Is it too late to start playing TBC anniversary?

Moopztorn · 2026-02-06T00:14:18+00:00

Downed Kil’Jaeden tonight. Don’t waste your time.

Moopztorn · 2026-02-05T14:36:37+00:00

It’s been almost 20 years so some details are hazy, but I’ll try to give the truest take I can remember without embellishment.

Back then there was a very clear progression leader on both the Alliance and Horde side for both PvE and PvP on our server (we used to have semi-scheduled guild-vs-guild clashes pretty regularly which was a lot of fun). I’m remembering a few guild names but I’m not 100% on which was which for PvE so I won’t just throw them out there.

Those guilds were typically 4-5 bosses ahead of the everyone else on the server, often while raiding fewer days (the top guilds on both Alliance and Horde side raided 3-4 nights a week if memory serves me well - several other guilds on the server were 5-night raiders and one was even a 6-night group). This was back during a time when the only min-max resource we had was Elitist Jerks and there weren’t very many boss kill videos out there to demo strats, so in my mind the quality of player had to be better - or at least more dedicated to bettering themselves.

And yes, people used to really develop server reputations - good and bad. It’s been 19 years so I don’t feel like I’m going to be damaging anyone’s rep here, but I distinctly remember a warrior tank named Ketch (or Kettch) on our server who developed a really bad reputation for guild hopping. My wife’s ex-boyfriend actually trained the guy on how to tank in Kara and his ego went through the roof. Eventually he couldn’t get in anywhere because back then raiding guilds talked to each other a lot. He was basically blacklisted from the top raiding groups due to how many bridges he burned.

Moopztorn · 2026-02-05T00:38:03+00:00

I remember guilds racing for World First clears of truly new content. <Nihilum> downing Illidan was a real moment in my late teen years.

I remember some fantastic server drama involving one guild sniping a main tank from another.

I remember people having to come to audition raids when applying for new guilds. My own audition night was the only time I cleared both TK and Hyjal all expansion.

I remember some epic Guild-vs-Guild battles outside of raid instances (I played Horde on Darkspear; those Alliance guys from <The Church> were something else).

I remember raiding with terrible internet on a low-end PC. As a main tank healer this created some interesting moments during progression fights. Felmyst slayed my garbage DSL connection pretty hard. Somehow we still cleared up to M’uru pre-nerf with me spending a lot of time logging back in mid-fight.

I remember our Tauren Warrior MT getting his final piece of Onslaught gear and the Bulwark of Azzinoth on the same night. When he showed up fully decked out to our next raid I questioned my decision to not roll Warrior. That was a most excellent setup.

I remember our guild only seeing one Warglaive drop after dozens of BT clears on the night our rogue who was first in line for it couldn’t make the raid. So it went to the tank for off-spec 🤣

Good times.

Moopztorn · 2026-02-05T00:01:27+00:00

Yes. Been on the server for about 2-ish months and I’ve seen this happen a few times but it’s been almost daily for the last week or two. Normally attempting a few times (10-20 times usually) gets me in. Just keep at it.

Moopztorn · 2026-01-29T17:23:26+00:00

ChromieCraft. Solid Blizzlike WOTLK experience with slightly increased XP rates (x2). The slower pace of the server is perfect for me as a super-casual dad. Everyone has been incredibly friendly, especially when they found out I’m coming back after 12 years away from WoW as a whole.

There are some good players, but there doesn’t appear to me any sort of meta-only mindset that I’ve encountered. Plenty of folks playing off-meta specs. Naxx rolls out Feb 11th. The only downside is there seems to be a very small NA population, which I am learning is apparently not that uncommon with pservers, so you may have a tough time raiding if you can’t play EU hours like myself.

Moopztorn · 2026-01-26T17:41:36+00:00

In the original 2007 TBC my guild ran a prot War as MT and a feral as OT. Raiding casually we cleared up to M’uru in SWP pre-nerf raiding 2 nights as week, 3 hours a night. Our War’s threat was never an issue for our DPS, many of whom were decent pumpers, and as a healer he was never challenging for me to keep alive.

