This MASSIVE Shift In The Community Says It All

[@hammerdancegaming]

Everyone please share your opinions below! This is in NO way a doom video or anything of the sort. I love SOD, and will continue enjoying it till the last day. I just thought about this and wanted to try and start a discussion and see how everyone feels about season WoW in general. Thank you all for watching and for supporting me. Love you all

[@Biscaia86]

Hello @hammerdancegaming I just discovered your channel and it's refreshing to see someone having a similar opinion/view. What has been astonishing to me is that i don't understand why Blizzard hasn't released progressive servers yet, for example Vanilla -> TBC -> WotLK, i think this would be awesome.

[@Bellevue_hc]

I like the era and sod both. But I’d put both down to play TBC again.

[@zerpakia]

It is a doom video, and that's okay, that's just the way the facts are rn

[@Espresso-v7u]

Interestingly the raid population of Cataclysm has the worst drop off of players of any classic phase since 2019, while both SoD P4 and Classic era have very consistent trends for their raiding population. At its current rate of decay Cataclysm will have less players raiding than SoD in about 4 weeks which would make SoD the Most Popular Classic game mode without taking into account the expected influx of players for P5. I do think there are cons to all classic versions atm. Cataclysm for many is when classic stopped being classic and there isnt much going on in the open world with Dungeon Finder and flying mounts. Vanilla is so thoroughly solved at this point and due to no changes is never going to be updated so provides the same experience over and over again. SoD is struggling to find ways to keep the world relevant and ways to engage players outside of raids (RIP PVP). I don't envy Blizz having to parse through all the data to figure out how to best keep this player base engaged. At least with SoD, I feel like my feedback is heard and the potential for change exists. They have definitely missed the mark in a lot of ways but some things in SoD have been truly innovative and great additions.

[@vladchenkov9215]

I don’t mind the season, I do kind delusional devs with no foresight for pve and pvp

[@morgo64]

I would love to have a permanent TBC era server while Classic+ is being developed. I feel like so many people are asking for it.

[@claytongiampaolo7848]

They just need a 3 year rolling fresh server for lvl 60-80. Tbc era would die out worse than classic era. Nobody even cared about tbc era before wotlk classic came out.

[@doctorprepper8106]

@@claytongiampaolo7848people stopped caring about TBC because the farms took too long and they already knew when WOTLK would be released. No point in working to get exalted with everything or full S4 gear if you know you won’t be able to before wotlk

[@whatameyex8249]

Yea tbh man what you think as "everyone" is alot less than you think, just because 100 people want it dosnt mean it's. Good idea, same thing with all the classic cucks that only want vanilla servers, they die put to fast to be worth it.

[@MykeDiemart]

Id like it with out the shit TBC changes

[@KippoKupo]

@@claytongiampaolo7848 3 year rolling fresh to too much, honestly. I could see 1.5 or 2.

[@NikuaRanger]

Blizz forgot what a mmorpg is. Everything is season based now, then youre not playing a World, youre playing patches

[@rodgoesinya9947]

They're just catering to the growing adhd of the community. People get bored if they don't make new content every month sadly. I agree with you though

[@hayaMLa]

You people need to relax, it's called season of discovery they're obviously testing the waters for what will stick then will eventually release something permanent

[@InnuendoOutTheOther]

​@@rodgoesinya9947so let that 5% of classic player get bored and die off and cater to the people who want a game different to retail

[@megamanx627]

Yeah and I know why 1 People play The Game like Lotus now.We devour content so fast.It's not even funny. The way classic players play the game now And you can raise your hand and say I don't play like that fine. But for most people It normally works like this. 1 I want to journey But I want to be as efficient as possible and optimize every chance I can. 2 I want the community As long as everyone is playing the meta. 3 I want you to have to work for your Gear As long as everyone stacks world buffs.Inconceivable , so we can rarely plow through bosses like copy paper. 4 I want progression As long as we can get done in 2 Hours. 5 World pvp Is amazing As long? As i'm on the winning side all the time. There are people that don't do this for sure but this is the majority. Is there are people that want the original game? That's fine You say it's bad that there's seasonal.I would argue. Ok Then why are people supposedly screaming for a fresh ? What's the difference between seasonal and a fresh reset None. So ya

[@rodgoesinya9947]

@@NikuaRanger they need to implement mechanics that force players to slow down. Make 5 man's great again

[@c2thewick]

Classic era is forever and always

[@ixplain]

Yup. Got 2 Warriors on Era Firemaw, 2 mages, 1 Priest, 1 Rogue. Always stuff to do and GDKP keeps the game alive. Sod is a waste of time.

[@koreanzombie6697]

@@ixplain yet people protested against GDKP's in sod... i bet sod would be WAY healthier if we could still participate in gdkps, i would still play and many of my friends aswell.

[@sk2790]

Gdkp makes ppl who actually play the game not want to play and promotes the card swiping raid loggers and the bots lol first group seems more worth to cater to since the second group literally destroyed server pops if u look at the history of wow

[@ixplain]

@@sk2790 Cope. Era has more Raids going than SOD and people play their BIS alts 24/7 to get Gold for their new Alts. Goldbuying isn´ßt bad anymore.

