Guild Wars 2

I’ve gotten about 5 hours play time on my Necromancer and 6 hours on my Engineer and it seems like the leveling process is incredibly slow. I’m not sure if I’m looking at the game like a normal MMO or if its legitimately slow but either way, I just feel like I’m leveling up way, way too slow. I’m not saying I want to hit level 80 in two weeks, I just think I should be progressing instead of getting really close to 100% in a few starter areas and just getting a couple, literally, level ups. And there’s not a single quest line yet. It’s just random events. Advice? :L

It is hard to say. First of all what you consider slow may actually be normal. About 1 level every hour is normal.

By 100% you mean exploring every WP, vista and PoI? Do you also do the events and hearts? And gather everything ?

I have a 6.5 hour old character at level 12. Is that about where you are?
(Are you on right now? If you are, may I whisper you? It would be easier to see what is happening.)

This might not be a comprehensive answer, but here’s a couple of things that stood out to me reading your post:

1) GW2 doesn’t follow a traditional levelling curve. It takes just as long to go from level 2 to level 3 as 79 – 80. Which means that although the early levels can seem slow compared to other games later on it will seem quite quick.

2) Make sure you’re doing the dynamic events – which show up on the map and on screen in orange – as well as heart quests. They make up the majority of PvE content (in high level zones there are no hearts at all) and also give a lot of XP and items. You can drop in and drop out of them at any time and you’ll be rewarded for your participation so don’t worry if you miss the start or can’t stick around the entire time, just do the bit you can.

3) When an event finishes stay around and listen to the NPCs. A lot of events chain together – when one ends there will be a short dialogue and then another one will start up. Just like the game doesn’t have traditional quests that wait for you to be ready to join in (except the personal story) it also doesn’t have traditional chains. You won’t have an NPC telling you directly that there’s something else to do, but there are storylines to the events.

For a good example head to Wayfarer Foothills, the norn starting area, and go to the top of the ridge above the skill point that’s just north of the entrance. Find the bunny acolytes, talk to them, do the events as they show up and listen to the dialogue in between. It’s a short chain of easy events but it’s a good example of how the chains work.

There aren’t quests on this game. The events are the main thing you do to level. If you do all the hearts, points of interests, vistas, harvesting and events that you run into you should be at level 15 when you get area completion on the first map.

If you’ve done one map completely, gotten the reward for area completion, and only went up a couple of levels then maybe you are missing the events. Look for them. NPCs who run up to you and say things are one type but talk to all the NPCs that are out there to trigger events. Look for orange circles on the map and waypoints that are contested for ongoing events.

I’ve actually noticed leveling gets significantly faster later on. I m on my third 80 now and have noticed at around level 30 or so you’ll level exponentially quicker. Focus on moving around quickly and completing the maps and the storyline.

I’ve mentioned this in another thread below, certain classes have 25% movement speed trait bonuses which would be useful for moving from one place to another. I would definitely recommend you to grab it as soon as you can. You wouldn’t believe how something diminutive like movement speed can drastically improve your leveling

Ranger – Signet of the Hunt
Thief – Signet of Shadows
Ele – Signet of Air
Necro – Signet of the Locust
Warrior – Warrior’s Sprint ( Trait under the “Discipline” line )
Engineer – Power Shoes ( Trait under the “Inventions” line )

Danikat.8537:

1) GW2 doesn’t follow a traditional levelling curve. It takes just as long to go from level 2 to level 3 as 79 – 80. Which means that although the early levels can seem slow compared to other games later on it will seem quite quick.

This is the key point. Coming from other MMOs, the first 10 levels can feel incredibly slow. Just enjoy the ride, and the levels will come.

Go to the other racial cities and clear them (that’s about 10 levels). Go to each starter areas and clear them. I think you will be between LVL 30-40 at that point.

