Some of World of Warcraft Classic's demo bugs were not bugs at all
"The gameplay was the same in the demo as in the original 1.12 WoW."
Blizzard has confirmed that some of the issues reported by players during the World of Warcraft Classic demo were not, in fact, bugs, but are instead intentional mechanics that faithfully mimic how the game used to be fifteen years ago.
"Thank you to everyone who gave us so much feedback to work with, especially the community members who compiled lists of issues that people found with the demo," wrote community manager "Kaivax" in an update on the official forums (thanks, PC Gamer). "We've looked at everything that was reported, and want to share a few anecdotes with you so you can see how we're tackling these issues.
"Players reported that [the] Warlock demon summoning was broken - lots of players said that you shouldn't lose your current demon until the new one appears," Kaivax said. "We double-checked and in the original 1.12 WoW, and there, as soon as you started summoning a new demon, your existing demon disappeared. So the demo actually matched how the game played originally. There were a few other reports - such as "rare mobs do way less damage" and "Kobolds at Jangolode Mine run faster than walking speed when running away" - where we were able to confirm that the gameplay was the same in the demo as in the original 1.12 WoW."
That said, there were some not-so-intentional issues, too. While the team had thought it'd addressed a problem with incorrect health regeneration and the spell critical hit multiplier, Kaivax confirmed there was a "discrepancy" with how Classic was configured on the environment at Blizzard's office and the environment serving the demo to players, which was not correct.
While there remain some issues that the team "don't intend to address" - how the mail works, for example - the developer has "fixed some fairly high-priority issues", including Critical Strike rating (each item now improves your chance to get a critical strike by X%), Rogue Energy (it was both benefiting from melee haste and re-calculating more often than it was supposed to), Slow Fall no longer applies to your jumps, you will again get pushback when hit by ranged attacks and wands, and Dodge, Parry, and Miss were all not happening often enough.
"That's not all we've done, of course, but we want to give you an idea of what we're prioritizing: core game systems, combat, and content," concluded Kaivax. "We've spent time on other things such as user interface and making sure graphics 'feel' like they used to, but our primary focus is on gameplay.
"Again, we're following all of your discussions and loving your enthusiasm - and we're going to get more information for you posted here soon (not soon™)."
World of Warcraft: Classic - a recreation of the genre-defining 2004 MMO - is scheduled to release later this year.
