12/12/2021

Notes from Nethergarde Keep

Many Classic players may be familiar with ironforge.pro, a website that tracks WoW server populations by combining data from combat logs and arena tables to calculate the number of active max-level characters per faction on each server. By its very nature its data is of course always going to be incomplete, but it does do a good job of painting a general picture of a server's overall situation.

In the week immediately following the opening of free server transfers off Hydraxian Waterlords, the site showed a population drop of about 20%, and I honestly thought that was going to be that, which is part of why I thought that staying behind was still going to be viable. However, as it turns out the server's depopulation was far from complete. The week after, the active endgame character count dropped from about a thousand to fifty. The week after that, it was ten. Considering that it's always said that the majority of MMO players don't pay attention to things going on outside of the game itself, I did not expect the exodus from Hydraxian Waterlords to be so absolute. It's still kind of shocking to me to be honest.

On the plus side, the guild with the friend that I had left behind packed up their bags too and followed us to Nethergarde Keep, so the dungeon gang is back together, yeah!

Life on Nethergarde Keep has been alright so far. Picking Terocone, especially without epic flying, is pretty impossible, but other types of gathering have turned out to be surprisingly okay. While the endgame population may be four to five times of what it used to be Hydraxian Waterlords, I reckon that a lot of those characters just log on to do instanced content at this point and generally aren't all competing for resources in the open world.

The number of new character and guild names has been somewhat overwhelming to deal with at times, even if it's nice to get quicker responses to LFM requests in the LFG channel. Interestingly, I've noticed that the whole situation has brought me closer to some people/guilds that moved with us from Hydraxian Waterlords but with whom I didn't really interact much before. In this sea of strangers, any familiar guild name is an island of refuge, and something to cling to while trying to get to grips with the wider server population in this new place.

That said, the server "culture" as a whole seems less different than I expected it to be, at least so far. Now, unlike some I was never worried about people on a regular PvE server not being nice enough or anything, because I never had an issue with that when I was playing Horde on Pyrewood either, but it is a commonly cited cliché that there's a certain je ne sais quoi to the sort of community that chooses to play on an RP server.

However, in a funny reversal of those expectations, we ported home to Shattrath after a raid on our new home one night to find a load of druids engaging in some sort of flash mob around A'dal - not something I'd ever seen on Hydraxian Waterlords in all my time there! Also, we used to joke about how many hunters on HW were boring min-maxers who all just had ravager pets called "Ravager", while here I've seen them bring everything from carrion birds to wolves to dungeons already.

Druids on parade

In general, things have been feeling invigorated. I hit level seventy on my paladin shortly after transferring, and the other day I got there on my druid as well. My previous discomfort with the viability of holy paladins and bear druids in the current climate slowly dissipated while doing dungeons with my levelling buddy, because knowing that someone's got your back no matter what can make up for a lot of shortcomings in a class.

And we've been running a lot of dungeons... after all the anxiety I had about not getting into groups early in the expansion it feels almost shockingly easy now. My mage got revered with all the factions to unlock heroics with relatively little effort, is attuned to SSC and only one heroic SL and Mag run away from being a Champion of the Naaru just like my hunter. My pally is already attuned for all the heroics bar Lower City as well and has healed her way through exciting destinations such as heroic Blood Furnace and heroic Black Morass. Being my newest alt to seventy, the druid hasn't done much yet, though she did ding while tanking a normal Botanica.

The end of another "just for fun" heroic Blood Furnace, this time with me healing. And again, no wipes!

And the best thing is, friends and guildies are in the same boat and gearing their own alts at this point, meaning that we can mix and match characters to put all kinds of guild runs together and it's just been a blast. The fun and banter is absolutely worth not always getting your first choice of destination or bringing your favourite character - plus we take turns to help people achieve different goals, so it all evens out in the end.

This is the Burning Crusade that I remember being so much fun back in the day and what I wanted from my Classic experience. Considering how close I came to quitting altogether back in September, I'm still a bit incredulous that it all just came together now after all. One Shadow Labyrinth pug to get me talking to my levelling buddy again... one bit of guild drama resulting in an unexpectedly long chat with a friend... always at the mercy of those butterfly wingbeats.

5 comments:

  1. Hydraxian Warlords sounds like it would be perfect for me now. I absolutely love an empty server in an mmorpg, where you literally do a double-take when you see another player run past. Sadly, with the whole Blizzard fiasco as it stands, I won't be logging in any of my HW characters to enjoy the peace and quiet any time soon.

    I bet Blizzard are too arrogant to go for actual server merges, though, no matter how many single-digit population servers they have to keep paying for.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I doubt they'll go ahead with actual merges either. I'd never really taken it in before, but the bottom of the player population page on ironforge.pro is full of nominally "empty" servers with zero endgame activity. But there's little to no reporting on that kind of stuff, while actual server merges would still count as negative headlines I guess.

      Delete
    2. I remember when Ysera-US dropped in population to the point where it showed up as a destination for "New Players"; it was nice and quiet, especially in the Old World. Leveling the original Azshandra was actually a breeze when the place was empty, because I could pick herbs and do quests without any real competition.

      Delete
    3. I've never been on a low pop server, medium was the least, and it was quite a noticeable difference. As you all are mentioning, gathering was fantastic.

      As I don't sell often on the AH (altoholics hoard stuff for the next alt), I do buy, and that was the noticeable difference. Not finding that weird item you need for an obscure recipe came as a shock.

      Bill

      Delete
    4. Yeah, I can definitely see the appeal of even an extremely low pop server, but the weird way Hydraxian Waterlords was essentially transformed through this free transfer initiative has been very annoying. :(

      Delete