f13.net

Grouping in the 40s is impossible. Got to 42 or so all grouped, but havent had much more than a duo partner since (48 now). Most of the time I end up sitting in a group with a fury and another dps looking for a tank for 45 mins before logging off in frustration. All the lower level chats are active, but 40-49 is silent, even on weekends.

On the crafting side, the choke point is T4. With very little area, all of it is farmed to death, leaving only bushes, traps and the occasional log (which is :awesome_for_real: for my provis but :uhrr: for my WS and armorer). This jacks the prices on the broker up, with feyiron the worst at 75s-1g on average.

Is this unique to my server (Blackburrow), or common on others?

I didn't have much of a problem in T4 with resources. Probably because I solo almost 100% of the time which means I spent a ton of time in the front part of EL running all the solo quests and just strip harvesting. Even though you do get cherry pickers through the area I never had much of a problem finding enough root and metal resources there.

I had more trouble in T5 since Feerott is the main solo zone that also has decent harvesting and I have much hate for Feerott. I ended up just taking a higher level char and strip mining in EverFrost in heroic areas where not too many other people hunt.

As far as leveling in the 40's I would suggest heading to Steamfont if you haven't done the quest series there yet. Most of the quests are solo with a few heroics but you should be fine duo'ing or soloing there for a couple of levels. That should get you to 44-45 when you can start the solo quests in SS.

The basic group problem in the 40's is the huge glut of solo content. You can fly through those levels in a week or so just by running solo quests in Feerott, Steamfont, and Sinking Sands.

RV is great for T5 harvesting.

I did Steamfont and started SS, but I lose interest fast when soloing...

I think Temple of Cazic Thule is where I was from 45 - 50.  I don't think there is a lot of chatter because everyone just goes there and forms a group inside (it's a shared dungeon) and the chatter is pretty much local.

Harvesting t4 is night and day in Zek, depending on what time you do it (Oasis server). I gave up on harvesting during prime time, you would basically never see roots or hard metals. If more than 5 or 6 people were in the zone. I remember being in there once a couple weeks ago when I was finally trying to push my crafters out of t4 and there were maybe one or two nodes per spawn area, and each of them being harvested at the time. Like 30 people in the zone, most level 70+, all harvesting. Crazy.

T5 I've been using Feerrott, it's hit and miss as well with the 70+ crowd cherry picking.

My armorcrafter is stalled at 46 or so, still need to make my ebon legs for my sk. Got tired of harvesting the metal needed to level him. Gave up on the weaponcrafter at level 30. I've got loam coming out of my orifices.

There are a lot of things working against you:
Quests.
Average character level.
Closed Guilds.
Class distribution.
Itemization of Named.

What I did: I found a guild playing their low level alts and joined them.

On Crushbone I found that there was always one or two groups looking for people for DFC (Death Fist Citadel) or CT (Cazic Thul) most nights. Got my first Master in DFC ;). so it could be server population thats working against you there.