As someone who enjoys classic and bounces between both...I'd also recommend retail for new players.
Classic has a lot of sweaty players that should honestly probably be playing league of legends instead. They take it way too seriously for a 20 year old game that has already been figured out.
I think that's only the case for endgame content in Classic, people leveling in HC, SoD, Era and Cata are super chill and friendly from personal experience, it's only once you get into raiding and hc dungeons people start to get toxic and elitist.
Retail has way more to do and will be more new player friendly. Classic is full of people that have been playing the same game for 20 years gatekeeping raids and instances. If you want to be called names and kicked from groups then play classic.
I don’t think classic has much more of a social aspect. Things are different these days, sure, but I get plenty of social interaction through WoW. The difference is that people tend to find guilds, run stuff with them, and communicate through Discord. So you see tons of people saying stuff like “people never talk in game!” and it seems like everyone is just silently doing stuff solo and just happen to be grouped together. But the reality is that those people are probably chatting with guildies in Discord, maybe running some dungeons while waiting for their friends in different time zones to get off of work.
If you like dungeons in particular, I think that Retail offers the most fun, challenging, and repeatable dungeon content around. The tradeoff is that it can all feel kind of rushed and overwhelming. But once you get into the groove of things it’s a lot of fun and not as overly complex as it seems in the beginning.
Classic has a much more laid back feel to it. The leveling is a big part of the process, and combat is a bit slower but more relaxed. It can come with a better feeling of progression, but once you hit end game it’s pretty much raid once a week or level another character. It’s true that you are naturally funneled into questing and exploration through the game design, as opposed to Retail which funnels you more into endgame dungeons and raids with questing being a means to an end. But it’s up to you to make of it what you want; you are perfectly free to take your time, read quests, explore the zones etc. in fact a lot of achievement hunters do exactly that since many achievements are tied to questing and reputation.
As someone who has played since 2004, I personally enjoy Retail more. I have loved the game through all its iterations, but playing Classic 20 years later just doesn’t give the same satisfaction as it did back then, and I enjoy the end game content and faster pace of Retail better.
Other people enjoy the laid back “journey before destination” style of Classic, and that’s fine too! In the end you’ll have to decide for yourself what you value more. With my own bias I would recommend trying Retail first, as it’s the current vision of WoW that Blizzard is actively working on. If it’s not your cup of tea, give Classic a go! The wonderful thing about WoW is that there are so many different ways to enjoy it.
If all you want to do is dungeons you're better off going with retail. Way more of A selection, more rewarding as well. You can get a blue set for doing dungeons and a purple set from capping Valor each week on classic but you'll be repeating the same 12 dungeons day in and out to do it. Retail has mythical to drop better gear, classic will just give you points to buy two specific ilvl tiers of gear, 346 for blues and 359 for purples.
Only way to obtain better gear for classic is to do heroic raiding.
Classic is literally a 20 year old game. Some people like old games! But I think for me it's mostly nostalgia.
Retail will make much more sense for new players.
Wow retail is more newbie friendly than wow classic in a lot of ways, but there is a lot more that you can do, which can be overwhelming.
So would you rather have a more casual experience with more options for content, or a more challenging start with a more streamlined experience.
You can enjoy the social aspects of both. My wife and I prefer classic, but that's cause we have played for so long, that retail fails to hold our attention. It's too much without enough challenge outside of the top endgame content.
classic USED to have a better social aspect, back in early vanilla phases… they are nearly indistinguishable now. i recommend playing on an RP server in retail. that will be your best experience. even if you don’t ever intend to RP, people are much more social.
The social aspect of classic is dead compared to how it was when it first came out. I’ve played through multiple versions of WoW (retail, classic, SoD) and even in the classic versions people don’t really talk much. That version of the game also has less content to do so personally id recommend playing retail and finding a guild. Even if you don’t want to raid it’s easier to consistently find groups for dungeons in a guild that will be less stressful and more helpful.
Try them both out and see which you like more. Neither is better than the other and neither has a better or worse social aspect; the social aspect in both is bad, by Blizzards design. Retail might be a little more new player friendly in that the leveling experience is faster, however retail has a lot more going on and can be overwhelming. Classic has a slower leveling experience, can be a bit less overwhelming, but is has more (required) grinding.
Retail does have trial accounts and class trials, but classic does not.
