WoW Classic ERA Update October 2024

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Hi all - Just got to Classic Era after a long spring/summer pause in which I almost did not log in.

I play, as I always have, on the Firemaw cluster, both on Alliance and Horde. Just wanted to share a couple of impressions I have:

  1. BG PvP - I am in principle against the revamped ranking system and the consequences of its implementation. I couldn’t dislike the AV meta more. However, my ‘predictions’ have failed, and PvP has not died - In fact, it is in a relatively healthy state. During regular weekday evenings AV dominates, but there are always WSGs popping (only evenings though). And in dedicated weekends, like this one, there are 4-5 WSGs popping with plenty of good players in them. Having been away for a while, I am impressed by the amount of good games I am playing. Not saying this is everyone’s experience, but I welcome it with open arms. The Alliance also seems to have kept more of the core PvP playerbase. Where are the Horde <B*SED> guys? In any case, BG PvP seems fine to me.
  2. AH’s Economy - The Auction House boasts a number of items around 50-100% higher than what the Gehennas PvP server (APES, etc.) had at its heyday in Classic pre-TBC. There is plenty to buy and sell, and for non-bots, non-gold buyers like myself, it is not an issue to sell any of the stuff I list (mostly herbs). I know there is a big issue with gold / bots - I have critiziced this extensively myself - But you can definitely partake in the economy with little to no effort through the AH to get your gold / items etc.
  3. Raiding - I do not raid these days, so my opinion probably does not mean much - However I see on the one hand a landscape dominated by GDKP raids (with all of their controversy) and also a speedrunning scene that has outdone even the wildest dreams that early Era players had. clearing Naxx after 42:50 mins? Very impressive. Regular SR / DKP raids are to be found and surely without much digging, but I cannot add much to this since it is not part of my focus. If any of you know, please share.
  4. Overall Community - The community feels a bit hollowed out. Classic Era tight-knit community days are long gone. Still, for the most part people go around minding their own business and I personally have not found it more or less friendly/toxic than before. According to stats easily available on the internet, there are around 5.7k raiders active alone in the Firemaw culster, with a ton of levelers and other players whose focus is not raiding. It feels VERY much alive, and both Orgrimmar and Stormwind are packed with players. Do not take my word on this, go check it out.

As stated, I know there are multiple issues with Era, and I am a no changes proponent, so I am well aware of all of them. Still, there is plenty to be happy about for those that love this game and Era is not only not dead, but thriving in many respects.

See you all in Azeroth!

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As always, well said, Mr Bananoid.

Era is my home, I’m there to stay. Heck I’ve dedicated 20 years of my life to this game already. All the bots, and gdkp, the whole shabang… I don’t really care for it much. Only thing that pisses me off is that everytime there is a patch related to SOD, the virus itself spreads around on Era. Everything seems to be under the same client these days. Blizzard minimize the budget to this client to the bone and look to squeeze the maximum penny out of any player out there. Dirty and evil you tell me.

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The same client thing is definitely nerve-wrecking. Every reset there can be surprises and updates that spill on to Era and this is highly problematic.

When does the Microsoft takeover fully take place? Does anybody have any particular hopes as to how this could affect the Era ecosystem? I honestly have no clue.

Also and as a sidenote → I logged in the PvE cluster yesterday (Alliance side). The AH had 15k items, which compares to a medium sized server pre-TBC. There are currently 6-7 guilds clearing Naxx on Ally side and 3-4 on Horde side. This is much, much better than what we had in Era for a long time. No GDKP, no boosts from gold as the community is very protective of the server and these things not spreading over there.
Hence, if you want tight-knit community of old, raiding opportunities, same BG PvP as in Firemaw, etc, and none of the negatives, the PvE cluster is 100% a very valid option.

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personally – and i speak about pvp – if the game can only be played in AV and WSG at certain hours (i haven’t been able to play wsg since like february) and world pvp consists only of camping level 30s in nesingway camp for an hour until you force them to call for help from a 60 or they log their main (or you kill bots running to and from brm) then the game is dead imo. sure there are players running around doing stuff but it doesn’t resemble what classic should be, at all. but there is still enjoyment to be found in the game elsewhere, however fleeting.

my biggest problem is the economy. there’s literally no reason for people to be outside farming stuff and that’s where a lot of the wpvp action would be found.

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Hello @Bananoid .

I was wondering if you have more data about the Firemaw cluster in terms of the faction balance, does Alliance have many more people than Horde or is it close to 50/50?

In terms of the PvP that you mentioned, does one of the faction prevail more over the other or both win and lose at the same rates? I’m asking this because i have read some posts where people said that AV was more beneficial to the Alliance for example.

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Update Nihilum Community on EU-Celebras RP Alliance community main raid entering nax on Sunday 27/10/24 also Nostalgia is starting to clear AQ40 now.

if you wish to play with Nihilum message an officer for invite at level 1.

Kind regards.

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Hey @Blitzinger - The population, if I look at the raiding stats and overall feeling is 60/40 for the Alliance.

However, we are talking about massive amounts of population for a Classic Server - Therefore, you will not really notice the difference outside of high end speedruning raiding, where the Alliance has multiple guilds and the options on Horde are more limited. This is a niche subset of raiders though and something you should not be concerned about.

In terms of PvP, in AV I tend to win most of my matches on Alliance, this is true. I have also read somewhere the map is more beneficial to the Alliance, but I cannot confirm nor deny. In the other BGs, it really depends on the cycle we are in. For a long time, Horde dominated in an insulting way. These days, the Alliance has a small scene of really hardcore players that team-up and win 99% of their games, whereas pugs still lose to Horde.

