Herod, real talk

As it stands, Herod is going to be an absolute mess for weeks if not months. Like completely unreasonable for the average person.

10k+ queues when people are actually playing the game are going to take HOURS (plural), not minutes. They aren’t just reserving a name and logging off. I played on Kil’jaeden (generally high, but nothing like Tichondrius, Illidan, Archimonde, Blackrock etc.), and I still remember waiting for 30-45 minutes every night to get through mere 2-3k queues when major patches dropped. Herod had 12k during name day, and that will probably be its floor during primetime at least for the first few weeks as even more people freshly sub and join the highest pop server they can see.

Then, once you finally log in, assuming server stability, forget finishing any quest that requires open world loot spawns (i.e. the boxes in Tirisfal, cactus apples in Durotar), or killing named mobs (Sarkoth, Samuel Fipps…), etc. Every spawn location will have groups of people waiting to jump. These will already be a problem for other servers on launch day (think the stress test), but Herod will be a totally different animal. Hopping on a different layer won’t save you. You might be better off getting to level 10 via exploration and graveyard hopping, skipping the 1-12 zones altogether.

Blizzard’s provided an out, albeit an imperfect one. Lots of people were completely unaware that Stalagg was even open until their name was already gone, guilds are splintering as they debate whether or not to jump ship, etc. etc. It’s a mess.

At this point though, any complaints about Herod on launch day, if officially acknowledged at all, will probably just be referred to the “Overcrowded Realm Update” post, made 10 days before the official launch. Their hands are clean (in their eyes, anyway).

Blizzard is not going to increase the cap. This is has been confirmed. They will not release another server until Stalagg is also full. This has also been confirmed.

There will be a LOT of frustrated players on Herod, especially if they have limited time to play each day. If that’s you, pick a different server. Herod just won’t be viable for you.

The others? If you wanted supreme competition, you’ll have it… in literally every aspect of the game. Imagine how quickly your items will be undercut on the AH with that many people, for example. Prices will be completely unstable, and unless you actively watch your postings you might not sell anything at all. It’s going to be a battle to do much of anything, even within your own faction.

Don’t let the hype of a “full and bustling server” ruin your experience. Add a funky vowel to your name and take the out for your own sanity. Time zones don’t matter. Ping doesn’t matter. Minority populations of LAm/SAm players don’t matter. Playing the game matters.

TLDR: It’s a mess, no one is/will be happy, game’s ruined. REPENT. FLEE. ETC.

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going by the discord, alot of people would call herod “toxic”
that said, that could repel some kinds of people from the server to play on stalagg instead of herod

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Why is Herod so popular?

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People like the name, nothing more. Yeah, it’s that stupid.

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AFAIK, it’s a combination of quickly being declared “Streamer-free” and people wanting to be a part of the highest pop server.

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quickly being declared “Streamer-free”
No doubt this. Sodapoppin’s tweet.

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well yeah. I don’t see that as stupid tho.

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Well, in my case, I already have my names there, along with 10 of my IRL friends. When the games near launch, more people will sub and make their accounts on Stalagg anyway, evening out the population.

We made our accounts on Herod because it was basically the only eastern PVP server that was going to be normal. No streamers or potentially heavy nonUS population. Not because of the name or anything.

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Players had a choice between the three: South Americans and Brazilian’s on Thalnos, Streamers and twich chat cancer on Faerilina, or Herod.

Guess which server most players went for? If Stalagg had been an option from Day 1, the several hour queue would just be an hour on either.

End of the day, there is still not enough servers and most of the population didn’t even sub to reserve a name…

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Completely understandable.

However, what I’m saying is that because of its population, it will not be normal. A server that large will result in a very abnormal Classic experience.

We can hope that new players will roll on Stalagg after meeting the queue-wall, however I think that far too many people assume that highest-pop = best experience. It’s one of the bigger reasons Herod has this kind of momentum, and it’ll be a rude awakening come launch.

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I figure if wait times get long enough they will offer free realm transfers to Stalagg anyways. The pull of playing on a big server is that there are more people and so the world feels more alive. I know because I used to play on a lower pop server back in Vanilla before I switched to a higher pop and the latter was a much better experience.

TBH, every time I see a post like this, I think “This guy has a toon on Herod and is trying to chase other people off”.

If you really think it’ll be a mess, head to Stalagg now. Or wait for the next server to be opened, if they really are getting full 10 days before launch, they surely will open a new one before launch day.

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Enjoy your queue.

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Choosing Herod may have made sense once. Now, it would make sense to jump to Stalagg.

Once people confront stupid crazy queue times, they will end up jumping servers later anyway.

true, but i was referring to choosing a name that sounds good or that you like as not being that stupid

I want Blizz to lock the servers when they hit full. I don’t want to have to leave the server I picked day one because people overload it later.

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I imagine a majority of people didn’t resub or bother reserving a name. Look at the chaos now…oh baby its going to be a firework show day 1.

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Haha fair, I should’ve included a disclaimer. I have no interest in Herod. My rl friends and I picked a different server from the jump based on our own interests.

I’m honestly just trying to provide some perspective about how a “full” classic server experience won’t be comparable to a “full” vanilla server experience because of the increased server sizes.

lol i mean more servers will be made i can assure that, i mean heros seems to be pooping for sure, which aint so much a bad thing, but it wont be as bad as the doomsday prophets lead you to believe

Not to mention how the hype of “vanilla is back!” will keep new players coming in for the first couple of months. I know some of my friends who are on the fence now will inevitably breakdown and join after a few weeks of constant classic-related discord chat.

DORMANT ADDICTION!