WoW Servers

[Mamoulian War]

From my experience on PvP servers, alliance 15 years average, horde 25 years average age... says all about maturity

[Maria Caliban]

From my experience on PvP servers, alliance 15 years average, horde 25 years average age... says all about maturity

 

What's your main toon?

[Mamoulian War]

Warlock

[Maria Caliban]

Warlock

 

Race?

 

This is your chance to show how wrong I am. Cause if your main is a Horde race, it's fairly natural to think that the Horde, in general, is more mature than allies. On the other hand, if your main is a human warlock, you show me that you can enjoy the game from the ally side while still saying that the Horde is more mature.

 

As a 27 year old who has a Dreanei main, of course I’m going to be touchy about people on the alliance being 15 years old. The majority of people I interact with tend to act in an adult manner. It clashes with what I know of the world.

 

On the server I play in, world chat is shared between alliance and horde (and we can talk with one another in game) and I haven’t observed one side being more mature or immature than the other.

Edited February 13, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[Mamoulian War]

Orc Warlock, If you play on free server, it is totaly different!

 

I play on Blizzards servers for 4 years already and rolled toons on lot of servers as alliance and horde, and i choose horde because meeting immature person on horde side was less common...

 

anyway if you are in Barrens the retardness of both sides seems very very high...

 

I am 30 years old.

[Gfted1]

I'm thinking of giving my WoW free trial a spin jus to see what it is like.

 

Are there any servers that are better than others? For a n00b?

 

Once I create my account am I permanently attached to one server and can I create pcs on different servers?

 

Is a PvP sever really that bad for a n00b? Is PvE much better? Are PvP servers more fun once you have higher level character to play around with?

 

I don't know much so any info is useful.

 

 

If I were you I would go on a PvE server. You dont have to sweat being ganked or typing in crappy Scottish Dwarf, unless thats the experience youre looking for. Remember, MMO's are usually long term affairs and Id hate to see you get to level 50 or something and decide you dont like a server. Sure, you can just pay a few bucks and get moved to another server, but still.

 

To be honest CG, Ive "known" you for a long time across a couple of boards, and knowing what you like in gaming Im not sure WoW is your bag. You have to like the carrot on a stick model and maybe be a little masochistic. Thats one of the things I love about WoW. With the proper effor, I can see incrimental improvement of my toon fairly regularly. I like sitting in front of my PC with a piece of paper furiously comparing what Im wearing to what I can upgrade too. On the down side is the grinding, and trust me, you WILL be grinding. The lions share of the quests are "go collect 10 Harpy gonads" and if there is an underlying story I still dont know what it is after four years of playing. You know I love WoW as much as I love oxygen itself, Im just trying to point out there is a huge gulf between WoW and the titles I see you rave about.

 

By all means give the free trial a spin. If you want, join server Azjol-Nerub and look me up. Im Horde, Undead and Im cleverly named Gfted. Id be more then happy to take you under my rotting wing and drag you kicking and screaming to level 80.

[Hurlshort]

SO you guys would recommend an RP server over a PvE server?

 

How hardcore is the rp on the rp servers? I'm sure it's a testament to all my hideous personal failings and insecurities, but I'm not entirely sure I can roleplay in any serious way.

 

There is very little RP on the RP server. You will run across small pockets of people trying to play in character, but most of the time people are killing stuff and doing quests. The biggest deal with RP servers is that naming conventions are enforced. You won't see Le6ollas or leetdewd or fartman.

 

There are always a few emo folks that make you want to vomit if you happen by their roleplay session, but they are easy to avoid for the most part, much more than the middle schoolers who populate many of the PvE and PvP servers.

 

But really every server is like a separate city and there are going to be good and bad things about them all. It's a roll of the dice. If you know someone else who is interested in playing and starting a new character with you, it can be a lot of fun.

[Purkake]

Now look what you did, you made all the recovering WoW addicts crawl out from the woodwork. They shall know no peace.

[Nightshape]

Psh, Nightshape almost took a job on Age of Conan, which is a little too focused on being the first MMO with real nipples to make it superior to WoW.

 

A job is a job.

