The Classic Era realms that aren’t free Xfer destinations have small, GDKP-free communuties.
For reference, the PvE West Cluster is composed of 4 realms:
While the 13 PvP East realms are made up of 2 separate clusters of 5 and 8 realms:
Additionally, 3 OCE PvP realms are clustered:
Further, the RP realms of:
- Grobulus (RP-PvP West)
- Deviate Delight (RP-PvP East)
- and Bloodsail Buckaneers (RP-PvE) *
are available.
As you can see, there is no shortage of places to choose for playing Classic Era outside of the free Xfer realms.
*Bloodsail Buckaneers is currently host to a large portion of the ‘hardcore’ (1 Life, no revives) playerbase.
Another Note: All Classic Era realms/clusters (east/west/pve/pvp/rp) are pooled together for the purposes of battlegrounds. BG queues are identical no matter where you choose to play.