Guild Wars 2

I was lvling to 25 like any other persom. Was leveling with my zone. Then my story sent me to the nord land at lvl 26. So I got the idea that I would complete all the starting areas 1-25 and after only completeing one other starting area then my orig it has gotten me 9 levels and a lot of crafting materials. I plan on jumping to another starting area now. I seem to benifit from three things world completion, exp, and crafting.

What do you guys think?

I guess another question is. As like other mmorpg’s does every diff area eventually lead into one region? As in when I played wow back in 07 I think around 40 everyone was lvling in the same area.

It’s not a bad idea. My husband has done something similar with some of his characters. The only issue may be is that as your crafting goes up in levels, you’ll need to go to higher-level areas to get the higher-level crafting mats.

It’s fine but you will level a little slower than if you had stayed in appropriately leveled zones.

Yes, each race has zones up to level 25. 1-15 then 15-25. I went back and did this around 50 or 60 and it’s not a bad idea. Some zones I didn’t like too much, so I went back.

You can see them on this map

I think you can do it either way.

I don’t recommend going into a personal story quest or a zone when you’re more than a few levels below the recommended minimum unless you’re really confident you know what you’re doing because you’ll really struggle.

But because you’re automatically down-leveled to match the area you’re in I don’t think it matters too much whether you work your way around all the starting areas before moving on or focus on your race’s ones (and ones your story sends you to) and then come back to the others after you’ve finished the personal story. Either way you’ll never be locked out of content or find yourself so over-powered for an area that everything is too easy.

As for your other question yes it does eventually all join up. At the moment there are 2 level 80 areas (Orr and Southsun Cove) and I think 2 level 70-80 areas. I think in terms of the storyline it starts to join up around level 30 when you go to LA and pick an Order, but I’m not sure when exactly the zones join up.

As someone pointed out, yes you gain less experience in lower level maps, but the ease at which you can complete everything when you are de-leveled makes things get done much faster, which in turn levels the playing field. Plus you literally have to try to get killed in lower lvl maps.

I did this with my character as well. I was aiming to get 100% world completition from the start, so I made a table of all the areas with max and min level and sorted it so I go from the lowest to the highest. But I warn you, that if you do it this way, the first maybe 50-60% of the areas will be very easy as you will be constantly at least 7 levels above maximum area level, so if you like more of a challenge, stay in the zones that correnspond your current level.

Jumping around is fine and one of the fastest ways to level, and yes eventually they congregate into the same zones, but not until after the 50’s do they start narrowing down into a more linear path through the zones.

It is fine, but there are advantages and disadvantages.

• Con: You will find appropriately-tiered fine crafting materials to be severely lacking if you don’t stay in level-appropriate zones.
• Pro: You will have access to more karma-based cooking materials by exploring more.
• Con: You will level slower.
• Pro: Completing the other maps earlier often makes them feel less tedious.
• Con: The drop quality will be lower—you may need to craft or purchase gear to not face an undue challenge.
• Con: You will earn less money and karma in lower level areas.

It can be done, but given the pros and cons, I wouldn’t call it either a good idea or a bad idea, just “An idea.” If you mitigate (e.g. the mystic forge can be used to upgrade crafting materials) or don’t mind the cons and the pros appeal to you, then go for it.

Thanks for the input guys. After I bought my 35 rare gear, I did think to myself this might not be the best idea. It hurt my bank account big time lol. I went from 1g and a good amount of silver to 2 silver lol. Since I had’nt cleared an area to my level yet, I could’nt use my karma points for gear lol. So I am not realizing it’s negatives and positives.

“After I bought my 35 rare gear”

This was a bad idea unless you really like the skin and are planning on transmuting it for a long time. Otherwise plain blue or green gear is perfectly fine for leveling. If this is your first character I would probably advise against it even if you like the skin since it’s really expensive and you need to buy trait books still.

Awesome.6120:

“After I bought my 35 rare gear”

This was a bad idea unless you really like the skin and are planning on transmuting it for a long time. Otherwise plain blue or green gear is perfectly fine for leveling. If this is your first character I would probably advise against it even if you like the skin since it’s really expensive and you need to buy trait books still.

^ this
Agreed, unless you’re crafting your own rare gear don’t buy it, people overprice it way too much and the gains from it are so little in comparison to fine or masterwork gear (until you get higher levels anyway) that it’s never going to be worth it. The only good side to using rare gear as you level, is that the set will usually last you until the next available set of rare gear (pretty sure it’s every 25 levels from the first set you can get). Imo even if you like the skin, wait till a higher level because you’ll be going through it so fast you’ll spend all your time transmuting it constantly anyway.