1. For Malaco.

    Hello. I am not quite sure if it is a product of your vision only, or is it a product of the collective mind of your team of developers, but it needs to be pointed out, that the model you've chosen for this realm is at best questionable.

    I remember the old times when the ideology behind everything you did was that of a man who truly understood the needs of a PvP'er, and I truly believe that the AT of the version before the implementation of SoloQ was the greatest PvP private server that ever existed. It was a place, which attracted a lot of highly skilled players from both the retail and other private servers, it was the place, where 3v3 tournaments were held and the overall quality of gameplay was so high, that it really felt like a heaven to play there.

    So, what basic principles of "making a server fun for people" have changes since then? What made you believe, that the whole philosophy behind what you're doing needed to be changed so drastically? Is it because of the owners of this server controlling everything you do? Or something else?
    Let me be perfectly clear: the current version of Blackrock is an abomination. Instead of making things more accessible, instead of making the emphasis on the competitive aspect of the game, you pretty much reduced the concept behind the server to "farm and pay".

    I just want to remind you, that it is the year of 2019 we are living in right now. And, maybe it sounds surprising, but being a PvP'er it's not very enjoyable to get your wrathful offset for the hundredth time, and when you make people not only work for it, but "work hard" for it, it produces nothing but frustration and a feeling of despair, because you instantly realize, that not only gearing your main will take ages, but that with this system you probably won't ever be able to fully enjoy the game on your alts.

    Then, there's, of course, the arena points flush. What exactly is the point of making it one time per week (or even two times)? Do you really think, that this will make the process of finally receiving the desired piece of gear particularly exciting? Once again, it is the year of 2019 we are talking about, and if the presented logic was indeed the case, it's even a bit funny. Getting gear is not exciting, what IS exciting is playing the game and doing so against strong opponents - this should be the basic principle for any PvP-only realm. So, the best thing you could do to is, obviously, just making everything free, but since, as I believe, it's never going to happen, it's either that the AP flush needs to be set to daily or the gear prices need to be lowered at least by 50%. It will do some good for the server. Seriously.

    Then, the faction change. Being able to freely change the race and the faction was one of the greatest factors contributing to the greatness of the Arena-Tournament. Not only it allowed for a greater flexibility in trying out new setups and playing with lots of different people without having to split your attention between two mains (or alts), it also brought a feeling of freedom - a very simple in nature, but very effective in terms of making people stay on the server, which, I believe, is the thing you want as an administrator of one. So, somehow, someway the .u commands SHOULD be brought back, or the equivalent if those should be introduced. The argument about the core incompatibility is surely understandable, but, truth be told, the new core, which you are now using on Blackrock, is not suitable for a PvP realm - it is just too buggy. I was able to spot a bug in the first minute of testing a destruction warlock, and it actually says a lot, because the bug was of an "unforgivable" kind - "Conflagrate" is activated immediately after the cast of "Immolate", not after the first tick of the dot. It is a really, really old bug, which I found on many private servers back in the days, and the fact, that it's still present in the core you have introduced to this server in 2019 is mind-boggling and raises the question of how many other bugs like this one are out there. So I suggest you admit your mistakes and revert all this with all the cross-realm stuff and so on - it's just not worth greatly worsening the gaming experience.

    The cross-realm idea, by the way, it not bad, but it either should have been technically thought out in a way, that would have allowed this to function WITHOUT changing the core, or not be implemented at all, because, once again, the negative side there greatly outweights the positive one (if it's actually there).

    The next thing I would like to talk about is the introduction of Shadowmourne. While the motivation behind this is perfectly understandable from a financial standpoint, the in-game consequences of this are, as you surely know, horrendous, as it instantly makes 2v2 a warrior/paladin bracket only. Should it be allowed on a PvP-only realm is a no-brainer, if you ask me. Especially if the population of Blackrock is taken into consideration - you have a number of a much more populated wrath realms, where you could sell this item. The money flow from Blackrock is going to be negligible compared to the ones you get from other realms anyway, so I suggest you just revert the change and save both yourself and the players a great many of nerve cells. Let it be a Shadowmourne-free server.
    I have surely forgotten a lot of what I wanted to say, but I hope you got the point - the server desperately needs changes. Don't be like Blizzard, listen to your community.

    And I am not answering to moderators posts, I am not here for pointless arguing. This is meant for Malaco only.

  2. Even though i agree with everything you said about the quality gameplay from back in the good days, these changes makes sense as you said from the financial point of view. In an ideal world, creators like Malaco will probably focus at all times only on quality, but in the real world that's not the case in most situations. You can't really have both. AT was sold because his owner couldn't pay server taxes (that was the time were the focus was greater on the quality rather than financial profit).

    Things changed after the project was sold to Molten / Warmane. Just think about the team behind this server, they are employees and at the end of the month they're getting paid. So this project must generate money in a way or another, that's why they bought AT in the first place. Now think about what "hard working" to get gear does from the financial pow. It's basic common sense: people won't make that grind and instead donate then they'll enjoy the game. Even if only 20% of the playerbase will buy Shadowmourne (even though the percentage will increase over time) that's roughly about 24k euros. Just for 1 item. And suddenly, the server is generating more money than ever before, and crossrealm helps this perfectly: some blackrock players will quit after this change, but new fresh meat will come from servers like Lordaeron and Icecrown - because of cross realm. This is a the feedback loop that will keep the realm alive, at least for now - while owners making profits.

