Newcomer - A lot of questions

Hey there guys!

I was around during Molten and its collapse. Went back to playing TBC on a different server instead. Every expansion gets boring after farming it on four different chars so I figured it was time to go back and experience WOTLK again.

Some info about me: Im a swedish guy that played the game since vanilla. Pretty much raided hardcore through TBC and WOTLK on the server Frostmane. These days I've got wife and kids and dont have that much time any more. Im looking for a place where I can login do some PvE (hc/raids) and log out.

Before I decide on a server I want to ask you guys some questions:

1. LORDAERON vs DEATHWING vs RAGNAROS
Which are the main differences between the servers?`I heard that Lordaeron is x1 and progressive. Is this correct? Though I feel like the queue times are too long for me. Like I said before, Im casual (oh, you filthy casual!!) these days and cba waiting 2 hours in que every time I wanna play.

2. Pay to win
Am I bound to do the "Pay to win" in order to get into raids? I remembered back ar Molten how people were looking for "5.7k GS for NAXX 10". Are ppl still this ******ed?

3. Bugs
Lordaeron runs on a seperate core? I assume that this core is better then the rest of the servers? Will there be a merge? Are there any game breaking bugs? Classes not working etc? My focus is PvE and I can live with minor bugs but the say I roll a prot pala and the Avenger's shield is broken I would like to know that :)

4. Economy
Realms with a higher rate tends to have a ducked up economy. What is it like here?

5.Guilds
Would be sweet with a swedish guild. Always an easy way to get to know new people. Any of that around here?

6. RDF
RDF is disabled on Lordaeron, that I know. How about the other servers? Im thinking of lvling my first toon through RDF manily. With prot spec the que shouldnt be that long?

Hopefully you guys can answer some of these questions. Take care and I'll see you in game!

Cheers

Hello there, and welcome back.
I'll try to answer you questions as best as I can, seeing as I only play on Ragnaros.

1. This is more Lord vs Rag&Deathwing since they're getting merged together soon. Lordaeron is x1 and progressive and all, has a new core, and some 2000 people in queue. Once it progresses to ICC & RS, the core should be patched to Rag&DW ( being the one realm soon, x7 I guess), so they should be pretty much the same. If you plan on playing casual, I wouldn't suggest Lord.

2. Pay to win was always an option, but you can choose to not do it. I have many friends who just geared up and haven't paid a cent. The GS requirements are still out of whack, like 5.5 K for ICC10, but it's managable, there are alt runs which take people with 5 or 5.2, and you can always join a guild.

3. Lord has less bugs but it should be the same once the core gets patched on Rag&DW.

4. Economy is not f***ed up as it used to be, but as you guessed, it had to be a bit different on high rate realms. This doesn't affect gameplay really tho.

5. I can't say if there are swedish guilds, but I'm pretty sure there's a few on each realm.

6. RDF, as much as it is disabled on Lord, you won't be able to use it to level on other realms as well. There is just not enough people trying to queue RDF at lower levels, and seeing as leveling is x7 (or x10 idek anymore), doing dungeons might be a waste of time.

Hope this helps,

Telhar

5. if you are looking for some Swedish guilds and want to know on which server they are and on which side i recommend looking on the forums, the swedish section
http://forum.warmane.com/forumdisplay.php?42-Swedish

Thx for the answers guys! Really appreciate it.

I've decided on Deathwing for my first toon here. Did aboutr 20 lvls yesterday and the server seems active and friendly. Economy is in pretty good balance and im currently trying to sells all mats I gather in order to be able to buy skills and bags for my questing.

Only stumble upon minor bugs soo far. Pathfinding is OK-ish. Low lvl spellcaster NPC in starter area are some what OP but hey you spend like 5 min there so no big deal.

Im currently looking to get to know some people on this server. Would be sweet with some supe casual swedish guild :) If you wanna tag along /w Amelyn (Human paladin)

Cheers!
/Amelyn

1. Lord is 1X and progressive with Dungeon Finder disabled. Rag and DW are both 7X exp, 5X profession skill points per crafted/gathered item, and 5X gold gathered.

2. Yes, people still won't take you into raids (at least on DW) unless you have the very gear you are trying to play the raid to get in the first place. However, if you join a guild that runs raids together, they will generally help you get the gear you need, and take you into raids that you may even be slightly undergeared for.

3. Lord is, from what I understand, mainly free of bugs, they are doing final tweaks and expect to port out the perfectly scripted Lord into Rag and DW sometime in the next 6 months. There are no game breaking bugs other than a couple dungeons and Ulduar not being currently scripted well enough to play all the way through (pretty sure Lord has that fixed though, and like I said they will port changes to the other two shortly). All classes work fine.

4. Yes, in general the items sell for much more on the servers that are 5X gold. I have seen borean leather go for anywhere from 90-200 gold per stack, 264 gear sells for on average 30k, but certain items that would ordinarily sell for more on 1X sell for less on this server, such as frostweave cloth, which tends to drop in multiples from many humanoids everywhere. I have sold frostweave at less than 20 gold a stack before. Some things are less than their normal value, most things are quite a bit more. Ore is ridiculously expensive, especially titanium since it is almost considered a "rare spawn". It isn't broken, just inflated/deflated more than usual. Frankly I don't really pay attention.

5. There are probably swedish guilds out there. I'm not swedish so I couldn't tell you lol.

6. Forget RDF until you are maxed out. On the 7X servers nobody queues anyhow, because questing is so much faster. On Lord, as you mentioned, there is no RDF, although you would probably have more luck forming groups as a prot on Lord then you will even get close to queueing up as you level on a 7X server.

Hope this helps you out!