Doaksie wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2026 1:08 pm
I think we're all on the same page about one thing: OctoWoW shouldn't become an instant 60 server. The leveling journey is part of what makes the server feel like WoW, and I don't think that should change.
What I do think could change is how players progress through that journey. Right now, Battlegrounds are fun, but if you're trying to level efficiently they're hard to justify compared to questing or grinding. That means players who enjoy PvP are effectively encouraged to stop doing the content they like in order to make meaningful progress. Instead of BGs being part of the leveling experience, they become something you do once you're already 60.
Increasing BG experience or rewarding objectives more heavily wouldn't remove the leveling journey but simply make PvP a legitimate alternative path through it, alongside questing and dungeons. More players would queue while leveling, queue times would improve, and low level PvP would stay active without making anyone skip content.
If the concern is preserving the intended first time experience, another idea could be unlocking an optional 2x XP rate only after an account has reached level 60 once. That way every player experiences the world as intended on their first character, while alt leveling becomes less of a barrier to trying new classes, filling dungeon groups, and participating in PvP.
Ultimately, I don't think these ideas undermine the server's philosophy so much as actually supporting it. The goal isn't necessarily to shorten the journey but instead to give players meaningful choices during it.
Given there's 20+ pages of feedback already (the most feedback on a changelog thread to date) it might also be worth running a community poll. Even if the answer is no, it would help determine whether this is a vocal minority or a broader consensus within the community, and could provide useful insight for future decisions.
Just give us extra xp and if people want to opt out of XP they can and then can even add extra challenges to it — that's how it should be — what we need is a strong pull to attract new players to the PvP server instead of them realising we're 330 lvl 60's vs 2400 level 60's on the PvE server and choose to go where the population is instead.
The only strong pull for new players would be to have faster leveling speed. No one in his right mind would join a 330x60 with no economy over a 2400x60 server with economy (overall numbers are also 38k vs 6.5k) — the only reason we have numbers at all is the original Tel'Abim community and we know it because we recognize each other — it's much faster to have lvl 60's down grind for mats for professions and quest for gold than to have low levels reach level 60 slowly with an excess of cheap ores/herbs etc that flood the market.
Population on WoW was usually solved by offering free migrations from heavily populated servers and people followed larger guilds. We're not looking to empty out the PvE or HC servers ; we want our own population to grow and that comes with XP changes.
Faster XP also will solve the BG issue instead of trying to "fix it" differently. The PvE server has their xfaction queues and that's fine — queuing with people who we otherwise wouldn't be able to play with or kill in game makes little to no sense and is actually doing the exact opposite of creating a socially knitted community ; I literally cannot talk/play with or kill the person once the battleground is finished.
They're never going to poll XP on the PvP server and Kestrel stated it clearly without being able to explain why other than the fact that they feel like it's healthier to have x1 despite us playing actually knowing what's going on through lived experience of the matter at hand...
Kestrel please do wake up from your perfect server dream when the rest of us are very much awake and having to deal with it.
