Please "lock" Level-80 Boosters for new players!

[Constipator.4537]

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > @"Constipator.4537" said:

> > > @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > > > @"Constipator.4537" said:

> > > > This might be a necro but I just wanted to add I just started up and have 0 idea what to do. I boosted my toon to 80 then I don't understand what i'm suppose to do next. This game does a really bad job of familiarizing the player with their abilities via tutorials and instead just kinda throws you into the fire with no direction added as well. I literally understand nothing in this game but i want to play and it looks really interesting but as of this moment i'm pretty turned off because I'm pretty much at square one and stuck in a pitfall.

> > >

> > > and what prevents you from learning?

> >

> > the fact I don't understand what my character's kit entails or how i'm actually suppose to play the toon. granted it is an engineer that i've boosted and from what i've read they are among the three toughest classes to learn in the game. i don't have holosmith unlock so i've been using some build where you use engineering kits, granted i don't know if that build is relevant still or not.

>

> Up until relatively recently engineer was "lots of work for maybe less than or equal results". It required juggling through multiple kits and even then it wasn't the best for damage nor for healing nor for other stuff. With the recent patches the damage is at least somewhere at the top and with the most recent patch it might be great for removing conditions and possibly healing. Perhaps a consequence of being a "jack of all trades, master of none". At least they got rid of/stopped using the "your skills do random things" idea.

>

> > it just seems like there is something i'm missing about this. also i think i'm slowly understanding the game a bit more even though it's not that well explained, for example mastery levels are somewhat like bonus levels and when you have a mastery trait learned you can apply mastery points to learn that trait.

>

> Well you need to level your mastery the same way you would level your character except the mastery exp bar is account wide and mastery exp can only be earned with a lv80. The exp is also region specific. You can only earn core mastery exp in core maps, Maguuma mastery exp in HoT maps and Desert mastery exp in PoF maps.

>

> > Also in order to have gliding you have to have HoT expansion and get to the third chapter or in order to get a mount you have to do the prologue for PoF.

>

> Core was not designed to require mounts or gliding.

>

> > I'm still entirely lost when it comes to the crafting items/professions. I've been saving them up and not really sure what is the most useful for my class.

>

> Armor crafting is pretty simple.

>

> necromancer, mesmer, elementalist - tailor

> thief, engineer, ranger - leatherworker

> warrior, guardian, revanant - armorsmith

>

> core engi - huntsman

> scrapper/holosmith - weaponsmith

>

> you can switch crafting professions without losing progress but it will cost you depending on the level of the profession you are switching to or you can simply level them on 4 characters and have everything covered. The thing to keep in mind is *level them on characters you will not delete* because crafting levels are character bound.

>

> > lastly i've not used any of the temp buff tokens because i'm unsure whether i can make use of them granted how little familiarity or experience i have within the game. should i just save them until i figure it out or do they make a huge difference if i know what i'm doing.

> >

>

> If you mean boosters it depends. Exp/karma/crafting booster you might want to consider the best time to use them but stuff like strength/armor/regen aren't really that impactful. The speed booster is basically irrelevant once you get the class based speed boost trait or utility or a mount.

>

> > Btw are mastery levels shared across all characters? I wasn't sure if it worked like how paragon levels work in D3.

>

> Points are shared because they are from achievements and all achievements are account wide. Masteries levels are also account wide which is why you can use mounts/glide/etc on a low level character.

 

hey, thanks for taking the time to answer all my question. it was a bit tl;dr but i appreciate the answers.

[Bakeneko.5826]

You are asking to lock out no. 1 whale bait... Nit going to happen

[Ashabhi.1365]

I have helped a number of new 80-boost players. I find that they are no more annoying than someone who has been playing a specific style for 5 years and refuses to change, even though the meta has changed and left them behind. Most of the new players I have helped have been extremely willing to learn. The key is to ask. If the person you just asked into your group needs information for an encounter, give it to them instead of rushing headlong into a wipe. A few minutes f explanation can mitigate a long labor of futility.

 

An alternative idea concerning a boost rework would be to make the boost level-related, much like armor and weapons. A good level requirement would be in the 30's to 40's so that the new player has to play through the content before boosting. Heck, even going to 25 before boosting to 80 would be an advantage. That way, low-level maps will be busy again, with new players actually learning the base mechanics (such as simple dodging) before boosting to top-level. Not only that, it takes relatively few hours in game to get to the "mid levels" so the experience wouldn't be excruciatingly painful.

