Guild Wars 2

I promise in advance that this is not a bashing post what so ever. I am not the greatest player, I will admit. I have three level 80’s, and realized that not one of them was leveled via exploration. So I decided to take my level 43 elementalist out for a tour of the world in an attempt to level via exploring. I started off in a lower area, and even with being specced vitality/toughness for surviability, I was having my rear handed to me repeatedly. Tried D/D and Staff. Neither was a no go. Hopped on my mesmer, again, correct level zone, still struggled to the point of frustration. I ended up logging out to play some games on steam. I can hold my own on my Ranger/Engineer/Guardian in WvWvW and in PvE but they are maxed out in level.

I don’t remember when I began leveling when the first game came out being this difficult or frustrating. Perhaps it is just me. I notice even being on a T2 server most zones are bare, making heart completions even harder. I did take a 6 month break for a while to tend to real life affairs, did things change drastically? Or have I become rusty? Please don’t think I am bashing the game, I have gotten a lot of fun with it, but perhaps I am too casual of a player now, and the difficulty of the game is above my skill level? (And I can’t afford to spend real life money into the gem store to gain boosts) Does it sound like there is help for me? Or should I just hang in the towel for now before I become totally frustrated and uninstall due to not having fun anymore?

If you are not having fun, dont play the game.

caiomacos.1694:

If you are not having fun, dont play the game.

That’s what I fear. Is that I have lost the fun factor. I want to have fun, I really do. I don’t play to be the best player out there, or have the most achievements, or boast about kills, etc. I just log in from time to time, to have a bit of fun, and I find myself not finding that “fun” feeling anymore. Just wish I knew where I lost it at. When I find myself getting frustrated, I know I have lost the spirit of the game. That alone is depressing.

Sinfullysweet.4517:

caiomacos.1694:

If you are not having fun, dont play the game.

That’s what I fear. Is that I have lost the fun factor. I want to have fun, I really do. I don’t play to be the best player out there, or have the most achievements, or boast about kills, etc. I just log in from time to time, to have a bit of fun, and I find myself not finding that “fun” feeling anymore. Just wish I knew where I lost it at. When I find myself getting frustrated, I know I have lost the spirit of the game. That alone is depressing.

Try taking a break then. I don’t mean that in a smart allec way. There isn’t anything wrong with that and you don’t have anything to lose. There is no monthly subscription. So that shouldn’t be an issue. I play very little compared to most people and when I find myself getting frustrated I just shrug it off and find something else to do.

I have been doing only PvE and my highest level character is only 36. I have an alt for every profession though. I have found a few areas tough for PvE but I go do something else, play another profession or what not and when I come back for a fresh look I usually find a solution. I thought rolling into a starter area with a higher level would make it easy but sometimes I’ve found it more difficult than when I did it with a low level character.

I find ele rough to level. I’m not sure if it really just how I try and play them but I just suck at it. I’ve deleted two and just made another because my daughter missed one of them (the colourful sylvari) so I’m going to try again.

Why would you uninstall?

JustTrogdor.7892:

Sinfullysweet.4517:

caiomacos.1694:

If you are not having fun, dont play the game.

That’s what I fear. Is that I have lost the fun factor. I want to have fun, I really do. I don’t play to be the best player out there, or have the most achievements, or boast about kills, etc. I just log in from time to time, to have a bit of fun, and I find myself not finding that “fun” feeling anymore. Just wish I knew where I lost it at. When I find myself getting frustrated, I know I have lost the spirit of the game. That alone is depressing.

Try taking a break then. I don’t mean that in a smart allec way. There isn’t anything wrong with that and you don’t have anything to lose. There is no monthly subscription. So that shouldn’t be an issue. I play very little compared to most people and when I find myself getting frustrated I just shrug it off and find something else to do.

I have been doing only PvE and my highest level character is only 36. I have an alt for every profession though. I have found a few areas tough for PvE but I go do something else, play another profession or what not and when I come back for a fresh look I usually find a solution. I thought rolling into a starter area with a higher level would make it easy but sometimes I’ve found it more difficult than when I did it with a low level character.

Oh no dear, I know you didn’t mean that in a mean way. Sometimes the best thing to do is to take a break. It wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t come back from a long break. Guess that is what bums me out so much. I was hoping for that spark to be reignited. Especially with the hot summer months upcoming and the humidity out of control down here in the south, was looking forward to spending the hottest parts of the day inside gaming. Just wondered why low leveling seems to be much harder now than what it was before. Especially if you are higher ranked than the area you are in.

zenleto.6179:

I find ele rough to level. I’m not sure if it really just how I try and play them but I just suck at it. I’ve deleted two and just made another because my daughter missed one of them (the colourful sylvari) so I’m going to try again.

