Help me choose a realm to prepare for WoD + community events

[MiRai]

I just thought about it, but for PvE people can be on any realm outside of maybe Mythic difficulty. Blizzard recently added the ability to do Heroic SoO cross-realm, and that technology is going to still be in place moving forward. So, people can stick to certain realms for PvE and still play together, and then join Magtheridon (or wherever) for PvP; and even with the ability to use CRZ we can still put together large-scale battles, but enough people need to be from the parent realm.

In unbalanced Realms the Battleground Que times are way shorter for the team that is the underdog numbers wise.

BG queues haven't been based on specific realms since somewhere around BC/Wrath when they were based upon the Battlegroup that the realm was in, and when the pre-Cataclysm patch hit every server in the same region (NA, EU, Asia, etc) was thrown into the same queue with everyone else -- Even Arena queues are no longer Battlegroup-specific and they're now region-wide, as well.

[ebony]

BG queues haven't been based on specific realms since somewhere around BC/Wrath when they were based upon the Battlegroup that the realm was in, and when the pre-Cataclysm patch hit every server in the same region (NA, EU, Asia, etc) was thrown into the same queue with everyone else -- Even Arena queues are no longer Battlegroup-specific and they're now region-wide, as well.

COA has been massing up the queuing system a lot as well but that is getting removed. so ques all round should be a lot better. or though Not many boxers in bg's

[Andreauk]

Would love to see this for eu also, but I'm no fan of pvp realms myself as I afk a lot.

[Lax]

I have formed the Alliance guild Hydra on Magtheridon. Multiboxers welcome

[CDNProdigy]

Well, it appears to be Magtheridon then?

I do have some RAF time left so I had better level a team or two if I can.

[smalltanker]

I have been reading the WoD threads and came close a day or so ago to grabing my ISBoxer license again and refunding 5 of my 6-7 accounts from the Zerg on Horde Side Magtheridon. Used to be the raid healer for the 6 minute AVs until they nixed /follow. I do have some alliance toons as well in Legion of Boom. Getting closer to the multi-boxing bug again.

[Xixillia]

If I can convince my wife that I should box the beginning of the xpac, I will boost a dk or Mage team or something to play in your guild. I just don't want to leave my <the multiboxer> guild

[Lax]

MiRai found this list of realm "battlegroups" http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/13086679084
Not the old battlegroups that are not used anymore, but the currently effective groups of realms for CRZ etc.

Magtheridon is in one of the smaller groups. More fun may be had in one of the larger groups. Still open to suggestions

[MiRai]

Alright, so after a bit of deliberation Lax and I have come to, what we hope to be, a good solution.

First of all, we wanted to meet the following criteria:

• Healthy Population
  
  • This avoids the faction capitals looking like ghost towns and allows players to PUG current raids (flex/normal/heroic/GDKP), non-current raids, old school content, Challenge Modes, Arena, RBGs or whatever else you may desire.
  
  
• Healthy Economy
  
  • This avoids an empty auction house or a slow-moving market and allows players to buy or sell practically anything with ease either via the AH or trade chat -- This also makes crafting materials, crafted items, or other consumables both affordable and available.
  
  
• Centrally Located Server
  
  • We wanted to choose a server which was centrally located in the U.S. to help minimize the factor of latency, and that meant we were going to stick to the Chicago datacenter.
  
  
• Balanced Factions
  
  • An active community on both factions for Arena, RBGs, and world PvP.

Unfortunately, no server meets all of the above criteria for both factions and every PvP server which is highly populated either favors one faction or the other by a lot. So, we looked at some of the data from the link that I stumbled upon yesterday and it seems that the CRZ block which is referred to as Shadowburn (AKA CRZ 6) has a nice and healthy PvP population (up-to-date connections below); however, we were still stuck figuring out which server would be most desirable.

What we ended up deciding was that we should choose one server for Alliance and one server for Horde, and because they'd be in the same CRZ block we'd still be able to fight each other in the open world; but unfortunately, no solution is without limitations, which means that the opposing factions won't be able to see each other where CRZ is disabled -- Such as Stormwind, Orgrimmar, or the continent of the current expansion. We felt that this was an acceptable trade-off because all of Azeroth, Northrend, Pandaria (once WoD is live), and Ashran will still have the CRZ technology active.

We went ahead and selected Sargeras for the Alliance and Bleeding Hollow for the Horde, and have chosen the guild name on each server to be "Multiboxer." We felt that both servers were very active, highly progressed, and had a very healthy economy (60,000+ auctions on the AH), and both Lax and myself will be leveling teams on both factions/servers so that we're at least able to fight each other. Lax has already started a team on each server without RaF and without heirlooms, so expect him to be on edge over the next few months as he painstakingly levels them up. >_> I'll be RaF'ing sometime again within the next few weeks, but I still have some things to get situated before I'm able to do that.

Now, technically speaking, anyone who resides on any of the servers from CRZ 6 can join in on the world PvP fun without any hassle, and I know that there are already a handful of multiboxers who reside on some of the realms listed. Of course, with current CRZ technology we can phase into any other server we want assuming we're invited by another group . Also, both of these servers that we've selected are high population realms and will most definitely see queues during peak play times after major content patches are released, so adjust your schedules accordingly.

Sargeras
Illidan
Bleeding Hollow
Arthas
Black Dragonflight/Gul'dan/Skullcrusher
Auchidoun/Cho'gall/Laughing Skull
Azgalor/Azshara/Destromath/Thunderlord
Deathwing/Executus/Kalecgos/Shattered Halls
Blackwing Lair/Dethecus/Detheroc/Haomarush/Lethon/Shadowmoon
Alterac Mountains/Balnazzar/Gorgonnash/The Forgotten Coast/Warsong
Agamaggon/Archimonde/Jadenar/The Underbog
Andorhal/Scilla/Ursin/Zuluhed
Burning Legion

[Xixillia]

Alright, so after a bit of deliberation Lax and I have come to, what we hope to be, a good solution.

[...]

All cool things - and keep in mind that all it takes is a group invite to phase you to the host's server. So this'll be fun.