Why do people discourage boosts?

[Xariann.5071]

I got a boost after buying End of Dragons. I have looked at forum threads and watched videos of people telling others to not use the boosts otherwise you'll skip the base content.

Maybe I am playing my boosted character wrong, but I don't understand why that is the case.

I got up to level 36 on my Mesmer, then decided that I wanted to boost my character to 80, as, really, I want to play Virtuoso.

I keep hearing about masteries and how they send you back to the core world for map completion anyway, so I figured, why not just do all this map completion at 80, so the exp goes towards my masteries directly? 

The core story has not been reset for me, and I am very much not overwhelmed by the new skills and passives – it's just like picking your skill tree in other MMOs, and if all else fails, I can look at a guide, try to understand synergies and make changes as I get familiar with the spec. Anyway the spec I want to play, i.e. Virtuoso, still needs to be grinded so it's not like I am being thrown in the deep end of that specialisation without the opportunity to learn it.

I will say that completing the core story does give me mastery XP although it seems a bit slow. Maybe once I venture in the Heart of Thorns that XP will be quicker.

Anyway, I haven't skipped any content, and the open world difficulty in the core game seems similar to what it was at 36, with the gear the game gives with the boost. It was faceroll then, and it is faceroll now.  But now all my progression goes towards Masteries.

So why wouldn't one use boosts? If you have to do the map completions anyway, what does it matter what level you are?

Edited July 7, 2023 by Xariann.5071

[leila.7962]

When you use the level 80 boost, you start at a different location than the one you should start, seeing things way ahead of the personal story.. not to mention the first character experience from 1 to 80 is something you will miss, like meeting challenging foes that you do not have yet the level or gear to fight against.. meeting people that will be doing the same content as you due to their level, like in dungeons for example.

[Danikat.8537]

What you're doing is exactly what those people recommend. You levelled your character naturally until you got to a point where you understood how the game mechanics work and how you like playing your character so you had a clear idea of the build you wanted to go for and how to get it, and what activities you want to focus on, then used the boost to skip some of the time required to get to that point.

What most people advise against doing is using the boost right away (or at any point before you feel confident with your character and the game). If someone who is completely new to GW2 uses it on their level 2 character there's a good change they will be confused, either by the amount of stuff that unlocks at once or by the ways it's not like skill trees in other games. I've encountered a few people who never changed their specialisations after using the boost, either because they don't know how to since they only see the 3 lines, or because they're scared of making a bad decision and being unable to change it back. That's a non-issue in this game but in others it could be a permanent choice or at least expensive to fix and because they didn't learn about specialisations and traits while levelling up they don't know that.

But it's not just about your build. As @leila.7962 said the boost also moves you to a completely different location, away from the cities and where your personal story will send you (the other side of the world for norn and charr characters) and that on it's own could be confusing for a new player who doesn't know how to get back. It also won't tell you what 'end game' activities are available (which is probably what someone using a boost immediately is interested in) or how to find them, and definitely won't point you to ones you 'have to' do because it's designed to be your choice, so if they don't already know what they want to do and how to find it they're going to feel lost.

[Shuzuru.3651]

People says to not use the boost because what would usually happened is that some people may be tempted to use it right after the starting instance (so lvl2). 

Since you kinda learn the flow of the game by leveling, they end up not knowing how to play the game at all (skill, traits, map exploration, events and meta) and since the game won't really give you direction after the boost, lot would end up overwhelmed and quit the game. 

That's why most people recommend to level up the first character normally (or at least, leveled up a bit, like at lvl40) to get how to play the game first before boosting

[Parasite.5389]

i think you're misunderstanding.
you won't skip content, but you can skip natrually learning the class mechanics, which the game opens up to you across the first 30 levels or so.
most player opinions on how and when to use a level 80 boost is either;  Wait those first 30 levels so you understand the profession, and wont be overwhelmed when you're suddenly thrown 50+ skills or traits and have no clue how to play your profession, or; use it on an alt you already understand so you can skip the early game content and get straight into the Expansion content.

[Dante.1508]

I don't think people discourage you from using level 80 boosts.. I think its more people are trying to help newbies from ruining their experience using them myself.. If you have 20 characters and you want to use a level 80 boost to avoid the grind yet again go for it.. If you are a brand new player and you just totally avoided everything well that was a bit silly.

PvPers and WvWers might use them because they don't generally care about the pve or the stories

Edited July 7, 2023 by Dante.1508

[Xariann.5071]

52 minutes ago, leila.7962 said:

When you use the level 80 boost, you start at a different location than the one you should start, seeing things way ahead of the personal story.. not to mention the first character experience from 1 to 80 is something you will miss, like meeting challenging foes that you do not have yet the level or gear to fight against.. meeting people that will be doing the same content as you due to their level, like in dungeons for example.

