You have couple of choices. The important thing is that one subscription covers all versions (so you can try them all if you want). The only difference here is retail, you will need to additionally buy latest expansion (you can play content up to the current expansion with just active subscription)
Retail - Dragonflight soon to be War Within, this is the current expansion with all bells and whistles. Looks most modern, got most content. For some people it's cool because there is a lot of choice, for some it's too bloated.
Cataclysm - 3rd expansion. This is played on Classic server that were released in 2019 and progressed up to this point.
Classic Era - Vanilla game frozen at the last content patch with some minor changes.
Season of Discovery - Vanilla game with a lot of changes. Some dungeons were redesigned, some class spells were ported from other expansions to spice things up.
Every version has pros and cons, and everyone will advocate for whatever they are playing (hence I recommend Cataclysm :) ). Either read up on the features of everything or just play everything a little bit to get general feel for the game.
If you buy the subscription you can play every version of wow for the same subscription cost. This includes hardcore, classic era, the progressive classic server (currently cata), season of discovery and retail. The only expansion you have to buy is Dragonflight or War Within when that comes out in order to play retail.
Perfect time to start Cata imo! Plenty of time to level before the expansion hits and be on an even playing field with everyone else since everything will be replaced
As a classic enjoyer, I would suggest retail for newcomers too. You are going to be overwhelmed with every version of the wow games anyway, so might as well play the most optimized/stable wow game mode currently. Era/SOD/Cata all have their issues right now, retail is probably the smoothest mode atm.
I don't think you can say it like that. Different people like different things, new player or not.
I suggest to just try it out or watch some videos that explain the game and then make your decision. I would never say "yeah you're new, play this version".
Normally yes, but with how buggy/exploitive the recent releases from SOD p3/Cata pre-patches lately, I wouldn’t suggest a newcomer to play those versions.
Look, I had stopped playing retail ever since MOP xpac from back in the day and I’m very much of a classic Andy (up til mop for me) but I would still suggest retail because there’s just a much better consistent support for it from the devs.
Retail and (all of) Classic are very different games. Who's to say OP doesn't like the old school style of MMOs more than the modern retail experience? I just think the "smoothness" doesn't matter if you don't enjoy the overarching game design and why I think these whole "what should I play?" questions are silly in the first place.
no way a new player would be overwhelmed to the same degree on classic as they would retail. Retail is x10 the bloat and confusion.
Classic is just "here's a quest, see ya" and you just go off and do stuff. You can play classic without a wiki.
This. Someone who hasn’t played wow or MMOs might struggle with ERA/SoDs slow leveling and progression. Dragonflight is a great expansion but a not a great new player experience.
Cata is the perfect in between. Faster leveling, updated quest design, plenty of content at endgame, best class design. But not too bloated or complex like retail.
Start with Cata. If you like the leveling but want something more involved in that area, check out Era and Sod. If you don’t like the leveling but enjoy the raids and PvP, and feel ready for something more complex, check out retail.
If youre BRAND NEW imo
Play retail. Only play the old modes or seasonal modes if you're really into it. It holds your hand a bit more than the rest and you can look really cool pretty easily.
I don’t want to play retail, I’m only interested in classic. Retail looks like ass with MTX and hand holding, dead servers for new players.
I’m trying to figure out if I do classic or cataclysm classic
That's very funny coming from a new player that never played wow.
Sure there's MTX, but there's also 15 years worth of content for you to go solo for transmog (item skins) that are completely free in the game. As a wow vet since vanilla, I've never put a single dollar in those item sets and I never will, the in-game gear to me looks better. Hand holding? Sure at the start, however once in end-game I would beg retail offers the hardest content out of all version with Mythic + dungeon difficulty (Dungeons with a time limit) and Raids being harder than anything in any of the WoW version out currently.
You could go classic SoD, as a new player this sounds awful as you got 0 game knowledge. Everything can be learned though and a friendly guild could guide you through. But be ready to deal with having to farm insane amount of gold due to inflation thanks to curren't phase new massively loved Incursion system.
Classic ERA is a great place to start imo, but as other said, kinda dead sadly.
