Guild Wars 2

first levelled up a ranger to 11 just exploring from heart to heart and doing the events that appeared… things worked well up until level 11 where it seems like anywhere unexplored is 15+ and i’ve had a hard time defeating the enemies in this area.

to get a break from this i started an engineering alt and had fun and things went well up until around 10-11 and i’m again in the same situation (the first was with human and this time with asura).

again all the enemies seem to be in the 15 range and i’m having a hard time defeating them and doing events/quests.

where does an explorer go from this point? i prefer to exclusively explore rather than group up and try dungeons, etc.

am i meant to farm monsters more or something?

There’s multiple zones for the level 1-15 range, you could try exploring another race’s starting zone, or completing a couple of cities. That should net you a couple of levels at least.

You could also try learning one or two crafts – these will help you level too.

vistas and points of interest also give xp, and the personal story if you haven’t done it up to that level already, gathering ore, wood and plants is good too. or just explore, enjoy the scenery and kill anything that looks at you funny nods

1) In theory, you should have hit more dynamic events to have gained some more levels in the process. Having said that, it can be kind of hot and cold when it comes to hitting the flow of DEs in a starter area.

2) Another big time “level check” comes at lvl 10. By that point, you’re starting to seriously out level a bunch of your gear. Because of this, you’re doing less damage and taking more damage than a Blue geared character of 10th level.

3) Any easy fix for both issues is to get into crafting. If you’ve been Salvage Kit tearing apart things like mad, you should have more than enough crafting materials in the Leather and Cloth department. Then you can harvest the rest (as needed). By choosing how to make your class’ armor type (Blacksmith, Leatherworker, Tailor) and your primary weapon type (Weaponsmith, Bowyer, Artificer), you’ll be about to get yourself geared out in a set of 10th lvl Blue grade items and you’ll also gain a few character levels in the process.

4) Another good source of +XP is getting a full completion on the Map Objectives in your starting city. As you reach every POI and Vista, you’ll get some +XP and you’ll get a large chunk of +XP when you reach the 100% completion point. This is a safe non-combat way to gain a few levels.

i’ve tried crafting but you need so many materials that it overwhelmed me.. so i just took up mining and gathered up ores and stored them in the bank for now.

i’ve tried to explore every vista and every unexplored point of interest that i’ve come across.

and i’ve done my storyline up to where it’s around level 15 required.

i guess i could try and focus on getting a craft going.

There should be some hearts targeting the 12-13 range in any of the newbie areas. Look around for other areas that you can explore—there are probably some that are tamer than 15.

Also, everything everyone else said.

alright, thanks for the advice.
going to try and see if i missed any 12-13 hearts in the area and going to try and take up a craft.
hopefully this works.

in Metrica Province the 11-13 hearts are up the middle/top right side of the map (14-15 up the left), they should help you getting higher level

scoobygang.7584:

alright, thanks for the advice.
going to try and see if i missed any 12-13 hearts in the area and going to try and take up a craft.
hopefully this works.

Otherwise you could always hop over to another race’s Starter Zone to grab some of their low level Heart events. There’s an Asura Gate stargate portal in your Starter City. Entering takes you to a portal hub that holds the portals to every racial city. Just pick a race that sounds interesting, portal to their city, leave the city, and tear it up in their 1-15 Starter Zone.

If crafting is overwhelming you, then you’re either doing cooking, artifier, or you’re missing the forest through the trees.

Cooking: There are a lot of ingredients, a lot of intermediate ingredients, and hundreds of recipies to discover. It is easy to be overwhelmed.

Artificer: artificer is like a hybrid of either huntsman or weaponsmith and cooking. The potions are cooking-esque, while the weapon crafting follows the same model as the rest.

All others (including half of artificer):
There are a few discoverable recipies, most centering around sigils (weapon crafting) and runes (armor crafting).

Every 75 points of skill, you unlock the next ‘tier’ of equipment, generally associated with a new tier of crafting material. For example, a tailor starts out using jute, and at 75, starts using wool.

To make a weapon or armor, you need 3 components. For weapons, one is an inscription, for armor it is an insignia. The other two components depend on the item you want to create (a sword requiers a hilt and a blade). The two components will be from the same tier and will have a logical association (chestplate + chestplate padding, for an armor example).

All your raw materials can be stored in the collection storage, and you can craft from there, so use the deposit all feature frequently to keep your inventory clean.

Mke the components for the items you want to craft and then craft them—you will have to discover most recipies, but there is not a lot of mystery—just match an insignia to an appropriate pair of armor components, or inscription to weapon parts.

You shouldn’t need to stockpile weapon or armor components—just make what you need, as you need it (If you really want to maximize your crafting experience, plan how much you will make in advance and make all the refined materials, then the basic components, then the insignias—this way you get exp for them all, but it requires more space).

i was doing cooking yes and it required like 15 ingredients of which i had none.

Pick crafts that are relevant to your character. For example my main is an elementalist so the two crafts I focus on are tailoring (to make myself light armour) and artificing (to make myself weapons). If you wear medium class armour you could try leatherwork or for heavy armour, armour-smith. Talk to each crafter to find out what you can make with that craft before you decide.

i asked in map chat and everyone said definitely go cooking with ranger.

i just need to refocus and start over, dunno i’m finding the game really difficult lol.. which is weird because i usually have an easy time with games but with this it seems like the enemies are really tough and kill you so easily… and the events are really difficult. maybe i’m used to easy mode in warcraft and i’m trying to play the same way i did in that game and expect it to be easy.

anyway, thanks for the help… i think i got some good stuff to work with and start fresh.

scoobygang.7584:

i asked in map chat and everyone said definitely go cooking with ranger.

