Wouldn't it bring back peaple to lower levels if all the de's and reward drops where given depending what level you where? Meaning if you where level 80 you would get your max xp per event no mater what level the zone is. Same with gear, every zone should drop your current level's gear. Or does it do that alrdy?

Oh and also all the merchants should sell stuff acording to your level.

This can solo everything:

Take Elementalist.Equip Sceptre/Focus. Switch to the Earth Attunement. Take 2 cantrips(any two really) and a Glyph of Storms. Stack both Condition damage and Vitality. Profit!

That is only coping mechanism tho. Depending on the server it can vary from "what deserted content?" to "what other people?". On Piken Square, right after the starting zones, people simply vanish. Poof! Like that! And it's supposed to be one of two big Roleplaying servers. You can only see either people in groups or people that are here for vistas/points of interest/skill challenges. In other words, you can't group with them, because if you do try(I have), you get both the rejection and the silent gospel.

And, no. Most of the content is NOT soloable(for an average build). OMG WTF BBQ??? But it is Herp-Derp! No it is not. Wanna know why? Because devs are sadists-they put anywhere between 2-4 creeps per Square meter and they give WAAAY too High damage to them AND boring, oneshot abilities(Ice Troll's freeze anyone?) AND they give ridiculous respawn times to those same creatures. Ever tried doing the Molengrad event by yourself(that event where you have to collapse four Dredge mine shafts near the end of Snowden)? How do you intend to solo 3-5 Dredge+1-2 Dredge Turrets at the same time. And that is not labeled as "Group Event". And if you are on Piken or such servers, you can have such privilege as either skipping 50% content or spam rezzing yourselff.

This game had so much potential, but one thing is clear. The people that did Guild Wars: Prophecies-Guild Wars: Nightfall haven't designed this game. The people that designed Eye of the North, however, did design this game(and I thought of GWEN as a cancer to the GW1 tissue->it allowed permaformers transformers is just one example why I hated it). In other words: different design team, yet the same name. Think of differences between Morrowind and Oblivion or Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 for further examples of such shifty developing mindsets.

Originally posted by Dzone

Wouldn't it bring back peaple to lower levels if all the de's and reward drops where given depending what level you where? Meaning if you where level 80 you would get your max xp per event no mater what level the zone is. Same with gear, every zone should drop your current level's gear. Or does it do that alrdy?

Oh and also all the merchants should sell stuff acording to your level.

You gain rewards according to your real level (with a small penalty).

And what is the point of merchants selling to your level (although thry sell gathering and salvage kits to your level)?

This game isn't very tough, the vast majority of DEs are soloable. That's with 4 80s and 7 characters slots all full. Some may not find that fun and would like lots of players all over (I didn't like it much the first month), and others may prefer small groups that require more skill (that's me). Some servers may have it bad off, and other servers may not be as bad (like mine).

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Its pretty bad.

I switched servers couple of times , but no avail.

Let me illustrate this for you.

First month of the game. If you were killed in open world, you would wait no more than minute and someone would come and resurect you.

Today, i was asking on map chat, no answer. Nobody at all on whole map , on peak time. Waited around 10 minutes before i gave up.

Even within the first month, when there were loads of players on each map, people asking for rezzes in map chat would most often be ignored. Most people don't want to go a on trek to pick someone up. I know this firsthand, as I actually responded to some of these folks, when 30+ others ignored them. Asking for pickups in map chat is pretty lame.

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by Betakodo
Champions: Not soloable.

Not until lvl 80 anyway.  A friend of mine can do it on the non-80 Champs (don't remember the profession he used though).

Depends on your class and abilities at dodging and CC - a lot of emphasis on CC if you're not very high lvl. I've got 4 80s, and I have been able to solo champs, on all of them, while leveling up. I did the Jotun champ (who takes over an outpost) on my ranger to about 10% health, and then another player showed up, and I really didn't want them to :/ ("jotun champ gw2" search on google has the youtube video of exact mob, not me playing) That's just one example, done a couple spiders recently too.

The game isn't hard haha. Running 4 person fractals/dungeons is sometimes good.

