From 500K to 62K: The Fall of Season of Discovery - Sod Phase 6

[@collinboucher6911]

Sod is dope right now, don’t listen to this goofball

[@ponds812]

I agree. I also play Sod and cant wait for Naxx and Crypts

[@bryand8829]

SOD is actually pretty good to level right now imo?

[@MikeyJ28]

Now that all of the servers are consolidated, SoD is far from dead. You only need so many players on a server for it to feel alive.

[@xxFairestxx]

Exactly

[@el3ndir97]

Doomers keep dooming. Meanwhile im having best wow adventure for ages

[@MikeyJ28]

@@el3ndir97 It’s just vanilla players not wanting anyone else to have fun.

[@trevorhunka7689]

It's pretty damn dead. Be real brother.

[@xxFairestxx]

@@el3ndir97 agreed

[@vankhorne]

SoD seems popping right now. Main Cities are full and lively. Raids' World Buffs drop frequently. You see players across all levels/content. AH is very active. Many people offering their professions' services. Guilds are recruiting. Less people per shard which brought some kind of balance to the Open World population. You can level up without being repeatedly disturbed, but the action of World PvP is just there if you wish for it. SoD is great right now.

[@timelessanimation4435]

copism

[@vankhorne]

​@@timelessanimation4435 If you want to believe it's cope, go ahead. But assure it's way more cope to play a stagnant 20 year old game for the upteenth time. That hype won't last, just like Era, and the "population" numbers will be composed mostly of bots.

[@DaFreezeey]

@@timelessanimation4435 Coping for what ??? He seems to be thoroughly enjoying the game and its actually facts about the population. Crusader Strike is literally alive and well. This is a dumb comment and you are very dumb for saying it. The Anniversary servers will die in 2 months when everyone realizes its the same game they've done for the 4th time now... You guys are the real ones trying to cope. My god. 🤦‍♂

[@wiegraffolles9822]

@@vankhorne”Population numbers” come from active raiders. It’s a way to gauge pop. Doubt there are many bots in that number.

[@aeroblizz1987]

Its not cope, experienced it myself.

[@aeroblizz1987]

SoD is in a really good spot right now. Runes from level one has changed the game.

[@NOHITJEROME]

have you found any strong builds using all the runes at level 1? im curious if there is anything broken

[@Kehuru]

@@NOHITJEROME rogue tank build is absolutely bonkers. literally unkillable and do insane dps

[@pogolas]

Played at release for a week. Now that I am thinking of returning, runes being sold is not a good thing for me .Anything becoming easier, means Retail WoW. It removes one important aspect. How hard was it to obtain them anyway?

[@aeroblizz1987]

@@pogolas Some of them are extremely long or require a group, those groups are hard to find since most people are max level and have all runes already. While it's nice for alts to not have to do it again and again, I do agree that maybe they should have made it so that the harder runes (which require groups) would be buyable if you have done it already on another character.

[@pogolas]

@@aeroblizz1987 I get it. There is a group that was playing intensively for the past 20 years and a group that play occasionally. I am the second type of player. Don't like any quality of life in Classic. Well almost. The more you play, the less you want to repeat same content. Real magic was 2019 (re)release.

[@ASAPjk01]

Sod is pretty lit right now

[@NOHITJEROME]

p6 is good p7 will be better. but theyve got to make up for p3/p4/p5

[@DH2point3]

P4 and p5 brought people back dude stop crying wolf and just play the game

[@trevorhunka7689]

If by that you mean it should be lit on fire, yes.

[@xMrMayhemx]

​@@DH2point3speak for yourself. with that attitude we never get good games again. to quote a wise man "if you keep eating s**t and tell everyone it's tasty. they will continue to serve you s**t." for me SOD was the final nail in the coffin. i really had a tiny little bit of hope and i got let down again. as always. i finally quit my wow sub in p4. it was so bad! if 'Lizzard entertainment can't handle minor improvements to a 20 year old game. what can they actually do? meanwhile amateurs and hobbyists like ascension and turtle wow have a better experience than the company who actually made the game in the first place. imagine how many things you need to f*** up to get to that point!? what on earth makes you all think they won't f**k it up as they always do? how did this increase in trust come to be for you? because mine only went downhill since SOD p2.. no.. actually since 2016 when they released their last good game. the only 2 upwards trend moments since then were legion and SOD p1. can you name another? because i can't. "one step forward, two steps backwards and make sure to step in the dogs*** twice." that's blizzard's motto i feel like

[@JimSmith-g2d]

@@DH2point3 Can you read lol? They lost a ton of players

[@KingNikkz]

Even if season of discovery dies, it is not a "failed experiment". Not every game is meant to be eternal. It was fun while it lasted thats all. I wish they would keep making these experiments.

[@NOHITJEROME]

not every game is meant to be eternal is a great point, but modern games ARE meant to be. same reason squid game s2/3 are happening. business (and the audience generally likes getting things they liked before, at least I do)

[@bestkebabeu]

Just leveled 1-60 , people everywhere, did incursions no problem, many dungeons etc, what are you taking about lol?

