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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast topic: The good old days
by Amanda Dean 
Dec 12th 2008 at 8:00AM
I've been playing World of Warcraft for nearly three of it's four year run. It's kind of amazing to me to see how things have changed over time. Many of the adjustments have been by player suggestions, and most of them for the good. The folks I've been playing with lately don't have nearly as much time in the game. I find myself reminiscing and thinking about the way things were, and telling them how good they have it now. Some things I remember least fondly are:- Single-server battlegrounds, and sometimes waiting hours for a queue.
- The old battleground ranking system, with one High Warlord per server.
- 40-man instances, if you think keeping 25 people in line is challenging, give this one a go.
- Epic ground mounts for 1000 gold in a time when cash did not flow so freely.
- Horde had no Paladins and Alliance had no Shamans.
- Before the report feature, I got a whisper message from a gold spammer about every thirty seconds.
- Many more limitations on where mounts were allowed.
Sometimes it's fun to read old WoW Insider posts, and remember what we were all excited and angry about in thee past. I'm sure many of our readers have been playing for as long as I have and some considerably longer. Walk with me down memory lane, which little annoyances were you glad to see go?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 12)
jtrain Dec 12th 2008 9:32AM
Kiting world bosses to Org/Stormwind. I swear you could see the sheer terror on the faces of all the lowbies when the 50ft elite walked through the gates. One of the few things I wish Blizz didn't fix.
Mustard Dec 20th 2008 12:52AM
Oh yeah, I miss that terribly. Some things just shouldn't be fixed.
Beorin Dec 12th 2008 9:37AM
Things I miss about the old days:
-Having lots of high-level blue items meant that you were reasonably hardcore. If you had your full Tier 0 set, you were flat out godly. Arcanite Reaper, Barman's Shanker, Icebarbed Spear, Rod of the Ogre Magi, Hand of Justice, Draconian Deflector: blues were the best items in the game back in the day, and you didn't need to raid to get the best loot.
-The PvP champ guilds. Before cross-server BGs, there was always that PvP guild that got things going. They were good, and you could count on them for an epic battle either world or in Warsong/AV. Nowadays, PvP guilds are more concerned with Arenas. That one super guild who used to ramp up Southshore raids and challenge the best in Warsong Gulch doesn't exist anymore.
-No healer/tank shortage. In the old days, druids, paladins, and priests healed. Most warriors tanked. That was that. I don't recall ever sitting in chat trying to drum up a group for an instance. Everyone always wanted to do something... as far as I know, this was back before the days when burnout was rampant.
-The Epic feel of the world. Granted, Wrath of the Lich King brings that feel back quite a bit, but the WoW player base is just too seasoned at this point. Pre-TBC, it could take you months to explore everything and hit level 60. The world seemed incredibly vast, especially in the days before epic--and later flying--mounts were numerous.
Cyrus Dec 12th 2008 11:14AM
Two of your points (rare items being rare, and no wait for healers) definitely aren't how I remember things. When I was new to being level 60 on my rogue, it did take some work to get the Shadowcraft set, yeah... but I know I began to get bored with seeing people running around Ironforge in Bloodfang. Epic items might be too common now, but they were never all THAT rare. And as for a healer shortage, that's why I rolled a druid, because of all the time spent spamming /1 in IF for either a healer or tank. Again, maybe it's got worse recently, but there's never been enough healers and tanks.
Personally, ever since getting into the TBC endgame, I've been nostalgic about the level 60 dungeons. They were big, they were interesting, and they may not have had cutscenes or scripted events but they were definitely unique in other ways. The massive, epic detail of an entire instanced city like BRD, the planning needed for a Tribute run, stealth runs, optional bosses all over the place, quest chains that would take you through several different instances...
... But it didn't seem like that at the time. Remember how long they took, even if things went well? Remember how hard it was to get a group to finish BRD? Remember trying to decide between raids or five-man groups for some instances, because some people wanted to get five-man quests done but others just wanted loot? Yeah, stuff like that I don't miss.
Beorin Dec 12th 2008 1:50PM
Rogues running around with Bloodfang? I don't think so... I'm talking about the old days, when Tier 2 dropped in Molten Core and had palette swap art, and maybe one guild on your server had even started raiding MC.
VoodooWilly Dec 12th 2008 9:37AM
I remember:
No flight path in Camp T - God how bad that made leveling in the Barrens.
Mind Soothe being castable on anything, and on any number of things, at once.
The Hypnotic Blade being worth 8g
1 Auction House per faction, and not being able to enter Org because of it.
600-person queues being the norm, every night, no matter what time. For months.
Getting free play days once every 2-3 weeks because server stability was so bad after maintenance.
zakhan Dec 12th 2008 9:39AM
Yet despite all the improvements wowinsider is so full of whine these days it's making me consider removing it from my bookmarks.
