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

[Lax]

Hey guys, I'm going start a fresh team and/or move one of my existing teams somewhere to prepare for Warlords of Draenor. I'm planning on trying to run multiboxing community events (such as multiboxer wargame tournaments, assuming Blizzard delivers on spectator mode), and probably working on convincing the other mods here to help as well. It would be cool for many of you to join us in the fun.

So I want your input on what our answer should be when someone says "hey what realm should I join to play with other multiboxers?"

Ideally I would like to have guilds on both horde and alliance of the same realm, so each person can play whichever side they enjoy. I'm not sure how much the horde/alliance balance will really matter as far as multiboxing goes.

Suggest away, what realm (connected realms, battlegroup, etc?) should we gravitate toward, and why? (Aside from "I am personally already on this realm.") PVP or PVE? PVP realms can be as much a curse as a blessing, and Ashran is where it's at this expansion anyway right?

[EaTCarbS]

I don't know about everyone else, but if I do play in WOD, it will be solely dependent on if multiboxing functionalities are enabled in Ashran. I also wonder if it will be possible to to cross-realm events with the zone with groups.

[JohnGabriel]

Been awhile since I played WoW, is there no cross-realm support? What about cross-faction guilds?

[Lax]

I don't know about everyone else, but if I do play in WOD, it will be solely dependent on if multiboxing functionalities are enabled in Ashran. I also wonder if it will be possible to to cross-realm events with the zone with groups.

Ashran is a world PVP zone and we have no indication that they plan to disable follow anywhere other than battleground instances. Arenas and world PVP (including Ashran) all have follow. Ashran is also supposed to be cross-realm, but I can't really tell you if there's "other raid groups" for it for example..


Been awhile since I played WoW, is there no cross-realm support? What about cross-faction guilds?
Some realms are connected. http://wowpedia.org/Connected_Realms

In order to participate in wargame tournaments you must be targetable, so connected realms and cross-faction are OK there.

[ebony]

Ashran is a world PVP zone and we have no indication that they plan to disable follow anywhere other than battleground instances. Arenas and world PVP (including Ashran) all have follow. Ashran is also supposed to be cross-realm, but I can't really tell you if there's "other raid groups" for it for example..

not 100% true there "Still thinking about it"

https://twitter.com/holinka/status/500422059688615936


The beta realm do not have crz support (from server to server) so there noway to test if the zone will be crz but the zone is supported unlike tol/wg. And ofc there using it to stop ally/horde having the upper hand you do make your own groups there.

[Vecter]

I have a couple teams on Stormreaver Horde US PVP server.

[Xixillia]

I know there are still a few multiboxers on Magtheridon, I even saw someone from the Zerg a couple days ago - was pretty stoked. All in all, I'd say that for the most case with xrealm capabilities being what they are - server choice doesn't really matter as much any more.

[Lax]

All in all, I'd say that for the most case with xrealm capabilities being what they are - server choice doesn't really matter as much any more.
Well again, in order to invite to wargames you must be targetable, which I believe limits you to the specifically connected realms. If there's a practical way to do this on a larger scale then maybe.


I know there are still a few multiboxers on Magtheridon, I even saw someone from the Zerg a couple days ago - was pretty stoked.
We could always pick a server like this with an existing multiboxing guild and create a new guild (or take over an existing 25) of the opposite faction. The Zerg is Horde, we could make world PVP interesting by going Alliance.

[ebony]

Guild levels are getting removed in 6.0, so don't pay to much gold for a 25 guild.

[Xixillia]

I have an alliance guild on Mag called <the Multiboxer> lol. Mag's kind of dead though :(

[Lax]

I have an alliance guild on Mag called <the Multiboxer> lol. Mag's kind of dead though :(
Well, unless someone comes up with a better idea...

I'm playing 5 Alliance DKs on Magtheridon for the moment, your guild might be an okay counter to The Zerg. If people join us, it won't be kind of dead anymore? ;)

[Kayley]

Timezone issues, drat!

