Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, my friends and I have been trying to play GW2 for a while now and never seem to be a high enough level to move on to the next area safely even though we have just completed the previous one; we have also tried crafting. What do you guys do to level? Do we have to do more than just area events and the map’s hearts? Would getting everything on the map level us up to where we need to be?

Still kind of new to the game

All replies are appreciated

I’m a special sort of person when it comes to doing an area. As in slightly OCD special. I’ll clear an area by doing map completion, and maybe stick around for some event chains I really like if there’s enough people doing them.

I recommend gathering from every node you find, never passing on an event if you can finish it, and if you have any XP boosters then you should use them. (Seriously, there seems to be a lot of them from Black Lion Chests.)

If you do map completion for all of the starter areas before moving to other areas, you should be max level for most of the maps when you do them.

Ayrilana.1396:

If you do map completion for all of the starter areas before moving to other areas, you should be max level for most of the maps when you do them.

Also useful to note. Me? I was a ranger main so I spent a lot of time tracking down the various pets which meant I spent a lot of time in places just meandering.

jctp.9170:

Hi guys, my friends and I have been trying to play GW2 for a while now and never seem to be a high enough level to move on to the next area safely even though we have just completed the previous one

It seems like you stick to your “homelands” (which race did you guys pick?).

Go to your city and find the pink portal. If you enter it, it will take you to Lion’s arch, which then also has portals to the other 4 “racial capital cities”. From there you will reach 4 more low level maps, all with hearts and points of interests and vistas and what not.

Generally, the quickest way to level is partaking in dynamic events, although map exploration/completing (including the cities!) adds a nice fat bonus.

And one more addendum – Daily Achievements can be a nice fat bonus if you bother with them too.

when you do
1. map complete all citys
2. map compelte all start areas
than you are like lvl 30-35 and can go to complete all the lvl 15 areas and you even have the story you can do

And doing the personal story as you level.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

And one more addendum – Daily Achievements can be a nice fat bonus if you bother with them too.

Yep, I just came back to add that to my post; now I don’t have to.

Another thing is that there’s hardly anything in GW2 that doesn’t give you xp. Are you gathering materials (wood, ore, vegetables) and reviving NPCs? That can also give you a nice head start in the early levels. But generally, dynamic events and daily achievements are the most efficient.

I have one more advice: for many players (me included) exploration is/was the favorite aspect of GW2. Don’t be in such a hurry to level and see all the maps. Take your time to take in the sights and marvel at the first impressions. Listen to the NPCs It’s all stuff that you can only do once for the first time, and I’m glad I took my sweet time with it.

Always do the various daily achievements, always do events even if you’ve done them before, and gather everything. That’s a good start.

Events were meant to be repeated.

Use consumables for 10% bonus XP.

Here’s a tip to level up if things come worse. Just do your story quest up to the level 10 one, until you get a Black Loin Chest Key.. once you get that store in in your bank and delete the character you were just on (be sure to save your gear you used to do this with). I recommend getting a full suit of lvl 0 gear, gems upgrades n all.. mostly in power to get the job done faster. The idea here is to farm keys.. to open chests.. which those chests can give Tome of Knowledge .. which grant you 1 full level. I went from 51 to 80 within a few mins lol, but that was a lot of chests.

A.k.a. The least fun way to level up ever. Why would you send a newbie through the repetitive and dreary hell of key-farming? They have so many awesome things to discover. Next you’ll send them on the champ train.

I think a lot of people just starting the game face this issue, usually it’s because they are missing out on one or more activities:

• Personal Story – are you doing this at your current level? This is by far the biggest source of experience at lower levels.
• Dailies – are you completing your daily achievements? Although it might seem a little grindy, it’s an excellent source of experience.
• Crafting – are you discovering recipes? The biggest source of experience gained from crafting is by discovering new recipes in the discovery panel. Repeating actions don’t gain anywhere near as much experience as doing something for the first time.
• Events – are you getting stuck into every event you see in the world? Dynamic events are a great source of experience (much better than just killing mobs) and are even quite fun.
• Random – are you gathering everything? Reviving everyone? Exploring everywhere? GW2 rewards activities with experience that other games don’t. Chop drown every tree, mine every node, gather every plant, rez every guard … it all adds up.

