Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’m new to GW2 here. My girlfriend and I have recently got into the game and have both made Norn characters (we love Norse/Viking/Scandinavian lore in real life). Shes a Ranger and I’m a Warrior. I can usually outplay her in terms of game session length, so when she’s ready to log off and be done playing for the night I could still put in another couple of hours (sometimes more) into exploring/playing and such.

We want to stay around the same level (within 1-2 levels of each other) like we try to do in other MMO’s so I don’t want to play on my main and get ahead of her, nor do I want to have to come back into the same areas after I’m done to help her with the “hearts” I’ve already completed (I know it down-levels you so it’s still challenging to an extent, but I just don’t want to get burnt out doing the same content twice over and over). So I am thinking about making an alt character specifically for World Versus World PVP (or I guess PVP in general) to play on while she isn’t on and I can’t play on my main.

Is this viable? I already have my mind set on a Norn Elementalist, but is playing from level 2 in WvW/PvP something that will be enjoyable? I know I can get XP in WvW and level that way (although from what I read it will be slower than regular PVE, which is fine) but will it be a horrible experience that I will hate? Does anyone have alts specifically for WvW that they ONLY PVP on that they enjoy? Or is WvW/PVP more of an activity you wait until 80 to do?

I apologize for such a newbie-ish question.

Any response or suggestions would be great!

First off sPvP or tPvP in this game auto buffs you to 80 with all skills traits ect (with the exception of the new ones you still have to unlock them). Just make sure you go to heart of the mist in order to setup your char prior to jumping into a match.

For WvW leveling I would highly recommend eotm over WvW simply because of the greater exp and karma returns, but I also find it a much nicer environment to level in. That being said Ele is a great WvW class just like warrior is as well. For WvW just remembers GWEN (Guardian, Warrior, Ele, and Necro, current meta for WvW) and you will be set.

I actually have 9 different char’s for WvW and only 1 setup to do PVE (fotm) so its largely personal preference there, and how much time you want to put in leveling and gearing characters for specific things.

I have two warriors, one for PVE with 100% world completion.
And one exclusively for WvW, I did level it to 80 before heading to WvW though, since let’s be honest anything below 80 in WvW in it’s current meta state is nothing more than rally bait.

Well you have a couple options here.

As Blackelk stated you can jump into sPVP which won’t give you exp directly for your levels but you can earn tomes of knowledge which gives you a level, and you will be able to enjoy pvping fully with level 80 builds and traits.

Leveling in WvW can be hard or easy depending on what you do, if you’re following a zerg on karma train fridays, it’s easy to get 20+ levels with boosts on, if you’re roaming the exp comes in slower. On an uplevel it’s a bit rougher than before as you have to wait till 30 to start getting traits but you will have all your utility slots unlocked by then. EOTM is the best area to go to if you want to level faster and rewarded better.

Your 3rd option is you can take your regular character and don’t do any pve while your girlfriend is off, go into spvp or wvw/eotm, yes you will be ahead in levels but you get downscaled in pve anyways as you mentioned, but at least you won’t be running through pve maps a second time.

Yes, you can play a alt in WvW and sPvP.

You will be able to level them up without ever doing any PvE.

In both you are up leveled to 80 but after unlock skills/traits. You will after pay for traits if you don’t do PvE. You get a lot of skill points and gain a level books.

You can also equip your character fully in WvW and PvP.

I have a lvl 80 of each class

I main a necro. 100% map completion
Next was a Guardian. Helped a friend get their ranger to 80. 60-70% map completion
Ele jumped into WvW back when swirling winds could stop treb shots. Very little map done
Mesmer mainly levelled in WvW
Thief and Warrior was half WvW, half EoTM
Engineer and ranger were almost exclusively EoTM

If I was to create another toon on a new class I’d go to EoTM, get to 80, then switch to WvW.

As a new player to GW2, you’ll get the occasional PvP battle in EoTM, but it’s mostly PvD/PvE. Once you get to 80 you should have enough badges and gold to outfit your character in exotics.

I’ve leveled four toons in WvW. A couple starting at 2 so that’s not a problem. Just don’t try to roam – stick with the zerg. With an Ele you can sit back and range attack too (assuming staff Ele).

As mentioned, EOTM is great for leveling too so you might want to jump in there at first and get some levels under your belt. But EOTM bores me to tears so I can’t take it for too long.

