Guild Wars 2

Pre level 80 you’re basically playing a tutorial that never seems to end. I decided to make a list of every single drawback that not being level 80 has.

• You’re inferior to every level 80 character in the game, regardless of level scaling.
• You won’t have weapon swapping
• You won’t have slot skills and you won’t be able to equip them
• You won’t have weapon skills unlocked
• You won’t have elite skill
• You won’t have traits and trait points that level 80’s have
• You will have reduced income. What you make in lower levels is significantly less than what fully geared 80’s are making
• Your daily quest rewards are scaled lower because you’re lower level
• You won’t be able to go and experience the higher regions in the world because you die there
• You won’t be a welcome guest to dungeon groups, because you’re inferior
• You will be a low-damage dealing noob that dies in two hits in WvW, good for staying behind repairing walls basically. Take your level 10 character and see how long it takes to even kill those wasps at the start of WvW map.
• Every piece of equipment you get is going to be obsolete in a few levels
• You will have to buy pieces of equipment because the pieces you have will become obsolete

Now for constructive question: what is the best way to level up a new character?

I hate to break it to you, but the the real boredom kicks in at 80. All there is left is gear grinding.

Uh, you unlock weapon swapping at level 7 and you unlock your final utility skill slot at level 30 (elite skill slot). You can have all your weapon skills unlocked by the time you hit level 3 if you are feeling particularly productive.

There is also no need to be able to explore every area right off the bat. Simply by exploring the areas you can explore at your level will cause you to gain levels and thereby unlock the ability to explore the rest of the levels.

Crafting is the fastest way if you have the gold. My last toon went from 60 to 80 in less then an hour.

Other then that just play the game. Group up with some friends and it doesn’t take long at all.

Is this a satirical response to the “Post 80 is Boring” thread?

If you can’t afford crafting, you could always find groups to run Ascalonian Catacombs with post level 35. Probably best to wait until 50 but I’ve noticed a number of groups accepting people who’re 35.

wow. don’t play ele or engineer, you’ll never unlock weapon swapping!

its a game! if you find it boring, go play something else.

Playing the game progression from 1-80 can and should be a very fun part of the game. This is not the traditional MMO, where leveling is just a barrier to “end game”.

I now have six level 80 characters across two accounts and plan to round out a full compliment of 8 level 80s, one of each profession, with in the next two months. I’ve had much fun leveling all of them.

Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with some of your points, because I do. I have started to get a bit impatient to unlock skills and builds with the most recent three characters I’ve leveled to 80. It’s not because I am tired of the game world, I’m not. (I still like to explore all levels of the world with my level 80s). It’s just that I really want to get to the point where I can experiment with and play full builds.

If you really want to “get over the hump” a few times while leveling, and skip ahead to the next gear/trait tipping point, do some crafting. Leveling a crafting profession to 400 will gain you exactly ten levels for your character, though the progress is heavily back loaded to the higher end of the crafting progression.

If you’ve been gathering and saving mats from previous characters, you should have the money and mats to do a fair bit of crafting, with out having to buy all the mats from the TP. There are numerous 1-400 crafting guides online and most crafting professions can be leveled to 400 with somewhere between 4.5 and 8 Gold in mat costs, much, much less if you’ve been gathering and hoarding mats.

If you want to stick to non-crafting pursuits, I still find doing full exploration of game zones, killing mobs, gathering and doing every DE in sight along the way, the be about the most efficient way to level via PvE. I also find it a lot of fun, which is helpful.

roachsrealm.9284:

wow. don’t play ele or engineer, you’ll never unlock weapon swapping!

its a game! if you find it boring, go play something else.

- What if I want to play WvW? Is it reasonable to first having to play PvE for weeks to months before being able to compete?

Zenith.6403:

roachsrealm.9284:

wow. don’t play ele or engineer, you’ll never unlock weapon swapping!

its a game! if you find it boring, go play something else.

- What if I want to play WvW? Is it reasonable to first having to play PvE for weeks to months before being able to compete?

In this game- yes. WvW is treated as PvE. I know it sounds wierd, but none of the PvP rulesets apply to it- whenever a change is made to a class for PvP balancing, it doesn’t take effect in WvW because (for whatever reason) it isn’t actually considered PvP.

