The public stress test for WoW Classic went on this week. I caught wind of it kinda late, but did enjoy poking my head back into the Orc and Dwarf starter zones. It felt like home.
I started by rolling an Orc Warrior named Zoxe (I'm nothing if predictable), and ran him around until I realized that I was going to be extra-tempted to run him up to the Old Orgrimmar. There are a few things in Classic that I really want to savor - stepping foot into the original Org map is one of them. I decided that I really wanted to do that at Launch, and do it when the quest lines actually sent me there, so I can soak in the whole thing. So to avoid temptation, I hopped out and decided to see what was up on the Alliance side. (I'm a Horde player but the wintery Dwarf starter zone was always my favorite).
The Dwarf zone was also crowded, but mobs could be found and I got to level 5 as a Gnome Warlock, was sent to Khanaros and decided to log out in Ironforge (which I have fewer misgivings about seeing because my attachment is lower and it hasn't changed that much).
Overall it felt really good, but I had fewer "oh wow" moments compared to the Blizzcon Demo. I think this was because the Demo was focused on higher level content (Barrens and Westfall) where we spent more of our time. The starter zones were always fun, but you'd spend at most a couple hours in them per character. We "lived" in Crossroads.
Anyway, a good way to spend a rainy evening.
Before I go, though, let me summarize my expectations for WoW Classic.
