I am making this thread to ensure that blizzard understands tha the majority of the oceanic playerbase does not want to be forced onto NA ping. We do not want a mega server and we do not want a “fix” that only helps NA players and not oceanic players.
There are multiple solutions here that can all be implemented before any need to force oceanic onto NA and all should be done prior to the worst option.
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1.Open free transfers to Shadowstrike AU and allow not only NA players but all of the oceanic players who might be on NA the opportunity to come home because this will boost the shadowstrike population and allow new characters to continue being created.
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2.Open free transfers for penance to shadowstrike and give them the opportunity to stay on oceanic realms if they choose to.
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3.Implement crossrealm so we have the option to group with NA players when required at the cost of playing on an NA instanced server e.g dungeon/raid or phased for world.
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4.Revert the GDKP ban which you “KNOW” impacted the player population.
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5.Lock free transfers from Shadowstrike for 2 weeks after implementing the above and you will see we have more than enough to maintain a healthy server.
All of these options should be considered and taken prior to any forced merge onto NA
If after all of this you still think oceanic cannot be sustained which i know isn't true then my last suggestion would be.
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- Allow OCE players who do migrate to NA to have the option to use OCE seeded servers for dungeons / raids this means we would still be forced onto NA ping for world but when we have our entire OCE guild in a raid setting or dungeon setting we would still have the option to play on 8ms if we wanted to.
I know you have the ability to do this because this is how BG’s currently work for example if a OCE player joins AV first the entire instance is hosted on OCE ping the 39 other players if they are NA are put onto OCE ping as well.
This would be a good middle ground if you refuse to implement any solution that will help our region then at the bare minimum you should implement seeded instances to allow us to continue to raid and be competitive with the rest of the world on low ping.
I played season of mastery and you did the same thing to swamp of sorrows and killed our entire region a lot of people quit and it was a horrible experience which resulted in people having to run 3rd party tunneling servers just to make the game playable.
Please do not force this on our region again we do not want it and we expect a better solution we are an entire region this would not be acceptable if done to NA or EU and i don’t expect it to be acceptable to OCE just because we have always been a smaller region.
You should be looking at ways to encourage players on the OCE region and help the region grow not implementing solutions that actively destroy the region and damage the future for our playerbase this is not a good way of handling any solution and its time you acknowledge us as a region and provide better solutions for our region.
96 Likes
- Allow OCE players who do migrate to NA to have the option to use OCE seeded servers for dungeons / raids this means we would still be forced onto NA ping for world but when we have our entire OCE guild in a raid setting or dungeon setting we would still have the option to play on 8ms if we wanted to.
This is going to be the most realistic expectation I can expect from blizzard as a bare minimum for forcing transfers.
I have played on 2019/SoM and SoD, all in high end raiding positions and guild leadership, SoD is far more active then SoM ever was and there is really no reason to engage us to move currently. If it gets to the point a merge to NA servers is required the point mentioned above would be the only way to ensure you don’t alienate an entire region like what happened in SoM.
18 Likes
My whole guild is dooming about the US ping for oceanic players! This will cause so many people to quit, Let us at least play on oceanic ping in raids!
14 Likes
Agree with everything Elron said except about gdkps
23 Likes
I completely agree with both Elron and Holmy on the issue of merging OCE servers with the US. This change threatens to damage our community, as we’ve seen happen before. It’s frustrating to see OCE players treated as an afterthought in decisions that disproportionately affect us. The solutions proposed—such as free transfers, cross-realm play, and the option to maintain OCE ping in group settings—are far more balanced approaches that would foster player retention and ensure competitiveness. We deserve tailored solutions that support our region rather than forcing us to endure high-ping environments that would ruin the experience for many.
9 Likes
just force shadowstrike and penance together and the pve wimps will need to harden up.
13 Likes
Gonna kill our region, agree completely with Elron. Atleast give us oce seeded servers for dungs/raids.
9 Likes
Dear Blizzard
SoD has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, please let us DISCOVER a win for the Oceanic community here, whether it’s keeping Shadowstrike open and allowing Penance the option to transfer here or letting us raid with Oceanic ping (thinking about how we play on BGs, surely you can pull it off…).
We are small but we exist!
As a GM/co-raid lead in an active raiding guild on Shadowstrike I know this is going to cause some of our players to leave if it’s just a crude merge with US ping at all times. And it will tend to be our better players who leave, so I don’t know what we’ll do.
8 Likes
Agreed with everything except gdkps
14 Likes
I agree with this post and would like to continue playing within my own region.
I’m not paying 20 dollars a month to have 200 ping.
6 Likes
+1
Agreed
At least give the seed option a go, we all know the technology is there. As Elron stated, it’s used in BGs
7 Likes
Yea, who doesn’t wants to be in a higher pop server, but at the expense of ping is just painful that would really kill the community…
and
i really like this suggestion!
- Allow OCE players who do migrate to NA to have the option to use OCE seeded servers for dungeons / raids this means we would still be forced onto NA ping for world but when we have our entire OCE guild in a raid setting or dungeon setting we would still have the option to play on 8ms if we wanted to.
Thank you Elron for starting this!
8 Likes
Everything Elron says is spot on.
The servers have been struggling with population, nobody is going to argue that.
But it’s not a green light to shun OCE players and force them to deal with a sub par experience.
The technology is there to seed instances based on location - e.g. BG’s.
Give us a middle ground of at least keeping the game playable and give us location based instances.
6 Likes
Adds merging to help population yet you basically kills an entire region. Seems counter intuitive when the game is split into so many different versions as it is.
You already have the solutions to deal with cross region in other versions of WoW, why not a look at your implementations that actually work?
Literally killing OCE if we have to play on 200 ping
4 Likes
+1 well said, Elron. We need a better solution or at the very very least some communication from Blizzard about the OCE situation and their plans/stance.
4 Likes
Totally agree, it would be awesome for OCE players to not endure the 200ms+ ping.
3 Likes
This is a really important issue, and I agree something needs to be done. 200ms in dungeons and raids not an acceptable solution.
4 Likes
Sounds like a pro-GDKP post disguised as a save oceanic post, irrelevant
10 Likes
I completely agree with the need for Blizzard to prioritize the Oceanic player base by leveraging existing technology for instanced content. It’s clear that the technology already exists to host dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds on Oceanic servers, ensuring that players in our region can enjoy low ping during these critical activities.
Instead of forcing us onto NA servers without this technology and therefore compromising our gaming experience, Blizzard should implement the solution where Oceanic players can continue to enjoy low latency instances. This approach would be a fair middle ground that acknowledges our unique needs as a region without detracting from the experience of NA players.
I hope Blizzard seriously considers this option as it would provide a much better experience for Oceanic players while maintaining the integrity and accessibility of the game for everyone.
3 Likes
There plans are we do not exist and you will be forced to merge onto NA they say its not forced but we know what it means when they open free transfers and hard lock new players from creating characters on the server.
As it stands they are still hesitant on the idea of destroying oceanic the objective here is to show them that a large majority of oceanic do not want our region destroyed and want every possible solution tried before being forced to NA.
And as a last resort if they have tried everything to maintain the oceanic region and it isn’t feasible they need to present viable solutions that cater for the oceanic players while on NA servers which would include OCE seeded servers for raids and dungeons.
1 Like