Can Anyone Offer Advice on Choosing Servers?

[Kolath]

Hi all, A bunch of friends and I are planning on getting WoW in two weeks (after our finals are over) and I'm looking for some advice on choosing servers.

We're planning on playing Alliance and doing a little PvPing but we haven't decided if we want to do a PvP or a PvE server. I've been reading the awful official forums and these forums for a while and I'm mainly worried that the ganking might be excessive on the PvP servers. So what I'm hoping people can provide is the following:

1) Your server name
2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?

I'd really appreciate any help people could offer. I played in ST on a PvE and in OB on a PvP and it was pretty fun on both, but I want to make sure that we pick a good server before we put a lot of time into the retail game.

Is anyone or any site making a guide for the servers?

Thanks a lot! I hope I can be a good member of the community here after I get into the game!

[Kolath]

Hmm... well actually, if people are daunted by so many questions, any suggestions, however brief, would be appreciated!

[myndreach]

Hi all, A bunch of friends and I are planning on getting WoW in two weeks (after our finals are over) and I'm looking for some advice on choosing servers.

We're planning on playing Alliance and doing a little PvPing but we haven't decided if we want to do a PvP or a PvE server. I've been reading the awful official forums and these forums for a while and I'm mainly worried that the ganking might be excessive on the PvP servers. So what I'm hoping people can provide is the following:

1) Your server name

Nathrezim


2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)

Great. Everyone I've met has been friendly and helpful.

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)

I am only level 18, so I haven't gotten into too much pvp. From my higher level guild mates though, I hear there is a good spirit to the communities pvp elements.

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)

Well our guild is one of the main ones. We are called Evolution, and we are a Horde guild. We help everyone we can, whenever we can. We have a strict honorable PvP rule, and we are spreading the word that corpse camping is not cool. We've had a positive effect I think, and I've even heard, in passing, other people in towns telling others not to corpse camp as it starts a bad trend. I've seen people get corpse camped, and then kill the person later and /salute them. Most people don't retaliate with the same stupid behaviour, at least in my experience.



5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)

Ummm...I haven't met anyone outside of the US yet.

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?

No, sorry.

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?

Well ours is a PvP server, so take that into consideration. I think that is the type that makes the most sense, as an orc running into a dwarf in the woods and not fighting doesn't make much sense lol.

I would pick Nathrezim as it has no lag, no queues, a good community, and a low but growing population. Now is a great time to get in and try to make a name for yourself/guild.

I'd really appreciate any help people could offer. I played in ST on a PvE and in OB on a PvP and it was pretty fun on both, but I want to make sure that we pick a good server before we put a lot of time into the retail game.

Is anyone or any site making a guide for the servers?

Thanks a lot! I hope I can be a good member of the community here after I get into the game!

Nice to meet you! Have a :xgift: on me!

Swing by our guilds site at evoguild.org , and stop by the Nathrezim forums at worldofwarcraft.com to get a better feel for the server if you'd like.

Hope to see you soon!

[Kolath]

Thanks a lot myndreach! I'm glad to hear that your PvP server sounds good. I also checked out the official forum for Nathrezim and horde was congratulating alliance on their raid! Glad to see a cordial group!

Now is there anyone else out there who can talk about some of the other servers?

EDIT cool! I didn't realize this was now a sticky! Thats a really good idea because I'm sure there are other new people who would love some suggestions!

[Antioch]

1) Your server name

Dethecus

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)

People are generally nice, yes. Most of the people I've talked with are in the game to have a good time. Its a low population server but I've noticed the newb areas are full enough. ~15 people in NE area. (Note, the alliance is slightly outnumbered by the horde, or so Ive heard)

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)

Im not too sure, haven't leveled up on the server too far yet. But I read the forums and hear the reports of raids or cance PvP encounters. The atmosphere is friendly, horde congrats alliance on their raid, and alliance congrats the horde on their surprise attack, etc. There are some pretty good PvP stories posted occassionally.

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)

Im not too sure if there are many "main" guilds yet. I haven't looked into it too much, but from what I read on the forum they seem pretty good. They have horde or alliance pride, but are friendly overall.

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay?

I've yet to meet any foreigners. Just people from east coast to west coast.

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?

I used to play on WarSong. Wow. Crowded like crazy!

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?

At first I was concerned about joining a low population server because I thought it would have negative effects on my game play experience, but I gave it a shot. It ended up growing on me. I enjoy having a smaller community, it's more fun. Give things a try is my advice.


Me and my friends have finals now too, but were squeezing in an hour here and there right now.... but over break =)

[Walach]

1) Your server name
Arthas.

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
People are generally nice, however, on every server there are some of them who try to be funny when people ask questions like: "How does Serena Bloodfeather look like?", "A Harpy, ahahahah"... 'humor'.

