Guild Wars 2

Hello there! I am a “newb” of GW2- just joined a little under 2 days ago and seeing how this is the very first time I have played a Guild Wars game, I was (and still am) very confused. Along my newbie experience, I thought I could share some feedback along with some doubts I have.

DISCLAIMER : I am sorry if this has been discussed about before, but as I said, I am new and don’t take it as repetition, take it as emphasizing something!

Firstly – Quests and Leveling

So this is the first time that I have come across the Karma mechanic system and I love it! However, for a new player, it is completely impractical and tedious to do. As a new player, I was dumped into the world with basic control knowledge and that’s it. I was told to help in Shaymore (sp) village and I did, but after that? I was lost. I thought logically that my personal story would be the main quest-line and it seemed so at the start but the quest line, although very interesting, was terribly demanding. The difficulty would increase a level, without me increasing, leaving me as a level 9 player trying to complete a level 14 instance. I was stripped naked 3 times before I quit and went to wander the world- aimlessly. Where was I supposed to gain 5 levels?! And more than that, where was I supposed to gain the armor or the weapons to get me to that level? If GW2 was a FTP MMO, a large chunk of players would turn away at this point (including me)- luckily for GW2, it isn’t and I need to get my money’s worth of enjoyment kittensssssss! >_<

Till now, I have no answer, so if anyone can help me, it would be much appreciated. I am currently level 11, and although I have been able to pass the level 14 instance, I am stuck at the next. :/ This isn’t even the biggest problem, I could just ignore the personal story, but with my armor and (some reason…) REALLY weak Elementalist spells, I can’t even beat mobs my own level! (Yes, I do have a level-appropriate weapon)

Building on from my last point, it seems the game relies on crafting- as the quest-line rewarded me mediocre loot at best and all the mobs never dropped anything for me. Yet, not a single tutorial on it? I’m not sure if I missed it, but I later personally found the crafters, learned the skills, and then saw the recipes and I had no idea what to do next with it, I wouldn’t mind an explanation or an example?

Level Down –
Now I know this is a touchy subject since it’s a core mechanic of the game but the level down system kind of irks me. The system itself isn’t annoying but the fact that I have no control over it, does. In any MMO I play, one of the best things about it is when I put effort and I get a reward for it (reason why I prefer Quests- instant reward for instant effort).One of my favorite aspects of an MMO is when I level up, I gain stronger spells and I go back to the newbie zone and just kill that one Mini-boss that took me 3 days to kill when I was a noob, and see just how much my character has grown. Now, unfortunately, from the time I have started playing, I have no sensation of that! As soon as I go back to fight a level 6 mob, I am back to level 6 and I legit die, which frustrates me to no end! I would have preferred if automatically I would gain no experience, no loot, nothing and then I could manually tone down my level to play that area. At least then, I wouldn’t keep dying while simply trying to explore the map.

NOTE : I am so so sorry if this post doesn’t belong here- I really had no idea where to post it, feel free to move it to wherever it’s supposed to be mods!

Pretty much to level you should explore – do events that pop up- explore – do hearts

Fastest way to get higher level gear is the Trading Post. Maybe not most cost efficient but still.

Ill hit you up ingame

1. New Player Leveling

-Complete 2 1-15 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Complete 2 15-30 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Repeat

Alternate ways of “power leveling”
-Remember to craft (7 levels for getting to 400)
-When you get to level 30, try starting some dungeons

Level scaling
-It’s part of the game. You DO get stronger and the enemies will be easier to kill, but this is not a game where you will be able to steam roll any enemy because of your level.

DonQuack.9025:

Pretty much to level you should explore – do events that pop up- explore – do hearts

Fastest way to get higher level gear is the Trading Post. Maybe not most cost efficient but still.

Ill hit you up ingame

Yes, I’ve tried doing that but I keep dying so much times unless someone is there helping me and that alone is really tedious :/

Oh, don’t worry! Someone was kind enough to show me that and gave me level 10 gear (which tbh had worse stats than my newbie gear) so I think I ran out of choices there :/

Vorch.2985:

1. New Player Leveling

-Complete 2 1-15 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Complete 2 15-30 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Repeat

Alternate ways of “power leveling”
-Remember to craft (7 levels for getting to 400)
-When you get to level 30, try starting some dungeons

Level scaling
-It’s part of the game. You DO get stronger and the enemies will be easier to kill, but this is not a game where you will be able to steam roll any enemy because of your level.

Ah… is that honestly all there is to leveling?
I dunno, I had hoped for more. I hate grinding so I am not feeling too good about this…

That’s all I needed to hear, at least they will be easier to kill, the way it is now, it’s no longer fun but frustrating.

Well firstly. the ele isnt really an “easy” prof. Its a prof that you learn through failing.

