ksx

"Know your audience." Trust me, when I say that I am taking this into consideration when discussing the topic to know that I am serious. It's been roughly three weeks or so since my friends and I had decided to embark on this endeavor, to dive back into the classic version of World of Warcraft that we had only casually meddled with at the time of its inception. With an open mind I'd decidedly attempted to re-live those first years, setting aside the version I had actually grown with and experiencing this in a very new and intriguing way. There was good, there was bad, and then there was straight up confusing. Many of you, all things considered, may not very much like this post but I think it is important to address these topics both here and eventually to Blizzard in the years to come, should you hope to get the best of this experience as you move with them. First and foremost I'd like to address both communities, as I feel it is just as vital to do so. The World of Warcraft community on live is composed of a variety of ages, anywhere from the mid teens to the mid thirties (for the most part). I would assume, and this is a stretch, that this server is much the same, though perhaps leaning on quite a bit older, say anywhere from the mid twenties to mid thirties, perhaps even older. This community does indeed remind me of the community that had existed back then: social, loyal (to factions), Alliance whining for the most part and Horde being generally indifferent, with Alliance having a slight more involvement with PvE and Horde with PvP (again, generalizations). With Vanilla being much more a traditional setting of an MMO (obviously), I find that you have many players that appreciate exactly that. An RPG, with a focus on immersion, with a character that one becomes attached to and with a community accordingly - with a guild, with friends, etc. For this article I will dub them RPG players. The game is focused on time well spent and rewards you for thus, it emphasizes team, unfair play being widely accepted and encouraged (engineering, alchemy, gear disadvantages etc.) Whatever advantage you have - use it. Disadvantaged? Sorry, git gud, etc. Or, play more. "My character is more leet, kek." Now, I say some of that to say this: Live is not full of RPG players - it is full of Gamers. Now, I know what you're thinking: (Hey, Ksx, i'm a gamer!). Okay, you might be, but bear with me (kek, druud reference). If I were to snapshot the cultures from an iPhone 5 (I know, I'm behind the times), and never told you what game they were playing, just from a community standpoint, I think that the games would look entirely different. Imagine present WoW, with most if not all RPG elements behind, in a more CSGO or COD atmosphere. Players Q within a lobby, for PvE or PvP, for the most part (at low levels of experience) with strangers, formulate strategies, win or lose, then go on their merry ways. They play the game to win, or to lose - with the min and the max, and this idea is the foremost goal in everyone's mind. Each participant is, loosely, and of course this coincides with many things, very immersed in the gaming aspect of the game, and not much else. Forget the community - what are your achievements, where are your ratings? Titles? Etc. The game is very focused on balance, fair chance, even opportunity, and rewards play well over play often. Use Engineering or said Potions in a duel or wpvp situation, you'll probably get laughed at. Get jumped in wpvp - why did you need help? Etc. The game is no longer about the character and/or accomplishments, but about the player behind. To divert your attention off of this subject I would like to further address a few other things that have come to mind. For better or for worse, whether you like this or not, I mean however you feel about the game in general, the community of 2004 is still living in 2004. Now, this would be great, I find, if this were still 2004. And actually, it still serves you well on this private server. What I mean to say is that I do not think the merger of the live and private server communities would benefit either party. I do not think the live community has the general respect for the immersion and rpg elements of the game of the past, nor do I think the past respects the competitive elements of the present, though I do myself hold both to be equals, there is a very serious disconnect between what is and what isn't, allow me to explain. From my experience, as gamers, the private server community and/or community of 2004 (whichever it may be), does not, as gamers, hold a candle to the community of present. Hell, we use the terminology washed to apply to (myself and others), players from 2012, let alone 2004. Now, I know there's many of you who wish to argue and perhaps disbelieve this statement, as "vanilla is best and we are best and all is best of the best kek" etc., so if you do disagree from both a PvE or PvP aspects I do implore you to actually attempt to get the equivalent ranking that you have on said private servers on live today and do come back with your results. Moving forward. With this, with the above, there is an issue that (used to) plague most MMO's, and this issue is the abundance of misinformation. I will give one example that I'd mentioned in another post that tilts me to no end every day: Horde has better PvP racials. No, no they do not. In fact, they so much do not that there is zero evidence supporting thus from the past 14 years of any changes to Horde racials other than a 30 second cooldown on Will of the Forsaken for arena comp sake, and that is it. By contrast, they have redone the human racials entirely two times because of how terribly biased they were towards Alliance. In fact, if you were to go to both the Arena and Battleground communities today and ask them, hands down Alliance has and for most of WoW has had better racials. Yet, yet, in Vanilla everyone has an equal say. And you might reply, well, Ksx, why is this bad? Well, this is bad because this is essentially some sort of gamers communism. What does that mean? Well, you wouldn't take medical advice from some random asshat walking down the street, would you? So, why do you in gaming? Without proof of a medical degree, a doctors office, staff, etc., you wouldn't