Which is better: World of Warcraft Classic or Retail?

Veteran MMORPGer weighs in on what’s best in (WoW) life…

My son, a 16 year old, walked behind me and peered at my screen for a good 10 minutes. Being around a gamer-dad since his first breath he was awestruck at “how old and clunky WoW looks”. He’s seen me play Eve, City of Heroes and Villains, a dozen other MMOs and Then, I told him the horrible truth:

It’s World of Warcraft Classic on the official Blizzard server!

-Me, to my son on how ancient the game looks.

He was disgusted but I knew why. We built his Ryzen gaming rig a year ago. Because he runs around with a 5th gen i5 when he plays games at his friends house on a laptop I gifted him and the Ryzen at home he gets in plenty of Overwatch and more current games but the rustic and “clunk” of Classic WoW was a shock to his system (puny human) but can play on 8 year old hardware.

Due to this shock between the spit-shine and polish of Shadowlands my son was vehemently against “Classic”. However, I am not. I was playing FF XI before he could speak. Therefor, I was ready and the grind-crawl to 60 was well on it’s way!

We all know what the Vulpera look like. Don’t pretend you don’t.

However, before my astute clone headed off I showed him my latest “Shadowlands” alt after using my /played of 6 days and 9 hours on my level 42 Mage. A Vulpera Rogue over on “Retail” with only 1 day at level 89. Sputtering followed, a shake of his head and then an embarrassing dab. With that he ran to the kitchen for a slice of pizza.

However, the pizza was inconsequential to the bigger picture. 62+ hours or more won’t get you to level 60 in Classic. An insane time-sink and grind worthy of angst for years to come back in the day have returned. With it, nostalgia, and the community.

So which is better?

Over on the Retail servers they running BfA and Pre-installing Shadowlands we have an “Item Grind” existing as an all-time-consuming event to be decked out for the next expansion and upcoming Level Crunch.

A question asked by children, the unleveled, and the casual player. Truth be told you can run through Retail in a few weeks of casual and light play but Classic requires a whole other class of gamer. So we’ll make it easy for you:

Classic
If you like-
Slow Burns on Content
Min/Maxing Gear
1 Mount you grind hours to get
1 Main Toon/Character and 1 alt
Raids with Class Priority
Thirst for that Mage Water
Slow Professions
Scarce Auction House Market
Retail
If you like-
Running through Content
Shiny Collections
Tons of Mounts with fast gold
1 Main Toon/Character and many alts
Raid Finder
Fast Secondary Energy Regen
Streamlined Professions
Plentiful Auction House

Let it be said that Blizzard has done right by players offering both a nostalgic blast from the past and a modern gear grind. Due to the overall statistical yoyo-ing of subscriber count many “Quality of life” improvements have put into play.

Even PVP combat in Southshore and the instances feel genuine. So, if you don’t feel like buying the “Newest Expansion” you can always take a trip to the past with a current subscription! Here, have a free pet on us for the first 4 people who use this official Battlenet Link!

We will see you there! We’re on Proudmoore for the Alliance, Antonidas for the Horde and Classic you’ll find us everywhere!

-Loremaster Robert R.