Guild Wars 2

So I recently bought it due to sales but I’m no stranger to MMORPGs.

I played to level 8 and realized I’m not exactly allowed to explore because if there are no quest there I have no reason to kill anything in that area. Due to enemies giving me a fraction of the EXP to that of a quest does.

Why would you do it this way? You got a gigantic world but the moment you run out of quest you have no reason to stay in the area. It’s bad gameplay design and puts you in a linear path through the entire world.

MMORPG are not supposed to be linear. Also can I even spec into new and unique combat skills? So far I haven’t gotten any stat points or skill points.
Gears are the boring progressive type which most MMORPG use.

So tell me what actual GOOD stuff does this game offer? No PvP and Clan wars are boring for me.

Are there cards/runes/items that can boost your power on a weapon greatly when you imbue them into weapons?
I’m not talking petty 1% or 5%, I’m actually talking about 20% or more where it actually makes a difference.

Can I actually put out a stat point to build my character in my own way?

Can you level up on monsters alone without the help of quest? As in, is it actually worth it or should one just go for boring quests?

Does Ranger have AoE skills in some manner?

I ask because all I’ve seen is a painfully average Korean MMORPG.

By quests I’m guessing you mean the Hearts?

Them Hearts are not the only source of EXP on the map:

• Dynamic Events
• Other Map Completion elements – Skill Point Challenges, Vista’s and Points of Interest
• Gathering

As for character building, one of the updates spread out certain elements quite far.

• Level 15 opens up weapon swapping
• Levels 13, 17 and 19 unlock your 1st, 2nd and 3rd utility slots respectively.
• Level 30 unlocks traits

There are two main upgrades to gear:

• Weapons get Sigils
• Armour gets Runes

There are events in every single map. The vast majority of them also have Hearts. Both which give large amount of XP.

-They redid the leveling up in this game, for the most part you have very limited everything until you are 80. (traits at 30) Quests are the fastest way to level up, simply killing mobs doesn’t do all that much. Though there are many low level areas you can explore/do hearts in. (asura, charr, human) plenty to do and explore.
-I would suggest using sigil of bloodlust (works wonders at low lvls)

you wont be able to not level up enough before you finished every heartquest
(you will be higher level than necessary if you do every heartquest in the other races starterzones too actually…)

And in addition to the Heartquests you will do tons of dynamic events while exploring the zones which should definitly be enough
And these dynamic events can be repeated endlessly…

The dynamic events are the core of the game, not the hearts. You’re meant to explore the game and find these events. To find them look for:
1) orange circles on the map
2) contested waypoints (they’ll have crossed swords over them and are unusable because enemy forces are holding them
4) NPCs with an orange icon over their heads
5) NPCs that approach you and speak to you usually have a event they want you to do. Look for these NPCs.

Most events are chained. Some, especially the low level ones, may be only 1 or 2 events long but others in higher zones are multi events that span the map.

At level 8 you are too low level to get skill points and trait points. The current trait point system is due to be changed around so I wouldn’t get too much into it if I were you. Iirc, the earliest trait point you can even earn is in the next higher level maps. Skill points however you should get pretty soon, at level 13, at which it will be unlocked for your account not just your character.

Zefar.4278:

So I recently bought it due to sales but I’m no stranger to MMORPGs.

I played to level 8 and realized I’m not exactly allowed to explore because if there are no quest there I have no reason to kill anything in that area.

Completely false. You can go anywhere at any point in time at any level. You can walk into a level 80 zone if you want, but you’ll die quickly. You kill things for loot, xp and crafting materials. You have reasons to kill everything even without quests.

Zefar.4278:

Why would you do it this way? You got a gigantic world but the moment you run out of quest you have no reason to stay in the area. It’s bad gameplay design and puts you in a linear path through the entire world.

As I said above, you have other reasons to be in an area aside from events. Events usually repeat every 10-20 minutes too. You can also explore the map for Vistas and POIs or general map completion; all of which provide you with experience. Map completion is actually one of the easier and quicker ways of leveling. GW2 has plenty of bad design decisions, this isn’t one of them.

Zefar.4278:

MMORPG are not supposed to be linear.

The personal story is the only linear part of this game and you don’t even have access to that yet.

Zefar.4278:

Also can I even spec into new and unique combat skills? So far I haven’t gotten any stat points or skill points. Gears are the boring progressive type which most MMORPG use.

