Best way to start on a new server?

[kate]

Many moons ago (well, maybe 8 months) when I decided to start really trying my hand at boxing, I decided to, as an experiment, try my hand at rolling on a new server and starting completely from scratch. On top of that, I also decided I was going to do quests only until I could get into Ragefire Chasm, and from the time I could get in, I would level up entirely through random dungeons with my team and class quests that were needed to get skills (redemption was really it). We were not RAF'd, had no heirlooms, no starting money, etc.

It wound up taking a REALLY long time, but it was a pretty good experiment, and I feel like I learned a lot about how to play, handle different types of encounters, and so on. I think I also figured out what NOT to do, if I wanted to level faster or make better money.

Unfortunately, on my server there are no other boxers - and now I'm at the point where I want to begin trying to raid, so it's either 10box (which I just don't want to spend the money on, and I think would also just end in me becoming overwhelmed) or move to another server.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this - I have 5 80th paladins who are mostly geared out in badge stuff, have some heirlooms for new characters (though they're the shaman mail chest and shoulders since I was so dumb I didn't realize cloth would work for everybody), and a reasonable supply of gold for now. So, if I were willing to eat the character transfer costs, $125USD, I could start with some stuff.

Alternatively I could just restart on a new server and just level ye olde fashioned way, using a group of DKs to kind of get everyone off to a quick start (gold, bags, etc).

Or I could just be a mooch and beg someone to sponsor me until I get on my feet :)

So, if I did want to start over, what's a good server to be a boxer on (any active guilds, people who are willing to try raiding) and what do you guys think are some good ways to get started successfully and quickly?

[zenga]

An alternative which is legal:

Make a post on your current realm and on your future realm their forums (including maybe contacting a few guilds) and tell them you are looking to exchange gold: you wanna transfer 10k gold on your old realm for 10k on your new, there are quite a few people with this problem out there. You don't have to handover the 10k at once, can be done in smaller bits at first. It could save you some $ if you want to re-roll.

[Nighthawk38]

Hi Kate,

I noticed in your post you mention Ragefire Chasm, so i'm assuming you play Horde. If you wanted to try the Alliance side, our Coltimar and I have a guild on Doomhammer with 4 5-boxers currently in it. We are all active and we are trying to get to the point of raiding with our teams. Colt and I are usually on during the day.. and the other two play mostly evenings from what I can tell. I am also sure we can get you some "starter" gear, bags, etc to help you get up and running.

[kate]

Hi Kate,

I noticed in your post you mention Ragefire Chasm, so i'm assuming you play Horde. If you wanted to try the Alliance side, our Coltimar and I have a guild on Doomhammer with 4 5-boxers currently in it. We are all active and we are trying to get to the point of raiding with our teams. Colt and I are usually on during the day.. and the other two play mostly evenings from what I can tell. I am also sure we can get you some "starter" gear, bags, etc to help you get up and running.

I had been thinking about giving Alliance a shot - it's been quite some time since I went that way. How stable is the server? How long have you guys been playing on it?

[kate]

An alternative which is legal:

Make a post on your current realm and on your future realm their forums (including maybe contacting a few guilds) and tell them you are looking to exchange gold: you wanna transfer 10k gold on your old realm for 10k on your new, there are quite a few people with this problem out there. You don't have to handover the 10k at once, can be done in smaller bits at first. It could save you some $ if you want to re-roll.

Really the gold isn't much of an issue, it's more the time it takes to level up. I'm trying to find some good non-RAF but multiboxer friendly leveling guides, but so far no luck.

[Nighthawk38]

Doomhammer has been around quite a while. The economy is pretty decent. Prices don't seem to fluctuate too badly, other than the usual weekend prices being higher than weekday. Coltimar has been there longer than I have. I have over 50 days /played on my main team, which I started there as lvl 1s.

Another good point for being Alliance on Doomhammer: the current ratio is apprximately 6:1 in our favor. We (alliance) usually only lose WG about 4 times a week, lol. So you have PLENTY of opportunity to do VoA for the gear :D

[kate]

Ok - I'm gonna roll some Draeni over on DH and see what comes of it :) It'll be fun splitting my time between my horde characters and my ally ones, I think!

