Guild Wars 2

Im newish to MMOs, and ive only played Archeage and FFXIV ARR.

I like how this game gives you multiple options to complete a side quest,but i dont like the boring subtlety.

Im trying to level becayse the story/dungeons/events are awesome. Should i just skip the side quests and do WvW for XP?

Which are the ‘side quests’? Do you mean Renown Hearts or Dynamic Events?

They’re interesting when the zones are full and lively. Honestly the servers keep the zones pretty kitten empty. For merging all the servers together I’d like to see bigger more occupied zones. When I did world completion awhile ago most maps are dead.

Yes, tons of people find them horrifically dull. You’re not the only one.

I remember during head start, one girl in my guild (who’d been an alpha and beta tester) got world completion done while I was still piddling about in Queensdale. Her comment on finishing was, "I never have to do another heart again if I don’t want to.

Almost anything you care to do gives experience in this game: hearts; events; crafting; gathering; killing mobs; WvW; Edge of the Mists; PvP, etc. Hearts are “needed” for zone (and thus world) completion, only. Doing tasks in some heart areas also triggers dynamic events. If you don’t enjoy them, then just do something else. You’ll level up no matter what you do.

Renown hearts.

Ya, i think ill stick to WvW and level that way. I love the main campaign.

Hearts are the worst method of exp, do them for fun not the reward :P
They normally point to where events occur, doing the event around a heart will generally complete the heart as well.

Events should be the bread and butter of leveling.
Just killing mobs and events that spawned them took about 31 hours to make a lvl 80 during Halloween. That’s with stacked exp boosters as well. Edge of the Mists works well for alts. If a person finds sPvP enjoyable or simple does the daily in hot-join/practice a fair amount of level tomes come from reward tracks.

With that all said… some of the little stories around hearts are cute/neat/fun.

Aro.8275:

Hearts are the worst method of exp, do them for fun not the reward :P
They normally point to where events occur, doing the event around a heart will generally complete the heart as well.

Events should be the bread and butter of leveling.
Just killing mobs and events that spawned them took about 31 hours to make a lvl 80 during Halloween. That’s with stacked exp boosters as well. Edge of the Mists works well for alts. If a person finds sPvP enjoyable or simple does the daily in hot-join/practice a fair amount of level tomes come from reward tracks.

With that all said… some of the little stories around hearts are cute/neat/fun.

Map completion is the second fastest method of leveling outside of consumables/crafting. I will make the disclaimer that Halloween was a special case as you have so many events in such a small area and tons of mobs due to scaling. You won’t find this the majority of the time.

Ayrilana.1396:

Aro.8275:

Hearts are the worst method of exp, do them for fun not the reward :P
They normally point to where events occur, doing the event around a heart will generally complete the heart as well.

Events should be the bread and butter of leveling.
Just killing mobs and events that spawned them took about 31 hours to make a lvl 80 during Halloween. That’s with stacked exp boosters as well. Edge of the Mists works well for alts. If a person finds sPvP enjoyable or simple does the daily in hot-join/practice a fair amount of level tomes come from reward tracks.

With that all said… some of the little stories around hearts are cute/neat/fun.

Map completion is the second fastest method of leveling outside of consumables/crafting. I will make the disclaimer that Halloween was a special case as you have so many events in such a small area and tons of mobs due to scaling. You won’t find this the majority of the time.

some hearts slow progress more than they give you exp.

and its always more experience to be fighting things your level (they scale up exp, but not as much as doing something your level)

There are few chains which give massive exp, and destroy the exp from hearts. like the old ulgoth chain, if you use exp boosters, the bonus and the killing itself is huge.

I would say events with monsters that havent been killed in a long time are the best leveling.

and yeah hearts are often not that entertaining. Really wish it wasnt part of map completion

phys.7689:

some hearts slow progress more than they give you exp.

and its always more experience to be fighting things your level (they scale up exp, but not as much as doing something your level)

There are few chains which give massive exp, and destroy the exp from hearts. like the old ulgoth chain, if you use exp boosters, the bonus and the killing itself is huge.

