[0:00] This is World of Warcraft. And this is
[0:02] also World of Warcraft. And this is also
[0:04] Wait, no, that's Fellowship. But this
[0:06] this right here, that's World of
[0:08] Warcraft. As one of the most influential
[0:10] MMORPGs in the world, WoW has lived
[0:13] through multiple expansions, additions,
[0:15] retractions, multiplications, and other
[0:17] math related words. But there is one
[0:19] unique thing about this MMRPG which no
[0:22] other title on this market has.
[0:24] >> Have you ever thought about adding
[0:26] servers for previous expansions?
[0:28] >> No. And by the way, you don't want to
[0:31] that to do that. Several months later,
[0:37] >> World of Warcraft, developed by
[0:38] Blizzard, has two different renditions
[0:40] with World of Warcraft Midnight being
[0:42] the current patch of so-called retail,
[0:45] while WoW Classic is still going strong
[0:47] with its vanilla version. Then there is
[0:49] The Burning Crusade and Mist of Pandaria
[0:51] and even hardcore for those daring folks
[0:53] that enjoy pain. like oh
[1:00] but how does the 20 plus year old
[1:02] classic actually compare to the newest
[1:04] version? Are they just the same type of
[1:06] game with more or less to do? Do they
[1:08] still have the same focus and vision?
[1:10] That is what we are trying to find out.
[1:12] So let's ask ourself the question WoW
[1:14] classic and WoW retail. What's the
[1:17] actual difference? First up I want to
[1:19] clarify that I cannot compare vanilla,
[1:21] The Burning Crusade, Hardcore. I'm
[1:23] [laughter] not that stupid. And Mr.
[1:25] Pandaria with retail since, well, my day
[1:29] only has a limited amount of hours.
[1:31] Therefore, I am comparing retail with
[1:33] the most recently released classic
[1:36] version, which is The Burning Crusade,
[1:38] an expansion that came out in 2007 and
[1:41] then again as a classic version in 2021,
[1:43] and now again as a classic version in
[1:45] 2026. Guys, it's the same game. Why are
[1:47] you playing it again? Oh, door's open.
[1:49] So, to have a fair comparison, I've
[1:51] created two new characters in both
[1:54] renditions. One in the recently released
[1:56] Midnight expansion and one character in
[1:58] the Burning Crusade version to get to
[2:00] level 70 for the endgame experience I've
[2:03] once lived through in 2007. In every
[2:07] MMOR RPG, the first step is to create a
[2:09] hero and begin your journey by traveling
[2:11] through various zones to fulfill quests
[2:13] and kill mobs to gain experience points
[2:15] and level ups. Starting out with the
[2:18] similarities, it is quite simple. In
[2:20] both versions, we create a character
[2:22] with slightly different customization
[2:24] options, but in both cases, we start out
[2:26] at level one. The next similarity is,
[2:30] yeah, that's about it. The starting
[2:32] areas are the same, basically the same
[2:34] with TBC. TBC being the short version
[2:36] for the Burning Crusade, giving us still
[2:39] the same quests we get to pick at
[2:41] retail. However, retail offers us the
[2:44] old and also a completely new starting
[2:47] experience with Exile's Reach, which
[2:49] gives new players a great entry point.
[2:52] Let's start out with TBC, picking up
[2:54] quests, hitting our first mob, and with
[2:57] a few casts, kill them with ease. So,
[2:59] let's hit the second mob. And we are out
[3:01] of mana, hitting them with our mace
[3:03] retail. Same same experience. We pick up
[3:06] quests, hit our first M. Oh, he's dead.
[3:08] Then, let's hit the second mob and he's
[3:10] dead. The third and why am I not running
[3:13] out of mana? Back to TBC. We are taking
[3:16] on one mob at a time. Clear out kill
[3:18] quests. Sit down to drink and refill our
[3:20] mana and gain our first level up.