[HPAVC]

Like he said Doomhammer has a nice economy I have been thinking of rerolling there myself, I have been auctioneering gathering there. If you wanted to get crafted sets it wouldn't cost you dearly today for sure. I seems to have like 5 registered max gold people on it. Which is better than some high pop servers.

[kate]

I just logged my new characters in, I'm Adwa. Send me a tell if you're in :)

[Ualaa]

If you're starting from scratch, I'd go with RAF again. It would be rather painful to have no toons for support, not much gold etc.

If you're doing transfers, probably one full team with a lot of resources, be it enchant scrolls and gems or gold. This is a good approach, if you were transferring to say Legion of Boom to try it out.

You could also easily transfer an 80th toon for boosting, with whatever the transfer cap it and a lot of twink gear etc. Then RAF on the new realm, with the booster and make a bunch of new teams.

[jinkobi]

Scrapping all my 80's and starting over would be something I couldn't do. Guess it really depends how much you have invested but any way you cut it 5 level 80's are lots of work. By the time I got another team to 80 also I'd be so burned out wouldn't have much motivation to gear them up much less raid this close to Cataclysm.

Have to figure in your leveling time too. How much closer to Cataclysm are we going to be by then? If you level slowly you could just go right into Cataclysm and get quest gear. But that defeats the whole purpose of you raiding in WOTLK.

To raid in WOTLK you're also going to need some gear. Walking into ICC in quest greens/blues isn't going to work out well. So you're going to have to add some gearing up time in addition to leveling time.

125$ ya know it's a one time investment and definetly worth a couple of months worth of work to me personally. If I were you I'd just go ahead with transfering toons to a new server.

One thing I can't stress enough is fully investigate the server you intend on transfering too.

[kate]

I'm not scrapping them - I'm just making another team on a different server so that I can hopefully raid with some other boxer types :)

[jinkobi]

I'm not scrapping them - I'm just making another team on a different server so that I can hopefully raid with some other boxer types :)

Well I see you started some new characters. :) Hey if you're having fun then go for it! If you like that server and get burnt on leveling not like you can't transfer later right!

[moosejaw]

At least with Space goats you have a better selection of classes. It is nice to have the same size characters and use the proper starting area for them.

I started teams on Executus and Cho'Gall alliance many months ago and I am slowly leveling them up. Space cows are the best. :)

[Sildenafil]

Where is Doomhammer located? I've been looking for a MB friendly server for a while, but most of the ones mentioned here aren't East coast friendly. Trying to keep the Ping down

[Nighthawk38]

Doomhammer is a CST server.

[Fat Tire]

I have been on doomhammer since it opened and it has always been Mountain Time.

In fact according to the realm time/local time its a MST

Nightfall Mountain time servers
US Mountain Time PvPDeathwing (http://www.wowwiki.com/Server:Deathwing_US)206.17.111.83 PvEDoomhammer (http://www.wowwiki.com/Server:Doomhammer_US)206.17.111.42 PvEIcecrown (http://www.wowwiki.com/Server:Icecrown_US)206.17.111.24 PvPKel'Thuzad (http://www.wowwiki.com/Server:Kel%27Thuzad_US)206.17.111.41

[Catamer]

that hardest part about starting from scratch is "no gold".
maybe you could transfer a single character stacked up with some gold to get you started. Once you are leveled up you won't need any more gold, it just those first few levels.

[SaraiE]

Hi Kate,
If you want to roll on PVP Alliance, come over to Ner'zhul US. I offered this to Korruptor already but he/she rolled somewhere else cuz of the PVP realm I am in, I can offer 10K and help. Guild is iBox.

SaraiE

[mikekim]

that hardest part about starting from scratch is "no gold".
maybe you could transfer a single character stacked up with some gold to get you started. Once you are leveled up you won't need any more gold, it just those first few levels.

all really depends on the server economy.
I moved to a new server and within the first week had over 2k in gold just by selling basic ores, skins and herbs that I had gathered while levelling.

