As players dive into the mysterious old stomping grounds of World Of Warcraft Classic a lot of old memories, both good and bad, are resurfacing. It was a tougher time that required significant dedication and strategic planning to progress.
But even the most avid fan will be intrigued by details that have surfaced regarding Classic. Some of these facts are unique to Classic while others were present in the old days, but missed by the average player. While this list is by no means comprehensive, here are some of the hidden details in Classic.
10 Humans & Orcs Were First
The very first races ever created in the game were the Humans and the Orcs. It’s only fitting that the two races who’ve been pitted against each other since Warcraft would be the first races to be built by the game developers at Blizzard.
While there may be legions of demons waiting behind portals, fire gods brewing under volcanoes, and packs of Murlocs slaying players in the wilderness, this rivalry between humans and orcs is the core of Warcraft. Now to figure out which race was built first and therefore better.
9 Undead Were Undead
Undead were unique among the other races as they were the only non-living beings. As such, the undead had unique abilities and weaknesses that were exploited by players, such as being able to hold their breath longer underwater.
But interestingly the undead had a weakness to spells like Exorcism that were wielded by Paladins. This meant players could roleplay as holy warriors who sought to slay in the undead in righteous PVP. It was a nice detail that may have been unfair for the undead, but was great attention to the lore
8 Taurens Are Bigger
Another race that saw some unique treatment were the Tauren; these brawny bovines were much taller and broader than the other races in the game and a fully leveled Tauren warrior was a sight to behold.
What took many players a while to realize was that the Tauren were genuinely bigger when compared to the other races. Their hitboxes were larger and their melee had longer reach compared to other races. It was considered a fair balance by the developers because even though they could hit their opponents sooner, they made for bigger targets.
7 Intelligence Buff
One of the forgotten mechanics of the early days of WoW that appears in Classic are weapon proficiencies. Players wanting to wield different weapons would have to first buy the weapon skill and then spend time grinding up their experience with that weapon type before they could properly use it.
What many players didn’t know was that if a mage applied an intelligence buff it actually helped the player learn the weapon proficiency faster. If only we could receive intelligence buffs in real-life.
6 Developers’ Favorite Area
It’s not a surprise that even the developers are going to have a favorite location in the game they either want to improve or like to work on. It turns out that Shadowfang Keep was the choice location for developer love.
It received the most attention in patches, was considered by fans to be the best balanced and had the best loot for the level. Many fans believe that current Classic developers have shown similar favoritism as it seems to be the best-balanced area in the game.
5 Bugs Are On Purpose
A fun detail specific to Classic is the amount of supposed bugs that the developers intentionally put into the game. Some of these aren’t actual bugs but antiquated mechanics that have evolved or been phased out over time and have been intentionally recreated in Classic.
But there are also genuine bugs that the developers intentional created and put into the game to recreate the experience that was vanilla. It shows true dedication when a developer will knowingly create a flawed product to make fans happy.
4 Chris Metzen The Voice Of Many
One thing many fans may not have known was that a very talented voice actor provided many, many of the voices in the game. Chris Metzen who was the Art Director during WoW’s release provided some of the voices for the game in addition to lending his artistic talent.
In vanilla he voiced Nefarian, Ragnaros, Thrall, and a number of other bosses. He is presently retired from his position at Blizzard, but his voice work lives on in Classic making a great memorial for his talents that gave many characters their voice in early WoW.
3 Ouro Sandworm Is A Survivor
The longest boss to go without dying in the early days of WoW is Ouro the Sandworm. The reason behind his long life was because there were numerous bugs attached to it and the area it spawned in Ahn’Qiraj Temple.
The most notorious bug caused it to get stuck underground making it impossible to target and subsequently damage the mighty worm. Like the players that hid out until the final moments of PUBG Ouro was the longest boss to go unkilled because players simply couldn’t get to it.
2 Disgusting Oozling Was Toxic
Typically when something requires a ton of grinding to obtain it’s usually incredibly powerful or useful to the player, this definitely isn’t so with the Disgusting Oozling pet. Whenever this pet is summoned the disgusting green blob will cause the player’s defenses and resistances to drop by 20. It will also give the player a distinct green color as if they were poisoned.
Obtaining the pet required grinding for a Oozing Bag which had a 1-3.5% chance of dropping, but there was only a 1.5% chance that the bag that dropped had this pet inside. So it either required a significant amount of grinding to obtain or players spent vast amounts of gold in the Auction house to get this detrimental pet.
1 Curse Of Tongues Chat
By far the best-hidden detail in the game is the effect Curse Of Tongues had on players in and out of battle. In battle it caused enemies to take longer to cast spells because they were speaking in a different tongue.
But the developers decided to add a bit of realism to the game by also causing it to affect the player’s ability to communicate. If a player afflicted with Curse of Tongues used the chat their words would appear in the Demonic tongue. No doubt this was a major shock to players who found their words translated into Demonic for the first time.
Since then it’s become a clever way for players to mask their words and speak privately to each other or to enable Warlocks from the opposing faction to communicate.