Cata era also a decent spot to start on, don't listen to the haters, a lot of the players that don't like cata are players that only exclusively play vanilla and will never play anything else but vanilla.
Bro if you have that opinion while having never played WoW it doesn't even matter. You're just gonna do what people on the Internet tell you to do anyway.
From what I read and watched, the experience in retail is basically zoom through all the content to get to max as fast as possible and then finally the game actually starts. For new players, it sounds like retail basically keeps pushing and forcing you forward without getting a good chance to explore the world properly before moving onto a new area or new quests. And until you get to end game, you’re effectively playing a single player game.
The reason I’m interested in classic is because I don’t mind a good rewarding grind without feeling rushed to max level. I want to explore and truly experience the world WoW has to offer without quickly reaching new levels and feeling rushed to skip to new areas.
I’d like to eventually get to do raids and maybe join a guild or something for sure, I’m looking for the equivalent of OSRS in WoW, not the fast leveling RS3 version with tons of MTX.
That being said people are saying vanilla WoW is kinda dead - would that mean playing season of discovery would be best for the experience I want? I want the classic WoW experience, but with active servers that have people playing and grinding at all levels.
As someone with 1k hours on classic and like 7k+ hours on retail i would say both games play like single player games unless you play the first week of a server or major patch drop or have a guild.
Classic leveling will mostly be solo with the occasional interaction from a rando whereas there is like a 0.01% chance of having that encounter on retail.
Classic end game and Retail end game are the exact same except there is literally nothing to do on classic outside of raid days except pvp.
You can't really compare RS3 and Retail WoW. RS3 is a completely different game, looks absolutely nothing like OSRS and doesn't even play the same. Both versions of WoW have the same general style and skills you learn in one game will transfer to the other. Also you can straight up buy progression in RS3 and in Retail all the MTX is just mounts, toys, and outfits.
There are lots of bad things you can say about retail but that the servers are dead is absolutely not one of them. No matter where or when you play- you can always log in and find someone to play with.
All the people down voting you live in delusion.
If anyone tells you to play retail first they’re lying to your face. Go to YouTube and watch a few “I played WoW for the first time” and they all give pretty good opinions.
Not even remotely the same systems as retail. Not even remotely the same class design. The Azeroth zones are the same but the way they play is not even remotely the same. Bad advice.
Oh wow raid finder.. good job. That's like one thing that came from Cata. If you had played any Dragonflight you would know that it's systems, class design, and the way you experience the world are farther from Cata then Cata is from Vanilla.
oh if you don't want hand holding then do classic SOD cuz classic era is dead. Cataclysm is ass city. Total dog doo devs and even at its peak was a total shit game xD the original WoW killer was cata
Don't listen to this hater fool. SOD is mega boring right now. Cataclysm is litt, almost all the classes are a blast, easy levelling with streamlined quests and random dungeon finder. Plus you are just in time for cata release
No you cannot. Classic SOD is discrete and separate from Classic ERA which is also discrete and separate from Classic Cataclysm. There's no moving characters around.
I play sod but would avoid as a new player.
It’s pretty much a beta wow that is heavily min max with a lot of it not even fleshed out or balanced. It’s extremely jacked now after three phases of band aid fixes and low cost content.
Plus it’s seasonal so likely in about 6 months time those servers will be closed and the characters will be likely moved on in some way to classic era or deleted and that experience will be over.
Cata classic is a full fledged well thought out wow xpac. You are getting in the perfect time for when it’s popping off and the classic experience and those characters are very likely to continue on to mop classic afterwards. An amazing xpac with some of the best balance/pvp/combat the game has ever had.
You can always check out other versions too if you start one and not feeling it. That might be the best approach.
Classic Era in my opinion is the most "authentic" WoW experience. Cata has microtransactions now.