[@sircrittalotTV]

We need good PvP content in sod

[@Blackmage169]

On wild growth, Na. Horde side legit feels so dead. rerolled alliance and even there is a 30 min deal to even find a group for current content, god forbid you need Sm or something.

[@NOHITJEROME]

i think everyone is 60, that's the issue. there aren't as many levelers

[@varietygamer7859]

I started sod before phase 6 came out and I honesty had no problem leveling

[@johnd2946]

The fact every major WoW streamer on the planet + many other huge following streamers are doing Hardcore right now doesn't help SOD's popularity.

[@DaFreezeey]

SoD's population numbers are literally higher than anniversary or hardcores... That straight facts

[@BobbyGT3]

Just came back after quitting in phase 3. The ONLY reason i even considered it was because of the rune vendor. If you think finding a group for leveling dungeons were tough, how about for the mid level runes that required a group? Impossible unless you got a carry. Game went from extremely alt and new player friendly to nearly impossible for a new player to enjoy. They are back on track i think (which is why im trying it again) but we need to know what the future holds very soon.

[@NOHITJEROME]

the rune vendor is an amazing idea, it could have come 4 months ago honestly. i believe p7 is going to be the closest thing we get to p1. but i also believe they HAD to announce p7 early because without the hope of new content a lot of people would quit for good

[@aweisen1]

That's a weird video. I've never had more fun in SoD other than phase 1.

[@ryanfacklam3805]

The game is fun as shit. I love that they re-itemize items to be more appropriate but who expects the person to play something that’s almost identical for a whole year.

[@MrRums]

Holiday Season bro, retail/anniversary dropped. People always come back to SOD. Also leveling population has been awesome lately. So many dungeon groups even on Christmas day.

[@NOHITJEROME]

good to hear that mr rums. i will say the anniversary server is HELL today. everyone plays on christmas lmao

[@raine2005]

Sod leveling is BIS right now having all runes at level 1. Leveling is so fast and fun

[@MrKasakull]

A couple of ways I could see SoD getting some traction back; 1. New Content with New Assets. This would almost need to be a phase in itself, or an area that already has a place in Classic maps such as Hyjal or a Timbermaw zone/raid. 2. An actual plan for where these toons may be in 1 year, 2 years, and so on. The server is "seasonal" and although they have said they have no plans to delete these toons, plans change. Evening washing these toons for CC TBC might be a good play to get players in there now. 3. Communicated Player Feedback reception for future iterations. If players knew that SoD, what feels like a testing grounds for Classic+, used player feedback to generate the best version of the game with player input they would feel value in playing the game beyond these characters/servers. Runescape has a great system for implementing changes. Unfortunately SoDs not going to bring back any significant amount of players without selling out on itself. It's not attractive to try and start up a game as a new player when it's assumingly towards the final chapters. Removing all barriers to entry will kick the players in the groin who have put in invested time, but if atleast the developers felt like they listened to those playing the game the most they might retain their positive outlooks.

[@NOHITJEROME]

1 2 3 all doable imo, and it starts with 3. make community feedback front and center, not these hidden away surveys they use. let us vote on what we want even. then solve the "what do we do with the characters" problem. maybe classic era becomes the place the characters all end up or maybe they can find a better solution than that. but once you solve 2 and 3 you can start adding new content and having it last through multiple versions ie sod -> classic+

[@D23TV]

Dropped SoD in phase 3, now i'm back and it's the most fun i had in WoW!

[@NOHITJEROME]

glad you are back. what do you think is the best thing they are doing in the phase? is the raid fun?

[@venomus9286]

I still enjoy playing SoD and find it much more engaging than fresh realms, which feel sluggish and slowed down to me. However, the player base has definitely declined, especially after fresh realms launched. Doing dailies used to be bustling with activity, but now it's much quieter-though it's still possible to find groups and there are active guilds raiding. It does feel like the game is slowly declining, but I hope it stays active enough for me to experience the upcoming raids.

[@NOHITJEROME]

i hope its active enough that the new raids get hype around them. because i believe the new raids will be very good. they have to be

[@matercheff]

I’m back to SOD it’s fun doing the honor grind. I will say p3 really dropped the ball either way leveling

[@NOHITJEROME]

ya honor grind is cool i will hit r14 myself soon, also merry christmas (sorry day late lmao)

[@umbralphase]

i just came back from p3. The leveling is hit or miss when finding dungeons but with the fact they give you ALL the runes now makes leveling alts 10000x better. Another side note: I managed to get into a pug full 40 man AQ on xmas eve and we downed c'thun with ease and lots of people were happy and walking out with loot

[@NOHITJEROME]

great story honestly, christmas eve pug is pretty wholesome lol

[@PrideNverDie]

Just came back. I'm enjoying the new content having fun right now

[@NOHITJEROME]

glad you are having fun pride, that's good to hear. what are you liking the most atm?

