Naxx on farm - NoF

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

Nothing encapsulates quite so perfectly, in just three words, a specific kind of wrongheaded view of how to go about building a successful Classic project than this:

“Naxx on farm”

I think I’ll abbreviate it as “NoF” because it will come up several times…

You see it everywhere. People who can’t wait for BC and Wrath server options. People who wonder whatever will we do if our ever-rising ilvls aren’t continually turning our prized purples into vendor trash and enchanting mats and actually propose (I’m hoping this is just a clever troll, and if it is, then props for nabbing a blue!) titanforging as a solution to this NoF phenomenon that is oh-so-sure to happen to Classic soon after launch.

But here’s the thing. The whole NoF problem that supposedly will exist rests on the assumption that Classic will just go the way BfA (and every expac before it) went and draw a raid-or-die crowd that will consume all raids, including Naxx (which is kinda adorable, given what I’ve heard about how difficult Naxx is when you’re limited to level 60 gear, even BiS in every slot), within a short period of time.

If that’s what we’re trying to build here, count me out. I don’t want another raid-or-die project. I want what I have heard Vanilla captured (full disclosure – Wrath baby here – have fun with that) and want to try to see what it’s like to escape the relentless ticking clock that tells us how long the gear we’re wearing has until it’s useless vendor trash again.

I don’t want Classic servers to be used to build up our stockpiles so we can hit the new BC servers (whenever they launch) full-force with our mains and a half-dozen or more level 60 alts, all of whom have NoF and full BiS purples in every slot, only to abandon those Classic servers with massive (if profitable for Blizzard) transfer migrations on day 1 of BC. In fact, I’d like Blizzard to rule that option out for Classic so it never occurs to anyone to treat Classic as their preparation (“You are not prepared!”) for BC and/or Wrath servers.

What people need to come to grips with is that this game is not just for PvE raiders. If that’s all you’re here for, there probably isn’t a lifespan of this Classic project that exceeds about 1-2 years before you get bored and quit.

I found out recently that private servers still maintain the interest of lots of people, in spite of having NoF for a decade or more. What hold’s their interest? I’d like to hear from pserver folks (or, since none of you, of course, use private servers you could ask your “friend” who does what they think). What holds your interest in a server that has no PvE raid progression?

11 Likes
2

Community.

12 Likes
3

What holds your interest for BfA?

2 Likes
4

Well, apparently not much. I spend more time on the forums than I do in game right now.

I’d say my guild is the biggest draw to stay subscribed, although again I’m not spending a ton of time in game so that interaction is more limited than it used to be.

1 Like
5

Every person will either find something that holds there interest or they will leave eventually. When i was raiding we all had fun doing dumb stuff during raids randomly, like the tank taking of pieces of gear after every boss or a paladin BoP the tank. In almost every game you have to make your own fun with the people around you or you will eventually stop having it.

3 Likes
6

I’m thinking I might give PvP servers a try after a while. That would be “content” that could live on well after something like NoF.

That is, assuming Blizzard figures out how to allow major PvP raids on cities and in places like Hillsbrad without sharding and without crashing the server with their new cheaper server structures…

4 Likes
7

Never played on a private server. Did play original-Classic.

You’re absolutely right.

There are lots of long-term goals in Classic. Getting an epic mount is a long-term goal, because 1000 gold is a staggering amount of gold to see in one place in Classic. Most 60s you see will have a number of gold pieces saved toward their epic mount, not an epic mount. Or if they’re paladins or warlocks, a number of steps taken along the massive epic mount quest chain.

Most “NoF” people are going to throw up their hands and quit when they find out that even setting foot in Naxxramas requires killing a whole lot of high-level Scourge in the Plaguelands to get Honored with the Argent Dawn, and either collecting a lot of things for the Argent Dawn, or killing even more Scourge to get to Revered or Exalted.

Of those who get past that step, most will rage-quit the game when they can’t even reach the first boss in Naxxramas in the gear and with the level of thought they try going into it with because slimes and constructs stomp them flat.

1 Like
8

Yeah and I hear there was a 30-minute timer that reset the trash if you didn’t full-clear the wing, including the boss, in that amount of time. Cruel!

