Cenarius US

Cenarius (PvE)

Named after the son of Elune and Malorn, this original-launch PST server typically hovers around medium population. Horde are significantly outnumbered. No exact numbers exist, but most well-informed players on the server would estimate a 1:3 or 1:4 horde to alliance ratio.

PvP is tepid, at best. Pickup groups run on both sides, but there are also orgranized guild runs by both factions from Afterlife, Heist, Demise, Wrought from Ruin, et al. Predictably, pickup groups fare poorly against the more organized competition. Outdoor PvP is centralized around Orgrimmar, The Crossroads, Refuge Point and Tarren Mill. Battlegrounds for the alliance can run few and far between, with 2 hour wait times not being unheard of. Some PVP is typically guaranteed on a battlegrounds bonus weekend. In the case of Alterac Valley, this is generally the only time it runs. Being a PvE server, many players are interested in the high-end instances and as such finding groups for Blackrock Spire, Dire Maul, Scholomance, and Stratholme is generally not much of an issue.

The official Cenarius forums located on the Blizzard forums are somewhat slower paced than comparable servers, generally running 6 pages of retained posts. For the most part, the posts are unremarkable with the odd post that becomes a lightning rod for current server dramatics. The forum is fairly infested with players who post as level 1 characters commenting on other players, guilds and so on to avoid implicating themselves or their guild. In some cases, this has gone poorly when the player was revealed by others and in at least one case has resulted in that player claiming to have quit the game and deleted their characters along with all of his guilds possessions.

Guilds: A Short History

As was previously stated, Cenarius is a PvE realm. Accordingly, many players interested in PvE congregated on the server. The "Uber Guild" community on Cenarius is very lively. Prominent guilds that moved to Cenarius from EverQuest include Afterlife and Poseidon who were known as Triton in EQ.

As early as February 2005 guilds were penetrating deep into the Molten Core, spawning Ragnaros. For the Alliance, Afterlife and Dawn Eternal were leading the charge, but The Sundering, Arathian Knights, Thornguard, Magic and Mayhem, Omerta and a few multi-guild alliances were close behind. For the Horde, only Demise, Clan Silver Fox, and Blackfist Clan were initially attempting MC. The Blackfist Clan were set back by player problems but has since come back to MC as a group of guilds known as "The Collective". Aterlife was second guild to take Ragnaros down game-wide on or around April 26th. Afterlife was the first Alliance guild to beat Ragnaros, the first kill belonging to Ascent from Medivh server. Dawn Eternal and the Sundering were both fairly quick to defeat Ragnaros after Afterlife, however, it would take several of the other guilds many more months to defeat him. Between May and August of '05, the high-end guild scene underwent massive upheaval. Part of the officership of Arathian Knights split off to form the Eternal Ascendants with the a guild alliance formed around the old Gray Apostles. The Arathian Knights have a applicant guild, The Arathian Squires so large that they now run MC seprately from the main guild. Encore was formed by some ex-Thornguard members, and grew rapidly when Fatal Tendencies disbanded. Until both guilds grew big enough to raid on their own, Mystique and Avowry formed an alliance to raid Molten Core and Onyxia as well. Mystique later disbanded and reformed under the banner of Evocati, and began to tackle raiding challenges with renewed vigor. Another landmark kill for the server was achieved when Dawn Eternal became the 5th guild worldwide to slay Nefarian. Demise was the first Horde guild on the server to kill Nefarian followed by Wretched and Wrought from Ruin (former Clan Silver Fox members). The Alliance, on the other hand, now has 15 guilds that farm Nefarian on a weekly basis. The guild landscape is always in flux, with Dawn Eternal recently losing some members to a new guild, Heist.

For a fairly up to date listing of PVE content progression, see this Cenarius forum post.

Regarding outdoor bosses, competition is reasonable. Competition for the Green Dragons has waned in recent weeks, guilds such as Afterlife and Heist have maintained control of the spawns while at times other guilds such as Dawn Eternal, Encore, Eventide have been able to capture kills. Lord Kazzak and Azuregos are usually killed somewhat quickly by a number of different groups.