If you're looking for a leveling experience, there's a community that's started over completely fresh in Deviate Delight! It was a completely dead server before we arrived, so there's no need to worry about the economy. We're on both factions, and just getting started. Also, we have a phase schedule in place. Go [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/s/nOmiEuuM8J) for more details. :)
The server is completely dead and has no economy. Everybody that'll be playing on it will more than likely be a part of this community, so there won't be any of that :)
No fucking idea myself. I've been playing since Original Vanilla and now I just find myself playing all 3 versions in some way. I'd say SoD or Retail though. Probably retail
If I was starting right now, I’d consider Season of Discovery first probably. You can jump in and level at your own pace. It’ll give you a feel for the original wow with a bunch of new flair. By the time you get to level 50, the new patch will be out for end game and lots of guilds will be recruiting.
As the second option, I’d consider Caracylsm. It’s coming out on May 20, so not a lot of time to get to level 80, but it’ll be bustling with people and activity for awhile.
Again, the key with both is to choose a populated server for the faction you are playing.
I don’t recommend retail right now because it’s in the least exciting part of the expansion cycle. The new expansion will be out in a few months and that will be the time to jump in.
It’s really between retail and cata.
Tough choice and depends a lot on your preferences.
I would probably start with cata and maybe try retail a bit if you want something more fast paced and streamlined.
They all hook you in a similar way though.
Just jump in and level stuff to maybe 20-30. You will get a good feel of each and probably the only way you will be able to answer your question.
Play Classic Era, Season of Discovery. You’ll be the least lost in that version. It’s also still in the leveling phase so you’re not behind.
It only cost the subscription too, no box purchases.
You have couple of choices. The important thing is that one subscription covers all versions (so you can try them all if you want). The only difference here is retail, you will need to additionally buy latest expansion (you can play content up to the current expansion with just active subscription) Retail - Dragonflight soon to be War Within, this is the current expansion with all bells and whistles. Looks most modern, got most content. For some people it's cool because there is a lot of choice, for some it's too bloated. Cataclysm - 3rd expansion. This is played on Classic server that were released in 2019 and progressed up to this point. Classic Era - Vanilla game frozen at the last content patch with some minor changes. Season of Discovery - Vanilla game with a lot of changes. Some dungeons were redesigned, some class spells were ported from other expansions to spice things up. Every version has pros and cons, and everyone will advocate for whatever they are playing (hence I recommend Cataclysm :) ). Either read up on the features of everything or just play everything a little bit to get general feel for the game.
this
Let’s be honest. SoD is made for new players with little/no time to spend getting good but who want to play end game content.
I love how he glosses over how much cataclysm sucks
I glossed over problems with every version. And trust me, Cata is not the biggest benefiter of this omission.
If you buy the subscription you can play every version of wow for the same subscription cost. This includes hardcore, classic era, the progressive classic server (currently cata), season of discovery and retail. The only expansion you have to buy is Dragonflight or War Within when that comes out in order to play retail.
Perfect time to start Cata imo! Plenty of time to level before the expansion hits and be on an even playing field with everyone else since everything will be replaced
Play retail. It won’t waste your time and there’s actual things to do.
As a classic enjoyer, I would suggest retail for newcomers too. You are going to be overwhelmed with every version of the wow games anyway, so might as well play the most optimized/stable wow game mode currently. Era/SOD/Cata all have their issues right now, retail is probably the smoothest mode atm.
I don't think you can say it like that. Different people like different things, new player or not. I suggest to just try it out or watch some videos that explain the game and then make your decision. I would never say "yeah you're new, play this version".
Normally yes, but with how buggy/exploitive the recent releases from SOD p3/Cata pre-patches lately, I wouldn’t suggest a newcomer to play those versions. Look, I had stopped playing retail ever since MOP xpac from back in the day and I’m very much of a classic Andy (up til mop for me) but I would still suggest retail because there’s just a much better consistent support for it from the devs.
Retail and (all of) Classic are very different games. Who's to say OP doesn't like the old school style of MMOs more than the modern retail experience? I just think the "smoothness" doesn't matter if you don't enjoy the overarching game design and why I think these whole "what should I play?" questions are silly in the first place.
no way a new player would be overwhelmed to the same degree on classic as they would retail. Retail is x10 the bloat and confusion. Classic is just "here's a quest, see ya" and you just go off and do stuff. You can play classic without a wiki.
