Dear Blizzard, I hope this finds you well. WoW hardcore is more than just a game to me. It’s saved my life in a way. At the very least, it saved my love for gaming. Hardcore gave me a sense of glory and wonder that I didn’t think I’d ever feel again. I was so disappointed with the realease of season of discovery only a couple months after Frontier’s Kel’Thuzad kill. You didn’t give hardcore the time it needed to fully grow and then chopped it off at the knees. I hope you recognize that after all this time, people come back to hardcore because it’s the one true game mode where people can learn what they’re actually made of. Much like life, we are guarenteed to fall down but we’re offered a choice to “go agane”. I truly hope… truly, that you don’t seperate us again. You should be looking for ways to bring us closer together. OnlyFangs does not need a new realm to play the game. You should encourage them to play on existing realms to invigorate the population that’s still healing. The horde side on Defias Pillager is already so low… You and OnlyFangs have a chance to balance the realm. Regardless, OnlyFangs is just a phase. Their time in Azeroth will be just as fleeting as it was before and they’ll move on with their lives after they’ve sucked out all the content that’s available. I feel like if OnlyFangs actually cared about WoW hardcore or the people playing hardcore, they wouldn’t encourage you to make a new realm. It’s not the right thing to do. Hardcore by nature is fresh. Don’t bend the knee to a bunch of false kings and queens. They’ll be here today and gone tomorrow. People like me will be what remains.
I think they should merge the two current servers and add a fresh. That would truly balance the server (currently DP is Ally and SR is Horde). It also gives anyone who wants to start from actual scratch, that opportunity. And that keeps it at just 2 HC servers.
Either way, i guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
I support a realm merge. I think they should do that and call it “Skull Pillager”.
Not a fan of “Defias Rock”?
Fresh brings in more opportunity for more people’s lives to be saved.
Perhaps someone else is going through a serious game drought or life changing issues.
Hardcore servers that are current should be merged so that forged community can live out its days in peace. However Fresh doesn’t just appeal to new players, it appeals to the ones IN your communities as well. I play on Skull Rock myself, and it’s not dead but it’s close, and the OnlyFangs announcements only brought more people in which was both good and bad depending on how you look at it. At the end of the day though, more players on something that’s very much limping is better than not, and a lot of players like myself from SKull Rock also want a Fresh server without Petri, and that is Truly Self found (and possibly TBC HC).
- Merge Defias Pillager and Skull Rock (names are first come first serve when you log in)
- Create a fresh HC realm
- After 3-6 months, merge that fresh HC realm into Skull Pillager
- Create a fresh HC realm
- After 3-6 months, merge that fresh HC realm into Skull Pillager
- Create a fresh HC realm
etc etc This isn’t rocket science.
No fresh HC realm, it’s simply not needed.
You realize this is going to be an eternal argument on these forums right?
Side 1: “We need Fresh HC realms for a better economy and new-player engagement. The existence of bank-alts makes this not HC at all, but rather a rogue-like. Every time you die you can just mail yourself 100g, four 16-slot bags and white weapons with fiery. The only time a HC realm is truly hardcore is the first few weeks of a new realm! If there are boosts and max-level enchants etc, it’s not a fresh realm. Ever-green doesn’t exist.”
Side-2: “Hardcore servers are perpetually fresh. 80% of players die before level 20 and 93% of players die before level 30. Because of the constant deaths, there is a steady stream of “new” players and a well diversified leveling strata across every leveling range. The concept of “fresh” is contradictory to the very idea of hardcore. A new player is not “behind” if starting fresh on an established hardcore realm!”
And neither of these people are wrong and neither of these people are ever, ever going to agree. So we’ll have these threads forever. Side 1 will keep making “We need fresh HC realms!” threads and Side 2 will keep posting:
Agree, fortunately hopefully most of the speculation will be over today, and we can move on.
Well, fresh HC is coming. But it’s releasing alongside a fresh era that goes into permanent TBC in 14 months
So this HC is sort of dead before it starts imo.
Well I guess what will be interesting is no Petri, we will see how that impacts raiding, since if I recall petri was introduced in P6.
Internet says 1.13 which is P1. Not sure. I’d love it to just be removed.
I didn’t think the version indicated the phase, at least not for classic but it’s been a while. Unfortunately I think it used to be easier to see phases on stuff prior to wowhead deciding not to fork Classic for SOD, or maybe I just can’t figure out how to do it. Either way, I am fine on Defias.
Blizzard cared about $$ most and streamers bring them more of it. It’s the wrong move, but it is happening.
The only reason for this new HC is to draw people to the new fresh, that’s why we need a HC with phases alongside the new fresh - no way players with max gear can go to phase 1 fresh 
this HC fresh will stay fresher longer because of the phases, but it will die when the Classic fresh moves to BC.
While the current hc community is happy to have the surge of players from streamers. That isn’t what is happening. The dedicated hc players who’ve been playing non stop are being thrown to the wolves. Take for example, if you have any 60’s on the hc server or characters in the 50’s or multiple characters in that range. One would have to reroll whatever main you’ve chosen or whatever work you’ve done. While I understand the desire for phases and to reset the economy. HC isn’t really about that, it’s about the leveling. Perhaps blizzard can plz both sides by offering transfers from hc servers to hc servers.(Note: limited items, and limited gold) This would ensure that the economy doesn’t get tipped and hard to get items don’t just show up. In addition this would give the players who did the work a chance to join what is now going to become the main hc server. Clearly this transfer wouldn’t go into effect at the start, waiting around a month or so. This would give current hc players a reason to do what they’re doing and be able to consolidate with the community without having to reroll. The hc journey is about leveling. Blizzard should refrain from figuratively killing a character that hasn’t died. In addition, blizzard should announce this information for HC players ASAP before the realm goes up. Blizzard claims hc it’s about the leveling journey, and I couldn’t agree more. If you’re so kind to offer transfers off a hc realm to a normal realm, then you understand how one can grow attached to a character. Take that information in mind about current HC players and the characters they’ve cultivated.