3 reasons to pick WoW Classic over Retail in 2025 (and 3 things Retail has going for it)

I love both WoW Classic and Retail World of Warcraft. They’re both excellent versions of the same game, but they’re often very much for very different people. While yes, many players do play both, the designs of both games couldn’t be more different. You might prefer the old-school challenge and frustration that comes with the Vanilla game, or you might want to get to the end-game faster, and just blast through Raids and Mythics.

No matter what you prefer these days, 2025’s version of WoW has something for both Classic and Retail players to be excited about. These are, of course, my opinions after playing World of Warcraft for 20 years. Your needs and wants could certainly vary.

Why you should play WoW Classic instead of Retail

1) Certain WoW Classic modes allow you to play content you’ve never experienced before in the base game

Traditionally, WoW Classic gives you the vanilla experience, so you can play the game the way it was. That’s more popular than you might think, too. Even with the vanilla experience, the odds are incredibly high they can give you an experience you’ve never tackled before.

That's right, you can actually raid in Naxxramas on Classic! (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

A good example is whenever a Classic server opens up Naxxramas. Sure, you can play the “modern” version, but the Classic version? Only 1% of players ever got to Naxx in Vanilla.

The closest I got was doing trash pulls in Naxxramas, myself. However, there’s also new content in the Vanilla experience, thanks to Season of Discovery. Phase 8, for example, added a brand new Scarlet Crusade-themed raid! It’s not going anywhere anytime soon either, so there’s still time to go back and play.

2) WoW Classic tends to move at a slower, more leisurely pace compared to Retail

There's no need to rush in Classic. You'll get there eventually (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Maybe you don’t like hitting level cap in one day, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. One of the reasons I do find myself going back to playing WoW Classic in 2025, is for that slower pace. If you aren’t trying to do everything in the span of a few days, I recommend the Classic servers — any of them!

Whether you’re on Season of Discovery, or the 20th Anniversary servers, these tend to go a lot slower than Retail. That way, it still feels like an adventure, instead of just a sprint to level cap. Grinding factions takes longer, leveling up takes longer. If you’re in no rush, just head back to a Classic server.

3) WoW Classic is often more difficult than Retail in most cases

I've definitely had my share of unfortunate deaths on Hardcore (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Some people will say that no version of World of Warcraft is hard, and you know, fair enough. However, I do feel like the Classic servers do have a greater difficulty curve — especially if you aren’t someone that played when the content was originally live. Then it’s so much harder. Enemies hit harder, you’ve got fewer godlike spells and talents to take advantage of.

You actually need to use First Aid, food buffs, and things like that far more frequently. This is even more accurate on the Hardcore servers, but I think WoW Classic is just a little bit more difficult than Retail. You won’t feel like you have infinite mana here, that’s for sure.

Why to play Retail WoW instead of Classic

1) WoW Retail is quick to get you into the heat of the endgame, to experience all the new content

It won't take too much to get yourself a decent character (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

I like the leisurely pace of Classic, but there’s also something to be said about being able to jump right into a character, and start seeing how powerful it is right away. You have so much flexibility in how/where you level, and the exp is always quite good. It doesn’t take any real effort to get to level cap, or start getting gear!

Most Seasons of modern World of Warcraft have catch-up mechanics — ways to easily get decent gear for your characters. If you have one powerful character, you can also get gear that you can transfer between your Warband (your group of player characters), so you can use one to gear up another.

This lets you jump into harder content faster, and get that sweet Dopamine hit when a powerful piece of loot drops for you.

2) The Retail version of World of Warcraft is far more accessible, letting anyone play and succeed

Spend some time doing weeklies, and things like that, and you'll be geared and ready to raid in no time at all (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Retail WoW is so accessible, so easy to jump into, that anyone, even someone who is just brand-new to MMOs, can easily get into it. The majority of the game’s classes and specs are easy to play, hard to master. Heck, some are easy to master, too. There are certainly builds and specs that are better than others for Raiding, PVP, and Mythics, of course.

But simply getting into the game, and trying to raid or PVP, for example? That’s not hard at all. Even if you’re playing alone, it doesn’t take much effort to learn a class, pick up some loot, and play the game at a satisfactory level of skill. Group finder, Looking for Raid, there are plenty of tools to get you into the game, meeting other people, and get stronger.

3) While Classic is stuck in the past, Retail updates, offers important Quality-of-Life changes, and new stories

There are so many great QoL changes in the Retail version of the game to make it a smoother experience (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

One downside about Classic is that the majority of the story? That’s stuff we’ve seen dozens, maybe hundreds of times before over the last two decades. Other than Season of Discovery, it’s all a repeat.

Conversely, each season of Retail WoW brings something new and interesting. I have to say, Season 2 (Undermine’d) might be some of the best storytelling World of Warcraft has done in years. I’ve not been this emotionally invested in quite a while.

The game also updates in other meaningful ways, such as useful quality-of-life changes, like the aforementioned Warband. You can transfer gear, currencies, and so much more through the game’s base UI.

Suddenly, it’s so much easier to play the character you want. Did something new drop, like when Dracthyr received more playable classes? It’s not hard at all to grab it, and start playing. There’s nothing wrong with a trip back to the past, but Retail World of Warcraft is always going forward, with cool new ideas and upcoming features, like Housing.

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Edited by Abu Amjad Khan