Title pretty much sums it up, missed a lot of classic because I was still in school and hit 60 pretty late into it. Want to go back and experience what it’s like to play 1-60 and to raid end game. Any good server suggestions? Open to Horde or Ally.
Also, if you are in a guild that needs something bad maybe put what you need, I’m open to anything.
Doesn’t really matter which server. Since there are only 4 servers essentially. EST PVE, EST PVP, PST PVE and PST PVP. There’s also an RP server. Just pick the server name you like. Windseeker, Westfall are my fav
I posted a couple bits about Classic Era realms in this linked thread below. My advice is to roll a level 1 on any prospective realm and chat with the locals. Hopefully the information is helpful, good luck!
For pve, the Mankrik US east cluster is currently showing about 200 new characters per day in the CensusPlus addon. Currently about a 60/40 A/H ratio with about 5500 characters seen in the past 2+ weeks
Go to a server info website. Youll need to carefully select your server as most are 100% one faction. Many are known “mega servers” where youll have insane queues when new stuff drops. Youll have dead servers. Youll have streamer servers that will randomly get slammed when the streamer logs in but be dead otherwise.
Its all so tiresome.
Jom best server
This thread is about Classic Era m8, not the progression realms.
Where is the server info site for Classic era servers? The only one I found was for Classic Wrath servers
Come to Grobbulus alliance side and join ! Farming MC and progressing in BWL.
The guild is the server, so if you’re looking for more check out Whitemane cluster, but I will say it’s been a great time on Grobbulus despite it being low pop. The guild is very much alive and doing dungeons and having fun raiding M/F 7-10pm PT
Short answer: The most populated servers are Whitemane for PvP, Mankrik for PvE. These are the best choices if you want healthier populations.
There are horde and alliance raiding guilds doing content through Naxx on both.
What server did you go with? I am interested in just vanilla classic as well. However, I am struggling to pick a server as they are all low. I am not sure where to start.
I think I’ll probably choose the Pagle-Ashkandi-Windseeker-Mankrik-Westfall-etc meag-server - probably Alliance - but I’m a Horde at heart lol, so we’ll see.
Alliance seemed the busiest to me? But it’s hard to really know. I’ve been logging in (on and off for a month or so) on various servers on both sides and Pagle (mega-server) Alliance had anywhere between 10-50 people in Stormwind and about 1/2 that in Ironforge throughout the week.
As I type this, there are 31 in Stormwind and 24 in Ironforge now. It’s around 9pm Server Time on a Tuesday, so not bad! 
Half a dozen or so guilds were represented in /who. Of course, it can be a ghost town certain times of the day. But I saw groups of raiders come on and go to the mailbox during peak raid times. I asked people in the city to share their Discord link and, once in Discord, they usually have their schedule and activities listed. It seems like if you want someone to level with, a guild is super helpful, since there isn’t hardly any activity in LFG Channel. People were pretty friendly and I learned about their leveling/raiding/social activities in Discord.
I’m still tempted to abandon the Wrath hype-train. It’s already stressing me out lol. It just feels…like Retail to me. I just want to play WoW with some friends, put my brain into the World of Warcraft and chill out - away from life’s stress. I don’t need more stress - to be the fastest and richest and best lol.
Can I play Wrath and enjoy it? Maybe? I’d probably have a better chance at what I’m looking for in Classic Era…or so I keep reminding myself.
Then roll horde. Horde guilds are raiding and, with a smaller playerbase, good players will stand out more and get more opportunities.
@Imirak, I found wowclassicpop (dot - com).
It’s the one that serves the data from the CensusPlus addon. But, it’s confusing to me, because the addon is available for Wrath now and the site does not seem to distinguish between the Classic Era and Wrath (progression) realms…it’s just a list of realms. (That makes me assume it’s current progression realms (Wrath) I suppose.)
Yeah, that’s only covering Wrath Classic servers. I don’t think there is a website with Classic era population numbers, but I have been running Census on Mankrik for both alliance and horde side regularly so I have a pretty good grasp on what the populations are like. Right now, about 200 new characters are consistently being created on a daily basis. At this point, it’s clear that new players are joining rather than the addon just picking up characters it missed on earlier runs.
So when you say Mankrik US East cluster, I’m confused. Did they implement phasing or cross-realm on classic?
There is a cluster on east that includes Mankrik and other servers (Windseeker, Pagle, Ashkandi, etc). Mankrik is a free transfer for Classic era players outside of the cluster, so I expect that’s where most players in the cluster will create characters.
Okay, so you’re saying that Blizz intends to migrate people onto Mankrik to create that larger community by offering the free incentive to do so?
Another question I had. Say I wanted to roll on Alliance Mankrik to play with/against my new friend Imirak here.
Has Blizz made a statement on future plans for BC Classic servers yet?
AKA Acknowledge an eventual plan to do progression servers on a routine basis like Everquest?
edit: I guess what I’m getting at, is I wouldn’t mind jumping into true classic now, with the option to do further expacs later?
Reposting this for visibility:
I myself play on the PvP East Cluster of Benediction/Faerlina/Heartseeker/Incendius/Netherwind.
Okay, that’s helpful thanks.
These are all phased to Naxxramas I’m guessing?