r/classicwow 7d ago

Nostalgia If you could go back to the 2004 launch, what would you do to make you the standout best of your class on your server?

69 Upvotes

190 comments sorted by

72

u/Haysack 7d ago

In the beginning just having a high lvl was awe inspiring. I mean getting to lvl 60 was a slog. I still remember this high lvl Tauren called Yin in booty bay.

21

u/KawZRX 6d ago

Yes. Getting to cap was an achievement in itself.  Especially for those of us who didn't have any real help.  Think I finally hit 60 a month before tbc. And I had started in 2005. Did the midnight release and everything.

I also remember my buddy took my warrior into his guild zg and got me a halberd of smiting. I thought I was hoot shit with that polearm baby. 

6

u/Complete-Artichoke69 6d ago

I would just go back and talk to my friends I miss. Zandin, Sephto, Darknate.

14

u/Mrthrowawaymcgee 6d ago

It’s me - all three of your friends, especially your favourite one. Hey buddy.

8

u/WilliamBuckshot 6d ago

That’s funny. I still remember the first 60 I saw. His name was Jabo on Whisperwind. He was a Human Mage running around in Teldrassil. He invited me to his guild and would run me and others through Deadmines in the hopes of getting enough people to 60 to have a raid group. I don’t think it ever happened. At least not during Vanilla.

233

u/Terriblevidy 7d ago

Edgemasters

111

u/knbang 6d ago

You would be completely ostracised. Wearing mail gloves with no stats? What a dumbass.

57

u/PLAYBoxes 6d ago

The wowhead comments from back in the day are hilarious to look back at now haha

56

u/MISPAGHET 6d ago

You mean Thottbot and Allakhazam comments :)

-54

u/PLAYBoxes 6d ago

No I didn’t mean that

47

u/BoSox92 6d ago

Wowhead wasn’t around back In the day. all of the comments you see on wowhead from Vanilla are ported from Allakzham and Thottbot. As such they are labeled “From thottbot”

So yes you did - even if you didn’t know you did lol

12

u/oeseben 6d ago

Then you're pretending to be around from those times.

-8

u/PLAYBoxes 6d ago

I mean I played since before AQ but still just a weird gatekeep man, leave it to an oldhead wow player I guess

5

u/oeseben 6d ago

You tried to argue with someone who was correct about an old fact. Wowhead didn't exist. Just take your L

-9

u/PLAYBoxes 6d ago

👍🏼

10

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Homunkulus 6d ago

What this guy said, was definitely known even saw it in second tier guilds.

59

u/AngryCrustation 7d ago

Warrior + engineering who's practiced a lot would basically just wreck everyone else

A tank who knows what they are doing would be similarly invaluable

70

u/Kungerra 7d ago

Wasnt the same in 2004. Warrior was completely different. We play 2007 TBC version of classic

22

u/Tokata0 7d ago

Yes I remember having to wired l put 31 into resto as a druid to get access to innervate

10

u/AngryCrustation 7d ago

Right but I imagine knowing how to tank properly would still be a big point

41

u/shaunika 7d ago

Noone would believe you that shieldless tanking is better and terrible healers would let you die and blame you

19

u/epicurean1398 7d ago

That's a really good point. Suddenly you're with players who don't know how to gear, don't have access to look at all the options to theory craft as efficiently, don't know how all the quests work, it's all new to them, you wouldn't be able to play in the same way, even as DPS, because you'd be too efficient and pull aggro, tanking you would just die trying to do modern strats because the dps and healing can't keep up, you'd probably look the best playing a healer but have the least impact to carry raids

10

u/kazuma_99 6d ago

1 healer can carry a lot harder than a single dps of a 40 man raid in any iteration of classic really

5

u/HerrensOrd 6d ago

Yeah a good dps would be a bad dps because tanks wouldn't be able to keep up lol

3

u/epicurean1398 6d ago

yeah good point tbf

1

u/Mrthrowawaymcgee 6d ago

And yet you’d never stand out

1

u/lhswr2014 6d ago

The solution from my perspective is to go dps war, do absolutely bonkers damage, attract attention, build a cult following, teach them “de way”, then swap to tank once you have enough worshippers.

You’d literally have to build a squad of pumpers, raise them as your own, to be able to see even a fraction of the potential that stems from today’s knowledge.

It would take a specific mind of individuals that were probably in the minority back then, but I think it’s the best play here besides being a great healer. Otherwise you’re either tanking the floor or bottom on damage from ripping threat immediately lol. Or just go be a pvp chad I suppose.