9

You don’t farm Naxx, Naxx farms you.

9 Likes
10

Had a reputation as the guild-killer, from what I’ve heard.

11

Well I can prove I stepped foot in vanilla naxx, this is my OG vanilla toon since I rock the Maexxna’s Fang. We got upto 4horsemen and my memory of naxx is brutal…

We were raiding 4 times a week minimum for 4 hours + each session and that doesn’t include the 20 mans on the weekend for “fun” like ZG shoulder enchants. Because you still blast through MC and BWL because of the legendary items.

Rogues didn’t see any T3 since we shared the same armor token as warriors. The consumables that were needed to farm each week were 100g+ easily.

This time around I have zero interest in naxx, I missed the last 3 bosses back in 2006 and I have accepted that I achieved everything I possibly could…

Good luck to the wrath babies+ thinking its going to be a cake walk.

7 Likes
12

Yeah, well, you cant have everything you want. Ask the “Wall of no” guys who said Vanilla Classic would never happen.

So I suggest you be glad that we are getting Vanilla in the first place and just plan to stay there forever if you want. But you don’t and won’t get to dictate if they decide to make TBC servers in the future.

1 Like
13

I could even skip raiding and still have fun. There are so many things to do such as:

  • econ / ah
  • leveling alts, especially other races and faction
  • instances
  • professions
  • world pvp and creative troublemaking
  • battlegrounds and ranks
  • helping people do whatever like odd quest chain
  • rp

There are years worth of activity without setting foot in a raid!

9 Likes
14

LOL yeah, my preferences made public are obviously me dictating my opinions on others and not just me sharing my opinion.

I realize I probably won’t get what I want. After I wrote this I realized that server transfers from Classic to BC could be a gold mine for Blizzard and a temptation they probably won’t pass up.

For some reason I’m thinking that fishing might be fun again. Is that just rose-colored rearview mirrors talking?

3 Likes
15

I hated fishing. Expect to hate it again.

Of course, I quit early enough that I don’t know what they did with it by Modern. Other than that I seem to remember you could try to fish anywhere with any fishing skill, in Cataclysm.

16

I think my fondest memories of fishing came from not long after I started playing the game and was still in awe of the whole idea of a MMORPG, back when farming spiders and dinging level 10 for the first time was exhilarating. Back when I read all the quest text without skimming.

It was in that context that fishing just seemed so – odd and immersive. Why on earth would they put something this trivial into the game? And then you got to cooking and first aid and all the little details that just, for some reason, really made you want to go out and see what’s out there.

I think the big thing that they did to fishing was to make the food worthless for 99.9% of the fish you could catch after a certain level and ilvl, which came from expacs in general. I was just wondering if, perhaps, maybe only 75% of the fish would be worthless at level 60 instead of 99.9% and if that would make a difference in my attitude towards fishing…

That said, leveling cooking will be a thing again, making fishing anywhere into something you can profit off of from the AH.

1 Like
17

Fishing will always be useful to hunters, anyway.

1 Like
18

That’s not going to happen for the vast majority of players. I would guess that less than 5% of level 60s will ever clear Naxxramas and probably less than 15% will ever even defeat a boss in Naxxramas.

Even if the raid mechanics aren’t all that bad and people can relatively easily figure them out there’s still a large time investment. You’ll probably need at least 12 hours/week dedicated to Naxx progression. 6 hours in Naxx and 6 hours gathering mats in preparation. For most people that’s too much time.

The only possible “Naxx on farm” that a casual player will benefit from is if a guild is selling raid spots and specific items in Naxx.

3 Likes
19

How many spots can a reasonably-geared and competent NoF guild sell in a 40m raid? I’d imagine they can’t carry too many people.

20

I think the “NoF” delusion comes from the fact that there are a small few extremely hardcore private server guilds who clear Naxx within 48 hours of opening on any fresh server, and then do have it on farm soon after.

But of course, those guilds are god-tier, like the Methods and Paragons or private servers. And there’s also the still-unresolved wild card of private server numbers tuning vs. what Blizzard’s tuning will be. The pservers could be wildly off.

1 Like