Guild Wars 2

Halanna.3927:

Maybe it comes down to a difference in play style. For those players (like me) who take our time and enjoy the game and what it has to offer, there doesn’t seem to be a problem leveling.

Maybe others are just trying to push push push and level as fast as possible.

If you log in and just simply play what you feel like playing, crafting, harvesting, doing your daily achievement, personal story, exploring – you level far too fast.

My second character is level 65 and I’m only at 35% map complete, my personal story is still in the level 20’s, I’ve never done WvW (except to try and to the map vistas, poi’s etc., but I don’t do PvP).

I don’t know why there is such disparity, but GW2 is a game to be savored, not rushed and pushed through.

I agree. My first 300 or so hours of play I savored. In fact I enjoyed redoing some content on my 2nd character (mesmer) just because the playstyle was so much different than my 1st (ranger).

My 3rd was thief, and 4th was guardian. Thief is by far my favorite profession – to the point that my 5th is also a thief. I don’t want to deal with gear/trait swapping so one of my thieves is my PVE/Dungeon thief (semi-glass cannon) while the other will be my WvW thief (condition/bunker).

I have no desire to savor anything on this character as I level him. The only things I have left to savor are the sweet smell of my enemies blood in wvw and future content releases.

Me and a friend finished queensdale at lvl 10 last night with 100% map completion and did quite a few events. Sure we didn’t do any personal story missions but I don’t think that would have given us the 7 extra levels we were missing that the area says it’s designed for.

The thing is I do not remember having such an issue finding experience back when the game first launched. On my charr I went through that area and came out at lvl 16 or so without much effort.

I think exp amounts have definitely been tweaked since launch but I do not remember reading that they were in any notes.

The problem is, people are now completing areas faster. This results in way less dynamic events done, and, what’s more important, less dailies done. Fully done daily can give you (for partial achievements, final reward, and for things you need to do to complete it – like dynamic events, harvesting, killing mobs) about half a level easily. If you like to play slowly and take your time, you will do several dailies before finishing the area – and do even more additional DE’s to boot. That’s your several missing levels.

My ele, for example, is level 80 with about 22% of world map completion, his order entrance storyline still unfinished, and his crafting levels mostly done after already getting to 80. Never been to dungeons, as well, just in case someone is wondering. And almost no non-repeatable achievements as well, since that was my second level 80 (and the first one is a competionist).

There’s more than enough xp out there, but it’s easy to overlook when you are rushing forward.

Weird statement. So basically you didn’t finish the other races area and only finished your own so you felt underleveled?

Maybe you are suppose to finish other races area.

The Strange thing, it wasn’t like this when the game first opened, every map i’d be on par with the correct level Req so something changed, because alts now are two levels below par for me per map..

fellyn.5083:

Me and a friend finished queensdale at lvl 10 last night with 100% map completion and did quite a few events. Sure we didn’t do any personal story missions but I don’t think that would have given us the 7 extra levels we were missing that the area says it’s designed for.

The thing is I do not remember having such an issue finding experience back when the game first launched. On my charr I went through that area and came out at lvl 16 or so without much effort.

I think exp amounts have definitely been tweaked since launch but I do not remember reading that they were in any notes.

Just a question regarding this, were you gathering wood, ore, herbs along the way? I think the lowest level that I completed Queensdale was about 12 on my Warrior, and I just got the rest by unlocking all my weapon skills and did a little bit of cooking and jewelcrafting which brought me up to 15. Despite Queensdale saying it is 1-17, the mobs in Kessex start at 15 so I consider that to be the natural level to progress. I might level faster because I use food and sharpening stones for the 20% xp bonus.

Elthurien.8356:

fellyn.5083:

Me and a friend finished queensdale at lvl 10 last night with 100% map completion and did quite a few events. Sure we didn’t do any personal story missions but I don’t think that would have given us the 7 extra levels we were missing that the area says it’s designed for.

The thing is I do not remember having such an issue finding experience back when the game first launched. On my charr I went through that area and came out at lvl 16 or so without much effort.

