Here is what the game director said on the forums on the subject of balance:

forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showpost.php

"As I have said in the other threads (and this one) there will be adjustments made, and that will include to the relative power in PVP between the spells using classes and the melee classes. That is an area the balance update will focus on. Yes, there is a definite balance to be struck with it, we definitely do not want to go to far the other direction either, but recognise that we need to make some adjustments there."

Further adjustments to be made, as ever, with mmo's.

Originally posted by catlana

The Demonologist = glass cannon with a walking buff (if you can ever get close to the Demo). Plays real similiar to glass cannons in most games (for example WoW frost mage) which means you have to learn to kite. Properly played Demos are devasting in pve or pvp.

 

The Necromancer = pet class with lots of pets that can deal damage as well as stealing life back to you. A Necros pets are capable of soloing most mobs.  Closest WoW example would be a Felguard Warlock (ie pets do the heavy lifting).  There are lots of necromancer videos out there where the pets are soloing mobs / players.

Necro class is also probably the first and most often needing a rez in group encounters / raids or Sieges in my experience.

Demo's can be a bit squishy too sometimes.

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by catlana

Umm, maybe because I know the subject but the post is pretty easy to understand even if you disagree.

Casters in AoC = easier to play = easier to be really good with

Melee in AoC = much harder to play. However, melee = more powerful in the hands of a master.

This is pretty common in pvp games. For example, mages in WoW for example do not exist in the lower arena brackets. However, in the top end brackets, well speced and highly skilled mages often control the match.

 

Umm, I don't think anyone had a problem deciphering what he meant by that mess, it was just painful to read. Craig started out in communications (IGN, later FunCom), it almost seems the longer he works for FC the more symptoms of frontal lobe damage he displays. 

Unfortunately anecdotal evidence does not show that to be true, sieges are famous for being caster vs caster lag fests. AoC still has serious range vs. melee balance problems that were not addressed in the re-vamp and have been criticized since early closed beta.

[Mod Edit]

I would suggest you look at some recent siege stats from guilds participating across all servers from attendance of class and see the better, truer picture. Many guild front page websites have the stats, the parses and so on :)

Originally posted by Zorvan

AmazingAvery coming in....

3...

2...

1...

Nice to see you too Zorv :)

Let me ask this.

Why are they not allowing paid server transfers to Fury then? If this so called stat was factual..

For N.American servers:

Except to go to Tyranny as it has a large population still:

forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php

"Today we start the regular option to move a character to another server. This service is priced at 20 US$ per character transfer.

Transfers are possible from any server to any other with the exception of server Tyranny which already has a very large population. But this restriction might be looked at again when we see how the character transfers are going and we might also reconsider allowing transfer to this server a little further down the road. Transfers away from Tyranny to another one is of course already possible.

In the near future, there will also be an option available to move all characters of one account. This service will move all your Age of Conan characters to one specific server and is priced at 50 US$. This represents a noticeable saving for accounts with more than 3 characters to move.

Players can access these new options on the registration page at http://register.ageofconan.com  "

CoH = $10 xfer

AoC=$20 / $50 all 8 ($6.25 for one if 8 slots xfer)

WoW= $25

Lotro=$25

EQ2=$50

For EU servers, except Fury server:  http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=126941

"Regular Character Transfer Option available now 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The free transfer option to the four specific EU servers has ended yesterday. Today we start the regular option to move a character to another server. This service is priced at 20 Euro per character transfer.

Transfers are possible from any server to any other with the exception of the server Fury (EU English PvP) which already has a very large population. But this restriction might be looked at again when we see how the character transfers are going and we might also reconsider allowing transfer to this server a little further down the road. Transfers away from Fury to another one is of course already possible."

 

conanvault.ign.com/View.php

IGN continues their class preview impressions with the new patch:

"Tempest of Set is one of the 'merged' classes which included several classes that didn't make it from beta to full game. Tempest of Set gained two distinctive playing styles, which are scattered among both feat trees. After 1.5 patch, typical TOS will require substantial item changes and re-feating; the tactics will stay almost the same for pure-DPS TOS's out there, but will be slightly modified for hybrid DPS/healers. As a spellcasting priest, TOS by design will be more resilient in combat with other priests, but will be definitely more prone to archery and melee attackers. Feats from the General tree will help overcoming handicaps stemming from lower physical mitigation, while simple buffs (that all TOSs wear) will also increase survivability against archers and mages.

