Guild Wars 2

Ok, I’ve run 4 out of the 5 starting zones (I’m currently running through the Human zone, which is the last one, but I haven’t finished it, yet) and I’ve detected a problem.

The Charr Zone is very well balanced. There is a definite set of paths through the zone that can be completed free of the Personal Story without getting overpowered too badly in most locales. I liked it so much I did it with three different alts.

The Asura Zone is also very well balanced. It has a slightly more haphazard path through it and requires a lot of popping around on waypoints, but they’re “Asuran Waypoints” so that really seems to be appropriate. All in all, very well done (except the POI in the Inquest Base, which you can only get to via a portal on the other side of the zone which looks like a zone exit, and might be bypassed by those wanting to
finish the zone in one go without leaving…)

The Norn Zone has an issue. The last three hearts cannot be done without advancing your Personal Story for the much needed boost to XP and level that puts you up to 14 where the 15, 16, and 17 mobs don’t one-hit you. Very annoying that there is a SP, Vista and heart up in that area and the events were spawning like mold in a dank basement when I tried it. Everything I owned was damaged by the time I gated out. Boo hiss. The rest of the zone was awesome!

And then we get to the Sylvari Zone. This one was easily my least favorite, most bland, largest and most empty (content wise, and no, mobs aren’t content, they’re grind-tent). There’s a clear demarkation that might as well be a sign at Disneyworld that says “You must be at least this level to go down this path to the next section of content.” And it didn’t do that just once. No. It does it 4 times! Once at 5th level, once at 8th, 10, and 12th. Oh, and 12th level is all the higher you can get, because not only do the Sylvari quests not go to 14 in their native zone (they only go to 12, and 14 is in the next zone. Why?) unlike EVERY OTHER RACE THUS FAR, but there isn’t enough event/heart XP out there to get you to 13 without doing the Story quests, much less 14, which is what I noted about every other zone in this review. I could even make it to 15 with my Charr.

So what gives? I suppose it could be XP from crafting. My Charr have been fairly prolific crafters, with lots of nice shiny jewelry, deadly weapons, and powerful armor to use, but does it make that big a difference? If so, Cooking sucks. My Sylvari Necro, named after a deadly plant, of course, is also my only Chef, and wow am I not enjoying cooking as much I do Tailoring, Huntman, Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing. The bonuses fromt eh consumables is nice, but you don’t get much for receipes and everything is discovery, which is hard at first because you don’t get much to work with as far as drops of food items, and harvesting only goes so far.

Yes, I know Jeweler also is exclusively Discovery only recipes, maybe more so, but … JEWELRY! Pretty pretties! I mean, what am I here? Aaron Sanchez, Anne Burrell or Guy Fieri? Still, I may have to get another alt to try out the Sylvari zone again for a fair shake.

So far I’m looking at the Human Zone as being much like the Norn Zone. I have yet to hit the high end of the zone, but the low zone is fairly amusing.

I totally disagree about the sylvari zone. My friends and I had done every zone except for caledon forest in the beta, and having played through at release it is by far my favourite zone in the game(metrica province is a close second). The general feeling of my mates was the same, and keep in mind this was with all the bugs/not being able to party going on at the time. I feel this may be a matter of personal preference. The norn zone I also haven’t had any problems with(though I pretty much gather all the things then craft all the things and explore all the things and….) the human zone I found has a problem at lower levels. I got out of the zone with normal levels, but I had to craft to bridge from around 5-7 as there seems to be a jump in level with the second portion of the zone.

I definitely feel the human norn and charr got more attention in design. Sylvari in particular feels thrown together and not as functional. You get fewer dynamic events, it seems, too, which is the big thing that slows leveling in comparison to other zones.

Not entirely sure what you are talking about with the Sylvari starter zone. There are level 15 mobs in it and hearts as well (Wychmire Swamp is full of 14-15 leveled mobs and hearts). It can easily get you to 15. I will agree that the paths for the sylvari, asura and human zones are awkward. If I had to rank them norn and charr have the easiest to follow paths in terms of leveling. It would be nice for newcomers if there was a little bit more direction for those starter zones.

Karthaugh.6532:

I totally disagree about the sylvari zone. My friends and I had done every zone except for caledon forest in the beta, and having played through at release it is by far my favourite zone in the game(metrica province is a close second). The general feeling of my mates was the same, and keep in mind this was with all the bugs/not being able to party going on at the time. I feel this may be a matter of personal preference. The norn zone I also haven’t had any problems with(though I pretty much gather all the things then craft all the things and explore all the things and….) the human zone I found has a problem at lower levels. I got out of the zone with normal levels, but I had to craft to bridge from around 5-7 as there seems to be a jump in level with the second portion of the zone.

I’m not talking about whether or not I liked it (I actually didn’t, but that is neither here nor there). No, I’m referring to the way the zone plays compared to other zones of the same level. The Charr and Norn Zone have great flow, thought he Norn Zone loses some content towards the high end.

The Sylvari Zone, however, misses at several points, and that’s a problem. I ran out of content for level 5 and had to go hit level 7 areas. I hit 8 and needed to jump up to level 10 content, and by the time I was at 10, I had to hit the level 13 areas. I was killing more red coded mobs than I was equal level, and that was a first for me in the game. Poorly planned, poorly executed, and, as someone else pointed out, thrown together and haphazard.

A side note about the Necro pets: They die far too fast. Let’s have a little survivability here. Am I supposed to be summoning them after each fight? They seem weak to me. In the underwater areas I was summoning them again mid-fight because they were being one-shot. What’s up, guys?

