What is the difference between Phasing and Layering?

Community General Discussion
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I always thought they were one and the same?

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Wowhead give me cookie cancers. Can you link me a direct blizz source or copy and paste it?

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What is Layering

Layering will be the alternative to the sharding technology in Classic WoW. In short, sharding is a technology used in retail WoW, it distributes players to different versions of zones based on local populations for zones, in an effort to balance players around and create smoother game experiences. However, this technology also separates players and creates awkward phasing situations where players or NPCs suddenly vanish from your screen.In order to maintain an authentic Classic experience, Blizzard had already previously spoken against the presence of sharding in the game. However, as the sharding has been one of the main tools to keep stress periods like patch releases and expansion launches smoothly in recent retail WoW history, they developed an alternative system to deliver the same experience for Classic, which is Layering.Instead of balancing players around shards of zones and combining players from multiple realms, layering will allow realms to create a separate instance of themselves to balance their own population. However, unlike sharding once in a layer, players won’t leave this layer in favor of a better one whenever they move or change zones, removing the awkward phasing present in retail. The only way to change a layer will be to enter a group, which will have all players from the group in the same layer.

How Long Will Layering Be Used?

If you dislike layering, worry not. Layering will only be used for a couple of weeks or maybe a month at the start of Classic WoW, in order to balance the huge influx of players in the same zones. Once the situation reaches a controlled state, it will be completely disabled and realms will once more have one instance of themselves. Layering also will not happen after Phase 1 , the importance of that being that Phase 2 is planned to introduce the World Boss Kazzak, with the Green Dragons being released later on, both of which would make layering a tool to disrupt the flow of World Bosses in Classic.

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I think this probably explains it better.

However, unlike sharding once in a layer, players won’t leave this layer in favor of a better one whenever they move or change zones, removing the awkward phasing present in retail. The only way to change a layer will be to enter a group, which will have all players from the group in the same layer.

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So it like changing a channel. Same show different channel. Different people watching the same shows but on different channels.

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Phasing is something that applies to quests or zones. If you’ve ever seen a node disappear when you get too close to it, only to see it reappear when you move away, that’s phasing.

Sharding, CRZ, and layering apply to the entire zone and are the systems used by Blizz to manage the player populations within zones.

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Wow, not one person here told you to google it.:ok_hand:

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