Post by Quinn Winters on Apr 29, 2013 20:08:43 GMT -5
Leveling in Guild Wars 2 is pretty quick compared to most mmo's. Through normal play you can reach the max level of 80 in just under a month. Some people just don't want to wait that long though, so the purpose of this guide is to help those people to level faster. With a lot of gold on hand you can reach 80 within a few hours. With the right methods and very little to no money you can reach 80 in about 3 days.
There are several ways in which you can increase the rate of leveling a character in Guild Wars 2. Most of the methods do not require much other than effort, but the crafting method will cost money.
Boons:
Boons are Guild Wars 2's version of buffs / bonuses. There is a large assortment of various types of boons you can acquire and most of them are pretty easy to get. There are potions, food, sharpening stones, guild banners, guild bonuses, world vs world bonuses, bonfires, and booster consumables.
Food, Potions and Sharpening Stones:
Any time you're going to be killing enemies you should have at least two boons on you - One from food or a potion, another from a Sharpening Stone. Each of these two items can be purchased on the Trading Post for just a few copper to, depending on level, a few silver. When both are active on your character you will get +20 experience per kill.
Food and potions are more or less the same thing. They each take up the same boon slot on your character so you can only be under the effect of one or the other at any given time. Every food or potion will give you +10 experience from kills.
There are other effects that vary from item to item. If you have the money, choose one on which the other effects will help you. Your primary goal however is that +10 experience from kills, so it doesn't matter what the food or potion is actually focused on. You could drink a Centaur slaying potion with no intention of slaying Centaurs - you're just drinking it for the +10 experience from kills. With that in mind, if you don't have much money, go for the cheapest food or potion you can find on the Trading Post.
Sharpening Stones take up a separate boon slot from food and potions. A Sharpening Stone gives you power equal to a percentage of your toughness and +10 experience from kills.
There are several levels of Sharpening Stone, each tier up giving the power / toughness ratio a higher percentage. The +10 experience from kills remains the same on each tier. With that in mind, as with food and potions, if you don't have much money, go for the cheapest tier of Sharpening Stone you can find on the Trading Post, which will be Rough Sharpening Stones.
Guild Banners:
There are many different types of Guild Banners, all granting various boons. Anyone can claim the bonuses regardless of which guild placed the banner. Banners last for one hour after being placed, and the boons you receive from them last for thirty minutes. When the boons wears off you can go back to the banners to get them again. Boons from banners do not stack.
The banners you'll want to look out for while leveling are Experience Banners, though you'll want to grab any others you run across as well.
Guild Bonuses:
Guild Bonuses are similar to Guild Banners except they are passive. Guild officers build and activate them in the guild upgrades panel. You can always see what bonuses the guild currently has active by hovering over the shield icon at the top of the screen. While you can't control what bonuses you'll have in this manner, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on it to know when you should be putting more focus on one thing or another.
World vs World Bonuses:
Similar to Guild Bonuses, these are also passive. The better our server does in World vs World, the more bonuses we have. Hovering over the castle icon at the top of the screen will show you the current World vs World bonuses. These bonuses work for the entirety of PvE, not just in World vs World. As with Guild Bonuses, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on which bonuses you're currently getting from World vs World.
Communal Boost Bonfires:
Communal Boost Bonfires work much like guild banners do, except there are only three varieties - Magic Find, Experience, and Karma. Use these whenever you see them. They give a very large bonus compared to banners.
Booster Consumables:
Booster Consumables are found in Black Lion Chests, sometimes given with a daily or monthly reward, and purchased on the Trading Post. There are many varieties, but the one to focus on for leveling is the experience booster. Don't use it just anywhere though! Wait until you're going to be doing a long event chain or World vs World zerging so you get the most out of the hour the booster gives you.
Personal Story:
The personal story is by far the best way to quickly level your character, crafting aside. You will get more experience from this than anything else. Keep an eye on what the current level of your story is and keep up with it. You will have times where you can't do the next bit of your personal story because it's several levels above you. It's during these times that you should be working on zone completion and World vs World.
Zone Completion:
After personal story, zone completion comes in second for most experience gained. Zone completion requires getting every waypoint, point of interest, vista and renown heart discovered and/or completed. If you're the correct level and work in a grid pattern you should be able to complete any zone in just a few hours. Zone completion also gives good rewards in addition to experience.
