Originally posted by MosesZD

Originally posted by Sythion

Originally posted by MosesZD

 

You're not forced.   You can, if you slow down and learn to play the game, be over-leveled for every area without repeating material.   I was certainly able to do that in the Norn area.   I was able to do that (twice) in the Charr area.  I was able to do that (twice) in the human area.   And the only time I was underleveled was with my first character because I got in such a rush I skipped half the stuff that was going on in the starter area and got a bit behind.

 

It really is a playstyle issue.  

 

This is a flat out lie.

I'm a completionist in terms of heart quests, exploration and DEs, and I often retried events several times before I succeeded.

am now level 20 in level 25 content as a human and level 16 in level 19 content as a Charr.

The only way to be of equal level is to go to another area that you have no in character reason to go to, or to grind DEs.

Put on proof.   I, along with mutiple others, have done just that and not had any issue.   My guild master.   People on this board.   People on other boards. 

 

Yet you're calling me a liar.  

 

Characters advance throughout the game by gaining experience until they reach the maximum level cap of 80. Experience is gained by:

• Participating in events.
• Completing personal storyline objectives
• Crafting
• Killing monsters
• Reviving
• Exploring
• Playing mini games

After the first few levels, the time or effort required to attain a new level remains constant.

 

 

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Character

 

 

 

Seems you missed a lot of the game when I read your description of what you did.   Whereas I didn't. 

You are forced. When the personal story recommended level jumps, then yes you are forced to do hearts or grind in other ways.

Originally posted by Betakodo

You are forced. When the personal story recommended level jumps, then yes you are forced to do hearts or grind in other ways.

Seriously?  This is the argument you're sticking to.  Because the Personal Story level jumps, you wanna just be able to run through it.

Go play a single player game.  Go play Oblivion where the creatures level with you.

Obviously, this game is not for you.  Do us a favor and move on.

Originally posted by Betakodo

Originally posted by MosesZD

Originally posted by Sythion

Originally posted by MosesZD

 

You're not forced.   You can, if you slow down and learn to play the game, be over-leveled for every area without repeating material.   I was certainly able to do that in the Norn area.   I was able to do that (twice) in the Charr area.  I was able to do that (twice) in the human area.   And the only time I was underleveled was with my first character because I got in such a rush I skipped half the stuff that was going on in the starter area and got a bit behind.

 

It really is a playstyle issue.  

 

This is a flat out lie.

I'm a completionist in terms of heart quests, exploration and DEs, and I often retried events several times before I succeeded.

am now level 20 in level 25 content as a human and level 16 in level 19 content as a Charr.

The only way to be of equal level is to go to another area that you have no in character reason to go to, or to grind DEs.

Put on proof.   I, along with mutiple others, have done just that and not had any issue.   My guild master.   People on this board.   People on other boards. 

 

Yet you're calling me a liar.  

 

Characters advance throughout the game by gaining experience until they reach the maximum level cap of 80. Experience is gained by:

• Participating in events.
• Completing personal storyline objectives
• Crafting
• Killing monsters
• Reviving
• Exploring
• Playing mini games

After the first few levels, the time or effort required to attain a new level remains constant.

 

 

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Character

 

 

 

Seems you missed a lot of the game when I read your description of what you did.   Whereas I didn't. 

You are forced. When the personal story recommended level jumps, then yes you are forced to do hearts or grind in other ways.

And again he listed other ways of leveling.

I personaly went from starting area to starting area, seeking out Hearts, Skill Challenges, Exploring, Crafting, and then Storyline when I was at the right level for it. I repeated all that the whole weekend.

I wonder how many of these complainers never stopped to revive people, or gather some ore, or just explore a little more.  The exp is there, you just have to break yourself out of the tunnel vision "must get to next zone as fast as possible" nonsense.

I almost wish Anet kept the heart quests out of the game just to hear the "i don't know what to do or where to go" cries.  Oh wait, even with them we have to hear that.  What is wrong with people?

