Staging area

Staging area is used to indicate any of the following locations:

Town

Outpost

Mission location

These are enclosed, non-instanced locations, as opposed to explorable areas. They are enclosed locations that serve as a starting point for quests, missions or for exploring open areas. They also offer services for players that allow them to purchase/enhance equipment and meet and interact with other players. Staging areas are split into districts, although there may only be one district if there are less then 150 characters in a staging area. Inside these enclosed locations you can meet other human players to team up as a party. Whenever you leave these enclosed locations, the GW server starts a new instance of the zone outside. This means only you and your party will be there, along with computer-controlled foes and NPCs. Any other human party entering the same zone will be playing in a separate copy of that zone. As there are no monsters, staging areas are also referred to as safe zones.

You can quickly return to a town, outpost or mission location by using map travel. All cities, outposts and mission locations, with the exception of those in Pre-Searing Ascalon, which are directly connected to explorable areas, offer the services of henchmen to help bolster your party.