SoD Is The Perfect Place To Test War Mode!

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
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For starters I do think Classic War Mode should have a few changes from Retail’s. For starters there should be no Exp/Gold bonus. There should be a 50% increase honor bonus while not in a raid group. You can only toggle off War Mode while in a Capital City instead of any rest area.

For those who don’t know (or have a good idea) about War Mode this is what it basically boils down to. You can, while in a Capital City (so SW/IF/Darn and Org/UC/TB), toggle on War Mode which is it’s own layers that functions as a PvP server. You cannot turn on War Mode anywhere except the Capital City.

Pros:

  • Can lead to a connecting of all SoD servers for a more less spread out player base while functioning as a PvP server.
  • Allows players on PvE servers who prefer to PvP in BG’s to try out World PvP.
  • Allows players on PvP servers who regret World PvP to opt out.

Cons:

  • War Mode will function as PvP servers do now, meaning there can be imbalanced layers (which is the case almost always on Crusader Strike).
  • Needing to go back to a Capital to turn War Mode On/Off if you are grouping in Group Finder (and no one put War Mode in the description) to do an outdoor quest/objective or help summon.

Overall I think SoD would be a great place to test War Mode for Classic+ as well as keeping SoD healthy with connected servers.

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Where 0 pvp takes place because like retail nobody turns war mode on.

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You would be surprised at how much PvP actually does take place. Especially when two crate farming groups collide and you have a 40v40 brawl.

Also most people on Crusader Strike just change layers if there is any semblance of PvP happening on a layer.

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Are there actually layers? lol

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Yes 10char

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Yeah perfect. people will farm honor then never turn boarmode on again a great plan for the longevity of a server.

No it won’t. Being able to toggle PvP off is not a PvP server it is a PvE server and it’s boaring. :boar:

Dood nah. Boarmode will ruin the game. If you add boarmode just add dungeon/raid finder and call it boartail. :boar:

All you PvE cry babies are just so obsessed with removing PvP from gaming. It’s absurd. You have a PvE server just play that and let us have PvP servers. Allow cross server ah and grouping for dungeons/raids there ya go that solves your precious issue of “boo hoo my server is too one sided and my faction is dead.” :frowning:

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I actually love PvP I generally go 1800+ (or 1950+) on multiple characters in a Retail Season for elite sets. I’m just not up for World PvP all the time.

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Alright then. They have PvE servers that you can choose to flag on. There ya go your all set.

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It was already tested in retail. Go play it.

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Would be funny if everyone just turn it off. Only griefers on each side

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And only Emerald Dream survived as a pvp server, and even that only lasted a couple expansions.

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Sorry but if they didn’t have this, warmode would be pointless to anyone not max level.

Some level 20 would be like “yeah I like pvp let’s go warmode” then they’d go to redridge and be instant ganked by a griefing hunter.

They would then turn warmode off and would never go back to it

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This isn’t a proposal to test Warmode—it’s an attempt to quietly rewrite the DNA of Classic PvP behind the guise of a “more polished version.”

Let’s break it down:

  • You’re still describing a toggle system, where players can opt in or out of PvP at a city hub, just like Retail.
  • You’re advocating for layered PvP, meaning the world is no longer shared or consistent.
  • You want to “test” this in SoD as a way to prepare for Classic+, effectively turning Season of Discovery into a sandbox for the very mechanics that undermined Retail PvP.

The problem isn’t that players don’t understand what Warmode is. It’s that we’ve already seen what it does—and it always leads to the same result: bonus-driven, risk-optional pseudo-PvP that guts the persistent danger and shared consequence that made Classic PvP great in the first place.

You say “there’s no harm in testing.” But there is. Time and dev resources don’t grow on trees. Every minute spent beta-testing a failed system is time not spent fixing layering abuse, faction imbalance, and server instability—the real threats to Classic world PvP.

If people rolled on a PvP server and “regret it,” they have options: paid transfers, rerolling, or PvE realms. What they don’t need is a toggle so they can bail on their choice with zero consequence. That’s not preserving PvP—that’s shielding people from it.

And let’s not pretend connected Warmode layers would bring players together. They’d bring more abuse, more faction zerging, and a PvP ecosystem dictated by toggle meta, not territorial control.

If you want world PvP to thrive in SoD, merge PvP realms. Cap factions. Incentivize territory conflict. But don’t slap the word “Classic” in front of Warmode and pretend it’s something new.

You want PvP? Then choose it—and live with it. Don’t build the escape hatch and call it innovation.

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Tell me you haven’t played retail without saying it.

In retail with warmode on you fight other people who actually want to fight. There are pvp world quests that always have people completing them and fighting each other. There are air dropped crates that always have people fighting.

