Guild Wars 2

Brand new to GW2 but have played most other popular MMO’s. DAoC for 15+ years and never really enjoyed anything as much. I’ve played around with a few different classes here in GW2 but nothing past lvl 10. I keep going back to the Guardian and I’m confident thats what I want my boost to be used on.

My question is what do I miss out on after doing the boost? Rather than hitting all the zones while leveling and getting items along the way. Will I be bored after using it? I guess I’m trying to justify using the boost but I really don’t like grinding out levels to a certain extent.

You can test the classes out with the boost as long as you dont leave the area it plop you down in mate.

In terms of missing things at most you’ll miss out on doing some content at slightly higher difficulty level.

On the other hand there have been people who are completely lost upon entering the lv80/HoT zones after using the boost but if you know that you still need to take time to learn things that shouldn’t be a problem.

I know I can test them. I have on a few classes already. Mainly more along the lines of what Khisanth said. I guess I will go ahead and use it. I don’t really want the boost but since I have it I will use it since I wont be making any alts. Not any time soon anyway, by that time more will be out.

More 80 boosts? I doubt that very much mate.

One issue with the boosts is that you can’t test the elite specializations … I guess you can try those in the PvP lobby.

I boosted a Mesmer to 80 (Because apparently they take awhile to level) and I leveled a Ranger from the start and he just hit 80 yesterday. What I learned is that with your boost you won’t have enough hero points to immediately unlock your elite spec, but if you level to 80 you do.

I also ignored everyone saying “level a class normally first” and what do you know, they were right. I was so lost but now I actually understand at least a little about the game.

Alaric.3980:

What I learned is that with your boost you won’t have enough hero points to immediately unlock your elite spec, but if you level to 80 you do.

That is a bit of a misleading statement. It’s not like leveling to 80 gets you more points, it’s just that when boosting you haven’t gone out to do any of the hero challenges yet. There difference is just a matter of experiencing the hero challenges as a lv80 or as a not yet lv80. In the case of communes there would be absolutely no difference in most cases. For the fighting ones it would be a bit easier with a lv80.

What Khisanth said, and in addition to that, using the boost, you can just skip all the 1 point challenges in Tyria and immediately go to the hero challenges in HoT that give 10 points each. Even with a lot of grind, people who level to 80 in Tyaria can usually only buy half of the elite trait. I did it recently with my mesmer, and 130 × 1 point hero challenges is a lot of work and time. You can get that within 30 minutes in HoT.

i actually recommend you to level your first char the normal way from 1-80

You can use the lvl 80 boost to get a feel of each class in the silverwaste testing area without permanently using the boost yet
Use it to decide for a class to play first
But then go and play that class the normal way so you dont skip the whole learning process of the class & the game

I imagine you could also be a bit lost at what to do when lvl 80 but still having no map exploration done
And doing lvl 80 content with absolutely no game experience can be rather demotivating too

You won’t actually miss any part of the game by using the boost. You will still be able to play in all the zones and do your personal story (which normally unlocks every 10 levels). The game uses a down-scaling system which means if you’re above the recommended level for the zone you’re in your stats are reduced, you’ll still be more powerful than a character of that level because you’ll have more skills to choose from, more traits and because level 80 equipment gives points in 3 stats instead of the 1-2 at lower levels. But it means you won’t just 1-shot everything, you can still play properly.

While you’re down scaled XP and drops are scaled up to your level – so you’ll also be getting much the same rewards as if you were playing in level 80 zones.

What you will miss out on is learning the game. The process of leveling up is designed to gradually introduce mechanics, game modes and other options (including via notifications when you level up which tell you how various things work). At level 80 the game becomes much more open – there are a lot of things you can do but nothing you have to do or any set order to do them in. That confuses a lot of people who immediately boost their first character because the game isn’t giving them any direction and they don’t know what’s available and what they want to do.

I’d also add that levelling up is pretty quick in this game compared to most and does not require grinding, at least not in the conventional sense. You’ll actually level faster by exploring maps and doing Dynamic Events (orange text/icons, like quests but you don’t have to start them, just join in when you see one) and your story than you would if you picked a spot and stood there killing things. Some GW2 players call doing events to level up grinding, but in every other game I’ve played that’s considered simply playing the game.

Overall I’d recommend not using the boost right away – try levelling normally to get to grips with the game, you might find it very different from ones you’ve played before in some key ways and it’d be helpful to get used to how it works before you start thinking about level 80 activities.

And then the boost will be there whenever you want it. When you feel confident making your own way through the game you can skip to 80 and then just do whatever you want without worrying about being the right level. Or you can use it on a 2nd character to have more options.

I think I will just level the normal way and use the boost after I hit 80 or maybe when I get more comfy with the game.