So I came into GW2 really excited and so far it had it's fair share of ups and downs.

Basically I'm level 16..or maybe 15? I've 100% explored my starting area. I do armor and weaponsmithing and I think my weapon smith skill is like 12ish. So I'm too low level to do my next personal story quest and I'm just not sure where to go from this point on.

Do I go into the next level range that is 15-whatever and just kill mobs and do hearts? In the starting area mobs gave trash experience and were not even worth the time to stop for them. Unless you just really like the grind. Am I to just go do more hearts in that next area? When I entered it there were a ton of level 24 doods right outside the fog gate and they kinda owned me.

I'm just not quite sure where to go from here. Worst of all I don't see how playing with friends is any different than playing solo. Everything seems very individual. When were doing a heart we don't share the stats - everyone does it individually.

At this point I just went to Lions Arch, or whatever that non-combat area with the Asura Gates is called, and just started doing all the exploration there before I realized I'm pressing R on my keyboard and just checking things off on a list. Tried some PVP stuff - the Mists variety no WvW and it was ok I guess but since that levels separately from my regular levels I didn't see the benefit of doing it since the combat itself is not satisfying enough.

So Bombers - what do you do? Maybe GW2 is just not the game for me but maybe I'm just missing the big picture and someone can illuminate me.

Go into the next area, because you should be adequately equipped to fare there and get lots of experience. I don't know why there were level 24 mobs there, maybe you went to the wrong area?

Or you could travel to another of the races starter areas. You'll get lots of experience for exploring, and still get crafting mats appropriate to your level.

First off killing mobs is a bad way to get experience, no matter which zone you're in. Atleast in my experience you don't get much from them. I would say maybe do some crafting, you get good experience from that. If you're 15-16 you should be able to get started on a 15-25 zone or whatever the next is, otherwise you can go and do the starting area for another race. I find exploring cities and zones to be the best (and most fun) way of leveling, just explore an area, find POI, get the vistas, participate in events, do the hearts if they aren't too tedious. Then again if you don't find the game very fun then maybe it's just not for you.

There are no breadcrumb quests that lead you to a new zone? It seems such a smart convention.

World v World it. The exp is great, the items drop to your characters level, the karma points keep flowing and it's hella fun.

@Tennmuerti: Your personal story will do that to some extent. You still need to go off the beaten path a bit though.

I haven't had a problem yet. The first thing I did was go and explore all the different races' cities and got to level 8 just off of that. Combining that with 100% Queensdale, I got to almost 18 before I moved to the second area.

I've heard going to other starting areas works. All the experience is scaled so it still works just fine for high levels. Crafting is also supposed to be very abundant with the experience.

@Humanity: Couple points:

1. You seem real focused on hearts. It's a problem that a lot people ran into during the beta. They do some heart jumping and complain that they're underleveled for everything. What you have to realize is that hearts are worth trash XP and can only be filled up once. The meat of the game is the dynamic event system; it gives XP, money, and karma--and the XP gain is only rivaled by the personal story quests. Go exploring the world, you'll surely run into stuff that you haven't seen and it's probably all spectacular. It really does work: I'm level 40 and I'm currently at around level 25 content because I'm dinging too fast. Pretend hearts don't exist and you'll have a better time. Their only purpose is to move you around a zone and try to run you into some dynamic events.
2. SPVP is worth glory, but WvW is worth XP (and in turn, some glory, IIRC). So jump into WvW if you like PVP. In beta, it actually leveled me faster than PVE.
3. You seem a bit behind on your crafting for your level. Go explore some caves and gather up some materials; I'd also recommend grabbing two crafting professions that don't share the same core resource (ore, in this case). It'll really slow you down.
4. Your level scales down to content and your rewards scale up to level. What does this mean? Go to explore other starting zones. You'll catch up on your ore, gain a ton of experience, and get to enjoy a whole new brand of scenery. It's the same thing you do in other MMOs, right? I distinctly remember making the transition from Westfall to Darkshore to get my level up to something appropriate for Redridge without resorting to mob grinding.
5. The game has a very anti-grind design philosophy. As such, you're very correct: mobs give you nothing. Don't even try it unless you're looking for crafting materials.