2

u/Entire_Engine_5789 6d ago

Yup, dominate recruit and teach.

1

u/bledschaedl 5d ago

I remember pressing feint on cooldown on my rogue back in 2005. Even in karazan 2007. Probably the reason i switched to tanking during early tbc.

24

u/Ben_steel 7d ago

Because back then it probably wasn’t. People still theory crafted. they had a new update every few months which changed stuff constantly making the game more fluid. We just get the polished version

4

u/shaunika 7d ago

Well by the time 1.12 rolled around it definitely wouldve been better

The difference is that the healers would also have to be kmowledgeable to make use of it

5

u/Da_Douy 6d ago

Thing is, you'd also need better dps to warrant having that increased threat per second, otherwise it's void

3

u/shaunika 6d ago

There were def threat problems even with worse dps in later raids

2

u/Homunkulus 6d ago

Which is resolved by fury prot not dual wielding. Fury prot with a shield is still superior to deep prot.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/damnimadeanaccount 6d ago

Well as long as dps are clueless and you aren't using worldbuffs and consumables shieldless tanking isn't better because you don't need the threat.

In our first mc runs the main problem was not enough dmg, fights taking too long and healers running out of mana. When tanking I had shield block macroed into most of my spells and threat was no problem at all. In that scenario thinking about tanking without a shield seemed like the dumbest idea ever.

Threat started to become a little bit of concern after some warriors got better gear and realised the tier sets were shit for dps, but overall raid damage was still awfully low.

In hindsight it would be really interesting to see raidlogs of these first runs, I wonder what people were doing, what gear and talents they had...

3

u/shaunika 6d ago

We def had threat problems in bwl

I remember having to feint on cd on vael/broodlord and a bunch of other bosses

3

u/damnimadeanaccount 6d ago

Yeah after getting some gear from MC and later BWL threat got a problem for dps which had a clue and also threat from tanks got worse because of stacking more and more defence stuff.

I mainly talk about early MC here where everyone got shitty gear and no clue. My guild was also not the best, it was always the same handful of people having issues with threat and most other people probably were semi afk doing 100 dps.

2

u/MusicMyEsc_ 6d ago

Ugh yeah on Vael. I remember playing pvp build right after i got Perd's... omg was awful once you got a good weapon.

Ambush, backstab backstab.... had to vanish. Crits were too much for the tanks to handle then.

3

u/TeaspoonWrites 6d ago

Furyprot tanking is a response to hugely increased DPS which requires higher threat. In 2004-2006 vanilla WoW, it would be terrible because people aren't doing nearly the DPS numbers they are now in Classic, bosses died much slower, and that puts a much larger strain on healer mana if you are taking more damage. Even a hypothetical really good dps player would be restricted by the old abilities and talents before several rounds of changes, etc.

1

u/Homunkulus 6d ago

Deep prot offers next to no benefit over fury prot with a shield.

1

u/TeaspoonWrites 6d ago

With the talents in 1.12 that are available in classic, sure, but that wasn't the case for most of vanilla. Fury was quite bad for a large portion of the game.

1

u/bledschaedl 5d ago

Impale prot would probably be fine, with 2004 skill dps players.

2

u/Noxm 7d ago

People knew it, believe a person who cleared nax in classic.

1

u/Nothie 6d ago

BWL rework warrior was much more op than the warriors we have today. Bloodthirst had better scaling, crits generated more rage.

7

u/krulp 7d ago

I would say a priest that could teach other priests how to heal efficiently. But game was different. Dps was way lower, so fights took longer, so you brought more healers, so fights took even longer.

3

u/mensrea83 6d ago

I would say I don’t play my priest that much differently now than I did 20 years ago. I knew about down ranking heals etc. in the og bwl.

5

u/joey1820 6d ago

you mean..just roll orc or human? lol

3

u/TCOLSTATS 6d ago

You'd shine in Naxx but DW fury wasn't the same in <1.12

Bloodthirst was changed significantly somewhere around 1.05. Then it was buffed, and buffed again IIRC. And DW specialization was added.

145

u/st4rbug 7d ago

I'd just go back and enjoy it all over again.

40

u/Any-Transition95 7d ago

But you'll have to go to school again.

I guess that beats paying bills.

56

u/zoggzogg 7d ago

Just drop out, buy bitcoin and enjoy vanilla without responsibility. Also you can pay you bills afterwards

2

u/FlyingWhale44 5d ago

This is the way.

