Dalzedur

And they were probably discouraged to be attacked on sight, doing either party no favors. Interestingly, all of my pvp experiences in the server is being attacked by a tauren druid, all but one of them were cases where it started with their stealth ravage. Not sure if it counts as a fair fight if they're a filthy pve player and get attacked by an experienced pvp player, even if they are near the same character level, the pvp player probably has talent points put into pvp related stuff, too. PVP is generally only fun when you don't get forced into it and you actually have a chance, at least from a solo player perspective. If I am actually busy trying to accomplish something, it just translates into lost time and cessation of progress. Usually it has been a vastly overleveled ganker griefing in low level zones, both players directly and quest npcs so they can't turn in their quests, and those kinds of bad vibes bleed into being expected from any pvp encounter.

Crusader orbs are a reagent for other things in addition to Crusader enchant, I think there was two blacksmithing recipes sold by Argent Dawn Quartermaster and such. The other two enchanting recipes one needs them for: enchant gloves - healing power, and enchant weapon - healing power, are not obtainable on Skullcrusher, afaik, but may have been assumed to be available when deciding on adding crusader orbs, possibly. The main use for crusader enchant is not its endgame relevance, since the str bonus lowers to 60 from 100 when you go from lvl 60 to lvl 70. Rather, it is something of an alt leveling enchant. My hunch is that fiery weapon recipe was added for the sole reason of it being available to help level enchanting to 300 to unlock the TBC enchanting stuff, since it doesn't require difficult materials that you normally would get from the instanced content of late game vanilla (large brilliant shards), but it is also actually a useful enchant, especially for low level alts, so that's nice. I recall one of the key arguments for not having Vanilla endgame stuff being that there were some items in there that are better than what you get in TBC at level 70, thus with that argument in mind, introducing the issue with "it stays relevant until the last phase of TBC" is not doing your case any favors. Do I personally think DMF decks should be obtainable - absolutely: more to farm, more to do, more stuff to customize your build with. Getting a full deck with this population is already a challenge. If the code for the items/deck already exists, it should be fairly simple to add that card to the drop table of some rare dragon, or elite world raid enemies, keep it at 10% drop if it is a rare monster or has abnormally long respawn time, or tweak it down accordingly to lower values if it is added to enemies that you can actually farm for it. At best, it might only take a few minutes of work overall, but I'm not sure what other considerations there are to push that change through, possibly would require a server restart at least.

No Addons is a give and take in terms of numbers alone, while it probably does repel more people than it draws long-term, it does affect the quality/qualitative characteristics of those numbers that it does draw, which in turn may indirectly contribute towards better player retention. It is an attraction in the sense that it stands out and draws curious looks and hopefully people give it a try, because they haven't tried playing without addons that much (even if that is the default way to play). Some may possibly regard it as some kind of a challenge mode, maybe? Anyway, out of the people who have an interest in 'no addon', it should attract many as there aren't really other 'no addon' servers around. From earlier conversations, I believe that the assumed effect of 'no addons' is that it results in a less toxic/sweaty/competitive server overall, since you don't have the addons telling you who sucks and how much, or who has the longest e-pen0r among the dps... thus the kind of people who do care about it a lot, and who may have a distinct mentality about them aren't really playing here, but it is also very much possible that the community being less toxic than some other community may also be a characteristic of it being a low pop server, where personal conduct and thus player reputation matters - people are less likely to pull stupid stunts, because you aren't faceless/anonymous on a low pop server, there are no massive nameless/faceless crowds or many guilds that you can hide in. I haven't seen or, well, even went looking for what kind of ads are marketing the server. Wondering if mentioning the current raid progress is included in those ads, it might dispel some doubts if people learn that Kara has been fully cleared(?), since there was some chatter early on that raiding (or some raids specifically) would be impossible without addons.

Burning crusade is also draenei/shaman for alliance and belf/paladin for horde, the most fun I've had with tbc was leveling the belf pally for the first time. Including the talent tree changes and new abilities, not all of which were post lvl 60. Not having the late game vanilla dungeon/instance content is absolutely hurting the numbers, because they add the additional hurdle for new players to overcome if they want to stay, firstly through the actual in-game effects their absence causes, and secondly through having doubts over what other features are not working as per normal. Most of the players only learn of the dungeon content missing after they've started playing and quit. On the other hand, if they knew of it before making a character, they would just look for alternatives instead. The main attractions going for the server are 'standard rates', 'no addons', 'pvp', and 'not seasonal', I believe. It might be valuable to identify the things that are keeping people from coming over and/or staying, and address those if possible.