be able to distinguish a medical professional from the guy that works at starbucks. This happens in gaming all the time, most predominantly with games without structured ranking systems. So where's the difference lie? The difference is that in games with ranking structures, the guy that's 114-3 gets to set the trend for what's in and what's not, not the dude who's a "great dueler" in durotar with a "rank 14 title" (aka a lot of HK's, cod leaderboards, anyone?). Not to put that down, but doesn't that essentially mean all you did was play a lot, and by no measure or means does it indicate you played well? Anyway, not the point. The point being is that, all of a sudden you find yourselves surrounded by verified, very much factual evidence supported by people who clearly have a deep understanding of the game, and all of the magical peons form around them in awe, repeating the whispers of their bountiful master. Kidding, but no, really. And crazy enough, this is a good thing. Because when this DOESN'T HAPPEN, you find yourselves surrounded by morons, who shout things like "if you're not 60, you're a bad player", which, LOL, PEOPLE BELIEVE, and - not only that - REPEAT. Anyway, you find this situation occurring, a lot, until things like this end up happening. "Are druids good in pvp?" - "No because x." - "Yes because x." - "If you're good - they're overpowered." - "It doesn't matter if you're good or not, they're broken." Who is correct? Well, it doesn't matter who you think is correct, because it's just Mary, Paul, Sue and Steve talking and we have no f'ing idea who any of them are. But someone believes. Someone believes enough to reroll their class, or to start on a different faction, just by this moronic heresay. So where am I going with this? Right now, at present, you have a casual, nostalgic RPG that a typically older generation player plays, that is community-driven and guild-centric. While I've certainly been critical of Vanilla, I am equally thus (though, perhaps to them moreso) of the live community. Look, if you want to protect your beloved home from the COD-like lobby FPS players of the future, you need to address to Blizzard and yourselves what exactly it is that you hold most precious about Vanilla, because trust me, if you know Blizzard like I know Blizzard, they listen to their community. And guess what? You are vastly outnumbered. What I'm saying is that I firmly believe in that if 1 million players start saying they want balancing changes in PvP/PvE in Vanilla you are fucking getting them. Or whatever else this implies, but before that happens and also to prevent that from happening you need to be honest with yourselves for a moment, what you are and what you represent. Because, I say this warmly, if you are the elitist, pr0 gam3r players like many of you make yourselves out to be, then have at it. But, if you come to find down the road that you have been left without an RPG, community, and feeling quite mediocre, well, don't say that I didn't warn you. I guess what I'm saying is, don't let your pride get in the way of having what you love. Personal recommendation? Stay with Project Elysium - don't even move to official servers. Look, there's a period of WoW that is most precious to me as well (WotLK), but I'm 100% aware of and not in denial about a few things. 1. Legion players would rick roll us. 2. Most of us are in our thirties and do not have much time for video games 3. I hate most of the younger, self-entitled millennials with a passion. So, if they made a private version, I know that this would not be WotLK, I would not be any good at it or have enough time for it and the community playing it now would be nothing like they were back then. The general gaming community of the world did not wait for you while you were stuck in the Eminem era. They moved on. They are very different now, grew up with a different sub culture, and in general are way more serious about competitive gaming as a whole than you were in 2004. Don't believe me? Twitch, YouTube, ArenaJunkies.com, Blizzcon, Pro team sponsorship - these things didn't even exist when you were playing. They've been here for f o u r t e e n y e a r s (well, except AJ, rip AJ), but anyways. Look, whatever you think you are, this article, or this rant, or whatever the fuck this is - this is what you are. Whether you're cool with it or not, accept it or not, love it or not, it's up to you guys how to deal with it, because come two years you are going to be dealing with it. I suggest you start now, but that's up to you. As for me? For the most part? Loved it. Loved the RPG element, the immersion again, the community, the real gritty earthy feel of a gaming exploration that wasn't really sure where it was going but entirely sure that it wanted to go somewhere. Would've loved to have launched with it, and much more would've loved to had hopped in the military a year or so later and actually grew with it, but unfortunately this is all I get, though what a pleasure it's been. Unfortunately, my rose tinted glasses were just that - rose tinted, and though I very much love what WoW was and what MMO's were (I started with PristonTale, iRO, RoseOn, etc), at some point I have to just shrug and say hey, it's 2018. As much as I fucking loved the Playstation back then unfortunately it's just not that hot right now, for me at least. If they took the RPG elements of this game, the real vibe of a character growing, somehow brainwashed everyone to forget how competitive you can actually play these things and yet were able to address the game from a 2018 perspective i'd be here forever. But alas, they have not and cannot and so I bid you all adieu. Thanks for the fun. edit: p.s. By the way, I did want to take a second to acknowledge the staff. I don't care about the past, the past is the past, but what I have seen is that you are 100% about your community and 100% not thanked often enough for what you do. Having had experienced servers and staff like returnofreckoning.com, I couldn't possibly give you enough credit for how professionally and honorably you hold to your station, many of this server do not even deserve you nor do they know what it is that they have so let me and very much for them thank you for any and all of that which you do. .

