Guild Wars 2

I’m not fond of the term “organic”, so there’s that.

Anyway… With my previous characters I have used the trading post exclusively to gear up as I leveled. So with my first Guardian (an Asura) I decided to only use dropped gear.

At level 58 this have left me with mix of different level armor and weapons, random sigils and an abhorrent mix of runes. It’s more of a challenge but ultimately more entertaining since I can’t lean on my gear. As better weapons drop I have to learn them, whether I like them or not, in order to survive. Also, since it takes longer to level I find I am enjoying the sights, sounds (dare I say smells?) of Tyria all the more. I know, I could get gear from crafting, but it’s not my thing.

If you haven’t level this way I recommend it, but then it may be that everyone but me already does this.

Anyone else find it more enjoyable to level “organically” (I’m grimaced as I typed that word.)

DedTreeJig

It is fun. Once. After that just tome up and head to the TP.

I’ve always been a fan of crafting while I leveled. It gave me a sense of commitment, I guess. Shame that there isn’t an MMO I’ve run into that made that worthwhile. :\

And now I have so many tomes, it’s kinda silly to even walk around a capital city before I hit 80.

DeadTreeJig.6714:

Anyone else find it more enjoyable to level “organically” (I’m grimaced as I typed that word.)

It’s a common challenge in video games, sometimes called, “Living Off the Land” or “Lost & Found Gearing.” It’s often done in conjunction with Iron Man (if you die, you have to re-roll and start over).

I haven’t done it in GW1 or 2, because I’m more a fan of leveling my personal skills with a maxed out character than in game’s artificially imposed leveling process. I see why others like it; it’s just not for me.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

…sometimes called, "Living Off the Land.

Much better label than organic leveling.

Rauderi.8706:

And now I have so many tomes, it’s kinda silly to even walk around a capital city before I hit 80.

I have them stacked up in the bank as well. My twin daughters play, one of them just hit level 16 with a Mesmer (they only play for an hour on the weekends) and was fired up to go into a Kessex Hills near Ft Salma (level 23ish if you haven’t been there in a while). I couldn’t talk her out of it so I rolled a new Ranger and tome’d him up to keep her alive.

Heh, I’ve never geared a levelling toon any other way. Although every fresh 80 goes on a TP spree.

I guess I must be odd, but I’ve always levelled like this. I never gear anyone properly until they’re 80. until then they get whatever drops as long as its better than what they had before.

I seriously enjoy it. every single time

Eh … I did one where I just used whatever the level up rewards gave to see how things would work. It worked fine but I don’t see anything special about the attempt at being a snowflake.

The free gear you get from leveling does fine. You might not be the most powerful or the prettiest but so long as you don’t Leroy yourself in to a mob above your current level you shouldn’t have any problem getting to 80 without going down.

I always level my permanent characters by actually playing them. I only use tomes and scrolls on temporary characters I make to fulfil 1 purpose and delete (at the moment this is usually playing story instances my permanent characters didn’t do).

This is partially because I think if I’m planning to play them long-term I should be prepared to play them at least enough to level up, and partially just because I actually like open-world PvE so I enjoy getting to re-play it.

Regardless of how I’m levelling them I never buy equipment from the TP until the character is level 80 (and even then I’m more likely to get it from vendors in-game or craft it myself). Buying it from the TP seems like a waste of money when perfectly good equipment comes free and I’m going to out-level it soon. No you won’t have a matching set or full runes/sigils, but you don’t need them either if you’re just doing PvE.

Only equipping what’s provided to you is standard, since simply questing through the game is how most MMOs are played. Unlike other MMOs however, GW2 doesn’t reliably provide you with gear, so anyone playing normally and sticking to equal or higher level areas ends up playing on hard mode.

Gee, I’ve never purchased Gear from the TP, except for an occasional weapon (for the) skin that seemed cool, but not too expensive.

My characters wear what’s dropped for them, or with Ascended Armor and Weapons, what I have crafted, or earned in-game with a quest/story/etc.

It just feels like cheating, to me, to purchase from the TP, for almost anything. I’d doubt I’ve made more than 20 or so purchases from the TP since launch.

I know, I’m odd.

It seems more than I thought level up this way. Since I am enjoying it I will likely do the same for the classes I have yet to play. I think a thief is next on the list.