Guild Wars 2

To cut Anet some slack, I will admit it’s not that bad. I understand, if someone has never played an MMO before, this new system would be helpful. And I only messed around for about 2 hours on a brand new alt to get to lvl 6. I wasn’t pushing it.

The system removes the confusion of “what to do next?” Fine, that’s great.

But what did that translate to? I have to grind hearts and monster kills to unlock skills and armor. No offense, but how is this supposed to be different from every other MMO where you need to do quests to level up? Kill X amount of enemies. Gain exp. Level up. Dynamic events? Nevermind those, they didn’t give me enough exp to level up.

Um, Anet? You shot yourself in the foot here.

2 hours to get the level 6? Say what?

It takes me 15-20 minutes to get to level 10, and that’s “not pushing it.” That’s just jogging around the Northwest corner of QD (4 hearts, a smattering of events, some pois, and a vista) and then heading over to the garrison area.

I haven’t tried the other starter zones, mainly because I don’t know them as well, but I can’t imagine it’d be that much longer to do the same.

I do agree that the level unlock of skills is annoying. I much prefer the kill unlock, and the lower levels for the utlities. Although I do believe Colin said that those levels aren’t quite right. So maybe they’ll revert that.

But if you know what to do you can still go to PvP even at level 2. You can craft too if you like. You can use a level 20 scroll. You can use tomes of knowledge.

I can’t imagine how it took you that long to get to level 6 though. Playing casually I got to level 10 in less than 30 minutes.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

2 hours to get the level 6? Say what?

It takes me 15-20 minutes to get to level 10, and that’s “not pushing it.”

Can you tell me what race and class you were using?
I took the time while levelling yesterday. Only doing hearts I managed to get lvl 10 in about 1 and a half hour.

Vayne clearly doenst know fragmentation shot of engineer. If she/he would, then she would be horrified by how lackluster that auto attack is, and how much it slow the game down, by being locked to that one skill for a long while.

eXeth.9134:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

2 hours to get the level 6? Say what?

It takes me 15-20 minutes to get to level 10, and that’s “not pushing it.”

Can you tell me what race and class you were using?
I took the time while levelling yesterday. Only doing hearts I managed to get lvl 10 in about 1 and a half hour.

I made a Norn ele, and popped over to QD after I got out of the initial instance.
My husband made a Sylvari war and did the same.

We opted for QD because we know it better, as I said. I’ll have to reroll a couple of times and try the other starter zones. See if there are discrepancies.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Vayne clearly doenst know fragmentation shot of engineer. If she/he would, then she would be horrified by how lackluster that auto attack is, and how much it slow the game down, by being locked to that one skill for a long while.

My first 80 was an engie.

eXeth.9134:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

2 hours to get the level 6? Say what?

It takes me 15-20 minutes to get to level 10, and that’s “not pushing it.”

Can you tell me what race and class you were using?
I took the time while levelling yesterday. Only doing hearts I managed to get lvl 10 in about 1 and a half hour.

Maybe a matter of experience and/or profession? It can be quite fast, but only if you know what you’re doing. I’ve tried but it can be difficult to really put oneself into the shoes of another when it comes to something like leveling in an MMo. Everyone is different and sees things differently.

(note: not trying to denigrate you in way, shape, or form)

Yeah, all in all I don’t HATE the new system as much as I hate the trait issue. It is actually good for new players and I do like seeing that level up window pop up. I know its mostly eye candy/info but some of the new rewards are neat. They might need to be adjusted slightly (gathering tools need to be rewarded at level 7 IMO).

That being said, as a vet the skill point gating and utility gating are my biggest issues, with kitten poor dodge tutorial and needless dumbing down of proper in game tutorials (bundles).

Vayne.8563:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Vayne clearly doenst know fragmentation shot of engineer. If she/he would, then she would be horrified by how lackluster that auto attack is, and how much it slow the game down, by being locked to that one skill for a long while.

My first 80 was an engie.

Wich says nothing lol. This means, you leveled engie while it was still easier (you burst kill to unlock poison volley/confusion short/burn shot), and then finally your dps goes up enough to be a decent farmer. It was still harder then most professions, but it worked if you unlocked skills fast enough. Your post only proofs that after the patch you used a good auto attack profession (warrior for instance) to go tru new content, to then praise it into heaven.

