3701

Actually, all I did was resub. $15.00 and I’m running through all new content. I can’t play a Worgen or Goblin and I’ll need expansions for anything after level 60, but there is so much to see in the old 1-60. After I get to 60 I’m gonna reroll and take the Silverpine -> Hillsbrad route for Horde, then start looking at Alliance again. There is a HUGE amount of new content and the barrier to entry is essentially nothing.

3702

Trying to compete in a time-based game without having much time is not a good idea. For anyone not trying to compete (and preferably on a PVE server) the game is still a blast, for old players as well as new and returning ones.

3703

Reached level 85 yesterday when I was about 90 quests into Uldum (having previously completed Hyjal, Vashj’ir, Deepholm, and one run each of Blackrock Caverns, Stonecore, and Halls of Origination). Haven’t done anything at all in the Twilight Highlands yet except unlock the entrance to Grim Batol.

I’m reserving final judgement until after I finish Twilight Highlands, but of the four zones I’ve completed so far, I’d rank them thusly:

Vashj’ir > Uldum = Deepholm >>> Hyjal

Vashj’ir is possibly my favourite zone in all of WoW. I really liked all the cutscenes in Uldum. Seeing Budd’s “escape plan” had my literally laughing out loud. Deepholm also was pretty cool; it reminded me a bit of the dwarf area in Dragon Age. On the other hand, I didn’t really care for Hyjal at all – Blizzard seemed to phone that one in. :(

How does Tol Barad work? Is it sort of like a combination of Wintergrasp and IQD? That is, there are pvp battles at fixed intervals and between fights it turns into a hub for daily quests? If so, are the daily quests only available to the side that controls the zone after the battle?

3704

There are dailies you can do without owning the island as well. I haven’t done it myself yet, only having ported over there long enough to pick up some dailies.

I must get the seagull minpet on my hunter so I can have dual seagulls!

3705

I think you’re exaggerating how good Heirloom gear is. It’s basically as good as an equal level rare (blue) item would be. It’s nice that you don’t have to keep upgrading as you level, but it’s really not that much more powerful than standard gear, especially for DK’s who get a full set of rare gear. The main benefit is the experience bonus. It also stops working at level 81, so it doesn’t matter there at all.

Did this all happen a couple weeks to a month ago? There were a couple weeks where damage was too high across the board, they nerfed the hell out of almost every classes’ damage before level cap. They initally balanced completely for level 85 and the massive health pools. I’ve already seen tanks with over 125,000 hit points. That obviously doesn’t apply for below level 81, so they’ve adjusted things since to keep things sane at lower levels.

3706

No, he’s not exaggerating how good heirloom gear is. It’s not simply “as good as an equal level blue”; it’s roughly equivalent to a best-in-slot item for your level, for every level. I’ve spent way too much time fighting ret paladins and arms warriors with heirloom gear to tell you otherwise. A fully heirloomed character is a demon on wheels, and on a PVP server, they would in fact make the game less than fun.

I really don’t see why anyone would level on a PVP server in the first place.

3707

Back at the very beginning it was fun, but once you started to get bored people at the level cap, it stopped being fun.

3708

My experience is quite the contrary. At times, the amount of werewolves running around committing genocide on the local mob population is hilarious.

3709

Precisely. I was on my 59 DK in HFP with his full blue set and I was, repeatedly, two shot by a 60 Rogue (Ambush + Eviscerate, I’m guessing there was a Premed just prior for extra combo points).

I really don’t see why anyone would level on a PVP server in the first place.

Because my friends and all my characters of any substance are there? I started on the server just a short while after launch, back then it wasn’t bad and was actually fun, as Athryn said.

3710

I don’t agree with this at all, Vashj’ir is probably the buggiest zones out of all 5 new zones, deepholm is probably my favorite out all 4.

The only thing vash got going for it is underwater novelty which kind of wear out after first 10 quests.

3711

I’ve been on Tichondrius since it launched, and while there certainly are times when my patience has been strained, over all I would not trade for a PvE experience. Though honestly, for much of the post-vanilla period, the PvP part of the server has been dead. Early on, and sometimes now even, it picks up.

The reason I level on a PvP server–in this game, in WAR when they had ORvR servers, in EQ2 on the PvP servers–is that I find questing boring unless I’m always looking over my shoulder for someone trying to gank me. I don’t care that much about gathering panther paws or goat livers. I do care much more when, in gathering such succulent bits of animal, I have to watch for other players, as either predator or prey.

Leveling my warrior in Stranglethorn (ah, in the old days, it was a fabulous gank fest, but no longer) there was no one there, almost, and it got pretty boring this week. I was happy to find a pally to kill, and I was even happy to get killed by a druid 40 levels higher than me.

3712

What are the bugs that affected you in Vashj’ir? I was able to complete the zone and didn’t encounter any problems at all. Maybe I just got lucky. On the other hand, I had to abandon and restart a few quests in Uldum because the scripting broke.

The only thing vash got going for it is underwater novelty which kind of wear out after first 10 quests.

The zone itself is stunningly beautiful, and I really enjoyed the storyline for the quests. If you’re Alliance, there’s also an awesome section with a gnomish submarine (not sure of the equivalent for the Horde). The murlocs that looked like angler fish were a nice touch, especially their underwater battle cry. :)

3713

Ok, but what about the not-high pop realms?

