So the press got to level 30 (correct me if i'm wrong, which i think i might be lol) in a weekend. Would that mean that you could get from 1-80 in less than a week due to the flat leveling curve? Not that i really care i just wanna PVP but interesting to know anyways.

should take just over 100 hours so yea.

EDIT: once again though TC you are posting from a misinformed point of view. there is a NPC outside catacombs dugeon in the beta that automatically leveled you to 30 and gave you full armor/weapon sets. no one leveled to 30 in the beta.

Yup, if you were mega determined to 'hit the cap' you could do it in around 100-120 hours. It's not all that important how long it takes you though, the game isn't about levelling.

Also, i don't think anyone in the press dinged 30 themselves, they were all boosted to 30 if they did the dungeon.

EDIT: if someone thinks 100-120 hours is 'fast' then maybe they should take a step back from MMORPG's for a while :p That's a lot of playtime.

Originally posted by ComfyChair

Yup, if you were mega determined to 'hit the cap' you could do it in around 100-120 hours. It's not all that important how long it takes you though, the game isn't about levelling.

Also, i don't think anyone in the press dinged 30 themselves, they were all boosted to 30 if they did the dungeon.

EDIT: if someone thinks 100-120 hours is 'fast' then maybe they should take a step back from MMORPG's for a while :p That's a lot of playtime.

Pff thats not fast I plan to take 5 days off to get to lv80 on 3 diffrent classes. Sup?

I think that is a problem with gamers. Getting to max level is just a stepping stone for them, I think they are missing the point =/.

Lol, it wouldn't actually be physically possible to get one level 80 in 5 days :D

Sayng that, someone will probably manage it. But they're not someone i think we should be congratulating, we should be calling for someone to section them.

Originally posted by ComfyChair

Yup, if you were mega determined to 'hit the cap' you could do it in around 100-120 hours. It's not all that important how long it takes you though, the game isn't about levelling.

Also, i don't think anyone in the press dinged 30 themselves, they were all boosted to 30 if they did the dungeon.

EDIT: if someone thinks 100-120 hours is 'fast' then maybe they should take a step back from MMORPG's for a while :p That's a lot of playtime.

Slower than WoW faster than the older games.

Well 100hrs to max level is about how long it takes to level anytime their was an x-pac for wow. On the kill ten rats blog it took them 6 hrs to get to lvl 15. The level curve turns almost into a straight line after level 20 and takes 90min per level then. The game is still in beta, so the xp per level and xp gained per mob may change a bit. In press beta the xp gained from WvW was pretty low. Also, their are a few buffs that boost xp gained. The outmanned buff in WvW is one(20%magic find, 33% karma/xp) and their is a guild xp buffs.

Yeah i think it's fine. I know the game isn't about leveling. I was just wondering. The only thing i hated about DAOC was the grind to get to max level so i could RvR to my full potential :) Think i spent 30 days ingame time to get max. So thats about 700 hours :).

100 hours is pretty fast.  I like the flat leveling curve, it didn't appear that they were leveling too quickly when I was watching the videos. But with the downscaling whenever you visit a lower area I'm not sure the leveling even matters.

Obviously there are lots of measures of what makes a gamer casual and I guess if someone was playing only 2 or so nights a week at 2 hours a night, it would take six months to get to level 80. Hardcore without taking time off work doing around 4 hours a day would reach level 80 within a month. I was out of work when Rift came out and it had one of the easier leveling curves I've seen in an MMO and I think at 16 or so hours a day it took me 6+ weeks. If my math is right it means it took almost 6 times longer to get to max level in Rift than it will in GW2. All generalizations ofcourse. 

Flat leveling curve is nice, no reason to have levels pushing you upward fast enough than you can consume most of the content at your level. 

It doesn't matter what they do, some people will always flash up to max level.

I plan to take it slow and put my most gameplay into exploration so leveling should take long enough for me even though I will put many hours into the game...

Yes, it seems like it will be possible to lvl fairly quickly in this game.

However, as others have said, that's kind of not the point. To do so, you're character will be a bit gimped at 80, and you will be missing out on a lot of content.

For one, you'll have to go back and do as many of the skill challenges as you can find, so that you can actually unlock all your skills. For two, you probably won't have all the weapons fully unlocked (depending on the class), if you are powerlvling. And going back to do any of the content you've skipped, will still delvl you to the appropriate range for that content. So, the advantages of powerlvling in this game are very, very limited, and I'd say the cons far outway the pros in that regard.

