New to game - Crystal Desert Server

[Kathandira]

Hey All!

So I finally cracked and joined an MMO Again. I was wondering if any of you fine MMO-Champion folks happen to play on the Crystal Desert server.

Just built a Norn Warrior, yeah I know..another damn warrior in the game. But i'm having an absolute blast. Let me know if you happen to play on this server and i'll toss you an invite.

As for something worth actually discussing. What should I really be focusing on? I've been running around going events, exploring and doing my Story quests.

When I say exploring, i mean i'm going after each of the Vistas, Waypoints and POI's.

I'm only level 14 atm, but I'm curious if there are any repeatable dungeons or anything. From what I was told, the only 5 mans in the game are at lvl 80. But I found this hard to believe.

[Karizee]

The first dungeon is open to you at level 30. You'll get an ingame mail showing you where it is when you hit 30

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon

[Arlee]

The first dungeon is open to you at level 30. You'll get an ingame mail showing you where it is when you hit 30

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon

Do you get the in game mail no matter what? I was sort of thinking you only got it if you do the personal story to that point, but I'm not sure. Fuzzy brain ><

[Karizee]

Do you get the in game mail no matter what? I was sort of thinking you only got it if you do the personal story to that point, but I'm not sure. Fuzzy brain ><

Yes, it's completely independent of your personal story.

(been speed leveling alts with the LA events, get mails for every dungeon eligibility milestone)

[Arlee]

Ah cool I knew you could do the dungeons independently of the personal story but I just never really paid attention to the mails ><

[Kathandira]

Nice! Thanks guys!

roughly 1/2 way to 30, So that's exciting!

[Lane]

Reroll before it's too late. :P Seriously, I play on CD and wish I could leave. I cannot recommend it for anything, PvE or PvP. They're terrible in WvW and after the first couple of days of a living story update there's not enough participation to succeed at the events so you're forced to guest to other servers anyway.

[Kathandira]

Reroll before it's too late. :P Seriously, I play on CD and wish I could leave. I cannot recommend it for anything, PvE or PvP. They're terrible in WvW and after the first couple of days of a living story update there's not enough participation to succeed at the events so you're forced to guest to other servers anyway.

That is very disappointing to hear.

I came to this server due to a few distant friends. They had convinced me to play the game with them. The CD Server displayed Very High population, I figured this would actually be quite active. Playing the past few days, I've seen quite a few adventurers out in the world and have had a blast doing events with them.

How long ago were you last on this server? Could it be that things have changed? I really don't want to be stuck on a dead server, it's one of the reasons I stopped playing WoW a while back was due to my home server being a ghost town. Didn't want to pay to transfer 9 toons elsewhere.

Also, When selecting a server in Guild Wars, can you not create another character on a different server? Is your account server locked? I've seen this in another MMO in the past, I thought this was old hat methods.

Also to add, I'm not sure if i'm going to be too interested in End Game. PvP and WvW i've been intrigued by, but I generally suck at PvP. So i'm not sure if i'll mind if these aspects of the game aren't too abundant on this server.

- - - Updated - - -

Yuck! I just went to the GW2 Forums for the first time. I wanted to see if they had a category for Server discussions. There is none, very disappointing.

[Rivellana]

From what I've seen from the week or so I've been back, all the servers display Very High all of the time. A few display Full.

I played last back in the time you could server transfer anytime you wanted for free and my husband's toons ended up stuck on Eredon Terrace while I was apparently looking around and am stuck on Stormbluff Isle, so I can't really get him back into the game like I wanted because I can't even WvW with him unless one of us pays to transfer now. Both are pretty dead except for the living world events.

The way it is now...you can "guest" on two servers for every 24 hour period. If your server is a dead one, you can guest on a full one and might be able to find some other people to help you complete events as they happen. If you have friends playing, you can guest on their server and play with them.

You cannot, however, WvW on another server. You will have to WvW on your server, and if you wish to do it on another one, you have to pay the transfer fee. It's not so much that your "toons" are on a server, it's basically that your "account" is on a server, so you can't make a new character on another server...if you move to a new server, they all move at once with your account.