Specific builds will also require, depending on their focus, a lot more strength and armor (Storm Field/Storm Crown/Idol builds due to fighting in close range), a lot more wisdom and intelligence (pure DPS dealers, lightning strike critical dmg/column lightning, due to fighting from afar against other mages and priests), or a mixture of the two (intelligence to add to mana and resistances, strength to increase survivability when hybridizing to heal and DPS at the same time). After the patch, properly spec'ced hybrid DPS/healer seems the most sturdy all rounder, capable of both survival in groups, solo and raids. The disadvantage of such speccing is dealing lower damage in raids and elite groupings. The advantage of hybrid DPS/heal build is very strong healing, almost as good as that of POMs or BSs, and much greater survivability against multiple enemies in any situation. For the purpose of this guide, most references concern that build and tactics associated with it. Let's quickly review changes to feats, spells and tactics that are bound to influence all TOSs out there first. "
 

"Feats in 1.5 have been tweaked to reflect new system. In addition, several new effects have been added to known spells and procs, devs also introduced a couple of new spells that are feat-based. In general tree, as almost every class in the game, it's recommended that you take armor feat, since it's the equivalent of the now-gone Armor rating buff. Instead of using a buff every 1h, now TOS can simply invest 10 points in General Tree (5 for initial feat, 5 into armor feat) to get his armor boosted up to medium armor level of mitigation (20-25 percent). Without the feat, TOS will suffer a lot more damage from each hit, meaning overall survivability of this key healer/DPS dealer will be very low. Take a look at the feat at maximum points: "

See the link at top for some descriptive pictures and armor sets. Healing still seems good for me on my ToS :)

Out today: www.mmogamer.com/07/01/2009/age-of-conans-craig-morrison-talks-gangs-of-tarantia

It is a pretty good read, I like this part:

The MMO Gamer: You had quite awhile to get most of the kinks worked out on the test server, so there shouldn’t have been too many surprises. But now that it’s gone live, have you been taken aback by any reactions to it from the playerbase?

Craig Morrison: I don’t think surprised is the right word, at least not in any negative sense. We always knew, and told people quite clearly, that we fully expected there to be tweaks and adjustments we would have to make after the update went live, and that is the case.

If anything we have been encouraged that those issues haven’t been as serious or as difficult to address as you sometimes fear with your ‘worst case scenario’ head on, which as producer is pretty much my default state! There are of course some things we need to address, as we expected, but by and large, outside of the expected balance adjustments, the changes seem to have been quite well received.

The MMO Gamer: As a bookend to that last question: How do you respond to the derogatory “Age of Casters” label being applied to the patch on the boards and in global chat?

Craig Morrison: See, that why I said, ‘outside of the balance adjustments…’ above, as that is of course where our attention has to turn now. As we have already addressed on our forums, that is definitely one of the areas that we will be looking at in the post-update tweaks and adjustments mentioned above.

There are two factors here, the first in more of a general distinction between spell using classes and melee classes in our game. The spell using classes in Age of Conan are inherently easier to play, or rather more forgiving to play that leads to the opinion of them being easier to play, and they are certainly easier to master. That element won’t really change. Those classes are a deal more forgiving and easier to really master. That said I think that I think on the other hand a really well played melee character is a far more challenging foe and adversary at the hands of a skilled and experienced PVP player.

All that said, and to get down to the bare bones of it, No, the balance there isn’t quite right out of the gate as it were in respect with 1.05 and that is an area the subsequent balance adjustments will focus on. As I mentioned above we always knew there would be issues like that this that would come out of the changes as players adapted to the new power scales and abilities. It is something we were prepared to react to and already are preparing the follow-up update to address some of these issues.
 

In that they acknowledge there are still some issues with balance and that they are working to address those and the fact the patch is not being promoted as the "be and end all". Even though the is that the patch is being well received overall and that continual improvements are forthcoming. I like the fact they are hard at work on more stuff.

This is now patch 1.05.2 which went onto the live servers today:

COMBAT

* Players should no longer be able to be stealthed on a mount anymore.
* Removed the column damage effect from spells with splash damage when Spellweaving.
* Procs should not reflect off other procs anymore.
* Charge should no longer go on cooldown when targeting friendly targets.

CLASSES

Guardian

* Skewer's snare debuff now follows the normal rules for Snare Immunity.

