Am I wasting my my time leveling on Lordaeron?

[CapriSuccarino]

I keep hearing talk about more and more people switching to Icecrown and I'd just like some help making my decisions.

[baxuz]

Depends on what you want to do. If you want to do challenging content level up on Lord, it is a unique realm with unique pve difficulty. If you want to just lel around or do pvp stick to Icecrown.

[Derekk2]

I keep hearing talk about more and more people switching to Icecrown and I'd just like some help making my decisions.

The population has gradually declined since late 2016, but it's not going anywhere since a large portion of WotLk players will always prefer hardcore content.

And don't be too complacent. The population metrics might draw new players, but what keeps players in a server is the community. When you invest more time (and making friends) in the game, you are little by little helping the population.

[Hrk4o]

It's highly depends on what you're looking for, and how much effort you're willing to put into it.
If you want to have the original, authentic retail experience, Lordaeron is very good for it. Slow leveling makes you explore the world completely, with its struggles and pushes you to play better, to research, ask for help.

The max level experience is kinda slow, finding groups isn't very easy because the population is not that high and many raid leaders are cautious of who they pick. But the initial gearing phase isn't very different from other places. FOS POS farm, some RDF farming, BOE items. Big difference is that the BOE items are very expressive here due to lack of primordial saronites (not many people can rush 10+ bosses in ICC in 2 hours, and the lack of ICC 25 and 10 HC).
But you can do just fine without buying the expensive BOEs.

However the raids require advanced knowledge, not just the right rotation, right positioning, when to use CDs, basically to maximise your impact.
Also be prepared to use consumables in every raid, flasks food potions.
And you SHOULD get a guild, random groups can't do so well here.
Many guilds are friendly here, and some will even help you gear up and improve.

So if you think you can put up with that, you should definitely try this realm.
If you want rush to 80, gear up in 2-3 days and start with ICC on the same week, icecrown is the realm for you.
But Icecrown has some flaws as well, like people leaving mid raid because DBW didn't drop or something, often resulting in raid over much earlier than expected.

Also I forgot to add, you should take your availability and money into consideration.
If you are free mostly at 3-7 PM server time, icecrown has a queue and you have to wait. You can skip it by donating. But Icecrown is very active even outside the peak time.
Lordaeron is active only after 2 PM server time, so if you can play 2-7 PM, you won't have any peoblem.
There's not much you can do before that time, maybe a dungeon or very rarely one raid. After the peak time, there are few American guilds so you can join them.

[Ebitda]

long story short whatever u do in this game u waste time. do what u enjoy more

[grimdor01]

It's highly depends on what you're looking for, and how much effort you're willing to put into it.
If you want to have the original, authentic retail experience, Lordaeron is very good for it. Slow leveling makes you explore the world completely, with its struggles and pushes you to play better, to research, ask for help.

The max level experience is kinda slow, finding groups isn't very easy because the population is not that high and many raid leaders are cautious of who they pick. But the initial gearing phase isn't very different from other places. FOS POS farm, some RDF farming, BOE items. Big difference is that the BOE items are very expressive here due to lack of primordial saronites (not many people can rush 10+ bosses in ICC in 2 hours, and the lack of ICC 25 and 10 HC).
But you can do just fine without buying the expensive BOEs.

However the raids require advanced knowledge, not just the right rotation, right positioning, when to use CDs, basically to maximise your impact.
Also be prepared to use consumables in every raid, flasks food potions.
And you SHOULD get a guild, random groups can't do so well here.
Many guilds are friendly here, and some will even help you gear up and improve.

So if you think you can put up with that, you should definitely try this realm.
If you want rush to 80, gear up in 2-3 days and start with ICC on the same week, icecrown is the realm for you.
But Icecrown has some flaws as well, like people leaving mid raid because DBW didn't drop or something, often resulting in raid over much earlier than expected.

Also I forgot to add, you should take your availability and money into consideration.
If you are free mostly at 3-7 PM server time, icecrown has a queue and you have to wait. You can skip it by donating. But Icecrown is very active even outside the peak time.
Lordaeron is active only after 2 PM server time, so if you can play 2-7 PM, you won't have any peoblem.
There's not much you can do before that time, maybe a dungeon or very rarely one raid. After the peak time, there are few American guilds so you can join them.