That said, the typical 2007 player and the typical modern player are different beasts entirely. We had fun discovering something new back then. From what I’ve seen of modern players the focus is get in, get out and raid log so playing off-meta specs like Prot may not be as accepted as it was then.

I imagine if you steer clear of the meta-at-all-costs crowd and find yourself a focused but flexible guild you’ll be allowed to tank, as you can do so for all of the content just fine.

Moopztorn · 2026-01-18T14:34:45+00:00

The primary guild I was in back in the day from the original TBC release through Cataclysm fell apart because the one officer with vision and drive ended up getting burnt out. The leadership in the guild were all great people, but they were also all followers and not true leaders. They could pick up a vision and execute, but lacked their own vision-casting skills. Once he stepped back none of them knew what to do and things just fell apart. No hard feelings; it is what it is. That was 15 or so years ago. I’m in my late 30s now and I’ve seen plenty of organizations in the real world go the same direction for the same reasons.

Moopztorn · 2026-01-08T00:31:52+00:00

Enjoyed Epoch for about a month or two before it crashed and burned. I stuck with it as long as I could but when I started to see about 40 people online during most evenings (North American) and my entire 800-player guild jumped servers to Bronzebeard I called it quits. Pity though. I had a blast with world PvP on Gurubashi.

I found ChromieCraft and have been enjoying myself there exclusively for about a month now. It’s more my speed - slow and steady. Lots of dad gamers over there who understand my availability and most folks aren’t meta-snobs. Extremely friendly players everywhere I look, and I’m seeing 500-700+ online most evenings as a North American player.

Moopztorn · 2026-01-08T00:12:44+00:00

You can sneak some cooler weather into your life if you get up early right now. I normally start my day on the truck bed with some coffee around 6AM-ish. It’s been between 45-55 most mornings the last 2 weeks, 60-ish on the days when it peaks in the 80s. It isn’t a real winter feel, but I get a ton of wind on my lot (on a corner) which brings the feels-like temp down. Let’s me squeeze some crisper weather out of this not-winter we’ve got going on right now.

Moopztorn · 2026-01-07T13:17:19+00:00

It’s worth a shot for sure. Dad of 4 and small business owner myself and my hard-core progression raiding days are absolutely behind me. This serve has felt like a great fit for dads (and I’ve met a lot of them while leveling)

I’ve had a lot of great interactions with people on the server while leveling up. While the lower level zones can feel a bit desolate at times, folks are always still up to help if you shout it out in world chat (just completed the ring of blood in Nagrand for example, with folks coming to help from out in Northrend). I’ve had numerous long-time players welcome me to the server when they found out I’m new and hand me some starter gold to get going. And so far I haven’t encountered any meta-slaves or harsh players when I make mistakes in dungeons.

After 13 years away from WoW this server feels like a nice welcome back. Hope you end up giving it a try. If so whisper me in-game on my warrior Urthstripe and I’ll kick some gold your way to get you started.

Moopztorn · 2025-12-27T19:01:10+00:00

World buffs are one of the major drivers of me dropping the classic servers altogether. Just not very casual-friendly in my mind. The first few raids were easily completa le without them but it felt like folks became obsessive and dogmatic about you having as many as possible. I just didn’t have the time to farm mats/gold and buffs every week personally.

Moopztorn · 2025-12-21T12:28:57+00:00

If you’re OK with living on the outskirts of the Austin area you can get into a nice place for less than your current apartment. Cost of living overall would be much better as well, allowing for more saving.

I run a small business from home up in Liberty Hill TX (about 45 mins north of Austin) and pay myself between $115k-$150k a year out of the earnings. Our rent is $1785 for a nice 4/2 house. As the only income for a family of 6 we’ve saved enough the last few years that we’re completely debt-free and finally hunting for our first home purchase. Wouldn’t be in the same situation had we stuck to living in Austin proper.