I would say events with monsters that havent been killed in a long time are the best leveling.

and yeah hearts are often not that entertaining. Really wish it wasnt part of map completion

Only a few take ages such as that stealth one in Blazeridge. I can usually clear an entire map within 1.5 hours at most. The thing with events is that many have long cool downs such as the Ulgoth one you mentioned. Finding events in out of the way locations which would have a lot of mobs that haven’t been killed in awhile is out of the question for many people that have not done map completion before or even enough to know where the events are and how often they’re done.

The thing is that nobody event farms in the open world anymore. There used to be the Queensdale farm but that was nerfed long ago. Most people just do EotM now which is actually the number one method from what I was speaking about. There’s also no guides on what the optimal routes would be for open world event farming, if there are any, so players will be at a loss.

How I leveled 6/8 characters was by doing world completion and doing as many events as I came across. I would not go out of my way for any particular event and would just tag them if it appeared it would take too long to complete.

it was added becouse players dident know what to do when map was blank and they had to run out and search for events.

For me renown hearts are fun if you are not after leveling, but yeah experience is low on renown hearts.

Hearts actually yield more than dynamic events. Hearts yield 8% of the area level while dynamics events do 7%. Map completion also rewards 10% of whatever level the highest area is on the map.

Ayrilana.1396:

Hearts actually yield more than dynamic events. Hearts yield 8% of the area level while dynamics events do 7%. Map completion also rewards 10% of whatever level the highest area is on the map.

there is a lot more exp than there is levels, if you just map complete you will end up outleveling content, which is ineffecient.
you get less % exp the higher your level difference is.
therefore you are always better off in areas where you are the same level or slightly lower.

also dynamic events are generally shorter than hearts

Im not saying never do hearts, but the most effecient way is to do only the easy hearts, preferably that you can finish while doing dynamic events, it would be easier if you could see more of the dynamic event progresses, but yeah, full map completion is generally not the fastest way.

usually by the time i hit 80, i may only have like 30% map completion, and i primarily pve it.
i did 8 .5 charachters to 80.

would be nice if we could compare but i doubt we kept track of playtime to 80

phys.7689:

there is a lot more exp than there is levels, if you just map complete you will end up outleveling content, which is ineffecient.
you get less % exp the higher your level difference is.
therefore you are always better off in areas where you are the same level or slightly lower.

also dynamic events are generally shorter than hearts

Im not saying never do hearts, but the most effecient way is to do only the easy hearts, preferably that you can finish while doing dynamic events, it would be easier if you could see more of the dynamic event progresses, but yeah, full map completion is generally not the fastest way.

usually by the time i hit 80, i may only have like 30% map completion, and i primarily pve it.
i did 8 .5 charachters to 80.

would be nice if we could compare but i doubt we kept track of playtime to 80

I’ll assume that when you state content then you mean all items needed for map completion. Using your argument, completing all events that are below your level is inefficient too. Now remember, events have cool downs and they are not that numerous in any specific area level on a map. You may very well find several events at your level but there’s not enough to consistently farm them unless you plan on hopping maps. As a new character, you don’t have access to waypoints to places that you haven’t been to.

Just about all hearts in the game are easy. There are only a small percentage that take quite some time such as that stealth one I mentioned earlier.

Rather than continue this discussion, I’ll post this link on what someone says is the most optimal route. It’s outdated and won’t contain changes caused by LS1 but those differences are minor.

http://www.ehmry.com/topic/2221-tour-de-waypoint/

Unless you can present a guide or method that shows dynamic event farming yields more XP/hr than map completion, there’s really no point in discussing this further. As I stated in a previous post, I personally have done map completion and any events that I came across. I would not go out of my way to complete them and I would normally skip the ones that seem more time-consuming or at the very least tag them.

Ayrilana.1396:

phys.7689:

there is a lot more exp than there is levels, if you just map complete you will end up outleveling content, which is ineffecient.
you get less % exp the higher your level difference is.
therefore you are always better off in areas where you are the same level or slightly lower.

also dynamic events are generally shorter than hearts

Im not saying never do hearts, but the most effecient way is to do only the easy hearts, preferably that you can finish while doing dynamic events, it would be easier if you could see more of the dynamic event progresses, but yeah, full map completion is generally not the fastest way.

usually by the time i hit 80, i may only have like 30% map completion, and i primarily pve it.
i did 8 .5 charachters to 80.

would be nice if we could compare but i doubt we kept track of playtime to 80

I’ll assume that when you state content then you mean all items needed for map completion. Using your argument, completing all events that are below your level is inefficient too. Now remember, events have cool downs and they are not that numerous in any specific area level on a map. You may very well find several events at your level but there’s not enough to consistently farm them unless you plan on hopping maps. As a new character, you don’t have access to waypoints to places that you haven’t been to.

