Guild Wars 2

From what I’ve seen around the forums and youtube and google, the best way to level up seems to be exploring/map completion or crafting. My problem with that is that I actually want to be fighting mobs and not just walking at a snail’s pace around giant maps.

The personal story quests are so few that every new one is roughly 2-3 levels above my level. The first dungeon which supposedly yields good exp is at level 30… I’m currently level 13. So are there any other suggestions to go about leveling or is zone completion the absolute best way?

You fight along the way. Actually the XP for previously ignored critters are up to 3x more. Then there’s the DEs you stumble upon. Gathering from mat nodes.

Gods forbid you are just running from POI/Vista/WP/Open Heart to another, how boring.

For events you normally also have to fight mobs. So the best is fighting mobs to finish events, since that will give you exp for the kills, and of course exp for finishing the event

As other people have said map completion includes fighting.

You have to do some fighting to complete hearts (which are part of map completion) and some just to get around the map. But when you’re doing it for XP it’s generally assumed that you’ll also be doing any Dynamic Events you come across too (which are pretty much all fighting) as well as other things like gathering crafting materials.

Killing yellow (passive) enemies can also give you a big XP bonus because enemies build up an XP bonus the longer they stay alive and these ones are generally ignored by most people because they don’t give any good drops, so they stay alive the longest and get the biggest bonuses.

Alternatively there are the champion trains – where big groups of players go around certain maps (usually Queensdale and Frostgorge Sound) killing champions over and over but even people who do it say that gets very boring very quickly.

Crafting can get you fast levels, but I find it a boring way to “play” the game.

Best XP is doing all the Renown Hearts, but if you are running around the maps doing them, it’s not much more effort to hit the waypoints, Vistas and PoIs while you are at it (clear the maps).

I find crafting useful for adding an odd level or two to alts rather than for the main part of leveling, and unless you go and gather the mats yourself it gets very expensive.

If you want fun fights than try and take out the veterans and later the champions solo, while join the Queensdale zerg will give you a champ kill I find it boring, much more fun is 3 or 4 level 80s trying to take out the giant in Nageling. You may not level as fast but the journey is the thing in this game not end level.

Dynamic events is how you get the most experience in this game. Anet expects you to do a mix of fighting, events, crafting, exploration, and PS to level.

I personally enjoy the exploration.

If you really want to level via fighting then check out the Queensdale champion farm

I see a lot of people doing that all the time
since its a series of events it should get you up a few levels in no time
people cant be doing it purely for the loot since champ drops are pathetic in gw2

You’ll be fighting lots of enemies through map completion. Hearts often have a combat solution, most events require kills and you’ll find plenty of tougher foes such as vets and smaller mobs guarding vistas, skill points and points of interest.
Do story as you reach the required level, they get increasingly hard past the level 30 mark if you’re really looking for a challenge.