online for a raid. It just is, it always has been and it's always going to be a nightmare. 10 player raids a lot more doable. Okay, we do it in uh katan now miss a pandaria classic, myself and my guild. So, yes, I would say 10 player raids, 100, or you just scale it down so, like zul grub will go 10 player raid, but you can do it as 20 man, but if you do it as 10 man you might get very like slightly adjusted loot like worse, by like two intellect or two stamina kind of deal. So it's not like a massive loss, but it's still not as good kind of deal, maybe something like that.

Speaker 1: 17:13

I would say yes, though, to this idea cross realm guilds, ability to invite your player guild. It's going to be tough. It depends if they implement the cross-realm interaction stuff. If they do, then you may as well go full send with the cross-realm guilds. But I think that this one's a no. This one is a no unless servers are forced together because of the size of their population. Okay, that's my opinion on this. So I would say no to cross realm guilds, but if your servers are having to be forced together in order to make it so that your server doesn't die because there's no one playing it, I would say yes. Then you have to use the cross realm guild stuff.

Speaker 1: 18:05

Transmogrification, the ability to change the appearance of your equipped item. Transmogs will only be visible in rested areas, dungeons or raids, ie no open world pvp, no battlegrounds, interesting. So transmogs are literally just cosmetics for when you're sat in the middle of a city. Okay, I kind of like it, because the reason that they're doing that is, if you're doing well PvP, the person that let's say a rogue, is in stealth and he's walking up to a mage and this mage is in rank 14 gear, but you ambush him and he's walking up to a mage and this mage is in rank 14 gear, but you ambush him and he dies immediately.

Speaker 1: 18:49

Turns out that mage was level 60, dinged an hour ago and just transmogged all of his gear to look like the rank 14 set. It's not really going to be beneficial, but it's going to hinder people because now, let's say that this mage is in greens, he looks like he's at level 58 and just dinged 60 kind of deal. That's sort of like what he's wearing. The rogue walks up, ambushes him or cheap shots, but it does nothing. This mage simply turns around or blinks out of the stun nova and then just absolutely demolishes him with one shot, okay, with a shatter combo. Suddenly that mage is wearing rank 14 armor, but you think that he was just in greens, you know.

Speaker 1: 19:39

So it can kind of make sense that it can hinder you, like out in the world, but cities. You're just doing it purely for the transmog and the looking vibe of things. I think that's very cool. I don't think it should be in Classic Plus, though. I think that Classic is such a lovely game. When you can't transmog your gear, you're meant to look like a ridiculous character, and I think that's a little bit of the charm of it. I genuinely do. So. I would say no to transmog. I really, really would.

Speaker 1: 20:47

And the final one is going to be something a bit different. This is with regards to Mr Pandaria Classic, and this is interesting. Regardless of which version of WoW is your current main version? What version of WoW do you think will become your main version in the future once Mr Pandaria ends? There's multiple choices here. So Classic Era, so vanilla-style servers with my Mists of Pandaria character. Okay, a different version of Classic without my Mists of Pandaria classic or character. This is just re-releasing Classic, so it will be Classic Classic Classic Retail slash. Modern WoW with my Mists of Pandaria, charactersaria characters. Wrath of the lich king classic. Or another earlier classic expansion with my missa pandaria character, classic warlords of draenor. If it becomes available, a permanently frozen missa Pandaria Classic realms with no further updates, and I did not plan to continue playing WoW after the end of Classic Mists of Pandaria. So there is a lot of choices here. The two for me is Retail slash, modern WoW with my mop character.

Speaker 1: 22:10

Okay, now the reason for this. I have been able to collect so many things from classic. Okay, I never got to play classic. Back in 2004 I would have been six, yeah, so don't really think I'd be, uh, doing that. I never got to play classic, I barely got to play TBC. I don't remember a lot of Wrath. Don't remember a lot of Kata, barely remember anything about Mob. I remember bits. This is where my memory starts to become, you know, fluent in WoW. Then you go Warlords of Draenor. I remember this bit a little bit more. So the further along I got, the more I understood of WoW and the more I was like oh okay, so I can collect these things for transmog. But obviously, when Cataclysm rolled around, I had no idea what I was doing, so I missed out on so many transmogs and old pieces of gear, purely because of my age and it was. You know. It's quite a little bit disheartening and I can't do anything about that.