Edit: I'll say the game is tougher for me on Engineer, I apparently don't sync well with that class and may very well fail at most DEs I attempt (haven't played past lvl 22 though).

Originally posted by Gorwe

And, no. Most of the content is NOT soloable(for an average build). OMG WTF BBQ??? But it is Herp-Derp! No it is not. Wanna know why? Because devs are sadists-they put anywhere between 2-4 creeps per Square meter and they give WAAAY too High damage to them AND boring, oneshot abilities(Ice Troll's freeze anyone?) AND they give ridiculous respawn times to those same creatures. Ever tried doing the Molengrad event by yourself(that event where you have to collapse four Dredge mine shafts near the end of Snowden)? How do you intend to solo 3-5 Dredge+1-2 Dredge Turrets at the same time. And that is not labeled as "Group Event". And if you are on Piken or such servers, you can have such privilege as either skipping 50% content or spam rezzing yourselff.

I just took my Power necromancer to lvl 60 via normal PvE. Yes, a Power necro. With an axe + focus / staff. It's one of the "use it if you want to be a gimp" builds and I could still solo non-group events well. Yes, some of them are hard for a solo player (dredge are particularly annoying, although I wouldn't call them "hard"), but it's definitely doable even with a below-average build. The only zone that's consistently too difficult is the Lost Shores island, but that's lvl 80 stuff.

Originally posted by Gorwe

This can solo everything:

Take Elementalist.Equip Sceptre/Focus. Switch to the Earth Attunement. Take 2 cantrips(any two really) and a Glyph of Storms. Stack both Condition damage and Vitality. Profit!

And this is a pretty average build. In fact, I'd say it's more difficult to use than the commonly-used heavy armor builds, because elementalists require some finesse with all their attunement swapping and squishiness. A Guardian can just autoattack through most of the game.

The measure I use to judge zone population is how long does the prime time thing last.

When there were lots of people playing back in September and October (the release rush), I could log in at around 7 pm weeknights, and see plenty of people on any map and this would last until around 11 pm, so 3 hours tops.

Nowdays, when I log in at 7, and go to any zone, I will see people about for about an hour. If I don't get done what I wanted by 9 pm, well there is always the next evening. 

There are still times when you can find plenty of people in any zone, but those prime time periods are getting shorter, which indicates to me there are far fewer players overall now.   It does not help that the trend is clearly downward.

3 million copies pretty much codifies that Anet failed to unthrone WOW like they claimed they would.  They got a small market share, it's a niche game.

If I had to sum it up for noobs, GW2 is the limited appeal jumping puzzle MMO.

I guess it's one of those "your mileage may vary" thing, depends a lot on your server and times of gameplay.

Personally I play on the Yak's Bend server, usually after 9 pm venezuelan time (currently EST + 30 minutes, but it's -30 minutes for half of the year since we don't do the daylight savings thing), and while it's obvious that there aren't nearly as many people as there was during release, zones aren't the ghost towns people describe. Note that I'm not saying it's not a problem, just that is not as bad on the server and during the hours I play.

Most events can be soloed if needed (except for the ones marked as "group"), but it's normal that I see 3 or 4 other people doing them, even if sometimes I start them solo. Also I always see people calling for help on group events on map chat, and in my experience doing that usually resulta in 6 or more people showing up.

Of course, it also depends on map, the maps where the dragons show up (earlier is at level 40) tend to be more populated, specially when it's close to their spawning window, but also events in those maps tend to be ignored once the dragon spawns.

Originally posted by Corehaven

Originally posted by mmoski

Originally posted by Quizzical
Are most of the dynamic events doable solo if you happen to be the only one there?  Do there tend to be a few people there doing whichever events are active, but just not nearly as many as launch?  Or are you faced with having to skip most of the content if you don't go form your own group manually?

No most of them are not soloable, (slightly more when your a lvl 80 fully geared kicked down).

In the higher level zones you can find players doing the most rewarding DE's, most of the time, its dependent on the time of day really. The lower zones are pretty much dead, you will occasionally team up with players to do a DE, but generally its not going to happen, which means yeah you have to skip content really, or you could just stand around hoping players will turn up.

