Stormforge Netherwing Private Server - My Thoughts So Far

So, after playing a bit on Stormforge's Netherwing server it's time to give you guys my thoughts so far. Is it worth playing? Let's find out!

[@sewertails]

Well here i am to give my opinion about the server. Ive played back in Karazhan since release (second TBC server from Atlantiss) and also here in netherwing2. The raiding experience if u have a guild to raid with is very pleasant because of the really well scripting that Atlantiss and Tauri gives, the world and quest scripting is really good too in both factions so your dont have to worry about it at all for the questing and stuff. Now, about the population.... It still has peak 5-6k that is pretty damn good, back in karazhan when T6 was released if u had 1,5k online it would be a miracle but lets keep going about nw2. There is A LOT of chinese guilds in the server and coming with them, a lot of botting so thats a bit bad but the GMs are pretty active banning them, there is a really good work from them there. And for the pvp time, dammmmn its good, queue arent long, the arena competition is really active and the premades are always there to join. So its time to talk about the non-raid pve, its still active as a lot of ppl is gearing alts and stuff even with the Endless 3 release so u have a lot of normals to join and heroic farm too. Imo this server is still worth to play ofc, more if u are willing to raid or do pugs, a lot of guilds are constantly recruiting players to do his work!!!

[@neverbeen5691]

best comment about the server so far. i was not sure if i want to play on it cause everyone say its ''dead'' and fake population plus a lot of chinese bots, but your opinion sounds pretty honest. i'll give it a try

[@Molagmal]

Going to try to be diplomatic here, I feel that culturally it's also difficult to play with some (not all!) Chinese players. Their goals are a little bit more individualistic generally.

[@WTP_1776]

You don’t have to be diplomatic. Political correctness is killing discourse. The Chinese culture doesn’t do teamwork and collective goals. They’re selfish and rude. No one wants to play with them. That’s just reality.

[@syedie7283]

Yeah they play more hardcore, that is hard to swallow for lazy EU players :)

[@CatKingCole82]

Yes they act like everyone else is an NPC and they need on everything.

[@The_GrumpyGills]

​@@syedie7283uh how are Chinese guilds doing on BT? Logs show the truth.

[@mcfarvo]

Less "individualistic" and more "xenophobic" or "Chinese or gtfo" sort of socialization

[@user-fw5tr8ht1e]

I played netherwing as a Shaman up till level 60. It took me a month as I'm in the same situation as you. Outland become to crazy for me, Constant ganking. I stopped and started playing Chromiecraft. I much prefer it. 3.3.5 client but TBC content. Kara is released in a couple of weeks. Very helpful community. 500-600 max online but still queues for normals and HC's. Try out Chromiecraft if you want a Wotlk client with TBC expansion

[@frankfiore7461]

you going to try Endless TBC?

[@fritzschnitzmueller3768]

Noice didnt even know this server existed Super chill video man, love the vibe

[@Thanaroa]

I gotta say its unfortunate that most of the private servers out now you have to hear "i recommend this server if you can get past: (list of frustrating problems that are pretty hard to tolerate).

[@brandonkruse6412]

That’s just how it’s always been on free community servers. The most common being the average server just can’t stay populated.

[@Sportskiduhuh]

Yeah, and Blizzard’s TBCC was better.. yeah right.. Blizzard ruins everything they touch.

[@Thanaroa]

@@Sportskiduhuh it had problems too for sure

[@ericpadilla2454]

​@@Sportskiduhuhit was. Much better than these trash private onea

[@emberhusk]

The first Netherwing server by Atlantiss team was probably the best scripted TBC server ever. I honestly didn't see any improvements from the Tauri collab at all. As for the population, I quit back when it had around 4-6k online (about 3 months after launch). I would say up to 70% of those were either chinese or bots because it was hard to even get heroic groups going during peak hours. The server itself is fine but I wouldnt recommend wasting time on it.