You’ll unlock new options for builds as you level. You won’t start getting traits until 30 and skill points start around 10-11 or so. Gear caps out at Lv 80 ascended, after that it’s all horizontal progression.

I feared as much with the quest. They can name them whatever they want but they will still be quest to me.

I grew up with Ragnarok Online where Quests where hidden and cryptic which made them neigh impossible without a guide most of the time. I liked it. So it was all about killing monsters and now it seems I’m forced to do these quests no matter what.

That might just be a deal breaker for me. Because Questing only just drags the fun out a game.

I will check up that bloodlust sigil.

It appears that OP preference is to level by grinding out killing mobs, not by exploring and doing events. I can’t imagine anything more boring but tastes differ.

/shrug.

Since that’s not what this game Is about, I have a feeling you are not going to like leveling.

Sadly, the NPE locked away a lot of features new players should have access to immediately for some reason. I guess Anet thinks new players are idiots? You used to be able to pvp from level 1-80. I thought that was a great feature even if I don’t pvp myself. One of the few things I loved from WoW years ago was being able to level up through dungeons. I wish there were more story mode dungeons and being able to “random queue” and just get in with some people and experience the game. The current interface creates anxiety and pressure.

But yes, since the NPE got introduced, you are essentially forced as a new player to do renown hearts until a new path opens up to you. Very restrictive and short sighted and against the principles on which GW2 was founded in the first place. I have no idea what they were thinking when they implemented it and I hope they fix the NPE for HoT, hopefully by just going back to how it used to be at worst.

Copy-paste from the wiki:
Experience is awarded for doing different things in game:
Participating in a Dynamic or a Meta event
Killing creatures (An exploration bonus is earned based on how long a creature has been alive in the world )
Progressing your personal story
Participating in instanced dungeons
Reviving players, pets and NPCs
Completing the map, which includes:
– renown hearts
– skill challenges
– points of interest
– waypoints
– vistas
Completing achievements
Gathering
Crafting
Using a Tome of Knowledge

1) In addition to the heart quests the game provides, this game also has dynamic events that provide a fairly generous amount of XP outside of the heart quests so you might as well give those a shot. It’s for certain you can guarantee to come across those at least once.

2) There are upgrade items (armor runes, weapon sigils, jewels) definitely but at the early levels they don’t matter too much as the game focuses less on the stats early game and more on how well you can move around. Some of them provide additional buffs once certain conditions are met like if you swap to weapon B, said weapon that do poison damage if you nail a single hit for instance.

3) Stat Points? Hmmm…. if by that you are referring to the game’s traits, yes. You get them as early as level 30. Plus there are skill points that can easily be found through the blue ribbon symbols.

4) The only monsters that provide a significant amount of EXP are elites, champions and world bosses.

5) Yes, rangers do have AoEs of their own. One of them can rain arrows through their longbow’s fifth skill.

Ralanost.8913:

Sadly, the NPE locked away a lot of features new players should have access to immediately for some reason. I guess Anet thinks new players are idiots? You used to be able to pvp from level 1-80. I thought that was a great feature even if I don’t pvp myself. One of the few things I loved from WoW years ago was being able to level up through dungeons. I wish there were more story mode dungeons and being able to “random queue” and just get in with some people and experience the game. The current interface creates anxiety and pressure.

But yes, since the NPE got introduced, you are essentially forced as a new player to do renown hearts until a new path opens up to you. Very restrictive and short sighted and against the principles on which GW2 was founded in the first place. I have no idea what they were thinking when they implemented it and I hope they fix the NPE for HoT, hopefully by just going back to how it used to be at worst.

It is actually MUCH easier now to PvP from lvl 2 to lvl 80, with all the Tomes of Knowledge drops and such. It is also fully possible to join PvP at level 2.

Claiming that you are forced to do renown hearts is also very much incorrect. You can still do dynamic events and map completion, which is where the bulk of the experience gain comes from (and have been coming from since release).

Zefar.4278:

I played to level 8 and realized I’m not exactly allowed to explore because if there are no quest there I have no reason to kill anything in that area. Due to enemies giving me a fraction of the EXP to that of a quest does.

There are a lot of ways to earn exp in the game. Actually EVERYTHING rewards experience, including exploration, in this game exploration is heavily rewarded.