And then when I hit 60 I’m usually ready to be at 80 so I just craft the rest of my way up – real quick if you use an online crafting guide.

Thank you all very much for the fast responses so far, and the details surrounding the different approaches I can take.

I had no idea about Edge of the Mists or how it was better for leveling, so I will definitely make that one of the priorities for my PVP alt. From the sounds of it (and if I am understanding it correctly) regular WvW would be doable, but I wouldn’t be very useful and would likely die a lot as the up scaling to level 80 doesn’t put me on bar with actual level 80’s (nor should it).

This is the second time I’ve read that if I “stay with the zerg” in WvW (which I am assuming is the huge rushing “army” of other players) that I can stay in the back and at least provide some support, so I will give that a try as well.

I will also check out sPVP as well for the tomes.. I understand this is more of a “battlegrounds/arena” (sorry for the WoW comparison) type of structure?

It seems like a PVP specific/only alt is totally doable without having to ever touch PVE content, which is exactly what I was looking for.

I guess my next question about EoTM would be: Is there dynamic events there like in regular PVE zones? Since I will be playing solo, will I at least get the benefit of the occasional huge rush of players completing events? I don’t want to get bored on a static map just collecting nodes/doing events solo and such. Are there karma hearts? I would log in to check my self instead of posting multiple questions but I’m on lunch break at work at the moment :P

If i remember correctly, vikings were humans. Norns are not related to humans at all. Thats according to wiki. /Shrug

Relating to a norn ele, they are extremly rare. Mostly due to their massive size and sticking out like a sore thumb.

I’m guessing you’ve never stepped into wvw before?

The events for wvw or eotm are usually for capturing an objective like taking a supply camp/check points/tower/keep (towers and keeps require siege and multiple people to take, commanders[blue doritos on the map] will usually drop siege to build). You will get rewarded as long as you get enough damage on the npcs in the area or you stay in the capture ring (which is what happens mostly in eotm). Wvw has more fighting involved as groups there are more willing to fight for the hell of it, and defend areas.

Wvw is not tough to do on an uplevel depending on the class you’re playing and how much you know of wvw, running with a group would be the best thing to do, roamers will probably get creamed just depending on their skill level. And yes eles can do well in there just sit back and throw water heals and aoes. You can also kinda cheat and buy blues or greens off the TP which will scale your 80 stats overboard in some cases.

sPVP is like battlegrounds/arena, gameplay is like arathi basin capture and hold points, but much smaller maps.

Fuzzion.2504:

If i remember correctly, vikings were humans. Norns are not related to humans at all. Thats according to wiki. /Shrug

Relating to a norn ele, they are extremly rare. Mostly due to their massive size and sticking out like a sore thumb.

I understand that vikings were humans in real life However in this game the Norn culture is very obviously based off of Northern/Scandinavian Norse/Viking culture, where as the humans in this game are more based off of the medieval/renaissance English culture.

My Norn Elementalist is going to be a female, she’ll still be big but definitely not as big as my Male Norn warrior!

Xenesis.6389:

I’m guessing you’ve never stepped into wvw before?

The events for wvw or eotm are usually for capturing an objective like taking a supply camp/check points/tower/keep (towers and keeps require siege and multiple people to take, commanders[blue doritos on the map] will usually drop siege to build). You will get rewarded as long as you get enough damage on the npcs in the area or you stay in the capture ring (which is what happens mostly in eotm). Wvw has more fighting involved as groups there are more willing to fight for the hell of it, and defend areas.

Wvw is not tough to do on an uplevel depending on the class you’re playing and how much you know of wvw, running with a group would be the best thing to do, roamers will probably get creamed just depending on their skill level. And yes eles can do well in there just sit back and throw water heals and aoes. You can also kinda cheat and buy blues or greens off the TP which will scale your 80 stats overboard in some cases.

sPVP is like battlegrounds/arena, gameplay is like arathi basin capture and hold points, but much smaller maps.

This is true, I have yet to step into WvW!

Thank you for the info!

Leveling in WvW is not a good idea. First, it is very slow. Second, you will die very fast and rally the enemy. This will be frustrating to you and to the people around you. If you are not on a T1 server, then this can take forever. Just wait until you’re 80.

As much as I hate to say it, as I’m totally against it, EotM is probably the fastest right now. I don’t consider it part of WvW.

