Current Realms -- So Let Me Get This Straight...

So I only recently came "back" to Warmane after having played Molten for quite a while in WotLK and the very beginning of Cata years ago (seriously, has it been five years?). I've read a lot about the different realms, and I'm trying to figure out what would be best for my reentry to the community as I am mostly considering WotLK or MoP...

From what I gather:

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Lordaeron: most Blizz-like experience which suffers from overly-buffed end-game content and a declining/difficult end-game population.

Icecrown: excepting payment to Warmane, this is a virtual impossibility to play during normal hours.

Frostwolf: underdeveloped and suffering from a tremendous lack of players and workable content.
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I'm interested in playing on Lordaeron for the old-school leveling grind so I can enjoy the flavor of that experience (I never played WotLK retail so playing in Molten fast-passed all of that content when I last played)... but then I'll end up with nothing much to do when I hit 80. I'm also interested in the new mechanics and content of MoP since I've never even touched that before now.... but I don't want to end up with nothing to do as a result of underdevelopment.

So, how does Cata work at this point? It is worth my time? I'll likely play mostly casually, regardless. I guess I'm looking for a split between the 1x experience and a fruitful end-game experience.

Lordaeron - Bosses are only buffed because classes are on the 3.3 patch and are buffer then what they were in the content we're playing them in.

Icecrown - I do find this to be an excellent server to play on and it's not like a 1 time donation is hard to do for most anyone that has some of job/income.

Pandaland - MoP has constantly been getting updates, more so then Cata and all though I haven't played on the server, I can tell you that there have been a lot of on going updates over the months.

Cata has had the least amount of updates as it has the smallest population, but it's still having updates.

So why play 1 server? play on all expansions if you're worried about running out of things to do. Take your time and you'll find home when you're ready for it. I've been playing on Warmane since they relaunched and I've absolutely been loving it, but also I only play on WoTLK and hop back and forth with retail WoW.

Anyways, hope that answered some questions for you and gets you pointed in the right direction.

and remember, donating shouldn't just be about you, Warmane does actually use their funds to pay their staff, servers, and other needs.

MoP at current "working" level should be open beta
cata currently needs a core fix to make DS worth playing again
and wotlk... yeah you can pick between 1x hardcore and big queue/donate

On the subject of Lordaeron and Icecrown, the issue of the login queue used to be quite the reverse. Lordaeron had the big population and queue. It seems a fair chunk of the player-base decided that they'd prefer to play on Icecrown to play on content later than what Lordaeron currently offers. The queue can't really be helped. Things would be hectic if we opened another realm, especially considering we just merged two low-population realms. Raising the population cap higher than it already is (12,000) is not possible at this time; the server has already undergone extreme changes to counter-act lag. So if $10, one-time payment, is too much to play WoW (which is normally $40+$15/month for retail), then you would either need to play at morning/evening server time, or choose a different realm/server to play on indeed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by saghha

Lordaeron - Bosses are only buffed because classes are on the 3.3 patch and are buffer then what they were in the content we're playing them in.

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Wait, what?! So, it's 3.3.3 on Loarderon, not 3.3.5a?!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nathaniel912

Wait, what?! So, it's 3.3.3 on Loarderon, not 3.3.5a?!

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No, it's 3.3.5a. Just people tend to shorthand the patch number and forget that there is a difference in the incremental patches.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mercy

On the subject of Lordaeron and Icecrown, the issue of the login queue used to be quite the reverse. Lordaeron had the big population and queue. It seems a fair chunk of the player-base decided that they'd prefer to play on Icecrown to play on content later than what Lordaeron currently offers. The queue can't really be helped. Things would be hectic if we opened another realm, especially considering we just merged two low-population realms. Raising the population cap higher than it already is (12,000) is not possible at this time; the server has already undergone extreme changes to counter-act lag. So if $10, one-time payment, is too much to play WoW (which is normally $40+$15/month for retail), then you would either need to play at morning/evening server time, or choose a different realm/server to play on indeed.

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Once lordaeron is on end content level, and queues are still insane, the following idea might be considered:
A new realm, 3.3.5a, exact same configuration as Icecrown except for the player cap. You could limit the player cap on 2500 people, and increase it everytime by only a little. This way both realms will be populated. (people from icecrown won't have an incentive to move to new realm when there is queue on that one aswell, you can balance them out with player caps, while maintaining atleast 1 high pop realm).

I was typing this quite quick, sorry for english etc. etc.