Level 80 Boost

So I purchased both expansions. My highest level I ever got a toon was lvl 32. In wow boosted toons were always frowned upon by other players. I don't want to solo through 2 expansions, but the low level zones are a ghost town. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but should I just boost to try and catch up, or start low and work my way up for the experience learning the class and hope to find a guild? I really really really want to like this game but I know me and my patience level.

When I started, I boosted one character to 80 right away so that I could take part in more things, although I didn’t play them as much as I’d expected because I had a lot to learn about the game yet, but I think it made me more patient leveling my first characters.

My advise is don’t not boost because of what other players may or may not think. Based on what you’ve written, I would recommend using one instant 80, maybe on a new character or one you are tired of leveling. Not all level 80 content is equally difficult either — Orr and the first PoF maps are easier and for me, mounts make all of the game more fun and will available to your lower level characters as well once you’ve unlocked them.

The general consensus is that its better to not boost your way to your first 80. Level normally, so you get a better feel for your class and you also won't lose out on the leveling experience. However, its entirely up to you. Neither way is "right".

Note that you can boost a character to 80 and you get to play in the Silverwastes as long as you want before deciding whether to commit to the boost permanently or to undo it. So you can test out several classes this way before deciding on one. At that point, you could commit the boost, or maybe undo it and level normally with the motivation of now having an idea what you will eventually become.

This question comes up every now and then. I recommend boosting a character to 80. There are several reasons for this.

• The armor and bags you get are more useful now than later
• It is almost guaranteed that when you reach Level 80, you will not use the same weapons, skills and traits that you used on the way up to 80. Therefore you learned nothing useful while struggling your way up and doing mindless hearts.
• It makes no sense at all to pick armor and weapon stats and runes and sigils before you actually hit 80. As soon as you hit 80, the investment will make sense because you will use the gear for some time.
• You can start the Heart of Thornes and Path of Fire 1st chapters to get gliding and a Raptor mount. It's much more fun to play the game with gliding and a mount. At least for that I would boost, then, if you want, you can still level up the next character manually.
• With L80 you can participate in all events, do Fractals and Dungeons, Raids and WvW.

Honestly, only level up manually if you love pain. Unlike other games, GW2 really starts with Level 80 because of the mastery system, nobody cares or will even know how you got to 80. Learning your class is much more efficient when you have all skills and traits and access to proper gear, you can start learning from day 1. If two players of similar gaming skill level started at the same day, the one who used the boost will be a much better player after 4 weeks than the one who levelled up manually.

edit: I forgot to mention that your level will be adjusted to the zone you are in, so you can do your personal story after the boost and still feel challenged. You won't just mow down mobs easily.

@BELDAYNE.7415 said:So I purchased both expansions. My highest level I ever got a toon was lvl 32. In wow boosted toons were always frowned upon by other players. I don't want to solo through 2 expansions, but the low level zones are a ghost town. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but should I just boost to try and catch up, or start low and work my way up for the experience learning the class and hope to find a guild? I really really really want to like this game but I know me and my patience level.

I had a really long response also dealing with Faaris advice (which is woefully incorrect and bad but w/e). Here is the jist of it TC:

go ahead and boost if you think you have no patientce to level.

You will leave the game within no more than 2 weeks, I guarantee it. Please be so kind and do NOT come here asking for advice on where to go and what to do when chosing this approach.

Or, read through some of the similar threads which keep coming up (both to boosting and what to do at max level) and get an educated overview of why it is not a good idea to boost the first character (minor exception to boosting 1 character to get gliding and the raptor mount and then benching that character).

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@BELDAYNE.7415 said:So I purchased both expansions. My highest level I ever got a toon was lvl 32. In wow boosted toons were always frowned upon by other players. I don't want to solo through 2 expansions, but the low level zones are a ghost town. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but should I just boost to try and catch up, or start low and work my way up for the experience learning the class and hope to find a guild? I really really really want to like this game but I know me and my patience level.