For the guy who said he doesn’t know what I mean by a Starter Zone, I’m referring to the level 1-15 zones right outside the racial cities. If you’re new to MMOs, which asking what a Starter Zone is would seem to indicate, there you go. Thus, the Sylvari Starter Zone would be the 1-15 zone directly outside the Grove. Hope that clears it up for you.

Drakkon.4782:

For the guy who said he doesn’t know what I mean by a Starter Zone, I’m referring to the level 1-15 zones right outside the racial cities. If you’re new to MMOs, which asking what a Starter Zone is would seem to indicate, there you go. Thus, the Sylvari Starter Zone would be the 1-15 zone directly outside the Grove. Hope that clears it up for you.

heh, I’m not a guy 1 and 2 I’ve played mmos for the last 6 years…I know what a starter zone is. However, I didn’t understand your problem clearly with it. It’s possible to level 1-15 in the Sylvari start area. You will find yourself in later parts of the game killing mobs that are 2-3 levels higher than you (Level 40 heart will have mobs that are up to 42). So to me that seems pretty normal and easily doable. You can easily do 5 levels above you if you are careful as well. That issue aside are you hitting the events and gathering? Are you sure you aren’t missing parts of the map? I know I missed the swamp first go around. If you are having issues I can understand your frustration sometimes events don’t spawn especially when you need them. I think some zones depend on them more than others such as the human area.

I didn’t have any problems with the Norn starting zone. Didn’t die once. The events, hearts, and other tasks were easy in general.

The Charr starting zone was quite hazardous. There was a little cavern with a skill point inside. It was guarded by fire imps. I nearly died from their fireballs. There was also a very challenging flame effigy event. Anything that has to do with fire is pretty OP in this game.

Interesting that I had the total opposite experience. I loved the Sylvari zone, but I was doing story quests as I levelled, so never had an XP problem. When I tried Charr, though, oh gosh did I hate it.. could never find a heart to do my level and the zone is so huge that I never saw any events but that stupid “harpy attack” one that was always on. Definately my least favorite zone.

fizzypop.6458:

Drakkon.4782:

For the guy who said he doesn’t know what I mean by a Starter Zone, I’m referring to the level 1-15 zones right outside the racial cities. If you’re new to MMOs, which asking what a Starter Zone is would seem to indicate, there you go. Thus, the Sylvari Starter Zone would be the 1-15 zone directly outside the Grove. Hope that clears it up for you.

heh, I’m not a guy 1 and 2 I’ve played mmos for the last 6 years…I know what a starter zone is. However, I didn’t understand your problem clearly with it. It’s possible to level 1-15 in the Sylvari start area. You will find yourself in later parts of the game killing mobs that are 2-3 levels higher than you (Level 40 heart will have mobs that are up to 42). So to me that seems pretty normal and easily doable. You can easily do 5 levels above you if you are careful as well. That issue aside are you hitting the events and gathering? Are you sure you aren’t missing parts of the map? I know I missed the swamp first go around. If you are having issues I can understand your frustration sometimes events don’t spawn especially when you need them. I think some zones depend on them more than others such as the human area.

Well, sorry about the gender confusion. There are no girls on the internet and all that.

Anyway, perhaps I should explain the metrics involved in this study. I play a zone to 100% completion of all hearts, vistas, skill points, etc, as well as personal story quests that play out in the zone or in the capital city. As soon as they leave the zone, the Personal Story quests are done for that zone.

Thus, the Sylvari area only has enough content to get you to level 12-13, not 14-15 as the Norn, Charr and Asura zones do. So far the Human zone is shaping up to have enough content. I’m almost to level 10 there (I work a 40+ hr/wk professional job, so my play time is limited, thus why it is taking me so long to get through all this) and I’m only in the second part of the zone (the areas after the kidnapping section is done. I have yet to get to Beetleburg (or however it is spelled).

I have achieved 100% completion of the Charr, Norn, Asura, and Sylvari starting Zones, as well as Lion’s Arch. Not all on the same alt, mind you, but that’s what I’ll be doing next. By the time I get through all of the Starting Zones on an alt, I expect the characters to be about level 25.

nukularpower.2106:

Interesting that I had the total opposite experience. I loved the Sylvari zone, but I was doing story quests as I levelled, so never had an XP problem. When I tried Charr, though, oh gosh did I hate it.. could never find a heart to do my level and the zone is so huge that I never saw any events but that stupid “harpy attack” one that was always on. Definately my least favorite zone.

I think that people aren’t getting the point of this thread. I’m discussing a empirical study of the zones, based on taking a character from level 1 to wherever they end through their racially appropriate starting zones. This isn’t about what I liked or didn’t like. My opinion of the zones is based exclusively on playability and content viability. It isn’t about what I liked or didn’t like. I might have thrown some of that in there, and for that I apologize for misleading you all. It’s just a discussion about the way the zone levels at the same rate as the characters and whether or not the zone maintains a good pace.

My only problem with the Sylvari zone is that it does not, and that is because it has a haphazard, rushed feel to it. The leveling doesn’t keep pace with the characters, which is upsetting.

If crafting is meant to be part of the leveling experience to complete a zone, then the drops need to be adjusted to provide more mats for Leatherworkers and Tailors, as Cloth and Leather don’t drop often enough off mobs you need to kill to complete hearts.

Oh, and please note that while I did participate in some events, if one wasn’t running in my area, I didn’t wait around for it. I took the position of someone who knows nothing of the game past how to play the character. So if there wasn’t an event, I didn’t act like I knew there was supposed to be one.

Hope that explains things a little better.