Just about all hearts in the game are easy. There are only a small percentage that take quite some time such as that stealth one I mentioned earlier.

Rather than continue this discussion, I’ll post this link on what someone says is the most optimal route. It’s outdated and won’t contain changes caused by LS1 but those differences are minor.

http://www.ehmry.com/topic/2221-tour-de-waypoint/

Unless you can present a guide or method that shows dynamic event farming yields more XP/hr than map completion, there’s really no point in discussing this further. As I stated in a previous post, I personally have done map completion and any events that I came across. I would not go out of my way to complete them and I would normally skip the ones that seem more time-consuming or at the very least tag them.

what i am actually telling you is that full map completion is ineffecient for leveling in PVE, yes i am saying you should move on when a map is too low for you. This means most starter maps are not effecient, and many 15-25s

Its not like, only do dynamic events, its like
explore the world )get waypoints, and zones, skill points
moving towards properly leveled areas
while doing as many dynamic events as you can
picking up easy or almost completed hearts

Some renown hearts are, I agree, very dull. However, do not dismiss them all because of a few bad apples. Some of them are good fun and worth exploring to find. If you are not worried about getting world complete, I would just explore zones, get waypoints, vista and pois, do any events you happen upon on any hearts you enjoy. Then skip the rest. And if you want, do the personal story parts in those areas too. You will level in no time.

It might not be the fastest way to level, but if you skip the stuff you don’t enjoy and only do the stuff you do, you will find the time go by without noticing and you will enjoy the leveling process. I think a lot of poeple find leveling in PvE boring because they think they need to complete each zone before moving on, or because they want things like world complete. But if you are not worried about those things just yet, you don’t need to finish each zone. Of course, that is not to say it is not worth doing, as you can get some nice rewards from zone completion, but it is not essential if your only goal is to have fun while you level.

If you are only after fast leveling though, I would either follow zergs in WvW or do PvP.

DiscipleOfFire.9317:

Renown hearts.

Ya, i think ill stick to WvW and level that way. I love the main campaign.

that will leave you with a level 80 character without any access to areas for events you want to partake later. Exploring then will only net you skillpoints on the xp side, earlier, levels.

DiscipleOfFire.9317:

Renown hearts.

Ya, i think ill stick to WvW and level that way. I love the main campaign.

It’s worth running through zones and at least discovering the waypoints. If you intend to do dungeons and guild missions, you’re going to want some areas unlocked. You can look up the locations on dulfy/gw2 wiki. For dungeons, (since you just have to be on the same map as the dungeon and not at the entrance), you can simply have somebody open it, join, and then walk out of it. And voila, you’ve got a waypoint somewhere in the middle of a map!

Yeah, pretty much. Personally, I consider the renown hearts to be amongst the most boring and grindy activities the game has to offer. Don’t get me wrong, I love exploring the maps (even though I kinda know them by now) and my new characters end up with plenty of the world uncovered, I just never stop to complete the hearts.

That said, I understand that Anet tried a new kind of approach with them, moving away from the classic “pick up a quest at the NPC and then go kill 10 rats”. I do however feel that they also lost any kind of immersion attached to traditional questing. To complete a heart, you can randomly attack stuff, click on some things or move objects from A to B. The large majority of them work precisely the same, just wrapped with another theme.

As there is no further interaction required (and even if you try talking to the NPC’s involved, they have little to say and it’s not even fully voiced), there isn’t really anything to remember them by. If anything, you might remember them if they happened to be bugged, annoy you greatly or something like that. Out of the 300+, there just a handful of both positive and negative examples I would be able to remember. The rest is… unimpressive and to me completely unwanted.

(The maps I fully complete these days are the Orr ones – because they have no hearts grind)

BigBadBoy.5408:

For me renown hearts are fun if you are not after leveling, but yeah experience is low on renown hearts.

Well, at least I’m not the only one that thinks so.

