Servers
There are currently seven servers for PWI. All servers are named after cities in the game.
You can find the online/offline status of the servers and their current times here. Also, when you're logged into the game you can find the server time by opening the Encyclopedia, clicking "Events", and the server time will be displayed there.
Servers are normally only down for about 2 hours from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning for maintenance/updates (approximately 11 PM to 1 AM Pacific Time). You can check the General Discussion section of the forums Tuesday evening to see whether or not they are having maintenance and what the estimated time range is.
Server List
Lost City - This is a West Coast PvP (Player versus Player) server.
Heaven's Tear - This is a West Coast PvE (Player versus Environment) server.
Sanctuary - This is a West Coast PvE server.
Archosaur - This is a West Coast PvE server.
Harshlands - This is an East Coast PvP server.
Dreamweaver - This is an East Coast PvE server.
Raging Tide - This is an East Coast PvE server.
East Coast servers will be on EST (Eastern Standard Time) or EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), depending on whether daylight savings time is in effect, which is UTC/GMT (Universal Time Code/Greenwich Mean Time) -5 or -4, respectively. West Coast servers will be on PST (Pacific Standard Time) or PDT, which is UTC/GMT -8 or -7. This means that if, for example, you are in the UK (UTC/GMT +0) that the City of Abominations, which opens at 8:50 PM Wednesdays server time, will be open at 1:50 AM Thursdays UK time for East Coast servers (when on EST), and 4:50 AM Thursdays UK time for West Coast servers (when on PST).
The East Coast servers are newer than all of the West Coast servers except Archosaur, so there are slightly fewer high level players on the East Coast servers. The Archosaur server is the newest of all of the servers (opened on March 17, 2010). The oldest server is the Etherblade server, which was used in the beta release, and is now only used as a test server (you cannot play on the Etherblade server).
On PvP servers, once you reach level 30 then anyone can attack your character and you can attack anyone else.
On PvE servers, players normally can only attack each other if they go into PK (Player Killing) mode, which lasts for 10 hours minimum. (There are still a few areas, such as some rooms in the Cube of Fate, in which PK is always enabled.)
Selecting a Server
When choosing a server you should probably base it on the one with the lowest ping time (for example, a 47ms time means faster communications and less delay than a 125ms server; you should see the times when selecting the server before you logon), what timezone (East or West) works best for you, and whether it is PvE or PvP, depending on which you prefer.
Character Name Exclusiveness
The database of character names on some servers is shared, so if you create a character on one of those servers, that character's name will be unavailable on some of the other servers. This is so that, if it is ever needed, those servers can be merged. Currently there are five name databases:
PvE West: Heaven's Tear, Sanctuary, Archosaur
PvP West: Lost City
PvE East: Dreamweaver
PvE East: Raging Tide
PvP East: Harshlands
(original source and a correction)
Server IP Addresses
If you need to troubleshoot latency, connection, or DNS issues, here are the IP addresses for the various servers that PWI uses:
Website
http://www.perfectworld.com/
64.74.129.32
64.74.129.33
Patch Servers
http://pwipatch.perfectworld.com/patch/
http://pwi-patch.perfectworld.com/patch/
66.114.49.56
66.114.49.65
Sanctuary (PVE) pwigc2.perfectworld.com
29000:64.74.134.24
29000:64.74.134.25
29000:64.74.134.47
29000:64.74.134.48
29000:64.74.134.49
29000:64.74.134.50
29000:64.74.134.51
29000:64.74.134.52
Lost City (PVP) pwigc3.perfectworld.com
29000:64.74.134.31
29000:64.74.134.32
29000:64.74.134.53
29000:64.74.134.54
29000:64.74.134.55
29000:64.74.134.56
29000:64.74.134.57
29000:64.74.134.58
Heaven's Tear (PVE) pwigc4.perfectworld.com
29000:64.74.134.38
29000:64.74.134.39
29000:64.74.134.59
29000:64.74.134.60
29000:64.74.134.61
29000:64.74.134.62
29000:64.74.134.63
29000:64.74.134.64
Archosaur (PVE) pwiwest4.perfectworld.com
29000:64.74.134.26
29000:64.74.134.27
29000:64.74.134.29
29000:64.74.134.30
29000:64.74.134.33
29000:64.74.134.34
29000:64.74.134.36
29000:64.74.134.37
Harshlands (PVP) pwieast1.perfectworld.com
29000:74.201.183.17
29000:74.201.183.18
29000:74.201.183.19
29000:74.201.183.20
Dreamweaver (PVE) pwieast2.perfectworld.com
29000:74.201.183.24
29000:74.201.183.25
29000:74.201.183.26
29000:74.201.183.27
Raging Tide (PVE) pwieast3.perfectworld.com
29000:74.201.183.66
29000:74.201.183.67
29000:74.201.183.68
29000:74.201.183.69
