Guild Wars 2

I know, “the game is about the trip not the destination.”, i just feel like ill enjoy the game a lot more once i hit lvl 30. than i can do dungeons, elite skill, and all that. ill feel more complete. lol i like the game now, but i want to get to lvl 30. currently im exploring, trying to get 100% in an area, so far ive only done that once by accident and it was very rewarding for me. any other easier way to lvl up, cause itd take awhile. thank you

I don;t know of any easy way. To me, the game seems to level too easy. If your crafting and farming for mats, the leveling will take you along the way. At the start of the game I was farming the 1-15 area so I can craft to use my gear and must have leveled 4 times getting double digit XP from each mob because you can’t get enough fine crafting mats to do what you want to do. I also tried to stay within my story line level with my character level and due to the mob killing and dynamic events I accidentally became a part of, could stop the leveling as fast as I wanted.

OP you are correct, getting to 30 is the biggest hurdle I found for levelling in this game. 20 and below are just grindtastic and slow, you don’t have any real trait build up, the gear and stats are negligible on game play, the dynamic events aren’t that dynamic, etc.

On my Thief I found the game got much better in the mid 30s, on my Mesmer it seemed to improve in the mid 20s (and I am sure closer to 40 will be even better).

The thing I started doing differently on new alts is this: I stopped skipping around capping skill points. This was tremendously slowing me down for levelling. I try and do any hearts I find interesting, especially if it gets me armor or weapons I feel I need or I love the look of.

Aside from that change, I make sure to get any vista or point of interest (and wayponits) that aren’t out of the way or a major time sink. I join in any dynamic events along my path that I run into. There are a few I stick around for.

I skip or avoid anything I feel slows me down or is uninteresting or the results are unappealing.

With the above I feel I am levelling as fast as possible.

In my limited time in-game, I’ve found the easiest way for me to level lowbie alts is to work on full completion. Points of Interest, Waypoints, Vistas, etc tend to give hefty experience bonuses, and completion milestones give even larger ones.

Be sure to gather all the trade goods you come across for gathering exp and daily achievement bonuses. Also be sure to participate in every event you pass by. I’ll rarely pass an event in progress, as they usually tend to get swarmed and completed within a couple minutes, and award fairly massive amounts of experience, karma, and coin.

I’ll start in my race area, clear everything until mobs start getting a little challenging (usually around 10-15), then hop over to a secondary race area (norn is my favorite for leveling alts). I’ll full-clear 100% the secondary race area, then go back to my primary race area and full-clear that while working my storyline. This should get you to 20 pretty effortlessly. From there, select any 15+ zone and grind away, or clear out the other race starter zones if you want super easy mode.

My advice? Don’t.

The game pretty much ends at 25. All the dynamic events? Gone. The beautiful intricately designed zones? Gone. You’ve unlocked all the best skills and utilities by then, elites are generally just a panic button. The dungeons are awful, and cost scaling plus massively increased enemy aggro radius means that getting around becomes a colossal chore. Because of the dramatically increased time it takes to level up story missions get really sparse and have generally moved on from interesting personal stories to sadistic jumping puzzles. You can level faster by crafting, but the xp there scales so you’re far better off leaving that till you hit the higher levels.

If you’re in the Charr zones or adjacent to them its probably better to go elsewhere as those are the most barren zones you’ll find below level 25. Other zones will level you faster but it’s worth it for a much better experience. Just be ready with an alt when you realise how much worse the game gets.

Just play the game. All aspects of it. You’ll be 30 before you know it. If you’re already thinking you should be blowing past the intricacies of the game, this doesn’t bode well for your long term enjoyment.

Rack’s experience and opinions are not representative of everyone’s.

• I have not had to do a single jumping puzzle as part of my personal story. Admittedly, I’m only around level 60 on that.
• Elites are not panic butons; most lack the strength to function in that capacity. They do, however, allow you to bring a skill to the table that can tip the balance in your favor.
• I have not noticed a change in the aggro range of enemies. I can confirm that a large level difference increases the range, and if you are in harder content, you will aggro from further away (I had a level 8 elementalist almost make it to Orr). As enemies in higher level areas tend to close the level gap, yes, they seem to aggro from farther away, but really it is the same as it would be in a lower level area.
• Dungeons are not awful, your experiecnes there, however, may have been. Considering they ask players to bring their all to the table, your general dissatisification with the game lends me to believe you didn’t bring your A-game to the table.
• Zones are still beautiful and intricate. Orr isn’t exactly as picturesque as Caledon forest, but there is a good reason for that.
• Cost does scale, but it is not an insurmountable hurdle. Being dissuaded from waypoint-hopping actually increases your exposure to exp-yielding content. Jumping to a place you really need to be is no big deal.
• It doesn’t really take any longer to level up. The exp requirement rises with level, but the rewards for all exp-yielding actions do too. It will take longer if you stay in content that you have out-leveled, since those areas have lower rewards in general. Stay with current content and it really isn’t noticable.

As to the OP’s questions:
It is hard for me to say because the last time I really leveled, the zones were more popular than they are now. More people emans tougher enemies, means more bonus exp, to say nothing on what can happen to DE reset rates and the like. There were also many bugged events, so it may have been a zero-sum affair; I really don’t know.

100%ing an area is a nice boost. Complete your dailies, that is important—make sure you get them all. If you just need one more kill type to complete them ll, it is worth finding something to kill (don’t forget critters—just because they didn’t do anything to you, doesn’t mean they can’t do something for you).
The amount of exp you get for a kill increases with the level of the enemy you kill.
While 100%ing a map is nice, if your goal is to jsut level, the bonus is probably not worth it. Going out of your way in an area that you have out-leveled for a PoI, Skill Challenge, or Vista will likely yield less experience than focusing on content that is your level to your level+2.

Crafting can be a nice boost, too, especially when you hit a rough patch in finding content. I often start out with cooking as a profession and change to something I plan to use for the long haul after the first 50-100 points. There are guides for leveling 1-80 using just crafting (note: this is not cheap).

At any point in time, there should be several zones where you can find level-appropriate enemies, so you shouldn’t ever run out.

Though I don’t recommend rushing, here’s my recipe:

1. Complete 2 zones. GATHER MATERIALS DURING COMPLETETION
2. Do story quests until they out level you.
3. Craft using the materials you have bought (make sure that your crafting expertieses don’t have alot of materials that over lap)
4. Repeat 1-3

While doing 1-3, you should be able to complete your dailies as well. If not, just finish them up.

If it feels repetitive, jump into WvW, explore a new zone, or grab some guildies (change guilds if yours is inactive).

If you want to rush to 30 then do hearts and events that are 1 to 2 levels above you. Don’t get map completion, just skip straight to the higher level stuff. Gather items and craft a bit as you go, so that you can get levels from that.

If you want to enjoy the game for everything it is, then explore every single part of the map and gather everything, participate in every event and do every heart.