Horixon Dec 12th 2008 10:13AM
Please do. We don't need your QQ here.
netgyrl Dec 12th 2008 5:26PM
a whining post about whining. classic.
Graham Fenech Dec 12th 2008 9:40AM
Something as simple as flightpaths!! remember when you had to plan your route, and wait and click at every point between? Mounts at level 40, were really hard work, and only a handful of people with epic 60 mounts.
Tanking in molten core with another 39 people filling my screen. Seeing a tank with 10k health was aomething insane!
And something i really miss on my server (Earthen Ring EU) is proper RP.
zaababy Dec 12th 2008 9:41AM
Hardly anybody had an epic ground mount. I spent the whole week before bc came out grinding at Tyre's hand and got my epic, how fun going to av and being part of the leading pack out of the cave!
It was HARD to get to 60! How proud I was to have 2 60s going into bc. Now I have 6 70s going into wrath.
My hearth used to be set to Crossroads always for quick defense.
Being able to level through the bgs. Boy I really miss that.
Having that bg reputation. EVERYBODY knew Zaa back then. And Curlyfry, my old alliance nemisis wherever you are, /miss you. And I love my Blood Guard title.
I don't miss poisons having charges and having to be reapplied after zoning. I don't miss druids only having healing dungeon sets, and if you wanted to be feral *gasp* having to cobble together your own feral gear. I don't miss having to make healthstones one-at-a-time for everybody and his brother, and I don't miss having to makes stacks upon stacks of food and water for everybody and his brother who wanted it for mc. I do miss those old 40 mans though, they were great fun.
I remember our Kara requirements said you had to have 600 spell power and I thought 'there is no way on earth I will ever have that much!' Funny now.
There's a lot I miss, and a lot I don't miss. I wish it wasn't so easy anymore. Maybe it's because I know where everything is, but the game feels a lot different than it used to be. I do know that WoW has given me many good memories and even more good friends. I have the eternal joy of being in an incredible guild with a fabulous leader (/love you moose) who makes raiding fun. I enjoyed this little walk down memory lane.
bumble Dec 12th 2008 9:51AM
Less amazement and wonder, more numbers and optimizing. It's a bit dull really.
i2hellfire Dec 12th 2008 9:47AM
*sigh*...i guess waxing nostalgic can make any piece of trash smell better. 40-mans=the suck, ss/tm was a gank-fest, non-connected flight points, one ah per faction, multi-day long av's that meant no honor for joo, the skill-less honor grind, one person having the key to get into ubrs (and you paying them 15g), the list goes on.
i don't miss much from vanilla wow, and the game is only getting better.
Izzy Dec 12th 2008 9:47AM
As a fairly new player (less than a year), I enjoyed reading the comments here, and support the idea of a new column on old-school WoW.
Would be a nice change from "zomg wow is noobsauce now, you have no right to play"
Dankf Dec 12th 2008 9:48AM
I rememebr when epics were truly epic.
There were no pvp epics, arena epics, reputation epics, or crafted epics. There were only these new dungeons called Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair. Basic raiding was a learning experience for everyone. Good times.
arun84h Dec 12th 2008 9:50AM
Rogue swirly ball.
veil Dec 12th 2008 9:51AM
definitely don't miss old andorhal. that place was an f'ing death trap.
Baldilocks Dec 12th 2008 9:54AM
As a newly minted level 60 getting cleaved in two at Astranaar, only to rally and raid and Crossroads...over and over...
Narcistic Dec 12th 2008 9:59AM
Reflections...
- Here is something... Magmadar[MC] for noob groups and guilds it was a hard fight without tranq shot. Usually you brought a hunter that had it or knew someone who had it so that way you can get one of your hunters to have it so then you would not have to bring anyone except your hunter.
-PvPing for horrible epics from WSG Venders. And wanting AV summoned Elementals so you could kill them for there Epics.
-I remember having lowbie warlocks placed around all world boss spawns so that way if one was up we could summon the 40 man raid in 10 minutes.
-I remember running around inside ZG before we even knew it was a future instance.
- I remember making a mental note that the place between duskwood and swamp of sorrows was worthless..only to become the site and area of one of the most raided instances ever (Karazhan).
-I remember the horrible corpse runs in Un'Goro and how pissed off people would be when they get ganked in the back of the cave.
-I remember caverns of time entrance blocked off and pointless.
-I still to this day only visit the Org auction house just because I dont acknowledge the other ones.
-I remember when you had to be a certain rank to enter the hall for your pvp gear.
those were all fond memories.
max Dec 12th 2008 11:35AM
^ pretty much about everything I would say
except I also remember when the final druid balance talent was hurricane...
and I specced for it.
What a noob I was...