Guild Wars 2

I have been to Dragon Stand on and off this entire week and yet every time I arrive the maps are empty and nobody is even there except maybe a couple at the first camp. Once in a while I see another player running solo. Here’s the problem the Meta isn’t being done at all…

What use is a map that you can’t even accomplish events when you’re sitting there all alone. It may be necessary that at the hour left to reset mark to change the mobs to something a solo/ small group can handle it. I would prefer the solo be in the works so events can start early, it would also encourage people to just to start doing events. There will be an influx of players in the expansion that bought HoT but that isn’t going to be their focus with new material.

There is recipies, gear, and other goals to complete there, can we please get a playable upgrade to the map. The other HoT zones so far haven’t been so far gone with small pops but they could use a scale down to LS3 material to prevent the areas from becoming dead zones.

I have a few achievements that should have been doable over my week off. But a dead map is a dead map.

On EU DS is still run at most times of the day, make sure you use a timer site and LFG to find a group and get a map, start looking ~15-30mins before the meta is due to start and you should have no trouble finding a squad. If you are just turning up at random times, or joining a map without a squad then chances are you will land in a mostly empty map.

If you do end up in an empty map and there’s still a reasonable amount of time left it is occasionally still possible to salvage it if you can quickly tag up and persuade others to as well, once you’ve got a few tags up all with the groups listed you might still be able to get enough numbers to do it.

edit – btw for a lot of masteries / achieves a large amount can be gotten on a dead map, it’s only the towers & final area that are locked by the meta. For exploring lots of the enemy patrols can be easily avoided.

The maps are always empty because people that show up specifically for the meta use LFG to join the main maps and the population is too low to fill them naturally, unlike AB. Full maps are also much easier to play in due to the way scaling works, which is why it became popular in the first place. It should be a simple problem to fix however, since they only need to drop the megaserver logic, but that won’t happen since they’ve intentionally done it this way to prioritize friends playing together.

No, Dragon Stand is always full and busy, just not the instance you get into when you simply port to it at random times. Don’t do that, instead open LFG 10 to 15 minutes before the meta starts and join a squad. Then join the squad’s instance.

As others have said, use the LFG tool. Look for a taxi group, getting people together for the next map reset. Join the map. If it’s full and you can’t, try to find another.

There are times when there just aren’t any good groups running, but I’ve found it pretty easy to get a group most of the time.

…but again, as others said, don’t just port into the map, hoping to find a group ready to go. Unfortunately, that almost never works.

If you want to do Dragons Stand:

1) Check what time the meta-event starts.
2) Enter the map about 10 minutes before that.
3) Open the LFG tool and look for squads on the map, specifically event taxis.
4) Join one and when the map resets either you’ll be put into the correct map automatically or you can right-click the commander and pick ‘Join in Dragon’s Stand’ to join their map.

You might then need to switch squads as sometimes there are separate ones for getting people in and actually leading the lanes, but you can sort that out with the people in the map once you’re in.

As other people have said organised maps tend to fill up quickly, at least to the point where the game won’t drop random extra people into them, so it’s highly unlikely you’ll go straight into a busy, organised map.

(Also don’t forget to give yourself plenty of time to do the whole meta-event and to explore afterwards. There’s many things that can only be done after the meta event has been completed but people rarely advertise maps at that point because they want people to help with the meta.)

Yup, as above really. You need to use an external website to find out when the meta starts if you want a chance of completing it. As a design decision, it sucks.

As the game has developed I seem to be spending more and more time on other websites trying to find out how to do something in game.

Wow, that would put off a lot of new people. It makes the zone look dead. Especially since other zones appear to have lots of people running around them. I was wondering why the map was so empty myself. Now I know, thanks.

It’s a bit like the Triple Trouble event. If you just move to the zone randomly, you’ll not have enough people to do it, and even if you have enough pugs, you will not succeed. TT requires an organised group with experienced players. You need to check the event timer and get in contact with a community that organises a run.

It’s nothing new that only came with HoT.

Here’s a question…Why are there so few players that Zones don’t naturally fill up?
I’ve wondered this for a long time now.

