Tel'Abim Launch Time / Phase Schedule

[Akalix]

Tel'Abim will be launching on October 27th at 5:00PM GMT!!


Tel'Abim Phase Schedule
Any content not listed can be assumed as available on launch!
Specific days for phase progression will be specified at a future date.

• Phase 1 will last 4 months, including:
  • All new dungeons (Crescent Grove, Gilneas City, Hateforge Quarry, Karazhan Crypt, Stormwind Vault, Caverns of Time: Black Morass)
  • Blood Ring and Sunnyglade Valley
  • Onyxia's Lair
  • Molten Core
  • Lower Karazhan Halls
  • Concavius
  • Dark Reaver of Karazhan
  • Azuregos
  • Kazzak

• Phase 2 will last 3 months, including:
  • Blackwing Lair
  • Zul'Gurub
  • Emerald Sanctum
  • Dragons of Nightmare
  • Nerubian Overseer
  • Ostarius

• Phase 3 will last 3 months, including:
  • AQ War Effort
  • Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj
  • Temple of Ahn'Qiraj

• Phase 4 will include:
  • Scourge Invasion
  • Naxxramas

We look forward to seeing you on October 27th! Return to monkey on Tel'Abim PvP!

[Blackduck]

Any chance battlegrounds could be restricted for a time? The best part of classic pvp are the first few months before battlegrounds are put into the game. Having a pvp server without battlegrounds would also make the server even more unique and attractive to people that want world pvp.

[Mamamitch1]

Very exciting to hear, looking forward to a fun launch day. Thank you for the update on the server release time devs.

[Jortimer]

When are the T0.5 sets coming in?

[Ugoboom]

Any chance battlegrounds could be restricted for a time? The best part of classic pvp are the first few months before battlegrounds are put into the game. Having a pvp server without battlegrounds would also make the server even more unique and attractive to people that want world pvp.

That's true man. Ranking system released day 1 but no BGs during phase 1 is the primo way to do it, highly encouraging pvp when everyones all leveling up with eachother week 1 to 4.

Blizzlike with no honor system for MC phase sucked! On classic 2019, people awkwardly avoided pvp just in the interest of improving xp per hour. This sucked and significantly damaged pvp during many peoples' favorite time of a realm.

[Klavutsoforum]

I am so happy for the phased approach :)

[Dkp]

The real World of Paladins begins

[Chudman123]

could you please do one of the two:

1. On the PvP server make BG rep rewards with a lot more options and on par with AQ40 gear at least (NAXX would be fair too). This means a lot more items especially at lower reps, better ilvl, stuff you don't feel bad about enchanting because it is your personal BIS (since you don't /can't aq40+ raid) and your gear isn't much worse than the folks that raid also.

2. make phases last a lot longer?

You are going to a really large effort doing phases which is awesome!

7 total months of holding back progression still leads to the typical WoW problems with huge item imbalances.

Majority of people on PvP Discord would rather have BWL locked for at least a year and now we get AQ40 at 5 months and NAXX at 7 months? Seems super fast and not necessary IMO since AQ40 on is what breaks PvP balance in WoW vanilla.

Again if rep rewards are an option to gear up and you have a lot of good gear at lower levels of rep then it's not a big deal. But to have NAXX vrs crap PvP gear will kill your PvP server when they loose Blood Ring 10x in a row with zero counter play.

Most people want to build up a char who can compete and have a chance. Full release so fast will lead to huge imbalances in gear which will deter any new people from wanting to play (just as Twow PvE server is now, i know I've been trying for a while).

so please devs do at least option 1. if you don't want people to quit.

Goal should be:

dungeon+MC+BWL+PVP rep gear is almost as good as NAXX+ES gear. Maybe not 100% but at least 90%, if not game is lame no reason to even make a toon since it will progress super fast and all the people that are behind will get stomped and not want to play.

[Chudman123]

less people leads to less people leads to a dead PvP server. Gotta make gear paths that can compete with AQ40/NAXX/ES by the time you release those raids IMO.

No reason you can't make PvP items for PvP server, items are easy. I'll make like 20 for you if you want.

[Williamson75]

I would totally vote for the phases to be a lot longer between releases. gives more time so people can gear more without getting slapped around. Classic had an issue of too short between phases causing people to get discouraged from starting a new toon when right around the corner bwl is dropping or aq40 is about to drop. The other issue it highly rewards those who decide to just power through leveling and start doing raids hardcore but leaves a massive gap between the groups. I think adjusting it and spreading it out will jump start alot more pvp and especially the lower level brackets

[Siflisk1]

less people leads to less people leads to a dead PvP server. Gotta make gear paths that can compete with AQ40/NAXX/ES by the time you release those raids IMO.

No reason you can't make PvP items for PvP server, items are easy. I'll make like 20 for you if you want.

