What's up, it's ya boy Shadows, coming at you with the freshest of Fan Creations news. Don't worry, in typing this I have made the promise to myself never to do so again, you have nothing to fear.
Currently, we don't record anything over 2 for automatically imported collections. We also don't process card removals automatically through JSON.
Did you ever have 2 Underlight rods or manually edit it to be that way before?
What's the problem with simply setting the collection values to the values in the JSON dump instead of adding them?
There's no problem. We're just not being destructive with the JSON because it isn't something we're generating. I don't think it is too crazy to assume in the majority of cases people aren't going to import a collection until after they've decided to nuke a bunch of cards.
The whole thing won't matter much though once we have our own way of importing from the Hearthstone client.
Based on what you've posted, your answer should be "yes", you are waiting for the confirmation to pop up considering you've stated the site says "your collection is updated".
We haven't had any server-side errors log from the collection management page since the last update went out with fixes midday Friday. Do any errors appear in your browser's console after you click on the import button?
I was able to successfully import your collection without errors. The steps I took to do so are as follows:
Visit the collection page.
Click on JSON importer.
Paste your blob into the provided field.
I click on the blue submit collection button below the JSON field.
A top-right notification appears stating the collection update is queued.
I wait some time
A success (green) notification states it was successfully updated.
Are these the exact steps you have taken as well?
After following the procedure, I have the issue that on the site il lists my collection as having 2x Underlight Angling Rod, Nagrand Slam, Bladestorm, as well as several other epic cards where I have only 1 x, and 3x Skeletal Dragon when I only have 2. HS replay collection is correct and I tried importing collection several times waiting for the green notification.
Currently, we don't record anything over 2 for automatically imported collections. We also don't process card removals automatically through JSON.
Did you ever have 2 Underlight rods or manually edit it to be that way before?
I'm going to lock this thread. Not much is going to come of this staying open and if I'm being honest, Live4vrRdieTryn, your other replies just make you look like you're here to troll. If you honestly aren't and are looking to turn over a new leaf, leave your past in the past and stop bringing it up.
I've updated the image in the expansion guide. Luckily for us, the site wasn't around for Journey to Un'Goro so we don't have many references to the hero portrait :D
I've always muted the stream itself and left it open to get twitch drops. With that said though, I leave it in its own window with its own tab and then lay that behind other chrome windows. That way it retains focus!
As far as I know all the good mods (bar one or two who stayed there) moved on over here. I'm not sure what's left of the moderation team over there but the fact that they made their most notorious troll a mod was reason enough for me to never post there again.
So yeah, as long as you stay in line you shouldn't have too much trouble here.
No one on the staff stayed with Pwn. They brought some old staff members back that were removed for inactivity or ill-doings.
So on the subject of "Nozdormu is racist against mobile players"
That's a really stupid title, even if your meaning of it is to be tongue in cheek. Racism is a real problem and using the word like that makes it seem like its a joke. Honestly, you'd have been warned here for the same thing. Now, the reason they never responded to your appeal is that they're either lazy or the system is still a broken piece of garbage. There's actually a lot of stuff on their site that is probably still broken from all the mismanagement over the years, it really is amazing how much stuff was able to fall through the cracks. It took a lot of us a lot of time to keep a watchful eye over things so they didn't get too crazy.
Though without a doubt the real problem over there, in this case, is they've tossed you to the curb. I know the mentality of people on the team there and as soon as you get banned a couple of times, you're done for. When it was the original team, even people who were the largest of offenders (hey Sherman!), were always responded to even if it was to tell them that there was no chance we were going to overturn their temp bans.
To add on to this, Golden Kael'Thas still isn't craftable. I thought it was gonna be available for golden crafting once the expac hit but it looks like its still locked which is why Kael can't be disenchanted.