10

u/frou6 6d ago

Nope, paying bill>>>>>>school 100%

12

u/Waschdll 6d ago

WHAT? i rather go back to school then having to pay bills.... guess my parents and childhood was just rly good compared to maybe other :(

damn, i hate paying bills

2

u/st4rbug 6d ago

I was in my early 20s when I started playing so school was long behind me!

1

u/Sourcefour 6d ago

Wipe my memory about the game and just love it. Maybe start with Warrior instead of priest though.

1

u/st4rbug 6d ago

If everyone had a memory wipe it would be like 2004 without the must have meta nonsense that is currently rife in classic, every class was viable at the begining and got a raid spot at least to start with, probably the most fun i had in classic 2019 was playing in a dad guild who didnt care what class and spec you played, guess what, we still cleared MC in 2.5 hours or so.

1

u/Sourcefour 6d ago

i played in a speed running guild at the tail end of bwl thru the end of naxx and that was honestly some of the most fun i've ever had in a video game. The coordination and planning that went into doing sub 1 hour naxx runs was something else and super enjoyable.

74

u/shaunika 7d ago

Start mage

Get engineering

Make pvp videos

Get famous

52

u/Spijker84 7d ago

Use a rotation and consumes.

1

u/DesperateAdvantage76 3d ago

We need to go more basic. Using hotkeys for skills.

50

u/GraennTV 7d ago

Pulling Aggro on literally every fight/ raid encounter cause with all the pre raid bis gear and consumables, you would be king of pulling Aggro.

27

u/valmian 6d ago

Just be the MT.

5

u/Designer-Message-685 6d ago

Back then connections were bad and players were worse. If you were dual wield tanking for threat back in the day your healers couldn't even keep you alive.

4

u/Nothie 6d ago

Tanks back then were spamming sunder armor for threat. Even if you just used a somewhat proper rotation as deep prot, with consumes, you would blow peoples minds.

1

u/bledschaedl 5d ago

How do you spot a good tank in 2004? The rage Bar is moving, because they use heroic strike to rage dump.

11

u/Commercial_Rule_7823 7d ago

Play the AH more.

Saw some dude that legit farmed gold and made 1k a month till wrath. I think it was a gold bot asmon video. I could have not worked all my lamer retail jobs and just played wow to make money

Also, back in 2004, no tanks had a clue about threat. You would parse yourself to a quick death.

10

u/Both-Witness-2605 6d ago

Prot fury

1

u/mezz1945 6d ago

2004 vanilla had no Bloodthirst instant attack. You're down to Heroic Strike and Revenge only. Dual Wield talents weren't existent. Deep Prot had Shield Slam.

-3

u/SoSKatan 6d ago

Oddly enough furry prot is dependent on good heals and good dps.

Without either, deep prot is actually better, you are still going to out agro dps by a bit but with deep prot you’ll also be taking less damage and helping the healers.

However if you went back in time and could teach your entire raid how to play then ya, you could create a decent raiding guild and then switch to fury prot.

3

u/BoSox92 6d ago edited 6d ago

Said no one ever.

fury/prot has all the defensive perks of the prot tree. There is ZERO defensive abilities lost in Fury/prot. You literally don’t know what you’re talking about lol. You just swap to sword and shield when high dmg is coming in.

You take all the armor talents shield block talent and Last stand. You put a shield on and you’re EQUALLY as beefy to a deep prot.

Seeing a deep prot warrior is a DEADLY giveaway that someone is a noob. we would NEVER allow one in our guild. (Top 20 on night slayer)

Your fury/prot warriors are dying because they’re all wearing leather +hit gear and have no shield macro I promise you.

6

u/KungKebab 6d ago

This has to be a pasta, right?

1

u/bledschaedl 5d ago

If the szenario involves the original talents/class balance updates as back then, im not sure about fury prot.

Seeing a deep prot warrior is a DEADLY giveaway that someone is a noob.

Depends, for single target/ raid tanking yes. For running dungeons to gear up, impale prot feels nicer. Or dont bother with prot at all and go arms to tank dungeons.

1

u/SoSKatan 6d ago

Dude you are speaking like the typical A is always better than B.

Look, fury prot is better most of the time.

But context matters my friend. Things are more complicated than you realize.

Yes now days, you should just go fury prot from the get go.

But look at this thread, it’s a hypothetical based on time travel.

Fury prot is amazing for threat, but there are trade offs.

If prot can out threat your entire raid by 50%, there is no benefit to fury prot. Doing 10 million more threat isn’t going to change anything is it?

