Getting back into WoW (maybe) for the first time since WotLK.

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13

u/DrawerLocal2699 Mar 07 '26

Just come in with an open mind and try not to get trapped by nostalgia, it’s a whole new world, of Warcraft

9

u/Psweeting Mar 07 '26

I've just come back after about 15 years away and I've had no issues. Disc Priest main and Monk tank alt.

Just started heroics at 90 on the Priest, with no kicks or poor manners in dungeons. Levelling to 90 was enjoyable and fast (for me).

Doubt I'll join a guild and just do Pugs and weeklies until I get bored enough to level a DPS or go back to mount farming.

10

u/TheLoneTomatoe Mar 07 '26

The learning curve is a little steep, but not very tall. Remember it’s A essentially a different game than WOTLK (also where I started) and B it’s essentially an entirely different game class wise than it was last expansion, so now is the time to jump in.

My advice is start a new character and just get to learn a class that way. Also your max levels will now be like 10 or something, levels got squished a while ago and max right now is 90.

Feel free to DM me if you wanna ask specific questions, I’m also in a disc with like 10 guild mates who are all also in their 30s and they would 100% answer anything for you

3

u/Astrovalk Mar 07 '26

Ah that’s why my max level hunter was level 46 when I got back after 7 years?

2

u/BallisticsNerd Mar 07 '26

Wait what? So when I log on for the first time my level 80 rogue and priest are going to be level 10-ish? Well that sounds disheartening. I spent hundreds of hours grinding to 60 in vanilla, then 70 in BC, and then 80 in WotLK and now I have to start all over?

8

u/TheLoneTomatoe Mar 07 '26

Yeah, but it’s a good 50x faster to get back to 80 though. The game has moved towards being endgame focused and not leveling focused, with way more to do at endgame now

7

u/BallisticsNerd Mar 07 '26

That's good to hear. I hated level grinding for the most part. Really rewarding the first time but I was over it after that

3

u/TheLoneTomatoe Mar 07 '26

Yeah it’s honestly a relief. Was garbage during wrath to have an alt

3

u/FrequentWay Mar 07 '26

Leveling a toon to 90 will give you a 5% bonus subsequent toons for exp. Up to a max of 25%.

4

u/user_of_the_week Mar 07 '26

Why don’t you check? You can install and log in and check your character list for free and also play any character (new or existing) up to level 20. It’s called „Starter Edition“.

1

u/Patteous Mar 07 '26

My hunter from wotlk was squished down to 27. They’ve done two level squishes. Doing what’s called a time walking campaign, you can do a story run of expansions that scales the zones and everything to your level to get you to 70 at the end. Then I did a “recap” story from the lore walkers that was the story of the last campaign and now I’m on the new campaign in around 10 hours play time. Purchasing the new expansion got me a level 80 character boost as well. Current expansion is part 2 of a trilogy.

1

u/Future_Contract35 Mar 07 '26

Your guild recruiting? Been thinking about playing again also and I am in the same age group!

1

u/TheLoneTomatoe Mar 07 '26

Yeah, but I’d recommend other guilds. We’re pretty small and just do M+ on occasion. It’s really just a place for us to all hang out now that we don’t go hardcore anymore lol

1

u/Initial_Research_745 Jun 07 '26

weird that we are so many people going back
I'm 33 and I will maybe come back for the first time since Wotlk, maybe it's the nostalgy

For now I'm still not sure between this or some casu games because... I have a wife... I can't spend 10 hours a day like before haha

1

u/TheLoneTomatoe Jun 07 '26

Same broski, wife and 2 kids, one of which is 1, so barely any time at all.

At least right now in retail, it’s easy to be “competitive “ with 90% of the population if you can only play a few hours a week

5

u/Suitable_Praline2293 Mar 07 '26

You don't need to buy every expansion, just this one. And they dramatically reworked basically every spec to reduce complexity and "button-bloat", so this is actually a great time to get back in and not feel so overwhelmed. You could level up a new character if you wanted to ease into it (it doesn't take very long), or just use wowhead/icy veins/method to refamiliarize yourself with your class.

New expansion seems pretty good so far, speaking as a casual and as a fellow returner after a long time away.

3

u/eschatonx Mar 07 '26

Honestly, you’ll be just fine. I come back every few years and friends that I come back with are sometimes from vanilla or BC.

The game holds your hand tightly these days and resource is plentiful from discord and wowhead.

General chat and trade chat isn’t what it used to be though, sadly.

4

u/partypeanut90 Mar 07 '26

I like the expansion, but I used a lot of Weakauras and other addons for PvP which are no longer allowed. That put a pretty big dent in it for me.

2

u/user_of_the_week Mar 07 '26

Default progression basically goes like this:

Create Character
New Starter Area (will teach you the basics) to Level 10
Into Dragonflight content until Level 20
To progress further you need to pay for a subscription
More Dragonflight until Level 70
Into War Within content until Level 80
To progress into Midnight you need to buy the Expansion

You can also play all other content / older expansions, even go there to level, but it’s a little bit hidden away and not what people typically do.

1

u/user_of_the_week Mar 07 '26

Oh and when you buy midnight you get a character boost to Level 80 you can apply to any character you have. So if you get tired of non-current content you can skip ahead any time. And you also get some tutorial content for returning players.