It is good they updated to mention the two goldens that are nerfed and craftable are being allowed full refunds. I guess they forgot
Specifically regarding classic-expansion content. At what point does blizzard feasibly stop the re-release train? I always said that Wrath was the peak of WoW (both in terms of it's core demographic, popularity, peak concurrent subscribers and it's ability to create good content that didn't completely obviate the systems that it had developed prior). I mean, I don't think it's feasible for Blizzard to just re-release all expansions. There has to be a stopping point. I feel fairly confident that they will release Burning Crusade though. (Just look at Hearthstone and WoW…
Someone can correct me, if I am wrong, but I didn't see an official response about the final legacy expansion. It's very likely to be Wrath due to the reasons you and Flux mentioned above, but IMHO we will see another survey from Blizzard asking us what we would want next. If enough players want Cata, then we might see that expansion as well. If people aren't in the mood for it, then Classic would be based on a 2-expansion package.
Without a doubt, they'll continue to ask what the community wants si once they're actually being pretty smart about how Classic is being handled. I do think Cataclysm is going to happen though as will Mists of Pandaria since the nostalgia for them comes up all the time which means we should get a good chunk of people responding positively to it. Mists more so than Cata but you need one to get the other.
What interests me a lot about Cataclysm is knowing handfuls of people that started playing WoW in Cataclysm and so they have this big nostalgia for it. I think the popularity of Wrath lead a lot of new players to the game with Cataclysm since it was a fresh start, though it, unfortunately, didn't keep all the older people playing which lead to the drop in subscribers and eventual embarrassment which kept the numbers from public eye
I don't think they stop the re-release train. With the Classic version of the game lagging so far behind retail, there should always be a group of players who want to play an older piece of content. The part I find the most interesting though is what happens if they release these old expansions and they aren't out for 2 years each? Classic will eventually catch up to the current game. Do they regularly create new Classic servers for each of the expansions? Do we get a chance to level up our classic characters into retail somehow if things do catch up?
The whole thing is so fun to think about.
I do think if they were to stop though, the re-releasing should stop with Wrath of the Lich King. The first three versions of the game are better or worse the original Warcraft story before they had to start really world-building again. Those three are "Classic Warcraft" so it is extremely fitting that they went with the Classic name.
It is very interesting that they want to know how people want to progress. Part of me thinks the brand new characters on a BC server options aren't seriously being considered, but included just to give people the delusion they get to give feedback. The real possibilities to me have always been the remaining 2 options - progression server or realm transfers. I think realm transfers are silly though since you end up with a ton of dead Classic realms. Let people start Classic from scratch at that point on some new servers with new identities. Bonus points since they only need to bring a few servers only instead of the dozens now since the demand should be lower.
Quote From No Author Specified
Continue playing my current Classic character on my existing server as it progresses to the Burning Crusade expansion, with the option to transfer to a Classic server that will never progress past level 60.
Start a brand new character from level 58 on a new Burning Crusade server.
Start a brand new character from Level 1 on a new Burning Crusade server.
Continue playing my current Classic character on my existing server that will never progress past level 60, with the option to transfer to a Burning Crusade server.
I'm with you on the Paladin front. Although my first real Paladin was made during Wrath of the Lich King (Holy with part-time Prot), I really appreciated what all my Paladin brothers did for me in Burning Crusade and I am 90% sure I want to play a Paladin for Burning Crusade (Horde of course). If Blizzard does it right, we should be able to get ourselves some 60 Blood Elves before the Burning Crusade expansion actually goes live since the race will unlock in a "pre-patch" of sorts.
BC definitely has a better round of Dungeons than Classic. Classics were really appreciated, but yeah, the length of most can be tedious and not great for a world where we're more committed to more serious things in life. I know exactly what you mean though; These were some of the best times I've ever had playing online video games and it all just ends up being emotional. I feel like I'm doing myself an injustice if I go super serious on it, but I feel like I'm doing past me an injustice by not experience it all again. Then again, this could all be a moot point since we haven't gotten to experience BC again. Maybe it will all just be a "you think you do but you don't" moment, leading to some initial fun but then some fatigue, which honestly may be the way to go since that means I won't feel bad about not playing constantly.
One saving grace though for BC is being able to play it with the WoW friends I've made over the years that I didn't get to experience it with back then. It'll be really neat to run better (when compared to Classic) content with them in an older and more punishing version of the game.
