Guild Wars 2

The problem is not that level is now hard. It’s not. You could faceroll all open world content in this game before and you can now.

The problem is that the new trait system makes leveling even more tedious than it was before. You’re waiting way too long for your first trait point. Not only that, your choice of traits are extremely limited by the fact that most of the trait hunting involves doing stuff far above your level.

I’ve been having no problem with leveling.
Of course, I’m a Guardian at the moment so my survivability is pretty stellar.
I planned to do a Mesmer next up, so we’ll see how my experience changes then.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Trait line #5, to get trait:

• I: do CM story mode (level 40 dungeon)
• II: Kill Foulbear chieftain and her elite guard
• III: Complete level 59 Personal Story
• IV: 100% completion in Dredgehaunt Cliffs (level 40-50)
• V: 100% completion in Sparkfly Fen (level 55-65)
• VI: 100% completion in Frostgorge Sound (level 70-80)

Only Trait II is in a level 30s zone.

Look at Trait VI: If you’re level 30-40, I’m not sure you can even do damage to mobs in Frostgorge Sound.

Thankfully, I have 8 lvl 80s and not rolling another toon till quaggans are playable. This trait unlocking business looks overdone.

Not having this problem. I’m levelling my new characters in sPvP now and it’s bleeding fantastic. No more mindless champ train or map exploration, and it’s actually pretty quick as well. I’ve put more levels on my new alts in the past week than the past 3 months!

Reverence.6915:

Not having this problem. I’m levelling my new characters in sPvP now and it’s bleeding fantastic. No more mindless champ train or map exploration, and it’s actually pretty quick as well. I’ve put more levels on my new alts in the past week than the past 3 months!

How do you PvE level in SPvP? Is that thru tome of knowledge?

velmeister.4187:

Reverence.6915:

Not having this problem. I’m levelling my new characters in sPvP now and it’s bleeding fantastic. No more mindless champ train or map exploration, and it’s actually pretty quick as well. I’ve put more levels on my new alts in the past week than the past 3 months!

How do you PvE level in SPvP? Is that thru tome of knowledge?

Correct. You also gain exp through daily quest completions while there (dodger, reviver, killer, capturer, games played, recycler, conditions cleared, leveller)

velmeister.4187:

Reverence.6915:

Not having this problem. I’m levelling my new characters in sPvP now and it’s bleeding fantastic. No more mindless champ train or map exploration, and it’s actually pretty quick as well. I’ve put more levels on my new alts in the past week than the past 3 months!

How do you PvE level in SPvP? Is that thru tome of knowledge?

From what I gather you dont even need to win. Just hop in toss a few spells and make it end as fast as possible.

Lord Kuru.3685:

The problem is not that level is now hard. It’s not. You could faceroll all open world content in this game before and you can now.

The problem is that the new trait system makes leveling even more tedious than it was before. You’re waiting way too long for your first trait point. Not only that, your choice of traits are extremely limited by the fact that most of the trait hunting involves doing stuff far above your level.

Exactly this.

The new trait system is so back-weighted, it’s actually a little insulting. Things would have been fine and interesting if the points were spread out from 10-80 instead of starting at 30.

I haven’t started a new character from scratch (too busy leveling my next 80 :P), but I don’t like what I hear about these challenges being over the character level.

I’m getting the strong sense that there’s not enough communication and play testing going on for many of the ideas that hit the player base, and that is pretty discouraging.

This update breaks the fairness between players and toons. It clearly won’t help new ones to be accepted in dongeon with the new meta : “points but no traits” that will result.
Reroll was fun : explore new map each time, sometimes fully, sometimes partially, in mvm, in dongeon, now it is a forced check list to have these traits
They should have kept the existing “free” traits and like our 80 unlock only for NEW stuff.

I pity the new players.

Why are developers so inlove with leveling systems?
Let’s face it, there are good players, and there’s bad players:
The bad players are still bad after having grinded their way to level 80, and they’ll continue to be bad because they can’t be bothered with taking the extra hours to figure out what’s what.
Then, there’s the good players who near instantly know what they’re doing – they’re forced through an awful grind to finally reach the actual game.

