With all the buzz lately about servers having massive queue times in the wake of phasing being removed, a lot of players are considering transferring off to other servers. Some guilds have even transferred off bigger servers already like Herod and Faerlina, and you'd be wise to follow in their footsteps.

Being on Faerlina, the most populated server in Classic WoW, I hear people complaining all the time about how they're getting ganked 24/7, how Horde never fight fairly, or how someone might be prevented from questing or just progressing through the world because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. It never seems to occur to players that they could just play on a PvE (Normal) server. In my 13 years of playing this game, it certainly seems much easier and more enjoyable to play a PvE server.

I'll briefly write about a few reasons you should re-roll onto a PvE server:

• PvP on your own terms

• No worry of being ganked

• Hot zones aren't "no-go areas"

• Faction imbalance means less

PvP servers have a big problem for a lot of players, and that is that you are open season from about the time you're level 20ish to the time you're 60. You see things happen all the time where streamers, your fellow faction member, or even you might fall victim to a gank just because you needed to be in that area at that time. If you have all your best-in-slot gear, then you might go onto Honor farming, which isn't particularly engaging or accessible to most players. In PvE servers, you can choose whether or not to engage in PvP. Put shortly, this means you can essentially choose whether or not to be ganked. This brings me to my next point, but even if you still have an itch for World PvP, you can still go get it albeit at the cost of having less interactions per hour than on a server like Herod or Faerlina.

In World of Warcraft there exists 3 territory types. Friendly territory where the enemy faction will always be flagged upon entry. Contested territory whereby the interaction with players of the opposing faction is completely voluntary, on either party's accord to make the first move. And Enemy territory, where you will be flagged for PvP upon entry of the zone. In most of the zones you'll be questing in past 20, you will be in a contested zone. Like stated before, the PvP interaction here is completely voluntary. Neither faction will automatically be flagged for PvP automatically however, the option is always available to gank someone if they are already flagged up. In which case, they chose to be in that situation. If you happen to regret the decision of flagging for PvP, all you have to do is just unflag and wait for five minutes and you're good to go. The choice is all on you, and that's the best part. It is all within your control, yet remains fair.

Often times on PvP servers, like just yesterday I was minding my own business and going from Menethil Harbor over to Theramore, so I could start the questline there. Business as usual for most people. But because of my server, there is a guild named <PIRATES> that is kind of known for just camping on boats in contested zones and killing lowbies, making them miss the boat for as long as possible. I missed the boat twice before I could eventually get on, and of course died right after resurrecting. This is just one example of certain areas being "blockaded" from certain players going to them and doesn't feel good knowing you essentially just aren't allowed to use the boat, or accept a quest, etc. It gets old pretty fast, and this isn't going to happen on PvE servers.

Lastly, faction balance. This is an important issue on pretty much every PvP server because faction balance is quite the deciding factor in who wins fights and who loses them. There are some situations where you can have a positional or skill advantage and beat out higher numbers than what you possess, just last night <Crusade> kept a raid team of double their size out of Blackrock Mountain just by maintaining positional advantage behind the doors. However, for the most part the general rule is that nobody wants to play on an imbalanced server. If you're the majority, you get little to no PvP action outside of Battlegrounds. If you're the minority on your server, you are constantly paranoid of even stepping into a Contested zone, because you know that when you do, you're mince meat. On Normal servers, you don't have to worry as much about this because the faction balance means so much less. If you're looking for World PvP, maybe pick a server that's a little more balanced, but for the most part you don't have to find one that's a perfect 50/50 split.

Now, I can hear you typing away at me already, "But what if I want to PvP without doing World PvP and just getting railed by a gang of the enemy faction?"

Battlegrounds.
Battlegrounds are a great way to not only get your PvP rocks off, but it's the most balanced form of PvP in the game and will allow cross-realm play from release! Meaning you can still fight people on other servers whilst being on a PvE server yourself. Truly the best of both worlds. Originally in Vanilla, the cross-realm battlegrounds were added in patch 1.12 but as soon as Battlegrounds are added to the game, they will support cross-realm play in Classic. I'm personally super excited to run Battlegrounds with my guild and run all kinds of fun comps in Warsong Gulch and seeing absolute chaos unfold in Alterac Valley. I'll be able to go get my gear and do World Events and raids without two to four hour delays from the Horde, and I'll be able to go crush them in Battlegrounds whenever I want to.

I hope this thread opened your eyes to re-rolling onto a PvE server, because they're great! There's so many things you can do stress free, and you have so much more control of the game in PvE servers, I couldn't recommend them more. Hopefully I'll see you out there, and if you play Horde, catch me in Warsong Gulch.

To each their own. I dont think that people rolling on PvP misunderstand what theyre getting into, rather they are disappointed when faction balance ruins the experience. As you said "Lastly, faction balance. This is an important issue on pretty much every PvP server because faction balance is quite the deciding factor in who wins fights and who loses them." The issue many people have on PvP realms is that Blizzard does nothing to help with faction balance. They just watch it deteriorate or even aid in the deterioration, which destroys the experience.