[@Abrin32]

This was a choice that Blizzard made. I'm sick of being corralled by this company and as soon as SoD is over I will stop giving them money. They knew the effect of launching Classic fresh and hardcore at the same exact time that people should be doing the AQ war effort. They're not stupid and they do not care about players or content creators. They are evil.

[@California.951]

My server ain’t dead I’m on wild growth my guild raids every Saturday and Sunday 7:30 server time and Monday night’s off-night raids server is very populated with players as well we r all waiting for Nax phase 7 and we r clearing Bwl and AQ we cant wait for Nax phase I’m only 26 years old and love World of Warcraft and have been playing Sod since launch and will never stop go back to retail i like classic era and Sod ⬇️

[@mattmckern3644]

Merry Christmas Jerome ! Hope all is well

[@NOHITJEROME]

merry christmas matt, hope you had an excellent holiday and your family

[@mattmckern3644]

@ it was pretty good, I’m about to resub to wow an start playing sod again. I haven’t touched it since week 3BWL

[@UP_ALL_KNIGHT247]

Sod is the best iteration of wow ever imo, I leveled up with the phases so I never had the issue of not being able to find groups. With that being said, there's 100 ways they've increased the leveling experience and most classes can solo elite quests and some even can solo dungeons. With the increases to exp and individual damage solo leveling has never been better. If someone can't make it to end game they would probably quit soon after reaching it anyways. This has always been a marathon game. If someone wants to hit endgame instantly they can buy boosts on the newer versions of wow

[@Blackmage169]

It really is the best wow ever, agreed.

[@aeroblizz1987]

Agreed, If only Blizzard saw this and put more resources on it instead of releasing the same old content

[@XiusTV]

Ive been raiding weekly and then logging off. back to leveling on the anniversary and waiting for whats next in the next season of wow

[@XiusTV]

Specifically i think it was successful but its definetly on life support from the devs or at least thats the feeling. Its just a testbed for classic+ which means people dont want to play it since its a ptr feeling that you think will just be dead in a couple months

[@AmongRevenants]

I'm currently capping toons in the SoDcore. That way if we get a surprise SoD:TBC. I'll have a full stable of toons to hit the ground running. In the meanwhile I'm having fun. Waiting for new fun to drop. And farming Guru Arena for un listed recipe drops from the chest. Haven't gotten a purple yet. That would be a cool payoff.

[@xMrMayhemx]

​@@AmongRevenantsi think you gotta see a doctor man... you're leveling multiple chars to 60 for the offchance they continue with tbc? not trying to offend you here but that's literally insane. don't waste your life like that man...

[@NOHITJEROME]

we are all waiting for whats next. hope your leveling is going well

[@cynic256]

i dont feel like sod is dead at all, im leveling alts and the world is full of people. it's doing just fine

[@NOHITJEROME]

it's alive but not p1 level. would like to see them get back to that someday. maybe p7. maybe sod 2

[@cynic256]

@@NOHITJEROME I don't think we will ever see p1 numbers until maybe true classic+. I think player numbers were heavily inflated because of people like me raiding on 6 characters.

[@MikeyJ28]

@@NOHITJEROMEno version of wow will ever sustain the amount of players at the start of something new. retail and era fresh always lose a huge % of players about 6 months in.

[@blackyvertigo]

But then he can’t wail his arms around to a clickbait title.

[@GooseComics]

Have you even logged on SoD recently? SoD is in a great spot right now especially since you can just buy your runes at level 1. The world is super alive. Not crowded, but very active.

[@josecoreas5019]

I’m a returning player from phase 1. There are free transfers to Crusader Strike and all your runes are available to you at level 1. Also, from the very start, you’re given a buff that gives 1.5x experience increase rate which sounds small but it significantly makes you level up faster. Also that same buff gives you a 300% gold find increase so you’re able to afford your first mount at lvl 40 pretty easily. I was in BFD gear and that gear carried me all the way to my 50’s, didn’t even do Gnomer, or Sunken Temple, I was leveling too fast. The combat with the new spells feels amazing and usually people of the other faction walk by me. It has serious private server vibes and I like it a lot.

[@Niko_3D]

PvE server on EU was alive as it gets. Never had issues finding groups from level 18 to 60, pugs fill up fast too.

[@NOHITJEROME]

that's great to hear i assume the rune vendor is helping

[@TheRealNenharm]

Merry Christmas Jerome!

[@NOHITJEROME]

merry christmas nenharm, you having a great day?

