---
title: 'Should You Play Classic WoW or Retail WoW?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=O6ikoIQemTU'
video_id: 'O6ikoIQemTU'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 603
---

# Should You Play Classic WoW or Retail WoW?

> Source: [Should You Play Classic WoW or Retail WoW?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=O6ikoIQemTU)

## Summary

This video helps new or returning players decide between Classic WoW and Retail WoW by outlining their key differences. Classic offers a slow-paced, community-driven leveling experience, while Retail focuses on endgame content and collecting. The creator provides a simple breakdown to guide viewers based on their preferred playstyle.

### Key Points

- **Video Purpose** [0:00] — The creator addresses frequent questions about whether to play Classic or Retail WoW, aiming to provide a clear answer.
- **Classic WoW Overview** [1:28] — Classic is an old-school MMO with a Dungeons & Dragons vibe, emphasizing community and a slow leveling journey.
- **Classic Leveling Pace** [2:32] — Leveling is slow; casual players may take months to reach level 60. The focus is on the journey and world exploration.
- **Retail WoW Overview** [3:58] — Retail is a modern MMO with enhanced graphics, fast leveling (cap in hours), and emphasis on endgame content and collecting.
- **Retail Endgame Focus** [4:22] — Retail offers raids, mythic+, delves, and multiple difficulties. It also has extensive collection systems for pets, mounts, and player housing.
- **Future of Classic** [5:36] — Classic Anniversary servers will progress to Burning Crusade soon, but long-term plans (Wrath, Classic+) are uncertain.
- **Future of Retail** [6:26] — Retail has a clearer roadmap with the Worldsoul Saga (Midnight and beyond) announced, providing more certainty.
- **Final Recommendation** [8:56] — Choose Classic for a relaxed, community-focused leveling journey; choose Retail for endgame challenges and constant updates.

### Conclusion

The best choice depends on your preferred playstyle: Classic for a slow, community-driven leveling experience, or Retail for fast-paced endgame content and regular updates.