Solutions?
-Soft caps on name reserves/character creation. They saw how many people were locking into each faction. Why didnt they cap factions after a certain imbalance threshold?
-Capping servers at full. Servers hit full early on and players were STILL able to create characters on these realms.
-Server transfers. Why did Blizz allow the lower pop faction to transfer OFF OF high pop realms? If a realm is overpopulated, I am all for opening free transfers... But only do this to the overpopulated faction. Unfortunately Blizz didnt realize this until it was much, much too late and overpopulated realms watched as the underdog faction vacated the realm. Leaving a high pop / imbalanced realm.
-Faction specific login queues. The underpopulated faction should not have login queues. This would help close the gap between faction imbalance and incentivize people to transfer off.

There are many many more potential solutions, but these are some of the most obvious/easiest to implement. Ideas that the community was asking for prelaunch. Ideas that have worked succesfully in many other MMO's. These are not new ideas. These are obvious ideas that are industry standard.

I have no interest in playing on a PvE realm. Its a watered down version of the game I love. PvE servers are missing an incredibly important part of WoW. They are missing WAR. However, I encourage those who are interested in PvE realms to play what version of the game they prefer.

Dusta_Rhymes wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I missed the boat twice before I could eventually get on, and of course died right after resurrecting. This is just one example of certain areas being "blockaded" from certain players going to them and doesn't feel good knowing you essentially just aren't allowed to use the boat, or accept a quest, etc. It gets old pretty fast, and this isn't going to happen on PvE servers.

This is an intentional result of PvP. This is irritating and annoying but it increases the value of other players. Your options? Well you could get a port instead of using a boat OR you could get creative. Your profile says youre a paladin. I would recommend waiting until the boat is about to leave and bubbling and jumping into the water beside the boat. You can clip onto the boat and get pushed beside it to the other continent. Adversity demands problem solving. PvP servers are not for the feint of heart, but I can assure you that you are never really blockaded from anything, you just need to be able to think on your feet or prepare. Or you could bring some friends. Or you could invest in invisibility potions to get by, but the spy addon sort of ruins this.

@Stfuppercut, out of curiosity, based on your private server experience, what was the wPvP situation like once Battlegrounds were released? Did the honor farming subside in places like BRM?

rijndael wrote: ↑

4 years ago

@Stfuppercut, out of curiosity, based on your private server experience, what was the wPvP situation like once Battlegrounds were released? Did the honor farming subside in places like BRM?

I don't have pserver experience but I have watched many videos. There will always be pvp at BRM. It may not be as bad but BRM is a popular destination. There are BG queue times and people that prefer to be on the "winning" side with the lopsided player count because they get destroyed in battlegrounds.

I don't want no PVP, and I'm fine fighting off a gank or two on the way into blackrock mountain. I'm just hoping it turns into a couple of small encounters along the way, instead of a full human centipede of 200 horde circling the mountain like this:

Once BG’s are released you will be left with organic PvP as people won’t be incentivized to camp high traffic areas. You will still have the odd ganker but any group large enough to form a 5-10 man will opt to go into a BG instead as they yield more honor. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re on an imbalanced server, you’re still going to feel it but it won’t be anything like what it is right now.

Stfuppercut wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Once BG’s are released you will be left with organic PvP as people won’t be incentivized to camp high traffic areas. You will still have the odd ganker but any group large enough to form a 5-10 man will opt to go into a BG instead as they yield more honor. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re on an imbalanced server, you’re still going to feel it but it won’t be anything like what it is right now.

Sounds like paradise.

I only play PVE because I care not to spend my precious time trying to avoid getting ganked when I really need to be leveling my character or professions. I just don't get any enjoyment out of PVP play. Not to mention the majority of complaining I see on this fourm is from PVPers.

Have to say I also dislike the fact that from Lightshope Chapel to Stratholme or from Kargath to Blackrock Spire I have to plan half an hour of getting ganked and waiting for respawn timer.

BUT: I love the fact that a Sulfuras wielding Gnome Warrior (Shoutout to my Man Yoinkman < cba > Gehennas, EU :D) charges me on the planks at Revantusk Village while I'm fishing. Of course little did he know that I'm a Feral tank and when I go bear, his big bad hammer only so much as tickles my furry but :D

The latter situation of the odd brawl or duel out in the open I will miss when WSG is released, dying myself towards an instance portal; not so much.

But that being said, I have high hopes that on a PvP Server like Gehennas I will always find someone to duel with, if I look hard enough :)

Started leveling an alt on an RP server (basically PvE).

Although i do prefer PvP servers and there is a RP-PvP, my research has resulted that the stronger RP community lies on a PvE server rather than PvP.

Just fyi for anyone thinking of doing an RP alt at some point*.

* Alliance side, Europe.

On retail i always picked pvp, arthas, warsong, dethecus... this time around i picked pve and love it. I dont have to deal with anyone ruining my experience cause they decide to corpse camp me or gank me. I can go afk for food or bathroom without worrying about coming back dead, there are so many boons

Rinkusan wrote: ↑

4 years ago

BUT: I love the fact that a Sulfuras wielding Gnome Warrior (Shoutout to my Man Yoinkman < cba > Gehennas, EU :D) charges me on the planks at Revantusk Village while I'm fishing. Of course little did he know that I'm a Feral tank and when I go bear, his big bad hammer only so much as tickles my furry but :D

This has been my favorite thing too. I love it when melee classes try to start fights with me, only for me to go bear tank. I may not win, but I'm taking a lot of their time with me if I go down.