In a bit of a turnaround of the original announcement, it's now been decided that Nostalrius' PvE server will make its comeback at the same time as the PvP version instead of being relegated to the end of the release queue. In fact, both servers will re-launch as early as December 17th!
I'm not sure I will have much time to play this close to Christmas and with SWTOR just having launched a new expansion, but I'm definitely tempted to at least log in on Saturday just to see how crazy the lauch hype is going to be.
Fortunately I have been able to acquire another Vanilla WoW client, though it was once again a journey fraught with difficulties. The dodgy Czech file sharing website where I downloaded it last time has since disappeared from Kronos' download instructions and they just tell you to torrent it. As someone who doesn't do torrenting, this is super annoying! Eventually I managed to find a download for which I "only" had to temporarily install a special toolbar, and after the download failed two times, the third attempt finally succeeded. I'll have to make sure to save the client somewhere where I will remember to back it up this time, so I won't have to go through all this nonsense a third time later on.
Now the most poignant question for me is actually which class and race to roll. I know I want to play Alliance, because even though I spent more years playing as Horde than as Alliance in retail, Vanilla is distinctly "Alliance-flavoured" to me. If I ever started on a Burning Crusade server, I would probably go Horde. I just levelled a paladin to 60, so I don't want to do that again. I considered a hunter, since my tauren hunter on Kronos didn't get all that far, but from what I've heard the crazy high population on Nostalrius makes it very hard to peacefully solo-quest/grind your way to cap as mob spawns are so highly contested. From that point of view, something with high group appeal would probably be better, but I don't want to re-create my night elf priest yet again since I could already tell on Kronos that this came too close to "trying to relive the past" and made me a bit sad. Maybe a dwarf priest to make it feel just a little different? Hmm...
On a side note, even the BBC is writing about the Nostalrius relaunch. They are going to be so busy.
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1 hour ago
You have more guts than I do, downloading a WoW client like that. More power to you, Shin.
ReplyDeleteI remember when Wilhelm discussed the subject of Vanilla WoW private servers and commented that Nostalrius' numbers were quite impressive considering that playing on it required an illegal download, someone commented that "everybody" uses file torrents and it's no obstacle at all. I found this incredibly amusing.
DeleteThe IT person in me died a little on reading that.
DeleteWhat about Warlock if you want some "group appeal"? Also not to bad at solo'ing I guess?
ReplyDeleteNot sure warlocks are particularly sought-after for groups? I mean, yes, they do theoretically have a bunch of utility, but I think most five-man groups would rather take a mage.
DeleteAlso, it's a class that never really clicked with me even on retail.
Dwarf Priest is a good combo because (iirc) that's the combo that gets Fear Ward, which is pretty massive for raiding and in general since fear is such a killer. If you want to go dps, mages were pretty popular because of CC, portals, and Food/Water. Also they are a turret dps, which was a real benefit back in the day of over-crowded/careful pulls. They also can farm really effectively once you learn the circle strafe/Cone of Cold dance.
ReplyDeleteFrom memory, druids are also really good since you can heal and have a wipe survival move in shadowmeld.
I have to admit that I'm pretty tempted to give it a shot, but I'd get stuck on the loading screen since I get alt-itis pretty badly. It's actually the main reason I started playing FFXIV, since one character - all classes.
Mage would definitely be an option if I wanted to dps; I had a mage alt in BC... but I'm too fond of healing.
DeleteDruid is definitely a lot of fun too, but my biggest love affair with that class was also during BC and I think I would miss a lot of skills that I got used to during that time.
And indeed, "dwarf priest or GTFO" as I was more or less told when I made my nelf back in the day, but that only really matters if you have raiding plans, which I don't. It's just that I did both the human and the nelf starter area last year, so I would rather change it up a bit this time.
I hear ya on druid. I played mine in TBC and loved Feral, and I know I had a RL friend that played Feral in Vanilla...but he also got a lot grief if he tried to PuG.
DeleteI wouldn't sell Fear Ward short. Being able to stop fear is pretty amazing in non-raid content as well (and pvp). It's neat thinking about healing options and realizing that it's basically "priest or druid + shaman/paladin" and that's it. I really like Gnomes, so I've done that starting area a few times and I'm not overly fond of it, but more power to you since it is interesting. Just remember that the toolkit pieces didn't sparkle back then. And that the troll cave is a deathtrap!
I actually think that people who play on private servers have a more "modern" view of the hybrid classes. On Kronos at least I had quite a few druid tanks in instance runs and everyone was perfectly happy to have them, but people were happy to let them play other roles too. What would have me more worried is just the extremely poor performance of cat form pre-Mangle, and it's no fun to quest as bear all the time. And I never had any love for moonkins myself.
DeletePersonally I remember the yeti cave as being worse than the trolls actually. :P
Thank you for the post, hard to find some vanilla blogs (mind you I haven't looked that hard) and was pleased to read this post. I'm in the same dilemma having played a paladin from the beginnings of the Vanilla, as a tank. Might choose to go druid this time round, as I tried warrior on Krono's.
ReplyDelete