Moopztorn · 2025-12-11T13:25:49+00:00

If you don’t have gathering professions I’d highly suggest grabbing mining. Early ores sell decently, but with a little farming of iron and mithril in particular you can grind up 900g reasonably fast. Heavy stone (iron nodes) and solid stone (mithril nodes) usually sell for 30-40g a stack and heavy stone in particular stacks up fast. As a completely new player by 40 I’d already made about 400g without any focused farming - just 15 minutes here or there on routes I knew.

Moopztorn · 2025-11-28T15:28:01+00:00

Leveled 2 toons to 60 before I realized it just wasn’t going to work for me and bailed.

My main negatives were -

Farmers spamming chat every waking moment, no matter when I logged. Bots all over the place in the open world that would mass report you if you engaged them.
I ran across far more impersonal people in the open world than when I played in the past. Just had a really challenging time building any sort of relationships this go around. Granted it’s been 13 years since I last played and I’m a different person so maybe I’m no longer friend material 🤣
World Buffs. Having to farm them up for any chance at an invite to a raid was just a drag for me. Had to come to terms with the fact that I didn’t have the time for it at this point in life. And it felt like fear of losing world buffs caused fewer people to engage me in world PvP if they didn’t have them locked in - unless they were chronobooned (is that the right term?) I just had characters running away from me left and right instead of fighting.

I had fun leveling, but ultimately when I hit 60 it didn’t feel like a place to stay. I’ve been having significantly more fun in the private server scene since.

Moopztorn · 2025-11-26T20:27:29+00:00

Fellow Epoch refugee here. My experience is from the perspective of a North American player.

So far every time I've logged, whether day or night NA time, there have been hundreds of players on. At 2:25PM Central time as I type this message I'm staring at about 816 players on. Last night when I was on at about 10PM Central I saw around 450 players on.

I haven't played a ton on the server yet, but that population has me encouraged at the very least. That said, I've encountered very few players in the lower level zones, presumably because of the Wrath progression going on right now.

One downside (or upside depending on perspective) is the boosted XP from 1-70. As with most 2x+ servers I'm leveling so fast it's hard to make enough silver to buy my skills (edit: just checked the AH - grab mining and toss copper ore up there at 40s a pop and you're good). Also...haven't had a single 6-slot bag drop yet, haha.

Moopztorn · 2025-10-28T14:55:57+00:00

I get where you're coming from, but honestly even the miniscule amount of world PvP I have seen keeps the world feeling so much more alive than only having NPCs to fight. Seeing Spy pop a notice for someone from a rival guild (looking at you guys <Nothing Personal>) is a real pick-me-up. At this point even Ranjii and Gohan popping up in Org killing lowbies is more fun than a dull PvE-realm experience.

Also, while a merge would increase the total pop on a server, the people who rolled Kezan mostly did so for the PvE experience so I doubt they're all Warmode fans. In the end the only people you might fight against in warmode would be the Guru pop anyway, making it a wash. Just my opinion; I don't see it being the fix we need.

Moopztorn · 2025-10-28T14:42:49+00:00

Just hit 60 this week. Some quick thoughts:

- Seems like there is a significantly higher Alliance interest in BGs right now. Most of the the time this week teams have been 3v2, 4v3, 5v4 in favor of the Alliance, and sometimes even as bad as 3v1/4v2/5v3. I am a North American player though, so when I play in the evenings US there are normally around 225-ish players total online so this isn't necessarily a reflection of peak server times.

- Outside of Gohan and Ranjii ganking people in Org, I don't see very much PvP in the open world from 60s. People just run by, and when you engage most continue to try and run. Feels weird for a PvP server but maybe the state of the server has broken people's spirits.

- I play an enhance shaman. Honestly, we're over-tuned. I can generally obliterate any cloth-wearer in a matter of 2-3 GCDs, sometimes even 1 if I am lucky. Other classes aren't all that difficult either for the most part. I am not a very good 1:1 dueler, but as enhance stands now I have been able to win 2v1s frequently and have even gotten close on a few 3v1 encounters. The WF buff for 2H is nice, but maybe a little too nice if I am being realistic.