I’ve always been against the third party website…only in the sense that you really do HAVE to use that system in order to play the game.

I am not opposed to 3rd party stuff outright BUT, opposed to it when it’s needed…and not just a nice thing someone has done.

However truth be told, if we didn’t have megaserver…I’d believe maps being empty was due to nothing quite being wrong with the content…but with all the Good Megaservers do, and STILL People are saying Maps are always empty.

Suggests more that the player-base has moved on for various reasons: Mostly bad, some typical, and a few good reasons.

People saying No, it’s always full…well obviously it’s not…

Taltevus.3289:

Here’s a question…Why are there so few players that Zones don’t naturally fill up?
I’ve wondered this for a long time now.

I’ve always been against the third party website…only in the sense that you really do HAVE to use that system in order to play the game.

I am not opposed to 3rd party stuff outright BUT, opposed to it when it’s needed…and not just a nice thing someone has done.

However truth be told, if we didn’t have megaserver…I’d believe maps being empty was due to nothing quite being wrong with the content…but with all the Good Megaservers do, and STILL People are saying Maps are always empty.

Suggests more that the player-base has moved on for various reasons: Mostly bad, some typical, and a few good reasons.

People saying No, it’s always full…well obviously it’s not…

Dragon Stand is the excecption to the rule because the zone was designed as a single giant dynamic event and there is no specific reason to be there between times that events run. It would be like if the only event in Metrica Province was the Fire Ele and the pres for the fire ele. Most people have no reason to go there when those events aren’t up.

But let’s just be practical for 1 second. Let’s say each map can hold 150 people max and 305 people are doing dragon stand. That means 2 maps fill up and five people are left over without being able to get into either of the other full maps.

Saying that the zone isn’t empty doesn’t mean that no map will ever be empty. It means that every time the event comes up, someone is running it. Knowing how to get into the full map is an issue with the game. A lot of people don’t even bother using LFG, never mind a timer site.

But if you get to Dragon Stand between runs, you’re going to find empty maps because there’s no other reason to be there. This logic affects no other map in the game.

Zones don’t fill up naturally because of a weird design decision. HoT maps are built like giant raids or guild missions but are implemented as open world maps. When people go to AB or DS they want to do a meta event. If you miss that meta event restart window of around 10 minutes then you have to taxi on a map that does the event, wait for the next cycle or play on a low population version that is not focused on the main event.

Taltevus.3289:

People saying No, it’s always full…well obviously it’s not…

No one is saying that every instance of DS runs full, there are empty instances if you join at a random time. What we are simply explaining to the OP is that his/her claim of “Here’s the problem the Meta isn’t being done at all…”, with the implication that no-one in/is doing DS, is simply incorrect. As there are people always doing the meta at pretty much every run throughout the day, it just requires looking in the LFG 15mins or so before, so he/she can join one of those maps. (Again at least on EU, I don’t know what NA & Oceania are like).

The other thing worth mentioning on DS, is I’ve occasionally gone in late/joined a squad but found the squads map is full, and often there have been around 25ish people around the WP with me who presumably weren’t able to get into map as well, and on those occasions it seems often none of them will be prepared to tag up and try to get a map going, so in that respect sometimes players seem to write it off as an empty map without even trying to make it work.

On those occasions if I chuck my tag up & get a group listed, then a lot the time others will tag up too, and the map can be saved as the 2 hour time window is pretty generous for getting it done, so even if 20+mins has passed it’s still possible to succeed. It’s just for some reason lots of people never want to be the first to get things started.

It’s mathematically likely that, without using LFG, you’ll end up in empty maps even during meta prep periods:

• If a map is preparing for meta, it fills quickly; you won’t get in without being in group due to the so-called “soft-cap”.
• Those using LFG who spawn into a low-pop map will move to a high pop map.
• Those who remain will feel as if they have been abandoned — while technically true, that can be solved by starting new LFGs.

Or in other words, use of LFG is often the difference between feeling that the maps are always populated and feeling left out. It’s obviously easier to join someone else’s LFG, but don’t be afraid to start your own — if you LFG it, they will come (providing there’s enough time before the meta).

