Guild Wars 2

Edit TL;DR
In a nutshell Zero to Hero is a challenge to reach 80 and obtain a few items as fast as possible with a randomly created character. Lots of things are optional and you are under no pressure to compete! Read more for info and ideas/feedback is Welcome!

Good Evening All,

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and New Year!

Firstly before I get into detail I want to make a few things clear. I take NO Credit in the ideas explained here as I got this inspiration from watching a twitch stream with my wife, I am simply trying to expand on his fun idea, get more people involved and add a little more creativity to this project.

Welcome to Zero to Hero with a twist, everyone plays on a randomised character!

Rules
Please do this challenge on a free to play account, this way everyone is starting on a clean slate to avoid any temptation to spend gold or karma.

Objectives
• Level a new Randomly created character from 1-80 (Any Method)
• Obtain all exotic armour pieces with exotic runes.
• Obtain ascended Rings.
• Obtain ascended Amulet.
• Obtain ascended Accessories.
• Obtain exotic Back piece.
• Obtain ascended Weapon.
• Obtain exotic Sigils.

Creating your Hero!
Now to the exciting bit! Firstly you will need to have https://www.random.org/ tab open ready for inputting the parameters required. Next your will need to go to my spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jslLHa_2nnqrEEOy46KK_a0_T6KZaCu7fvQNGCsOqDA/edit?usp=sharing

Enter the numbers 1-8 into the random number generator on the website to get your random profession. E.G number 4 = Thief. Then do the same again with numbers 1-5 to get your race. This is your random character! (Order is optional with numbers 1-3 if you are planning to do the personal story).

Once this is done, click on the spreadsheet tab at the bottom – ‘Hero Names’. Having a random first name is optional, if you would like to do this please enter each number parameter in brackets in to the website to generate the corresponding letter (consonants and vowels). This will make your random first name. Double check the parameters for each letter as they change e.g. some columns are 6-26 and some are 1-5.

The surname is mandatory so players can identify the other people taking part in the event in game. For this particular challenge, as we may introduce more depending on its popularity, the surname you need to use is “The Hero”.

Optional Challenge
You can use LiveSplit or record on your own spreadsheets your times for hitting these objectives. More casual players may like the idea of just levelling something random and hitting these targets at their own pace, others might want to record their times to compare with others just out of curiosity and finally for the competitive type this can be a great race! (See further down for more info on setting up LiveSplit for timing)

Please use the following time splits for your spreadsheet of LiveSplit profile.

Level 10 – Level 20 – Level 30 – Level 40 – Level 50 – Level 60 – Level 70 – Level 80 – Armour – Runes – Ring 1 – Ring 2 – Amulet – Accessory 1 – Accessory 2 – Back Item – Ascended Weapon – Sigils.

If you check out the Credits you can see where I have got my inspiration and ideas from to personalise my own LiveSplit, see the attachment at the bottom.

Finally if this sounds like your kind of thing and you would like to take part please join the following guild so we can track each other’s progress (Optional to represent):
LifeWar [LIFE]

Thanks for taking the time to read this and let me know if you guys have any ideas to add, My wife and I look forward to your feedback!

Melon & Nixi =)

Credits
• WoodenPotatoes (The stream I saw this great idea) https://www.twitch.tv/woodenpotatoes
• The creators of the program “LiveSplit” (Used for speed runs, and basically an application to tailor your personal gaming objectives) http://livesplit.github.io/downloads/
• A.Net, and the Guild Wars 2 Wiki from which I have used various logos/Icons from and integrated with LiveSplit. (This is not a necessity)
• KiyaKoreena, a user on http://www.guildwars2guru.com/ for providing a great font to use. Again, to customise LiveSplit. (This is not a necessity)
• https://www.random.org/ (The number generator)

Let us know if there is something we could do to improve the challenge to attract more players to take part!

Alright, so i create a vigil asura necromancer called Sehsof The Hero.

-I have no restricitons on how to level up the character to lvl 80 which is my first goal
-I can farm karma for karma exotic armor, as well as wvw and dungeons
-I have no restriction on how i get gold,tho im not sure if i can buy cheap non lvl 80 exotics from the TP as a free to play acc (nobody said i needed to obtain lvl 80 exotics)
-I can get lvl 400 cheapest crafting to get exotic back piece
-exotic sigils can also be aquired from dungeons
-Best way to get the ascended rings as a ascended player is to farm fractals and buy them like that. There are no laurels as a free to play and there are no core tyria,non living world season 2 vendors
-Geting an ascended weapon requires lvl 500 crafting, can also farm tequatl every chance i get in the mean time

And after all that i become a hero? I wish there was more to the challenge besides rushing towards lvl 80 anyway possible and then farming dungeons and fractals for exotic armor, ascended trinkets and gold to craft an ascended weapon. Also, personally, i cant call challenges a challenge if there are no fail conditions.

Here is my suggestion, and it is also my challenge that i often play ,specially when i level up alts.

