drakthul
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Breakfast Topic: How realms evolve (or don't)
While writing a recent news post on Blizzard's decision to open free transfers to Drak'thul, I nosed around the server's forums to see what the inhabitants thought of the coming flood. As a server that was converted from a PvP to PvE realm, opened to transfers, and listed as a Recommend realm to boot, Drak'thul's undergone a fairly drastic set of changes, and all within a short period of time. As you'd expect, player feelings on the subject were mixed, but there was one former Drak'thul player who really got my attention. Drak'thul, he/she claimed, had been home to some of "the most mean-spirited PvP (he'd) ever experienced on ANY realm." It sounded like a tall claim, but there are a lot of other threads on the forum with oblique confirmations; players recall Alliance towns and quest NPCs "being camped 24/7," and holiday events and Alliance leveling zones being swarmed by opportunistic Horde players. Drak'thul became a low-pop server with a murderous faction imbalance -- Warcraft Realms listed the server's active population as 94% Horde before transfers were opened -- and I wonder how much of that be traced to the relentless ganking and camping campaigns three years ago. I look at realms like Cho'gall with equally crushing faction imbalances, some of which started out with fairly balanced faction ratios, and wonder -- how the hell does this happen? What spurs the departure of so many players from a specific faction? Is it really that simple as a relatively small number of players exercising such an impact on what happens to everyone on the server?
Free realm transfers announced
Blizzard poster Turrit announced yesterday that free realm transfers are being made available to address faction imbalance and overpopulation issues on the following PvE realms: Aggramar (Alliance only) Area 52 (Horde only) Blackhand Hellscream Stormrage (Alliance only) Thrall (Horde only) Undermine Destination realm: Drak'thul The free transfer period will run from Tuesday, May 25 (today) to Tuesday, June 1 at 11:00 a.m. PDT. However, Turrit did make a point of mentioning that Blizzard has a transfer goal in mind, and if it's reached, they may shut the free transfers down early. If you're on any of the affected realms and have been considering a transfer, this might be a good chance to save yourself $25. To my surprise, it turns out Drak'thul was actually a PvP realm until very recently, and after a quick look at WoW Progress's list of U.S. realms, I have to agree it looks like the server needs some love. While it's possible the page hasn't been updated, it's apparent that the Drak'thul's raiders are struggling -- and there's some rather illuminating commentary in this thread (I'll grant I can't verify the accuracy) on how some of the server's troubles may have gotten their start. Two things come to mind: Blizzard's observations a year ago concerning only PvP realms being low-pop, and: what's happening on Cho'gall. Interesting. The full announcement is past the cut.
Free realm transfers available for select EU realms
Earlier today, Thundgot of the offiical EU forums announced a couple of free character migrations for EU PvP realms. The transfers are an attempt to move some players from a few overly populated PvP realms to some that could use a little help. These transfers are available from December 17th (yesterday) to December 23rd. The open transfers are:From: Burning Legion, Drak'thul, Sylvanas To: Ahn'Qiraj, Burning Blade, XaviusFrom: Magtheridon (Horde only)To: Haomarush, Zenedar
Maintenance for June 17th will be short
Here's a heads-up to all our North American night owls early risers and Oceanic readers: It's Tuesday morning, and that means maintenance. Luckily, it's a short one today. Bornakk has said that they expect most servers to only be down a half hour, starting at 5AM PDT and ending a 5:30AM PDT. There are some extra servers that will be down slightly longer, until 6:30AM PDT. Those servers will be listed after the break. Aussies can rejoice as well, as any Oceanic servers not on this list won't be taken down until 5AM AEST (Which is noon over here on the American west coast). For the list of servers that will have a longer downtime, read on:
And the award for world's worst WoW player goes to...
Now I don't mean to make fun-- maybe this poor guy just hasn't had a lot of experience operating a keyboard or playing videogames. Maybe he just hasn't quite yet or just isn't able to pick up the skills to play this game.But when Lynyrd, a 64 Orc Hunter on Drak'thul, puts up a PvP whine post on the forums about how he was killed and camped by a 34 warlock, you just have to wonder what's happening there. A few replies in, there's a mention of more players joining in to the fight (apparently Lynyrd was helping a few lowbie friends when they decided to gang up on some Alliance), but when all the dust has cleared, it really looks like a 64 hunter somehow got taken down by a 38 lock and a 37 priest. Lynyrd makes another appearance later in the thread (after a few more illegible posts by the interested parties, I'm ready to call shenanigans on all of this, but it's still funny), and posts his spec, which is very... umm.... "broad," I guess. Most hunters tend to specialize in one tree, but Lynyrd has chosen to go for the least of all worlds-- he's got the very uncommon 15/20/20 hunter spec.Again, I can't really believe this is what it seems like-- as players point out, any 64 hunter who knows where the autoshot button is should be able to drop a 38 lock without thinking twice. But a read through the thread itself is definitely chuckleworthy.
