So I haven’t played in a while and want to come back, my alliance irl friend is no longer playing the game so I can finally play on Horde for real and I have a though time choosing a server. I have characters on Kazzak and Draenor, but reading older topics about server choice it seems people say to steer clear from those servers as they are toxic and/or laggy. I am not a hardcore raider and I generally prefer dungeoneering. I also want a non-toxic server and having a healthy AH is a plus.
OK, outside the Really Big realms, you could look at
Stormscale. It’s still quite sizeable, but it doesn’t have the potential lag problems of Draenor, and I’ve seen several people recently saying that it’s not friendly.
Argent Dawn. This is counterintuitive, because Horde are in a minority there, but AD is maybe the one exception to the First Rule of Realm-Choosing: Never roll on the minority faction of a realm. From all I’ve heard, AD Horde has an exceptional community, and with the advantage of one of the largest and best stocked auction houses. You don’t have to RP to play there; just respect people who do, don’t grief them, and don’t name your character Ieaturface.
Chamber of Aspects or Magtheridon. Both are balanced servers, which is BAD, but both have a pretty decent reputation for non-toxicity
That is all from what I’ve heard. I don’t play Horde on any of these. I decided to set up Horde as something to do for BfA, and I chose Draenor, and haven’t regretted it at all. Quite a pleasant realm, and while there is some lag at the AH, it’s not enough to affect me. If I was being an AH Goblin, listing hundreds of auctions every day, it would probably drive me nuts, but since I buy and sell there maybe a dozen times a week, it ain’t no tang.
Oddly, looking down the Horde list of https://realmpop.com/eu.html I realise I’ve never heard anything at all about the Ahn’Qiraj/Boulderfist et all connected realms. Maybe worth a look. If nobody ever mentions them, they can’t be bad. 
Go find the realm forums of the realms you’re interested in, and take a look. Also roll a level 1 and chat to people in Trade. Check out the AH. You’re the only one that can decide if the place is right for you!
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Why are balanced servers bad? Also no other suggestions from other people?
Balanced servers are bad
- because 50% of the populaion is of no use to you at all.
Back in the days of PvP realms, at least the opposite faction were people you could fight. Now you can’t fight them, guild with them, party with them, trade with them, do anything with them. There may be 4000 people online in your realm, but as far as you are concerned, there are only 2000.
- because balanced realms don’t stay balanced.
When I started back in Cata, Outland was a balanced realm. There were more Alliance than Horde, but it was pretty close. Now it’s extremely one-sided. Choosing a balanced realm, you are taking a 50:50 chance of being in a minority a couple of expansions doen the line.
I see, thanks. I wonder if it is worth returning to this shaman since it already has almost maxed reputations, but I would have to be on Kazzak or do I reroll on Draenor? What would you suggest?
I don’t know.
The BfA reps you have don’t matter for Pathfinder. Once you have the original reps on any character, that box is ticked, and you don’t need to re-grind them on your new character.
I suppose my main question is: do you like your Shaman? I mean, if you’re really fond of that Shaman, then the thing to do is transfer it. If you’re not, and you feel like levelling something else, do that.
But since I don’t really have a sense of why you want to transfer, or what you are looking for in a realm, any advice I could give you would be bad. You really have to make your own choice of realm.
Nah, I am gonna play a Shaman either way. As far as what I am looking for in a realm is friendly people to run mythic + with, I’ve tried running few now that I’ve returned but they keep asking for some rio score w/e that is. I also don’t want to be on a realm with crappy AH which is why I chose big realms.
Well then, maybe your realm isn’t the problem.
Check out these groups:
Calm Keystones: In-game community
The Fail Train Discord
Mythic Plus Friends Discord
RIO score comes from here, btw:#
Don’t worry about what other people think. You have a 120 on Kazzak - what do you think??
Everything Grainne says is true, but…
In the current world of cross-realm grouping, communities and cross-faction AH, the differences highlighted mostly fall somewhere between ‘trivial’ and ‘irrelevant’.
You sound like a casual player (ie not pushing raiding or high level m+) and so the differences you will see between realms will probably be at the ‘irrelevant’ end of the scale.
In case you’re not aware of the impact of cross-realm sharding / grouping…
Things that aren’t affected by your realm:
- players you see in the world
- players you group with in lfd/lfr
- players you can group with for m+ and normal/hc raiding (and mythic after a certain point)
- who you hear in local chat
Things that are affected by your realm:
- number of guilds available
- who you hear in trade chat
- the number of buyers /sellers on the AH (but this includes both factions)
Given that all realms apart from literally 1 or 2 factions that are tiny (/nonexistent) have enough guilds for you to find a home, the first point is pretty much invalid (if you’re looking for a mythic raiding guild, it’s a different matter, but you may well be more likely to find a friendly, social guild on a minority, quieter realm as the min/max fotm players have left).
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Players you see in the world and who you hear in local chat are HUGELY affected by your realm. I have maxed characters on Magtheridon Alliance, Draenor Horde, and both factions of RP realms. In BfA territories, it’s not even close with WM off … closer with WM on, but still noticeable.
Your other points are true. Group Finder and LFG/LFR/BG queues are not affected by realm.
Really?
I’m sure I see more Turalyon/Doomhammer players than any other server, but I still don’t think more than 1 in 10 in general chat is from my home server.
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Yup, really. Both numbers and faction balance very different in all cases.
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