When you find new places of interest (little squares on the map that fill when you approach them) you get experience, when you explore the map and reveal new areas you get experience, when you view vistas you earn experience. Although the exploration experience might seem low, it DOES add up and when you finish an entire zone you do get a great amount of experience (and some level appropriate items).

Also, exploring might reveal new dynamic events on the map which award a great deal of experience too (and karma). These events spawn naturally as you go and you don’t have to go back and forth to complete them, no running back to quest givers.

Other than that, harvesting resources gives experience, more exp / materials from rich nodes which are usually more hidden than other resource nodes, so you HAVE to explore to find them. Chop all wood, mine all ore and harvest all plants for more experience.

As for mobs, exploring distant places will allow you to reach mobs that award triple (or more) experience. The experience mobs give is based on how long they’ve been alive on the world, mobs near roads and hearts / events will have less lifespan and award less experience, but if you EXPLORE you will find mobs that award more experience.

Why would you do it this way? You got a gigantic world but the moment you run out of quest you have no reason to stay in the area. It’s bad gameplay design and puts you in a linear path through the entire world.

Actually this is one of the few games (maybe the only one out there) that keeps rewarding people at lower level zones even if they reach the level cap. Downleveling (reducing a player’s ability when they visit low level zones) doesn’t allow players to 1-shot lower level areas (to some extent). Lower level zones are an excellent source of materials too, needed for crafting the top tier of items, top gear requires materials of all tiers (ok except for the first tier) making all zones rewarding at all levels.

MMORPG are not supposed to be linear. Also can I even spec into new and unique combat skills? So far I haven’t gotten any stat points or skill points.
Gears are the boring progressive type which most MMORPG use.

To get new skills you need to level up higher, more skills are unlocked, the higher you go. Also, you can use new skills if you change your weapons, all professions can use multiple weapons, and all weapons offer unique skills. A sword gives completely different skills to a Ranger than a Warrior, also, skills depend if you put your weapon in your main hand or your off-hand slot, there is good skill variety here. Unfortunately it’s unlocked at higher levels because Anet decided that having too many skills was confusing for new players.

Are there cards/runes/items that can boost your power on a weapon greatly when you imbue them into weapons?
I’m not talking petty 1% or 5%, I’m actually talking about 20% or more where it actually makes a difference.

You get new tiers of gear. You can identify the tier of gear by the color: White -> Blue -> Green -> Yellow -> Orange -> Pink / Purple, higher tier gear is better. At higher levels you get gear with bonuses to 2 stats, and later on bonuses to 3 stats. There are things like sigils and runes to upgrade your gear and get new functionality.

Can I actually put out a stat point to build my character in my own way?

There is great customization in the form of traits. You earn traits that give you stat boosts and unique abilities. However, as everything else, they are available at higher levels because they were confusing to new players (according to Anet)

Can you level up on monsters alone without the help of quest? As in, is it actually worth it or should one just go for boring quests?

You can but it is not advisable because “completing” a map gives a good experience boost (and items), however you can level up using monsters if you go to far away places with monsters that haven’t been killed recently. Better way to experience the game is following events around, they appear as you go, you should explore everywhere, you don’t know what you might find.

Does Ranger have AoE skills in some manner?

Lots actually. Longbow, Axe offhand, Axe mainhand, Torch. Sword and Greatsword have great melee cleave to hit multiple enemies.

I ask because all I’ve seen is a painfully average Korean MMORPG.

I fail to see ANY similarities between GW2 and an “average” Korean MMORPG

Basically… you are in the tutorial.

Yes it feels linear and scripted…. because you are in the tutorial.
The entire starter zone, from level 1-15 (and really, even all the way to 30 technically) is directed and spaced out progression. For anyone who knows how to actually play a video game, this IS annoying.

It is unfortunate, but simply continue as you have been. You have two options untill level 10.

Do Heart Quests.
we call them that because they are different than other games, simply because you often have multiple different things to do to progress them, killing mobs is only one of those options. Read the text and take the time to talk to the npc, and you will often find several other entertaining things to do to progress it.

Do Events.
Events and Quests are not the same thing. Events are the orange things that appear on the map, involve anything from protect a farm, to helping a shipment get from point a to b, or assisting an assault on enemy forces. They often repeat on a timer, or based on a trigger a player activates. Events are the core of the game, hearts only exist for people who need some form of direction. There are no more hearts in end game zones, only events.