[Lax]

Here's some resources that might help guide us in the right direction or rule out some realms.

http://wowpedia.org/Connected_Realms - new "battlegroups" http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/13086679084
http://www.wowprogress.com/realms/rank/us
http://wow.realmpop.com/us.html
http://www.wowuction.com/Global

MiRai was trying to convince me that Archimonde might be a good idea due to a possibly decent economy, but the overall data seem to point at Magtheridon as a better choice so far. Setting up a guild on both sides is also more difficult than setting up an Alliance guild to oppose the existing Horde guild, and I think there's a good chance that WoD will bring back more of the players in The Zerg as well. (Assuming Blizzard doesn't screw us over for PVP this expansion.)

I've pretty much just rolled DKs to get my foot in the door on Magtheridon Alliance in case this is where we end up. Totally open to any debate ;)

[JackBurton]

I'm horde on Mag.

[Xixillia]

I think that if WoD brings back the Zerg (Tiny) - I would have to rethink my horde faction teams...

But - for now I have guildless noobs (A) to annoy and farm.

[Kayley]

Frostmourne *cough*

although we have too many alliance mboxers, dont see many horde :(

[Mercurio]

We could always pick a server like this with an existing multiboxing guild and create a new guild (or take over an existing 25) of the opposite faction. The Zerg is Horde, we could make world PVP interesting by going Alliance.

Lax, I think it is a great idea to try to consolidate multiboxers into a place where we can enjoy our little hobby together. However, I'm not sure I understand the idea of trying to move people onto the opposite faction of an established community. That eliminates almost all the benefits of coordinating in the first place in my mind. Then again, I have always been far more interested in PvE than PVP, where cross faction anything is pretty much disabled.

But even in PvP, wouldn't it be better to be able to group up and do things together rather than trying to coordinate boxer vs boxer competitions, especially in world PvP where random other players would be joining in, typically giving one side or the other a huge advantage?

In a very unscientific analysis of looking at all the posters here and what realm/factions people are on, it seems like maybe 2/3 are playing horde. I'm even considering faction changing my team(s) to be able to group up with more boxers, so I was especially surprised to see the suggestion of going alliance on Mag where horde is more established.

That's my 2 cents.

[Lax]

Lax, I think it is a great idea to try to consolidate multiboxers into a place where we can enjoy our little hobby together. However, I'm not sure I understand the idea of trying to move people onto the opposite faction of an established community. That eliminates almost all the benefits of coordinating in the first place in my mind. Then again, I have always been far more interested in PvE than PVP, where cross faction anything is pretty much disabled.

PVE-wise sure it might be beneficial for people to be on the same realm + faction, but that tends to happen on its own anyway, and you can really only play with so many multiboxers at a time that way as it is. Like, 2 5-boxers is already a full 10-man raid.

For PVP -- world PVP in particular, including Ashran -- I would find it far more interesting to run into multiboxers to fight than other random players. Factions are not particularly important for the wargame tournaments (the real competitions I'm interested in) I hope we can do during WoD, and I would like people to generally be able to join the side they want instead of being forced to one or the other. I'm personally going Alliance instead of Horde, specifically opposite an established multiboxing guild, because I think people will enjoy joining me (they might not otherwise want to join the underdog side), being part of the rivalry, etc. I've played on PVP servers as a multiboxer and I really think this would add to the experience -- I've only managed to find a multiboxer in world PVP like 2 times. I also think the rivalry could be interesting to follow not only for players within the game fighting alongside us, but also on streams, videos and forums, which is what dual-boxing.com is all about. And I think it will play nicely to the "dual" nature of the site ;)

I'm not suggesting that everyone go Alliance. I think just as many people would love to go Horde just for the chance to kill me and whoever joins the side I'm on!

TL;DR PVE is going to happen on its own as always. PVP needs a little TLC and I think this is a good shot

[MiRai]

Well, I mainly suggested Archimonde because I like the server's name (I know, I know... ), it's in the Chicago datacenter, and it actually used to be home to some multiboxers back in the day, but it's unlikely it'll have a semi-decent economy until WoD merges both AHs together; and while it has been connected to a handful of other servers, I'd still consider it sort of a ghost town when comparing it to any of the highly populated servers.