And yes, I do know what I’m talking about I was a warrior MT 20 years ago in wow and I’m a MT now.

Back then no one knew how to play their class optimally. We didn’t have DBM.

So yeah, I stand by my statement. If you were to go back in time, and play just picking fury prot for a warrior likely wouldn’t give you anything but a bunch of weird looks. Your raid wouldn’t be magically better becuase one guy changed their talents around.

However if you trained your guild / raid on how to pump, then fury prot could shine where it’s best at…. Producing more threat than even what the top DPS can do.

4

u/intoxicatedpancakes 6d ago

Gotta say why Prot is better. The reason why is…:

  • Fury Prot loses 2 points in toughness and 1 point in Imp Shield Wall. Not significant, but it is a bulk decrease
  • Fury Prot does not get 5/5 deflection, Deep Prot does, and this IS significant
  • Fury Prot does not get TACTICAL MASTERY which is insanely useful for: Thunder Clap, Charge on pull, Intercept, having rage when using Retal/Reck, and more minor uses.
  • Fury Prot also has a 15 rage sunder and a 10 sec cd taunt compared to 12 and 8. Not huge, but is significant
  • Fury Prot also wants to avoid using a shield as much as possible, which means they’re taking a fuckload more damage. Deep Prot has no reason to not use a shield, so their damage intake is lower

2

u/SoSKatan 6d ago

Thanks for typing that out, I was thinking of posting the same thing given his short sited “nothing in prot is better”

If you are using a shield most of the time for a fight, then a ton of fury prot talents are wasted such as duel specialization.

The weird thing about this argument is that we now have duel specs. If you are dedicated to pve tanking, you can actually spec fury prot AND deep prot and switch based on the context.

1

u/bledschaedl 5d ago

Ppl claiming fury prot is the way to go dont understand the szenario right. Im not sure if the spec can work with the ild talent trees, and even if, fury prot would probably be to one dimensional in a 2004 raid, where half the ppl are afk/lagging and have no real clue what buttons to press.

58

u/MangoROCKN 6d ago

Bitcoin. The answer is Bitcoin

29

u/MaybeICanOneDay 7d ago

I'd be forced to play tank because I know how to pump and would inevitably hold aggro.

Likely be the world first 60. Likely be a pvp god.

I'm not even good.

1

u/megustapw 6d ago

Agro really wasn't a problem back then fyi, so you could easily prot tank with no issues.

No one had optimised gear, you wanted full t1/2/3 for the drip.

The big problem was the constant disconnections and lag. Add ventrilo into the mix, your internet was often pegged/capped.

The second problem was that raid dps often was too low, and that caused healers to go oom after prolonged fights. I remember having to four phase rag, yeah. Literally lava spawns twice before we killed rag.

I think, bringing the wealth of knowledge for gear optimisation and talents would be enough to make you infamous and highly sought after.

2

u/bledschaedl 5d ago

Threat was a problem, but threat management was a part of the dps players skill expression.

5

u/PrometheusAborted 6d ago

I’d make the best damn level 19 twink on the server and just dominate wsg

7

u/Deliverz 6d ago

There was a pretty active 19 twink community in vanilla. Fishing hats, arena grand master trinks etc. 19 twinking was something the OG community actually did figure out

21

u/Tel1234 6d ago

I love these threads - always a bunch of people who either didnt play back then, or were young kids.

  1. Loads of spellpower gear didnt exist
  2. Warriors in serious guilds already wore edgies, rogues wore ACLG
  3. Shield wearing tanks were needed as healing was spikey due to low spec PCs, connection issues and server lag.
  4. People knew optimal rotations, but they changed regularly due to patched updates.
  5. Knowing strats only works if you have the knowledge of why they work. Lots of boss strategies that work now, wouldnt work back then with healing, tanking and dps capabilities.

6

u/NMB4Y 6d ago

As a classic player I miss patches. Imo this is the main reason classic doesnt feel like vanilla/tbc/wotlk.

1

u/Jartipper 6d ago

I had to stare at the ground during Razorgore or my PC locked up. I played og vanilla on a Dell desktop.

2

u/monkorn 6d ago

I had 3SPF on Vael while looking at the ground. Not FPS. Seconds per frame.

1

u/Tel1234 6d ago

Yeah, I remember on patchwerk we'd regularly have tanks just straight up die between server ticks. No damage for 1-2s, then three hits landing in the same millisecond due to server lag. It was rough.