[alanschu]

I've died so many times in Stranglethorn Vale, the spirit healer at the graveyard has phone number on speed dial.

 

Listen, once you start Wow, you'll become an addict, so just pick PvE first, and when you want to know true horror, try PvP.

 

That said, having someone give you gold is awesome, but I wouldn't do it for your first character. The amount of pain and suffering your first character gives you is directly proportional to how much you find yourself fondly thinking about how awesome that character was.

 

To put that gold in perspective. As a level 30 character, if you have 60g, you're rich. Making 1,000 a week doesn't happen for a long time.

true on the level 30, but with the rate you progress in the levels it's impossible to keep up with the leveling of skills and abilities to the rate that you are increasing in power (I've tried trust me). I ended up sending my horde paladin 40g from my deathknight (who I made AFTER the paladin, but earned 200g by the time he hit hellfire) just to make it so that I could keep up with leveling.

 

 

Just avoid the auction house and sell the vendor trash and you should have no problems keeping up with your skills. In fact, when I started playing again on a different server (so I couldn't count on people giving me gold) I found it even easier to make money and getting my mount at (then) level 40 was a piece of cake.

 

I found money much harder to accrue back in the day.

[Hurlshort]

Psh, Nightshape almost took a job on Age of Conan, which is a little too focused on being the first MMO with real nipples to make it superior to WoW.

 

A job is a job.

 

And a game is a game.

[Nightshape]

Psh, Nightshape almost took a job on Age of Conan, which is a little too focused on being the first MMO with real nipples to make it superior to WoW.

 

A job is a job.

 

And a game is a game.

 

Yeah, its more that I never expected to read the initial post.

[Aristes]

I think PvP servers are perfectly fine as long as you understand that you'll be dealing with folks bringing high level characters into low level zones for the purpose of griefing you. Blizzard doesn't just accept this, but, as Darth said, they encourage it. They think it's just fine. I've played on PvP servers, but WoW PvP isn't all that great. It's just a good excuse for players to grief one another. If you decide that PvP is your draw, then I would probably go with W:AR. ...Or try EvE, which is supposed to have a clever storyline and decent PvP mechanics. If you go PvP in WoW, then you'll have a choice between Horde and Alliance. In my opinion, both suck. Alliance does seem to have more casual players and, in my experience, a slightly younger crowd. However, the Alliance has the numbers game on its side. For that reason, you'll find the Alliance in control of things like Wintergrasp and the Bones Waste a lot on many servers. ...And the Alliance players don't tend to be quite as nasty about the Horde as the Horde are about the Alliance. The majority of my characters are Alliance, since, like Maria, I think the Horde races are ugly. I've spent enough time playing as both Horde and Alliance that I feel qualified to make observations about both. Finally, in regards to alliance v horde, you'll find decent folks on either side. However, you'll generally find more folks on the Alliance side on most servers, so I would go alliance just because you'll have more of a chance to temporarily hook up with folks to finish certain quests.

 

As far as the server, you can look up Reafnai on Gilneas. She's my auctioneer. If you give me a shout out, I'll set you up with some halfway decent bags (probably four 16 slotters to begin with), show you around the bank, auction house, and some of the city of your choice, and get you started. If you enjoy the experience and get any expansions, I'll port you to Shattrath or Dalaran and show you around there. I'll even either run you through one or two of the early dungeons or find a group of like leveled folks to go through it at level if you prefer.

 

On the other hand, Hurlshot is a good guy. I was going to start playing with him on LotRO when my wife informed me that I was not abandoning her character on WoW. You really might want to give LotRO a try. It's a great game. I think the graphics are better and the story is tighter than WoW. So many choices...

[Slowtrain]

Are there any particualrly strong classes? Any weak ones? ANyones to avoid?

 

It seems like priests are in high demand generally, though the class is not that powerful individually.

[Slowtrain]

Yeah, its more that I never expected to read the initial post.

 

 

I never expected to write it.

[Mamoulian War]

Are there any particualrly strong classes? Any weak ones? ANyones to avoid?

 

It seems like priests are in high demand generally, though the class is not that powerful individually.

 

Any healing class is in high demand, but healing is kinda little bit more boring than tank or DPS...