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
What does ganking mean exactly? Something like high lvl's beating on lower lvl's? I'm not sure about this, but I keep hearing people say the crossroads are under attack by pretty high lvl alliance guys, but maybe the same is happening on the other side for the alliance players, so can't really say much, since it's really hard to see the whole picture in such a big world.

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
Haven't noticed much about guilds, I see them more like normal players. They do try to recruit you when they see you're a nice person and nice player etc.

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
I dunno how there could be more foreigners than people from US right now... I'm playing from a trial account, given by a friend to a friend of mine, and shared by like 4-5 people, just trying to play the game whlie we can (poor us). I live in Europe and I can say it's pretty nice to see the world quite empty for an hour or two. Sometimes when you want to do a quest, it gets a bit frustrating when the guy you need is killed or kept being killed by some other guys from another party. So, actually, I do enjoy the time when people from the US are sleeping.

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
Not really, I heard that some of them have queues, but this one has none and it's really lag free, even when playing from Europe.

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
I'd say, pick the one closest to you if you got a rather poor connection. Otherwise, you can pick about any server on any location. I've noticed that I can play pretty much lag-free with my average ping of 200 on the US servers. While if you compare that with a game like Warcraft 3, a ping of 200 is pretty high and you'll notice how slow your guys react.

Also, pick a server you like, as in PvE, PvP or role-playing. Personally, I find PvE kinda boring, PvP is pretty exciting when you're getting chased by pesky elves and their allies. If you're unsure, I'd pick PvP. There are quite some places where you can level up safely if you are unsure whether or not to go out and fight the other faction. It's a lot of fun too to duel your friends once in a while. Can't tell anything about role-playing server though, haven't heard much about it, it doesn't sound much fun to me, by reading the name of it.

[Atompilz]

1) Your server name
Ner'Zhul (PvP) West

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
I've met maybe 2 or 3 annoying people, and I've /played 3 days or so.

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
Being a night elf, Darkshore is pretty much always swarming with horde, but it seems to be like that on most PvP servers, due to poor location. It's easily avoided by leveling in your 20's in the wetlands or something, which is what I do. It's also nice to be able to kill some horde whenever you want by heading down into Ashenvale. :)

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
I'm a part of small guild, maybe 20 people, comprised mostly of older people.(20-30 years old I'd guess) I haven't noticed any arrogant guilds.

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
No foreigners that I've been aware of.

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
Frostwolf has queues. Our guild has a horde faction on Frostwolf, and that's what I hear from them.

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
PvP is fun. The only good orc/troll/tauren/undead is a dead orc/troll/tauren/undead. :)

Good luck!

[PointBlank]

1) Ner'zhul
2) The people are generally nice ... I'm really nice to people :P
3) I've found that now that i'm in Tauren Mill there are a lot of Alliance ganking ... I'm innocently killling some bear or some human farmer and BAM a party of 3 lvl 30 comes and rapes me over and over again (usually about 3 times or so) ... If you ask me there is ganking wherever u go, so just get good so you can avoid it, and in return kill gankers :D
4) Well I'm hoping to get our guild up to be a main guild and we're really friendly (http://www.killingforrecreation.com) ... as for other guilds, I haven't seen any asses so far ...
5) Not from what i've seen for foreigners, but it doesn't really matter for many of us are on at all times, 9am, 6pm, 4am, etc ... just depends when we feel like WoW :D
6) I've heard that some of the eastern servers are rather ****ty for queues and lag ...
7) Be horde, it's very fun to kill night elves :D I can tell you what alliance is like later when I get onto Gorgonnash, our guilds alliance server ...

[Ziggy]

1) Warsong pvp server

2) Depends on the time in my opinion. When lots of people are on people love to try to be funny and wrtie sarcastic replies to questions. Personaly I always follow the golden rule (do unto others....) and help people out if im not too busy. But overall the comunity is great.

3) Ganking: only happened to me twice so far. first was by a lvl 50 or so Night Elf pker. Those of you horde on warsong know who im talking about :) The second time was by 25 or so raiding alliance when I was walking around in stonetalon.

4) I don't really pay attention to the guilds that much. The guild Im in is just a fun guild and we don't really take stuff too seriously. There are plenty of guilds out there that are recruiting though.

5, 6, and 7) can't really tell you much there.

[Snarl]

Not a lot of help here but here's what I've got so far (I'm still learning to, also starting new characters on a few other servers) ...