So… How would you recommend leveling? I’ve done map completion in the Charr city, Plains of Ashford and I’m about to finish Diessa Plains… I’m level 22… When I finish Diessa I’ll be 23. That’s two levels below the next zone… I could probably do Lion’s Arch map complete and that’ll help a bit… But I can’t figure out why I’m below where I should be…

MeththeMadman.7420:

So… How would you recommend leveling? I’ve done map completion in the Charr city, Plains of Ashford and I’m about to finish Diessa Plains… I’m level 22… When I finish Diessa I’ll be 23. That’s two levels below the next zone… I could probably do Lion’s Arch map complete and that’ll help a bit… But I can’t figure out why I’m below where I should be…

Do map completion in one of the other zones that are your level or below. You’ll encounter this problem a lot when leveling by map completion if some maps are skipped so it’s normally best to do every map or supplement it with EotM farming, crafting, or consumables.

Ayrilana.1396:

Map completion is the second fastest method of leveling outside of consumables/crafting. I will make the disclaimer that Halloween was a special case as you have so many events in such a small area and tons of mobs due to scaling. You won’t find this the majority of the time.

That’s not true.

Consumables/crafting is fastest (also costs money that new chars don’t have yet).
EoTM is 2nd (with a good zerg, otherwise not really).
Killing yellow mobs with boosters (XP + Celebration + Killstreak) is 3rd (while constantly moving to new mobs for max bonus XP)
I would say map completion is 4th, maybe even 5th behind PvP (you get tomes of knowledge pretty often if you PvP regularly)

EDIT: You know, now that I think about it, for completely new players with no money and no access to boosters, map completion might actually be towards the top of the list after a good EoTM rotation. I still think PvP is faster if you enjoy PvP. WvW is too hit and miss IMO.

Draknar.5748:

Ayrilana.1396:

Map completion is the second fastest method of leveling outside of consumables/crafting. I will make the disclaimer that Halloween was a special case as you have so many events in such a small area and tons of mobs due to scaling. You won’t find this the majority of the time.

That’s not true.

Consumables/crafting is fastest (also costs money that new chars don’t have yet)
EoTM is 2nd (with a good zerg, otherwise not really).
Killing yellow mobs with boosters (XP + Celebration + Killstreak) is 3rd (while constantly moving to new mobs for max bonus XP)
I would say map completion is 4th, maybe even 5th behind PvP (you get tomes of knowledge pretty often if you PvP regularly)

EDIT: You know, now that I think about it, for completely new players with no money and no access to boosters, map completion might actually be towards the top of the list after a good EoTM rotation. I still think PvP is faster if you enjoy PvP. WvW is too hit and miss IMO.

Read the entire thread please or at least all of my posts. I was not counting consumables/crafting in that ranking. There is no way that farming enemies with boosters is quicker to level in the open world. There were exceptions which I gave an example of one.

Ayrilana.1396:

Draknar.5748:

Ayrilana.1396:

Map completion is the second fastest method of leveling outside of consumables/crafting. I will make the disclaimer that Halloween was a special case as you have so many events in such a small area and tons of mobs due to scaling. You won’t find this the majority of the time.

That’s not true.

Consumables/crafting is fastest (also costs money that new chars don’t have yet)
EoTM is 2nd (with a good zerg, otherwise not really).
Killing yellow mobs with boosters (XP + Celebration + Killstreak) is 3rd (while constantly moving to new mobs for max bonus XP)
I would say map completion is 4th, maybe even 5th behind PvP (you get tomes of knowledge pretty often if you PvP regularly)

EDIT: You know, now that I think about it, for completely new players with no money and no access to boosters, map completion might actually be towards the top of the list after a good EoTM rotation. I still think PvP is faster if you enjoy PvP. WvW is too hit and miss IMO.

Read the entire thread please or at least all of my posts. I was not counting consumables/crafting in that ranking. There is no way that farming enemies with boosters is quicker to level in the open world. There were exceptions which I gave an example of one.

it is, if you have enough boosters and know where to farm

food+killstreak+regular is 230%

i believe exploration bonus goes up to 200% of monster exp (might be more but i forget)
killing an enemy your level, gives .125 of your next level
200% bonus makes that
.375 per kill X 330%(230+100) = 1.2375% tnl per enemy

which means killing 8 enemies would give you more exp than a dynamic event or a reknown heart.

i didnt include the bonuses that a new player probably couldnt get, like a birthday booster (which stacks) laureate boosters, etc.