 

If you want go for PvP i recommend you retribution paladin, it is easy to play and it can survive a lot, and has heals...

 

If you go for PvE you can pickup anything you want, every class has it's plus and minus...

[Aristes]

No, HEALERS are in demand. So, yes, priests are, but the reason behind priests being in demand is the same as a resto druid or shammy and a healadin.

 

I would probably make a DPS class first and then play it for a while. That way you don't have to worry too terribly much about any character but your own.

 

Healers and tanks are generally not necessary unless you go into dungeons. Sure, they might help with group quests, but one of the easiest classes to play is a hunter. Yes, folks call them huntards, but that's because it's easier to do stuff with your own pet you can heal and have tank for you. My main is a rogue. He's not my highest right now since I had to max out my gatherer (hunter) and my tank (warrior).

 

Warlocks and hunters are strong classes for soloing stuff. I also like my mage a lot. Paladins are strong solo classes. Really, the only thing I think would be tougher is going straight holy or resto specced. Don't worry about a healer right away. Get a feel for the game dps wise before you specialize.

[Slowtrain]

No, HEALERS are in demand. So, yes, priests are, but the reason behind priests being in demand is the same as a resto druid or shammy and a healadin.

 

I would probably make a DPS class first and then play it for a while. That way you don't have to worry too terribly much about any character but your own.

 

Healers and tanks are generally not necessary unless you go into dungeons. Sure, they might help with group quests, but one of the easiest classes to play is a hunter. Yes, folks call them huntards, but that's because it's easier to do stuff with your own pet you can heal and have tank for you. My main is a rogue. He's not my highest right now since I had to max out my gatherer (hunter) and my tank (warrior).

 

Warlocks and hunters are strong classes for soloing stuff. I also like my mage a lot. Paladins are strong solo classes. Really, the only thing I think would be tougher is going straight holy or resto specced. Don't worry about a healer right away. Get a feel for the game dps wise before you specialize.

 

 

Makes sense. Thank you.

 

 

huntards

 

[Hurlshort]

One of the greatest things about WoW is there are multiple starter areas and they are all fairly nifty, so I recommend just trying a bunch of different classes until you find one that sucks you in. There are 6 starter areas in the vanilla game and 8 with Burning Crusade, so there is a lot of beginner content to play with.

[Slowtrain]

Can I play 2 or three hours a week and still get something out of the game? Or does it require a serious time commitment to get anywhere?

[Gfted1]

Can I play 2 or three hours a week and still get something out of the game? Or does it require a serious time commitment to get anywhere?

 

 

At low levels, sure. Not so much when you reach higher levels. I mean, you can log on and belt out a few quests, maybe increase your professions skill levels, do some dailies, etc... in that time frame but one instance dungeon alone usually take about 1 hour.

[Calax]

I think PvP servers are perfectly fine as long as you understand that you'll be dealing with folks bringing high level characters into low level zones for the purpose of griefing you. Blizzard doesn't just accept this, but, as Darth said, they encourage it. They think it's just fine. I've played on PvP servers, but WoW PvP isn't all that great. It's just a good excuse for players to grief one another. If you decide that PvP is your draw, then I would probably go with W:AR. ...Or try EvE, which is supposed to have a clever storyline and decent PvP mechanics. If you go PvP in WoW, then you'll have a choice between Horde and Alliance. In my opinion, both suck. Alliance does seem to have more casual players and, in my experience, a slightly younger crowd. However, the Alliance has the numbers game on its side. For that reason, you'll find the Alliance in control of things like Wintergrasp and the Bones Waste a lot on many servers. ...And the Alliance players don't tend to be quite as nasty about the Horde as the Horde are about the Alliance. The majority of my characters are Alliance, since, like Maria, I think the Horde races are ugly. I've spent enough time playing as both Horde and Alliance that I feel qualified to make observations about both. Finally, in regards to alliance v horde, you'll find decent folks on either side. However, you'll generally find more folks on the Alliance side on most servers, so I would go alliance just because you'll have more of a chance to temporarily hook up with folks to finish certain quests.