Hearts also offer good gear when completed, and can keep you geared all the way to lvl 80.

At level ten the personal story will start and progression from that point on is better. There are other things as mentioned, like skill points to unlock by fighting a difficult npc, or interacting with hard to reach areas, vistas to find, points of interest to find, all of which offer a good chunk of exp.

Completing all of those and the hearts in a given map is an even bigger chunk of exp.

You’ve barely gotten anywhere, and are just facing the fact that the early game has been dumbed down severely since launch. Most of these things would have been available and obvious right when you started the game, and someone decided that was too much for a new player to handle.

And that hasn’t even touched on jumping puzzles, dungeons, or the TWO completely different forms of PvP.

Actually you can still go to World vs. World right from level 2, it’s just not as obvious as it used to be because the icon doesn’t appear at the top of the screen until you level up a bit (level 18 possibly)?

I can’t remember if you can use the keyboard shortcut to open it before then but you can definitely use the portals in Lion’s Arch, there’s even NPCs in the starter cities telling you about it.

Zefar – if you don’t enjoy the heart quests or events or…anything with any kind of story apparently and want to level exclusively by killing things that’s what I’d recommend.

1) Go to your race’s city (if you haven’t already found it ask for directions in the map, the portal will be close to where you started after the tutorial).
2) Look for a pink swirl icon on the map. If you’re playing an asura and there are several of them it’s one of the ones at the northern point of the triangle.
3) Go through the portal to Lion’s Arch.
4) Go to Fort Marriner in the middle of the south side.
5) Go through any of the portals there.

That will take you to World vs. World which is a cross-server PvP map where you can level up very quickly by fighting enemy players and NPCs and capturing objectives.

Alternatively I strongly recommend you give the dynamic events another chance. Yes they are a form of quest if you use the term extremely loosely, but a lot of them center around killing either a specific enemy or waves of enemies, and they start and progress independently of your actions (or anyone else’s) so you have to explore to find them and will often just stumble across them as they happen.

Also bear in mind that you are completely free to explore. If you don’t like the area you’re in you can go to any other area. The other portals in Lion’s Arch will take you to other starting cities with low level zones next to them, or if you want to you can go into the higher level zones instead. (Where enemies will give more XP but also be much more challenging.)

@ you other vet players, you are forgetting that the poi’s, vistas and skill points are hidden from new players.

They are hidden from the content finder until level 10 or so, I believe. Otherwise, you can still see them on the map or in the actual game. :P

Zefar.4278:

I feared as much with the quest. They can name them whatever they want but they will still be quest to me.

I grew up with Ragnarok Online where Quests where hidden and cryptic which made them neigh impossible without a guide most of the time. I liked it. So it was all about killing monsters and now it seems I’m forced to do these quests no matter what.

That might just be a deal breaker for me. Because Questing only just drags the fun out a game.

I will check up that bloodlust sigil.

they kind of made the start up bad for player types like you, but the core game is still there.

you probably want to turn off your arrow telling you what you are missing on the map in options
level by looking for areas people havent been, or monsters no one killed recently, you can get a lot of bonus exp this way. Make sure to eat food and use a sharpening stones for extra exp per kill.

they dont show you a lot of the other objectives on the map at 8.
sorry the game start kinda sucks now.

just go into the Mists (EotM) through a portal in Lion’s Arch, it’s PvP sorta, but just enjoy all of the loot/gold and exp with hours and hours of non-stop farming champs/players

It’s unfortunate the Queensdale train no longer exist. T_T

Like the above post said, if you’re able to find a good zerg in EoTM, that might be up your alley.

Tbh, I don’t even know why there are levels in this game. Just have the NPE as the main storyline, which as you progress gain traits, stats, etc, and rebalance all non-80 zones. Most of your time at 80 will be scaled down anyways for PVE, and PVP you are scaled up.

Just seems redundant. Same goes for repairs, since repairing is free then it seems pointless to have and more of an annoyance.

Zefar.4278:

I feared as much with the quest. They can name them whatever they want but they will still be quest to me.

I grew up with Ragnarok Online where Quests where hidden and cryptic which made them neigh impossible without a guide most of the time. I liked it. So it was all about killing monsters and now it seems I’m forced to do these quests no matter what.

That might just be a deal breaker for me. Because Questing only just drags the fun out a game.