The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj opening event completed on Cenarius Tuesday February 21, 2006. While initial effort had been quite good, it tapered off after a period of two weeks and Cenarius dropped quickly in the rankings for the gate opening. The "chosen one" of Cenarius is Tregga, a dwarven priest from The Sundering guild. Efforts to catapult Tregga into the proper reputation rank proceeded briskly with some melodrama over his being picked. In the end, participating guilds, spearheaded by Eventide, The Sundering, Afterlife, and Dawn Eternal(not to mention plenty of other smaller guilds who wanted to contribute their time) submitted their items and Tregga was able to start and complete the Sceptre quest over the following weeks. With the completion of the war supplies quest, and the moving of the war materiel to Silithus the stage was set for the gong to be rung. Tregga rang the gong as quickly logged off, as it was apparent what would follow. The opening event, like many other servers, was problematic with poor server performance as players flocked to Silithus to see the event and participate. More than a few end game capable guilds chose to forego the event and rushed directly into the new instances. The server crashed twice; which isn't quite as bad as some servers like Lightbringer which went down a total of 11 times the night of their opening.

Guild progression in the two instances has been brisk with a minimum of inter-guild drama. Within a week and a few days both Afterlife and Heist had downed the Twin Emperors and a number of other guilds had progressed to that fight. After made killable, C'thun has been down by (in order) Afterlife, Heist and The Sundering all within the same week. Out of the two optional bosses, Ouru has been killed by Afterlife, Heist, and The Sundering. No guild has yet to claim a kill on the now proper (non bugged) version of Viscidus. With Naxxramas out, only two guilds have managed to kill any bosses in Blizzard's new instance. Only Afterlife and The Sundering have started to tread through Naxxramas at this time with Afterlife claiming a world first on Grand Widow Faerlina.

Notable Cenarians

Bladenight - Forum regular and GM of Legacy Reborn.
Ciderhelm - GM of Eventide and director of entertaining films that were shot on Cenarius.
[Garrote] - Famous Role Player. GM of Hand of Garrote. Known for annoying players in General Chat on the horde side. Current whereabouts unknown.
Hrethric - Runs Cenarius Guild Listing Page as well as the PVE Progression Page. Member of [Afterlife] and attained the rank of Grand Marshal.
Ravoon - Widely known Horde player famous for his enchanting and former leadership of a large pre-core guild.
Stormon - Famous Cenarius Furlbog.
Thott - Runs Thottbot and GM of [Afterlife].
Tregga - The "Chosen One" for Ahn'Qiraj and GM of The Sundering.
Wanderer - Runs Trade Skill Recipe's list located here.
Penny Arcade - Tycho and Gabe play alliance on the Cenarius Server.

Notable Forum Trolls

While Cenarius may not have the most active forums, the players that often leave commentary are certainly interesting. Most threads are derailed after a few posts, but what is said in some cases will not be forgotten. The players that seemingly live to entertain and astonish are mentioned below:

Aeiou - Not known for his english/grammatical skills, this player is however known for making his opinions known.
Aerica- An ambiguous "troll" that often references the popular show Family Guy.
Atriyu - A flirtatious female player and creator of The Cenarius Quotebook.
Deathmoo- A Moonkin most noted for his tongue-in-cheek posts about level 1 alts. He is seen taunting one In a post about an infamous player.
Denzien- This player is well known on the forums for rapid trolling/posting. And thats it.
Ebonclaw- One of the few players most players have a clearly drawn love or hate for. He is one of the most controversial members of this realm. A thread was even created in honor of trolling him and can be seen here.
Faytl- While having deleted his avatar several times, has managed to gain a cult-like following over his various self-trolling posts and commentaries.
Kularanini- This troll has had a long standing forum career and has also been linked to several of the other players mentioned in this dedication. Has huge tusks and likes to have sex with gnomes with them.
Sargeist- A player that started a search for a significant other on the realm forums. And succeeded.