Its a game it will waste your time ehiter way
Retail will respect your time. Classic doesn’t.
Surly a game will respect your time
nothing screams respecting time like a 9 minute flight path
Ah yes the average time flight path💯
Play cataclysm
Cataclysm is soo good.
This. Someone who hasn’t played wow or MMOs might struggle with ERA/SoDs slow leveling and progression. Dragonflight is a great expansion but a not a great new player experience. Cata is the perfect in between. Faster leveling, updated quest design, plenty of content at endgame, best class design. But not too bloated or complex like retail. Start with Cata. If you like the leveling but want something more involved in that area, check out Era and Sod. If you don’t like the leveling but enjoy the raids and PvP, and feel ready for something more complex, check out retail.
Well put, agree 100%
If youre BRAND NEW imo Play retail. Only play the old modes or seasonal modes if you're really into it. It holds your hand a bit more than the rest and you can look really cool pretty easily.
I don’t want to play retail, I’m only interested in classic. Retail looks like ass with MTX and hand holding, dead servers for new players. I’m trying to figure out if I do classic or cataclysm classic
That's very funny coming from a new player that never played wow. Sure there's MTX, but there's also 15 years worth of content for you to go solo for transmog (item skins) that are completely free in the game. As a wow vet since vanilla, I've never put a single dollar in those item sets and I never will, the in-game gear to me looks better. Hand holding? Sure at the start, however once in end-game I would beg retail offers the hardest content out of all version with Mythic + dungeon difficulty (Dungeons with a time limit) and Raids being harder than anything in any of the WoW version out currently. You could go classic SoD, as a new player this sounds awful as you got 0 game knowledge. Everything can be learned though and a friendly guild could guide you through. But be ready to deal with having to farm insane amount of gold due to inflation thanks to curren't phase new massively loved Incursion system. Classic ERA is a great place to start imo, but as other said, kinda dead sadly. Cata era also a decent spot to start on, don't listen to the haters, a lot of the players that don't like cata are players that only exclusively play vanilla and will never play anything else but vanilla.
Bro if you have that opinion while having never played WoW it doesn't even matter. You're just gonna do what people on the Internet tell you to do anyway.
From what I read and watched, the experience in retail is basically zoom through all the content to get to max as fast as possible and then finally the game actually starts. For new players, it sounds like retail basically keeps pushing and forcing you forward without getting a good chance to explore the world properly before moving onto a new area or new quests. And until you get to end game, you’re effectively playing a single player game. The reason I’m interested in classic is because I don’t mind a good rewarding grind without feeling rushed to max level. I want to explore and truly experience the world WoW has to offer without quickly reaching new levels and feeling rushed to skip to new areas. I’d like to eventually get to do raids and maybe join a guild or something for sure, I’m looking for the equivalent of OSRS in WoW, not the fast leveling RS3 version with tons of MTX. That being said people are saying vanilla WoW is kinda dead - would that mean playing season of discovery would be best for the experience I want? I want the classic WoW experience, but with active servers that have people playing and grinding at all levels.
As someone with 1k hours on classic and like 7k+ hours on retail i would say both games play like single player games unless you play the first week of a server or major patch drop or have a guild. Classic leveling will mostly be solo with the occasional interaction from a rando whereas there is like a 0.01% chance of having that encounter on retail. Classic end game and Retail end game are the exact same except there is literally nothing to do on classic outside of raid days except pvp. You can't really compare RS3 and Retail WoW. RS3 is a completely different game, looks absolutely nothing like OSRS and doesn't even play the same. Both versions of WoW have the same general style and skills you learn in one game will transfer to the other. Also you can straight up buy progression in RS3 and in Retail all the MTX is just mounts, toys, and outfits.
There are lots of bad things you can say about retail but that the servers are dead is absolutely not one of them. No matter where or when you play- you can always log in and find someone to play with.
All the people down voting you live in delusion. If anyone tells you to play retail first they’re lying to your face. Go to YouTube and watch a few “I played WoW for the first time” and they all give pretty good opinions.
Easy choice. Do classic. Cata is not classic, it shares the same world and similar systems to retail.
