Diving back into World Of Warcraft Classic has been an interesting ride for many players. It turns out that the nostalgia for the early days of WoW were seen through very thick rose-colored glasses and there were lots of quirks and issues players forgot about from those times.
A quick browse of the Not A Bug list will show that players are having to be reminded of what were once standard features. But there are a few things found in Classic that make no sense at all, even if you account for the difference in modern and historic gaming mechanics.
10 The Map Is Useless
This game involves a lot of traveling to complete quests and to move to new areas. Odds are by the time you hit the level cap you’ll have explored almost every inch of Azeroth on foot and you’ll probably notice something very early on, the map is utterly useless.
Not only does it not display helpful icons to locate quests, quest destinations or even where to go to turn in the quest. It only serves to provide you a general overview of where you are in the world.
9 No Troll Druids
This is strange from a lore perspective. Trolls are a tribal race very in-tune with the spirit world of nature. In fact, the Loa gods they worship are animals, like Rezan who’s a literal T-Rex. Druids are individuals that have tapped into the powers of nature and wield those forces to protect the balance of life.
It makes no sense then that Trolls would be unable to tap into the same spirits and powers they worship to become Druids. This was later fixed in subsequent expansions, but the fact that Trolls are unable to tap into the spiritual powers of nature makes no sense in Classic.
8 Expensive Mounts
Gold is a precious commodity in Classic and the cost of various items and services incentivizes you to work for it, but the cost of mounts is a bit ridiculous.
Not only do the mounts themselves cost a good deal of coin, but the skill itself is prohibitively expensive for the average player. Considering how much traveling you do in this game it seems like a cruel way to force players to grind out gold.
7 Everyone Needs A Key
One of the greatest frustrations in Classic is the gargantuan effort it takes to gather an entire army of 40 people together to log on at the same time and storm raid dungeons like Molten Core. Even more absurd is that in order to access these locations each player had to perform a number of tasks so they could acquire a key to open it.
Admittedly this is a petty point, but it’s a bit frustrating that there’s a person in the group with a key to open the door, but everyone needs their own copy for... reasons.
6 Subscription Fee
Blizzard is a giant corporation that needs to pay its employees and the cost of running enough servers to support the number of people logging on to play Classic is no doubt expensive. The problem is that the subscription model is not popular among gamers and many other companies are finding ways to phase it out entirely.
Sure, players will complain about microtransactions until they’re blue in the face, but if you give them a choice between optional microtransactions or a mandatory subscription fee they’ll quickly change their tune. It feels weird to be paying modern prices for a game that came out 15 years ago.
5 Clicking Flight Paths
The developers wanted to create a massive world for players to explore and rely upon each other to get through Stranglethorn Vale safely. But at some point players will have explored everything and they simply want to get to the next quest.
There is an option for fast travel in the game, but it, unfortunately, requires players to click each destination on the route to their ultimate destination. It’s like wanting to go from New York to California, but you have to stop in each state to get on a new plane. In short, it’s annoying.
4 Gear Drops
Admittedly this one is a bit nit-picky as every game is going to have that rat that randomly has a sword, shield, ten copper pieces, and a candle in it's stomach, but some of the raid drops are ridiculous in Classic.
It makes no sense to go into a raid as a member of the Alliance with an Alliance guild at your side only to have Horde items drop. This isn’t even a complaint about an undead Necromancer dropping a divine chest plate or a rusty garden hoe, this is about a faction getting rewarded with items meant for a different faction with no means to swap gear or trade with that faction.
3 Firestone
Speaking of useless items it was also weird that Classic included a number of items that were utterly useless for the class they were intended for. A great example is the Firestone. This item is meant to be wielded by Warlocks, a magic casting class and granted them fire damage for melee strikes and fire spells.
Not only is it absurd to think a Warlock would go into battle with a sword, just to take advantage of this item but casting fire spells was a rare occurrence as well. There were better spell options and many enemies were resistant to fire, not to mention the fact that you could wield the item before you received a proper fire spell.
2 Mounts Can’t Swim
There’s something strange with the mounts in this game, none of them can swim. We understand something like the Mechanostrider would probably short out in the water so it's off the hook, but the wolves and horses? That makes no sense.
It’s also unclear from a gameplay perspective why even a little bit of water would cause a mount to unsummon. We understand that you wouldn’t want to take your Kodo into the open ocean, but a shallow river? Come on.
1 Undead Priests
Like the Trolls this is another one that doesn’t make sense from a lore perspective. Undead creatures are not living beings, they are unholy perversions of life and as such are vulnerable to attacks from divine magic.
In Warcraft 3 Paladins could use their Heal power to deal damage to undead foes, but for some reason, in Classic the undead not only receive healing from divine sources but can wield those holy powers themselves. It would be like a treant casting fire spells, it makes no sense.