PvP is probably the most fun to level as you can learn some things about your class that way, get loot, get tomes of knowledge. However, PvP is pretty limeted, especially towards the elementalist due to stat choices and the enemy classes and builds. You are going to have much more build diversity in WvW.

I know several people in game who play on T1 servers with alt accounts in timezones when my server is reallly REALLY lacking coverage or competition

Spurnshadow.3678:

Leveling in WvW is not a good idea. First, it is very slow. Second, you will die very fast and rally the enemy. This will be frustrating to you and to the people around you. If you are not on a T1 server, then this can take forever. Just wait until you’re 80.

As much as I hate to say it, as I’m totally against it, EotM is probably the fastest right now. I don’t consider it part of WvW.

PvP is probably the most fun to level as you can learn some things about your class that way, get loot, get tomes of knowledge. However, PvP is pretty limeted, especially towards the elementalist due to stat choices and the enemy classes and builds. You are going to have much more build diversity in WvW.

Thanks for the info! A couple of questions:

-What does “Rally the enemy” mean when I die?
-What is a “T1 server” and how can I tell there difference or if I am on one?
(By doing some searches I can see that T1 means more population?)

IsaacMolotov.9675:

Spurnshadow.3678:

Leveling in WvW is not a good idea. First, it is very slow. Second, you will die very fast and rally the enemy. This will be frustrating to you and to the people around you. If you are not on a T1 server, then this can take forever. Just wait until you’re 80.

As much as I hate to say it, as I’m totally against it, EotM is probably the fastest right now. I don’t consider it part of WvW.

PvP is probably the most fun to level as you can learn some things about your class that way, get loot, get tomes of knowledge. However, PvP is pretty limeted, especially towards the elementalist due to stat choices and the enemy classes and builds. You are going to have much more build diversity in WvW.

Thanks for the info! A couple of questions:

-What does “Rally the enemy” mean when I die?
-What is a “T1 server” and how can I tell there difference or if I am on one?
(By doing some searches I can see that T1 means more population?)

Rally, lets say your in a zerg (large group of people) and you clash with another zerg, chances are most of those players have tagged you (hit you with an attack), now lets say your zerg downs 10 of the enemy (by down I mean into downed state not fully dead) and then you get get killed (all the way dead), all those players on the enemy side that are downed will immediately rez and be back in the fight.

T1 servers are currently Jade Quarry, Tarnished Coast, and Blackgate. They havce the highest population/participation in WvW. In most cases on these servers they have around the clock coverage so there is no real dead time. T2 servers would be the next three servers below them and so on an so forth all the way to T8.

Nuzt.7894:

IsaacMolotov.9675:

Spurnshadow.3678:

Leveling in WvW is not a good idea. First, it is very slow. Second, you will die very fast and rally the enemy. This will be frustrating to you and to the people around you. If you are not on a T1 server, then this can take forever. Just wait until you’re 80.

As much as I hate to say it, as I’m totally against it, EotM is probably the fastest right now. I don’t consider it part of WvW.

PvP is probably the most fun to level as you can learn some things about your class that way, get loot, get tomes of knowledge. However, PvP is pretty limeted, especially towards the elementalist due to stat choices and the enemy classes and builds. You are going to have much more build diversity in WvW.

Thanks for the info! A couple of questions:

-What does “Rally the enemy” mean when I die?
-What is a “T1 server” and how can I tell there difference or if I am on one?
(By doing some searches I can see that T1 means more population?)

Rally, lets say your in a zerg (large group of people) and you clash with another zerg, chances are most of those players have tagged you (hit you with an attack), now lets say your zerg downs 10 of the enemy (by down I mean into downed state not fully dead) and then you get get killed (all the way dead), all those players on the enemy side that are downed will immediately rez and be back in the fight.

T1 servers are currently Jade Quarry, Tarnished Coast, and Blackgate. They havce the highest population/participation in WvW. In most cases on these servers they have around the clock coverage so there is no real dead time. T2 servers would be the next three servers below them and so on an so forth all the way to T8.

Thank you for both of the explanations!

IsaacMolotov.9675:

Fuzzion.2504:

If i remember correctly, vikings were humans. Norns are not related to humans at all. Thats according to wiki. /Shrug

Relating to a norn ele, they are extremly rare. Mostly due to their massive size and sticking out like a sore thumb.

