by John Hoskin on Mar 10, 2020
Almost two decades ago, when WoW first launched, it was a very different game to what we know of now.
In case you've never heard of Blizzard's MMORPG, WoW Classic, is as the name suggests, an old-style experience to the modern version of the game. That means that the textures you see while playing are slightly more blotchy and the graphics are relatively low-res. If you're here though, the likelihood is you are looking for some getting-started advice, which is what we've covered in this article.
With modern WoW you can enjoy almost an absolute solo experience when you do need a group Blizzard will matchmake you with partners as required. With WoW Classic it was completely different as a quest often needed a party, and if you entered a dungeon it meant having to create a lineup from those who were already present on your server. This means if you’re lazy or not up to scratch with your input to a quest, you’ll find you won’t get an invite from that player again as you’d of earned a tainted reputation.
Vanilla was never very kind in providing endless supplies in resources, and with this in mind, it's essential to monitor your mana and health pools to top them up at a vendor where appropriate. If you've spotted the Ironforge fruit vendor pottering around in the most random fashion imaginable, then it's worth knowing that once upon a time they served a pretty essential purpose!
battle for Azeroth saw the removal of the first aid profession, and it never made sense to have it anyway, especially in a game where health regeneration occurred organically. In Vanilla, however, having First Aid was one of the most critical components of any player arsenal as you had some pretty weak characters to choose from and it seemed to take forever for health to regenerate. If you had an encounter in Westfall with a Defias Bandit for example that'd left you scuffed and bruised, there was nothing better than a levelled up bandage ability.
Paladins, Druids Shamans and Priests were also able to keep a robust First Aid ability, so it wasn't only exclusive for DPS classes. These other classes could use mana to sew up wounds, and it was often the case for a capped First Aid skill to be utilised in guilds back in the Vanilla days. In other words, keep resources that replenish health handy as they’ll help you to survive for longer periods in the dangerous realm.
In modern-day WoW you'll see mounts are easily obtained, you'll get a mount transferred to your account on Battle.net just through playing a game of Hearthstone. With Vanilla though, it was a much more tricky task as it involved ranking to level 40 with plenty of gold saved to grab a starter mount. In those days it would cost 100 gold for a mount, which would pretty much wipe out your entire cash saved up. Look after your wallet funds. No one wants to rank to level 45 and not have a mount. If you are struggling to save some cash, there are plenty of services with WoW gold available right now.
Blizzard does a great job of ushering players to achieve a level cap when an expansion is released, although they introduce some great features the game part doesn't happen until your final ding. In 2004 they ensured a slow-process across 60 levels, with most players finding it time consuming to reach the WoW Classic cap.
In other words, forget about the cap, don't rush things, as the modern-day WoW logic does not apply to the Vanilla version of the game.