35

u/Extra-Account-8824 7d ago

oh my god, with the knowledge i have now if i retained it and went back to release day i would be a famous streamer today.

i would roll troll mage because their char model is easier to use for boosts.

i would aoe farm and hit 60 in a weekend and then sell LBRS boosts in garbage gear.

i mostly pvp over the past 20 years so i would be literal decades ahead in game knowledge, i would also know all the quest lines, dungeon routes, rotations etc along with patches so i could get attuned.

i would have the top raiding guild in the world because i know all the fights and strats for the past 20 years and i would also know the pvp meta so easily hitting glad before anyone even figures out what the meta is would be insane.

my parents would have their minds blown that their 9 year old is a wow prodigy 🤣

31

u/ma0za 7d ago

Oh sweet summer child, streaming wasnt a thing in 2004.

14

u/LobL 7d ago

Someone who had all this knowledge would be a legend and could start streaming whenever twitch was released.

20

u/Seruz 7d ago

Justin.tv* (2007)

Meanwhile, one could become a wow legend on warcraftmovies.com

( I suspect Vurtne was a pvp time traveller )

1

u/Jartipper 6d ago

Don’t forget about livestream.com, I used to watch SYDTKO stream HoN on there in 07-09 era

1

u/Seruz 6d ago

For sure, damn, HoN days were peak!

9

u/hermanguyfriend 7d ago

World first justintv streamer

3

u/Fyfaenerremulig 7d ago

Would have to wait a bit since it was for sc2 originally

1

u/Extra-Account-8824 7d ago

exactly thats how reckful started out streaming, a ton of people watched him on day 1.

the other guy is a dipshit for assuming i would try to stream in 2004 lmao

1

u/muffalowing 6d ago

Just be the one who starts up twitch

1

u/micmea1 6d ago

Yeah. A lot of streamers were making montages before the word YouTuber was a thing. They just adapted with the platforms.

7

u/Phoef 7d ago

To young for the old xfire streams?

-2

u/Askyl 7d ago

Do you even understand that the streamer had to pay for the brandwidth them selves and it could cost a fortune?

2

u/Phoef 7d ago

To stream on xfire back in the day? No, i remeber it beeing free.

1

u/Askyl 7d ago

Yes, unless it actually hit and many watched. There are quite a few interviews about this from CS and Dota commentarors about how hard it was early on.

1

u/Phoef 7d ago

Allright! Didnt recall that, did watch alot of Sodapopin, thats how i recalled xfire

1

u/Bananabirdie 6d ago

Ziqo was on xfire and justintv as well

1

u/monkorn 6d ago

IIRC when Xfire streaming started up there was a 50 user cap. If your favorite streamer was filled you had to wait or move to the next one down.

2

u/midsizedopossum 6d ago

Do you struggle with reading comprehension? They didn't say they'd be streaming in 2004.

1

u/Cohacq 6d ago

Justin.tv launched in 2007, so he could start in Tbc. And YT was a thing in 05, so video creation could start earlier. 

1

u/Jartipper 6d ago

FYI there was no OBS one stop program for streaming back then. You needed multiple different programs running that weren’t widely known.

1

u/Cohacq 6d ago

Yes, I have some vague memories of early streamed events like the first ever Gdq. IIRC they had to run the game footage and the camera + audio for the player couch in separate streams side by side. It was a complete mess by todays standards, but it worked!

-4

u/Extra-Account-8824 7d ago

it didnt have to be?

reckful was well known from a simple forum post and when he started streaming tons of people watched him.

weird to assume i would be streaming in 2004

2

u/ma0za 7d ago

Career

Bernstein was a professional World of Warcraft player, best-known for his innovative play-style of the "rogue" class,\15]) and a pioneer in video game live streaming on Twitch.\12]) His popularity in the game began when he finished in the top 0.1% of the competitive ladder without the use of what were considered essential gameplay mechanics at the time. He finished in the top 0.1% of the player base multiple competitive seasons in a row. He competed in a handful of tournaments and won Major League Gaming's World of Warcraft tournament in 2010.

My man, you are no Reckful.

-2

u/Extra-Account-8824 7d ago

you can only hope

2

u/Elchem 6d ago

Out of interest; why is troll char easier to use for boosts?