I can see that it's a problem, if average gamer joe, who does all the hearts, some events and his personal story, outlevels the content. Maybe the story should send a player to a different starting zone at about level 10.

Could be done really quick, like the first quest on your story, where you just have to complete a heart.

Hey,

our friends at $RANDOM_STARTER_ZONE have some problems, please go there and help them.

Originally posted by Alders

I wonder how many of these complainers never stopped to revive people, or gather some ore, or just explore a little more.  The exp is there, you just have to break yourself out of the tunnel vision "must get to next zone as fast as possible" nonsense.

I almost wish Anet kept the heart quests out of the game just to hear the "i don't know what to do or where to go" cries.  Oh wait, even with them we have to hear that.  What is wrong with people?

and if you craft you will win good EXP.

people dont even need to try other start zones (but i dont see any reason to not try them...) to reach lvl15, if they do DE's (dont need grind), ress, gathering resources, craft, kill some random mobs, do hearts and explore 100% a zone they will reach lvl15 no doubt.

Originally posted by Creslin321

So I was checking out the official forums, and it seems like the complaint du jour is:  

"I completed my starting zone but I'm not high enough level to go to the next zone."

Here are two threads that talk about this:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/GW2-feels-too-much-like-a-chore/page/1

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Clarification-on-most-leveling-complaints/page/1#post219865

 

Now...I just don't get these complaints.  If anyone has played the BWE, they should know that there is PLENTY of content to level you up on hearts alone if you want.  You just need to go to the other races' starting areas.  And that is as easy as taking a portal from your main city.

It seems like these posters basically just want to be completely led by the nose through their zone and their zone alone, and are not willing to even try to go anywhere else.  Instead they would rather complain that there isn't enough stuff to do on the boards.

If you can't tell, this annoys me because I don't want ANET to react to their feedback and increase the leveling speed so that they can go right from Queensdale to Kessex Hills.  What do you all think of this?

People finding something to complain about with GW2? Nooooooooooooooo! *snicker*

Okay, in all fairness - and I only read Creslin's post, not the treads he is referring to, this is a bit of an issue.

See, I played in the BWE1 and I think I did rather fine on the first day getting me into the lvl11 range and around quite a bit of the Norn starting zone. (and yes, some PvP/EB)

Next day I set out with a different mindset: considering that i had picked quite a few "bad" (IMO) skills - due to GW2's shabby ingame documentation for skills I wanted to stack up on skill points as much as possible.

So I set off into the Char and Human starting zones and beyond where skill pickings was easy.

Now, I'm not sure if I had stayed in the Norn area how much fun I would have had leveling my toon up to lvl16+ for a jump into the next zone.

Especially as I felt rather bored by the personal story quest.

So, part of me can therefore well understand that people want to be able to progress forward staying in their zone and failing due to, well, lack of content.

Part of me also understands Creslin's easy fix solution of "go to the other starting zones".

But I think what this points at is a much deeper problem: despite ANet flodding the starter zones with quests and events, it's not enough to keep people entertained/motivated for replays.

Of course you can do the "save the fields" gig over and over ad nauseam and wil get your XP for doing it, in the end t's just that: you are doing the same thing over and over again.

Which I also said in regards to downscaling: who the fuck as a level 20, 30, 50, 80 adventurer wants to - downscaled - do another round of kill the spiders in the orchard and collect them apples?

So, what is my take on increasing the levelling speed: honestly, I don't give a fuck!

GW2 is a game for casual gamers. On the PvP side it requires very little investment to be well able to be in the fight.

On the PvE side, it's made as brainless, sorry, convinient as possible for the player without actually having to talk to quest givers or even find a group.

If GW2 gamers feel that is should still be easier, ha, well, excuse me for tossing a hearty laugh your way: you folks let the "easy gaming jeannie" out of the bottle, and now it is blowing up in your face... LOL

Originally posted by Trol1

Originally posted by Creslin321

So I was checking out the official forums, and it seems like the complaint du jour is:  

"I completed my starting zone but I'm not high enough level to go to the next zone."