[Kathandira]

From what I've seen from the week or so I've been back, all the servers display Very High all of the time. A few display Full.

I played last back in the time you could server transfer anytime you wanted for free and my husband's toons ended up stuck on Eredon Terrace while I was apparently looking around and am stuck on Stormbluff Isle, so I can't really get him back into the game like I wanted because I can't even WvW with him unless one of us pays to transfer now. Both are pretty dead except for the living world events.

The way it is now...you can "guest" on two servers for every 24 hour period. If your server is a dead one, you can guest on a full one and might be able to find some other people to help you complete events as they happen. If you have friends playing, you can guest on their server and play with them.

You cannot, however, WvW on another server. You will have to WvW on your server, and if you wish to do it on another one, you have to pay the transfer fee. It's not so much that your "toons" are on a server, it's basically that your "account" is on a server, so you can't make a new character on another server...if you move to a new server, they all move at once with your account.

Thanks much for that info. I dislike the account locking on a server, I really loved that I can have toons are as many servers as I wanted in WoW, and other games as well.

Oh well though, The guest option isn't bad. Assuming I can do instances and world bosses and such as a guest on a different server (when that time comes)

Atm though, i'm ok with the server I am on. At any given time, there are at least a few people adventuring in the 1-15. I just moved on to the next area last night just before I logged off. We'll see how populated the new area is tonight.

Edit to add: I don't expect population in this game to be anything like when I first started playing WoW where I was basically tripping over people at every turn. The game has been out for quite some time, and like "all" mmo's, the leveling areas can't be expected to be littered with lowbies at this point.

The few groups I run across have been kind enough to allow me to stalk them and do events and such with them. I really love that I don't need to be in a group for anything but party chat. I can use /say to talk to people in my immediate surrounding and that is just fine. All in all, Arenanet has done a great job with making playing with other people as effortless as possible. Nothing stops you from moving along, no waiting for a group to finish a kill, then wait for the respawn. If I only got there for the last 2% of a kill, I still get the credit. I love that! No fear of kill stealing and no fear of ninja tagging a mob.

[Arlee]

You can do dungeons and fractals with people from different servers without guesting. It's really just doing the living world things that you would want to guest but you can get around that as well. If you are grouped with someone who is in an overflow you can just click on their portrait and click "Join" option. Then you'll be moved to their overflow. Because the living story stuff tends to be busy getting to overflows isn't too bad. And even though you are lower level most of the events will level you up to 80 so you can still participate. Though it will be a bit harder.

[Kathandira]

You can do dungeons and fractals with people from different servers without guesting. It's really just doing the living world things that you would want to guest but you can get around that as well. If you are grouped with someone who is in an overflow you can just click on their portrait and click "Join" option. Then you'll be moved to their overflow. Because the living story stuff tends to be busy getting to overflows isn't too bad. And even though you are lower level most of the events will level you up to 80 so you can still participate. Though it will be a bit harder.

Can you explain the Over Flow thing a bit more? I'm not sure I understand.

[Lane]

The CD Server displayed Very High population, I figured this would actually be quite active. Playing the past few days, I've seen quite a few adventurers out in the world and have had a blast doing events with them.

The "Very High" is very misleading. The only time the server even remotely looks like that is during NA prime time and in a few select zones, Queensdale being one of them due to the perpetual champion trains. If you play during 'off hours' at all it's practically desolate.

How long ago were you last on this server? Could it be that things have changed? I really don't want to be stuck on a dead server, it's one of the reasons I stopped playing WoW a while back was due to my home server being a ghost town. Didn't want to pay to transfer 9 toons elsewhere.

Last night. :P I've been actively playing on CD for the past 1.5 years. Things started to get noticeably bad around the end of last year. I figured if things hadn't improved by the beginning of this year I would transfer. They haven't and arguably have continued to get progressively worse, especially in the case of WvW we've bled out almost all of our WvW guilds and commanders to greener pastures. Unfortunately, I found out I'd lose both of my fully unlocked guild banks if I transferred combined with the fact that my playing has tapered off significantly due to lack of interest in the content I decided it wasn't worth it.

