Blizzard announced "Classic" World of Warcraft

[Russia is over. The end.]

I'm still at 11.5k and 5+ hours left

On popular servers like gehennas, it's roughly 1k per hour, so that was a 11 hour long queue.

 

[Ninjerk]

Is this game really this popular or is this just snowballing FOMO?

 

[Wilian]

Going with conservative estimates there's currently 2.1 million players online. That's not counting people in queue. EU alone has some 200-300k in queue waiting to get in.

 

[Ninjerk]

0.0
https://realmpop.com/eu.html

Nvm, this is for retail.

 

[Fedora Master]

Give it until after Christmas and see the numbers drop in freefall.

 

[Ninjerk]

Ten Storms has started having a queue within the last 15 minutes, I'd guess. 48 in queue. The ROLE PLAYING server Hydraxian Waterlords is High population.

 

[DDZ]

Can't be long till a lot of the newer players to have enough of WoW classic since everything takes too long.

 

[Gregz]

The decline of nu-Blizzard is real.

There are discerning customers outside of the Codex, and these long queues prove it. This isn't just fomo or nostalgia, this is enthusiasm for a superior product.

Let's hope by some miracle that Blizzarvision's upper management reads this correctly, and that they have the humility to leave it alone.

 

[PapaPetro]

I like reading all the nu-journalists hot takes on the WoW Classic "blunder". According to them, once again the customers are in the wrong and everyone should be playing BfA and other soulless experiences.

 

[Gerrard]

These are sheeple with nostalgia goggles on so tight it deprives their already atrophied brains of oxygen.

 

[Alienman]

I like reading all the nu-journalists hot takes on the WoW Classic "blunder". According to them, once again the customers are in the wrong and everyone should be playing BfA and other soulless experiences.

Any examples?

 

[Lyric Suite]

The popularity of private servers should have been a tell tale sign, not by the numbers of players found in them but in the number of people who wanted to play in them but didn't because the uncertainty about the fate of such servers made people weary of investing hundreds of hours into them. I have a friend who was an avid raider up to until Wrath, far more involved in the game than i, but he never played on private servers because he didn't like the risk of losing his progress.

I like reading all the nu-journalists hot takes on the WoW Classic "blunder". According to them, once again the customers are in the wrong and everyone should be playing BfA and other soulless experiences.

Are they really? Can't they just leave it alone maybe? I mean, it's an option, right?

 

[Cromwell]

I have to resis the temptation to join classic for the pvp. maybe rogue or mage...

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

COME every Night Elf on the Zandalar Tribe Realm - [only one EU RP-PVP like], come and join us !:
https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/w...envale-sentinels-looking-for-volunteers/76140

 

[Jasede]

Poggers, this is actually really fun.

I am on Nethergarde!

No quest compass, 2 enemies can kill you if you pull them at the same time, and everyone is super helpful in-game. I am a level 11 Priest Undead and having fun.

Can't be long till a lot of the newer players to have enough of WoW classic since everything takes too long.

Everyone I talked to likes that everything takes forever! A few reasons:
1) The feeling of accomplishment is bigger because you have to invest more (time.)
2) It's more chill. You can listen to a stream or a book or music and have a good time doing something mindless and relaxing.
3) Having to wait for things makes you appreciate them more when you get them.

OldSchool RuneScape is a huge success also, and it's a much, much, much grindier and slower game than WoW.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Who needs fuckin progress when you can pray for the old gods for hardy root and long erection ! Or dozen of other cool shit while You are on RP server.

 

[Alienman]

Man, this layering stuff has to go. Was giving out free greens in Orgrimmar, and every single one that wanted a free green item was on another layer. Had to group up to find them. Think I stood around waiting for one dude for about 2 minutes until we both understood what was going on... he stood right next to me the whole time but in another dimension.

Kinda kills the immurshun tbh.

 

[Rahdulan]

Ten Storms has started having a queue within the last 15 minutes, I'd guess. 48 in queue. The ROLE PLAYING server Hydraxian Waterlords is High population.

