Part of the allure of World of Warcraft Classic is its faithfulness to Vanilla WoW. Classic strips the Retail MMORPG‘s often complex systems back to their basics, giving players the blast from the past that recent expansions have left them craving. With the highly-anticipated Hardcore Realms on the horizon, though, I asked the team whether sacrifices to the game’s base integrity are necessary to stamp out bugs and clunky, outdated features.
Other than being, well, hardcore, there are a few changes accompanying WoW Classic’s new realms. Assistant lead game designer Tim Jones tells me that some quests have been changed to ensure you’re not being randomly flagged for PvP, and there are some adjustments to some escort quests, too.
Some systems, however, are purely being updated because they don’t align with Blizzard’s future vision for WoW. While some players rejoiced at the official confirmation of RDF coming and quest tracker to WoW Classic, others likely see it as a pivot away from Blizzard’s promise to retain the core essence of Vanilla WoW.
It’s a hard line to tread, so I asked Jones about whether the team will prioritize keeping Classic, well, Classic, or if it will implement new systems should the need arise. “Our game design philosophy evolves with our player base,” he tells PCGamesN.
“When we launched Classic we were staunchly no changes, we wanted everything to be a 100% accurate recreation of the reference clients in the game from 2004 and 2005. Having experienced that, there are some systems that we probably wouldn’t want to bring back.”
“I don’t think anyone benefitted from spell batching or the buff limit,” he continues. “That is more restrictive than it needs to be. That’s not good gameplay, and we acknowledge that. We’re all for acknowledging where no changes doesn’t make sense anymore, even on Era servers.
“That’s sort of the mentality that we have – we can make the questing experience better. Is it true to reference? No, but it ultimately benefits the player experience. Warlocks and Hunters can cast their DoTs on bosses. That’s awesome – we want players to cast their spells, that’s only going to be a good change ultimately. Our philosophy is evolving, and I think we’re in favor of just a better player experience overall, while still staying true to the spirit of Classic.”
I’ve played WoW Classic and, coming from Retail, I do notice a significant difference between the two – especially in terms of its systems. While I have spent hours happily running around as a very confused little troll Shaman (I am very thankful for the addition of a quest tracker), I do think that change is a necessary part of running Classic. It’s been quite a while since the game released, after all, and there are unfortunately systems that are just straight-up outdated nowadays.
If the new quest tracker and RDF features have inspired you to dive back into the snowy-white wastes of Northrend, make sure you check out our WoW WotLK Death Knight guide because, given it’s WotLK, you have to try them out at least once. If up-close melee isn’t for you, though, then I’d advise glancing through out WoW WotLK Affliction Warlock guide for some DoT-focused chaos.