I'm trying to figure out why you would want a server locked at a specific expansion. Only thing I can come up with is if you really like that expansion and want to reroll over and over to play it. And/or the expansions after it are not as good. From what I hear, Gates and Omens were not received well when they first launched, but have become much better on TLPs. I know server population dips off after PoP/New TLP launch, but how does locking at PoP do to help with that?
It doesn't. It artificially deflates population to prevent server crashes and lower required GM interaction. That is the only benefit.
There has been a lot of demand of for a PoP locked server in the past which I think is based on how raid design changed in expansions past that and from experiences on the old mac server.
And that demand was fulfilled with Agnarr. That is why we don't see posts asking for a POP-locked server anymore.
Uh there's tons of benefits to a locked server... 1) There's a real fomo in this game. I took a break/vacation on Mangler at the end of Velious and missed half of Luclin and all of a sudden I'm way far behind my guild and it can be overwhelming to feel like you always have to catch up/be behind. On Agnarr, I can quit for a year and come back and my BIS character will still be BIS. I can play at an extremely slow pace and know that there's an end point to reach, so it's much easier to play at my own pace 2) For true min maxers it's great. On a normal TLP you're never going to max EVERYTHING in era. On Agnarr I'm working on my 4th maxed char- I have every item, augment, clicky, etc. It's fun to be a completionist and an era locked server allows this to happen... It's just impossible at the pace of normal TLPs to do everything and keep up with progression 3) if you like the era it's great. I don't want to play until live. I may want an oow lock just for epic 2 but don't want anything past that, so why would I invest a ton of time and money to play on a TLP that will keep progressing... I could be on Mangler and get my 2.0 and then quit but then once it passes that I'll have nobody to play with. On Agnarr I will always have people to play with
Its to keep the constant spin cycle going each year with new TLPs. As far as to why PoP? Because there is this false narrative out there that the GoD expansion sucks. The only issue i have post PoP is the long 4 expansion of lvl 70, which be easily fixed with DoN coupled with another expansion.
As someone who has played on every TLP the game changes post-PoP. It becomes more and more group instance focused as opposed to just LFG in an open zone like LGuk, The Deep, Fire or BoT. I'm not making an argument about which is better, it's just different. It's not for everyone but many of us enjoy doing that adventure over again every one to two years. For the rest, there are other options!
DoN could come out 8 weeks into Omens Also DoDH / PoR could combine in my opinion or at worst PoR opens 8 weeks into DoDH That 70 stretch sucked from being so long and the content added has not aged that well.
