Not having Level Grind with each expansion is one of the best things about GW2

Not having Level Grind with each expansion is one of the best things about Guild Wars 2. As a level 80 I have full access to so many zones balanced around my level in terms of difficulty. Each expansion just adds to that rather then more level zones that get plowed through once players reach max level and gear up.

Don't get me wrong, HoT and PoF had some flaws, but the lack of level grind wasn't one of them.

Agreed, I really like this about GW2, as well as their level scaling system. My max level characters can visit any zone and still earn level appropriate rewards and XP.

Not to mention each new LWS episode doesn’t make our current gears obsolete, so we don’t have grind gears to play each episode.

I agree. I really like that you reach the maximum level in this game and then you're pretty much free to do what you like without having to worry about whether you're the right level or if it will give enough XP to allow you progress. It's really nice to just focus on playing the game and never have to think about any of that.

Agreed.

There have been design decisions I have disagreed with vehemently, this is not one of them.

No kidding, when wow hit 120 i said well thats enough for me. You cant imagine the slog from level 1 to 120. No wonder they made a fortune in level boosts.

Level wise, yes this is true, but GW2 just puts it under a different guise. With each expansion we got masteries that needed to be leveled, which is not that different from having to gain more levels; it's just different in name and not actually being tied to your characters 'level'. Not grinding out these masteries via exp limited your character in both expacs as areas weren't accessible and you lacked certain abilities.

GW2 went about it in a better way, that I do agree, but it still very much had exp grinds introduced in each expac.

To some extend yes and i personally prefer it over the weird 10 lvls increase tho i see the value in it.

On the ither hand it just splits the playerbase way too thin over alot of maps.

i totally love this, it's one of the things i enjoy about playing and knowing I'm not behind on things :)

@MrRuin.9740 said:Level wise, yes this is true, but GW2 just puts it under a different guise. With each expansion we got masteries that needed to be leveled, which is not that different from having to gain more levels; it's just different in name and not actually being tied to your characters 'level'. Not grinding out these masteries via exp limited your character in both expacs as areas weren't accessible and you lacked certain abilities.

GW2 went about it in a better way, that I do agree, but it still very much had exp grinds introduced in each expac.

It's still nice to feel some sense of improvement to our characters though, but without making our gear obsolete. The constant raising level gear grind is what I hated most about other MMOs. And the masteries are account wide, so you only need to do them once.

@zealex.9410 said:To some extend yes and i personally prefer it over the weird 10 lvls increase tho i see the value in it.

On the ither hand it just splits the playerbase way too thin over alot of maps.

And spreading players too thin? Not with GW2's map shards instead of server split. I still see plenty of players, even in Central Tyria, and in HoT zones (4 year old content), I often can't get into a map for a meta because it's full. Even Central Tyria during Boss trains.

Increasing levels (and gear being made obsolete) is one of the reasons I never went back to several MMOs. I don't want to have to grind out levels again only multiple characters every time an expansion comes out.

It's also weird that your character—the main character in your experience of the game—just suddenly loses power or everyone gets more buff every 1-2 years. I prefer GW2's design in a lore-sense in that the PC doesn't lose or gain power but does learn new skills. You don't immediately know how to glide, you learn it. You have no idea how to fly a griffon at first, but then you figure it out. Poison chokes you until you find a way to nullify its effects. You don't forget how to do things and you're not forever facing enemies that are stronger than the last, but you are facing new enemies and new circumstances which you need to adapt to. (plus all the changing technology)

But jumping back to the mechanics, the mastery system is nice in that it applies to all your characters. You go through it once, you never have to again. And if the new content is designed well, you will gain those mastery levels in a fluid, easy way and not have to grind unless you choose to or just have to top something off. HoT was bad for this but I found PoF was good. After that, all your characters are on the same level. Literally. No grinding levels/masteries. No gear grinds. Nothing.

GW2 isn't just an MMO that respects your time, it respects your desire to play alts instead of punishing you for it. There are issues I take with the game, but the level system is not one of them.

I enjoy the leveling game. I am fine with this game as it is, but it does lack a feeling of progression. I do all my hero points one at a time, as a train removes what little progression we have.

I'm of the minority I guess lol. I can't bring myself to grind for just cosmetic stuff. I like the look of my toons and my weapons after the 4 yrs playing and find the pve utterly mind numbingly boring in the last year, new looking gear etc isn't enough to look forward to anymore. I dont wanna constant gear grind to stay relevant but getting my toons to max powa after a year and playing for yrs for only fashion wars isn't much incentive. I'd prefer new harder zones in expansions and a small lv increase and stronger gear to work towards even if it only happened once a yr, at least you would have multiple gear and weapon sets to farm with increased stats etc. Be a lot more incentive to keep farming yrs later but like I said I'm in the minority here lol nothing like playing for last 3 yrs looking at all ur max toons thinking that's all there is to their progression, except maybe I'll change the shoulders or the boots lol build deversity has been snuffed by devs as well so after yrs of playing the same off meta and meta builds over and over gets very stale as well. New players though should without a doubt be into this game as it offers them a lot.

You know, I would actually like to see some vertical progression, but don't get me wrong.

Just for the sake of theme. You unlock ability to wield ascended on 90 and legendary on level 100. I wouldn't give these levels extra stats but rather make it a journey - like Gen 2. Collections. You get the experience for crafting, obtaining materials and doing quests - this lets you show off your achievement in hunting for ascended / legendary equipment.

I really like the way GW2 works, but sometimes it feels bland to just Play around the cosmetics.

As for Masteries - I like this system, but I don',t like how it functions in terms if level progression.Once you unlock your mastery you pretty much forget it exists since bearky everything on GW2 you obtain, you unlock for whole account.