So now it’s a Dungeon? Needing LFG…

It’s a map with vistas, POI, rewards for map completion, and so on.

This isn’t normal structure anywhere else in the game. Then it relies on 3rd party to actually do the map? That makes the game incomplete.

I’m not against shifting to LFG, but given Anet doesn’t explain any of this in game is really an issue. There needs to be an option to work on map completion not just Meta, but as pointed out 305 players means two playable zones and five players that can’t play as they go, which if I remember correctly is what GW2 is about?

VB, AB, and Tangled Depths don’t prevent exploration and content collection to this degree. It should be scaled down to a small group, this would also open up organic map progression with players able to work on map material without needing a huge mass of players in one place.

I’ve beaten world bosses with 20 or less. So why must this map be soo restrictive?

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

So now it’s a Dungeon? Needing LFG…

It’s a map with vistas, POI, rewards for map completion, and so on.

This isn’t normal structure anywhere else in the game. Then it relies on 3rd party to actually do the map? That makes the game incomplete. ?

What do you mean 3rd party? LFG is part of the game, within the game itself (Press Y and then LFG tab). DS is different from the other HoT maps because it is designed to just be one big meta event and due to the mega server system it makes sense to use LFG to hop into a more organized instance to have a better chance to succeed.

The other maps also do better when joining an organized instance but it’s not quite as inherent. It’s just simply how the map works, it’s fine if you don’t like it but it’s not hard to click a couple of buttons to get into an organized instance nor is it that hard to look up a timer.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

So now it’s a Dungeon? Needing LFG…

It’s a map with vistas, POI, rewards for map completion, and so on.

This isn’t normal structure anywhere else in the game. Then it relies on 3rd party to actually do the map? That makes the game incomplete.

I’m not against shifting to LFG, but given Anet doesn’t explain any of this in game is really an issue. There needs to be an option to work on map completion not just Meta, but as pointed out 305 players means two playable zones and five players that can’t play as they go, which if I remember correctly is what GW2 is about?

VB, AB, and Tangled Depths don’t prevent exploration and content collection to this degree. It should be scaled down to a small group, this would also open up organic map progression with players able to work on map material without needing a huge mass of players in one place.

I’ve beaten world bosses with 20 or less. So why must this map be soo restrictive?

You can complete nearly all of DS without doing the meta. There are several other maps that gate access to some of the map completion bits (none in Core, as far as I know; just in HoT).

I’m not sure why ANet set it up this way and I’m not big fan of metas that go by a clock. But it’s not onerous; it’s just different.

The Meta was fine, it’s the hard reset that limits player interaction that is a problem.

I’ve done the Meta and used to just pop in there and could at least hit a populated map doing progression. With the reliance on LFG to fix issues with both the mega server and the hard reset. It’s actually reduced players being able to play the meta. You can be in a meta and then die and to port to a WP if you’re not grouped it removes you from the meta just like a dungeon would. Second problem is catching up with the mass can be nigh impossible after a death even if you’re still on the map. The central gate that opens is never unpopulated by powerful mobs, there’s even an elite at the opening. There is no WP or shortcut to catch up, except for port to friend.

I went to DS last night at 9:20 eastern. The entry waypoint was surrounded by people. I spotted a blue tag and squadjoined it, finding myself in a nearly full squad aimed at North lane. Didn’t even need LFG. Bantered with the squad until we taxied to the new reset map (and people in squad volunteered to tag up for Mid and South), then hopped over to Mid lane and joined the tag there since I was doing the run to get an electric wyvern pet.

We just steamrolled through. Thornhearts melted in seconds, Wurms only needed two or three Vinetender kills, mordrem boss went down super fast so the boss team went to help South finish its zerg, Mouth was done in two burns.

So no, far from dead.

Though I was surprised not to need to check LFG; I just happened to land in the map that was organizing, but the commander did put up a notice so others joined from elsewhere. I even got a guildie into my Mid squad just as events started when I was worried things would be too full for her.