[@hado33_]

yeah netherwing was peak tbc

[@MNAHN-T.GOF-NN]

"The server itself is fine" yeah until you start playing around with talents. There's a reason no one plays dagger rogue for example (aside from the alternatives being superior options even on paper, I mean) - improved backstab & ambush don't work. I've repeatedly done testing where I'd just ambush mobs or a friend in a duel, and I rarely got more than 30 crits out of 100 hits. Pretty low for a supposed 65% crit chance (45% talent, 20% passive, supposed to stack additively). Same deal with backstab. They don't care about talents that aren't the cookie cutter specs (just like blizzard, ayy). Obviously resilience plays a minor role, but even if you're fully geared resi doesn't give you 30% crit chance resist (and most players don't wear pvp gear). Furthermore the server absolutely poops itself during chinese hours, most notably by making CC in PvP last way longer than it should (especially in outland) - enjoy being warstomped for 4 seconds instead of 2 while the shaman heals up for free, charge-stunned for 3 seconds instead of 1 where you get hamstrung AND mortal strike put on you before it fades, or how about being grenade 'stunned' (incapacitated) for 5 seconds instead of 3 *with a rogue (me) still hitting you?* It's supposed to break from damage/when attacked but by the magic of lag it often doesn't, effectively making it a discount second kidney shot - all this while you yourself are sitting comfortably at 40-50 ping. Staring at a "0 seconds left" CC icon for 1-2 seconds before it fades gets boring fast. There's a reason retail WoW was region-locked. Obviously you can choose to ignore this and focus on PvE, but it's a PvP server. You're going to get rolled, and it's going to be even more BS than usual.

[@emberhusk]

@@MNAHN-T.GOF-NN Nobody plays dagger rogues because they are trash. Hemo has literally been the meta since the original TBC. Can't really comment on the talent bugs, but I've never heard anything about that. As for the chinese issue, I already mentioned that. PvE was pretty dead too. It's a waste of time, would not recommend.

[@MNAHN-T.GOF-NN]

@@emberhusk *"Nobody plays dagger rogues because they are trash. Hemo has literally been the meta since the original TBC. "* Indeed, that's a more blunt way to express what I said but I suppose if you felt it appropriate to rephrase it in a simpler manner for good measure, that's fine. The point was that non-meta specs are even more worthless than usual because the devs don't care about the talents they revolve around. That's bad. It's the opposite of what I would call a "fine" server, as is getting Charge-stunned for three times longer than usual by Xiaohuan because the server is imploding from getting hit by 3000 Ni Hao's at once (that they won't ban because guess where a portion of the money from all gold-sales goes to?). That's the state of the private server scene, sadly.

[@w33d533d]

if ur playing casually you can get pretty much full gear from bgs in one BG weekend, i had wsg weekend and spammed it and got nearly fully geared from just that

[@nashnya70]

Congratulations bruh on becoming a daddy. Je bent Nederlands, waarom lul ik Engels. Goed gedaan bink, maak ons trots!

[@Jiddu88]

Congratulations!!! Take good care. Enjoy fatherhood. The very best of luck and all goodness! Started also casually on Netherwing :D:D

[@eurosonly]

I like to imagine he's had a Tauren baby.

[@Dudemanguy_]

Been playing here since launch. They are okay about banning bots but they are often up for 1-2 weeks before being banned. I don't see bots doing dungeon farms, those seem monitored its all open world and largely up to the players to actually report them. Seen some in bgs and a few people we're toggling the bot, playing sometimes. There are a lot of chinese players but I think the server is better with them for fast bg/arena queue's all times of the day. Does suck not being able to communicate with a third of the server though. Consumes and materials are cheap. Its good if your looking for a challenge from raiding. x2-x3 boss HP/dmg from classic values. Prenerf content requires a lot of min maxing (raid comp, professions. bloodlust swaps - no sated like classic) There's lots of kara groups and pugs but it can be hard getting T5 raiding going on here with the increased difficulty. There are a ton of casuals just doing quests, dungeons. playing the game at their own pace. If you want to casually get some prebis and run some Kara its a good place to do that. . EU pop is strong, NA isn't but seems to be slowly growing. Theres some RU guilds, Some Latin/South Americans. Its really just a global server and not everyone can communicate with each other. T6 just released its fun good tuning, difficult enough its satisfying but not so hard its almost impossible like netherwing 1. Cat dps works. tbc arena sucks, you can buy gold on the shop but GDKP isnt a thing here.