Also, When selecting a server in Guild Wars, can you not create another character on a different server? Is your account server locked? I've seen this in another MMO in the past, I thought this was old hat methods.

No, unfortunately. I guess if you don't mind paying -- I think it's $23? -- to transfer later it's not a big deal, but if you're brand new and the only thing you're going to lose is a level 15 I highly suggest you delete, reroll, and save yourself the almost inevitable future headache.

Also to add, I'm not sure if i'm going to be too interested in End Game. PvP and WvW i've been intrigued by, but I generally suck at PvP. So i'm not sure if i'll mind if these aspects of the game aren't too abundant on this server.

Honestly, I really don't see WvW getting any better unless a bunch of guilds decide to stack on CD for WvW tournaments, which doesn't seem very likely. PvE-wise, yes, the option exists to guest on other, better servers but, again, I don't see why you'd do that instead of just moving. Personally, I'm not a fan of constantly having to guest every time I play to have a decent experience, but maybe it won't bother you. Unless you frequently play with those friends you mentioned I still think you're better off on a different server and guesting with them when they're online.

It's just a word of caution. As an example, last night I logged into Lion's Arch where all the current living story events are taking place. No overflow, 35 minutes into the event (the event lasts 50 minutes) and less than 40 citizens had been saved (the goal is 1200). This is typical of what you're going to experience later on, I'm afraid.

[Kathandira]

I'm going to stick it out for a bit. I am ok with paying the $20-$30 later on if need be. My friends are the whole reason i'm playing and I don't want to ditch them so early on. However, I did warn them, I'm an ex-hardcore raider. There may come a time where I need a larger population to make things worth continuing.

Atm, my friends guild is my buddy, his wife and his brother + me. 4 people in the guild..I don't mind for now while i'm leveling, but I think later on it will get to the point where I need more man power.

[Arlee]

Basically overflows are GW2's answer to login queues. Instead of waiting to be able to login when your server is full you will log into a overflow server instead. This extends to individual maps as well. So let's say you are running around and you want to go do the event in Lion's Arch. There is a portal to zone you in. However, if your server instance of Lion's Arch is full you will instead be put on a overflow server until your server clears up. In the meantime you can do anything on the overflow you could normally do on your main server. Because overflows take people from any server it's an easy way for people from different servers to play together without having to guest.

[Kathandira]

Basically overflows are GW2's answer to login queues. Instead of waiting to be able to login when your server is full you will log into a overflow server instead. This extends to individual maps as well. So let's say you are running around and you want to go do the event in Lion's Arch. There is a portal to zone you in. However, if your server instance of Lion's Arch is full you will instead be put on a overflow server until your server clears up. In the meantime you can do anything on the overflow you could normally do on your main server. Because overflows take people from any server it's an easy way for people from different servers to play together without having to guest.

Pretty genius. Thanks for that. Arena Net has definitely come up with some awesome solutions to common issues in mmo's.

[Arlee]

For the most part I like the overflow system. In general getting an entire group into the same overflow isn't a problem, but sometimes it can be for the big Living Story stuff. It can get more frustrating if you are trying to play with more than four other people since you can't make groups of more than than five people. But yes, in general the overflow system is a good idea.

[Kathandira]

5 is the largest group? No "Raid Sized" groups?

I guess that makes sense, there really is very little reason for groups other than entering an instance.

[Karizee]

Squad is for up to 50 players.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Squad

Arlee, just have players drop group once they've joined your overflow then others can party on you, etc. You can easily ferry an entire guild to an overflow very quickly with everyone doing this.

[Arlee]

Squad is for up to 50 players.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Squad

Arlee, just have players drop group once they've joined your overflow then others can party on you, etc. You can easily ferry an entire guild to an overflow very quickly with everyone doing this.

Yes... and that gets extremely tiresome when overflows fill in the middle of switching people over. I know how to use the system, it's just doesn't always work well for larger groups. Squads are cool if you want to be able to talk to more than four other people, but they are a far cry from a real grouping of more people.