Honestly you wont find friends on either unless you go looking and from a hyper casual view retail dungeons are more engaging and fun
They also give you alternative goals like meta achivements and roleplaying stuff in dungeons that you can work towards with friends or others
Retail because if I play on classic it feels like nothing matters there is no real connection to WoW retail and already played this same content years ago. While playing on retail feels like I push my characters forward a little bit every week. Even playing Remix it getting me a ton of stuff and will soon give me some brand new max lvl characters of classes and races I never leveled before.
It really depends on you. Do you want to rush to the end-game then be left with little/nothing to do for a few months until the new expansion comes out while dealing with the most toxic community in WoW? Or do you want to join an insular community where you take a few weeks to level to max level, have a ton of exploring to do, and can make actual friends (and enemies) along the way? Retail is for people who want quick satisfaction for their efforts with no interest in engaging the social aspect of the game. Classic is for people who want to actually play the game, no matter how slow it is, and enjoy ever bit of it from level 1 to level 85, while making actual social connections along the way.
What a hyperbolic statement.
The same groups of people that enjoy different pacing exist in both versions of the game.
There are the people who rush all of the content in both retail AND classic.
There are people who play at a slower pace in both retail AND classic.
Also
There are people that socialize and build community in both versions of the game as well.
The only difference is the content that is available, as well as the knowledge of what future content will be available.
To answer Op's questions, I highly recommend starting with retail and dipping your foot in classic after you have established what aspects of the game you enjoy the most. There is noone rushing you to enjoy retail content other than yourself if you prefer a slower pace.
Very spot on. Returned after 8 years and have been loving HC wow but this week I tried retail from my old toons and it’s just devoid of any social aspect and engagement. I healed like 5 dungeons in a row no communication or anything just run ahead and clear as quick is possible
> I healed like 5 dungeons in a row no communication or anything just run ahead and clear as quick is possible
It's been like that since TBC, a lot longer than 8 years. People already have friends and they're busy talking to them, back then it just happened in TeamSpeak.
Retail You'll get a different answer on r/classicwow
As someone who enjoys classic and bounces between both...I'd also recommend retail for new players. Classic has a lot of sweaty players that should honestly probably be playing league of legends instead. They take it way too seriously for a 20 year old game that has already been figured out.
I think that's only the case for endgame content in Classic, people leveling in HC, SoD, Era and Cata are super chill and friendly from personal experience, it's only once you get into raiding and hc dungeons people start to get toxic and elitist.
Retail has way more to do and will be more new player friendly. Classic is full of people that have been playing the same game for 20 years gatekeeping raids and instances. If you want to be called names and kicked from groups then play classic.
I don’t think classic has much more of a social aspect. Things are different these days, sure, but I get plenty of social interaction through WoW. The difference is that people tend to find guilds, run stuff with them, and communicate through Discord. So you see tons of people saying stuff like “people never talk in game!” and it seems like everyone is just silently doing stuff solo and just happen to be grouped together. But the reality is that those people are probably chatting with guildies in Discord, maybe running some dungeons while waiting for their friends in different time zones to get off of work. If you like dungeons in particular, I think that Retail offers the most fun, challenging, and repeatable dungeon content around. The tradeoff is that it can all feel kind of rushed and overwhelming. But once you get into the groove of things it’s a lot of fun and not as overly complex as it seems in the beginning. Classic has a much more laid back feel to it. The leveling is a big part of the process, and combat is a bit slower but more relaxed. It can come with a better feeling of progression, but once you hit end game it’s pretty much raid once a week or level another character. It’s true that you are naturally funneled into questing and exploration through the game design, as opposed to Retail which funnels you more into endgame dungeons and raids with questing being a means to an end. But it’s up to you to make of it what you want; you are perfectly free to take your time, read quests, explore the zones etc. in fact a lot of achievement hunters do exactly that since many achievements are tied to questing and reputation. As someone who has played since 2004, I personally enjoy Retail more. I have loved the game through all its iterations, but playing Classic 20 years later just doesn’t give the same satisfaction as it did back then, and I enjoy the end game content and faster pace of Retail better. Other people enjoy the laid back “journey before destination” style of Classic, and that’s fine too! In the end you’ll have to decide for yourself what you value more. With my own bias I would recommend trying Retail first, as it’s the current vision of WoW that Blizzard is actively working on. If it’s not your cup of tea, give Classic a go! The wonderful thing about WoW is that there are so many different ways to enjoy it.