[SleepyGamer.5748]

Trouble with this is you are assuming every new account is a new player, lots of seemingly noob accounts out there are alt accounts who's owners probably have a much better understanding of game mechanics than someone who leveled to 80 with no boosts. What this game needs is a tutorial that can not be skipped past that teaches you how to play, something that a vet will rush through with ease and a new player will learn. As for the more complicated aspects of game play there should be class specific quest lines that teach you how to maximise your skills and trait lines etc...maybe with a title reward that you can wear with pride as proof you know how to play your class.

lets face it by your reasoning why should you be able to boost after getting one char to level 80 just because you can play a warrior doesn't mean you know the mechanics of Mesmer play so why should you get to roll out a noob Mesmer.

[Hindenburg.3415]

So i am a new player.

Read all this "dont use boost and level one to 80 by yourself". Leveled my guardian to 40. What have i learned ? How to run around on map again and again. Thats it.

Nothing about fight/game mechanics , gear progression , vendors , resources , etc. So whats the point ?

 

[Airdive.2613]

Please "lock" the option to uninstall GW 2 for new players. That way they will learn the mechanics and will not skip content.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

> @"Ellisande.5218" said:

> "I've lost track of the number of players who were outright lost and frustrated with their experience in Heart of Thorns and Path Fire."

>

> I'm a veteran returning player who had several 80s under my belt when I tried out Heart of Thorns. It was one of the worst MMO experiences of my life and easily the worst expansion to any game I've ever played. Everything was wrong. It felt like Anet listened to a small niche of players and made an expansion catered specifically to those players and no one else.

>

> New players who try out Heart of Thorns and think that is all of GW2 are likely going to be turned off regardless of whether they used the level 80 boost or not.

>

> The problem with GW2 is that there is no tutorial to teach you the parts of the games that are easy to understand once you know they are there but hard to know that they exist or function that way. It is also extremely hard to gauge what the hell the stats on gear are going to do towards your performance when the stats don't show how they are changing your character in any logical manner. How much is my crit chance being increased with 102 verse 204 ferocity? Why is ferocity called ferocity instead of crit chance?

>

> There is no real difference to playing the game as a fresh 80 verse starting from scratch provided that you aren't starting out in Heart of Thorns maps. A better option would be to ask Anet to restrict players to vanilla GW2 maps or PoF maps UNTIL the player has finished the story in either vanilla GW2 or PoF and only then open up HoT.

 

Hot was to hard for most even pof is too hard for many

[Chemistral.7318]

While unfortunate I don't think there should be a lock. I've met a number of players who just recently came back to GW2 after years of playing (myself included) that didn't remember their account info from 5 years ago. For us the boost helps get get back into the swing of things without having to completely start from scratch. Personally I had level'd an Ele to 80 in the few months after launch. While I like playing Ele I wouldn't want to go through that again. Not because I didn't think it it wasn't fun, but if I'm going to level to 80 naturally it'd be with a new class. The Boost allowed me to essentially continue playing right where I left off. And in suit, start playing a new class entirely.

 

I do believe the item should come with a stronger warning but at the same time we as a community should stress that until new players have a handle on the game we discourage using the boost until they do. At the end of the day it's their choice we can't decide for them.

[Boulder.3589]

You know you can just boost 1 character to 80 and level a second character from scratch to get that levelling experience. As mentioned in above posts, a warning message recommending you to level at least 1 character yourself should be enough. No need to force any one idea down someone's throat. Plenty of new-to-GW2 players are experienced mmo players who can handle a level boost.

[Vivilett.8509]

You can learn mechanics in at level 80 , you are not a good friend

 

The selfish community lol

[Elva.6372]

A bad suggestion for the simple reason that leveling (ie unlocking every little skill/trait/mastery) is not enjoyable for some players, in fact it's one of the least fun aspects of the game for many folk because running round the game world with partial set of skills and other lock outs are not conducive to feeling like you are free to explore. If the progression was organic and more "natural" it would perhaps work -instead it's shoe horned in order to speed bump players and restrict them for various reasons -perhaps ANet likes selling Level 80 Tickets, I've bought my share, 5 or 6 at this point.

 

I say this as a player who played on release on a different account right up to the introduction of Ascendant/Fractal stuff. S I played the game when it was wide open, the only limits were getting devastated by higher zone mobs, but you had all your skills and trait points could be more readily distributed.