Here are two threads that talk about this:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/GW2-feels-too-much-like-a-chore/page/1

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Clarification-on-most-leveling-complaints/page/1#post219865

 

Now...I just don't get these complaints.  If anyone has played the BWE, they should know that there is PLENTY of content to level you up on hearts alone if you want.  You just need to go to the other races' starting areas.  And that is as easy as taking a portal from your main city.

It seems like these posters basically just want to be completely led by the nose through their zone and their zone alone, and are not willing to even try to go anywhere else.  Instead they would rather complain that there isn't enough stuff to do on the boards.

If you can't tell, this annoys me because I don't want ANET to react to their feedback and increase the leveling speed so that they can go right from Queensdale to Kessex Hills.  What do you all think of this?

People finding something to complain about with GW2? Nooooooooooooooo! *snicker*

Okay, in all fairness - and I only read Creslin's post, not the treads he is referring to, this is a bit of an issue.

See, I played in the BWE1 and I think I did rather fine on the first day getting me into the lvl11 range and around quite a bit of the Norn starting zone. (and yes, some PvP/EB)

Next day I set out with a different mindset: considering that i had picked quite a few "bad" (IMO) skills - due to GW2's shabby ingame documentation for skills I wanted to stack up on skill points as much as possible.

So I set off into the Char and Human starting zones and beyond where skill pickings was easy.

Now, I'm not sure if I had stayed in the Norn area how much fun I would have had leveling my toon up to lvl16+ for a jump into the next zone.

Especially as I felt rather bored by the personal story quest.

So, part of me can therefore well understand that people want to be able to progress forward staying in their zone and failing due to, well, lack of content.

Part of me also understands Creslin's easy fix solution of "go to the other starting zones".

But I think what this points at is a much deeper problem: despite ANet flodding the starter zones with quests and events, it's not enough to keep people entertained/motivated for replays.

Of course you can do the "save the fields" gig over and over ad nauseam and wil get your XP for doing it, in the end t's just that: you are doing the same thing over and over again.

Which I also said in regards to downscaling: who the fuck as a level 20, 30, 50, 80 adventurer wants to - downscaled - do another round of kill the spiders in the orchard and collect them apples?

So, what is my take on increasing the levelling speed: honestly, I don't give a fuck!

GW2 is a game for casual gamers. On the PvP side it requires very little investment to be well able to be in the fight.

On the PvE side, it's made as brainless, sorry, convinient as possible for the player without actually having to talk to quest givers or even find a group.

If GW2 gamers feel that is should still be easier, ha, well, excuse me for tossing a hearty laugh your way: you folks let the "easy gaming jeannie" out of the bottle, and now it is blowing up in your face... LOL

 

This "problem" only exists between levels 2-6. If you skip the Personal Story, do almost nothing but heart tasks and take no time to gather, craft or explore your city or other areas of the game, you can feel gated by your level in the 2-6 range. It's only an illusion of being gated, because as other have pointed out, there are numerous ways to get levels with out grinding anything.

I typically do what I can in my races zone, then go hit the level 2-6 content in one other zone. That will actually put you ahead of the content outside the level 2-6 "pocket zones" located with in each larger level 2-15 zone. (I understand why those sub-zones exist, it makes it harder for people to stumble into content way over their heads early on).

There is no danger of replayability suffering. There are ways to supplement the level 2-6 stretch with activities other than heading to another zone. Just exploring your racial city fully can get you a couple levels. Crafting is now very efficient at providing XP. Grabbing gathering tools early and gathering all nodes you find provides a solid amount of XP. Reviving players provides very good XP. Doing Personal Story offers good XP.  Doing Skill Point Challanges awards XP. There are even daily achievments for things like gathering, kill variety, etc... that give nice XP and cash rewards.

Even if you skill al that and only do world content, no story, no gathering, no focus on exploring, you are probably going to hit level 9 or 10 doing all the hearts and a few DEs in two racial starting zones. That leaves three racial starting zones you don't have to visit.