Vorch.2985:

1. New Player Leveling

-Complete 2 1-15 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Complete 2 15-30 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Repeat

Alternate ways of “power leveling”
-Remember to craft (7 levels for getting to 400)
-When you get to level 30, try starting some dungeons

Level scaling
-It’s part of the game. You DO get stronger and the enemies will be easier to kill, but this is not a game where you will be able to steam roll any enemy because of your level.

Also, complete all the major cities, as in their waypoints, points of interest, and viewpoints…….you’ll have absolutely no threat to your character doing this(except for possibly falling off something), and will get around 2 levels just completing the major cities.

Best of luck and give it time, Leorion…….it will get easier and you’ll understand it all better the longer you play.

Leorion.2367:

DonQuack.9025:

Pretty much to level you should explore – do events that pop up- explore – do hearts

Fastest way to get higher level gear is the Trading Post. Maybe not most cost efficient but still.

Ill hit you up ingame

Yes, I’ve tried doing that but I keep dying so much times unless someone is there helping me and that alone is really tedious :/

Oh, don’t worry! Someone was kind enough to show me that and gave me level 10 gear (which tbh had worse stats than my newbie gear) so I think I ran out of choices there :/

Vorch.2985:

1. New Player Leveling

-Complete 2 1-15 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Complete 2 15-30 maps
-Complete Personal story up to your level
-Repeat

Alternate ways of “power leveling”
-Remember to craft (7 levels for getting to 400)
-When you get to level 30, try starting some dungeons

Level scaling
-It’s part of the game. You DO get stronger and the enemies will be easier to kill, but this is not a game where you will be able to steam roll any enemy because of your level.

Ah… is that honestly all there is to leveling?
I dunno, I had hoped for more. I hate grinding so I am not feeling too good about this…

That’s all I needed to hear, at least they will be easier to kill, the way it is now, it’s no longer fun but frustrating.

You get experience for nearly anything you do in the game. Just have fun exploring, and do vistas, get to waypoints, gather from nodes, do hearts, do skill points, and do any dynamic events you come across.

You’ll have fun and level before you even realize it. Just free yourself from worrying about leveling, and go explore the world.

Yea, it’s not really a grind…What I basically said was explore the zones at or below your level to completion, then work on the personal story…not a grind XD

If I wanted you to grind, you can go do the queensdale champion train

Yeah, you don’t have to hang out in the 1-15 “human” map. There are other 1-15 maps that you can explore to very quickly level your character, you can access them through an asura gate in Divinity’s Reach (upstairs).

The downleveling is absolutely necessary – even when you’re leveled down, as a level 80 with level 80 traits and skills unlocked, runes on your armor and sigils on your weapons you will still sort of own anything on a lower level map; if your stats weren’t leveled down, everything in your vicinity would simply explode and ruin everybody else’s playing experience there

DonQuack.9025:

Well firstly. the ele isnt really an “easy” prof. Its a prof that you learn through failing.

Yeh, I learned that the hard way. Honestly thought it was the glass cannon but that’s my fault, should have done more research!

Teon.5168:

Also, complete all the major cities, as in their waypoints, points of interest, and viewpoints…….you’ll have absolutely no threat to your character doing this(except for possibly falling off something), and will get around 2 levels just completing the major cities.

Best of luck and give it time, Leorion…….it will get easier and you’ll understand it all better the longer you play.

Thanks! Had a friend that helped me and told me the exact same thing, I do enjoy exploring so that is definitely something to look forward too!

Lankybrit.4598:

You get experience for nearly anything you do in the game. Just have fun exploring, and do vistas, get to waypoints, gather from nodes, do hearts, do skill points, and do any dynamic events you come across.

You’ll have fun and level before you even realize it. Just free yourself from worrying about leveling, and go explore the world.

I can do that! It is sad to know that there are no quests beside my slightly-questish personal story but there are a lot of alternatives it seems. Do you have any tips as to which gives me more XP? :P

Vorch.2985:

Yea, it’s not really a grind…What I basically said was explore the zones at or below your level to completion, then work on the personal story…not a grind XD

If I wanted you to grind, you can go do the queensdale champion train

Oh I heard about that in World Chat since it was right beside me- does that give me good XP?

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Yeah, you don’t have to hang out in the 1-15 “human” map. There are other 1-15 maps that you can explore to very quickly level your character, you can access them through an asura gate in Divinity’s Reach (upstairs).

The downleveling is absolutely necessary – even when you’re leveled down, as a level 80 with level 80 traits and skills unlocked, runes on your armor and sigils on your weapons you will still sort of own anything on a lower level map; if your stats weren’t leveled down, everything in your vicinity would simply explode and ruin everybody else’s playing experience there

Yes, I completely understand that! But what if I had absolutely no incentive to do that, why would I do it? Beside, it’s just because this system is new to me, I am sure I will get used to it in due time but I still hope that there is some aspect that can show me just how much I have put in BESIDE the different armor.

The Hearts are the equivalent of quests in GW2. They give the most experience. They’re very flexible too. You usually have 2 or 3 things that you can do to complete them. Any of those things will work towards completing it.