Apollo-WoW Review | WoW Cataclysm Private Server ⇒ Apollo II

Are you one of the many players, who are searching for a Cataclysm Private Server? At this point, there aren't many Cata Servers to choose between, so you might as well pick the best server, right away.

If you have already searched for WoW Cataclysm Servers, then you might have heard of Apollo-WoW. If you haven't, then don't worry! We will cover Apollo-WoW from A to Z, and go through whether it's worth playing. 

Apollo-WoW has two realms (Apollo 1, and Apollo 2). The one we will be reviewing and referring to, in this article, will be Apollo-WoW 2, simply because it's newest and has the highest population and activity, between the two realms.

Apollo WoW is founded by Twinstar.cz which is a Czech project that was built in 2009, and is still running. While the administrators of Apollo WoW are Czech, there is also a large amount of people from the community, who's international. You can expect that most of the players are international, and speaking English, while a smaller portion are indeed only speaking Czech.Twinstar is a project which calls themselves as a top European Server, because of the focus they have towards delivering quality, and doing it for free. The Twinstar project originally launched the 2th of December 2008, on the older patches.

Since then, Twinstar.cz have been opening and closing several realms - depending on when they died out. Currently, they offer Vanilla (Kronos), Cataclysm (Apollo), Apollo-2, and they claim that they are also working on a Mist of Pandaria project, according to their website. There's however no ETA on the MoP project of Twinstar, at this time.

Source and references: https://www.twinstar-wow.com/, https://www.apollo-wow.com/

The server has adjusted XP rates, which was something a lot of people wanted. Currently, the XP rate is 3x, and a command to set it to 1X (or 2X) rates, if you want to experience an authentic blizzlike experience. The 3X XP rates are enough for some players, while others complain that it's still not enough.

Apollo-WoW is a PvP realm, offering Vanity Items and Characters in their shop. There's no items (besides from Vanity) that can get bought in the shop, nor can gold be bought; that's a good sign, if you dislike pay-2-win servers.

Apollo considers themselves as a Blizzlike server, who do not show their population. Therefore, there's actually no one (besides from GM's/Admins) that know the actual population. Luckily, addons and tricks exists to at least get an insight in an estimated amount. Because for many, population is a gamebreaker. Based on several testings, the population of Apollo (2) is estimated to be around 700 during the lowest-times (mornings etc), and around 1500 during peak-hours (evenings etc). It is one of the most populated/biggest Cataclysm Private Servers, if not the biggest one.

Regarding languages, Apollo has several channels available. They have a world, a character auction, and a global channel.In the world and character auction channels English, Czech and Slovak languages can be spoken. Keep that in mind - it's not a fully international server. The global channel is however strictly set to English only.

Apollo-WoW has three different realmlists available. Apollo might actually be the only server to offer that. The purpose is that you can get a different/better MS latency depending on which realmlist you are closest to. The realmlists of Apollo-WoW can be seen below:

• set realmlist login.apollo-wow.com
• #set realmlist login2.apollo-wow.com
• #set realmlist login3.apollo-wow.com

You have to choose one of them, as your realmlist. We recommend that you try them all three, and check which of the realmlist's you experience the best latency with. The closer you live to the server, the better latency you will have.

If you are concerned about quality on Cataclysm, you won't go wrong with Apollo. Currently, it might be the best WoW Cataclysm server - in terms of scripting and quality at least.

Before joining this server, you should know that the community (the wow players) of Apollo-WoW have complained about the management, and staff members of Apollo WoW. In particular about the community manager, and admin, called Faldal. Supposedly, he has been abusing his GM power and commands. The server is quite controversy because of these issues. For some, staff abuse is a total dealbreaker, which has led to a decision where many people has left the server, and is waiting for the next big WoW Cataclysm Server to arrive.

If you are concerned or curious about that accusation, you can read further about it here (it was a heat topic for a period): Reddit - apollo wow

If you are concerned about the progression, then you should keep on reading. Apollo-WoW is a progressive server, where content is being released time-by-time. The 29th of August 2020, the server released and opened up for 4.2 content (Rage of the Firelands). As a result, you can experience Firelands. A new boss in Baradin Hold was added too, among other things.

After they have fully progressed and launched their 4.3.4 WoW Cata Server, rumors claim that they will launch their Mist of Pandaria realm, which they have been working on for years now. If you're a fan of MoP, you might hope that these rumors become true. If you're just into Cataclysm, you might hope that a third WoW Apollo Cataclysm will be again.

If you've kept on reading to this point, you have heard of the pros, and the cons of the server. If you've scrolled down, that's okay too! We know this is an important bullet-point, and we will make sure to cover you well.

The quick answer is: yes. That means Apollo WoW could indeed be among the Best WoW Cataclysm Servers currently.

The more detailed and in-depth answer is: perhaps. Here comes an explanation:

There are several pros and cons, and if you value the cons higher than the pros, then Apollo is not for you. We have summarized the pros and cons down below:

Pros and Cons of Apollo Cataclysm WoW Server:

- Pros:

• Decent scripting and quality (especially in terms of quests)
• High population
• No Pay-2-Win system/cashgrab
• Still not fully progressed (currently at 4.2 patch)
• Still feels fresh and alive ingame. Plenty of guilds and groups for dungeons/raids

- Cons:

• Not a 100% international speaking server. The languages are English, Czech, and Slovak languages
• Staff and management issues. Proofs have been published that the Admins might be abusing their GM power
• Might launch a MoP server in the near future. (A con if you're only into Cataclysm). The Cataclysm realm is then likely to die out.
• Some class and raids issues. The top players have reported that the classes and raids do have quite important issues, as well as the movement system.

If you can live with the cons listed above, I would recommend you to play Apollo right away, and experience the WoW Cataclysm Private Server. After registering, you will need a Cataclysm WoW Client to launch the game.

If the cons are too big of a deal to you, I'm afraid there aren't other Cata Servers that are (as) big, currently.There are some servers on this expansion in development, such as Project-Neltharion, but none have an official release date. In that case, we can recommend considering a Cataclysm WoW Repack, if you want to be your own Gamemaster.