tristarfighter Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 Hello everyone I am returning to SWTOR and I am looking for a decently active server to join. I have read through the other posts about the game being lifeless and servers dropping in population but regardless of that I was wondering if there is still an active server? I play on the east coast and previous research led me to think that Shadowlands is still pretty active but I am not 100% sure and would like some opinions and information. I'm not looking to immediately jump into a guild or start pushing towards running end game raids but more of server where if I sign up for flash points that the wait time isn't overtly long or anything or if I do join a guild its more casual but still runs end-game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eialune Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 I know it's technically an RP server, but Ebon Hawk is east coast, still very active, and has a very friendly/helpful player community. I can almost always find groups for open world objectives (as opposed to everyone fighting for themselves). The population isn't what it was two years ago, but every server has experienced a decline, and from what I've seen Ebon Hawk is still one of the most populated aside from Harbinger (west coast, less welcoming community.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchsts Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 there are a few servers that are worth playing on, but the harbinger is the only one i would pick. it has the highest population by far and will probably end up as the last populated server. all of the others are either dead or will probably end up dead within a year or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon_strikes Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 The Harbinger is the biggest server serving the US and has the largest population of all servers. The Red Eclipse is the biggest server serving the EU and is 2nd to Harbinger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
americanaussie Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 I'd probably play in harbinger. West coast server. I connect from Australia and the connection is ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icykill_ Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 (edited) Edit: sorry for some grammar and spelling mistakes I just saw when I reread. But I can't be bother fixing them Harbinger is the most active server in the game, but is located on the west coast. So if playing on the west coast is an issue, I've heard Shadowlands and Ebon Hawk seem like a good option. But even Harbinger is turning more and more into a ghost town at certain time. Unless you play with in a specific time bracket, which is also getting smaller, the population drops fast outside of those times. It also depends on the content. ie if you want to play pvp in lowbies and mids, the time bracket is very small. Lvl 70 has better pops for a longer period of time, but I've waited 4 hours for a lvl 70 pop just outside of Australian prime time. It could have been even longer, but I logged off in disgrace. Last weekend my partner waited 6 hours for a lowbies match, that was from 5pm Australia eastern time. In the end she logged off. Yesterday at 10pm AEST there was one instance and only 60 people on the "imperial" fleet. That is what I expect on the republic side at prime time, not the Imperial side. Sure those times aren't US prime time, but let's be honest, this is supposed to be a globally playable game. If you were to go back just 6 months there was 2 instances at that AEST time. One full (about 170) and another half full. Go back 12 months and it was two - three full instances. Every since 5.0 was launch the game has had a more excessive and accelerated player loss then anytime other time in the games history. The Devs seem to have their heads in the sand over this. I've never been one of those people predicting the closure of this game, I've heard it all since launch. But at this rate of player loss, how much longer can the game support itself if the player exodus isn't quelled fast. Even then, they need to attract those who have left to come come back to the game or attract new players. Bioware dont have a good recorded of this and even if players increase, they have an even worse recorded of retaining them. With the current decline in population, even group content for me (pvp) is getting harder to play at times that I never used to have a problem with. I've now found the best times for me to play the game to pvp are 3am AEST - 9am AEST. During that bracket the game actually seems healthy. But how many people are able to play at those times? Sure there are a few other very small brackets of time that you can get lvl 70 pvp regularly for a longer period. But I've lost 50 dedicated pvp friends since this time last year from my old guild. Most were NA based and would even play regularly from 6-7pm AEST till 11pm AEST. I know I'm not in US prime time and I know all the arguments about how fast group content is available at those times. But when you go from about 340 people on the imperial fleet in my prime time, with about 30-50 of them pvping (in all brackets) to 60 people total on the fleet and about 4-6 pvping "only" at lvl 70, there is definitely a problem. Of course there are people doing the story and on other planets at moment, but the fleet is where most of the pvpers hang out and lots of pve people are pvping to trying to farm CXP and stuff because it's easy. They are are unlikely to want to jump into a pvp match while halfway through a FP or OP, so they are also hanging on the fleet. Even story only people are wanting to do this, so I can only imaging how frustrating it would be on low population/quiet servers that never have pvp pops. This population decline has happened so fast and accelerated with 5.0, that unless they lay a proverbial golden egg or pull bugs bunny out of a hat, then I can't see the game