i've kind of notcied the same thing i started up my second character (a villan to oppose my hero) and i got to lvl 3 and just couldnt be arsed. I may have been a bit eager to try to get my hero up a few lvls and got bored of the villan tho so that is a lack of willpower on my part. But there was definately a lack of presence on the villan server compared to the hero one (which isnt great for the time i play anyways) I know im not really giving advice just wanted to let you know your not alone
Yep, I find the early villains game much more of a grind than heroes. It's fairly hard to grab a team in Mercy too, and there's nothing like the Sewer Runs you can do Heroes side to zip through it. Closest I've seen is people farming the Bank mission in Mercy to get to 6 quickly. Even then its harder to get a team.
I ended up making my dom on the US side instead and creating PuGs on Freedumb, it was the only way I could stick to one.
A Grav dom is going to be a long haul too, Grav is one of the latest developing Control sets, not getting its second AOE control until 26, and the extra single target damage powers Grav gets aren't as useful to a Dom IMO since you get them in the secondary as well.
MMs are much easier to solo though and Traps is a great MM set.
I suppose the best thing to do with the Dom would be find a good active Villains SG and join that and team with them a lot.
Well having countless alts vill side, I've never found the early part of CoV that hard a grind. You can solo and get yourself off mercy very easily. Doms are a slightly difficult AT to start off with due to low HP and taking a while to get all the key powers. Most get annoyed with doms as they expect them to be like blasters and they aren't. Its a long while before you are a more dmg oriented char. But after a certain point, the dom is one of the easiest chars to solo by far. The sheer volume of doms I alone have (let alone the rest of UD) is a testament to that. Starscreamer himself is a gravity/thorns and can solo the RWZ timed mishes from Borea literally in under 10 minutes.
I don't ever farm my chars (bar 2 lvls on my old brute who I retired anyway) and I managed to get one of my doms off mercy in less than an afternoon.
I've found that if ya really can't get a team that early to take Burke as ya 1st contact as all his mishes can be soloed in your sleep, even more so than Kalinda's. Then once level 6 just leave Mercy and goto PO to start papers, get a travel temp and ya 1st proper contact. I always do the vill tutorial as well as it can be done in minutes so theres a free pass to lvl 2.
Theres also a distinct possibility the builds ya chosen are longer haul chars. My main had a hard time early on Mercy himself but by shark he was able to solo more than happily. Whereas my plant/elec dom was very good right from the get go. Same for my corrs - my sonic/ice was a total nightmare to level and still not great solo but yet my energy/rad can solo relent like it aint there and was very comfortable solo from about lvl 8 upwards. All about what ya got, what ya want and the big picture.
Lastly, it may help joining an SG vill side to get into more regular teaming. I myself am always trying new things and have chars across I think every lvl range bar the 20s lol If you ever need help or advice blasting through the huge fun that is the villain side of the world, fire me up @Starscreamer
Oh yeah, feel free to add me as a Global all : @Carnifax
At the mo I'm in the 30s somewhere but I suffer from chronic altisis so if you add my global and see I'm somewhere around the same level I'm generally good to team for a bit. Happy to SK people too (but not PL).
yer for many many months now. lvling villains across the board is very much harder then heroes. imo:
1) lower lvls there not much to do, compared to heroes i.e sewers
2) not as many people play villains, people moan theres nothign there but wont stick around to help the numbers increase over time and get teams going.
- also people moan theres no teams, but wont start one
3) devs dont like villains so there making it harder for everyone.
3)people cant say its a trek compared to atlas etc, for heroes side is bigger map wise. remember. rogue isles is mostly water 
4) theres nothing to do really besides paper or contact mishes. while heroes have Sf's across the board we get them and at specific lvls. i mean we have enough AV's to have a sf 10-15,15-20,-20-25 etc. come on devs. work on villains
What's the point making a villain if you're going to end up doing heroic stuff with your enemies? 
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
it is hard to lvl a villain, got my main (Thugs/FF MM) to 24 or so but that was mostly soloing. I don't see the point playing an MMO on my own. Every now and again is fine, but even starting my own teams, which I'm not scared to do, it's still bloody hard to get folks to join, even when they're the same levels. I think I've had maybe 4 or 5 good teams in my time red side, and only 2 or 3 bad ones. Same amount of bad teams as a hero, but most days I'm on in Paragon City I get at least one good team, and usually stick with it for the length on my session. I don't have any regular team-mates, just do PUGs, but really, most of the time COV is hopeless for this.
@craggy see me on Union for TFs, SFs (please!) or just some good ol fashioned teaming.
I have wanted a Villain for a long time and like a few other got a variety to about level 6 before boredom took over and they were deleted. The only one I found fun enough to stick at was my Stalker - i mostly solo'd her to about 33 before getting bored again so took a long break back Hero-side then came back a couple of months later and levelled her to 50. Since then I have 4 new villains and I am enjoying it more because the later level content is good fun and I am now more willing to fight my way there 
Golden-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Fire/Fire Tank
Oodja Nikabolokov - Lvl 50 SS/WP Brute
Baby-Phoenix - Lvl 50 Peacebringer
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris?
what we find best to do on villains side is once the characters created, quickly get them to level 2 local to the main starting base, once oyu've got level two then just exit that start point and work your way (killing everything) to the wall, either by off beat routes or round the coast routes.
by the time you're at the wall you'll be level 5 or even 6 ready to skip straight into port oakes and begin your paper missions to get your first two temp powers.
misses low level content and lots of running round but does get your character boosted up to 12 fairly fast - far enough for you to really see if they are going to be any good or not. And its faster than trying to get teams and do missions.
@ExtraGonk
Contradictory to what almost everyone has said.
I find low levels on villains relattivly easy. I nearly always manage to geet a 5+ member team.
That said, if anyone ever wants someone to team with in low levels just send me a tell on @Envoy of the End and i'll see if my alitits can come up with yet another Envoy. ;P
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this as well...
For some reason I hate leveling Villains??! I never seem to be able to get a team or see half as many people running about as you do in the blue side.
Everything in Mercy Island seems to be a 2 mile hike compared to Heroes, and i have gotten about level 6 on countless alts just to get bored and delete them cause i cba running about streets on my own for my Dom to take 3-4 mins to kill a same lvl luit.
Now I have been guilty of Farming my own toons now an then on Hero side but i leveled a few recently old fashoined way and really enjoyed it, ny Illusion Therm is lvl 33 now and got their fairly quickly.
I would love more villains as there are sets and toons I want to try like Grav Doms, and Traps MM's and if I ever get a 50 a Widow...
What am I doing wrong??
P.s. please dont say carry on after lvl 6, the grind really does grind to a halt by that stage and i get bored.
Carlsberg don't do Farming,
But if they did..........