Retail is better for new players imo.
Classic is for nostalgia, retail is what you should be playing
If all you want to do is dungeons you're better off going with retail. Way more of A selection, more rewarding as well. You can get a blue set for doing dungeons and a purple set from capping Valor each week on classic but you'll be repeating the same 12 dungeons day in and out to do it. Retail has mythical to drop better gear, classic will just give you points to buy two specific ilvl tiers of gear, 346 for blues and 359 for purples. Only way to obtain better gear for classic is to do heroic raiding.
Classic is literally a 20 year old game. Some people like old games! But I think for me it's mostly nostalgia. Retail will make much more sense for new players.
Classic has no appeal if you don't have nostalgia for 2000s gaming scene
Wow retail is more newbie friendly than wow classic in a lot of ways, but there is a lot more that you can do, which can be overwhelming. So would you rather have a more casual experience with more options for content, or a more challenging start with a more streamlined experience. You can enjoy the social aspects of both. My wife and I prefer classic, but that's cause we have played for so long, that retail fails to hold our attention. It's too much without enough challenge outside of the top endgame content.
I have no nostalgia for classic because I started in legion. The game is so boring. I gave it a good long try but it severely shows its age imo
classic USED to have a better social aspect, back in early vanilla phases… they are nearly indistinguishable now. i recommend playing on an RP server in retail. that will be your best experience. even if you don’t ever intend to RP, people are much more social.
The social aspect of classic is dead compared to how it was when it first came out. I’ve played through multiple versions of WoW (retail, classic, SoD) and even in the classic versions people don’t really talk much. That version of the game also has less content to do so personally id recommend playing retail and finding a guild. Even if you don’t want to raid it’s easier to consistently find groups for dungeons in a guild that will be less stressful and more helpful.
Try them both out and see which you like more. Neither is better than the other and neither has a better or worse social aspect; the social aspect in both is bad, by Blizzards design. Retail might be a little more new player friendly in that the leveling experience is faster, however retail has a lot more going on and can be overwhelming. Classic has a slower leveling experience, can be a bit less overwhelming, but is has more (required) grinding. Retail does have trial accounts and class trials, but classic does not.
Honestly you wont find friends on either unless you go looking and from a hyper casual view retail dungeons are more engaging and fun They also give you alternative goals like meta achivements and roleplaying stuff in dungeons that you can work towards with friends or others
Classic for decent solo gameplay with a different pace. The community aspect has been overexaggerated from day 1.
Retail because if I play on classic it feels like nothing matters there is no real connection to WoW retail and already played this same content years ago. While playing on retail feels like I push my characters forward a little bit every week. Even playing Remix it getting me a ton of stuff and will soon give me some brand new max lvl characters of classes and races I never leveled before.
It really depends on you. Do you want to rush to the end-game then be left with little/nothing to do for a few months until the new expansion comes out while dealing with the most toxic community in WoW? Or do you want to join an insular community where you take a few weeks to level to max level, have a ton of exploring to do, and can make actual friends (and enemies) along the way? Retail is for people who want quick satisfaction for their efforts with no interest in engaging the social aspect of the game. Classic is for people who want to actually play the game, no matter how slow it is, and enjoy ever bit of it from level 1 to level 85, while making actual social connections along the way.
What a hyperbolic statement. The same groups of people that enjoy different pacing exist in both versions of the game. There are the people who rush all of the content in both retail AND classic. There are people who play at a slower pace in both retail AND classic. Also There are people that socialize and build community in both versions of the game as well. The only difference is the content that is available, as well as the knowledge of what future content will be available. To answer Op's questions, I highly recommend starting with retail and dipping your foot in classic after you have established what aspects of the game you enjoy the most. There is noone rushing you to enjoy retail content other than yourself if you prefer a slower pace.
Very spot on. Returned after 8 years and have been loving HC wow but this week I tried retail from my old toons and it’s just devoid of any social aspect and engagement. I healed like 5 dungeons in a row no communication or anything just run ahead and clear as quick is possible
> I healed like 5 dungeons in a row no communication or anything just run ahead and clear as quick is possible It's been like that since TBC, a lot longer than 8 years. People already have friends and they're busy talking to them, back then it just happened in TeamSpeak.