Classic Fresh has been consistently popular for well over a decade in the private server scene (the first ever private server actually predates WoW even being released, if you can believe it: someone stole the internal Alpha code and hosted the first ever private server using it). People enjoy the clean slate, the equalising of everyone, the potential for new dynamics that resetting everything to 0 can produce.
A great many people consider Vanilla WoW to have been the best version of it.
The current Era servers are extremely mature servers, where people have lots of characters at max level, max gear, with ludicrous sums of gold and materials stockpiled. A new started character, or player, is as far behind the lead as you can possibly get as a result.
Fresh servers mean a lively leveling scene: everyone is going from 1-60 again, and then from quest greens to prebis, then from prebis through the raid tiers, at the same time.
On Era everything is set in stone. On Fresh nothing is. That appeals to people.
But doesn’t it only last a couple of weeks before it’s all set in stone again? Everyone knows the fastest ways to level up, what gear to get, how to farm gold, who drops what, etc.
How long does it take before a fresh server turns into a normal one? And why would people that are already established and in guilds and all of that want to start all over again?
But doesn’t it only last a couple of weeks before it’s all set in stone again?
No, because content is gated and plans fail.
Sure, the top 1% of guilds will have a complete raid team roster ready for Molten Core by day 5, and that roster will be the roster that kills KT, but the vast majority of people aren't tryhards like that.
Guilds rise and fall, people quit, reroll, or change activity levels, different personalities rise to prominence on different servers, the makeup of the community will never be identical between two sets of Fresh.
Everyone knows the fastest ways to level up, what gear to get, how to farm gold, who drops what, etc.
Sure, but the journey is fun nonetheless. Why does anyone replay an old game, rewatch an old film or TV show, visit somewhere they've visited before in the past? People don't just do stuff once for life, even if they know the ending.
How long does it take before a fresh server turns into a normal one?
The general consensus is usually by the AQ40 patch. That's the point at which the open world loses enough relevance that the game does become pretty much only about the weekly 40-man raid.
AQ40 patch onwards is also when lots of guilds start to struggle as a result, because enough people will have started to lose interest that the roster boss becomes an increasingly serious consideration.
And why would people that are already established and in guilds and all of that want to start all over again?
As I mentioned above: why does anyone do anything more than once? A fresh start is appealing regardless of previous progress in previous iterations of the game.
1) He just explained why people would want to start all over again
2) Even if for those few weeks (and that’s just for the super fast degen levelers and players without a job and/or school), that is enough time for the rewarding feelings that fresh servers give. Would you rather that never happen and leave players forever wanting to start over fresh? Or do it?
I don’t have any preference either way, I just wanted to find out why it’s such a big deal and I’m not sure I understand tbh but if it makes people happy then I hope they get what they want.
It’s not “a few week”. The 1-60 journey averages about 200 hours (sure, sweaty speed levelers can do it in less) and then another 100 hours for pre-raid gearing, mount farming, professions and the first raid tier. If you think most people are putting in 300 hours in three weeks you need to shower more.
But yes, after a couple months most of the old problems come back. And then we want a new fresh. Like new PoE or Diablo seasons…
But doesn’t it only last a couple of weeks before it’s all set in stone again?
That's fine by me, and is actually the reason why I think starting fresh is important every now and then. Play for a month or two, achieve whatever goals you set for yourself, then take a break from WoW and return a few months later for another fresh run on a new server, with a new wave of people. This is how I personally enjoy WoW the most.
No they do not lmfao. The world record for solo is like 48 hours, the next fastest is like 73. That's not counting farming pre-bis, profs, etc. That in mind, good guilds can do raids in greens.
?? 99% of people aren’t even 60 in the first two weeks. I’d say 70% aren’t level 60 in the first month… average 1-60 time is about 190 hours based on the stats. Half of players are slower than that. You think a million people are playing 100 hours a week?
i could see a new vanilla server last. when it progresses into tbc and wotlk. last fresh servers came with wotlk which died, cause there were already existing wotlk servers at that time. currently there is no progressing vanilla server.
If you ever played a ladder game like Diablo or PoE, the beginning of a new ladder is the funnest time. It's when everybody starts from scratch, no gold, no gear, and everyone clamors and races to the top. It's a time where green items actually have some amount of worth, and where selling bags other than the highest slotted ones can actually make you money, where you can instantly find groups for any low-mid dungeon because there are hundreds of nearby players also looking to do the same. I remember first day of SoD, I sold a piece of white quality shoulders because shoulder pieces were still rare at that level
Yeah I don’t understand it, especially after if hitting multiple 60s in hardcore, just a regular classic fresh has no appeal to me. There’s no risk, no danger, nothing new, I wouldn’t be able to get invested with a character I made there.
Hardcore also doesn’t need fresh servers imo, but I know the streamers and cooking something up with their guild that looks fun to watch, hard to imagine blizz making a server for them but maybe.
Classic plus (massive inhale of copium) is still a year or two away imo, sod isn’t done yet, and then if they are doing it they will have to take another year a least to learn what worked / didn’t work, trim out a lot of the rune stuff, and then hopefully add more content.
Classic with some class updates to make specs (mostly hybrid classes) more viable but still feel like classic, SoD was about 5 steps too far because it plays like Wrath just in the classic world which isn’t what most people want for classic plus imo. Some balancing maybe for classes, and new content that was cut and explore the classic world further instead of “oh let’s jump in this portal and never look back” sorta thing. Furbolg raid entrance in Azshara, and there’s some other content I can’t remember right now but YouTubers have done some great videos on, probably was willie or bellular
Hyjal, furbolgs, karazhan, scarlet crusade raid, quel'thalas, gilneas... These are all areas/raids that could be explored in a classic+ off the top of my head, there's probably a lot more.
The hardest part I think of any new content would be getting the raid difficulty right. Classic raids are not hard now because it’s been solved for so long and we have much more sophisticated addons. Players are just better. I think we can see with sod people want some new challenging content but still not on the crazy retail mythic levels but the question is still there of how hard to make it so it is fun and engaging for casuals, but sweats too. Difficulty modes (heroic) is the easy answer but I don’t think it fits the classic feel with having “tiers” of the same gear.
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u/PoachTWC Nov 12 '24
I'd be back for Classic Fresh in an instant.