15 Minutes of Fame: Playin' it old school
by Lisa Poisso 
Jan 20th 2009 at 11:00AM
Upcoming Raids
Zul'Gurub (Farm)
Ahn'Qiraj (20) (Farm)
Molten Core (10/10 Farm)
Blackwing Lair (2/8)
Onyxia (Farm)
Azuregos (Farm)
ZG (Farm)? Blackwing Lair (2/8)?! LOL wut?!? We've written before about players who love to chow down on some good, old-fashioned retro WoW content, avidly mixing original instances with the latest hotness from Wrath. Heralds of Yore from Smolderthorn takes that idea to the next level: not only do they specialize in old-school content, they do it as intended – at level 60.
Why would a guild put two entire game expansions on /ignore? Hearken back to the days of "vanilla WoW" with 15 Minutes of Fame and Heralds of Yore, after the break.
Main character BlotterGuild Heralds of Yore
Server Smolderthorn
WoW player since 2006
Games played pre-WoW Warcraft, Starcraft, Age of Empires, Guild Wars
Games played besides WoW There are other games?
15 Minutes of Fame: Blotter, tell us about the appeal of focusing on legacy content. What's the draw?
Blotter: To me, the expansions that were released by Blizzard in no way met my expectations that I had for them. First and foremost, PvP (which is one of my favorite aspects of WoW) is a lot worse off. The implementation of resilience ratings has ruined PvP, in my opinion. To me, it seems Blizzard has increased everything too much: higher levels, bigger crits, bigger health, bigger mana, etc., etc. I think they should have left us at level 60 and released more and more content.
Also, the instances are much nicer at 60. AQ is one of my favorite places in the entire World of Warcraft. I do not feel The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King have delivered as creative of content. Hell, Naxxramas was so great they even reused it -- to my dismay. BC and WotLK just seemed to be sub-par to me, and I have more fun when I am playing level 60 end game.
Wrath is also very, very easy, and people are clearing the content in record time. Before, when people tried to raid Molten Core right after it came out, they were lucky to clear the Firelords. The game has become a little too watered down.
So how long has HoY been raiding level 60 content?
HoY started as Nova in September 2007 and became Heralds Of Yore in November 2007. A small break was taken when patch 3.0 released, due to people going inactive (from us) for their once-again bigger crits and more health.
So do HoY members have BC and Wrath installed -- or is that strictly forbidden?
You have to be on a non-BC account. It keeps people from leveling up from raids, shows that the member is actually serious about raiding pre-BC content and is just an all-around safeguard to not have people level. It is hard to tell if people aren't on vanilla accounts. We go on the honor system.
Are most of your members already familiar with the legacy content?
I would say around 80% of all HoY members raided level 60 content pre-BC. We do have a few people joining who have not experienced pre-BC before, and we also have members who have only experienced pre-BC content. Currently, we run about 25 people in 40-man raids. We struggle with many of the encounters, though, due to low numbers.
Have you yourself played through BC content? What about Wrath?
Yes, I have extensively played BC and Wrath. I did not quit playing these expansions after a few short weeks. I was in a top raiding guild on my server and had everything going for me, at 80 especially -- I just did not enjoy the experience.
Do you see a faster learning curve in raids because most players have more WoW and overall gaming experience than when this early content was first being played?
I do. Also, the new talents and DPS increases make the fights easier to do with fewer numbers. That helps us a lot.
We are currently progressing through Blackwing Lair, so I guess that is our short-term goal -- but for long-term, yes, it is AQ-40. Even though we no longer have Naxx to raid, AQ-40 and BWL are still plenty of great pre-BC content.
I can only hope that one day a pre-BC server is opened, so I can once again enter the fortress of the great lich Kel'thuzad. And if you know anyone at Blizzard, can you please send them a nasty note saying Blotter wants Naxx back! I think it was a huge mistake to eliminate content that they put in the game at 60. It is a stupid move to make something, then move it to Northrend. This eliminated such a large chunk of the game they developed. For what reason? In my opinion, pure laziness, greediness -- or both. But it does leave a void for retro raiders like myself, knowing that I can never wear my Frostfire, but I can see 80s running in it all day.