Ayrilana.1396:

Draknar.5748:

Ayrilana.1396:

Map completion is the second fastest method of leveling outside of consumables/crafting. I will make the disclaimer that Halloween was a special case as you have so many events in such a small area and tons of mobs due to scaling. You won’t find this the majority of the time.

That’s not true.

Consumables/crafting is fastest (also costs money that new chars don’t have yet)
EoTM is 2nd (with a good zerg, otherwise not really).
Killing yellow mobs with boosters (XP + Celebration + Killstreak) is 3rd (while constantly moving to new mobs for max bonus XP)
I would say map completion is 4th, maybe even 5th behind PvP (you get tomes of knowledge pretty often if you PvP regularly)

EDIT: You know, now that I think about it, for completely new players with no money and no access to boosters, map completion might actually be towards the top of the list after a good EoTM rotation. I still think PvP is faster if you enjoy PvP. WvW is too hit and miss IMO.

Read the entire thread please or at least all of my posts. I was not counting consumables/crafting in that ranking. There is no way that farming enemies with boosters is quicker to level in the open world. There were exceptions which I gave an example of one.

I was specifically pointing out your claim about map completion being #2 outside of crafting/consumables is incorrect. I only included crafting/consumables as I was creating a list of fastest leveling methods (all inclusive). EoTM and PvP are faster, with or without consumables, but require a specific play type someone may not be open to playing.

Completely excluding leveling methods that require boosters to be efficient, map completion is still 3rd in the list behind EoTM and PvP (5th overall in an all inclusive list as was the point of my original reply)

FYI: Farming enemies with boosters is far faster to level in open world than map completion (+100% XP from celebration, +100% XP from full killstreak, +50% from XP booster). I can level consistently 2X/hr with boosters killing yellow mobs with max bonus XP on them (I have a couple of routes I rotate between so I don’t kill any a second time and thus reduce my bonus XP). With map completion you would be lucky to level once an hour. And that’s including the XP scroll consumables you get for doing dailies. It’s not even close to the speed of max bonus XP yellow mobs w/ all boosters.

Draknar.5748:

Ayrilana.1396:

Draknar.5748:

Ayrilana.1396:

Map completion is the second fastest method of leveling outside of consumables/crafting. I will make the disclaimer that Halloween was a special case as you have so many events in such a small area and tons of mobs due to scaling. You won’t find this the majority of the time.

That’s not true.

Consumables/crafting is fastest (also costs money that new chars don’t have yet)
EoTM is 2nd (with a good zerg, otherwise not really).
Killing yellow mobs with boosters (XP + Celebration + Killstreak) is 3rd (while constantly moving to new mobs for max bonus XP)
I would say map completion is 4th, maybe even 5th behind PvP (you get tomes of knowledge pretty often if you PvP regularly)

EDIT: You know, now that I think about it, for completely new players with no money and no access to boosters, map completion might actually be towards the top of the list after a good EoTM rotation. I still think PvP is faster if you enjoy PvP. WvW is too hit and miss IMO.

Read the entire thread please or at least all of my posts. I was not counting consumables/crafting in that ranking. There is no way that farming enemies with boosters is quicker to level in the open world. There were exceptions which I gave an example of one.

I was specifically pointing out your claim about map completion being #2 outside of crafting/consumables is incorrect. I only included crafting/consumables as I was creating a list of fastest leveling methods (all inclusive). EoTM and PvP are faster, with or without consumables, but require a specific play type someone may not be open to playing.

Completely excluding leveling methods that require boosters to be efficient, map completion is still 3rd in the list behind EoTM and PvP (5th overall in an all inclusive list as was the point of my original reply)

FYI: Farming enemies with boosters is far faster to level in open world than map completion (+100% XP from celebration, +100% XP from full killstreak, +50% from XP booster). I can level consistently 2X/hr with boosters killing yellow mobs with max bonus XP on them (I have a couple of routes I rotate between so I don’t kill any a second time and thus reduce my bonus XP). With map completion you would be lucky to level once an hour. And that’s including the XP scroll consumables you get for doing dailies. It’s not even close to the speed of max bonus XP yellow mobs w/ all boosters.