If you are so Enthousiastic about protecting gw2 new char patch, then make a new char, choose engie, keep pistol as auto attack, Fraps your progress and play experience to everyone. Then put a camera on your real face, and say without blinking in your eyes ‘I had fun leveling this Engie’ with a lying detector next to you. We all know you won’t do this because… “You know what I mean here…”

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Wich says nothing lol. This means, you leveled engie while it was still easier (you burst kill to unlock poison volley/confusion short/burn shot), and then finally your dps goes up enough to be a decent farmer.

Techincally (because I didn’t test it myself but it should work), you can just dance your way through the tutorial and you’ll be level 2 once it ends unlocking the skill #2. Then you just need level 4 for skill #3. It seems that Heart quests give a LOT of XP now at the start.

I think you should be able to get to level 4 rather easily and quickly without ever using your #1 skill.

zenleto.6179:

eXeth.9134:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

2 hours to get the level 6? Say what?

It takes me 15-20 minutes to get to level 10, and that’s “not pushing it.”

Can you tell me what race and class you were using?
I took the time while levelling yesterday. Only doing hearts I managed to get lvl 10 in about 1 and a half hour.

Maybe a matter of experience and/or profession? It can be quite fast, but only if you know what you’re doing. I’ve tried but it can be difficult to really put oneself into the shoes of another when it comes to something like leveling in an MMo. Everyone is different and sees things differently.

(note: not trying to denigrate you in way, shape, or form)

No worries.

It very well could be. Ele was my very first class (which was why I picked it), and its the class I have the most hours clocked. We know QD really well and it’s a snap for us to run that corner and then move on (I have 8 human characters on my account, 1 for each class. I can’t recall how many are human on my husband’s account). Hell I can even tell you exactly which events we encountered and in what order (not exact names, but you get the idea).

There are going to be a lot of factors that contribute to how quickly someone levels. If you don’t have any luck catching events, its going to take a helluva lot longer. I also tend to kill…well, everything. I don’t typically run any boosters, and that would have an affect too. I also know where all the PoIs are, and knew where to look for the Vista. Obviously someone brand new may take a longer, but I don’t think it’d take two hours…unless they are doing something else at the same time and not paying attention to the game.

Still, like I said, I’ll try it with some of the other starter zones, as I’m less familiar with them, and see how long those take.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Vayne clearly doenst know fragmentation shot of engineer. If she/he would, then she would be horrified by how lackluster that auto attack is, and how much it slow the game down, by being locked to that one skill for a long while.

I just did an engie last night for my 3rd test of the new system. I wasn’t stuck with my number skill past the tutorial as it jumps you to level 2 immediately and it just took a DivReach opening and I think 2 hearts before my third skill opened up. Getting to level 10 wasn’t horrible and i could do it my way going anywhere (level 5 going to map areas meant for level 9 and 10) and didn’t die once. Its all good.

I still worry that certain class with a lot of skills/weapon combos (warriors and thieves) are going to be confused by all the new skills and skill combos with the way the new system just has them all open by level 10, but thats a gripe for another test to be done by a brand new player. Vets won’t notice it since those of us that have played those classes just know the skills so its a boon to us.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Vayne.8563:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Vayne clearly doenst know fragmentation shot of engineer. If she/he would, then she would be horrified by how lackluster that auto attack is, and how much it slow the game down, by being locked to that one skill for a long while.

My first 80 was an engie.

Wich says nothing lol. This means, you leveled engie while it was still easier (you burst kill to unlock poison volley/confusion short/burn shot), and then finally your dps goes up enough to be a decent farmer. It was still harder then most professions, but it worked if you unlocked skills fast enough. Your post only proofs that after the patch you used a good auto attack profession (warrior for instance) to go tru new content, to then praise it into heaven.

If you are so Enthousiastic about protecting gw2 new char patch, then make a new char, choose engie, keep pistol as auto attack, Fraps your progress and play experience to everyone. Then put a camera on your real face, and say without blinking in your eyes ‘I had fun leveling this Engie’ with a lying detector next to you. We all know you won’t do this because… “You know what I mean here…”

TBH you should buy a rifle if you are not doing enough damage with pistol. Rifle was always more raw damage, pistol was for groups and cond damage.

You can always change back to pistol once you have unlocked more weapon skills.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

zenleto.6179:

eXeth.9134:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

2 hours to get the level 6? Say what?

It takes me 15-20 minutes to get to level 10, and that’s “not pushing it.”

