An Experimentalist's Survival Guide

Back in prehistory when I attended university, I got my Bachelor's Degree in Physics. While most of the undergraduate curriculum was already defined for a Physics major, there were just enough electives that you could pursue a few classes that you were really interested in. Based on what you liked --and whether you kind of liked working in a lab or not-- an undergrad was lumped into two classifications: theorists and experimentalists. The experimentalists performed laboratory experiments, while the theorists stretched the Mathematics behind Physics as far as it could go. 

I was definitely in with the experimentalists, as I enjoyed --and still enjoy-- puttering around and testing hypotheses. My deck project highlighted that I'm decent enough with my hands and working through issues on the fly that if I hadn't burned out on Physics* I would probably be slaving away in a basement lab** somewhere. 

During my time at UD, I learned how to think critically and how to attack a problem. Sure, it's nice to have resources, but back then Internet access was pretty minimal so if you didn't have all of the resources right in front of you, well... You had to puzzle a lot of it out on your own.***

You can see where this is going, can't you?

Sorry, no cheat sheets allowed for the exam.
Yes, this is Wowhead, as of 12/3/2024.

Yes, between my training, my inherited stubborn streak, and my revulsion at the widespread acceptance at turning a game into a mathematical exercise****, I try to figure things out myself. 

There are exceptions to the rule, obviously, such as when I joined Valhalla's raid team in 2020, but I want to learn to play a game by actually playing the game and learning the rules provided (either in-game or in a rules manual). People who love to say that Wowhead or Icy Veins is the manual for playing are missing the point: just because a game company farmed out some of this stuff to a third party provider doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to figure it out yourself. 

And with the new Classic Fresh release, I have been taking my time to do just that.

***

Of the nine original Classic classes, I've played five of them: Mage, Paladin, Rogue, Shaman, and Warlock. Three of them, Paladin, Shaman, and Warlock, I've never played in Vanilla Classic past L20, but I am familiar enough with how they play in later expansions that I have a (somewhat) basic understanding of them.*****

Others, such as the Warrior, not so much.

Better get used to visiting dwarves, I suppose.

I thought I knew how a Warrior played until I actually started playing one. Then I quickly discovered just how much that basic attack meant to a Warrior: it builds up rage, which the Warrior can then spend for a variety of different abilities.

It's been a while since I played a class that behaved that way, so once I got used to the concept I began to work on how to play it efficiently. Build up rage, throw on a DoT, then build up rage for other buffs/attacks.

It was at that point that I discovered the next issue with playing a Warrior in Vanilla Classic: timing your attacks. 

I began bitching about the weirdness surrounding Heroic Strike when I went to use that attack. There were times when it would attack very quickly, and others where I sat waiting for a few seconds for the attack to land. 

"What the hell is going on?" I muttered more than once, mindful that my wife was sleeping upstairs. I checked my connection, but my latency held steady and internet speed was still good. I did a quick search as to whether the Classic Fresh servers were buggy, but no dice there for my specific problem.#

I just learned to live with it until about L8 when I finally realized what was going on: it had everything to do with timing. If you time your attack right then there's no delay at all. 

So THAT's why swing timer addons are so popular.

I then proceeded to get flashbacks from my time as an Enhancement Shaman and shuddered. I wasn't going to go down that route if I could help it, so I decided that if I was going to be serious about leveling as many alts as I am, I was going to have to just develop the necessary feel in-game to play a Warrior right. That also meant I wasn't going to take that alt into any instances, because when you see a Warrior in Vanilla Classic, you immediately think "Oh, there's a Tank."

And I ain't tanking. Too much stress involved; that's one job where you absolutely need confidence to do it right, and I don't have the confidence. There's also that trust you have to have in other people to keep you alive (and not pull threat), and let's just say I've got issues there too.##

***

Warriors aside, the basics of attacks and whatnot are pretty self-explanatory. What I've been surprised the most about, however, are the class-related quests and stories. 

I didn't know this NPC existed.

While the class stories don't come even close to the level of detail found in SWTOR --still the gold standard for class stories in MMOs, IMHO-- they are unique enough that I really enjoy their presence.

These were NPCs that I either didn't know existed --like the Bear Spirit (above) for the Druid class quest-- or I never paid attention to them. Yes, yes, I know the cardinal rule of NPCs in a video game is that if they have a name then they likely have a quest or something associated with them, but just what was associated with them was an unknown until I began playing more classes.

The class quests in WoW Classic range from the snarky...

To the earnest...

To the annoyingly mysterious...

While a lot of class quests are 'go there to see person X' and said person gives you a new ability, others actually want you to perform a task before they grant you the ability, such as the Human Warlock having to go 'rescue' a book coveted by your Class Trainer that the Defias had stolen.

All in all, these class quests aren't a lot of effort (so far), but they do provide flavor to Classic WoW that Retail WoW has lost.

***

Just about all of the alts I've created that I intend to level at this time are at L10 (with a straggler or two a couple of levels short), and most of those toons don't even have their major class abilities yet. What does happen at L10 is that the talent trees unlock, and I've found myself swamped by an unexpected desire to get it 'right'. You know, pick the 'right' talents to play the class 'properly'. Or select the right 'pet' for my Hunter.### 

I have resisted that siren song so far, but my desire to explore and experiment on my own wars with my desire to research a thing to death. And being a 'solved game', WoW has tons of that out there floating around that I am deliberately refusing to use this time around. (See Figure 1.)

This won't bring back 2004, but it will allow me to internalize my learnings better than following a guide or reading the contents of a Discord channel. And the one thing it will absolutely do is slow down my leveling process. I realize it's about to slow down the next five levels, and once I hit L20 the brakes will come on even harder, but exploring and learning will allow me to fight FOMO that much better.

I think I found my Holiday shirt.
From Amazon UK.

*And had the confidence to believe in myself. There, I said it. I've been carrying those doubts around since my first semester at UD, because I learned very quickly that unless I got my ass in gear I was going to wash out. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," could have been my mantra if A Song of Ice and Fire were around back then.

**Yes, the Physics Professors' labs were always in the basement of Sherman Hall. It might have been due to the weight of the equipment, but given that the Engineering building had labs all throughout the place, I think it was just because the building was designed primarily for teaching students rather than professors' research.

***Or wait for a week or two for the referenced article to arrive via interlibrary loan. If you thought Fed Ex is expensive now, back then it was so cost prohibitive you could just about forget about using it if you were a student.

****I remember people joking in boardgame circles back in the 90s and 00s that Mathematicians would play Reiner Knizia's boardgames for fun when they came home from work. Reiner was (in)famous for creating a boardgame with a mathematical premise and a theme that was pasted on to a greater or lesser degree. Nowadays, it wouldn't shock me if they played WoW instead.

*****That's all relative: the Paladin got a makeover in TBC, the three versions of the Shaman play radically different from each other, and I cut my teeth on a Warlock strictly through PvP in Catalcysm, which is very different than its Vanilla incarnation.

#There are issues with Friends lists not updating, but I don't know whether it's WoW itself or some interference with the addons I have. Just a note that the only "social" addon I do have installed is Total RP3, which doesn't really interact with Friends lists.

##It's several stories from my youth, and nobody wants to hear them now, except maybe a therapist.

###Somebody asked in Teldrassil's Gen Chat "Which Hunter's Pet is the best?", to which people said "Go to Petopia". Forget opinions, go to The Source and follow that.