I do prefer the organic nature of Silverwastes where player action advances the meta, but every time I feel like a DS run, I find a successful one — even if I have to tag up and lead North myself to make it happen.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I have been to Dragon Stand on and off this entire week and yet every time I arrive the maps are empty and nobody is even there except maybe a couple at the first camp. Once in a while I see another player running solo. Here’s the problem the Meta isn’t being done at all…

What use is a map that you can’t even accomplish events when you’re sitting there all alone. It may be necessary that at the hour left to reset mark to change the mobs to something a solo/ small group can handle it. I would prefer the solo be in the works so events can start early, it would also encourage people to just to start doing events. There will be an influx of players in the expansion that bought HoT but that isn’t going to be their focus with new material.

There is recipies, gear, and other goals to complete there, can we please get a playable upgrade to the map. The other HoT zones so far haven’t been so far gone with small pops but they could use a scale down to LS3 material to prevent the areas from becoming dead zones.

I have a few achievements that should have been doable over my week off. But a dead map is a dead map.

It’s annoying. I’m not a fan of a map that has an event you absolutely need to do all the way through in order to get map completion. Or a map that “ends” and kicks everyone out of. All the conventional wisdom about taxiing, timing, LFG, etc, etc. hasn’t really helped me much here. Something always goes wrong.

I run out of time to play before finding a large group, the group I get into gets split up when the map switches, the group I get into is too small and more people don’t come along before the map is no longer “viable” for the event, there are no LFG groups listed that evening, all the groups in LFG are playing on “closed” or full maps, etc. I could keep going. I didn’t have these problems nearly as often when the maps were new. It seems to be a thing in the last few months that I’ve had so much trouble.

I think the difficulty in finding a run can turn off new players. I’ve seen complaints to this effect in the maps I’ve been in. New players especially don’t understand why the event doesn’t work like other maps that don’t “close.” Or why they can’t finish their maps without the event (the areas just remain open all the time). They don’t know if they want to buy the new expansion and get more of the same, etc. I wish I had a way to alleviate their concerns, but I just don’t.

Yes, DS is different than other maps, and maybe it’s closer to a huge dungeon than a normal Tyria map. But maybe that’s the reason why it’s considered by many people the most fun meta in the game?

When you do the meta, you know almost everybody is there to do the meta (except when DS is the daily event map). You finish the meta, loot and leave, like in a dungeon.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I have been to Dragon Stand on and off this entire week and yet every time I arrive the maps are empty and nobody is even there […]

Uhm, you do know that the event takes place on a meta map? So no wonder the normal map is empty.

You need to check the LFG and join an event squad minutes before the map event starts, then you will (most likely) be transferred to the same map as the rest of the people who are going to do the event.

The event takes place every two hours and is always well populated (most of the time, it’s full).

Ashantara.8731

Yes that had already been brought up. And yes got my Dark Harvester in my first LFG through there. I still think Anet should provide a tooltip about LFG for DS so players that go there hoping to get started on the area aren’t put off by the lack of people.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

Ashantara.8731

Yes that had already been brought up. And yes got my Dark Harvester in my first LFG through there. I still think Anet should provide a tooltip about LFG for DS so players that go there hoping to get started on the area aren’t put off by the lack of people.

It’s more than that. I teach this game to a lot of people because the game does a terrible job of teaching itself. This is truly one of the most bewildering things about this game to me.

There’s no built in timer, so you have to go to an external site, but how do the most causal players find out about this? The looking for group tool is hidden in the second tab of the friend’s list. There’s no real indication that you need it, and many people coming from other games probably think it’s only for dungeons and raids.

Neither break bars nor combo fields have any real tutorial, in spite of the fact that breaking the bar is so important during end game

This game does a very poor job of explaining itself. That’s why I work hard to explain the basics to as many people as I can reach, but it shouldn’t be up to people like me

Vayne.8563

Yes there’s a lot of info that is missing from ingame messages or training.

I forgot to add it also took two Port to Friends to get on the right server for the DS map I was in group with. If I hadn’t had those I wouldn’t have been able to get to the right DS map.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I forgot to add it also took two Port to Friends to get on the right server for the DS map I was in group with. If I hadn’t had those I wouldn’t have been able to get to the right DS map.

You could have right-clicked on one of them in the party window and joined the map instance.