1) Your server name
- Gilneas PvE Server

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
- So far everyone seem's great although I tend to Solo

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
- N/A

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
- Sorry I have no information on that front

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
- I play as an Orc and there are way to many damn Humans running around for my liking, not that I have anything agains Humans... their better than Gnomes, don't get me started on the Gnome infestations... :)

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
- Sorry no help there, still to many people in my area are either new to the game or waiting for Santa to bring it :)

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
- None of any help, Gilneas is great for me in Ontario Canada but I don't know of any utilities like UOTrace (From Ultima Online) where you can Ping all the servers and check Packet loss etc... If I find something I'll post it but Blizzard doesn't seem to release lists of IP's and such.

[Nehron]

1) Your server name

Dunemaul (West Coast, PvP)

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
Ranging from apathetic to very helpful.
3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
Nonexistent, very little PvP'ing going on yet -- population remains very low on this server. Come to Dunemaul, folks!
4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
Not making much of a presence, at least in the Undead region
5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
None that I've seen.
6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
More action going on than in mine, which should change around Christmas as we see an influx of new players.
7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?

Pick a medium population.

[DwarfInvasion]

I was in the open beta. I got to level 30. ( I had some time to spend ) Due to my location. (Classified Air Force Base Location) i started in an Asian realm. I swear there were no english-speakers there. There were however many people. I immediatley switched to a northeast american realm, but during the hours i played it was like 3 am there. I was loneley and never was accepted in a guild. Then i decided to go to the PvP server on northeast time. I stayed up all night. at about 2 or 3 am i found remnants of life in the server. i decided to stay up late on that server for a couple days. These late nights resulted in good leveling. One day i tried PvP. I got shredded, burned, and my ashes were flushed down the toilet. OW! I quit and went back to my other characters on the northeast PvE or something like that server. Then i was suprised to find that WoW servers turned off the next day. To celebrate the last day i stayed up all night and spent all my coins on drinks at the inn. Then I did a dance on the dinner table. I dont know what happened then. :drink: :buddies: :jig: :jig:

[Drakonsfyre]

1)Server Name
-Dethecus(West PvP)

2)Server Community
-Generally friendly on Horde, not to sure about Alliance, seeing as I can't talk to them, server forums seem friendly, seems like a relatively high proportion of people know what they are doing.

3)PvP
-Well, it might be that I am just more interested in PvP than leveling, but the last few days has been nothing but non-stop PvP. There is almost ALWAYS alliance raiding horde somewhere, or horde raiding alliance. Yesterday and the day before was constant, non-stop fighting in The Barrens, Hillsbrad, and Ashenvale, and today there was a very sizeable raid into Darkshore, that eventually turned into about 10 people galavanting around Teldrassil ripping up the newb areas. Ganking is not a huge issue, as basically untill after level 22 or so, you are in areas where you have to attack first, and after 22 you can defend yourself pretty well against most people on the server. However once that PvP flag goes up, people are ruthless. From what I have seen, all of the major guilds(and most of the minor) are yellow or red=dead guilds, so dont expect to get any mercy.

4)Guilds
-The guild presence is large, I am in the largest Horde guild, ChaosTheory, so I am not to sure about non-guild affiliated people, but from what I have seen the guilds basically stick to themselves while leveling, but are pretty welcoming of anyone who takes the effort to try to join. However, in PvP the Horde is very united, and there are always large turnouts of characters of all levels when something major is going on anywhere. Alliance seems less united, however they have several large and very PvP oriented guilds, whom we have clashed with on several occasions. Also the Alliance outlevels and outnumbers the horde in the high end levels, but it evens out as you near 24.

5)Foreigners
-I have seen one or two French people, but they could have been French-Canadian. The only other foreigners I have seen are a very small number of Australians. However every single person I have encountered speaks english(or in the case of the l33tsp34kers, some form of quasi-english), so nationality is not a huge issue, and the server population is pretty normal, highest between eastern and wesern peak hours and relatively low the rest of the time.

6)Other Servers
-I have only played on Blackrock, but that was a mess. Dethecus is very nice because there are very few people(maybe 3 during peak hours in the undead lands) people in the starting areas, meaning nice easy leveling and access to quest mobs. And as you level the server population around your level increases, maxing out between 18-26 I would say, with a decently sized population, but there is no lag to speak of, and even the busiest areas aren't horribly overcrowded. The AH is pretty well supplied, not the selection you would find on High pop servers but comparable to stress or open it seems.

7)Advice on other servers
-If you like a full to the brim AH, a large selection of people to level with, and can live with lag, fps issues, and problems finding certain mobs and quest items, choose a High Pop server. If you like the opposite, choose a Low, and a Medium for a good balance. If you like strait PvE with a little PvP for flavor, choose a PvE, if you like lots of PvP go with a PvP, and if you like Roleplaying you already know where to go. I would say specifically, medium pop servers are the best of both worlds, high pop you have tons of pvp and tons of pve, but will have lots of trouble standing out in either, and low there is to little of either going on to justify it without a guild to group with.

