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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 5 of 5)
David Nov 27th 2010 12:31AM
OK, here's a laundry list of what I looked for when changing realms:
1. RP Server. I don't really RP much myself, but just like the crowd on those servers better. Rarely if ever run into any "bad apples" on those servers.
2. Being on east coast, choosing a west coast server means extra three hours of "daytime" gameplay in the evening. I prefer that to questing at "night".
3. Economic activity. Made sure server's auction's quantity and pricing of items sold were acceptable
Althor Nov 27th 2010 3:06AM
I just rolled on a realm where all my friends were when I started way back in the day. They quit along with me when I entered high school. A few months in, discovered a huge WoW community there, transferred, still there to this day, having the time of my life. :)
iover Nov 27th 2010 11:14AM
I have played on 3 servers but only paid for one transfer. I started with some friends from high school, rerolled on a server with friends from college, and when they all quit found my high school friends had changed servers and I paid for a faction + server change to be with them again. Thats where I am now and the server is mostly nice and not bad for raiding... but I actually dislike having to introduce myself to other wow players I meet as alliance... I always say "I'm Horde at heart" and now with the changes to org and old world, I find myself longing to make my paladin horde again, but I don't want to stop raiding with my friends. So I will probably be staying here but having an "alt server" for my horde stuff...now just need to find out a decent horde server for what I want to do...
Arodiel Nov 27th 2010 3:53PM
If it's not a specific thing you're looking for (RP, Proudmore etc) do what I did. I made a huge spreadsheet listing all my available realms, with server type and creation date. Then just start crossing off according to my particular list of things I was looking for.
For example, I crossed off PvP, RP, new-ish servers (I'd come from one) etc. I belong to a few fora, so I checked old threads about server recommendations and crossed off some from that. I also made ones that had positive points green.
That left me with 20ish, so I checked out some realm forums (you can tell if it's *really* bad or good from those) and checked to see whether my toon name, which I'm attached to, was free. I hung about in trade chat a bit, looking to see what the pugging scene was like. That narrowed it down loads. I did end up more or less randomly picking one of the ones left over, but it's worked out fine so far.
tpilepich Nov 27th 2010 11:52PM
I've been realm hopping for years =\
Never found one to settle on. Every realm has it's plusses and minuses. There will never be one "perfect" realm. (unless there is one particular thing you are looking for and can find it on said realm.)
Off the top of my head the realms I have been on (and reasons for transfers are as follows)
ursin (way too quiet)
barthilas
silvermoon (transferred here to play with friends)
aman'thul (guild on silvermoon disbanded and x-ferred here)
silvermoon (transferred back here to play with those who didn't x-fer)
nagrand (free transfer thought I'd give it a go)
Kel'Thuzad (transferred here to play with new friends)
Earthern Ring (was gonna give the IAE guild a shot)
and finally at the moment im on Jubei'thos (to play with friends)
And I can tell you, on all said servers bar Ursin, pug's were plenty, on some realms less, but still enough to satisfy... Trade chat was always going (kel'thuzad was crazy with spam though :s)... Guild drama's/rivalries were always existant... Every server had their "popular" people who a lot of people knew/talked to in trade...
Some were noticably more interested in PvP, often looking publicly in trade for arena teams... But bar that they were all pretty much offered the same game-play experience.
So unless you are Really sure you want to transfer, I'd think twice to be honest, the grass is quite often greener on the other side...
Your mileage may vary
Clinto Nov 30th 2010 10:27AM
I was on a PVP server (Magtheridon-A) for 5 years. About 4 months ago, I transfered 2 toons to a PVE server (Kargath-A). There was a huge culture shock, as people were nice and helpful. In short: I would recommend Kargath-A. But the question I have to toss back is, won't Raid Pugs decrease as more and more guild acheivements are rolled out? Also, won't raid lockouts play a factor in this as well?
Clinto Nov 30th 2010 10:27AM
I was on a PVP server (Magtheridon-A) for 5 years. About 4 months ago, I transfered 2 toons to a PVE server (Kargath-A). There was a huge culture shock, as people were nice and helpful. In short: I would recommend Kargath-A. But the question I have to toss back is, won't Raid Pugs decrease as more and more guild acheivements are rolled out? Also, won't raid lockouts play a factor in this as well?