Speaker 1: 23:12

To be honest, now I have spent a lot of time on my classic character. I have dreamed about it moving to retail the classic characters that I have, with all of the transmogs that I've earned throughout the years, all of the molten core, the blackwing lair Lair, the Uncaraj, the Naxxramas gear, the OG Naxxramas gear, the TBC stuff that I've gotten Like. I would love to unlock these transmogs and say, if you're a hunter in retail, you've started after Cataclysm and you never get got your roc de la. Okay, and yet in classic you got that roc de la. You did well. Back in 2019 you did molten core. You got the ancient petrified leaf from molten core and you went and did the quest. You killed the four demons around the corners of the world in azeroth and you got that bow and you unlocked that transmog. And now you have a chance to bring that character into retail and you unlock that transmog in retail because you earned that bow still, you earned that transmog still. Why wouldn't you do that? How cool would that be? Every time I see someone in retail walking around with an anathema or a benediction, I stop and I'm like that is cool, that is so cool. That guy has played since classic and that's really cool to know. And I get that that will disappear. Okay, but I still earn these items in classic when I played it back in 2019. And just because I couldn't play it back in 2004 doesn't mean I don't deserve these items more than you deserve them. That's why I would like to move my character to retail. The next one To move my character to retail the next one Now you're going to hate me for this Is to move on to Warlords of Draenor. Okay, now hear me out on this. I would like to move to Warlords of Draenor Because, firstly, the content on Warlords of Draenor Was very good.

Speaker 1: 25:28

Well, it was good. The raids and stuff Highly regarded as some of the best, but it was good. Okay, the raids and stuff highly regarded as some of the best, but it was good. The problem with WAD was that there was basically a year of downtime. There was a year of just no content, and that was shockingly bad. Okay, obviously, the release cadence of the phases in Warlords of Draenor would be a lot shorter. Therefore, we are not sat waiting for a year to do the new raid or do a new dungeon or anything like that. And the main reason is because I know that people never got to experience warlords of draenor. People never got to experience mr pandaria before this. People didn't get to experience cataclysm, wrath of the l, the Lich King, burning Crusade Legion, battle for Azeroth. People didn't experience these expansions. They started playing in the War Within. They started playing in Dragonflight. You know they started playing really late on in WoW's life. So it will give these players a chance to experience that expansion as it was in the release period of it, and I think that that is really something special that they would enjoy and it's something that you guys should regard as something that is quite fortunate.

Speaker 1: 26:48

You can have a do-over on how you played Warlords of Draenor. I played Warlords of Draenor. I played warlords of draenor sitting in my garrison most of the time. That's how most people played it. But I would want to go out. I would want to do the garrison invasions with people, with my friends, with people that I like play the game with, like this would be cool. I'd want to do pet battles with them more. I would want to do tanan jungle invasions. I'd want to do the raids. I never did the raids in classic tbc, wrath, mop, cataclysm legion. I didn't do any of these raids in any expansion, but since classic I have done every single raid because I never got to experience it like when I was growing up. But playing these expansions and that is what I'm doing in classic I'm changing how I played it and seeing it from a different perspective.

Speaker 1: 27:40

But, yeah, I think that what should be the go-to, I think that Legion will probably be the end of where classic is like. It's a good stopping point to end at legion. But I hope excuse me, I hope that they carry on. And it's not because I want to do shadowlands again, not because I want to do bfa.

Speaker 1: 28:04

These things did have something to offer, these expansions, and people should get at least the opportunity to attempt and like, play them. That's all really. That's the main thing, because a lot of people have never got to all it is and it might hold some memories for people who have played in the past. People might have loved ones that they've lost and they played, let's say, shadowlands every single day with them and in Shadowlands they lost their loved ones. In that time period they hold a special feeling towards that expansion or a zone there or something like that, and that would be really cool to go full circle and people get to experience that and you know that sort of thing. I think that that's the main important thing.

Speaker 1: 28:56

All of these options, though, are very valid. You know all of them are, and it's a very much personal opinion. I'll be very interested to see what they do. I think we'll get a lot more information in August at the Gamescom stuff, so we'll just have to wait and see. With that, I suppose, but that is where I will end this episode. Thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below constant stuff happening, as well as stuff being put on the etsy shop like every day. Please do check out. It's a real help. But thank you all very much once again, and go with val, a friend. Goodbye, thank you.