Gotcha, I suppose i initially took it as a 'wow look at me'. Apologies. As I said, anxious for the future.

You might as well be playing against people who are using their faces to hit the keyboard. I've seen you and literally all you do is camp lowbies/people you out gear (i think you killed me twice at menethil when i was trying to watch the horde vs ally 60's fight, gz bro). The mage you're vsing in that clip has no idea how to 5-8 kite and that's like a basic principle from 14 years ago. An actual amazing warrior versing non trash tier players (literally second frame was zilea, his like third clip was xaryu). By the way, I didn't post that video to be like 'lulz arena get rekt nuub go bak to drgnz!111!1one1!11", i just think you're out of touch (moreso in terms of 'what is a good player' versus 'what is not a good player'. By the way, you stand still when using engineering a lot (it's probably an uncomfortable bind?) against people who are melee hitting you right in the face, you should probably try to turn so that their back is to you, for obvious reasons. Okay, again, another Mage did it. Look, ,mages, for fuck sake, stop going into charge/int range jesus christ lmfao. Literally the mages you are facing are bots. Kid novas you, walks into max range, and starts casting frostbolt lol. Anyway, to not rant, the video showed me that you can kill complete noobs/underleveled/undergeared people. Is that what you wanted to show me? Because that's all I can take away from this. ** Let me list some positives here. You clearly don't keyboard turn, you mouse turn pretty well (though your movement/facing needs hella work), and it seems as though you bind everything (albeit clearly uncomfortably). Your UI is clean (though perhaps unnecessary, but pretty), you're not necessarily doing anything wrong in these clips, though you're never challenged to have to do very much right, ya feel me? BTW, in a pvp video, get the fuck rid of KTM, meters, and non major cd cooldowns/kicks, it just screams raider. p.s. and btw, i'm not trying to be a 'debbie downer' here, i do encourage all steps towards pvp. But let's be real, hood's video was 6 years ago. And no, I don't care that it wasn't vanilla. Keep up the pvp, try to fight some people that you actually have a challenge with next time and i'll be eager to see the footage ;p

This is the only place I've ever seen a 'world chat', to include Vanilla, TBC, WotLK, Cataclysm & Legion. Literally Tichondrious, the largest server in the game on retail, does not utilize a version of the world chat used here. It is not reflecting the state of the game in neither 2004 or 2018, and I do think it is in fact another version (albeit chatty) of the looking for group tool presently on live and is not the Vanilla experience. People most definitely used capitol cities and/or the zone itself to parade for groups and presently do not. In my opinion this global chatroom has altered how wpvp, pvp, and pve in general work. Whether or not I think it is necessarily a bad thing is another question, but to say this happened on Vanilla (or thereafter) is an absolute lie in my opinion, unless you're trying to infer that your no-name servers aforementioned were ahead of the Tich/Blackrock/Cho'gall/Mal'Ganis/KT curve.