Just throw the leveling system out the window or figure out a way for us to enjoy the game – and NO, leveling isn’t fun. I don’t need it to learn, and I don’t need it to enjoy a game. If developers would work on making the game fun, engaging and rewarding to explore I wouldn’t be FORCED to do all those things just to get to the next level, I would WANT to do them because they’d be FUN.

iFocus.3781:

Why are developers so inlove with leveling systems?
Let’s face it, there are good players, and there’s bad players:
The bad players are still bad after having grinded their way to level 80, and they’ll continue to be bad because they can’t be bothered with taking the extra hours to figure out what’s what.
Then, there’s the good players who near instantly know what they’re doing – they’re forced through an awful grind to finally reach the actual game.

Just throw the leveling system out the window or figure out a way for us to enjoy the game – and NO, leveling isn’t fun. I don’t need it to learn, and I don’t need it to enjoy a game. If developers would work on making the game fun, engaging and rewarding to explore I wouldn’t be FORCED to do all those things just to get to the next level, I would WANT to do them because they’d be FUN.

I’m guessing they’re forcing people to take longer to get to 80 because of lack of endgame content.

What they should be doing is making leveling more fun so that people want to take their time moving from1 to 80. But that’s not as easy to accomplish.

The game was super easy even with my first character. I welcome this new challenge (though this is the dark souls side of me talking, so i doubt everyone agrees with me. No real way to fix it though without adding a difficulty slider…)

I’m also a completionist/collector, so having more stuff to collect makes me real happy (skins/traits)

I pity new players that are leveling mesmers.

I would not want to see how much worse it is for the class now that you don’t get GM traits (and, for that matter, a lot of others, since they’re high-level acquisitions) until 80.

maddoctor.2738:

JustARTificial.3175:

I have leveled a Mesmer prior to this patch, ankitten ow leveling up an Ele in this patch. It is just horrible. I feel 20-30% weaker.

Elementalists are known to be harder to level up than other professions, unless you build the character effectively, then it’s as easy as any other.

Absolutely correct. However now you can’t build your ele.. cause no traits till far later.
and yes as stated by others. if you play a warrior it will be easier.

Several professions are highly dependent on traits to function while leveling.

And the last point. It was something very much to look forward to. Every 5 levels you had a new trait to consider. It was good.
I am leveling my last missing class. and All i can think of now is to level it fast to get past this hurdle. – while I wanted to savor the last class and really see if something had changed in dialog. stop and smell the roses if you like.

Lord Kuru.3685:

I’m guessing they’re forcing people to take longer to get to 80 because of lack of endgame content.

What they should be doing is making leveling more fun so that people want to take their time moving from1 to 80. But that’s not as easy to accomplish.

Sadly for me at least it has had the reverse effect. I want to speed up my leveling to get past the lack of traits-
I always scoffed at level books and items that made you instant 20- why would I need it? leveling was fun even on the 7th run. fiddling with traits for a new profession etc…… now I’m humbly looking for them for my final 8th character- Rushing to get out of Megaserver maps and leveling with limited traits.

It’s also a tad worrying – if they’re trying so hard to make the world last longer as-is, does this mean any expansion plans have been dropped? The more “grind” added, the less need to add new areas to the world.

nGumball.1283:

And there are people thinking that leveling is the best its been.

that would be me!

MINKZILLA.6023:

nGumball.1283:

And there are people thinking that leveling is the best its been.

that would be me!

Ditto

Talissa Chan.7208:

It’s also a tad worrying – if they’re trying so hard to make the world last longer as-is, does this mean any expansion plans have been dropped? The more “grind” added, the less need to add new areas to the world.

I don’t think there have ever been any indication that they’ve even considered doing an expansion. They’re fully committed to the Living Story. And because of its ephemeral nature, they need to drag out the experience of the permanent content as much as possible.

I really like idea behind the new trait system, but I don’t like the current implementation.

Level 30 rather late for unlocking traits. Why do late levels award 2 trait points? I think, the trait points should be spread more evenly: 1 point every 5 levels, starting from 15 or 1 point every 4 levels, starting from 28.