I'm over on Herod PVP which has been a hot server to play on and I gotta say, the Classic experience felt fantastic with an overwhelming number of people. There's just something so epic about walking into Org from the oversized front gates and into a sea of dirty Horde characters that says home to me. I don't get that feeling anymore with the current game since they redesigned the city.
I think it might be worth sticking out on a larger server, especially since we don't know how the BC population is going to be. Its possible a large chunk of players on your realm only really cared about Classic and they don't intend on playing BC longterm. It could turn an overwhelmingly high pop realm into just a normal high pop realm. With that possibility existing for Mankrik, the other two USEast PVE realms could also lose quite a bit of their populations due to the lack of BC interest. Though, $25 to change back isn't the end of the world if the other servers ended up sucking. Those realms are also likely to gain quite a few players back once BC hits which will last for at least some amount of time, making it potentially less risky of a move now if you're possibly only going to play a ton during the first few months.
Damn, there are so many stupid things to consider. FWIW I've played on a ton of private servers as well and I agree, low populations aren't even all that bad. In fact, even on retail, one of my favourite times playing the game was when I and my group of friends realm transferred when Wrath hit because of queue times. Blizzard goofed hardcore, made the new realm (Drak'Tharon) get overpopulated and then when they let people transfer off, the realm became a deserted wasteland overnight. None of us wanted to transfer off to the realm choices since they all seemed lame, so we proceeded to basically run the server. That isn't to say we controlled Drak'Tharon, but it was a ton of fun having a very tightknit community where you could penalize people who were being assholes. A positive for me though was I was able to be a troll without many repercussions since I could back that up with being one of the realm's best-geared players and performance to match it. I don't think I'd do low population again though since those are all merged realms and its just too weird to see realm names of other players in guild chat.
Should you play Vanilla so you can fast track Burning Crusade? Hell yeah. Though, maybe not you specifically since you've made it to 60 already, but I think it is worth it for other people to get on board now.
Of course, we don't know how Burning Crusade will work yet since Blizzard has only recently sent out a survey and has made no official comments, but I think it is very safe to assume we'll be continuing our current characters.
Vanilla is a very interesting beast to me. I only ever played the very early stages of Vanilla when it was actually current. It was then months into TBC when I finally started playing the game and got hooked. I wanted to play Classic because of the missed Vanilla experience but ultimately never got to level cap. With so many other things to play, I have enjoyed my time in Classic and will eventually get my character capped before BC hits, but I'm with you in that what I really want to play is TBC and Wrath.
I won't lie though, part of my failure to reach cap was also a feeling you've had where you took a break and couldn't catch up. My break was in the form of being unable to connect to the servers and having to work on the site. I was initially ahead of the curve which was great since I didn't have to compete with very many people for progression, but as the time spent playing lowered, I started getting swamped by people. I don't mind having to compete with others, it was actually kind of fun, but it did cause some friends to stop playing and others that were able to continue staying ahead of the curve, were already raiding and quitting because they had gotten lucky with gear and felt like they had nothing else to accomplish.
If you don't want to do much of the remaining endgame content, I'd not worry too much about missing out on it. With it all being so old and strategized, we're kidding ourselves if we think we're going to really create any new crazy nostalgic memories from Classic. Sure, there may be some good times to be had, but I know I will always go back to the first time I was playing content and not the new first time. Leaving WoW as a side game lets you still play within Azeroth occasionally.
Now Burning Crusade, on the other hand, there is no chance I'm missing out on it. I'm looking forward to playing with the arena system, farming battlegrounds with more pvp balance than was present in Vanilla, and of course, raiding. I have a deep connection with those raids and even when I go back and farm them these days for those missing transmog pieces, I feel warped back into that time period and love everything I remember about it. I could honestly see myself finding a group to raid with, or starting one, which wasn't the case with vanilla. When Wrath hits, it'll be even better and I'm very afraid that I'll end up sleeping 4 hours a day during that expansion and using the remaining 20 hours of being awake split between Out of Cards and Wrath.
The systems development of the years in World of Warcraft just made the game so much better and you always felt like there was more progression to be had, which isn't really the case for Vanilla. It isn't that great in Burning Crusade either, but from everything I've experienced and analyzed over the years, Burning Crusade must have at least 5x the character progression value. The game does eventually hit a peak though with systems development, which I consider to be Mists of Pandaria.
