Talk:World of Warcraft evolution guide

Contributing
If any old-timer wants to contribute to the list, feel free! Xporc (talk) 10:25, 13 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Interesting list! I'll take a look one of the next days :) PeterWind (talk) 19:29, 14 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you man. I'm certain I'm forgetting stuff and I sincerely believe it's important to archive that kind of data for future people! Xporc (talk) 20:34, 14 February 2017 (UTC)
 * For sure! It's anecdotes like that I like to share with my old wow friends, and it's nice to have them on an actual list. PeterWind (talk) 07:26, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Getting pretty close to be release-ready! Xporc (talk) 21:42, 27 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Yeah it's coming along nicely! PeterWind (talk) 01:44, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

Someone save me, this article is getting too long and I'm starting to get anxiety about missing facts ;_; Xporc (talk) 14:10, 4 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Well I don't know how much of a consolation this is, but as far as I know there's no deadline is there? Just work on it untill you think it's presentable :) You can always keep working on it whenever you discover or remember some neat fact. I have some other half finished projectsm but I'll take a look at this soon™ myself and see if I can't add some more and fix up some of the grammar for consistency. It can be hard to get "all" the facts straight, but I think you covered that base reasonably with your intro. PeterWind (talk) 21:57, 4 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I know, thanks for the kind words. I'm just getting a bit too much obsessed with this wiki... Since I'm usually alone to work on the topics I'm interested in, sometimes I feel a bit like I must work all day because I am the only one that can shoulder the responsibility of archiving it, when I shouldn't. Don't know If I'm the only one to have this feeling sometimes. Blah. Xporc (talk) 22:18, 4 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Obsession with this wiki?? Naaaaah! --Mordecay (talk) 22:24, 4 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I think this is an awesome job. Some more pictures would be nice, I have some very old ones from around Vanilla's release day on my old hard drive, if I ever get my hands on it, but stuff like ability ranks shouldn't be hard to find, I'll let you know. -- MyMindWontQuiet (talk) 00:55, 6 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks! I'll keep on working, it should be done soon. Xporc (talk) 08:26, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Woot, finally done with the main article... Xporc (talk) 15:27, 19 March 2017 (UTC)
 * What about simplifying the name a bit? I had trouble finding it, so I had to go through the link in World of Warcraft. Evolution guide? Development changes? WoW over the years? I dunno. --Mordecay (talk) 17:40, 26 March 2017 (UTC)
 * "WoW over the years" sounds pretty good. Xporc (talk) 19:20, 26 March 2017 (UTC)
 * At the very least let's remove "World of Warcraft" from the title since it's obviously about wow -- MyMindWontQuiet (talk) 09:46, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Why not. Ideally I'd like to do something similar for Warcraft III, which I started here! Xporc (talk) 11:34, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Ah then it makes sense to include WoW in the title. "Evolution of World of Warcraft" ? -- MyMindWontQuiet (talk) 14:43, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
 * "World of Warcraft evolution guide"? Xporc (talk) 14:47, 28 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me. PeterWind (talk) 06:29, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Additional honorable mentions
Hey, what about mentioning Hogger and Gamon and their badassness from vanilla. Someone go for it. --Mordecay (talk) 07:37, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Mh I'm not sure about Gamon, but Hogger could be mentioned in the paragraph about elite mobs. Xporc (talk) 07:42, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Garrosh going to Outland
Now this I'd be curious to hear were you read that from. I vaguely remember people speculation that WoD would be like Cataclysm for Outland, but a more official source would be nice... Xporc (talk) 08:23, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
 * As I recall, it was in the same video where they mentioned the Mongrel Horde concept: -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 09:59, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
 * OMG I love you guys Xporc (talk) 10:04, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Grand master trainers downgrade
Hey guys, I see that a lot of "x trainers" (grand master, etc.) were downgraded to simple trainers in Cataclysm. Does anyone remember the context of that? Even more silly, some people even got downgraded to apprentices or something when they were masters to begin with, like Nogg ... Poor guy owns his shop and yet he's treated like a scrub. Xporc (talk) 13:49, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
 * As I recall, that happened in 2.3.0, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was only some who got downgraded back then, or maybe I remember wrong. PeterWind (talk) 14:27, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Eh, I said Cataclysm because it's where most things were actually cut from the game, but I have no idea when they were actually changed. You're probably right Xporc (talk) 14:35, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
 * In these two cases: Enchanter Salias & Mot Dawnstrider the change happened in 2.3. That was from journeyman to aprentice however. I remember other such cases from same patch, but I'm not sure about the grandmaster change, if that was in the same patch. I'll keep it in mind, in case I randomly find any such cases in the future. PeterWind (talk) 14:42, 6 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Maybe related to "Many profession trainers in capitals now train professions up to Grand Master. Accounts without expansions will still be unable to access the professions associated with those expansions." from Patch 4.0.1 (undocumented changes)? --Mordecay (talk) 15:43, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
 * From the Patch 2.3.0 patch notes, "All primary profession trainers outside of capitals (Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring) have been changed to train up to Artisan level (skill level 300) in their respective professions." -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 17:55, 6 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Neferatti added in WotLK to Outland had the "Master Inscription Trainer" title. The downgrading happened several times then, right? --Mordecay (talk) 18:04, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Survival skills etc
Greetings, got a tons of information from old World of Warcraft. Here is a good pretaste.