For me, it's always difficult to choose a realm because I want it all: Economy, playerbase, ability to PUG anything, and balanced world PvP. However, most players have jumped onto the mega-servers and continue to bloat their population while the other servers dwindle, and the problem with these mega-servers is that they're all one-sided in terms of faction balance... all of them. When playing solo, one-sided mega-servers are desirable because there are so many players on your faction that the economy is phenomenal and you can PUG literally anything that you want at almost any hour of the day. However, if you're looking for world PvP on these mega-servers it's usually lacking once you reach the current expansion's content. For example, you can play Horde on a server like Illidan, Mal'ganis, or Stormreaver (just to name a few) to gain access to its great economy, ability to PUG anything both PvE or PvP, and see lots of world PvP action all the way up until you hit level 85, but once you hit Pandaria CRZ is disabled and all you're going to see at that point are Horde players.

I imagine that I'm going to re-RaF'ing in the near future, so I'll probably just jump on Magtheridon, as well as a few other servers when I do.

[JackBurton]

I wouldn't mind Archimonde I have some old Everquest friends there. Although there are many perks to having a heavily populated server. There isn't allot of world lag in low to medium servers. In unbalanced Realms the Battleground Que times are way shorter for the team that is the underdog numbers wise. I'm not a big PvP'er but I've heard allot in Guild Chat that Alliance has been beating horde handily for quite some time in Magtherion.

[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. :D

[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 :p

[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 (http://wowpedia.org/US_realm_list_by_datacenter#Chicago).

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 (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/13086679084) 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.

[Oathbreaker]

/follow has been removed from the zone Ashran. :(

[Lax]

/follow has been removed from the zone Ashran. :(

Yes, unfortunately :( Although they say they are "still thinking about it".

We have a thread about Ashran /follow here: http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/51490-Build-18898-ashran-REMOVED-FOLLOW!

Other than that we are still moving forward with the new guilds on Sargeras and Bleeding Hollow :)

[Vociferate]

Come play! It's a grand little server. We just need some more clones in the guild to really kick things off.

[Oathbreaker]

Come play! It's a grand little server. We just need some more clones in the guild to really kick things off.

To bad you didn't stick to playing on Mag.

[Vociferate]

To bad you didn't stick to playing on Mag.

I think you have me mixed up with someone else. I haven't boxed on Mag or in <The Zerg>.


I had had a stint in <Legion of Boom> before bouncing around other servers.

[dougie700]

Think this is a great Idea, but again wrong timezone, but i have put my battletag on the other thread and if the EU guys and gals want to do something similar to this then i am sure that between us we can come up with something (am more a PVE person tho :P )

[Dadjitsu]

I became quiet excited when I found this tread, then it dawned on me, your in the US of A and now I'm depressed *sigh* as I'm in the UK

still its a great idea tho. If enough peeps want to do this in the UK, then I am certainly interested.

we need to petition Blizz to make us a mid Atlantic realm, and shove all the boxers there, that would solved the /follow debate as well lol

[Shania]

Yeah bummer, as well, I am on Oceanic (Australia) and Horde. Time zones differ far too much :(

[jacobj]

I have complete teams on this.

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[Andreauk]

Think this is a great Idea, but again wrong timezone, but i have put my battletag on the other thread and if the EU guys and gals want to do something similar to this then i am sure that between us we can come up with something (am more a PVE person tho :P )

pve here only Chamber of aspects eu

[Andreauk]

I became quiet excited when I found this tread, then it dawned on me, your in the US of A and now I'm depressed *sigh* as I'm in the UK

still its a great idea tho. If enough peeps want to do this in the UK, then I am certainly interested.

we need to petition Blizz to make us a mid Atlantic realm, and shove all the boxers there, that would solved the /follow debate as well lol

I am in the uk and on eu realm chamber of aspects, but I'm only interested in pve :)