 

The game has done so many things right, but in many respects it has failed to take some things to their logical conclusions: Levels need to go away -this game doesn't need them, especially with the current gating system of content locks and mastery points

[Robban.1256]

It still should be something done, cus I see about it either here /gw2reddit or in game from new players every week

[DeadlyBanana.3841]

I started this game alone after doing some research. No friends or no one to guide me. I made my main character and almost intlstantly made another lvl80 character to get my raptor mount. Then left the 80 lvl char and continued on my lower lvl char. Blocking ppl from getting their mount would be very bad for the game. A friend of mine tried starting gw2 but left because he got bored of walking.

[Dashingsteel.3410]

Why do people feel the need to control how other players experience the game? Mind your own business!

 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

> @"Dashingsteel.3410" said:

> Why do people feel the need to control how other players experience the game? Mind your own business!

>

 

When another person shows up and ruins my events and my plans, it quickly becomes my business.

[Dashingsteel.3410]

Leveling to 80 in this game doesn't make a player good. It may keep them out of your events and plans for an extra 3 or 4 weeks but they will not have learned much because this game does not do a good job of teaching players how to play. CC, builds, combos, etc.

[Wildon.7618]

I've played this game off and on for years now. I actually just got a friend to buy the xpacks and try it out today. We sat down and talked over things, went over the classes (I was happy when he chose a ranger for his character as I know its a decently easy class to play in open world), created his character, then used the level 80 boost and went straight over to HoT. Reason we went straight there was he wanted a glider so he didn't feel left behind. Asked him to let me know what equipment/build he was given and gave him a couple tips on skills to change around (Was happy to see it gave him soldier's armor. I felt the power/toughness/vitality combo would work very well for a new player learning the ropes, and the build it gave him was decent to start with as well!)

 

Spent the first 10 minutes or so explaining the basics of the game while doing the various events in silverwastes while working our way towards the start of the HoT prologue. I let him know that we were going to one of the hardest open world areas in the game and to be prepared for a challenge. Was slightly annoying that it didn't let me join him for that quest, but with a little encouragement he got through it. After that we ran the next quest together then it told him to get a glider so off we went to work on the area meta event. I gave him advice as we played and by the time we finished helping out the frog village he was ready to train his glider, had a good grasp of how to play, and had a lot of fun. Next time we play we are going after the raptor! Then we will head back to the core maps to enjoy the storylines proper like. The only issues we had were when he hit a legendary enemy with a stray arrow (Which he knew was a mistake and said we were about to die even before it started fighting back as I had explained enemy difficulties to him. "Oh, that's a veteran, its harder than normal," etc.), and issues with little things like inventory management that I take for granted after playing for a while. Takes me all of 10 seconds to empty my inventory but we had several pauses as I explained things like salvage kits, what to salvage with what kit, the deposit all crafting materials option, and what to sell to the vendor. Combat wise he was taking down wyverns and pocket raptors (vile little ankle biters that they are) before he knew it:P

 

Restricting the level 80 boost from use would have left him sad that he couldn't use the glider or mount as we ran around the core maps getting levels. I got him to try the free to play version once a while back and he thought the game could be fun, but he hated the fact that I could jump off a cliff and glide away while he would splat. I know he would have been more annoyed now that they added mounts to the game. What sold him on it was the fact that he could use that booster to get the glider/mount. Without the boost I don't think he would have been willing to make the plunge (Well, the 25% discount helped too. Thanks for the heads up, reddit!:P).

 

Bit of a long story, but my point is that with a friend in the game the boost is a great item to help the new player get to the areas the newer player might want to see. It also lets them enjoy the glider/mount rather than feeling left out as others fly/ride away.

 

For those inviting friends to join, why don't you take a while and explain the basics and play with them for a day or 2? Doesn't take long to get enough of an understanding to play if you have somebody teaching you. Might just be me, but I couldn't see myself getting a friend to join me in a game like this then just leaving them to their own devices.

 

-----------------------------

 

I can understand brand new solo players taking a wrong turn and being overwhelmed by stumbling into the HoT areas as the level 80 booster sticks you right outside of them.

 

Problem is, as others have mentioned, playing to level 80 in the core maps doesn't teach you the game if you don't want to learn. All it takes to complete the hearts and many events is to right click on an enemy and wait for them to die. If you aren't pushing yourself and fighting hard enemies you don't need to dodge or use your utility skills. I could see requiring a level 20 or so character on your account before allowing the booster to be used, but if you haven't tried to learn the game mechanics by then you are unlikely to learn them by 80. Improving the tutorials can help, but it doesn't solve the issue of the desire to learn. If they don't want to learn, it wont matter if they go to HoT now or a month from now, they will die over and over.