All survival trainers location and name:
 * Kaerbrus used to be in The park, Stormwind training survival.
 * Bale used to be a survival trainer in Hunter Rise, Thunderbluff.
 * Tresa Farmountain used to the a survival trainer in The Military Ward, Ironforge.
 * Malygen used to be a survival trainer in Cenarion Enclave, Darnassus.
 * Denni'ka used to be a survival trainer in Survival of the Fittest, Orgrimmar.

I've also noticed that the tracking profession is completely missing from the page. Here are the old trainers:
 * Drayl used to be a tracking trainer in Hunters Rise, Thunderbluff.
 * Shim'la was a tracking trainer in Hunter's Hall, Orgrimmar. After profession got removed, she stood there doing nothing until cataclysm when they removed her.
 * Denmul Farmountain used to be tracking trainer in Military District, Ironforge. Completely removed from DB nowadays.
 * Corand was a tracking trainer Cenarion Enclave, Darnassus. NPC still stands there today however been doing nothing since the release of WoW.


 * Hi! That's very interesting information. Do you have sources about them? Xporc (talk) 16:00, 22 December 2017 (UTC)

Yes, It's all taken from the complete broadcast text dump someone did back in Mists of Pandaria. The file includes every single NPC text in World of Warcraft up to that date, even the ones not players have never seen but for some reason at that point was still on Blizzards servers. The texts are completely legit, however I don't think I'm allowed to link the file since it's posted on a emulation softwares github.

Anyways, here is where I originally spotted it in the file. This used to show up when player asks for direction from a guard, first is the gossip option and second is the response from the guard:
 * (3007, 7, 'Survival',
 * (3008, 7, 'Always a good skill to have that Survival is.
 * Kaerbrus is who you are looking for. He''s usually around the moonwell in the Park.',
 * (3472, 0, 'Survival',
 * (3493, 1, 'Bale can teach you the ways of survival. Look for him on the Hunter Rise.',
 * (5142, 0, 'Survival',
 * (5143, 0, 'Tresa Farmountain has seen her share of bad weather, but with her knowledge of Survival skills she''s come through with her spirits high.
 * She''s over in The Military Ward south of the gates of Ironforge if you wish to speak with her.',
 * (5378, 0, 'Survival',
 * (5379, 0, 'If you need help surviving in the woods, you had best not stray far from the city walls. However if you do plan to stray, then you had better have a talk with Malygen in the Cenarion Enclave so that you might learn to set a proper campfire.',
 * (4870, 0, 'Survival',
 * (4786, 1, 'I prefer my food raw, but if you like yours cooked Denni'ka can show you how to light a fire. Find her at Survival of the Fittest, a hut on the shore of the lake next to the Spirit Lodge.  Look for it up above and to the west of the Valley of Strength.',
 * (4787, 1, 'Denni''ka can show you how to keep warm. Look for her at Survival of the Fittest, a hut on the shore of the lake next to the Spirit Lodge.  Head up above and west of the Valley of Strength.',
 * (4786, 1, 'I prefer my food raw, but if you like yours cooked Denni'ka can show you how to light a fire. Find her at Survival of the Fittest, a hut on the shore of the lake next to the Spirit Lodge.  Look for it up above and to the west of the Valley of Strength.',
 * (4787, 1, 'Denni''ka can show you how to keep warm. Look for her at Survival of the Fittest, a hut on the shore of the lake next to the Spirit Lodge.  Head up above and west of the Valley of Strength.',