Cool. Thanks, that will help with future groups still need the Bo and Torch.

Vayne.8563:

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

Ashantara.8731

Yes that had already been brought up. And yes got my Dark Harvester in my first LFG through there. I still think Anet should provide a tooltip about LFG for DS so players that go there hoping to get started on the area aren’t put off by the lack of people.

It’s more than that. I teach this game to a lot of people because the game does a terrible job of teaching itself. This is truly one of the most bewildering things about this game to me.

There’s no built in timer, so you have to go to an external site, but how do the most causal players find out about this? The looking for group tool is hidden in the second tab of the friend’s list. There’s no real indication that you need it, and many people coming from other games probably think it’s only for dungeons and raids.

Neither break bars nor combo fields have any real tutorial, in spite of the fact that breaking the bar is so important during end game

This game does a very poor job of explaining itself. That’s why I work hard to explain the basics to as many people as I can reach, but it shouldn’t be up to people like me

I agree the game really should do a much better job of teaching new players about LFG, and probably should find some way to make LFG more prominent, maybe have it on it’s own icon at the top, separate from friends/social, and it should probably explain in there somewhere about how map instances work / how to join instances, as things like that you do only find out from other players or forums etc.

That said I can in some ways see why a lot of things are left to be found out via 3rd party sites/methods. In that a couple of years ago I worked on a game in a phase where we were doing a build to send to a closed group of testers (mixed of all ages/levels/experiences of gamers).

We put controls / UI images with the controls explaining what buttons did / how mechanics worked, this appeared after the title screen so you had to view them. We put a tutorial section in which was a short playable interactive level to teach the controls an mechanics. And yet so much of the feedback we got from people was along the lines of “I didn’t know all of the controls” or “Oh I didn’t realise that mechanic did that”, “That button fires a special? It would have been easier if I’d know that”. So it’s amazing that even with tutorial information plastered in front of peoples faces, most people seem to just simply skip or don’t pay attention to it, then complain about not knowing it. Which from a developer point of view is incredibly frustrating, spending lots of time on creating tutorials / tutorial UI, only to realise that most people will probably ignore it!

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I still think Anet should provide a tooltip about LFG for DS so players that go there hoping to get started on the area aren’t put off by the lack of people.

You are absolutely right. In fact, Anet should provide content guidance about a lot of things in this game that are not self-explanatory. But for some reason they seem to think that it’s okay to have players do their own research on Wiki and Google instead — saves them time and resources, which is always the #1 excuse on here for why something that should be this or that way isn’t.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

Vayne.8563

Yes there’s a lot of info that is missing from ingame messages or training.

I forgot to add it also took two Port to Friends to get on the right server for the DS map I was in group with. If I hadn’t had those I wouldn’t have been able to get to the right DS map.

And this is exactly what I mean. Most people know that you can right click on someone in your party or squad and join them on their map without using a teleport to a friend, but it doesn’t really tell you that in game.

When I read stuff like this, it’s so frustrating because it gives people more impetus to come to forums to complain about how impossible it is to get into a dragon stand map and it’s really not. But the info on how to do it is like some arcane hidden secret that only members of our brotherhood can share. It’s ridiculous.

Had to do the dance again yesterday:
Show up 10 minutes before.
Pray LFG gets posted.
Yay, LFG posted, join.
Go to map.
“Join” the other map.
…Success. This time.
Wait for timer to run out.

DIE

Get unlucky and end up in a second map. Oh No!
“Join” the other map, AGAIN.
Proceed to moderately successful Dragon Stand run.

Bonus: At no point, out of 40 caches/pods, do I get more than 1 Crystalline Ore. Not a 3-drop, and certainly not a 10-drop.
ANet, I love you, but this needs to be fixed! It’s easier on the code to give ceil(sqrt(rand()*100)) ore than to contrive a 2% drop rate for anything more than 1.

You don’t need a third party site for a DS timer. Just type “/wiki Dragon Stand” in chat and it will give you an official wiki page with a timer.

Tasty Pudding.3764:

You don’t need a third party site for a DS timer. Just type “/wiki Dragon Stand” in chat and it will give you an official wiki page with a timer.

