leveling time 1 to 80

[Drex.1058]

very new to the game, coming from WoW, where you can get to max level in a very short time. i play 2 to 3 hrs a day at most

so my questions are, how much time to do a single zone? if you did 1 zone a day, how many zones till you hit 80? does difficulty scale as you get to higher zones?

reason i ask about difficulty is becuz there isnt much of a rotation just doing the pve content in the starter zone

[Chay.7852]

If you are leveling your first character, take your time to level like... learn your proffesion and its mechanics, learn the world which is beautifull :) - take time to smell the flowers^^ dont just rush through everything ;) IMO there is nothing nicer in a rpg (mmo or single player) than leveling your first character and discovering the game and its world.

But if you plan to reach lvl 80 as soon as possible, well.. then complete maps (everything gives you xp - exploration, remember that rezing dead npcs might give you even more xp than killing enemies, do the events you see nearby, gather - very important cause it gives you xp and brings you "money") play your story which you can every 10 levels and do some crafting.

Edit:// Use consumables - food and utilities which give you 10 - 15% more exp - means together up to 25% and the xp booster you get while playing your story.

 

I can't tell you for sure how long will you need to explore one map - it really depends on how much you are skipping and how good you know it. Sometimes you will need longer to find the way to a vista for example while next time you might find it immediatly. Ofc you shouldn't stay in the starter zone. But try to stay in your level range. Don't go to maps which have a much higher level than your own because you are going to need longer to kill stuff.

 

Generaly speaking, you can level very fast in GW2 compared to other games.

[Hannelore.8153]

I levelled to 80 many times using just map completion with no boosters, and I always capped at around 30% world completion.

 

In the core game, also known as Central Tyria, there are six lands to play (Kryta, Maguuma, Ascalon, Shiverpeaks, Orr and Maguuma Wastes). Four of these are immediately accessible to low-level characters, either by having the waypoints automatically unlocked in F2P version, or by going through Lion's Arch from any major city in the B2P version, and from these you can access a huge world for plenty of experience.

 

Difficulty scales and you won't be able to hurt any enemies 10+ levels above you, and may struggle before that. If you're looking to powerlevel then condition (DoT) builds work better than power (physical) builds on overlevelled mobs, and yellow (passive) give more XP than red (hostile).

 

Being lower level will also draw more aggro to you from a higher range, sometimes miles.

 

If you want to speed level then get a guild. they can equip you with leveling boosts, and tell you about all the different sources of XP. Then they can take you into dungeons where you get 70% of your level just from a single run (at least, back in the day - dunno how it is now).

 

Leveling becomes exponentially faster on future alts as accounts in GW2 tend to build up prestige over time. This is contrary to most other games where you must start over on every single character--if you play long enough, you'll even be able to start insta-80ing your alts.

[mercury ranique.2170]

A few remarks.

You say you miss rotation on the first map. In gw2 literally everything gives xp. So you can do the boring hearts, like I assume you did, bit there is so much more.do the events you see. Knock on doors. Explore caves. Pick up that troll stone. Gw2 is not taking your hand like wow. It gives you a lot of of options. So forget about levelling fast and start doing whatever you want and enjoy.

You are not the hero tyria wants you to be, you are the hero tyria needs cause you are enjoying yourself.

[Danikat.8537]

There isn't really a set answer to this. Especially because one of the major sources of XP in GW2 are Dynamic Events ('quests' that start randomly, with orange text and markers) and how many of them you encounter, how many enemies you'll fight during them and how much of the event you choose to participate in will vary each time. It's possible to gain a level in under a minute if you do an event which spawns lots of enemies with lots of other people so it scales up and spawns even more enemies, and you're completing a heart quest at the same time. Or that same level might take 5 minutes if you're doing something else.

 

I know some people reached level 80 in about 3 days when the game first came out, so that was without using Tomes of Knowledge or other shortcuts. It typically takes me about 130 hours, but I don't try to rush it. I imagine most people can do it faster than that.

 

But my advice would be: forget everything you know from WoW, it will only confuse you. There is no reason to rush to the max level in this game, because there's nothing fundamentally different you can do once you get there. There's also very little guidance on what to do at level 80 because you're supposed to have learned as you're going along, so if you rush through the early levels you'll just end up lost. If you want to play PvP or WvW there's no need to level up in PvE first, you can just go and do it. Dungeons start from level 30 and raids are basically just dungeons with bigger groups so although it's not a requirement it's a good idea to do the dungeons first. If you want to play through the story it's a good idea to do your Personal Story first (starts at level 10, goes up to level 80) as the other storylines follow on from that. And if you just want to explore the world then that's what you're currently trying to skip through, so you're actually defeating your own purpose.

 

Basically stop trying to rush to max level so you can start playing the game, and just get on with playing it.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

Remember also that even low-level zones are relevant at max level, due to downscaling - a couple World Bosses (large scale events) oftwn done by lvl 80s take place in the lvl 1-15 zones! (None of the hardest ones of course, as that would be a bit brutal to actual new players stumbling into them, but they're still good!)

[Loosmaster.8263]

The quickest I've found and use when helping fellow guildies.

1: Use XP booster when possible.

2: Map exploration. Open waypoint, vistas and PoI's. Save the hearts for later unless they're quick ones.

3: Hit any dynamic events that pop up.

4: Get into maps that are 3-5 levels above you.

5: Personal story offers a lot. Can go quicker if you party up. Use LFG if you can.

[hostyle.4871]

 

Had to answer your questions, as people can't seem to read.

 

1. how much time to do a single zone? - You can scoot thru a single zone in 5 minutes only completing what you want to or you can take multiple hours and do everything.

