Does it make sense to play on low-populated realm if I am completely casual player: i am not interested in mythic raids or 10+ keys, just normal/heroic and keys under 10. Make some achievement, mounts and all this casual stuff.
Why did I ask? I just bought the game and didn’t notice, that was situated at Turalyon. Despite of pretty low level of my character, i wouldn’t like to recreate it on more populated realm(just afraid to miss a feeling of my character as part of my person), but if there are some important reasons that i haven’t known about…well…there is not to much to choose
Low population realms only problem is, that the ecomony is rly bad, you should go some more populated realm with more people. Bigger chance to get a good guild to lvl up, and have the contents u want to do.
The two things which are still server restricted are guilds and the economy. Guilds you can kinda get around with cross-realm communities and, as you don’t plan to raid mythic, then communities should be fine for you if you can’t find a guild you like on your server. For the economy, things on the Auction House are likely to be more expensive and your items may take longer to sell (but at a higher price than on a high pop server). You’re less likely to see rare items (tmogs, high level BoEs, pets etc.) on the AH as well.
Being Horde on a medium-pop (was low pop in Legion and I expect the increase is due to allied race alts!) but Alliance-dominated realm, I don’t have any problems doing the activities you are interested in. My guild may be small, but we are quite close because we’re really interested in getting new players to join us, since there aren’t a whole lot on the realm! Finding a guild or a community where you are happy is, in my opinion, one of the most important things if you’re doing anything with other people. And you can find those on any realm
I remember that early sense of bonding with my character very well. It’s valuable, and worth keeping.
Your realm makes effectively no difference at all until you hit 120.
For a completely casual player at 120, you can play there just as well as anywhere else. You should get to know people in your realm and guilds at 120, and you should also keep your eye out for cross-realm groupings like Communities and Discords where you can find people to play with.
At worst, if you hit 120 and find you want to do more, need more availability of teammates, you can pull out your credit card (or gold) and buy yourself a realm transfer to move your character somewhere else.
As others said before, It doesn’t really matter. You will still be able to find people for group content through LFR or LFG, the game fully supports cross realm for grouping. The only thing to consider is the economy, things sell much slower but at higher price.
also, if you find yourself pining for a more populated realm (once your main char is leveld up i mean) you can allways find a more populated realm and make an alt. (or two…or ten XD )
so long as your main and your other realm alt share faction (so, a horde alt on another realms thats got many more players, from your posting character) you can post between your characters. send yourself stuff from one realm to another! its fun, and you can even write silly things in the letter part (i sometimes do that when im bored)
if you have a hankering for trying the other faction, that too is fine, though your posting is limited to only things labled as ‘account bound’
but if one character gets items you cant use, but are account bound, you can post them between your characters.
(i have been doing this with stuff from najatar to help my other alts gear up a bit lol)
there are quite a few items that are account bound, stuff at lvl 90 and lvl 110 aswell as the benthic stuff at lvl 120. anything that says ‘for your current spec’ and has ‘account bound’ is great, even if its not your gear type, you can post it to an alt that can use it if you have them (which i do…lots lol)
I think you should avoid realms with low pop, especially as a new player, the cities will be desolate, the auction house will be barren(and overpriced likely) and if you have questions it is not as easy as asking /2.
You will still see players in the world thanks to CRZ (Cross realm zones). Cities like Dazar’alor and Boralus are affected by CRZ, you will see other players from other realms in these cities but you cannot trade them still.
I played on a low populated realm for nearly 2 years before I moved. The difference in my experience was night and day.
I personally think Blizzard should merge “dead” realms and bring players together, MMORPG after all. You will have a much better experience if you can find like minded players to share the game with.
If you ever decide to step it up and do some raiding or mythic + you will be confined to the premade tool unless you reach out for a community. Whilst premade tool is great there are some crappy folk, life is much nicer with a guild / community.
You can always pay money later on to change realm too(to move one character), bloody rip off tho!