[@jasonmuse1866]

I have enjoyed this server, and agree with your takes. If any complaint, I feel you may have downplayed the bots a bit. You have to fight bots for any farming spot. It honestly seems like they allow them just to boost numbers.

[@democratsarepedos]

I was top 100 to reach level 70 on my gnome warrior with tauren racials, and I never, ever, once, was able to find a raid, despite being a tank. Three months I searched for a single Kara raid and found nothing. Global / World chat is empty, it's ALL insular guilds and Chinese players. The other problem is that with x3 leveling there's only 1x reputation and professions, which is disproportionate.

[@XPISTOS-ANESTH]

Private servers wise imo only 2 servers are active turtle wow vanilla and warmane wotlk and talking for warmane planning really soon to start a project from fresh vanilla until wotlk.

[@cillo1]

All bozo servers

[@w33d533d]

Yeah Atlantiss was great, and mistblade too, netherwing as a server is okay, but the community is what ruins it imo. i had no intention on doing any PVE raiding in TBC and got my mage full geared off bgs and was just going to spam BGs, because that can be fun, and it was and can be for a while, but it's upsetting too because there is a MASS amount of Chinese players/bots/afks and mixes of the sort, which leads to never having competitive games either you mop the floor with enemy team or you get stomped because half your team is afk botting, needless to say i quit playing there once it got old. The community that is left on Mistblade sucks too, a bunch of trashy hispanics that ninja loot from you, i went back to playing and did some normal raids and was ninja looted from by hispanic raid leaders twice in a row and just gave up, all my guys are pretty much full gear minus a few items, not worth dealing with people like that to bother getting further geared, the community and the servers can just die. there used to be a lot of cool people on Mistblade, i had cool raiding guilds on ALliance and HOrde that had some really cool people on it and it was really fun, unfortunately none of those people still play there anymore

[@LoturES]

Thanks for the review Hamsterwheel :)

[@jacechan5499]

for me tho it seem to be really hard to find raiding guild ( late EU 8-9PM Server time start raiding) , and guilds seem to not able to fill their raid for ssc as well. (beside the top 20 ish guilds)

[@_blasfemy]

i miss TBC omg

[@DruNature]

aye! my baby is 7 months ols and im lvel 45! we should play sometime! my shaman is named Drunature WAIT a second Ive seen your tauren THunderhoof!! I briefly made a tauren shaman alt and I saw you at level 4 haha! man I remember thinking holy shit I cant believe he got the name Thunderhoof, but he isn't a shaman! I had been thinking of names that started with thunder but didnt try any thinking they were taken!! Holy crap small world!

[@HamsterWheelGaming]

Lol that's an awesome story dude, perhaps I'll see you online once again in the near future :)

[@MhWow66]

Its a Pvp server which counts lots of people out!

[@Sportskiduhuh]

Yeah, it counts pussies out, which is good.

[@isaacfaith9369]

Yes I dislike PvP. It was all fine leveling in Azeroth and maxing my professions. I had a lot of fun here until I got to Hellfire Peninsula at that point I got camped by several multiboxxers and level 70s ganking me. PvP happened on a PvP server sure, my option then is to stop playing which I did!

[@Strale972]

Isn't this server like on 1 patch before being fully progressed?

[@keso665]

How is the ratio between english and chinese&russian players? And how is the server stability when reaching those 10000 people marks? Been playing on turtle and can say that its hard to play during china peak hours and the server lag can get a bit dangerous

[@vr77323]

there is A LOT more chinese compared to english speaking people. Some chinese speak english, so for them it doesnt matter, but in my experience, a lot of people are chinese and you cannot interact with them. (lvl 60rn). I'm in a casual guild and we have a lot of fun with regularly having 30+ people from the guild only online. I've seen groups formed and eveything (ofc, tanks are a premium), so it seems active for now. However, a lot of people from the guild with more geared chars say that finding a raiding guild is very hard. So if you are casual and dont have time to invest in major raids anyways, it doesnt really matter, but I guess you might struggle with HC groups bcs lack of tanks (according to my guildies)

[@sanhexx]

While leveling to 70, at least 50% of people I encountered were multiboxers, and other characters in the same gear behaving like bots and afk running into walls, presumebly also multiboxers. Anyway, it felt soulless and lonely, reminded me of retail "Classic".