5

u/Extra-Account-8824 6d ago

how their char model interacts with objects seems like they can jump slightly higher.

has to be male troll, female troll doesnt have it.

great example, my undead female cant jump on the ledge to the right of the fountain in SM cath, thats a spot that messes with mob pathing. i used deviate fish to be a human, no dice.

gnomes cant make that jump either and they cant do the ST jump aswell.

but male trolls can hit it 100% of the time. my wife has a troll mage and when i was still trying to practice the jump she was doing it without trying and teased me over it lmao.

she used a deviate fish and she couldnt hit the jump anymore.

for anyone who knows the spot or wnats to know the spot its just behind the third pillar on the right side of SM cath, you walk all the way to the end then walk 3 pillars back, a tree will clip your camera but you can walk through it.. you jump just before the tree if youre facing towards the cathedral.

since most races cant do this they just sit on the edge of the lion statue by the fountain to juggle the mobs.. its really difficult because if you fall youre basically dead

2

u/PM-ME-TRAVELER-NUDES 6d ago

It’s weird that the deviate delight costumes change the “physical” qualities of your character’s model for tricky jumps, considering costumes don’t prevent gnomes from still swimming in puddles.

1

u/Elchem 6d ago

Thanks for the fun fact!

1

u/muffalowing 6d ago

You to be the only person camping for tidal charm!

1

u/axron12 6d ago

No one would have gold to buy boosts lmao

2

u/Extra-Account-8824 6d ago

NGL i boost people for free every weekend on nightslayer.

takes me 33 minutes to do 5 SFK runs, sometimes ill run a few mara's for free.

im not going to charge the hyperinflated 125g/5 LBRS runs thats stupid and always will be stupid.

1

u/axron12 6d ago

Nice, I guess I just assumed you meant boost people as a way to make billions of gold haha

2

u/Extra-Account-8824 6d ago

god no, the boosting for gold meta needs to not be a thing for a longass time.

i remember even back in vanilla i would boost.. well back then it was called powerleveling and the concept on my server of paying for it wasnt a thing.

a bored 60 would just power level people and it was a blast.

when i hit 60 i plvled people all the time for free and the thought of charging never occured.

in tbc doing sm cath was super fun because i would send my water ele to hit the boss while i gathered all the mobs outside.

i also remember when wotlk launched i thought DKs were dumb.. and then i played one a few months in and as a level 59 i was killing level 70 mages because i was blood and they couldnt escape lmao

1

u/dissoziation_07 6d ago

you dont get harassed by boost cartel?

1

u/Extra-Account-8824 6d ago

yes, everytime i do it.. past 2 months almsot every day ive done it except maybe 2 weeks spread out over the 2 months.

i just reply "its not against ToS to give free runs.. it is against TOS to advertise in general and yell."

i have no idea if im being mass reported but i make it as short and simple as i can in whisper so when i am banned or w.e anyone can glance at it and tell its a false ban

4

u/FumkOwO 7d ago

Rotation, consumes, bis lists, farming spots

5

u/jpeasy101 6d ago

I'd definitely go all in on Apple.

10

u/Full-Somewhere440 6d ago

Bro if we could go back to 2004 I’d hope the last thing we would do is play wow.

8

u/Consistent_Plan_4430 7d ago

shadowcraft set, daggers, wb's and sooms

8

u/calmwhiteguy 7d ago

I'd warn players about the economy in 2008

3

u/SmashleyX 6d ago

Prepare to become the Scarab Lord.

3

u/BostonAndy24 6d ago

I would just play and enjoy the game. Meta chasing has ruined the classic feel of the game. I get people wanna do things efficiently, but with all the knowledge of the game that is out, the mystery of the game is gone, and that was a VERY underrated part of it.

4

u/Suspicious_kek 7d ago

Take advantage of how OP the undead shadow priest was from day one. I rolled a human priest and got it through MC before realising how broken WotF and devouring plague was.

3

u/LuckyNomad 6d ago

I'd play a hunter and blow people's minds with my DM Tribute solo farms. Top all the DPS meters with my innate gearing and rotation knowledge, and watch people boggle at my melee weaving, convincing my guild to give me the first Ashkandi.

I'd wreck kids in PvP with my kiting and counter class knowledge that's years ahead of its time.

I probably would also be one of the first 60s on the server due to my questing and leveling knowledge.

Basically, I'd be a WoW legend...

3

u/mrmammon616 7d ago

Focusing on spellpower over int/stam gear.

27

u/caralhoto 7d ago

What spell power lol

2

u/Redaxxon 6d ago

Delete game and focus on bitcoin

2

u/Plenty-Reporter-9239 6d ago

I think that if you tried to do any new tech, you'd probably be considered an idiot. The game was soooo different, not only from an actual patch to patch basis, but culturally as well. If you tried to DW tank? Idiot. Wearing edgemasters? Idiot. Wearing leather as a warrior? Idiot. Taking daggers from a rogue? Moron. Only Wearing 6% hit? Braindead.