[@36louieboy]

​@@koreanzombie6697im glad they got rid of pay to win. Basing a system around who can spens the most irl money is one of the reason wow went downhill kn teh first place. The wow token was one of the worst implementations.

[@dragoncraft993]

Can you redo this video when the mega servers come for SoD?

[@carlosmoreno-uk9wx]

We need TBC era servers!

[@jordanedwards2714]

@@carlosmoreno-uk9wx I'd love that!

[@chewchelios-it7gs]

ASAP!!!!!!!

[@GL00MYALPACA]

I’m curious as to why u don’t want wrath? Don’t get me wrong, love TBC, but why draw the line there?

[@tlomac]

Cause I don’t like wrath I played wrath classic and did not like it

[@carlosmoreno-uk9wx]

Same, I played all a WOTLK classic just for my guild and total disappointment to me, I knew it won't going to like me but it was worst that I though. Even with it thats my personal opinion and I support wotlk servers for people who love it.

[@Rustee901]

It saddens me that people are feeling this way about SOD. SoD brought me back to loving wow. With out sod i wouldnt had met some really good friends that i now consider family. I enjoy all of SoD but the slow declining population in the sod is getting worse and kinda scary. I hope next phase they keep at it and continue this awesome adventure we are on. After seeing those small numbers i fear for the future of this game. There are good perks for one massive server and bad perks. SoD isnt completely over yet tho so heres hoping for fun things to come in next phases of the game

[@66BW]

SOD will be gone shortly, to many bots, not every phase had decent content and with the burst nature of the game, it has destroyed all PVP.

[@cococock2418]

@@66BWwhat are you talking about too many bots? There’s literally barely any. That’s not even remotely a reason. Vanilla wow doesn’t have real pvp so you were dumb to expect pvp from sod. It’s a seasonal game and people ebb and flow. When p5 comes out they’ll be back again.

[@unaddan]

yeah, not gonna lie, SOD is super fun. the only time that I love making alts is in SOD. and about pve being so easy... it's SOD, lets just have some fun. I love SOD so much because it's the only time I enjoy wow this much. not so much frustrating like playing era or have to level to 85 and left too far behind on cata. SOD for me is a headache medicine. I mean, the other wow kinda the cause of the headache.

[@andyramirez4293]

@@unaddanI agree sod is my favorite like my favorite class is paladin I tried to level a paladin in classic and I just can’t do it it’s so ass. All the classes in classic yea are what they originally were but they just feel bad. When I want to play classic and get lost in the world I level alts in sod and honestly I hope after it’s over we get something equivalent or if it goes into classic plus then they build on this world

[@rodgoesinya9947]

​@cococock2418 more than you realize. If I do any kind of mat farming I will see quite a few. I always report them and I get alot of mail from blizz saying my reports led to account action

[@kyleNoxiousEQbarto]

I actually check the forums every month to see if there will ever be a TBC classic server. When I was younger, I missed TBC because I was still playing Everquest. I got to play through about a year of classic but was raiding religiously in EQ. Then I tried some TBC on a private server and was just blown away. It literally seemed like an extension of classic wow, just some class changes that were really impactful and fair. Heres to hoping!

[@fersan92]

That's actually one of the reasons why I don't want to invest too much time into Cataclysm. Where do we go after Cata? MoP? WoD? Might as well play retail.

[@skoomd4447]

As someone who started in legion, I'd love to play mop. It's one of the only older exp I'd actually like to play. Classic-cata is way to easy, everything just falls over with your eyes closed

[@MrMonoposon]

​@skoomd4447 that wasn't the case when playing those expansions back in the day

[@whitefox25]

yeah they just annoucned mop classic

[@skoomd4447]

@@MrMonoposon that's because everyone was trash at the game

[@samstewart3103]

SOD has been a fun experiment for me. Not only the new content, but I always seem to learn something new when I go back through the leveling experience. I think I'll always chase the fresh, wherever it goes. Thanks, as always, Hammer, for the content! -Charmer

[@hammerdancegaming]

❤️

[@Lmhafu]

Bro, this video opened my eyes... I've switched to Classic Era and I'm loving it. Thanks ❤

[@Venaportha]

TBC was the best because of Badges of Justice. It kept raid geared players doing heroics. When they made raids drop Badges of Justice then it kept players doing them. In future phases they made the vendors have new items and items to profit off of. If they make Heroics in SoD and old Raids drop Tarnished Undermine Reals, it will keep people playing

[@yoremothra9838]

People are missing out in Darkshore, such a cool zone to just run around in with the music turnt up.

[@Aleris21]

I'm a retail andy but you're right. If I'm bored of retail I go to Classic Era or Hardcore cause I don't want a seasonal Classic experience and my progress is eternally saved.

[@byteme0000]

That’s why I hated it when Blizzard released “expansions” rather than separate games back in the day. That was a mistake, and a big one. Few people got to run AQ40 or Naxx because… why bother, right? TBC was coming! 🤦 I despised the temporary nature of every expansion.

[@jamesw71]

@@byteme0000 You can still run AQ40 and the Wrath version of Nax...but I agree I hate that they force season/expansions on everyone and in a lot of case destroy old content. I would prefer if they did more of the timewalking type raid content where you got experience more of the older raids.