Once you reach level 7 or 8, the world really starts to open up and there are no longer any issues. There is way more content in the world than you need to level and level scaling keeps it all available to you as a viable source of XP, loot and enjoyment for many, many levels after you have passed those levels by.

I've so far leveled up seven character to at least level 10, most of them Human and there is no content fatigue. Even if I were to get a little bored with the Human 2-6 area at some point, I have so many other ways to level up that even as a confirmed alt-a-holic I have zero fears of content burn out due to repetition.

Originally posted by Alders

I wonder how many of these complainers never stopped to revive people, or gather some ore, or just explore a little more.  The exp is there, you just have to break yourself out of the tunnel vision "must get to next zone as fast as possible" nonsense.

I almost wish Anet kept the heart quests out of the game just to hear the "i don't know what to do or where to go" cries.  Oh wait, even with them we have to hear that.  What is wrong with people?

Cut the snark. This has nothing to do with time of content, so maybe you should turn your head and get out of your tunnel vision.   

The problem is this. If you do not:

• Go to another zone
• Craft (maybe, if it gives insane xp. I don't craft because it makes me feel more like a shop keeper than a hero)
• Grind DE's

Originally posted by fiontar

This "problem" only exists between levels 2-6. If you skip the Personal Story, do almost nothing but heart tasks and take no time to gather, craft or explore your city or other areas of the game, you can feel gated by your level in the 2-6 range. It's only an illusion of being gated, because as other have pointed out, there are numerous ways to get levels with out grinding anything.

I typically do what I can in my races zone, then go hit the level 2-6 content in one other zone. That will actually put you ahead of the content outside the level 2-6 "pocket zones" located with in each larger level 2-15 zone. (I understand why those sub-zones exist, it makes it harder for people to stumble into content way over their heads early on).

There is no danger of replayability suffering. There are ways to supplement the level 2-6 stretch with activities other than heading to another zone. Just exploring your racial city fully can get you a couple levels. Crafting is now very efficient at providing XP. Grabbing gathering tools early and gathering all nodes you find provides a solid amount of XP. Reviving players provides very good XP. Doing Personal Story offers good XP.  Doing Skill Point Challanges awards XP. There are even daily achievments for things like gathering, kill variety, etc... that give nice XP and cash rewards.

Even if you skill al that and only do world content, no story, no gathering, no focus on exploring, you are probably going to hit level 9 or 10 doing all the hearts and a few DEs in two racial starting zones. That leaves three racial starting zones you don't have to visit.

Once you reach level 7 or 8, the world really starts to open up and there are no longer any issues. There is way more content in the world than you need to level and level scaling keeps it all available to you as a viable source of XP, loot and enjoyment for many, many levels after you have passed those levels by.

I've so far leveled up seven character to at least level 10, most of them Human and there is no content fatigue. Even if I were to get a little bored with the Human 2-6 area at some point, I have so many other ways to level up that even as a confirmed alt-a-holic I have zero fears of content burn out due to repetition.

Fiontar, a few words:

a) the way your painting it a player would have to visit another racial zone.

Now, as such I have no problem with that. 

I could well see a newly set out solo adventurer or a group of adventurers starting of in a central city - maybe not Lion's Arch, too clean for that, rather a huge market city where everybody comes thru and everything can be found and bought, and when I say everything i mean everything and a few thousand things on top of that - and they can choose to go and visit each character's homestead for a bit of adventuring.

The thing is in GW2, with its personal quest keeping you in place, it feel like, well, you should stay in place i.e. in your homezone.

GW2 does rather not promote a "hey, let's check out the other areas" attitude. 

Second, you said you leveled 7 characters up to lvl10. You know that they next level bracket is 16-25? So maybe, before claiming there is no problem you should actually get into the right "zone"?

And yes, there are dozens of ways how to make XP. 

Now, there are just 2 questions: a) how well are they promoted? and b) how well do they overall cover/exceed the required XP for an area?

See, before doing BWE1 I hadn't bothered reading much about GW2, really just a quick look at classes and races.