You give no reasoning and no arguments pro or contra boosting at all in your post. It seems you treat this thread like a poll.

@Faaris.8013 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@"BELDAYNE.7415" said:So I purchased both expansions. My highest level I ever got a toon was lvl 32. In wow boosted toons were always frowned upon by other players. I don't want to solo through 2 expansions, but the low level zones are a ghost town. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough but should I just boost to try and catch up, or start low and work my way up for the experience learning the class and hope to find a guild? I really really really want to like this game but I know me and my patience level.

No reason to, there are enough posts on this topic and I have given lengthy explanations in many of them.

A simply google search gives these results and more:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/3322/to-use-or-not-to-use-level-80-boosthttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/61420/kinda-new-player-level-80-boosthttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/55589/question-about-the-lvl-80-boosthttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/50352/using-level-80-boost-as-a-completely-new-player-to-gw2etc.

even archived discussions from before these new forums:https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Low-Level-Characters-Boost-Questions

General consensus is: do not use you level 80 boost without having at least played the core game 1nce (or at most to unlock gliding and the raptor) as was pointed out in this thread by VDAC and TheAgedGnome.

@"Cyninja.2954" said:No reason to, there are enough posts on this topic and I have given lengthy explanations in many of them.

So what you were saying to OP was basically "please google and you'll find the answer". Thanks, that's all I need to know. I still have a different opinion on the matter and I stated my reasons.

@Faaris.8013 said:

@"Cyninja.2954" said:No reason to, there are enough posts on this topic and I have given lengthy explanations in many of them.

Exactly, and given the wealth of information and the amount of times this topic was covered, TC will have a way better overview of the whys and hows if he uses past threads given some of those have pages of useful information.

No one is saying you have no right to your opinion.

Some of your reasons are very questionable though and nearly damaging to an inexeperienced player. For example: you won't use any of the weapons after leveling (I'll assume you mean the actual gear)? Obviously not, but you will use the skills on those weapons which remain the same at max level. Quite useful to get to know those skills while leveling to not get overwhelmed or not?

The second one being runes and sigils coming in at 80. Yes, so wouldn't it make sense to get to know the remaining mechanics and build aspects while leveling as to not get overwhelmed when hitting 80? Again, advice I find questionable for a new player. I'm sure you had your reasons though to pass this advice on.

@Cyninja.2954 said:Some of your reasons are very questionable though and nearly damaging to an inexeperienced player. For example: you won't use any of the weapons after leveling (I'll assume you mean the actual gear)? Obviously not, but you will use the skills on those weapons which remain the same at max level. Quite useful to get to know those skills while leveling to not get overwhelmed or not?

This depends on the class actually. I levelled up my first character, my thief, and when I hit 80 and got enough hero points to make her a Daredevil, it was staff and not daggers. And that's what I play since then, I rarely touched daggers again. I noticed this with other classes I play as well, the main weapon you'll use comes with one of the elites.

@Faaris.8013 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:Some of your reasons are very questionable though and nearly damaging to an inexeperienced player. For example: you won't use any of the weapons after leveling (I'll assume you mean the actual gear)? Obviously not, but you will use the skills on those weapons which remain the same at max level. Quite useful to get to know those skills while leveling to not get overwhelmed or not?

Not really, and hopefully you have some double pistols or shortbow in your off weapon set (for ranged damage in raids if made necessary line on Xera or just basic mobility). Both of which are core weapons.

There is almost no build on any class which uses 1 weapon exclusively (elementalist and engineer excluded, but both of those either use core weapons in their builds or are so complex that any one could benefit starting slowly into the class) and given you have two sets on most classes, you will be running some form of core weapon with that elite specialization weapon (even as a non Daredevil thief when running Deadeye for example).

@"Cyninja.2954" said:it is not a good idea to boost the first character (minor exception to boosting 1 character to get gliding and the raptor mount and then benching that character).I agree with this.