100% If they feel like their own efforts aren't worth anything, they don't become invested. If you are handed for free (although in WoW this does not fully apply due to lvl requirements in gear) better items than you can make through your efforts, you miss entirely on 1) the feel of having earned it as you haven't really put any effort in. 2) being able to replace that one with a better option through your own efforts, effectively making a lot of item drops and quest rewards just junk for the next... 5 levels? There are of course exceptions. If you see a solo warrior struggling with a bad weapon for their level, they're going to have a horrible time, and they're the one kind of charity that I fully condone spoiling with a good weapon/shield that they haven't yet earned. With them, it is something of an investment towards them possibly tanking stuff for later on. I've always been anti-boosting on a principal level. It is boring to have a super hero run you through content, when the only danger of dying is through you, the boostee, actively messing something up on purpose. I often hear the counter argument that running the same old content is even more boring, and boosting is faster, and gets you to the more interesting content faster. Depends on the person, admittedly. I've found running 'same old' dungeon content with less than a full group to make it feel like fresh and exciting again. I have some good memories of running 3man Gnomer, 2man RFD etc and clearing them despite the increased difficulty, and getting to enjoy the blue rewards that are still relevant as my character hasn't yet outleveled them. The main carrying force of the playing experience is to be able to observe making progress, not just in xp and levels, but in gearing also. But mainly constantly in small bites, where you know that 10 minutes from now, there's an upgrade. That next level, you unlock a quest that, while it has enemies 5 levels higher than you, would reward you with an XYZ. I don't rank high on socializer and killer scores, but lean more towards explorer / achiever scores, so I can't really say much about pvp incentives (other than that no one likes when max lvl player keeps ganking them in the leveling phase).

Yeah, it's not enough to be able to raid at max level at a regular basis. New players aren't going to keep playing if all they see is max level people waiting for them to get to max level and raid ready as well - or if they don't see them at all since they are raid logged. Also, if they get borderline zero help from people around their own level organically during the leveling phase. Alts are important to facilitate new players sticking around. 'Ask if you need anything' is also something that doesn't really work as well as one would expect it to work, as it's basically a personality trait/extraversion check, and if the player is looking to challenge themselves, then having a max level player running content for them doesn't really scratch that itch. As backwards as it may seem, you, everyone of you, is responsible for other players feeling like staying around. You can prioritize your own enjoyment/progress/whatnot and shirk that responsibility that ideally no one should bear, sure, but are you going to have a healthy server when that becomes increasingly the dominant mindset? Doesn't sound like it is very healthy right now, judging by the other replies. (Also, been personally absent due to RL circumstances for dunno how long already, not mad at anyone in-game or outside it. No idea what the server looks like right now, maybe there are more alts around now even.)

Something to consider would be to incorporate admin-assisted mind control and run events where you remotely mind control npcs for the event. It would let lower level people participate fully with max level players, and the opposite faction (depending on what kind of an event it is) could run opposition with their own mind controlled npcs, instead of endgame geared people winning by default if character stats are meaningful for the event. Like, have a generic 'human footman' and 'orc grunt' npcs for things like this. Either as the main npcs the players control, or after their main npc dies and they 'respawn' for the event as a penalized lower level npc. You could set up remote mind control clickables in capital cities, so no one would have to run to some obscure world location in order to participate. Could just chill in the capital, click on the thingie and get behind the wheel of an npc that is already at the event location. This would broaden the scope of what kind of events you could attempt to run, and allow some control over the stat numbers of participating people. Could be something as simple as acting as a body guard detail for a player controlled noble, whose death results in body guards losing and assassins winning. So not unlike team fortress, I guess? Could reward event currency that you can use to unlock different npcs for these events, not just cosmetic stuff.

Skullcrusher - 7/20/2024 - Changelog - Felmyst BC-13970 2024-07-14 Add crusader orbs to misc mobs in Eastern Plaguelands COMPLETED Resolved Comment: 31 mobs can drop, 0.2% drop rate (1 orb per 500 zone wide kills) So, similar to fiery weapon drop chances, except you need two for crusader. I farmed for single fiery for ~5 RL days, well over 1000 kills. Think I made over 300k xp with those kills, and some of them were grey leveled. That's waaaay more than 8 hours. But, the same 31 misc mobs can drop the life steal enchant recipe (0.066%) as well, so there could be surprise gains. Really sounds like your friend got lucky. If I have my math right, to get at least 1 of those 0,2% drop chances to occur in 500 iterations is ~63%, and ~86% in 1000 iterations, so it's all a matter of luck. 500 kills does not guarantee a 0,2% drop chance to occur.

