Blizz Adds More WoW Classic PvP Realms

After warning people that they should pick new PvP servers in WoW Classic lest they face login queues possibly exceeding 10,000 players, Blizzard turned around today and announced the addition of three more PvP Realms to the list.

Classic is as Classic does

They had already added one realm to each the US and EU lineup last week.  Today they announced three new PvP realms, two for the US and one for the EU.

The new US servers are:

  • Blaumeux – PvP – Pacific Time Zone
  • Skeram – PvP – Eastern Time Zone

While the EU server is:

  • Firemaw – PvP – English

The three new realms will be available tomorrow for name reservations.

Blizzard had said on Friday, when they started warning of gargantuan queues, that they would not add more realms until people shifted off of the most crowded realms, which were Herod (US) and Shazzrah (EU).  That they have now added more realms seems to indicate that people shifting off of those two were not sufficient.

It is interesting to see that PvP realms seem to be the most popular for this nostalgia driven event.  Is it memories of battles at Tarran Mill and the Crossroads driving this?

The last time I checked Bloodsail Buccaneers, the RP server where our group is headed, was one of the more lightly populated servers, which makes a certain sort of sense.  Some people fear to be near RP, lest it be found to be contagious.

The fact that no PvE realms have been required seems a bit odd to me.  But I have no fond memories of PvP in WoW when it comes down to it.  And we still have a week to go before launch, so more may be required.

Maybe somebody will ask about that at tomorrow’s AMA in the WoW Classic subreddit.

I’ll just go update my post about the server list again while we wait.

Addendum: In addition to the two servers mentioned, Blizz is also saying that the following US servers are now facing long queues.

  • Faerlina – PvP
  • Herod – PvP
  • Pagle – Normal
  • Thalnos – PvP
  • Whitemane – PvP

Again, lots of PvP, but also a PvE realm.  A sign of more servers before the end of the week?

Addendum:  Another server added to the queue warning list.

  • Mankrik – Normal

That least 2 PvE servers and the RP servers the only ones not facing a warning.

9 thoughts on “Blizz Adds More WoW Classic PvP Realms”

  1. Marathal

    Myzrael was low when I registered, medium 2 days later, and now high. I suspect that they weren’t anticipating this level of interest

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  4. inactiveseller

    I can confirm. I left Wow hen legion destroy the DK. My wife and me must get a subscription and do so to renew for the name reservations in Pagle, but at the moment we dont have the desire of enter in the REAL servers.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Bhagpuss

    I’m going to resub and make a character tomorrow. Good to hear BB still has room.

    I do find it weird that the rush is all for PvP servers. Who ever thought of WoW as a PvP game? It’s always been the poster child for casual PvE, hasn’t it? Also I find it odd that RP servers are being avoided. Again, my experience over twenty years has always been that official RP servers are among the highest populated in any MMORPG – certainly the case in LotRO, EQII and, I believe, FFXIV.

    This all seems to be saying quite a lot about the audience Classic is attracting and suggests an even more marked split between Classic and Live than I was expecting.

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  8. Wilhelm Arcturus Post author

    Blizzard might have built an audience for PvP. One of the mistakes of the Battle for Azeroth expansion was the change to PvP servers. Basically, they are all gone. Blizz made open war with objectives available on all servers, but you had to opt in. This resulted in a lot of people simply not opting in to PvP on former PvP servers so far as I can tell. The idea was all servers would be PvP servers, the result was… not that.

    So there may be a large audience from the former PvP servers looking for a new home in classic. And they are motivated to do so.

    It will be interesting to see if PvE servers catch up some as the launch gets closer or kicks off.

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  9. Shintar

    In the private server scene, people are absolutely obsessed with PvP servers, which is why 9 out of 10 vanilla private servers have been PvP – including the famed Nostalrius. Phrases like “it’s not really Vanilla if you’re not on a PvP server” are frequently uttered, much to the bafflement of those of us who only ever played on PvE servers and didn’t want anything else. I had a post in my draft folder called “PvP servers are overrated” but I doubt I’ll finish it at this point.

    Plus there’s what you said in the comment above: world PvP in current WoW has been in a long decline (people have been complaining about its demise pretty much since the introduction of battlegrounds, then it was the addition of flying mounts etc.) and BFA got rid of the whole concept entirely.

    That said, my general (admittedly limited) experience from observing MMO server populations is that PvP servers start out strong and then see the swiftest and steepest population decline of all server types, whether it’s because there isn’t enough PvP for some people’s liking, they realise it’s annoying, factions are imbalanced or whatever. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar thing in Classic, with PvP servers being all the rage at launch, but the population that’s in it for the long run ending up concentrated on the other server types.

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