World of Warcraftis two different planets these days,retailandClassic. These days, however, Classic isn’t really Classic anymore. Despite the persistence of the #nochanges movement, the reality of the situation is that some changes are inevitable, and Blizzard is trying to strike a balance between changing nothing and adding the old features that took away from the player’s enjoyment of the game.
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For starters, the expansion will also run in its latest incarnation,Patch 3.3.5, from the very first day, which includes many changes and improvements that didn’t come until much later. In keeping with as much of the spirit of “no changes” as possible, there are several key featuresthat players saw 14 years agothat will either appear in an altered state, come at a much earlier time differently, or not be present at all.
7No LFD
The “Looking For Dungeon” option was always a flashpoint when it came to eroding parts of the game that helped build such a strong sense of community. Nobody was surprised when Blizzard devsofficially announced that it would not be included.
Since Classic was first released in its original vanilla incarnation, the neo-Classic community has transferred between a few servers to build a similar network. With other tools being used to aid in the Looking For Group process, such as Discord and Twitch, it makes the LFD system in WoW even more redundant.
6No Disenchant Option
Along with the lack of the LFD feature are other things that were attached to it, and one of these was the Disenchant option that was added in addition to the Need or Greed choices that would automatically prompt players in dungeons when it came time to claim the loot.
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It was an awkward attempt to streamline the dungeon-running process because is it so much trouble to just ask if there’s an Enchanter in the party?
5A New Quest Tracker
There’s been some confusion over this particular feature. The quest trackerthat was introduced in 2008has been rendered obsolete by several different add-ons, one of the most popular being Questie, so there didn’t seem to be a point to including a quest tracker inWrath of the Lich King: Classic.
However, the announcement that it wouldn’t be present inWotLKseemed to rankle a portion of the fanbase, and Blizzard has reversed its initial stance. At present, the quest tracker is in development with similar new and upgraded features like the calendar and equipment manager.
4Fresh Start Realms
Not everything is either a rehash or a reject from older times. A completely new addition to the process, the Fresh Start realms, is designed for players who want to experienceClassic: WotLKfrom the earliest levels.
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As part of the pre-patch before the actual expansion goes live, Fresh Start servers will have several restrictions to make sure every character there starts from scratch. No transfers or boosts will be allowed for the first 90 days the servers are live.
3Dual Spec At Launch
Dual Spec is an advantage for players leveling or progressing combination characters that can take more than one party role. It’s an extra feature often used by Paladins or Druids switching between healing or tanking, but Priests and Shamans alsouse it to swap between DPS andhealing specs.
This constant switching back and forth to fill out raids and dungeons parties was always costly and inconvenient. In the 2008 version ofWrath of the Lich King,this change wasn’t introduced until Patch 3.1.0, almost a year after the expansion dropped. This time, however, it’ll be available as soon as Northrend is.
2Faction Restrictions
Previously, transferring a character from one realm to another was impossible if the target realm was PvP and the player already had a character from the opposite faction on the said realm. These days, however, faction imbalance is more of an issue, and a possible solution to this ongoing problem is to simply lift restrictions related to character transfers.
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That’s not the only tweak that developers were talking about when it comes to leveling the playing field for different factions, races, and classes in other creative ways. Like many other of the #somechanges process, these ideas are still in development. Players likely won’t see the final product until the updates start.
1The “Joyous Journeys” XP Event
Theblue post about this in the official Blizzard forumsonly specifies a release date “in the upcoming weeks” but if the expansion is going to come out before the new year it has to be soon. This isn’t just to mitigate the effort it will take players to level but also to attract new gamers to the fold that might be put off by a long grind and a tedious leveling process.
Once the event starts, any activity that rewards experience points will increase these rewards by 50% and will last until the expansion drops about 6 to 8 weeks later. About three months is the minimum for a casual player to level and gear a fresh character to at least level 70, the minimum level for exploring Northrend.
World of Warcraftis available now on PC.Dragonflightplans to launch later this year.
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