[3:22] Feeling incredibly proud and
[3:24] accomplished. While on retail, we want
[3:26] we are level four and the new spell
[3:28] flies into our action bar. Uh-huh.
[3:31] Compare this with TBC. We are running to
[3:33] a class trainer. sell our complete
[3:36] inventory to obtain enough money for the
[3:38] few new spells we gain every once in a
[3:40] while. A few more minutes later, we are
[3:42] still drinking and hitting mobs with our
[3:44] maze. While on retail, we are flying a
[3:46] wonky machine bombarding the undead with
[3:49] powerful projectiles which could have
[3:50] won us heads and technology on the sorry
[3:54] Austrian genetics. 25 minutes into
[3:57] retail and I'm level 10 and unlock class
[4:00] specializations using the first talent
[4:02] point and gaining powerful new skills
[4:04] while 25 minutes into TBC and I'm still
[4:08] drinking and hitting mobs with a maze
[4:10] with countless item drops, a few new
[4:13] spells, quick level ups, and a dungeon
[4:15] showing the ropes of how game mechanics
[4:17] work. We get out of the starting zone in
[4:20] roughly 40 minutes. While in TBC, I am
[4:23] level five and making it out of the
[4:25] starter zones, still drinking and
[4:27] hitting mobs with a maze. While movement
[4:29] up until this point was similar in us
[4:32] traveling the short and long distances
[4:34] by foot, the beginning of the new story
[4:37] chapter in retail sees us instantly gain
[4:40] access to a flying mount. a flying mount
[4:42] that breaks the sound barrier every time
[4:44] it takes off, getting us from point A to
[4:47] point B in less than 10 seconds, which
[4:49] is also the reason why questing now
[4:51] amounts to a guiding arrow, showing the
[4:54] next point of interest we need to visit.
[4:56] The transition from slowly running to
[4:58] our grounded allies, two flying with
[5:00] neckbreaking speed across the map,
[5:03] blasting through gorgeously designed
[5:05] environments. It it's it's far too
[5:07] quick.
[5:09] This hasty pace of travel that rhymes of
[5:12] traveling is kept up throughout the
[5:14] whole leveling process with only a
[5:16] handful of quests amounting to a level
[5:18] up. While a random dungeon we can
[5:20] instantly teleport and have no
[5:21] connection to amounts to two to three
[5:24] level ups each time granting us new
[5:26] spells, new talent points, and shower us
[5:28] with rare and even epic items. It's just
[5:31] insane. while we are still drinking and
[5:33] hitting enemies with a maze in TBC.
[5:35] There each level up is a challenge. Two
[5:37] enemies at once are a struggle if not a
[5:40] fatal encounter, providing us with a
[5:42] slow but actually well balanced leveling
[5:45] experience in which we need to find
[5:46] allies to finish even the earliest of
[5:48] quests. Exploring a cave of Tros alone.
[5:52] Suicide. Doing the same game with a
[5:53] handful of players.
[5:56] Less suicide still dangerous. Three out
[5:58] of 10. Wouldn't recommend. And the first
[6:01] mount is far from inside and overall an
[6:03] actual undertaking with the first slow
[6:05] 60% mount being unlocked at level 30
[6:08] taking about 20 to 30 hours of actual
[6:11] play time. 20 to 30 hours. In that time,
[6:14] I've reached level 90 in midnight and
[6:16] I'm going through dungeons that can
[6:18] result in a seizure even for healthy
[6:20] people. What's happened, Chris?
[6:23] >> I don't [laughter] know.
[6:24] And even if we reach level 30 on TBC,
[6:27] who's to say that we have enough money
[6:29] for the writing skill? But back to the
[6:31] leveling experience in World of Short
[6:32] Attention Spancraft. There we venture
[6:35] through the previous expansion, Dragon
[6:36] Fire, Dragon Fluffer, Dragon Something,
[6:39] I haven't played it, and rush through
[6:41] dungeons we have no connections to.
[6:45] >> I don't even know who you are.
