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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: How do you find a new realm to call home?
by Dion Cooper 
Nov 26th 2010 at 8:00AM
Home. It's where the heart is. It's where you can relax and be yourself. Sometimes, it is where you have been all your life. Other times, you have to move around several times to find the best place for you. The feeling of home in World of Warcraft is no different.
Because of a lack of guild activity, I've thought about moving my main to a new realm for several weeks now, but I have been hesitant to just do it. Part of it is the anxiety that comes with going to an unfamiliar realm. I've done research on several different realms and even rolled low-level characters on them to see what the environment is like, but the one thing I've learned is that you can't get a sense of what the raiding scene is like unless you are in it. The other part of my anxiety is getting to know everyone all over again. Sometimes, the hardest part of moving to a new town is introducing yourself to the neighbors. I thought about rerolling but have too much invested in my main to retire him.
So, fellow citizens of Azeroth, how did you find your WoW home? Is it the first realm you rolled on? Did you transfer somewhere else or reroll altogether?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
dannyflorida Nov 26th 2010 1:46PM
My first stop is WarcraftRealms.com. I usually like for my new realm to have a medium to large population of players and to roughly have a proportionate share of Alliance and Horde players. WarcraftRealms.com provides this information.
Then I further narrow my choices by the time zone. Finally, I will browse the realms' forums on the official WoW forums to get a feel for the community of the realm.
Vazpucci Nov 26th 2010 3:18PM
I rolled a priestess on the RP server Kirin Tor to check out role play, I was new to it all and was curious as to what it was. Well, from that moment on Kirin Tor became my only server- my love for RP and the friends I made kept me on it for years. Unfortunately, though being ranked as one of the top RP servers a time ago, it became crappy and dead. Luckily, the Horde side of the realm kept me interested for a fair few years before I decided to pack up and switch realms. It was really sad for me because Kirin Tor was my home...a place that I loved and knew, before it changed with time = /
Backdoc77 Nov 26th 2010 2:19PM
When I first started playing in April 05, the game just "recommended" a server for me. I'm on the west coast and didn't really notice that the new server time was EST. I didn't really pay attention thinking it was a setting I could change. It wasn't until a few years later after making many friends and becoming a hard core raider that I realized that my server was actually in Dallas. It kind of pissed me off that Blizzard "balanced" the server population in their own selfish interests instead of giving me the option to chose a west coast server. The ping on my current server is approx 250. The ping on a west coast server is 50. Oh well, thanks blizzard (for nothing).
Loradio Nov 26th 2010 2:27PM
I moved to a new realm to hang with a buddy that I work with after the peeps who I used to play with, including my game dealing brother, left the game.
Heather Nov 26th 2010 2:33PM
I've hopped my main around servers but have primarily stuck to the original one I rolled on, where my cousin insisted I play. Only problem is it's a West Coast server, and I'm on the East Coast. My latency is pretty bad, but I have a stable of alts (when Cata comes out, and I make the two new races, I'm going to have filled up all 10 spots with alts!). Right now I'm not looking for any particular kind of people to group with or guild to join (I hopped servers in the past to join a fairly famous guild for a time) so I want to just stay where I'm at. But yeah, that latency thing makes me wish I'd picked an East Coast server...
Lou Gagliardi Nov 26th 2010 2:54PM
When I first started in the game, I was playing Alliance with friends. Those friends later left the game (due to divorce in one case), so I left that toon. Then I found AIE, got kicked out 2 left the game 1 due to lack of funds (though their officers will say I was kicked out 3 times) and I was guildless.
Eventually Medros of All Things Azeroth invited me to his guid. I had a blast! But then it fell apart, and i transferred to another server after that guild fell apart. That friendship fell apart and now I'm back home on the Argent Dawn (US) server.
Now, I'm not one to admit mistakes but the thing with AIE was all me. I couldn't stop my cyber-mouth from running. The other two? At least the Shadow Walkers wasn't my fault; the other one is dependent on who you ask.
My point was, I didn't know what home was until it fell apart. Then I realized that hanging out with Medros and the ATA community made my day and night and just made wow that extra special.
If you're a fan of ATA, speaking of that, come join us on the Argent Dawn-US server. do a /who Heroes of Lordaeron. ;) Hope to see you.
Olathe Nov 26th 2010 3:32PM
I just stuck onto the first server that I thought had pretty good RP at the time. Started on Killrogg, then tried the Feathermoon RP server. Wasn't much action so I went to the Shadow Council RP server and have been there ever since.
Alithoe Nov 26th 2010 4:03PM
Home is where the heart is, so your real home's in your chest!
[/capthammer]
TTFK Nov 26th 2010 4:36PM
I have moved servers a few times, for different reasons.
My first experiences Server A was casual, and I wanted to raid. I joined a 10man guild that ended up having a mental midget for a RL and transferred away so I wouldn't have to listen to him berate people.
Server B brought me into 25man raiding, joining mid-Ulduar and quickly helping them get Yogg. HTOC then ICC followed, and at this point they hit a wall. I decided then I wanted something more hardcore. Onward-ho to Server C!
Server C continued 25man raiding but more hardcore, my 2nd week taking part in their progression LK kill then burning into hard modes.
In the end, however, I wanted to change roles for Cata. Being that it was clear I would have no opportunities to do so where I was, I am now on Server D getting to know my new guildies.
I still have friends on every server I've been in, and have alts in every one of those guilds (save one) that I still visit with at times.
Matthew Nov 26th 2010 4:39PM
Silver Hand Horde:
Mature. Friends of all ages, minimal noobishery in trade, and hate speech is NOT welcome in trade.
Underdogs in horde:ally ration but ever since wg is 1:1 queues, we OWN it.
Nice people - helpful and friendly.