Everything he said is spot on but just adding that if you don't fall into the peak time on lordaeron and want to progress through raiding then you may want to look elsewhere because no guilds cater for the hours before peak time (the oceanic peak time) and like he said, pugs don't do well here

[Aeredon8]

You very well could be wasting your time. A majority of people don't care to apply themselves and they'd rather donate for BIS and not work for their gear. The server is dead most of the day and a majority of guilds struggle to maintain a roster.

Perfect server, horrible community. The only people who aren't to blame are still playing there, and I respect these folks, but there's not enough people. Everyone rather easy mode Icecrown.

[68089]

Wow is a huge time-waster.
It is up to you.
If you have friends to play with, go on and play. Nothing to lose there.
If you are alone, stay away cuz endgame fiascos will make you either burnt out, or you will become a monster yourself.

[Linkoyn]

Depends on what you want to do. If you want to do challenging content level up on Lord, it is a unique realm with unique pve difficulty. If you want to just lel around or do pvp stick to Icecrown.

Used to be unique but now it seems like everything is nerfed down.

[pharmbiak]

Was a quality server with a very niche experience when they didn't have RDF and heirlooms. After the release of that it seemed like quite a lot of people just went AWOL. My whole entire guild died besides maybe 2-3 players after RDF and heirlooms came.

[Duubadaaba]

I'm back Lordaeron after 2 years break (playing Outland and Icecrown).
I remember how lonely i felt 1-80 levelling WotLK without RDF. It was pain gather groups via global chat, or listening 12 year old little Napoleons crying all reserved. If you were in guild "disipline and hierargy, do not be gear greedy" .

Outland was/is bit more mature experience, and more skilled median of players. I personally haven't seen before tanks as good in average pugs before.
TBC is much harder anyways becourse of attunements (was), and very interesting details and configurations. For example playing hunter, pet must really train and hunters learn talents. Heck you really need feed pet or it goes away, thats Hardcore :D

Icecrown is very good option for rdf and PvP active players. Do not listen about "buy to win" "nerfed, noobs realm" etc. 12k players online must include all kinds of persons, some people just canno't face any kind of disorder or indicipline. Very good players, very bad players, just like any realm.

Lordaeron is very good realm option PvE wise, if you can fit small hierarchy community. Few very good only raid log-in guilds, no global chat ofc. Personally i haven't seen these guys like ever, they don't come out of ICC maby. Only viewed armory stats, so they must be real :D

I see RDF and Heirlooms as a first step of "slavery abolition". Healthy leap to more social, tolerant and broad-minded community. We have social guilds here too.We have here ppl who know they are noobs, not only burnout tryhard Napoleons. Lordaeron will grow. As soon as Crossrealm PvP hits we will have more active bg's and more PvP active players. I suggested (link to thread http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=387007) here Furious and Relentless weapons aviable in-game or in vote-/coinshop, as like Icecrown players have. SMourne is aviable in-game here already.
Hardcore content for PvP as like PvE is good idea, but if Crossrealm, it's going to be lack of the content, if not aviable at all. Currently 1800 arena rating weapons only. Lack of 2 tiers of weapons. Patch 3.2.2 took away Furious and Relentless weapons, but ppl were already obtained these. Cataclysm released approx. 10 months later (please correct if i'm wrong). Now we are frozen 3.3.5a without progression BEFORE, or ahead."Blizzlike" would be, we already obtained Furious and Relentless weapons, now maby getting Wrathfull weapon and waiting Cataclysm.

[Dwyn]

I'm back Lordaeron after 2 years break (playing Outland and Icecrown).
I remember how lonely i felt 1-80 levelling WotLK without RDF. It was pain gather groups via global chat, or listening 12 year old little Napoleons crying all reserved. If you were in guild "disipline and hierargy, do not be gear greedy" .

Outland was/is bit more mature experience, and more skilled median of players. I personally haven't seen before tanks as good in average pugs before.
TBC is much harder anyways becourse of attunements (was), and very interesting details and configurations. For example playing hunter, pet must really train and hunters learn talents. Heck you really need feed pet or it goes away, thats Hardcore :D

Icecrown is very good option for rdf and PvP active players. Do not listen about "buy to win" "nerfed, noobs realm" etc. 12k players online must include all kinds of persons, some people just canno't face any kind of disorder or indicipline. Very good players, very bad players, just like any realm.

