World of Warcraft is an MMORPG that simply can’t house its large community on one server. So, to accommodate all players burning with the desire to prove themselves in Azeroth, Blizzard Entertainment created PvP, PvE, and RPPvP realms that easily meet the needs of different types of players. Although realms like RPPVP realms are slightly less popular in the general WoW community and see a gradual decline over the years, they still have dedicated residents that return with a smile on their faces.
Although you’re free to choose a realm to your liking, the popularity of realms can greatly impact your gameplay largely because of the server-wide economy, faction disbalances, and potentially lack of dungeon and raid groups. While retail players enjoy the cross-realm benefits such as cross-realm auction house, Arena and Mythic+ queues, and guild groups, the Classic players can only play together with the players in the same realm. So, approaching the realm selection process in WoW with caution would be the best practice.
On top of all of this, Classic players have an even harder time when selecting a realm since Blizzard regularly launches fresh realms with every upcoming Classic expansion. Wrath of the Lich King Classic is, by no means, an exception to this rule, with the North American and European regions receiving two realms, respectively. While the North American servers launched with the pre-patch on Aug. 30 are Skyfury (PvP) and Maladath (Normal), the European region can enjoy Thekal (PvP) and Giantstalker (Normal). So, the question is should you join the hype train and roll a character on a fresh server, or should you stick to your old server?
Server population
Server population is one of the most important factors necessary to consider when choosing your future realm since you don’t want to end up stranded on a dead server with a couple of friends. Since realms with typically less than a thousand players are destined to eventually die, avoiding these realms would be best. Also, don’t get baited by the population on German/French/Russian speaking servers since you won’t be able to find a group, let alone an English-speaking guild.
With all this in mind, the best option would be to choose a server with a healthy population that averages from 2,000-8,000 players. Although there are also mega servers that typically average 10,000-20,000 players on a daily basis, they are usually overcrowded and have long queue times.
Server type
Server type basically dictates the pacing of leveling and, most importantly, the end game. Since Blizzard offers PvP, PvE, and RPPvP servers, finding the server that suits your needs shouldn’t pose a problem.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the Classic WoW Classic community is world PvP that does not only bring the world of WoW to life but also makes up an intensive and challenging experience. With that in mind, PvP realms are normally the safest bet since Classic WoW players normally surge to PvP realms. Although PvE realms are relatively popular with the hardcore raiding community to avoid buff dispelling and unexpected ganks on their way to an evening of raiding, PvE realms oftentimes end up abandoned and with only a few players remaining.
Nonetheless, if you’re sure server type won’t affect your gameplay, you’re always more than welcome to roll on the best realm for you.
Faction balance
Faction balance, especially when playing on a PvP server, plays a huge role in the overall gaming experience since you don’t want to end up being the last Alliance man standing on a Horde-dominated server. Although Blizzard has been patiently trying to solve this persistent problem, it has only grown over the years. Unfortunately, there’s no easy and quick solution to this reoccurring issue.
Since almost all PvP servers are currently one-sided, joining the realm with your faction dominating would be the best choice to avoid repeated ganks, griefing, and shortage of purchasable goods.
The best WoW Wrath of the Lich King Classic servers
Bearing in mind server population, type, and faction balance, the best servers to roll a fresh character in Wrath of the Lich King Classic would be the fresh ones since both the server popularity and faction balance are highly unlikely to go down the wrong way.
So, while the best servers for the North American region would be Skyfury, Angerforge (PvP), and Maladath (Normal), the best European servers are Thekal, Jin’do (PvP), and Giantstalker (Normal). Although these servers have a healthy population and faction balance, you still have to stay mindful of the fact that these servers are suffering from long queue times that probably won’t be fixed any time soon.
Your second-best option is one-sided giga realms such as Grobbulus if you already have a character on these realms since Blizzard recently locked them from immigrating players. Lastly, you can always return to one-sided realms such as Earthshaker that are once again picking up steam.
