Guild Wars 2

I dont know if i´m doing something wrong while i´m leveling, but the hearts aren´t enough for me to catch up. I constantly have to move on to the next heart wich is always 1-2 levels higher than my own wich is making it quite hard to complete. However, i am doing the personal story alongside AND gathering, also taking all POIs and vistas on every map. Despite the fact that i am taking everything that could possibly give me xp i find myself behind each time i go for the next heart..

I solve the problem by going back and forth between different areas to do etc. lvl 15 heart in queensdale AND lvl 15 heart in metrica province. This is kind of annoying tbh, as i´d like to continue on the same path instead of flying around just to get my lvl right with the next heart.

Also, i find it kind of hard to know where to go next. I´d like to see some kind of search function in the map wich could tell you where hearts for XXX lvls are found.

Hearts should not be your main source of XP and they were not designed to be. Dynamic Events are what has technically replaced what you think of “quests”. Hearts are more like guide markers to find events as there is usually an event or two that relate to the activities of that heart.

As you explore a zone and do hearts, look for scouts. They have telescope icons above their head or on the map. They will tell you where more hearts are. Most zones usually have some sort of settlement or camp and you will usually find some NPC that needs escorting and he’ll will usually take you to another part of the zone where you can find more events/hearts.

The leveling process in this game is something easier than the word “easy”. You can literally level to 80 in a day with crafting, a week by just playing, maybe 2 if your super casual. Try out the hearts, then do the meta events around that area. This includes monsters like the Roll in human area and Maw in the Norn area. Events like these are your intermediate xp boosts as you enjoy each map. Work on hearts, watch map chat for events. In between make sure to get way points and discover areas for large amounts of XP. To expand on what you said, its a great idea to do the level appropriate areas in the different races starting areas. Not only is it a great way to get materials, xp, and karma merchants, but its also easy xp and an easy way to explore the world. Follow your story for an even better mix of XP and rewards, which also makes you travel as you progress, which again is yet another XP earning path. if you zoom out on map you should see the level of each area, and as teh person stated above the telescope NPC’s help you find your path.

To sum it up:
Hearts (Karma item unlocks/XP/cute side stories)
Events
Waypoints/Area unlocks
Crafting (recommend cooking and jeweler for ease of leveling and cheapness)
Story

Beyond that, Dungeons, daily’s, monthly’s.

And to go even further, get a guild that buffs ur XP gain. Even better if they routinely drop banners for the guild/server.

Yeah, only doing the hearts in one area won’t usually give you enough XP to move on to the next higher zone. DEs are meant to fill in the gap. However, since I don’t generally like parking any character I’m leveling in a zone and wandering around just waiting for DEs, I always level by using at least three different starting zones. Doing this puts me ahead of the curve really easily and I see more of the world.

I end up doing multiple starting zones precisely for this reason. The hearts, POIs, Vistas, etc do not give you enough XP to keep you current with the quests/story levels as you go. It’s actually rather annoying.

ok! thanks alot for all the replies, now i know a little more about how it´s meant to be played.

Here’s just some tips. I’ve leveled 5 80s lol so I know my way around.

• Do map completion, atleast while starting out. Do all the hearts, POIs, Vista’s, Waypoints and Skill Points.
• You don’t have to do your Story Quest, but if you don’t, you’ll have to do a little bit of a different zone. It’s better to just stay up to date with it, atleast until you’re level 15.
• Do World Events over Hearts. Heart’s are static quests, Dynamic World Events come and go and are temporary.
• Take up Cooking as a first Profession. It’s an easy 10 levels, I suggest using a guide (http://www.gw2wiz.com) so you don’t waste money or mats on inefficient leveling.
• Here is a map of all the locations, POIs, Vistas, Waypoints, Skillpoints and everything for all of the zones. It also includes the levels of each zone : http://gw2cartographers.com/
• Most Important!! Guest on the server “Tarnished Coast” – There’s always tons of people everywhere in every zone.

Hope that helps!

I think heart exp should be waaaayyy bigger. Potentially double. Because right now it’s twice as effective to pretty much just ignore them and explore and do events. It should be an option – ignoring them should be viable in terms of levelling speed, but you shouldn’t be punished for stopping to do a heart.

Not like “balance” in levelling matters though, leveling isn’t difficult and if it was everyone would just make a 5 sig war.

Writetyper.1985:

I think heart exp should be waaaayyy bigger. Potentially double. Because right now it’s twice as effective to pretty much just ignore them and explore and do events. It should be an option – ignoring them should be viable in terms of levelling speed, but you shouldn’t be punished for stopping to do a heart.

Not like “balance” in levelling matters though, leveling isn’t difficult and if it was everyone would just make a 5 sig war.

Mm, I guess I’ll have to disagree. Hearts give a good chunk of EXP and you’re not punished for doing them. They unlock gear, cooking mats, accessories and so forth that can be used for leveling. In addition, the selling point of Guild Wars 2 was their Dynamic Events and lack of “questing system”, so it’s obvious why there’s a discouragement to just jumping from Heart to Heart. They wouldn’t want you to ignore the Dynamic Event because a Heart gave more EXP; that’d ruin the immersion. Also, completing Hearts and other parts of the map lead to a bigger goal : Zone Completion rewards, money and EXP. It all flows together pretty nicely if you don’t try skipping over content.

I’ve never felt punished for skipping over a Heart to do a Dynamic Event, I always just go back to the Heart after I’m finished. It’s even better when there’s an Event going on that counts for the Heart. ^__^