• Do Events as you run across them in these areas.
• Gather resources at every node you come across.
• Follow a set salvage policy with emphasis on obtaining Luck Essences (chance to get them from every salvage of Blue or Green items) to boost your Magic Find.
• Take down every Veteran you see.
• Try to get some nearby help and take on Champions in those areas (very unlikely you will be able to solo a Champion, but most can be taken down by a few players if you are careful and don’t lure them too far from their spawn point).
• At some point, check out the Daily Achievements and start doing them every day if possible (Daily and Monthly Achievements are the only way to earn Laurels). Also, unlike most “Achievements” in games today, GW2 actually gives you usable rewards every 500 points.

Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help in Map Chat….most player in Open World will assist you.

Alright well I guess I’ve just been being stubborn I suppose. Thinking about the way you guys said the learning curve i exactly opposite of other MMOs, it really does seem like a better system. I’ll definitely give it a chance.

I have a level 5 engineer and a level 5 necromancer.

Once you get to know the game, it gets easier. I haven’t played for about a year, and came back and rerolled one of my characters because I was too bewildered to jump back in otherwise. But I brought a new Warrior to level 17 with a few hours’ play so far.

With a new character, I try to acquire one of each weapon type for the class and build up their skills. Then I choose my favorite, concentrate on doing dailies and clearing areas, and occasionally personal story (but usually when I’m a couple above the recommended level for that step).

Gathering and crafting along the way give some XP too. Not a ton, but it helps.

I make a point of always joining in events if I happen to be nearby. Some lower-level champions can be soloed with some kiting and cleverness, once you get used to things. Fighting through camps of stuff to get to loot chests is fun too.

Basically, my philosophy is that grinding sucks, and I’m playing to have fun, not just to increase a number that is, in the grand scheme of things, really meaningless to my life. So I just do stuff that’s fun, and GW2 is one of the better games out there for leveling while doing what comes naturally.

Foosnark.1784:

……
Basically, my philosophy is that grinding sucks, and I’m playing to have fun, not just to increase a number that is, in the grand scheme of things, really meaningless to my life. So I just do stuff that’s fun, and GW2 is one of the better games out there for leveling while doing what comes naturally.

Very good philosophy on gaming.

I see people on here complaining about this and that all the time and I keep thinking, If you are not enjoying this activity, WHY are you doing it?

The one thing I will definitely say is that there is no need to rush and power level your character. When I started out, my first character was a warr. He’s still my main. As I got the game at prerelease I spent a lot of time savouring the game world. So every zone I went to, I did everything there. All of the events and exploration. I would even watch through every vista. That was the grand part of running a first character through the game. Eventually I got 100% world completion on him. I later did world completion again on a ranger. Since then I’ve done a variety of different methods to get another 5 characters in total to lvl 80. Optimally, you should get 1 level every hour or less. I made my guard level 80 in a bit under 70 hrs, mainly because he was my 4th character and I wasn’t really fussed about how I was doing it anyway.

Another way to add experience is to do your personal story. That usually leaps you up a couple levels as you go. The amount of exp will scale up so that you’ll gain more exp at a slightly higher level than what the personal story is rated at.

When you complete a map exploration, you’ll generally find that your character level will be about the upper limit of that zone. So on completing a lvl 1-15 zone, you should be around level 14-16 depending on what you’ve done in the zone. If you do the personal story at about the same rate, you should level up according to the zone that you’re in. Another thing you’ll notice is the increase in monster level towards the upper end of that zone’s level. So for instance, if you start in Caledon Forest, the mobs near the Grove will be lvls 1-5, but as your progress through the middle of the zone they’ll be up near 6-8 and lvl 10 by the time you get to end of the zone. This gives you a guide as to what level your character roughly should be and it’s more or less linear through any give zone.

Remember dynamic events (unlike hearts) are repeatable. Not only that but if you wait around when one finished, they sometimes chain. You can get two or three events in a row. Don’t forget to gather everything and do your story when you’re at the level to do it.

And don’t forget food and potions both give you a 10% bonus to experience kills.

Oh and bonus experience. If you kill something that’s been in the world a long time without dying, you get more bonus experience. So those yellow animals like goats and stuff that are out of the way will sometimes give you really good experience.

Don’t farm them because once you kill them once, when they respawn they’ll have no bonus experience.

complete story mode dungeons once level 30