Do any of your players have access to BC- or Wrath-era items?
BC and Wrath items are not allowed in our raids. When you enter PvP Battlegrounds or do PuGs, you can wear whatever you want. During raids, though, all gear must be pre-BC. Enchant rules have become rather lax due to the gold many members have spent on their enchants, but players are encouraged to use all pre-BC enchants on all items they receive in HoY raids.
How can interested players best get in touch to find out more?
You can visit our web site or you can watch the BC content video I made. It will show you the epicness of pre-BC content!
Late last night as we prepared this feature for posting, we received a last, brief missive from Blotter: "Broodlord Lashlayer down!" Grats, guys, and may your raid groups fill with a full 40.
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- neither did we, until we talked with these players. Check out a whole year's worth of player profiles in our "15 Minutes of Fame: Where are they now?" retrospective.Filed under: Guilds, Expansions, Features, Raiding, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, 15 Minutes of Fame
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Max Jan 20th 2009 11:11AM
I also loved pre-bc content. I would roll with you guys if I could, but I'm afraid I just don't have the time to go 1-60 again
Macbook Jan 20th 2009 11:39AM
I love Pre-BC content as well. Those bosses drop great amounts of gold, and you have fun downing them.
Macbook, http://Moonkin.info
Meh... Jan 20th 2009 11:13AM
Don't confuse ZA with ZG in your "LOL wut??" comment.
Reinard Jan 20th 2009 11:13AM
Not to be a jerk, but this sounds like the same high-horse drivel we hear whenever anyone talks about pre-BC content. It's a really cool idea, if only they'd be less...pretentious about it.
"To me, the expansions that were released by Blizzard in no way met my expectations that I had for them"
"I was in a top raiding guild on my server and had everything going for me, at 80 especially -- I just did not enjoy the experience"
"I can only hope that one day a pre-BC server is opened"
"It is a stupid move to make something, then move it to Northrend. This eliminated such a large chunk of the game they developed. For what reason? In my opinion, pure laziness, greediness -- or both"
Yeah. They're the ones being greedy, not you, right? /facepalm
AyaJulia Jan 20th 2009 11:23AM
I agree about the Naxx bit especially. Naxx was a brilliant bit of content that no one ever saw anymore due to the rep requirements and the fact that it was just plain obsolete. Why bother pay that much money or grinding that much rep when you can just bomb through Kara in... what, an hour tops?
Bringing Naxx back to the masses was a fantastic move. I know I, as someone who just started playing in BC, would've never set foot in there if they hadn't re-tuned it to level 80.
This one guild is far less important than the rest of players who never got to raid pre-BC. Let's be honest, most of them have secondary BC/LK accounts anyway. ;)
Kildon Jan 20th 2009 11:24AM
/agreed
Lyraat Jan 20th 2009 11:57AM
/agreed
Play the game as you want to; it's your money, do with it as you will. But do not disparage the rest of us who thoroughly enjoy the BC and Wrath content.
Menchi Jan 20th 2009 12:41PM
Wow at you guys. He never said he didn't like the fact 80s get to do naxx he said he didn't like the fact they removed the content at 60 completely just so that people at 80 can do it.
I agree i think it was a better idea to move it, though at the same time it was lazy since they didn't have to come up with something new, but they should have left it there for level 60s to play with. Much like Kael was in TK and in MGT why can we not have two Naxx's so that all content stayed in the game?
Holgar Jan 20th 2009 1:13PM
Nothing is as good as it is in your memory.
Thats the primary thing all these "Old school" type players forget when they ask for a "Pre BC" server. I wasn't there for it but I have friends and guildies that were and they all say they wouldn't go back if you payed them. While classes still had issues in BC and still will in Wrath and byond one friend discribed balance as "100x better".
As others have pointed out intrest would peak for about a month untill people realised that they are playing a primitive version of regular WoW. Then all you would have is a few die hards desperatly lfg on AQ 40.
Not worth it.....
