Yeah I think the raids and their gear hurt the game.
BUT
I think the biggest thing SoD has shown is they can actually do away with the 3 spec tree… they could create one spec tree which focus’s on the core fantasy of a class and then use runes to turn you into a tank, healer or dps… or a hybrid depending on your rune combination.
Agreed, them unlocking Crusader Strike after only 3 days was a huge failure on Blizzard’s part and basically put Chaos Bolt on a timer that’s been ticking down ever since.
Chaos Bolt was fine in Phase 1. It’s fine in Phase 2. It’ll probably even be okay in Phase 3. But Phase 4 and beyond, Chaos Bolt will be a ghost town.
I don’t understand the Classic team’s obsession with Megaservers. Wasn’t there a Blue post like a year ago where they said, “We’re putting an end to Megaservers!” What happened to that?
Anyway, I know FF14 has given bonuses to players who roll on certain servers. There’s always ways to entice players to go where you want. Exploit the fact the Classic playerbase are the most tryhard min/max players in the history of the genre. They’ll flock like lemmings.
Numbers will dip as usual because its no longer fresh, but thats to be expected. Compares to say SoM, SoD is a massive success, and I expect every server to last until the end
Trying to explain that is pointless. These are not day in and day out vanilla players. Trying to explain how dead servers are by AQ is pointless. They will only learn via hand on stove.
That’s my point - P1 we had no BIS gear so everything was still an upgrade. P2 we are all in BFD bis gear that insanely out-powers SM loot so there’s no fun reason to run things and no dopamine hits from big upgrades.
And in general P1 was more accessible because it was the first and was easy - no one had mounts really, getting to 25 was easy and most gear you got by 20 could carry you into the raid.
If they had added and changed gear in SM and RFK/D to make it enticing I think it would be better, but the two towers never hits like fellowship.