Guild Wars 2

So the topic is to get an idea and discuss how people feel about leveling alts in this game, its strong points and its weak points, and how to improve those weak points.

Now, for me, i have done it a few times already i have 3 level 80s

The first time it was kind of cool, i followed the story, and did zone completion of the maps i was in, got two crafts to 100. I did feel like map completion was begining to feel forced, and hearts were not making the game that much better, but overall it was cool

Second time, i was trying to do it fast, i tried to do mostly dynamic events, but many times they disapear, and its back to hearts, which really sucked, because i didnt really want to do hearts at all in a conscious way, i like the ones i could do while doing dynamic events, but the ones when no events were going on, that required doing things outside of events sucked out my soul.
I ended up crafting just to get by levels fast, and because i wanted to get all crafts to 400, i was a bit short and didnt feel like leveling, so at some point i took up a third craft that i had no use for just to get exp. This was kind of lame.

Third char i got to 80 just out of share will to have a level 80 warrior and see how that plays and what its options were, but the process wasnt really that fun, the most fun was doing the story that was different, once it got up to the pact, i just stopped completely because the rest of the story is the same.

Oh yeah the whole pact/trahearne part of the story wasnt really very entertaining, in fact i would vote for trahearne to be assassinated at the beginning of the next expansion, or even sooner.

Ok so back to the point;

leveling in the same ways is kind of tedious after the first time (even started to show itself before that).

another factor i forgot to mention is;
PVE is way too easy, especially if say you had 3 people with you. You can literally use 1 through almost all the content. Now i understand some people prefer this, but it is still some of the best exp you can get, from the least skillfull play.

I know that at some point you get dungeons (not till 25) but im pretty sure that for a team of charachters the appropriate level, the experience you get compared to the time it takes to succeed is pretty low.

So point im saying? increase experience rewards from skillful(and preferably varied) play, at all levels. Thereby making leveling alts faster, and more entertaining. Thats my take anyhow, some of you other guys may have other opinions.

Bad idea.

In a classic MMO, “levelling” is the process of grinding levels, which ends at the level cap and is then replaced by the gear grind. Those are two very different things – the level grind is solo-based so all classes have to do a bit of everything, while the gear grind is group based and focused on overespecialization focusing on the holy trinity roles.

In GW2, that kind of levelling doesn’t exist. The kind of content you will be doing at the end of the game is pretty much the same kind of content you will be doing in the middle of the game. Just like you can do dynamic events, hearts, explore, craft, do dungeons, and do WvW at level 40 – you will be doing exactly those same things at level 80.

Which means – if you are not enjoying playing the game at level 40, it won’t be reaching level 80 that will make you enjoy the game. If you think the road to the level cap is “tedious”, you will find the level cap tedious as well.

PVE is way too easy, especially if say you had 3 people with you

That is true but as 90% of zones are emply, finding 2 other people to adventure with/do Event with becomes . Case in point, took meover 4 hours to find someone to help me get a vista point as it has 8-10 high lev monsters surrounding it that enjoy freezing and firing on you – virtually impossible to do alone.

Erasculio.2914:

Bad idea.

In a classic MMO, “levelling” is the process of grinding levels, which ends at the level cap and is then replaced by the gear grind. Those are two very different things – the level grind is solo-based so all classes have to do a bit of everything, while the gear grind is group based and focused on overespecialization focusing on the holy trinity roles.

In GW2, that kind of levelling doesn’t exist. The kind of content you will be doing at the end of the game is pretty much the same kind of content you will be doing in the middle of the game. Just like you can do dynamic events, hearts, explore, craft, do dungeons, and do WvW at level 40 – you will be doing exactly those same things at level 80.

Which means – if you are not enjoying playing the game at level 40, it won’t be reaching level 80 that will make you enjoy the game. If you think the road to the level cap is “tedious”, you will find the level cap tedious as well.

Actually, the most fun for me when I level alts is getting all their gear in order (full exotics through mostly dungeon tokens). Something I can’t do at lower levels. I agree, lower levels are a pain and I usually end up crafting my way to level 80 and then do my daily dungeon grind.

p.s. 6 level 80 alts, 7th on the way.

Charming Rogue.8071:

Actually, the most fun for me when I level alts is getting all their gear in order (full exotics through mostly dungeon tokens). Something I can’t do at lower levels.