That said, WvW is more of a PvE gear-flex than an actual open world PvP battleground. Even when you hit 80, you will still need to get better gear if you want to be on equivalent footing with everyone else. Rares at a minimum, exotics preferable, and ascended gear if you want to guarantee no one has a stat advantage over you.

WvW will always require some PvE to be able to compete, and will require you to continue to PvE to stay on top of everything. Hate to say it, but that’s just how it is. :-\ Your best bet is to become more acquainted with sPvP, which will be closer to what you are aiming for. Smaller scale, but stats don’t factor into victory.

Zenith.6403:

roachsrealm.9284:

wow. don’t play ele or engineer, you’ll never unlock weapon swapping!

its a game! if you find it boring, go play something else.

- What if I want to play WvW? Is it reasonable to first having to play PvE for weeks to months before being able to compete?

you want fair chances with lvl 1 char vs lvl 80 full equipment in wvwvw ?
then why would you lvl up to lvl 2?
if you don’t want to grind for 2 weeks for full exotics buy 3000 gems = 60 gold, spent 30 to lvl 80 with crafting and 30 more for full equip
milions of players lvled up, i don’t feel so special

Zenith.6403:

roachsrealm.9284:

wow. don’t play ele or engineer, you’ll never unlock weapon swapping!

its a game! if you find it boring, go play something else.

- What if I want to play WvW? Is it reasonable to first having to play PvE for weeks to months before being able to compete?

hate to break it to you but WvW IS PvE
and just lvl in wvw you cheaps skate.
besides everything you mention has nothing do with pre 80’s
as a lvl 30 has everything you mentioned and isn’t 80

I agree with the title of this thread. For me the real game begins at 80 (in WvW) where you have no restrictions and do the most with build variations, weapon/armour equipping etc. I wouldn’t wan’t to change the rate at which we level in PvE (I think it works well), just in WvW, it’s too hard to gain xp as a low level character in WvW so I feel as though we’re forced to PvE so we can play WvW. My level 80 can gain several levels a night but my level 10 can spend a day or two without levelling because the low level player can’t contribute to the fight like the level 80 can.

On a side note, my level 10 warrior finally got it’s first outright kill in WvW last night, imagine the shame if they guy knew… :P

And if anyone says to me l2p please give this crappy player some advice as well.

First we had Build Wars, now we have Grind Wars 2. Not sure why they changed it.

Yea, if you think pre-80 is boring, you ain’t seen nothin yet.

What the person above me said. can’t echo it enough.

I just did a test how much worse off my level 4 Thief is compared to my level 80 Ranger in WvW. Both classes have underwater spear weapon. My Thief took 47 hits to kill a marsh drake, while my Ranger took only 17 to kill the same marsh drake (without pet support). I just had the basic traits and did simple autoattacks.

So much for having level playing field.

NetherDiver.6079:

Is this a satirical response to the “Post 80 is Boring” thread?

This?

NetherDiver.6079:

Is this a satirical response to the “Post 80 is Boring” thread?

+1 :P

Pre-80 is boring, post 80 is boring, I’m bored, things are too hard, things are too easy. 90% of threads just summed up. If only we could hand out chocolate to all the complainers one by one. Every time they complain they get some chocolate. Then when your out and about and see some 400 pound kid, you can think to yourself “Ah, I’ve probably seen him on forums.”

Zenith.6403:

Pre level 80 you’re basically playing a tutorial that never seems to end. I decided to make a list of every single drawback that not being level 80 has.

