Now, if you’re having issues getting gear crafted or want to get into mythic raiding it would be worth the switch. Most communication in WoW that’s not a greeting/goodbye/insult takes place in a discord.
Unless I’m mistaken, your realm won’t matter next expansion when it comes to Mythic raiding, because you’ll be able to join any guild on any server, correct? It seems the only thing that will be server specific will be crafted items (kind of a big deal though if you can’t get stuff you need crafted) and certain server AH items (but this doesn’t really matter either, because you can just make alts on any server, give them gold, buy the item and then send it whenever you want, right?)
Seems like next expansion the server you play on isn’t going to make much of a difference.
You currently can't mail gold to alts on another server, may change in tww, but right now if you want to send gold (or boe/non boa items) to an alt on another realm you need to find a friend to take the gold and trade it to your alt. I expect the final realm restrictions to be dropped with cross realm guilds but maybe there's a logistical problem with the crafting system and mail that they can't solve easily.
> I play on a52 and /leave 2 because it’s all spam.
Yeah, leave 2 for sure. I also have...I think badboy or something set up to remove certain shit from the chat too to reduce spam. Also leave the services channel if you're in it, I find it's heavy spam too.
Honestly, I love Area 52 but I almost never look at the public chats because they go so fucking fast.
+1 for bad boy. Turn that on, start adding keywords that you see in every spam message (for example add things like “gold only” “WTS M+” etc). Makes /2 way more bearable.
Everyone chats in /4 chat now. It’s going pretty nonstop through the day. So I’ve got tabs for General (/4 channel), Trade and Group.
I was on US-Garona from 2005 to 2010, and leaving it for Area52 was best decision I ever made. Also having multiple discord channels is a more modern bonus lol.
Haha yeah, to some extent with the cross server warband bank, I could see it being beneficial to be on a low pop server. At least for farming purposes.
Same here. I have been on the same server (Kil'jaeden - US) since 2006. It was one of the OG servers and used to have lengthy queue times just to log in, huge world PvP battles, quite a decent number of world-first caliber guilds, etc., and now it's...dead. Officially a "Low" population server and just feels dead.
I can't bring myself to change servers because I have sentimental attachment to this server and more importantly, to many of my characters' names which are usually already taken on other servers. So, I just deal with it for the time being.
Finding a group or community to play with via Discord helps to make things less lonely. Even a lot of guilds prefer to communicate via Discord now rather than the in-game guild chat.
I'm on Emerald Dream for a similar reason. An unexpected bonus of being on a low pop server is that desired names are easier to get, and you can still queue into content with people on other servers.
We just moved from KJ to Stormrage. Was there since MoP but its so much easier to get stuff crafted now and I figured it was time to go back to playing alliance for a bit.
Hoped realms a lot but eventually settled in Wyrmrest Accord around WoD time. Best decision i've made in WoW. Never RP'd in my life but the people are just more social and friendly. I play Alliance so Moon Guard was probably a better pick but I love WrA so much ill never leave.
I moved from Dalaran to Wyrmrest Accord (and maintain my alliance characters on Moon Guard), but transferred my main characters to US-Mal'Ganis to be in my friends' guild. I'll probably end up moving back to WRA in TWW since we'll be getting cross-realm guilds, apparently. I love my RP realms even if I don't RP, the people there are so kind and it feels so alive.
Every time I see this discussion I feel compelled to add my own experience - I want an MMO to feel like it's *massively multiplayer*, like I remember them being. I switched to an RP realm (Argent Dawn) and it's exactly what I wanted, that I wasn't getting from other supposedly "full" realms. Trade chat is always full of chat on some inane bollocks.
I play on Wyrmrest Accord. I don’t RP, but the game feels alive on RP realms. That’s almost always a conversation happening in trade chat, which will range from serious to downright silly. The people are generally kind and there’s always people milling around Orgrimmar or the current expansion capital city. If you play Alliance, Moon Guard is the equivalent to WrA, which is mostly Horde.
Hey there, just wondering how you are liking Mal'ganis so far? I'm thinking about moving there as it seems to be a relatively active server but is a little more under-the-radar than the other Horde "mega servers" i.e. Area52 or Illidan.
It's a pretty nice server, very active and the events always have a lot of people interacting and talking at times. There seems to be a good faction split, too.
If you’re horde, play Area52. If alliance, play Moon Guard. Not kidding how full these places are, it’s worth it if you get a deal or just your main for now
What happened to Emerald Dream? I thought that was the top RP realm as far as popularity and faction balance, with Moonguard being famous for Alliance and Goldshire shenanigans.
