Guild Wars 2

Hi internet peebles.

I’ve decided to give this game a proper chance to monopolize my free time after not giving it much of one at launch. (Not even sure if I made level 20).

I’ve enjoyed reading this forum while the game reinstalls but I have a specific question: Other than the “Heart” events, what should I be doing as I level? I don’t want to get to a point & then learn something valuable that I should have been doing as I level up.

Thank you for your time.

Anything you do gives you experience. Most people do indeed try to get 100% completion on maps to progress, as it works very well. Do heart quests, find vista’s, points of interest and hero challenges.

Grab yourself a gathering pick, axe and sickle and gather any resource you come by. And if you hit the requirements, go do the dungeon stories. Those are big exp bombs.

Another popular leveling strategy is to go to the Edge of the Mist map. This is a WvW zone, so you’ll go up against other players sometimes, but usually there will be trains, leaded by a commander, which focus on claiming points. This gives good exp.

However, I would suggest this for follow up characters. I think exploring the world is a very nice experience, I would suggest savoring it as it lasts.

Great thanks Evans – will do.

There’s a couple of useful things they’ve added to the game since you last played which will help you with this.

The first is the content guide, a little arrow in the top right corner that will direct you to things around you that give XP. You can customise it to show only the story, only map completion or turn it off completely if you want to but early on it may be a good way of getting a sense of what is available to you.

The second is level up notifications that gradually introduce you to new features. Some of this is stuff you actually unlock as you level up like new skills, others are things that are available to you all along like crafting and PvP but it’s another way of making sure you’re aware of what the game has to offer.

But in general I’d say the main thing you’ll want to look out for is dynamic events. These are like other games quests (killing things, protecting things, collecting things etc.) except that they start, continue and finish regardless of whether you or anyone else is participating. They’re shown on the map and on screen with orange text and you can drop in and drop out at any point and (as long as you’re still on the map when they end) you’ll be rewarded for your participation.

You want to get into the habit of doing them when you see them because they gradually replace hearts as you go through the game. The level 80 maps don’t have any hearts at all, but have long chains of events that can have map-wide effects.

Oh also, Don’t worry too much about missing something. You can’t miss anything completely. The worst you could do is something like not bother doing your story, start it later and find that some of the rewards are too low level for you.

for your first character, stop and smell the lore and go where the game suggests you go. this is a good experience for this game and the story is alright.

as far as missing things you might need to learn: don’t rely on the game to teach you these things. there are chests in each starter zone that teach you how to dodge to reach them, but thats about it. there is nothing in the game that teaches you about advanced combat tactics such as combo fields, finishers, and trait synergy.

don’t be afraid to experiment with your skills and traits.

also: this game has little to do with reaching max level. they popular phrasing is “end game starts after the tutorial”

Great – thanks for the tips all. I definitely plan on enjoying my way to level cap.