[MasterDinadan]

1) Arthas
2) Lots of nice people on the server, but there is not uncommon to see arguments pop up on the barrens channel, and people on the hillsbrad channel have an annoying habit of being very degrading to homosexuals.
3) The only problem I've noticed with ganking is in Hillsbrad, where all of the Alliance are 10 levels higher than us and usually outnumber us 2 to 1... so it's kind of annoying.
4) Theres this annoying guild called "De Massive". Anyone on Arthas has heard of it. Basically they go around recruiting every person as a member. I've been invited to it three times already and they have a huge member count because they invite without discretion. I've heard lots of arguments come up from people who got invited too many times and were sick of it.
5) Havn't noticed a single foreigner at all...
6) All of my friends say that Shattered Hand is a pretty good server.
7) Make sure you realize the difference between PVP and normal servers before making your choice. If you don't like ganking, then PVP might not be for you.

[Quickstride]

Before i answer the questions i wanna say that in general.. all the servers (that ive played on) seem to have way better communities than other MMORPGs ive played (including SWG, E&B, and CoH)

1) Gilneas
2) People are quite nice... anyone passing by with often help in a fight (if you look like its too much).. or heal or buff you..... it's a very different (in a good way) from many other MMORPGs ive played before

also, most players ive encountered will join groups to help on quests even if they don't have it and it offers no other benefit (other than xp from kills).. they are very hellpful in that respect
3) It's not a PvP server
4) Some of the guilds seem slightly arogant but then some are completely open to whom the help and let in... over all i would say neither
5) most of the time im on (between 6pm and 12am) everyone else seems to be on also
6) haven't heard much about other servers... ive played on some others but i like this one the best
7) i say go with a server and play a character through to level 5 or 6... by then you should have a feel for the community and know if you want to be part of that server or not

also, i personally like to be a little more selective about whether i wanna be the target of pvp attacks or not so i went with a pve server... but i don't see an obvious downside to either since if you do happen to die more on a PvP server death doesn't carry xp penalties or anything anyway

[MasterOfPuppets]

1) Cenarius (Non PvP)
2) Medium. Can't really say it's all that great or all that bad.
3) N/A
4) There are some of both. Many clans won't recruit you if your name is not "original."
5) If there is, I haven't noticied it. But later on at (2-3AM) It seems the populations are higher than the usual afternoon.
6) Nothing much ATM.
7) This server is probably better for the Alliance.. I've seen lvl 50+ Gnomes running around and have yet to see a horde member lvl 40+.
Also, there's always high lvl alliance members in the barrens running around hoping to see a flagged horde member. I play horde BTW.

[hellzguardian]

Gilneas!
The community.Quite nice not bad I'm leveling in the Xroads now,Only thing that ticks me off is when like 4 NE's come down and stand outside of a town.THE WHOLE BARRENS,Feels like its there duty to go kill them.Has been some very unorganized horde raids :p We are a laughing stock ^^.

foreigners:none,I dont think people outside of Us can play right now?

PvP:Although gilneas is a pve server Youd be surprised how many allicane like to run around xroads..Usually in small groups,If you want to pvp its possible.

guilds:Chaotic Tomb seems fairly large seen about 12+ members already and im only lvl 19.I really dont know how they are two seemed mute and one is my friend :P.

Overall:Great server join us! Horde of course ^^

[zkajan]

I'm innocently killling [...] some human farmer
??????


anyways,

1) Your server name: Arthas

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
mostly nice with some jerks, just like everywhere

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
out in wilderness it's average, depends where you go really. the goblin towns are mainly civil since everyone recognises that it's a shared place, but if you initiate hostilities expect it to byte you in the behind

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
mine is helpful hehe, but we're pretty small. don't pay much attention to others

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
i've only run into foreginers when playing odd hours myself

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
mostly play this one

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
go high population, the markets in the AH are a lot less volatile

[Vadran]

1) Your server name
Crushridge
2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
Most people are real nice, havent found many jerks, (i know 2 out of... a lot)
3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
I cant judge on the Horde side, but it is sometimes bad on Alliance. I have had many experiences with one priest who would not stop somehow popping out of nowhere to kill me when i was attacking a mob. The two times i could have attacked him he used psycic scream and ran away. But besides a few people like that, its pretty good
4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
Ive been in 3 guilds so far. The first one, Pirates of Booty Bay had a real nice tabard, but the people were a real annoyance. The second, Fallen Angels, didnt really have any support, and nobody talked to each other. The one i am in now, Mithril Daggers, is really nice, everyone is great, and help me a lot.
5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay?
Nope, not that ive noticed.
6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
Nah, havent really researched
7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
I sort of agree on choosing a more populated server. You will be able to find stuff at the auction house more easily, and group easier. The only problem would be more people means a larger possibility of gankers.

