What rank guildleves should i be taking?

This is pretty basic, but have to considered staying in Skull Valley and just increasing the number of stars on your leves? Every star increases the mobs' rank by 5. If you're not getting much SP now, you can increase the number of stars until the mobs are 10 levels above you, since 10 levels is the cap for SP per mob (in other words, you'll get more SP for killing a mob that's 5 levels above you than one that's the same level as you; you'll get more SP for killing a mob that's 10 levels above you than one that's 5 levels above you; but you'll get the same SP for killing a mob that's 20 levels above you as one that's 10 levels above you).

If you're looking for folks to party with, maybe consider going to Uldah. That tends to be where most players are located.