Guild Wars 2

I just hit level 12 as an elementalist. I’m constantly 2-3 levels below the current quests and I do everything. I even do all events 2-3 times each. I’ve done everything up to the last 2 tasks and 1 remaining skill point in Metrica and I’m at a brick wall. At level 12 all my next quests including the main story line are level 15 or higher and I get straight owned.. If I get 2 mobs I’m dead even spamming all skills and cooldowns.

I’ve scoured the trader for upgrades. I’ve tried stacking +vit, then +power.

It seems like I’ve missed an entire chunk of quests or something but I’ve been consistently 2 levels below the quest level the entire time and the gap has no grown to 3 levels and has me stuck.

have you tried changing attunements?

have you been going for daily achievements? that thing nets you a lot of exp.

leveling speed is kind of out of whack. Especially at the start. Your best bet is to take up crafting and get some levels there but you will probably need to hit up another starter zone to catch up on levels.

Wow taking up crafting is the worst and most boring way to level. Its like saying ‘I hate kicking people in the face, i’ll make a sweater instead’.

Advice? If youre done with Metrica go Into the Mists, through the Asura gate to Lions Arch, over to the Asura gate hub and go to another main city. Explore there for a bit, get all the vistas then head out of the portal into the 1-15 areas each main city has.

http://www.guildhead.com/map will show you all the areas and the levels required to kill there. Also dont be afraid to try content that is 2-4 levels above your level. Its challenging but possible.

Try this…

Go scepter dagger.

It is arguably the EASIEST weapon set to train on as an Ele.

Run around in air attunement. See an an enemy use air 4 skill to hurl yourself at it at lightning speed (no pun intended). Use Air 5 when you come out of the charge (stay next to the enemy when you do)

Switch to earth and hit earth 4, switch to fire and hit fire 2, fire 4 and fire 3 all in rapid succession.

Then try that with a group of 3 or 4 mobs and witness your result.

You will level all too quickly and feel like a champion

Then you can work on other weapons.

Oh, and for heals…if you need them switch to either earth of water (water preferably) when you activate your heal.

There’s no way you can do all events several times, do all the hearts in the starter zone and be only lv12 just no way !

My toon was always 3 lvs to high for the next zone, by the time I got to 80 I had yet to see straits of devastation and my world completion was below 30%

I’d recommend mixing in some WvW and crafting.

OP – I have no idea. I am a lvl 11 Ele and I am always above quest level. Are you exploring the whole area and using the guides who find landscape quests? Or are you just trying to run the main quest line and events and missing local quests?

Latinkuro.9420:

There’s no way you can do all events several times, do all the hearts in the starter zone and be only lv12 just no way !

My toon was always 3 lvs to high for the next zone, by the time I got to 80 I had yet to see straits of devastation and my world completion was below 30%

I’d recommend mixing in some WvW and crafting.

My ranger was level 12 when I got map completion in queensdale.

It’s entirely possible.

/thread

Not sure really. I know on my alts I’ve had more trouble encountering DEs at as much a consistent rate as I did on my first time through. Not finidng these DEs really hurts you exp gain a bit, and definitely your karma gain.

I’d just do what others suggest and go to Lion’s Arch and go to another starting area and do those as well. There are multiples of majority of low level zone areas so if you finish one and under-leveled still you can hop to the next one within that range instead of going to the higher level one.

Crafting does help to fill in some of the blank spots in exp gain, if you want to take up crafting. I wouldn’t waste money on it though, just gather all items you find on map while leveling (this gives you quite a bit of exp too) and then craft/discover stuff in your downtime as you go.

As Ele its quite good to always stay on the move unless you know you can face-tank something. You can cast stuff while moving, so don’t be afraid to kite stuff around in circles. But most stuff has some serious spike damage in melee range.

teviko.6049:

Latinkuro.9420:

There’s no way you can do all events several times, do all the hearts in the starter zone and be only lv12 just no way !

My toon was always 3 lvs to high for the next zone, by the time I got to 80 I had yet to see straits of devastation and my world completion was below 30%

I’d recommend mixing in some WvW and crafting.

My ranger was level 12 when I got map completion in queensdale.

It’s entirely possible.

/thread

Map completion only means you did all the hearts, POI and WP in the map… this is the archaic quest mentality all over again “I have completed the map and still not high level enough QQ” right of course you’re NOT ! hearts are not the main source of XP in the game DE’s are !

You can always go to a different 1-15 area. I’ve had to do this for most characters to avoid grinding.

Leablo.2651:

You can always go to a different 1-15 area. I’ve had to do this for most characters to avoid grinding.

What he said. Don’t stay in Metrica Province. Go Portal to Rata Sum, then portal to Lion’s Arch, then portal to any of the other 1-15 level areas.

You typically want to hold off on personal quests untill you are around the level it sugests. Usualy for an elementalist its best to be 1-2 levels higher, sometime that may mean comming back to an area you have already completed.

Typically doing events or harvesting nodes is a good way for the extra xp.

Though even then as you change areas there is often a slight spike in difficulity facing enemies and doing hearts/skills points, so you may need to rethinkk your tactics too.