Necromancer

* The spell 'Quell the Ether' should once again display its particle effect.

Ranger

* Shield Bash is now available at level 20. As a result we have changed attack directions to UL (starter) and UR (finisher), as the previous directions are not available at level 20.

QUESTS

Tarantia Common District

* It should now be easier to get the quests to infiltrate the gangs again if you for some reason lost one of them.
* The quests "A Missing Leader" and "Justice in the District" will now only give XP and coin upon completion of the final tasks in these quests.

Poitain

* The Damsel in Distress should work correctly again.

Destiny Quests Rewards

* Additional mana, health and stamina should now properly update the appropriate stats in the Skills and Attributes GUI.
* Mage and Priests will now get +Spelldamage (generic).
* Rogues and Soldiers will now get +Weapon Damage.

RAIDS

* Fixed an issue which prevented Incubus and Succubus from spawning.
* Ahazu-Zagam: The power and the AoE size of Virulent Effluvium got reduced (the size now fits better with the size of the particle effect).

GUILD CITY

* Your city's Spiritual Leader (Priestess or Wise Woman) will now charge only the intended 1 gold she asks for when teaching the Path of Comrades.
* The Armorsmith Merchant, Weaponsmith Merchant, and Gemcutter Merchant in guild city tradeposts will now sell the appropriate, up-to-date materials for the crafting professions they support.
* Rearranged a wall so that the stairs of the staired wall are no longer blocked by a tower.

NPCs/MOBS

General

* NPCs below level 5 should no longer resist spells.

Tarantia Common District

* The Risen Tarantians will now return to their graves if they get tired of running.
* Lazar's Disciples will now invoke the help of their minions.
* It should now be easier to get to Andromedus while the City Watch Captain is around.
* Attilius will now anger more easily.

Xibaluku

* Jal Kor will now reset if he gets pulled outside his room.

GUI

* PvP invulnerabilities will now show in the character GUI.
* Friendly spells tab will now remember the selected page so next time it is opened it will show the last opened page.
* Players can no longer move icons further down the extra shortcut bars without extending them.
* If you bind to a location with the Path of Asura on your shortcut bar, the tooltip should now update and show the new bind location.
* Added the waypoints of the dungeons in Tarantia Commons and Tarantia Noble District to the world map.

WORLD DESIGN

Hallowed Vaults

* Players will now again not be able to jump back to the ledge coming from the flag rooms.

Xibaluku

* The Lost Relic of Iziel-Al'Zeep has become a lot more brittle.

GENERAL

* Fixed the issue where players got randomly disconnected.
* Floating targets won't lose text after zoning any more.
* Feat respec is now capped at 1 gold instead of 10.
* The Assassin's 'Tunic of Deadly Guile' will no longer equip boots visually.
 

Thanks for the feedback Seabeast was an interesting read. Have you done Sanctum of the Burning Souls yet?

Also how is performance for you on average and do you run at DX10? A few times I have had a bit of lag in mini games too but I did notice this was around peak times. Also sometimes when having particles set high and also in the Audio tab / setting, the number of 'simultaneous' sounds up high from PvE playing. I tend to turn the simultaneous sounds down a bit which sometimes helps.

Today:

General
* DX 10 has been enabled again.
* Fixed an issue which caused players and NPC's to be hit for 21+ million points damage.

@Avery78 The issue with fall damage when leaving ladders before the top has been reported and is being looked into. - twitter.

He also replied here: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=2425675#post2425675

Updated first post with the link to full interview.

Originally posted by Krewel

Now that you get much-needed pvp xp for active participation in minigames, there is high demand for them.

I would say that is pretty accurate, they are going up in demand because of this and people are finding the new-ish map too. For me at peak times on peak days being honest about a 5-20 min wait. Sometimes way way longer though and then I can't be asked to wait. Kinda like Guild Wars if you played it before cross server ability. Where you may sit in a group waiting and waiting for others to make up the full team.

What is good though is they did update the UI to be a bit better in this area.

I hope they do cross server games sooner rather than later, if anything that would open the door for many community things from Tournaments / events to server pride and inter guild pride and so on.

Originally posted by Eten

Yeah they did a really good job on the stat changes.  I'm really happy about that.  They really made stats mean something now, the improvement is clear and sensible, and easily visible through the UI, but without it being overkill.  I said before 1.05 was out that I was watching this to see just how good the devs are and if I would make that bold claim- this game is in good hands now.  It was a hard line they had to hit but they seemed to nail it.