To get zone completion experience faster, go for the major cities first. They don't have mobs or renown hearts to deal with so they can be completed very quickly. They're also all easily accessible via the Lions Arch Gate Hub.
Resource Nodes:
Resource Nodes in Guild Wars 2 give experience. Any time you run across a plant, tree or mining vein, stop to harvest or mine it. It doesn't take much time and all those bits of experience add up. You'll also make money selling what you've gathered!
World vs World:
By far the fastest way to level outside of crafting and personal story, this is the way to power level. You can enter World vs World almost right after you start a new character and it scales you to 80.
You won't be as powerful as a real level 80 so don't go getting into small skirmishes, you'll likely just die. Instead find a commander who's leading a zerg and stay right on top of him/her. See the guide on World vs World for more detailed information on this strategy. (draw.boards.net/index.cgi?board=tutorials&action=display&thread=8)
Crafting:
Crafting takes a lot of money, but it will level you faster than anything else in the game. Each crafting profession will give you 10 levels of experience if you level it to 400. This means that, given that there are 8 crafting professions, with enough money, you can level a character to 80 purely by crafting. Additional levels can be gained by using a crafting booster.
Using a guide to level crafting is essential. Don't just start making things! The guides are written in a way that every last thing you craft, you will use to craft something else (with the exception of end-product items). This ensures the maximum experience gain for the money spent.
The cheapest crafting profession to level is Jewelcrafting, which takes around 4 gold to level to 400. Most crafting professions take around 8 gold to fully level.
Summary:
Putting all of these experience gaining methods together it's possible to reach level 80 in 3 days. Here's how it's done:
This method will get you to 80 very quickly, but it will rob you of the joy of exploring most of the zones while they're the appropriate level for your character. Consider that before embarking on power leveling.
Useful Links:
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Potion
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rough_Sharpening_Stone
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_banner#Economy
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Communal_Boost_Bonfire
draw.boards.net/index.cgi?board=tutorials&action=display&thread=8
There are several ways in which you can increase the rate of leveling a character in Guild Wars 2. Most of the methods do not require much other than effort, but the crafting method will cost money.
Boons:
Boons are Guild Wars 2's version of buffs / bonuses. There is a large assortment of various types of boons you can acquire and most of them are pretty easy to get. There are potions, food, sharpening stones, guild banners, guild bonuses, world vs world bonuses, bonfires, and booster consumables.
Food, Potions and Sharpening Stones:
Any time you're going to be killing enemies you should have at least two boons on you - One from food or a potion, another from a Sharpening Stone. Each of these two items can be purchased on the Trading Post for just a few copper to, depending on level, a few silver. When both are active on your character you will get +20 experience per kill.
Food and potions are more or less the same thing. They each take up the same boon slot on your character so you can only be under the effect of one or the other at any given time. Every food or potion will give you +10 experience from kills.
There are other effects that vary from item to item. If you have the money, choose one on which the other effects will help you. Your primary goal however is that +10 experience from kills, so it doesn't matter what the food or potion is actually focused on. You could drink a Centaur slaying potion with no intention of slaying Centaurs - you're just drinking it for the +10 experience from kills. With that in mind, if you don't have much money, go for the cheapest food or potion you can find on the Trading Post.
Sharpening Stones take up a separate boon slot from food and potions. A Sharpening Stone gives you power equal to a percentage of your toughness and +10 experience from kills.
There are several levels of Sharpening Stone, each tier up giving the power / toughness ratio a higher percentage. The +10 experience from kills remains the same on each tier. With that in mind, as with food and potions, if you don't have much money, go for the cheapest tier of Sharpening Stone you can find on the Trading Post, which will be Rough Sharpening Stones.
Guild Banners:
There are many different types of Guild Banners, all granting various boons. Anyone can claim the bonuses regardless of which guild placed the banner. Banners last for one hour after being placed, and the boons you receive from them last for thirty minutes. When the boons wears off you can go back to the banners to get them again. Boons from banners do not stack.
The banners you'll want to look out for while leveling are Experience Banners, though you'll want to grab any others you run across as well.
Guild Bonuses:
Guild Bonuses are similar to Guild Banners except they are passive. Guild officers build and activate them in the guild upgrades panel. You can always see what bonuses the guild currently has active by hovering over the shield icon at the top of the screen. While you can't control what bonuses you'll have in this manner, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on it to know when you should be putting more focus on one thing or another.