[@eurosonly]

That was mynl impression of this server back when they had 6k players online. I didnt see a single player in the drenai starting area. And that place has such good vibes.

[@isaacfaith9369]

I remember being camped by a mutliboxing Druid who followed me in Flight Form, incredibly frustrating. I dislike PvP Private servers because of the griefing.

[@keepgoing7533]

I think this Tauren has arthritis. His model can't re-center? Or does it take a few senonds. 00:17

[@DogYearBlues]

Hey dude did you notice the timer countdown in the tauri site???? It doesn't say it's legion but literally what else could it be im so exciteddddd

[@eurosonly]

Can't wait for that class prune. Unless they skip that part of the expansion.

[@maxim2465]

YOOO GRATS ON THE BABY

[@TheBulldogsk8]

gratz on the baby

[@Effigyy]

I've played NW1, Karazhan and NW2 and while the population on NW2 is easily the biggest, it has largely failed to recapture the 'magic' that the earlier releases had, flawed as they may have been in other ways. The big chinese population is very insulated and almost like a second playerbase separate from the english-speaking community and I'd estimate they account for at least half the server's active population, which has brought some new problems to surface that were less noticeable on earlier servers. I still think it's the best place to play TBC but they've dropped the ball a bit compared to earlier quality

[@Nervouswreck1289]

I agree 100%. There was something very special about NW1 being x1 exp, tuned insanely difficult, and being 100% a passion project. The staff there overall has become money driven, a lot of the scripting fixes from NW1 has broken on the new realm, and the passion from the devs has died. I’d kill for Netherwing 1 back. Get rid of the buyable boost and make vanilla content x2 or x3 but keep Outland x1.

[@lmaolmao9713]

Great server. Terrible people. Everyone's a depressed wannabe parser and/or ganking loser. A server is like a guild. When you keep the bad people, the good people leave. You can't keep everyone. Who will you keep, the good people or the bad people? Private servers answer this question incorrectly and pay the price for it, unfortunately.

[@eurosonly]

6k people online still. Do these people not like vanilla?

[@Deepply]

I will start it tommorow I haven’t played since 2008

[@zlobert9877]

How is it?

[@CatKingCole82]

How do you get addons to work here? Ive had trouble with almost every legacy wow addons addon

[@ToH1ZZL3]

You gotta find the correct tbc 2.4.3 addons, alot of times I though I was downloading the right thing but it was for tbc classic

[@CatKingCole82]

@ToH1ZZL3 the only addon I've downloaded so far is Bongos so I can set up the bars more to my liking. But I'll slowly add more. Leveling up a draenei hunter named Dharmok if you wanna add me 😁

[@ToH1ZZL3]

Hmm not too sure about bongos but pfui works for me and it does it all also comes with built in recount and cool down counters

[@CatKingCole82]

@ToH1ZZL3 I used pfui on turtle it is great for mouse over healing macros and handy for a lot of things. I should try it for tbc 😃

[@TheTashiTaylor]

Might give this a look at since Chromiecraft turned into bath water

[@Shiirow]

chromiecraft is a literal active beta state, and is only on phase 1 of BC raiding.

[@NickPlays95]

Been on this server for 4 months. Impossible to find a group for anything. It sucks

[@llsjjd9882]

don't lie bro

[@NickPlays95]

@@llsjjd9882 bro it’s true. Server is amazingly built and scripted but finding groups is so hard. They are doing a fresh server launch in 2025 so that will have a big come back

[@IH8KWEERZ8070]

​@@NickPlays95 do you think the netherwing re-release will beat felmyst skullcrusher

[@Matt-cw1mv]

@@IH8KWEERZ8070 so whats the best tbc server

[@IH8KWEERZ8070]

​@@Matt-cw1mv that idk I'm just gonna wait till warmane onyxia goes to the Tbc phase

[@Finis.Terrae]

Fake population. 10 k people online,only 700 people on world chat (both sides combined) I somehow have hard time believing that 9300 people didn't join chat,especially when that chat is the only way to find people to group up with.