Why would you uninstall?

I have it installed on my laptop and my gaming computer. I spend most of my time on my laptop (couch is so much more comfy) but if I find myself not playing a game as much, I designate it to the gaming computer. That way I don’t bog down the hard drive on the laptop with unnecessary applications that I find myself not using. I came back after a long 6 month break, so if I have reached the non fun point already so quickly, I might just uninstall it on the laptop, and if I get the itch every now and then go and play on the big boy gaming rig. (I let the kids use it) Just imo, I wouldn’t think a level 43 should have a huge problem in a lower level area. I am sure it is the player not the game, which is disheartening. Makes me laugh a little, perhaps my kids are right, I am getting a little old and to slow to keep up with the games now a days! XD

Sinfullysweet.4517:

Just wondered why low leveling seems to be much harder now than what it was before. Especially if you are higher ranked than the area you are in.

I don’t really understand that either. For example when I take, say a level 15, to a level 5 area I’m almost 1 hitting everything in my path. Then I take the same character, now level 25 or so to the same area I’m not getting beat up but it is like I have to hit them 3 or 4 more times than before. I’m sure it is just some game mechanic that I don’t understand but it does seem odd. I’m aware of the down leveling but it seems weird that a 25 down leveled would be worse than a 15 down leveled.

I just started doing a personal story with my 36 and almost got killed by a group of 6 level 5 mobs lol.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Sinfullysweet.4517:

Just wondered why low leveling seems to be much harder now than what it was before. Especially if you are higher ranked than the area you are in.

I don’t really understand that either. For example when I take, say a level 15, to a level 5 area I’m almost 1 hitting everything in my path. Then I take the same character, now level 25 or so to the same area I’m not getting beat up but it is like I have to hit them 3 or 4 more times than before. I’m sure it is just some game mechanic that I don’t understand but it does seem odd. I’m aware of the down leveling but it seems weird that a 25 down leveled would be worse than a 15 down leveled.

I just started doing a personal story with my 36 and almost got killed by a group of 6 level 5 mobs lol.

That’s exactly the same scenario I am seeing myself and kinda baffled by it. I could understand downleveling to the correct level, but it seems like the damage is off on the downleveling. As if I could take a level 15 ele to a level 15 area, and rock the area, but if I take my level 43 it doesn’t scale right comparably for some reason. Today was a head scratcher for me.

Sinfullysweet.4517:

zenleto.6179:

I find ele rough to level. I’m not sure if it really just how I try and play them but I just suck at it. I’ve deleted two and just made another because my daughter missed one of them (the colourful sylvari) so I’m going to try again.

Why would you uninstall?

I have it installed on my laptop and my gaming computer. I spend most of my time on my laptop (couch is so much more comfy) but if I find myself not playing a game as much, I designate it to the gaming computer. That way I don’t bog down the hard drive on the laptop with unnecessary applications that I find myself not using. I came back after a long 6 month break, so if I have reached the non fun point already so quickly, I might just uninstall it on the laptop, and if I get the itch every now and then go and play on the big boy gaming rig. (I let the kids use it) Just imo, I wouldn’t think a level 43 should have a huge problem in a lower level area. I am sure it is the player not the game, which is disheartening. Makes me laugh a little, perhaps my kids are right, I am getting a little old and to slow to keep up with the games now a days! XD

Well that makes sense. The laptop thing not your age

There does seem to be some sort of problem/issue with the downscaling in starter maps. A couple of my 80s don’t seem to have the same ease through them as they did when leveling in them.

Leveling isn’t the entire game. It’s a well known fact that it grows very stale and boring after a while, which is why most people craft at least 30-40 levels nowadays. In GW2 you basically need to be 80 to enjoy the game to its fullest, and most people don’t want to slug through the same boring zones time and time again to get there.

Talking from my experience of having 15 level 80’s, only two of them were done without crafting (my first two).

JustTrogdor.7892:

Sinfullysweet.4517:

Just wondered why low leveling seems to be much harder now than what it was before. Especially if you are higher ranked than the area you are in.

I just started doing a personal story with my 36 and almost got killed by a group of 6 level 5 mobs lol.

