Our Plan for Classic Launch

The hype is building and launch day is nearly here; we’re less than a week away now! Donut and I wanted to put together a response to everyone asking, “So what’s the plan?”

tl;dr:

  • Herod, Alliance.
  • The guild is going to be formed ASAP, help is required!
  • If you’re online, hop in Discord for some fun and beverages! (Game below.)
  • Level at your own pace, enjoy it, take breaks!
  • Click here for our Discord.

Before Launch

The community guild will be playing on Herod, Alliance , under the guild name < Vanilla Together >. If you are not aware, the charter to create a Guild costs 10 gold. Scrounging together 10 gold is going take time, and will require your help! If you are interested in donating to this purchase, please coordinate with Donut.

The majority of our group is located in North America; the game will be live at your respective time:

  • NDT – 7:30 PM
  • ADT – 7:00 PM
  • EDT – 6:00 PM
  • CDT – 5:00 PM
  • MDT – 4:00 PM
  • PDT – 3:00 PM

Even without taking a look at the WoW Classic Developer AMA, everyone is more than likely aware of, and expecting, the lengthy queue times for Herod on Launch. More than a few folks have voiced concerns over this and asked if we have any plans to swap servers… No, we do not.

Launch Queue Times
Senior Game Producer, Chromschi, on Queue Times for Launch Day.

The reasons for staying on Herod on twofold:

  1. Lengthy queue times will not last.
  2. Friends, Friends-of-friends, returning guild-mates, etc, have already committed.

The expected lengthy queue times not lasting particularly is backed by Blizzards own analytics. Compound this with the reality that a substantial portion of players will not play beyond the first month and we will be seeing stable realms and short queues (if any) relatively early on.

queue_time_layering
Lead Software Engineer, Pazorax, comments on Layering and Queue length.

Coordinating everyone to collectively move after already establishing a home base would be a giant pain for everyone involved. Being able to reserve a name beforehand has only further solidified several people to Herod.

August 27th, Launch Day

We should all expect to sit in a lengthy queue. HOWEVER, as (again) stated in the Classic Developer AMA, the servers will not be down leading up to the time of launch and will instead be a simple switch flip. This means that logging in beforehand may secure you a spot ahead of queue. This is not guaranteed, and we can assume Blizzard is expecting this and has contingency plans in place.

Our Discord is live and will have several community members online and buzzing before and during Launch… And that gave us an idea, a Launch Day Drinking Game!

Launch Day Drinking Game

The game starts as soon as you are logged in, and ends at 4AM the next day (if you can make it that long!)

1 Drink

  • Ding!
  • See a player with the name you wanted.
  • A non Vanilla Together member references Chuck Norris in General chat.
  • Say out loud anything along the lines of “this is better than retail”, “this is real WoW”, or “I hope we get the ____ expansion too”.

X Drinks

  • Pull X mobs and die, drink once per mob.
  • BoE Drops:
    • White, 2 Drinks.
    • Green, 3 Drinks.
    • Blue, 4 Drinks.

Finish your Drink

  • Get switched to another Layer without joining a group, or changing zones.
  • Servers go down.
  • Get killed by the opposite faction.

 

Donut and I are incredibly excited to play Classic with everyone and cannot wait to see you all in game!

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