You can begin earning dungeon tokens at level 35. I have seen a lot of people using said dungeons exactly as their main way to level up characters, in fact.

i have 3 level 80s – light armor, medium armor, and heavy armor class. all i needed to fulfill my leveling commitments. after my first character, the process of leveling was significantly easier the second, and then the third times going through.

my first character i took my time. i originally had planned to just have a single character, and not branch out to another alt character. when the DR hit last year, i made a second character to combat it as best i could by switching characters (whether or not it helped, idk). when leveling my second character, i saw Eir Stegalkin, and thought, “i want a character to look like her!” so i rolled a ranger (third character). however, as the leveling got faster, i started to become bored with the same terrain, events, npcs while leveling my alts.

by now i had a full-time main, a farming character for dungeons (guardian for higher survivability) and a ranger for hand-me-down equipment/bags/boxes/dyes. so far this system has worked fine, as i can park my alts in different locations for Slayer achievements, or some added variety.

i currently have no plans (or wishes) to roll a 4th alt. There isn’t much else for my possible other new characters to see. my current focus is the legendary weapon i hope to have eventually, and have just acquired my second fractals ring for my main character. So fractals and legendaries take up my time, as well as helping some interested guild peoples get through fractals to catch them up to play together. i still do dailies and attempt the monthlies, but besides these, i still need to figure out how i am going to get into arah’s dungeon as a noob so i can get my 500 shards, and world vs. world to get my 460 left badges.

i also found that levels 1-30 are fun, but the journey from 30-60 i found very uninteresting, maybe because while it isn’t the halfway mark (lv40), if not actively going out of my way to level in certain areas, leveling becomes tedious and slow (or hitting all of the 30-60 zones seems like too much). however, 60-80 picks right back up, as the maps and quests start to re-converge towards the straits of devastation, and i think, “wow! only 20 more levels – it’s like the home stretch to 80!” and the grand feeling of leveling and readiness to acquire appropriate gear or finish the storylines carries me the rest of the way.

I’m with you on this, 100%. I liked GW1 because lvl 20 was quick, and I could focus on playing the game…. not leveling. Playing while leveling is a pain. Every few levels I have to check equipment, update equipment, look at new skills…. ‘is X unlocked yet?’ Ugh!

I’m in a similar boat. I got my first lvl 80 there ‘the normal way,’ and it was fun. My 2nd lvl 80 I pushed a bit, joined a different order and did a different race, but then it started to get back to old hat march to Orr and what not, so I got 2 crafts to 400, but it was a guardian and I lvled Weaponsmith and Armorsmith which I didn’t have on my thief, so it was useful…. My 3rd 80 I spam crafted 40 levels to get done with the leveling and that’s something I never want to repeat. Not because it was expensive, but because it was dull and tedious, even if it was expediant.

So here I am, staring at my next character to get to level cap, stacks of dungeon tokens waiting to spend on exotic gear and thinking ‘ugh, do I want to take time away from playing the things that I enjoy to go level this character?’

I know people say that the game is in the journey, but frankly, I tend to have the opposite opinion. I don’t enjoy the stress of looking at my gear every few levels to see if I need an upgrade, or worrying that I’m ‘too low level for the content I’ve wandered into.’

Let me go where I want, do what I want, and enjoy playing, without worrying about the gear, the skill points, and the level difference between me and the monsters.

I know there are killstreak XP boosts and XP boosts that apply to monster kills, and I’ve run those, but honestly, I’ve found the best xp curve is in DEs and Renown Hearts, and there’s no real way to make that faster.

I just want to be able to use all my cosmetic gem store items on my main and alts.

Cosmetic gem store armor/weapon skins should be account bound, copy-able and re-buy them for free.

Doing this would mean removing gem store skins from the Mystic forge.

It would be cool if you got XP bonuses based on your current number of level 80 characters. Even just 5% each would be great.

I’m sad to say I haven’t leveled any alt yet because I find it very tedious. I thoroughly enjoyed leveling alts in GW1 precisely because it wasn’t so difficult to get to level 20. In GW2, I feel like it takes too much time to level instead of just focusing on getting the equipment you want (also the reason why I dislike ascended equips – it eats too much resources). They should’ve just been made available via the personal story or something so that I don’t have to grind for my equipment AFTER I hit level 80. The ascended stats should be accessible immediately after the personal story, then we can focus on collecting the skins we want.

Well the question asked is a kind of two-pronged one and most have talked about how they feel when leveling. I want to talk about the other- I think that the ease of leveling alts in the game has taken away a lot of the immersion and turned this game into something thats rather shallow. Whenever people say ‘just jumping on my alt’ im reminded that its just a game im playing and nothing more. While many may like this I think it takes a huge amount away from atmosphere. The most depressing thing? Just to carry on playing with my (former) guildies I had to create an alt myself as they all started leveling alts themselves.