As for tracking: That's everything. If you want me to go into more detail I'm happy too. Also one detail I've noticed in retrospect. When looking into alpha client DBC I noticed how close the skill tracking is to beast handling. It's likely that it was for hunters only and instead of learning the tracking skills at the hunter trainers, they had to go to a tracking trainer. Here is an image from 0.5.3 SkillLine.dbc: https://i.imgur.com/Y9QjHVC.png --Vanillabox (talk) 16:35, 22 December 2017 (UTC)
 * (3470, 0, 'Tracking',
 * (3491, 1, 'There is not a better tracker in these lands than Drayl. He can be found on the Hunter Rise.',
 * (4872, 0, 'Tracking',
 * (4790, 1, 'Track down Shim'la at the south entrance to the Hunter's Hall in the Valley of Honor.',
 * (4791, 1, 'Good thing someone here has tracking! Look for Shim'la in the Hunter's Hall in the Valley of Honor.',
 * (5146, 0, 'Tracking',
 * (5147, 0, 'Tracking is it? Then Denmul Farmountain is the one you should pay a visit to.  He'll teach ye the tricks of the trade like no other.
 * Just head south from the gates of Ironforge to The Military District to find him.',
 * (5382, 0, 'Tracking',
 * (5383, 0, 'Not a creature in the forest can elude Corand, such is his skill at tracking. You would do well to listen to his teachings if you wish to be even half as successful.
 * I will relieve you of the burden of tracking him and mark his location on your map, there in the Cenarion Enclave.',
 * I will relieve you of the burden of tracking him and mark his location on your map, there in the Cenarion Enclave.',
 * I will relieve you of the burden of tracking him and mark his location on your map, there in the Cenarion Enclave.',

Well this is all very, very interesting, but since it's datamining-related, I don't think we can post that here :( Unless we discuss things around Xporc (talk) 21:45, 22 December 2017 (UTC)

Scale
It seems the scaling was always to come out before BfA and not as its feature according to this. --Mordecay (talk) 11:07, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yeah it was always meant to come out before the actual launch, but was it announced as a BFA feature or a Legion feature ? Because I remember the announcement for the zone scaling coming right after Kul Tiras, Zandalar, and then Allied Races talk during the What's Next panel. -- MyMindWontQuiet 11:25, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
 * 7.3.5 with the scaling was announced there . --Mordecay (talk) 11:33, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, this is the What's Next panel I mentioned, and that part happens right after they talked about Kul Tiras, Zandalar, and Allied Races. World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth also says "Battle for Azeroth will also introduce partial level scaling in the old-world zones." not sure if that's right, I think it may just be a Patch 7.3.5 feature ?-- MyMindWontQuiet 13:06, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

My original point was that it's unusual to have such major changes introduced at the end of an expansion pack rather than at the beginning of the next one. Feel free to reword it, but I think it's still interesting information for the people that will read this article in a few years. Xporc (talk) 12:01, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Agreed. -- MyMindWontQuiet 13:06, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

Linux Client
I don't know how to contribute this properly but there was a Linux client for World of Warcraft beta. There are a few sources like API_IsLinuxClient resemble that. There was an interview with the Linux gazette about the port that was made with Linux Game Publishing at that time. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Game_Publishing#Unreleased_projects https://web.archive.org/web/20050712080821/http://www.linuxgazette.com/node/10249 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTA0NQ

The binaries are contained among the executables for the other platforms inside the MPQ-Archives of the game until the release. References are still found inside the installer of vanilla und the burning crusade but the Linux directory inside the MPQ-archives is empty.

The executables can still be run, however there are no servers to test them. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by.