Hopefully they will incentivise players back to other zones.

 

Nope.  Most are soloable. 

 

Why?  Because I don't play on a heavily populated server.  And I have soloed most of them.  They do scale down, and yea, one player can complete them.  Especially below 80. 

 

Some you can "fail".  Sometimes that happens to me, but I don't die.  Usually most all are soloable and able to be completed that way. 

If it is a champion event then it is not solo-able period. Try the swamp boss in Queensdale - you cannot solo him even leveled down from 80. Some are and some aren't - it depends - people who say they are all soloable are not speaking the truth.

I am on US, Crystal Desert server and I always see players in zones doing events, it is not hard to find someone.

For me, there is nothing that worsens an MMO experience more than zero population.

Once my reached a certain population low, I was pretty much done with the game.  But it's ultimately up to you.  Some people it doesn't bother as much. 

Originally posted by ennymith

The measure I use to judge zone population is how long does the prime time thing last.

When there were lots of people playing back in September and October (the release rush), I could log in at around 7 pm weeknights, and see plenty of people on any map and this would last until around 11 pm, so 3 hours tops.

Nowdays, when I log in at 7, and go to any zone, I will see people about for about an hour. If I don't get done what I wanted by 9 pm, well there is always the next evening. 

There are still times when you can find plenty of people in any zone, but those prime time periods are getting shorter, which indicates to me there are far fewer players overall now.   It does not help that the trend is clearly downward.

3 million copies pretty much codifies that Anet failed to unthrone WOW like they claimed they would.  They got a small market share, it's a niche game.

If I had to sum it up for noobs, GW2 is the limited appeal jumping puzzle MMO.

Actually - your off base - Rift had as many jumping puzzles too. It is not an Asian grinder - that is Archage. A.Net is in Seattle, WA.

People rused to 80 based on what they knew from other games, not what was known about GW2. I see people from 6PM EST to 10-11 PM EST when I log off..

No one is trying to 'unthrone' WoW - Blizzard is doing that all by themselves (and that is a subject for another thread). What I think A.Net really wants is players invested for the long term, just like people did in GW1.

Originally posted by Dzone

Wouldn't it bring back peaple to lower levels if all the de's and reward drops where given depending what level you where? Meaning if you where level 80 you would get your max xp per event no mater what level the zone is. Same with gear, every zone should drop your current level's gear. Or does it do that alrdy?

Oh and also all the merchants should sell stuff acording to your level.

See this is the problem. Downscaling is not perfect and level 80 character in exotics can destroy pretty much any low level DE very easily. People would just change destination and instead of farming Orr, they would farm zones 1-15. It's not bad idea, but it got some issues and it could pretty much end up in scenario, where population only shifts to different zones, other zones would still be deserted (or not so populated anyway).

Originally posted by jpnz

Originally posted by Eir_S

 

/snip

As for the "deserted zones" and "dead game", it's just hot air.  Sure, at times there aren't people at an event, but there are thousands of events... no one's going to be waiting for one to start.  I almost always find people to do things with even then.  If no one's around, I just whisper a guildie and we two man it if it's not something like the Champion Megalodon (which is definitely not soloable)

Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen for someone else.

What server are you on? As far as I can tell, only two servers are relatively 'okay' in the mid-level zones and the others are wasteland.

My guardian that just hit 80? Crafting from 40-60, then personal story / WvW till 70.

Cause the 30-40 were just awful.

If you want proof, look at ANet and how they dedicated (and create a whole new game design) half of their '2013 plan' on getting people back into the world.

I fail to see how it's any different than WoW.  Using such a popular game as a comparison, there is virtually no difference in the amount of people I see per night wandering around mid level zones in GW2.  I played WoW on at least 5 different servers for a number of years... it was the same thing in BC, Wrath, and Cata (I don't know what zones are like now).  Even then, I was playing against other people, not with them.  I guess if you wanted proof, you could say Blizz redesigned the 1-60 leveling so people wouldn't just endlessly queue for dungeons?

And remember how packed new zones in WoW were when an expansion first released?  Borean Tundra, for example.  When they were no longer packed, no one said the game was dying.  No one called the zones wastelands.  Do you know why?  Because it's hyperbole, like most things on these forums.