[@emilwetterlindhofgard5182]

Apparently the devs have said that our sod characters won’t disappear.

[@Fen3rbahce]

its gonna turn into classic+ .

[@jeremyrising]

@@Fen3rbahce it wouldnt because they would need to roll all new servers. They aren't going to have 5 million people start on servers where 5% of the population start at 60 with raid gear

[@ns-tech1304]

Pro tip fix the flickering LED on the right, super annoying.

[@Groovin33]

This is why we need a new game based on the classic play style. WoW 2.0 not classic plus. The thing with WoW that hooked me was exploration. Not knowing what was around the next corner. Adding new end game content to a classic plus isn't gonna get me playing. I know every nook and crany of Azeroth and it's now become predictable and almost boring. How many times can a person run SM in any iteration and it not become mundane. Newer graphics but not Disney, A new world or Azeroth 100 years in the past or future, older playstyle without 20 spells and cooldowns with so much crap on the screen you can't see whats going on, no addons, logs, and the like. Integrate the 20 most popular addons into the interface. All new content. Sod is becoming less and less relevant every single day. It was so fun at first but then it became the exact same grind plus runes. The fun wore off quick. I'll add that there needs to be more to do than end game raiding as most people raid log and then they're off for a week. There is a balance somewhere between Classic Plus and retail and I hope they figure it out because SOD ain't it. Love your content Homie

[@hammerdancegaming]

Agree with you 100%. And thank you for your support!!

[@Outplayedqt]

Really well said. No GDKP. Top AddOns integrated into the interface and figuring out a novel way to disable the ability to create and install new AddOns (though the tryhard Lua script kiddies will always find a workaround to min-max - tough one for Blizz to tackle but it’d be for the best if they devoted resources to figure out how to curb this). Some SoD runes were fun, merge ‘em into Classic+ for sure. Honestly have no idea how to make an MMO like WoW with iconic dungeons like Deadmines/SM without them becoming ultimately irrelevant. Perhaps yoink some ideas from other MMOs like FFXIV that incentivize high level folks to group with lowbies? Like Retail, that just introduces scaling issues, though. Shake up the economy by taking some conceptual notes from the gigabrain team behind Eve Online, pre-2011 (when P2W was introduced). Anything to deter gold-buyers/sellers and ofc, no token, or even some new, amorphous version of it Blizz might deviously roll out. Above all, retain Vanilla WoW character balance. Rock, paper, scissors. Mages and Rogues are pure DPS roles. Priests should only have a pure Healing role unless Shadow spec’d. Some tuning wouldn’t hurt, but no major buffs to hybrid classes’ throughput like Druids - being a jack of all trades provides tons of tangible benefits as it is. Get rid of awful armor/weapon relics of the past like Manual Crowd Pummeler being BiS. We want to waste away our lives farming Exalted reps for the Insane (a vastly expanded, “v2.0”) title, not a particular boss…in Gnomeregan, of all places. Super torn on world buffs. On one hand, it was incredibly fun seeing the entire community rally around in SW/Org and BB, but this only promoted raid-logging. The introduction of the Chronoboon did help, but overall, the entire concept seems to be a net negative on the _experience,_ so I’m all for scrapping them altogether. I remember Xaryu having a unique and interesting take on fixing (and retaining) the concept of wbuffs, but I can’t recall his idea off the top of my head atm. Ton more requests on my desired Classic+ list but those are some of my top prios for a dream Classic+ - a final one, which may be the most contentious: retain the OG 400ms spell batching, it was fun. Vanishing Death Coils was pure bliss. Finding the right time to cast a heal on a friendly teammate, entering combat, and immediately eating/drinking to regen (particularly in PvP) is considered good strategic play, IMHO. I’m torn on resist checks/heartbeats - forcing players to make split-second, unplanned decisions vastly increases the skill cap and ceiling, but I think the majority of the playerbase very much dislike the entire concept of heartbeat resists. Arenas, and particularly rated BGs, would be a fantastic addition to a Classic+ experience as well, but only if they overhauled the entire MMR system so it actually…works, and makes sense. I’ve never played any other competitive title where 0-1000 rating meant literally nothing, and the concept/lingo of “1500/1800/2100/2400 Andys” shouldn’t be a _thing._ That said, considering how Blizzard continues to fail on iterating and fixing the rating system on Retail, expac after expac, I have the least amount of faith in them implementing a revised, overhauled PvP rating system. Solo shuffle and BG blitz in Classic+ would be insanely fun. Despite my insane amount of hours invested in WoW, I’ve never played any of Blizzard’s other competitive IPs - I’m sure the systems weren’t perfect, but didn’t SC, Hearthstone, and Overwatch have solid enough matchmaking systems? Heck, if they thought up (and poured hefty resources into) Overwatch League, they surely can afford to have some math PhDs on their team to devise a new PvP rating system to implement in the next WoW expac, and consequently, Classic+. Anyways, sorry for the wall of text, oof. Super passionate about the world of Azeroth. Have been and likely forever will be. I’ve been patiently waiting for the re-release of Classic Fresh servers (with the aim of R14 this time, as I had to stop at 13 in 2020 due to IRL events) since I have little faith in a non-seasonal, perma-Classic+ ever coming to fruition. But sheesh, would I love to absolutely be proven wrong sometime in the not-so-distant future.