Wrath took raiding to a very important level with multiple lockouts every week which was perfect for degenerates like myself, and just did so many other things right that allowed lots of different people to really experience the endgame.
Cataclysm's clean up of stats people didn't really care much about (MP5, Defense, Weap Skills), the addition of reforging to customize gear, and new class-specific resources was a huge boost to giving us better gameplay. The game was still very much the same though with us still going through the same gameplay loop that had been experienced in years prior.
Mists of Pandaria is the pinnacle of WoW, sort of. I did end up playing this expansion more casually than I had ever played the game (I quit WoW for the first time shortly after Deathwing was defeated, came back for Mists with many friends gone), but all the extra stuff they had added into the game really made it feel good. Challenge Modes were an excellent idea and made the idea of running dungeons fun again. We got multiple world content updates which thankfully they continued in Legion and Battle for Azeroth. The new Monk class added a unique spin on the three archetypes which gave us a lot of new combos to play with.
Warlords is where shit hit the fan. Garrisons were a cool idea but overused in the most boring way possible. They butchered professions that had felt acceptable at the very least in each expansion beforehand. The lack of raiding content was stupid. There were a couple of cool stat additions though (Speed, Leech, Multistrike) and the reagent bank was definitely a great addition, though it was really only needed because of how many pointless materials they gave us through garrisons.
Legion was overall a good expansion, but the destruction of the PVP system is one of the most idiotic choices I have seen in gaming. Now, I'm not a fantastic PVPer, the game really isn't even meant to be a PVP game as evidenced by Blizzard's inability to balance it ever, but damn did they screw this up. I was initially excited about the idea that everyone was on a level playing field, but it ruined the little progression via gear that was present in PVP for so many years. The removal of 5v5 also sucked; sure the queues were long but it was hilarious to play. The removal of Glyphs was a mistake. The fun that was multistrike from Warlords was short-lived and removed in this expansion which personally I wasn't a huge fan of but eh, what can you do. Artifact weapons / class questlines were positive and welcome additions to the game, though the grind past the initial stages felt bad. If FOMO was going to be a thing, this was the expansion that stressed players out the most.
Battle for Azeroth has been a really fun expansion, and really improved upon Legion in many ways, but holy shit Blizzard, you took Artifacts to a whole new level of stupidity. I was initially excited about the azerite powers on gear and how we'd be able to keep that max level progression through neck levels, but that was excitement that did not last long. It felt good getting those new breakpoints to unlock new talents on gear, but then when you'd get a new piece of gear and lose all your talents, it wasn't worth equipping. Gear progression is the most important thing in the game and they shit the bed with it. Corruption is fun but a hilariously worse titanforging/warforging system.
In my ideal world though, the game ends at Mists of Pandaria and the expansion after contains the Mythic+ system of Battle for Azeroth, max level character progression through the collection of some type of "power" that isn't incredibly important for progression but at least showcases who plays more than other people, and the return of proper talent trees. Professions should also have to work with each other again which was more common in the earlier days. Let us upgrade gear with some sort of special crafted material that requires playing content to earn materials for and this would be our warforging substitute. Also, we need to make sure reforging stays in the game because stat changing is fun, even if most just use an addon to figure it out. Using an addon to calculate efficiency is better than equipping higher level gear and realizing you lost 5% haste which in turn has decimated your rotation.
Shadowlands has me happy, but I properly won't go too crazy on it especially if Burning Crusade hits during the middle of it. The return of enchants is huge. The profession changes so far look interesting since it'll allow for some cool customization of crafts. I really enjoyed the N'Zoth Horrific Visions so Torghast, Tower of the Damned coming with the expansion should be a ton of fun to play in. Mythic+ should only get better, and I love playing the game with only 5 people. Level squish is the right move. Abilities making a return to baseline such as Frostbolt for all mages is sexy. Covenants will be sorta fun initially but ultimately a disaster since Blizzard won't be able to balance the system which is a damn shame. Why does every system need to be about giving players more power? Just, make gear not stupid and continue offering plenty of ways for us to further customize our gear. The socket system from Battle for Azeroth's N'Zoth patch showcases how you can do small upgrades to gear for just playing parts of the game - but hey, maybe let blacksmiths or jewelcrafters get in on this somehow.