A good way to get 7-8 level head start is to explore all the capitals (POI, vistas and WP).
Then if you wanted do 3-4 story line quests that should get you to about level 10 before you even start in a fight zone.

You should always be ahead then, going to new zones.

I found that with all of my characters i had to do multiple zones of the same lvl req. Was ALWAYS under leveled for the next zone, after doing full map completion and personal story quests. For example, i had to do queensdale then part of caledon before i moved on to the next tiered zone.

Crafting also does help a lot, and i mean ALOT. If your gathering most of the nodes you see in each zone you can easily gain a few levels from just crafting with the materials you found.

Other people playing the same game end up many levels above the zones before getting map completion.

If you go from heart to heart, you’ll miss a lot and end up under-leveled. If you go from DE to DE and trigger as many as you find, you’ll be in surplus.

If you prefer going heart to heart, that’s okay. Just do another zone. Or WvW. Or crafting/gathering. And consider adding in dungeons when you get past lvl 29.

Note that story quests can be done with a friend (or 2 or 3 or 4).

If you explore every poi, vista, SP, heart in the zone, DE at least once, do your story mission, craft and gather everything, there’s no reason you should be behind. Gathering and crafting to level is boring if that’s all you do, obviously, but if you’re doing everything else, you should not have a problem.

Latinkuro.9420:

There’s no way you can do all events several times, do all the hearts in the starter zone and be only lv12 just no way !
Map completion only means you did all the hearts, POI and WP in the map… this is the archaic quest mentality all over again “I have completed the map and still not high level enough QQ” right of course you’re NOT ! hearts are not the main source of XP in the game DE’s are !

Problem is the DE’s don’t always start up when they’re supposed to. I know Queensdale like the back of my hand now after spending so much time there on various alts and none of them., not one, has been at the right level for the hearts/events until I’ve been around the whole place a few times. Even if you stick around after an event waiting for subsequent events to fire, they frequently don’t. If you don’t even know those events are there, it’s a pretty sure bet you’re not going to see half of them.

quest/content to exp level flow is very very very stunted in gw2.

despite being sold on the idea that you play your way, it’s very much play anet’s way.

and what does that mean?

you must do 100% map completion(heart’s, poi’s, vistas),
mine every node you come across,
kill every mob you come across,
do every event youc ome across multiple times,
do every zone of every level,
do every single personal story quest,
spend all your money and then buy gems to craft to make up the gaps after doing those things,
and probably also spend time in wvw further making up gaps after the crafting bit.

yes doing all zones for you level range, ping ponging back and forther between them, even extends to starter zones- and that paradigm begins around level 3 or 4.

as well with the lack of population to complete events, let alone proc them at all, you can expect to do even more of the above than what we dealt with in month 1 when the leveling content areas had healthy populations.’

it’s the way the game has been since before BWEs. and unforuntately the game suffers in teh replayability department for it.

no the listed stuff is NOT optional. unless you level completely through wvw and only do any pve at all for bonus exp.

if you were looking for a levelign experience in which you do content as you come across it at your own pace as you wish and simply roamed around exploring the map looking for w/e there is to do and expecting to be at level for it naturally, gw2 is not that game, regardless of the hype. the ship sailed on this in august. there is nothing to argue about here, but people still claim the opposite.

there is no aimless wandering and being at level. simple as that. you must be very concious of where you go when and at what level at ALL times. you must constnatly fill in gaps of pve content with specific activities. you must do everything the game offers to level short of spvp(which gives no wvw/pve exp).

tl;dr – you must do 100% of what the game offers at all times including switchign zones after a half hour to do another zone across the world for a half hour before doing another zone for a half hour before you can continue the first zone. welcome to gw2.

DirtyKlingon, You arn’t playing the same game I am.

It is quiet possible to get to 80 without having 100% world completion. In fact I do not think it’s possible to GET 100% without hitting 80 by the 70% completion mark. I know I hit 80 without stepping foot in Ascalon, without having any crafting profession above 75, and without grinding events. Most of the time i did see an event I did it, but I never hit one of the event zergs in Straits of Devastation or Harithi Hinterlands. Furthermore I rarely stopped to kill mobs unless I had 4 or more chasing me, otherwise I was just wasting my time killing them one at a time.

The trick is to stay in the zones which have the levels that your level is bracketed by. For example, I was leveling my ele this week, i was level 25 right after completing Kessex hills, so i jumped into Brisbane wildlands and completed it. This left me at level 29. At this level i started Gendarran fields until i could go no further, when i was level 31 fighting level 35 mobs, so i went to Lornar’s pass. I stayed in Lornar’s pass till 34, then finished Gendarran Fields, and then ran all 3 paths in AC, getting nearly a level a run (and enough tears that if i keep this up I’ll be able to buy a full set of AC exotics as soon as I hit 80).

Leveling is not hard, if you finish one area and are not quite ready for the next then head to one of the other areas of your level. Every level has at least 3 zones to level in except 25-30 which only has 2 zones to level in.