[Solaquin]

1) Server: Mannoroth (PvP, east coast)
2) Community: Overall good. Usual mix of people.
3) Ganking: Rampant. If I spend two hours in a contested zone, I will be killed at least once by a player. Most people on General Chat have adapted a "suck it up and deal, you're on a PvP server" attitude, and high levels don't bother coming by to stop the ganking anymore.
4) Main Guilds: Not arrogant. I know who the main guilds are, but they haven't impacted me much one way or the other. I had no trouble finding good guilds though, with some geared toward reaching high levels fast and others geared to more casual play. Some are special purpose guilds (like raiding guilds), and some are just social, and plenty of ground covered in between. Good stuff.
5) Foreign Presence: Me. ^^ Aside from the obvious, there is enough foreign presence that I can find a group for instance at any time of the day or night, and I know of at least one French guild. Other than that, it isn't that noticable.
6) Other Servers: Haven't heard enough to comment intelligently.
7) Choosing Servers: High population doesn't necessarily mean less volatile market, Mannoroth (currently 4th highest) has one of the craziest markets I've ever seen. I've sold stacks of Briarthorn for anywhere from 6s to 60s just in the past two days. Some types of object are settling down a bit, but that seems to indicate that they have bottomed out on price and people won't sell them any cheaper. Bags are a good example of this, the 6 slot have almost disappeared from the AH, 8 and 10 slot sell for barely more than you'd get vendoring them. I'd recommend a medium population; enough people to play with, but avoiding some of the crowd lag (Ironforge between the AH and Bank brings my P4 3gig + Radeon 9800 staggering to its knees; if I forget and autorun into town the FPS drops below 1.0 until I stop and let it recover to the low teens.).

[Glitch]

1) Your server name
Daggerspine, West PvP
2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
People are generally nice on the server, if you can find people to help or group with you. It's a fairly low-populated server, so being in a guild helps.
3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
I have not experianced ganking at all.
4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
I'm in the Kingdom of Chaos guild, probably the biggest alliance guild (although Riders of the Apocolypse may give us a run for the money) and I love my guild, it's very helpful, and everyone will group with you and be helpful no matter what guild they are in.
5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
A small one, mostly people from west + east coast.
6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
No, not really.
7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
Choose Daggerspine, or a mediumly populated one.

[Eternity]

1). Proudmoore (pve)
2). People are generally nice and helpful. I asked many questions (ie: how i get mounts? or where is xxx npc?) and usually get good answers.
3). not pvp server.
4). I think InfiniteYK is the highest level guild in server (most of their members are 50+). I don't have much bad experience with them except their lvl 53+ priest keeps challenging me for a duel (i was lvl 45 back then) when i was hunting which i feel is a bit arrogant.
5). There is a large Aus. population in the server. In fact, one of the Aussie i grouped with said Proudmoore is the unofficial alliance pve server for Aus/NZ/Pacific... I don't have problem with them and an Aussie priest i met was, by far, the most skilled (and also nicest) holy priest i ever seen in WoW... Also, alliance population out-numbered horde population by about 6-1... so if you join Proudmoore then join horde...
6). N/A
7). N/A

[Chaos13]

1. Blackrock (Horde side, PvP)

2. community is great so far

3. Usually you will only be attacked if you provoke them, but its really not bad. The barrens is pretty much the only area that seems to have a pretty steady alliance presence, but so far they have all been honorable.

4. Not too much of a guild presence. I'm part of VengenceOfTheFallen, and all of our members are great.

5. There are a good amount of Aussies on Blackrock, but it still seems exactly like the other US-only servers I've played on. Population seems more steady tough (good thing IMO). Americans aduring the day evening, Aussies at night.

6. I only played a little on other servers so I don't know enough about them.

7. Choose one with a medium-high population. Having people on all the time is worth it. Even on highly populated servers like blackrock, there are very few times when you have to wait to get on. Also do a PvP server. Its more fun and ganking really isnt all that bad. If someone is being unneccesarily pesky, the higher lvls will usually enjoy helping squash them like bugs to make them feel dumb. Just don't go whinning for help just because someone kills you once.

[Jedi_Bob]

1) Nathrezim
2) I play a level 32 dwarf Paladin called Helandrin and the Alliance is pretty good. I'd have to say from experience, the Horde is a little more honorable than the Alliance, but that doesn't mean we're all bad. Overall, most of the people on my faction are nice and helpful.
3) I haven't been ganked yet. There was this Tauren warrior questing in Angerfang Encampment in Wetlands last week and he kept getting killed by Alliance groups questing there as well. I had to tell a few people to stop camping his corpse. But most of the people on Alliance are good.
4) If you are to join a guild, you should "shop around". I'm level 32 and I haven't joined one yet. Decide first of all what you are looking for in a guild. Some are hardcore, while others are laid-back. BTW, any Alliance people with a guild on these forums looking for another member?
5) Most of the people that play on this server are from mountain time, because it was under that tab when the game was released.
6) I haven't heard much of anything about other servers.
7) Decide if you want to have large scale PvP raids or small scale, non-hectic, raids. You also have trade-offs to having a high pop server. You'll be competing a lot more for resources. I myself prefer a small to medium server. That way, I still get enough people and it's never overcrowded. Just my opinion.

