---
title: 'Classic vs Retail WoW - Which One Should You Actually Play'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=tyyDLuSkRe8'
video_id: 'tyyDLuSkRe8'
date: 2026-06-14
duration_sec: 850
---

# Classic vs Retail WoW - Which One Should You Actually Play

> Source: [Classic vs Retail WoW - Which One Should You Actually Play](https://youtube.com/watch?v=tyyDLuSkRe8)

## Summary

The video compares World of Warcraft Classic and Retail for a casual player with 2-4 hours per week. The creator discusses leveling times, endgame content, and personal preferences, concluding that the choice depends on the player's gaming style.

### Key Points

- **Player's dilemma** [00:22] — A Reddit user who started with retail but got lost in the story asks if Classic is better for a casual player with 2-4 hours per week.
- **Leveling time in Classic** [02:00] — With 3 hours per week, leveling to max in Classic or TBC takes about a year, meaning the expansion may be over before reaching endgame.
- **Leveling as content** [03:48] — If you enjoy leveling as a core activity, Classic is great; otherwise, it may feel like a chore.
- **Retail endgame shines** [05:52] — Retail's PvE endgame (Mythic+, raiding) is excellent, but the lore and leveling are criticized as poor.
- **Classic endgame less exciting** [07:44] — Classic endgame feels repetitive because players have already cleared those raids before.
- **PvP recommendation** [09:30] — TBC is considered peak PvP due to arenas and battlegrounds like Eye of the Storm.
- **Retail is modern** [10:14] — Retail is fast-paced, challenging, and has quality-of-life improvements, appealing to modern gamers.

### Conclusion

The choice between Classic and Retail depends on whether you enjoy leveling as a journey (Classic) or prefer streamlined endgame content (Retail). Both have merits, and the best version varies by personal preference.

