The stage was set ‘Pearbit’ the troll was ready to hit the mean streets of World of Warcraft Classic and see what all the ‘fuss’ was about with a 15 year old game hitting the reset button and starting again.
Trying Again
After only ‘getting in to’ WoW around 2 years ago and only hitting about level 20 or so, I thought it might be an interesting experiment to see what the game was like back when it launched all those years ago. Plus, literally all my friends will be playing it so I’ll be quite lonely if I don’t. I’m going to be playing as a Hunter for no other reason than bows are cool and I was told it was a fun class to play.
I was told that Classic will be a lot slower pace and that I won’t feel like I’m left behind because everyone will be in the same boat and that’s what’s appealing to me. Even if my friends do level a little quicker than me they shouldn’t be miles ahead.
Being left behind was always a problem before because I just felt so out of my depth when trying to play WoW with friends. They would all be rushing through areas like a greased up weasel, whereas I resembled something more like a sloth learning to walk on two feet. It’s not their fault though, that’s just what they were used to, I’m sure I’m the same when I play games like Destiny. It gets to a point where you know it so well that you don’t need to stop and think about it.
I partly wanted to see whether the game held appeal for new players and how easy it would be to get in to World of Warcraft. Or whether it was the nostalgia and the great times those veteran players had and wanted to relive that was what made the game appealing.
A New Start
We’ve opened up our discord server to new people in hopes of offering players regular buddies to play with and we’re now sitting at around 100 people strong. We’ve made our own Guild and are slowly building up the ‘gang’. The excitement within our Discord has been palpable and I think it is actually helping me to get a little more excited about it to.
When the 27th came around I didn’t have any time off of work due to being a bit busy. Although I’m actually kind of glad because some people were sat in queues of over 6 hours and there is no way I’m going to sit and wait that long to play.
Since then I have managed to play for a handful of hours and have made my way to level 7. I plan on doing a few posts covering how my experience is going with Classic. If you’re a new player, or are thinking about jumping in after talking to some veteran players (like me) then maybe this will give you a little more context on what to expect starting out fresh.
Up to this point I’ve not played with any friends, some of them have had time off work and are already getting towards or have hit level 20, so I’m behind already – not a great start for me. Although, even if I’d wanted to play with my friends – unless I’d logged on at the exact same time as them, there was no chance of it happening. Quite frankly the whole queuing debacle has been ridiculous and how anyone can call the launch a success is beyond me. That’s a whole other argument though.
During my first few hours I’ve slain boars, scorpions, crabs and raptors. I’ve ventured to the Sen’jin Village, swam to the Echo Isles, and found a castle of sorts which I’ve forgotten the name of now. It’s been enjoyable enough and I don’t have any real complaints so far. I’ve teamed up with a few random people for some quests who were nearby and clearly on the same path as me and that was fun to do. It was nice playing with others even though we didn’t really speak.
What Next?
I think my next task is to investigate learning skills, I’ve not idea what to go with but surely being a Hunter looking at leather working and skinning makes sense?
I do feel like this would have all been a lot more fun to do with friends, but I don’t see how that’s going to be possible for a couple of weeks until the hype dies down and the queues get sorted out. It seems that I’m going to have to be content with getting on when I can to do a bit of levelling, so I don’t fall miles behind my friends which quite frankly sucks and defeats the entire purpose of playing an MMORPG in my opinion.
I’ll check back in when I’ve had the chance to get stuck in a bit more, but for now, let’s get queuing…
-Will