I think exp amounts have definitely been tweaked since launch but I do not remember reading that they were in any notes.

Just a question regarding this, were you gathering wood, ore, herbs along the way? I think the lowest level that I completed Queensdale was about 12 on my Warrior, and I just got the rest by unlocking all my weapon skills and did a little bit of cooking and jewelcrafting which brought me up to 15. Despite Queensdale saying it is 1-17, the mobs in Kessex start at 15 so I consider that to be the natural level to progress. I might level faster because I use food and sharpening stones for the 20% xp bonus.

We didn’t do any crafting but we did do a lot of gathering. As I said though, I basically followed the same routine that I’ve done several times in the past (only in the charr area) and came out way under leveled.

I’m pretty certain they have adjusted exp amounts since the game has been released. I assume that they did this to get people to do more events. But what happens when you do every single event you come across, some even more than once and still come out way under leveled?

People say “just go to another races starting area” and sure we can do that. But that’s besides the point. A few months ago you didn’t need to do that.

If you tend not to do the entire contents of each zone before progressing you may feel that your underleveled – especially when it comes to certain points in the story mode.

I would suggest doing everything in the zone and crafting before moving on to higher level zones. Also, I would suggest that you are several levels higher than the zones minimum level.

Mid range throughout my progress I was level 60 and tackling story mode at level 30-40, all because I did many zones first before moving with story.

I guess I’m just very slow or one crazy OCD completionist. I’ve been bringing my characters on a world-wide tour of all the level appropriate zones before moving on. My characters are now completing the 15 – 25 zones… And they’re all level 62 – 65! I haven’t even stepped into the 25 – 35 zones or higher except for Gendarran Fields/Sparkfly Fen/Southsun Cove, and that was only for the Halloween/Lost Shores events!

I’ve got the same issue, though admittedly I do not craft. just fished map completion of Queensland and Wayfarer Foothills on my new engi. She is now level 16.

They seriously need to make de more frequent cuz im underleveld after completing the zone.

Are people brand new to GW ending up underleveled? I’m just curious because I think if people are on alts and complaining about it, I have to wonder just how much achievements matter towards getting to level 15-17 from finishing a starter area.

I seem to remember doing just fine on my first playthrough too, though it was quite a while back. I don’t remember feeling underleveled though that’s for sure, or undergeared even though I didn’t have funds to constantly upgrade gear like I do these days with alts.

Yeah i always even on my first ever character got more XP than was needed, lacking behind in lvl’s more and mroe the longer i got, ending up that both my chracters by the time they hit lvl 80 had as the highest lvl area they been in being bloodtide coast (directly South of LA)

Well I made a new character tonight, norn this time. And I’m only 75% or so done with the area and my character is already level 11, almost 12. I haven’t done anything different than what I did with the human character I talked about in an earlier post. Same process, hearts, then events whenever I could, with gathering. No story quests and no crafting were done on either character.

Now, I will say that the frequency events – especially levels 1 through 5 – seemed a lot higher in the norn area than in the human area. As far as I can tell I’ve done roughly the same amount of events, I wasn’t keeping track.

But it still begs the question of why, without doing anything different (other than being in a different area) is my norn character so far ahead of my human character while completing less content, all things considered?

I never had that problem. This should actually only happen if you don’t do any crafting and dynamic events and just follow the main storyline. I always had more than sufficient XP, actually by the time I really started world completion, I’ve already been level 80 for quite some time. And I haven’t even been in Orr or Frostgorge Sound yet. You’ll gain numerous levels by crafting alone.
I also never understood people complaining about income. I never farmed or anything, I just spend what I found on crafting and didn’t buy any mats, and earned 40g on my way without any effort.

fellyn.5083:

But it still begs the question of why, without doing anything different (other than being in a different area) is my norn character so far ahead of my human character while completing less content, all things considered?

I actually switched from norn (level 15) to human because the norn felt so slow, and leveling as a human took pretty much the same time, if not a little less because I already knew how to do things. Your existing experience probably helps you too.

Do some crafting. If you sit down and max one craft, you’ll gain 10 levels and only takes an hour or so.

