Let’s talk about this game. Who’s been around for a long time? Raise your hand. Ah yes, I see you, and you there in the back. When did you all start playing?

Barring a couple of stints messing around in Vanilla Beta, I started really playing in Patch 2.0.3. Burning Crusade was still shiny and new and a few weeks or so into my entry into Azeroth Patch 2.1.0 happened and it was a big deal. Take a look at some of this stuff:

• “Replaced the current Mend Pet channel spell with an instant cast heal over time. ”  Yes.  Channeled Mend Pet was a thing at one point.
• Millions of raids and heroics getting nerfed.  And BC raids and heroics were not terribly easy.
• Black Temple introduced!  Netherwing Dailies introduced!  Druid Flight Form introduced!
• “Bonus healing gear will no longer effect Mend Pet.” – This is because hunters were decking themselves out in shaman gear and solo’ing everything, which was hilarious, by the way.
• “Lightsworn Vindicators outside the Black Temple will no longer attack players who are Hostile with the Aldor. ” – Okay, this is just funny.

Weird to go back in time, isn’t it?  There’s a lot of stuff that I think we forget about old WoW.  We get all nostalgic for the stuff that we liked and then forget about the stuff that we didn’t.  Remember when hunters had three– THREE– stable slots?  Remember when you had to go out and tame new pets in order to learn new abilities to teach your pets?   Remember when mounts and companion pets took up bag space?

Often times when I find myself missing an old expansion pack, what I really miss is the playstyle of a particular class.  I miss the careful manual shot-weaving of Burning Crusade, back before Blizz unhooked shots from auto shots.  And when it came to Druid healing, Wrath of the Lich King was my personal favorite.  And so forth.

I can see why Blizzard doesn’t want to introduce legacy servers and such.  Accessibility wise, the game has done little but improve.  Blizzard doesn’t want to “rewind” and reverse those improvements.  But when you get attached to a certain class or spec’s playstyle and it gets all changed up– that’s what I miss. If you are too looking to try new games, there is a new game that you can play today.

Well, and doing Karazhan at 70.  That was pretty great.

What sorts of things were around in WoW when you started?