Good luck in your travels in Azeroth!
:thumbsup:

[Kolath]

Well I suppose its fitting that I should come back and offer my own advice in answer to the questions I came up with a few weeks ago. So without further ado...

1) Your server name - Lighting's Blade PvP

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?) - Thus far I have been very pleased. I always can find people to party with and there is lots of free buffing of strangers. The alliance side, at least, seems pretty good natured.

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server) - I haven't been ganked, a party-mate was ganked once by a lvl 40 Tauren who happened to be running by Red Ridge. I did get killed and corpse camped for 10 min by a posse of horde 8-10 levels higher than me. But then again, I was running through the middle of the Barrens. :xgrin:

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?) - Haven't had any real experiences either way.

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? - Again, haven't had any experiences with this.

6) Anything you've heard about other servers? - /Points to above posts

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers? - I highly recommend a server that is medium population. Unless of course you like ridiculous lag or ghost towns.

A big thank you to all of you who posted above! I hope this and all of the other posts have been helpful!

[emuprophet]

1) Deathwing (PvP)

2) Community is average, can be helpful at times and other times completely non-communacative, I try to help anyone with questions and group with people doing feasible quests, though on my behalf it takes a while to form a group from scratch. After midlevel player availability gets a little scarce averaging only 5-30 allied players in a contested region (it gets much smaller after 40)

3) Ganking is an issue in this server, many times I have seen high levels just for the hell of it kill low levels (on both factions) Also horde seem to play dirty (especially rogues/druids) as they will wait for you to be in combat or even worse attack you right as you're about to finish a challenging monster. Half of the time horde camp entrances to quests just to prevent you from going there. I can count the times I've ran by a horde that has death as his lvl that hasn't attacked me on one hand. I know this is a PvP server but jesus some people have no integrity.

4)All the guilds are friendly and helpful but seem to blindly spam all nonguilded strangers to join their ranks. Im sure this is with good intention... or greed, either way its only minor mishap that Im sure all servers deal with.

5) I've only seen one person that couldn't speak english fluently and one person that couldn't speak english at all (or he just chose not to type at all)

7) It might sound like in conclusion I wouldn't recommend this server but the less players join this server the harder it will be to group which is the surest route to clean PvP fun. The more people are forced into soloing the more the other faction will take advantage of them. I don't usually have these problems but I do go out of my way to make sure they dont happen.

[Gavmo]

Hey all.
Just looking for some advice about weather to choose a PvP or Pve server. I've had a sour taste since, (when playing UO), I was attacked on a PvP server by a guy named KiLlEr DuDe. As someone who is about to start playing, how will I know if a PvP is right for me? Should I join a guild when I start for protection or will I have to just grin and bear it?
How bad does PvP get?

[ShaolinFury]

in two weeks huh, i suggest a low surver it will go faster on ur pc :) , no one likes lag. i'm getting on in two weeks too. i was playing WoW but moved and i lost it :eek: so i'm getting it again in about two weeks :xcool: and i am a fan of RvR realms PvP is ok but i like RvR better :xsmile4:

[xuNvaUnTeD_wArDeNx]

Good thread. I'll add in my contribution:

1) Your server name

Illidan, PvP.

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?) As an Orc rogue, the Horde community is great. Of course, it's impossible to go without seeing a ridiculous, scandalous player name, but even those people are invariably pleasant.

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)

DIE, Kali? NEED I SAY MORE? >_> Alliance often gives us trouble... Like the level 40 + stomping around Ashenvale on mounts, preying on Horde like me (Level 28) Hillsbrad... is a mess. I went there once for my poison quest, and I am never going back there. AGAIN. Horrible design layout, geographics, Alliance everywhere... though you can't blame them. It was Blizzard's poor design that leads them there. But... ganking us is their own choice, and nearly everyoen takes the opportunity.

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)

Not sure about this one... only "Main" guilds I see here are The Immortals and Blood Legion. (from CB). Never had a scuffle, never had a coalition. So neuteral, I'd say, but they seem like nice folks.
5)Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)

None to my knowledge. :)
6) Anything you've heard about other servers?

Besides the massive Alliance raid on Org, on a different server, that not only got creamed, but shut down Illidan as well? Nope. :D
7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?

