Guild Wars 2

I got my necro to about 60 when I quit to spvp because the 55+ zones consisted of about 5 people and heart quests were boring to grind solo.

If I were to start leveling another class would I find basically all the zones dead at this point aside from the starter zones?

Depends on the zone, usually I found more than 4 – 5 people per zone. Sadly at this point everyone prefers to level through crafting as most have trucks of materials left from their mains.

I have been leveling alts and haven’t found anywhere to be dead. In fact, I have had greater social experiences this time around. There are fewer people; consequently, people are more interested in working together and/or forming parties. I’ve yet to see anywhere ‘dead’ though.

It really depends on your world, friends, guild, and then of course altoholics.

On Tarnished Coast, there is still plenty of players in the low to mid level zones to group up with. It is hard to go to an area where there is barely anyone.

As well, I’d suggest finding yourself a good guild and some friends who also enjoy leveling alts. Doing things as a guild or with friends while leveling will help with the whole “dead zone” thing. Plus it helps leveling go by quick with friends/guildmates to chat with. Or ask around here on the forums. A lot of players will put up threads asking for others that want to level alts together. Great way to meet new friends too.

In all honesty, probably. I just did my 4th class to 80 and 90% of zones were dead on Blackgate. Most of the time I was alone and might see 3-4 people pass by. If there was an event getting 3-4 other people was incredibly rare, usually I was alone or there was 1 other person.

I’ve been running through most of the game zones completing them for the achievement. Across the board most seem to contain perhaps 5 people, though it can be hard to tell unless you end up at the same heart. If you check in /map you might find others willing to group – aside from that, it’s pretty lonely out there.

As others point out, it will probably differ from your home world, and also the zone you visit. But another important factor is the time you play. I am often a night owl, playing from midnight to early morning. During these hours, on a EU server, I do not really see all that many players around, maybe 3-4 per zone I complete. When I play during more normal hours however, prime time (5pm-10pm), I see 20-40(+) players about in more or less all zones. So I wouldn’t be worried about it feeling empty and dead, if you play on more prime time hours for your world. Weekends should also be good for having the social aspect around you at earlier/later hours.

Yeah, depends on when you play. I think that’s the biggest factor, really. During primetime, its mostly ok. Other times, yeah not a lot of people around.

At least for now there seems to always be a at least a few people around in lower level zones. My guess for the future is the overflow servers only existed because ArenaNet programmed for underflow servers that will eventually combine low population zones together while leveling. Too much of this game depends on population to allow zones to be empty.

For the most part, yes.

eh, starter areas are fairly active in fort aspenwood. actually, most areas are. it’s very rare for me to not spot players whenever i’m exploring, even when i go to really “niche” areas.

There are a lot more people in the zone than you probably realize.
Best thing you can do it call out a DE in map chat and LINK the nearest (non-contested) waypoint and tell what direct from the waypoint.

Eg. DE west of [waypoint]

People tend to show up if they know something is going on and where to go.

That only works if there’s one DE you really want to do. If there are unchecked DEs all over the place, and you just want to be able to do any of them.. shouting in /map probably won’t help.

It’s fairly empty, or at least it seems to be. But when a DE comes up there always seems to be people gathering around for it, maybe not right at the start but I usually see at least 5 or 6 by the time it finishes. For the big events there usually is always quite a few people.

How will it be a few months from now? Not sure but every mmo has very low pops in the leveling zones after a while (especially in the mid level zones, they seem to be the most sparsely populated in every mmo).

If you play in the morning, you won’t be seeing many players :p But in the afternoon/evening, there are plenty most of everywhere. As others have said, that will also depend on the server you’re on.

And yes, announcing an event in the map chat (+linking the nearest waypoint) usually makes someone show up as well.

I find the mid level zones to be the most empty because there are so many zones u can level in, and unless ur main story quests takes u to said zone it really lies on where the player wants to go…while the newbie and end game zones are more forced so are generally more player filled …though I did notice a drop in pop from my first 80 to my 2nd 80, working on my 3rd atm but its a minion/condition necro so solo isnt too hard less its a group event lol

As the zones never really get “outleveled” (except for the starting zones maybe, for a portion of players), it will never be empty. Relative to the player base, ofc.

it’s actually rather noisy in queensdale or in some of the 1-15 maps on TC)

They will be one person less dead than if you didn’t. This is about as much as I can tell you because that really depends on so many things.

Jemmi.6058:

I have been leveling alts and haven’t found anywhere to be dead. In fact, I have had greater social experiences this time around. There are fewer people; consequently, people are more interested in working together and/or forming parties. I’ve yet to see anywhere ‘dead’ though.

Same for me. I have altaholism and have yet to find a dead zone. In fact, I’m actually meeting new people/making new friends this go-round.

The Ebonhawke chain of maps is fairly dead on Henge, but there are still a few people on each map. Most of the time, we can get a pseudo-group together to knock out the harder DE’s.

Anywhere with a dungeon, anywhere with a dragon(*), anywhere with T6 crafting ingredients, and 1-15 areas tend to be fairly packed. The rest do thin out, but not completely to emptiness of real people.

• Though, my Shatterer the other day was a 12 person fight, and that’s after the 5 of us who started it called for backup from guildmates

Just levelled a new char on Piken in the last week, it’s one of the lower populated servers

You still meet people every couple of minutes in every lowbie zone

They are usually terrible, which leads me to think they are newbies to the game

I created an alt, level 20 ele and from that zone, it’s a bloody ghost town.

-From Borlis Pass

I doubt it, Sprawl. I’ve started building up my mesmer now that my thief is 80, and Queensdale is almost as lively as it was during launch. Not quite at the point where overflow servers come into play, but nearly.

And no, those weren’t bots hanging out with my little Asura. Not unless they’re now being programmed to shout “FML” in /say when downed.

The solution is for Anet to bring about server-shared maps. Other than the human maps, most pre-70 maps are very dead with the exception of some bot trains running around.

Anet needs to come up with map sharing. 3-5 Servers sharing the same map would help bolster the pre-70 maps.

I find that even at 80 I am spending time in some lower level zones now because of the karma pots. Orr doesn’t have the variety of creatures to get the daily so, I usually go to Gendarian Fields to gank a few critters. I say this because If, while there, I spot someone needing a hand or an open DE I will help. So I suppose the karma pots are one way that ANet is trying to get players to spread out a bit (even if only for a little while).

Human and Norn I still find populated, sylvari and charr I find a bit sparce when I go through their zones.

But I think around level 20-30 all the races converge so even if you do get into a dead zone with very few players it won’t last long.