lasting past this time next year. When the health of the most active server in the game is this terrible, it's a massive warning sign of what's to come. I get the impression from lots of old time subscribers that they feel the same way. Edited March 17, 2017 by Icykill_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithros Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 As far as North American servers go, for the east coast it seems that Ebon Hawk is tops while Harbinger is the most populated on the west coast and, according to what I have read, overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moranine Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 (edited) If you're East Coast I'd definitely say go Ebon Hawk. I'm from central USA and play on Ebon and have very good fps. Not to mention the player base on Ebon Hawk is very friendly. Sure it's a RP server but we do have guilds that pop up that are non-RP. Ebon has a lot of Veteran flash points that pop all the time. As for pvp it'll definitely pop at lvl 70 and every so often you'll get a low lvl pop. Edited March 17, 2017 by Moranine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedcjedcjedc Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 I play on JC which is pretty active. It also depends on where you are. JC is an eastern server whereas harb is a western. I usually sit around 65ms on JC, where my toons i transfered to harb have 2-300ms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casirabit Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 I play on Ebon Hawk and have no problems finding groups. My boyfriend pvp and he has no problems with pvp ques. Ebon Hawk is friendly and helpful for the most part. (There are always going to be idiots no matter what). Yes we are a roleplay server but we don't force everyone to roleplay and we respect various styles of playstyles which to me is important in a server. Have a good day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 If you're East Coast I'd definitely say go Ebon Hawk. I'm from central USA and play on Ebon and have very good fps. Not to mention the player base on Ebon Hawk is very friendly. Sure it's a RP server but we do have guilds that pop up that are non-RP. Ebon has a lot of Veteran flash points that pop all the time. As for pvp it'll definitely pop at lvl 70 and every so often you'll get a low lvl pop. Yep. My largely west coast resident based guild actually abandoned Harbinger some time ago because it was being over-run with the worst diaspora from the old PvP servers, and the kinds of behaviors that come with that. We moved to Ebon Hawk, and even though it is an east coast server, the pings to it are under 100ms and the community and the server overall is a much much better place then Harbinger **. ** Footnote: because we always get wrapped around the axle here on server discussions.. I wanted to note that if you are a guildless player who needs access to fast pops for PvP and PvE in random PuGs... Harbinger is probably your best bet. If you however mainly rely on a guild format for your group content, finding the right guild for you is more important then the server. Well run guilds largely inoculate players from the effects of player population on servers. Note: since they removed PvP rule sets for servers, and implemented super low cost server transfers, The Bastion, Jung Ma, and PoT5 were largely deserted and their players moved to Harbinger. The only PvE server in the US that I would be at all cautious about moving to would be Begeren Colony, which is still doing OK, but has been the smallest server (in terms of PvE) for a long time now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuaRya Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 I have toons on all the servers you mentioned, Ping doesn't seem to be an issue because some servers are newer and more robust than others. I'll give you a brief rundown Least Active to Most Active 1. Jung Ma - most desolate server I have toons on. 2. Jedi Covenant - Very quiet server, group content very minimal and almost never do they form ops on fleet 3. Shadowlands - Active at very narrow windows of time, people do form groups on fleet, as a pvp'er you'll know everyone by name it's so small. If you only game between 8pm-11pm EST this server may suit you 4. Ebon Hawk - Story Mode ops can be found, larger pvp community than 2 & 3, flashpoints pop 5. Harbinger - most active server but as Icykill has stated now has down time, always a group of some kind forming, fleet chat is spicy but never salty like JC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fushnchips Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 The Harbinger is the only real choice for a true SWTOR player that loves to pvp/raid and other group activities it maybe toxic with the fleet dirt bags but when you look passed that it's a great server and the down times are nothing like it used to be very few times has it been down. But if you play on EU then TRE is the only choice it's the Harbinger of EU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tristarfighter Posted March 17, 2017 Author Share Posted March 17, 2017 Cool thanks for all the input folks I'll take a look into both servers and determine which I want to be on however it seems like Ebon Hawk might be my better choice overall. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmmbuddah Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 The Harbinger is the only real choice for a true SWTOR player that loves to pvp/raid and other group activities it maybe toxic with the fleet dirt bags but when you look passed that it's a great server and the down times are nothing like it used to be very few times has it been down. But if you play on EU then TRE is the only choice it's the Harbinger of EU. I have noticed a LOT of french and German refugees coming into TRE now. Which is VERY welcome as a Pub player =D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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