I have 4 alts that are ready for dead mines.

If people want to play warriors, they are going to play warriors. At some point, they may have second thoughts, when they notice that the warrior market is oversaturated, but that's something the implications of which they need to discover on their own. You've already done your part by setting yourself in a good place to say 'told you so'. Locking horde from creating warrior characters would be extremely contrary to what the server is about, imo. At least you'll have ample amounts of people around who can tank if they choose to do so.

They specifically didn't implement late Azeroth dungeon/raids with one of the stated reasons being the loot that stayed bis even in endgame tbc.

I think they learn that rank of water from the trainer in TBC.

Looked up Icecap herbs and what they're used for. Major mana potion recipe came up, looked at it closer, drops from Scholo, or bought from a vendor in Scholo who needs the Scholo equipped trinket to manifest. So that recipe should be ungettable right now, maybe? The scholo vendors had some other recipes, not sure if the weapon recipes are part of the trainer list now, they definitely were in WotLK, though. There was a Storm Gauntlets recipe sold there, too, but it looks like it might be a rare world drop as well. The scholo vendor I speak of: Magnus Frostwake Living action potion recipe is vendor bought at exalted with Zandalar Tribe, so Zul'Gurub related, probably.

Well, let's state the obvious. It launched on Sunday, and the next 48 hours has not been the weekend. Charitable assumption would be that some of the playerbase, since we tend to be towards older side, have less free time during the working week. It would be interesting to actually see a graph of active users to see where the spikes are at and if the overall trend is going one way or the other., but ultimately the most apt comparison for a Sunday evening population would be the next week's Sunday evening, not Monday morning, or Tuesday night. and since it was mentioned in another post: I do like these voluntary self-imposed challenges, such as permadeath, or other forms of additional difficulties (wearing gray gear only etc). Rewarding their completion though, if it confers any in-game benefits (cosmetic things maybe as well, I'm probably being a bit harsh), seems a step away from the intended experience, and would likely slap a 'custom' sticker on the realm - which, to again state the obvious, it does seem to already be, with the much discussed lack of vanilla dungeon content past sunken temple, or having an aoe cap of 5 or making it a central theme of the realm to not have any addons whatsoever, so rationally speaking, a taste of 'customness' (or deviation from what is perceived to be the norm, or the standard) in the experience is not really a reason at this point not to have challenges, even if some purists might want to keep that to a minimum, since a lot of customness is still different from a small bit of customness. Sure, I can see the community coming together to form a prize pool of gold for some potentially server-wide community event, be it a dueling tournament or permadeath Amish challenge or x y z much closer for the standard/norm seen on other realms, as it is player funded and not spawned out of thin air with admin commands, maybe that is the key difference why I am much more amicable towards this kind of approach, maybe, even though when you are standing at the finish line, either way of rewarding could look indistinguishable from each other. Also, on a tangent, I've had a surprisingly enjoyable experience so far on the server. A quick 'can you assist with the wave defense in westfall for the paladin quest' turned into a full blown 2man Verigan's Fist creation session and continued with questing through redridge and tackling most of what duskwood has to offer. On another server it likely would not have gone as positively as that... regardless of how large their populations are, I was about to write here, then stopped to think... maybe this was a low pop magic moment, with people being much more likely to be nicer to each other / strangers to keep this experience going? Hmmhmm...

Unfortunately there are individuals like this. Whenever I have brought up wanting official tbc era servers, I get attacked by similar cases, who think they speak for the entire community when they pontificate that 'literally no one wants that', when it is just them themselves who are operating under false assumptions and a strong main character syndrome. Then they also drop the obvious self-snitch right after saying that it would destroy the other realms, because there isn't enough players to keep the realms running... so which one is it, that no one wants it, or that it would draw too many players from other iterations of WOW :DDDD Literal activist mentality - to enter a space not intended for them, and demand that it be changed to accommodate to their wants and needs. And if it were to be, then they'd leave for the next place and make the same demands there and so on, claiming a 'dead server' for not (edit: corrected brain fart, added missing 'not') meeting their utopian criterion for a 'high population' number. The 1x rates brings so many opportunities for what could happen before reaching max level, if you just choose to permit them being open for you. Sure, it takes longer than on 5x, which is exactly the point - and the appeal.