Guild Wars 2

Hi, I am quite new to this game. Having played WoW since the start, I can not get into playing Guild Wars 2.
I really want to delve deep into Guild Wars but I have trouble leveling. I need to know how to really enjoy this game. I find it hard to find suitable places to level and I find that I am always getting killed by mobs 4-5 levels higher then me. Any good paths to level at?

Any help is very much appreciated!

Welcome to GW2!

First off, I will say GW2’s combat is a lot more active than WoW’s, so you need to be ready to dodge and kite mobs depending on the situation. You can’t really just stand there and take a beating, at least not when you start out. You can invest in more tanky builds or gear later on, if that’s your choice. Now the question is what did you pick for your first profession? Elementalists, mesmers, and theives can have a higher learning curve to play. They tend to be squisher or more difficult to start with. That’s not to say you can’t play them, but remember their learning curve is a little rougher. So you need to have some patience with them.

Now it sounds like you got a bit lost in the zone, so one thing I’d like to point out is you can do lower level content at any time. You scale down. So if you are having difficulty with a certain zone, you can use the Lion’s Arch asura gate to take you to Vigil’s Keep and chose another races city, chose new asura gate again, and try their starting zone. This will give you a new place to explore, and a bit easier content if you need a few extra levels or maybe you’re just sick of looking a jungle or snow.

Another small point, always consider carrying at least one ranged weapon. Depending on what profession you chose, it’s always helpful to have a ranged weapon for the times when you realize that mob hits pretty hard, and you move into kite mode. Kite mode generally involves you carefully running circles or running away from the mob while you dps it down. If you are kiting the important part is simply to make sure you don’t run yourself into more mobs. Always know what’s behind you.

Finally know your abilities. Read them very carefully. You have combo finishers and combo fields and it’s important you learn how to use those to your advantage or simply what they do. To make a combo you need a combo field under you or the mob. Let’s say a fire field is down. If you use a projectile finisher, the mob will be set on fire. If you use a leap, you will get a fire shield. If you use a blast finisher, you will get Might(a very nice stacking buff.) And so on and so forth. If you don’t really have any combo fields or finishers, that’s fine. When you do events, there will be lots of people to synergize with and give you lots of combo options. Maybe you’ll lay combo fields down for them to use, maybe you’ll use theirs. Combo fields appear as white rimmed circles on the ground. Red rimmed combo fields are enemy combo fields, and you must run or dodge roll out of them.

I hope this helps just a little.

First rule of leveling in gw2: Don’t think about leveling.

Go out and explore the world, and levels will come all by themselves. You get experience for everything you do: uncovering new areas on the map, discovering points of interest, viewing vistas, beating skill challenges, even gathering ore, wood and plants will give you experience. Then there is participation in dynamic events, doing daily achievements, and of course killing things, but the last one is really only a small part of your experience gain.

Do try to stay in areas that are not (much) above your level. Enemies 4-5 levels above you are hard even for experienced players, and quickly become impossible if you don’t know the combat system, your weapon skills, traits and utilities (or don’t even have access to them yet). You’ll get just as much experience if you stay in areas your level or even below (in which case you’ll automatically be down-leveled to keep things interesting).

Exploration experience (pois, vistas and the like) does not depend on the area level at all, and while kill experience will decrease slightly if you are down-leveled a lot, it is really not noticable in my experience. Try to participate in all events you come across, and explore areas as thoroughly as you can, and you will find yourself at level 80 before you have even seen a third of the world.

If you absolutely must speed up your leveling, get some consumable buffs. Cooked food and utility potions can give you +10% kill experience aside from other buffs, which will increase your experience a bit. You will also gain a one-time experience boost for one of the early personal story chapters I think.

Be aware though, that by quickly leveling to 80 you may miss out on some vital experiences with your class and utilities that might help you enjoying the game once you have reached max level. The combat system and game in general is considerably different from most other games out there, and you may as well take the leveling time to getting used to it.

What Race are you and where are you trying to level? Use the GW2 wiki to see what the zone levels are, and choose one appropriate for your character.

As others have said, just have fun, do hearts, jump puzzles, map completion, events and you’ll level pretty quickly.

Just one thing, seeing as you’re from WoW. GW2 levels aren’t the same. It takes the same amount of time to level from 3-4 as it does from 79-80. That’s unlike WoW, where lower levels take almost no time to level.

Yup, my problem was the reverse: I leveled so quickly that a lot of zone completion rewards were under-leveled armor or weapons! I can’t conceive of a person literally not being able to find content to level up in the game. However, I can imagine not wanting to bother starting a new zones just to get the few levels you need to continue doing what you wanted, whether it is finishing a personal story step or completing a zone.

Here’s how you get XP:
- Complete Hearts
- Find POI
- View Vistas
- Complete Skill Challenges
- Unlock WayPoints
- Rez people
- Kill stuff
- Complete events
- Gather resources (ore, wood, etc.)
- Craft
- Complete your personal story steps
- Do dungeons
- Do your daily/monthly
- Complete zones (Hearts, POI, Skill Challenges, Waypoints, Vistas). Cities count as zones so they’re useful for the times you just need half a level so you can get on. Waypointing within a city is free, so that makes it even faster.

As others have said, as long as the zone is not a higher level than you, you can get levels there. You’re level 42 and stuck? No problem, go do a 1-15 zone and you’ll continue leveling (although maybe a bit slower, because rewards are based on the heart/zone level and not your level).

More information at http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Experience

When I’m leveling, I do all the 1-15 areas first, completing them, then complete all the cities, upgrade gear to level 15, then do the next areas (15-25? whatever they are), upgrading gear at every level (20, 30, 40, 50, etc.). I often go back to the 1-15 zones to do dailies.