[@TheRealNenharm]

@NOHITJEROME hell yeah, you gave me a great gift with this video

[@rickardnilsson-f4j]

I still play SoD and enjoy it, but Blizzard killed SoD at phase 3 by making ST 20man raid instead of 10 where i had my friends and our 10man raid setup. But most of them quit when we had to find pugs for our raids

[@NOHITJEROME]

10mans just hit different - bfd was an insanely good experience imo

[@danieldusentrieb6277]

You can tell when youtubers are ranting about sod being dead when they dont play it themselves unfortunately

[@NOHITJEROME]

but doesn't that prove the point? i liked sod, i will play it again. but it was more hype in the past. i played it even when it was not hype, p3, p4 ,p5 every day

[@danielmeans737]

@NOHITJEROME You're missing a big part of the frustration of SoD. It was set up in the first 2 phases as this casual season with 10 man raids, but then Blizzard completely flipped the script on us and tossed out the 10 man raiding scene to the curb. I do think you completely hit the mark on their being no real direction for SoDs future. Personally, i really enjoy SoD and apart from pvp I prefer it to just regular vanilla, but I find myself and most players i play with on the anniversary realms because we know they will progress to tbc and wrath

[@SlappyBagofdonuts]

8 min click bait video. 10 man and you could get to 25 in 1 day made 400k raiders easy. When isn't wow classic about the end game wow always has been

[@NOHITJEROME]

10mans were insanely fun, its hard to say if the switch to 20 really killed the game, but i agree a lot of people didnt enjoy 20 nearly as much. it feels like a LOT more work to do from an organizing perspective

[@Macncheesee]

Sunken temple ruined it for me and my whole guild. 60 of us quit the first week into sunken temple

[@chrisc92346]

Why, It was a new raid that was a lot of fun. Was it to hard for you guys? Not being a dick just curious

[@vaelicusthepaladin]

​@@chrisc92346 It's not a matter of difficulty, it's a matter of how much time one is willing/needed to put into a game. 10 man raiding along with chill PvP was amazing. 20 man raiding involved more coordinated guilds, higher levels of pre requisites buffs etc. Most adults playing a game to relax won't be willing to put in the time, to commit a schedule. Failed the chill accessible promise of SoD.

[@alexbinney5141]

​@@chrisc92346wasn't fun. Zero upgs

[@NOHITJEROME]

what was it specifically with ST? i liked that phase, mc was when it became less fun for me

[@vaelicusthepaladin]

@@NOHITJEROME Man it's obvious why people don't get it they swapped 10 man to 20 man raid? at lvl 40?? Utter nonsense blizz is so disconnected they killed pvp by banning premades, now they've killed retail by adding 'solo'. They're on a death spiral.

[@vankhorne]

When people realize how Vanilla: •Doesn't have increased XP. •Has plenty of borderline unviable specs. •Has the old, same Raids & content. •Requires unemployed-levels of grinding, like Rank 14 of PvP. They will come back back to SoD, crying.

[@Bofumforyou]

We ain’t coming back I promise the only reason we classic Andy’s played sod was because it was the closest thing to vanilla out that was on official server at the time

[@vankhorne]

@@Bofumforyou ?? Official Classic Era (Vanilla) servers are up since 2019, so what are you trying to say?

[@Bofumforyou]

@@vankhorne exactly what you are saying. I made it pretty clear

[@vankhorne]

​@@Bofumforyou "we classic Andy’s played sod was because it was the closest thing to vanilla out that was on official server at the time" How SoD was the closest thing to a Vanilla server when you had ACTUAL Vanilla servers? By your logic, you should've never played SoD then. If you enjoy Vanilla so much, you should have stayed in the 2019 Era servers, right?

[@Vigor8]

Tbf rank 14 is not what it used to be

[@Eddylol07]

AQ phase surprisingly has been amazing to me personally and our guild, we raid 9/9 heroic in one night, then have 2-3 more raids throughout the week for bwl/10m AQ/ZG, etc. it’s super fun still and balanced because it doesn’t take too much of your irl time

[@josephteller9715]

3:25 No We NEVER wanted 1 Giant Server. Because the damn Layering Mechanics are BROKEN and DC people randomly or make members of the same party invisible to each other at various times.

[@milesfargo5714]

If fresh wasn't out sod would still be lit.

[@Tsuketsu]

You can go 1-60 in less than week to a few days. lvl up as fast as possible to get to the first set of incs, quest/dungeons, till gnomer+new incs>high lvl incs+BRE. and your an ez 60.

[@elkitesaga999]

They sold us there were suppose to be new raids, dungeons and zones that was undeveloped that will be developed.

[@NOHITJEROME]

i think we hoped for more than could ever be delivered. maybe there was no way to have what we wanted fully

[@issolol]

@@NOHITJEROME problem is, the classic dev team is so small, and they are working in the same time on mop, i hope they scrap the classic server after mop and bring more attention to the following classic + server

[@reysharks]

The numbers count raiding characters and should consider the fact that on earlier phases many players raided with 2 or 3 characters.

[@NOHITJEROME]

it's true, but players raid on multiple characters now too don't they? i get 25 was a lot easier to reach though

[@reysharks]

@@NOHITJEROME now that runes are easy to take maybe players with multiple raiding chars will rise again, we'll see after Christmas holidays. But we have no official data so we must speculate.

[@filipjesic7794]

I found a Deadmines group within 5 minutes at like 4am

[@aaroncornacchia8793]

I just hit lvl 30 casually and I was pleasantly surprised how populated the leveling areas and cities were. There were a decent amount of dungeon groups, but definitely a lot more people leveling solo it seems. Either way it seems thriving again. Hard to gauge if numbers used are raids logged instead of players online leveling.