This post turned into something I didn't really expect it to. I'm happy with WoW but also not happy with the game. They turned my beautiful baby into this weird thing that I have to unconditionally love which I hate.
Burning Crusade returning will rock though as will Wrath of the Lich King. Classic's Vanilla version is cool but I ain't too worried about being the ultimate warrior from it... though I won't lie, I'd love to experience Naxxramas.
Hey all,
Getting on late to pull the giveaway together today - lots of "fun" stuff going on.
I place all eligible people into a random.org list and hit the randomize button. The person on top, in position 1, wins.
Congratulations to KANSAS! I'll be sending you a DM in a minute with your code.
In the spoiler below is the list that was generated.
There were 10 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
Yeah, MTG is like the king of game updates lol
Damn right you ain't!
Yup, this is something that will get filled out! The plan going forward is to cover expansions the exact same as we do with Hearthstone =
There's no problem. We're just not being destructive with the JSON because it isn't something we're generating. I don't think it is too crazy to assume in the majority of cases people aren't going to import a collection until after they've decided to nuke a bunch of cards.
The whole thing won't matter much though once we have our own way of importing from the Hearthstone client.
Currently, we don't record anything over 2 for automatically imported collections. We also don't process card removals automatically through JSON.
Did you ever have 2 Underlight rods or manually edit it to be that way before?
This already exists! Each game portal has its own RSS feed you can subscribe to. Here is the Hearthstone-specific feed.
https://outof.cards/hearthstone.rss
Yep, the official launch of the game is April 30. This was announced a little over 3 weeks ago. Here's our coverage on it.
https://outof.cards/legends-of-runeterra/1120-legends-of-runeterra-official-launch-mobile-access-and-new-card-set-on-april-30
Additionally, the new set, Rising Tides, is available on PC on April 28!
I'm going to lock this thread. Not much is going to come of this staying open and if I'm being honest, Live4vrRdieTryn, your other replies just make you look like you're here to troll. If you honestly aren't and are looking to turn over a new leaf, leave your past in the past and stop bringing it up.
I've updated the image in the expansion guide. Luckily for us, the site wasn't around for Journey to Un'Goro so we don't have many references to the hero portrait :D
Thanks!
I've wiped your collection as requested, Anathemos!
I've always muted the stream itself and left it open to get twitch drops. With that said though, I leave it in its own window with its own tab and then lay that behind other chrome windows. That way it retains focus!
No one on the staff stayed with Pwn. They brought some old staff members back that were removed for inactivity or ill-doings.
So on the subject of "Nozdormu is racist against mobile players"
That's a really stupid title, even if your meaning of it is to be tongue in cheek. Racism is a real problem and using the word like that makes it seem like its a joke. Honestly, you'd have been warned here for the same thing. Now, the reason they never responded to your appeal is that they're either lazy or the system is still a broken piece of garbage. There's actually a lot of stuff on their site that is probably still broken from all the mismanagement over the years, it really is amazing how much stuff was able to fall through the cracks. It took a lot of us a lot of time to keep a watchful eye over things so they didn't get too crazy.
Though without a doubt the real problem over there, in this case, is they've tossed you to the curb. I know the mentality of people on the team there and as soon as you get banned a couple of times, you're done for. When it was the original team, even people who were the largest of offenders (hey Sherman!), were always responded to even if it was to tell them that there was no chance we were going to overturn their temp bans.
To add on to this, Golden Kael'Thas still isn't craftable. I thought it was gonna be available for golden crafting once the expac hit but it looks like its still locked which is why Kael can't be disenchanted.
It is good they updated to mention the two goldens that are nerfed and craftable are being allowed full refunds. I guess they forgot
Without a doubt, they'll continue to ask what the community wants si once they're actually being pretty smart about how Classic is being handled. I do think Cataclysm is going to happen though as will Mists of Pandaria since the nostalgia for them comes up all the time which means we should get a good chunk of people responding positively to it. Mists more so than Cata but you need one to get the other.