Bugs and small issues aside, you think there could be anything else added that you would of liked to have seen in this patch? or what would you like to see or expect to come over the summer?

Originally posted by Domed

So, first, i'm not sure if it's alright for me to post here about this kind of issues but my choices are limited.

I want to come back to Aoc to see how it has changed since i last played it ( a year ago), but i stumbled into some annoying account issues. The first thing that hit me was the account management which, even though the web adress stated clearly "age of conan", was about anarchy online, and had a lot of random useless things there. Anyway, i procceded to enter my gamecard, since if it WAS anarchy online it wouldn't work so no harm done, but it worked and i got a message about getting 60 days in age of conan...ok.

I installed the game, updated it, then at the login screen i kept getting authentication error. I went to account management and changed the password...who knows, maybe i forgot my old one, but no luck whatsoever.

What i'm asking is, does anyone know anything about how to fix this?

I'm posting here because i don't have acces on the AoC forums, even though i can login, i can't post.

Thanks.

Hi there, didn't see post until now, but is this still an issue for you?

Usually there is a period of time before things get updated. Sometimes the log in name and pass in game can be different to your account page info, which in turn might populate that message, and again may take a little time to update.

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Being a Non Advocate why am i reading a interview for TTH on a MMORPG site. Not that its gonna make Funcoms attempt at re-hypeing any less. Am i outta line here?

That depends if you have the premise of viewing it as an attempt to re-hype or an attempt to put across information to those interested. Taking your post here puts you in the former maybe, however, showing that you have an interest enough in the game to post, which is also pertaining to option one by 'hyping' the topic up further. Depends on your views again I guess. Either way something potentially inadvertent happened :)

What ever happened to reading the content and just commenting on it if it provokes a response for friendly conversation?

Again there is some information relating to crafting and the gem update in the interview:

Ten Ton Hammer: Can you tell us about the new gemcrafting system? How different is it from its previous incarnation and how different will the new gems be in comparison to the old?

Craig: Again, that’s pretty much an interview in itself and there is an in-depth article on the changes on our community site. At a top level though, just as with the RPG system changes the new system means that the players now have meaningful changes for their gems, and the system is far more flexible in terms of meaningful additions.

You can find the detailed article here.
 

Does any of that interest you?

Or what about the plans briefed up for the short term future of the game with focus on endgame being one area?

Craig: In terms of the next update, as I outlined in the community letter we have three main focuses.

The first focus, and the major feature addition, for the next cycle will be guild gameplay. As we have mentioned before one of the major focuses for this next set of content is improving our guild functionality and the purpose and role of guilds in the game. I will explore this in more depth, and reveal a little about the direction these changes will take, in the next community letter.

In addition we will have new content as we move on to looking at the addition of new high level content for both groups and raids in the majestic halls of the House of Crom. The team is preparing some really fantastic gameplay suitable for such an epic location. Continuing to add even more high level content is an important goal for us and this location plays a huge part in that. As the next major content addition you can look forward to hearing much more about this over the summer months as we prepare the challenges and encounters that await you in this most imposing and deadly of dungeons.

Then we also have the ongoing task of adding more goals and objectives to the Borderlands PVP playfields. This is something that we are busily planning and working on already and hope to be able to add to over the course of the next update cycle.

Now that is exciting welcomed news for me, atleast :)

Originally posted by Unfinished

Originally posted by crunchyblack

and i believe the plan is to add more endgame content next patch, so your sht out of luck on a better craft system/mounted combat/housing or whatever side dish frills your demanding they make to your liking.

 

Those aren't 'frills' they are ADVERTISED game features. Having a game client that runs without crashing, isn't exactly brag worthy 1 year after launch.  The 'added content' was hardly a triumph, it was all product too incomplete to be included at launch that they finally got around to finishing. And the bugs are hardly gone, read the forums, they introduced many news ones last patch, my favorite is fall damage, something they still, 8 years later, have turned off in Anarchy Online because they cannot make it work correctly.

Attempting to brag that the game doesn't suck as bad as it did is a far cry  from being able to claim it is now complete.

 

The thing is those advertised features are in game and working. 'Added Content' is personal opinion which I would love to hear exactly what you have tried out and how you personally feel about it - honestly. The bugs are no more for me than in any other mmorpg I play.

