Play the complete WoW story once in two to three years – and then lose the character forever!? We’re investigating whether legacy servers make sense these days, while also exploring the classic concept for possible ways to play.

One of the indisputable truths in the WoW community is the Methuselah principle: Similar to vampires, WoW players become more powerful and respected the older they get. Don’t you believe us? Ask once in the official forum for the best expansion and you will get eight different answers. The important thing is that everyone feels compelled to say how long they have been playing. You gamble since Cataclysm? Your opinion is wrong. Have you been gambling since Legion? Count yourself lucky you didn’t experience MoP. Since WotLK? Congratulations, you are a so-called “Wrath Baby”. The illustrious elite, who started the game with vanilla, are allowed to speak out from their storm-tossed throne and rule the classic server discussion with an iron fist. Well, admittedly it’s not that bad.

The fact is that even today there is a technical difference in discussion between those who have already completed their WoW journey and those who are looking forward to their Classic Server journey with big eyes and even greater expectations. Even the release of WoW Classic hasn’t defused the discussion about true players and the soul of WoW, since the servers are based on a single patch and are therefore not “real”. The WoW community loves only one thing more than their fellow players – and that is to fight bloody battles with their fellow players. However, one thing is clear: the time of the “WoW killers” is over. World of Warcraft (buy now) won. And that means that despite all the problems and game mechanics that have been completely swapped out over the years, it has gotten something right.

With the twilight of The Burning Crusade Classic, the discussion shifts from “Retail vs Classic” to “Classic or TBC”. The obvious answer would of course be “Both!”, but it’s not that simple because, as always, there is a lot of time involved in the decision. The mere question of which raids you will run in the future and where your guild will settle weighs heavily, because this decision dictates where you will spend a large part of your free time in the next year or two. What happens when more era servers are opened? And what would be a viable alternative to a playable server history book full of different ages and expansions?

We’ll be exploring with you what the future of Era Servers holds, how best to implement them, and the concept of a “Legacy Server” that progresses through all WoW expansions within a span of a few years and at the end is restarted. If your fingers are already itching to write a reply – very good! We look forward to your insights. So follow us into the jungle of the Classic servers and strap your pith helmet on tight – because this is where it gets more than a little crazy.

The way is the goal: servers with a limited runtime

Imagine this: You start playing in the Classic era and end up in Shadowlands two to three years later. A new server is launched every year; Servers that have a limited lifetime but allow you to play all expansions from start to finish. As a server nears its end of life, there is a big event where the community comes together again to witness the shutdown live. Maybe we’ll see each other again on the next legacy server? When the lights go out on the server blade at Blizzard HQ, the characters you’ve laboriously leveled up will also be gone forever. At least until a level 1 hero sees the light of day on a new special server.

The concept of “legacy servers” has been haunting the community for some time: an Azeroth that will only exist once for a few years in a row and then disappear again. If you look at it matter-of-factly, servers of this type are of particular interest to hardcore players who may have already gained experience on one or the other private server – on which it is not uncommon for everything to go to zero after two or three years is set. However, this is a negligibly small proportion of the total population of WoW. Because let’s be honest: In the minds of most players, the fun factor of “lose all your character progression” should somewhere between a severe concussion and a particularly bitter Greek tragedy. So what’s so intriguing about the concept that it keeps coming up?

Era Servers: A server history book for every taste
To understand the fascination with legacy servers, let’s first look at the current server ecosystem: First, we have the retail server community that plays their WoW expansions as they fall. We also now know that even if The Burning Crusade Classic becomes a smash hit, the WoW Classic servers will continue to run. And it’s highly likely that the TBCC servers will be buzzing with activity even when Wrath of the Lich King Classic launches. This concept, which came up with the launch of TBCC, is called the “era server” in official Blizzard jargon and will almost certainly represent the future of the classic concept: A new classic server will be announced every few years, so that the previous flagship expansion slips into the era section, but can still be played. As soon as the (currently) eight WoW expansions have rotated through, the player has a veritable library of Blizzard’s MMORPG history at his disposal, in which he can let off steam to his heart’s content.

Viewed soberly, this approach is the only correct one. You get the full breadth of content that you can play at your own pace and exactly as it was back then: without any chromie time and with all the mechanics, advantages, disadvantages and the feeling that goes with it. Once you’ve had your fill of an era, you’ll switch servers, even copying your character in the process – if you want to overcome the cost hurdle that will come with it. In this way you can work your way up server by server and era by era until you finally arrive in the current time. And best of all: In our example, you own a character in each age, so you can simply travel back in time and play an old expansion again if you wish! The whole thing gives Blizzard a lot of additional profit without much additional effort and teases out the nostalgic feeling of the players, which makes them think of the old Blizzard feeling and the heyday of MMORPGs. This way, even if you’re a total newcomer to Azeroth, you can experience pretty much everything that WoW’s “old nobility” went through as well.

Now the question of questions arises: if the era concept is longed for by the players, offers you a gigantic selection and on top of that constructs a permanently walk-in live history book of the WoW saga … then why to the nether with the legacy- Servers build the same thing, only in the end everything you’ve ever achieved is lost forever? Be patient, because in order to fully understand the concept, we must first look at another server gameplay.

