Stay Classy WoW: Slowly but surely – Level 20

The year 2020 has been a rather difficult one. I don’t think I need to tell anyone in the world of the struggles that humanity has been dealing with. Some worse than others, but everyone is somehow affected by what’s going on. For me personally COVID-19 has been only part of a problem. There are other things that are going on with the family, and the church we attend. The most recent thing that was very stressful to deal with was my grandma’s passing. She was 89 years old and lived a full life, she didn’t suffer in the end. Just fell asleep with her children around her and passed beyond where we can reach her. It still really really sucked. She was an incredible person and an incredible example of how a life should be lived.

So what does that have to do with World of Warcraft Classic(WoWC)?

I don’t remember if I ever wrote about this in the original series, but Azeroth has been one of those places I go to when I am overly stressed in life. I didn’t know I do this until my wife pointed out that whenever something difficult or stressful happens she sees me reactivate my WoW account. I didn’t believe her of course, but then started paying attention as to when I resub to the game and sure enough, it’s when I am scared, stressed out, or just tired of it all.

Which is interesting to me, because I like to do self exploration to understand why I am the way I am and if there is anything I would change. When it comes to this specific situation, I think I go back to Azeroth because that was the time when everything in my life was working out. I felt a sense of safety and comfort. There were some tough times in my life and my momentary escape has always been Azeroth. Something about the music, the setting and maybe even the colors that make it so welcoming.

So needless to say, when I was dealing with all of the things I decided to log in and go see what my hunter is up to in WoWC. 

I just reached level 20, which means I got a boost to my movement speed, a new talent point and of course new skills that bankrupted me. I don’t understand why they cost so much when your gold income is so slow. But that’s just the way Classic is. I am still in my original guild that I was when I first started playing on a Classic server, which I am incredibly thankful for. They have been very kind and understanding of people not playing for long periods of time. 

When I jumped back in I realized I still had my Deadmines quests I needed to finish up, Vancleef wasn’t going to just pick up and go. Someone needed to give that guy a bloody nose. Of course not knowing what the population was like on the server at that level I just opted to ask a guildmate to run me through it. They did and it was awesome quick and easy, got the quests completed, got new gear. Brought back a lot of memories of when I first went into that instance. I believe it was the very first of its kind that I played. At the time I was in a pirate themed role playing guild. They were a funny bunch of people.

What changed when I hit level 20? In retail a bunch of things change but in classic like I mentioned above you get to run a little faster, but the gameplay remains the same. You are just doing quests, hopefully reading the text. I have decided to do some side quests recently, just to see what I might have missed the previous times I leveled. So far I have not found any super interesting ones. Going to keep trying though.

The current area I am questing in is Redridge/Lakeshire which I keep calling Redshire or Lakeridge… Not sure why but it’s hard to remember that it’s Redridge and Lakeshire and not the other way around. This is my second least favorite zone to level in in WoWC. My first would be Stranglethorn Vale… that place is the worst.

Going through the low level zones like Redridge/Lakeshire, I am simply blown away by how many people are still playing. I mean I took a break for a couple months and came back fully expecting these zones to be empty, giving me the peace and quiet I want, but nope. People are still playing at all levels it seems. I don’t know if it’s the COVID-19 bringing players in or what, but it was cool to see people still enjoying a game from way back when. I am hoping Blizzard labels this experiment as a success and continues to work on it.

With all that said, if I had one wish for WoWC is that the crafting would somehow be more relevant in the game. It feels like you just skip most of it. The gear you make is worse than what a low level mob would drop so there is no point in leveling that part of the game. Just feels like it would be so cool if some of the best gear in the game wasn’t dropped, but instead was made by players. I think it would create a nice social dynamic. To be fair WoW does get some crafting to be pretty relevant like Enchanting for example. It would be awesome if you could make your own suit of armor or your own weapon.

One other awesome thing that I would like to mention, is the game is so small compared to the retail game that I was able to install it on my little laptop and play. Why is that important? Well back to my story up top, when I felt super down, I just got up in the morning and said well the next time I take a break from work I will just run a quick quest! And that right there changed my mood completely. 

I am glad that WoWC is so easily accessible. In the next article I want to talk a little bit about the comparison between WoWC and Lord of the Rings Online. I have had the pleasure of playing both and to be completely honest I really enjoy both.

Until next time!