 

As far as the server, you can look up Reafnai on Gilneas. She's my auctioneer. If you give me a shout out, I'll set you up with some halfway decent bags (probably four 16 slotters to begin with), show you around the bank, auction house, and some of the city of your choice, and get you started. If you enjoy the experience and get any expansions, I'll port you to Shattrath or Dalaran and show you around there. I'll even either run you through one or two of the early dungeons or find a group of like leveled folks to go through it at level if you prefer.

 

On the other hand, Hurlshot is a good guy. I was going to start playing with him on LotRO when my wife informed me that I was not abandoning her character on WoW. You really might want to give LotRO a try. It's a great game. I think the graphics are better and the story is tighter than WoW. So many choices...

Just a few things I'm going to throw out, Alliance v horde populations are generally pretty balanced. Who's got the more people is based on the server/battlegroup (if you're doing battlegrounds). And Wintergrasp is ALWAYS taken by the offense because it's SO FREAKING HARD to defend.

 

As to class, Paladins are probably the most balanced class, but lower levels it's one of the most BORING classes you'll ever play (auto attack is where most of your damage comes from). It really depends on your style of play, Warlocks Mages and Hunters are all strictly damage. Locks have demonic pets that you summon and you rely on the creation of soul shards and Damage over Time spells. Mages are glass cannons, all direct damage but can really beat the bejesus out of most anything in PVE. Hunters are a pet based class but also rely upon their ranged weapon more than their melee weapon.

 

Priests and Shamans (from what I hear) are both pretty boring. Shamans get interesting in their forties when they get duel wield and windfury. Priests I haven't seen anything on really.

 

Warriors are probably the worst class to run solo with. This is because they don't have ANY ability to crowd control except a stun (which is defense talent only). If you get in a fight on a warrior make DAMN sure you can win and you won't have him running off and grabbing eight others to beat you up.

 

Druids are based around shape shifting and a little bit of magic. As you gain levels you also gain new shape shifts (the total grouping is Cat, Bear, Cheetah, SeaCow (I'm not kidding) and if you spec for it Moonkin (aka Boomkin)). Each form has a specific role to play, and the mechanics of each form differ, Cat's have the same play style as Rogues, Bears run similar to Warriors, Cheetah and Cows are used for travel (land and water) and the boomkin is used to blow stuff up with magic.

 

Finially Rogues are a melee heavy class based around stealth and stunlocking. Rogues use energy rather than mana and do damage, unfortunately as it stands right now they are probably the least useful class in raiding because they don't bring any utility to the table. By utility I mean crowd control and buffs of some type, rogues can crowd control humanoids with sap but with Wrath's current dungeon set up you probably won't be using that at the endgame. They do put out impressive numbers in terms of damage, but they're still beaten by Ret paladins, and the better mages in the groups.

 

Then there are Death Knights but we won't get into those guys because you wouldn't be able to create one right off the bat.

[Aristes]

My druid is a healer, so she's got a tree form and of course there's also dire bear.

 

I've never lost a battle defending Wintergrasp, and I've been on the defensive several times. Mostly because I'm mining in the area when a battle begins and I join it for the hell of it. Since I've never been mining in the area when the horde controlled Wintergrasp, I don't know how easy it would be to take it on offense.

 

Most servers, las time I checked, had a higher alliance population. If you're talking battlegrounds, then that's a different beast. On a straight server, if you were to go by the luck of the draw, you're more likely to find other folks trying to team for the same quests as alliance rather than horde. It's a numbers game. That's why Wintergrasp and Bones Waste, both of which I have fought to keep many many times, are more often in control of alliance. Not because Alliance is better, but because there are more alliance.

 

Calax' info on the classes is pretty solid. Especially his take on rogues, which irritates me, but with Blizzard, not with Calax. Don't want to shoot the messenger.

[alanschu]

While you'll level up slower at higher levels with a few hours of game time per week, you'll still feel you're making progress.

 

The quest dynamic, as well as the different styles of each region, give a solid feeling of progression IMO.

[Purkake]

Can I play 2 or three hours a week and still get something out of the game? Or does it require a serious time commitment to get anywhere?

 

If you read the EULA, you will notice "your eternal soul" in fine print at the bottom. The expansion packs may also require your firstborn child and a sacrificial virgin.