To be fair RP servers are always the first to get invaded when people just need their fix and can't log into their server of choice. They won't stick around.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Speaking of Druids again, this shows why the original concept Blizzard had for hybrid classes was just superior, regardless whether what they came up with needed more fine tuning or not:



Hybrid classes were intended to be purely support classes. They were needed and necessary but were never meant for people who wanted their e-peen stroked. Alas, Blizzard caved to the whiners and so they made hybrids as good as pure classes in which ever primary role which of course made pure classes fucking redundant since why be a Warrior when you can just be a Druid who can tank, heal, dps and just have a blast while leveling.

 

[Lacrymas]

The raids and classes are structured and designed in such a way as to promote and reward the trinity of healer/tank/DPS, though. The original intention might have been "support", but in practice there is no support role (unlike in, say, EQ). A support shouldn't be a class which can do the trinity but worse, it should be a self-contained role in itself, that's why the initial intention failed.

 

[Lyric Suite]

If having a Druid as opposed to an extra healer, tank or dps yields better results (as it does) i don't see how it is a failure. The other alternative is to make hybrid classes able to compete with pure classes which as i said makes the latter redundant. I think it's all e-peen and nothing more. People WANT to be the top healers. They WANT to be the top dps. They want direct validation, and as a support you don't get any, because even though others may know you are bringing a lot of useful stuff to the table, it cannot be seen on any chart so it's all behind the scenes.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Speaking of Druids again, this shows why the original concept Blizzard had for hybrid classes was just superior, regardless whether what they came up with needed more fine tuning or not:



Hybrid classes were intended to be purely support classes. They were needed and necessary but were never meant for people who wanted their e-peen stroked. Alas, Blizzard caved to the whiners and so they made hybrids as good as pure classes in which ever primary role which of course made pure classes fucking redundant since why be a Warrior when you can just be a Druid who can tank, heal, dps and just have a blast while leveling.

100% this, and the homogenization of classes is a major reason I lost interest in the game.

The raids and classes are structured and designed in such a way as to promote and reward the trinity of healer/tank/DPS, though. The original intention might have been "support", but in practice there is no support role (unlike in, say, EQ). A support shouldn't be a class which can do the trinity but worse, it should be a self-contained role in itself, that's why the initial intention failed.

Bullshit. Support was brought because they had unique abilities that other classes didn't. Innervate, windfury totem, blessings, boomkin aura, shadow priest mana battery, etc., etc., The ability to do another role at a semi-decent level was merely a side-bonus.
Some of us actually liked playing support classes.

 

[Lacrymas]

I am arguing that they failed to create a support role in the first place, relegating the would-be support classes to healers, and that's why they started balancing classes around DPS/tank/healer. If that trinity is the only thing that exists, why would you want to be worse in any role by design? EQ actually has a support role in raids (that is filled by bards mostly, but also druids and shamans), WoW doesn't. Just having Innervate, which is a handy ability don't get me wrong, is not enough to legitimize the entire class as "support". When a priest inevitably specs Disc after BWL to get Power Infusion, does that mean it's now support instead of a healer that just has an extra buff?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I am arguing that they failed to create a support role in the first place, relegating the would-be support classes to healers, and that's why they started balancing classes around DPS/tank/healer. If that trinity is the only thing that exists, why would you want to be worse in any role by design? EQ actually has a support role in raids (that is filled by bards mostly, but also druids and shamans), WoW doesn't. Just having Innervate, which is a handy ability don't get me wrong, is not enough to legitimize the entire class as "support". When a priest inevitably specs Disc after BWL to get Power Infusion, does that mean it's now support instead of a healer that just has an extra buff?

Innervate was a base class ability in 1.12, it was replaced with Swiftmend in 1.11.
Boomkins were brought for their crit aura.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yes, but druids as DPS (feral, boomkin) or tanks couldn't do the job as well as other classes (or at all), so they might as well be healers which is a role they aren't so bad at. Boomkin aura didn't make up for the loss of a pure DPS class, if it did everyone would've taken at least 1. But this is where it gets complicated, if they are as good as other DPS classes, why would you bring other DPS classes when this one also provides a buff? If the combined DPS of the entire party with a boomkin makes up for the lack of a DPS then it doesn't matter what you bring, leading to homogeneity "bring the player, not the class". Which is what eventually happened.

A support class would've been focused around buffing other people and/or debuffing the mobs. Not generally having another role, like a healer or DPS, or being able to fulfill all roles at once, while providing a handy buff like innervate. The raid design and itemization don't support a class which can do *a little bit* of everything, you literally could not do any of these roles with sufficient efficacy.