[@dTheHammerb]

My fear is that they'll wipe/reset the anniversary servers too. TBC will come out and once that's done everyone will be screaming for Wotlk. We'll play through Wotlk than Blizz will pull the rug right out from underneath us again.

[@georgem589]

Anniversary will likely go TBC and Blizzard will keep the classic vanilla server ad the only vanilla server

[@NOHITJEROME]

i don't know how wow fixes it because they went the expansion route. i think the ENDGAME is somehow having servers that contribute to achievements/mounts etc on live retail. (assuming live retail becomes really hot over the next few years)

[@tokuchris]

SoD has been fine for me (Wild Growth, Horde). Always groups looking for dungeons and raids. Havent missed a lockout yet. 5 raids a week. 20-30 people each raid. It's easy to call SoD dead if you're doing a drive-by via Ironforge's WowLogs data. Jerome, I challenge you to actually play SoD vs logging in once a week and checking /who Elwynn and making your assumption based on that. Anyways - AQ10 raid tonight, just did a ZG/WB raid last night, and have a MC/BWL raid on Monday.

[@NOHITJEROME]

i respect it tokuchris, i was on anniversary leveling the last month so i might be missing things. but even if sod is doing ok it feels like the playerbase is dangerously split right now. itd be cool if we were all playing the same game

[@adammac7201]

Fresh is popular right now and I did hit a 60 there but farming 30 dungeons for a pair of shoulders that still haven’t dropped is really burning me out. I went back to sod the last couple days and really enjoying starting new character with all the runes and the increased leveling speed. Still feels exciting like there’s so much content I haven’t tried yet. I’ll probably raid once a week on fresh but go back to sod for the fun.

[@allenhoward5644]

Im leveling SoD after getting bored with fresh vanilla for the 100th time and its actually pretty popping on crusader strike. I highly recommend anyone whos hesistant to try it out. Runes at level 1 has changed the game

[@brsubwayfc]

I’d love to see the regular dungeon finder that we are used to. It would make leveling and low gear grabbing much easier. As for rumor adds, classes: insert the death knights and maybe monks/demon hunters . Beyond that progress to BC and/or Wrath and it’ll probably retain more people.

[@E-JFD]

If you made it onto the locked RP/RPPVP servers you’re probably having a blast but all the other servers dungeon groups are dead from 1-58

[@NOHITJEROME]

which servers are locked atm JFD?

[@isaaccoon9985]

Having a blast on crusader strike NA it can be kinda slow if you’re not lvl 60 finding groups for quests and dungeons… I think he is right tho so many different versions of the game is hurting sod

[@NOHITJEROME]

its slow pre 60 but at 60 things are coming back online again. im working on my pr iest for kara crypts

[@Varaben]

SOD is so much fun it’s a shame it’s overshadowed. Really enjoying this phase and the last 2 were fun af too.

[@glenncolclough840]

Jerome i've stopped playing my 3x SoD Level 60s for the exact reasons you've stated! Decided to invest my time into leveling a character on Classic Fresh, as atleast I know ill have him for TBC. It's a pity, I really enjoyed SoD

[@Ristermogers]

Wild growth horde actually feels pretty perfect

[@lilzenzay]

merry christmas bro

[@NOHITJEROME]

merry christmas (day after) lilzenzay :D

[@fytz]

SoD doesn't need to bring me back because I never left!

[@ArtemisChaitidis]

SOD is amazing right now, people doing everything everywhere, ignore this guy.

[@trevorgibson9542]

Played sod alot from p1 until p5. As you touched on once it was clear that no actual new content was being released, guild disbanded and I quit shortly after. The P3 lull being too long, into just molten core with some dailies, followed by just bwl/zg and some ranking was the end of it. Nothing to be excited about, not enough reasons to come back. At best they're showing that there MIGHT be a new raid, which at this point I won't hold my breath for. Wouldn't be surprised if the new SM raid is a rehashed SM Cath with 1 boss. EDIT - I have been messing around with alts with the full rune kits however, which is fun to level solo with. But very infrequently.

[@NOHITJEROME]

rune kits are awesome at the very least. have you found any good combinations to take advantage of?

[@Wooninite]

I just hit 60 as a warrior on wild growth. There is definitely a huge gap in the content that groups are being formed for.

[@dizzy5057]

Pretty sure a big reason so many quit is how long the phases were. They should’ve not time gated 60 so hard

[@MegaCptG]

Honestly sod feels great to level, pug raids and even bg at all times of the day. Giving you all runes at level 1 was pretty hype too. It allows you to smash threw early game content with pretty much any classes in your group because the runes make all the classes very flexible. As for new content next phase we are getting Kara and a new SM raid

[@blitzme99]

crusader strike is hopping every single day with a healthy player base of 20K on each faction. Raiding is healthy and alive and well. Blizzard keeps dividing the player base with all these different versions of the game

[@NOHITJEROME]

im on cs too. no doubt having 4-5 versions of wow is a bad thing. dont know how they put the genie back in the lamp though

[@James-kg2wc]

Sod is awesome and better than ever. Would find it hard to go back to regular classic after sod! Pumped for Naxx 👍🏽

[@Zevs1000]

After classic, after HC hype, i moved to the SoD. It's sooo fun. Very cool blizz added Rune Vendor in the start area. It's a best time to leveling 0-60.

