Thriving Servers

[Jarvick]

Anyone have a more recent list of thriving servers, not looking to be on the most crowded but looking for a few that have several guilds, and working on content. (Good PvP battleground would be nice too) Doesnt matter Horde or Alliance have toons for both. If not if someone has a good link where I could find this would be awesome. Thanks

[Fivelives]

The best server to play on in the entire game is the server your friends play on.

[halabar]

Above is true...

Stormrage US is quite active ally side.

A good way to tell used to be creating an alt and checking the AH to see what BOEs are being sold, it was an easy way to measure progression. However, Blizz put and end to BOEs, and it would be tough to tell this late in an expansion.

You could also check the realm rankings... http://www.guildox.com/go/g.asp?a=11

But that won't tell you anything about the environment.

[halabar]

Also consider your time zone...

[bldavis]

The best server to play on in the entire game is the server your friends play on.

this by far!

time zone does help, but as long as its not an entire continent away, it shouldnt be that big of an issue
i am in Pacific, and play on a Central TZ server, used to be on an Eastern one
we have raiders in Korea and Australia

basically, as long as your friends arent on a ghost town of a server, id stick with that one

[halabar]

There are some interesting moves between the servers in that GuildOx page... some have certainly been moving up.

[Jarvick]

The best server to play on in the entire game is the server your friends play on.

Agree, but the 4-5 people I use to play with walked away from the game long ago.

[PsiVen]

If you don't have any friends that currently play, I suggest a medium-high population in a timezone whose prime time (6pm-10pm) will match your playtime. The very highest pop servers tend to have unique issues due to overcrowding, but generally the larger the population, the healthier the community will be and the more likely you'll be able to find people with common interests. If you're looking for PvP, make sure it's a big server with good faction balance (less than 60% in either direction) or at least that the faction you're joining isn't dead. There are a few servers with high population but only on one side.

Depending on your timezone, you should be prepared to raid very early in PST or late in EST. It is far easier to find raids that work well for EST evenings than any other timeslot.

That said, if you actually do want to raid, just find a guild that happens to be on a server which fits these requirements. The best way to find people to play with is to walk up to a group and ask to join them.