New job = more time = more WoW.

[Sithos]

Got a new job awhile ago that leaves me with a decent amount of free time finally, so I got back into WoW and started raiding 4-5 nights a week 3-4 hours a night with a decent group of mature folks on a BC server. Reason I liked this guild was because our youngest was 26 and the oldest was late 50's and the average was 35-36 years old. We all had families and jobs, just regular joes with visions of phat loots! We joked, laughed,had a ton of fun and were very low on drama. We cleared Kara regularly (F Prince gimme mah dagger),Gruuls and start some of SSC. We kill lurker a few times,Hydross a few times,try Loot Reaver once and get him to 30ish % 2nd try (first was a bit of a disaster) so we decide we will come back next week (It was the last raid of the week and VR had been an afterthought so it was quite late) and own him.

Then the drama monster reared it's ugly head it seems and owned the hell outta us over the weekend. Guild Leader made mention of how brutal our servers progress was as compared to the more established servers. Members mentioned that this was a BC server yadda yadda and I guess it snowballed from there. I logged on the next raid night to see near half the guild is gone. So now the guild which just days before had voted to move Kara to "offday inguild pickup" so we can focus on SSC/TK is gonna be stuck in Kara for another month or two to gear up the 15 or so new recruits that we will have to somehow find. Guild Leader and his 3 buddies then all up and quit saying they were xferring to a guild that has MH/BT on farm.

So I'm gonna xfer my ally lock. Anyone have an actual breakdown of EST servers and when the server went live? WoWcensus is way off the mark on it's timezone listings as half the listed EST realms were not EST when I checked them out. Or if anyone can recommend a decently populated EST realm with some good mature PvE raid guilds and low drama that'd work also. My FSW/T4 gear is crap compared to you folks running round on established servers in your T6 guilds so I'm likely stuck looking at one of the newer servers that came out when BC did if I want to find a guild to progress with.

[Arlos]

Sithos, Stormrage is an initial release east coast server were a chunk of ex-LOS went. I think Tilric & Xalxin are there (as Satrina and Xalix, respectively). Pretty sure Beorge is there too, and on the few times she plays, Dorana's there as well. Might be worth stopping by there to check it out. I'm sure past associations, and the fact they actually know you, could get you around any gear difficulties you may have. This is, of course, assuming you play Alliance. Dunno who plays horde anywhere.

I used to be there, but have since transferred to a west coast server, since I couldn't make raid times on an EST server any more.

Anyway, they've got some very long established guilds, of all levels, including, I am sure, some that are still progressing.

-Arlos

[Maeya]

Durotan is also a EST day 1 server, however I can tell you *not* to transfer there. They opened up free transfers on our server when we were overpopulated, and now it's crippled the server. Progression is slow. I think we *finally* had an alliance guild or two break into Mt. Hyjal. Horde:Alliance ratio is something stupid like 1:6, not that it matters so much for BG anymore w/ X-server queues, but still.

[Granh]

Durotan is also a EST day 1 server, however I can tell you *not* to transfer there. They opened up free transfers on our server when we were overpopulated, and now it's crippled the server. Progression is slow. I think we *finally* had an alliance guild or two break into Mt. Hyjal. Horde:Alliance ratio is something stupid like 1:6, not that it matters so much for BG anymore w/ X-server queues, but still.

If you're just getting used to Gruuls / SSC type stuff Durotan might actually be a decent place for you. Assuming you would like to actually experience "lower" raids vs walking into a farm guild. (boring) There's not just a whole lot of BT/Hyjal guilds here yet so you could likely find a guild doing Gruul/SSC/TK to get into and start building DKP before hitting end game. I've also got a close friend in a BT/Hyjal guild here I could get you in touch with, but their raid time generally stats at midnight I think.

As Maeya stated however, the server as a whole has been pretty behind on progression. Great IMO for transferring in, but sucks going forward as even our highest guilds are months behind some servers.

[Tikker]

I don't understand why people care about progression races in WoW

everything is instanced, so just go at your own pace, and enjoy it

[Lyion]

Certain people live vicariously through WOW. So accomplishments mean more as does the epeen comparison thing.

Lord knows I was idiotic and did the Epeen thing in EQ, but have been a tad wiser post 2001 and solely game occasionally for fun.

[Harrison]

Competition in EQ was more legitimate.

With instancing, it's just a faggoty wannabe competition.

[Sithos]

I'm not overly concerned about progression to an extent. Now having said that, would I rather be raiding endgame (T6) content instead of the mid-game (T5) content? Most certainly, but my objective is to get in a mature raid oriented guild. I'd certainly fit in better in a T5 guild than I would a T6 due to my gear. But then again those that have T6 content on farm can literally gear up a candidate in a relatively short timespan if they so choose. So for me as a wannabe raider it's a tossup. I'll just be happy raiding anything thats SSC/TK or beyond as to me thats what makes the game enjoyable.