[6:46] >> Stories that are already obsolete for
[6:48] the new expansion. But to be fair, this
[6:50] is where retail World of Warcraft shines
[6:53] in the presentation of its story,
[6:55] especially once we reach Midnight. The
[6:57] cutscenes not only become more frequent,
[6:59] but further are wellvoiced, nicely shot,
[7:02] and give us a good sense of what the
[7:04] actual hell is happening here. Although,
[7:06] don't ask me what this Dragon Ball fight
[7:08] is about. In TBC, the story is hidden in
[7:10] the quest text quest text in the texts
[7:14] of the quest. Jesus with a far more
[7:17] grounded story line which I have to be
[7:19] frank I haven't read in 2007 nor in 2021
[7:24] nor now. So want me to kill 10s? You got
[7:27] it. Why? No idea. Furthermore, if I
[7:30] wouldn't use an add-on called Questy,
[7:31] the map wouldn't even show me where all
[7:34] the TRS are. I would have to read that
[7:35] quest text often giving the quest info.
[7:39] Yes, that's better. Often giving some
[7:41] vague directions. With retail, it's a
[7:44] little different. With Azeroth maps
[7:47] guiding us with an arrow towards shining
[7:49] items we need to interact with, talking
[7:51] to 100 NPCs 10 m apart, and with the
[7:54] flying mount, which rivals a fighter
[7:56] jet, those distances are, let's say,
[7:58] oddly placed, just like our role in the
[8:01] main story. Since throughout the 300 or
[8:03] so expansions WoW had over the 20 years,
[8:06] each playable character has transformed
[8:08] from simple soldier in the Horde or
[8:10] Alliance to one of the most powerful
[8:12] heroes of Azeroth. We are fighting gods,
[8:15] venture into the abyss, and literally
[8:17] run through time. On the other hand,
[8:19] with TBC, we are helping a drunk dwarf
[8:21] getting his fix, defend a shepherd's
[8:24] flock from a yeti, and clear the walls
[8:26] of annoying trucks while still drinking
[8:28] and hitting enemies WITH A WAND. WAND.
[8:31] LOOK AT THAT UPGRADE. ROUGHLY eight
[8:33] hours later, I've clicked enough shiny
[8:35] objects, spammed go enough times in the
[8:37] dungeon finder, and reached level 80,
[8:39] prepared for the new expansion. While in
[8:41] TBC, 8 hours would maybe bring me into
[8:44] my first dungeon, if at all. So, I
[8:47] changed tactics, created a mage, locked
[8:49] myself in a room, took some vacation
[8:51] days, and leveled this new character in
[8:53] record time to enter the dark portal
[8:55] once again. Comparing the leveling
[8:57] experience is as if we would compare a
[9:00] Ferrari. ready to rev up its 1,00
[9:02] horsepower engine against the Bobby car.
[9:05] Both are red and both can get you from
[9:08] point A to point B. But while the Bobby
[9:11] car sees us experience the world around
[9:13] us and overall is uh bumpy, right, the
[9:16] Ferrari is designed to bring us to the
[9:18] finish line in the fastest way possible.
[9:20] Leveling in retail feels far more like a
[9:22] nuisance, an obstacle to reach the end
[9:24] game, which is like a contentfilled
[9:26] pinata ready to be smashed. WoW Classic,
[9:29] on the other hand, is a grounded
[9:31] adventure providing a slowly paced
[9:33] experience with a focus on character
[9:34] progression. Each new item feels
[9:37] impactful and earned. Every new level is
[9:40] like a step of a stairway. You can feel
[9:42] the increased height and also the
[9:44] burning your legs because damn, we are
[9:46] doing a lot of running. This difference
[9:49] in speed and pace is just as apparent in
[9:52] the gameplay overall with every single
[9:54] ability in TBC having an actual impact
[9:56] you can feel and see in the enemy's
[9:58] health bar. Retail has far more
[10:01] abilities that are quickly being used in
[10:03] succession, but have less of an impact.