 

Maybe a good solution would be instead of leaving the player in silverwastes after confirming the booster, it should teleport them to their racial home city or lion's arch and make sure that their active quest is set to the personal story. That way they at least cant just run off following the green marker and wind up straight in the HoT areas without spending the time to look up where they are and how to get there. It would also introduce them to the idea of level scaling as the enter the surrounding areas and notice that they don't stomp the enemies with a single hit.

 

I think more games need to go back to the old method of teaching you. Don't have a huge tutorial, just require mastery of a basic element before you can progress. For example, instead of a random chest in the starter zone you have to roll dodge through to loot, have a cave in an early personal story mission that you cant enter unless you roll dodge into it. Next mission you will face an enemy that keeps healing himself until you roll dodge out of the red aoe marker (and can even include an NPC with you telling you to, "Dodge out of the attack now!" each time until the message sinks in). That enemy wont be a threat and will hardly hurt you, just a test to ensure that you understanding rolling out of the red circle is a good thing. Now when the player meets the red circle in combat with a threatening enemy they already know what to do. If they die they look back on the last battle and understand why they died. I think games taught us how to play them a lot better when they just did this rather than cramming a large tutorial at the start then finally letting you join the game proper. (One of my favorite examples of this is Super Metroid, the way it tests you/shows you each new powerup as you pick them up is masterful)

 

Well, thanks to anybody that read through my late night rambling. I'll stop now:P

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

[i'll put it into perspective](

"https://youtube.com/watch?v=OOjXaAZHEQE"). We aren't just talking about players who are new to the game, we are talking about players who are new to games as a concept. There is a lot of minutia that seasoned gamers take for granted. Things like:

 

How to move our character

The "attack" key

Hit points; what they do

Gear

Utilities, and how to change them

Red rings are bad

 

And so on. There is a great deal of learning needed to become familiar with the keyboard, and without that familiarity a person won't get anywhere near concepts like DPS and CCPS.

[DearlyMe.5320]

> @"Hindenburg.3415" said:

> So i am a new player.

> Read all this "dont use boost and level one to 80 by yourself". Leveled my guardian to 40. What have i learned ? How to run around on map again and again. Thats it.

> Nothing about fight/game mechanics , gear progression , vendors , resources , etc. So whats the point ?

>

 

And I'm usually that one person saying "Do what you want, it's your game" because I boosted my first from 13. The leveling is so easy, no, you don't learn much by the time you get to 80 the "natural" way. I learned more after having my freedom on one character than all the others I maxed on my own.

 

If we aren't just talking about seasoned gamers trying to get used to a new game, people new to gaming in general still aren't going to learn everything by the time they max out. I've got a friend who leveled their first "the natural way" and I still don't think they change their skills, build, or gear around. Because the leveling here is so fast, no one is going to learn everything they need to by the time they 80. I know they aren't aware of CC and I'm not sure about trying to teach, since, very true, we do take for granted how complicated gaming can be for those of us who haven't grown up with it. Not sure if they use the Trading Post to sell like I've suggested a few times, either. I do make sure to explain what to do in events I know, since that's not explained very well and I've had to take a few minutes to figure out myself what to do.

 

I've been playing games since the few buttons on a Nintendo controller, they have for a few years. Locking people from the booster isn't going to do much. The game tosses a lot at you to learn in a short time and people don't all learn at the same pace.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

I am not a fan of handing out boosters here as well, but I think the core problem is the following: vanilla maps are a joke and HoT maps are unforgiving. There is no middle ground and I don't get why they don't alter the damage output of some HoT enemies. I personally had not a bad time, liked it. But I understand that some enemies are dishing out ridiculously high damage and this HoT 'barrier' is still up: new players going to HoT maps have a bad time and they never changed that.

[mercury ranique.2170]

I used a level 80 booster on my second account. I think that is enough reason to not lock them for new players. You never know if they are really new. Just that someone uses a new account, doesnt mean the person behind it is new.

[robertthebard.8150]

Just a few random observations here, from someone that's new here, but has been around for a long while:

 

1. Leveling to cap, in any MMO, does not mean you know how to play. Judging by what I've observed here leveling up the natural way, I could see getting to 80 five or six times for some people and still not having a clue. I've seen plenty of players over the last couple of decades that were level capped on multiple toons and still sucked at the game. Some of the worst players I met in swtor, for example, had the Founder title, meaning they'd been there since launch, and still couldn't play.