Can't agree more.

I was only planning on playing until the gear imbalance makes the server just like the original server, since I don't/can't raid and won't be able to compete.

If you're going to make a pvp server, then go all in on pvp gear progression.

[Chudman123]

If you're going to make a pvp server, then go all in on pvp gear progression.

yes this 100%, then maybe the PvP server lasts and people of all sorts of casual levels can gear up and play.


WSG/AB/BR/AV gear all needs buffs and a lot more items (especially weapons, trinkets, and jewelry)!

[Jc473]

less people leads to less people leads to a dead PvP server. Gotta make gear paths that can compete with AQ40/NAXX/ES by the time you release those raids IMO.

No reason you can't make PvP items for PvP server, items are easy. I'll make like 20 for you if you want.

You are asking them to solve a problem which Blizzard or no other server has done yet and before AQ comes out in only half a year! I wouldn’t get your hopes up on this issue.

From a balance pov, that sort of thing is almost impossible to do well. The main reason is because PvP gear (rep or honour gear) always takes considerably less time to acquire than raiding gear.

I think the only way to keep it fair would be to extend the time it takes to acquire PvP rep/honour gear to match the slower pace of raiding and have both types of gear on par with each other. Given that we don’t have rank decay, perhaps they could gate the ranks available per phase? Blue set for phase 1 and epic set for phase 2. But how do you solve the post AQ gear imbalance issue? Maybe add 2-3 more ranks for phase 3 and again for phase 4; these ranks could provide further upgrades to match the power of later raids?

To be honest, this kind of approach (gating) stinks of Retail but I just can’t think of any other fair approaches for PvP/Raiding gear acquisition.

Also, any proposal here would have to work for both server types; I assume they really don’t want to maintain two different code bases.

[Siflisk1]

less people leads to less people leads to a dead PvP server. Gotta make gear paths that can compete with AQ40/NAXX/ES by the time you release those raids IMO.

No reason you can't make PvP items for PvP server, items are easy. I'll make like 20 for you if you want.

You are asking them to solve a problem which Blizzard or no other server has done yet and before AQ comes out in only half a year! I wouldn’t get your hopes up on this issue.

From a balance pov, that sort of thing is almost impossible to do well. The main reason is because PvP gear (rep or honour gear) always takes considerably less time to acquire than raiding gear.

I think the only way to keep it fair would be to extend the time it takes to acquire PvP rep/honour gear to match the slower pace of raiding and have both types of gear on par with each other. Given that we don’t have rank decay, perhaps they could gate the ranks available per phase? Blue set for phase 1 and epic set for phase 2. But how do you solve the post AQ gear imbalance issue? Maybe add 2-3 more ranks for phase 3 and again for phase 4; these ranks could provide further upgrades to match the power of later raids?

To be honest, this kind of approach (gating) stinks of Retail but I just can’t think of any other fair approaches for PvP/Raiding gear acquisition.

Also, any proposal here would have to work for both server types; I assume they really don’t want to maintain two different code bases.

Turtle already has the premium pve experience with the existing server. I hardly hit queues anymore so there's no reason for a new server for overpopulation reasons.

If they're making a pvp server, it needs to be classic+ pvp+ and 110% embrace all things pvp. If you want pve then the current server is for you.

[Charanko]

Need longer phases

[Chudman123]

Ya to Siflisk and Jc473 both good points.

Again no need for new dungeons or quests or any complex content. Just logical set of items that allow many types of play. If easy to do they could lock max reputation at each phase.

one possibility: make every current rep reward available at one lower rep rank (honored gear becomes friendly, ect.). Then make at least 1 more item per rep level and 2 more at the new max rep.

make sure to have plenty of weapons, trinkets, jewelry and then buff current armor stuffs

Shouldn't be too hard since items are pretty to easy especially if no new mechanics just stats like STA/Spell power/Str/agi/ect.

[Chudman123]

ya and longer phases sounds like a way to give devs time to create this stuff while pple have fun

[Jolikmc]

I bet people will still ask when the realm opens even though it's right bloody there, now.

Be that as it may… here's a UTC time zone converter so you can figure out when 5:00 PM / 17:00 UTC is. It defaults to your local time, so it should be pretty dead simple to use.

Edit: That timer in the next post down is probably more useful than a converter, ha hah.

[Slashignore]

heres a counter

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/g ... &font=slab

[Holiediver69]

Request all the Plate spellpower defense gear from Karazhan be moved to alliance only :D Thanks

[Namaewa]

shortened phases was one of the most disliked aspects of SoM, not sure why it's done here :(

[Forbearance]

Will mage oranges be available only in phase 3? If so, can you please make mage oranges available sooner?

[Wolfheart1990]

Great news Devs, I'm glad to hear the content will be phased. However, as some people pointed out, the phases do seem a bit too short considering TurtleWoW's philosophy of letting players take it slow and enjoy the journey, especially with all the new content.

