I’ve found another Wow Private Server. For Wow, this one looks, and works very nicely. I’ve played it for a few hours. But I’m going to move on from Wow. I’ll get to that later.
Whitemane can be found at Whitemane.org. I was most interested in the Wrath of the Lich King [WotLK] expansion since it adds the Northrend continent, and flight in both Outland and Northrend. I found the Frostmourne experience very stable. No constant reboots as with Project Ascension. No crashes. There were a couple of funny behaviors but only a few in the week or so that I played.
The signup is a little odd. You sign up at PlayerID.me, whatever that is, and you must have either a gmail or another well known email – I forget which one. And they send a message to verify your email. No surprise. But it went smoothly.
Whitemane Plus and the WotLK Server
When you sign up – or return – I made an account and a character a long time ago. Not sure the rules for reactivating Whitemane plus, but I got it for 30 days as I started playing. While there is a big list of things included, they aren’t clear about other things. They talk about the cost being only a few cents [Euro-cents apparently] for Whitemane plus and less if you pay months at a time. But the only payment method is “DKP card” whatever that is. And they are not clear how to sign up. Apparently some intermediate “credit” card scheme. I played for free without ever signing up for the DKP stuff.
Basically the WotLK server is 5X [ Experience] and boosted crafting and other things. I assume that all these are constant with or without Whitemane-Plus, but I can’t be sure because WM+ was always active.
Odd Things
There are a few odd things I noticed right away:
There is almost nobody playing. I visited Orgrimmar and Stormwind and nobody was there. I saw a player pass like twice an hour as I was leveling both in Horde and Alliance zones. I used my WM+ teleporter to visit Shattrath and Dallaran – big cities in 70 and 80 level zones. And I saw two people in Dallaran one sitting on a fountain in his big dragon mount. Nice.
The dungeons are completely empty. Nobody queues up apparently. At least for dungeons around level 20. I waited over 20 min and I was solo in the queue the whole time.
I’m not sure if the gold drops are 5x or not. Maybe a lower number like 2x. This makes getting gold for riding skills very difficult. A long grind. You will not have enough gold for your riding skill and mount at level 20. But if you make a Warlock or Paladin character gets a mount and the skill automatically at level 20, so those seem to be the best if you don’t want to walk.
More Odd Things
Two odd things happened while I was questing in Deadholme / Ghostlands.
At one point my Voidwalker pet just ran away and left me to die. I attacked a nearby mob to try to recall him, but nothing. And of course I died since that area is full of mobs that gang up on you. I was level 27 and the mobs were 17-19, but three at a time was sure death.
While in Deathholme, I used the Warlock spell “Rain of Fire” and after channeling stopped the fireballs just kept coming down. Not doing any damage, but still coming down. So looks like the server, or client, somehow didn’t stop the animation. Anyway, I just moved on and the next Rain of Fire that I used worked ok.
The Warlock is a good choice since the VoidWalker pet is an excellent tank. So given the tanky pet and the free mount, looks like Warlock is the best choice.
Death isn’t a pain – maybe this is a WM+ feature – again I’m not sure about that. But when you die, it says you have a durability loss, but none occurs. and if you talk to the spirit guide at the grave yard and just skip the walk, she warns about a debuff, but that does not happen. Again, probably a WM+ feature.
Flights are instant, and you have all the flight points. These are probably WM+ benefits.
You can mail your Alt characters gold and stuff like bags. This is probably built in and not a WM+ feature. Be careful to spell your Alt names correctly to not lose your stuff.
Bags are a Problem
Inventory space is a problem. You need to collect every item of loot to sell, so you need big bags. But they are costly.
There are Netherweave and Frostweave bags on the Auction House, but they are way too pricey for lower level characters. So you’ll need to have one character on your account dedicated as a tailor to make bags for everyone.
Very Odd Experience
So Whitemane /Frostmourne is a faithful, if odd, experience of Wow WotLK. Very different from Project Ascension – but after playing for a few days, I didn’t feel betrayed as with Project Ascension. So if you want an authentic WotLK experience with some less grinding, this could be your ticket.
I Guess I’m Spoiled
But it’s not for me. I’ve decided, at least for now, the whole Wow thing is not for me.
The other games I play are:
- Elder Scrolls Online
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Guild Wars 2
Wow WotLK from 2009 seems primitive and grindy, generally Unfriendly, compared with any of these games. I can’t stomach the probably week of grinding ahead to get level 70 flight in Wow at this point.
I was playing my level 30 on the way to 50, Necromancer this morning on ESO, and gangs of mobs were no problem. My companion is not a tank, but Ember heals when I need it, and I have a heal skill too. The mobs are leveled to my level, no matter where I go, so I travel the world instantly with way shrines and boats and ride my choice of mounts – No Flying in ESO.
In ESO or GW2 or FFXIV, I could find a way to die, but I don’t need to constantly worry about running out of Mana or that a 2nd mob will attack and kill me. No long walks back.
So Wow was nice to see again after all these years, but I don’t get a charge from going back. But you should enjoy whatever floats your boat. And my message where is that while it is largely empty, the Whitemane servers are reliable and faithful Wow experiences.
Enjoy
:ww
Windy Weather 