ChiperSoft Jan 20th 2009 1:53PM
Right, I don't think these people remember just how bad the talent trees were back in 1.x. Hybrid classes? What hybrid classes? You had prot warriors, cat druids, marksmen hunters, holy paladins, holy priests, and enhancement shamen. That was it, the other trees weren't worth anything. If you weren't spec'd like that, you didn't go on raids. The only classes that were allowed to diversify were rogues, warlocks, and to some extent mages (frost until BWL, then go to fire, arcane doesn't exist).
No one had ever even heard of a prot paladin, and retadins were still a joke even after BC came out. Druids? Ok, sure, we'll take a couple druids, need that token battle res afterall, but we don't expect much else from them.
They can talk about being "pure" with their equipment and enchant requirements, but they still have the new class changes, and those changes make raiding a whole hell of a lot easier now then it was back then.
Kaphik Jan 20th 2009 11:16AM
Very lame, in my opinion. And yes, I've been playing since the days when level cap was 60, before AQ and Naxx came out.
Kaphik Jan 20th 2009 11:20AM
Besides, with all the changes since Patch 2.0, raiding at 60 today is nowhere near the same as it was before. Even more so with raid wide buffs.
Malfrey Jan 20th 2009 11:18AM
I would like to see all of the lvl 60 and 70 content to have a retuned verison for lvl 80 players, NOT what Naxx is now, but a chance to experience what Naxx WAS at 60. Very Simply upping the HP and Damage of mobs to be on par with what they where at the original level. It would be interesting to test modern guilds against ancient content where the content would actually have a chance!
andrew Jan 20th 2009 12:20PM
Seconded. I got to the game really late, and really want to experience a lot of the older content the way it was meant to be played. Its kind of a bummer that so much of the old game is forgotten when you're a newb like I am, and haven't had a chance to experience it.
Nick S Jan 20th 2009 11:56AM
A lot of the challenge of the original Naxx had to do with the way stats were allocated. Back then, even top-end gear tended not to have too much in the way of secondary stats (AP, dodge, block, etc.)
Ray Jan 20th 2009 11:18AM
I would love for them to make an old school wow only server. No expansions just the original game and content. All they would have to do is make 4 servers, 1 for each type of server.
Debesun Jan 20th 2009 11:45AM
I disagree with bringing 'old school' WoW on a separate world as it wasn't a perfect world back then. Many of the balances to classes were applied with the introduction of BC and WotLK.
You may have a sudden influx of players but when they realise that it isn't perfect "before blizzard screwed the game up for casuals" and you'll just return to multiple people spamming the already spammed to death forums complaining about class imbalance and issues (that have been mostly dealt with in BC) and people would eventually start dropping out as soon as they realise that there will be no new content.
This will leave you with a small core of players who will be terribly pissed off when Blizzard realise it was a stupid idea in the first place and pull the plug.
Jon Do Jan 20th 2009 11:27AM
Blood Elves in full T3.
Woot!
Razz Jan 20th 2009 11:35AM
As some one who started playing after BC was release this sounds like a ton of fun. It would be sweet to be able to do this. I mean if you got bored eventually you could easy just upgrade your account.
As far as it being its own server. Id make a toon on it and level if it allowed me to see the 60 content as intended. figure I could just as easy transfer it off once I wanted to.
I think those of us who started post-bc would have the most to gain experience wise from a server like that.
Bossy Jan 20th 2009 11:35AM
Everyone his opinion of course.
But WotLK is a beautiful design.
Nostalgia is a weird thing. I miss TBC Outland already although the world in Northrend is so beautiful.
Like some think the Ford T was a cool car. Of course it was.
The atmosphere and design in Grizzly Hills is very cool and the open world PvP daily quests, miles above the "improvised" open world PvP clashes of old days in Goldshire.
Of course the old Wow was good also, but daily PvP quests, flying mounts, Karazahn and Lake Wintergrasp deserve to be placed on par with old content.
If not I think you're too nostalgic. I also love Donkey Kong 64, but in the meantime I don't think it would be a hit nowadays...