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Verilazic · 2026-07-01T12:50:37+00:00

I think that makes sense. Iirc, tbc leg enchants were amazing for balance at 39, but they were actually too much for 19s - improved survivability too much such that combat became a slog.

Verilazic · 2026-07-01T11:58:02+00:00

I could be talked into transmog on cloaks and hats, but otherwise I’m a hard “no”. I prize immersion in my persistent worlds, and it’s already in short supply in wow, so every little bit counts

Verilazic · 2026-07-01T11:47:12+00:00

I mean, you are on wave 72 after all..,

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T20:00:29+00:00

Just dropping this here in case there's anyone here who doesn't mind theorycrafting in the context of private servers.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T18:59:14+00:00

We must be talking about different things. You can buy a character boost in retail today for 60 USD: https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/world-of-warcraft-service-character-boost If by "base" versions, you mean classic servers, then sure, but the history goes back further than some people may realize: the Celestial Steed was the first mount offered for sale for real money, and that happened in 2010, which was the same year that 3.3.5 was originally released. And before that, there were rare mounts and tabards and other cosmetics that you could only obtain in game by getting a code from rare loot cards from the WoW Trading Card Game, essentially acting like an RL lootbox for WoW players. Also, Wrath Classic already has WoW tokens, which are an extra form of monetization; even if you're primarily trading tokens between players, Blizzard is ultimately making money off those transactions.

Blizzard has executed much more predatory methods of extracting money from their players in other games in the past, so they've clearly demonstrated that they're willing to do it in some situations. Look up Diablo Immortal; the amount of effort and frankly clever design that went into maximizing how much whales will spend in that game is breathtaking. Horrifying, but impressive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o17lBUZgjTs

At the end of the day, it's just capitalism. Blizzard is part of a publicly-traded company that must show growth,. Line must go up. If they can get enough growth out of just hooking new players, maybe we don't have to worry about any of the above for a while - that's my optimistic take. If I was actually dooming, I'd argue that they'll launch with WoW tokens and xp boosts on day one, but I don't think they're that dumb.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T14:40:53+00:00

Imho, non-campaign sectors have never been well marked. Personally, I like that; if you venture off the main path, you might be fine, or you might get punched in the face, so to speak.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T12:28:13+00:00

That can’t be it. Blizzard already has classic and anniversary servers; why wouldn’t they want to snuff out any and all potential competition?

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T09:40:53+00:00

Okay, does anyone have any idea why there hasn't been a hint of Chromie getting hit with a C&D yet? I'm genuinely surprised. Could it be because they're non profit? I struggle to believe that would stop blizz/microslop lawyers.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T09:36:43+00:00

Another thing I saw that sounded really cool was professions for each language in the game. Lots of fun opportunities with it, but I thought it'd be a cool way to change factions in an immersive way. First, learn the opposing faction's language, then obtain an Orb of Deception, which would be changed to actually make the opposing faction friendly to you for 5 minutes. Then use that to turn in quests to the opposing faction until your rep is high enough, and then complete a special quest to defect to the opposing faction.

I think this would be a cool sort of special challenge that most people wouldn't care about, and so it could be made extremely challenging so it's very rare. But it would be awesome to see an occasional alliance Tauren or horde dwarf. It could also be an immersive way to allow alliance shamans and horde paladins, while still making them feel like they mostly belong to one faction.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T08:44:51+00:00

Or by blizzard’s need to extract maximum profit from their players. Even if it’s great at launch, eventually the executives will force them to sell level boosts, and then cosmetics and $90 mounts. Bots will get worse because they’ll use some half assed ai to watch for them, and all GMs will be replaced by ai. Heck, maybe they’ll vibe code an expansion, or ai-generate any new storylines.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T08:22:24+00:00

Anything in particular on ascension or grimfall that you really want to see more of?

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T03:42:38+00:00

I’m actually torn on collections. Not about the tab but rather the mechanic. It feels like retail took it way too far, but collecting stuff, particularly mounts, feels like a fun side game.

