World of Warcraft®

Hey guys. I have a 10 day free trial account and am trying out WoW again. I stopped playing just before Wrath of the Lich King came out. There is a lot of new content since then. 2 whole expansions to keep myself entertained.
I do have one concern. Server population. I havn't been to the new expansion zones yet. I'm currently in the Lich King starter zone. Every city that I have been to is almost completely deserted. Is everyone in the Cataclysm zones or has the server population dropped sharply in the past 2 years? I love instances and raiding. I also love the outside group quests.
Don't really feel like shelling out all the money to buy 2 expansions and the monthly fee if there isn't going to be anyone group with.
Someone please let me know the situation : )

Well, currently everyone's packed into the molten front and firelands. I don't think the population has dropped considerably on CC. Also, everyone's in Orgrimmar and Stormwind for the Cataclysm zone portals.

It's hard to confirm server population as none of us has the hard numbers, but I don't think it's taken a tumble -- there was a sharp increase briefly for the onset of Cataclysm, and I believe many of those folk are now gone -- but I believe Lothax is correct.

I hope you enjoy your next 15 levels. :)

And don't forget, Refer-A-Friend just got a boost to help people get all the way to level 80!

Get a buddy to play with you and make it faster.

I was in the same boat as you. I left WoW near the end of Burning Crusade. A friend invited me to come back to the game and recruited me with Recruit-a-Friend. It's very fast, and I regret that it ran out before patch 4.2 extended the perks to level 80.

I was on a Horde-dominated PvP server when I left WoW. My friend got me to start playing on this realm, and I was surprised to see that the Alliance faction here is now easily 3 times as large as the Horde faction on that PvP realm. It's nearly 10 times the size of the Alliance faction there.

This should help give an idea of the realm's population:
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/activity.php?serverid=61

Few people hang out in Dalaran or Shattrath City since Cataclysm. Before patch 4.1, there weren't any portals except to the Caverns of Time. Since 4.2, even Stormwind and Orgrimmar's populations have diminished because of the new content in Mount Hyjal.

Thanks for all the replies. I found everyone in SW. They are all in the Dwarven District now. SW is a lot different and I've noticed a lot of the zones have been completely redone. New Monsters and NPCs also.
Are the level requirements changed for the older zones? I took my level 30 rogue to Wetlands and there were no quests for him at all. The town was under water too LOL.

Mhm, most of the zones were rejigged.

Indeed, quite rejuggled and confuggered. Almost all the quests prior to level 60 have been replaced. That new content isn't so bad, but I personally prefer the old content.

The 80+ content is back to the kind of quests I enjoy, despite my deathly fear of deep water. They gave me an alternative zone that appeals to my obsession with Green Dragons, so it's all good.

Thanks for all the replies. I found everyone in SW. They are all in the Dwarven District now. SW is a lot different and I've noticed a lot of the zones have been completely redone. New Monsters and NPCs also.
Are the level requirements changed for the older zones? I took my level 30 rogue to Wetlands and there were no quests for him at all. The town was under water too LOL.

Yep, The Plaguelands are the homes to creatures between level 40 and 50 now. Thousand Needles went the opposite and was bumped up about ten levels. The list goes on.

Each capital city has a warchief's board or whatever. I forget the alliance equivalent.. King's message board or something probably. Anyway, the board will send you to an appropriate zone for that continent.

07/11/2011 03:41 PMPosted by Lothax

Each capital city has a warchief's board or whatever. I forget the alliance equivalent.. King's message board or something probably. Anyway, the board will send you to an appropriate zone for that continent.

Heroes Call Board, for Alliance.


Yeah, a lot of zones got fuziggled. Many of them now have phasing, so they change based on how much of the quest-story you've done in them. For example, Westfall has one of it's areas go from idyllic to ON FIRE near the end of the quest line.

A main selling point for Cataclysm (aside from the awesomeness of worgen and goblins as playable races...) was the revamping of the 1-60 content. There are some compelling stories being told in each zone now. It sometimes feels a little wonky 'cause it's kind of "questing on rails". The phasing system that was first introduced in Wrath of the Lich King, which lets you change your environment in reaction to your questing, was heavily used in this expansion. Unfortunately, this a) locks away your friends from joining you if they're on a different stage of a quest chain than you are, and b) makes it feel like you're just sort of in one large corridor, with very few actual choices that you can make.

I'm probably making it sound more sinister than it actually is. It's still fun. You'll hit Outland at 58th level (which has been a ghost town since Wrath was released; there was an initial surge from the first wave of new Death Knights, but it's now largely empty) and kind of wonder, "Why am I here?" It isn't as fun (at least, not to me). My Druid was leveling along quite fine til she hit Outland, and now all my will to level her has just been drained. :(

Once you hit Northrend, the fun returns. I personally grew bored with Zul'Drak, but otherwise quite liked the zones. It also gave us the Death Knight, a class I have positively fallen in love with.

The new Cataclysm zones are quite fun as well (be ready for lots of cutscenes in Uldum...), but again, you're going to feel like you're questing on rails.

Just be grateful you weren't around during release, when there'd be resource nodes floating tantalizingly close on your minimap, only to realize they were in a different phase, and you couldn't get to them. :(