New player, thinking about joining this realm

[merv0101001]

I do prefer a more blizzlike experience so prefer a 1x server.
But how's the player count on here? I cannot really see it on the website, only percentages.
Is it worth joining?

[Mindslicer81]

as per website.
icecrown is most populated. 12k at peak (x7 exp)
next is lorderon at 4k peak (x1 exp and buffed raid)
after that is onyxia at 3.5k peak (progression x3 exp) going into tbc in sept 2024

i played icecrown for about 3 years with 5x 80.
now i hope to avoid the greif / gank / toxicity and try my luck on lordeon, currently lvl 21 paladin alliance.
but horde still gank bankers in SW. sadly. lol

[LastSeraph]

I've been playing on Lordaeron for a few weeks now, my thoughts -

Server is a pretty low pop during the leveling experience. Only the popular zones have people in them. Dungeon finder population is low - I can queue as a tank and need up to 20 minutes or more at times to get a group to pop. Even if I queue together with a healer, it can sometimes take up to 10 minutes.

Ganking isn't that bad. Only time I've ever run into world PVP at all was in Hillsbrad. Most people just ignore the other side. You'll occassionally get people from the opposite faction coming into capitals to grief the AH or vendors, but that's not all that common.

GS requirements are super inflated for pugging, to an unreasonable degree - at least going by chatter on global. I'm talking ICC itemization to go do freaking *Malygos* level of unreasonably inflated. Most groups that are doing ICC10 require you to already be in or near full ICC25 itemization, plus have the achievements for full clearing it. In short - if you want to do endgame PVE, a pre-made is a hard requirement on here.

I haven't got to level 80 yet, so I'm not sure how the heroic 5 man scene is yet, but from the looks of it there's not a lot of healers doing RDF. Which tracks, as lack of healers is a problem I've noticed as a tank period leveling up.

All in all, while I can't say for sure yet, I have a feeling that if you value having a good endgame experience, you might want to try Icecrown instead.

[Mindslicer81]

originally i wanted to be tank for rdf levelling and hc rdf gear up. but you mentioned that even tank ques are slow.
i am kinda thinking towards healing for rdf spam intead ?
i am paladin lvl 31 now.
however i only have expereince as tank / ret from icc.

any tips ? tq

[helbra]

originally i wanted to be tank for rdf levelling and hc rdf gear up. but you mentioned that even tank ques are slow.
i am kinda thinking towards healing for rdf spam intead ?
i am paladin lvl 31 now.
however i only have expereince as tank / ret from icc.

any tips ? tq

You will still wait as heal. Sometimes 1hr+ waiting on tank. Best thing is to find a tank/heal buddy and queue as a team

[Frysharry]

I do prefer a more blizzlike experience so prefer a 1x server.
But how's the player count on here? I cannot really see it on the website, only percentages.
Is it worth joining?

My advice is to just go Icecrown. You can adjust exp rates there so if you so choose to have a 1x leveling experience but then not be as kneecapped by the PUG gear/achieve requirements you may.

[Sqmdqufeg]

honestly just play icecrown its much more chill experience because you actually get queues more during leveling and when you reach 80 you dont have to struggle. On lordaeron even dungeons are harder and if you catch group of noobs which is actually pretty common its actually painful to play the game. You have an hour for queue and then morons die on trash and leave and group is over. Its pain

[TheTrophyHunter]

Pretty simple, if you want to spam dungeons either find a leveling buddies, leveling guild or play a healer or a tank. I dont understand why all of you have an issue of waiting for a dungeon while leveling, you only need 1 per day for bonus xp, queue just depends on the time of the day, sometimes there are more players, sometimes less, yesterday i did 5 dungeons in a row as a tank with combined wait time of 6 seconds.
I must agree that gs req for certain raids is unrealistic, though its mostly for raids that arent popular, ulduar, eoe, os, naxx. Icc, RS and toc is relatively reasonable with toc being the worst one where youre kind of required to get Icc BOEs to get to the gs they ask for, though i bypass that by making my own raids simply.
Raiding scene is doing just fine there are many guilds with a varying progress so there will always be somewhere you can join, BUT it also depends on your time zone, since its mostly EU.
On iceclown you can have fun for sure, but players are a lot worse, buy gear via coins a lot so gs req is far more inflated, i was in top 5 dps in icc25 with 5k gs demo lock, i was also the weakest geared person in the raid, so theres that as well.

[VAC22]

Best server. Hands down.

[Mackswell]

The only thing I'd say about this server is if you're going to join, play Horde.

I haven't gotten to level 20 on my main character yet because I keep getting ganked by Horde as soon as I leave Alliance zones. I started leveling a Horde toon and Alliance griefers are no where near as common.

[Succubent]

I joined Warmane as a new wow player back in September 2022 straight up to Lordaeron without even knowing the server was hardcore (Buffed). I am at my 7th 80 char now (alli side). So far, i have enjoyed the experience a lot. Despite Lordaeron having lower pop, I have a strong feeling it's quality largerly succeeds Icecrown's. Bear in mind that it's summer so the population is lower than it should, but once we're past it, there will be a nice little boost. My two cents

[Kaedus123]

I've been playing on Lordaeron for a few weeks now, my thoughts -

Server is a pretty low pop during the leveling experience. Only the popular zones have people in them. Dungeon finder population is low - I can queue as a tank and need up to 20 minutes or more at times to get a group to pop. Even if I queue together with a healer, it can sometimes take up to 10 minutes.

Ganking isn't that bad. Only time I've ever run into world PVP at all was in Hillsbrad. Most people just ignore the other side. You'll occassionally get people from the opposite faction coming into capitals to grief the AH or vendors, but that's not all that common.

GS requirements are super inflated for pugging, to an unreasonable degree - at least going by chatter on global. I'm talking ICC itemization to go do freaking *Malygos* level of unreasonably inflated. Most groups that are doing ICC10 require you to already be in or near full ICC25 itemization, plus have the achievements for full clearing it. In short - if you want to do endgame PVE, a pre-made is a hard requirement on here.

I haven't got to level 80 yet, so I'm not sure how the heroic 5 man scene is yet, but from the looks of it there's not a lot of healers doing RDF. Which tracks, as lack of healers is a problem I've noticed as a tank period leveling up.

All in all, while I can't say for sure yet, I have a feeling that if you value having a good endgame experience, you might want to try Icecrown instead.

It didn't use to be like that. It used to be low level zones were populated and dungeon queues were fine at low levels. It was paradise basically, the best server ever. But the Onyxia realm destroyed all that.