## Transcript

What's going on, guys? And welcome back
to another video. So, I've been getting
a ton of comments lately, and I think
it's because of the time of year that
we're at and what's coming out uh for
WoW Classic, for WoW retail. Um, you
know, a lot of people have been asking
me, "Hey, I'm new to WoW. I just want to
start playing. Where do I go and play?
Should I play classic? Should I play
retail?" Now, I'm making this video as
basically an answer to all of these
comments because quite frankly, I'm
tired of typing the same exact answer
over and over again to people. Um, and
and it's a pretty easy thing, right? So,
I've I've actually made a little bit of
a list, a very small list of some of the
key differences between classic and
modern. So, if that's you, if you're
someone who doesn't know which version
of WoW they want to play right now, uh,
this video is definitely going to help
you out. I'm not going to go into every
single version of the of the six or
seven versions that we have of Classic
WoW. I'm just going to talk about
Classic WoW in general and as a whole,
right? So, you have classic WoW, which
has its own little ecosystem of like
hardcore, anniversary, classic era. Um,
and then you have uh modern WoW, which
is going to be midnight very soon,
right? Um, and for those of you who
don't really know where to go and you
want to start playing WoW for the first
time, or maybe you're coming back after
like a 10-year break, I'm going to break
it down for you as simple as possible.
Right? I'm not going to go very
in-depth, but I'm going to give you the
simplest reasons uh the simplest
differences between both versions of the
game. So, let me tab over to this little
list that I made here, right? We have
classic. So, let's look at classic as
basically anniversary era um and
hardcore, right? And then we have
Midnight, which is what the next
upcoming expansion for retail. Wow.
Currently, we're we're with uh in the
War Within um and we're going to be
moving into uh Midnight. So, for some of
these very simple differences that I've
listed here, you have classic is more of
an old school MMO, right? Think of like,
uh, you know, a 20-year-old kind of like
Dungeons and Dragonsy vibe experience
baked into an MMO. It was amazing 20
years ago. It's amazing today. Uh, you
know, it's with stood the test of time,
still very popular, tons of players.
Classic is a massive community. Um, and
that leads me to the next point that
Classic gives you a sense of community
that you do not get in retail. Um, yes,
you could join a guild. Yes, you're
going to be raiding and all that in
retail if that's what you want to do.
But the sense of community in classic,
uh, it just far surpasses retail. You
actually have to talk to people and
communicate with other players to get
into raids to do endgame content in
classic. Um, but that's not really where
classic shines, right? Classic is a much
slower pace. You level much slower. It
takes, you know, if you're just a casual
player, it could take you months to hit
level 60. Um, and the focus is really on
that, right? the focus is on leveling
and the world. Uh, you know, taking your
character from level one all the way
through to level 60. Um, and and you
know, once you hit 60, yes, you can PvP,
yes, you can raid, yes, you can do
dungeons and farm your pre- raid uh best
in slot gear. Um, but the content is,
you know, generally seen as very easy.
Uh, you know, even knacks, people
struggle with it a little bit, but at
the end of the day, compared to retail
raids is very, very simple. Um, you
know, playing classic does require
communication. If you want to do
endgame, however, if you want to just
level from 1 to 60 as like a solo
experience where you really don't talk
to anyone, you could do that as well.
You can kind of play the game however
you want. Take as much time as you need.
There's no real rush to get to anything.
Um, and that's that's a very important
thing about classic. So, if you're
looking for a more relaxed uh, you know,
experience where you're kind of just
like the focus is on leveling and
getting to level 60 and going on this
massive journey, classic is probably
going to be for you. It's way simpler as
well in terms of combat, uh, systems in
the game and all that, you know, you
have your gear that you're trying to
get. Um, and the combat is is very
simple compared to retail. You know,
your most classes damage rotation is is
under three buttons, right? So then we
move over to retail, right? This is more
of a modern MMO vibes. The the graphics
are enhanced. It's a little bit more
bubbly looking. I personally feel like
retail has a little bit of a Disneyish
vibe to it. It's definitely a different
vibe. Um leveling is almost
non-existent. You could hit cap level in
a few hours. Um but the focus in retail
isn't on the leveling, so that's okay,
right? Retail, the main focus is on the
endgame content. Um or collecting,
right? There's two ways you can you can
play retail. You could play it as a
casual player. There are hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of different
things to collect in terms of pets and
mounts. And now we're going to have
player housing in retail. So, you're
going to be collecting all these things
to put in your home. So, if you want to
play retail as a casual player, you
could do that as well uh and play it as
a collector. But if you are someone who
likes to play, you know, do and do
endgame content, you have raids, you
have PvP, which is, you know, iffy. Uh
but you have mythic plus. Uh, you have
delves, which are, you know, basically
solo endgame content. There's so many
different ways to play it. And then the
raids themselves have multiple
difficulties. You have LFR, you have
normal, you have heroic, and then you
have mythic. So, you could still do
endgame and make it very easy in retail.
But, if you're looking for a challenge,
that challenge is there as well.
However, with retail, like I said, you