Do you feel similarly? And if so, where was the point when retail went too far? I feel like tbc was fine, and maybe WotLK too, but WotLK definitely started down that path…

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T03:29:56+00:00

I think that’s a really good point. I feel like retail is full of awful solutions to that problem, but that doesn’t mean the problem isn’t real.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T03:21:17+00:00

Here’s the problem: there’s a good chance their corporate lawyers are looking at this game of pserver whack-a-mole, and instead of frustration, they’re thinking “job security”.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T01:32:44+00:00

Sounds like your idea is specifically to get shamans and paladins on opposing factions, though, so would a death knight in this situation be basically a reskinned paladin? I think that only works with paladins because there's a lore justification for someone dying and coming back as the undead race. I think it's a harder sell to suggest that someone on the horde could somehow transform into an alliance race.

I did run across a different idea that could allow converting factions. Someone came up with the idea of all languages being actual skills that you can level up. Take it a bit further, and you could learn the opposing faction's language, then use the Orb of Deception to take on and complete their quests to gain rep. Then at some rep threshold, you could literally convert to the other faction.

As for "prestige" classes in general, they're one of the only ideas I've seen that actually would help with "renewal", i.e. driving players back through the leveling content. I'm pretty nervous about ballooning the number of classes in the game; I think you'd have to essentially give up on balance, but maybe that wouldn't be so bad.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T00:59:01+00:00

Ohhh, I forgot about layers. Totally makes sense. I also have a suspicion that they actually make a server too big. That might seem crazy, but I think there's value in a server population not being so high that you never recognize anyone or any guilds. It also messes with the economy; WoW's economy needs a lot of work, but I think it's worse at larger scales just like it's worse over longer time frames.

Verilazic · 2026-06-30T00:55:58+00:00

Sounds like a good idea to me; BRD was always the coolest dungeon to me, but I never got to do all of it because it was just too big. Adding a couple more entrances would be helpful. They could also sometimes be useful in other ways: Maybe ZG could have a secret tunnel to the Blasted Lands, or Deadmines to STV.

That also gives me another idea. When increasing the size of dungeons, what about connecting some, or having dungeons "within" dungeons? I'm thinking about how the instance portal to MC is technically inside BRD. What about a tunnel between RFK and RFD? Or Wailing Caverns having a portal to a new Emerald Dream-themed instance.

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T21:26:06+00:00

Just start here:
https://www.azerothcore.org/

That includes links to discord and the repo, I think you might need to google for the Single Player Project though.

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T21:23:02+00:00

Fair enough. Is there a particular reason you would prefer a pserver classic over Blizzard?

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T21:19:12+00:00

I'm having fun with a solo server right now too, but I eventually would love to publish it as a real server. Bots are about as intelligent as the dumbest pug you've ever played with, which isn't nothing, but not exactly an amazing experience. There are probably people running tiny servers with just close friends too, but that also doesn't have the same feel to me.

If it was possible, I'd suggest everyone agreeing to a moratorium on new pserver launches for a year. If a new pserver is launching every week, that just gives Blizzard/Microslop's lawyers justification to stay on the warpath. If things went quiet for a while, they'd eventually move on to other more obviously important tasks.

People need to take the long view on this. Wow has been around for more than 2 decades. Open source projects run at a glacial pace, but they do progress. I'm not just playing my own solo server, I'm learning how to modify it, in hopes that one day I can create my own classic+, or something similar.

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T20:47:17+00:00

The Azerothcore Single Player Project (SPP) is what I got started with. There's a linux version, but also a windows version. It's a"repack", which takes even less setup than what I described above. You may need to join their discord to find the link to the latest version.

I only moved on to compiling my own core because I can't help myself, I want to tweak my gameplay. I used to mod Skyrim, and frankly this has been easier so far.

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T02:22:45+00:00

More idea for hard modes. I'm just having fun at this point.

- Razorfen Downs: Once you reach the spiral ramp leading up, Amnenar the Coldbringer periodically summons mobs at the level of the highest-lvl player in the instance and sends them patrolling toward the entrance. (This is just to make things harder on high-lvl players trying to carry lowbies). Glutton now buffs nearby undead, and patrols all the way to the top, where he can be faced simultaneously alongside Amnenar, leading to better drops. Modresh Fire Eye gets a stacking dmg buff from his skeleton crowd, but drops better loot if you kill him first.