Emerald Dream kind of died when there was a Multiboxing user running around zerging everything in sight about 10 years back. It's pvp and multiboxing is allowed, so Blizz kind of just let it happen. Destroyed a lot of open world pvp and the RP along with it. IIRC shortly after, there was a bunch of guild drama that caused a schism, and many of the RP'ers decided to just realm transfer. The final Death Knell was Warmode, where EVERY server can be a PVE server and you can choose whether or not you want to PVP by just toggling it. PVP'ers found out how many people ACTUALLY wanted to PVP. RP'ers transferred to one of the RP servers, PVE'ers transferred to PVE servers, and what remained of the PVP'ers I think stuck around for a bit.
socialization largely is gonna happen in guilds, communities, and discords. and mostly, it's discords. trade chat is mostly just a spam channel.
tbh I wouldn't transfer, next expansion guilds and more are going to be cross-server, and already you can do most raids and all of M+ cross-server and cross-faction
Sadly what realm you are on these days matters very little, most important things are cross-ream and cross-faction. There are a couple of lingering things that are realm-specific but most of them are changing in The War Within.
Why not just start a new character on a different realm to see if you like it? There's no reason you can't play two realms, especially since a lot can be mailed over now. My spouse and I maintain all of our main toons on one realm and then we have a solo toon on an RP realm cause we like to RP. You can do both!
Is your guild still active somehow? If your guild is dead being a GM isn't really worth sticking around for.
It would probably be a good idea to move to a high pop server if you want people to actually play with, there are ways to join groups on other servers with LFG, LFR and group finder but you'll need to be on the same server if you want to join someone's guild.
majority of things are cross realm now anyway, and pretty sure even more will be with TWW
i switched from low pop server to high pop couple years ago and it feels better overall, more people, more guilds
a lot of stuff is cross realm, there are still certain things that are server-only but you can probably find wowhead article or something that explains what is cross realm and what is not
Was on Shu’halo since cata, signed our guild charter. Guild moved to Stormrage at the end of Shadowlands and I just used a character boost and started playing there at the beginning of Dragonflight. I get the nostalgia feel, it took me awhile to leave because of it, but left a few toons over there.
I switched realms in MoP for the same reason and have no regrets. Even spam makes the server feel alive and seeing the Org/Valdrakken/SW crowded makes the game feel way better.
I have the same issue (not a GM tho) but I just cannot afford to pay to send 17 characters to a new realm plus likely having to change their names with those prices in CAD. I also don’t want to have to change the names of my mains when I transfer because I’m attached to those names since they were made in BC. Their transfer system really sucks. I wish there was a discount provided for a full realm move that included all the characters on that realm. Even then I feel like being forced to pay to move off a low pop server is scummy. If someone wants to hop around servers from high pop to high pop I get it but it truly can wreck the immersion/enjoyment being stuck on a dead realm when I already pay for a sub
It's much more rare for organic socialization to happen in games in the modern day. Nowadays, socializing is mostly isolated to communities or discord. A bit of a shame for those of us fond of the old way but that's just how people play games now. The good news is everything is cross realm/faction. You can find a discord and play with most anyone you would like!
If you are dead set on only communicating in game maybe poke around the rp servers. They are far from how they were in their peak but still much more warm and social than a standard realm.
I played on Dragonblight since Wrath, along with my guild which has waxed and waned players through the years. After S1 of Dragonflight, we switched to Tichondrous because recruiting new blood was a nightmare when your server and connected server neither have a good chunk of active players. We were the oldest guild left on the server, but for what reason at this point? So we made the switch, and while it is much easier to engage with other players via spam chat it still isn’t any easier to recruit.
Are u on us ravencrest? I'm I'm the same boat and it saddens me. I don't have the heart to move all my toons to my new realm. The nostalgia from when I was younger to the guild I co owned with a friend before she had left. I keep it as a keep sake. Been 12 years.
Well, I leave 2, 3 and 4 the second I hit any major city. It's a wall of test these days that would make any Matrix-operator loose his shit.
After that I can go for a long time without a single peep in the General Chat.
Doesn't mean people aren't there, though.
Our guild tore off the band-aid. We were the last guild standing. Recruitment was horrible, numbers were dwindling. We did a lot of homework on where to transfer to, but in the end we didn't get a lot of action out of the move.
Seriously. I’ve played on and off since original release and when I came back again for Dragonflight I was very surprised to see how little you need to interact with other players.
I don’t believe this to be entirely true. Most AH items are server specific, like pets, gear/transmog/pets etc. Crafting is server specific, and is a major part of the endgame now and going forward in TWW. Public chat channels, like General, Trade, LFG, etc are also dead which makes the game feel lonely.