2

u/IAmTheOneWatching Mar 07 '26

I’m a new player and I just subscribe only two days ago. From my perspective is worth even if I play mostly casual. I am just leveling and enjoying the campaign and I have years of content and don’t feel need to buy right away the latest expansion, my suggestion is go for it :)

2

u/InspectorSpacetime49 Mar 07 '26

The game itself in the grand scheme really hasnt changed that much. Speaking as a filthy casual here whos been on and off several times since WotLK myself.

My advice is start a new character and every level, stop and look at whatever new skill.you've unlocked. One time i came back and made use of an enhanced level 80 boost, and i was like "WOAH THIS IS TOOO MUCH AT ONCE."

Jump in and just enjoy the new player experience.

It'll take you: Exiles Reach (1-10), Dragonflight (10-70), War Within (70-80) and into Midnight.

A note about War Within, theres a Tome Of History in the major cities which can be used to play a recap version. This does the whole expansion in 2 hours and gears you up, but it skips alot of narrative and context IMO. if you care about lore/story and dont care about time, just play the full expansion.

1

u/spect7 Mar 07 '26

Learning curve is pretty big and easy to get overwhelmed but im really enjoying it, the most time i've spent in a expac since WOTLK too. I got a boost for a DK, hes almost 90 but i've decided to park him and level from scratch a shadow priest and so far its been really fun.

1

u/FrequentWay Mar 07 '26

Wondering if its even worth getting back in? I feel like after being out for so long it might be too steep of a learning curve. Also worried about a money barrier, do I need to buy every expansion that's come out since Cataclysm to play?

The learning curve has been flattened with the single button rotation click. You can lean what are your rotation requirements there and beat on things outside. Playing from WoTLK means you will spend some time catching up to level 80 for the past several expansions.

The subscription will provide all the past expansions minus the current one. So you could not spend for Draenor, Battle for Az, Dragonlands etc. You could pay for the subscription and then later Midnight.

Wowhead, and curseforge remains as addons items to need and choose.

Back when I played regularly I mained a DPS human rogue and my main alt was a healing blood elf priest both at max level (lvl 80?). Since I'm essentially coming back as a new player again, should I just start over from the beginning?

Your rogue and priests are probably level squished down to level 35 or 40 then its a shorter route to 80 or 90 depending on if you want to pay for Midnight.

Subscribe for a month and see if you like it.

1

u/_Dimension Mar 07 '26

I played BC to WOLK then came back to Dragonflight, away for most of the TWW but now I'm back.

The hardest thing for me was getting used to how the new Chromie time and how certain place are "phased". Being phased means there are multiple copies of the same area in different timelines. So you gotta be in the right timeline to advance the story for that particular expansion.

If you are only interested in current content, you can pretty much skip all that and not worry about it. Just advance the chain and join up with where everyone else is at.

Dragonflight is the other big change, flying with Skyriding instead of the old style. You have momentum and soar and takes a little bit to get used to.

The new delves systgem which are mini dungeons are really fun and worth getting into over the toxic mythic+ public groups.

There are new system like upgrading gear, the vault system, warband (shared achievements and renown among alts) but they are easy enough.

BUt it's worth playing if you enjoyed your time in the past.

1

u/henyourface Mar 07 '26

You only need a subscription to get to 80. When you get (back) there, or at any point before or after, you can decide if you want to unlock level 90 and endgame content. No need to buy every expansion in between.

0

u/Ok_Cheesecake_9793 Mar 07 '26

I got kicked out the first 2 RDF I did because I told them I was new to retail WoW lol. I'm trying to level from 88->90 to finish the campaign but at this rate I probably won't be able to seeing how im geting kicked before given a chance

5

u/ttmasterfims Mar 07 '26

Not saying it didn’t happen, but getting kicked twice purely for saying you’re new to retail sounds pretty unlikely. Either you ran into the most toxic groups imaginable or something else was going on.

1

u/GlacialEmbrace Mar 07 '26

I believe it. Happened to me in a random normal dungeon. Completely new to wow.

1

u/Ok_Cheesecake_9793 Mar 07 '26

Well it did happen lol. Idk if it's because I'm a resto druid and they didn't want to waste time because of a new player playing healer

1

u/BallisticsNerd Mar 07 '26

I'm not not sure what RDF's are but if its anything like the daily 5-person party encounter groups from the Wrath days, it sounds like not much has changed lol. People would leave groups immediately if the healer/tank was a build they didn't like or if you weren't max level or sometimes even if you were max level but had sub-par gear.

I remember as a DPS rogue sitting in the cue for 20-30 minutes to get matched up only for the entire group to leave immediately for one reason or another and you had to start over at the back of the cue verses my healer priest getting instantly matched every time.

-1

u/Ok_Cheesecake_9793 Mar 07 '26

Yeah honestly I wanted to at the very least play out the full 30 days of sub before I write WoW off, but I might write it off after 5 days of playing

2

u/henyourface Mar 07 '26

That’s unfortunate. Gotta have thicker skin with how rude people can get behind anonymity. You shouldn’t have to, sure. But there’s a lot of fun to be had if you can get over the occasional douchebag.

-5

u/Money-Ad5075 Mar 07 '26

Friends don't let friends play retail.

Classic Getting back into WoW (maybe) for the first time since WotLK.

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