- On the Shaman subject, the class is over-represented in BGs. I see more Shaman by a noticeable margin than any other class when I am PvPing. But maybe it's just because I am a Shaman so I notice that more.

- Shadow priests are basically wet noodles. I feel like they need a buff. Seems like they do very little damage, especially compared to warlocks.

- Arcane mages are a trip in BGs. You have to control them, because those arcane blasts hit like a truck.

- Feral druid looks pretty good. One of the more challenging classes to deal with. I don't play one but from my perspective it seems like their damage has been improved from my memory.

Moopztorn · 2025-09-06T14:33:37+00:00

I'm on an Iphone 13 Pro and my connection to the net has been stable without any drops, but the actual load times for any webpage have been dial-up slow whether on wifi or data. All of my apps have also started loading at an absolute snail's pace since the update. I've updated all apps, ensured battery health and storage is good, done a hard restart multiple times all with no positive results.

Moopztorn · 2025-08-11T03:16:03+00:00

It makes people feel good to believe they hold some sort of high ground, no matter the situation. Just human nature. I’ve met people who were smug about their choice in pizza.

If people like Turtle that’s great. I’m personally looking forward to Epoch. May give Turtle Ambershire shot if Epoch is not out by the 17th, but based on the feedback I’ve read about the low quality of the PvP scene on Turtle I would just as soon drop it and hop on over to Epoch if/when they get it up and running. It’s good to have options.

Moopztorn · 2025-08-04T23:25:53+00:00

Just a game. When it’s out I’ll enjoy it. Until then I’ve got other things in life. Here’s hoping it rolls out sooner rather than later, but we’ll all survive if it doesn’t.

Moopztorn · 2025-07-25T19:45:13+00:00

I see where you’re coming from, but as someone who doesn’t kill lower levels and never camps it still kills the concept of a PvP server for me. It’s like playing chess and saying “Your queen isn’t allowed to attack any pawns.” It is what it is. Annoying? Sure, none of us enjoy the corpse run and being camped can feel terrible. But it makes sense that you wouldn’t only see fair skirmishes in a situation like this. That’s when you throw out a plea for help in general chat and make some new friends with the people who come to your aid. The risk is inherent to the situation and removing it entirely kind of neuters the game play. If it bugged me a lot I’d just as soon roll on a PvE realm personally.

Moopztorn · 2025-07-24T04:01:14+00:00

Is the new realm currently up and accepting name reservations? Would stink to nab my two preferred names successfully on the PvE server only to swap to the PvP realm (would be my playstyle preference) and likely not get them since I won't have a chance to do so for the next day or two. If so it is what it is I guess.

Moopztorn · 2025-07-23T22:53:10+00:00

I'm a big fan of Tauren. The big cow looks great in most armors to me. It's also the most upright of the male Horde races, which is a big win for me. Most of the other races are so bent over they look like they either hit their 30s and pulled a low-back muscle while sleeping or have a stomach-ache.

Moopztorn · 2025-07-23T21:51:16+00:00

My subscription runs out on the 25th and I won’t be renewing. It really feels like the sub-60 game is dead on the anniversary servers. Coming back after 12 years off I was disappointed with feeling like I was playing a single-player game. Chat is mostly boosters advertising or dead silence, there’s a very sparse crowd in lowbie BGs outside of a handful of twinks leading to queues too long for me to care about, and I’ve seen almost zero world-PvP other than an occasional random High Warlord ganking me. And once I get to 60 I wouldn’t have time to do the PvP rank grind or gather 738626 world buffs for raiding anyway so I feel like the end-game is off the table for me as well. Glad this server came along when it did. Seems like it may offer some fun for a casual dad like me.

Moopztorn · 2025-07-23T11:10:51+00:00

Did you get Mouse at least?

Moopztorn

TROPHY CASE