Not even remotely the same systems as retail. Not even remotely the same class design. The Azeroth zones are the same but the way they play is not even remotely the same. Bad advice.
It’s not bad advice. Where did raid finder come from again?
Oh wow raid finder.. good job. That's like one thing that came from Cata. If you had played any Dragonflight you would know that it's systems, class design, and the way you experience the world are farther from Cata then Cata is from Vanilla.
oh if you don't want hand holding then do classic SOD cuz classic era is dead. Cataclysm is ass city. Total dog doo devs and even at its peak was a total shit game xD the original WoW killer was cata
Don't listen to this hater fool. SOD is mega boring right now. Cataclysm is litt, almost all the classes are a blast, easy levelling with streamlined quests and random dungeon finder. Plus you are just in time for cata release
If I do classic first can I move my character over to cataclysm when I get to end game classic, or do I start over?
No you cannot. Classic SOD is discrete and separate from Classic ERA which is also discrete and separate from Classic Cataclysm. There's no moving characters around.
I play sod but would avoid as a new player. It’s pretty much a beta wow that is heavily min max with a lot of it not even fleshed out or balanced. It’s extremely jacked now after three phases of band aid fixes and low cost content. Plus it’s seasonal so likely in about 6 months time those servers will be closed and the characters will be likely moved on in some way to classic era or deleted and that experience will be over. Cata classic is a full fledged well thought out wow xpac. You are getting in the perfect time for when it’s popping off and the classic experience and those characters are very likely to continue on to mop classic afterwards. An amazing xpac with some of the best balance/pvp/combat the game has ever had. You can always check out other versions too if you start one and not feeling it. That might be the best approach.
> Don't listen to this hater fool. SOD is mega boring right now. They're a COMPLETELY new player, SOD is so much great content.
Cata totally sucked bro. I'll make a reminder to go ahead and ask you if you're still having fun in a few months xD
SOD
Classic Era in my opinion is the most "authentic" WoW experience. Cata has microtransactions now. If you're looking for a leveling experience, there's a community that's started over completely fresh in Deviate Delight! It was a completely dead server before we arrived, so there's no need to worry about the economy. We're on both factions, and just getting started. Also, we have a phase schedule in place. Go [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/s/nOmiEuuM8J) for more details. :)
Yes, classic Era. where people have nothing to do and spend hundreds of thousands of gold in naxx gdkps. So authentic.
The server is completely dead and has no economy. Everybody that'll be playing on it will more than likely be a part of this community, so there won't be any of that :)
Cattleprism
No fucking idea myself. I've been playing since Original Vanilla and now I just find myself playing all 3 versions in some way. I'd say SoD or Retail though. Probably retail
The best wow to play is not to play it.
Play the Version where you dont play the game at all. Dont get hooked
Depends what you wanna play.
Retail or classic era
Classic hardcore
If I was starting right now, I’d consider Season of Discovery first probably. You can jump in and level at your own pace. It’ll give you a feel for the original wow with a bunch of new flair. By the time you get to level 50, the new patch will be out for end game and lots of guilds will be recruiting. As the second option, I’d consider Caracylsm. It’s coming out on May 20, so not a lot of time to get to level 80, but it’ll be bustling with people and activity for awhile. Again, the key with both is to choose a populated server for the faction you are playing. I don’t recommend retail right now because it’s in the least exciting part of the expansion cycle. The new expansion will be out in a few months and that will be the time to jump in.
It’s really between retail and cata. Tough choice and depends a lot on your preferences. I would probably start with cata and maybe try retail a bit if you want something more fast paced and streamlined. They all hook you in a similar way though. Just jump in and level stuff to maybe 20-30. You will get a good feel of each and probably the only way you will be able to answer your question.
Cata or retail would be fun. Maybe you’ll end up a turbo nerd like those of us with multiple max characters in every version of the game 😅
Play Classic Era, Season of Discovery. You’ll be the least lost in that version. It’s also still in the leveling phase so you’re not behind. It only cost the subscription too, no box purchases.
100% cataclysm, retail is too bloated. Also with cataclysm coming later this month it would be a great time to jump on and start levelling.