[Arlos]

There used to be inter-server competition on mobs back in EQ too, even though each server was effectively its own instance. There's nothing wrong with having a certain amount of pride of being in a guild that is able to figure out and kill new encounters faster than other guilds.

Having your life revolve around it is another thing entirely, but comparing progression speed is understandable.

-Arlos

[Tikker]

There used to be inter-server competition on mobs back in EQ too, even though each server was effectively its own instance. There's nothing wrong with having a certain amount of pride of being in a guild that is able to figure out and kill new encounters faster than other guilds.

Having your life revolve around it is another thing entirely, but comparing progression speed is understandable.

-Arlos

racing in EQ at least made a bit of sense, as there was a real benefit to getting their first

(if you didn't you just didn't get a shot at it)

the only reason I can see for racing ahead is that then you don't have dipshits in the guild reading other guilds pages and ruining the learning experience for everyone else by spoiling/batphoning in the strats (that's 99% of the reason I quit wow)

[Kaemon]

I'm gonna assume you're alliance. Post on the LoS boards to get in touch with Kyntaro/Kensei for his Anvilmar guild or go here http://www.ravageguild.net/

They're doing real well, with low to medium drama.

[brinstar]

I don't understand why people care about progression races in WoW

everything is instanced, so just go at your own pace, and enjoy it

agreed. our ally guild on whisperwind can't scrape together the numbers to do 25man content, though we've been clearing KZ every week for months. we get new people, they stick around a while, then the more tenured members get bored with lack of progress and move on. if everyone that left to find a guild further along in the progression had stayed instead, we'd BE there already. as it is, we're locked in a cycle of constantly gearing up recruits and it kinda sucks. our peak so far is getting gruul to 1% health. haven't tried magtheridon or SSC/TK at all.

while i'm making this post, i guess i'll go ahead and say that if any of you want a semi-casual raiding guild on a CST server we could probably use all the help we can get

[Lyion]

There used to be inter-server competition on mobs back in EQ too, even though each server was effectively its own instance. There's nothing wrong with having a certain amount of pride of being in a guild that is able to figure out and kill new encounters faster than other guilds.

Having your life revolve around it is another thing entirely, but comparing progression speed is understandable.

Especially when one has a batphone or Brad Mcquaid himself in ones guild.

Competition in MMOs is, was, and has always been idiotic. Again, it's solely an Epeen thing.

[Jay]

Competition in EQ was more legitimate.

With instancing, it's just a faggoty wannabe competition.

I agree. Its much more fun rushing a mob or pulling some shenanigans to get to mobs. Politics made the game fun too.

[Harrison]

I enjoyed the pressure that if we fucked up on the encounter that guild X, Y, and Z were on the way to mop it up on our corpses.

WoW is so carebear it's sickening at times. I play it every few months on a private server now to kill boredom and quit after getting bored again. I want more challenge in my typical activities in-game.

[Tikker]

I liked WoW just fine before people started spoiling encounters, etc

I found the boss zone raids a lot of fun, but they were painfully boring/easy once you knew what to expect

[Lyion]

I don't understand why people care about progression races in WoW

everything is instanced, so just go at your own pace, and enjoy it

agreed. our ally guild on whisperwind can't scrape together the numbers to do 25man content, though we've been clearing KZ every week for months. we get new people, they stick around a while, then the more tenured members get bored with lack of progress and move on. if everyone that left to find a guild further along in the progression had stayed instead, we'd BE there already. as it is, we're locked in a cycle of constantly gearing up recruits and it kinda sucks. our peak so far is getting gruul to 1% health. haven't tried magtheridon or SSC/TK at all.

while i'm making this post, i guess i'll go ahead and say that if any of you want a semi-casual raiding guild on a CST server we could probably use all the help we can get

Move to Horde, and I'm there~

As of know I'm doing PVP/Arena's a bit with my Shaman. They're great fun.

I'd like to try a few other classes, but lack the fortitude to level again.

[Arlos]

Actually, after my experiences in LOS back in the day, I don't find much difference between the instancing in WOW and how it was in EQ. Generally, LOS was frequently so far ahead no one else was even thinking of touching the content yet. For example, see VP back in Kunark where we were raping the whole zone and Sanc, at #2, was posting that "They almost have enough keyed people to hold the zone-in". Same thing happened with TOV in Velious, VT in Luclin & PoTime in POP. Even in stuff that was contested, few other guilds could one-shot stuff, so we'd just steamroll in after they died and take it anyway. (and yes, heh, sometimes even before they died, see: Klandicar incident. rofl) The only time we routinely lost out on anything was when someone had a massive time zone advantage. (see: Remedy). Oh sure, there are some exceptions, but those're drops in the bucket.