[@morfindus]

ps: i was there for the hudge event PVP that was amazing the fun we had at the begunning xD my guild had 2 guild full with no reroll ... we participate to everything . i miss the even with everybody , when you walked you can die anytime attack by other ect WOW spirit im not good but i love that felling!! i never farm a low lev ect but i Enjoye the moment you dont know what it will happen! i played with a lot of players and they had the same sentiment.

[@NOHITJEROME]

it's great to hear that you are still enjoying the game, i will get back into raiding in the next few weeks myself. but i wonder what they can do after p7, i don't know if they have a plan yet

[@GraysonMMO]

I'm back, I played phase 1 and 2 and kinda stopped at phase 3 but since they added the runes in the starting zone being having a blast levelling again

[@brenneisenchevy981]

Having a great Time playing SOD for sure there was more hype at launch but this is just how new releases work.

[@Madherk]

So my main is alliance on crusader strike, I wanted to try a horde and can’t make one on crusader strike so I chose wild growth and it’s pretty dead. Every rare for a quest is just up.

[@NOHITJEROME]

that's the leveling for sure, there's no competition, but i know most people will not hit 60 that way. SM saved me in 2019 and ZF

[@blckkeef]

make a horde toon on a pvp server and use the free transfer go to crusader strike I have both factions on crusader strike

[@Madherk]

@@blckkeef thank you

[@krashenburn]

im pretty Shadowstrike AU is the server you want! it xfers to crusader strike

[@copege24]

guys this is bait. SoD is the 2nd most popular version of wow right behind retail, and just ahead of cata.

[@EkimKtulu]

Definitely bait. He deleted my comment disputing his claims. My guild attendance is at an all time high. I don't think he liked my question asking what the point is of the video was. He has no evidence for his claims other than population sites and seems to just crap on SoD for some reason.

[@hubbibar5725]

I think Heroic Dungeons with Badges and drops from former raids would be absolut cool!

[@NOHITJEROME]

i thought we'd get heroics p5, surprised we didn't. would be cool to do all the dungeons but with a new twist

[@xMrMayhemx]

they barely can handle one raid while only using existing assets. do you think they can handle making actual content? because i don't and they give you no reason to.

[@Darkcelestrian]

Phase 1 gdkps, phase 2 meta shift favoring hunters and magic classes (mostly hunters) instead of rogues which is where I dipped, incursions, and sunkin temple apparently was horribly overtuned. Then recently wow classic fresh servers dropping around start of current phase

[@NOHITJEROME]

meta shift to magic/hunter was intentional to make warriors bad. i dont know if balance is the reason the game dropped, but i guess we all have different reason to quit/play

[@xeroxboy01]

Not dead at all. My main guild does logs, I have alts in 2 other guilds that raid for fun with zero logs, and pugs I do have zero logs. So just because people don't log doesn't mean we aren't raiding.

[@NOHITJEROME]

fair point, may i ask why you dont log? just to keep it more chill?

[@xeroxboy01]

@@NOHITJEROME my main guild does log but we dont pay too much attention to it. i dont care about parsing. we just care that we clear all content and we do. any pugs i do on 2-3 chars we never log. i think it takes from the experience of the game and it pushes new players out. besides sod is so easy you dont really need logs.

[@lifeisatrip8993]

I played Fresh for the last two weeks, now I'm back at SOD. As a Shadow and Ret main SOD is miles a head of Era. (BTW there are a lot of new people leveling in SOD again).

[@NOHITJEROME]

sod leveling seems hot again, the rune vendor. have you found any cool rune combinations?

[@lifeisatrip8993]

@@NOHITJEROME Leveling my dormant, since phase 3 Shadow Priest. Some of the Runes have changed. It is still the best version of this spec I have played.

[@ayer1118]

i am lvling since the rune vendor dropped and dungeons are poppin off and ppl are everywhere.

[@NOHITJEROME]

have you found any sick builds with the rune vendor stuff? anything seem insanely strong?

[@ayer1118]

@@NOHITJEROME everything is insanely strong and fun to play, i got my druid at lvl 1 all slots from AH or Azeroth Commerce Authority. Starfall at lvl 1 is insane, i was lvl 5 in under 10minutes maybe less?

[@CodyBowling]

sod is great, revamped my love for the game. honestly i love the leveling xp buff. makes it easy to have a job.

[@cuzzourt35]

Dang. I just resubbed for sod after taking a break right before BWL. Anniversary is so much more of a time sink and don't think i can bring myself to go back to that ever.