Some of you act like every other MMO out there has tons of people in mid level zones, when that's rarely been the case.  Even in WoW at its prime on the fullest servers (ie: Tichondrius), I didn't see that many people running around.  You act like GW2 is dying when people are just doing different things than you are.

I'm on Northern Shiverpeaks.  The only time I see hardly anyone is at 4 AM, and even then, last night I did a few boss events.  I only had to skip one when no one responded.

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

Not necessarily.  I love the game, but I don't see "tons" of people.  I didn't see "tons" of people in WoW mid zones either.  I see enough people to have fun with.  I'm not like the guy who waited 10 minutes for a rez... if there's no one responding I party up with a friend or do my own thing... you know, kind of like every single other MMO in existence so far.

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

Not necessarily.  I love the game, but I don't see "tons" of people.  I didn't see "tons" of people in WoW mid zones either.  I see enough people to have fun with.  I'm not like the guy who waited 10 minutes for a rez... if there's no one responding I party up with a friend or do my own thing... you know, kind of like every single other MMO in existence so far.

I can change tons to some or a none or a few. The point isn't in the details it's in the fact that the OP won't really get a good idea unless he plays it because even though many are saying what it really is others are blinded by their zealousness to either defend or condemn the game.

On the vast majority of servers it's really, really bad. As in from between 30-80 you're going to have to skip most of the dynamic events, and good luck doing anything in Orr. They really need to merge the servers down to just 2 or 3 going on current game population; but sadly, they're still trying to make the game look super-populated. It's a nice scam, but it's not helpful to the existing or new players. If they were to merge the servers down to 2 or 3, then there'd actually be enough of a population to fill out the zones. Right now, there isn't.

The population on most servers is abysmal. Most people will tell you that, hey, there are plenty of other ways to level. You can do renown thingies, gathering, and PvP. All of this is true. But if you'd had your heart set on doing things like defeating the Shatterer? You can forget about that.

Originally posted by Dream_Chaser

On the vast majority of servers it's really, really bad. As in from between 30-80 you're going to have to skip most of the dynamic events, and good luck doing anything in Orr. They really need to merge the servers down to just 2 or 3 going on current game population; but sadly, they're still trying to make the game look super-populated. It's a nice scam, but it's not helpful to the existing or new players. If they were to merge the servers down to 2 or 3, then there'd actually be enough of a population to fill out the zones. Right now, there isn't.

The population on most servers is abysmal. Most people will tell you that, hey, there are plenty of other ways to level. You can do renown thingies, gathering, and PvP. All of this is true. But if you'd had your heart set on doing things like defeating the Shatterer? You can forget about that.

Wow, you had to dig deep to pull that out of your... kitten... didn't you? Most dynamic events scale well to even a single person, but I've yet to run into an event in any zone that didn't ultimately have more people show up. My necro that I'm levelling right now is in the low 50s and still there's always someone around. Megaevents like the Shatterer you mention usually have a group of people there waiting on it. They do the initial events in the chain to lead up to it then others join as the event kicks off regularly.

The issue with Orr is simple... the main reason to do things there is access to the exotics vendors. However, there are plenty of other ways to get exotics, so a lot of people don't bother putting in the effort. That needs to be enhanced... more reasons to visit Orr beyond those vendors. Sounds like they're working on that though with the enhanced rewards system they'll be implementing soon. 

Originally posted by pedrostrik
they should introduce fractal of the mists in a diferent city (anyone ), not in Lions Arch, that and the lost shores fiasco its their biggest failures.

Lost Shores being a failure is a bit of a misconception... the problem is that they haven't finished with Southsun by any means. The whole idea of the initial event was to open the land for people to go to, then in the future they'll be adding content to that land primarily for the level 80 crowd. It's this downtime waiting for Southsun content that makes it feel like it wasn't successful even though the reality is that we've only seen the first act towards thier ultimate goal. 

There are more tourists at the camps there now than there were initially, so like the fountain in L.A. we're seeing a slow (very) build up as permanent world changes are trickled in.