## Transcript

What is up, guys? It's your boy Swollem
here, back with another World of
Warcraft video, and this one is going to
be a little bit more classic-centric,
but it's a video about World of Warcraft
in general, and it's going to be retail
versus classic. It is inspired by, and
I'll be talking about this Reddit thread
right here, which is titled the same,
classic versus retail. And the thread
itself is, "I have started wow with
midnight retail, but got completely lost
on the story and left. I'm a casual
player of 2 to 4 hours most weeks, and I
just don't have an interest to game more
than that. Would classic be an okay
option for a casual gamer like myself,
or would a different issues arise?" So,
I want to know I want to invite you guys
in the comments down below as well,
which version of wow would you be play
if you only had 2 to 4 hours of gaming
on a weekly basis? Are we thinking
hardcore, Season of Discovery, even
though that's kind of dead-ish,
classic era, TBC classic, Mists of
Pandaria classic, or retail, even though
he's already left retail. Let Let me
know your thoughts in the comments down
below, and try to like be a bit
like give me some reasons for why you're
choosing what you're choosing. I guess
that I made most of my content around
classic, so there might be a bunch of
classic comments, but I want to hear
like why, why you would play classic
over anything else. And I've obviously
played quite a lot of both classic and
retail recently. I'll be chiming in with
hopefully what could be an objective
opinion on this as well, instead of
Well, actually, it's going to be
subjective from my point of view, but
having played both classic and retail,
I'm not going to be like the usual
classic Andy who's just like, "Ah,
retail is bad, it's trash, everything
sucks." And I'm not going to be like the
retail Andy who's like, "Ah, classic is
so stuck in the past." I'm I like both.
I like retail, I like classic. Actually,
I love retail, and I love classic.
So, I would say for me, the answer to
this question of the which version to
play depends way more on who you are as
a person, and how you want to game as a
person as well. So, just based on what
you like doing in video games. The thing
is, classic WoW is great, [music] but
leveling it takes time. If you're
playing, let's just take an average
here. He says 2 to 4 hours per week. So,
let's say 3 per week. If you're playing
classic anniversary, you will
or TBC TBC anniversary actually, because
TBC leveling is slightly faster now. So,
getting from 1 to 70 in TBC is roughly
the same time as 1 to 60 is in regular
classic era. So, in that case, you will
spend 1 year leveling up. In which case,
if you play TBC and you spend a year
leveling up, TBC is going to be over.
We're going to be in Wrath, if we get
the Wrath. So, if you're playing 3 hours
per week, you will spend way too much
time leveling, and you will never get to
the end game. Likewise, in classic era
as well, you will spend a year of your
time leveling up a character before
getting to the end game. And then the
question is, how is the end game like in
a year in classic era? Just any version
of classic, leveling takes time. It is
slightly faster in Mists of Pandaria
classic, cuz every expansion we get,
they do make leveling faster and faster
and faster. So, I would say in Mists of
Pandaria, if you're playing 3 hours per
week, you're probably going to spend
like half a year leveling. But, in half
a year in Mists of Pandaria as well,
we're not going to be in Mists of
Pandaria anymore. We are either probably
going to be in Warlords of Draenor
classic, if we get that, or whatever
happens after BlizzCon this year. So, if
you enjoy leveling, classic is an
absolutely amazing choice for this
person right here. It is just you have
to think about leveling as a piece of
the content and not just a chore. Many
people really look at leveling as a
chore. I'm not one of those. I've
leveled way too many characters and
guess what I'm doing right now when I'm
playing off a stream and stuff. I'm
leveling alts in a season of discovery
for fun. So, I'm leveling more
characters off stream, off videos, off
content creation. Just whenever I'm
planning to have fun, I sit down, I game
some season of discovery. I'm level 25
right now on a brand new shaman that I
made just to experience what shamans
were like in season of discovery because
all of sudden I played alliance, so I
never got to play a shaman. So, I'm
playing a shaman this time on the horde
side on wildgrowth.
So, if I tell you that leveling is going
to take you between half a year and one
year of your time, you have to ask
yourself how do you feel about that?
Does that make you happy? And you think,
"Oh, dude, I get to spend so much time
leveling and just having fun." If so,
classic is a great choice. But if I tell
you that leveling takes between half a
year and one year and you respond with,
"That's long, really? That sounds so bad
and boring." Then maybe classic isn't
for you or Mists of Pandaria would
probably be the best classic suggestion
that we have at the moment based on
leveling speed. Season of Discovery as
well, we have a leveling buff, so
leveling there is faster. But the uh the
whole uh the season of discovery is kind
of dead at the moment until at least
June 19th when we have a Guesu and Joker
that are doing a fresh simulation on EU
for example. I think they're playing on
EU. I really hope so. Um so, we might
get a small resurgence when streamers
play there for a while. But in general,
season of season of discovery is kind of
over. So, if you want to level fast and
get to end the game, the best version of
classic is probably Mist of Pandaria at
the moment, which feels weird to say.
Now, for end game, I'm just going to say
that is where retail really shines in my
opinion, cuz I'm just going to say it,
the lore in retail right now is trash.
It's It's just gotten away too off
track. It's like it's taken so many
detours that I don't know where the
story is going anymore, nor do I really
care. I stopped caring probably around
the Warlords, I think. They pulled me
back in with Legion, but after BFA, I've
just not cared about anything story-wise
in retail ever since then. So, it's
gotten away off track, and it's It's a
struggle to follow. It feels like
they're just adding story for the point
of adding story, and it's no longer a
cohesive book. It's like you read the
main three books, and the IP just makes
10 more books, but they never had to.
It's just to milk the IP, and retail
feels the same. They never like BFA, we
didn't really have need to have BFA
lore-wise.
Warlords of Draenor as well was kind of
a detour. BFA was a detour. Shadowlands
was definitely a detour. Dragonflight
was a slight detour. The War Within as
well, we ended the expansion
So, Warlords also felt like a massive
detour. I don't know. Like, retail to
me, leveling sucks. The lore sucks. The