[@Outplayedqt]

@@hammerdancegamingUnsure how YT has never pushed your channel into my algo until now, but I’m glad it did. Just watched several of your other uploads and love what you’re putting out! Subbed, and looking forward to any future uploads of yours. You provide great insights that existing content creators in this space lack, so thanks for uploading and sharing your thoughts. From one Classic Andy to another, cheers.

[@shadowprotacal5482]

But both retail and classic are raid loggers it's the exact same

[@isaacdesu]

I totally agree, we keep hearing the excuse of "well we know it's not perfect, but it's seasonal so it doesn't matter", SoM had the exact same problem.

[@AIMagicShow12]

To me the best think in WOW is the world PVP while questing and this video made me level a rogue and enjoy the world PVP in STV.

[@Twiggyskulls]

Oddly enough, I feel I'm investing my time more in SoD than any other branch of wow. I wound up leveling another rogue on a PvE server since I had many friends quit playing in Phase 3, so now I'm getting to raid with another guild on this server on off days. WoW Classic Era holds no interest in my due to the time investment *required* to play, while SoD feels like I want to invest my time in it, despite it going away at some point. I never held interest in Cataclysm, and Retail just plays too fast for me anymore and has grossly inflated numbers as always with hp/dmg. I don't care to see all that.

[@tableslam]

Aggrend (or maybe it was Tim?) said in one of the various interviews that there would be a place for our SoD characters to go. There weren't really any details though so who knows what that even means lmao. I have almost the opposite view when it comes to SoD though. instead of "why would I bother if it's seasonal" I see it like "this is my only chance to experience this version of the game, I need to do it while I can." the way I see it even if they do a permanent version of SoD as a Classic+ or whatever it will be at least slightly different from how we have it in SoD right now, so some of the stuff that sounds cool or fun I want to try out before SoD is actually over. I'm not planning on like, dumping a shitload of time into any of those characters, I just wanna give em a try before it's too late

[@hammerdancegaming]

Hi Table

[@tableslam]

@@hammerdancegaming Yeah that's definitely fair. I myself am split on whether I think the seasonal model is a good idea for an MMO. On the one hand we've had some unique experiences come out of it that (hopefully) will inform the devs on the kinds of things to put into a Classic+, but on the other hand like you said it's hard to get people to care that much about seasonal characters since the implication is that they will go away and not matter after the season ends. At least with SoM people could transfer their characters to Era. The main way for the devs to remove that reluctance to care about SoD characters would be for them to announce Classic+ with free SoD transfers, but a) they probably aren't ready for an announcement like that, and b) a Classic+ launch would effectively be a fresh, and they would have to do some stuff to make sure SoD transfers don't ruin a fresh. The devs are in a tough spot. The biggest hype is for new content, but who knows how long it will be before we see new raids. Phase 4 launched July 11, and P5 is September 25. That's like 2 and a half months for Phase 4. Assuming they go with that pace and the original phase progression, we'll have Phase 6/AQ in mid-December, and Phase 7/Naxx in late February, with a potential post-Naxx Phase 8 in April... SEVEN months from now. That's a pretty long time to wait for brand new raid content, assuming Phase 8 is when we start getting brand new raids. I suppose they could launch one of the new raids with AQ instead of waiting until after Naxx to do all the brand-new raids? AQ is traditionally a "skip phase" for a lot of people. Lots of people from my 2019 Classic guild hated AQ so they took a break during that phase and came back for Naxx. I feel like Phase 6 would be the right time for them to launch a brand-new raid to stop some of the bleeding. The thing I'm afraid of is that even more people will lose interest and stop caring before we even get to see any of that new stuff. I understand that the devs can't just tell us what their whole plan is, but uncertainty about the future is a big reason why people have & will stop playing SoD

[@malarkfpv1165]

And even if you have everything in Era at lvl 60 and all BIS items, it's always fun to start a new character from 0

[@MrCoolkille94]

Thats when the real game begins , time to make a name of yourselfe to the other faction.

[@Mordak1989]

That's kind of where I'm at. I'm waiting for a more permanent mode which I hope Classic+ will be.

[@lugrandgg]

Dude I totally agree with you, and I'm feeling the same thing on Retail. I play the season, do everything that I can, and then I just stop playing.

[@earlybirdrogue6392]

I would agree, but we aren't close to end game. Phase 4 just started, and I don't see there being less than 9 phases.

[@hiperzone]

Darkshore is one of my favourite zones.

[@chicity7585]

I 100% agree. I don't even raid log cause being older now I don't want to commit the time and investment into raiding. What I enjoy and have enjoyed in MMO's is gold making, professions, and being out in the world. I have close to 10K gold between my toons in SOD but it being seasonal there is no point on stockpiling gold. I have not even stepped in MC in SOD. ATM I am just leveling an alt so I can be out in the world finding and selling stuff.