Lordaeron is very good realm option PvE wise, if you can fit small hierarchy community. Few very good only raid log-in guilds, no global chat ofc. Personally i haven't seen these guys like ever, they don't come out of ICC maby. Only viewed armory stats, so they must be real :D

I see RDF and Heirlooms as a first step of "slavery abolition". Healthy leap to more social, tolerant and broad-minded community. We have social guilds here too.We have here ppl who know they are noobs, not only burnout tryhard Napoleons. Lordaeron will grow. As soon as Crossrealm PvP hits we will have more active bg's and more PvP active players. I suggested (link to thread http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=387007) here Furious and Relentless weapons aviable in-game or in vote-/coinshop, as like Icecrown players have. SMourne is aviable in-game here already.
Hardcore content for PvP as like PvE is good idea, but if Crossrealm, it's going to be lack of the content, if not aviable at all. Currently 1800 arena rating weapons only. Lack of 2 tiers of weapons. Patch 3.2.2 took away Furious and Relentless weapons, but ppl were already obtained these. Cataclysm released approx. 10 months later (please correct if i'm wrong). Now we are frozen 3.3.5a without progression BEFORE, or ahead."Blizzlike" would be, we already obtained Furious and Relentless weapons, now maby getting Wrathfull weapon and waiting Cataclysm.

I just had to login and comment this part you wrote: "Healthy leap to more social, tolerant and broad-minded community."

Doing dungeons through RDF is mostly like playing with bots and not actual people. They almost never talk, ignore if you have a quest in the dungeon and skip most stuff just to rush for the bag-boss... I've been called a ***** for not instantly entering a dungeon when the group formed (unable due to flying) Really NOT a sociable or pleasurable experience in my opinion. This is at levels below 60, I hope that it gets better in Outland and Northrend later on.

That said I find this community to be a lot more mature than Icecrown's community, and believe that the above issues are due to RDF and not due to the server (I played here a long time ago before RDF and it was really nice, including low level dungeons).

[Duubadaaba]

I just had to login and comment this part you wrote: "Healthy leap to more social, tolerant and broad-minded community."

Doing dungeons through RDF is mostly like playing with bots and not actual people. They almost never talk, ignore if you have a quest in the dungeon and skip most stuff just to rush for the bag-boss... I've been called a ***** for not instantly entering a dungeon when the group formed (unable due to flying) Really NOT a sociable or pleasurable experience in my opinion. This is at levels below 60, I hope that it gets better in Outland and Northrend later on.

That said I find this community to be a lot more mature than Icecrown's community, and believe that the above issues are due to RDF and not due to the server (I played here a long time ago before RDF and it was really nice, including low level dungeons).

We are completely different personalities. You forgot include first sentence in my quote, i put it here for full context:

"I see RDF and Heirlooms as a first step of "slavery abolition". Healthy leap to more social, tolerant and broad-minded community."

Yes master, now we can go dungeons, and get roll items without your authorization :) Just kidding, but little bit truth included.
You can alway skip RDF and go with the guild as before RDF. Your attitude seems only opposite of "broad-minded". I see RDF as big help
People are very different man :)

[Obnoxious]

"I see RDF and Heirlooms as a first step of "slavery abolition". Healthy leap to more social, tolerant and broad-minded community."

Yes master, now we can go dungeons, and get roll items without your authorization :) Just kidding, but little bit truth included.

Please, tell me more about how you were kept it chains and forced to play in a server that had limitations included by design, all of which everyone was aware of before they started playing.

[Duubadaaba]

Please, tell me more about how you were kept it chains and forced to play in a server that had limitations included by design, all of which everyone was aware of before they started playing.

Realm is perfect. I had my one suggestion for better BG's activity. I see RDF good here for PUG grouping, Achievements, Emblems etc. and so. I am not the only one here who feels same. If you take literally my "chains" then my writing doesn't make sense at all. I siply ment, one have more choices and freedom to gear, if no need to call LFG in global for hours with often same results as bad RDF, or go with the Guild, often very high requirements PvE. We are very different personalities. I respect your stand against mine. I'm just average guy, who loves BG's and been here since 2011 becourse i like server.