I know this sounds stupid, I really do. But i’m up for a challenge.
Starting tonight, I’ll be creating a character and leveling them by ONLY harvesting minerals, lumber and herbs. I’ll only be allowed to kill hostile creatures that attack me while harvesting.
I’ll keep this thread updated every time I log in and log out, adding screenshots as often as possible to prove my work.
Quest:Reach level 80 through harvesting. Reward:Literally nothing, bragging rights I guess?
I might start streaming, but that could get boring.
Will edit this as soon as I create the character and get started! See you soon!
1st edit!!! Here we go! Just finished the “opening quest”. I made a Female Norn named: Mithraya! Will post updates soon
I did read about a player who levelled up a character without killing anything at all, as part of the character he was roleplaying. Many tasks and events have non-killing aspects to them, so those, along with gathering and exploring, was how this guy levelled.
I guess your journey will be somewhat similar- good luck and have fun!
I have 8 alts, one of each of the original 8 classes, and the last 3 got 95% of their experience by gathering. I was outfitting all of them in Ascended gear, which takes a lot of gathering. Since I hate wasting experience opportunities, I simply raised alts and sent them to gathering lower tier stuff. The problem is, they level too fast so you need another to step into the lower tiers. As they progressed upward, then next one down took over the lower tier and up they all went in the gathering tiers as they leveled enough to go for the next tier.
At the moment they all have Ascended weapons (both hands worth), Ascended coats, some have Ascended pants, and at least 3 pieces of Ascended jewelry each.
I’m now raising a Revenant and guess what her assignment is? You guessed it….gathering. After all, she’ll need ascended gear too….
You can gather even when you’re brain dead, so it’s something to do when it’s that time of night.
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
Sounds like a fun experiment.
On a much smaller scale, I leveled my guard 70-80 doing hero points and gathering what I found along the way. Really nice to get to 80 well on my way to a dragonhunter (and I made money, too!)
We’re going to devote our energies to sports, gardening, all the cultural pursuits;
in fact, we’re going to put the goons to sleep.
Meanwhile – we dig.
A guy did something similar in WoW by levelling a panda to max level, and never leaving the starting area, a lot of what he did to level was gathering. As he has used up all quests and out scaled the mobs.
Good luck to you. Do you have any idea on how long it will take you?
Sounds like a fun thing. I leveld a character 1nce to level 17 by not doing any combat (basically ran around the starter areas and got vistas, waypoints and occasionally gathered). It’s definately doable. I think most people underestimate how much experience you can actually get in GW2 without any combat.
You would of get experience for uncovering the map, waypoints (unless you try really really hard to not get close) and the occasional dynamic event you pass by. Make sure to check how long it took you, would be interesting to know.
I’m going to try lvl’ing only by reviving players/NPC’s.
The XP for reviving is about half the amount of XP for harvesting, but it’s doable in the starting area. I don’t think the Village of Shaemoor, Soren Draa, the Village of Smokestead, Snowlord’s Gate and the Village of Astorea have any harvestable nodes without exploring other parts than the exact area you started in.
Now I only need a way to get players or NPC’s killed there without touching them ;-)
EDIT: Players can’t die in the tutorial/starting area
I’m going to try lvl’ing only by reviving players/NPC’s.
The XP for reviving is about half the amount of XP for harvesting, but it’s doable in the starting area. I don’t think the Village of Shaemoor, Soren Draa, the Village of Smokestead, Snowlord’s Gate and the Village of Astorea have any harvestable nodes without exploring other parts than the exact area you started in.
Now I only need a way to get players or NPC’s killed there without touching them ;-)
Make your way to the Asuran Thaumanova Reactor building that has the Elemental boss. Numerous dead Asura await your healing touch.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
You might consider outfitting your home instance with all the harvest nodes/node packs from the gem store. You can end up with a LOT of nodes in there.
Either way sounds like an amusing diversion. Pass that character a watchwork pick and a unlimited axe and sickle though. It’ll save sanity points along the way.
“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
Hmm, literally speaking it’d be pretty hard to get exp solely from gathering.
You’ll get a lot of experience just from getting place to place just for map exploration just to reach nodes though. Killing things not associated with hearts and events tends to not be a very large portion of your xp gained and it also doesn’t help that the first very low level areas don’t have any gathering nodes at all.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Hmm, literally speaking it’d be pretty hard to get exp solely from gathering.
You’ll get a lot of experience just from getting place to place just for map exploration just to reach nodes though. Killing things not associated with hearts and events tends to not be a very large portion of your xp gained and it also doesn’t help that the first very low level areas don’t have any gathering nodes at all.
I doubt anyone can solely get exp from harvesting.
OTOH, my quote of 95% isn’t a stretch. For ascended weapons, I needed wood and metals, and they are on known routes in known zones. You get about 25% of a level if you do every WP, Vista, and Point of Interest, and you only get about 1/3 of that running a route, since you miss most of the zone. You only get that once, while the gathering nodes renew, so you can get that XP once per hour at no further gain from the zone itself. You also don’t need to kill anything. You can harvest and run off yard trash, or skip the node.
You should also get out more. All the newbie zones have harvesting nodes.
They should have an achievement and title for harvesting many, many nodes.
“reaper of worlds”, cuz it fits, and will make you sound like a battle beast despite getting it from never doing battle.
Hmm, literally speaking it’d be pretty hard to get exp solely from gathering.
You’ll get a lot of experience just from getting place to place just for map exploration just to reach nodes though. Killing things not associated with hearts and events tends to not be a very large portion of your xp gained and it also doesn’t help that the first very low level areas don’t have any gathering nodes at all.
