I was just musing over this and thought despite the ongoing down-time we’re experiencing, this is a very clever decision overall. The down-time from the new living story is taking place now, rather than on the trial weekend, so they know the level of server bashing to expect + Trial accounts.
As the events are only in maps 25+, this clears out some of the zergs from the lower areas, such as Queensdale, to make them more new-player friendly, whilst spreading the load across all the maps (Well kinda).
The cities will also be busy as people wait out the next movement, adding to the feeling of a busy community. it also showcases that the living content is interesting and rewarding to players in the eyes of trial account holders.
The layout of the champions means that those that want to gather loot fairly easily can do so, without a poor new player getting a bad experience with the cave troll dying in seconds. I’m hoping they’ll still be some experienced players in the zone to help them along.
It also adds some extra encouragement to level up fast, though whether this is a good thing or not is not my place to say.
Anyone got any thoughts on this? Sorry if it’s been said before, but I can’t get search to work