[@mcsmash4905]

it sure does feel at times like the era of the true blizzlike server is ending , now everyone wants custom features or night elves with dwarf racials or some other nonsense cause its a ˝must˝ , oh well i guess i will sit around a while longer hoping that a blizzlike tbc server is launched one day in the future , simply adding an option to play on either x1 or lets say x3 is stupid beyond belief cause most people will be compelled to play on the higher rates just so they are not left behind while the others rush ahead , either make it x1 or dont imo

[@AngryJesus1]

This server has more bots then a CS game with only bots.... I have never seen so many bots in my life,

[@kevincm-gu7bx]

what about now?

[@xxDrain]

Is good.

[@Judge_RR]

What is the point of these illegal servers?

[@Rustproof]

Several things. First and foremost it is free which means no sub to worry about and you can come back any time. You also didn't have to feel guilty about sending Bobby "Complicit with cube-crawling" Kotick any money via your sub but he's gone now I think since Microsoft bought Blizzard. Second is that you do not have to rely on Blizzard to maintain quality (alot of private servers ignore problems too though). Last I can think of atm is that not all expansions like Burning Crusade (This video is an example) Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Legion are playable only on private servers because Blizzard post-Wrath hates fun and freedom of choice. You also don't get banned for exploring out of bounds which is nice.

[@dretsu2628]

chinese players always bring bots and hacks/cheating to servers, they ruin most games the touch it sucks they are infesting alot of private serves now

[@Sportskiduhuh]

Great server. People, do not listen to those who complain about ganking and other such bullshit. You are on a pvp server, on a private server also, your are playing for free. You do not like it, move on or get milked by Blizzard for a lesser product. The server is fine, people are overreacting as usual. They expect AAA experience for free. And funny things is, this devs are doing a much much better job than most gaming companies. They actually listen to their playerbase, to an extent.

[@pinkhorror3433]

kek classic is meant for wow old school nerds who don't know the concept of daylight. Every single pre cata server in this reality is meant for them and them you will meet. Skip it if you've never played it or else you will be utterly frustrated, otherwise - go and be on top in charts / sell gold and enjoy pvp mode where the measurement of your ego and achievements is your gear.

[@bennydragomir4204]

in today's pserver era ,you cant ignore or ban the chinese playerbase,gummy learn that in the hard way...

[@emberhusk]

You can, his server just sucked and the release date was stupid.

[@xekoan507]

china RUINED this server

[@ellipseanostalrius1710]

This is a well scripted server that hit the sweet spot on leveling/spell cost. Raids going on all the time. Chat very active. I farm mats every single day since launch, not an issue *beyond* the large pop. People whisper me to see if I'm a bot....because I'm farming. Yeah there's lots of Chinese, so what. There's lots of everyone. "OMG, THE CHINESE! The Mexicans! The Russians! The Brazilians!" >International, private server< I've had good and bad experiences with everyone, everywhere.

[@Shiirow]

you say that but you have those same people bashing americans on a daily basis... so yeah you can act like its bad to go "OMG Chinese" when those same chinese are probably talking shit about other countries in mandarin.

[@ellipseanostalrius1710]

No doubt they are. that's my point. Everyone always whining about other nationalities making the experience good or bad when the game is not actually dependent on geography. Everyone is great and awful.@@Shiirow

[@alexandertoro6984]

@@Shiirow Man, for sure it's annoying when some american impose their language to a spanish speaking group. Other than that, most of the time I never see shit thrown at americans in spanish.

[@user-ub8lo1zh7n]

yea man just need to look for english speaking server

[@Ledzinskii]

Alot of Bugs. You cant do most pvp tricks like vanishing blind

[@MNAHN-T.GOF-NN]

Shadowstep macros also tend to screw up when fighting chinese players that are moving. The amount of times I saw "out of range" even though I've just physically appeared right behind the target and should be able to hit them with anything killed my motivation to keep playing. The pve is fine but it's a pvp server, so pvp things are going to happen whether you like that or not and it's awful during chinese peak hours. I could also mention stuff like frost mage's Arctic Winds proccing waaay too often on specials to be just a 5% miss chance or the fact that the server is more botted than retail while the chinese sleep, but those are different topics.

[@GloomGenetics]

just tried the server, the server is Dead, nobody is there playing, and now the server is insta 70.

[@eurosonly]

You might wanna check your server connections text file.

[@00cam69]

I’m playing as a NA i recommend to join a lot of fun and nothing like tbc