Guild Wars 2

Hi all, I’m fairly new to GW2 but not the first GW. I have already started farming for Black Lion Keys. I am using a Human Guardian and running through the starting area as the way points tell me to go. I also used only 2 items and both where the 50% x boosters, nothing else and I’ve managed to complete a run in 2 hours. Can you guys suggest anything that could make this quicker without having to spend gold? as I only have 2g

Some people suggest getting 100% in Holbrek, as it is a fairly fast and easy city to complete. If your server is on a good side in EotM, you might consider running the train there, as that can be a lot of xp really fast as well.

If you’re using a human guardian, I suggest you do the following things:

1) Go to the trading post, and buy some blue level 0 gear. If you can find it, you want the chest, pants, boots, and gloves for the armor, and a staff. +Power on all of them. Settle for less if you can’t find them, but you’ll want to do this.

2) Get 4 different Runes for the armor, each of them being a +10 Power for the first one slotted. Put them into the armor you just got.

3) Get a Sigil of Bloodlust, and a Sigil of Speed, and put them both into the staff.

4) Put all these in the bank, and grab them out as soon as you can with a new character. They’ll see you through the personal story fairly well, just make sure to put them back into the bank when you’re ready to delete. None of these should be soulbound, just accountbound, so you can reuse them.

The staff with the two sigils is the really important part here. Building up Bloodlust stacks is a HUGE boost at the lower levels, and the speed from the Sigil of Speed can help you to cover a lot of ground when you’re out and about. If you don’t want to spend on the armor yet, at least get the staff.

I key farm on an Asura in Rata Sum, EotM and Metrica Province, speed isn’t my main priority – an average run takes me between an hour to an hour and 20 minutes depending on events done and gathering stops etc, but it costs me nothing and I make a profit from every run this way.

After the tutorial I swap my gear out from my bank as Palador suggested above and then I go into the PvP lobby where you are able to slot 2 weapons and get weapon swap – weapon swap then remains when you go back into PvE. I use staff/greatsword if I’m on a guardian but anything you enjoy is good. It just gives you more options early on.

It takes me about 5 minutes to run a route around Rata Sum before I start for a Transmutation Charge – this also gets me to just over level 3 then I refine the low level mats I made on the last key run (jute, green wood etc) to level 4 which opens up Symbol of Swiftness on the staff.

There are a few low level foods that are available to either buy or craft – you can use karma to buy Rice Balls (as rice in bulk) from a Master Chef at a cooking station for another power boost. There are other low level foods that boost other things if you prefer. Food isn’t really necessary though. After a few runs you end up with various boosters from opening Black Lion Chests anyway.

I often level in EotM – this is actually a bit slower than if I ran through Metrica Province doing events and hearts but I personally enjoy EotM more (large fights on a level 4 can be really fun) you also get: WXP, World Ranks, (white) Champion Bags, a small amount of karma, various drops to salvage/sell and a chest every time you rank up.

In Metrica Province I gather mats as I’m passing them and kill Moas and Raptors for Slabs of Poultry Meat – you can then sell the mats or craft them.

Get skill points on the way if you can – you can use them to buy Philosopher’s Stones, Siege Masters Guides or Crystals from Miyani at the Mystic Forge. I get 3 or 4 skill points per run in Metrica Province depending how far out of my way I feel like going.

Put all the bags you make from the Personal Story and EotM into your bank and then open them with a higher level character if you have one – the loot in the bags is the same level as the character that opens them.

There is a good speed guide on youtube by wooden potatoes that’s worth a look but speed comes with a cost. It comes down to time vs money

I miss the old key farming

Kreejaffa.3682:

Some people suggest getting 100% in Holbrek, as it is a fairly fast and easy city to complete.

Would think Rata Sum and the Grove are far quicker to map complete. Though map completing seems like it would be slow for exp but the extra loot rolls would be good.

Palador.2170:

If you’re using a human guardian, I suggest you do the following things:

1) Go to the trading post, and buy some blue level 0 gear. If you can find it, you want the chest, pants, boots, and gloves for the armor, and a staff. +Power on all of them. Settle for less if you can’t find them, but you’ll want to do this.

2) Get 4 different Runes for the armor, each of them being a +10 Power for the first one slotted. Put them into the armor you just got.

3) Get a Sigil of Bloodlust, and a Sigil of Speed, and put them both into the staff.

4) Put all these in the bank, and grab them out as soon as you can with a new character. They’ll see you through the personal story fairly well, just make sure to put them back into the bank when you’re ready to delete. None of these should be soulbound, just accountbound, so you can reuse them.

