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Z'K is Blizz-like. Elysium is a clown realm. Z'K is as big as any realm in the world was during Vanilla. It's hilarious that young'ns and noobs who presumably never played retail Vanilla think it's somehow underpopulated or useless. Z'K is as the game was intended. Elysium is not. Of course, I think we're on the same side: no transfers. But seriously? A transfer doesn't take someone away from the origination realm. It's purely voluntary. But it takes a lot from Z'K (a nice polite Blizz-like population only to be overrun by an endless stream of clowns).

I'm a former Elysium player and current Zeth'Kur player. I am AGAINST transfers. If people find Elysium to be an overcrowded cesspool like I did it's not so hard to re-roll on Zeth'Kur, again like I did. Kind of the founding principle of Z'K and to a lesser extent Elysium is that there are to be no transfers, ever. This ensures that Z'K is a place where you had to earn everything you've got, right here, and that you've done so since late January 2017. If there were transfers offered, I'd say make the level cap at 30. Definitely no transfers of max-level characters. Z'K had 3000-3500 people on all this past weekend, and has 2500 on right at this instant. That's as many or more than were ever on any retail Vanilla server at any point in 2004-2006. If anything, the numbers should slightly rise instead of fall over time, as people bring their friends into the game. Numbers may also increase a bit as more players come to realize that Elysium is grossly overloaded and that Anathema is too far "progressed" (raiding since early 2015) meaning that many players of the opposite faction will be loaded down in purples as they kill you effortlessly when you hit 60. Finally, I don't think the finances will be an issue. I'm going to be donating a small amount to Z'K on a monthly basis as soon as I can figure out how, and I'm likely to co-found a guild and encourage the guild to do the same. I don't think it's hard for ~7000 active players (3000 at most online at a given moment) to raise $400 a month. That's $0.05 monthly per person. Or more realistically, it's ~100 people donating $3 a month without ever having to buy an expansion. Heck, it would only take 20 people paying the same $15 they paid in Vanilla. Or 40 people giving themselves a 50% discount.

The Vanilla PVP servers are kinda weird! Elysium is way overcrowded to the point of making me want to vomit on everyone in Orgrimmar (or the Barrens, or... take your pick). Z'K has almost no one on it (EDIT: I was wrong about this: Z'K has more than the biggest realms in retail Vanilla did. I play here now and it's perfect!) Anathema is probably justtt right (EDIT: upon further review, Z'K is much more fun than Anathema or Elysium)... and yet is unfortunately farther along in the journey. I ended up choosing that one, but it's too bad more people don't wake up and roll their toons on Z'K instead of Elysium to even themselves out. I would say transfers should be an option, but I know the whole point of Z'K was that no one can transfer toons in. It's the "hard mode" realm. Probably if EP just reversed the names, made Z'K "Elysium" from now on and Elysium --> Z'K, then the populations would eventually even out. Do people just pick Elysium because it's the namesake of the project?

I re-rolled on Zeth'Kur (after bouncing from Elysium to Anathema) and it's pretty exactly Blizz-like... very close to the experience of playing actual Vanilla. You're wrong that Vanilla servers were overcrowded in 2004-2006. In Vanilla, realms were given a queue as soon as 2500 people were on the realm at once, and while Z'K often has around 3000-3500 with no queue, the realm is 50/50 Horde:Alliance so doesn't seem crowded no matter which side you're on. That's not to say you don't see other people around as you travel throughout Z'K, as you see people all over the place. They're just not in your way all the time. Elysium, on the other hand, with 8000 to 13000 on, felt and feels like a cesspool to me. You asked what the problem was, it is that every single quest I did on Elysium had 4, 5, or 10 other people doing that exact same quest at the exact same time. If it's one you can group up to all get credit for, that works, even if it isn't as fun as doing it yourself. But a lot of quests, like finding Kron's Amulet with a low drop rate from Durotar/Barrens alligators, took me 1 hour to actually complete on Elysium (and so it's better to not even try) when it takes 2-6 minutes on Zeth'Kur (or actual Vanilla back in the day). The respawn rates are much slower in Vanilla than they are on Retail. Anyhoo, if you think Elysium is like Vanilla was, you didn't play much Vanilla or have a bad memory. Elysium has anywhere from 3X to 5X the amount of players that were allowed on at one time in Vanilla. Even Zeth'Kur has slightly more online much of the time than were allowed in actual retail Vanilla.

New to Anathema and Vanilla realms in general. I've read that, in a world without dual specialization, Arms Warriors can tank pretty well in Vanilla. While I'm sure this is true for leveling dungeons, how true is it for places like Molten Core and on through AQ? And is there a best Arms tanking spec that is still good for PVP? I was thinking something like 31/11/9? Thanks for your help!

I now realize that my impression of ZK was from the starting zones only. It's a new realm and so most people are still leveling up their mains before they think of making alts. The midrange zones do seem very lively according to /who. I'll roll a toon on Zeth'Kur soon and give it a longer look!

If this was truly the rule, if the game was intended for everyone to roll Need (definition: to wear) even if they wanted it for Greed (definition: to sell) then it wouldn't give everyone the pop-up window choice. Everyone would just automatically be entered into the roll without asking. On the other hand, it seems bad design for Blizzard to have made it possible for a mage to roll Need on plate armor anyway. Classes which couldn't conceivably use the item should only have been given the option to Greed or Pass. Plate-wearers, in this case, should have had the choices of Need, Greed, or Pass. By designing the game this way, Blizzard has created 13 years of arguments back and forth (both sides with good points) with no end in sight since we'll still be playing 1.12.1 for the next thirty years. At least I will!

It truly is, actually. You have to group up with other people to do any quest at all. Or else you're waiting for spawns for an average of 20 minutes per quest, and even then someone will inevitably tag a mob right as you start hitting it. I'll give ZK a second look soon. Anathema is nice, but it's also nice to not have everyone else be geared already when you hit 60.

It wore off for me around level 12 and I re-rolled on Anathema. That has been a pretty good decision so far, but it's still just slightly too crowded leveling up (as opposed to vomitously overcrowded on Elysium and deserted on ZK). Not sure if I'll miss not seeing Anathema from the very beginning of its existence (as Nost) or not!

Wow, truly a worldwide realm! Interesting, thanks much. Poor Canadians! I'm a dual citizen of Canada and Chesseburgerland, so I respect that you singled them out as the only virtuous players here.

I am only a low level so far (downloaded the game over the weekend) but Charge doesn't seem to stun at all, at least not visibly like it did in Vanilla retail. Maybe different ranks of Charge are different?