end game is great. Um espe- At least
with PvP, PvP sucks uh a little bit at
least, but um Mythic Plus dungeons is
great. Uh raiding is great. So, like,
the PvE end game of retail is honestly
really good for for gamers like me who
enjoys that style of content. It's more
modernized, absolutely, and it's more
based on just like increasing your skill
as a person, as a player, as a group
over time, and doing harder and harder
content over time, which I think is fun.
And for Classic, I feel like the end
game is not as great as in Classic as in
retail, mainly because we've been here
before. To me, that automatically makes
the end game a way more boring cuz I've
already cleared all of these raids. I've
already progressed through all of these
raids as well. So, I've already been
there pretty recently as well. And in
Mists of Pandaria, that's when I started
hardcore raiding back in actual mop. So,
I've already done those raids as well on
the mythic or I guess heroic or mythic
siege actually in the pre-patch. So, um
I've already done most of those raids on
the hardest content before. But leveling
in Classic, I honestly feel like it's so
fun. And there's a reason why I never
level alt in retail. The only times that
I level up alt in retail is it during a
remix event like Legion remix when we
had that for example because that we had
a new way of leveling which was fun.
Anything new is fun at least for a
while. So, I level up characters when
there's something new to do, but the
general leveling experience in retail is
just so well lost beyond redemption.
So, the TLDR for me at least is that
Classic does take a way more time,
especially leveling takes way more time,
but it's a way more fun. So, if leveling
if you hear if you think about leveling
and that sounds like a chore to you,
Classic it it it it's a lot of leveling
and when you're playing 3 hours per
week, you will spend a year or something
leveling up your character, which if you
don't enjoy leveling at all, that does
not really sound like a good way to
spend your free time when you can game 3
hours per week and the gaming is meant
to be fun. So, you're meant to do
something you think is fun. I think the
PvE end game in retail is great. And for
PvP, I would unironically play TBC. TBC
to me is probably peak PvP. Like the
introduction of arenas, for example, Eye
of the Storm Battleground. PvP in TBC is
honestly amazing. It does like Wrath as
well is I think PvP in Wrath is great as
well, but after Cataclysm it just takes
a massive downhill. Like yeah, it goes
downhill a lot I feel like. And retail
right now PvP is just not great. Either
way, I would love to hear your takes on
classic versus retail. I honestly think
they're both great. It just depends on
what type of a gamer you are. And I feel
like
retail is just more modern. It's a
modern MMO focused on the modern ways of
playing video games. It's way more
fast-paced. It's way more challenging
content, especially when you get to
mythic plus and also PvE content is just
more modernized and more quality of life
and stuff, which I don't think is a bad
thing. It just depends on who you are as
a gamer and kind of the mood you're in
as well. Because every now and then I'm
in the mood for some retail gameplay.
And every now and then I'm in the mood
for some classic gameplay. Just depends
entirely on
where I am in life at the moment. Either
way, a kind of a the weird video here I
guess, but I just wanted to talk about
this post right here and chime in with
my opinions. Just like I went from
no-lifing classic anniversary to
no-lifing hardcore to no-lifing Legion
remix to no-lifing
TBC pre-patch to no-lifing TBC itself.
And now no-lifing Midnight WoW. And now
that Midnight WoW is out of the
honeymoon phase, I'm doubling a little
bit in everything. I'm checking out some
hardcore. I'm replaying Season of
Discovery. I'm leveling a character on
Spine and Shatter in TBC. I'm still
playing some Midnight WoW as well as I'm
just playing a little bit of everything,
which I thankfully have the time to do
that, but not everybody has. Plus I'm
playing very casually at the moment. I'm
just doing whatever I think is fun when
I think it's fun. So, let me know your
thoughts about everything in the
comments down below about both classic
and retail and the state of things in
the comments down below. All right,
that's it for now. Thank you for
watching. I'll see you next time.
Now, whether you're playing retail or
classic, one of the things that I like
to do in the game every now and then is
simply shut off my brain and follow an
arrow. Now, for this, I have I'm using
Zygor right here. I have a following I
have a following I'm following a guide
for leveling through Zygor right now and
it's following like the side stories of
the zone. Now, I like Zygor a lot
because even though yes, like when it
comes to following an arrow, there's
multiple free add-ons out there. There's
even a add-on I think called Follow the
Arrow. So, when it comes to leveling and
questing, you don't need Zygor. You can
just have any add-ons out there. I think
even Harden has an add-on as well. But,
what I really like about Zygor is that
they have a bunch of guides for a bunch
of things. So, when it comes to leveling
for example, I can go to Midnight and
either follow the story campaign or I
can finish every single stone story and
side quest or extra story lines. So, you
can just like pick and choose what you
want to do based on how you want to
level your character. You also have a
bunch of guides for dailies for example,
so you can go in old expansions and do
dailies, cooking dailies, Burning
Crusade dailies. You can even do
Midnight Wow dailies. Now, if you don't
know how to do an event as well, for
example, Brewfest, Children's Week,
Darkmoon Faire, Feast of the Winter
Veil, Hallow's End, you name it. They
also have guides for those. They have
gold making guides. They have profession
guides. There's a bunch of things all
bundled in to one add-on, which is
honestly what I like. It's not it's just
for leveling, it's for a bunch of
everything. Leveling, completionist
content, gold farming content,
profession content. They even have
profession guides as well for every
single profession out there. Farming
mounts, farming pets, farming titles,
farming achievements, everything in
bundle in one place. Now, I have an
affiliate link for Zygor you can check
out through the link down below. That
way, if you are planning on getting
Zygor, you can also use that link and
I'll get a kickback. So, you're
supporting me and getting yourself a
great add-on at the same time. Either
way, that's basically this a shoutout or
sellout here, I guess, for Zygor. So,
honestly, it's great to have affiliates
like this. It's helping out my channel a
lot. And if you're planning on getting
it anyway, you're supporting me and
getting the guide or add-on at the same
time. So, yeah, check it out. Links down
below.