The staff with the two sigils is the really important part here. Building up Bloodlust stacks is a HUGE boost at the lower levels, and the speed from the Sigil of Speed can help you to cover a lot of ground when you’re out and about. If you don’t want to spend on the armor yet, at least get the staff.

You do know that you can’t do the personal story until level 10 now, right? Lvl 0-2 gear isn’t optimal anymore. Or so I don’t think it is.

Two hours seems kind of long for a human guardian. I usually only take 90 minutes with no buffs. I do the 1st 5 hearts, then cut across to do the hearts the lead to claypool. Then I go to Plains of Ashford to finish.

Azhure.1857:

You do know that you can’t do the personal story until level 10 now, right? Lvl 0-2 gear isn’t optimal anymore. Or so I don’t think it is.

From what I remember, there is a set of lvl 0 stuff that has better stats than lvl 10 stuff.

if Karma is not an issue, you could always buy invader’s gear from WvW. It has high defence and power. Problem is that it is Soubound, meaning you have to buy them for every character you plan on running.
Another place you can go is heart of the mists. The armor merchant sells Boots, pants, gloves and chest. It’s lvl 0 and white, but its stats are better than anything you can buy on TP at lvl 2. (also account bound)

FalconBeta.9185:

Another place you can go is heart of the mists. The armor merchant sells Boots, pants, gloves and chest. It’s lvl 0 and white, but its stats are better than anything you can buy on TP at lvl 2. (also account bound)

You will want to go here anyway as once here you can equip a second weapon to swap and once you leave the weapon stays put and you can swap in pve unless they silently hot fixed this.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I’m planning on doing another run later today so I will let you guys know how I get on with the level 0 gear.
Thanks

Hello. Just fyi, it costs around 2g to get to level 10 via cooking. If it takes you 1h to level normally that is a huge waste of time/gold. You basically save 2g/h and if I recall correctly the average profit from farm/dungeon/whatever is 6-7g/h. So yea, it’s a huge waste to do normally when you can just farm the gold and use that to keyfarm.
Personally, I use tomes of knowledge.

robertul.3679:

Hello. Just fyi, it costs around 2g to get to level 10 via cooking. If it takes you 1h to level normally that is a huge waste of time/gold. You basically save 2g/h and if I recall correctly the average profit from farm/dungeon/whatever is 6-7g/h. So yea, it’s a huge waste to do normally when you can just farm the gold and use that to keyfarm.
Personally, I use tomes of knowledge.

Except OP only has 2 gold at the moment and says he is new, which might mean he has no level 80s and probably no tomes of knowledge.

I have no level 80 characters yet and I haven’t been to any dungeons nor am I in a guild yet so I have nobody to run me through them. I’m trying to age it easy on the game and not rush through to level 80 yet as I really enjoyed the first GW game. If anyone would like to make a donation of gold hahaha haha.

I am level 7 after doing full hoelbrak map and continuing with hearts. So far it’s took me the same amount of time to get to the same point with this run and I get a trans charge as an added bonus so I think hoelbrak run is better so far

I play Human Warrior with lv0 gear/power runes – greatsword with bloodlust and speed.

- Hearts on queensdale reaching lv7-8
- Go to lion’s arch and then Rata Sum.
- Map Rata Sum.
- Then hearts on Metrica Province.
You could add the Grove and Caledon Forest. But I still can’t navigate the Grove.

This takes about 50min-1h.
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I’m trying to raise the money for another character slot right now to go back to keyfarming. You can add me if you want a partner to run you through.

2 hours for 1 key is a massive waste of time. Instead:

1. spend time farming enough gold using your main so that you can:
2. use that gold to level up a new toon to 10 so that you can:
3. finish story in less that 20 mins.

If you don’t have a high(ish) level main, step 1 will be the slowest (how fast depends on your main’s level) but this will definitely be faster than your method.

Bowls of vegetable stock still yield profit when crafted although it’s only about a silver now. When I used to key farm after that update, I relied on these and low cost items to craft to level 10 at no loss. I’m not sure if it’s still viable though.

Lord Kuru.3685:

2 hours for 1 key is a massive waste of time. Instead:

1. spend time farming enough gold using your main so that you can:
2. use that gold to level up a new toon to 10 so that you can:
3. finish story in less that 20 mins.

If you don’t have a high(ish) level main, step 1 will be the slowest (how fast depends on your main’s level) but this will definitely be faster than your method.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/bltc/Add-Black-Lion-Keys-to-the-Laurel-vendor/first#post4573279

I need to ponder (or try) your idea. Otherwise, this was the best opinion that I received on “modern” bl key farming.