Guild Wars 2

Whenever I go to read stuff in the forums, I often run into one kind topic that catches my interest: “Levelling is hard/takes too long/how to level halp meee.” As someone who used to regularly delete his lvl 80s (not anymore since I finally bought character slots) and remaking them because I’m sick that way, I tend to level up characters from beginning to end. A lot. I made this thread with new players in mind, so this is not for the players with all the crafting materials in hand, or the tomes, or for the one who don’t want to do EotM just yet because they like to do PVE related things.

Upon creating a character and finishing the intro storyline, I usually go to the home area and map complete it. You should get a level up and a free transmutation charge for completing a city. Buy either the basic or level 10 gathering items (which you will equip when you reach level 10) in order to get crafting materials from the areas. Once this is done, head for the asura gate and travel to Lion’s Arch and map complete the other home areas (L.A. optional). You should be level 8 by now. Don’t go to your home area yet and do some basic heart events and map completion in the low level area nearby until you reach level 10. Once you are through, go back to your home area and proceed to do your story quest for some additional XP. Map complete your home starting area while finishing the entire story quest and you should get some good levels and karma, and getting a black lion key from the story quest. By this time, you will probably be level 15+.

You can map complete the other low level area if you want, but it is better to head for the higher level areas (15-20+ like Kessex/Brisband/etc). Before doing so, you can buy some cheap food and utility buffs from the Trading Post in the home areas. They will grant you additional xp per kill or karma, although those ones are a bit pricey. Keep doing events, hearts, and map completions until you reach the the higher 20s and go for the next maps. Rinse and repeat with the next map tiers until you reach level 80. You can also do some dungeons, but be wary that not all PUGs want a low level in their party, but it gives a huge chunk of XP per dungeon path.

Remember to take breaks every now and again and explore the game. You don’t have to strictly follow this, but just have fun. Also, try to join guilds as they more often than not have guild buffs that give additional XP/influence while doing things in game. Just keep at it and you’ll be level 80 eventually. Will it take time, sure, but atleast you will learn how to play your class well enough by then.

Feel free to ask me and other players in game or in the forums for help. We wont eat you… unless you are a giant walking cake. :P

phew that was a long thing to type XD

Nice guide, though here’s my own:

1. You get Tome of Knowledge from log-in rewards. These will increase your character level with 1 each. Save up a couple of these. Personally, I think five or six will do nicely.

2. Bee-line it into the nearest gate to Lion’s Arc.

3. From there, head into whatever race’s starting area you prefer, or haven’t playing in a while.

4. Follow the map completion arrow in the top right and do dynamic events (even repeating them give you decent XP).

5. Pretty soon you’ll have a decent selection of weapon skills, some utility skills and so on. Now go to a crafter area and buy harvesting tools, if you don’t already have some. These are useful to get crafting mats (even if you don’t want to craft, you can sell them for quite a bit of money in the trading post.) They also give you XP when harvesting.

6. Now go enjoy the game, and screw trying to level up quickly. The rest of the game isn’t going to change much from your current experience. Sure you’ll get dungeons and so on later on, but so what? That’s only a small part of the game. The real meat is the PvE and PvP stuff, and both are accessed from the start. (I think; not sure when PvP unlocks as it doesn’t interest me, but it’s early.)

Why would you want to level up anyway? This isn’t WoW. I spend most of my time being downscaled, thanks to the awesome, uh, downscaling. It means I can level up to get to higher level areas, but they aren’t necessarily better areas. I’m having at least as much fun in low-level areas as in high-level areas, simply because whether I’m in a high- or low-level area, I’m still the level I’m supposed to be. Leveling up is rather pointless.