Guild Wars 2

I’m reading everything and zig-zaging around the map. but I’m a bit uncertain of what I should be doing and where I should be going. At about lvl10, my storyline jumped to difficulty 14, and I had explored most of the areas around my starting city … pretty much defining its boundaries. My starting zone, Queensdale, says 1-17, but at lvl12, I can’t find anything else to do. I’ve gotten two professions up to about 50-60, as well. Should I focus on finding all the vistas and WPs (which seems a bit boring) , should I re-do the dynamic tasks —OR-- is the intent that I go to other races’ starting areas and do their quests even if I’m at a reduced level?

make sure that you’re doing all the dynamic events that you come by, they give a rather significant amount of the EXP you’re going to get as you level. heart quest as well. other then that, getting map completion will give you some EXP, and a reward if you 100% the area, you also need 100% total map completion to make a legendary way down the road so you may as well get started on it.

make sure you complete your dailies as well, they give some EXP, a LOT karma, and coins you can use in the mystic forge way down the road.

You can go to other race’s starting areas or craft. Also, it’s good to buy mining,logging,harvesting tools to get mats while exploring. A good fun way to do open world pve is guest on a popular server and join map chat on shout-outs of Dynamic Events which are fun in groups cause they are lively and give good fast exp.

Leveling in Guild Wars 2:

DO WHATEVER YOU FIND INTERESTING.

Everything gives moderate-good XP: events, grinding, quests, story quests, crafting, WvW, exploring (vista/POI/SP).

So basically do whatever looks interesting. That’s it. Get going.

Personally I just do a 100% map explore on each map my story took me. First few maps it will keep you at level with your story, and then soon passing it. I was level 80 by the time my story hit mid-60s. Also helped that I would do any even that popped within radar range.

Short story is that your story missions are NOT enough to get you 80 on their own. Events, hearts, exploration, crafting, pvp, etc all are things that can get you the rest of the way. This game is a flat % based progression, so it’s easy to hit 80. 80 is not end game – by the time you’ve done all of the missions, dungeons, fractals, and story, you would be 80 five times over.

Good luck in your adventures!

Explore and do dynamic events. If you don’t do that you’ll quickly get ahead of the personal story and hearts, which kind of sucks. Make sure to pick up gathering tools and gather everything along the way.

First time around I quit at lvl 10 because I didn’t know what to do and the next heart area was lvl 12. When I came back I set map completion as a goal which led me to many DE’s (mainly because I spending more time wandering).

The lack of DE’s can be a big issue though sometimes. I have gone for well over an hour and explored half a map without a single DE, other times you get them non-stop.

Look around the map for heart quests. If you don’t see any you haven’t completed, look around for spyglass icons to find a scout.

Do any Dynamic events you come across for an easy xp boost. Also, as a warrior (assuming you’re a warrior), get your healing signet ASAP and then get 10 points in the critical chance tree (2nd from the top). Use a few signets (not all signets, but maybe dolyak and the one that boosts endurance regen and heals conditions), and whatever 3rd skill you want.

It’s up to you if you wanna do banners. I don’t like them, prefer shouts and signets, but to each his own.

Good luck!

It is really up to you how you play, but from my experience, the first 20 levels are the “hardest” ones, because you do not have alot of areas to level up if you do not want to go and visit the other starting areas. I would advise you to participate in any ongoing event you see, and even if you are just rushing by, helping a little and then leaving while other people are still there also gets you your gold medal often enough

Another advice is to not neglect your crafting skills, they really help out ALOT. If you try to level up 2 crafting skills until you reach level 80 you will get around 20 levels only with crafting. I would take the armor smith crafting discipline depending on the armor type you are using (light, medium, heavy) and cooking, that way you can always craft one of the best armors for your level by yourself and get exp for it, cooking is really cheap to level up, you get ingredients mostly by opening bags and buying foods in a bulk at karma merchants. You also get some nice buffs from the food while leveling and will be able to craft the omnomberry stuff yourself at level 400, that way you can save some copper and silver in your level 80s.

Also do not forget exploration as they give some nice exp rewards aswell, and always eat some food as they all give you a % exp boost, no matter what food you eat. You can buy it really cheap off the trading post, at npcs or just cook it yourself

As for the build, I would not concentrate on anything special, but I would suggest to take the arms trait that gives you +40 precision for each unused signet and take signets in every slot early. This will give you a great boost in your early levels but will become less effective as you get higher levels. Also try to gather up 10 skill points for your elite skill at level 30

Hope I could help

This is extremely helpful advice! Thanks, all. You went well beyond my question with lots of great tips. I also realized that although I had almost the full rectangle of Queensdale(sp?) done, it was only 80% explored. Even with the best armorsmith gear I can craft and best weapons I can buy, enemies 3 levels higher present a challenge —- Dorothy, you’re not in Goldshire anymore —- lol.

My suggestion is to try the other starting areas, there are lots of skill points within easy reach for your level. It will also give you a head start on map completion.

Early levels your level makes a much bigger difference than your gear. My first character I just ran with what I picked up as I went – cheapest way to level and you’ll be fine. TP overcharges for starter gears, and unless you farm the mats, it’s even more expensive to make it. Once you hit 20, THEN start caring. You can fully equip yourself in greens for a handful of silver, which you should have by then (but don’t forget your trait book at 11!) as that is the first tier crafting level most people who’ve touched crafting reach. From then on crafting tiers are every 15 levels for master (green)/rare (yellow), so your only gap fillers would be random loot or random loot off TP. Fine (Blue) will start being better 10 levels higher, but I admit on my future chars, I just didn’t care and crafted myself rare armor every 15 levels.

As for handling areas, as I said, level means a lot, especially in the beginning. What stomps you 3 levels above, you’ll stomp in 3 levels. If you’re doing 100% explore and events as you run across them, you should have no issue keeping your level with story and zone. If for some reason you don’t, there are multiple zones for every level group (hitting starter zones is a quick way for extra levels and stacking up skill points so you can afford to experiment with utilities), you can craft, you can PvP (you will get leveled up to 80 for it. WvW you used to just get stomped as the scale up didn’t make up for your gear difference… the recent update may have changed that. sPvP and tPvP has its own gear set up and your scale up is less fake, so you can actually compete). Mists (PvP wait room) is also a good place to test out a character as the level up includes traits and skills, plus check out armor.

You never have to ‘grind’ your level in this game – do whatever you enjoy the most and it will fall in your lap.