[@galeitiaa]

Not going to lie....im ready to play TBC again. Got robbed from my experience with season of mastery releasing early into its life. hype

[@yates656]

I have fond memories of vanilla/TBC back in 2005-2008. Played classic vanilla re-release up until mid P5 when I just lost all steam for raiding/farming/PvPing and unsubbed. Sucks because I really wanted to do Naxx in P6 but I was just tired. I missed out on 95% of TBC rerelease because I quit playing at lvl 67 after the first week or so and didn't resub until a few weeks before wrath rerelease. I'd love to play TBC just to experience it again.

[@burnsilog3226]

after playing all available version, and currently playing retail (tww) - I still get the feeling of wanting a fresh era same reason you're saying that it will stay as it is forever as long blizzard lives and I agree to that. Someday I will be burnt in retail and I know it will happen when that day comes. I will come back to era.

[@patrickdupont8001]

Era in EU is packed atleast, very alive and feels immersive, i hope a TBC server will come. ERA that is.

[@1bhitte]

Part of the problem is the lack of players creates more lack of players.

[@trawll8659]

Season of Discovery's most interesting aspect was the leveling and finding cool runes in the world, the mini-raids were a cool idea I never got to experience because I was exploring the world and looking for potential new secrets and didn't get on the train on time.

[@kerokupo]

sod is made for people who dont love vanilla

[@SaltyGammon567]

On my SOD PVE server, ALL the zones up to about LVL 40 have 50 players in them, my EU server is poppin.

[@Evilelmerfudd]

Hardcore classic ❤ I've been having a great time . Alot of scary moments, always looking around, preparing for your next grind level. Do crazy challenges for your run to 60❤

[@porsche-overtake-dude]

I take a break, maybe 2 months. I am and was always a pure vanilla lover, was hardcore from first time 2005 in EU and now casual. But still vanilla is my favorite no. 1 so I am happy, that they don't touch the era servers mainly. Population is always king in azeroth and i am happy on firemaw cluster. Best mix of anonymous and community feeling, you choose the guild environment that fits to your personality. When I got a cha. to my personal max. I lvl again. Since 20 years now. And I still love it. Vanilla is a timless Masterpiece. The begin of the end of vanilla gameplay was introducing flyingmounts in tbc.

[@VonoMoon]

SOD was a letdown for me and a realization that the Dev team is incompetent when it comes to delivering a Classic+. Therefore my time is best spent in Era where they promised not to touch.

[@swapdrap]

Agree with you

[@markblaze4909]

They ruined it with boosts and fast leveling. Too op. Easy mode e

[@BlindingSun_]

What’s Era? I only play retail so I’m out of the loop

[@kevinjohansson4941]

i totally agree with you, I want to feel that my progression wont go away. so that its time well invested. Also Tbc was the best for me, i really want one server that isnt seasonal open. so i can finally complete the game my way and just enjoy.

[@drenth27]

I play on wild growth. I have been seeing from like 9am-7pm just 1 layer, but from 7pm-4am, it spikes up to 9 layers.

[@wheeze9378]

I am very confused about the "SoD being seasonal" statement and it being a problem, when they've clearly told us that they will make sure our characters will live on in a permanent server, even after SoD has 'ended', meaning we will be able to keep playing and speedrun whatever content is available, or even level up new characters. How is this any different to Classic Era, which is also living on after it's 'content end' ? I feel just as attached and motivated to invest in my characters in SoD, than I do in Classic Era. I rly don't see the difference.

[@Rathenau0]

There isn't, it's a very strange statement. Seems like these people are trying to fool themselves with silly reasoning.

[@el3ndir97]

Its odd 😅 Its gona take looong time till we get to Naxx And seasonal is so much better than normal server it feels like long journey/adventure were we got multiple endgame phases instead of just rush 60 then go Mc Raiding is so much better too some call it "meta" gaming but i do like that dungeons are faster raids are faster and people actual put effort to their gear and consumables. Where as normal classic 40man snoozefest

[@shadowprotacal5482]

​@@el3ndir97just cause your classic era raids didn't care doesn't mean they all don't have you ever tried hc raiding everyone goes 120%

[@bradleyhuneycutt4847]

Great job!!

[@germanshepherdsiblings]

what realms are we looking at for the classic era servers and what time of day?

[@Phyx1u5]

started turtle wow. impressed so far, the devs seem to have a better understanding of what people/I want for classic+ than blizzard does

[@michaelmller4582]

Problem with turtlewow is the absolute dogshit of a client its running on.. Needing VanillaTweaks etc to run just - ok.. sadly

[@BobbyFlay14]

@@michaelmller4582it’s going onto unreal next year

[@byteme0000]

I’ve been playing Classic (Era) since September 2019 when it was released. To this day, so many zones, including the starting and noob zones, are so full of players that there is often competition for mobs… even with Blizzard’s fancy dynamic respawn mechanic. Nothing beats WoW Classic. It isn’t perfect-no game is-but Blizzard hit it out of the park with OG Vanilla.

[@joseanrodriguez2005]

is this season fo disovey live now is like remix ?

[@eccerop92]

Went back to HC a week ago. Leveling a warrior !

