Guild Wars 2

I am only level 53 but I have been spending some time recently helping out lower level friends. Doing so I have noticed a decent loss of funds. I am finding that hanging out an area does not justify the cost of my play style.

I have started running everywhere and I am allot more defensive to reduce my chances of being defeated. Armor repairs and waypoints are so expensive when down leveled & playing in an earlier zone.

Other than playing naked and dropping all my funds in the bank does anyone have any suggestions or opinions?

Waypoints, you can only avoid them by using Asura gates and running (gets tedious, I know).

Armour repairs? You shouldn’t be getting banged up like that. What is your gear like? Is it up to date (at least lvl 50)? With proper gear, downlevelled is still more powerful than at the proper level (one reason I’d rather just turn off xp gain rather than go back and be OP). I do get the impression that if you are an undergeared 53, you will be an undergeared 31 in a lvl 30 area.

Thanks, I will double check that.

Definitely look over your gear. I was having a hard time doing some underwater event in a low level area and realized that I was using a level 24 spear gun as a level 48. I think because of the gear scaling I was actually adding hit points to the mobs when I shot them. (That was a joke, not a bug report)

To travel anywhere push H, go to the Myst and then jump into Lion’s Arch, then you can tp to any city. I’ve been doing that since lvl 20 to save on the coin.

Don’t over pull in lower zones, you are a lot stronger with better gear, but you are still down scaled.

You should get a ton of Karma and Coin from new hearts and events playing with your friend.

I’m maxed lvl80 and still enjoy jumping into unfinished newbies areas to help friends, just got to travel smart and watch what you pull to fight.

I understand waypoints are more expensive over longer distances, but the cost also goes up when you are higher level. So for the same distance, a level 50 pays more than a level 20. This is specifically noticeable here. The OP is right in that sense because it will make you hesitate to help out friends or guildies.

I really think that going to another waypoint shouldn’t cost as much as it does. It discourages people from traveling around freely and this can be detrimental to scenarios like this.

I think you’re doing something wrong dude. Even at level 80 way-pointing from one end of the world to the other costs less than 4 silver. Areas in the same region usually cost about 1-2. You should be making back whatever you spent to travel somewhere within the first 10 minutes or so of being there.

The only exception I see to this is running around an area and unlocking all of the way-points, then teleporting around the zone to grab the map objectives afterwards. That’s something I would do at very very early levels to clear areas I didn’t particularly like. Now though, it would cost around 25-30 silver. And you lose anything you would have gained from normally doing DEs in route. So I just hoof it (…like a centaur).

Also, backtracking in lower areas, you shouldn’t really be dying more than six times, which is the number it takes to break a piece of armor. You are down scaled but still have the benefit of all skill slots, traits, jewelry bonuses, and higher level rune and sigil effects. Sure you won’t be rofl stomping everything in the area but short of soloing champions or DE veterans standard area level environment renown and heart mobs should barely be able to touch you.

You may want to examine your gear and trait choices or where the flaw is in your play style.

Far as rewards go, dynamic event cash and xp, and the karma for going back and helping friends is always nice. Also gives you a chance to get some low level mats for crafting while you are in the area playing with people and save a trip later if you need them or pick up a new craft.

Sometimes I swear the low level bosses will save some kind of super-awesome power attack for scaled down players. Maybe it’s just an illusion… it seems like I fared better against them when I was their level than when I go back there with better gear and more skills.

Monsters have different skills at different potency in relation to the number of players they are against and the damage its taking. Hrm…guess a better way to say it is the more players a monster is fighting, and the more it gets hurt, the more of its skills are unlocked. And just like player skills, the further down its bar it goes, the stronger the skills are.

So your theory is correct. They aren’t powers just because you are scaled down, but maybe you are hitting it a lot more and a lot harder than you did when you were level appropriate. Or there are more people participating. So now you’re seeing it do new stuff.