Lots have changed since I last played. I can’t keep up but trying to start fresh.
What part of game play is impacted by my choice of realm / faction?
Trying to figure out what the importance the realm serves.
Horde is heavily more played these days, in terms of active world pvp, raiding, and mythic+ conent.
that said,
Area 52 and Proudmoore are heavily populated servers with A52 having a large horde playerbase, and Proudmoore a large alliance crowd
Moonguard is the go-to rp server
Warmode is making the disparity between horde and alliance somewhat of an issue.
it doesn’t matter, there will be more Horde than you everywhere.
1 Like
I always shoot for a realm with as much of an even split as possible. I’ve always had luck with this method, especially in terms of world PvP.
Since cross-realm came in tho, it doesn’t matter as much where you play.
I’d recommend Dalaran or Emerald Dream.
Basically…
RP vs. non-RP - impact is mostly limited cross-realm, meaning you will not have players from other servers around when your out in the world questing on a RP server, but the competitive scene tends to be a bit more laid back.
Population - more people, more guilds - matters most for Raiding and maybe rated BGs, but also the community.
Pop 2 - More people, and cross-realm zones will make it harder to farm rares, you’ll have more competition for herbs/nodes, etc…
Pop 3 - Auction house on high pop realms is generally healthier, with better pricing and higher turnover.
2 Likes
I play both Horde and Alliance. Much of the enjoyment I derive comes from being on a Medium-high to a High populated realm for either faction. Here is how I tested realms that I now enjoy playing (and where I will transfer my unhappier alts to from the realm I initially started playing on and am unhappy with, and who have recipes that are no longer available in-game).
- Blizzard Leaderboards
- Realmpop .com - Data on the total numbers of the population of the factions, classes, and races on any particular realm.
- Wowuction and The Undermine Journal - Data on the sales of any realm. Sales data very much indicates whether a particular realm is a high-raiding realm or whether it is more of a diverse interests realm.
- Worldofwargraphs .com, warcraftlogs .com, and Raider .IO - Realm, Guild, and Player Rankings.
All of the research together helped me decide which realms were best for my interests (I made a spreadsheet for myself to compare). Then I made “test characters” on the realms to see how I liked the community, trade chat, quest interactions, and so forth.
Not everyone is into research like this. Many feel it is too cumbersome TO research. I just thought I would share what worked best for me.
PS: I have a total of 43 characters across 6 realms.
Servers 100% don’t matter unless you plan to partake in mythic progression raiding.
Play Alliance if you don’t want to do any real end game.
Play Horde if you do want to do some real end game.
Wyrmrest Accord is the go-to for Horde RP, Moonguard is for Alliance RP.
Could I join a raiding guild from another server or do heroic raids with groups from another server? How about forming arena teams?
Be a brave underdog on your realm. Go for low faction that needs help. That’s what I do.