After trying out a PvP server on Classic, it cleared up some misconceptions of this carebear. I never knew how it really worked fully, but in PvP servers you’re auto-flagged when you’re in any contested territory. That part was already known, but once you come back to friendly territory or sanctuary, you’re deflagged after 5 minutes. It wasn’t the difference I thought it was, because War Mode by comparison, if you have it on, you’re ALWAYS flagged no matter where you are, except that no PvP can happen in a sanctuary.
So even in the PvP servers of old, you’re safe after a while. After a while. That isn’t quite different from my PvE server experiences doing WPvP in the cities. In contested territories that’s another story, and dare I say, something of a LOT different than raw-cut URBAN WPvP where you’re guaranteed a max-level response of at least 1.
I have heard of moments of Horde attacking SW in the RPPvP server I’m on in Classic, which is remarkable. It might even be more of a weekend tradition. It should go without saying by now that for WPvP, CLASSIC is where it’s really at. But inasmuch as trying to distinguish the two, PvP server vs. WM, I think War Mode is superior, because…
It’s toggled for permanence, and in this way it shows true solidarity for the venue and cause. Imagine if War Mode existed since Vanilla, because I thought it would do what I thought it would do at BFA launch: POOL all of the PvP enthusiasts together. Servers and server types got in the way since the beginning, and the effect snowballed for faction pops. And worse than this, the [Normal] Alliance became the more complacement. After 13 long years of Retail, Alliance lost the world war in one patch: 8.1.
If War Mode was a thing since Vanilla, I think things might have been different. But too long did the Alliance enjoy a mode that wasn’t that much different than carebear servers. It’s no wonder I had an easy enough time with Stormragers and Sargerans; it’s because so many of them never truly did WPvP full time until Legion(when all cities, particularly SW, became xrealm). And I mean FULL TIME as in PERMAFLAGGED.
After we picked up a few Leg-era Allied Races that were superior to the Horde counterparts, we can’t blame the racials before WM. We can blame the sharding all we want, and “ask for PvP servers to come back” which I now argue didn’t really make a difference in the faction communities. The Horde always had the full time WPvPers and I paid a big price finding that out the hard way. I was excited to get back on the Alliance, particularly as the new dark iron dwarf, and started ganking Hordies during the Brewfest and Hallow’s End events(and there were some Gucci moments). Both operations were admirable successes(though MM was in bad starting shape), but my heart was broken when I saw the 30% WM currency bonus and AOO, which the Alliance got to keep the entire time. Being mad and salty at my own faction, I recalled this famous/infamous goblin, punished the Alliance by the thousands, and the rest is history. I wasn’t going to spend the next two expansion cycles fighting something that was already lost and established lost, but I made sure the Alliance regretted it on their own turf, even to include payback against some failed Hydra raids. HAIL HYDRA
TL;DR: PvP servers is not really that much different than PvE servers. Carebear vs. Carebear Lite, basically, as the server type in question doesn’t dictate your actual endgame career choice. If you were in Stormrage or Sargeras, that was about as carebear as it got for WPvP. But when War Mode came into the picture, it was a dividing two-edged sword that decided that Horde was THE SUPERIOR WPVP faction.
It was still an Alliance main–a carebear from Eonar–that punished the Alliance like no Hordie has ever done. Perhaps I was always a true Hordie at heart…
“I will make Stormwind a heap of ruins, a den of jackals. I will make the cities of the Alliance desolate, without an inhabitant.”