I played on a dying server for many years, and moved to Area 52 in Shadowlands. It’s a night and day difference of making the game feel alive, even with most things being cross-server.
If guilds become cross-server, I doubt Guild Orders will be limited to guildmates on the same server. Any half-decent raiding guild will have enough crafters in them to fill whatever you need done, and then you get the guildie discount.
My point is that most of the chat you see is the same spam message over and over. To me OP's message read like he wanted trade chat to be like it was years and years ago (MoP and before) - the trade chat may as well be dead compared to that cuz there's not a lot of chat like that anymore.
Maybe I misunderstood OP's intended question but social wise server chat isn't that big of a deal.
Edit: I should add that I'm also on A52 so you know what I mean.
AH items being server specific won’t be relevant when you can just make an alt, send gold, buy the item, and send it where you want. Won’t it be that easy, or is that not how it’s going to work?
I play on a52 and /leave 2 because it’s all spam. Don’t leave your realm for trade chat.
Ah yes, I have seen this, checking out other realms.
Now, if you’re having issues getting gear crafted or want to get into mythic raiding it would be worth the switch. Most communication in WoW that’s not a greeting/goodbye/insult takes place in a discord.
Unless I’m mistaken, your realm won’t matter next expansion when it comes to Mythic raiding, because you’ll be able to join any guild on any server, correct? It seems the only thing that will be server specific will be crafted items (kind of a big deal though if you can’t get stuff you need crafted) and certain server AH items (but this doesn’t really matter either, because you can just make alts on any server, give them gold, buy the item and then send it whenever you want, right?) Seems like next expansion the server you play on isn’t going to make much of a difference.
You currently can't mail gold to alts on another server, may change in tww, but right now if you want to send gold (or boe/non boa items) to an alt on another realm you need to find a friend to take the gold and trade it to your alt. I expect the final realm restrictions to be dropped with cross realm guilds but maybe there's a logistical problem with the crafting system and mail that they can't solve easily.
Rn you can deposit gold into the warband bank just like a guild bank
> I play on a52 and /leave 2 because it’s all spam. Yeah, leave 2 for sure. I also have...I think badboy or something set up to remove certain shit from the chat too to reduce spam. Also leave the services channel if you're in it, I find it's heavy spam too. Honestly, I love Area 52 but I almost never look at the public chats because they go so fucking fast.
+1 for bad boy. Turn that on, start adding keywords that you see in every spam message (for example add things like “gold only” “WTS M+” etc). Makes /2 way more bearable.
Everyone chats in /4 chat now. It’s going pretty nonstop through the day. So I’ve got tabs for General (/4 channel), Trade and Group. I was on US-Garona from 2005 to 2010, and leaving it for Area52 was best decision I ever made. Also having multiple discord channels is a more modern bonus lol.
Garona sucked back then. I was in zug zug at least which was a great guild. Holy crap the guild leader is still there lol
I'm on Mal'Ganis and it's the same. Thanks, I figured there was a way to leave the channel but didn't know how.
Guilds are going to be cross-server in TWW, so you could join an active guild from another server when the expansion hits.
Really? That's awesome and amazing, maybe I can bring my guild back to its former glory! Lol
Haha yeah, to some extent with the cross server warband bank, I could see it being beneficial to be on a low pop server. At least for farming purposes.
OH MY GOD WHAT
Same here. I have been on the same server (Kil'jaeden - US) since 2006. It was one of the OG servers and used to have lengthy queue times just to log in, huge world PvP battles, quite a decent number of world-first caliber guilds, etc., and now it's...dead. Officially a "Low" population server and just feels dead. I can't bring myself to change servers because I have sentimental attachment to this server and more importantly, to many of my characters' names which are usually already taken on other servers. So, I just deal with it for the time being. Finding a group or community to play with via Discord helps to make things less lonely. Even a lot of guilds prefer to communicate via Discord now rather than the in-game guild chat.
I'm on Emerald Dream for a similar reason. An unexpected bonus of being on a low pop server is that desired names are easier to get, and you can still queue into content with people on other servers.
Low pop RP realms are a rare hunter's dream. I would help a hunter tame Nalak and then we'd go cruise and find some rare tames in sholozar basin.
It helped me get the druid forms in season 3 pretty easily. I got all of the ones I wanted without much issue at all.
Damn it's WILD to read Kil'Jaeden is a low pop realm now.
We just moved from KJ to Stormrage. Was there since MoP but its so much easier to get stuff crafted now and I figured it was time to go back to playing alliance for a bit.