I doubt anyone can solely get exp from harvesting.
OTOH, my quote of 95% isn’t a stretch. For ascended weapons, I needed wood and metals, and they are on known routes in known zones. You get about 25% of a level if you do every WP, Vista, and Point of Interest, and you only get about 1/3 of that running a route, since you miss most of the zone. You only get that once, while the gathering nodes renew, so you can get that XP once per hour at no further gain from the zone itself. You also don’t need to kill anything. You can harvest and run off yard trash, or skip the node.
You should also get out more. All the newbie zones have harvesting nodes.
I meant the very first areas of the starting zones, Yes, I am aware that 1-15 zones have gathering nodes. That’s where most of my green wood comes from. But, the NPE did remove various nodes that were once there for the truly lowbie (about level 1-5). This is kinda important if the challenge is just to gain exp from gathering!
Maybe you should get out to the maps a bit more too. =p Start a new human character (Or go to Shaemoor WP) and see when the first gathering node shows up.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Hmm, literally speaking it’d be pretty hard to get exp solely from gathering.
You’ll get a lot of experience just from getting place to place just for map exploration just to reach nodes though. Killing things not associated with hearts and events tends to not be a very large portion of your xp gained and it also doesn’t help that the first very low level areas don’t have any gathering nodes at all.
I doubt anyone can solely get exp from harvesting.
OTOH, my quote of 95% isn’t a stretch. For ascended weapons, I needed wood and metals, and they are on known routes in known zones. You get about 25% of a level if you do every WP, Vista, and Point of Interest, and you only get about 1/3 of that running a route, since you miss most of the zone. You only get that once, while the gathering nodes renew, so you can get that XP once per hour at no further gain from the zone itself. You also don’t need to kill anything. You can harvest and run off yard trash, or skip the node.
You should also get out more. All the newbie zones have harvesting nodes.
I meant the very first areas of the starting zones, Yes, I am aware that 1-15 zones have gathering nodes. I mean how else do you get copper and green wood? But, the NPE did remove various nodes that were once there for the truly lowbie (about level 1-5). This is kinda important if the challenge is just to gain exp from gathering!
Maybe you should get out to the maps a bit more too. =p Start a new human character (Or go to Shaemoor WP) and see when the first gathering node shows up.
I do some keyfarmer leveling over there and I’ve seen the first nodes appear between the Earthen Magic hero point past the Shaemore Garrison and the Scaver Waypoint. That area is a level 6 to 7 area.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Yea, that’s why I said area and not zone. But my thought was that it’d be a pain to be a level 2 or whatnot in a level 6 area and then level up only gathering. Certainly doable, of course.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Yea, that’s why I said area and not zone. But my thought was that it’d be a pain to be a level 2 or whatnot in a level 6 area and then level up only gathering. Certainly doable, of course.
Doable, but difficult. There’s not that many nodes along that area and the areas increase in levels pretty fast. In addition there are a number of hostile mobs, including numerous centaurs and further down there are wolves that would be tough for a level 2 to avoid and still harvest.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Yea, that’s why I said area and not zone. But my thought was that it’d be a pain to be a level 2 or whatnot in a level 6 area and then level up only gathering. Certainly doable, of course.
Doable, but difficult. There’s not that many nodes along that area and the areas increase in levels pretty fast. In addition there are a number of hostile mobs, including numerous centaurs and further down there are wolves that would be tough for a level 2 to avoid and still harvest.
Yea, those wolves are annoying. But that’s why I have those concerns because I’d imagine that’d be more frustrating than challenging to start out with.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
I think someone fell in love with the movie ‘Castaway’. Will you be naming your harvesting tools and scratching marks on some driftwood to keep track as the days stretch into weeks, months and years?
‘Elite’ in all 9 professions. I take mediocrity seriously!
To be fair, it probably isn’t the most insane thing I’ve ever seen anyone attempt to do in an MMO. That would go the the 1 billion agility xp runscaper.
I don’t have opinions. I only have facts I can’t adequately prove.
Yea, that’s why I said area and not zone. But my thought was that it’d be a pain to be a level 2 or whatnot in a level 6 area and then level up only gathering. Certainly doable, of course.
Doable, but difficult. There’s not that many nodes along that area and the areas increase in levels pretty fast. In addition there are a number of hostile mobs, including numerous centaurs and further down there are wolves that would be tough for a level 2 to avoid and still harvest.
Yea, those wolves are annoying. But that’s why I have those concerns because I’d imagine that’d be more frustrating than challenging to start out with.
You could use Edge of the Mists for the early levels …
Question: Will you be using infinite gathering tools or standard, level appropriate, consumable gathering tools?
Asura characters: Zerina | Myndee | Rissa | Jaxxi | Feyyt | Bekka | Sixx | Akee | Tylee | Nuumy
| Claara
Your skin will wrinkle and your youth will fade, but your soul is endless.
I have a sylvari that I created for my girlfriend who was super hyped for the chef profession. We used almost only gathering ( exception for some red peppers ) to up to lvl 400. So we ended up running in all tyria for gathering herbs and stuff.
So I can tell you get a lot of experience from only dicovering and harvesting.
If you want to optimise your time, go for rich nodes and high harvest herbs like salad, spinach, strawberries, grapes
Good luck on that one
main ~ Esper Jace (Thief )/ Ellundril Jiluan
(mesmer ) – EU [Teef]
but no hearts, no vistas, none of that