Level 80 for GM traits is too late. Some of them greatly influence the gameplay and it’s too late to start playing the class properly at 80, imo. The old 11/40/60 caps for trait tiers seemed reasonable, why change those?

Traits challenges should be completable, as soon as the corresponding tier is unlocked. Why on earth does completing Frostgeorge Sound award an Adept tier trait? No trait challenge should require a level at which already the next trait tier is unlocked.

Trait challenges are too vary too much in difficulty or time reqired. How are 100% a map, completing a jumping puzzle/minidungeon, killing a world boss on a ridiculously high respawn timer, a story mode dungeon and capturing keep equal?

Trait guides are too expensive. This puts new players at a serious disadvantage. Old players paid only 4.10g for all traits, new players 43g+360skill points. Buying all old (I-XII) traits should cost 8g at max, and cost either gold or skill points (or wvw badges)

Edit: I forgot to add, that the high cost in gold+skillpoints or time has another side-effect besides unfairness to new players and annoyance: People will most likely stick to the cookie cutter builds, because they don’t want to waste money or time on useless traits. What is the need of free respecs anytime, when you only have 7 major traits unlocked? Only pre-patch 80’s really profit from the current system: they got cheap traits and can respec anytime with all I-XII traits in any line.

I don’t get it. I really don’t. I don’t see any problem with the update, especially concerning leveling.

The week before the update, I decided to start an ele and get it to 80 in a week. I pulled it off with a day to spare, and even so it was the most “difficult” leveling I’ve done. To put it simply, leveling was almost too easy.

I specifically waited until post-update to try a new character. Started a new little Asura two days ago. I’m level 24, and I have never had an easier time with skill challenges and hearts.

I have a good friend who bought the game two days ago. He’s never played an MMO before. He has yet to run into trouble.

Now, maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I level by mapping and personal story. Even with the update I’m doing level 28 story missions with a level 20 character. Once again, don’t see the problem. I don’t grind because, as you said, grinding is boring. I dislike the Queensdale train for the same reason – boring. Only thing more boring than the train, in my opinion, is grenade engi (stand far away and button mash 1, HURRR).

Now I will agree with the transmutes. I had over 100 crystals in my bank, and I had fun using them as I leveled. Not like we could ever run out. But post update I’m sitting on ~30 charges, which prevents me from transmuting each new set of armor. Which is too bad, but whatever, I’ll manage.

Getting traits looks to be a bit of a pain, but whatever. Maybe the game will start getting somewhat challenging now.

Another fun problem I’ve come across while leveling is the sheer amount of players upscaling certain events. There are a lot of events that are just plain unfun, or do not scale well, and take far too long to do with lots of people.

I miss being able to easily chain events and finish them on my own accord – or with my own party – and not have to worry about the hordes of people potentially causing them to fail, or take ridiculous amounts of time.

Speaking for myself, levelling has never, ever been a problem with me. You can expect to gain 1 level for every hour of play (even faster if you’re on a Champ or EotM train). That’s EXTREMELY fast by MMO standards. In fact, when I was starting out, my complaint was that I levelled TOO fast; I felt pressured to upgrade my gear so often because I had to keep replacing it as I gained levels and was impacted greatly by downscaling. (In hindsight, this was what caused me so much trouble levelling. It wasn’t really my skills or my traits; it was the fact that, playing as a downscaled character, the game was nerfing my attributes way more than needed since it was assuming I was wearing appropriately levelled gear, which I wasn’t.)

I will agree that keeping your character looking pretty as you level is now a lot more expensive, however. I was always to shrug and get by in ugly starter gear, but I appreciate that for a lot of players, this will be very unappealing.

Halcyon.7352:

Another fun problem I’ve come across while leveling is the sheer amount of players upscaling certain events. There are a lot of events that are just plain unfun, or do not scale well, and take far too long to do with lots of people.

I miss being able to easily chain events and finish them on my own accord – or with my own party – and not have to worry about the hordes of people potentially causing them to fail, or take ridiculous amounts of time.

Honestly most of the events I’ve ran into just go down even faster now.

If anything a lot of them need to scale more.