The idea is that they assume that because you can go to areas of other races that you will. The problem with is that I found that it lessens the replay value.

I made a human mesmer first and I like snow. So I leveled my human no problem using the human and norn areas.

But then I made a norn and since I already played through those areas with my human it got boring more quickly.

This was the first MMO where I didn’t like crafting so I didn’t do that and WvW I didn’t do till later.

In essence you are forced to use more aspects of the game whether you like it or not. Just being in an area gaining xp from farming mobs is discouraged. Too bad really cause you could ensure more people in the open areas, which apparently is an issue now on many servers.

I really didn’t think about lvling until I got my 1st character (eng) to 80. At that point total map completion was about 50%, though only Queensdale and Kessex were cleared. On my 2nd character (ele), i didn’t clear Queens until lvl 40ish. Guess it’s not that big a deal to me. But then, I like to find WPs, especially those in areas much higher than my character, cause you get more exp (lvl 20 vs lvl 40 for example). My WPs are 443/507 last I checked fyi. However, I can’t recommend finding WPs like that cause this dictates running past mobs that are higher lvl than you, especially Risen, ones with knockdown/stun/immobilize, and so on. I also do WvW quite a bit so…yeah. I’m more of a casual gamer than some cause I may only have 4 hrs a day to do things.

I’m in the other side of that.
I’m always over the level of the area.

I try to be 2 levels under the level of the area to level up faster, but I level up too fast before I complete hearts and get all points, and then the other areas of the same range of levels are gray, and the next is white.
But by the time I complete those, the next areas are green instead white.

Idk, I leveled my norn first, and loved the areas so much that’s where I took my human to level her. As it stands she’s level 60 and has most of the Shiverpeaks discovered, but only the first two human areas.

I also under-leveled. I think the expectation is that we would take our time in each zone, explore and do a lot a dynamic events. Usually, 4-5 additional dynamic events is enough to bring me up to the expected level.

Whenever I seem to be powering through the area a bit too quickly (as in not doing enough DEs in an area to keep up with levels), I tend to just jump into WvW and get a few levels there.

DE’s can be repeated which most newer players are not comprehending. On my Elementalist that is now lvl 62 was lvl 16 before I even left Queensdale. Taken me only two weeks to lvl to 62 and that is with RL and bouncing back to my main. Then before move to Kessex Hills do the other 1-15 area to get even more lvls. It is very easy to get to Lion’s Arch just enter WvW or Heart of the Mist and enter the exit portal and yer in Lion’s Arch and then just head to the gate hub and go eenie meenie miney moe fer which area ya want to go to.

A good rule of thumb is to look for foes that are often ignored or never killed. They give an exploration bonus up to 400% of the base exp for a kill based on how long they lived. So look for yellow mobs or red mobs that haven’t been killed in a very long time.

Go off the beaten path and hunt those foes. Event mobs or foes near events/hearts are usually killed as soon as they spawned. One set in Queens-dale are two veteran Basilisks. Add on food and other consumables, the black lion chest buffs, guild banner and WvW bonuses, and you have over 450% or more exp gain per foe that hasn’t been touched in a very very long time. This also works for non event champions like the war beast in Gendarrian fields in its pen.

In addition with the hypothesis about one-time achievements making alts level more slowly, I wonder to what extent DR might be having an effect? Subsequent runs of any content will tend to go more quickly (since you already know what you’re doing and probably aren’t stopping to read any flavour text etc.). I wonder, for example, if ten one hour sessions would earn more than one ten hour session? I know that DEs are affected by DR; I don’t know if kill XP are too.

For the record, I play casually and have one L80, one L40, and various lower levels. I haven’t felt underlevelled at any point so far (undergeared and poor, yes, underlevelled no ;-) I tend to pick up all of the zone completions for all races’ starting towns ASAP, though, which is worth two or three levels early on (i.e. the diff between 12 and 15 on the when leaving the first zone).

