4401

The dynamic events aren’t really “random” events. They’re on timers, but they are triggered too… maybe you are just not triggering them?

Sorry if I am coming off too combative, but I’ve leveled 5 characters through the opening zones without once having issues with too little exp. My fiance also had no problem finding content for her characters, even though this is the first MMO she’s ever played, and played without me a decent amount of time.

4402

I’m leveling a new toon in the Norn starting area and I’m already having to be careful that my XP isn’t getting me downscaled while I try to clear yellow hearts.

I don’t get it either.

4403

Add my voice to the chorus - currently have 8 characters, many more started and deleted, played all the starting zones. I always end up being downscaled to whatever zone I am in.

Perhaps I am more of a completist, but I ensure I do all hearts, vistas, PoI and skill challenges. Also, I usually do the story line quests around at the level-appropriate time, initiate or join in any DE whenever I can and harvest everything.

Now I am not trying to invalidate anyone’s experience who has found themselves underleveled, but I have never had to try to find exp, my playstyle has found it for me.

4404

I have leveled two characters to 80 (one in the norn area, the other in char), and have far out-leveled the content as I went along. In both cases, I hit 80 before setting foot in the end zones, and only completed a handful of zones.

4405

While my norn was created during the first week so there were plenty of people around, the norn starter area had so many DEs going on that I was totally overwhelmed. At one point I remember standing in a spot that was within reach of 3 active DEs - and with a little work, I could get a star for all. When I later rolled a human, Queensdale felt absolutely dead in comparison (due to being more spread out - just as many events, just not stacked in a small area). So… do more DEs :)

4406

The only time i feel under level is when i am dragged to high areas with friends and family who just can’t wait. Otherwise, I feel this game throws out XP like it’s free candy. It could use a little less XP and maybe bump up the rewards in other areas instead.

4407

Yeah, you often have to talk to a NPC to start the event, especially the smaller ones like escorts.

4408

In the last BWE, the characters my wife and I played hit the under-leveled issue in the starter zone. I think it is possible to get unlucky with events, and even if you don’t make beelines to the renown hearts, it is possible, but seems to be somewhat rare.

When we started during early access, we spent our first hour just exploring Divinity’s Reach and hopping around a few of the other starter cities to get exploration XP. That gave us more than enough XP to be in a good spot when we left Queensdale, and it had the added bonus of giving us a little leg up on the first few hearts/events. We had some real issues dying in the last BWE…a lot. The extra level or two helped immensely.

4409

If you want to see an example of a zone that has far less XP than needed, check out Snowden Drifts. Go there at 15 and see how quickly you fall behind. It’s set at almost a level per heart required to keep pace, and there are very few DEs compared to some other zones. It doesn’t help that some of them are broken to boot.

There are some DE cycles in the zone you could sit and farm to make up the gap, but just moving through the zone you’d have to be rather lucky to not fall behind.

4410

I did a server transfer and that fixed the problem. Those dynamic events do not spawn when there aren’t other players near by. I’m on Jade Quarry now and it is almost like playing a different game. There are people everywhere, I am seeing events pop up left and right, and am getting plenty of experience.

4411

According to one site I just looked at, Jade Quarry has over 4 times the population of Ehmry Bay, which is one of the quieter servers (it was based on poll results, a fairly large sample but still inherently biased). I had noticed a distinct lack of queuing and overflowing in the last couple of weeks, but figured it was just the initial mad rush having passed. I wonder how many are transferring simply because they’re looking for the most active servers? Of course there’s a trade-off between finding that sweet spot in terms of an active population and being shunted through overflow servers all the time.

4412

I don’t see the overflow at all recently on Stormbluff Isle, which is one of the most crowded servers. WvW has long queues sometimes, though.

4413

I can’t speak to the end-game areas, but getting up to 40 on JQ one sees few, if any, overflow areas.

WvW queues, now…well, when we’re losing they’re tolerable, when we’re dominant or competitive they’re horrendous.

4414

This is exacerbated by the current surfeit of broken events guaranteeing you that if it isn’t really close to a patch/reboot you will get short changed on events. I’ve discovered there are some events that only work once it seems, as I discovered a few I’d never seen right after a patch and never saw them again despite spending all day in the same area.

4415

Of course there are bugs, but some DEs need to be triggered, so you might never see them if you don’t click on some more or less obscure objects and NPCs from time to time. Most of the triggerable ones are started by things with icons over their heads – stars or shields or whatnot – but I think not all.

4416

The first event in Snowden Drifts is triggered by an NPC yelling something to attract your attention. No Icon. If you talk to them, you can trigger the event. Big Birds? I ran away, but got the medal later when others finished it. Many more like that.

4417

Of course this requires the trigger NPC to be spawned, or did you think the only ones not spawning are the ones for skill points? I’ve leveled 8 chars through their 30’s and 4 of those are 80 or close to it so I am fairly familiar with the various triggers.

4418

So I’m now level 19 (Norn Guardian) and have moved into the Snowden Drifts after exploring all of the Wayfarer Foothills. I’ve heeded some advice from the internets on things like skills and weapon loadouts, and think I have a pretty good handle at this point on how to play my Guardian (protip, he’s not a tank!). I’m starting to unlock skills that I can see will be very useful in group play. Like the one that turns all conditions on me into boons, which couples nicely with the shout that transfers all conditions from my group to me. What an entertaining sequence : Remove party conditions, turn said conditions into boons on myself, share said boons with party. Nice.

I’ve come to terms with the events system and have grown to like it. Triggering several events myself and seeing others join in was pretty fun, and I’m now seeing more “story” in the world now that I am looking more actively for it. The whole bit with the Lion Guard protecting the roads and trying to keep trade open between Lion’s Arch and the Norn territories is pretty cool, and I like how a lot of the events are related back to it.

At what point does the rest of the world open up? What I mean is, while I see Charr, Human, Asura, etc. players in the Norn territories, at what point does everyone wind up adventuring together in non-race specific areas? 25? 30?

4419

25 is where everyone starts getting funneled into the same zones, when you go to Glendarren Fields. However, there’s still some branching possible: people can still go to Lornar’s Pass (25-40) if they don’t like Centaurs. Otherwise you’re chopping horsemen up from Glendarren (25-35) through Harathi Hinterlands (35-45).

I was tired of that so I did Lornar’s Pass and then went to Bloodtide Coast at 45 (and filled it in a little with WvW, crafting, and the zones way to the east - Fields of Ruin and Blazeridge Steppes north of that), and as a result.

So I guess the long answer is… starting at 25 is when you hit the non-race specific areas, but there are still lots of options. Everyone is definitely in the same 4 or so zones at 80 though!

4420

This is another thing to keep in mind.

While you’re running around, you’ll often hear some NPC say, “Hey you, over there! I want to talk to you!” or something along those lines.

If you talk to those folks, who are literally all over the place, they all start new events.

Honestly, I’ve also found that talking to lots of random NPC’s who are just standing around starts up events. It’s a little weird, since except for when they call out to you, there isn’t much indication that there is any point in talking to them. Generally though, if you see someone who has a name, you can talk to them and it’s got a decent chance of starting up a new event.