Ugh, I’ve had that too. Sometimes I’m glad nobody can see you when this happens lol.

Gab Superstar.4059:

Leveling isn’t the entire game. It’s a well known fact that it grows very stale and boring after a while, which is why most people craft at least 30-40 levels nowadays. In GW2 you basically need to be 80 to enjoy the game to its fullest, and most people don’t want to slug through the same boring zones time and time again to get there.

Talking from my experience of having 15 level 80’s, only two of them were done without crafting (my first two).

I’m too tight with my money to do this. I’m leveling up six at the same time atm just to try and slow myself down. I enjoy the maps so its no great hardship for me.

I had 2 elementalist. Had I got in to the level 40s with both started getting my rear handed to me many times. Even redid the traits to get as much protection ans possible. still a fail.

I have since deleted both elementalist and have replaced them with a warrior and a guardian

I hit my 5th 80 today, primarily PvE rather than crafting/wvw. Now, I did get her from 66 to 79 in the Instigator zerg, but then I went to PS to cap her. I have one or two guildies that level via crafting, the rest of us play the main game.

A lot of people is not necessarily most people. The game remains fun! Though, as I’ve posted repeatedly, I have RP to add that extra depth and keep me excited about each character. Today’s 80 is my first non-RP one, and mesmer just turned out to be so fun to PvE with.

Still as others have said, if it’s not fun, it’s not a game. There’s no obligation. I hope you find the fun again, here or elsewhere.

Then I feel it may be best to take another break again, I truly love the game and what it has to offer. It has so many things for so may types of players, and that is a wonderful thing for a game in this day and age. I am probably in the need of something more ezmode atm and I wouldn’t dare ask for that to be catered to me since that would diminish another players enjoyment. With all the years of MMO’s under my belt, I am probably experiencing a huge burnout against difficulty of any type. I was hoping that wasn’t the case. I still have a huge collection of games that I need to complete on my xbox (ack! dont burn me at the stake!) and games on my steam account. Always been a single RPGamer at heart, and love the fact that you can interact with other people now in the RPG games of today, so I know I will be back at some point again =)

my elementalist was a pain to level via pve, and i did most of my personal story with my boyfriend protecting my rear all the time.
some personal story in mount maelstrom (i was already lv 80 but with no proper gear) finished with me naked when i tryed alone, than my boyfriend guradian came and destroyed anything while i was just following…

i had same prolem with mesmer at low level, but than at certain point after lv 40 i never died in personal story ever, not even against the mouth of zhaitan before nerf.

i hate my elementalist so much now that i’m using it only to craft

Elementalists are about movement and attunement dancing. Are you trying to face tank mobs? Are you trying to kill things without switching attunements? Firstly, check out the elementalist forum subsection to look for some leveling/pve builds. Secondly, don’t have all gear from the pvt branch. Try some precision and critical damage equipment.

If you play d/d, the ele is all about movement into and out of range of mobs attacks, while switching attunements to keep up various buffs and heals. If you are playing staff, you most always want to start attacks at max range, use the cc available, and work with the combo fields that you can put down. Elementalists are a very viable class in pve, but they are not able to just stand still and trade blows.

well, i tryed my best with what i had at the mount maelstrom personal story

SPOILER ALERT

(you have to stop krait carrying the infamous orb that you ill use later in fort trinity)

on that mission is impossible to pull few krait at a time, they just come all, poison the hell out of you, block you etc etc.

i tryed, d/d, staff, condition removing, teleporting, i kyted all the area aggroing in the process more mobs, than you finally make it to the champion krait kitten that have 2 adds and a lot of aoe, and you just die there.

i’m not saying eles are not viable pve classes, i’m saying i’m not a viable elementalist and so are a lots of player around here stuck with ele and their mechanics.
it is the most stupidly difficoult class to master and use, the only fun besides crafting i can have from ele is protected by a zerg in wvw be just a weapon of mass destruction, until someone notice me and kill me just pressing tab

Amadan.9451:

well, i tryed my best with what i had at the mount maelstrom personal story

SPOILER ALERT

(you have to stop krait carrying the infamous orb that you ill use later in fort trinity)

on that mission is impossible to pull few krait at a time, they just come all, poison the hell out of you, block you etc etc.

i tryed, d/d, staff, condition removing, teleporting, i kyted all the area aggroing in the process more mobs, than you finally make it to the champion krait kitten that have 2 adds and a lot of aoe, and you just die there.

i’m not saying eles are not viable pve classes, i’m saying i’m not a viable elementalist and so are a lots of player around here stuck with ele and their mechanics.
it is the most stupidly difficoult class to master and use, the only fun besides crafting i can have from ele is protected by a zerg in wvw be just a weapon of mass destruction, until someone notice me and kill me just pressing tab

My comment was just a general answer to the topic, not to you in particular. Sorry if it sounded like it was.

