2019 Classic was actually amazing. No-changes was perfect and releasing about 20 servers worked out great. Every server ended up with their own unique community.
There were layers at the start, but Blizzard knew they needed to get rid of them quickly, which they did.
Then came 2024 classic: just 1 mega server with a lot of layers.
WHY?!
It doesn’t work, every zone is devoid of quest mobs. You spend most of your time trying to out tag hunters and mages, which you wont. So you end up running around doing nothing for hours.
Layers ruin the social aspect of classic. You probably never see that person you met in Westfall again, because he is now on layer 10. It turned classic into basically retail, which I loathe. Unlike 2019 classic, people join your group, don’t say a word, finish, leave. The retail mentality. They wont see you again anyway.
It does work. Or at least it would work if they introduced a lot more layers and significantly reduced the amount of people per layer. This is the real problem.
Layers don’t ruin the social aspect of classic. “You will probably never see that person again because he is now on layer 10”; layers are dynamic… I’ve met so many people, or saw their postings on the AH, or saw their adverts for groups and service on general or trade chat (general is layer-specific FYI).
You are describing non-existent causes of a very real problem.
Blizzard did completely blow this release, but by adding way too few layers and making them completely overpopulated.
This has been the most miserable leveling experience of any iteration of this game I’ve ever played, and I’ve been playing for 18 years. However, coming on here and criticizing the wrong (non-existent) core issues isn’t going to help anything.
They told us that layers will be per zone. That’s not true. Layers are server-wide. You can ask person in stormwind to invite you to group and you’ll switch to another layer.
They told us about some kind of cooldown for layer switching. Well, it doesn’t work, I always see people asking to switch layers.
I don’t use addons and I refuse to abuse this layer mechanics, so I severely handicap myself because I can’t switch layers on a whim. When someone wants to kill me, I can’t run away to another dimension. When mobs are cleared, I can’t jump to another dimension full of mobs. All the while people around me are doing that. I think that’s abuse of the system, layers were not intended to be this tool.
So I’d like either reworking layers switching, say 1 switch per day. Or introduce standard UI to jump between layers.
While I agree that mobs are heavily farmed, that’s not an issue for me, I’m fine with doing quest for 10 hours as long as everyone else on the same terms.
Oh! You mean dual spec which a very small proccent of the players have it? Or what changes you talk that it didn’t felt right while you were playing since level 1 ? Let me hear them …besid layers which are e necessity for now. Read good, for now.
Yes, despite the couple of accounts lurking around which are against “changes”. Well, they have their nochanges server. It is called … dum dum dum … ERA!
Wrong? There is no other server close to #nochange than ERA. That’s…the BEST you can get. If you don’t like it there, you won’t like it here.
So stop crying already geez! Go play Mario but stop with your pathetic excuses.
I want that, but not really like that, but I want that too but not too much of it. I want #somechange but not really. Actually I want #somechange but ONLy the ones I like the most, the rest are bad! I like ERA but i’m not sure if I do. STOP sending me to ERA coz I’ll do it!
I mean people asking for more layers which probably not even posdible.
And without layers… You have long waiting lists instead. So i rather have layers in that manner☺️ but most layers ive been in feels kinda empty which is sad. Ohwell.
True, pardon me. I should have been more explicit.
Despite accounts like yours Jagarde, who at best enjoy being condescending to everybody in the forum, and on a bad day just insults everything that moves.
Blizzard blew it on multiple occasions (who would´ve guessed)
I personally do not play the anniversary realms, because i became a hardcore andy and i wont abandon my toons on Nek´rosh just to play a fresh realm, which in HC doesnt even make sense.
Anyhow,
-Abandoning Nek´rosh and Stitches (their population has dwindled significantly due to the fresh HC realm. There has been an influx of new players recently but it´s still not what it used to be.
-Dual Spec. I´m fine with it being in the game or not in the game. This is not a game changer, but i do think it incentivizes gold buying even more, which leads to even more bots on the new realms. I mean 40 Gold for it in addition to 90 for mount? It´s impossible for the average joe unless you play the AH.
Releasing twenty servers was great… For a time. Now on Classic there are only 5 English Speaking servers. Some of them many times merged. Not exactly the most pleasant experience to be fair being thrown to a different server with a different economy. Considering the usual fate of fresh servers I’d expect that Anniversary will, sooner or later experience the withdrawal of players, mostly bored ones and those that really only made their toons to make their transition to TBC smoother.
Most of the issues you described would still be present in normal smaller servers, Occupied Zones, difficulty finding Quest mobs during peak hours all of those were there in 2019 “Covid Edition”. What won’t happens at least for a foreseeable future is people leaving their servers to migrate to the ones with greater population at the sign of first drops in numbers.
As for seeing familiar faces over time? I do still notice the same people assuming they stood out to me in the first place, i still occasionally pass by my guildmates in the open world. Really not that hard I’d say.