I gain 3-4 levels per map doing map completion and this is done in about 1.5 hours on average. You’re also relying on consumables that not everyone will have access to or the gold/cash for either. You’re also going under the assumption that there will be a vibrant stream of enemies which isn’t the case as they’re fairly spread out. It’s only some events where you get this and those tend to last only for a few minutes and can have long cool downs before they start up again.

PvP is definitely not faster either. You’ll get two levels (from the tomes) every hour and 20 min or so and that’s assuming that your matches last exactly 7 minutes. If they end sooner then you get less progression. Most matches on average take longer than 7 minutes. And as I said, you get 3-4 levels per map when doing map completion.

Edit: Here’s someone that got to 80 in about 28.5 hours. Doing PvP reward tracks and getting 2 times an hour would have only leveled you to 60 in that time. It’s been done faster. If I used BLTC consumables such as for speed and strength, I can likely complete maps even quicker.

http://i.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vr5s5/challenge_100_map_exploration_in_one_go/

Above link is from using iPhone. That URL may need to be changed slightly if you’re using a PC.

Hearts are good for leveling, they give a lot of XP compared to the other exploration things. I prefer to only complete hearts by doing events associated with the area the heart is in. Sometimes that’s easy, but other times it’s next to impossible because the events are bugged or just won’t start so some reason.

Ayrilana.1396:

… Edit: Here’s someone that got to 80 in about 28.5 hours. …
http://i.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vr5s5/challenge_100_map_exploration_in_one_go/

Seems to be 32 hours. Perhaps I mathed wrongly from the table at the bottom of the post. Also left out the WvW mapping since that no longer counts.

Has anyone marked down the time it takes to level in Edge of the Mists? With and w/o cons? I’ve done it in the past but never payed attention to the time.
I find mapping incredibly boring. Need to be active while doing it, less annoying as vanqing in GW1 sure but there’s more involved than mindlessly running around EotM while watching videos/messing around in another game. Areas with on-level or close to level events that spawn often give the best exp for normal playing, mainly as an alternative to EotM.

When counting special events things do get lopsided. The Mad King’s Labyrinth time I mentioned was just that char’s /age on noticing it hit 80. Boss Blitz was also really good.. though it was more fun to solo the bosses

Have 10 80’s, rerolled 4 others, a bunch of lowers, and countless keyfarmers.
This has taught me: Levels are just a gating to content. It’s impossible to not gain levels by playing the game, do the funnest things while enjoying the journey.

Aro.8275:

Ayrilana.1396:

… Edit: Here’s someone that got to 80 in about 28.5 hours. …
http://i.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vr5s5/challenge_100_map_exploration_in_one_go/

Seems to be 32 hours. Perhaps I mathed wrongly from the table at the bottom of the post. Also left out the WvW mapping since that no longer counts.

Has anyone marked down the time it takes to level in Edge of the Mists? With and w/o cons? I’ve done it in the past but never payed attention to the time.
I find mapping incredibly boring. Need to be active while doing it, less annoying as vanqing in GW1 sure but there’s more involved than mindlessly running around EotM while watching videos/messing around in another game. Areas with on-level or close to level events that spawn often give the best exp for normal playing, mainly as an alternative to EotM.

When counting special events things do get lopsided. The Mad King’s Labyrinth time I mentioned was just that char’s /age on noticing it hit 80. Boss Blitz was also really good.. though it was more fun to solo the bosses :)

Have 10 80’s, rerolled 4 others, a bunch of lowers, and countless keyfarmers.
This has taught me: Levels are just a gating to content. It’s impossible to not gain levels by playing the game, do the funnest things while enjoying the journey.

It was to 80, not world completion. I stopped counting when he hit 80.

I think I gained about five levels an hour but I’m not 100% sure. It goes quickly because you’re scaled up and each event’s experience reward is based on what your actual level is which you won’t see in the open world. You also do so many events that it just adds up.

Ah yep, so about 29 hours.

Also for EotM the higher level you are the faster the next level seems to come. Anecdotal with no evidence that’s just the feeling I’ve gotten even in general PvE.