Horde also has massive amounts of burst damage with their locks and shamans (and some mages :wink:) and sometimes they will even crush the Alliance hardcore players thru sheer damage output.

In any case, my advice is to go for what you feel interested in. There is always time to switch, experiment, etc.

Hey @Roguebullier,

At the end is a matter of perspective. I played for years on pservers prior to the Classic re-release and endure really bad PvP scenes. Also, at the beginning of Era, the same 30 players would play against each other every evening with little to no variation. Getting AV up and running for the first time on a Friday was a huge success for us back then.

If I factor in all of this, the PvP on Era definitely feels alive, since there are a ton of players engaging in PvP weekly, dedicated guilds, Flag Carriers / Specialists, a bit of elitism / banter, etc.

But of course, if you expect 5-10 concurrent maps of each battleground up at any time, this is far from that.

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What keeps popping in my mind is, back then, what would make a person pick Horde or Alliance, is there any advantage in picking the one over the other, can we say that there is a better side to pick?

The wiki says that Alliance has access to a exclusive mount I guess that the Horde was left out of that but aside the mount is there anything else?

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There was… Horde racials… Now there is as well Phase 6, paladin… At phase 6 paladin becomes bis in both pvp and pve, so all prefer alliance over horde now. Back then before 6 all was going horde because of racial abilities , now all go paladin coz at p6 its unkillable and every group who have a paladin its unkillable too and immune to cc, and if paladin pop bubble and start healing ,paladin healing can outnumber any kind of dps. Have 10 ppl hit a single target… doesnt matter paladin can heal more. Also human warriors are the top parsers due to salvation paladin buffs. For all those reasons mentioned ppl prefer alliance now, and back then they picked horde.

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Depends on what you define as back then - As early as 2004 most people didn’t understand the math behind the game, so the RPG component of it was paramount.

Today things have changed a bit. Most knowledgeable players assume Horde racial abilities are better suited for PvP and paladins give an edge to the Alliance on PvE.

In any case, I think you can PvP and raid with both factions just fine, and only if you want to push to an elite level, you will then notice the differences.

As for a “better side” to pick - There is none IMO for the average player, which most of us are.

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But if one wants to push or achieve that elite level that you mentioned, what would it be that “better” side and why?

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For PvE, Alliance has access to paladins, which are superior / utility healers as compared to Shamans. Their blessing abilities are meta buffs, they wear plates, which makes them extra tough, and on top of that, they can bubble up and become immune for 10 sec every 5 min. Because of this reality, elite speedrunning guilds usually thrive on Ally side.

Still, there are elite Horde guilds, but handicapped, and have historically being unable to compete in Classic in terms of best clearing times. Alliance competes for world records, Horde for “Horde world records”.

For PvP, it is more difficult to determine. A super optimal set up with perfect gear and skills would deem the Alliance the superior faction as well because of paladins. But good, healing PvP paladins are scarce at best and perfect set ups non-existent. Racials are better for the horde, but in truth, if you are pugging for either side, you will win most games if:

  1. More players from your team are focused on objectives that players from the opposite team
  2. Your team has a significant gear advantage over the opposing team
  3. You have 1-3 players in your team who have insane skills that carry you to victory

I have done 100% of my raids on Horde. Nothing competitive, but I had a great time gearing this mage. I have PvPed extensively on both factions, and won/lost a lot of games on either side, with the 3 factors listed above determining most of the outcomes.

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One final thing i would like to ask you since you have played the game, especially vanilla for a long time on both sides, is about the zones, the lore for each faction.
I have read topics on reddit and here saying that Blizzard at the time work the Alliance zones and lore better when compared to Horde, is this true? Did you feel that the stories, quests, lore and zones were more worked on the Alliance side instead of the Horde?

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I couldn’t tell.
I found the leveling process enjoyable on both sides, and each faction has specific zones as well as common zones I enjoyed. Still, I am probably not the best at hinting at this, since it is not a top priority for me.
In any case, I am sure you can find tons of info referring to this on the internet. It is something I haven’t weighted myself, ever.

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I would have liked that Horde would have something unique, the Alliance has a mount that Horde can’t have, i wish the Horde had something similar in Vanilla.
Apparently that isn’t the case.

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You are misguided on this one @Blitzinger. The horde does have shamans, which are unique to the horde.

They are pretty good healers and will always get a raiding spot. Interesting lore if that is your thing and in PvP, a geared elemental shaman is a sight to behold. Probably the highest burst damage of the whole game.

All races and their racial abilities are unique to each faction. Also, and now that you mentioned mounts - each faction’s race has a completely unique mount, so that’s that.

On top of that, different cities, different leveling zones, different racials… I mean, enough to make both experiences Alliance & Horde unique. I think it is safe to say, Vanilla has the biggest faction identity and uniqueness of all versions of WoW.

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I’m not saying that the Horde doesn’t have it’s unique thing and I believe that it has, i mean just the color scheme and races of the Horde feel very unique and exotic, in my view much more, when compared to the Alliance.
It is true, the Horde has shamans but also Alliance has paladins, on their own, the paladin seem very strong.

What I meant was that for example the Alliance can have access to that tiger that you get on the snow zone i forgot the name but the Horde doesn’t have anything like that.

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These are great news! Is this part of a RP server revival? If you guys are entering Naxx, best of luck with that. Can’t wait for you guys to clear it! :slightly_smiling_face:

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man i wish i never cleared naxx, i loved classic era so much then after KT died i kinda just lost all interest in doing the previous farm raids so sad now i gotta play trash retail cuz no other good games exist either :cry: :sob:

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Well, if you decide to come back, we will be here waiting for you!

I personally take Classic Era over trash retail as you call it every day. It is just too much fun.

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