From what I've heard, Illidan is a Horde underdog server. And from what I've seen, this proves correct, absolutely. But... to me, that's half the fun.


-Jacinta
28 (female :p) Orc Rogue
Decimators

And if Flameseeker reads this... I was screaming for Antics to stop! >_>

[Dauragon]

I'm far too lazy to describe everything but let me put it this way: DON'T play on Bleeding Hallow, be it Horde OR Alliance. I *REALLY* wish I could transfer my chars to another realm...

[Pongle]

Don't come to proudmoore, it's the most overpopulated server at the moment and hell on the Alliance side Ironforge's auctionhouse is almost impossible to use. Whatever you do, don't come to proudmoore :)


Oh and anyone who says horde play dirty: there are more Paladins than horde players. At least on proudmoore.

[Semidi]

1) Your server name

Bleeding hallow

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)

Unofficial pvp rp server people are friendly... mostly

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
it's real bad, we're gank happy most of the time.

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)

some like sturm are arrogant, while others like vae victus are friendly (to the horde)

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)

no foreigh besides a few canadians and aussies

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?

nope

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?

choose a medium pop server mines over crouded.

[Skywarp]

1) Your server name
Stormscale PVP - I'm an Undead Rogue lvl 20-something

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
Generally nice. I've had a nice experience so far.

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
I've not heard of or experienced much. Then again I usually instigate the fights so I don't count it as ganking. :p Usually we stand around looking at each other deciding what to do like idiots.

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
I'm not really high enough lvl to interact with them that much. From what I've experienced on the Horde side, they seem to be cool. I know some of the guilds on the Allie's side have had some political adventures. You can read it for yourself in its official WoW forum.

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
A few foreigners were in our guild (Filthy Hordes) at one time, but they knew English well enough.

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
We were one of the few servers that were up the last time Blizz did anything to fix the lag problem. Some people came on our side and started trash talking. All that blah blah blah zipping around and they wonder why there's so much lag? X-/

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
Given the recent lag adventures I highly reccomend a low population server. The only downside I can think of is the AH might not have as many goodies if you're into that. As far as I'm concerned fewer lag issues > good AH.

As far as ganking, you're going to run into that on some level on any PvP server. You can't expect everyone in a community this large to be that mature. And after all, the name of the game is "War"craft.

If you're that worried about ganking, I'd suggest starting or joining a guild. There's strength in numbers. Swimming around WoW's official realm forums should give you a clue on the political climate over there. I know where I'm at the Horde tend to work together more than the Allies do.

Hope the rambling helps.

[SoPPerEDje]

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)


This will be answered in a few weeks i think, i myself live in europe and the game is now ditributed for 2 days or so! But i dont think (and hope)it wil make much differance .

[Durgrumm]

1) Your server name
Cenarius
2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
Generally nice...cant say the nice person to jerk ratio is any higher or lower than other servers I have experienced.
3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
Decided to develop my main on a pve server to avoid ganking
4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
I am in one of the larger horde guilds on this server and really enjoy it. I have been helped by my guild mates tremendously and other horde guilds have been helpful as well.
5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
Not a huge one that I have noticed...two or more of my guildies are aussies...but they are the only ones I am aware of. if there are alot of players from outside the US/Canada I cant say its altered the playing experience at all.
6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
Not a ton... heard that some of the pvp's have reps for being gank-central, as I think some previous posters have alluded to...thats about it
7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
Depends on what level of difficulty you want. If you want the challenge of the quests/mobs and the additional element of keeping an eye out for opposite faction players then go with pvp... if you would rather focus on the game itself and pvp only when you feel like it then go pve...not too sure about rp servers...

[Hayek]

It might come in handy to say whether you mean an American, European or Korean server. Adding to the confusion is that some European and American servers have identical names. I assume from Q5 you refer to US servers, but since more people will use this thread, I think some info on that would be helpful for some.


1) Your server name
Turalyon, EU English PvE

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
They are. No complaints as of yet.

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
Welcome to PvE, where you can safely walk all the way to Booty Bay :D

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
AFAIK, we have quite a few smaller guilds (as in less than 60), and no really large ones that dominate affairs. People are generally friendly, so no complaints there either.

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
As an English Language EU server, we have all kind of nationalities. Some guilds are nationality based, while others (like mine) are international. Generally speaking, the english spoken is of reasonably good quality. Only problem with timezones is the GMT/CET mixup that occasionaly occurs.

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
Apart from being crowded: nope.

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
Choose a server that is not over populated. In EU/English, that can be problematic for PvP. For PvE there are several mid-to-low level servers, such as Turalyon

[wathombe]

Evening, all.

