On server's longevity and faction balance

[Fylgja 3]

This post isn't as much as a suggestion but more of food for thought.

I have played extensively on multiple vanilla private servers that I shall not mention, servers that lasted for a long time. I have seen them evolve and stagnate over the years as content was trivialized and put to farm. Certain issues became more and more apparent as the server dragged on, issues that weren't as clear on retail because the vanilla period didn't last that long and changes were constant. In case of private servers, we're basically suspended in time for years, with no balance changes ever happening.

 

The biggest two issues those old servers faced are:

1. Faction imbalance.

With this I don't mean numbers but the power gap between them, which as you probably assumed already, nails down to Paladins vs Shamans. Even if the numbers remain similar, the advantage inevitably shifts towards Alliance, especially as harder content (AQ40/Naxx) gets implemented. Blessings are just that good when it comes to PvM, Blessing of Salvation alone is a massive advantage in threat-sensitive dps races like many Naxxramas fights, and Blessing of Protection easily means the difference between wiping or not if there's a trigger happy caster or the Ignite roll goes wrong.

This results in Alliance simply gearing up faster and easier than Horde, which only gets worse with time. This directly impacts the PvP balance as well since Alliance is better geared while also having a distinct mechanical advantage. Late blooming powerhouses like Warlocks and Warriors get so much better with the support of  BoP and BoF in organized premades it's not even funny and makes fights pretty one-sided. Paladins also have the natural advantage of being considerably more sturdy and not having to put themselves in Intercept range (dropping totems and Purge) if they want to be useful at all.

 

2. Content's difficulty.

With default values, it gets steamrolled and trivialized in no time because we all know the mechanics and how to min-max. This gets worse with time as well, because people amass herbs and other materials for their consumables and have more battle-ready alts to help fill missing spots (this favors Alliance once again). Some servers beefed up their raid content, be it in terms of the HP values of bosses, their damage or some mechanics being more unforgiving, etc, this actually boosted longevity and made the content more relevant on the long run.

I know that with the progression timeline, things are more fun, but I'm sure that many people remember how things turned out on Nostalrius. After the first batch of raid content got released, everything was cleared instantly and raiding guilds quickly began to lose members because people simply got bored and the next batch of content was still months away.

 

Of course, I bring this up assuming the server survives for years and we get to see Naxxramas. I don't know what the plans are and the intended lifespan of the server, but I felt like I had to bring those observations up.

[flowqz 34]

if you got threat issues there is tranquil air totem. you will just miss out on one of the best dmg buffs, which is windfury. 

 

 

[Fylgja 3]

Those two things aren't really comparable in practice, totems are bound to a myriad of limitations, are plain unusable in some fights while having very limited use in others.

[smokeit 26]

Currently Horde is more populated than Alliance on most realms, I don't expect suddenly when AQ/Naxx releases they suddenly reroll ally and start leveling over again.

[flowqz 34]

1 hour ago, Fylgja said:

Those two things aren't really comparable in practice, totems are bound to a myriad of limitations, are plain unusable in some fights while having very limited use in others.

you still got vicidus, so its balanced!

[artan 14]

now i chugg jack and coke and still have a good time ... more pewpew less QQ

[Ayruslol 1]

GiT gUd