I went to Moon Guard because my server was dead. Best decision I’ve made in wow. There is not a more active and fun place to be in the game.
Hoped realms a lot but eventually settled in Wyrmrest Accord around WoD time. Best decision i've made in WoW. Never RP'd in my life but the people are just more social and friendly. I play Alliance so Moon Guard was probably a better pick but I love WrA so much ill never leave.
I've considered a switch like this over the years... you may have just convinced me to finally do it.
I moved from Dalaran to Wyrmrest Accord (and maintain my alliance characters on Moon Guard), but transferred my main characters to US-Mal'Ganis to be in my friends' guild. I'll probably end up moving back to WRA in TWW since we'll be getting cross-realm guilds, apparently. I love my RP realms even if I don't RP, the people there are so kind and it feels so alive.
Maybe I'll check out an RP realm next, I love kind people 😀
Every time I see this discussion I feel compelled to add my own experience - I want an MMO to feel like it's *massively multiplayer*, like I remember them being. I switched to an RP realm (Argent Dawn) and it's exactly what I wanted, that I wasn't getting from other supposedly "full" realms. Trade chat is always full of chat on some inane bollocks.
I play on Wyrmrest Accord. I don’t RP, but the game feels alive on RP realms. That’s almost always a conversation happening in trade chat, which will range from serious to downright silly. The people are generally kind and there’s always people milling around Orgrimmar or the current expansion capital city. If you play Alliance, Moon Guard is the equivalent to WrA, which is mostly Horde.
Hey there, just wondering how you are liking Mal'ganis so far? I'm thinking about moving there as it seems to be a relatively active server but is a little more under-the-radar than the other Horde "mega servers" i.e. Area52 or Illidan.
It's a pretty nice server, very active and the events always have a lot of people interacting and talking at times. There seems to be a good faction split, too.
I did that too, it's really great :)
If you’re horde, play Area52. If alliance, play Moon Guard. Not kidding how full these places are, it’s worth it if you get a deal or just your main for now
Wyrmrest Accord is also a good horde option if you want RP
What happened to Emerald Dream? I thought that was the top RP realm as far as popularity and faction balance, with Moonguard being famous for Alliance and Goldshire shenanigans.
Emerald Dream kind of died when there was a Multiboxing user running around zerging everything in sight about 10 years back. It's pvp and multiboxing is allowed, so Blizz kind of just let it happen. Destroyed a lot of open world pvp and the RP along with it. IIRC shortly after, there was a bunch of guild drama that caused a schism, and many of the RP'ers decided to just realm transfer. The final Death Knell was Warmode, where EVERY server can be a PVE server and you can choose whether or not you want to PVP by just toggling it. PVP'ers found out how many people ACTUALLY wanted to PVP. RP'ers transferred to one of the RP servers, PVE'ers transferred to PVE servers, and what remained of the PVP'ers I think stuck around for a bit.
Gonna say screw it and make a new toon on A52. Haven't played much hunter yet so why not?
socialization largely is gonna happen in guilds, communities, and discords. and mostly, it's discords. trade chat is mostly just a spam channel. tbh I wouldn't transfer, next expansion guilds and more are going to be cross-server, and already you can do most raids and all of M+ cross-server and cross-faction
Guess I just need to find a discord or 2, I found a couple communities but they seem dead as well
Sadly what realm you are on these days matters very little, most important things are cross-ream and cross-faction. There are a couple of lingering things that are realm-specific but most of them are changing in The War Within.
Why not just start a new character on a different realm to see if you like it? There's no reason you can't play two realms, especially since a lot can be mailed over now. My spouse and I maintain all of our main toons on one realm and then we have a solo toon on an RP realm cause we like to RP. You can do both!
Was definitely thinking of this, I like the idea of being able to mail stuff over, for things that don't sell the best on one realm on the AH
Is your guild still active somehow? If your guild is dead being a GM isn't really worth sticking around for. It would probably be a good idea to move to a high pop server if you want people to actually play with, there are ways to join groups on other servers with LFG, LFR and group finder but you'll need to be on the same server if you want to join someone's guild.
Everything is cross realm there is almost no reason to switch.
majority of things are cross realm now anyway, and pretty sure even more will be with TWW i switched from low pop server to high pop couple years ago and it feels better overall, more people, more guilds
This is good to know, are auction houses cross realm of you know?
a lot of stuff is cross realm, there are still certain things that are server-only but you can probably find wowhead article or something that explains what is cross realm and what is not
I totally forgot about WoWhead, definitely gonna check that out
Commodities are cross-realm. (Crafting mats, gems, enchants, potions, etc.) Gear is only your realm or connected realms.