World vs World Bonuses:
Similar to Guild Bonuses, these are also passive. The better our server does in World vs World, the more bonuses we have. Hovering over the castle icon at the top of the screen will show you the current World vs World bonuses. These bonuses work for the entirety of PvE, not just in World vs World. As with Guild Bonuses, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on which bonuses you're currently getting from World vs World.
Communal Boost Bonfires:
Communal Boost Bonfires work much like guild banners do, except there are only three varieties - Magic Find, Experience, and Karma. Use these whenever you see them. They give a very large bonus compared to banners.
Booster Consumables:
Booster Consumables are found in Black Lion Chests, sometimes given with a daily or monthly reward, and purchased on the Trading Post. There are many varieties, but the one to focus on for leveling is the experience booster. Don't use it just anywhere though! Wait until you're going to be doing a long event chain or World vs World zerging so you get the most out of the hour the booster gives you.
Personal Story:
The personal story is by far the best way to quickly level your character, crafting aside. You will get more experience from this than anything else. Keep an eye on what the current level of your story is and keep up with it. You will have times where you can't do the next bit of your personal story because it's several levels above you. It's during these times that you should be working on zone completion and World vs World.
Zone Completion:
After personal story, zone completion comes in second for most experience gained. Zone completion requires getting every waypoint, point of interest, vista and renown heart discovered and/or completed. If you're the correct level and work in a grid pattern you should be able to complete any zone in just a few hours. Zone completion also gives good rewards in addition to experience.
To get zone completion experience faster, go for the major cities first. They don't have mobs or renown hearts to deal with so they can be completed very quickly. They're also all easily accessible via the Lions Arch Gate Hub.
Resource Nodes:
Resource Nodes in Guild Wars 2 give experience. Any time you run across a plant, tree or mining vein, stop to harvest or mine it. It doesn't take much time and all those bits of experience add up. You'll also make money selling what you've gathered!
World vs World:
By far the fastest way to level outside of crafting and personal story, this is the way to power level. You can enter World vs World almost right after you start a new character and it scales you to 80.
You won't be as powerful as a real level 80 so don't go getting into small skirmishes, you'll likely just die. Instead find a commander who's leading a zerg and stay right on top of him/her. See the guide on World vs World for more detailed information on this strategy. (draw.boards.net/index.cgi?board=tutorials&action=display&thread=8)
Crafting:
Crafting takes a lot of money, but it will level you faster than anything else in the game. Each crafting profession will give you 10 levels of experience if you level it to 400. This means that, given that there are 8 crafting professions, with enough money, you can level a character to 80 purely by crafting. Additional levels can be gained by using a crafting booster.
Using a guide to level crafting is essential. Don't just start making things! The guides are written in a way that every last thing you craft, you will use to craft something else (with the exception of end-product items). This ensures the maximum experience gain for the money spent.
The cheapest crafting profession to level is Jewelcrafting, which takes around 4 gold to level to 400. Most crafting professions take around 8 gold to fully level.
Summary:
Putting all of these experience gaining methods together it's possible to reach level 80 in 3 days. Here's how it's done:
- Do your personal story until you're too low level for it.
- Complete the zone you started in. (Keep up with that personal story if you catch up!)
- Go to World vs World and run with the zerg.
- When you're exhausted from running with the zerg, head to Lions Arch and explore it.
- Go back to World vs World and run with the zerg. (Still watching that personal story level?)
- When you're exhausted again go back to Lions Arch to the Gate Hub Plaza and start exploring each of the major cities.
- Once you've got 4 gold or so (you are selling all your loot on the trading post aren't you?), find an online guide and level Jewelcrafting to 400.
- Go back to World vs World. (Caught up on your story?)
- Explore another zone, you're likely high enough level now that you can breeze through low level zones.
- Repeat the World vs World / Story / Zone Completion method until you reach 80.
This method will get you to 80 very quickly, but it will rob you of the joy of exploring most of the zones while they're the appropriate level for your character. Consider that before embarking on power leveling.
Useful Links:
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Potion
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rough_Sharpening_Stone
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_banner#Economy
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Communal_Boost_Bonfire
draw.boards.net/index.cgi?board=tutorials&action=display&thread=8