You’ll be surprised how quickly your playing style adjusts to the GW2 way of doing things and I can assure you that any characters you make after the first will not have the slightest bit of trouble levelling. It’s just that the things you do to level in other games (eg. kill mobs, do quests (renown hearts in GW2), repeat recipes in crafting) don’t work as efficient sources of experience in GW2.

If you just want to level up you could just do EoTM… I wouldn’t recommend it for newer players because you don’t see the world but you can do 30/40 levels a day on the weekend(or during the week if you don’t have a job i guess…)

I’ve never found map completion very rewarding or fast for what you put in. Dynamic events and Etom are best ways of leveling.

How I usually start leveling up:

Complete the starter map for your race. That means visit every point if interest (POI), every way point (WP), view every vista, complete every heart. Completing a map gives a reward chest and an XP bonus, etc. Along the way participate in dynamic events, which will often contribute toward the nearby heart. Gather from every node.

Complete your race’s city – POIs, WPs and vistas.

Go to Lion’s Arch (LA) by way of the Asura gate. Complete LA – POIs, WPs and vistas. Do the 3 jumping puzzles in LA if that interests you. There are treasure chests to open at the end of each.

Then go on to complete all the races’ cities or go do one of their starting area or go the the second area for your race.

Some of the rewards from completing a map include XP boosts use them.

New players: easiest way to level up is to focus on map completion for whatever zone you are in. Hit every event as it comes up, even if you’ve done it before, do every heart, get every point of interest, skill point, etc.

You will level up quickly. And remember, there is more than one 1-15 zone. If you complete your race’s starter zone and are only 13-14, then go to your main city, then go to Lion’s Arch, then the gate hub to travel to a different race’s capitol and then go to their 1-15 zone.

The absolute fastest way to level would be EoTM train, but that’s something I would recommend for your 2nd character or later, not your first.

Always eat Food and use a sharpening stone/Oil/crystal

Gives a % boost to XP and also helps kill a little faster. You can make your own if you are into crafting or the cheapest ones only cost a few copper on the TP.

Once you get to level 35 use the LFG tool to find a party doing Ascalonian Catacombs path 1. There is almost always someone selling path 1 completion for c. 1.5g. Once per day the dungeon rewards you c. 1.7g, 60 Tears and 70% experience to next level; as such for 2-3 mins waiting you will gain almost a full level with no cost.

This is the advice I give new players in my guild:

Exploring is the best way to get experience for new characters because of the synergy involved. Killing that mob at an event in a new area likely gets you experience for the following:
1) The mob itself. Events also likely have more mobs spawning.
2) The event that spawned the mob.
3) The heart where the event is located. Often, doing an event at a renown heart will also complete the heart.
4) Any applicable dailies (Daily Kills, Daily Events).
That’s four potential experience sources from one kill.

In addition, you get the exploration experience for finding new POIs, Vistas, and WPs, as well as miscellaneous XP for gathering, rezzing, etc. You also get a surprising number of easier Skill Points.

Finally, I also recommend newer players choose lower level areas rather than trying to push into higher level areas. I watched one new player consistently play in areas he was underleveled for, despite advice to the contrary, thinking he was getting more XP. It might be worth a bit more XP for the kill, but he was getting less XP overall because it took him so long to kill things, when they weren’t killing him, and he constantly needed to be rezzed.

Once you have a character or two that’s been through the process and a decent bank of money and gathered materials, then crafting for XP and other methods begin to make more sense.

Neko Dudley.2495:

Use consumables for 10% bonus XP.

There are the Halloween foods for 15% exp.