As youve guessed, ive a huge problem with the ease of leveling in GW2 and it will probably be the main reason behind whether or not I choose to buy an expansion.

Really enjoyed leveling each char.

Never really felt like a grind as they were done gradually over time whilst playing the first lvl 80. Xp came from PVE, dailies, with only the last using crafting to bump a few levels.

Now have 8x lvl 80s, with no cheeky title to show for it.

I actually think levelling is TOO fast and wish it would be slowed down. I’ve got 5 characters at level 62 at the moment (been levelling them all at an equal pace), and I’m still only in the level 15 – 25 zones!

My elementalist is my only 80 right now, but I’m working on getting a Ranger up there. I’m mainly doing dynamic events on here. Five days in and she’s already upper 30’s so I think it’s doing rather well. My next 80 will probably be a Necromancer, but I may take my time with her.

I have 6 level 80 characters and 11 character slots. There were a few tedious patches while leveling, especially for those professions that don’t come together until level 40 or so. But, on the whole I found each alt easier and faster to level than the one before and each was great fun as I explored the new profession as well as the gameworld again. The level cap is high, perhaps too high. But, the leveling process was much easier, less tedious, and more fun than any other MMO I’ve played. This I regard as a strength of GW2.

My only concern around alts is vertical progression. with 6 80’s and more on the way chasing stats to keep them current would be impossible if the progression is not extremely slow. I had 6 max level characters in WoW and it felt like a death march keeping them current. I hope they can keep GW2 alt-friendly in that regard. The other concern is just awareness of the altoholic in deciding whether items should be soulbound or account bound. As an altoholic I generally favor account bound items—the more the better.

Raine.1394:

I have 6 level 80 characters and 11 character slots. There were a few tedious patches while leveling, especially for those professions that don’t come together until level 40 or so. But, on the whole I found each alt easier and faster to level than the one before and each was great fun as I explored the new profession as well as the gameworld again. The level cap is high, perhaps too high. But, the leveling process was much easier, less tedious, and more fun than any other MMO I’ve played. This I regard as a strength of GW2.

My only concern around alts is vertical progression. with 6 80’s and more on the way chasing stats to keep them current would be impossible if the progression is not extremely slow. I had 6 max level characters in WoW and it felt like a death march keeping them current. I hope they can keep GW2 alt-friendly in that regard. The other concern is just awareness of the altoholic in deciding whether items should be soulbound or account bound. As an altoholic I generally favor account bound items—the more the better.

Heck, just do away with soulbound for most stuff. Let me transfer over an exotic armor between characters.

Definite altoholic here. First to 80 was my necro, then an engi to 24 until I got bored and rolled a warrior to 38, got bored, and leveled a guardian to 80. Had the itch to have a real caster, and rolled an ele to 80 which I’m currently maining. However, I have a thief in process, the engi and warrior are still sitting, and the class that I really have an itch to play with is mesmer. So, I’ll probably do one of those in the very near future.

The guardian and elementalist were leveled fairly quickly. Once I got to the late 50s I blew a crafting boost and leveled two professions each (artificer/jeweler on the guardian, cooking/tailoring on the ele). Went from 59 to 80 in less than an hour on the ele just from crafting, and took a bit longer with the guardian because I started at 57 and couldn’t quite get all the way to 80 just with the crafting (made it just into 79).

I spent next to nothing on the second and third 80s, including mats for crafting, maybe 5 gold between the two characters? The guardian immediately went into karma exotics via a months worth of jugs and a karma boost. Played with the guardian in higher zones for a few weeks before leveling the ele and doing the same thing. Ele will be in AC exotics in a couple days, and has the karma exotics already.

I play less than 10 hours in a typical week, so it’s really not hard to do.

I have 5 characters at the moment, one of each race. Just going through each of the racial destiny’s edge mentor stories. Every time I play through another race’s story I pick up on little things that tie the story together.

I just recently finished my 3rd character up to the “picking of an order” part and have a character in each order right now.

I did each of the starting zones as the race it was designed in mind for, except for the 2nd charr area which I’m going to do next.

As a GW1 veteran, it’s pretty cool and sometimes not so cool to see former GW1 locations in ruins and the aftermath of some of the things that happened in GW1. Especially some of the hidden stuff or references to things only a GW1 player would understand, like certain NPCs. Just makes the experience that much better.