Oh sure, there's less politics and less drama the way it is in WOW, since you really can't steamroll people like you could in EQ, but I didn't worry about losing mobs then, and still don't now, so fundamentally, things're still the same. If I really wanted to race for stuff, there have been non-instanced world bosses to fight over for quite a while: Kazzak and Doomwalker right now, or the green dragons back pre-BC when everyone needed NR for AQ. (Or hell, Azuregos and the original Kazzak, if you want to go back to MC era).

So, anyway, while I realize my experience isn't typical, nevertheless, I quite enjoy WOW, even without that paranoia feeling that people who weren't in LOS seem to have felt in EQ.

-Arlos

[Jay]

There used to be inter-server competition on mobs back in EQ too, even though each server was effectively its own instance. There's nothing wrong with having a certain amount of pride of being in a guild that is able to figure out and kill new encounters faster than other guilds.

Having your life revolve around it is another thing entirely, but comparing progression speed is understandable.

Especially when one has a batphone or Brad Mcquaid himself in ones guild.

Competition in MMOs is, was, and has always been idiotic. Again, it's solely an Epeen thing.

What made encounters and mobs so fun and more valuable were their limited appearances and the fact that they were sought after. I loved logging on and /guild What mobs are up? Oh, Fennin is up? Rally our shit before Remedy beats us there.

Yeah it wasn't fun being on the losing end of boss mob rushes and such but it added a whole nother dynamic to the game. It made the game hit closer to home because not everything was available for you to have all the time. The other part of it, yeah epeen.

[Reynaldo]

Makes me sick actually to think how much RL time I wasted checking spawns and sitting at boss spawn points to "claim the spawn" and pray to get 30 people there before guild_002 did sitting on the other side of the room.

[Kramer]

yeah. if only we could have been in the bestest guild, then we would always have fun and never be sad or mad and always be glad...

i say just drop $800 clamzz and grab this guy, no worries, a real timesaver dudezzz

http://www.accountsbay.com/Details.aspx ... meCode=013

[Lyion]

Makes me sick actually to think how much RL time I wasted checking spawns and sitting at boss spawn points to "claim the spawn" and pray to get 30 people there before guild_002 did sitting on the other side of the room.

Guild 002 was usually us, who'd show up with 20 mixed melee types, 9 casters, and 1 cleric...

I love the fact WOW is moving more and more to 10 man content. I really wish a new game'd come along that offered something fun and innovative, with a community MMO fantasy feel, but without the garbage stuff. Shadowbane's class system with DAOC's PVP, with UO's skill system, with Lineage's conquering and siege system, with WOW's leveling and quest system, with AC2s open ended cities, and SWG's crafting. The perfect MMO!

[Sithos]

I'd rather see the next "big MMO" to have no classes at all. Just skill trees. Having a class based system however "loose" it is, still restricts you to a certain role within the game. In EQ I was a wizard and I was limited to whatever a wizard could do ingame. But in a skill based game I am not limited like that. The only limit would be say having finite points or diminishing returns at higher point totals.

I'd also like to see players being able to own their own inns,shops or whatnot (and them actually be very viable due to only the absolute basics being sold by NPC's throughout the game world,rest is player made) so that I as a player don't have to go out and farm for my plat/gold/zenny or whatnot. Instead I can stock my Inn,Tavern,Weapon Shop or whatnot and log off and possibly make some coin while I sleep or work.

Maybe one day...

[Tikker]

I'd rather see the next "big MMO" to have no classes at all. Just skill trees. .

that's UO

you end up with the same 4,5,6 cookie cutter "classes" because unless you have abilities A,B,C and D you can't possibly survive against someone else that does have them

when everyone was n00bs, people had a ton of fun with fiddling with all the different skills, until a few people started putting together good builds and just wtfpwning absolutely everything and everyone

to combat that, you ended up with really like 4 maybe 5 classes

pure mages, tank mages(by far the most common), archers, and melee/parry class

it's kinda like WoW talents
sure, you could have 137452351 different builds, but realistically, you end up with 95% of people using 1 of 3 builds for their class

[Sithos]

Ya, I played UO for a bit and understand what your getting at Tikk. I know though that with enough work a viable skill based system can be had that wont involve 3-4 or so "Prime builds" but again as I said it'll be a ton of work and testing to balance it all.