@Sunthas... I think your math is a bit off, took me a bit under a month to get to max level in Rift while studying full time (so maybe 5-6 hours a day on average).

100 hours would be on the fast side of leveling, and I don't doubt there will be at least one person who is 80 within 4-5 days of launch (if not sooner). But as others have said GW2 isn't really about leveling, as you can do PvP (inc. WvW) at any level, also with no gear treadmill and skills purchased with points rather than given to you at certain levels (i.e. you can get the skills you really want long before level cap) there isn't much advantage to rushing it.

@acid agreed. I actually fear fast leveling and not because I'm worried about others leveling too fast. but 90 minutes per level doesn't sound too bad. I was pretty much an explorer in Rift but I think we had someone in some random guild I joined that leveled 50 in head start. The WvWvW sounds good, I am curious though how keeping people interested at 80 will work, hopefully ArenaNet is as successful solving that challenge without geargrind as they seem to be with regards to most other traditional MMO things they are undoing. 

In most MMOs good organized  players can level at 2-4 times the speed of the average player.  Given this person was is a press player they are likely much worse and slower than your average player.  Not to mention they are likely looking around a lot more.  What takes an inexpereinced press player a weekend likely can be done ina  few hours to half a day by a vetran MMO player.  My guess is it will be just like Rift and Tor where expereinced players will hit cap on the 2nd or 3rd day playing.

I believe they said in the Yogcast they got to 15 in about 10 hours of play (might be misquoting this a little bit, don't remember exact numbers).  Knowing this and with the information that the leveling curve is flat, this means that they would hit max level in about 54 hours.  Now, take into account that they were new to the game and weren't exactly hardcore level grinding, I'd say someone could probably do it as quickly as 25 to 30 hours.

Shortest time to max level (without aid or cheats) in any MMO?  Comparatively Rift which has the fastest time to max level in any MMO I've seen, you can easily hit max in about 35-40 hours of play in Rift.  Of course this is all based on speculation at this point.

On another note Guild Wars 2 had a very fast time to max level too.  Possibly even faster than Rift's.

Hi, my name is Isaiah Cartwright (Izzy, as some like to call me), and I’m a Game Designer for Guild Wars 2. Today I’d like to talk about a subject near and dear to my heart: character progression in Guild Wars 2.

You know that point in other MMOs when, after playing for a few hours, you look down at your experience bar and wonder, “WTF? Has my experience bar even moved at all?” Nobody enjoys feeling like they haven’t made any progress even though they’ve been playing their character all day. We hate it as much as you do; it drives us insane!

Our goal with Guild Wars 2 is to flatten out the leveling curve, keeping progression simple and straightforward. We expect everyone to make a reasonable amount of progression with each play session. It shouldn’t take days of playing before you feel like you have made any progress, and you definitely shouldn’t have to kill a bunch of creatures or do a bunch of repetitive tasks just to see what’s over that next hill. We want our progression to keep up with your play style. If you’re a casual gamer who plays for a few hours here and there, why should you feel like it’s going to take you a decade to finish your character? If you’re a hardcore player, why shouldn’t you be able to blast through the game with skill and speed, trying to experience every last bit of content?

So how did we accomplish our goals, you ask? Good question! First off, we set the level cap for the game at 80, but we made the time between levels rather short. Instead of taking longer and longer to reach each level, it takes about the same time to go through each level. It’s pretty simple; if we expect you to level up every few hours, then why shouldn’t it be that way all through the game?

To better illustrate this, here’s a chart of a typical game’s leveling curve compared to the Guild Wars 2 leveling curve:

(Update: We got a number of questions regarding our graph, so we’re updating it to make it a little more clear. It was not our intention to imply that the early levels of the game require the exact same time investment as later levels, but to show that the curve plateaus.)

As you can see, our leveling curve is pretty simple. Now, keep in mind that we haven’t finished everything and we’re still working out a lot of the details, but progression in Guild Wars 2 is way more than just leveling. We have achievements, trait collection, crafting, dungeons, skill collection, items, and much more.

