WoW Classic is on its way, and with it a ton of people expecting different things. Here are 5 difference that make WoW Classic unique from its peer.


1. There Are No Quest Objectives On Your Map

While World of Warcraft shows you where you need to go on your map, WoW Classic does not. You will need to read quest text and pick out things such as “It is north of here”, or “look for some water”, or anything that could help you locate where you need to go. Sometimes the quest text will be very vague (“Some raptors have it”), and you'll need to figure out if that means a specific raptor, an item in the world you need to find, or if it's just a drop chance. Quest exclamation marks will not show up on your map either; not even on your minimap. You will need to explore everything to ensure you have found all of the quests in an area.

2. Resources Need To Be managed

Unlike in WoW, where most DPS specs have unlimited mana or generate their respective resource very quickly, Classic WoW is played at a much slower pace. Most classes use mana, with your mana pool being small and ability costs being high. At lower levels you will only be able to cast a couple spells before running out of mana, and have to resort to your auto attacks. Don’t expect enemies to die before you run out of mana either, as your spells are fairly weak and can be resisted. One thing to note about mana is how it regenerates. If you have spent mana in the last 5 seconds, your mana will not regenerate, meaning it is better to spend it all at once, rather than wait for it to regenerate.

3. Everything Is Slow

WoW Classic is slow. In fact, everything is slow. Whether it's running, killing mobs, or regenerating between kills. Quests are not all in one place. It is much more likely that quests are spread around your zone or neighbouring zones than all together, for your convenience. Expect to run a lot, traveling to the same areas multiples times for different quests that are part of a chain. Along with the running about, is the slow pace of killing mobs. The average mob at your level can take anywhere from 20-90 seconds depending on what kind of mob it is or what it does. Many mobs stun you or heal themselves, slowing your progress further.

4. One MOB At A Time

In WoW, you can easily pull multiple mobs and kill them all at once, even at a very low level. WoW Classic is very different, where you are much weaker. Mobs can be very difficult, especially if they are a few levels above you. If you accidentally pull more than one, you will likely have to run away. On top of mobs being difficult, you can sometimes run into bad luck, as every mob has a chance to dodge, parry or resist your attacks (which is fairly common). You also have a chance to miss all of your attacks. This can lead to a mob of the same level dodging or parrying enough of your attacks, that you're forced to retreat from an equal level Plainstrider.

5. Hitboxes Are Weird

In current WoW every player has the same hitbox, with mobs usually having a very easy to recognize hitbox. In Classic WoW, Every hitbox is different. For example, A Tauren will be able to auto attack a mob from farther away than a Gnome could because the Tauren’s hitbox is much larger. This also means that enemy mobs can attack the Tauren from farther away as well. The Tauren will also have a harder time avoiding AoE abilities as they will have to run farther to get their hitbox out of it. This can lead to some weird interactions where 20 yard ranged abilities can be cast on a mob at the edge of your range but if you drop a searing totem which attacks enemies within 20 yards, it will not be within range since the totems hitbox is smaller than your character.


Hopefully this gave you a better idea of what to expect when jumping into WoW Classic. Expect a very different experience than what you can play now!


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Last Updated: Jun 14, 2019

About The Author

Born and raised in the gaming industry. Adequate Heroes of the Storm player. Spends free time in Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, and various other games.

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