[10:06] So, let's compare two of the same
[10:07] classes and their actual fighting styles
[10:09] to outline this difference further. A
[10:12] frost mage in TBC works mostly with
[10:14] frostbolts, shooting enemies from afar,
[10:16] slowing them down, and on occasion
[10:18] freezing them on the spot, which results
[10:21] in a higher crit chance and powerful
[10:23] hits. The most powerful upgrade can be
[10:26] found at level 66 with ice, an instant
[10:29] cast that deals triple damage if used on
[10:32] frozen targets. On retail, a frost mage
[10:35] also uses frostbolt to hit enemies from
[10:37] afar, slowing them down, and they also
[10:40] use icecelance as an instant spell.
[10:42] However [sighs]
[10:44] we further build up shadow stacks, which
[10:46] can be activated by ice lance to explode
[10:48] on targets. While flurry is an instant
[10:50] spell that also builds up stacks, which
[10:51] can also proc and then deal 50% more
[10:53] damage. And then we have frozen orb
[10:54] working as an AoE hitting spell that
[10:55] slows down our enemies further.
[10:57] Frostbolt, Frostbolt, Frostbolt and
[10:59] Icelands, Frostbolt, Frostbolt. With the
[11:01] fire spec being just as loaded with
[11:04] animations and abilities, seeing us gain
[11:06] an instant pyro blast every time we have
[11:08] two crits in a row. While fire blast is
[11:11] a spell that guarantees a crit and can
[11:13] also be used during casting, making us
[11:15] pump out countless pyrolast especially
[11:18] during one specific cooldown called
[11:20] combustion, increasing our crit chance
[11:22] by 100%. The fire spec on TBC on the
[11:25] other hand is well not really viable for
[11:28] leveling PVP and even PvE. It is
[11:30] lackluster compared to frost or even
[11:33] arcane mages or rather needs a bit of
[11:35] tweaking from other talent trees to
[11:37] work. Which brings me to one huge
[11:39] difference between the two iterations.
[11:42] The choice. In TBC, we actually have a
[11:45] free choice on how to play our class.
[11:47] You might not get invited to groups, but
[11:49] it is your choice. We have three talent
[11:52] trees to choose from where you can
[11:54] freely pick and place your talent points
[11:56] in. And changing those talent points is
[11:58] costly. In retail, on the other hand,
[12:01] there we have also three possible play
[12:03] styles. But the talent tree changes
[12:04] according to the picked specialization.
[12:07] So a frost mage can never have fire
[12:09] spells and a fire mage can never have
[12:11] frost and an arcane mage, well they can
[12:13] go. So there is a lack of choice
[12:16] although there are a few ways to play a
[12:18] fire mage. Though at least there is a
[12:20] bit of agency, but still lackluster
[12:23] compared to the TBC choices we have. The
[12:26] seemingly overwhelming specs and
[12:28] abilities are further impacting the PvE
[12:30] and PvP content with raids and dungeons
[12:32] being rather simple and straightforward
[12:34] in TBC with only a handful of mechanics
[12:37] you actually need to keep in mind. While
[12:39] the same content in retail can be rather
[12:42] complex and tiring for the eyes.
[12:43] >> What happened?
[12:45] >> I don't know. The comparison in PvP,
[12:47] however, is something I want to show
[12:48] with musical notes. TBC having a slow
[12:51] reaction time needed and a more heroic
[12:54] feel to it, while retail well 2 3 4.
[13:00] [music]
[13:05] [screaming]
[13:09] I would like to go deeper into PvE and
[13:11] PvP comparisons, but that may have to
[13:14] wait for another video since I am still
[13:15] not level 17 in TV. So, what are your
[13:18] thoughts on classic versus retail? Have
[13:20] you played one or the other? Both or
[13:23] maybe neither? And what is the capital
[13:24] city of Czech Republic? Let me know in
[13:26] the comments. and have a great day or
[13:28] evening.