So, character created, logged in and off I was... and I quickly noticed that I'm getting XP for discovering new lands, cool, like SWTOR.

Later something else happened: I tend to be somebody who likes to help people, without expecting a reward, so when I saw indicators of fallen ppl on my mini map, I went there to revive them. And noticed that I got XP out of that! After that I actually thru the "I'll help" thought overboard and instead just looked for "corpses" to make XP.

And yes, I'm not proud of it and I fully blame GW2 for it :-P

The thing is if the gamer doesn't know what XP generates, he is likely to lose out by not doing these things... 

As for b) if doing all of the possible activities in a zone generates about 110% of the required XP for reaching the next bracket zone, well, you may have a problem: what if I don't want to revive fallen co-players? Or go colect ore? Or go crafting? Or do the personal storyline?

The latter is actually a very valid point: despite the minor variation you can build into it during character creation,  the GW2 race stories offer a worse replay value than the class stories in SWTOR.

Meaning second, third time around on the same race you may skip the personal story completely... and if personal story and say crafting were to cutyour XP gain down from 110% to 90%, well, things may get tight getting correctly levelled to the next zone...

Originally posted by Sythion

The problem is this. If you do not:

• Go to another zone
• Craft (maybe, if it gives insane xp. I don't craft because it makes me feel more like a shop keeper than a hero)
• Grind DE's

you will NOT be high enough level for the content of the second zone.

 

That not true at all. You can be high enough for the next zone without doing those. When you exit the 1-15 you will most certainly be 15 level, maybe 14, and be able to go to the next zone without any kind of grinding, pvp, crafting or going to another starting zone. If a lot of others did it, then you can do it too. Maybe you did something wrong.

Originally posted by Trol1

GW2 does rather not promote a "hey, let's check out the other areas" attitude. 

Have you seen how the skill system work?

Second, you said you leveled 7 characters up to lvl10. You know that they next level bracket is 16-25? So maybe, before claiming there is no problem you should actually get into the right "zone"?

I leveled one to level 33 and one to level 15, no problems going to the next zone.

The latter is actually a very valid point: despite the minor variation you can build into it during character creation,  the GW2 race stories offer a worse replay value than the class stories in SWTOR.

Worse replay value than SWTOR? Seriously? In SWTOR you have 4 class stories split into 2 planets. In Guild Wars 2 you have 15 backgrounds (5 races * 3 backgrounds each) with completely different storylines, in 5 different zones. How does GW2 has less variation and worse replay value than SWTOR is beyond me. Even if you've played a "Noble" and play a "Noble" again you get to make choices that actually lead to different quests, you don't just see different dialogue.

Meaning second, third time around on the same race you may skip the personal story completely... and if personal story and say crafting were to cutyour XP gain down from 110% to 90%, well, things may get tight getting correctly levelled to the next zone...

Why are you going to skip the personal story? You make different choices at character creation, you get completely different story unline SWTOR which has 4 stories....

 

Originally posted by Creslin321

So I was checking out the official forums, and

and you decided not to ask the people at the source of your question, and instead come to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT forum to ask us what they think?

Just ask them, they know what's with it.  If we wanted to find out what they were saying, guess where we'd go?  To the place your question originated from in the first place.

I actually hope that level progression is slower then what current games are doing.. especially with the mentoring thing we can do..  I loved the speed of leveling of orginal EQ1..  SLOW.. and I love not having someone hold my hand to find out where to go next.. That was the fun of exploration and community..... We need a lot of that back in..

people think the game its all abouth lvl and want to rush by trying to lvl fast and  if some people complain it it simply cause they dont explore the maps well in beta in a day i lvl 30  i play  like 10hour+ but i discover almost all map in beta all waypoint and point of interest and do event on mi way  taht way ucan lvl fast but just exploring not stay in same area grind cause that gonna take loooong time

Originally posted by Creslin321

So I was checking out the official forums, and it seems like the complaint du jour is:  

"I completed my starting zone but I'm not high enough level to go to the next zone."