The personal story has always been bad at presenting a balanced challenge. It seems the devs just decided to stick groups of mobs into the instance and have them all bum rush the player at once in many cases. There was talk of addressing that in the past, but seems to have been neglected.

The ele is a hard class to master and play for anyone. In order to get the same kind of viability that other classes have, an ele player has to work twice or three times as hard. But there is a payoff eventually. Once you master the class you can do things other classes only wish they could do, one of the reasons why ele’s get so much hate from other classes sometimes.

I chose ele as my first class when I began playing, and I came from a game where mages were totally different than here. I was taken aback by the difficulty of the class mechanics and exactly how much actually went in to playing one. But nine months later, I’m glad I started with that class. It threw me into the game mechanics head first and I found it was a sink or swim kind of proposition.

oh don’t worry i didn’t take it personal, i was just explaining my feeling about it, i really wanted to enjoy the elementalist, but so far it didn’t give me the same fun i have with my mesmer. i think it’s just a personal taste. you have a point though, 2 guildies of mine are proper elementalist they make elementalist look like they are easy to play!

Why level solo? Find a leveling guild. The game is so much more fun with other people.

The first profession I made was Elementalist. It is now my lowest-leveled character. I loved my Eles (I had 5 of them, lol) in GW1; but, for the life of me, I can not play this one worth a darn. You might try leveling up a different profession, instead. For me, the last one I started leveling was a Necromancer, and it probably went the fastest of all, and is now my other Main. Eles are difficult in this game, I wouldn’t base my ‘fun factor’ on leveling up with one of them. Good luck, whatever you decide to do. (Hope you stay.) =)

Make sure your gear is up to scratch. One hidden aspect of the dynamic levelling system in GW2 is that the game also expects you to maintain appropriately levelled gear as you gain levels. Thus, while a level 10 with level 10 gear upscaled to 80 would find himself hitting with the same amount of power as a level 80 with Rare/Exotic gear, a level 80 wearing level 60 Fine/Masterwork gear downscaled to 10 would find himself at a noticeable disadvantage compared to the same level 10 player, because the game is expecting your character to have stats comparable to a level 80 wearing level 80 Rare/Exotic gear, and has slashed your stats to match that, even though the bonuses you were getting from your gear is actually below that.

Note that this doesn’t mean you need to equip yourself with Rares/Exotics all the time. My level 80’s are wearing a mixture of level 78 – 79 Masterworks right now, and I get by just fine. But you should aim for Masterwork gear within a 1 – 3 level difference at the very minimum when you’re at high levels.

For ele, the key things are: a) knowing all 20 of your skills, how they work, and when to use them; b) having a key bind setup that allows you to easily change attunements. For the latter, I had huge trouble in beta, and spent most of my time in fire attunement. Specially bought a Logitech g600 mouse to compensate, and that made all the difference. I’m not saying you have to do that, but you do need some sort of system where you’re not trying to move, use all your abilities and change attunements with the same 4 fingers, all at the same time.

But honestly, I think the OP’s problems are coming from gear and downscaling, as people have said. They did change the equations so that downscaled characters are slightly weaker than they were at launch, so that zone lower than your level can still be somewhat challenging.

When I was lvling my ele, I find it much easier to use the conjured weapon build, and spam the lightning hammer. Once I get close to 70, I started practicing D/D, and thats where the real fun begins

I use a logitech G600 mouse as well. I cannot imagine playing ele without this mouse.

My first was an ele and I just used staff all the time until lvl 80. I always geared for power and precision and never really had an issue except in story missions and a couple of group events, but downscaling really helped me. D/D ele at 80 is fantastic though! It’s so complex in a good way, it just makes every other class seem boring. Warrior is way too standard for me now I literally can’t play it without getting bored in 5 mins. Ele at 80 is worth the time it takes to get it to 80.

Ele’s are hard to play and hard to level if you aren’t above average with them. I would make 2 suggestions. One is to see if a guild mate or friend wants to level with you. Second is to consider switching to a different profession. You might find a different one more fun.