A lot fo people saying give it a chance or it’s fine for me are not understanding two things.

1) if you had an alt that already existed but was low level you are not in as much pain as an Alt CREATED after the patch.

2) It is radically different for different classes. Engineer for example has one of the best leveling traits (speedy kits) locked behind Frostgorge completion. So you will be moving at regular movement speed until you get to level 36 and cough up the money.

I liked this game because it was possible to play what content you like; now, it is an excessive expense or you’re forced to do content even if you do not like it . Completely contrary how it was supposed to be. I have 7 80’s, and I am just not making an 8th, the only class left.

For those who like it, great. But I have no intention or desire to do things I have no interest in. If it is no fun for me, I have no desire to do it. There are things I love in the game, and things I intensely dislike. I do what I love and never do what I dislike. I am here to enjoy myself.

I burned out on other games due to this, and was rather pleased to find gw2 and it’s features. I have had the most enjoyment from this game.

What everyone thinks, I do not know. For me, I am done basically when it comes to alts/leveling ( which are/were a fun thing for me). This has crossed the line (which will be different for everyone I suppose) into tedious and joyless grind.

Perhaps they will adjust the cost of things (the skill point costs seem excessive by far to me), and make things less distasteful to me personally but who knows.

It has to be fun for me, or it simply holds no appeal.

I wonder who will be crying the loudest when servers start getting shut down in six months, because new players will be told to avoid this game, due to horrifically bad leveling?

danbuter.2314:

I wonder who will be crying the loudest when servers start getting shut down in six months, because new players will be told to avoid this game, due to horrifically bad leveling?

Servers are already being shut down. That’s why we have megaservers.

Celestina.2894:

Halcyon.7352:

Another fun problem I’ve come across while leveling is the sheer amount of players upscaling certain events. There are a lot of events that are just plain unfun, or do not scale well, and take far too long to do with lots of people.

I miss being able to easily chain events and finish them on my own accord – or with my own party – and not have to worry about the hordes of people potentially causing them to fail, or take ridiculous amounts of time.

Honestly most of the events I’ve ran into just go down even faster now.

If anything a lot of them need to scale more.

I’m not talking about whether or not events scale – scaling is fantastic. The problem is, some simply do not scale well.

Have you ever done the Svanir Dome chain in Wayfarer for example? The third to final event, where you have to break Svanir morale by killing is a prime example. Do this by yourself, or with one or two people and it goes by incredibly quickly.

Have more than maybe 5, and suddenly it takes forever to wear down morale.

There’s another event with poor scaling at the Bear shrine task in the same zone – with few people it doesn’t take very long. Have more than a handful, and you’ll be fighting for a disproportionately long time.

There are countless more examples in Orr and other places.

I actually do like the new levelling, because is finally challenging.
And if anybody dont like the new sistem, try pvp, i actually got 35+ skill points and 25+ tomes of knowledge since the patch.

leveling is easy even on a ranger.
all the mobs nerfed to the ground.
started after patch in order to experience tyria again hunting the traits.
and it is really fun

yes, finishing lvl 70 map for lvl 60 trait can raise a brow…. and jumping obsidian sunctum for a beginner trait also seems to much, but you can buy them for like two skill points instead… it is not like you must doing it…

and there are some people who like jumping, so why not?

I agree with the stones part, it should be free till level 40 at least, everything else no, you have no reason.

Like you said, if you level an alt and you don’t wanna explore the map for traits, you can buy them.
If you are actually new the game is just encouraging to explore even more, what’s wrong with that?
You know a new player can level 2 characters to 80 in GW2 and by the time you hit the cap you can already have enough money to buy a full set of exotic gear WITHOUT ever repeating content? Just by doing map exploration and the events you encounter, killing every mob you pass by and gather from every node to sell your loot.
So much for your statement of Anet forcing the Queensdale champ train, the train is just the laziest way to level up and get some money, the normal way IS viable.

Lastly I’m surprised to hear someone say it’s too hard (no evidence by the way) when PvE was always trashed for being way too easy.

I dont really see much difference as game is so easy to level.

