PVP Servers
I’ve been playing on PvP (player vs player) servers since I began playing WoW back in vanilla, and probably for no other reason than it was the more challenging (man-speak for macho) kind of server to play on. PvE (player vs environment) servers were for wimps who couldn’t handle running into an opponent while questing. Boy has my opinion changed since then.
Back in the day there was ganking, but at least if you ran into a player around the same level as yourself, it came down to how skilled you were in your class because both of you were on almost equal footing gear-wise. If you wanted an edge you could run through some battlegrounds to get PvP gear, which I mostly did because it was better than the PvE gear you’d get from quests.
Hillsbrad and Stranglethorn were “the” ganking zones, and everyone knew it. If you wanted the extra challenge to see if you’d survive through your questing, or wanted to do some ganking yourself, you went to one of those two zones. If you didn’t feel like dying while you quested you just bypassed those zones.
These were also the zones lvl 60 players would be found preying on the lowbies. I swear the term “camping” was born in STV!
Wow have times changed. These days if you’re not fully decked out in heirlooms you’re dead meat. And unless it’s a starting zone, there are level 100’s running around ganking in every zone. While Stranglethorn is still tough to get through, Hellfire Peninsula is now “the” zone that pops into my head when I think of ganking. And you have no choice but to go through that zone!
Ok, maybe it’s not really THAT bad. Maybe I’ve just had my low-level butt handed to me once too many times, and it’s put a fear into me. Not a fear of getting sacked, but a fear of how frustrated I’ll get because of the extra time added to my leveling experience. When I’m in the mood, world PvP is awesome. It makes things more interesting. I remember leveling fishing on a toon many years ago, and spending my time watching my back, waiting for someone to ride past and think I’d be easy pickings. But now, we have lvl 100’s killing all of the quest givers in a quest hub, and I have to sit around for 5 minutes waiting for the quests givers to rez so I can turn my quests in. UGH!
PVE Servers
I specifically chose a PvE server for The Adventure because I wanted to ENJOY the leveling experience. I wanted to focus on the quests, see more of the terrain than I’ve seen in the past, and grind for mats without 1) always looking behind me, or 2) having to fight another player for a damn Rich Thorium Deposit.
And for the most part, that’s exactly what I’ve gotten. But there is a downside to PvE servers as well. They are crowded. OMG, the low-level zones are packed. Yes, I know joined servers have added to this, but I’ve never seen it this bad on a PvP server. Dun Morogh is infested with new ‘characters’. (Notice I didn’t say new ‘players’. Almost everyone is decked out in heirlooms!) Blizzard seems to have increased the respawn rate on items in some areas to help with this, but I’ve run in to areas where I, and 10 other players, are all waiting around for some mob or item to respawn.
Oh, and like PvP servers, there are still the lvl 100 a$$hats who kill all of the quest givers at a hub. I really had hoped you couldn’t do this on a PvE server, but wrong I was. At least it isn’t as bad as a PvP server. I swear whenever I flew into Duskwood on my PvP server I would see nothing but bodies and ghosts waiting around for the opposition to leave. It’s NEVER a good sign when you enter an area and everything is dead.
How about you? Are you a PvP Server person, or a PvE Server person?
Leave a Reply