What interests me a lot about Cataclysm is knowing handfuls of people that started playing WoW in Cataclysm and so they have this big nostalgia for it. I think the popularity of Wrath lead a lot of new players to the game with Cataclysm since it was a fresh start, though it, unfortunately, didn't keep all the older people playing which lead to the drop in subscribers and eventual embarrassment which kept the numbers from public eye
Oh no =(
Removed it from the post, thanks.
It'll be sad when the older codes expire! Everything from Eldraine and before are set to expire in July of this year.
Also, if you're looking for experience, there are the codes "LevelUp" and "BroughtBack" that may still work.
I don't think they stop the re-release train. With the Classic version of the game lagging so far behind retail, there should always be a group of players who want to play an older piece of content. The part I find the most interesting though is what happens if they release these old expansions and they aren't out for 2 years each? Classic will eventually catch up to the current game. Do they regularly create new Classic servers for each of the expansions? Do we get a chance to level up our classic characters into retail somehow if things do catch up?
The whole thing is so fun to think about.
I do think if they were to stop though, the re-releasing should stop with Wrath of the Lich King. The first three versions of the game are better or worse the original Warcraft story before they had to start really world-building again. Those three are "Classic Warcraft" so it is extremely fitting that they went with the Classic name.
Just a little under 3 weeks ago, some players received a survey by email asking about Burning Crusade. Wowhead did a whole spotlight on it ->
https://www.wowhead.com/news=311753/classic-burning-crusade-character-creation-survey-sent-by-blizzard
It is very interesting that they want to know how people want to progress. Part of me thinks the brand new characters on a BC server options aren't seriously being considered, but included just to give people the delusion they get to give feedback. The real possibilities to me have always been the remaining 2 options - progression server or realm transfers. I think realm transfers are silly though since you end up with a ton of dead Classic realms. Let people start Classic from scratch at that point on some new servers with new identities. Bonus points since they only need to bring a few servers only instead of the dozens now since the demand should be lower.
I'm with you on the Paladin front. Although my first real Paladin was made during Wrath of the Lich King (Holy with part-time Prot), I really appreciated what all my Paladin brothers did for me in Burning Crusade and I am 90% sure I want to play a Paladin for Burning Crusade (Horde of course). If Blizzard does it right, we should be able to get ourselves some 60 Blood Elves before the Burning Crusade expansion actually goes live since the race will unlock in a "pre-patch" of sorts.
BC definitely has a better round of Dungeons than Classic. Classics were really appreciated, but yeah, the length of most can be tedious and not great for a world where we're more committed to more serious things in life. I know exactly what you mean though; These were some of the best times I've ever had playing online video games and it all just ends up being emotional. I feel like I'm doing myself an injustice if I go super serious on it, but I feel like I'm doing past me an injustice by not experience it all again. Then again, this could all be a moot point since we haven't gotten to experience BC again. Maybe it will all just be a "you think you do but you don't" moment, leading to some initial fun but then some fatigue, which honestly may be the way to go since that means I won't feel bad about not playing constantly.
One saving grace though for BC is being able to play it with the WoW friends I've made over the years that I didn't get to experience it with back then. It'll be really neat to run better (when compared to Classic) content with them in an older and more punishing version of the game.
I'm over on Herod PVP which has been a hot server to play on and I gotta say, the Classic experience felt fantastic with an overwhelming number of people. There's just something so epic about walking into Org from the oversized front gates and into a sea of dirty Horde characters that says home to me. I don't get that feeling anymore with the current game since they redesigned the city.
I think it might be worth sticking out on a larger server, especially since we don't know how the BC population is going to be. Its possible a large chunk of players on your realm only really cared about Classic and they don't intend on playing BC longterm. It could turn an overwhelmingly high pop realm into just a normal high pop realm. With that possibility existing for Mankrik, the other two USEast PVE realms could also lose quite a bit of their populations due to the lack of BC interest. Though, $25 to change back isn't the end of the world if the other servers ended up sucking. Those realms are also likely to gain quite a few players back once BC hits which will last for at least some amount of time, making it potentially less risky of a move now if you're possibly only going to play a ton during the first few months.