As a Cooking player, I will easily admit that learning Crafting on that profession (like I did) is like choosing to gouge out your own eyes. It’s very money intensive to buy vendor materials and it’s a royal pain to get all of the various food pieces. If I had to do it again, I’d go Cooking on my 2nd or 3rd character once I’ve got some decent income and resource building over the course of multiple characters.

The most important professions are <Armor> crafter, <Weapon> crafter, and Jeweler. I bring up Jeweler because you usually don’t see Jewelry pieces as game drops. While you can buy some weaker pieces through Karma vendors, you can gain a lot of +Stats through a full set of jewelry that you’re keeping current at your present level.

I think you missed the suggestion about taking your human or asura to the other starting (1-15) areas. They can all be reached by going through Lions Arch.

that’s something i have no interest in doing, as an explorer player i want to go see new places not go over the same things again and again.

i’ve now seen the elf 1-10/asura 1-10/human 1-10.

have no interest in the charr or the starting area.

and might play the narn or nord or whatever they are so i don’t want to spoil that area if infact i do plan to play one later.

i think i’ve got a good idea of what i need to do now… once i start crafting and being more patient with exploring i should be ok.

You should also really try to complete the daily achievements, that is a nice chunk of xp that can give you a nice boost.

scoobygang.7584:

first levelled up a ranger to 11 just exploring from heart to heart and doing the events that appeared… things worked well up until level 11 where it seems like anywhere unexplored is 15+ and i’ve had a hard time defeating the enemies in this area.

to get a break from this i started an engineering alt and had fun and things went well up until around 10-11 and i’m again in the same situation (the first was with human and this time with asura).

again all the enemies seem to be in the 15 range and i’m having a hard time defeating them and doing events/quests.

where does an explorer go from this point? i prefer to exclusively explore rather than group up and try dungeons, etc.

am i meant to farm monsters more or something?

This scenario sounds familiar…we have a guild mate who built a mesmer and had the exact same problems only she went on to get to level 30 before she really started to complain.

Oddly enough one of our members heard her comments in mumble and asked: “have you bought and used your book and placed your traits, and chosen your skill points yet?” There was an awkward pause…she then responded; “book? traits and skill points spent? I don’t understand?”

Trying not to laugh we realized she had totally forgotten about the training manual at level 11, not to mention the traits and skill point selections. After explaining this to her she started to laugh and realized her mistake.

I almost made this mistake myself because GW2 is a new type of game to me. But I overheard others talking about this as I started so I did some research and discovered what this was all about.

I too had come into the game thinking I had to wait a bit to visit my trainer to learn more skills, but because the skill bars filled up automatically as I used weapons, I did not realize this was another layer to the process.

….I really wonder if this is what is happening to you as well?

hey scooby! just to add my own experience, i started off as a Norn guardian as my main. got up to around where you were, and started making alts for fun. they’re all around 10 now, except for my main, who i’ve hit 80 a few weeks ago. i didn’t really feel like i had problems leveling up – doing what people have mentioned in this thread, i didn’t even focus on crafting too much until i hit level 30. like you, i didn’t want to explore the other starter areas either, but if you 100% each map you’re on for your corresponding level, and following your story as well, you should be able to continue to move on.

do you solo or play with a group? i feel it helps sometimes when you have a group of peopel to play with, or even jus tin a pair or trio (though solo-ing is more than feasible as well). it makes a difference too and help swith som eof the harder events or mobs. i will agree that this game can be difficult, especially at the early stages. don’t lost heart though! at lvl 10 and onwards you really get the flexibilty to start building your character, learning about their skills and what not. try out different weapon sets. try out different utilities. once in one my personal stories, around lvl 15 – 16 i forget, i was having the hardest time ankittenpt dying until i was nekkid. the next round, i switched but ONE utility skill, and used a different weapon and it made all the difference. i was able to, i won’t say breeze, but more than hold my own and move on my personal story.

i think part of the game design and it’s difficulties is that it challenges you to try out new skills and builds, and that’s part of the fun while leveing up. i didn’t feel i truly understood the class i was playing until lvl 30! so hopefully everyone here was able to help you somewhat.

remain steadfast in your adventures!! i too love exploringD
mine everything you see, get every point, tag events and always hang around the NPCs after, you never know what might happen next and usually a large fchain of events nets you some pretty good XP as well. good luck!

Go fight in the lvl 20 areas, just kite the enemies…that’s what I did.

To recap on sources of XP:
1. Kill mobs (slow and painful)
2. Dynamic Events (fast XP if you can chain events, listen for NPCs talking, that generally indicates a new event)
3. Gathering (You can do all three gathering, mining, chopping wood, veggie picker)
4. Hearts
5. Skill point challenges
6. Dailies (Kills, Kill variety, gathering, etc….)
7. Exploring/map completion
8. WvWvW (You’ll be squishy but can still be fun and gain XP. Run with the zerg)
9. Crafting (I’d pick armor/leather/tailor so you can craft new gear every 5 levels. Some grinding for mats is needed though. For second crafting, jewelry)
10. Personal Story