2. how many zones till you hit 80? - There are 5 different level 1-15 zones and 4 different 15-25, and 1 to 2 zones for each leveling range thereafter totaling 25 zones until the level 80 ones.

3. does difficulty scale as you get to higher zones? - Difficulty does scale, you will find your progress slowed or stalled completely if you're in a zone to high level for you, but you can go and enjoy the lower level zones as you will be scaled down.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"mercury ranique.2170" said:

> Pick up that troll stone.

 

This advice makes me giggle a bit because I remember the first time I saw someone do that. It was Beta Weekend 2, I think, maybe BWE3, and the someone was my wife's engineer. Also in the cave was my guardian and ...

 

Let's just say that it did not end well for either of us.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Drex.1058" said:

> very new to the game, coming from WoW, where you can get to max level in a very short time. i play 2 to 3 hrs a day at most

> so my questions are, how much time to do a single zone? if you did 1 zone a day, how many zones till you hit 80? does difficulty scale as you get to higher zones?

> reason i ask about difficulty is becuz there isnt much of a rotation just doing the pve content in the starter zone

 

1) If you follow one of the map completion routes and rush through them, you can generally finish a map in an average of 90 minutes.

 

2) You’ll have to do most of the core Tyria ones in order to hit level 80.

 

3) Each map has a level range which you can see when viewing the world map. Difficulty is fairly consistent until you hit the maps added since launch (DryTop, Silverwastes, expansion maps, etc).

[crepuscular.9047]

Everything in this game gives you EXP, include crafting... just by maxing out a crafting discipline (500) will get you from level 2 to 40+

 

doing Personal Story will give you the most EXP from my experience

 

if you get a bit bored of personal story or exploring, look up LFG > World Boss section for World Boss Trains, which gives a decent amount of EXP per world boss event chain

 

> @"Drex.1058" said:

> how much time to do a single zone?

depends on the zone size, they dont come equal in size

2-3 hours can get 1 zone and a bit more done.

 

> @"Drex.1058" said:

> if you did 1 zone a day, how many zones till you hit 80?

been too long, think my first toon took me close to 2 weeks because i kept on dying

 

> @"Drex.1058" said:

> does difficulty scale as you get to higher zones?

yes, but there really isnt much point as dont get that much exp, and you probably die from 1 or 2 hits

 

 

 

 

[No One.3716]

> @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> Everything in this game gives you EXP, include crafting... just by maxing out a crafting discipline (500) will get you from level 2 to 40+

>

"Leveling a crafting discipline to 500 is equivalent to gaining 10 levels, while leveling to 400 gains approximately 7 levels."

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

[Nyion.6057]

> @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> Everything in this game gives you EXP, include crafting... just by maxing out a crafting discipline (500) will get you from level 2 to 40+

>

 

Jumping to death from highest point is not among the things that are rewarded with EXP. I've checked that one!

[Turkeyspit.3965]

As someone who just started a few months ago, my advice is to just follow your Personal Story from zone to zone. New chapters of personal story get unlocked every 10 levels, so if after you've finished the latest chapter and you're only LV 27, just finish events or hearts(quests) in the zone you're in until you hit 30, and then keep going.

 

This way you never have to deal with "what do I do / where do I go". And trust me, it's very hard to focus on just the personal story - I guarantee you will get roped into dynamic events, world bosses, or just collecting vistas, points of interests and jumping puzzles.

 

You'll find the difficulty will ramp up a bit in the LV 60's zones, and in the last few chapters of personal story, but all is quite easy compared to WoW. Once you set foot into the 1st expansion though, Heart of Thorns, the PvE difficulty hits near Mythic Heroic levels very quickly, and many events require additional players to help.

[Biff.5312]

You don't really clear zones when levelling (I mean, you CAN, but I wouldn't). Better to follow your story. It will level you about halfway up each 10 level mark, and for the rest, go around collecting waypoints and hero points. If you're looking to reach 80 in minimum time, I'd say about a week at 2-3 hours a day.

[crepuscular.9047]

> @"Nyion.6057" said:

> > @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> > Everything in this game gives you EXP, include crafting... just by maxing out a crafting discipline (500) will get you from level 2 to 40+

> >

>

> Jumping to death from highest point is not among the things that are rewarded with EXP. I've checked that one!

 

well, obviously, because you are dead... but you do get EXP for giving mouth-to-mouth to the idiots decided not to bring a parachute to base jumping.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"No One.3716" said:

> > @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> > Everything in this game gives you EXP, include crafting... just by maxing out a crafting discipline (500) will get you from level 2 to 40+

> >

> "Leveling a crafting discipline to 500 is equivalent to gaining 10 levels, while leveling to 400 gains approximately 7 levels."

> https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

 

I levelled one character from 2 to *18* merely by training Chef from "just learned it" to 400.

 

The character did the Shaemoor instance at human start, ran inside Divinity's Reach, learned to cook, and cheffed until she got 400. She was level 18 at that point.

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"Steve The Cynic.3217" said:

> > @"No One.3716" said:

> > > @"crepuscular.9047" said:

> > > Everything in this game gives you EXP, include crafting... just by maxing out a crafting discipline (500) will get you from level 2 to 40+

> > >

> > "Leveling a crafting discipline to 500 is equivalent to gaining 10 levels, while leveling to 400 gains approximately 7 levels."

> > https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting

>

> I levelled one character from 2 to *18* merely by training Chef from "just learned it" to 400.

>

> The character did the Shaemoor instance at human start, ran inside Divinity's Reach, learned to cook, and cheffed until she got 400. She was level 18 at that point.

 

I'd guess there was some sort of XP boost in effect at the time, because otherwise you are describing what would be a "bug", in the sense that it is not working as designed. However, with an appropriate boost I believe you can increase the gain per "rank" in crafting disciplines.