[crowdx]

Just a note on the new server, if you transferred a fully geared pally from your old server you could boost without RAF , it would take longer but would still be faster than questing.
Only downside here would be if you are also changing factions it would cost $30 for faction change and also $25 for servcer change so would be nearly half the cost of transferring the full team.
Other option would be to get one of the other boxers on the realm to boost you to 60. Boosting RAF or non-RAF is still faster than questing.

[HPAVC]

One thing I can't stress enough is fully investigate the server you intend on transfering too.

Agreed, I would level some toons a bit and play around see if the people there are for real or not that you might be joining before leaving a server with 5+ characters.

I find it sort of amazing that people jump to a new server and then RAF a teams and teams of level 60 characters there for example. I see that ending in a lot of wasted time if that server situation doesn't work out.

[kate]

I'm kinda surprised that people are thinking the old characters are being abandoned or otherwise acting as if they're unplayable just because some new ones (different faction) are being rolled - do you guys find it hard to play on a couple of different servers?

Since rolling on Doomhammer I've gotten my newbies to level 20 (no RAF) and made a pretty penny for myself on that AH, but I've also logged into my horde characters on Undermine to do dailies, run a few heroics, and that kind of thing for an hour or so a day - they're far from abandoned!

Edit: Or is the assumption that I'd pay for transfers or buy new accounts? I'm just using my existing accounts because I haven't been alliance in a LONG time, and want to get a feel for it - also, it's a great way to make money, questing up, when you don't have any higher level characters. I guess I just don't see this as some major or irrevocable step.

[crowdx]

I personally find it hard to play on two different servers, I end up always playing on the server I am working a team on and so non intentionally stop playing the toons on the older server.
So I could see how people see the old team as "abandoned" lol

[jinkobi]

I'm kinda surprised that people are thinking the old characters are being abandoned or otherwise acting as if they're unplayable just because some new ones (different faction) are being rolled - do you guys find it hard to play on a couple of different servers?

Since rolling on Doomhammer I've gotten my newbies to level 20 (no RAF) and made a pretty penny for myself on that AH, but I've also logged into my horde characters on Undermine to do dailies, run a few heroics, and that kind of thing for an hour or so a day - they're far from abandoned!

Edit: Or is the assumption that I'd pay for transfers or buy new accounts? I'm just using my existing accounts because I haven't been alliance in a LONG time, and want to get a feel for it - also, it's a great way to make money, questing up, when you don't have any higher level characters. I guess I just don't see this as some major or irrevocable step.

I do indeed find it hard to play on multiple servers =) Maybe it's the thought of just starting from absolute square one or something. You're absolutely right there's no reason why a person can't play on multiple servers with multiple teams.

It's just as a multiboxer you have the tools to spoon feed your lower levelers. You've already been through the hard work of leveling to 80 and can make infinitely more gold at that level compared to starting fresh. If you actually enjoy the leveling process then it'll be a good experience. Most of us who've been through it 100 times can't face it again and just boost our lower level alts in instances.

[kate]

I can see that - I've actually got 80's on a few different servers, and yeah, it's not the MOST FUN EVER to start from scratch, but it's not bad. In this case, I really haven't played Alliance for *quite* some time, so to me, having a new team Ally side can be quite fun and interesting - I'm seeing a bunch of quests I never saw, and getting parts of the lore I never really got before, or, if I did, I'm seeing them from a perspective that's now been informed by having also done the Horde storyline.

On topic: Seriously, Doomhammer seems to be quite nice. The people in the guild I am in are friendly (I think I've met 4 - or 40 LOL - of them), the economy seems halfway decent, and aside from a few jerks who feel compelled to spam Trade, it seems like it's by and large a pretty good environment, ally-side. Yay!

[HPAVC]

I'm kinda surprised that people are thinking the old characters are being abandoned or otherwise acting as if they're unplayable just because some new ones (different faction) are being rolled - do you guys find it hard to play on a couple of different servers?

Its not clear why I would try and develop (Anything more is definitely more than "just dailies") multiple sets of characters on different servers concurrently. Doubtful I would need gold or rep on characters, likely already capped on trash heroic badges.