Crafting has gone through many iterations to a point where things are a lot better now, the baggage of too many gems has gone, now leaving statistically pleasing ones, building city order that can be changed for architects craft, gem disolvers to save trashing items, pots that can be 'crated', Cultural crafted gear that is in demand and very few people can craft all the different types which means they sell well, applying your trade as a crafter in this area bring fruition and profit which is the point of being a crafter as well as fame. If I was going to go into a game that has been out a while and I am into crafting I would look at the what is the hardest thing to make and how do I get there. There is PLENTY of scope in AoC for this. On the flip side there are also some other professions which have had not as much love and updates to as others.

I got my first tast of mounted combat (at the hands of) couple weeks after launch before I had a horse. A guy rode past where I couldn't get to attack him because the speed of the mount and he wore me down. I envied that guy all the way till I got my own horse. Since then some minor mechanics have been adjusted, but it has always been there and always worked. You ride past someone, can cast some spells, can range, can melee with diff weapons with different attack arc's and still have the active defenses. Different mounts have different bonus' and so on.

It seems you look at bad points from such a long time to go where things have changed significantly and made decent progress, no one is saying perfect, but my mounts and my crafting professions are every bit viable as they are in LOTRO, VG and other recent mmorpg's played amongst others.

I can make a living in game from crafting, it can subsidise my other purchases and can be rewarding. Mounted combat is simply fun for some and not for others, I have a blast running around.

Every Bug is your Favourite BUG in AoC isn't it...

There was another update as incgamers have now released a 3rd tidbit on the interview to be release within the next 15 hrs probably which goes like: www.incgamers.com/News/17150/AoCHindsightIsAnAmazingThing

"Craig Morrison, game director on Age of Conan, has spoken to IncGamers about the new game mechanics that were introduced in last week's update, and explained why the game wasn't shipped this way.

After taking in player feedback, Funcom decided to change the RPG system (as descibed in our Update 5 preview), making item stats easier to understand and improving the way items affect characters. Morrison explained why the development team chose to go a different way at game launch:

“I am sure that the original team had very valid reasons for the choices they made prior to launch, it just didn’t work out as expected, and wasn’t popular enough to grab players attentions. Sometimes it is only when the masses get a hold of your game that these things become apparent.” He continued “I think that is mainly why we have now made the changes we have, the feedback clearly told us that people didn’t think the RPG system provided enough incentives!”

See more in our full interview with AoC's Craig Morrison tomorrow."

Will update this thread when interview gets released. Should make for a good read and the topic title certainly is what some you guys that post here have been asking for confirmation of right?

Originally posted by Hastings

Sweet, i appreciate the hasty reply!  I will def. try both options!  Thanks!

No worries, I think it would be best to make a better informed decision without dropping a whole subs money down it not needed. And there are couple ways to do that, so at least you get a good feel for the population.

Bear in mind though that there are now remnants of 6 servers on there all with different server attitudes, so what I am trying to say is that if you don't like the server there are options to start afresh elsewhere, with the same things applicable to try out again. And even if your partial to your character there, server "paid" transfers are incoming shortly too.

One more thing, when servers got merged, you might end up losing your characters name and have to change it to something else. Just to let you know.

I'd rather you be happy from making the best choice as a fellow gamer and even if the revist is not to your tastes.

So this is to let folks know what is coming down the pipe soon onto the live servers, still classed as patch 1.05.

The other massive thread was pre 'live' launch.

This will probably be deployed sometime over the next few weeks or in incremental stages depending on testing. I will say I don't know for sure though.

As per Game Director notes on the official forum based on recognised and reported issues in conjunction with the feedback given here are the notes that got released today on test servers.

From reading through the notes here, you will find alot address things that have been brought up post 1.05 release and the stuff that is being done (so far) to address them. Hence the different thread for this as it is seperate.

Anyway;

Added June 29th

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMBAT
General
* Players should not be able to be stealthed on a mount anymore.
* NPCs below level 5 will no longer resist spells.
* Removed the column damage effect from spells when Spellweaving.
* PvP invulnerabilities will now show in the character gui.
* Procs should not reflect off other procs anymore.
* Charge will not go on cooldown when targeting friendly targets.

CLASSES
Guardian
* Skewer's snare debuff now follows the normal rules for Snare Immunity.

