My Experiences With Leveling And Strategy Guides For Guild Wars 2

So I assume you came to this blog post looking for Guild Wars 2 leveling guides. Fortunately, you came to the right place. There's a lot of false advertising going on, and I'll try to tell you what my experiences with GW2 guides are.

One of the questions I often see asked on GW forums are about the usefulness of leveling or strategy guides. While it sure is a valid question, some players frequently flame others for asking it thinking these guides are only for absolute beginners in the game.

However that's completely untrue. I've read several Guild Wars 2 guides and I can safely say they are useful to both beginners and even advanced players. The content usually found in these leveling guides is not limited to quests and such, but rather they contain a full range of quality strategies and information about the game which is usually a lot better than anything else you can find for free.

So basically, I very much like this game and enjoy playing it, unlike most other MMORPGs I've tried in the past couple of years. It's not overly complicated, but there are a lot of mechanics, stats and ability options and I wanted to know all about each and every one of them. So I went ahead and got myself a Guild Wars 2 guide. And I'm not talking about those free leveling guides for beginners you can find around: this is a very detailed, paid guide which was definitely worth downloading.

I was actually quite surprised  by the amount of content in the strategy guide I got (I'm not going to reveal exactly which guide it is because I want to keep it to myself =p), and didn't regret purchasing it. It had plenty of information about crafting, professions and PvP, but the most important part is that it helped me level up my character faster than I ever thought possible. Just by following the levelling guide inside I was able to easily gain one level per hour MINIMUM which I think it quite impressive. In some areas I was getting almost two levels every hour, and I powerleveled up to the cap within a week.

I suppose I may have missed a few things in the game because I leveled up so fast, but I can always go back and see some areas later. It's even easier to do it on max level with awesome epic gear because I don't have to worry about ganking at all =)

Anyways I won't tell you exactly which guide I was leveling with because you can easily find it yourself, plus these guides always get updated with new content so what may be a top guide this month may not be the best next month. Just take a look at sites like Guild Wars leveling guide and see which ones are best. The reviews and comparisons of all the guides that are available, plus some free ones will surely be enough to help you learn the ins and outs of this game quickly.

Ding 40! And Additional Randomness.

I turned 40 on Khazgar finally last weekend, and I still have the same pants =/. Anyway, I got myself a Tellurian Giantsplitter from the Guild Vault and I’m now in the process of figuring out what I need to do from here. I’m evaluating what stats I need to be stacking, as well as trying to figure out what jewelry I need to be slotting. I’m also looking at different build/tactic combos, currently I’m Trollslayer to Rune of Absorption, and Giantslayer to Violent Impacts. My professions are still below 150, so that’s another thing I need to catch up on.

In other news, Order on Badlands had a great zone flip this past weekend. I say great, because of the level of organization that was required to pull it off. Destro was pushing Reikland really hard, but we were able to hold both Keeps and eventually take and hold all the BO’s and lock the zone. We had a little more than three warbands in Reikland, and we were able to hold off several Destro assaults on all the objectives. We did this by posting a scout on the high cliff at Wilhelm’s Fist, and this scout would watch the Destro warcamp and call out the directions that Destro groups would take out of the camp. 

Using this strategy, we were able to coordinate the different warbands to defend or assault the various objectives. Normally with this many players in a zone, warbands just randomly zerg, but this time players listened to the warband leaders and actually followed orders! It was a great experience, with a hefty chunk of renown, influence and medals for finally locking the zone. After the zone lock, we all rode north to Praag and captured the south keep just to spite Destro. I logged off shortly after this, with a great feeling of realm pride and camaraderie with my fellow players. Good job, Order of Badlands, it was a privilege to fight by your side.

And now that I finally got to level 40 on Khaz, guess what I do next? Yup. I rolled another alt. This time a Warrior Priest. Sigh. This altoholism is definitely a chronic condition. Oh, and I’m sorry I haven’t put up the next book review yet. I ran into a snag, namely, I didn’t have access to the book I was reviewing for about a week, Long story. But not quite as long as the review, which I will post soon. That’s it for now ladies and gents, I will see you guys again soon.

Multiple Characters with Limited Playtime.

I’m nearing 20 on my Slayer, having just hit 18 this morning. I feel sort of bad, since I haven’t been playing my Shadow Warrior lately, being caught up in the Slayer mania. Usually about this time, I start to feel an itch to play an alt. Of course, this is also strongly influenced by the talk in the forums I am a regular poster on. Recently, the topic has shifted to Chosen, and how badass they are.

So now, I’m itching to play a Chosen again. This cycle has already occurred several times, and each time I end up rolling another alt. This accounts for my Witch Hunter, White Lion, Shadow Warrior, Knob, and Warrior Priest. Yes, I know I have a problem. On destro, I had this happen to a much lesser extent. I only seriously tried out a Black Orc, Chosen, Blackguard and Marauder.

I also quit playing characters because of weird, niggling complaints that really mess with me mentally. For example, I quit my Chosen because I didn’t like the way his shield or two-hand sword clipped through his armor. Also, some of the graphical effects turned me off with how “bright” they were. Ravage, for example.

Anyway…I’m rambling again. Back to the erstwhile topic. I really want to rank up both my SW and my Slayer, but I have less time to play. I like to play my Slayer during prime time in the evenings, since the most ORvR goes on around this time. Also, scenario pops are much quicker. So it’s a lot easier to get RvR in between quests. I really want to rank my Slayer up as quickly as possible, so I can play more with my guild at T4.

But I also don’t want my SW to fall by the wayside. From an efficiency standpoint, whichever I play, I need to play at night. I  enjoy the change of pace from melee to ranged. At the same time, I can’t help but feel that I’m not getting the full experience until I hit at least rank 26 or so, when more Mastery abilities are available to me. Sometimes I wish I could skip leveling, if only so I can start trying out all those theroryhammered career builds on wardb. Alas, this can not be the case.

First, I have no interested in powerleveling, and second, WAR is a game that really rewards investment in a single character. It’s no accident that the character you play most ends up with the most tome unlocks, titles, gear and gold.

I guess I’m just overanalyzing this. I should just shut up, play what I feel like, and have fun with the game. It’s the min-maxer in me talking. I guess its because I have less time to play that I want to make the most efficient use of my playtime. This post has rambled enough, so I guess I’ll cut it short for now. If you are still reading this, I thank you.