I think it’s a bit hard to stay at the right level from 1-20 or so, but beyond that I’m always overleveled. I leave areas at 60-70% completion and am already 3 above the next area’s minimum level. By the end game, crafting and exploring gets me experience faster than I bother to go do my story missions, so I outlevel those significantly as well.

They DO need to teach newer players how to play this game better, and how to get to other starting areas, but in the 2013 preview video they said they’re planning on addressing those issues.

I am having this experience on my second character as well. I had it to some extent on my first as well, but as I planned to get 100% map completion (and indeed have done so) I didn’t mind going ‘back’ to other races’ areas to catch up on levels, as everything was new and fresh. However, I am now slightly regretting not waiting to get 100% map completion until my next toon is levelled because I have already seen the whole world, completed all the hearts, all the jumping puzzles, etc. I’m levelling fairly slowly because it isn’t as interesting the second time round unless I happen upon different events, so it feels like more of a grind than it did originally even though I have a better idea of what I’m doing.

So, I can definitely understand where the OP is coming from. I was encouraged to really explore everything first time through but that can backfire for levelling alts as there’s less new content. New patches should help though as there will be things that my 80 hasn’t done yet.

fellyn.5083:

Well I made a new character tonight, norn this time. And I’m only 75% or so done with the area and my character is already level 11, almost 12. I haven’t done anything different than what I did with the human character I talked about in an earlier post. Same process, hearts, then events whenever I could, with gathering. No story quests and no crafting were done on either character.

Now, I will say that the frequency events – especially levels 1 through 5 – seemed a lot higher in the norn area than in the human area. As far as I can tell I’ve done roughly the same amount of events, I wasn’t keeping track.

But it still begs the question of why, without doing anything different (other than being in a different area) is my norn character so far ahead of my human character while completing less content, all things considered?

Less people play norn so less creatures get killed – that’s my guess. Let’s say you kill something and it gives you 16xp. If that creature has been alive long enough to get it to the full bonus of 2.5x, you then get 16xp + 40xp bonus. I’m not 100% positive but I think that’s how bonus xp works for kills.

Also xp granted scales with the difficulty of the mob. Base xp for killing an easy target might be 10, while a tougher target might be 16 or 20 (whatever). Maybe the norn area just has tougher mobs? I’m not 100% positive on this one either ’cause I never really paid that much attention.

Xenth.2408:

fellyn.5083:

Well I made a new character tonight, norn this time. And I’m only 75% or so done with the area and my character is already level 11, almost 12. I haven’t done anything different than what I did with the human character I talked about in an earlier post. Same process, hearts, then events whenever I could, with gathering. No story quests and no crafting were done on either character.

Now, I will say that the frequency events – especially levels 1 through 5 – seemed a lot higher in the norn area than in the human area. As far as I can tell I’ve done roughly the same amount of events, I wasn’t keeping track.

But it still begs the question of why, without doing anything different (other than being in a different area) is my norn character so far ahead of my human character while completing less content, all things considered?

Less people play norn so less creatures get killed – that’s my guess. Let’s say you kill something and it gives you 16xp. If that creature has been alive long enough to get it to the full bonus of 2.5x, you then get 16xp + 40xp bonus. I’m not 100% positive but I think that’s how bonus xp works for kills.

Also xp granted scales with the difficulty of the mob. Base xp for killing an easy target might be 10, while a tougher target might be 16 or 20 (whatever). Maybe the norn area just has tougher mobs? I’m not 100% positive on this one either ’cause I never really paid that much attention.

I don’t know about that. We had people calling out the Maw event every time it was up and 30+ people showed up for it.

DryHumour.1307:

In addition with the hypothesis about one-time achievements making alts level more slowly, I wonder to what extent DR might be having an effect? Subsequent runs of any content will tend to go more quickly (since you already know what you’re doing and probably aren’t stopping to read any flavour text etc.). I wonder, for example, if ten one hour sessions would earn more than one ten hour session? I know that DEs are affected by DR; I don’t know if kill XP are too.