I used mostly earth attunement and sceptor/dagger with ele. Getting the feel of switching attunements takes time and for me anyway earth was a lot more friendly. My ele did not do any crafting to get to 80 either, I don’t find leveling a pain.

EDIT: unless running in a group I would not recomend a staff. At least for me the staff was horrible for leveling solo.

I think in hindsight if you’re gonna level using staff I would stack condition damage/duration and stay in fire/air because damage is really little compared to other choices. It’s definitely the safer option though if you die a lot, although sceptre isn’t too bad as well. A lot of my staff damage came from 2 and 4 in fire, occasionally 5 if there were a lot of mobs around, and barely got hit at all. Also in hindsight sceptre in air makes solo’ing at 80 incredibly easy so maybe worth a try if you’re lacking damage with staff.

I hated levelling my Ele. In fact, after levelling my first 2 characters, I pretty much hated levelling the remaining 7 and increasingly used crafting, with my last character being entirely levelled by crafting.
What others have said is right in my opinion. After initially levelling even just one character, the novelty wears off, and you quickly realise that the trait system used in GW2 is not optimal until you’re at 80.
You can’t experiment with builds prior to 80, as you don’t have all the tools necessary.

In contrast, I love all of my characters at 80, although still find the gearing system almost critically broken and catering far too much to the traditional MMO crowd who believe you should have to put in hundreds of hours in order to get best-in-slot gear.

Sinfullysweet.4517:

I promise in advance that this is not a bashing post what so ever. I am not the greatest player, I will admit. I have three level 80’s, and realized that not one of them was leveled via exploration. So I decided to take my level 43 elementalist out for a tour of the world in an attempt to level via exploring. I started off in a lower area, and even with being specced vitality/toughness for surviability, I was having my rear handed to me repeatedly. Tried D/D and Staff. Neither was a no go. Hopped on my mesmer, again, correct level zone, still struggled to the point of frustration. I ended up logging out to play some games on steam. I can hold my own on my Ranger/Engineer/Guardian in WvWvW and in PvE but they are maxed out in level.

This is why I have all 3 leather and both iron classes maxed… and not a sausage on any scholar. They are not very PVE friendly

It may just be the fact you are using an Ele and Mesmer, two of the classes that really require you to know what your doing. I have 6 lvl 80s currently, the warrior, guardian and ranger were all pretty easy to lvl in open world pve, the ranger in particular, I could of prolly done that semi-akitten. The Ele wasn’t too bad but took time to learn, until then I found I died far more than on other chars, once I had the hang of it though it was fine. Mesmer was frustrating as hell until about level 40 and many people find this, something with the class just isn’t quite right at lower lvls, once you get to around 40 or 50 through and know how to play them then they are fine, you do need to keep there gear up to date more than other classes I found though. I’ve just finished a thief and again found this tough until I really had an understanding of the class and its skills.

It’s really frustrating when you keep getting killed in pve but I have genuinely found with the more difficult classes a point comes when they just click and you suddenly don’t die nearly as often. It also helps if you find a weapon set you find fun to use, I played my Ele to about lvl 20 using staff and really couldn’t get on with it at all, found it really tiresome, when I switched to D/D and had got the hang of the skills and a good rotation I loved it.

Of course if you really can’t get on with Ele or Mesmer at the moment but don’t want to give up on the game/leveling a new char just yet I would say give warrior a try (if you have another char slot/are willing to buy one). They are really easy to get the hang of so are good for just jumping on and doing a few lvls when you feel like playing.

All you need is just one other person to get through the leveling process. The wife and myself are on our 7th set of toons to level 80 and can easily make 5 levels a night by clearing one map. Use the storyline and clear the maps where your story takes you, then do the story in that zone and move on to the next.

I’ve leveled 7 characters/professions to 80 by exploring maps, starting with the lowest level ones and cities, then going through higher level ones, and for me this way works like clockwork.

Yup, i like most of the maps 7th time around- lucky me! My thief wasn’t very fun to play- not really figured out how i want to pay the prof yet even- and it’s the only one i’ve used crafting to level with- from 75 to 80… The elementalist i dunno, quite clueless about this one too, but suddenly she was 80! Not done a necromancer yet, but surely clearing maps- getting all POI’s Wp’s and area missions, + doing every event i stumble over- will work as smooth for this one!

I’ve not had much problems with scaling on maps- if i had then i’d just pop over somewhere else and get a level or two, then return to crush and conquer!

Well, this works fine for me- might be trickier if you actually have a life to live on the side….