Source
r/swtor•
FireJade

Server comparison

Question

I currently have all of my toons on the Harb. However, dropping to preferred status means I can no longer access all of them, so I'd like to move some of them onto another server. I'm not sure what I'll do with these toons, but I'm looking for advice/things to consider when picking a server, and ideally also a listing of what distinguishes the various servers.

  • West Coast (other than the Harb): Begeren Colony, The Bastion
  • East Coast: The Shadowlands, Jedi Covenant, The Ebon Hawk, Prophecy of the Five, Jung Ma
  • English-speaking Europe: The Red Eclipse, The Progenitor, Tomb of Freedon Nadd

Things I'm wondering about:

  • Population: from what I understand, SL, JC, TEH, and TRE are all reasonably populated. Any others?
  • PvE/PvP/RP activity/population? I assume there's some influence from what type the server used to be named.
  • Faction balance: all of the servers I've checked have been Imp-dominated, some more than others (JC seems reasonably even, for example)
  • Frequent pops/role balance: I'm guessing this has some correlation to population, but perhaps one server tends to have a higher proportion of tanks/healers queueing?
  • Anything special? Things like servers that tend to have nicer/more helpful people, or less trolling in gen/PvP chat, or have a prominent guild that specializes in X, etc. Or, things like Y is a dead server, but consider moving here because of Z (achievements maybe?).

Thanks!

Posted Jan 16, 2017, 1:40 AM UTC · edited

127
TheRDViper•

There is tons of people on Empire - Bergeren Colony. Ive got all my characters here.

2
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

I did a pop check twice today -- it's not a ghost town, for sure, but both times they had half of what Harb had or less. So perhaps what you'd call a cozy small community?

3
RaansuHarbinger•

Every sever pop is small compared to harb. None of them come close.

2
logbasepi•

Others have commented about their respective servers, but being that not much has been said about Jedi Covenant, I felt I'd chime in my two cents.

I'd say what you put in the list in your OP is fairly accurate.

General Server

  • The two factions are both very active, and for sake of argument, relatively balanced.
  • As for helpfulness of the playerbase, if you ask for help/advice on the fleet, 9 times out of 10, you will get an informed helpful answer to your question (every server has its trolls).
  • There are many guilds usually recruiting on fleet and other worlds. Some smaller guilds, and a bunch of large guilds that are active in all the different types of content.
  • Conquest is often hard-fought, with some of the largest guilds normally dominating (true on most servers).
  • As for Dark v. Light alignment, JC tends to lean toward the Lightside (Prior to the "fix" to the system, I believe JC only went darkside twice in that period). However, both sides win their fair share during the average day.
  • Jedi Covenant has long had one of the better GTN economies in the game. If you are looking for something, it's most likely on the gtn. Prices have inflated as with everything else in the game, but most things can be had for a 'reasonable' price (better than Harb's prices in many/most cases).

PvE Content

  • JC still has dedicated endgame raiding guilds, and many other guilds with HM/NiM raid teams.
  • Since 5.0, I've gotten a small number of random Groupfinder pops for Operations - complete PuGs. (Not really a statistic, and the groups did manage to complete the operations, TfB and Ravagers were two I recall).
  • Groups for the Groupfinder Operation can often be found forming on fleet throughout the day. Groups can also be found forming for some HMs, mainly EV and KP.
  • Since 5.0, several groups have formed late at night (Server Time) for things like 16man Hardmode Operations. Variety is good.
  • Chat channels exist for endgame content, with PuG groups forming out of them.
  • Groupfinder pops often for Tactical and Hardmode Flashpoints.
  • For CXP, the grind is real and people often form groups just for killing stuff to get it.

PvP Content

  • Normally PvP leans toward the Empire, but it swings both ways during the day. During prime-time when many PvPers are online, it's usually a toss-up. Pops go well into the AM, but with more Imperial players online then.
  • Players do switch factions to help balance things out when one side dominated for a while.
  • Ranked PvP pops, (Though I don't do much ranked personally) but I've heard it's helpful to queue for ranked Impside.

Galactic Starfighter

  • GSF is alive and well on JC.
  • Matches pop during the daytime, but many more during primetime.
  • Factions are relatively balanced. Sometimes one faction will dominate for a while, but most players will switch factions and help turn the tide.
  • People in the GSF community are happy to help newer players get into the gamemode, and help is easily attainable in the /gsf channel.

That's all I can think to comment on. If you have any specific questions about JC, please ask or PM me.

2
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

Thank you for the detailed response! It's very informative.

2
Deranox•

You must consider that NA and EU servers means different ping. If you're from EU, play on EU. You won't be able to PvP at all with higher ping. Faction balance ... Imperials rule most of the servers since most people like the stories more or just the feel of being an imperial.