Necromancer
* The spell 'Quell the Ether' should once again display its particle effect.

Ranger
* Attack directions for Shield Bash-combo have changed to UL (starter) and UR (finisher).

Tempest of Set
* Fixed an issue which caused Column Lightning to hit the same target multiple times.

CONTENT
Tarantia Common District
* It should now be easier to get the quests to infiltrate the gangs again if you for some reason lost one of them.
* The quests "A Missing Leader" and "Justice in the District" will now only give XP and coin upon completion of the final task in the quest.
* The Risen Tarantians will now return to their graves if they get tired of running.
* Lazar's Disciples will now invoke the help of their minions.
* It should now be easier to get to Andromedus while the City Watch Captain is around.
* Attilius will now anger more easily.
* Crows' Nest: Added a "locked" particle to the boss protected treasure chest.

Poitain
* The Damsel in distress should work correctly again.

Guild City
* Your city's Spiritual Leader (Priestess or Wise Woman) will now charge only the 1 gold she asks for when teaching the Path of Comrades.
* The Armorsmith Merchant, Weaponsmith Merchant, and Gemcutter Merchants in guild city tradeposts will now sell the appropriate, up-to-date materials for the crafting professions they support.
* Rearranged a wall so that the stairs of the staired wall no longer are blocked by a tower.
coming from the flag rooms has returned.

Xibaluku
* The Lost Relic of Iziel-Al'Zeep has become a lot more brittle.
* Jal Kor will now reset if he gets pulled outside his room.

Hallowed Vaults
* The collision preventing players from jumping back to the ledge

Raids
* Fixed an issue which caused Incubus and Succubus to not spawn.
* Ahazu-Zagam: Reduced the power of Virulent Effluvium and Reduced the AoE size of Virulent Effluvium (the size now fits better with the size of the particle effect).

General
* Fixed the issue where the players got randomly disconnected.
* Floating targets target won't lose text after zoning any more.
* Friendly spells tab will be opening the first page by default.
* Friendly spells tab will store selected page so next time it is opened it will show the last opened page.
* Feat respec capped to 1 gold instead of 10.
* Players can no longer move icons further down the extra hotbars without extending them.
* If you bind to a location with the Path of Asura on your shortcut bar, the tooltip should now update with the new bind location.
* The Assassin's 'Tunic of Deadly Guile' will no longer equip boots visually.
* Added the waypoints of the dungeons in Tarantia Commons and Tarantia Noble District to the world map.

Destiny quest bonuses have been tweaked:
* +mana/health/stamina should now be visible in the gui.
* +Mage and priests get +spelldamage (generic). This should visible in the gui .
* Rogues and soldiers get +weapon damage. This should affect your dps stat in the gui.

What would like to see changed or improved upon for 1.05?

Sil updated his Twitter too  "The team are starting to test the new build for this week at the moment" I am guessing this relates to this patch?

Originally posted by Hastings

I left this game awhile back, not becuase of bugs or content - i just got sick of the population on my server - DeathWhisper.  It was so quiet!  How is the game now?  Is it more populated?  I hear many people saying to come back, but not if its a quiet game.

Hey mate as your question is quite server specific here is a break down I posted on another thread a few days back:

So Deathwhisper got merged to Tyranny.

Tyranny (PvP)
* Scourge
* Bluesteel
* Stormrage
* Deathwhisper
* Doomsayer
* Shadowblade
 

So there are now nearly 30k characters made on that server: aoc.yg.com/profiles

In the last 30 days here is a list of the top ranked PvP'rs for perusal (nearly 8k ppl) (and these are just ones picked up by the ingame bots and from people that 'choose' to have their profile displayed)  : aoc.yg.com/profiles

A list of the top guilds from 1700 on the server: aoc.yg.com/guilds

Here is census of the popular class types on the sever: aoc.yg.com/census
 

I would say that it most definately not quiet from the statistical facts for that server specifically. Especially considering the PvP ranking one gets updated every 30 days.

All in all you can try the client out on a trial client and get a feeling from the global chat and speaking with folks. Although you can't play your main character on the trial client.

Another thing to do is if you have any buddy keys, email one to yourself (to a diff email addy) and then use that to re-activate and check out free for a little while.

6 servers went into Tyranny including your old one to alleviate the same fears people had. Definately more populated imo.