I understand that vikings were humans in real life However in this game the Norn culture is very obviously based off of Northern/Scandinavian Norse/Viking culture, where as the humans in this game are more based off of the medieval/renaissance English culture.

My Norn Elementalist is going to be a female, she’ll still be big but definitely not as big as my Male Norn warrior!

Im an asura. You norns scare me. ALso there should be a race specific elite for norns where i can hitch a ride on your back.

Btw, for leveling your alt, run in EB. Unless there is a Karma/xp train in one of the main three borderlands. Just note that uplevels get creamed in WvW. But doesnt matter. Its having fun that matters most.

Good luck matey

Once again, thank you for all of the responses, informative info, and help/suggestions.

So I had some time last night to log in and try sPVP, EoTM, & WvW.

I have found out that I very much enjoy the fast paced “drop in/drop out” nature of sPVP. So this leads me to my next (and hopefully final) dilemma/question:

My new plan is to do sPVP on my main Norn Warrior. I decided to do this because I like the warrior’s combat style the best, AND because I won’t pull away from my girlfriend in terms of levels when we do PvE (or so I thought…?) When I exited the Heart of the Mists, I noticed I gained a level. I was about 3/4th of the way to 25 before I started, and was exactly at 25 with no XP when I re-entered Tyria.

I thought sPVP didn’t give you any XP? I am slightly confused on this now and why I got XP after 1 sPVP match. (Unless I unlocked some sort of “your first PvP match!” achievement and it was a one time thing? But I didn’t notice any achievements pop up).

Did they change sPVP recently and the Wiki’s I’ve read haven’t been updated? Everywhere I read it says no direct world XP is rewarded for sPVP.

EDIT: After more reading I found out that I may be completing dailies, and that is what is giving me world XP from sPVP. Still not sure though.

I’ve leveled 7 classes in WvW & Crafting. Only one I PvE’d up was my Ranger in the beginning (at launch).

I rather have a root canal sans painkiller than ever participate in EotM again. Got stuck in there for 10 days due to transferring servers during season. What a useless waste of time.

My first character I played through the first 30-40 levels via pve, then the last 40-50 via wvw, so imo it’s extremely viable (and this was before the eotm update, and eotm is a much better option than wvw for underlevels, i’m leveling an alt there currently and i’ve gone 10-60 via it)

however, it would mostly depend on your server I would suppose. when I started I was playing on a tier 9 European server, which felt a lot different than the tier 4 NA server I’m on now

as for gaining levels in pvp, you might have done achievements, finished your daily/monthly, or used a tome of knowledge

edit: or possibly exploration bonuses. not sure if pvp maps give xp for the PoI’s in them…

The obvious answer is that there are few reasons not to level your main. GW2 does a decent job of down scaling content you are both going to be fighting at nearly the same capacity no matter where you are in the game.

If you want to enjoy the new areas of the game together, then yes an alt is a fine way to do this. WvW is workable but Edge of the Mists is MUCH better for casual play. Not as exciting but it can be fun.

In gw2 there is no reason to stay within range level of your GF. The system automaticly scale you down if you are in a low level area.
Btw crow pavilon is the best leveling place atm. But dont open the chest until lvl 80.

IsaacMolotov.9675:

EDIT: After more reading I found out that I may be completing dailies, and that is what is giving me world XP from sPVP. Still not sure though.

This is exactly what was happening, you were completing dailys, parts of your monthlys as well, all of which give you xp. Also, you were completing PvP achievements, this being your 1st time in PvP, which give xp too.

Its very hard to avoid gaining xp in GW2!

Btw someone above said WvW was bad for levelling, this depends what WvW server you are on. If your on a bottom tier server, it probably is. However, if like me your on the No. 1 server, then you can easily gain 5 levels per hour, so is actually one of the fastest ways of levelling. I levelled 5-6 characters all the way to 80 in WvW and had great fun doing so.

If you play spvp btw make sure you select a dungeon track to unlock, you can get your exotic equipment for when you reach 80th level, don’t open chest until 80 thou.

You can mail mats, gold to your girlfriend so she can keep up with you equipment wise. To be honest with the way GW2 levelling system works there is no reason to stay the same level as her. GW2 is very different from other MMO’s it greatly encourages working together.