It was absolutely toxic in vanilla.
My server, Gorefiend was FULL of eltiist, griefers and scammers. Nothing changed.
Cesspool guilds that encouraged ninja looting and scamming trades always exist
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Even in retail you could see the same old crews in bg.
TZ played can affect this is why. I play OCE/japan time so we are the smaller 3rd shift of any wow version, retail included.
I really only see new people on my Satruday and Sunday local morning plays. Its then I see what is the 2000 primetime for the US servers I play on.
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The last time I recognized someone in a bg was before 1.12 in Vanilla. Battlegroups were just a slew of strangers and my interest in PvP plummeted.
And I don’t understand his point of saying recognizing people in instanced cross-realm bgs has anything to do with a community on a megaserver….where there is none.
Most of the toxicity I have seen has been trying to do AV lately and I honestly do not remember it being so bad. I get it is pvp but some of them are over the top. In the over world a few people in chat are awful and not like 2025 awful standards where everything is offensive. Like 2004 offensive. Then they are on here crying about being banned for no reason. I had another person tell me off because all the mobs in the area were theirs because they were farming something. Look I am just trying to level.
People just need to play the game and calm down. No need to be jerks to each other and if they cannot just be nice, just shut up.
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If you don’t want to buff people every 5 minutes don’t play a Paladin.
If you don’t want people telling you to buff them, don’t play a Paladin.
If you don’t want to download an addon that makes the most annoying aspect of Paladin a 1 click solution that makes none of your party worry about ever losing a buff, don’t play a Paladin
I think OP needs to stop playing support classes if he wants to play selfishly. Theres other classes for that kind of playstyle where people won’t ask him to use his abilities to buff them
a cyst pool lmao
wrong 
the toxicity now is worse than it was on OG vanilla
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see, this is the problem right here
in 2004-6, nobody forced you to download an addon to play a class lol
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Don’t play on SoD/Anniversary servers.
Era servers have a chill, mature player base. SoD/Anniversary are all of the retail trolls, streamers, and attention hungry kids.
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You weren’t in the dungeon with this person so you’re just making assumptions, and well you know what they say about that.
You’re just trying to be a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. If a video game is this serious for you perhaps you need to reevaluate your life. Something went wrong somewhere. There is absolutely zero reason to treat another person like crap over a pixels. ZERO. NONE. Do better.
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I have a theory that it started getting really toxic when Blizzard could no longer control the RMT like they used to. These toxic players act like the game is their job and you are interfering with them making money.
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I could not have prepared myself for a response this dumb. I was completely blind sided.
I literally had Pally Power in vanilla. My grouped asked me to, I listened to them because they were helping me out and I didn’t just go to the Forums to talk about how mean people get when I scream no about downloading addons.
There’s a time for encouraging and fostering new players, but validating victim culture over a group wanting him to download an extremely basic addon that makes them enjoy playing with him more is just him being purposely obtuse.
If he wants people open to his opinions he shouldn’t be throwing a tantrum over installing an addon first.
It’s funny how that whole
“Let people play how they want!!!”
Thing goes right out the window when it comes to being toxic elitists 
It was not always this toxic, more people play this game like it’s a job than ever before and many of the more relaxed players have moved on.
20 years of addiction and aging without growing as people has left many current players bitter and ready to take their frustrations out on anyone they deem “bad” at the game which has essentially become their whole life.
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simple answer? theres no one working at blizzard. theres no gm’s. your gonna pay them $ every month no matter what they do so why should they put any effort in"?
People absolutely can play how they want, for sure!
However this does not mean everyone has to validate your opinions.
What do we say to a Pally that thinks downloading Pally Power is some huge drama ridden crime? We say to grow up and stop being a victim in every facet of your life 
See what I mean?
This guys last post before this was literally saying over and over “if you don’t play how “we” say then don’t play”
We’re talking about a 5 minute buff in a leveling dungeon in a video game, and this guy starts talking about validating opinions and “being a victim in every facet of your life”
Perfect example of people who take this game way too seriously and in turn promote and justify toxic behavior over absolutely nothing.
It was not always like this, people were toxic before sure, but the extent that it’s gotten to is so much worse now than before.
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You don’t see the absurdity of joining someone else’s group and being mad that the group that they made has an expectation? Would they be also be jerks if they required OP to wear gear, too? How dare they tell him how to play the game.
They need to invite him and be nice to him or else they are the problem! God forbid he listens and considers what others say. Would be crazy.
To the forums!
Up next: A crash course on how to make your own group where you can decide who joins and who doesn’t.
pally power is literally a cult.
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I’m not trying to pile on but every paladin really should have the pally power addon, for their own sanity and efficiency. It makes rebuffing way less of a hassle and you won’t ever have to see anyone asking for refreshes on blessings anymore.
Can I ask why you refuse to use it?
Also the general toxicity you’re describing follows the “hype crowd”. Right now the hype crowd is on anniversary because it’s perceived to be new. Before that, the hype crowd was on SoD, but SoD is pretty chill now. Before SOD, the hype crowd was on HC. And all of them used to be on pre-Era when classic first launched in 2019 but now Era is easily those most friendly/wholesome community by a mile.
The toxic behavior specifically is a byproduct of players feeling like they’re in a crowd so large that their reputations won’t follow them, and so they naively assume that there will always be an endless pool of fresh faces to interact with. Running with the hype crowd brings out the worst in many people who would otherwise be more rational and less attention-seeking in one-on-one interactions.
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