I would consider these 2 suggestions:

1) Increase the length of phases:

-Phase 1 to at least 4 months: gives players with limited time to play a comfortable 3 months to get to 60, and another month to gear up a little from PvP and raids before the next phase.

- Phase 2 to 4-6 months: this can be considered the heart of the game, where the power differentials between fully geared and freshly leveled players are higher, but still not too high. This would also gives new players a better chance to fully immerse themselves and learn / progress the Emerald Sanctum raid.

- Phase 3 to 4-6 months: A significant jump in power, AQ should be given its due respect before beginning to get eclipsed by Naxxramas

2) Allow Slow & Steady - there seems to be no strong reason not to. I assure you there are plenty of players who wish to experience the content at that pace, while facing the realistic danger of world PvP in contested zones. That merely adds to the fun of it all. Not everyone opting for the PvP server wants to rush to 60 and raidlog / disappear into battlegrounds asap.

I also see no harm in allowing Hardcore mode. While I never cared too much for it myself, it has always been a bit of a "madlad" challenge to take on, and who knows, there may be a few among us who would rise to legendary status by actually succeeding to do so on a PvP realm.

[Xudo]

How long phase 4 will last?

I share the concern of short phases being too fast for players to enjoy.
If last phase will be infinite, then there is no need to make short earlier phases. Why not 1 year each?

[Dannyp92]

Any chance battlegrounds could be restricted for a time? The best part of classic pvp are the first few months before battlegrounds are put into the game. Having a pvp server without battlegrounds would also make the server even more unique and attractive to people that want world pvp.

I thought people hated this, based on phase 2 in Classic? People would get ganked and farmed over and over at flight paths just so people could farm honor.

[Prasica]

Could we potentially increase the length of each phase and extend the overall timeline?

[Zokk]

Please tweak/make the Pvp gear a bit stronger.
It was always sad to see people face rolling pve content always coming in and ruining and having an advantage in Pvp.
Its a pvp server and you have an opportunity to do something unique and wonderful and in the Turtle wow spirit and passion.

Also, phases are far too quick.

[Trangoul]

Why are there phases in the first place? Isn't Turtle WoW about expanding the vanilla, instead of artificially limiting it?

[Charanko]

Could we potentially increase the length of each phase and extend the overall timeline?

+1

[Stein]

I am so happy for this server, looking forward to getting back to Turtle!

[Jc473]

Turtle already has the premium pve experience with the existing server. I hardly hit queues anymore so there's no reason for a new server for overpopulation reasons.

If they're making a pvp server, it needs to be classic+ pvp+ and 110% embrace all things pvp. If you want pve then the current server is for you.

Making a new PvP+ server would be a massive undertaking. God knows how many more people they’d need to design/maintain it. The only way this will happen is if this new experience brings in that many more people/donations to cover the additional running costs. This might well happen but I’m afraid any new designs will probably be implemented by the time the server is in the later phases. This is obviously a problem for the existing players who will have to endure the gross imbalance of PvP gear compared to AQ/Naxx gear.

If you’re expecting a new PvP+ experience, I think all (or most of) the required work would probably need to be done before the server is even launched…

[Fresharugula]

Why are there phases in the first place? Isn't Turtle WoW about expanding the vanilla, instead of artificially limiting it?

Becuase the PvP server crowd whined REALLY loudly until they got their way. A very vocal small minority is dictating the direction of the servers currently

[Equalrites]

Why a schedule on a PvP server is all about PvE/Raid things ?
This is stupid, it's going to be another PvE server stormed because it's «fresh», and nothing more.

Lock away raids once and for all and get some serious update on how PvP interact within the world itself.

[Blackduck]

Any chance battlegrounds could be restricted for a time? The best part of classic pvp are the first few months before battlegrounds are put into the game. Having a pvp server without battlegrounds would also make the server even more unique and attractive to people that want world pvp.

I thought people hated this, based on phase 2 in Classic? People would get ganked and farmed over and over at flight paths just so people could farm honor.

that sounds like win to me, it should be helter skelter like that all the time. horde and alliance are supposed to be at war.

[Jc473]

Any chance battlegrounds could be restricted for a time? The best part of classic pvp are the first few months before battlegrounds are put into the game. Having a pvp server without battlegrounds would also make the server even more unique and attractive to people that want world pvp.

I thought people hated this, based on phase 2 in Classic? People would get ganked and farmed over and over at flight paths just so people could farm honor.

that sounds like win to me, it should be helter skelter like that all the time. horde and alliance are supposed to be at war.

Until you experience the lengths the modern players go to in reaching their Rank14 goals.... It was an unpleasant experience in Classic WoW and I don't imagine it playing out any differently here.