Zonzai.2341:

It would be cool if you got XP bonuses based on your current number of level 80 characters. Even just 5% each would be great.

I just thought of the same thing the other day. Maybe a better bonus once you have at least one character with 100% map completion?

i have 2 80s, first i got 100% map on, second i quested but skipped everything else and now i want a new 80 but it’s very demotivating to try again. i’d try to craft but it seems they’ve been nerfed and are now much harder to level.

i might quest to 35 and then use dungeons but i still don’t think i’ll be able to do it anytime soon.

I just realized why i’d rather not level an alt at the moment: It’s because (aside from entailing more expenses for the equipments), I would generate a whole lot of gold from farming with a maxed level character instead. I find leveling an alt wasted time and money since I am in need of some gold right now.

i have 7 character slots, after unlocking 2 slots with gems. my initial reaction to the game was “i’ve got to try each class and make them 80”. now i have 4 lvl 80 character, and my 5th character in now at lvl 39.

now, i feel like 5 slots in really sufficient enough actually. levelling 5 characters is more than enough for you to enjoy the game. feel kinda regret wasting my gems on those 2 slots. well, people may say you can use those slots for “banking” character, but i don’t need banking character, because I already unlocked all my bank panes.

my thief would probably the last toon i level for now. that would be the 5th character to be 80. the other 2 can wait until probably when the expansion come out.

levelling alts to lvl 80 is good, if you want to try different kind of play style (burst, condition, tanky etc) but not to many. not good for your health (and wallet)….

Erasculio.2914:

Bad idea.

In a classic MMO, “levelling” is the process of grinding levels, which ends at the level cap and is then replaced by the gear grind. Those are two very different things – the level grind is solo-based so all classes have to do a bit of everything, while the gear grind is group based and focused on overespecialization focusing on the holy trinity roles.

In GW2, that kind of levelling doesn’t exist. The kind of content you will be doing at the end of the game is pretty much the same kind of content you will be doing in the middle of the game. Just like you can do dynamic events, hearts, explore, craft, do dungeons, and do WvW at level 40 – you will be doing exactly those same things at level 80.

Which means – if you are not enjoying playing the game at level 40, it won’t be reaching level 80 that will make you enjoy the game. If you think the road to the level cap is “tedious”, you will find the level cap tedious as well.

thing is, playing a GW2 charachter at 80, in challenging situations, versus playing at level 1-40 isnt really the same. i can understand why it isnt (progression), as well the endgame adjusted content is more challenging and entertaining partially because you have more options and better synergy, engineer takes awhile to get synergy, and mesmer also needs a number of traits to really be fun.

So essentially, nah playing at level 1 or 40 isnt really the same as playing 70-80, and even if it was, problem is the best way to get exp, also gets tedious after you do it the first time.

Leo Paul.1659:

I just realized why i’d rather not level an alt at the moment: It’s because (aside from entailing more expenses for the equipments), I would generate a whole lot of gold from farming with a maxed level character instead. I find leveling an alt wasted time and money since I am in need of some gold right now.

Yeah. Some days I’d really prefer leveling my alts to continual farming or dungeon running on my 80s just for a change of pace, but the reality is that this game just doesn’t give you the luxury. Since most stuff has to be acquired through the TP rather than drops, if you don’t maximize your gold you just fall further and further behind.

I have 2 lvl 80’s, a warrior and a Guardian. I came into the game wanting to take a Ranger all the way. In GW1 I loved rangers. Then I discovered that warriors are better ranged characters than rangers. I rolled a Guardian because I was impressed with their abilities to do decent damage, do decent support roles, and survive against mobs. My ranger seems to be stuck on lvl 49.

the problem i’m having is not leveling, that is slow but not that slow, the boring part is map completion, i have it on my first character, and i don’t want to do it anymore, just the tought of it makes me cry and i’m not even talking about cursed shore couse i already completed it twice, i can’t stand the idea of metrica province and harathi hinterlands… and gendarran fields… and malchor’s leap o please malchor’s leap is gonna killing me

I have one lvl80 Mesmer and 4 alts on various levels that I rolled for different reasons.
I must say that I enjoy leveling all of them.
I have 4 crafts maxed out
I pretty much level my alts exactly like I did my main by doing a bit of everything- to me it depends on what I’m in the mood to play that day- ele, engi, another mesmer or thief.
I do stories on all of them and I explore different parts of the world- it is easier on alts but I find it great fun since each is a distinct personality to me.
I also adore my main.