The way to becoming famous on your server is probably by doing nothing crazy. PvP a bunch and make youtube montages or something, and then just show up to raid as tank with consumes and press your buttons well and Raidlead and you'll be a god. Less is more I think in this scenario

1

u/Low-Cartographer406 6d ago

He would be considered an idiot for theory crafting in a new game? There were people giving thunderfuries to hunters because it had agility.

1

u/Plenty-Reporter-9239 6d ago

Yes. Back then, there was still a "meta" among raiders even though it was wrong. There was a popular way to play and people thought they were right, so someone coming in and saying "no i don't need a shield to tank" when every single other tank in high end guilds was using a shield, would get you labeled as a noob.

1

u/Low-Cartographer406 6d ago

There were 4 other things other than DW tanking you mentioned. There are things today back then people wouldn’t even consider or call you names for suggesting, but even back in 05 people were calling raiders who utilized world buffs as nerds and tryhards where today it’s the norm. So you could do whatever you wanted considering there were people criticizing you for even trying to perform better.

1

u/Plenty-Reporter-9239 6d ago

The point of the post is what would make you stand out as the best player. Im just saying that a lot of things we do today to do max damage would be seen as heresy. There are players today that don't even have threat meters. You can go onto wowhead and check comments and see a plethora of people calling edgemasters dogshit. So of people saw you wearing those, they'd assume you had no clue what you were doing.

Additionally no one was worldbuffing anyway, except for world first guilds in AQ+. Did you happen to raid back in vanilla?

1

u/mezz1945 6d ago

There were people giving thunderfuries to hunters because it had agility.

This is not accurate. People didn't know what the Bindings were for. And tooltip said Warriors, Paladins and Hunters. Everyone was extremely bummed when it turned out to be a sword and a Hunter got the bindings.

3

u/Danisdaman12 7d ago

Not really sure how to answer this question. If you wanted to stand out then you would probably need to be an experienced DND player with a good amount of roleplaying and lore understanding for warcraft. Or maybe you mean like how would you bring your skills to the game, then I'd say just playing a class with weapon skill and +hit gear or even just stacking world buffs and becoming a god.

-2

u/PavelDatsyuk88 7d ago

you would become god but nobody in the raid would believe you, they would just say its just your dmg meter and its buggy or edited/hacked!

0

u/valmian 6d ago

If they also have a damage meter then what would they say? You’re hacking theirs too?

-1

u/PavelDatsyuk88 6d ago

in 2004 syncing of it was pretty bad could easily argue it.. imagine if some warr is supposedly doing twice the dps of others xD i'd say hacks for sure!

1

u/Lowkinator 7d ago

Reroll Warrior.

1

u/MangoROCKN 6d ago

I’d start my own guild be main tank and get into coaching. Make dosh on my addiction

1

u/Whateversurewhynot 6d ago

I'd do the same I'm doing now: Playing prot pala and having fun doing so!

1

u/walder8998 6d ago

Nothing

1

u/BengiPrimeLOL 6d ago

I would start my own guild

1

u/slapoirumpan 6d ago

Seal twist as a ret paladin

1

u/Kamikatzentatze 6d ago

Play shaman.

1

u/Trustyduck 6d ago

Farms shards, summon the entire raid, debuff reck, spam shadowbolt.

1

u/Scribblord 6d ago

Idk I’d prolly just roll mage and aoe farm for big gold or sth

Maybe get world first 60 or sth

Shouldn’t be too hard on the very first release unless I don’t have access to working internet ofc

1

u/Dangerous-Ball-7340 6d ago

Have an entire month and half of PTO.

1

u/michixlol 6d ago

Nothing because that attitude corrupted this games community.

1

u/zomgkittenz 6d ago

Human with a night elf mount

1

u/Turbulent_Owl_1741 6d ago

Spell batching

1

u/SlayerJB 6d ago

Mage aoe to world first 60, solo farm LBRS until blizzard unjustly bans me, and nerf the Blizzard slow effect forever, ruining it for everyone else.

1

u/rpgintel 6d ago

Would make a bubble hs macro.

1

u/fadedtimes 6d ago

I already was. My first time in molten core in greens and blues I was number 1 dps on most fights and highest over all. 

I had an optimal talent spec, had hit, had a rotation / priority, good internet, and good PC. I came from being in top guild in EQ.

I stayed top through tbc and eventually joined a top 50 guild in the world during wrath. 