Never. Raise. Cap.

oh i dunno. The lazy of us of course wouldn't want a level cap, but to be honest, at least it would be some to something to do.

@Dami.5046 said:oh i dunno. The lazy of us of course wouldn't want a level cap, but to be honest, at least it would be some to something to do.

its the same stuff we already do, just gated.

Yeah. I like that as well. Have not bought any expansion yet. Though the fact that you don't need to grind and gear won't get obsolete is the unique selling point of GW2 to me. While for other types of players it might scare them away if they don't need to grind or always farm for better gear. For some people this is "end game content" and I see it as annoying pre-requirement to actually play the real content.

I want to reach an end and have the best gear at some point. Not having to fear that it gets devalued/obsolete. (Then I would not have even fun trying to get that gear ... trying to jump to the next higher tier directly if always higher tiers got added.)

Also on a side note: GW2 is one of the best jump and run games I have ever played. While trying to to the JPs I can also have a bit of fun fighting, crafting ... or doing other stuff. Lots of other jump and run games have only jumping and running. :D

While I understand that grinding for comsmetics isn't fun: To me it is not fun as well. But I like to do stuff for achievements (completion). And a lot of other games have hard to reach or grindy achievements and people like it. Also the beautiful maps and the exploring is fun to me. Exploring, jumping and enjoying the scenery and events and playing with others. Noticed that I still like this when I came back 2019 after a long break (2013 - 2019 on break) and started to do Dry Top and Silver Wastes where the map itself has it's own categories with achievements. Which also have jumping puzzle stuff involved. But also interesting map layout.

@Knighthonor.4061 said:

@Dami.5046 said:oh i dunno. The lazy of us of course wouldn't want a level cap, but to be honest, at least it would be some to something to do.

That's what I don't understand about people advocating for an increased level cap - it doesn't actually give you anything more to do in the game, it just requires you to do it in a specific order.

Imagine if HoT had increased the level cap, so Verdant Brink is a level 80-90 map and you have to be level 90 to go to Auric Basin. You've finished the story in Verdant Brink and it's telling you to move on, but oh no, you have to stick around and do some map completion or events until you're the right level to be able to survive there instead of leaving it until you feel like doing it. So kind of like the mastery system (where certain story steps require you to have the first or second tier of a mastery unlocked), but you'd have to get all of it done to complete the story.

@Dami.5046 said:oh i dunno. The lazy of us of course wouldn't want a level cap, but to be honest, at least it would be some to something to do.

I got my stacks of tok ready if they do raise cap mate no sweat of my back.

@Linken.6345 said:

@Dami.5046 said:oh i dunno. The lazy of us of course wouldn't want a level cap, but to be honest, at least it would be some to something to do.

mate indeed.anyway, i'm not banging the drums for this to happen - I can't tell how annoying it is to get top level gear and it being wasted because the game goes up 10 levels.

And i doubt HOT would suddenly become lvl90 say - surely this would be expansion level content and therefore would make those maps lvl 90?But anyway, like Cantha a MOOT point so surely not worthy of any flame.

@DonArkanio.6419 said:You unlock ability to wield ascended on 90 and legendary on level 100. I wouldn't give these levels extra stats but rather make it a journey - like Gen 2. Collections. You get the experience for crafting, obtaining materials and doing quests - this lets you show off your achievement in hunting for ascended / legendary equipment.

So, instead of the majority of players running around at level 80, they would be running around at level 100? Not sure I understand how this makes anything different or improves the game?

Lol knew I was in the minority and I'm definitely not saying game model should change but I dont get the "we'd be doing the same thing as we are now but things would be gated" things are gated right now in the form of purely cosmetic value and mounts and I personally cant bring my self to spend the time it takes to farm the games content for cosmetic changes and mounts (already have 4) that really dont change the game for me in any way other than looks. After 4 yrs of playing the same type of content the pve has gotten very boring and farming it for somthing that is of little driving force as cosmetically gets old and doesnt provide much of a progression or feeling of accomplishment once u do it for years. Atleast if there was a lv cap raise with gear ur striving forward to actually improve ur toon in a meaningful way. A reason to continue playing as not everyone can spend hrs and hrs of their time just for mundane accomplishment award etc. Anyway I get why I'm in minority and not saying I'm right just how I personally feel about horizontal progression mmo's

Thank god my chars/weapons are still relevant after long breaks. But I wish they would provide some unique abilities either skills and/or weapons that aren't easy to get that you can quest/collection for open world PVE(for instanced and pvp content this would cause gear/ability checks for something easily attainable and would be toxic). Nothing gamebreaking as it'd be for PVE , but something cool/somewhat useful would be great.

For instance and item that can proc and give you 1 extra intiative for a thief with cooldown(dunno 30 seconds?). For Warriror an item that can give adrenaline with cooldown.

A skill that allows you to replace your elite skill or one of your skills, instead of making more professions.

@whoeverxwins.1279 said:

@MrRuin.9740 said:Level wise, yes this is true, but GW2 just puts it under a different guise. With each expansion we got masteries that needed to be leveled, which is not that different from having to gain more levels; it's just different in name and not actually being tied to your characters 'level'. Not grinding out these masteries via exp limited your character in both expacs as areas weren't accessible and you lacked certain abilities.

GW2 went about it in a better way, that I do agree, but it still very much had exp grinds introduced in each expac.

@zealex.9410 said:To some extend yes and i personally prefer it over the weird 10 lvls increase tho i see the value in it.

On the ither hand it just splits the playerbase way too thin over alot of maps.

I only see ppl in core tyria when a world boss happens, i see ppl in solverwastes that are farming the map and i see ppl in meta maps when metas happen, i also see alot of maps veing relatively lower pop or dead.

What im saying is that keep adding maps and metas like that without shaving the existing pool will only server to split the community or kill maps in the process.