Level as you would play end game. That way it isn’t boring at all. After 30 you have all the tools you need to play on that level. A few things you may want to consider:
- Do 2 crafts. That nets you 20 levels while levelling.
- Focus on map completion. Even if you don’t complete the whole world, it does give you short sighted goals instead of the long “grind” to 80… which isn’t long at all, but that’s a different discussion.
- XP boosters may or may not suit your preferences. I would suggest to start using those at 30 to get to 60 asap.
- Dungeons … you don’t need to be 80 to join an explorable, especially not with a guild group. At 80 your gear is almost ready so you won’t even have a gear “grind” to follow up on your levelling.
- go into WvW if that’s your thing. Very, very good EXP.
- Do the dailies on an alt. You’ll be doing them anyways so why not profit from the free exp?

And what’s in a name … levelling takes about 1 hour per level, which is a constant over 80 levels. Doing a craft takes an hour and nets you 10 levels, obviously shorting the leveling. Fifty hours to max level is the shortest in any MMO bar none (except GW1 but that’s not an MMO).

Something that would make me feel more comfortable would be the removal of map completion/hearts/… and turn everything just into events instead. Looking at those empty hearts I’ve already completed with another character and I really don’t want to do a second time(at least not all of them) again, is demotivating… even when they just could get hidden it would be a big improvement.

I really enjoy leveling my alts, but I am an explorer at heart. My main character has 94% world completion (only missing diessa plateau and the WvW areas), and I dread the day she hits 100. I wish I could reset the world completion somehow and start over, but that is where my alts come in.

I can make leveling as fast (with crafting using the mats I gather on my main) or slow (by slowly exploring each area) as I want to, and I can make it as hard (by visiting areas slightly higher than my characters level) or easy (doing the starter maps) as I want to.

Leveling and outfitting alts is easier than leveling your first character, because I now already have the money and materials not to worry about gear. And even doing areas I have done before, I discover new things I had not seen the first time, so to me, replaying those areas does not feel old.

I enjoyed leveling my first character. My second I just wanted to get it to 80 asap.

Only reason I don’t have a guardian right now is that I don’t want to have to level it.

Honestly i hate leveling alts, but they give us 5 character slots so its implied we make alts or try the other professions.

As someone who almost has all 8 classes at 80 (none which are powercrafted to 80), I can say it’s a great way to learn and enjoy the game. I will share some of my experience and hopefully can help some players out there.

For me, my first 4 characters each covered a region in the game (Ascalon, Shiverpeak, Maguuma, Kryta), and all have done Orr. Spoke to all the named NPC i could find and explored as much of Personal Story as possible. These 4 characters each had different crafting professions so by the 4th character I no longer need to master other crafts unless its for leveling.

The next few you can choose to be efficient about it and here’s what I chose to do:
Play your next characters to 30, as each race’s beginning storyline varies greatly depending on your character creation choices. The path to 30 is also quite fun because of a sense of progression (unlocking utility slots, skills, and eventually elite)

After 30, you are at the midgame, personal story will begin to look familiar because it becomes streamlined, and mid level zones are usually very empty compared to top level zones and beginner level zones, so it’s a lonely road if you choose to level regularly. Thirdly, you don’t have enough trait points to come up with any fun builds so you are just kind of in limbo for awhile when it comes to character progression.
Thats when I start crafting the following 3 crafts: Chef/Artificer/Jeweler. There are guides out there to help u cost efficiently master those 3 crafts in less than an hour, getting you 30 levels. Consider the gold spent here an investment that you will be getting back real soon.

Now you are level 60, what I consider the beginning of endgame, because starting now you will see more rare drops, and guaranteed exotic items from the lvl 60+ maps upon completion. If you want some math, that’s 12 exotics guaranteed from map completion, most of these are over 1 gold each, from my experience the average is more like 2g each due to lucky sigil/runes. These final 20 levels will also gain you a lot of insight on different possible builds so you can decide what final build you want to be.

If you are really against crafting I’d suggest do some dungeons between 30 to 60, but personally I don’t like doing dungeons unless I’m on my level 80 because that way I can get better tiered loot from chests.

I hope this helped.

One thing that is kinda nice about having mulitple lvl 80s is that you can have them spread out across the world and avoid waypoint costs. I have one at each dragon, one at cof, one at ac, one at ta, one at southsun ori, and one in Orr. Currently working on 9th 80…second thief lvl 41 atm who mainly resides in la, but mapping is cheap on her still.