The open world pvp in retail is significantly better than classic if you’re a decent player.

If you’re not very good at pvp, classic pvp servers are much better for you. You can kill lowbies out questing until you get them to log off, group up and kill solo questers, the classes are much simpler and 1v1 fights are determined before the fight even begins as long as you’re not terrible at the game.

Classic PvP is pretty much just wow pvp for people who aren’t good enough for retail anymore.

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How does you being a decent player help if you aren’t the majority when the air drops lands? The faction with more players will win it period. When I played retail and its been a while. There has been times I have been the only player at an air drop and others where I usually seen 10+ people of the same faction. The free for all pvp dailies are fun… but again you can be a t1 gladiator and get demolished by the zerg.

War mode was introduced far too late in the life of wow. Just get rid of pvp servers over all… PvP is not even their focus anymore. lol

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You’re right. AirDrops and open world pvp in retail could be done better. But it’s still significantly better than classic open world pvp.

I’m posting to argue with the people who are opposed to warmode servers and will only accept PvP servers.

They’re so bad at the game now that killing lvl 20’s in dusk wood on their lvl 60 is the only time they can get a win. And if we took away their pvp servers and replaced them with warmode, they would be getting stomped in the open world by people who have opted into warmode and want to fight. If we take away their ability to gank on PvP servers, they have nothing left.

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SoD doesnt have the interface for War Mode and with its server types it would cause havoc. The only way War Mode will work is testing on a C+ server Beta etc and with massive approval from the playerbase. Otherwise its gonna be bad.

Edit: for it to work well for C+ it def needs to cater and amplify world PvP in a way thats going to promote long term health and not “we ditched Ashenvale after 1 patch”

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Lol your still at it?

Ah, so now the angle is: “I’m not saying Warmode is good—I’m just saying we should build it, test it, scale it, and design Classic+ around it… unless it doesn’t work.” That’s not a cautionary take—that’s just hedging a bad pitch with extra steps.

Let’s break it down:

1. “SoD doesn’t have the interface for Warmode.” Exactly. And you know why? Because it wasn’t designed for toggle-based PvP. That’s not a gap—it’s a feature. SoD, like Classic, commits to persistent world states. Injecting Warmode would mean designing entirely new layers, toggles, UI flags, phase logic, and balance systems… all to recreate what Retail already showed doesn’t work long-term.

2. “We need massive approval from the playerbase to even test it.” Where is that approval coming from? Every time this topic gets raised, the overwhelming majority pushes back. Forums, Reddit, in-game communities—actual Classic PvP players don’t want Retail mechanics rebranded with “Classic+” stickers.

3. “It needs to amplify world PvP and promote long-term health.” Warmode doesn’t amplify world PvP. It gates it. It breaks the world into opt-in echo chambers, encourages disengagement when things get tough, and shifts PvP from territorial conflict to toggle meta.

And that bit about “ditching Ashenvale after one patch”? Players didn’t stop PvPing because PvP was too harsh—they stopped because the systems were shallow and unrewarding. You fix that with incentives, territory objectives, and faction balancing, not a toggle.

Warmode isn’t a tool to strengthen Classic PvP. It’s the system that killed it in Retail. Trying to dress it up with “maybe” and “just test it” doesn’t erase its track record. Classic PvP thrived when danger was constant and choice had consequence. Warmode erases both.

You want to amplify world PvP? Great. Start with merges, faction caps, and systems that reward staying in the fight—not bailing out of it.

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Hey, Chat GPT joined the chat.

The mass approval or disapproval would come from testing in a Beta to see if its a right fit as said multiple times. When the prompt doesnt understand the nuance. Like tell me about good sausage.

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Ah, right we’re back to “just test it in a beta and let the masses decide.” That’s not nuance—that’s punting responsibility and pretending failed ideas deserve infinite retries.

We’re not lacking nuance. We’re just not pretending “mass approval” makes bad design good. Warmode already got tested. In Retail. With layers, systems, and incentives that Classic doesn’t—and shouldn’t—have. It didn’t enhance world PvP. It compartmentalized it. And no amount of toggling that reality on or off will change the outcome.

You don’t rebuild an engine that exploded on the track just because someone liked the paint job. You don’t test a flawed mechanic in a Classic+ beta while real problems—like faction imbalance, layering abuse, and world objective design—go unaddressed.

And if you’ve run out of arguments and are down to hot dog metaphors… congrats. You’re officially dodging logic with deli meat.

If the goal is better PvP, we’ve said it 10 times: Merge the PvP realms. Balance the factions. Reward world control. You want nuance? That’s it. No toggle required.