Damn, there are so many stupid things to consider. FWIW I've played on a ton of private servers as well and I agree, low populations aren't even all that bad. In fact, even on retail, one of my favourite times playing the game was when I and my group of friends realm transferred when Wrath hit because of queue times. Blizzard goofed hardcore, made the new realm (Drak'Tharon) get overpopulated and then when they let people transfer off, the realm became a deserted wasteland overnight. None of us wanted to transfer off to the realm choices since they all seemed lame, so we proceeded to basically run the server. That isn't to say we controlled Drak'Tharon, but it was a ton of fun having a very tightknit community where you could penalize people who were being assholes. A positive for me though was I was able to be a troll without many repercussions since I could back that up with being one of the realm's best-geared players and performance to match it. I don't think I'd do low population again though since those are all merged realms and its just too weird to see realm names of other players in guild chat.
Should you play Vanilla so you can fast track Burning Crusade? Hell yeah. Though, maybe not you specifically since you've made it to 60 already, but I think it is worth it for other people to get on board now.
Of course, we don't know how Burning Crusade will work yet since Blizzard has only recently sent out a survey and has made no official comments, but I think it is very safe to assume we'll be continuing our current characters.
Vanilla is a very interesting beast to me. I only ever played the very early stages of Vanilla when it was actually current. It was then months into TBC when I finally started playing the game and got hooked. I wanted to play Classic because of the missed Vanilla experience but ultimately never got to level cap. With so many other things to play, I have enjoyed my time in Classic and will eventually get my character capped before BC hits, but I'm with you in that what I really want to play is TBC and Wrath.
I won't lie though, part of my failure to reach cap was also a feeling you've had where you took a break and couldn't catch up. My break was in the form of being unable to connect to the servers and having to work on the site. I was initially ahead of the curve which was great since I didn't have to compete with very many people for progression, but as the time spent playing lowered, I started getting swamped by people. I don't mind having to compete with others, it was actually kind of fun, but it did cause some friends to stop playing and others that were able to continue staying ahead of the curve, were already raiding and quitting because they had gotten lucky with gear and felt like they had nothing else to accomplish.
If you don't want to do much of the remaining endgame content, I'd not worry too much about missing out on it. With it all being so old and strategized, we're kidding ourselves if we think we're going to really create any new crazy nostalgic memories from Classic. Sure, there may be some good times to be had, but I know I will always go back to the first time I was playing content and not the new first time. Leaving WoW as a side game lets you still play within Azeroth occasionally.
Now Burning Crusade, on the other hand, there is no chance I'm missing out on it. I'm looking forward to playing with the arena system, farming battlegrounds with more pvp balance than was present in Vanilla, and of course, raiding. I have a deep connection with those raids and even when I go back and farm them these days for those missing transmog pieces, I feel warped back into that time period and love everything I remember about it. I could honestly see myself finding a group to raid with, or starting one, which wasn't the case with vanilla. When Wrath hits, it'll be even better and I'm very afraid that I'll end up sleeping 4 hours a day during that expansion and using the remaining 20 hours of being awake split between Out of Cards and Wrath.
The systems development of the years in World of Warcraft just made the game so much better and you always felt like there was more progression to be had, which isn't really the case for Vanilla. It isn't that great in Burning Crusade either, but from everything I've experienced and analyzed over the years, Burning Crusade must have at least 5x the character progression value. The game does eventually hit a peak though with systems development, which I consider to be Mists of Pandaria.
Wrath took raiding to a very important level with multiple lockouts every week which was perfect for degenerates like myself, and just did so many other things right that allowed lots of different people to really experience the endgame.
Cataclysm's clean up of stats people didn't really care much about (MP5, Defense, Weap Skills), the addition of reforging to customize gear, and new class-specific resources was a huge boost to giving us better gameplay. The game was still very much the same though with us still going through the same gameplay loop that had been experienced in years prior.