Essence Snow.3194:

One thing that is kinda nice about having mulitple lvl 80s is that you can have them spread out across the world and avoid waypoint costs. I have one at each dragon, one at cof, one at ac, one at ta, one at southsun ori, and one in Orr. Currently working on 9th 80…second thief lvl 41 atm who mainly resides in la, but mapping is cheap on her still.

Awesome, I used to do that too then recently pulled all 7 of the characters i don’t play as much to Southsun Ori, will spread them out again once Ori price goes to 1silver.

I’ll probably never do it or if I do it will take me a while.

I’ve got 3 level 80s now, a 35 and numerous level 20 characters, I still havent done wrold completion. I haven’t even set foot in the western part of the world besides getting a few pets on my ranger. Caledon Forrest and Metrica Province are still waiting for me as are some of the 30-60 areas. I just play however my mood takes me at the time.

I have one of each profession. 2 lvl 80’s…the rest running from lvl 15 – lvl 70. Thinking about rolling another engineer too. I’ve probably deleted and started over a dozen toons in the lvl 20 area. Its just what I like to do…and I don’t get bored with it.

All of us play the game differently.

No more Straits of Devastation Zergs. This is where you go from level 69-80.

got 3 level 80s. i am trying to level a warrior @ level 9 now but i get impatient easily.

are they going to raise level cap to maybe 90?

i dont play alts so have no feelings on it whatsoever.

I love making alts, I consider myself an alta-holic. So far I have 3 80’s, 2 60’s, couple of 40’s and some 20’s. After the first 3, yeah it does get tedious if you’re going for the sole purpose of grinding up to cap, but if you take the time to just play out the game, see if you missed anything your first times through (I still find new stuff to this day) and learn a new class inside and out, its quite rewarding. Not to mention I like splitting up my crafting between all my alts. It makes it easier to keep it all organized (for me anyway).

Being able to showcase your knowledge on every class in the game is a pretty rewarding skill to have. Doesn’t mean I’m an expert by any means, but it does mean I can answer where most people would be clueless. I don’t necessarily enjoy all of the classes as much as the others, but I do enjoy playing them to learn them and that’s good enough for me. And the final perk of alt addiction: tons of storage space lol.

To me, leveling alts in this game isn’t something all that different than alts I leveled in other games. It’s just something I do. I like variety, currently I have one of each class, of which are a few 80’s and one with map completion.

The world is familiar to me as I have atleast 2 of every class in GW1 on 2 accounts
(needed two before they let you buy character slots).

I wouldn’t call myself an altaholic (in denial), but I certainly like to be a jack of all trades and master of one (I gotta master atleast one). Besides, I’m a pvper…what better way to learn your opponent than to roll around in his shoes for a bit to get a feel. I also am a gear collector and I enjoy looking at my toons in certain looks. Something strangely rewarding about that, can’t explain it.

I find I have a strange behaviour of exploring and completing areas I’ve already done on alts, and only carefully and not very often going into new areas. So I’ll play a character through most of the starting areas up to Lion’s Arch, and then feel ready to play a new character and do it again. I could blame the level scaling for this, but it really happens when I don’t get over my own anxieties of going into a new area.

I posted a list of altoholic requests here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/From-Altoholics-for-Altoholics/first#post1197124

I don’t mind leveling alts until I come to the forums and get depressed because of the direction the game is going.

edjahman.9104:

I don’t mind leveling alts until I come to the forums and get depressed because of the direction the game is going.

Sooo, stay away from the forums?
Really, if you enjoy the game, I do not see why other peoples concerns should ruin that

There’s much to be said about remaining blissfully ignorant.

I actually loved the leveling and liked the story up to level 50.

I hate the fact that to actually understand the story, you probably need to play through 5 characters MINIMUM.

Having never enjoyed doing it before, I’ve spent most of my almost 500 hours playtime on alting because I’m still loving the leveling, working on my third toon now (a thief, after capping & gearing warrior and mesmer).

I know it’s been said too many times before, and some people are very cynical about it, but leveling really is (part of) the endgame, at least for me. Compared to the utter desolation of WoW’s low and mid-level zones, seeing all zones I wander through bustling with soloing peeps and plenty of karma trains is absolutely great, and it’s going to be even greater once they get the achievement tokens in.

If you feel you have to rush leveling, perhaps you’re really not enjoying the game. I savor it, taking my sweet time just enjoying the combat and exploring – finding hidden content in caves and such has lead to the best time I’ve had with guildies in this game too.

Edit: spelling.