Nostalrius General FAQ

1 - About
2 - Decisions
3 - Other

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Q: What is Nostalrius Begins?
A: Nostalrius Begins is a private server emulating the classic (or vanilla) WoW, beginning with patch 1.2 and eventually running its course all the way to patch 1.12.1. The experience rate is x1, so exactly how it was in vanilla. It launched in late February of 2015 and has amassed a huge population of players, having peaked at over ten thousand. It has some of the most accurate scripting of any Classic WoW private server out there, and is still being patched and developed. It is hosted in France and the delay, if you're connecting from the U.S., is negligible.

Q: What is a "progressive realm"?
A: "Progressive realm" is the term being used to say that the server will be updated in patches to release content, except that content already technically exists since Blizzard made it ten years ago (a private server developer's job is to script that content to make it work as intended). The most recently updated schedule can be found here: https://en.nostalrius.org/timeline

Q: Nine thousand seems like a lot of people, isn't that too many?
A: The peaks reach up to 10k and down to 5k over a 24 hour cycle. This is both a blessing and a curse. You may often find other players needing the same mobs as you for a quest, or you may run into a lot of world PvP, but at the same time, finding a group is often easy, and there are a lot of guilds to choose from at endgame. Having so many players does result in a saturated economy however, and standard materials on Nostalrius are generally worth less than on other servers. It does feel like a living world.

Q: How's the community?
A: The community is wonderful. When questing and adventuring you will find other players to talk, group quest, and do dungeons with, and you may make many friends during your journey to 60. The true vanilla experience. If there's anything to remember, it's that you get out what you put in. Being unafraid to talk and be friendly will get others talking too, and any generosity or kindness will not go overlooked. The same applies for more negative words and actions.

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Q: Which faction should I join?
A: Population split is just about 50/50. As an objective guide, this FAQ cannot make either recommendations or definitive statements on that matter, simply because humans are humans and one person's experience can vary wildly from another's. If you have any personal preconceptions, they probably aren't wrong, but there are always those who go against the grain. If anything, your choice of faction should be based on your tastes, preferences, and the "role" you want to play.

Q: What class should I play? What's needed in the [faction] raiding scene?
A: Either you have a hard time thinking for yourself or you're fresh to the game and just want to be helpful - the answer is the same: WHATEVER APPEALS TO YOU. Listen to your heart. No, seriously. Why? Alot of reasons, listed by importance. . .
1) If you force yourself to level and gear something you aren't attached to, you will not have real fun, you WILL regret it eventually, and you WILL feel like shit because you're conflicted  or because you've made the decision to reroll and you've wasted all that time.
2) From the time you're reading this to the time that you're 60 and prepared to raid (or have secured a spot earlier), the circumstances will have changed and demands will have shifted. Demand for roles is on a guild-by-guild basis anyway. Nobody knows all the ins and outs of their faction's raiding scene, nor can they predict the future.
3) Even an obscure specialization on a hybrid class has a purpose and an application somewhere. Moonkin? Absolutely. Protection paladin? If you're good at it! Shadow priest? Yes, believe it or not. Mind you, finding your place as one of those specs will be more difficult than your standard mage DPS or priest healer, but don't let that dissuade you if you do feel passionate about a certain playstyle. There are 40 slots in a raid, and every spec of every class has something unique to bring to the table that someone else just might want.

Q: Are addons necessary? Which ones should I get?
A: Addons are not necessary. There are no immediate problems with vanilla that a must-have addon will solve. Play the game bare, and if you find yourself wishing for something that you can't do with the standard interface options, you might want to look up some addons. Check the website below, or google it.
http://addons.us.to/addons

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Q: Will I get in trouble for playing on a private server?
A: No. Playing on a private server does not break any laws, so you or your retail account will not get in trouble. However, Blizzard can ban your Twitch.tv account if you plan on streaming Nostalrius on Twitch.

Q: Will Blizzard take this server down?
A: No. The server is hosted in France, so Blizzard can't take the server down.

Q: What about Corecraft?
A: After Naxxramas is cleared, the Nostalrius team plans on releasing a TBC server that you will be able to transfer your level 60 characters to. Whether you would rather wait for Corecraft, that's completely up to you.

Q: What about Kronos?
A: Kronos is a competing server that launched exactly one month after Nostalrius, claiming to have the "most advanced vanilla scripts to date". Many things have turned people away from Kronos, such as their endorsed character sale & trade, passionately haughty community, and a few important bugs such as minions not disappearing when you slay their master. Their numbers suffered from the release of Nostalrius, and they generally peak at very low numbers of players - around 500. As far as scripting goes, it's hard to find an unbiased opinion.