PVE, Am I doing it wrong?

I have most of my characters in the range of levels 20 to 30. Saddly, I'm having a hard time doing PVE content because sometimes the server seems very empty in that level range. What am I doing wrong? Is it the time I log in? It's around 6 am server time.

Thanks in advance, and see you in game!!

Klitty, on the Weekends and my day off, I usually log in around 9EST which is 6am server. What we need to do is get you up to level 35 so you can start doing some AC Exp runs. If you're running around in those level range zones and are not seeing many people, it's because yes, it is early, and on top of that many people have leveled beyond that range on at least one character, so you will find mostly people with alts in there. Add to that the fact that some people who have done those zones already, like myself, find open world PvE to be a bit...stale. For myself, I spend a gold or two and powerlevel Cooking, Artificing, and Jeweler; this gets me to the 30-35 range, and I hop right into AC Exp until 80.

Some zones are just quieter, but I know that time is the lighter time in PvE because I've logged on that early many times on days my hubby was at work. I can always find some Gaiscioch on, but some weekdays tend to be the chosen quiet day (especially Monday's). ::chuckles:: Some times it's like our chattiness is subdued or something. I usually try to say something in raidcall and guildchat just to see who is out there and up for any help. Anyway, try to see who is around that wants to group. If you see me on one of my toons and you want company, I'll gladly group with you if not in some rampaging event. Though if the event is of a level for you, we'll gladly pull you into the mayhem. We might get more things going again after the New Year for events. I expect Balor to start back up then, if no one else does, for the morning/early afternoon crew which can get to 30ish some days.

I don't find the PVE especially stale, and sometimes I like just sort of mindlessly doing events and killing mobs for hearts. But it sounds like you want more company. While most of the server has moved beyond those zones, if you pick the Human zones I think you'll have more chance to meet other people. So that's Queensdale, Kessex Hills, and Glendarren Fields. Since you scale down to the appropriate level, it doesn't matter that Queensdale is a 1-15 zone, if you haven't done it, you'll still get decent exp. If you're working on a zone, try to get the 100% completion bonus for it, as that gives you some nice stuff at the end of the zone (which you probably won't be able to use...). In addition, there are frequently PVE events like Prissy's map clears that occur twice a week. You don't have to go to an entire event, and you don't have to make every one - just going for an hour or so will get you some good experience. Right now she's in either the 1-15 or 15-25 zones so you definitely could go to those. Don't neglect gathering raw materials & exploring: both of these activities give good experience. Sometimes when I'm tired of killing stuff I've decided to see how much of a higher-level zone I can clear for fun. Most of the mobs run pretty slowly. :D I also recommend crafting. Since each profession can gain you 10 levels, you can get a couple of levels easily by leveling either cooking or jewelcrafting and one of (tailoring, leatherworking, huntsman, artificer, armorcrafting, weaponcrafting). The good thing about jewelcrafting and cooking is that they use different materials from the other 6 professions, so both of your crafting professions are competing for the same fine materials. If you're just trying to powerlevel a crafting skill, there are a number of guides to show you what to make, so you can shop ahead of time to line up the materials so that when you're at the crafting station it's just go go go! WvW events can also be a fun change of pace and can sometimes get you over the hump. Whatever you do, try to use buffs: food, potions, tuning crystals, sharpening stones are all pretty cheap and the effects from having a food + other buff can really help. In addition, if you have any boosters from chests they can be great to use (don't forget crafting boosters when you're going to do some serious crafting).

Nah the lvl 20-30 is usually a slump lvl range in my opinion for leveling, since your too high for the newbie zones and i'm usually done a lvl 15-25 zone at that point trying to figure out if i should do another or start on gendarran. I like to do some cooking and personal story at that point to try to hit 30 maybe go into gendarran fields around lvl 26-28ish if you still need more xp then you can do AC story at 30 and play in fields of ruin (or in my case do ac exp right away lol) and its not too bad :)

» Edited on: 2012-12-24 10:13:43

All of the above info is good advice. If you are looking for people to adventure with give me a shout if you ever see me on. I am off for the next few weeks and have toons in the mid 20s. It is definately more fun to pve with others.

I am usually on during that hour. I'm used to playing PVE solo so it doesn't bother me. You can add me to your friends list, not sure which guild you are in. Which also makes it more difficult to find family members to run with. My 2 chars are: Fyre Luna level 50 and Kittara level 80. With so many guilds in GW2 it can be difficult to find people from the guild. Also you are in what I call the leveling slump as someone mentioned. I hated the 20-30+ range. Until you hit 35 when the better equipment and food come along it is a bit slow, but just push through it and find a partner! I'd love to play with someone else on off times as well. Kittara

sadly pretty much all the zones are dead except for lions arch, frostgorge and cursed shore , time you log in really doesn`t matter , this is due inpart to most of the people still playing already leveled up their 2 or 3 toons thu those zones, the only people in those zones are the few bots farming lower lvl mats or the rare player going back for map completion . All that means is basicly not many people are buying the game or there would be more in the lower lvl zones . however maybe after Xmas a new surge of players will be introduced to the game and they`ll pick up . the main lvling zone for 25-35 is glenfields however even a month ago when i took a alt there it was dead no events were starting and i saw maybe 10 real players from 25 - 33 lvl . this was over the course of 3 days , checking the zone at diff times like oceanic/euro and us primetime . Sadly this games options are poorly thought out , instead of being able to be in multiple guilds they should have gone with a alliance system like War hammer complete with Alliance chat options . But i`m not surprised really hell even EQ back in 1999 had better chat options as well as graphics control ie effects slider, able to adjust text message colors, even over 10 deff sizes of chat text font lol .