And anyone who think ele is hard to level didnt really stopped for a bit and considered whats best for ele. After I did that it was most faceroll class i leveled (no, traits dont matter 1 bit) *hint – just go dagger/dagger/condition damage and watch everything melt away.
Same for thief, caltrops, caltrops, caltrops is all youll ever need, rest doesnt even matter, dagger/dagger 3 or dagger/pistol blind spam + caltrops ;P

When I’d read the announcement of incoming changes in leveling I decided to level all my low-level characters up to L80 before the patch. I leveled up 4 characters in 3 weeks and I must say that I don’t want to see any heart, PoI, vista etc. for a very long time. It’s so terribly boring to do still the same things again and again (especially hearts). After all of that I’m happy I did it, because opening also all traits with them would be probably nightmare for me. I had to stop leveling after 2-3 hours daily to do something enjoyable with my other characters.
All the exploration was fun during leveling first 2-3 characters (different professions and races). I have 9 L80 right now and because I know what to do and how to do it quickly, I see each “delay” more and more.

It could be enjoyable for newcomers or players who want to do everything, but I think that most of the players with more characters will not appreciate it.

pmnt.4067:

I really like idea behind the new trait system, but I don’t like the current implementation.

Level 30 rather late for unlocking traits. Why do late levels award 2 trait points? I think, the trait points should be spread more evenly: 1 point every 5 levels, starting from 15 or 1 point every 4 levels, starting from 28.

Level 80 for GM traits is too late. Some of them greatly influence the gameplay and it’s too late to start playing the class properly at 80, imo. The old 11/40/60 caps for trait tiers seemed reasonable, why change those?

Traits challenges should be completable, as soon as the corresponding tier is unlocked. Why on earth does completing Frostgeorge Sound award an Adept tier trait? No trait challenge should require a level at which already the next trait tier is unlocked.

Trait challenges are too vary too much in difficulty or time reqired. How are 100% a map, completing a jumping puzzle/minidungeon, killing a world boss on a ridiculously high respawn timer, a story mode dungeon and capturing keep equal?

Trait guides are too expensive. This puts new players at a serious disadvantage. Old players paid only 4.10g for all traits, new players 43g+360skill points. Buying all old (I-XII) traits should cost 8g at max, and cost either gold or skill points (or wvw badges)

Edit: I forgot to add, that the high cost in gold+skillpoints or time has another side-effect besides unfairness to new players and annoyance: People will most likely stick to the cookie cutter builds, because they don’t want to waste money or time on useless traits. What is the need of free respecs anytime, when you only have 7 major traits unlocked? Only pre-patch 80’s really profit from the current system: they got cheap traits and can respec anytime with all I-XII traits in any line.

This hits every nail on the head, especially the addendum. Their system explicitly goes against their design goal.

I really loved the idea of being able to unlock traits by playing specific parts of the game, even challenges – but the way it is handled right now is ridiculus. Unlocking traits is something I do for the personal development of my character – binding it to mega-events (or most other content requiring a substantial amount of other players) is hardly satisfying. Yes, you can always pay up for it, but that should be a convenience option for experienced players leveling alts, not the only viable solution for new players.

Zaxares.5419:

I will agree that keeping your character looking pretty as you level is now a lot more expensive, however. I was always to shrug and get by in ugly starter gear, but I appreciate that for a lot of players, this will be very unappealing.

For me, that’s the worst part… Before the update, I couldn’t care less how fast I leveled. Because I looked good from the start. With this update, with my current young one, I can’t get to 80 fast enough, because the crafted armor is hideous on him!

(thankfully, the wintersday costume does look good on him….)

Wow…
I believe the trait changes are horrible as well, but yet people are trying to go with this idea that “it was a good thing.”
Anet initially wanted player to “play how they want” but now they swiftly are heading into a direction that favors group content, as in they are overdoing it.

A poster earlier said they started a new toon but leveled by playing with their spouse and their guildmates. Some people can’t play being grouped up all the time, especially in the open world. So is this game not for them anymore? Because it seems like the trait system flip is largely against them.

Mobs being easier is terrible because of the trait system was a bad idea. Many players have called for more challenging mob AI but now they are no more fragile than glass.

I get people are trying to be overly optimistic but they are also talking as if their are no faults to the system or the decision to change. They rather just say “well sorry the game changed and it ain’t for you anymore.” Just how the hell is that even acceptable?

blakdoxa.7520:

Wow…
I believe the trait changes are horrible as well, but yet people are trying to go with this idea that “it was a good thing.”
Anet initially wanted player to “play how they want” but now they swiftly are heading into a direction that favors group content, as in they are overdoing it.

A poster earlier said they started a new toon but leveled by playing with their spouse and their guildmates. Some people can’t play being grouped up all the time, especially in the open world. So is this game not for them anymore? Because it seems like the trait system flip is largely against them.

Mobs being easier is terrible because of the trait system was a bad idea. Many players have called for more challenging mob AI but now they are no more fragile than glass.

I get people are trying to be overly optimistic but they are also talking as if their are no faults to the system or the decision to change. They rather just say “well sorry the game changed and it ain’t for you anymore.” Just how the hell is that even acceptable?

Dude about the spouce and Guild mates thing. That was me. here is How it goes. me and the wife Log In, depending on the time, we can either both log into our lowbies..Now level 8 btw.. and goof off together. the reason we do it together is not because it’s so tough that it has to be done together, it’s Just that we …Like Playing together, as married couples do. Without guild help.

At some Point In the day, she and I decide to play some of Our 80’s… I play mesmer she thief. We head off to Orr. We have so far been involved In the Lyssa event..to unlock GM traits, and the Karka event, to unlock GM traits. The funny thing about this is this we also did…without Guild help. ( it seems that the fact that we might get guild help..In a game called Guild Wars 2 bugs you. …but your concerns are immaterial, since all of this we did with the help of strangers that happened to be around.)

So Now we are looking for the Temple of Grenth, and Arah to get the final 2 GM traits, again…without guild help. fact is… I must be honest, although I have said " ask guildies for help when it gets too hard." I have yet to do so, becaus e the game is friggen easy.

I also play a level 24 thief that I started Playing after the patch. That one should be nerfed according to players that complain. I should have 14 trait points. I have none.

My personal experience with NOT having trait points before 30 is… I like it.

before with 14 trait points I had My main had weapon grafted on til 80, My off hand weapon the same, a shortbow In secondary slot. Respeccing cost money, and time, I needed to port back to DR..bla bla bla Not gonna Bother.

That meant I never experimented. Now with zero trait points I am switching weapons as often as i come across something where a weapon switch might be helpful.

Same with Utilities. So even with my level 24 thief, I experiment more.

A few people keep saying things Like.." Oh, you have a constant companion , and you have high level guild support." here is what I have… My wife keeping me company on my level 8 mesmer, no guild support.

And.

Solo on my level 24 thief. No guild support yet. who knows, I keep hearing people saying they levelled all the way to 80 without having to rely on anyone other than people On the map with them. I may never have to make a Guildy call. Don’t worry, if I ever do..I’ll let you know.

Loving the game Anet has done an awesome Job with the new patch. A step in the right direction as far as i am concerned.

On paper the best pudding recipe can look amazing, but then when you taste it it may taste like crap.

The Proof of the pudding, is in the eating.

Give the game a serious try, and if you dislike it that badly… well.. you can wait and hope that Anet reverses themselves I guess.

or… explore other options.

I will save lots of money because I will only play my 80’s from now on, and they pretty much are equipped the way I want them.

Zaxares.5419:

Speaking for myself, levelling has never, ever been a problem with me. You can expect to gain 1 level for every hour of play (even faster if you’re on a Champ or EotM train).

So the people claiming the level 1-80 in a week are playing 80 hours a week? That is WAY too much. Scary.

shawn.1298:

Zaxares.5419:

Speaking for myself, levelling has never, ever been a problem with me. You can expect to gain 1 level for every hour of play (even faster if you’re on a Champ or EotM train).

So the people claiming the level 1-80 in a week are playing 80 hours a week? That is WAY too much. Scary.

1 level per hour is the slow method. There are many faster ways out there.

Nerelith.7360:

Dude about the spouce and Guild mates thing. That was me. here is How it goes. me and the wife Log In, depending on the time, we can either both log into our lowbies..Now level 8 btw.. and goof off together. the reason we do it together is not because it’s so tough that it has to be done together, it’s Just that we …Like Playing together, as married couples do. Without guild help.

At some Point In the day, she and I decide to play some of Our 80’s… I play mesmer she thief. We head off to Orr. We have so far been involved In the Lyssa event..to unlock GM traits, and the Karka event, to unlock GM traits. The funny thing about this is this we also did…without Guild help. ( it seems that the fact that we might get guild help..In a game called Guild Wars 2 bugs you. …but your concerns are immaterial, since all of this we did with the help of strangers that happened to be around.)

So Now we are looking for the Temple of Grenth, and Arah to get the final 2 GM traits, again…without guild help. fact is… I must be honest, although I have said " ask guildies for help when it gets too hard." I have yet to do so, becaus e the game is friggen easy.

I also play a level 24 thief that I started Playing after the patch. That one should be nerfed according to players that complain. I should have 14 trait points. I have none.

My personal experience with NOT having trait points before 30 is… I like it.

before with 14 trait points I had My main had weapon grafted on til 80, My off hand weapon the same, a shortbow In secondary slot. Respeccing cost money, and time, I needed to port back to DR..bla bla bla Not gonna Bother.

That meant I never experimented. Now with zero trait points I am switching weapons as often as i come across something where a weapon switch might be helpful.

Same with Utilities. So even with my level 24 thief, I experiment more.

A few people keep saying things Like.." Oh, you have a constant companion , and you have high level guild support." here is what I have… My wife keeping me company on my level 8 mesmer, no guild support.

And.

Solo on my level 24 thief. No guild support yet. who knows, I keep hearing people saying they levelled all the way to 80 without having to rely on anyone other than people On the map with them. I may never have to make a Guildy call. Don’t worry, if I ever do..I’ll let you know.

Loving the game Anet has done an awesome Job with the new patch. A step in the right direction as far as i am concerned.

On paper the best pudding recipe can look amazing, but then when you taste it it may taste like crap.

The Proof of the pudding, is in the eating.

Give the game a serious try, and if you dislike it that badly… well.. you can wait and hope that Anet reverses themselves I guess.

or… explore other options.

Somewhere in this tome, there should be a reason as to why you like the new leveling and trait system, but I’ll be darned if I could find it. The closest I found was that because the new trait system made your level 24 less effective so you had to experiment with different weapons.

The purpose of the new trait system – according to the blurb – was to afford experimentation with builds, NOT weapons. The ability and encouragement to experiment with weapons has always been there. That’s what the first 10 or so levels have always been about. The fact you didn’t do it before and now have to doesn’t prove the new trait system is successful in encouraging experimentation with builds. It just shows its nerfed your level 24 so much you have to play differently. Yes, Anet is now the play police. “Do it this way, not YOUR way.”

Feels a lot slower and having no traits til late makes me glad I have only one alt starting out. Leveling isn’t hard but now it all feels tedious. Guess I can try leveling via spvp or something. Some of those traits really made leveling more fun, I enjoyed some of them.

shawn.1298:

Nerelith.7360:

Dude about the spouce and Guild mates thing. That was me. here is How it goes. me and the wife Log In, depending on the time, we can either both log into our lowbies..Now level 8 btw.. and goof off together. the reason we do it together is not because it’s so tough that it has to be done together, it’s Just that we …Like Playing together, as married couples do. Without guild help.

At some Point In the day, she and I decide to play some of Our 80’s… I play mesmer she thief. We head off to Orr. We have so far been involved In the Lyssa event..to unlock GM traits, and the Karka event, to unlock GM traits. The funny thing about this is this we also did…without Guild help. ( it seems that the fact that we might get guild help..In a game called Guild Wars 2 bugs you. …but your concerns are immaterial, since all of this we did with the help of strangers that happened to be around.)

So Now we are looking for the Temple of Grenth, and Arah to get the final 2 GM traits, again…without guild help. fact is… I must be honest, although I have said " ask guildies for help when it gets too hard." I have yet to do so, becaus e the game is friggen easy.

I also play a level 24 thief that I started Playing after the patch. That one should be nerfed according to players that complain. I should have 14 trait points. I have none.

My personal experience with NOT having trait points before 30 is… I like it.

before with 14 trait points I had My main had weapon grafted on til 80, My off hand weapon the same, a shortbow In secondary slot. Respeccing cost money, and time, I needed to port back to DR..bla bla bla Not gonna Bother.

That meant I never experimented. Now with zero trait points I am switching weapons as often as i come across something where a weapon switch might be helpful.

Same with Utilities. So even with my level 24 thief, I experiment more.

A few people keep saying things Like.." Oh, you have a constant companion , and you have high level guild support." here is what I have… My wife keeping me company on my level 8 mesmer, no guild support.

And.

Solo on my level 24 thief. No guild support yet. who knows, I keep hearing people saying they levelled all the way to 80 without having to rely on anyone other than people On the map with them. I may never have to make a Guildy call. Don’t worry, if I ever do..I’ll let you know.

Loving the game Anet has done an awesome Job with the new patch. A step in the right direction as far as i am concerned.

On paper the best pudding recipe can look amazing, but then when you taste it it may taste like crap.

The Proof of the pudding, is in the eating.

Give the game a serious try, and if you dislike it that badly… well.. you can wait and hope that Anet reverses themselves I guess.

or… explore other options.

Somewhere in this tome, there should be a reason as to why you like the new leveling and trait system, but I’ll be darned if I could find it. The closest I found was that because the new trait system made your level 24 less effective so you had to experiment with different weapons.

The purpose of the new trait system – according to the blurb – was to afford experimentation with builds, NOT weapons. The ability and encouragement to experiment with weapons has always been there. That’s what the first 10 or so levels have always been about. The fact you didn’t do it before and now have to doesn’t prove the new trait system is successful in encouraging experimentation with builds. It just shows its nerfed your level 24 so much you have to play differently. Yes, Anet is now the play police. “Do it this way, not YOUR way.”

You know I never said My thief was less effective. I don’t see that anywhere. and the fact is 10 levels goes by so fast there isn’t Much time to experiment with anything… by 8 or 9, you already have most of your skills Open, and your weapon skills unlocked…wow 2 levels for experimentning with your weapons.

Anyway, I have said all I am gonna say, I Like the new system, it does make for a More enjoyable experience for me. I am levelling my 24 just find without any traits. I will see How it is once I hit level 36, and have to Hunt down major traits. I am thinking that most players that are naysayers are just simply too used to having stuff handed to them, Now they actually have to…OMG play the game.

Anyway, I wish everyone here, the best in finding some enjoyment In this patch.

I think there’s two kinds of people here.
People that say levelling is the same (In length/difficulty is even easier)
And people that see events are zerged (messing with scaling), dreadfully dull, no traits to play with as you level, less customisation as you level, other events are done so fast you cant even hit them.

No, the levelling isnt longer or harder, but every other experience in the game has become really easy, upto dungeons. I mean we just three manned AC because it doesnt do kill us anymore. It’s pathethic, the quality of the gameplay is just terrible as compared to what it was a few weeks ago.

They changed the balance of traits (making them only available after lvl 30) Thus needed to SPEED balance the whole game from 1-79. Which basically means those areas have become terribly easy for anyone already progressed past that.

This is the worst balancing I’ve ever seen. Rebalancing a whole game to accommodate for new players, because they couldn’t even balance the traits roughly the same as they were before.

Lots are saying leveling is just as easy as before. But that’s actually not the issue.

The issue is that leveling was horribly tedious and dull. And now it’s far worse than before.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Lots are saying leveling is just as easy as before. But that’s actually not the issue.

The issue is that leveling was horribly tedious and dull. And now it’s far worse than before.

If all you’re doing to level in an mmo is killing npcs and doing a dungeon run here and there, then yes…..it gets dull as hell….in ANY mmo. However, with all the different ways of getting experience in this game, and the socialization aspect from guildies, friends, and other people in mmos, I fail to see how it can be a complete bore.

Just my opinion, of course.