Selling points
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2026 6:44 am
As the PVP server works more or less stable lately, it's time to review the problem of it's low population.
I'd like to try to look at it not from the point of view of the people who are already playing there, but from the point of view of those who have not decided to join. That's because again and again I face the situation that somebody asks me where do I currently play (as ppl who I played earlier with tend to ask me from time to time where is wpvp ongoing), and I tell that I play on Octo PVP, it's a good server as PVP is always on, etc. But their first question is always about how long will it take for them to start playing PVP. And as there is close to zero PVP on leveling, it ends up in me telling them it's 1x xp rates (with renewable rested bonus), and that it will take around 3 weeks of solo leveling to reach lvl 60 to start playing PVP with us. Almost none of them even want to listen further, they never join.
So let's try to find the selling points for the server. I'll form my version of the list of pros and cons in the eyes of normal PVP players.
Pros:
1. PVP is always on - a great thing, but it becomes great only on lvl 60. Until then it's a very situational thing, most of the time irrelevant
2. No layers - a great thing for PVP. Some players are used to switching layers to escape enemy, but for most PVP players layers are disgusting
3. No flight - another great thing. Flight ruins WPVP
4. Gear available for honor. It's far from perfect (and I can tell what exactly in my opinion needs to be changed there), but overall it's a way to get competitive gear without PVE raids, so another great thing
Cons:
1. 1x xp rate (even with rested bonus) - it's a very damaging thing for the server population. In my experience most people just refuse to join when they hear that rate is 1x and current pop is around 400
2. No arena (even the one that worked on 1.17 on TA is disabled). Solo queue unranked arena was a great way to have some fun, it was perfect to fill the gaps when bgs do not proc. If there was arena available, I could tell ppl that there is arena on lvl 60, and for many it would be a good selling point
3. Class imbalance in PVP. I've stopped talking of this one after BM hunters got nerfed to the ground while shamans are still more OP than anything, but I cannot escape mentioning it here. Especially if arena launches at some point, this one would become a giant problem. What's the point of going into a tight space vs a shaman shocker tank, for example?
4. Outdated game engine that requires a lot of mods just to work. I don't think that devs can really do anything about it right now (except maybe if they included the dlls into the game itself somehow?). Probably Unreal Azeroth can solve this one at some point in the future.
5. Low population. Yes, it's not just the outcome, but also a problem, cause when people hear about the combo of 1x xp and 400 population, they deny to join immediately. Increase server population by giving away some temporary xp boosts and other stuff, and when the pop hits 1k+, just remove those bonuses. I feel that if it was 1k+ instead of 400, that would sound good enough for the most potential players.
I'd like to try to look at it not from the point of view of the people who are already playing there, but from the point of view of those who have not decided to join. That's because again and again I face the situation that somebody asks me where do I currently play (as ppl who I played earlier with tend to ask me from time to time where is wpvp ongoing), and I tell that I play on Octo PVP, it's a good server as PVP is always on, etc. But their first question is always about how long will it take for them to start playing PVP. And as there is close to zero PVP on leveling, it ends up in me telling them it's 1x xp rates (with renewable rested bonus), and that it will take around 3 weeks of solo leveling to reach lvl 60 to start playing PVP with us. Almost none of them even want to listen further, they never join.
So let's try to find the selling points for the server. I'll form my version of the list of pros and cons in the eyes of normal PVP players.
Pros:
1. PVP is always on - a great thing, but it becomes great only on lvl 60. Until then it's a very situational thing, most of the time irrelevant
2. No layers - a great thing for PVP. Some players are used to switching layers to escape enemy, but for most PVP players layers are disgusting
3. No flight - another great thing. Flight ruins WPVP
4. Gear available for honor. It's far from perfect (and I can tell what exactly in my opinion needs to be changed there), but overall it's a way to get competitive gear without PVE raids, so another great thing
Cons:
1. 1x xp rate (even with rested bonus) - it's a very damaging thing for the server population. In my experience most people just refuse to join when they hear that rate is 1x and current pop is around 400
2. No arena (even the one that worked on 1.17 on TA is disabled). Solo queue unranked arena was a great way to have some fun, it was perfect to fill the gaps when bgs do not proc. If there was arena available, I could tell ppl that there is arena on lvl 60, and for many it would be a good selling point
3. Class imbalance in PVP. I've stopped talking of this one after BM hunters got nerfed to the ground while shamans are still more OP than anything, but I cannot escape mentioning it here. Especially if arena launches at some point, this one would become a giant problem. What's the point of going into a tight space vs a shaman shocker tank, for example?
4. Outdated game engine that requires a lot of mods just to work. I don't think that devs can really do anything about it right now (except maybe if they included the dlls into the game itself somehow?). Probably Unreal Azeroth can solve this one at some point in the future.
5. Low population. Yes, it's not just the outcome, but also a problem, cause when people hear about the combo of 1x xp and 400 population, they deny to join immediately. Increase server population by giving away some temporary xp boosts and other stuff, and when the pop hits 1k+, just remove those bonuses. I feel that if it was 1k+ instead of 400, that would sound good enough for the most potential players.
