Perhaps the GM team could change them to not be on auto-attack. Only attack if attacked. That way the people who are leveling will be able to level as they see fit with the NPCs still there, but for those of us who DC from time to time, it'll make it so that we aren't horribly murdered. On the same note, it would be nice to have a couple portals to rephase characters sporadically throughout the island.
That isn't due to inconsistent loading, it's that the evil island exists in a separate phase. On CotH we try to not tamper with zones in case people want to use them for OOC purposes.
Maybe. But it's still a problem for lower levelled characters who are on a danger spot and they DC.
Which is my point. If the NPCs are set to neutral instead of hostile, then people who want to kill them still can, but if someone DC's they won't get swarmed by Worgen when they're de-phased.