make sure to check for me when u are on early, i usually am also and have multiple toons i play with so grouping up is never an issu... guild chat can be quiet in the morning and some zone can be dead at times specially if u can't seem to fstumble on the few that are running arround... like i said i'm on early because of kids so just give me a shout in game

I'm also willing to help out and hang out if you throw a message in guild chat when I'm on :)

Shoot me a message when you are online. Tathlyn.4715

I strongly suggest doing two things: 1. Make sure you are in "funny I" and not "normal i". 2. Try to start making some of the events on the calendar, even the WvW ones, so that you can make Lorgair rank. Once you make member rank, you will be invited to the Anu room (PVE), as long as you have PVE set as an "interest" in your website profile. Sure it might take a couple weeks of rescheduling and effort, but making it out of the New Members ranks will open a lot more exposure to the Family for you. As far as zone populations go, yes, not many are out in those zones at that time. Sanctum of Rall is heavy NA prime time (aka Est-Pst afternoon/evenings), less euro/NA morning time. Also keep in mind that a lot of folks just don't group for leveling. There's really no need to group for completing hearts, and you usually run into other players when you do various events that require several players. All zone content is very easily completable by yourself, it is very important that you upgrade your gear every 5-7 levels, just buy the cheapest stuff you can find on the Trading post that is in your level range (I go with greens, but blues is fine). Also make sure you spend your Trait points as you get them, always toss some into the trait with Toughness for leveling, it just makes your life easier and you lose very little when you sell your old stuff to vendor as you replace it.

i have a lvl 17 ranger that i havn`t leveled since sept as well as a 42 lvl elem that i haven`1t lvl since sept as well if i`m on send runeslinger.9482 a ingame mail and i`ll group with you a bit . seeing how the server still seems confused about tactics in rvr i`m been avoiding it for the last few days out of agravation lol .

Add me to your friends list, I may be able to help. As a side note, I solo'd thru all of this with no problems....just took a little longer :)

< 6am Pst-12pm Pst im on so just shoot me a message

Thank you for all the help, guys :3 I'll add you and give you a shout when I do some PvE! And merry xmas! :p

Are you having a hard time because you're finding the content hard to do alone or because you're not having fun playing solo? If it's the company you're missing then I echo the above advice, try to tweak your schedule to be around during more "primetime" hours, get into the "funny i" gaiscioch guild, look through the calendar for events you can make and that are level appropriate (WvW in particular is suitable for any level and you can attend for the start/end/middle of the event, no pressure to stay the whole time). If it's difficulty, try to make sure you have your gear kept to your level. I used to replace it every 15 levels with green gear and add runes/sigils and all that jazz to it but now I've been buying new blue gear every 5 off the TP - somewhere in between might be a good balance. Try to make sure to "do your daily" as often as possible. If you hit H for your Hero pane, then click the Achievement Tab you'll see the achivement pane. There are basically 4 tasks with 3-4 tiers to each task: - Kill 5/8/11/15 Different creature types. You may want to swap zones if you're having trouble with this one, like go from a Snowy area to a Plains or Jungle area. - Kill 10/30/60 creatures. This one is usually easy, it will happen naturally as you do other things. - Gather 3/10/20 times. This one is easy and gets you in a good habit of mining/chopping/picking every vein/tree/plant you see. You get great xp for gathering and the materials can be used to craft (for more xp) or just to sell on the TP. Even low level materials can sell ok and the money you make can help fund your armour replacements. - Complete 1/3/5 events. This one can be hard if no events are popping near you, but it again get's you into a great habit of dropping whatever you're doing to do an event whenever you see those orange circles/icons. The xp for doign events is great and the hearts/poi's/vistas/skill points will all still be there when you get done with the event. The 15 individual achievements and the daily chest for completing them all give about 50% of your level in xp - not including any xp you got for killing the creatures, gathering the materials or doing the events so it's a good way to maximise your xp/hour if you are only on for an hour or two a day. The achievements reset everyday at 4pm servertime and are account wide so you can't do them on multiple characters on the same day, but you can do half on one character and half on another. Also, I would suggest picking one character and sticking with it (or mostly sticking with it) until 40. I played all 8 classes and would play a different one each night in an 8 night rotation, I got them all to 25 ish then I picked one and took it all the way to 80. Don't get me wrong, I love my alts and I'm working on them all now but I got fatigued doing the same zones over and over and over. At 40 you get to buy your 2nd trait book (it's 1 gold so try to save up for it), at that point all your trait points are refunded and you can re allocate them, plus you get to go up to 20 trait points in a single line which can make all the difference (I know my Guardian got way better and way more fun to play with the 15pt Radiance minor trait). Also, although not directly what you are asking about I pass this last piece of advice on to anyone that's levelling. When you complete a Heart go check out the vendor. The gear is rarely worth it stats wise (and will be replaced soon) but sometimes it has a cool look that you might want, either now or for level 80. Also each zone usually has 1-3 heart vendors that sell "food in bulk", if you find this you should pick up at least 1 (I get 2 or 3) of them. They are super cheap karma wise and if they make raising cooking process so much simpler, quicker and cheaper in case you choose to do that. When I started I said "I'm never going to do cooking" but after levelling 2 80's I have started doing cooking on new toons to get 10 free levels when I'm feeling a need to boost my level. Oh, and save your Karma Jugs in the bank. I'm not sure exactly what for, but if you decide to get a legendary, or Karma Armour from the Orr Temples you'll be glad to have a supply to give to one character so they have it all. Also be sure to use a Karma booster before you guzzle down all those jugs so you get 50% more Karma, you can also use a guild karma buff banner before drinking them for even more free karma. Sorry for the wall of text, hope you find something in there that helps.