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A couple simple questions of curiosity: Which PvE zones do you play in the most? Which do you play in the least? Which are your favorite and least favorite zones?
One of the cool things about GW2 is how all of the game's zones remain fairly relevant long after you've leveled through them. This is in stark contrast to some MMOs where you level through a zone designed for a particular level range and then never have a reason to return to it again, unless you level through it again on an alt. One happy consequence of this is that players can seemingly choose to play in their favorite environments whenever they want. In that sense, I'd be interested to see if there's any correlation between favorite zones and zones most played in and vice versa. I'd also be interested in seeing if there is a decent spread in most and least played zones, or if players tend to be congregating in mostly the same spaces.
In choosing your answers, you can factor in anything you wish. These may be zones you tend to level your alts through, zones you go to to farm events, zones you spend time in because they are currently relevant to the Living Story, zones that you pass through frequently because they're in close proximity to a major city, or zones that you just like to spend time in because their environments appeal to you.
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While I don't just park in one area, I do generaly have a character stay for days or even a week in the same zone, since I do play a few characters regularly (I don't see any of my characters as "main" or "alt")
Orr and Fireheart Rise are a pain in the ass, although some of the Orr events, fighting with the mobs back and forward for control of the zone are quite nice (or frustrating if you lacking manpower).
All of the starter areas will be packed (some due to their world events and the living story) and then the main axis of play for players is Kessex Hill->Gendarran Fields->Lion's Arch->Bloodtide Coast->Sparkly Fen->Orr zones.
But anywhere you can get a world chest will have presence.
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As a bump to this thread, I'll list my own.
My most played zones recently, solely due to the living story and increased player presence, have been Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau, which were probably two zones I rarely ever visited before these events. I've actually fallen in love with both zones during this time. I spent an entire week in Diessa on one character, and I've been coming and going to Wayfarer during the past week. The environment is very reminiscent of Grizzly Hills in WoW, which was one of my favorite zones of the Wotlk expansion.
I do frequently level through Kessex Hills > Gendarran Fields.
My least visited zones, probably entirely due to geographical proximity, have to be Fields of Ruin and Dredgehaut Cliffs.
Queensdale. That zone is always packed with players. It almost feels like everyone spends there most of their time. The lest popular zones are the ones which are a little out of the way. people probably don't like revisiting them b/c of waypoint costs. I almost never see many people in Plains of Ruin or something like that. That zone with big city in Charr lands. It's also not a very interesting looking zone.
But since the introduction of guild missions some zones become populated with people once more for a short time.
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I honestly always see tons of people in every single starting zone. Human zones certainly tend to be the most popular in every MMO though. I think the Norn and Charr starting areas were probably the least populated, which is why I suspect Anet directed the first Living Story content to those zones. It's certainly worked like a charm. Initially many players were barely familiar with Wayfarer Foothills, whereas now it's probably one of players' most familiar zones.
I'm optimistic now that Anet will continue to make every zone in the world relevant. I wouldn't be surprised if they make Fields of Ruin one of the focal points of a near future living story arc.
My first time going through to 80 I spent about 15 levels in Fields of Ruin. Back then half the zone was bugged out but I still loved every second. It has an interesting design, and there are great chained events going on both in Ebon Hawk and outside of it (the Meta-Event is fun for big groups). Plus there was just so more lore to discover (like the hidden Achievement) in that zone, it's to this day I think my favorite.
Surprisingly not a whole lot of folks go there. Folks tend to be leveling Gendarran Fields/Harathi Hinterlands but Fields of Ruin is one of the few 'outer' zones with an Asura Gate leading to it. So for those of you leveling characters in the low 30's and want to do something different, check out Fields of Ruin, accessable via an Asura Gate in NE Divinity's Reach. It's a great alternative to the Gendarran/Harathi run.
my fav is kessex hills or one of those mid level snow areas (forget the name of which one it was). my least fav are the asura zones...i cant stand them. the zone i play in is of course cursed shore.
even though they try to make it where u visit older zones again you usually just pop in and pop out really fast.