So why am I saying this? What's the point? The point is, just have fun. I know, ironic, as I'm pretty much raging over all of this, but considering it's been kind of non-stop in-your-face- full mouth breather, I'm saying something. Deal, I guess. Enjoy Vanilla, relax in the nostalgia, have a good time. Oh, and stop being elitist, how about that? I'm looking at you, a few Guilds of complete randalls that I've ran into since I've been here. If you're not from Nihilum, DnT, Ensidia, etc. you should probably shut the hell up, anyway. While I get that some of you are pretty upset that competitive 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 & battlegrounds were released, that World of Warcraft mechanics were increased and evolved, that the player skill set moved in correlation, and that raids have been simultaneously been increased in difficulty since your beloved game, etc., it doesn't give you the right to just act like these things don't exist, won't exist, or that they never existed. It just is what it is, mate. Also, quick edit, there's a MULTITUDE of information out there if you are actually seeking advice for this game, in depth or light, from quality sources, whether it be professions, raiding, pvp, vanilla, the game in general, etc. If you are new to the game, new to vanilla, new to mmo's or returning and have forgotten I strongly urge you to check sources for yourself as if you've believed any of the garbage you hear in trade, world, etc. what have you, unfortunately you will be strongly misled. So, i'm going to go back to enjoying my lil fluffy time rampaging around on my time-investing, nostalgic, casual little rpg that i play with others and hope you will too, and leave that elitist jerk nonsense behind me - i hope you will as well Wink. *Oh, and just in case I get that "well uh get out of here!!" or "ahhhhhhh information!" as well as the ever so classic "then why do you play?", welp, b/c I fucking want to, that's why, because the staff seems chill and because I have friends here. That does not mean I signed up to read your belligerent ass chat all day.

So, right. It's only been a few days since my initial 'hello' post, but I've run into a few situations that i'd like to tackle with the general community for a moment. You may find this to be something of a rant, or merely a list of concerns, questions, statements and generalizations. Meh, maybe that is a rant - but I digress. Take this as you will, feel free to comment, harass me, laugh, agree or disagree. I hope some of this amuses you, as most of it has certainly amused me. 1.There is no fundamental difference between Alliance & Horde players. - I know, seems crazy, right? No, but really. As i'm frolicking throughout the grassy plains of Azeroth, I, time and time again, hear the wildest of statements, such as: "Alliance is bad at pvp." "Horde has better racials." et cetera. Look, as similar as everyone on this game is (they're not), at the end of the day, everyone individual's reasons for playing on this server or rolling a race is their own. As for racials, we've over a decade of evidence that in competitive pvp they're mostly irrelevant, though do play a minor part. Funny enough, on live right now Alliance has the better racials (double trinket for priest/mistweaver/rogue is insane for rmp, tsg, etc.), and NA is damned dominated by Horde. 2. That somehow Vanilla is an isolated game, experienced, and genre. - No. Look, you may not like it, but there's been about fourteen years of World of Warcraft. And guess what? They all apply to you. Every single year. Yep. That raid content you never did, the arena and rbg scene you didn't participate in, yup - it counts. This whole "but this is Vanilla, not ____", mentality isn't cute, and it needs to go. I hate to tell you this, but I've never seen a gaming community get worse, ever. You might think that this is the best version of WoW and that is 100% your prerogative. However, that does not mean it was the most difficult version, most skill capped, most adverse, most fun, these are all things that are entirely your opinion. And guess what? You and your friends are playing Vanilla WoW, guess who you're voting for? 3. Vanilla WoW had the most difficult raid content: - Nope. Also, ironically, your most famous vanilla guild. (They were great on Gilgamesh and #1 for a while, btw. Different players though. This is from when they were on t top). 3. That being rank 14 or level 60 =/= skill. Not even going to talk about being called a noob for being non 60. Literally the title being meme'd. http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/236050-has-anyone-here-ever-gotten-to-rank-14-in-vanilla-wow/ http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/21101-how-man-r14s-are-left/page-2 4. The whole dungeon level misconception. You do not need to have a full party of level 20+ to do VC, 30 to do stockades or 40 to do SM Cath. By the way, "SM" is not a thing - the level disparity means either someone's getting zero exp, or someones getting carried (typically, not always, for either). 5. Vanilla Players were better than modern day players: Your most famous Vanilla PvPer: Two multi rank 1 players in TBC. The most hilaaaaaaaaarious part about this video below is that Akrios (under Eviscerate) released videos for the majority of Vanilla and was widely disregarded by many, then went on to be realized as one of the best players to ever play in North America. (2 minutes 40 seconds in, show me a vanilla player, present or former, who has movement and control like Neilyo). This is the evolution that the game underwent in less than four years - where do you think it's at now?