1
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

Yeah, forgot to mention it but I've considered that. I get ~20-30 ping on West Coast servers, ~90 on East Coast, and ~190 on TRE. None of those seem ridiculous though, considering that Aussies are playing on Harbinger and getting around the upper end there.

1
Deranox•

190 ping is a lot when someone else has much lower. You wouldn't know what's happening most of the time. I personally wouldn't consider this torture.

1
tjabakerThe Harbinger•

So thats why I'm rubbish at PVP, I'm in Australia and playing with 220+ ping. Its not just because I'm bad.

2
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

On the bright side, you have an excuse. I have none other than "I'm bad." :P

2
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

Fair enough. Would you say it's too painful for PvE as well? I'm guessing Combat/Carnage would be difficult on 190 ping, but what about lower-APM specs? You'd have to have faster reaction time for mechanics, for one.

1
tjabakerThe Harbinger•

Its perfectly fine playing the game with 190 ping. I wish I could get that.

1
xNimroderBodyguard Mercenary | Erzengel @ T3-M4•

for PvE it's perfectly fine. PvP should be the only problem

1
Cratoh•

I only know Ebon Hawk mostly but...

Harbinger is stil reasonably populated, it's the most active on the west coast even.

I know Ebon Hask still gets Ranked pops and there are two reasonable progression guilds on both sides (Imp- Eon Pub- Republic Honor Guard)

Ebon Hawk's RP Scene is still alive, at least on Imp side, I've seen a few Pub side RP guilds not not as much as Imp side.

All servers but JC are basically Imp dominated. It's just cooler to be a sith I guess.

Ebon Hawks community is generally welcoming and nice, but there are your fair share of jerks and elitists. In limited experience on Harb I have seen that the PvP commmuntiy there is just plain toxic. Makes you not want to even PvP on there.

Hope this helps.

1
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

Thanks for the input! I figure most people will only be really familiar with one server, but hopefully I can put a picture together from all of the replies.

Agreed about the toxicity of PvP on Harbinger -- glad to hear it's not as bad elsewhere (?).

1
CaapsLockRepublic Commando•

I don't know what the char limit is, but currently I'm pref and have 29 slots from buying the unlock server char slots; I recommend you consider doing that... (unless you have even more chars)

1
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

Oh, really? According to the 4.6a patch notes and EA help docs, the maximum number of slots unlockable per server is 26. So I guess it's bugged? (Or maybe you can only activate the extra unlocks past 10 while subbed? :-/)

1
CaapsLockRepublic Commando•

29 seems to be the real limit, I can't use another server slot unlock at the moment, but all the 29 slots are usable at the same time http://imgur.com/a/7xgqg

the official number was also wrong before they last increase.

1
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

"Bioware doesn't know their left hand from their right," checks out. Thanks!

EDIT: Ahh, it stopped me at 26. So I think there IS a cap of 26 for preferred, but because the sub cap is higher than +10 from the default, unlocks applied while subbed still apply when you drop to preferred.

2
CaapsLockRepublic Commando•

hmm that's a shame, maybe my account is glitched? I always had more than the official limit, I think when it was 12 I had 16, when they increased to 16 I had 18... I know that I maxed the amount of slots when I was F2P (before preferred) then when I subbed I got lots of slots and kept unlocking what I could and always had more than the limit as pref; or maybe as you said perhaps because I unlocked as sub some stayed last time, next time I'm sub I'll try to unlock a few more to see if they stay, because at the moment as pref it wont allow me to unlock anything over the ones I have. but when I was sub until 2 days ago I think I had 42 available (or close to that), now as non sub is 29.

1
CaapsLockRepublic Commando•

in any case, about servers, if you don't mind high ping and European time, TRE would be clearly the best bet, lots of activity in there, other than that, on NA, Ebon Hawk I think is the second best for PVP and GTN activity, but for PVE I don't think so, I think JC would be better for PVE.

1
FireJadeOPHarbinger•

Thanks. Regarding East Coast servers, I had heard good things about SL and PvE... Do you know how SL compares to JC?

1
puncharenThe Shadowlands <Ghost Squadron>•

I play on Shadowlands and the server seems to be fairly healthy and I play both factions. The Imp side seems more populated and as such uprisings tend to pop quicker, but it seems that PvP will pop quicker when I am playing on Pub side. I also have an easier time farming and running heroics on Pub side than I do Imp, as on the Imp side there tend to be more players and as such if the heroic isn't instanced can make it a lot more difficult to get it done because of all the other players attempting to do the same thing.

1
Babble610Shadowlands :Rothmar| MM,Jugg,Mara,Merc,Sin•

Also on shadow lands.

Play most days around 4-9ish. Reg pops are consistent. Ranked pops regular after about 7:30 est. As far as PVE I have had zero problems finding groups or getting ques to pop when I PVE. Overall pop is good.

1