don't get that that leveling experience
and that sense of community and like the
living world that you get from classic,
right? retail shines more in the
collector's aspect and the [music]
endgame aspect, the, you know,
challenging content. Um, but another
major thing that I do want to bring to
light about both of these versions of
the game is the future of both of the
versions of the game. For classic, we
know the Burning Crusade Classic is
launching again probably within the next
3 months. Um, so that's the future of
Classic Anniversary. If you want to play
on Classic era, that is basically a
server that is stuck in uh, you know,
2019 Classic WoW when that ended. uh
that is where that server is. It's in
the next phase, the end phase of of that
version of the game and will never
progress out of that. If you want to
progress into the Burning Crusade, you
do need to play on the anniversary
servers. Whereas, uh you know, we don't
really know what's coming after that.
Are we getting a Wrath of the Lich King
classic again? Are we getting classic
plus? We have no idea. So, the future
for classic is very uncertain. And I
know a lot of people out there that kind
of uh is important, you know, for for
you where you know where you're going to
spend hundreds of hours and invest all
this time. You want to know the future
of of what you're doing and I completely
get that. So for retail, WoW, we know
that we're getting Midnight and then we
know we're getting the next expansion in
the World Soul saga and then after that
it's a little uncertain as well, but I'm
sure it's going to continue in some way.
Um, so the future is a little bit more
certain when it comes to World of
Warcraft uh retail, modern, whatever you
want to call it. Uh, you know, at last
BlizzCon, they announced the next three
expansions, whereas classic, we kind of
don't really know what's coming until
like 5 6 months prior uh to it
happening, and it's probably always
subject to change. The moral of the
story here is that if you're looking for
a more old school experience where the
focus is on leveling and you're just
taking time going through this world and
uh you know you just you don't really
care what's after it. You just want to
enjoy that journey. Classic is going to
be for you. You're going to join a guild
if you want or play solo. There's a
massive sense of community. There's
people still leveling all out in the
world. The world in classic is very much
alive where the world in retail is very
much instanced and feels a little bit
more of like a solo journey while you're
leveling. And then endgame obviously,
yes, to, you know, to join in these
raids and stuff and dungeons, you're
just kind of queuing for them. You can
kind of go through the whole experience
unless you're doing really hard content
without talking to anybody. Uh you don't
have to form groups manually. You you're
just using queue systems and then, you
know, getting teleported to the
dungeons. Um so the difference there is
that there's a there's a much lower
sense of community in retail, but you
have the promise of constant updates,
right? every few months at this point,
you're getting a new update. There's new
content, there's new systems, there's
catch-up mechanics, whereas classic is
is is just way slower. There's a lot
less content. Uh the game takes a lot
longer to play. In my opinion, feels a
lot more rewarding as you're leveling up
and you get a piece of gear when you
equip it, you know, and you're you're
hitting for harder damage on these mobs
or or in PvP. You really feel that sense
of accomplishment, like your character
is really progressing. uh whereas retail
takes a little bit longer for you to
feel that progression to feel like
you're getting stronger. So, I just
wanted to make this video because I've
been getting literally so many comments
and it's probably because there's
marketing that like, you know, uh, you
know, Midnight is coming for retail and
Blizzard is pushing the anniversary
servers and all that. So, a lot of, you
know, older players, uh, that maybe are
returning for the first time or, you
know, even people who have never played
WoW ever and want to give it a shot.
This video is is for you. I kind of want
to give you this breakdown because I get
I'm not kidding. I get like 50 comments
a day asking, "I'm new to WoW. Should I
be playing retail or should I be playing
classic?" Um, there's no right or wrong
answer. It really is based on what fits
your play style and what what the
experience is that you're looking for
out of World of Warcraft. I think both
versions of the game offer something
special. Um, I'm more of a classic Andy
myself. I I I truly enjoy the classic
version of the game. And if you're
someone who wants to come back and have
like a like a really hardcore
experience, you have World of Warcraft
Classic hardcore where your character
has one life. Um, you know, and you
could try and get to level 60 without
dying and go slower and, you know,
there's ways to play. Classic is a
sandbox uh at heart. Not fully. Um, but
there's some sandbox elements to
classic, whereas retail is definitely a
more linear path that you're going to
follow uh towards endgame and then, you
know, to achieve whatever you want
there. So, I hope that this helped you
guys out. Um, you know, and when I get
these comments, I'm going to refer them
to this video from now on. This video is
something I just wanted to make and
leave on the channel. Uh so that you
know people can I could refer people to
this. So if I helped you out, drop a
like, subscribe to the channel if you
love WoW as much as me and my community.
Uh follow me over on kick
kick.com/hammerdance. We stream Monday
through Friday 8:00 p.m. Eastern over
there. We just hit partner. So if you
want to come show some support by just
hanging out, come on and do that. But
anyways guys, that's all I've got for
you today. Thank you all so much for
watching and listening in. I'll see you
all in the next