Help deciding on a realm please

Hey guys, I'm new here. I love the energy of this community, and passion you all have for this game and this world.

I was confused as to which realm would be best for me -

1) I am primarily interested in Open World PvP and a challenging, Blizzlike experience.

2) I cannot put any money into the game (I live outside US/Europe, and its technically difficult)

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Is Lordaeron the clear choice for me here? The 1x Blizzlike experience, challenging raid content and lack of Cash Shop are huge attractions to me.

However, given that Frostmourne/Icecrown have more people, would they be more suitable for World PvP? (I'm thinking of maining Rogue)

I don't mind grinding, or have someone beat me due to skill, but if someone's money buys them victory or even a slight edge over me, I can never, never accept that.


p.s.
Is Frostmourne's Cash Shop the big factor I am making it out to be? Or can I Grind and get that gear myself anyway?

Thanks in advance!

WotLK realms:

Lordaeron - ×1 experience, professions, gold, honor as it was on official realms. Bosses are tuned to be harder with higher health pools, more damage, shorter enrage timers and there is no ICC buff. In store all you can buy are mounts/pets/cosmetics for coins.
Icecrown - ×7 experience, ×3 professions, ×1 gold and honor. Bosses are the same as they were on the official realms. In store you can buy a lot of stuff, including high-end gear (Shadowmourne, heroic pieces etc.) for coins and low-end gear for points.
Blackrock - instant 80 PvP only realm. All PvE disabled, BG/Arena/Duel fest. You can get better gear with rating in different brackets.
Frostmourne - ×7 experience, ×3 professions, ×1 gold and honor. Realms is seasonal - goes through all patches of WotLK within a span of one year and then it resets with it's characters being transfered to Icecrown. Bosses are tuned to be harder with higher health pools, more damage, shorter enrage timers and there is no ICC buff. In store you can buy high-end gear and low-end gear, with the standard addition of mounts/pets/cosmetics EVERYTHING for coins and it shows up automatically once a sufficiently high number of players gets the items in the game manually.
PvP is crossrealm. Currently there's 2 tiers - 1 for characters who are at Frostmourne's current progression level with their gear which means if you get any piece of gear higher than Frostmourne's current patch you get put into the 2nd tier. The 2nd tier is exclusively people from Lordaeron+Icecrown+Blackrock ranging from 2.8k gs (with 1 epic from AH) to 6.7k+ gs full BiS players.

Can't speak for TBC and MoP realms since I haven't played them in years.

Lordaeron would be best fit for you imo because when Frostmourne's season ends chars get moved to Icecrown with ez raid. If you want to skip the gear grind you can buy a toon off the Warmane Trade. Decent ones with about 6k gs go for about 150-180 coins judging by people advertising on global.
Regarding Frostmourne gear shop, I described above why. It's more of a catch up mechanism than a "p2w" one.

Thank you, Mr. Thorbjorn, for your thoughtful and detailed post.

Sorry would you mind elaborating a bit please on why you believe Icecrown/Frostmourne's gear shop is not a problem? I understand for BGs and Arena's we get matched according to Gear Score so it evens out.

But from a World PvP perspective, if I go around surprising people as a rogue in Icecrown/Frostmourne would I be more likely to be surprised in return by a random newbie with BiS gear who then pulverizes me? :P

I don't mind pouring time in, but is there anything the cash shop can buy that time cannot? Or is the equation so unequal to non-donors that its a realm that unfairly prioritises donors? (For example if a 10 dollar donation purchases what would otherwise take 3 months of constant raiding hoping for a particular drop)

On the other hand I hear that in Lordaeron given its a multi-year server there are bound to be more people with BiS already, donors or no donors.

So perhaps Frostmourne would have more newer/less geared players on average, given that its.. 1 month versus 5 years Lordaeron?

Sorry for the confusion, I ah was playing with a friend too and I didn't want to keep wasting her time with my constant switching and indecision, and thank you so much again for your time and advice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acius1106

Thank you, Mr. Thorbjorn, for your thoughtful and detailed post.

Sorry would you mind elaborating a bit please on why you believe Icecrown/Frostmourne's gear shop is not a problem? I understand for BGs and Arena's we get matched according to Gear Score so it evens out.

