Server health is something that folks tend to focus on only when they’re considering transferring characters in game but it’s much more than the existence (or lack thereof) of a lot of competent players. For instance, I’ve spent the majority of my WoW career on three servers; Staghelm, Gnomergan and Proudmoore. Each of the servers has different strengths and weaknesses.
Proudmoore had the most talented and dedicated player base that I’ve yet to encounter in WoW. Most of the pugs I played in were at the low end, competent, and at the high end, exceptional. That said, the talented player base had its downside as well. Many guilds on the server were loathsomely elitist…take a gander at some guild websites to get an idea of the mindset of raiding guilds on the server.
Gnomergan will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the first server that I played on. For the most part, Gnomergan is on the seeping edge of raiding (not first, certainly not last, but somewhere in the nondescript middle). I’ll still drop in from time to time to check out the Auction House and listen in on Trade Chat to see how the server is doing. Its funny to try and contact players that I first met in the game almost five years ago; a digital walk down memory lane.
Staghelm is somewhere between Proudmoore and Gnomergan. The raiding population covers the full spectrum; from focused raiding guilds to a bunch of kids hanging out killing time. Compared to Proudmoore, the state of pugs (especially competent ones,) would best be described as slightly anemic. However, Staghelm is one of the only servers in the game where I’ve ever felt truly at home (players that share similar mindsets and play styles.)
What stands out in my mind as the real differentiating factor for each of these servers was the time that I spent on each. Gnomergan was Vanilla WOW, Proudmoore was TBC and half of WOTLK and Staghelm is the tail end of WOTLK. Each time I log into these servers, I’m reminded of all the treasured moments I’ve had in WOW on that server. Anyone else have experience on multiple servers that is similar (or even better, something completely different)?
This week Haf and Stomp dive into loads of Cataclysm Beta Updates including much discussed Druid Eclipse bar, loads of glyph system updates, and the breakdown of the anticipated “We WERE Legendary” Guild Achievement. Now we can just be “Hardcore” and “Awesome”… /sigh. We also say fond goodbye to the current configuration of Zul’Gurub, the first raid instance tacked back in Vanilla WoW.
Links to topics discussed this month:
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Raiding is the new Black. Chances are, most people that you know in WoW have raided in WOTLK. Blizzard’s most recent expansion helped to bring raiding into the mainstream, simplifying complex strategies into more easily digestible doses and throwing open the doors of raiding to the overall WoW population. It’s been argued that by dropping the difficulty of raiding and giving players access to higher levels of gear, more players are now raiding than at any other time in the history of WoW.
It seems like this trend will be continuing in Cataclysm as Blizzard has promised a raid system that offers similar difficulty options to players. One thing that has been been puzzling for me is the discussion of class mechanics within 5 mans and raids. It sounds like healers are going to have to cast way less to conserve mana, tanks are going to have to focus on maintaining aggro much more in addition to surviving, and DPS are going to be focusing on crowd control once again. What’s strange is that this sounds like a complication of the same combat mechanics that Blizzard is trying to simplify. Read more…
This week we announced how YOU can join us at “The Raid” Pre-Screening & Blizzcon After-Party being planned for October 23rd at 9PM at House of Blues, Anaheim. To snag your tickets, join us LIVE every Sunday between now and September 26th, and send a PM to the chat moderator with your best shot at…
I want to see “The Raid” Pre-Screening because…
The entries will be read during the FFA portion of the show, and a winner will be picked LIVE.
Be creative!
Be spontaneous!
And, You Must Be:
- Over 21
- In the Anaheim area on October 23rd
- Logged into Ustream
- Have a valid e-mail account
- Ready to attend one kick ass party!
Space is limited. Entry is not guaranteed.
Read more…
Yes, this is a Green Day reference, and it fits because I am really ready for September to be over with. By the end of September, I hope to have Halo:Reach, and NHL 11. (BTW Madden 11 on the 360 is a lot of fun, but I digress.) I hope to have my infant son, Caleb, (he is 5 weeks old) sleeping a little better during the night. By that time I also hope that I have a little more money floating around courtesy of student loans.
Most importantly to the readers of this blog, BlizzCon will be right around the corner at that time. I can’t wait to participate in the coverage! This is going to be a blast, and I hope that you come to Rawrcast for your BlizzCon needs. Read more…
Remember when the Achievements System was controversial? Remember when players were broken into camps, either for or against, screaming the implications of the incoming system throughout trade chat? It seems that the anti-Achievement voices have died with a whimper as all of the implications of said system have come to pass over the past few years and changed the face of WoW as we knew it.
I’d wager that the biggest change to the game was a change in player motivations. Let’s use Battlegrounds for an example. Previously, players would run Battlegrounds to earn Honor Points in order to purchase more PVP gear so they could be more competitive in BGs. Player motivations were always clear; kill as many players as possible and master the objectives of the Battleground to win (there is some debate here about whether the second motivation motivated anyone at all…at least Alliance side). Read more…
It has been an exciting week here at Rawrcast! Stomp has been busy finalizing plans for Blizzcon, and ironing out Rawrcast’s planned coverage of events. We are pleased to announce that we are helping to plan “The Raid” Pre-Screening event & Blizzcon After-Party in Anaheim this coming October! Keep listening to Rawrcast, and all of your other favorite World of Warcraft and gaming websites for your chance to win a ticket to this EXCLUSIVE event! A full list of the podcasts and websites participating will be posted on JoinTheRaid.com.
We also announce this week that we have launched our IndieGoGo.com Campaign, and started offering incentives in an effort to secure funds for our Blizzcon trip and coverage of the events. Full details can be found there, or at Rawrcast.com/Blizzcon! We have exciting coverage planned for Blizzcon, but we can only get there with your support. So, please take a moment to Support the Rawr!
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Helllo Rawrcast readers…Cornelious here bringing you another installment of Under the Hood.
As I stated in my last post I continue to keep myself busy overclocking and benchmarking hardware for DogHouse Systems but I’ve (finally) been able to eliminate a number of stresses in my life and it should be much easier to schedule my time moving forward. This week I want to take a short while to bring up a few points involving the friendly household dust bunny. Dust (in bunny form or otherwise) builds up in our computers for a number of reasons, some of which are: a dusty home/room, smoking, pets and poor case airflow and filtering.
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When it comes to the new talent trees, there are 3 types of people in the World… of Warcraft.
- The people who love it
- The people who hate it
- The people who couldn’t care one way or the other
For the purpose of this post, we’ll say goodbye to the 3rd group. Don’t take it personally, however in this situation your opinion doesn’t add weight to either side of the spectrum. I still love you.
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