I will check up that bloodlust sigil.

But you DON’T NEED TO QUEST. You get XP from just about every activity you can do in PvE. Kill critters off the beaten path to earn even more XP since critters gain XP the longer they’ve been around. When an orange “quest” comes up on the right side of your screen when you got in proximity to one, you DON’T HAVE TO DO IT. There are some pluses. The Renown Hearts, which you only do once, will unlock an NPC vendor who will buy your drops and may have items unique to them to sell. Then there’s the XP bonus.

But gathering mats in the zone, will give you XP. Unblur a portion of your map by wandering into it will give you XP. Visiting a Point of Interest or Vista will give you XP. Clearing a Skill Challenge or activating a Way Point will give you XP. Rezzing fallen NPCs will give you XP. Crafting will give you XP. While not a pure sandbox this MMO most certainly doesn’t lead you from quest giver to quest giver. It doesn’t push you out of a map since the game will adjust your level down so all areas remain playable but you earn XP and some rewards based on your true level. You can get to 80 never leaving the starting zone.

But why? There’s a big world out there. 6 major cities, 7 if you count the one you can reach from the Human home city. Some 28 maps to explore full of critters to kill and mat nodes to gather from. And once you do get to 80 and you now decide to do some of the Dynamic Events or Renown Hearts, you can because of the auto level mechanic in the game.

If Soloing is your thing then great, with the exception of Dungeons, which there aren’t a lot of, and fractals there is no reason to form a formal party unless you want to. There is no kill stealing, no splitting of XP and loot as long as you do some fairly small amount of total damage you get full shares.

Honestly, this is the least linear MMO you are likely to find short of EVE.

Behellagh.1468:

Zefar.4278:

I feared as much with the quest. They can name them whatever they want but they will still be quest to me.

I grew up with Ragnarok Online where Quests where hidden and cryptic which made them neigh impossible without a guide most of the time. I liked it. So it was all about killing monsters and now it seems I’m forced to do these quests no matter what.

That might just be a deal breaker for me. Because Questing only just drags the fun out a game.

I will check up that bloodlust sigil.

But you DON’T NEED TO QUEST. You get XP from just about every activity you can do in PvE. Kill critters off the beaten path to earn even more XP since critters gain XP the longer they’ve been around. When an orange “quest” comes up on the right side of your screen when you got in proximity to one, you DON’T HAVE TO DO IT. There are some pluses. The Renown Hearts, which you only do once, will unlock an NPC vendor who will buy your drops and may have items unique to them to sell. Then there’s the XP bonus.

But gathering mats in the zone, will give you XP. Unblur a portion of your map by wandering into it will give you XP. Visiting a Point of Interest or Vista will give you XP. Clearing a Skill Challenge or activating a Way Point will give you XP. Rezzing fallen NPCs will give you XP. Crafting will give you XP. While not a pure sandbox this MMO most certainly doesn’t lead you from quest giver to quest giver. It doesn’t push you out of a map since the game will adjust your level down so all areas remain playable but you earn XP and some rewards based on your true level. You can get to 80 never leaving the starting zone.

But why? There’s a big world out there. 6 major cities, 7 if you count the one you can reach from the Human home city. Some 28 maps to explore full of critters to kill and mat nodes to gather from. And once you do get to 80 and you now decide to do some of the Dynamic Events or Renown Hearts, you can because of the auto level mechanic in the game.

If Soloing is your thing then great, with the exception of Dungeons, which there aren’t a lot of, and fractals there is no reason to form a formal party unless you want to. There is no kill stealing, no splitting of XP and loot as long as you do some fairly small amount of total damage you get full shares.

Honestly, this is the least linear MMO you are likely to find short of EVE.

as an above poster said, remember,
vistas are hidden at his level
skill points are hidden at his level
he has a big arrow telling him where he is supposed to go

the game isnt as linear as it might seem to a new player now, but he is just going off what he saw in his first half hour of play, and asking if its really always gonna be like this. The answer? kinda yes, kinda no.

Quests .. hearts .. dungeons on a rare occasion ..

Is there enough content to justify buying this for someone I know who only likes to quest and run dungeons if I am in a run with her and then even then much of the time she refuses to run dungeons?

Also with the new expansion is there going to be way more questing added? If so then I might buy a 2nd copy of this game so she can play once in awhile.