Go do the other races' starting zones.

Also see if anyone in the guild can hit you up with some food. I cook a load of lemon tarts that grant an extra 10exp per kill for half an hour, which is often doubling the amount of exp I get per mob. It's awesome.

@project343 said:

@Humanity: Couple points:

1. You seem real focused on hearts. It's a problem that most people ran into during the beta. They do some heart jumping and complain that they're underleveled for everything. What you have to realize is that hearts are worth trash XP and can only be filled up once. The meat of the game is the dynamic event system; it gives XP, money, and karma--and the XP gain is only rivaled by the personal story quests. Go exploring the world, you'll surely run into stuff that you haven't seen and it's probably all spectacular. It really does work: I'm level 40 and I'm currently at around level 25 content because I'm dinging too fast. Pretend hearts don't exist and you'll have a better time. Their only purpose is to move you around a zone and try to run you into some dynamic events.
2. SPVP is worth glory, but WvW is worth XP (and in turn, some glory, IIRC). So jump into WvW if you like PVP. In beta, it actually leveled me faster than PVE.
3. You seem a bit behind on your crafting for your level. Go explore some caves and gather up some materials; I'd also recommend grabbing two crafting professions that don't share the same core resource (ore, in this case). It'll really slow you down.
4. Your level scales down to content and your rewards scale up to level. What does this mean? Go to explore other starting zones. You'll catch up on your ore, gain a ton of experience, and get to enjoy a whole new brand of scenery. It's the same thing you do in other MMOs, right? I distinctly remember making the transition from Westfall to Darkshore to get my level up to something appropriate for Redridge without resorting to mob grinding.
5. The game has a very anti-grind design philosophy. As such, you're very correct: mobs give you nothing. Don't even try it unless you're looking for crafting materials.

^^^ This guy took the words right out of my mouth.

The only thing I can add is this: crafting is expensive as fuck, so don't worry about it until around 40 or so. Right now, just focus on collecting a SHITLOAD of mats. I've got something close to 300 copper ore, 200 iron ore, 100 silver ore, and it's about the same for the different types of wood and such as well. Saving that stuff up and waiting until you've got a better, steady income is a much wiser choice than working on it now and being broke because of it.

Also, mobs are meant to be a supplemental form of experience as you travel from one place to another. It gives you something to do other than running.

I've hit the same kind of wall. I have 0 interest in crafting and the heart quest just kind of ran out at some point, I'm underleveled for my area all the time. Which kind of makes it fun? But I'm reaching the point where it's just not viable statswise to play. Now I just kind of run around looking for vistas or something... I dunno, this game makes me the same kind of restless as all other MMOs, maybe I'm just not meant to play them.

@Tennmuerti said:

There are no breadcrumb quests that lead you to a new zone? It seems such a smart convention.

There is. The personal story does just that - lead you through level-appropriate content. It's just in GW2, you'll only level up enough in one starter area, if you do a little bit of everything. I was over level 20 when I was done with my first area (which is lvl 1-15), but I also did loads of gathering/crafting and some WvW.

As soon as you're overleveled, Guild Wars 2 starts to truely shine, because everything below your current level remains completely viable and rewarding content to play regardless. I'm level 34, did two starter zones (mainly to gather low-level crafting mats) and a lvl 15-25 zone, and am now on my second lvl 15-25 zone - and I'm having a blast. My character level just doesn't matter all that much due to downscaling of my level, and upscaling of drop item levels.

Guess the only thing Anet could have done better in this regard is, if they'd taken the personal storyline early on to Lion's Arch and the Asura Gateway Teleport Hub, leading to all the other capital cities and starter zones.

Really in guild wars 2 you are over thinking it. The whole leveling system is designed around the idea of wandering around semi at random and just "running into stuff". If you see a dynamic event pop up, try to do it, even if you have already done it 3 times as fun as that is, go do other hearts, hit all the points of interest. Like others have said if you have run out of things to do in your starter zone and don't feel like you are having fun there anymore, go to someone elses. The leveling of this game really is based around the idea of wandering around at random and doing whatever weird task/event you bump into. So basically go wander some more.