But from a World PvP perspective, if I go around surprising people as a rogue in Icecrown/Frostmourne would I be more likely to be surprised in return by a random newbie with BiS gear who then pulverizes me? :P

I don't mind pouring time in, but is there anything the cash shop can buy that time cannot? Or is the equation so unequal to non-donors that its a realm that unfairly prioritises donors? (For example if a 10 dollar donation purchases what would otherwise take 3 months of constant raiding hoping for a particular drop)

On the other hand I hear that in Lordaeron given its a multi-year server there are bound to be more people with BiS already, donors or no donors.

So perhaps Frostmourne would have more newer/less geared players on average, given that its.. 1 month versus 5 years Lordaeron?

Sorry for the confusion, I ah was playing with a friend too and I didn't want to keep wasting her time with my constant switching and indecision, and thank you so much again for your time and advice.

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Well, BG-wise the shop in Icecrown is a problem because if you decide to play on Lordaeron you'll be crippled for quite some time. Reason to this being the massive amount of time it takes to earn the same items on Lordaeron compared to Icecrown.
Frostmourne's shop isn't such a big problem because items are introduced when a lot of people get them and Frostmourne has a separate BG and arena tier. Because of this you won't be at such a misadvantage like you would be on Icecrown.

There's a higher chance you'll face BiS people on Icecrown if you decide to go gank.

There's nothing of importance that cash shop can buy but time can't. Only thing I can think of is the Qiraji Battle Tank with is disabled in-game but obtainable through cash shop when you donate a lot of money (1k+ I think). That's for Icecrown.
When we're looking at Lordaeron, getting to HC content and BiS items might take you anywhere between half a year to several years, depending on how good you are, how fast you can gear, how often you raid, which guild you join etc. It's not all about other realms having cash shop, it's also about them having easier access to the gear in-game since it requires a lot less effort and time. All of that puts Lordaeron in disadvantage in PvP.

Yeah, there are BiS people on Lordaeron aswell. Difference is BiS people on Lordaeron are BiS because they enjoy PvE and mainly chase PvE achievements and titles (LoD, Glory of ICC raider etc). Because of this you won't see BiS people from Lordaeron take part in WPvP or PvP in general, or if you'll see them you'll see one person. Mostly veryone who wanted to PvP in BiS gear left Lordaeron be it because the way realm is naturally focused to PvE or because of crossrealm.

Yeah, Frostmourne definitely has less geared players. And even if you join now, once Ulduar hits you can catch up and become good geared. With each patch it updates to you can catch up again without being behind.

No problem, if you need something else clarified do ask.

1. If you cannot put any money into the game at all, I would advise avoiding Icecrown for now. Not because of the cash shop (yes, you do have a lot of BiS guys running around, but there are even more lower-geared peeps, and the higher gear guys are generally less inclined to travel around aside from farming or dailies or stuff), but because of peak hour queues (which you can only bypass by donating for at least 10 coins - otherwise, you have to wait through the queue). "For now" because the exorbitantly high population may be a result of certain real life events, and may no longer be the case in several months.

2. As for the details of the cash shop:
- Icecrown: Most BiS items cost 23 coins, while Shadowmourne costs 150. You can also get Shadowmourne via ingame means. The only cash-exclusive things are iirc Legendary item transmog scrolls and certain mounts or stuff, both of which are cosmetic.
- Frostmourne: Not too sure about the details, but I know that items are available in the shop at a certain point after the raid releases (it's something like, a certain item won't be in the shop until someone's actually gotten it to drop from an ingame raid). So yes, no Shadowmournes for the moment obviously.

3. And yes, Lordaeron would have quite a number of BiS chars right now, though I would assume with far less Shadowmournes compared to Icecrown.

4. Frostmourne is what I would ultimately recommend, allowing you to 'progress' without feeling too left behind. Do note that you will be moved to Icecrown at the end of the season (which is still quite some time away, but something to keep in mind), but by that point I think your gear should be good enough that it's no cause for worry. The queues might also have lessened by that time.

5. As a final note, BGs (and arenas?) are crossrealm with gear-based limitations, so e.g. a Frostmourne player is probably not gonna meet BiS Icecrown chars at the moment, but after you pass a certain gear threshold it becomes possible. Lowgeared Frostmourne players can encounter lowgeared Lorda/Icecrown characters.

Thank you guys both so so much!

Hmmm I'll... see and discuss with my friend then, but we'll sure that whatever the particular server, we're here in Warmane to stay, and the community of people like you two is a large reason why.

Thank you!