Good morning everyone. I’m deciding to give classic wow a try but can’t decide if I want to play on a pvp server or pve server.
I enjoy pvp but I wouldn’t say I seek it, I love the competition though. I am a casual player who can only play like 2-3 hours a night and I remember in vanilla, people would camp your corpse often.
I like the idea of a pve server because then I can decide when I want to pvp by queuing up for a bg or something. Plus it gives me more time to level and get the stuff I want to done.
I also plan to go horde this time around as a mage so I would want a server that has good horde population regardless of pve or pvp server.
The real question is, "If I am mildly inconvenienced by undesired player-versus-player interaction, will I be compelled to whine about it on the forums?"
If yes, save everybody the eyerolling and go PVE server
If no, yeah, sure, why not go PVP server
I think you answer your own question here, but I will add this.
If you plan to play mostly solo, go pve.
If you plan on running with others, pvp is a much more viable option.
A casual player, behind the level curve will find no issue early on, but by the time you get to STV it will be brutal.
I face the same choice, have characters started on both types of realms, but as my work sched gets busy I know which one I will spend my 2-3 hrs a week on.
GL
On a PvP server, you will be killed, many times. Mostly by players so much higher in level than you, that you wouldn’t be able to beat them if you tried. You will then most likely be camped for a while until the player gets bored, or you log off. And by the way, you logging off is what they want the end result to be.
That doesn’t happen on a PvE server, and you can still PvP on a PvE server! You can just PvP when you have time and aren’t in the middle of something.
It’s your time! If you are “casual”, then I take it that your time is limited. If that is true, you WILL spend a lot of that limited time being killed by higher level players if you decide to play on a PvP server. That is all. Good luck!
IMHO PVE servers are more rewarding for the casual player. The benefit is that you can flag yourself for PVP anytime you want and enjoy that experience as long as opposing faction players are flagged as well. Bottom line is, if you don’t want to keep looking over your shoulder while you are exploring Azeroth, go with the PVE option. Play the game the way you want to and not the way others expect you to.
You only have 2-3 hours per night. Should you choose to do a few quests one night, getting ganked repeatedly is likely to be frustrating.
Some instances can take over an hour. Should you choose to run an instance with your 2-3 hour slot, between travel time and fighting at the entrance you may not have enough time to finish the instance by the time everyone’s inside.
You can still flag yourself for PvP and head to a highly trafficked quest area or in front of Stormwind if you’re itching for some fighting.
Mankrik is a PvE server with a heavier horde population, though populations in general are quite healthy on all non-new servers.
PvP would only make sense if you have extremely high patience or don’t mind your 2-3 hours going totally different than planned.
Note that you can’t queue for a BG yet as they’re not being released until later phases. Whether this factors into your decision I don’t know. Keep in mind that once BGs are out, if the classic experience mirrors vanilla, most of the PvP-hungry players your level will be in BGs and you’re more likely to see L60 rogues as opponents near the lower level quest hubs.
Sounds like pve server is your best option. Only other advice I can give is LEARN TO INVITE if you are use to soloing in retail . Many areas are almost impossible unless you group up. Even an area that has mobs at your level are difficult solo because they are so close together and next thing you know youre fighting three instead of one. If there is someone else there where Im questing I always invite and 9 times out of 10 they accept. Takes getting use to but man is it so much more fun and rewarding than just mowing down an area like Rambo.
Another perspective: A casual player will have a harder time getting into content that takes a while. PvP, specifically, wPvP doesn’t take long to get into or step out.
PvP realms have an additional layer of content that actually is very casual friendly.
It doesn’t matter since there are no real Vanilla PvP servers. If you get overwhelmed you just /layer out. Likewise if you want to start a fight your opponent could /layer out.