Still, when you are interested in events, there is no better source than GW2 Timer.

Funny thing with this map is, even if you show up ahead of time, it’s no guarantee.
one of the many maps becomes the main map, and everyone tries to get to it.
So you go there, wait out the blast, and then it’s anarchy.

Rauderi.8706:

Had to do the dance again yesterday:
Show up 10 minutes before.
Pray LFG gets posted.
Yay, LFG posted, join.
Go to map.
“Join” the other map.
…Success. This time.
Wait for timer to run out.

DIE

Get unlucky and end up in a second map. Oh No!
“Join” the other map, AGAIN.
Proceed to moderately successful Dragon Stand run.

Bonus: At no point, out of 40 caches/pods, do I get more than 1 Crystalline Ore. Not a 3-drop, and certainly not a 10-drop.
ANet, I love you, but this needs to be fixed! It’s easier on the code to give ceil(sqrt(rand()*100)) ore than to contrive a 2% drop rate for anything more than 1.

I had forgotten how much I disliked the HoT maps until I came back and attempted to got on one. Of all the games I have played, HoT is my most disliked expansion. HoT still remains very anti casual and elitist focused. For someone who really enjoyed base GW2, HoT was such a huge disappointment.

That being said, I am looking forward to Path of Fire. I like what I have seen so far of PoF. Hopefully, Arena Net included content for everybody this time.

You don’t even need a timer. Find out when it is just once. Is it half past an odd hour or half past an even hour? Whichever it is in your time zone, it will be like that for a very long time, until there is a time change like Daylight Savings. Is it up at 1:30 for you? Then every day it will be up at 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, etc. If you ever forget when it’s up, check a timer any time you like during the day, then you’ll know it’s every two hours from the next scheduled time.

Donari.5237:

You don’t even need a timer. Find out when it is just once. Is it half past an odd hour or half past an even hour? Whichever it is in your time zone, it will be like that for a very long time, until there is a time change like Daylight Savings. Is it up at 1:30 for you? Then every day it will be up at 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, etc. If you ever forget when it’s up, check a timer any time you like during the day, then you’ll know it’s every two hours from the next scheduled time.

Shouldn’t be that difficult to provide this kind of information within the game. It’s a mid-tier QoL I would like.

Not that time-tracking isn’t my biggest complaint with Dragon Stand. And I don’t mind using the wiki so much. /wiki et and, bam, full listing of what’s going on, so I can plan. And super thanks to the wiki folks to built that tracker.

Pro tip: show up early
Thats all you gotta do

If you show up when the meta starts, all the maps will be full because of how popular the meta is (and for good reason honestly)

So yeah. Get there maybe 15 minutes early, and youll find a group

I was about to state exactly the same thing about the emptiness, will Arena update the worlds at some point so that this endless battle is over one day and turn that area into a more explorable place rather than a barren land of death mobs, basically Queensdale it.

Flubbernaut.9584:

Pro tip: show up early
Thats all you gotta do

If you show up when the meta starts, all the maps will be full because of how popular the meta is (and for good reason honestly)

So yeah. Get there maybe 15 minutes early, and youll find a group

Doesnt work for DS, new maps spawn after the blast, wether youre an hour early or 1m, only until the blast can you start spamming to get on the meta map

Spinex.3695:

I was about to state exactly the same thing about the emptiness, will Arena update the worlds at some point so that this endless battle is over one day and turn that area into a more explorable place rather than a barren land of death mobs, basically Queensdale it.

It’s by design. Unlike the other HoT maps, the meta is the entire thing from start to finish. So there isn’t much point to being there if you aren’t doing the meta. That’s why you see dead maps when you go there. The map(s) that are doing the meta have already filled up and the map you’re on is empty because anyone who shows up there will leave, either joining a meta map or finding them full and moving on to something else.

Try showing up just before the dragon clears the map. Either the map you’re on will begin to fill up and organize or you can use LFG to join a map that is. If you show up later than this, chances are the meta maps will already have filled up and all other instances will be dead maps. That’s just how DS works.