    I do agree with all your points regarding new core being not as good as old one, 284 meta and lack of utility commands. I'm happy you pointed this out and maybe something's gonna change when Malaco reads that. I'm also aware that the probability to revert some changes are very low. The whole cross realm thing took time (and implicitly money) to be developed, and as long as Blackrock is in the crossrealm pool many will argue that things can't be easier for blackrock(higher honor rates, etc). On the other hand, leaving Blackrock out of the crossrealm pool will just make them lose money. It's all about finance at the end of the day. Great post anyways, i'm glad someone gasped the voice of the server overall.

  3. PvP on Warmane as a whole is dying and has been bleeding for quite a long time now. The competition is dryer than ever before. I believe it is in part due to the age of the expansion and people getting somewhat bored of it. But in large part, I believe it is due to a lack of willingness to modify and shack up the meta in an effort to stay Blizzlike. By now, everyone have figured out the optimal comps out there and how to play their class.

    As stated before, 2s has turned into a warr/hpal bracket, and 3s is pretty much dead. Wotlk is an incredible expansion in term of pacing and game mechanics. Each class is truly unique and each bring something of their own in a composition. The PvP is fast paced, rewarding both hard reads and fast reactions. However, the current state of PvP is massively unbalanced. Caster cleaves wipe everything in 3s, and Warriors are unbearable in 2s and slightly more manageable in 3s, unless they're playing Thundercleave. The core PvP of wotlk is amazing, but it's just begging for fine tuning in order to reach it's best potential state.


    I cannot help but miss the time when real attempts were made at balancing this expansion as best as possible. I had been playing on AT every since it's modest debut, even before transmog, soloq or the spectator NPC was a thing there. I quit Blackrock a few years ago when all the achievements/titles/ratings were wiped out in an effort to bring "life" back into the server. I couldn't get myself to grind it all again with new partners after losing it all. Despite it's tragic downfall, I do want to thank Malaco for what he has done for us. I know people give him a lot of **** for how AT turned into Blackrock and how Blackrock turned into what it is today, but he never had any obligation to open up AT in the first place and to deliver us the best experience. With cross-realm now being a thing and changes being hard or impossible to implement, I believe it is best for us to bury Blackrock and just let it slowly drift away.
    Edited: March 17, 2019

  4. I have played on Arena Tournament for ages, and i have a lot of feelings related that period.

    But we have to face reality: Malaco is not the leader anymore. He surely has some decisional power regarding Blackrock, but Warmane staff has the final word and they already stated that Blackrock is moving towards the other realms. So we will never see again flush everyday, free transmog, almost free gear etc etc etc......

    I want to be clear, i would really like to go back to the old AT, but unfortunately this is not possible anymore. The real AT is gone, Malaco would have never created something like the actual Blackrock.

  5. Another useless topic that no one cares about (speaking of admins) and will be forgotten/deleted/ignored. You want a custom server? Open it by yourself, AT is dead since years, and I am a player since it was called Abysal WoW and it was TBC with like idk 300 online. So stop DREAMING because that's actually what you are doing, the things to do are 2:

    1) Stop crying and accept the realm as it is, good or bad
    2) Change game/server, or do something else

  6. No need for this black painting.
    Yes, AT is dead and won't return. A AT like realm with easy gearing just doesn't fit in a cross-realm battlegroup.
    That however doesn't mean that Blackrock can't be a success.
    Blackrock wasn't that crowded for years and thanks to cross-realm the arena brackets have a much larger pool of players than ever before.
    Yes, there are several issues such as soloq not beeing cross-faction, long BG queue time on ally side, lack of honor rewards when geared, etc.
    Keep in mind that they implemented cross-realm and the new Blackrock core only a month ago.
    To be honest, compared to other private server launches all of that was done pretty smooth and professional on Warmane.
    Nevertheless they have still tons of work to do and I'm sure that Blackrock will receive many changes for the better.

    I'm confident that Blackrock will be more popular than it used to be. Due to the obvious gearing advantage many upcoming PvPers will choose Blackrock over the other realms in the battlegroup.
    At the same time Blackrock is more grindy than it used to be so more ppl gonna donate for gear.
    Blackrock will generate more money and consequently it will be a higher priority for Warmanes developer.
    Edited: March 19, 2019

  7. I have played on Arena Tournament for ages, and i have a lot of feelings related that period.

    But we have to face reality: Malaco is not the leader anymore. He surely has some decisional power regarding Blackrock, but Warmane staff has the final word and they already stated that Blackrock is moving towards the other realms. So we will never see again flush everyday, free transmog, almost free gear etc etc etc......

    I want to be clear, i would really like to go back to the old AT, but unfortunately this is not possible anymore. The real AT is gone, Malaco would have never created something like the actual Blackrock.
    It's not that easy to start a new server, with a fresh core (warmane will never give the core they got from AT for free to anyone). You need good devs, a good team, and get good advertising since you need quite a few ppl playing it. If it was as easy as you seem to think it is, a new AT with all good AT stuff would have been created a long time ago, and no one would play here for PvP (I guess the PvE realms are ok).
    Don't get me wrong, the scripts aren't that bad, but it's just not the quality PvP server it used to be.

  8. May 13, 2019  
    So, somehow, someway the .u commands SHOULD be brought back, or the equivalent if those should be introduced.
    Ye now you pay for it with points and say bye bye to your 2.2k mount :D amazing equivalent

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