After long brainstorming sessions and internal review of the current realms' state we have come to a few conclusions that we would like to share with you. Feedback, as always, is very much welcome and appreciated and will always be put in consideration. The changes mostly reflect the economy on the realms, current state of realms' rates and the future realms hold.
On October 1, 2016 we will be reducing some of the realm rates to further accommodate the concept of blizz-like and improve overall players' enjoyment. The changes will be mainly affecting profession skill ups, reputation rates and weapon skill ups whilst the gold rate will remain increased to be in sync with the players' progress due to higher experience rates.
The realms that will be affected are Icecrown, Neltharion and Frostwolf and the rates that will be set are the following:
Experience: x7
Gold rate from x7 to x3
Weapon skills from x5 to x3
Profession rate from x5 to x1
Reputation rate from x7 to x1
To further improve the economies on our realms, as previously announced in the Lordaeron information thread, based on community suggestions and wishes we noted introducing a gold squish mechanic to maintain competitive auction house pricing and a healthy realm economy over the long term, as Warmane does not introduce gold into the economy through any means.
With that information, we have concluded that all realms will receive a gold squish of 50% on January 1, 2017 giving players plenty of time to use up their reserves before we commence the first gold squish.
What this means is every piece of gold that exists in circulation, be it in the character's inventory, mailbox, guild bank, website trading system or otherwise, will be simply halved.
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Thank you for your feedback, we have carefully read and responded to most comments. However please keep in mind that "squish" and "slowdown" changes mentioned in the topic are aimed at making Warmane offer a more welcoming experience to newcomers and benefiting all communities in the long run by maintaining a long-term balance and health of our realms' economies, reducing inflation, encouraging market competitivenes as well as promoting gathering professions to be in use as they were intended.
Keep in mind that we allow a very generous grace period for all changes. There is plenty of time to level professions on your characters at x7 rates as well as spend your gold until 2017.
As an added note, we would like also to mention that both our Cataclysm realms and Mists of Pandaria realms are receiving dedicated development in these areas. We are providing old content, fixing it where we can, fixing up quests (currently rewriting Cataclysm zones in their entirety and will port to Mists of Pandaria) and working actively on making it a better experience. There should and will not be any gaps where lowered rates will prevent players from achieving their goals.