Mangler or Selo? Where are you going and why?

I am deeply conflicted here but haven't played enough EQ to accurately view the options and how they may play out. Looking to see what EQ Vets and TLP lovers are doing and their reasons to see if that can help me decide

Me. Dad and professional. Started EQ in 2012 so missed a majority of the old content. On Live and Agnarr. Left Coirnav due to bad ratio of time to XP. I'm a casual gamer getting roughly 1 to 1
5 a night if that. Maybe a bit more on the weekends. My ultimate goal was to go through all the expansions from classic to Live. Finally getting at least one character to max level.

I look at Mangler. 3 months of Classic... again. But unlocks are slow enough that I should be able to explore. But it would be 3 or 4 years before I would catch up to live

I look at Selo and I'm like faster XP. Quicker unlocks to get to content I've never seen and will catch up to live pretty quick. 2 years? Now I honestly know I will in no way race and by experiencing the expansion I mean going to a few zones with other players so it feels fresh and then I can move on. But I'm hearing that SELO will be this toxic, racing. High competitive raiding server. Which I can see but not sure how that would affect me as a casual since I will be in the starter zone probably by the time the raiders start raiding. Is the expectation that everyone on the server will be racing for the unlocks? Or is there an argument for some to take their time but take advantage of the fast XP?

What do you think? Which are you going to join?

I plan on doing Mangler, but when GoD comes around on Selo, I'll make a berserker there. With the longer unlocks on Mangler, I'll be able to take a break and check out the later content passed GoD (which is mostly new to me).

Mangler because that's where my friends will be playing.

Im in a similar position OP, but have decided on selo, and plan to join a non racing, mid tier guild. They will exist, there are a couple in the guild recruitment forum.

I really have no interest in raiding trilogy content ever again, I hate tunnelquest (starting with bazaar is an amazing idea imo), I like how classes feel more complete the later into expansions we get, later expansions have much more group content gear available. And theres more.

Im a bit worried that mid tier guilds are gonna have issues at certain points, but the other benefits of the server for me far outweigh that fear.

mangler, for the most part. i will do the initial launch of selo because its unique, everyone starting at luclin. but there is no long term appeal to selos to me, so i'll be back to mangler after the first couple days of selo.

Selos!

Looking for the same thing as Hinastorm above. Non racing mid tier guild, but doing everything at a fast pace is going to be a blast!

Mangler

I'd never be able to enjoy that unlock speed on Selo.

Selo, because raiding PoSky 8+ times, Trakanon and VP 8+ times, and ToV 8+ times makes me want to end it.
And I'm just so, so tired of the classic zone progression.

I might try selos but I'm not planning to race to max level and raid every day so not sure it'll work out.

Mangler, because i never tire of a classic start. 90 days unlocks, and ragefire xp is also a plus

I didn't realize it was mutually exclusive. I was going to play on both because...Everquest.

Mangler, because while Selos might be fun due to Beastlords being available day 1, it won't last more than 3-4 months. Mangler will start out slow with a slog of 3 months of classic, but get better and better beyond that.

Probably staying on phinny. But if I was to move it would be to Mangler. People with jobs can't play enough to keep up with selos release speed, I found kunark on Agnarr a real struggle to keep up, classic was ok.

How much faster xp will Mangler be than Agnarr? Are we talking about 50% faster xp rate? I know it's the rate of Ragefire but I never played there.

Agnarr was decently fast, so no it won't be 50% faster than Agnarr. It'll be faster than Phinny/Coirnav which were both quite a grind.

Mangler because I'm a masochist and while I dread playing through classic again, doing so with this XP rate will be refreshing after the slog of 50 - 60 on Coirnav.

Selo - Luclin start

I don't plan on racing, I don't plan on raiding, I plan on having some fun at my own pace. I think I will only have around 6 - 8 hours a week to comit to Selo so extremely low playtime, but a lot can still be accomplished in 3 - 4 hours.

While the expansion releases are short you are still spending a large amount of time at each level. It still gives me around 3 - 4 months each level increase, so while I may not necessarily see every zone (some I dislike and would rather not see again), gain every item, I will easily be able to keep up with levels.

Lol. Well I was thinking if Selo's is going to be so hard and fast I'll lvl there and then flip over to Mangler for a week to max out a classic box. FYI selo's xp rates and increased rares are easy for anyone used to what these TLP servers are like.

By just playing both at first when it's still easy to still find groups if the one server doesn't do well then I'll still be set on the other server. I really look at the xp rates on both Selos and Mangler as a cakewalk after Coirnav.

The thing that'll change my mind really fast is if one or the other is a ghost town. I am casual and neither of these rules sets bother me but there's going to be a poll of sorts and people will vote at server selection. We will see soon enough but with Mangler having 3 month unlocks you still have tons of time to switch if you start on Selos.

I would be very interested in seeing your /played when PoP launches on Selo's and what level/AA count you are at. I suspect playing a max of 8 hours per week on average for those first 6 weeks wont come anywhere close to keeping up levels let alone AA's, but I may be wrong. Time will tell.

Both. I don't raid, so I'll spend a few days grinding out the new levels and essential AA's on Selos each month and then play the rest of the time on Mangler.