See here for a picture of the raiding population of Era. Keep in mind that this doesn’t represent the true population since not everybody raids in Era.
https://ironforge.pro/population/era/
For me, I like the Vanilla style of game because it’s a more immersive RPG style of game. Classes have a varied toolkit and how I use that toolkit matters. My character’s journey matters and there are lots of things to do.
SoD missed the mark for me. It’s retail except if Cata never happened and the world stayed the same. You get a lot of flashy, hard hitting abilities that make the world content less engaging as you play your daily whack-a-mole content to progress. At least, that’s how it was in Phase 1. I love that it’s a thing and that Blizzard is experimenting with new stuff in the Classic space, but I was looking for something much closer to Vanilla and they gave us something much closer to retail.
Was actually thinking about giving era another try. I’m fed up with retail and SoD wasn’t my cup of tea. Are there any ‘dead’ servers I should avoid? Not sold on horde or alliance yet.
How dead is dead for you? Most servers have a ‘quiet’ population (10-20 per side). Mankrik cluster and Whitemane Cluster have healthy pops, Mankrik is PvE, Whitemane is PvP. Mankrik Horde side is active but much quieter than alliance, but very stable still.
Thanks, should have clarified. I’d consider ‘dead’ to be ‘too low a population for group content’. Assuming I make it far enough, I’d like to run dungeons and hop into a battleground or two.
Heads up on this one, all servers are connected for BGs.
If you enjoy dungeons, any server on the Mankrik cluster for PvE and the Whitemane cluster for PvP will suit you.
For end-game, it depends on what you want. Both of those clusters have lots of end-game with a large spread, but they’re also the monetized version of wow (lots of GDKP, gold buying, botting). If you don’t mind that (no judgement from me in this thread), it’s a great place to be and there’s a lot of guilds you can find.
If you want a more low-key chill guild on a quiet server where you can actually farm your own consumables and not play the monetized version of WoW, you should check out Legacy on Alliance side Grobbulus. Search for posts by Jarl-Grobbulus for more details. If you do go this route, it’s still probably best to level on the main clusters and pay the $35 USD to trasnfer later.
Mankrik is mostly DKP, LC, TMB and SR, with a few GDKP - Whitemane however yes is mostly GDKP.
Requiem on Horde for Grobbulus is also an option but they are not as big as Legacy.
Edited to add: played and raided on both and never had to buy anything and I farm all my consumes, you just need patience. It can get pretty frustrating between ban waves when the bots get heavy though.
Oh wow, didn’t even consider that. I don’t plan on buying anything, would rather farm my own stuff. I’m looking at PvE for sure, bit of a coward lol. Glad to hear battlegrounds are all merged though, was kinda looking at that as maybe an end game… if I got up there.
Can I get a quick crash course on all those acronyms? Only one I remember is DKP… and honestly don’t even remember what my OG guild used back in the day.
DKP = dragon killing points, currency to bid on items earned by raid attendance.
LC = Loot council, a team of either static or rotating persons who decide where loot goes
TMB = ThatsMyBis, a wishlist of items that awards them on priority
SR = soft reserve, a 1-3 item wishlist per raid that gives you priority on an item if it drops, to roll against others who have reserved
MS>OS+1 = Mainspec greater than offspec with +1, tank items go to the tanks in the raid before the dps’ tank set and other role restrictions, and the +1 means you get a negative point per item you win so that loot is shared around, with the person who has the least negative points getting priority (MS +0 gets first, MS +1 gets second, MS +2 gets third etc)
RR = RoundRrobin, I dont have a lot of experience with this loot system
EPGP = efforts points gear points, effort points are similar to dragon killing points, but gear points are like +1, you get points as you acquire gear and the bidding power you have is the difference between your effort points to your gear points (EP = positive points, GP = negative points)
GDKP = gold dragon killing points, a gold bid run where your points is your gold, then with some nuances, the gold is divvied out to raiders at the end of the raid.
To be clear, buying doesn’t have to mean purchasing gold. There are players who engage with GDKP who first farm up enough gold to get into them. It can be tough to compete with the bots but you can do this, it might just take a while. Once you’re running them and have decent gear for the raid you’re doing, you can use them as a means of getting the gold to purcahse the stuff you want off the AH. I don’t run these myself, but in the interests of being impartial about GDKP, this is how others describe the experience.
Also, while Grobbulus is a PvP server, the population is super low and so there’s just not that many people out in the world. I’ve been playing there for about six months now and I’ve only had a few encounters. Most of the time we just politely emote at each other and carry on our way. Horde can be fiesty sometimes though
Haha yes, 100%. There was a time back in February where Blizzard did a massive one and for almost a month there was extremely little bot activity. It’s gotten back up again though. In spite of this though, I find I’m able to farm everything I need with fairly little contention. I do tend to be somewhat conservative with my consumable use so it’s been ok.
I play on the Atiesh cluster, it’s a nice community with active raiding guilds. Very little to no bots. No GDKP’s. Currently free transfers to Mankirk if you decide you want to move.
Like small town living everyone seems to know everyone. So your reputation means a lot.
I appreciate all the feedback! Looking at class, I’m looking at mage or warlock. Didn’t play either back in the day, so trying to remember the pros and cons of each.
Mage gets snacks, but need reagents for raid buff, ports and tele… and slow fall. Lock has to farm the shards, but great solo ability with blueberry tank.
Both really need a wand to dps when not casting… what else am I forgetting?
All I play is Era. It’s the only game that I really enjoy and the pace of it (now that it’s forever Era and nothing to “keep up with”) is ideal for me. Sod phase 1 was fun while I had a lull in work over the holidays but I didn’t have time for it once January rolled around.
If anyone is interested, we have been doing cool stuff on our Grobbulus micro server over the last 3+ years and have no plans to slow down! [ERA] Grobbulus Alliance & Horde Need YOU