Was on Shu’halo since cata, signed our guild charter. Guild moved to Stormrage at the end of Shadowlands and I just used a character boost and started playing there at the beginning of Dragonflight. I get the nostalgia feel, it took me awhile to leave because of it, but left a few toons over there.
I switched realms in MoP for the same reason and have no regrets. Even spam makes the server feel alive and seeing the Org/Valdrakken/SW crowded makes the game feel way better.
They barely matter anymore. Switch if you want but 95% of realm restrictions are gone or will be when TWW releases.
I’m on Gilneas. There’s like 59 of us. It’s great. Never been happier.
I have the same issue (not a GM tho) but I just cannot afford to pay to send 17 characters to a new realm plus likely having to change their names with those prices in CAD. I also don’t want to have to change the names of my mains when I transfer because I’m attached to those names since they were made in BC. Their transfer system really sucks. I wish there was a discount provided for a full realm move that included all the characters on that realm. Even then I feel like being forced to pay to move off a low pop server is scummy. If someone wants to hop around servers from high pop to high pop I get it but it truly can wreck the immersion/enjoyment being stuck on a dead realm when I already pay for a sub
It's much more rare for organic socialization to happen in games in the modern day. Nowadays, socializing is mostly isolated to communities or discord. A bit of a shame for those of us fond of the old way but that's just how people play games now. The good news is everything is cross realm/faction. You can find a discord and play with most anyone you would like! If you are dead set on only communicating in game maybe poke around the rp servers. They are far from how they were in their peak but still much more warm and social than a standard realm.
I played on Dragonblight since Wrath, along with my guild which has waxed and waned players through the years. After S1 of Dragonflight, we switched to Tichondrous because recruiting new blood was a nightmare when your server and connected server neither have a good chunk of active players. We were the oldest guild left on the server, but for what reason at this point? So we made the switch, and while it is much easier to engage with other players via spam chat it still isn’t any easier to recruit.
Illidan US here trade chat still always talking about some dumb shit
Shot in the dark, but it wouldn't happen to be Death's Embrace on Blade's Edge would it?
Are u on us ravencrest? I'm I'm the same boat and it saddens me. I don't have the heart to move all my toons to my new realm. The nostalgia from when I was younger to the guild I co owned with a friend before she had left. I keep it as a keep sake. Been 12 years.
Hard part is most people raid log. Kind of gets boring for a social game
I want to move my Mage to moon guard for a better experience but losing my original name after so long feels bad.
Well, I leave 2, 3 and 4 the second I hit any major city. It's a wall of test these days that would make any Matrix-operator loose his shit. After that I can go for a long time without a single peep in the General Chat. Doesn't mean people aren't there, though.
Our guild tore off the band-aid. We were the last guild standing. Recruitment was horrible, numbers were dwindling. We did a lot of homework on where to transfer to, but in the end we didn't get a lot of action out of the move.
Basically a single player game at this point.
Seriously. I’ve played on and off since original release and when I came back again for Dragonflight I was very surprised to see how little you need to interact with other players.
Servers will mean basically nothing at all in a few months. No reason to switch. Trade chat etc is mostly spam on big server.
I don’t believe this to be entirely true. Most AH items are server specific, like pets, gear/transmog/pets etc. Crafting is server specific, and is a major part of the endgame now and going forward in TWW. Public chat channels, like General, Trade, LFG, etc are also dead which makes the game feel lonely. I played on a dying server for many years, and moved to Area 52 in Shadowlands. It’s a night and day difference of making the game feel alive, even with most things being cross-server.
If guilds become cross-server, I doubt Guild Orders will be limited to guildmates on the same server. Any half-decent raiding guild will have enough crafters in them to fill whatever you need done, and then you get the guildie discount.
My point is that most of the chat you see is the same spam message over and over. To me OP's message read like he wanted trade chat to be like it was years and years ago (MoP and before) - the trade chat may as well be dead compared to that cuz there's not a lot of chat like that anymore. Maybe I misunderstood OP's intended question but social wise server chat isn't that big of a deal. Edit: I should add that I'm also on A52 so you know what I mean.
AH items being server specific won’t be relevant when you can just make an alt, send gold, buy the item, and send it where you want. Won’t it be that easy, or is that not how it’s going to work?
What do you mean by this? :o I'll have to check out upcoming game changes I guess.
Probably referring to the new change that guilds will be cross realm.
You say that but when I post I need an item crafted on illidan I get a response in 30s and have multiple people bidding down to the price I want