New players need to learn the game not only their class. Do some research find a class that you "Think" you will like and start from there. Its ok to make a wrong choice at the start that is part of the learning. Finding a play style that fits you. When I started I made a thief and it was not till I was almost level 70 that I realized that I should have made a guardian. It fit me better.

Don't rush yourself to end game before you are ready. You will miss so much of what makes this game great if you do.

@Faaris.8013 said:This question comes up every now and then. I recommend boosting a character to 80. There are several reasons for this.

• The armor and bags you get are more useful now than later
• It is almost guaranteed that when you reach Level 80, you will not use the same weapons, skills and traits that you used on the way up to 80. Therefore you learned nothing useful while struggling your way up and doing mindless hearts.
• It makes no sense at all to pick armor and weapon stats and runes and sigils before you actually hit 80. As soon as you hit 80, the investment will make sense because you will use the gear for some time.
• You can start the Heart of Thornes and Path of Fire 1st chapters to get gliding and a Raptor mount. It's much more fun to play the game with gliding and a mount. At least for that I would boost, then, if you want, you can still level up the next character manually.
• With L80 you can participate in all events, do Fractals and Dungeons, Raids and WvW.

Honestly, only level up manually if you love pain. Unlike other games, GW2 really starts with Level 80 because of the mastery system, nobody cares or will even know how you got to 80. Learning your class is much more efficient when you have all skills and traits and access to proper gear, you can start learning from day 1. If two players of similar gaming skill level started at the same day, the one who used the boost will be a much better player after 4 weeks than the one who levelled up manually.

edit: I forgot to mention that your level will be adjusted to the zone you are in, so you can do your personal story after the boost and still feel challenged. You won't just mow down mobs easily.

1. How is the armor more useful now than after he's leveled his first character? Exotic gear is just fine for most things and that's really easy to get enough gold for, even before HoT was launched. It's only easier now that gold's easier to come across.
2. But leveling up if you use the weapons you get from drops or the story gives players a taste for the different weapons without having to spend money on them. Money new players don't have a lot of. Skipping straight to 80 means you miss out a lot of free gear from drops to determine what weapons you want to use.
3. But that time spent build crafting is helpful to players to learn what they're play style is in this game. Do they need the more defensive stats or are they fine as a glass cannon? I rarely use the gear I first bought after getting to level 80 (the level 80 boost wasn't available then) - so that's the same as the armor in the boost. Plus, with traits and skills, having to unlock them means that they have to at least read what they are to decide which they want to unlock next. Which is way more important to a class than being level 80.
4. If you have a friend with a level 80 character you can start PoF and get a mount at least. Don't recall if you need to level a mastery to use a glider or not, it's been too long.
5. I wouldn't recommend Fractals, Dungeons, and especially not Raids to a new player. They need to learn the game first before they learn instanced content. Same with WvW
6. It's still more challenging to do things at or below level than it is down leveled. That increase in challenge creates a better push at improvement than being easily able to defeat enemies. Which is what things are in down leveled areas.

I would never recommend someone use a level 80 boost for their first character.

Thanks everyone. I'll take the meat and leave the bones. In WoW I found googling to be more of a hindrance than a help not knowing who was credible and what not, I'll give google a shot with GW2. I didn't realize this was a question that came up a lot. Humblest apologies for the offense.

I'm fairly new but my girlfriend had played for a while. I did level boost a character specifically do do Path of Fire content and get the mounts. I really wish the mounts had been added to the basic leveling path instead. I'm still doing the basic story and enjoying it and it doesn't bother me to be playing various parts of the story timeline at the same time. If you think you'd have trouble with this, don't do it. If you do this, I'd seriously suggest doing it with one of the easier to play classes. You aren't going to miss out on many nuances of character play if you level boost a warrior for instance. You still swing weapon until mob dies, you're jsut faster and better at it and there are viable open world builds that don't rely on either of the elite skills (the 5 signet build comes to mind). Try it with an Elementalist and you may have some trouble.