whats your IGN nludede?

i think we'll be fine lol

ayy whats your ign im like 2400's Bg9/AM hmu Ksx (alliance) Oh, btw, watched the Mage video Nludde, not bad - you seem to know your 5-8 zone vs warriors but the fact is you versed a warlock who doesnt CoT and spell locks your arcane tree i meannnnnnnnn =\ also kinda questionable that you listed that you were r14 and played bc but didnt mention any ratings... not really helping penetrate the idea that r14's were just perma-grind noobs =\ also the engineering thing, i mean while it's cute in videos it gives you a clear advantage against classes you otherwise wouldnt >.> like i said, im sure to the average person it's a whoa moment (thinking Gameking 9 here), when in reality i mean you bound a bomb and clicked an area not exactly rocket science. would've been nice to see more fake casts. the only bizarre part of the video was the rogue scrolling combat text (lol you couldn't even see your character?) and your F1-F5 binds, i mean there's plenty of keys next to WASD as well as shift modifiers just seemed a little bizarre but to each his own. considering there's nothing like omnicc or drtracker the scrolling combat part seems counter intuitive. other than those small things, nice videos, good music.

So not sure how I ended up here and hopefully this isn't a full necro (thanks iPhone), but I did some serious eye rolling at a lot of these comments. Can PvE be easier with certain facials? Sure. Is it required? No. Do racials matter in PvP? Not even remotely. Where does this showcase? The last 11 years of Arena and like 5 years of RBGs? I have never and I mean never heard a decent player talk about race or gear typically it's more along the lines of comp and mu but whatever. That "ilvl xxx+" type of crap is for people who back pedal. How do I know this? Historically and even presently, Alliance has had better racials for PvP (stoneform, emfh, perception, etc) and in things like RMP mirrors could even be game breaking. However, Arena is at present and has mostly been (rbgs included) 80% horde or so and for mostly cosmetic reasons and well for the lulz. And can you guys stop with this elitist argument honestly it's a bunch of nonsense it's a private server for fun can you put the epeens down as if you've faced someone over 1800 in the last two yrs? Look we can all sit here and pretend that vanilla live requires/had min maxing elitists when more realistically have the people played their keyboard using their face I mean look at old vurtne videos the guy is bar swapping lmao. Just stop it.

Title. I'll keep this brief. I'm seeking any prospective friends/associates to chill with, hit max level, do some dungeons, ganking, high level pve & pvp, etc. I'm not entirely decided on whether i'm going to play alliance or horde, nor am i certain of what class. Honestly, i'm open to suggestion depending on the needs/desires of my potential friends or guild. To give you a bit of background and so that we're hopefully on the same page, i've been about 2400TR/PR in all brackets BG9 in arena and have raided pretty extensively in both WoW & FFXIV. I've been gaming since the early b.net era AT&T/Exodus/Telia from around the late 90's, so i'd be mostly interested in an older crowd as i'm relatively casual now by comparison to my younger self, though by no means casual in general. Anyways, hope to hear from you ~ contact info (discord preferred): ksx#9392 [email protected] update: I decided to go NE Druid (resto) - feel free to hit me up, ksx in game.