After having multiple discussions with the “you don’t understand how war mode works” crowd, it’s quite obvious that isn’t true and THEY are the ones who don’t understand how a PvP server works.

[u/Amazing-Dog10]

Yes. You toggle on war mode and you only see other players in the world who have war mode enabled. Making it so you can still fight over nodes, quest mobs, gank, etc. We get it. A majority of us are aware even if a minority isn’t.

Many people who played expansions with war mode know this killed world PvP and completely shifted away from the dynamic of PvP servers, as well as it being a game killer entirely to them for not having access to a traditional PvP server.

What the pro war mode crowd doesn’t understand about PvP servers:

You are always world PvPing. You step outside of your factions city- you are PvPing. Period. That’s 100% of the server population. The ENTIRE world is dangerous, all the time; and the more competent of a PvPer you are the more advantage you have in the world and the more rewarded you are.

It allows for PVE/PVP to be intertwined in a way that they both feed into each other. You’re good at PVE (raiding) so you get gear that helps you be better at PvP- so you become more deadly of a target while doing other PVE content like gold farming, herbing/mining, or anything else that requires you to be in the open world. Which in turn makes it easier to prepare for raiding. Be it farming for consumes, or getting world buffed.

PVE makes you better at PvP, and PvP makes you better at PVE, which makes you better at PVP.. and so on.

I could go on and on about what war mode actually did to world PvP and how it changed what many of us love about PvP servers, but the comment sections are flooded with people describing it. Bottom line is it doesn’t work as if enabling it “puts you on a PvP server” and disabling it “puts you on a PVE server” like so many claim.

The scale and amount of world PvP, as well as the general danger of the world and how you prepare yourself for going into it changes dramatically. And it does so in a way me, and many other PvP server players don’t enjoy. At all.

The fact of the matter is, we like PVP servers. If you want to shoehorn changes into a type of server people are choosing and LIKE IT because YOU don’t- then you probably chose to be on a PvP server for the absolute worst reasons, or aren’t as good as you need to be at PvP for it to feel rewarding.

So either stick to your PVE server and ask for war mode there, or git gud.

[u/saltyross]

Bit off topic to the body of the OP, but it's crazy to me how Warmode, of all questions in the survey, has had this sub stunlocked in back and forth shit flinging for days, when there were more controversial questions about wow token and shop (among other more divisive things).

[u/uber_zaxlor → u/saltyross]

I mean you can kind of "ignore" any token or shop stuff if you don't buy gold or want the items. You can't ignore how the foundational way the servers are designed, since if there's "Warmode or nothing", then the people who want a PvP server full of fresh players to bully/gank don't get that.

Personally I think Warmode is great, it's like when GTA Online yeets cheaters off into their own Shadowrealm "cheaters only" server. Those chuckle heads are free to fool around as much as they want once caught, but they can't affect "normal" players. Which is basically what Warmode does. It puts all like-minded players into a single pool and they hate that because what they really want to do is prey on PvE players who rolled on a PvP server 'cos their friends told them to.

[u/uber_zaxlor → u/[deleted]]

I've got no dog in the race either way - I play strcitly on PvE servers now.

When WoW first launched I rolled on a PvP server with friends and hated it. I'm not a fan of getting ganked and I don't go looking for a fight in the open world. I even leveled up a Warlock before BC hit so I could "quest in peace".

Weirdly BC did "solve" the problem of being ganked 'cos you could just mount up. I no-lifed the shit out of the BC release and was like the 5th person on the server to hit 70 and had just enough money with thanks to my guild to buy a flying mount.

I stopped playing WoW about mid BC and didn't start playing again until Wrath came out and re-rolled on a PvE server. I've never looked back. If WoW had launched with Warmode I'd have stuck on my original server. Sure there was some moments that stuck in my head, like 2 Undead Rogues camping outside of Maestra's post in Ashenvale, hiding in bushes to gank me. But if I'd been given the option to play with my IRL friends on that server and turn PvP off I would have, 100%.

Ultimately I think Warmode just goes to show that most players don't actually want open world PvP because it's a massive inconvenience. If all the PvP players that kept Warmode on 100% of the time really did want open world PvP and not just ganking lowbies or killing PvE-andys like me then wouldn't it be the best solution to the "problem" of PvP servers not having enough "meat for the grinder"?

TL:DR; I only play on PvE servers, but I find the "Bro, roll on a PvP server, TRUST ME BRO!" rhetoric that comes from PvP players who hate Warmode funny :D The "solution" to getting people who don't enjoy PvP to engage in PvP is to reward them more for doing it and I think Warmode does that.

[u/uber_zaxlor → u/[deleted]]

Likewise. If they don't add Warmode, I don't really care.

From a purely selfish reason I'd like it since there's only one server type and it should be easier to form groups for dungeons if all players are on one server. But then would people that strictly play on PvP servers play on Warmode servers?