For the record, I play casually and have one L80, one L40, and various lower levels. I haven’t felt underlevelled at any point so far (undergeared and poor, yes, underlevelled no ;-) I tend to pick up all of the zone completions for all races’ starting towns ASAP, though, which is worth two or three levels early on (i.e. the diff between 12 and 15 on the when leaving the first zone).

I have 3 lvl 80s and a lvl 66. I have noticed no diminished return as they are new characters though same account.

The solution to your problem lies in the DE’s you are avoiding. Throughout the game there are areas where DE’s spawn regularly and reward a ton of XP. You’ve probably noticed this in the brisban wildlands, harathi hinterlands, jelako island, fireheart rise (apostate waypoint), and the list goes on. They scale and the vast majority can be easily soloed. Even if they fail they still award good XP and the follow-up is often far easier.

I would agree with you if the game didn’t have DE’s, but with them leveling is fast and easy. This is an aspect of the game they nailed.

Edit: I should add I have 7 level 80’s the last of which dinged 80 a couple days ago. I’ve noticed no diminished returns of any kind and leveling in GW2 is the fastest I’ve experienced in any MMO.

Xenth.2408:

fellyn.5083:

Well I made a new character tonight, norn this time. And I’m only 75% or so done with the area and my character is already level 11, almost 12. I haven’t done anything different than what I did with the human character I talked about in an earlier post. Same process, hearts, then events whenever I could, with gathering. No story quests and no crafting were done on either character.

Now, I will say that the frequency events – especially levels 1 through 5 – seemed a lot higher in the norn area than in the human area. As far as I can tell I’ve done roughly the same amount of events, I wasn’t keeping track.

But it still begs the question of why, without doing anything different (other than being in a different area) is my norn character so far ahead of my human character while completing less content, all things considered?

Less people play norn so less creatures get killed – that’s my guess. Let’s say you kill something and it gives you 16xp. If that creature has been alive long enough to get it to the full bonus of 2.5x, you then get 16xp + 40xp bonus. I’m not 100% positive but I think that’s how bonus xp works for kills.

Also xp granted scales with the difficulty of the mob. Base xp for killing an easy target might be 10, while a tougher target might be 16 or 20 (whatever). Maybe the norn area just has tougher mobs? I’m not 100% positive on this one either ’cause I never really paid that much attention.

Yes, and this should be emphasized for optimum leveling. It’s called exploration bonus and it’s higher the longer the creature has been alive and unmolested. In fireheart rise I found mobs where the exploration bonus was ~950 which meant killing a handful equaled a dynamic event in terms of total XP. The key is to going off the beaten path, try killing a mob. If you hit gold just continue on in that area. While grinding your way to 80 is not recommended, this is an excellent way to supplement XP while waiting for an event or just running around.

Raine.1394:

Xenth.2408:

fellyn.5083:

Well I made a new character tonight, norn this time. And I’m only 75% or so done with the area and my character is already level 11, almost 12. I haven’t done anything different than what I did with the human character I talked about in an earlier post. Same process, hearts, then events whenever I could, with gathering. No story quests and no crafting were done on either character.

Now, I will say that the frequency events – especially levels 1 through 5 – seemed a lot higher in the norn area than in the human area. As far as I can tell I’ve done roughly the same amount of events, I wasn’t keeping track.

But it still begs the question of why, without doing anything different (other than being in a different area) is my norn character so far ahead of my human character while completing less content, all things considered?

Less people play norn so less creatures get killed – that’s my guess. Let’s say you kill something and it gives you 16xp. If that creature has been alive long enough to get it to the full bonus of 2.5x, you then get 16xp + 40xp bonus. I’m not 100% positive but I think that’s how bonus xp works for kills.

Also xp granted scales with the difficulty of the mob. Base xp for killing an easy target might be 10, while a tougher target might be 16 or 20 (whatever). Maybe the norn area just has tougher mobs? I’m not 100% positive on this one either ’cause I never really paid that much attention.

Yes, and this should be emphasized for optimum leveling. It’s called exploration bonus and it’s higher the longer the creature has been alive and unmolested. In fireheart rise I found mobs where the exploration bonus was ~950 which meant killing a handful equaled a dynamic event in terms of total XP. The key is to going off the beaten path, try killing a mob. If you hit gold just continue on in that area. While grinding your way to 80 is not recommended, this is an excellent way to supplement XP while waiting for an event or just running around.

