I had played briefly in 2019 and ended up on Indomitable at the time. I had actually forgotten about that and when I came back a couple of months ago I was surprised to find I had a forum and game account already.
Logged in, and amazingly enough, there was my roster of characters on Indomitable. About 5 of them, max was maybe level 14, all slotted up with TOs, broke, and nobody to play with at lower levels. So yeah, that shard had shrunken. After getting my bearings and realizing that transfers are free and character slots are essentially unlimited, I ended up settling down on Everlasting, Excelsior, and Torchbearer with different sets of toons. I tried to hold out for a while on Indomitable but it just worked out better for me to play on the more populated shards.
Excelsior is as busy as you could want and there is always something going on. Everlasting is a bit less populated but still enough going on where there are things to do, and I have made some friends there. Torchbearer is smaller, but has a good, welcoming and friendly community.
MMOs will always shrink, unless there is a steady influx of new blood and those new players are welcomed and helped by existing players. That is one thing that I have found consistent across all of the shards - everyone is helpful and understanding and new people are treated well.
