It really depends on what you expect from a server and what type of gameplay you want(pve, pve-c, pvp).
Official servers is the go to for many, however they have loads of problems, especially Exiled Lands servers, high ping problems which does seem to lower after retrying a few times, non responsive npc’s and thralls, stuttering, rubberbanding etc.
It seems to be worse on the more populated servers, I and a friend decided to start fresh on a new EL server and ended up on a server that seems to mostly have 5-10 players online, those with 10-20 ran absolutely horrible, so we quickly left those again.
General for all official servers is that even with Terms of Conduct rules and a zendesk report system, lots of players break the rules and spam gigantic structures, buildings, roads, bridges and so on in many of the popular places creating fps drop and lag + so much landclaim that it can be difficult to find a decent spot for a base.
We ended up on a quiet server where there isn’t too much landclaim and building spam, but still, probably 1 out of 3 players break the rules in different ways and some even look at it as their own private sandbox with little or no consideration to others.
Yes players can be reported and get their bases wiped, but more than often they return after a 2 weeks ban and do the same thing all over again that got them banned, also new players arrive doing the very same thing, it seems to be an impossible fight trying to clean up a server, not saying there isn’t decent players because there is, but those that don’t care about others just fill so much on most servers.

My recommendation is that you either accept that official servers mostly are overbuilt, full of serial refreshers and generally runs badly at times or simply pick a private server with good rules that are enforced, personally I would choose a private server over an official, sadly my friend does not want to play on private servers, so here we are :grin:

I know this wasn’t much of a recommendation, but do a bit of testing and scouting on a server before deciding to stay, I always do this before deciding on a server :slight_smile: