Guild Wars 2

Max Level 20 vs Max Level 80: which you enjoy most?

If Max level was reached sooner like say level 20 being max level in Guild Wars 1,

vs

Max Level taking longer to reach like say level 80 being the max level in Guild Wars 2,

which would you enjoy more?

A game is more than just its level range.

80 because the meat of this game lies between 1-79 as there is no end game, much like GW1. (Not a complaint)

Numbers are meaningless.

I am enjoying GW2 over GW1 because the game plays smoother.

~MRA

20, easily. I didn’t buy Guild Wars for grind, yet this game turned out pretty grindy. You have to grind to get weapons/armor with max stats at level 80 whereas you could get a single max piece (minus runes) in Guild Wars in under an hour thanks to collectors.

You could say “oh but the game is all about the adventure” all you want but anykittenMMORPG could say the same thing and tell you to level slow as hell because it’s more fun but fact of the matter is that there is little reason not to be level 80 in this game especially when WvWvW favors those who have level 80 gear as opposed to 20. Same thing with dungeons.

I played a game with max lvl 220/30/70 lvls before, the more the merrier :p

20

But I do enjoy a lot of the other things about GW2 over GW1.

I preferred guild wars 1 to guild wars 2 is right now, I can tell you that.

to be honest I’m not sure why the levels went past 30 in this game. the extra 50 after you get your elite skill seam somewhat pointless.

I’d have prefered max level 30, then the zones to get progressively harder (more mobs, more vets, more complicated mob tactics and events) as opposed to increasing in level. That way more of the world is truely endgame as downlevelling still leaves you incredibly overpowered.

Level 50+ and still enjoying it but some areas of the world that I have ventured into is clearly more enjoyable then others. The most enjoyable maps are those that contain missions that are a bit differemt, preferrably a bit puzzle like. Then we have places that contain hidden stuff or … jumping puzzles (cannot believe I enjoy them this much).

The pirate cave was a lot of fun when I figured out how to get there and so on

But there was some other maps where they relied a lot more on grinding and that went “meh” really fast.

The game has become boring very fast. That is unfortunate as I really want to enjoy this game more.

Honestly, if leveling took 4 times as long and only took me to level 20, I’d be fine with it. Leveling, growing in power, that was merely a side-effect of playing the game, and hitting 80 wasn’t as rewarding as just playing the game as a whole. Which was easily more rewarding than getting geared for the next raid in WoW.

I actually finished my main’s personally story today, and while I’m excited to see what major content they have in store for us later down the road, it wouldn’t make a difference to me if it kept my level the same or allowed me to level up more.

Since I’m having trouble finding anything rewarding/enjoyable to do at 80, I would have preferred a longer leveling process.
Got to 80 with about 55% world completion and feel little incentive to explore other areas since there’s no worthwhile reward.

Having the game at Max 20, Factions/Nightfall style (hit 20 after leaving <insert start zone here>) probably would’ve worked better.

The leveling curve as a whole has just been a source of frustration for me because of stuff like running into zones I’m 5-30 levels below, content difficulty being all over the place due to zone and participation scaling (anything from beating on Lv4s as a Lv8, to being Lv4 against Lv8s, etc), and not really getting to do the cool stuff because anything below its requirement means I get instagibbed by the horde nobody is zerging.

It would also have helped cement the fact that the level cap isn’t supposed to mean anything, because having the cap be high AND having people level progressively through it just makes it misleading. Admittedly, this would mean that all Traits become available by “the end of the 15-25 zones” (effectively speaking) but even then you can still have skill points capped off for progression’s sake.

I notice that with the level 80 cap I do worry more about filling out hearts than I would if I’d already hit my xp ceiling, but other than that I don’t worry much about my level, since I can go to any area my level or lower and be challenged by it. So if I get bored of the human lands, I head to the Norn or Charr areas, and I’ve barely even explored the Sylvari or Usura lands let.

One thing I do miss, though, is hunting for Elites … having your elite skills already mapped out for you is kind of a drag when compared to the feeling you’d get from hunting them down in GW1. If we could bring that back in a future expansion I’d be happy. (please, though, don’t make them reliant on jumping puzzles, some of us suck at jumping puzzles and there are many other ways to make the search fun and challenging without that frustration)

Lower cap would have been better, and have most of the game be strictly horizontal progression with skill point challenges and perhaps having trait challenges as well to fill out the characters. Having 80 levels has encouraged a “traditional MMO mindset” among some players, whereby 1-80 is seen as “strictly leveling content” and therefore the need for “endgame content now that we are done with 1-80 zones” mentality. Downleveling was supposed to help here, but the mindset of “leveling content” vs “endgame content” was facilitated by having the level cap set at 80, unlike GW1 where it was a low cap and the rest of the content was horizontal progression.

Not much the difference, since PvE where cap has some importance from the length-wise point of view, and PvP where cap shouldn’t be even an existant issue, are handled very well in GW. By making them separate, simply.

Let’s face it – amount of levels is just another shiny thing to feed our ego on, not a truly important matter for the gameplay. The cap level could be even 10, yet the length of the story/complection (and in the MMOs case most important part – end game) is the thing that matters.

I like the higher level cap personally.

The game isn’t “grindy”. The difference between the gear in this game and in other games is the difference in power is MUCH less than that in other games. Even if you went up against someone with the best level 80 gear, you’d still have a pretty solid chance.

Games should have a reward system in place that lets you work over the long term to achieve. It shouldn’t be easy or given to you else it just becomes meaningless.

it took about the same amount of time to go from 1-20 in gw1 as it did from 1-80 in 2, tbh i prefered the 20 because then everything was actualy endgame instead of this “endgame” we have now

I don’t care either way, it’s an arbitrary number. I wasn’t remotely “done” with a character — or the game — when I hit 20 in GW1. Now that I’m 80 in GW2, I’m still not remotely done with a character or the game.

turel.7901:

The game has become boring very fast. That is unfortunate as I really want to enjoy this game more.

Care to explain?

getting to 80 took about the time getting to 20, roughly.

Algreg: Perhaps in Prophecies, but getting to 20 in Factions went as fast as a hungry kitten getting to his food bowl.

Truthfully, I like Guild Wars 2’s leveling system better. Even at level 80 you can go back and play through the lower level zones. Is it easier then if you were ‘appropriate level’ for those zones?

Yes, even downleveled you tend to outlevel most things you’ll fight, but at least it’s not like other MMO’s where you can almost literally walk through a low level zone and stuff dies.

Hitting level 20 in GW1 was fun, in Prophecies, because you were actually playing through most of the campaign as you did it.
Once Factions and Nightfall came out though, suddenly you were basically hitting level 20 on Tutorial Islands, and then given the rest of the campaign.

TL;DR, ultimately there’s not much difference imo in what level you end up at, it’s the journey to get there, and what you do afterwards that matters.

I liked when the max level was 20. Then I didn’t have to worry about level woes and concentrate on other things. It’s not like it’s easy once a person hits level 20 in GW1, level 20 was where things begin to happen.

Malediktus.9250:

I played a game with max lvl 220/30/70 lvls before, the more the merrier :p

I still miss my enfo…

More to the point, the number of levels doesn’t really matter: if you have to spend forever gaining them then levelling becomes the game, if you gain them quickly then you need other ways of advancing once you reach max. Either way works well – when it’s balanced.

In GW2 you can finish the main story as you level, and levelling to 80 can take very little time. 1-80 goes by too fast for levels to be the main point, and finishing your story so quickly leaves little content to run once you reach max. As a result there are a bunch of 80s standing around wondering what to do, other than grinding content they have already seen.

I absolutely love the game and the thing that keeps me going while leveling is not only the compelling combat, but the desire to get cool/stronger gear.

This is kind of where their system bothers me. I understand the goal to have gear not a skill gauge, but the carrot in front of the face sets goals for people. Currently, the only reason to PVP or to do their version of end-game is for item skins.

I want to see collectibles, vanity or otherwise which allow you to show off your progress. Maybe specific weapons that have a slight advantage and glow at the blade or something.

People hate DPS meters and gear but those implementations aren’t just about gauging performance. I loved trying to out DPS myself in dungeons in WoW and that made me want to do content over and over again.

Give us some type of ranking system, performance gauges and show-off/advantage items to set goals for and the game will be perfect.

… there are levels in GW2, really?

I prefer the general feel of movement/combat in GW2 over GW1. However, I generally feel like the skill system and the leveling systems in GW1 are far superior to GW2.

I’d prefer to reach max level 20 after the first 2 maps in the game. And the rest of the maps to be balanced for lvl 20 stats. In GW1 the good stuff started happening beyond the level cap and you could focus on more important things other than leveling your gear.

Also, now with the downleveling system, I have no clue what my armor/weapon stats mean anymore. I simply ignore my hero attributes and stats because they change too often to be meaningful in any way. The level difference between you and the enemy is the only thing that matters.

I haven’t much paid attention to level. I enjoy traveling and exploring the world while stumbling upon events. There is a lot of stuff I missed the first time around. Level 80 in Guild Wars 2 takes a bit longer but I feels very similar. It opens up a whole new, yet familiar, world and lets you experiment a lot more with your skill deck. We’ve only fought 1 of the 3 dragons on Tyria and haven’t sene what dragon(s) are in Cantha aka the Empire of the Dragon and haven’t taken back Elona from Palawa Joko.

When prophecies first came out there were lots of level 20s that felt lost after beating the main storyline. Then we discovered the depth of the Temple of Ages, the Hall of Heroes and the rest and before long expansions came out and the game got deeper and more complex.

Oh and one more thing…
Rata Sum=Mursaat

So relax. I feel that prescription games (yes prescription) have trained us to thing that if a game isn’t providing us with infinite hours of mindless grinding that we aren’t getting out money’s worth since we are on the clock. Guild Wars isn’t like that. You don’t complain when you beat any other 60 dollar game and there is nothing to do at the end and that’s not even the case here. Even without being a prescription game they have went out of their way to provide long lasting entertainment.

“0” would be my first choice, then 20, then 80… but I’m happy with what arenanet has given us, levels being mostly irrelevant beyond throttling content.

… if I could just find the “turn off combat/UI numbers” option, levels would be truly irrelevant, anyone know where that UI option is hidden? Watching numbers explode from middle of screen is kinda goofy.