The challenge is significantly harder than yours and plays much different than people are used to play guild wars which i find very interesting and engaging.

TL;DR: Get to lvl 80 by only exploring shiverpeak zones and kill Claw of Jormag with 0 deaths. Can only use gear from renown heart vendors, champion bags and hidden/jumping puzzle chests (risk vs reward)
Read the Tips section, it helps a LOT.

Rules:
-Fresh start, 0karma,0 gold. Can also empty up other currencies, tho you wont be using them anyway.

-Cant buy ANYTHING from the TP, selling is allowed.

-Cant use ANY experience boosters other than food that you buy from karma vendors, or other merchants from cities. Exp boosts from banners that you find is allowed, guild hall boosters OTHER than exp is allowed as well.

-Before level 80, NO crafting and NO instant level up tomes. Any writs of experience that you acquire with this character can be used, but you cant do all dailies on your main, and then use the writs on your challenger character.

-You are allowed to do dungeons (Sorrows embrace and honor of the waves) however you must do them 100% from start to end on your challenge character. No using main and switching to challenger to reap the end exp reward.

-No transmutation of skins. Having cool looking backpacks and gear or even legendary as you level up,or even at lvl 80 breaks the immersion of leveling up and progression. Each piece of gear you obtain will be unique and different from lvl 1-80 and beyond.

-CANNOT use any equipment you get from looting mobs. You can salvage them for runes and sigils tho.

-Your new gear comes mostly from renown heart vendors but you can also aquire new gear from hidden chests across the maps such as the jumping puzzle as well as champion bags from strong champions.
This means that if you wish new up to date gear you have to engage in risky encounters against strong champions or tricky jumping puzzles that may cause your death.

Preparation:

-Play ANY class/race you wish, this challenge is hard even with your main profession.
-Right after you finished your tutorial explore all 6 cities to 100%.
-Explore the PvP Lobby (yes it does give you extra experience)
-Explore your guild hall (having 2 different guild halls and exploring them is also okay)

Objectives:

-Your objective is to level up from 1-80 using EXCLUSIVELY ONLY Shiverpeak zones.

-After exploring Wayfarer Foothills (1-15) , Snowden Drifts (15-25), Lornar’s Pass (25-40), Dredgehaunt Cliffs (40-50), Timberline Falls (50-60), Frostgorge Sound (70-80) to 100% you must face the Claw of Jormag and defeat him!.

-You MUST do this the “iron man” way, meaning 0 deaths at 100% shiverpeak exploration, and after killing claw of jormag. Use /deaths to check if you have any deaths, if it says anything other than 0 you lost the challenge.

Tips:
-Exploring the cities, pvp lobby and guild halls will bring you to about lvl 9.
-Doing dungeons is a great way to boost your exp, but also a very dangerous way as you might die.
-PvP deaths count towards the /death counter
-Deaths by disconection does NOT count towards the /death counter (thanks anet!!)
-Mobs that stay alive for a longer period grant a big bonus exp when finally killed. You can find these in low traffic areas as well as passive (yellow named) creatures such as dolyaks, moas and underwater fish. There are many areas in shiverpeaks with such creatures but ill let you discover them
-Every day you can go back to previous zones and get new gear from easy chests, you dont actually have to risk your life on some hard and dangerous jumping puzzles.
-Always pay attention to the level of the monster you are facing. There are some mobs that are upscaled and become 2-4 levels above your downscaled level and will hit very hard.
-Expect to play defensively, use blocks,blinds, stealth, mobility to avoid as much damage as possible as your gear will never be fully up to date and the mobs you face will often be at your level, if not higher. Do NOT rely on zerker full glass cannon builds too much.
-Pay close attention to the NO FLY ZONE. Some areas like the mines in dredgehaunt cliffs have no fly zone.
-Pay attention to your surroundings, if youre on a cliff, or in a cave with a deep hole do NOT use movement skills such as leaps or warrior gs 5
-You WILL get out leveled at certain times. Feel free to go back in previous zones to do events. Chain events such as the 5 events svanirs maw is great.

So there it is. My own challenge. It is hard, it has a start and an end, it also has fail conditions making it an actual challenge instead of just a check list of things to do.

Personally i use this every time i level up alts. It makes it so much more interesting instead of consuming tomes, scrolls or just powerleveling trough. It also gives you a certain feeling of gear progression as you are looking forward to opening low level champ bags, excited what you might get from a chest you found in the world, and constantly looking for better armor in renown hearts vendors.

I tried this as a norn guardian, human thief, human necro and a charr warrior but i only finished this challenge ONCE as a sylvari elementalists using staff at early levels, dagger/focus at mid levels and finaly scepter/focus during my leveling in frostgorge sound.
,,.and boy oh boy did it felt heroic going through all that journey trough the shiverpeak mountains, with ups and downs, nerve wracking moments when i got downed cause i thought im strong enough to take up more than 2 mobs at a time, the champions i fought off with only a few other players, setting foot in the last zone, completing it to 100% and finally face claw of jormag and watch it fall.