Overall, we expect our content to be the driving force behind how long it takes to do things in-game. Anyone can increase the length of an experience bar and call it content, but our world is filled with an almost endless stream of things to do. We expect content—not long, grindy progression—to be the deciding factor that keeps people playing our game. We want everyone to stick with Guild Wars 2 because our content is fun and enjoyable, not out of some dogged determination to slowly, slowly advance. And because our world is ever-changing and dynamic, you can play our content again and again! Two characters journeying through the game will have two different experiences, which means the game will remain fresh for all you out there who enjoy making a million characters.

So, if you’re tired of the size of your experience bar controlling the pace of your progression, and you’re looking for a simple, content-focused progression system with endless potential for enjoyment, Guild Wars 2 is for you.

I hope you’re as excited about progression in Guild Wars 2 as I am; it’s just one of the many awesome ways this game will challenge conventional MMO thinking.

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But ofcouse the game is not abouth lvl up it alot more than that and more thing to explore lvl up is not the end game base like others mmo so you can enjoy till be high lvl and never enjoy your game as progress gw2 gonna change alot of aspec from others mmo

Originally posted by Magnum2103

I believe they said in the Yogcast they got to 15 in about 10 hours of play (might be misquoting this a little bit, don't remember exact numbers).  Knowing this and with the information that the leveling curve is flat, this means that they would hit max level in about 54 hours.  Now, take into account that they were new to the game and weren't exactly hardcore level grinding, I'd say someone could probably do it as quickly as 25 to 30 hours.

Shortest time to max level (without aid or cheats) in any MMO?  Comparatively Rift which has the fastest time to max level in any MMO I've seen, you can easily hit max in about 35-40 hours of play in Rift.  Of course this is all based on speculation at this point.

On another note Guild Wars 2 had a very fast time to max level too.  Possibly even faster than Rift's.

You are forgetting previous info. They said that early levels are faster and that it ramps up till lvl 15(I think, might have been 10), and then flattens from there on out... So I would say that is a very optimistic estimate... I would guess probably 80-100 hours to hit cap, if you are just pushing for cap... but the thing is that hitting cap is not as important here as it is in other games... You can PvP from lvl 1 effectively, you can partake in any content at pretty much any level, and there are incentives and rewards for exploring and being part of the world.

I'd thought there was a level up function available for the press so they could access a specific dungeon? Level 30+ in a press weekend seems extreme, especially as I'd assume the majority were fiddling around exploring features and various classes and not really hell bent on racing to level.

I'm really interested in trying GW2 as it looks like a lot of fun, and very interested in supporting anything that's not just another clone, but longevity is a bit of a concern for me. Considering the range of approaches each class can take, it doesn't look as if I'll be eager to level up multiple characters for a different experience as a form of content as other games seem to expect me to.

While I'm sure the WvW and various high end events will keep me occupied for quite awhile, I am a little cocerned that it won't take long to quickly see everything the game has to offer. I'm not overly familiar with their update process as I've never played GW1 beyond level 12 or so and a bit of lvl 20 pvp, so I'm hoping they're fairly good at releasing content in a reasonable time frame. Does anyone familiar with ArenaNet know if by any chance that's one of their strong points? 

Thanks.

Originally posted by Mors-Subita

You are forgetting previous info. They said that early levels are faster and that it ramps up till lvl 15(I think, might have been 10), and then flattens from there on out... So I would say that is a very optimistic estimate... I would guess probably 80-100 hours to hit cap, if you are just pushing for cap... but the thing is that hitting cap is not as important here as it is in other games... You can PvP from lvl 1 effectively, you can partake in any content at pretty much any level, and there are incentives and rewards for exploring and being part of the world.

I still really doubt 80-100 hours.  Look at the rate of experience they received running through the story mode dungeon in the beta videos, it's quite insane and I believe you can level twice from a single 30 minute dungeon run alone (at least the first run through where you get a few bonuses such as the bonus EXP for exploring new areas).  Even if the first few levels are faster I'd still suspect you'd be able to hit the cap in 35-40 hours focusing completely on leveling as fast as possible.  80-100 might be a good measurement for a casual player.

It's also completely true hitting the cap isn't as important as it is in other MMOs, so I don't think people should get too hung up on the fact that the leveling curve seems to be absurdly fast.  I personally (as someone who is a very progression minded achiever) can care less if they even included "levels".