When I hit 80 I only had 40+% world completion…

OP, do you gather materials? mining/gathering/chopping…those things give you a lot of exp, and you can easily do those while running around.

you two are missing my point but inadvertantly proving it.

in gw2 i cannot play “my way” i must do nearly every “option” to progress, adn even then the flow is stunted in a way that’s reminsicent of aion.

as opposed to wow for example, where i very much can play “my way” – i can level exclusively through dungeons, i can wander aimlessly wander aroudn exploring and doing w/e quests come my way in a manner that flows well. i can jump between zones if i wish, i can stick to one zone completing it fully before moving on, i can go from level x to level y that the zone indicates it’s level range without leaving that zone to go to other zones. i can complete 100% of the content for leveling, and i will be rewarded for doing so.

i cannot do some of those things here. i know i must take time out from questing in queensland within an hour of starting to do some thing else, probably some where else(half a world a way most likely) in order to come back to where i left off.

i must do that on an ongoign basis throught out hte leveling process.

i can’t simply play my way, i can’t wander around aimlessly doing w/e hearts and events come my way to my hearts content as long as i want to.

i will(i have done this many many many times since betas started) run into a point, where i must stop what i am doing, what i want to do, and go do something i am less or not interested in.

my ownmethod is typically to go flip camps yaks and sentries in wvw for a couple hours, or to dump gold in to the same crafts over and over again to get over gaps and hump levels.

it’s really not “play your way” it’s play OUR way or the hit the highway.

and it’s extremely and painfully obviosu with in the first hour spent in queensdale. where you WILL hit hte first gap of many after doing the hearts in the shaemoor fields area. the size of this gap varies based on your luck with events proccing, and on my most recent run there, not a single event procced, leaving me at the largest gap for this stage of character progression i’ve seen yet.

you guys will say “go do another zone” or “go do something else[that you maybe aren’t interested in doing]” “go explore (whichy means go farm the pois and vistas in clearly marked unexplored areas of the map careful not to go into a section which overlelves you to such a degree that you are no longer effective in combat”

right now, as expected since BWE1, it is very tough for a new player in gw2. it’s a very hostile experience because of this stunted lack of flow. it’s abd enough for alt players and rerollers wanting to solo. but at least we have guilds and gold already established and a means to farm more gold on our 80s to get over these gaps.

I hit 80 at 35% world completion lol.

If you are leveling up your crafting as well as questing you should find yourself getting ahead of the level curve if your struggling with it. Also as others have stated, hop into another starter zone to catch up if you are a bit behind. Once out of the early levels you won’t have any trouble at all staying ahead of the zone levels, at least that was my experience

My advice is simple. Slow down.
Explorer the world, try out different weapons, do gathering and crafting, join in some of the bigger events.

Unlike other games you get experience from a lot more than just questing so dont rush from quest to quest trying to speed level. Game life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you are going to miss it.

Latinkuro.9420:

teviko.6049:

Latinkuro.9420:

There’s no way you can do all events several times, do all the hearts in the starter zone and be only lv12 just no way !

My toon was always 3 lvs to high for the next zone, by the time I got to 80 I had yet to see straits of devastation and my world completion was below 30%

I’d recommend mixing in some WvW and crafting.

My ranger was level 12 when I got map completion in queensdale.

It’s entirely possible.

/thread

Map completion only means you did all the hearts, POI and WP in the map… this is the archaic quest mentality all over again “I have completed the map and still not high level enough QQ” right of course you’re NOT ! hearts are not the main source of XP in the game DE’s are !

That wasn’t to point out how to get more exp, but the fact that it is possible to get level 12 and map completion.

Here are some of the things I do… I usually complete a city the first time I come to it. Complete any story quest I can. Complete the zone I’m in. I don’t like crafting, but I still collect resources as I run into them.

Also, most random events you run into that aren’t at hearts lead to event chains. Follow the talking npcs and listen to what they say after the event ends. There has been many times everyone ran off thinking the event was over when really you had to follow the npc to the more epic next phase of the event. Seen some really cool events out hidden away.

If I find myself underleved I will either go search for hidden events, port to another city to get xp from exploring it, or wvwvw until I get a good lead.

dirtyklingon.2918:

as opposed to wow for example, where i very much can play “my way” – i can level exclusively through dungeons, i can wander aimlessly wander aroudn exploring and doing w/e quests come my way in a manner that flows well. i can jump between zones if i wish, i can stick to one zone completing it fully before moving on, i can go from level x to level y that the zone indicates it’s level range without leaving that zone to go to other zones. i can complete 100% of the content for leveling, and i will be rewarded for doing so.

Uh, yeah. Blizzard deliberately started giving out more XP at low levels after they started releasing expansions, because they would raise the level cap and the amount of grind required to max out. The original vanilla WoW was a lot worse about making you travel to different places to take on (non-grind) quests at your level — as low as level 5 or so you would have to start going to other starting areas unless you were grouped or really intent on soloing areas designed for groups. And getting to other zones meant waiting for a zeppelin to take you between capital cities and then waiting for the wyvern ride from the city to the outpost you wanted to reach.

None of the things you describe were possible in WoW prior to the first expansion.