To the new/returning players who think HoT is dead:

DS (and all of the other HoT maps) are quite active. However, a side-effect of meta maps and the megaserver system is that you often can’t just show up on a map and complete the meta. While you’re standing around waiting for the map to organize, chances are other maps are organizing and players are leaving your map for those organized maps.

Be aware of when the meta occurs for the map you’re on and use LFG to get to organized maps or you’ll find yourself hopping from one dead map to another wondering where everybody went. That’s why HoT appears “dead” when in fact it’s full of players. They all condensed onto maps that are now full, leaving depleted maps (your map!) behind.

Amaimon.7823:

Flubbernaut.9584:

Pro tip: show up early
Thats all you gotta do

If you show up when the meta starts, all the maps will be full because of how popular the meta is (and for good reason honestly)

So yeah. Get there maybe 15 minutes early, and youll find a group

Doesnt work for DS, new maps spawn after the blast, wether youre an hour early or 1m, only until the blast can you start spamming to get on the meta map

Actually usually there’s a commander tagging up on the old map that’s about to die. I join the squad, wait until I do, waypoint to the beginning then join on the commander’s map. So far that process has never let me down.

AliamRationem.5172:

Spinex.3695:

I was about to state exactly the same thing about the emptiness, will Arena update the worlds at some point so that this endless battle is over one day and turn that area into a more explorable place rather than a barren land of death mobs, basically Queensdale it.

It’s by design. Unlike the other HoT maps, the meta is the entire thing from start to finish. So there isn’t much point to being there if you aren’t doing the meta. That’s why you see dead maps when you go there. The map(s) that are doing the meta have already filled up and the map you’re on is empty because anyone who shows up there will leave, either joining a meta map or finding them full and moving on to something else.

Try showing up just before the dragon clears the map. Either the map you’re on will begin to fill up and organize or you can use LFG to join a map that is. If you show up later than this, chances are the meta maps will already have filled up and all other instances will be dead maps. That’s just how DS works.

To the new/returning players who think HoT is dead:

DS (and all of the other HoT maps) are quite active. However, a side-effect of meta maps and the megaserver system is that you often can’t just show up on a map and complete the meta. While you’re standing around waiting for the map to organize, chances are other maps are organizing and players are leaving your map for those organized maps.

Be aware of when the meta occurs for the map you’re on and use LFG to get to organized maps or you’ll find yourself hopping from one dead map to another wondering where everybody went. That’s why HoT appears “dead” when in fact it’s full of players. They all condensed onto maps that are now full, leaving depleted maps (your map!) behind.

Thank you for that reply.

It is nice to be back!

Vayne.8563:

Amaimon.7823:

Flubbernaut.9584:

Pro tip: show up early
Thats all you gotta do

If you show up when the meta starts, all the maps will be full because of how popular the meta is (and for good reason honestly)

So yeah. Get there maybe 15 minutes early, and youll find a group

Doesnt work for DS, new maps spawn after the blast, wether youre an hour early or 1m, only until the blast can you start spamming to get on the meta map

Actually usually there’s a commander tagging up on the old map that’s about to die. I join the squad, wait until I do, waypoint to the beginning then join on the commander’s map. So far that process has never let me down.

yea, that gives you an edge for already being in the squad, but it’s still no 100% guarantee, sadly

Amaimon.7823:

Vayne.8563:

Amaimon.7823:

Flubbernaut.9584:

Pro tip: show up early
Thats all you gotta do

If you show up when the meta starts, all the maps will be full because of how popular the meta is (and for good reason honestly)

So yeah. Get there maybe 15 minutes early, and youll find a group

Doesnt work for DS, new maps spawn after the blast, wether youre an hour early or 1m, only until the blast can you start spamming to get on the meta map

Actually usually there’s a commander tagging up on the old map that’s about to die. I join the squad, wait until I do, waypoint to the beginning then join on the commander’s map. So far that process has never let me down.

yea, that gives you an edge for already being in the squad, but it’s still no 100% guarantee, sadly

Sure there’s no guarantee. But I’ve done it dozens and dozens of times and I’ve never not gotten into a squad that was attempting it and I’ve failed the event precious few times.