I beg to differ there. Maybe you just pop in and pop out, but I tend to spend hours in the various level 1-25 zones every week.
I think their presentation, like the Karka event and all the intro instance mini bosses, is phenomenal. I think their actual gameplay is supbar at best, borderline unfun. It usually amounts to a huge laggy zerg where it's impossible to lose and nothing you do as an individual matters.
Top 3 (open world exploration...not simply going there to do a dungeon)
1. Queensdale (one of the best beginner zones I've seen in an MMO, scaling makes it popular even at max level)
2. Frostgorge Sound (got tier 6 mats and is fun to play in)
3. Harathi Hinterlands (lots of centaurs, but I like the insane amount of events)
Bottom 3
1. Malchor's Leap (hard as balls)
2. Fields of Rin (It's just WAY out of the way on the bottom right corner of the map)
3. Southsun cove*** (doesn't appeal to me at all)
***This zone will DEFINITELY change after the living story climaxes this month
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
Since you're in the business of correcting a missing letter in someone's post, I now feel obligated to say: FYI, it's Ebonhawke :P Also the Asura gate connects Ebonhawke to Divinity's Reach (two human cities), not Lion's Arch, which is the real reason it's an under-utilized zone. If there was a gate in LA, I suspect more people would accidentally find their way there.
I didn't know Ebon watch and Fields of Ruin existed until my second play on an alt that went down the vigil story line.
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With the system for Dailies and the Living Story, most of my play time each day is usually in Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau. My most recent alt is an Elementalist on my second account and I think 90% of my trek to level 61 has been doing dailies, mostly in those two zones.
I hate the zones of Orr. The redesign of mob density helped, but the reward nerfs and the ridiculous changes to some of the Temple Events, imo, wiped out any benefits of the redesign.
I find it amazing that I have been able to spend so much time in Wayfarer Foothills and Diessa Plateau over the past few months and am only slightly tired of them. I'll be glad, though, when the Living Story ends next month so that I can get back to explorer the larger world more regularly.
I'd also like to dee the choice of tasks for the daily further expanded to include a few more amenable to world explorers. I'd like to see them expand on the current 5/9 selection by adding Point of Interest, Heart Tasks and Vistas as tasks every day, expanding to "complete 5/12". This would allow people to go back to exploring the world and world completion, with out dailies getting in the way. It would also make dailies feel less like a "job", or jumping through narrow hoops.
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I love the Fields of Ruin zone - great music and atmosphere. Isn't that where Ogre Wars takes place? That is a fun meta-event. I understand the atmosphere of the Orr zones, but they are annoying. They should be like that because we are in the final boss' territory but is it really necessary to get jumped by risen every step of the way. Not including the Orr zones, the only zone I can say that is not great is the Blazeridge Steppes. It's still good but it is the one zone I find a bit boring, even with the Shatterer.
The Jormag event is great. I love when he crashes into the mountain before the 2nd phase starts. Very nice.
I agree with what people are saying about the dailies but they have to make them accessible to everyone. They can't add hearts/PoI's/vistas because those people who only play one toon with 100% world completion won't be able to get those. If they increase the options, then fine.
I really love the 'human' areas, Queensdale, Kessex Hill, Gendarran Fields, Harathi Hinterlands, and I also spend a lot of time in Bloodtide Coast. The main reason they are fun, though, is that they have lots of events going on and that there are many other players present and not so much the type of mobs you fight or the geagraphical setting. Fun = lots of action, lots of players and lots of world events (with chestspawning-bosses).
Not so fond of Fireheart Rise (inaccessible, annoying mobs, too much lava and fire) and the Orr zones (really, really tired of chasing the same undead mobs, packed up in a tiny area). And I never could stand Southsun Cove (hope it will change by the Living story)