Guild Wars 2

So I am currently (still) downloading GW2, about 12hours in, 73% hope to get an hour of play in befor days end, with luck. Read mostly good if not great reviews on the game and decided to try it out.
Can anyone tell me what the starting areas are like as far as number of players? Are new players still coming into GW2? Just have a slight fear the lower level content might be a bit of a ghost town at this point, this the case?
See you in a few more hours, looking foward!

As an established player who’s been leveling a few alts:

The newbie areas are ghost towns. Sorry. :/

Certainly less populated than at launch but the noob zones aren’t dead. The human area tends to have the most people running around. You can go to any noob area regardless of your race btw so it doesn’t really matter.

On my own server Desolation EU I always see people around in zones. It depends on the server you join

Fay’s got a point, it does depend on server and I can only speak for Stormbluff Isle.

Not exactly “ghost towns” on my server, yet not exactly “zerg mobs” like they were on release.

After the 25th however I expect the starting zones will be packed again temporarily, enjoy the peace while you can =P

It depends largely on the server. I am on Isle of Janthir and see people everywhere. In the last 2 weeks I started a guardian alt and a thief alt and the low level areas for both Human and Norn respectfully were well populated.

Obviously it’s not AS populated as it was at launch, and never will be again (save for some special events) but on my server at least it is far from empty.

Welcome to GW add HyDraLiNsK.2470 in game if you want!

Hm I would suggest make a chararcter on a server thats high up in WvWvW rankings since those servers are populated the most.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Updated-World-Ratings-Dec-7/first#post947794

Well I wasn’t expecting release day population counts :P Long as there is a few folks around i can help out vise versa, I’ll be looking for a US (east) server, any suggestions?

Thnx for replies, seems friendly out there.

Definitely do some research on servers as they define your experience, especially getting started. After the last patch I had to transfer and have found Yak’s Bend to be good. Take note of the suggestions, make a list (as you might have trouble getting into a full server), and select a populated server. Best wishes; you’ll have a blast starting out.

I play on an EU server. I am from the US. During the EU prime time its ok low level population time. Stay in the first few human zones you tend to see more people. I suppose the human avatar is what people like.

Kromsin.6359:

I suppose the human avatar is what people like.

Most played race.

Well thats funny, I was pretty much set on Human for race choice. So in general, like Regizer said, the higher ranked WvW servers are more populated?

Nutbuter.3714:

Well thats funny, I was pretty much set on Human for race choice. So in general, like Regizer said, the higher ranked WvW servers are more populated?

That first guy is from SBI which is pretty highly ranked so it’s kind of a crapshoot. High wvw rank means that a larger portion of your player base is focused on wvw which might actually mean lower pve populations. It really depends.

WELCOME TO THE GAME!

Right off the bat you’ll have access to all 5 racial cities, their corresponding starter areas, and Lions Arch, the central hub of the game. So you’ll easily be able to find people.

The starter areas are lower pop, but still used quite a bit by noobs and non noobs. Quite a few people are still in starter areas for lvl’ing alts and doing daily achievements. But yes, human areas will be more pop bc more ppl play human toons.

Also, Wintersday, a two week+ event starts at the end of the week, so tons of ppl will be playing and it’s a great time to get into the game. This will give you a few days to wet your feet bf the festivities begin.

SERVER: Here are the WvW rankings. Generally, I would stay away from the top ranked servers as they will probably full and more focused on wvw than pve/pvx (but maybe you want a wvw server?). I believe 4 servers, Isle of Janthir being one of them, are deemed oceanic servers and are a good mix of NA and Australian time zones. The rest are just typical NA server except for Tarnished Coast which is the unofficial Role Playing server. I am on TC and it has a great PvE community. And you can freely transfer servers once a week. So don’t feel to pressured on finding the perfect one right off the bat.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Updated-World-Ratings-Dec-7

I’m on the east coast as well. Add me once you’re in game. IGN: Breck

Orion.7264:

Fay’s got a point, it does depend on server and I can only speak for Stormbluff Isle.

I’m also on stormbluff and I can assure you that there’s plenty of people in the lower lvl areas. The server is very busy. Even in the lvl 1 zones I almost always have multiple people doing every event.

So a “high” pop server may not be the best if the population centers on pvp or pve.. hm yeah bit of a stab in the dark i guess. I see myself being more of a PvE guy doing dungeons ect, with some pvp thrown in..

PvE and WvWvW tend to go well together since you can use same gear in both. So if the server focuses on WvW then they also must be gearing up through PvE dungeons.

Desolation has some people in the newbie areas, depends on the time you play. I walk around doing world completion and see a number of people (more lately). Its EU server, but I suggest you to play on the top rated WvW US server. Strength in numbers is the only thing that really matters in WvW, so the higher the rank means the higher the population.

So how much is a server transfer? Nah I’m sure I’ll make a nice home where ever it may be.
Thnx much for insights guys!

Say, whats the chances I have to DL patches after this massive download of the game? peace

Nutbuter.3714:

So how much is a server transfer? Nah I’m sure I’ll make a nice home where ever it may be.
Thnx much for insights guys!

It’s free with a 7 day cooldown I believe

Reaver.9256:

Orion.7264:

Fay’s got a point, it does depend on server and I can only speak for Stormbluff Isle.

I’m also on stormbluff and I can assure you that there’s plenty of people in the lower lvl areas. The server is very busy. Even in the lvl 1 zones I almost always have multiple people doing every event.

You must be either lucky, or I’m very unlucky. I’ve been bouncing around through charr, human, and norn starting areas on a couple new characters on SBI and have only seen a couple other people. I end up soloing a lot of events.

I have to say that after the Lost Shores patch, I’ve noticed a pretty sizable activity decline. Less people in starting areas, less people in WvW (leading to our drop from #1 to #3), less people running dungeons; I’m hoping Wintersday brings some people back, and that the fix for Fractals and Ascended gear acquisition rolls out soon. Seems to me that a lot of players got burnt out over frustrations with the karka event and having to do one particular activity to get their new gear tier.

Nutbuter.3714:

So how much is a server transfer? Nah I’m sure I’ll make a nice home where ever it may be.
Thnx much for insights guys!

Server transfers are currently free, but limited to once every 7 days.

Nutbuter.3714:

Well thats funny, I was pretty much set on Human for race choice. So in general, like Regizer said, the higher ranked WvW servers are more populated?

My personal hunch on server populations is that you’ll want one that’s not too full. I’d go for High, but not Very High or Full; since the latter are harder to get into, more players get funneled into the low-pop servers, meaning that the ratio of new players to established players will be in your favor for finding people in the newbie areas.

The client you are downloading should contain all current patches (I believe). So hopefully you won’t have anything else to DL.

I love running people through the newbie areas, but unfortunately my server is full every day until at least 1 AM, so you’re probably not going to be on mine.

New zones aren’t exactly dead. still lots of folks over at gerrandan fields to take out the centuar overloard guy.

Welcome!

Hope you enjoy the game. I don’t know how difficult it is to get on these days, but I “live” on Tarnished Coast. While the starting areas are not as busy as at launch, there are definitely people around. As others have mentioned, the human areas seem to be the most populous.

Bear in mind also that while it can be fun to group in this game, most PvE content (excluding dungeons) is actually fairly easy to solo, which means you will not be dependent on grouping in order to level.

The main problem for new players is nowadays, any server that is not full is pretty much ghost towns.

All servers with people are pretty much full all day except for like 3-4am when new slots are open up briefly before they are snapped up by people camping those slots.