Do dungeons, complete events, 100% maps, etc. and you ought to be in good shape.

Lots of good advice, and I totally agree with Pixelpumpkin. The first time thru the map is the best, talking to NPC’s who may lead you to something else to do and will give interesting info on Tyria. Map completion in various areas, cities as well, will give some good loot including transmutation charges that you can use on your armor and weapons.
About the only thing I can add is if you’re stumped on getting a certain vista or point of interest along the way. You Tube can be your best friend. Search for say “GW2 Divinity’s Reach Map Completion” or vistas, poi and there are many guides to show you how to get them.

jctp.9170:

Hi guys, my friends and I have been trying to play GW2 for a while now and never seem to be a high enough level to move on to the next area safely even though we have just completed the previous one; we have also tried crafting. What do you guys do to level? Do we have to do more than just area events and the map’s hearts? Would getting everything on the map level us up to where we need to be?

Still kind of new to the game

All replies are appreciated

Simplest way to level, do map completion. Remember there are several starter areas, so when you’re done with the one go to the other. When you’re around level 60 start doing your Personal Story, that should carrying you all the way to level 80.
Of course this is a bit grindy and boring (I have I leveled most of my alts like this), so I’d rather advise you to take your time, explore the world a bit don’t rushing from heart to heart etc. Since you down-scale you’ll never not get experience from events or mobs.

Ayrilana.1396:

And doing the personal story as you level.

I personally, on my main, used personal story more of a direction as to which area I went to next. The experience is good though, a personal story mission can give you around half the experience needed to level (if I recall).

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

A.k.a. The least fun way to level up ever. Why would you send a newbie through the repetitive and dreary hell of key-farming? They have so many awesome things to discover. Next you’ll send them on the champ train.

Yeah, don’t farm or grind all you’ll do is learn to resent the game (since that’s completely not fun). Besides there’s no real end-game end-game in GW2, so there’s no reason to rush to 80 (other than opening new zones and new PS instances or doing the new LW content).

Mea.5491:

EotM. Always EotM. :P I leveled up 5 times with hearts and random events… Then I tried EotM… I am still kicking myself for not trying it earlier! -_-

EoTM is a massive event grind so it’s effective, but boring! You run in circles in a giant zerg doing the same events over and over.

Morsus.5106:

Do dungeons, complete events, 100% maps, etc. and you ought to be in good shape.

Dungeons aren’t bad, but they unlock only much later on. Still a single dungeon run can give you a pretty big chunk of a level.

dkspins.4670:

Lots of good advice, and I totally agree with Pixelpumpkin. The first time thru the map is the best, talking to NPC’s who may lead you to something else to do and will give interesting info on Tyria. Map completion in various areas, cities as well, will give some good loot including transmutation charges that you can use on your armor and weapons.
About the only thing I can add is if you’re stumped on getting a certain vista or point of interest along the way. You Tube can be your best friend. Search for say “GW2 Divinity’s Reach Map Completion” or vistas, poi and there are many guides to show you how to get them.

Another reason to do Renown Hearts, especially the first time through the game, is that the NPCs are trying to teach you something, so they are good places to spend a little extra time. Rezzing people, combat skills like dodging, blocking and AoE attacks, stealth, various types of weapons; all good things to learn.

If you are stumped about a Vista or POI, the best bet is to ask politely in Map Chat. Also, “/wiki [whatever]” can also be your friend.

There have been a lot of different replies in here, some more helpful than others. I’ll summarize it for you so you don’t get lost:

Leveling your first character to 80

• Completing maps in starter cities: Explore your own “racial capital”, and then, through the use of pink asura portals, explore Lion’s Arch and the other cities as well. You get xp for points of interests, vistas and waypoints. They will also give you access to the 4 other starter areas.
• Explore more than one starter area (that is the level 5 -15 maps)
• Dynamic events grant the most xp, partake in them at every chance you get
• Exploration for the first time is the most fun, enjoy it while it lasts and try not to rush yourself too much
• Keep an eye on daily achievements for daily xp bonuses
• Do the “personal story” together with your friends, along the way whenever you hit the suggested level for a chapter
• Get map-appropriate gathering tools and gather the wood, ore and vegetables you encounter.
• Craft
• Revive players and NPCs
• Run with your friends, you can also team up with other players you encounter. It makes everything much easier then when you run solo!
• Eat food / drink potions for bonus xp.