And most importantly:
My Home.
If you join, ask for 'Bruin' - you'll find me.
Russell Nov 26th 2010 5:02PM
When I started playing late 2006 I rolled an Ally toon on some random server. Then I realized it would be good to play with someone I know. My chiropractor plays so I asked him what server he's on. He plays Horde on Shadow Council, so I played there with him for a while. But he didn't have a guild so it felt pretty lonely. A former co-worker played Ally on Duskwood, so I played there for a while.
Summer 2007 I found out a longtime friend plays on Zangarmarsh and has been playing for some time. He and some friends from college were playing every Thursday at 8:30--their schtick was an tiny all-Tauren guild called the Burgers of Calais. They'd transferred because of one friend's raiding guild moving. So I rolled a Tauren warrior named Pattie and planned to catch up to them to play. What I somehow didn't think full fully was that I was in CA and I'm in NC, so starting at 8:30 = 11:30 on a week night.
Meanwhile I also got my uncle into the game and got him to roll on Zangarmarsh. We have two toons (he an arms warrior and I a shadow priest) we mostly play together to keep them close in levels. The past couple years I've mostly just played with him (he's gotten way more into the game than I). We're now at 71, so at least I'm only one expansion behind...
I still like being on the same server as my friend and some other RL friends, even if we don't play together a lot. We're actually close enough now that DF will let us play together and I can get runs if I need them.
I find it funny that this site's guilds just happen to be on two of the three realms where I've played.
Josho Nov 26th 2010 4:56PM
I just selected the realm assigned to me, and only later I realised I wanted to transfer from Normal to a roleplaying server - probably because I was fighting an uphill battle with me and my friends RPing in Stormwind where people were going "!!! LEEEEROY JEEENNNKIIINNSS!!ELEVENTYTWELVE" and all sorts of crap. So I did some looking around and started some alts on various RP servers until I found which was the best, RP-wise. I suppose it's a lot easier to decide about RP servers than it is in normal, but it all depends what you're looking for in both circumstances.
Wolfcat Nov 26th 2010 5:02PM
I stayed on my very first realm (Suramar) until I started playing WoW with my husband and was harassed by a former guildie who had a thing for me. We moved to Turalyon and had a pretty good time there. Nice people, good raiding, GDKP runs (which we liked because...well...gold). We had a guild and some irl friends there, but the guild wasn't very active. I still have 2 of my favorite toons there (80 hunter/80 priest).
When my husband found out some other friends of his were playing on a pvp realm and had room in their active raiding guild, we moved over 2 toons. his 80 priest and my lvl 50 hunter. Though guaranteed spots when he got geared up (which his rl friend promised to help him do - and granted, he did - he didn't get to raid very much eventhough they needed heals (he's good heals). They frequently PUGed the healers. When I got to 80 (pretty fast) they said they would help gear me up. ...they never did. Between getting ganked several times a quest on my way to 80, my husband not getting the healer spot he was promised, and me not getting help gearing up ever (I got into one raid for one boss and then was put on the sidelines again), we decided to leave.
We tried a server randomly...bad idea. Everything but Trade was ok. But Trade...omg. Everybody *everybody* posted everything they said 2, 3 even 4 times. Every time. When asked why, I was told nobody will read it otherwise. ...well no kidding if you're blocking out the whole chat with one message. I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the server to warn you away, but needless to say, we left.
I did some scouting before we transferred this time... and we ended up in Draenor. We immediately found a good raiding guild via PUGs and made friends. Everything was great except I missed GDKPs since there don't seem to be any (or at least any that I've seen). The guild we were with has sputtered out and is inactive, but the friends remain. Since the toons we transferred originally to the pvp server were Alliance, Draenor has pretty much become our alliance server. We still have max-level toons on Turalyon, and that has become our Horde server. It's a good balance, really. And although I've been playing mostly Alliance recently, I still love the horde ( I will say though, the new Orgrimmar is making my head spin in a bad way.)
Bit of a novel, this. lol.
Gadzoo Nov 26th 2010 6:12PM
I'm on Kellogs with some IRL friends. I absolutely detest it -- trade is all trolling, racism, "your mom" jokes, or worse. Realm is low pop and feels empty all the time. But I can't convince them to leave. What do I do?
Warwood Nov 26th 2010 5:58PM
Still on my very first realm - was hater to find a guild that fit my needs.
Virdilak Nov 26th 2010 6:23PM
I've rolled a ton of alts on a bunch of servers since vanilla days, but for better or worse ZJ has been and will always be home.
Harvoc Nov 26th 2010 6:14PM
My home is the realm that I first chose when I started playing WoW, Fizzcrank. I chose it because it had a low amount of players so I could avoid overcrowding.
Sean Nov 26th 2010 8:26PM
Server location, timezone, type (PvE or PvP), faction ratio. I wanted to be on a Los Angeles located Pacific timezone server that was PvE and leaned Horde. According to some tracking data, the best server for that was Hyjal. Let's hope I picked a good server, because I've already sunk over a week of level grinding to get myself going.
Uriah Nov 26th 2010 8:42PM
I've called Garona my home since Day 1. If would ever really consider moving then it would be a financial burden with having 8 lvl 80s. $25 a character is ridiculous IMHO... Maybe $10-15 but not 25 /sadpanda
Prella Nov 26th 2010 9:12PM
I have re-rolled as well as do realm transfers in the past. My first character I ever made happened to be on a west coast realm which I didn't know at the time. Living on the east coast made it almost impossible to raid with any of the friends I had made there over the last few years. I googled wow realms by time zone and searched through the various non pvp realms to find some that I have seeded a few baby alts on. Unfortunately the cost of realm changing makes it prohibitive from constantly changing. Good luck finding a new home.