Shall I use the lvl 80 boost now?
the best thing you can do right now is first play around with all the professions, if you don’t like a certain profession and you used the booster you’re stuck with it and no rerolls.
better test it before you regret it.
I would strongly suggest you level at least one character normally to L80 if you are interested in endgame.
You can do the Personal Story at any time, depending on level, and all other Stories anytime after L80, as long as you have them unlocked. You can do Dungeons starting with the first Dungeon at L30.
You get exotic armor which is fine for a new player.
Welcome to Tyria, and good luck.
Most of the veterans would say to wait on that 80 boost. Diving right into Heart of Thorns content will likely be intimidating, so getting the basics down will help. If you’re coming from another MMO, it might be less of a shock, but the expansion content has a habit of being a bit unforgiving.
Also, there’s a huge world to explore even before then!
The old main-line story quests will still be available. You can access them from the Story tab (I think that’s what it’s called, the star thingie) in your Hero panel.
The armor from the boost is primarily defensive. It helps you survive a bit, but it will skew your perception of damage in game. If I recall right, it’s Precision (crit rate), Toughness (armor), and Vitality (HP). You’ll want Power and/or Condition Damage on your gear as you grow out of it. A good portion of the stat combos are available through the Trading Post.
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
I am relatively new as well (1-2 months) and i allready deleted the character that i used my boost on. It was a Guardian and as turned out i hate the playstyle of Guardians. Though unfamiliarity with the class/profession might have something to do with it.
So now i have 2 other 80’s that i leveled myself and i enjoy those a whole lot more. I am also much more at ease with the mechanics because i ‘grew’ them myself.
My advice would be to use it on a character that you have leveled to at least 30 so that you have a better feel of the profession.
Also, i don’t know what is considered to be ‘endgame’ in this game as it is already quite engaging at the very low levels and i don’t seem to be doing much different on my lvl. 80 characters.
So best enjoy the leveling process and save that gem for when you are absolutely sure of when to use it. Asking on the forum is a sure sign you need much more hands-on experience
Just use it. It’s possible you might not like the profession at 80, but you won’t know that until you get there and the same will be true for any other profession. People have 20/20 hindsight and don’t remember that they had to take a risk no matter what.
I would go ahead and use it. You get really nice armor, trinkets and weapons for a Reaper with Rabid stats: Condition Damage, Precision, Toughness. The upgrade slots are filled with other condition boosting items. They really did a decent job with the selection. It’s a shame that these items cannot be used in the forge or stripped off or salvaged. I destroyed all of them after gearing up my Reaper. But you can safely play with this setup and do well.
The game is much more fun after level 80, when you can get gliding. I went ahead and started the HoT episode for gliding just for that, then went back to the main story line.
I don’t understand the logic behind levelling a character first because you cannot reroll a boosted one. You also cannot reroll a manually levelled character either. If you first use the booster and don’t like the class, you level another class to 80. If you level a class to 80 and then don’t like it, you can use the booster. In any case, you have levelled one character and used the booster for another, just in different order.
If you use the booster first, and then don’t like the class, you can at least get access to fun masteries like gliding, and then enjoy levelling another class more. Also, you can get gold more easily using a maxed out character, which makes getting stuff for the character you are levelling more convenient.
As for learning the game, you can do that with a level 80 character just as while levelling. You’ll explore and do hearts and events anyway, if not for fun, then for hero points.
You do not lose anything by using it except for the natural progression through the game.
You will also hit multiple brick walls in terms of difficulty (vanilla Orr areas and especially all the expansion HoT zones).
A significant part of the challenge from the vanilla areas (which already is not that high) will make for potentially boring gameplay.
You will have no idea of how your class works, though having access to all traits and skills might be more fun for mix and matching.
Personally I’d recommend wait and play at least 1-2 clases to 60 or even 80 just so you can get an overview of how the game works and especially what classes are good where.
If you absolutely can’t wait, definately try out multiple classes in the trial area before unlocking one for the 80 boost.
Rather sooner than later you swim in Tome’s of Knowledge (and Birthday lvlup 20-40 lvl so far), allowing you to be 80 with as many chars you are willing to buy slots for. So use your lvl-80-boost now, before you don’t need it anymore.
PS: And nothing hinders you to explore the world and story with a lvl 80. I even like that more, as I don’t like that during lvling I need new clothes and weapons every half an hour
(edited by Dayra.7405)
Unless it’s changed since I used mine, the level 80 HoT boost lets you test-drive it (only on the Dry Top map) on any character you have along with the gear and traits (auto-selected, I think). This might be a good opportunity to check out the assorted professions at level 80 in a PvE environment at your leisure.
PvP/WvW temporarily upgrades you to level 80 without the boost, which is another means of experimentation and a good way to earn XP from what I hear.
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Unless it’s changed since I used mine, the level 80 HoT boost lets you test-drive it (only on the Dry Top map) on any character you have along with the gear and traits (auto-selected, I think). This might be a good opportunity to check out the assorted professions at level 80 in a PvE environment at your leisure.
PvP/WvW temporarily upgrades you to level 80 without the boost, which is another means of experimentation and a good way to earn XP from what I hear.
Silverwastes map, but yeah, I remember that now! You can reject the upgrade and keep your previous character.
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
Try test driving different characters in Silverwastes with the level 80 boosts, while also spending some time leveling them manually. You may find a class you enjoy at 80 that is sort of tedious at 34 (eg Mesmer).
The boost gives you armor, some buffs, 4 15 slot bags, and…doesn’t it also give a scroll to level someone up to 20? I seem to recall it must reside in the shared inventory slot until use, but could be mistaken. There are advantages to using it sooner.