[@Beastmann3d]

Retail makes everything so trivial that it's hard to invest in it

[@alsardar2740]

I've been playing season of discovery recently, and it's been a blast! I play on lone wolf EU and the server feels completely alive

[@honestjason7854]

one of my biggest regrets was not copying my paladin and other characters to classic era. The fact that season of discovery will end really killed my interest in the first phase

[@KyRivals]

What has changed in the last 4 weeks? I tried player era and it was a ghost town then recently went to sod and can find low level dungeon groups pretty easy

[@mudskipp]

Spot on, as a forty year old dad with 2 kids and working full time I love era,I’m never behind and can play an hour here and then on weekends put some hours in and to be able to raid pretty much when ever I want I can. No schedule just jump in and pug that shit.

[@gunnarjohansen6669]

The seasonal treadmill of wow was the main reason I stopped and shifted to OSRS. Only reason im back for a little is classic anniversary HC with a couple coworkers

[@wolfreich1672]

You Sir vocalized exactly my thoughts, I wish for some time for retail to be not seasonal. The seasonal rotation gives mmos a not needed stress factor and then you are burned out only do raids/Mythics. Same goes for vanilla/Classic

[@Rossman518]

i feel the same. it hit after phase 3. i knew going in that the "seasonal" nature would eventually be an issue as we got to level 60 but because phase 3 was so poor I never even made it that far. im kind of relieved that i didn't go all in on the level 60 BiS grind and attunements.

[@TheRealNytefox]

Spot on man, I recently went back to Era on Whitemane over every other version

[@РоманЗверев-з9с]

I agree with the general idea. Permanency of my character is one of the biggest reasons I log in retail sometimes even thought I don't like it. Just because I have so much old, unique and unavailable stuff I feel good. I feel like SoD is a playground or a sandbox for the developers to make Classic+ good, so I invest time to it just to become a "statistics" so they know what part of the game is good. Playing SoD for like me paying money to be an QA and maybe influence the future of the game :D

[@Plaguecaller]

I agree completely. I quit as soon as I hit 60 because the remainder of things to do was just raid logging and what is the point if it's seasonal.

[@Mshepard18]

Think day and time plays a huge part in this. I just checked all those zones at 8:50pm on a Tuesday for WG and all were above 47, most 50 except darkshore

[@gscgold]

I quit the first week of season of discovery and I decided to start over. I can tell you that it's pretty empty in the lower level zones... I was kind of shocked to be honest I wasn't expecting to be basically alone leveling up in Elwyn forest

[@okaccino]

SOD is also supposed to be leveling up different characters. but its difficult enough to even find dungeons for your low level alts.

[@KippoKupo]

I was gonna play SoD but they said it isn't perm so I figured whats the point? That plus the low pop ruined it for me.

[@solidghost4525]

HC classic is the future of wow for sure. That’s an mmorpg experience. You log out and genuinely tell your friend not to do anything stupid. And sing songs of hero’s come and gone.

[@davidwoods3057]

So im a horde player on whitemane. I dont have an alliance past lvl 22. But i made an alliance druid on bigglesworth to have my own "fresh" experience in a way. I havent had this much fun in a while.

[@Cirathos]

Classic, TBC, and Wrath. That would be the only three expansions I want to play.

[@HpacEastern]

I liked some of the new features and abilities in SoD. I wanted to explore them more but with all the experience boosts you get your level out of an area way to quickly and have to leave an area partly finished and move on to keep pace with your leveling experience in a zone.

[@kokorochin01]

Imagine loving ''every version of the game'' when Retail is absolute dogshit...

[@hammerdancegaming]

How many hours have you logged in the war within?

[@kokorochin01]

@@hammerdancegaming I don't need to log into it to know, wtf. I've been following the game extensively since 2005. It's not the game design philosophies that I enjoy and respect, and it has become the complete opposite of Classic WoW. Like what is wrong with you, are you retarded ? Cash shop, wow token, boosts, mounts, random dungeon finder, endless casualization, layering, sharding, megaservers, all classes being able to do everything, etc etc etc etc. The list goes on and on and on. But now I know you're stupid and not someone I should follow when it comes to Classic, in fact you're the enemy.

[@Jelyck]

@@hammerdancegamingive tried TWW, gave it an honest shot. I used to play wow retail and did up to Legion before i quit also. If i had to give how many hours I’ve played TWW, id say maybe 150-200 ish. My issue with TWW was every time I logged on, I felt this overwhelming dread come over me, knowing I had to do these menial tasks that really do not amount to anything and it dissuaded me from staying online for more than an hour~. Everything was so fast pase, no one talked to me, guilds were not necessary so i didnt even bother looking for one. Plus i remember how blizzard treated content back in legion, the tasks u do, the gear you get, it all becomes obsolete the moment a new patch hits and blizzard introduces a catch up mechanic, so It just felt like a mouse on a wheel for me. Crafting…… The crafting system is COMPLETELY different from what I remember and it is SO complicated i had to read these 20 minute guides, if i could find any, on how to use the crafting system. Mythic + was pretty fun, I think that was something blizzard did well and kept well, pvp was weird, and every time i did damage it felt like i wasnt actually doing damage. I need a thesis before i can actually do damage. Everything was so accessible and yet i didnt know what to do, 20 different methods of getting gear, 90% of which was vendor trash, so the time investment wasn’t rewarded. It incentivized me to NOT do these tasks that i said were menial and useless, because i was still rewarded for not playing more than 5-10 hours a week. The model was so off putting I ended up uninstalling it and just played era. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@koopakape]

Completely 100% agree. SoD more than ANYTHING needed to be a permanent, slow-burn server to push people to take their time and actually explore the world and hang out and relax, it fit the theme perfectly, but no, within a week all info was out there for everyone to instantly absorb and instantly go get every rune and instantly be at max level doing nothing but raiding the latest raid-ified old dungeon over and over. Utterly destroyed the concept of the server that was SO appealing to me and thousands of others who DON'T want 'rush to endgame care about nothing but the latest raid tier buy powerleveling buy gold etc etc etc" garbage that has *ruined* most other versions of the game.