Leveling further characters (‘alts’) to 80

• Edge of the Mists (EotM): this is a variant of World vs. World, which means you’ll fight other players. It is more hostile and your well-being will depend more on wearing suitable armor and weapons, as well as running in a sizable zerg. If you’re in a zerg, it is one of the more efficient ways to level up, but it isn’t something you can (efficiently) do casually on your own or just with your friend, especially when you’re new to the game.
• Normal World vs. World: see EotM, just slower leveling. Some people love it, some people hate it; It’s not something I personally would have liked to do in my first few months of GW2.
• “Champion trains”: champions are tougher to beat versions of the enemies you encounter in open world. Some “trains” (zergs) move through a map from champ to champ to champ (knowing their spawning locations) and beat the same ones over and over. It is good xp and loot, but very very repetitive, not to mention stressful for new players who don’t know the chat abbreviations and may have trouble to keep up the speed of jumping all over the map.
• Dungeons: Are a lot harder than open world maps, and require a bit of experience and some guidance. Don’t tackle them too early on or be prepared to be put in your place and be frustrated. Later on, team up with some people who know the dungeons well.
• Fractals: same as dungeons, with the potential to be even harder. Best to leave them for later.
• PvP: players fight each other in groups of 5 (sometimes up to 8) people for “capture the flag” type matches that last 5-15 minutes. Try it, it might be your thing. You will win “PvP xp” which is called rank points, and every so many rank points the game rewards you with an item to level up your character. If you love it, go for it. If not, leave it for later.
• Key farming: This means creating throwaway characters and replaying the personal story to level 10, collecting and keeping the rewards to use on your main character. generally seen as a hellish grind and a surefire way to lose interest in GW2 early on. You can always do this after 2 years when you’re bored with the rest of GW2 like us.

This is a post from another user named “Strongfort” on the exact same issue.

The hearts are really more of a guide for where to be, and what level that surrounding area is. Doing just those will only give you a small amount of XP. Dynamic events are the main method, but if you only do those 2 things you will still be behind. The game is all about exploring, and they reward you for it.

Here’s my list of XP outlets in the game:

Renowned Hearts - The heart quests, really meant to show you where to go. These are only a fraction of your leveling XP.

Dynamic Events - Dynamic Events are the meat and potatoes of the questing. These are the replacement to traditional quest you get from NPCs. They happen on their own throughout the world and you can particiapte if you like, or keep walking. These start on their own without your interaction and are a good portion of your leveling XP.

Triggered Dynamic Events - Explore everywhere, the game rewards random exploration, chances are that cave over there will start an event when you get close! Listen for NPCs talking about stuff – they are often referring to events, or secrets.
Points of Interest/Vistas – Grab these around the world, you get XP for them, and finishing an entire zone’s collectibles will give you great rewards.

Story Line - Do your story line when you’re an appropriate level for it.

Gathering - Get the 3 gathering tools from a vendor and loot all plants/trees/ores you see as you get lots of XP from that!

Crafting - Crafting gives XP as you create stuff, and a good amount too. Approximately 1 level for every 4 PvE levels (if you craft throughout leveling)

Daily Achievement - If you check your achievements tab you’ll see that there’s a list of objectives for a daily goal. Completing this will give you a chest with XP, Money, and maybe an item. Repeatable each day.

WvW - The World Vs. World PvP can be accessed even at level 1. Everything you do there counts towards your PvE character. You’ll get XP, Karma, Gold, even Items!