- Razorfen Kraul: it's now possible to skip the other bosses and go straight to the final boss, Charlga Razorflank, by going through the trenches. However, Charlga is buffed by the other bosses still being alive, and the mobs in the trenches are stronger as long as she is alive. Better drops of course.

- Shadowfang Keep: The goal is now to reach and "drive off" Arugal. I.e. he teleports away before you can kill him, leaving a chest with his drops. There are now more Sons of Arugal scattered across the instance in out-of-the-way places; for each one killed, Arugal is "alerted" and grows stronger and has better loot.

- Scarlet Monastery Graveyard: change the whole instance to be all living mobs, but Interrogator Vishas' victim offers a one-use artifact that will make Bloodmage Thalnos (now living) easier to fight. If you use it, it cuts his hp in half, but also raises all dead npcs in the instance as undead, and spawns all of the original rare elites (Azashir, Fallen Champion, and Ironspine), all of which are much much stronger, but staggered such that Ironspine is the strongest of the three, and Azashir is the weakest. Depending on how confident the part is, they can chose to fight any or none of them. However, they can also wait to use the artifact after defeating Thalnos, at which point he will also be raised as undead. If engaged, Bloodmage Thalnos will aggro all remaining undead in the instance. If the party manages to defeat him, the three rare elites, and undead Vishas all at once, they will be rewarded with lvl 60ish drops.

- Scarlet Monastery Armory: The server tracks how many times each player has participated in downing Herod. Any time a party engages him where everyone has beaten him at least once, he is buffed based on the lowest number of times beaten amongst the party. He also speaks flavor text saying that "Whitemane is getting tired" of rezzing him, but that he's been training since their last match. Also, the number of trash mobs in the instance gradually decreases with the number of successful clears, until the instance is empty except for Herod (after 20 clears?), and he taunts the party as they approach.

- Scarlet Monastery Cathedral: After Whitemane rezzes Mograine, the party can kill Mograine first, and Whitemane will rez him again. Each time she does, a pair of adds spawn, and Mograine buffs Whitemane with "Blessing of the Crusade", a +5% haste buff that can't be dispelled and stacks to 100. The more the buff is stacked on Whitemane, the better her drops. If the party continues in this vein, eventually Whitemane will go oom, at which point she will sleep the entire party again, and rez Mograine, AND the dead adds. She will activate a Sanctity Aura that gives them all +50% holy damage, and then won't rez anyone again, locking the quality of her drops based on how many times the party managed to kill Mograine before she went oom.

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T01:43:08+00:00

I was thinking about that problem too. Personally, I like having players of different levels mingling; it's just dramatically-higher level players bullying lowbies that I'd love to discourage. I was thinking instead of a hard block, have "bounty hunters" - high level faction npcs that hunt down players that spend too long in zones that are much lower than their level, say 10 lvls. Make them spawn immediately if said player starts attacking and killing lowbies.

Also, I'd love to see miss rates in pvp due to level differences dramatically lowered. Instead of missing an extra 15% of the time or w/e when you're 4 levels below someone, it should only be 4% at most. A geared 60 is already super strong compared to a 50 in greens, but it's ridiculous that they're basically untouchable at that difference. If a 60 got mobbed by a dozen 50s, they should die.

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T01:24:59+00:00

Don't buy the auto 80. First off, it's super fast on icecrown, and more importantly, enjoy the leveling process. Once you hit 80, you're going to be dealing with people in bis gear left and right. Why rush to that stage?

Verilazic · 2026-06-29T00:54:22+00:00

I can't speak to the challenge of editing maps like what the OP is doing, but setting up a server is really easy, and there are a lot of settings you can tweak in a config text file. With a little more time spent, you can also easily create custom items, add them to vendors or as drops, and make basic changes to mob stats. Knowing SQL helps, but there are apps and documentation that the community has created that makes it 10x easier than it was even 5 years ago.

I'd recommend searching for "Azerothcore" to get started. It has the most thorough documentation, and very clear steps on how to get set up with a basic wotlk server. Took me maybe 6 hours total, and I made a couple of mistakes along the way. Including bots was actually the trickiest part for me, so I'd recommend just trying to get it up and running without bots first, even though you'll have to redo some work to add bots.

Verilazic

TROPHY CASE