Except for in the situation I was talking about that wasn’t the case. There were lots of people around. Equally as many people as the human starting zone.

It’s playstyle.

I play 2-3 hours a night. I’m constantly getting bonus xp for dailies. I also kill every yellow mob that’s in my path, and have food buffs. I always out level the starter zones by the time I’m done with the 1-10 Personal story arc.

If I put in the same amount of hours in one weekend, the lack of daily bonus alone would stunt my leveling.

fellyn.5083:

Xenth.2408:

fellyn.5083:

Well I made a new character tonight, norn this time. And I’m only 75% or so done with the area and my character is already level 11, almost 12. I haven’t done anything different than what I did with the human character I talked about in an earlier post. Same process, hearts, then events whenever I could, with gathering. No story quests and no crafting were done on either character.

Now, I will say that the frequency events – especially levels 1 through 5 – seemed a lot higher in the norn area than in the human area. As far as I can tell I’ve done roughly the same amount of events, I wasn’t keeping track.

But it still begs the question of why, without doing anything different (other than being in a different area) is my norn character so far ahead of my human character while completing less content, all things considered?

Less people play norn so less creatures get killed – that’s my guess. Let’s say you kill something and it gives you 16xp. If that creature has been alive long enough to get it to the full bonus of 2.5x, you then get 16xp + 40xp bonus. I’m not 100% positive but I think that’s how bonus xp works for kills.

Also xp granted scales with the difficulty of the mob. Base xp for killing an easy target might be 10, while a tougher target might be 16 or 20 (whatever). Maybe the norn area just has tougher mobs? I’m not 100% positive on this one either ’cause I never really paid that much attention.

I don’t know about that. We had people calling out the Maw event every time it was up and 30+ people showed up for it.

The Maw alone will powerlevel your character. It’s a 4 DE chain that repeats every 20-30 minutes. With other DE’s spawning very close too it on almost the same timer. IMO its the only starter area that gets the game RIGHT.

It doesnt help that the other starter zones equivalent events are either too hard (Fire Elemental in Metrica Province) less rewarding (Jungle Wurm in Caledon Forest) or constantly bugged (Shadow Behemoth in Queensdale).

I did world completion on 1 character, I was level 80 long before I finished the completion. I have 3 level 80 alts who only have done a handful of zones and only completed 2 kessex hills and gendarran fields.

If you are under-leveled try doing some hearts and exploring, not just b-lining to the next zone.

EverythingXen.1835:

It doesnt help that the other starter zones equivalent events are either too hard (Fire Elemental in Metrica Province) less rewarding (Jungle Wurm in Caledon Forest) or constantly bugged (Shadow Behemoth in Queensdale).

Interesting observation and one which would seem to play into the rate of return per hour played theory.

Anecdotally, FWIW, I’ve never, ever seen the Behemoth — I’m on Nothern Shiverpeaks, although I haven’t been trying that hard to get it since I learned it was bugged. The Fire Elemental is nasty until you find the sweet spot where it never shoots. I can’t recall ever doing the Jungle Worm either… not very memorable I guess. But I’ve tripped over the Maw many, many times in casual play.

(For the record, I personally don’t have any problem with the speed of levelling and I don’t use crafting for power levelling; I’ve only played a couple of hours of WvWvW; and I haven’t ever set foot in a dungeon. I’m enjoying the ride so far on my first two toons. But that’s obviously just my personal and subjective opinion and I understand that others don’t share it.)

True, I noticed that DE’s in Wayfarer seem to be constant and consistent. One night, I did the Svanir Shaman in the south end twice in about an hour. A low lvl norn would thus have more lvling opportunities. As to the Maw, I am likely one of the few who have never done it. I have done the other three once apiece, the Shadow Behemoth before the Nov update when it became bugged on my server.

This topic is spot on. Made a similar topic a while ago.