Prestige Server: World First once, but please don’t stress!
Not only the comprehensive timeline of an era server library but also the competition of the so-called prestige servers play into the concept of a legacy server. This concept is widespread in the WoW private server community and appeals to players who want perpetual progression without waiting months between official patches. At its core, Prestige servers follow the legacy server idea, but without going through all the expansions in a row. For example, if you play on a Classic Prestige server, you create a character that you accompany on a journey of around one to one and a half years. Meanwhile, he goes through all dungeons, raids and PvP battlefields of the expansion, which, as usual for WoW, appear at a certain distance from each other.

This type of server primarily serves two major desires of hardcore gamers: First, players whose main focus is on the competition itself and the associated hunt for the coveted “world firsts” can compete with each other. Of course, first place on a constantly restarting server isn’t actually world first – but the feeling of sporting competition comes very close to the original. Secondly, starting on a fresh server is always a special feeling for a large proportion of WoW players. Everyone has the same prerequisites, everyone starts from scratch and has to work their way up the level and item ladder with the sweat of their brow. It’s always interesting to see how the ecosystem of servers emerges, and which players and guilds will rise to prominence. In addition, periodically restarting Prestige servers avoids the “exodus problem” that often accompanies the announcement of regular fresh servers: an existing server population tends to shrink each time the lights come on on a new server, because situations of this type occur on the typical prestige player perform an irresistible siren song. Dedicated prestige servers would at least have a chance to stabilize the population of regular servers. because situations of this kind have an irresistible siren song for the typical Prestige player. Dedicated prestige servers would at least have a chance to stabilize the population of regular servers. because situations of this kind have an irresistible siren song for the typical Prestige player. Dedicated prestige servers would at least have a chance to stabilize the population of regular servers.

Legacy Server: Tour de Force

This finally brings us to the real legacy servers, which in their function represent a combination of era servers and prestige servers, only here all the controls have been turned to the limit. Everything is faster, more epic and more intense, because you go through the entire history of WoW in a relatively short time. Afterwards your character will disappear forever – apart from the memories you have collected during this period. Of course, the legacy experience is so intense because it squeezes a phenomenal, cosmic mass of content into a tiny amount of time. Anyone who wants to do progression raiding here will visit a new raid every few weeks and experience something new practically every day – especially if they started WoW with BfA or Shadowlands. Mechanics and class designs alternate every few months, keeping the gray matter fresh while PvP battles pump the adrenaline into your system in big spurts in this way: Have you already arrived at the “perma-stun warriors”? What is the best arena team composition this week? Think fast and act faster!

Secondly, this way one story event follows another and gives you the feeling of a television series or a classic epic. From the scheming of Onyxia to the defeat of the Lich King and our arrival in the Shadowlands, you’ll be immersed in the story of your favorite game. You don’t even have to be in raids to do this: If you just want to experience Warcraft from start to finish, the Legacy Servers are the perfect opportunity to do so. Checking in once a week is enough to experience almost everything up close and then at least be able to have a say – even if the ancient forum vampires of Azeroth may have a different opinion.

Devil’s Advocate: More problems than benefits
Now that we’ve explained the concept and listed the benefits, let’s put on our killjoy sunglasses and probe the Legacy servers for weaknesses. Because while the Legacy Principle is potentially a shining example of Blizzard artistry and the power of good storytelling, it comes with a lot of problems. The first thing that catches your eye is of course the absolutely brutal effort that such a server concept would entail: Blizzard would have to devote a considerable part of its workforce to this project so that everything runs smoothly. Let’s capitalize that again: the amount of work would be downright ABSURDLY HIGH. Even if you agree, as on the era servers, to align everything to a single patch, the basic systems would still have to be turned inside out every few months. And that’s not even taking into account the new features that are introduced with the different phases of each expansion. Every touch that goes into such a mammoth project is lacking on the retail and era servers that form the backbone of World of Warcraft. The effort required would (probably) be disproportionate to the profit.

The leveling speed that would have to exist on a legacy server would blow your hair out of your face so that your level doesn’t hang at half mast at the end of an expansion. That would undermine the quest paths that have existed since WotLK and completely derail the story mentioned above. Either you follow the intended path and watch your fellow players as they pass you left and right, or you level up as quickly as possible – and only get half of the story. Want to read quest descriptions? Haha very funny! We hope that you already have the “Take everything and plan routes” addon in the download loop, otherwise the raid schedule will look bad.

Casual gamers who just want to time-lapse a little bite from each expansion don’t need BiS gear, quest addons, or great timing. Just log in every once in a while and complete your story tasks, and you’re in the next expansion. Oh, are you going on vacation? Do you play on the retail servers for a while or change the game for half a year? Then we wish you a lot of fun catching up on four WoW expansions; however, we really hope you enjoy keyboard extreme sports. Better yet, you log in and slam into a metaphorical wall because Azeroth has been gone for a year. While you knew what to expect when you created a character on a Legacy server, the Legacy time pressure,

Great and doomed to fail
Don’t get us wrong: we love the idea behind legacy servers. The prospect of reliving all that WoW has to offer without investing another 15 years is very tempting – for new and old players alike. The crux of the matter, however, is the infrastructure and planning aspect, which can only be solved if Blizzard invests properly in the concept. And why should that happen when the era servers are already a concept that is future-proof and offers hardly any additional work? In any case, we think that the WoW community should be happy to produce more crazy ideas, because that’s the only way an online role-playing game can develop. think big Think brave! just don’t forget, that Blizzard’s poor project managers can’t work miracles. Even if it sometimes looks like it.

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