• You’re inferior to every level 80 character in the game, regardless of level scaling.
  Your low level is inferior to a high level..go figure
• You won’t have weapon swapping
  Until….level 7?
• You won’t have slot skills and you won’t be able to equip them
  Um.. you earn them by skill point spots and leveling
• You won’t have weapon skills unlocked
  I’m seeing a trend here.. yes teh answer to all this is yes you have to do “work”- 20 minutes
• You won’t have elite skill
  Until level 30…
• You won’t have traits and trait points that level 80’s have
  No you do not start the game with everything someone worked hard to get at 80 >.>
• You will have reduced income. What you make in lower levels is significantly less than what fully geared 80’s are making
  Yes again, except lower levels have a higher chance of rares..
• Your daily quest rewards are scaled lower because you’re lower level
  Easier, work vs reward
• You won’t be able to go and experience the higher regions in the world because you die there
  Because……. your low level holy kitten.. theme is really goen on
• You won’t be a welcome guest to dungeon groups, because you’re inferior
  Because your new, get a guild, learn
• You will be a low-damage dealing noob that dies in two hits in WvW, good for
  staying behind repairing walls basically. Take your level 10 character and see how long it takes to even kill those wasps at the start of WvW map.
  You get capped to a level 80…
• Every piece of equipment you get is going to be obsolete in a few levels
  This is a plus, means your saving money for 80 exotics
• You will have to buy pieces of equipment because the pieces you have will become obsolete
  you have to support an economy… I feel like theres a “In soviet Russia..” joke here..

Now for constructive question: what is the best way to level up a new character?

10,000 kittens and a hamster.

Story, hearts, dungeons, meta events, explore, wvw, crafting, dailys, monthlys, living story.

Zenith.6403:

I just did a test how much worse off my level 4 Thief is compared to my level 80 Ranger in WvW. Both classes have underwater spear weapon. My Thief took 47 hits to kill a marsh drake, while my Ranger took only 17 to kill the same marsh drake (without pet support). I just had the basic traits and did simple autoattacks.

So much for having level playing field.

You lack the traits of the 80, it caps your level and gives you 80 stats, it is not SPVP where you are the literal equivalent of an 80 player with all traits. I had 6 kills at level 7 on my ranger in WvW.

Um
I found pre lvl 80 a thousand times more fun than post 80…and i’ve done it 9 times now..

I love pre-80. My problem is that the personal story isn’t so personal anymore past the Claw Island part. Frak Trahearne and his scholarly shotty attitude, I hate him!!!

So, pre-50 is fun, 50-80 is crap and boring, post-80 is fun again.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

I love pre-80. My problem is that the personal story isn’t so personal anymore past the Claw Island part. Frak Trahearne and his scholarly shotty attitude, I hate him!!!

So, pre-50 is fun, 50-80 is crap and boring, post-80 is fun again.

Post 80 is boring- Add a “Kill Trahearne” quest-Solved.
Pre 80 is boring- Require players to hold breath until they reach next level. By the time they hit 70 they will either be an expert deep sea diver, or in a coma. -Solved

Geotherma.2395:

Gallrvaghn.4921:

I love pre-80. My problem is that the personal story isn’t so personal anymore past the Claw Island part. Frak Trahearne and his scholarly shotty attitude, I hate him!!!

So, pre-50 is fun, 50-80 is crap and boring, post-80 is fun again.

Post 80 is boring- Add a “Kill Trahearne” quest-Solved.
Pre 80 is boring- Require players to hold breath until they reach next level. By the time they hit 70 they will either be an expert deep sea diver, or in a coma. -Solved

I would love the “Kill Trahearne” quest!!

If you thought pre 80 was boring, your in for a shock post 80.

For those of you who are saying “wait until level 80 to see boring” I have two level 80 characters already and neither of them are boring to play. You can go back to the fun pre-80 content and finish it without the restraints I listed in the opening post. These restraints are the focus of my criticism here.

Power difference between 80 and pre-80 characters is massive. Why does it need to even exist? Exotic vs. ascended difference is small compared to this. The level system is effectively locking away content that was supposed to be made equal with level scaling system (including WvW battles) and the difference is only getting bigger as new stronger items are introduced. This means that the time commitment between level 1 and full powered character is only getting longer. Of course this is not a problem for the guys who are content to playing only a single profession out of the 8 that this game offers.

From design point of view, it’s a huge waste to have all these pre-80 crafting materials, foods and other items that everyone wants to get off their inventory once they are no longer relevant. I can imagine future content updates will follow either level 80 zone format or possibly even raise the level cap. Pre-80 is to be declared extended tutorial and left at that.