In the forums of World of Warcraft, Reddit and Co. there are always players who are annoyed about the behavior or the way of playing of other Classic enthusiasts. Especially the “Spellcleave” strategy in groups currently meets with incomprehension, because all too often classes are left behind with which this efficient way of playing is not possible, according to the criticism.

In WoW (buy it now) Classic, two community philosophies clash, I’ve already discussed this in my column Play the class you feel like, but …

“On the one hand, the players who just want to experience the vanilla way again because they don’t want the “gogo” mentality on live servers. The way to play? Doesn’t matter! Bosses drop the same way, it just might take a little longer. The main thing is to have fun. On the other side, the players who want to approach classic content with the professionalism that’s common today, along the lines of “Wipes aren’t fun, and the faster we get through them, the more time I’ll have for other things!”

Of course, there is always friction when these two philosophies clash, and not just in the raid area, but already in the leveling dungeons. In recent weeks, we’ve come across posts like this one, “I’m about to give up on Classic because of cleave groups.” The accusation of the Shaman player: as a healer, he can’t find any more groups even after hours of searching already in the level phase, because very specific class combinations are often searched for on his server, which just race through the dungeons with their area attacks.

This post also asks whether the “spellcleave”/”meleecleave” trend would make finding normal groups noticeably more difficult on other classic servers as well. In a third example post dealing with the unword/password in WoW Classic, meleecleave and/or spellcleave are mentioned noticeably often. A recent Reddit post even expressed concern that some people might not be able to play a dungeon normally thanks to Spellcleave. The example given was a Warrior tank who a) didn’t use a shield because “streamers tank with two-handers too” and b) snapped at his party after a wipe why they weren’t using their Frostnovas and Blizzard. According to the creator of the post, the group consisted of a rogue, two warlocks, and a priest….

And 2019 wouldn’t be 2019 if there weren’t already a number of memes that address the “Dungeons in Classic” theme:

That’s also what Karsten thinks about Spellcleave and Co.
I had already expressed the fear in advance that efficiency thinking and the experiences we have made in the last 15 years will affect Classic WoW in this way. As a rogue myself, I am also affected by this, as there are a number of requests that I cannot qualify for in the group search chat because I do not meet their class requirements. Rogue mage just can’t be spelled. On the other hand, everyone should play WoW Classic exactly the way he or she sees fit and enjoys it the most (because: I don’t think you can play Classic wrong) – at least not as long as it violates the Blizzard Terms of Service.

At the end of the day, both philosophies will continue to exist in Classic, whether some like it or not. We just need to find a community that is on the same wavelength as you. And if the chat is only looking for certain classes, the other playstyles will have to band together and open their own groups. The classic dungeons can also be mastered well with exotic configurations – although perhaps not as quickly and efficiently, but certainly with more fun for many players.

Now it’s your turn: what do you think of the whole discussion? In your opinion, is it possible to play Classic wrong? Is there also the problem of “Spellcleave”/”Meleecleave” groups on your server? Tell us what you think in the comments!

What is WoW Classic?

World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.

Getting Started

All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.

1. Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
2. Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
3. Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
4. Click the Play button when the installation is complete.

You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!

Heroes&WIKI, WoW Classic, World of Warcraft Classic, WoW ClassicSpecial, WoW ClassicSpecials