Here are two threads that talk about this:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/GW2-feels-too-much-like-a-chore/page/1

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Clarification-on-most-leveling-complaints/page/1#post219865

 

Now...I just don't get these complaints.  If anyone has played the BWE, they should know that there is PLENTY of content to level you up on hearts alone if you want.  You just need to go to the other races' starting areas.  And that is as easy as taking a portal from your main city.

It seems like these posters basically just want to be completely led by the nose through their zone and their zone alone, and are not willing to even try to go anywhere else.  Instead they would rather complain that there isn't enough stuff to do on the boards.

If you can't tell, this annoys me because I don't want ANET to react to their feedback and increase the leveling speed so that they can go right from Queensdale to Kessex Hills.  What do you all think of this?

They still think its avarage themepark ala WoW they seems not to change there mindset.

I see also many still gonne force support rolls, sites that show builds for support classes lol.

Its in there nature not to change but stay with what they know lol

A really good video about this topic. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g36woC3LJ8Y&feature=player_embedded

Originally posted by megera23

A really good video about this topic. :)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g36woC3LJ8Y&feature=player_embedded

~2:00 mark

"Most of my time was spent gathering footage for my crafting guides."

Not surprised he doesn't see this as a problem, as he uses one of the secretly mandatory ways to level.

...

And this makes me want to vomit:

"leveling just two crafting professions from 0 to 400 would account for 20 of the 80 levels..."

...

~15:00 mark

"... if someone truly has discovered every point of interest, unlocked every waypoint, completed every skill point challenge, and renown heart even, and done every single dynamic event in the zone at least once they are not going to be level 11."

This is true. They will be level 13. I know, because that's exactly what I did in the Charr zone. And after entering the new zone I found it progressed very quickly into level 16, not giving me a chance to catch up.

On my first play through, as a human, I did not understand the Dynamic events. I didn't understand the initial triggers (which often require talking to NPCs), nor did I understand the linkage from one quest to another (which often requires following NPCs around, and is quite cool, imo).

On my second playthrough I was much more careful. I enjoyed the DE's, and went looking for them both around the Renown Hearts and around every other point of interest (which I fully explored). I may have missed a couple, but it was not enough to get me to a high enough level for the conent I was at. I also did my entire available person story quest (I was able to slowly complete the level 20 quest by rezzing NPCs.)

...

And at the end he shows that he has done 5 levels of crafting on his character, explored every area in all starting cities and Lion's Arch, done half the Norn hearts and a few Charr hearts. That's worth at least 2 addition levels.

If he did not do these things, or craft, he would be level 12. That completely goes against what he said at the 15:00 mark.

Originally posted by seridan

Originally posted by Trol1

GW2 does rather not promote a "hey, let's check out the other areas" attitude. 

Have you seen how the skill system work?

Err... what has your comment got to do with my question?

The latter is actually a very valid point: despite the minor variation you can build into it during character creation,  the GW2 race stories offer a worse replay value than the class stories in SWTOR.

Worse replay value than SWTOR? Seriously? In SWTOR you have 4 class stories split into 2 planets. In Guild Wars 2 you have 15 backgrounds (5 races * 3 backgrounds each) with completely different storylines, in 5 different zones. How does GW2 has less variation and worse replay value than SWTOR is beyond me. Even if you've played a "Noble" and play a "Noble" again you get to make choices that actually lead to different quests, you don't just see different dialogue.

Right, and you played SWTOR when... never? Yeah, move along citizen, you are taking up space!

Seriously, WHAT are you talking about? 8 classes (where did you get 4 from?) 2 planets? You are just referring to the starting planets? Then we are talking 4.

From what I have seen in the PS in GW2 you have very limited choice options, most is just "sit back and "enjoy" the ride.

In SWTOR, well, yes, there may be at it's heart an illusion of you having choices but it still feels more interactive than what GW2 is offering, where personally I found myself looking bleakly at the screen way o often because my toon was saying something that I would never have him say (and I had no option of stopping it) or on the other hand him not saying anything when he should have. 