Slightly different question:

I've not bought or played WoW yet (long time Diablo player), but have been seriously considering it this week. Today, though, I started to poke around on the Blizzard forums and found out about the horrible server problems US West realms have been having. It seems that not a single West Coast server has worked properly for several months. Are there any North American realms that DON'T either go down constantly or have horrible lag?

[theseus]

Firetree is the server i'm on. look me up i'm Theseus a Tauren Shaman.
It's never down, has a high pop but i've only ever had a queue and i started at 40. because its new theres heaps of people around your level. And no level 60 bored players that can gank up.

[SavageNL]

1) Your server name
Stormreaver EU English PvP

2) How is the community on the server? (e.g. are people generally nice?)
Usually very nice ppl. If you ask a person who is 10 levels higher to help you with a quest, chances are good he will help

3) How bad is ganking? (if its a PvP server)
Depends on location on map, near booty bay horde and alliance work together, southshore is a ganking area

4) How are the main guilds? (helpful, arrogant, neither, etc?)
I don't have much to do with guilds, if I want a group, everybody is from a different guild, everybody just work together

5) Is there a big foreign presence that affects the gameplay? (NOTE: I have nothing against foreigners, but if a server has lots of people who will be sleeping when I'm playing it could affect the gameplay)
English server, so time zone is the same as mine (I'm from the Netherlands)

6) Anything you've heard about other servers?
Warsong should be good, but it has queues that take hours, stormreaver has no queue

7) Any thoughts or suggestions you might have about choosing servers?
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/
Shoes a list of servers, population, number of horde/alliance races, levels

[TrustedQuarry]

1) Bonechewer
2) They are pretty tolerable. They hate helping other Horde out in combat, I've gathered.
3) The ganking is terrible.
4) My guild is Undead only. But me and the Guild Master are on friendly terms, we do SFK runs for giggles.
5) I met a Korean once. He yelled at me for not helping him kill a Yeti.
6) ... What if I did?
7) .... What?

[MoonU]

1) Eredar (PvP
2) The people are very nice. I've met many people that I play with a lot now.
3) I don't get ganked a lot, but I do gank a lot myself. I do believe the alliance outnumber us 2.5:1, but we still seem to be a lot better.
4) I don't know yet, but from reading the official Eredar forums, there seem to be a lot of good guilds.
5) I've met a few people with grammar probs, but mostly everyone speaks english.
6)
7) Choose a stable Server and join a nice guild.

[SLUGFly]

could you guys, as an extra, please include the location of your server? ie. europe, asia, etc. I've been watching this thread very faithfully because within the next few hours I'll have my account set up and I'll be creating my first character. I'm an english speaker in Asia so I don't want to end up with nobody speaking english if I choose an asian server, but I also don't want to end up with an empty world all the time if I choose a us server.

[AnhDit]

Is there any place that shows realm alliance vs horde populations

[DrunkCajun]

Evening, all.

Slightly different question:

I've not bought or played WoW yet (long time Diablo player), but have been seriously considering it this week. Today, though, I started to poke around on the Blizzard forums and found out about the horrible server problems US West realms have been having. It seems that not a single West Coast server has worked properly for several months. Are there any North American realms that DON'T either go down constantly or have horrible lag?

Wathombe--I'm on the Llane server, and it works well, despite two or three isolated and brief downtimes, and the lag is minimal as long as you're not sitting at the Auction House in a main city around 6pm-11pm.

[rplusplus]

Wathombe--I'm on the Llane server, and it works well, despite two or three isolated and brief downtimes, and the lag is minimal as long as you're not sitting at the Auction House in a main city around 6pm-11pm.

Yea, Llane is still pretty good for now. I just hope it doesn't get so popular that it becomse LAGlane.

But yes. Come to Llane. Quite a few of us Ex-DII players/OTF'ers there.

R++

[wathombe]

Ack! Thanks for the posts Cajun and R++. I bought the game a few days after my OP, though, and I'm settled in on Gilneas (for Horde) and Suramar (for Alliance). Too bad, as it would have been cool to hang with the old DII.net gang.

Hmm...maybe time for another alt. Are you guys mostly playing Horde or Alliance? (EDIT1: Nvm, just saw your sigs. My Alliance character is already in a guild, so I'll hang with Suramar for the time being. :rolleyes: Thanks again for the post, though.)

EDIT2: AnhDit: Click here (http://www.warcraftrealms.com/) for that info. ;)

[ogo]

just don't go to frostwolf, most unreliable server.... ever.

'nough said.



I'm on it, can't wait for transfers.

[faytyle]

I would choose the server that has your friends on it, for one.
Also which has a fairly good economy, and decent players. Read the boards of the server, see how much drama is on it. If there is alot of drama i would suggest checking out another server. Get on a server with good, layed back, but serious players, its more fun that way.