Can you tell me what race and class you were using?
I took the time while levelling yesterday. Only doing hearts I managed to get lvl 10 in about 1 and a half hour.

Maybe a matter of experience and/or profession? It can be quite fast, but only if you know what you’re doing. I’ve tried but it can be difficult to really put oneself into the shoes of another when it comes to something like leveling in an MMo. Everyone is different and sees things differently.

(note: not trying to denigrate you in way, shape, or form)

No worries.

It very well could be. Ele was my very first class (which was why I picked it), and its the class I have the most hours clocked. We know QD really well and it’s a snap for us to run that corner and then move on (I have 8 human characters on my account, 1 for each class. I can’t recall how many are human on my husband’s account). Hell I can even tell you exactly which events we encountered and in what order (not exact names, but you get the idea).

There are going to be a lot of factors that contribute to how quickly someone levels. If you don’t have any luck catching events, its going to take a helluva lot longer. I also tend to kill…well, everything. I don’t typically run any boosters, and that would have an affect too. I also know where all the PoIs are, and knew where to look for the Vista. Obviously someone brand new may take a longer, but I don’t think it’d take two hours…unless they are doing something else at the same time and not paying attention to the game.

Still, like I said, I’ll try it with some of the other starter zones, as I’m less familiar with them, and see how long those take.

Wow, you’ve beaten a key farmer who’s struggling to hit level 10 under 30 minutes.
Congratulations.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2g0cx2/key_farming_post_09092014_patch/ckem50d

I hate that I have to go so long doing nothing but pressing “1” and healing. Then bit later I get the priveledge to press “2” every so often. If I were a new player I would think this game too grindy and simple and likely quit.

This works well in China as the Asia market has shown to like grind, but I can’t see this being effective in the western world.

Arikyali.5804:

But what did that translate to? I have to grind hearts and monster kills to unlock skills and armor. No offense, but how is this supposed to be different from every other MMO where you need to do quests to level up? Kill X amount of enemies. Gain exp. Level up. Dynamic events? Nevermind those, they didn’t give me enough exp to level up.

When the game first launched, people complained about not having enough “quests” to level and that the next personal story step was always too high of a level.

When people asked for help, the most common recommendation I saw was to simply do all the starting zones for the hearts. The explorer’s method however was to simply 100% the map while gathering, doing events and the personal story along the way, which was more than enough.

GW2 tried to be different, but it was too much. Hearts and scouts didn’t exist originally, but they found that the average player that had been trained to follow the arrow in other MMOs couldn’t figure out what to do. As a result, they added scouts to direct players towards hearts and hearts to attract players towards events, as well as offering a basic roadmap.

The changes they did with this feature pack basically made it easier for traditional MMO players to transition into the game. Following the quests and unlocking skills as you level is what you’d expect everywhere else, though ArenaNet did go a little overboard with some of the unlocks (for example, skill points – don’t lock them, just hide them like vistas).

I woudnt say grindy.

Carrot-on-a-sticky? Yeah.

The only thing I don’t like about the NPE, are the level locked weapon/F skills, and the out of whack utility skills. The rest I can live with. And find the “n00b” pointer quite handy.

The thing to remember is that it is only carrot on a stick to new players. Vet players can still open those first maps however they want and get into as much trouble over their heads as they’d like. Granted, I am no longer allowed to do my personal story while under leveled so that self imposed challenge I was having fun with is gone, but I’m hopeful they will un-do a chunk of these changes for people with established level 80s.

You are clearly mistaken. Anet does not make grindy games, and that is a direct quote.

the new leveling system is faster AND it rewards you for each level with new equipment, thats less grindy

Arikyali.5804:

To cut Anet some slack, I will admit it’s not that bad. I understand, if someone has never played an MMO before, this new system would be helpful. And I only messed around for about 2 hours on a brand new alt to get to lvl 6. I wasn’t pushing it.

The system removes the confusion of “what to do next?” Fine, that’s great.

But what did that translate to? I have to grind hearts and monster kills to unlock skills and armor. No offense, but how is this supposed to be different from every other MMO where you need to do quests to level up? Kill X amount of enemies. Gain exp. Level up. Dynamic events? Nevermind those, they didn’t give me enough exp to level up.

Um, Anet? You shot yourself in the foot here.

2 hours to get to level 6. wut…? Even the old system didn’t take that long to get to level 6 and that was playing casually. What are you doing, killing ambients to level up?