[@Complication84]

I'm playing retail for the new expac. I stopped playing SoD at phase 3. I was expecting something different from what we got. I played Twow a long time and that was a lot of fun, but the chinese bots made playing there miserable. The thing that made me stop SoD was it felt like a chore instead of a fun adventure. The runes were fresh for phase 1/2, but became a pain in the ass after that. Especially for new characters I made. The incursions destroyed leveling. I've never been a raider either so there is nothing to lure me in to continue playing. I'm an old boomer quester/dungeoneer. I like to wander around the world doing quests, having strange interactions with other people, and grinding dungeons for loot. SoD stripped all of that away with the features they added. I'll probably play War Within until it becomes boring and go back to classic or Twow if they don't get shut down.

[@wowclassicplus]

i thought that's what sod will be. with new content after nax?

[@geoff3758]

I feel the exact same man, so much the only time I played sod p4 is on the ptr. My warrior is still stuck at level 50 😂

[@Layman927]

This is the first video of yours I’ve watched. Started a new mage on era a couple days before watching this video. Got invited to a guild right away and they gave me bags and 2 wands to start out. The community and leveling journey on era is really unmatched. Nail in the coffin for SOD for me is blizzard not allowing transfers from pvp to pve servers. Can’t be asked to reroll my toons with how alt unfriendly SOD is and also am just sick of being hunted as the minority faction. Shame because I would give phase 5 a shot but I’m done getting farmed on the way to any max level instance I want to run. Blizzard should really open transfers from pvp to pve servers, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

[@bolem3821]

You are absolutely right about that. I've stopped playing at the end of phase 3, tried a little phase 4, but abandoned it after wasting 40 minutes deathrunning to BRD. I’ve been thinking about going back to WoW, either retail or SOD, and I see no point in going back to SOD as I feel my time would be wasted, and progress lost in a few months. I don’t like overcomplication of retail so the next blizzard game I play probably will be diablo 4 expansion.

[@eivinassmolskis2507]

Started Turtle WoW , way impressive, what Blizzard done for last 10 years!

[@ToManyTwinkies]

The classic era servers were server link with other servers you can see in the video @ 3:55 so it can't be a true comparison I would love to see the video again when the mega server come out

[@markblaze4909]

Hey man. Can you comment on the pvp servers ratio because im prettty sure the issue is that thereis no balanced server Besides the obvious boosting farming and cheating problem

[@nicoledriscoll1984]

I like that progression idea up through Wotlk then restart, which Robert rambles also suggested. I’d love to raid karazahn again. Show me where we can suggest this idea to blizzard I’ll sign up! 😀

[@ShibbiSweet]

As someone really wanting a fresh TBC, I’ve heard a lot asking for at least a TBC seasonal, but I’ve had the same concern. Needs to be permanent. When you see the light at the end of the tunnel, there’s no desire to keep playing or make an alt.

[@mitchconner2021]

I stopped SoD in P3 and I miss it but I dont miss the raid log and parse meta.. I wanna play again but really dont wanna mess with all that stuff again..

[@gunthar4161]

The reason why I dont make alts on SOD is the runes. Having runes is fun, but collecting them is HORRIBLE. I really cant get my self to start a new char and collect al those runes again. I rather level three times slower on era than collect runes on SOD. The only thing needed to make SOD great is that you can pick up runes at your class trainer

[@waterhot80]

Another huge reason for drops is because most people wanted to just experience WoW Vanilla, TBC, and WotLK again (or for the first time) and then quit again forever. I was one of those people. SoD was interesting for a little bit but got kinda boring after the first phase. It just felt too much like 'Well I've already done this content, I'm just doing it again but slightly differently' - that has retail vibes and I'm not a fan. The whole world boss stuff as well, once you know it wasn't part of the original WoW trilogy, it just doesn't seem worth it to put the time and effort in to complete it.

[@WhiteMalay]

The only thing that could get me to play SOD is if my guild mates decide to return, dont really feel like making new friends again. Good times though, was a blast for what it was

[@chainclaw07]

The only negative to larger servers are events like blarckrock eruption and there having to be like 8 layers and the world is still overcrowded and spawns become 5 seconds apart just from the amount of players on site. And that the lfg channel gets super overcrowded on raid night and peak hours

[@michaelthomas1916]

I've enjoyed SoD quit a lot. That beinv said, the final bosses in phase 2 & 3 raids were a bit mechanic heavy for casual quilds. My guild got burnt out from Hakkar and Ernikus, and stopped raiding a few weeks out from end of phase. While the zip to 50 with incursions was neat one time through, it sucked from an alt feeling obligated to do it for the gear. They should've been dailies from the get go of the phase. I can see why numbers took a hit with phase 3.