@Karkarov: No offense, but that sounds really boring.

it really seems like endless PvP is the only way I will enjoy this game...

@TobbRobb said:

@Karkarov: No offense, but that sounds really boring.

it really seems like endless PvP is the only way I will enjoy this game...

I wasn't trying to make it sound interesting, because really when you get down to it, it isn't. It is just a questing system without the actual structure. It is alot like Rift, except there is more variety to the "random" events. Which I say random in the most loose sense I can because they always happen in the same place in the exact same way. The only random factor is whether it is happening when you walk by or not. I suspect the game doesn't actually become "fun" until you are at least in your 30's and it is probably more geared to pvp than pve.

I wish this game had more personal story stuff. I like interacting with characters, I like Logan Thackeray and so on... The zerg rush quests just aren't interesting. I appreciate how they tried to develop a 'living' world, and I totally want to run around and explore zones... But I'd like to see characters more, and not just bars being filled.

Crafting can be leveled extremely quickly with limited resources. In order to do so, watch this video:

and then this one:

In the absence of any meaningful tutorials, this guy tells you exactly what you need to know (first the basics, then the most efficient method of crafting starting at about 7:30 in the first video. Much of it is reiterated in the second, but he does add some new useful information). Yeah, it's a bunch of video and the first half of either video is quite basic, but the last half explains the most efficient methods quite well.

Crafting on my own, I spent a ton of resources to reach level 12? After watching this video, I spent half as many resources to get to level 38, and I dinged twice.

-

That probably doesn't do much to rectify your problem, but those videos are perfect.

@Karkarov: What is it with MMOs and just gearing for late game? At least the first run up to cap should be fun, I wan't to enjoy the journey damnit.

@Brodehouse: I think the Zerg Rush feel will go away with time, now it's true that it's just Zerg Rushing, but you must think that all the new players are in the low level content, after 1-2 weeks the game population should be way less compacted in the same zones.

I'm nearly level 30 now and I've never come to a point where I felt like I was unable to progress and I haven't touched PVP or WvW. If you're doing a decent amount of exploration and/or crafting, you shouldn't be having problems and I suspect even that's irrelevant if you spend time doing more of the dynamic events.

The quest arrow can be a little misleading sometimes though, and I think that's what's causing problems for some. Zoom out in the map and make sure you're in a level appropriate area. When the game tells you to head to Kessex Hills, for example, it points you through Claypool which leads you into the higher leveled end of that region.

I was in a similar situation in the betas and release when I hit that level. I just started exploring a new area. I find that you can do Tasks (hearts) within 1 or 2 levels above your current level. So, I just stuck with the mob in those situations and completed a few of them in order to level up, then went out on my own.

@TobbRobb said:

@Karkarov: What is it with MMOs and just gearing for late game? At least the first run up to cap should be fun, I wan't to enjoy the journey damnit.

Well I agree sadly alot of people look at mmo's as just something to "beat" which they aren't. I have a friend for example who already has an 80 (max level) in his guild as of last night. The games headstart just ended yesterday.

So as a followup I just, as suggested, went to some other races starting zone in addition to just wandering around picking up squares and diamonds for some free XP. I have yet to try out WvW as I always enter the queue and after 2 hours of playing still don't get in..

IF you have similar problems then just go to another starting area - although I suggest one that is radically different from your own. I'm a Charr and I went to the tiny little people area and it was kinda crazy. I thought the Black Citadel was pretty badass compared to other starting zones but their gigantic Pyramid City with robots and computer displays kinda blew it right out of the water. One of the few times I was tempted to start snapping screens.

@mikeeegeee: The tips in those videos are essential. I was one of those who just spammed components and ended up wasting a ton of mats. Some where around level 100 in leatherworking I realized "fuck, I'm totally blowing away all my mats and ending up with a crapload of shoulder components that I can't use, but discovering stuff gives me a huge amount of XP" so I started doing that, and like you said got a lot farther using significantly less mats, and didn't have to go around farming areas I'd already had my fill of.