Plus, and I might be wrong there but I assume I'm not, your choice in character creation pretty much already set a template limiting your overall choice range. So, in short there may be no playing against the grain. Again, this is something I assume, given how little choices I was given in the PS I would actually be expcting even less interaction in the game. But that may of course all change at later level... or with the release of patch 1.156439801 *rolls eyes*

Meaning second, third time around on the same race you may skip the personal story completely... and if personal story and say crafting were to cutyour XP gain down from 110% to 90%, well, things may get tight getting correctly levelled to the next zone...

Why are you going to skip the personal story? You make different choices at character creation, you get completely different story unline SWTOR which has 4 stories....

Again, nice of you to confirm that you actually have no clue about SWTOR *rolls eyes even more* 

Why would I skip the PS? How about you asking that all the SWTOR haters raging about boring cutscenes and voice overs, etc.

Fact is that GW2's PS presentation is by far worse than SWTORs. (please note: I'm not talking about the quality of the story, that is different for everybody I guess...) So, having to sit thru that crap multiple times? I don't think so!

Next, looking at the races I can definitely say that I would never play a reindeer cat or a pokemon, so that takes out 2 races already. With the "elves" a lot would ride on the options for character looks but with GW2's Asia style track record I don't really have high hopes... so that leaves 2 or 3 races for how many classs? Excuse me for laughing till my belly bursts but even with background variations, nope, there's little reason for me to play the PS more than once (if that at all*). And why the heck would I have to choose different backgrounds? What if I'd never even remotely cared for the idea that my character could have run away with the circus? *poof* goes the nice little dream of lots of individual PSes..

*yes, based on my experience in BWE1.I would probably not even bother with the PS again, at least for the Norn! Aside from finding it mostly dull - yes, may of course get so much better after you defeated the Sons leader and his pet - I ran into a huge problem with that brainless twat Eir who go herself killedwhen freeing the Minotaur spirit and whenever I revived her started letting go at the boss straightaway, despite his archers being closer and weaker. 

To all effect I could really only use her as bait to attract the enemies up front, keep her a bit longer alive via turrets (heal, gun) while I snuck around back and slow-arse had to kill the rear guard. Call me spoiled by SWTOR but there at least my companion did what I told him/her to do and we were able to do coordinated strikes. Not as in GW2 were your "companion" is better off kicked off a bridge...

 

Originally posted by Sythion

Originally posted by megera23

A really good video about this topic. :)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g36woC3LJ8Y&feature=player_embedded

~2:00 mark

"Most of my time was spent gathering footage for my crafting guides."

Not surprised he doesn't see this as a problem, as he uses one of the secretly mandatory ways to level.

...

And this makes me want to vomit:

"leveling just two crafting professions from 0 to 400 would account for 20 of the 80 levels..."

1) He got the footage during the first BWE, when crafting wasn't working properly and didn't reward exp.

2) I don't see a problem either. What I saw was a lot was people running past content and not realizing it was there. (I goruped with a few people to help them out and saw them on the map just running from heart to heart)

I got 2 characters through Queensdale. I didn't do any crafting or gathering. On my warrior, I didn't do the personal story, but I did some exploration of the racial cities and Lion's Arch. On my elementalist I didn't go outside of Queensdale at all, but did my personal story. By the time I was "finished", both were level 15. Also the experience I had on my warrior the first BWE and on my ele the second BWE was rather different. I took the same "path" up until level 8, but then explored the rest of the map in a very different fashion. I ended up running into a number of DE I hadn't seen the first time. I also didn't see some that I had done on my warrior. I also have yet to participate in the Shadow Behemoth meta event. This one's never around when I'm online, it seems.

All in all, if you don't like crafting or gathering, don't do it. No one forces you. I don't see why other people who enjoy that shouldn't have the option to do it though. The list of activities and ways to level are quite numerous. You can choose any of those, as you'd have seen if you watched the video to the end.