[@EdGrace]

I honestly don't think our characters are going to waste. I still have hope that they'll come up with some kind of Classic+ where you can transfer your characters there after a few months since the release, to let people experience a new fresh server without losing their progress. I do agree with you that WoW does not work in seasonal format. It's a game to come back after a few months of break and have your characters where you left them, and keep working in whatever you were working in when you last left. I find myself coming back to Classic Era every few months to play the game I fell in love with, with my characters from five years ago. Edit: This is why I left WotLK after Naxx. I guessed Cata was coming and I would not play those characters again.

[@Aveok]

100% agree in all points, this is the reason why i quit SoD in Phase 2. I saw that coming long ago.

[@TPGodlike]

100% agree allthough the anti vanilla crowd wont like it. There is a reason why people come back to 5 year old maxxed out broken Era servers over everything else after a certain time. And its not just seasonal, we allready saw that effect slightly towards the end of TBC, strongly towards the end of Wotlk and even stronger now with SoD. you hit the spot with your reference of how expansions and seasons tend to be more and more endgame focused while vanilla allways had that open world sandbox componend to it where you can have tons to do beside raidlogging.

[@StevenBonez]

vanilla is BIS

[@dragoncraft993]

One thing to consider is it’s 150%xp so you will not be in the leveling zones for that long.

[@goodvibe815]

Agree and lot go boosting until 60 because no one play leveling dungeons👍

[@douglaswinycius4859]

What about giving us max level and pre raid gear as well? or better! just delete the whole map and just leave the raids and arena/bg on it, it will totally work

[@dragoncraft993]

@@douglaswinycius4859 are you dumb or stupid? Am not saying it’s a good or a bad thing, but it might be a factor that plays in to why there is more people leveling as well as era effectively having 1 server. (Sod do to now)

[@civixYT]

Im abit of a casual andy, so i went back to classic era in p3, and i have been loving it, it feels like im not wasting my investment in the game, which means alot now that im older and time is “expensive” :)

[@unaddan]

okay but, why is there a server name behind the character name? is it mixed from all server? if so then, it's less player than SOD. SOD is the most enjoyable wow for me. the only wow that I love leveling alts.

[@IllutianKade]

FYI, Era might be going away. Some of the signs point to them making Era a 'Progression' format, where it'll stay with the "OG Trilogy" of Vanilla, TBC, and Wrath. But progress through them and then reset.

[@frozenwrath362]

Retail is infinite, either classic 1-60 private servers... other versions have expiration day like grocery products

[@BIueharvest]

i want classic+ to just add more stuff to level 60 content and rebalance the specs so that some are more viable like in SoD no new expacs, no increased level cap, little powercreep as possible. just incremental content drops, more mechanically challenging encounters etc

[@balitopic711]

i play on the highest pop server in sod and the game feels very dead lmao

[@hammerdancegaming]

@@balitopic711 same

[@bgh12g]

Amen... Amen. This is also me now with retail. I wait til the xpac goes on sale 50% then go play everything I can in the world and then I quit again. I just despise this chasing the carrot every couple months only for it to not mean jack.

[@hamir9652]

I am a player from Wild Growth EU server Horde. These are my three main reasons for not playing as an alt character: The Roadmap for the next 6 months is missing, so I can't decide whether to invest time or not. I am thinking of Classic + and the word "Season" does not mean that it will be long-term. The soloable rune system is missing, which if you can't get the runes on your own, is a bad concept from the start. Because then you will be referred to the help of other players. The player community is not built from ready-made pieces, but from independent players. The Alt character friendly system is missing, which motivates and rewards the player if you create an Alt character. For example, increasing experience points, increasing reputations, increasing gold and possibly currency.

[@bhaal1]

SOD is a test though, and as its bount to end they give massive xp boosts to push ppl to lvl up as fast as possible to experience the most of the season’s content while they can, which is why low level areas aren’t so populated. It takes much less time to up with all the new ways to xp in sod than in any other classic server. To me the mistake was the shift from wotlk classic to cata. Wotlk deserves its own permanent server aswell. As for SoD if people were to take their time as much as they can in era classic, they would just explore 1-2% of the content before its end, so to not let people feel it being a waste blizz pushes players’ up lvling, which kills lower level zones

[@emoussea1]

What makes seasonal content work in ARPG's (the closest thing to MMO?) is that the progression is much faster and the seasons are only a few months long...meaning the entire games content is completable within the time span of 1 phase of SoD. And you can do it completely solo. This is counter intuitive with the design of classic: slow progress over several months/years that requires others to complete. They would have to do something really drastic to make people truly be on board with seasonal classic wow. Best option for most classic enjoyers is to make classic+ similar to OSRS model.

[@DylanWilliams-g4r]

Pretty much in the same boat. Everyone is raid logging & playing retail or have just gone to retail. Phase 1 & to a lesser extent 2 were amazing and I'm wondering what the hell happened.

[@Sunkenlol]

Will it actually end, though?

[@stevenoest]

The question nobody thinks about. People likes to spew shit on "season" part rather than think about the "discovery" part brings. Jokes on them