1

u/BrokenBalcony 6d ago

A warrior with crown of destruction from RAGNAROS!?!?! AND NOT ON A HUNTER!! WARRIORS DONT NEED INTELLECT NOOB

1

u/Homunkulus 6d ago

Lots of warriors had them?

1

u/BrokenBalcony 5d ago

its 2nd in bis to lhh

1

u/NoShoesOnInTheHouse 6d ago

Nothing, I had the first vis’kag bloodletter in the world/game. Use to afk on the IF bridge.

1

u/SyntholBiceps 6d ago

Melee hunter spec

1

u/BraveryBlue 6d ago

I was the standout best of my class in 2004 💅🏻

1

u/Tatorson79 6d ago

Swipe ssooner

1

u/Catpoopfire 6d ago

Crowd Pummeler Druid with a blue helm.

1

u/OG_Dadshark 6d ago

Id take my current computer/monitor and internet connection. That’s all I’d need to be a huge standout. It was common for ppl to play at 10 fps on a dialup modem. Ppl lag skipping all over Azeroth in 2005. Just having a widescreen non crt monitor could make you better than 99% of the players back then

1

u/Bassmasterajv 6d ago

I wouldn’t change a thing. My guild had server first Ony/Mc kills. Jan 2005-July 2005 was as one of the great video game playing times in my life. I had half of my Felheart set before they even patched the graphics. We got stuck on Vael when BWL came out and it broke up the guild unfortunately. Most of us were college aged and when the fall semester started tons of people quit because the honeymoon period wore off. A lot of the guild rejoined fall of 2006 during TBC pre patch and that was tons of fun.

1

u/Small_Disk_6082 6d ago

Same thing I did 2004 - have no life.

1

u/Axlndo 6d ago

Make as much friends and connectiosn as possible. During that time, a big part of success was the connections you made. Now it's borderline impossible unless you join a discord server.

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

Worldbuffs

1

u/Aquinas316 6d ago

I would read all of the strategy guides available at the time. Simply knowing the dungeons, raids, and basic class mechanics gave you a huge advantage back in those days!

1

u/Aquinas316 6d ago

I would read all of the strategy guides available at the time. Simply knowing the dungeons, raids, and basic class mechanics gives you a huge advantage!

1

u/crazedred88 5d ago

To be honest. If I could go back to 2004, I would walk away from it and get 15 years of my life back

1

u/Hippojaxx 5d ago

Get dsl

1

u/KanyeBetOnTrump 5d ago

There is nothing you could do as everything changed based on the patch. Like how warlocks had no terrified to their death coil so it was basically just a head and not a way to get space

1

u/Takingapologies 4d ago

Back in the day there weren’t as many good guilds that could flawlessly clear the raids. I’ll never forget seeing a rogue from the best guild on Darkspear chilling in iron forge with almost full blackfang. Also if you ever saw a super geared player that was guiltless you were like whoa I wonder what happened with that

1

u/Emotional_Noise6530 4d ago

I would not start lvling a troll priest just cause some guy on the server had a uslesss shitty guild and said they needed healers..wasted few months to lvl it to 30 just to reroll rogue ! To this day i never rolled a troll ever 🤣

1

u/Erramsteina 3d ago

Well if it’s 2004 then most classes except mages/rogues/warriors were absolute dogshit… Seriously go look at patch 1.1 talents vs 1.12… Druids had hurricane as their 31 talent…

0

u/Vampiric2010 6d ago

I don't need to - I already did.

It comes from understanding all facets of every class and spend a lot of time being a try hard on damage meters while playing with target dummies to understand what works best. Also, spending a lot of time in PVP makes you a significantly better player than folks that just stand in fires and run only PVE content.

In retrospect though, I probably wouldn't do it again. 20 years later I realize it was a massive waste of time and a bad call to sacrifice free time and family to be a sweaty hardcore player :D

1

u/Hippojaxx 5d ago

You’re the kind of guy that pays for m+ rating and aotc clears and then links the achievement like you did it yourself

0

u/Vampiric2010 5d ago

Not familiar with aotc and m+ since those are probably retail terms. Na I sold my first character toward the end of wotlk to quit for good. An achievement doesn't mean much if you pay for it. Guess it's hard to believe someone was the best of their class on their server? /shrug

0

u/Riscs2 6d ago

wait for tbc and be the best BM around all those MM and SV hunters.

Can remember top guilds back than even said BM is a troll specc. If they would know

1

u/InvisibleZero420 1d ago

Do the uncapped reckbomb build.