 

2. Then there's the "carried to cap" players, that were there from 1 to cap, no boosters, but they may as well have been boosted, based on their lack of skill, and again, I'll point to swtor for an experience I had, where a player was all worried about the healer's HP, but didn't know to move out of that dreaded red circle, despite having top tier raid gear. How'd they get that? They were either carried, or bought their account, right? How else, on a toon that was at cap before there were boosters not know to move out of harm's way?

 

All of that to say that, despite how elite one may feel for reaching cap organically, that doesn't mean they learned anything along the way. It also doesn't cover another point that was made in this thread; what about the players that decided to make a second, or third account? I have 3 accounts in DDO, for example. So no, putting a "you must be this tall to ride this ride" sign on the boosters isn't a good idea. A better idea would be a tutorial that they can't skip after using one, that went through some of the basic mechanics, taught 'em how to change their skills around, showed them weapon sets, etc. Much better than selling them boosts and then not letting them use them, that's just asking for more serious problems than "but I don't want to explain how this fight works, so they shouldn't be allowed to play with me".

 

[jbrother.1340]

> @"Hindenburg.3415" said:

> So i am a new player.

> Read all this "dont use boost and level one to 80 by yourself". Leveled my guardian to 40. What have i learned ? How to run around on map again and again. Thats it.

> Nothing about fight/game mechanics , gear progression , vendors , resources , etc. So whats the point ?

>

 

You really should ignore the rants of these people and those here who think they know best for you and just go ahead and do what you want instead.

 

You will learn the game just as fast boosting yourself and playing as opposed to just playing from 1. You will still have to go back and run through early content and other areas if you want mats and other stuff. If you want to learn that is all it takes is just play the game read a little and experiment.

 

There was no point even to this thread other than some here think they know best for all.

 

If you buy something it is simple. If the vendor takes your money then puts artificial barriers in place to using it it reduces the number of customers once the public finds out. I cannot see how that helps this game?

[SoulSin.5682]

> @"jbrother.1340" said:

> If you buy something it is simple. If the vendor takes your money then puts artificial barriers in place to using it it reduces the number of customers once the public finds out. I cannot see how that helps this game?

 

That's a pretty narrow way of thinking. Not every product or service is made for the masses to enjoy. Sometimes products are made for niches of community's that seek a certain kind of experience that they won't find on "Popular-products" since those are simplified so that anyone can enjoy it.

 

MMOs as a genre originally appeared for gamers that wanted to play online with other players in a broad world. You, *slownly*, grind up your character levels and equipment, watching him getting stronger and complete more challenging events. This is why the MMo genre has grind as part of its nature.

Answering your questions, most avid MMo players expect that kind of experience. For those who don't, no worries, that means they simply don't enjoy the MMo genre just like some people don't enjoy playing FPS or puzzle games. There is nothing wrong here.

 

 

 

The point of the lvl 80 booster on MMos is that the devs understand that most players don't enjoy the GRIND. But as a company you still need to improve their playerbase and sell the game.

So in a way to bring those people to the game they developed this "trap" that places in at endgame. There is no boring grind anymore! Enjoy the game! Or Not! Doesn't matter, we already have your money!

 

The great majority of the new players that boost their character will never reach the hundred hour mark in the game. Even less will reach the 1000 hour mark.

Those were the same players that would prolly drop the game before reaching lvl 80 the normal way. The booster is just a illusion that sells more, telling people that without the "grind" they will enjoy the game. *It's a marketing move*.

 

 

"Try grinding to 80 normally" means more than just telling you to play a long tutorial. It's the same as telling the players "to play the game normally and test if you enjoy the grind, because if you don't enjoy it your are mostly bound to quit the game either way".

(and GW2 grind from 1 to 80 is really fast. Some older MMos takes hours of grind to get a mere 1% exp that you can lose on death. GW2 is already casual enough without the booster).

[zealex.9410]

> @"Shirlias.8104" said:

> What you suggest may be right, but also could be perceived really bad by somebody who purchased the game.

>

> A friend ask another friend to come to gw2 to play together.

> The friend is not sure cause he doesn't like to lvl up in another mmo, but hey there's a boost lvl cap!

> So the friend tries but he's stuck to use the boost till 1000 ap ( which are nothing to me... combo fields, mechanics, attack glitches and so on can be learned through hours of playing, and could not be necessarily related to the number of achies ).

>

> Also what about a solo player?

> If you buy the game you'll have a boost! But you can only use it after hours of playing!

>

> Though i pretty understand and share your thoughts, i am not sure about the solution you propose.

 

You know what its not my perception tho? Ppl having no idea what their class does.