Originally posted by Crusix221
My current lvl 22 character, I've probably spent about 15-18 hours and hes only that far. How is that people have gotten characters to lvl 35+ in a day? Or even Max level in just a few? Am I missing a fast way to gain exp? I do hearts, gathering, story line quests, eat food and even use XP pots here and there. I'm also an elementalist and can AOE 4-5 mobs at a time with no downtime. Whats goin on here?

Crusix, you are doing it right! Take your time, don't rush the level. Explore and enjoy.

Originally posted by spizz

Originally posted by Crusix221
My current lvl 22 character, I've probably spent about 15-18 hours and hes only that far. How is that people have gotten characters to lvl 35+ in a day? Or even Max level in just a few? Am I missing a fast way to gain exp? I do hearts, gathering, story line quests, eat food and even use XP pots here and there. I'm also an elementalist and can AOE 4-5 mobs at a time with no downtime. Whats goin on here?

 

People who really level fast used hacks, wandering around with speed hacks under the map to gain area points and other stuff. But crafting will level you up quiete fast. Donno if those botter and hacker got removed already from the game and they actually did implement a better anti cheat protection, in the first weeks after release GW2 had issues here and I dont play anymore. Have fun ingame.

They are still around, but a major pop of them had been removed it seems. I do see a couple sometimes that farm a certain area in a certain path and some youll see popping up to gather then disappeating.

Originally posted by Zeus.CM

Originally posted by Crusix221
My current lvl 22 character, I've probably spent about 15-18 hours and hes only that far. How is that people have gotten characters to lvl 35+ in a day? Or even Max level in just a few? Am I missing a fast way to gain exp? I do hearts, gathering, story line quests, eat food and even use XP pots here and there. I'm also an elementalist and can AOE 4-5 mobs at a time with no downtime. Whats goin on here?

Crusix, you are doing it right! Take your time, don't rush the level. Explore and enjoy.

Most of the people who rushed through their first character burned out fast. What has kept me playing was setting various goals, like 100% world completion, after that I tackled my story arc, after that started working on doing story mode in all dungeons ect ect

I have no problem doing low level content at level 80. I'm over the old way of thinking and enjoy the game to enjoy it. You can level fast, or slow, or just at an average rate in this game and still have fun, if you make the right choice for your own metality. :)

For straight leveling, the OP is pretty much right on the expected pace. Others are correct though, in answer to the question of "how". The game allows you to level via crafting. If you have played a few alts and accumulated some gold, or if you take the plunge and buy gems to convert into gold, you can gain some levels very quickly.

I had purchased a second account before launch for a relative that decided not to play due to time constraints. I decided to make a character on the account to get the Wintersday stuff, but I didn't want to go into the Tixx toy events with a really low character. So, I leveled Cooking and Artificing to 400 shortly after hitting level 14 via normal play. I also advanced Tailloring and Jeweler to about 300 each. I think I hit 45 in about two afternoons crafting, for around 8-10 Gold, after selling what I could to offset some of the costs.

I wouldn't normally want to advance a character so fast, but the events offered a good excuse, plus I had found player a Mesmer to mid levels to be painful during beta, so I was glad to skip 30 levels on that characgter. (I'm enjoying Mesmer now, which was a pleasant surprise, given my beta experience).

I don't see anything wrong with using crafting to power level. I think newer players should just play through at least one character via the normal progression before doing so, or advance their crafting at a more measured pace, so that they can eperience more of the game world and learn the ins and outs of play before they get their first character to 80. However, if you already have a few level 80s and you know that you are able to enjoy the game just as much @ 80 as while leveling up, then the shortcut can be a very welcome option.

Drinking potions (doesn't matter what kind) will give you an XP boost of +10 per enemy kills.  Most any food will do the same.  I prefer tarts or bars (just type in "tart" or "bar" into the tradehouse search) as they also give an additional +10 boost, and they give increased magic find. 

For your level you could look into "lemon bar".  I like those, and then graduate to Cherry tart if you wish. 

Just complete zones, and explore them entirely, and then move onto the next one.  And as some have mentioned, crafting does give you some good xp.  I don't mess with crafting in GW2 and never have.  Also, personal story missions will give a big xp gain when a mission or mission chain is completed and those don't take too long. 

Originally posted by spizz

Originally posted by Crusix221
My current lvl 22 character, I've probably spent about 15-18 hours and hes only that far. How is that people have gotten characters to lvl 35+ in a day? Or even Max level in just a few? Am I missing a fast way to gain exp? I do hearts, gathering, story line quests, eat food and even use XP pots here and there. I'm also an elementalist and can AOE 4-5 mobs at a time with no downtime. Whats goin on here?

 

People who really level fast used hacks, wandering around with speed hacks under the map to gain area points and other stuff. But crafting will level you up quiete fast. Donno if those botter and hacker got removed already from the game and they actually did implement a better anti cheat protection, in the first weeks after release GW2 had issues here and I dont play anymore. Have fun ingame.

Yeah, whatever you want to believe.  An Elementalist guild leader in my guild and I leveled 1-80 together without crafting and XP boosters in 3 days.  We got server 2nd and 3rd within a few hours of each other.  Server 1st was a Warrior (fastest PvE leveling class) and used XP boosters, but didn't cheat  We didn't use hacks.  We pretty much played through the game normally, we just didn't waste our time (we did play 16 hours those days though).  I have server first achievements across other MMOs too and never hacked and exploited to get there.

You can also level all crafting professions on a single character and hit max level that way.  It takes about 25g, or roughly 7 hours of explorable AC or CoF runs.  It only takes about 2-3 hours to hit max from level 1 this way.  Each explorable dungeon path also gives you almost an entire level, so you can level entirely in dungeons in 2-3 days time too if you wanted to.

As for standard PvE leveling you do what you'd do in basically every other MMO.  You go around completing everything on the map and then quickly move on to the next area.  Kill anything on your way as the delay to kill the MOBs is well worth the XP (MOBs that weren't killed by other players recently also grant bonus XP, up to 7X as much as they'd normally reward).  Mine nodes for more XP (a rich node is almost like completing a heart quest alone).  Do not skip hearts.  Do not skip dynamic events (unless you are unable to do it at the time).  Don't sit in one area and farm.  Do story mode of dungeons when available, but not if it's going to waste your time doing a group.

Leveling quickly isn't for everyone either.  You should take your own pace.  Only do it if you enjoy leveling quickly.