Mists of Pandaria is the pinnacle of WoW, sort of. I did end up playing this expansion more casually than I had ever played the game (I quit WoW for the first time shortly after Deathwing was defeated, came back for Mists with many friends gone), but all the extra stuff they had added into the game really made it feel good. Challenge Modes were an excellent idea and made the idea of running dungeons fun again. We got multiple world content updates which thankfully they continued in Legion and Battle for Azeroth. The new Monk class added a unique spin on the three archetypes which gave us a lot of new combos to play with.
Warlords is where shit hit the fan. Garrisons were a cool idea but overused in the most boring way possible. They butchered professions that had felt acceptable at the very least in each expansion beforehand. The lack of raiding content was stupid. There were a couple of cool stat additions though (Speed, Leech, Multistrike) and the reagent bank was definitely a great addition, though it was really only needed because of how many pointless materials they gave us through garrisons.
Legion was overall a good expansion, but the destruction of the PVP system is one of the most idiotic choices I have seen in gaming. Now, I'm not a fantastic PVPer, the game really isn't even meant to be a PVP game as evidenced by Blizzard's inability to balance it ever, but damn did they screw this up. I was initially excited about the idea that everyone was on a level playing field, but it ruined the little progression via gear that was present in PVP for so many years. The removal of 5v5 also sucked; sure the queues were long but it was hilarious to play. The removal of Glyphs was a mistake. The fun that was multistrike from Warlords was short-lived and removed in this expansion which personally I wasn't a huge fan of but eh, what can you do. Artifact weapons / class questlines were positive and welcome additions to the game, though the grind past the initial stages felt bad. If FOMO was going to be a thing, this was the expansion that stressed players out the most.
Battle for Azeroth has been a really fun expansion, and really improved upon Legion in many ways, but holy shit Blizzard, you took Artifacts to a whole new level of stupidity. I was initially excited about the azerite powers on gear and how we'd be able to keep that max level progression through neck levels, but that was excitement that did not last long. It felt good getting those new breakpoints to unlock new talents on gear, but then when you'd get a new piece of gear and lose all your talents, it wasn't worth equipping. Gear progression is the most important thing in the game and they shit the bed with it. Corruption is fun but a hilariously worse titanforging/warforging system.
In my ideal world though, the game ends at Mists of Pandaria and the expansion after contains the Mythic+ system of Battle for Azeroth, max level character progression through the collection of some type of "power" that isn't incredibly important for progression but at least showcases who plays more than other people, and the return of proper talent trees. Professions should also have to work with each other again which was more common in the earlier days. Let us upgrade gear with some sort of special crafted material that requires playing content to earn materials for and this would be our warforging substitute. Also, we need to make sure reforging stays in the game because stat changing is fun, even if most just use an addon to figure it out. Using an addon to calculate efficiency is better than equipping higher level gear and realizing you lost 5% haste which in turn has decimated your rotation.
Shadowlands has me happy, but I properly won't go too crazy on it especially if Burning Crusade hits during the middle of it. The return of enchants is huge. The profession changes so far look interesting since it'll allow for some cool customization of crafts. I really enjoyed the N'Zoth Horrific Visions so Torghast, Tower of the Damned coming with the expansion should be a ton of fun to play in. Mythic+ should only get better, and I love playing the game with only 5 people. Level squish is the right move. Abilities making a return to baseline such as Frostbolt for all mages is sexy. Covenants will be sorta fun initially but ultimately a disaster since Blizzard won't be able to balance the system which is a damn shame. Why does every system need to be about giving players more power? Just, make gear not stupid and continue offering plenty of ways for us to further customize our gear. The socket system from Battle for Azeroth's N'Zoth patch showcases how you can do small upgrades to gear for just playing parts of the game - but hey, maybe let blacksmiths or jewelcrafters get in on this somehow.
This post turned into something I didn't really expect it to. I'm happy with WoW but also not happy with the game. They turned my beautiful baby into this weird thing that I have to unconditionally love which I hate.
Burning Crusade returning will rock though as will Wrath of the Lich King. Classic's Vanilla version is cool but I ain't too worried about being the ultimate warrior from it... though I won't lie, I'd love to experience Naxxramas.