Here are the facts about Cho’gall’s Alliance side:

-Their economy is completely and utterly dead. According to our forums, the Alliance had ONE of the new Disenchantment shards up on the AH for 50g. None have been seen since. Items are worth next to nothing on the free market because the only source of gold is quests or coin drops.

-“Serious” players have enough alts to cover all crafting types because there aren’t ever enough people online to find what you need. Jewelcrafting and Enchanting are incredibly rare due to the total lack of materials.

-You won’t raid. The only Alliance left on the server are in the serious raid guilds, and they don’t need any more players.

-Expect to be permanently undergeared. The Alliance on average are months behind Horde in raid progression. The complete lack of pug raids and dearth of any openings in raid guilds will mean you’ll cap out on badge gear unless you have some kind of “in.”

-You will die, constantly. I don’t know if this is true or not because I never actually saw a single Alliance out leveling until 75. I think most players on Alliance just level through LFD to avoid the constant death cycle.

-You are joining a dead side that dies a little more each day from transfers off the server and re-rolls.

No sane individual would change to this side.

The only solutions in our case are heavy-handed things like denying creation of new Horde characters (which would do nothing but piss people off – and you certainly wouldn’t get any new Ally players), or a mandatory merger with another grossly imbalanced realm (not going to happen – Blizzard hates the big servers, plus there is no other PVP realm that experiences enough of an imbalance to fix our problem). Neither of these will work.

The only logical step is to turn off 1:1 balancing for realms like ours at very least. 3 people should not be able block thousands from accessing content.

Would they ever own Tol Barad? Unless Blizzard found a more elegant solution to the problem, no, they wouldn’t.

Does it suck for the Alliance on Chog’all? Absolutely. I have no idea why there is anyone left over there at all.

Is it “fair” for the Alliance on Chog’all? Absolutely. The server is 95% Horde. They knew that coming in, and if they didn’t, they would have figured it out in a day of gameplay.

Is 1:1 “fair” for Chog’all? Not in the least. Denying the vast majority access to content in favor of the vast minority isn’t “fair” from a customer-provider level.

Imagine the game had player collision and no LFD system. If three Tauren blocked off the entrance to a dungeon, denying everyone else access, what do you think would happen? They’d be kicked and suspended within the hour.

The 1:1 system – on our server, at least – needs to be kicked and suspended indefinitely.

3714

The highlight of Vashj’ir is the ruins and going inside the ancients (?). The first 10 quests don’t get you anywhere near them.

3715

I find it somewhat fascinating how if you ask 20 people to rank the zones, you’ll get 20 different rankings. For me, it’s:

Uldum > TwiHi > Hyjal > Deepholm > Vash’jir

Vash’jir seems to be the most polarizing of the bunch – people seem to completely love it or completely hate it.

3716

my quest bugged out adarrah in the like first 5 quest due to phasing issues as well, the shaman inside of the big shell demigod, where he talks for about 5 seconds after you turn in or receive a quest which makes him unavailable to pick up another quest, it’s fucking sucks when there are about 500 guys lining up.

also for the horde submarine docking cave, you can’t mount up at all for some odd reason, you have to swim all the way out of the cave, it’s a huge cave, if you stay in submarine you start to drown even though there aren’t any water in it either.

3717

OK, but what about the counter-argument: they have a bazillion servers, and they can’t go around making individualized rules exceptions on them. I don’t even know if such a thing is technically feasible, but even if it is, all this does is open Blizzard to a flood of “My server isn’t fair either!!” complaints. You can reroll on another server or transfer your existing character to another server (yes, for a fee). And Blizzard has from time to time offered free relocations from high to low-pop servers. None of those solutions may be ideal, but all of them are lots better than trying to manage a system where some servers have this new rule and others don’t and Blizzard has to adjudicate which ones qualify for special treatment.

I don’t do the BGs myself, but from what I’ve read it seems like most people are happy with 1:1 and it improves the game for the vast majority of the WoW population. As much as you rail against “three people” holding your server hostage, you are asking to do the same thing – change the game for a huge number of people for whom it works just fine because you and your guildmates are unhappy with how it works.

Is it “fair” for the Alliance on Chog’all? Absolutely. The server is 95% Horde. They knew that coming in, and if they didn’t, they would have figured it out in a day of gameplay.

So did you.

3718

Or, y’know, to leave it on and for the people for whom it matters to transfer to another server for better play experience, the same way the Alliance folks did.

That might even be some type of ancillary benefit of the system in their eyes.

3719

I think having to swim all the time is a bit jarring. Sometimes I have trouble finding the corpse to loot because the perspective isn’t right or something.

It’s pretty and quite interesting, but I’m no fan of playing underwater.

3720

Have you finished Deepholm and Vash’Jir? Those two have extremely coherent, singular storylines which if you just dabble in a few quests aren’t particularly apparent. I think the folks who like them (myself included) like them because they really felt as if that one monumental concern “Yeah, but I didn’t get a chance to change the world” is reasonably well addressed by the zones. There’s progression and it feels like it matters (to some extent; obviously you don’t only run Throne of Tides once or somesuch…)

Deepholm struck me as very much like this, where at the end of the zone you’ve really transformed much of the population of the entire zone. I felt like I was doing things to help, and at the end I had changed the structure of power there.