[@NOHITJEROME]

if you can find some chill ways to level anniversary is fun, just need to spam dungeons, boost if you can convicne someone to boost you free, etc

[@adamaldo]

Been playing SoD since phase 1 and never quit. In the long run, it was great to consolidate these realms, I would have liked it done sooner tbh. My wish upon a copium star is for SoD to continue into TBC and Wrath in the same way that anniversary is going to do. However, I’m pretty realistic and my expectation is that we will retire in these servers after phase 7 or 8 and SoD will be for the few that enjoy the hybrid play of classic + retail with runes and QoL changes. I just can’t find the strength to level another anniversary character after all the time put into SoD. I am so happy they FINALLY made runes available at level 1 so I may even make another alt. This should have happened sooner as well.

[@DarkKniteZ]

Sod is actually amazing. Idk why it is dying

[@NOHITJEROME]

sod is great i think it's not decisions made now that hurt it. it was the first 4 phases

[@johnd2946]

@@NOHITJEROME Once it comes back as Classic+ fully completed it'll be great. SOD was an extended beta test. I think they'll do a good job when they add what worked + tweaks and remove what the community hated.

[@xMrMayhemx]

reasons? easy! because phases 2, 3 and 4 weren't that great and we wouldn't wait like half a year for the next patch, high hopes, constant disappointment, regular fuck ups, each and every single piece if content was either wonky or at least didn't work properly, overtuned phase 2 nightmare gold fucked up the ecomomy up until phase 3, nightmare ultra speed leveling for only the ones who were fast enough to notice or got told, balancing was off the charts and probably still is. i played enhancer shaman and was one hitting players on my level in pvp and was winning 1v3 situation more often than i lost them. it was so disgusting i felt bad for playing shaman in pvp because it just was too easy. stormstrike + autohit + crit +windfury was enough dmg in 1 single hit to one shot everything but warrior or paladin. it's like no one of the classic dev team ever looked at shamans and how stupidly OP they were... poor alliance... i'm pretty sure when i grinded my warsong and arathi rep i personally made at least a few allys quit SOD for good. I'd like to go sod again but all my friends lost trust in the project, so did i and i won't go play wow solo. that's just not on the table anymore since the magic is gone. now i'm in the situation that i don't have a wow subscription after years and years because i quit retail after legion and i finished all classic content a few times now. meaning i would have to resubscribe and that barrier of entry is big enough to require an actual reason. running AQ and NAX for a third time now isn't a good one and so far no one could give me one in general. partially because if 80% of SOD leaves and the 20% who stay tell you it's still good you don't really believe the last guys on the server with the biggest bulls*** tolerance out of everyone who tried it.

[@heatherrowland3785]

Blizzard needs to merge Hardcore into SOD so folks who don't want end game content can still enjoy the rune character builds but from a leveling perspective on the same mega server as everyone else, maybe the HC characters have a gold shimmer on them or something to set them apart...

[@karolnie212]

Here is what i noticed, a lot of guilds in sod including mine are dad's guilds, i belive a game cant get a lot of players if its not interesting for younger player base. Most ppl in my guild have jobs and families, meeting together twice or three times a week and enjoying time is what is sod about for me. When phase coming out its time to spend few more hours and rush content and after that just go back to raid logging and enjoy both, life and wow.

[@pianospeedrun]

I'm on living flame eu, game feels very alive. Can do wpvp to my heart's ontent. Economy got a massive reset thanks to commendations signets buying world buffs, so low level mats got a huge price surge, trickling gold from whales to levelers/farmers / smart crafters. Alliance Seal Team Six guild attacking orgrimmar every other day. Oh and choice of gameplay styles really expanded with tier set swaps and runes, theorycrafters still got some to chew on. The second streamers come back to SoD you'll see hype again... it's all marketting.

[@eurosonly]

Flavor of the month.

[@NOHITJEROME]

but soon maybe sod will be flavor of the month again, p7 we can hope

[@jonmoody2858]

Just started SOD 14 hours ago. It's awesome. Fast paced early game is awesome. I'm sad I missed the max lvl being 25 and end game being bfd. Buty server seems pretty damn active so idk what he's talking about here..

[@xmahvel7214]

Blizzard overpromised and under delivered with SoD. It was obvious that there were not enough development resources allocated after phase 2 as that was when it got stale. Incursions were a lazy way of bypassing poor questing paths for 40-50 and the economy suffered for the amount of gold generated from them. Lack of testing is also wildly apparent with how broken some classes were and today remain in PvP. Focused too much on empowering the classes and not enough on the world itself and raids. Moved closer to retail than classic.

[@user-fs5fc1vv7y]

Sod died unofficially when phase 3 dropped

[@NOHITJEROME]

i know everyone hated incursions, but my theory beyond that is the 40-50 is just bleak to begin with. everyone usually spends that time in zf lol

[@Withspoons]

​@@NOHITJEROMEwell they replaced it with incursions. Not a good way to substitute that "bleak" gameplay. Everyone was 50 in the first day. Combine that with forcing 20 man raids and sod died quick. The developers are out of touch.

