wow, it seems that these notes fell through the cracks. (to be clear, this thread is about the level progression changes, NOT about gear changes. please don’t give me reason for reporting off-topic trolls)
Level reward changes
• Base attributes now increase every level from level 2-10 and every even level from level 12-80
• Hero points are now earned every odd level from 11-80. A total of 398 points are earned through leveling.
• Weapon skills now unlock by level 8.
• Underwater weapon skills all unlock together at level 8.
• Weapon swapping now unlocks at level 10.
• Skill training now unlocks at level 11.
• Utility skill slots now unlock at level 11, 15, and 19.
• Profession skills unlock at levels 5 (F1),11 (F2),15 (F3),19 (F4), and 31 (engineer F5)
• The WvW tip has been moved to level 31, but characters may enter WvW at any level.
• Specializations slots now unlock at levels 21, 45, and 71.
• Various smaller milestones such as equipment slots, personal story steps, and tips have had their levels updated.
i wanted to specifically point out the specialization unlocks. We know we’ll be able to slot 3 specs at level 80. now we know we’ll be able to slot our first spec at 21, our second spec at 45, and our third spec at 71. we also know that we earn hero points at every other level from 11 up to 80 for a total of 398, not including the hero points from skill challenges in the open world.
what is NOT stated, is whether the tiers are still level gated, so i presume that the tiers are no longer gated by levels. in other words, it looks like once we slot our first specialization, we will be able to unlock the grandmaster traits for that specialization before unlocking the second specialization slot.
for example, i’m playing an elementalist, and at level 21 i unlock and slot fire magic. i then proceed to earn hero points through levelling and skill challenges. i go out of my way to earn enough hero points to unlock all the fire traits before i reach level 40. so i then unlock all the fire traits and slot an adept, a master, and a grandmaster trait at level 40. and i unlock some utility skills too, because i went out of my for the hero points.
so, now by the time i’m 44, i’ve unlocked and traited a full trait line.
(let’s say that i earn a LOT of hero points, enough to unlock all the earth traits, too. now i can also switch between fire and earth specs when i’m out of combat. yay!)
then at level 45 i earn a second slot, and then i unlock water specialization and start working on unlocking traits there., so by the time i reach level 71, i’ve unlocked and chosen all the water traits i want.
so, now at 70, i’ve unlocked and traited 2 full trait lines., and more utilities.
(but, since i’ve unlocked 3 full spec lines at this point, i can switch between any combination of the 2 specs lines when out of combat)
if it really works like this, i think i like this progression system a lot better than the one it replaces.
EDIT: i forgot to mention a little maths.
they’ve said already that we’ll earn 10 hero points at the lower levels, and 20 at the highest. so, considering that we’ll earn at least 10 hero points every other level, that means we’ll be able to buy 2 skills and / or traits every other level. and that’s just from level-up rewards. doesn’t take into account skill challenges.
so over all, this makes every level-up count. no more waiting 5-6 levels for a sense of progression
– The Baconnaire