Spooncraft

Each phase, and the subsequent “add ons” for each phase (anvil, alchemy table, etc.) require a set number of turn ins of the specific quests that fund them. There’s no mechanic that increases that number. So no, a realm with a higher population is not handicapped.

There is however a mechanic that will auto-complete each phase after a set amount of time for those realms that aren’t able to complete them within a “decent” amount of time.

What you may be seeing is a general cool down of people taking part in those quests? I can’t really say why your realm may be seeing a slower progression aside from them just not completing as many quests as another realm. (src)

We already knew that small servers would get an automatic completion of the event at some point, now Drysc confirms that there is nothing in place to slow down the bigger servers even if the 2nd phase seems to take more time than the first one. I think this is a good time to mention a new website Gorgonnash.info. The site gathers progression details of the offensive on all servers through an addon (which you must download and then speak to the NPCs that give you progressions %’s) and ranks them. Both European and American versions are available.

You can also see the details of the progression on a specific server. Here’s mine.