[@Madherk]

My guild died when it went from 10man to 20man content in p3

[@jamesofallthings3684]

@@Madherk Because it was full of morons.

[@gregww101]

I stopped playing then. Had two 40s and heard the new Raid was way harder and didn’t want to bother. I played it because it was easy, it just took organizing a group. I’m doing stressed to play Retail level mechanics.

[@corpsefenn]

Or hear me out phase 1 had a ton of salts since it only took 3 hours to level to max. So your raid numbers are not showing how many were playing

[@NOHITJEROME]

maybe thats what people actually wanted. maybe endgame is not designed for lots of people to play it

[@psi915]

Phase 3 killed the game for me, they added the emerald dream levelling thing and it killed running dungeons, they reduced amount you could run levelup raids and then shifted away from 40man to 25man and killed any excitement.

[@Chorge]

Feel bad for the wow classic team for having to deal with such a jaded and divided community. I'm still having fun, just got to ashenvale incursion on my second shaman and there's plenty of people and even 60s helping out and giving out profession mats for quests. Can you really blame them for not adding much to 60 raids when they overhauled the level up raids (especially ST was fucking awesome) and all they got for feedback was "season of retail" and "this is not muh classic" and an insane population drop heralded by content creators doomsaying and being overly negative.

[@NOHITJEROME]

the community is divided because they have like 6 versions of the game and committed to era existing in a blog post when tbc came out. era shouldnt exist at all, it was their easiest solution to keep classic going. it reminds me of guild wars 1, that game should have been shuttered years ago. then they could have done a HUGE remastered relaunch and brought everyone back with 1000x the hype and excitement. there's nothing worse than your favorite game stumbling around like a zombie with no hype or excitement behind it.

[@wiegraffolles9822]

Your next video should be on the fall of Anniversary and how there's only 20k raiders! Very low for something so hyped up. That's only 10k more than the vanilla servers that have been going on for over 5 years.

[@bowserplaylist899]

It's been up just over a month and most aren't even 60 yet. Raids been open 2 weeks. LMAO

[@NOHITJEROME]

it's just a long road to 60. i believe they might add a level boost at some point (50/50 chance). it takes 150-200 hours to hit 60 or more, and there have only been 34 days since launch. 4hr/day = 170 hours, so even a tryhard at 4hr/day wouldn't be 60 yet

[@NOHITJEROME]

@@bowserplaylist899 yeah even if you played 4hr/day it'd be unrealistic to be 60 yet. 60 took me 185 hours with 0 timewaste

[@fritzschnitzmueller3768]

Yeah anniversary is not looking good. Only reason I play is for TBC, cba bothering with that lame no changes classic. Cope is hilarious. Funny how sod is always supposed to be dead while it retains a very stable pop considering the late phase. But how dare someone even try to question anniversary

[@DaFreezeey]

@@fritzschnitzmueller3768 Yeah man, I'm starting to get sick of these anniversary hypocrites. Bunch of crybaby idiots.

[@cgalownia1]

SOD will never die!

[@kevintees6517]

They have to take Sod in to TBC. People like leveling, then raiding. I am raid logging sod right now. Leveling in classic.

[@NOHITJEROME]

id like to see sod going into tbc. or some reason to breathe new life into tbc. tbc has great foundations

[@BOGman221]

I think something else that could help at this point in SoD with Phase 7 being naxx which should be a good bit of people back id like to see them add at least MC gear and maybe some BWL gear to catch people up I still enjoy sod im hopeful they do some cool things with naxx and the Scarlet Crusade and Kara Crypts stuff

[@NOHITJEROME]

naxx is exciting no question, i think if they do everything right p7 WILL bring a lot of players back

[@rimonshamon8607]

I stopped playing because of raid group size, I enjoyed it when it was 10 man raid like BFD . it was easy to form a group , less drama and never felt left out .

[@Holyshirtpro]

I mean p4 and 5 had big resurgence as well after p3 . I think p7 will be huge

[@NOHITJEROME]

p7 will be huge, it must end on a high note. how high remains to be seen

[@Williaem00]

I was so invested in SOD until phase 3. I haven’t gone back. I played anniversary realm when I launched in November and there’s so many people playing it. Not sure f want to level/ play SOD.

[@NOHITJEROME]

anniversay is fun now. p7 i think i try sod again

[@jdg_9]

They just did too much honestly. Classic needed some minor twinks at best.

[@NOHITJEROME]

its a fine line. not enough = som. most people didnt love that

[@CLOWEN2010]

I’ve been enjoying sod still, been playing wow since 2005…hope sod makes it thru the entire cycle because sod is the end for me with wow

[@petermartinson5483]

What caused that drop? Players did. Players couldn't leave their toxic elitism in retail, tried to make what was supposed to be a new and fresh season of Discovery into the same number crunch sweat fest from day one.

[@Sam-on7xk]

Would love a sod hardcore version