I find no difference in challenge in the leveling experience and it is my understanding it's rather difficult to get into a dungeon, as nobody plays them. Unless this has changed recently.

[Xariann.5071]

31 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

What you're doing is exactly what those people recommend. You levelled your character naturally until you got to a point where you understood how the game mechanics work and how you like playing your character so you had a clear idea of the build you wanted to go for and how to get it, and what activities you want to focus on, then used the boost to skip some of the time required to get to that point.

What most people advise against doing is using the boost right away (or at any point before you feel confident with your character and the game). If someone who is completely new to GW2 uses it on their level 2 character there's a good change they will be confused, either by the amount of stuff that unlocks at once or by the ways it's not like skill trees in other games. I've encountered a few people who never changed their specialisations after using the boost, either because they don't know how to since they only see the 3 lines, or because they're scared of making a bad decision and being unable to change it back. That's a non-issue in this game but in others it could be a permanent choice or at least expensive to fix and because they didn't learn about specialisations and traits while levelling up they don't know that.

But it's not just about your build. As @leila.7962 said the boost also moves you to a completely different location, away from the cities and where your personal story will send you (the other side of the world for norn and charr characters) and that on it's own could be confusing for a new player who doesn't know how to get back. It also won't tell you what 'end game' activities are available (which is probably what someone using a boost immediately is interested in) or how to find them, and definitely won't point you to ones you 'have to' do because it's designed to be your choice, so if they don't already know what they want to do and how to find it they're going to feel lost.

This makes sense actually. I did play the game at launch even though I think I maybe stopped at around 60ish (I am not sure, but I am on the level 60 story with my boosted character and I vaguely remember it). So I had an idea.

I also watched a lot of videos about specialisations and how they play, so I came informed, as well as having played many other games before this.

I suppose for a totally new player, or for someone who doesn't want to use third party tools (which is 100% a legit way to play) it would be confusing. Sometimes I forget how much info that is on the internet influences how I play.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

historically, boosting is a common marketing tactic to sell a product, and its been designed by questionable principles to make players quit shortly after so the company keeps the money. this was set in place decades ago when the first mmos came out, and even before that with some muds and such.

 

it can be useful to veterans, but when done by new players its almost always a shocking experience because as simple as this game may seem to a veteran, for a new player it can be infinitely more complex than any other game they've ever played. as a result they have a tendancy to become incredibly overwhelmed and quit the game, with only 20% of players asking for a refund in past studies done on video game exploitation.

 

you want to know what the biggest complaint is from new players i bring into the game? they don't even understand what the yellow and orange circles around hearts and events are or why they're everywhere, or why they won't stop coming. some of the most advanced, even hardcore players i've ever played the game with started out this way, unable to handle even a simple colored outline on the map. now imagine being instantly lv80, being in an expansion area, having all your weapons, skills and traits unlocked, and alot of stuff dumped into your inventory with no real guidance or tutorials.

 

for comparison, items like tomes of knowledge are much more valuable because they allow progress skips without complete disruption. they can also be stockpiled and used at the right time and in the right situations, safely.

 

level boosters definitely have their legitimate uses, but traditionally in these kinds of games they're the reward for the mouse at the end of the maze, despite being portrayed as being the starting point of the maze itself. video games are slowly moving away from practices like this, but the fact that this game still ships a lv80 booster with expansions saddens me, because it feels like arenanet isn't moving in the right direction fast enough.

 

even the changes to the black lion chests and statuettes have been slow coming.

Edited July 7, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Xariann.5071]

12 minutes ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

historically, boosting is a common marketing tactic to sell a product, and its been designed by questionable principles to make players quit shortly after so the company keeps the money. this was set in place decades ago when the first mmos came out, and even before that with some muds and such.

 

it can be useful to veterans, but when done by new players its almost always a shocking experience because as simple as this game may seem to a veteran, for a new player it can be infinitely more complex than any other game they've ever played. as a result they have a tendancy to become incredibly overwhelmed and quit the game, with only 20% of players asking for a refund in past studies done on video game exploitation.

 

you want to know what the biggest complaint is from new players i bring into the game? they don't even understand what the yellow and orange circles around hearts and events are or why they're everywhere, or why they won't stop coming. some of the most advanced, even hardcore players i've ever played the game with started out this way, unable to handle even a simple colored outline on the map. now imagine being instantly lv80, being in an expansion area, having all your weapons, skills and traits unlocked, and alot of stuff dumped into your inventory with no tutorials.

 

for comparison, items like tomes of knowledge are much more valuable because they allow progress skips without complete disruption. they can also be stockpiled and used at the right time and in the right situations.

 

level boosters definitely have their legitimate uses, but traditionally in these kinds of games they're the reward for the mouse at the end of the maze, despite being portrayed as being the starting point of the maze itself. video games are slowly moving away from practices like this, but the fact that this game still ships a lv80 booster with expansions saddens me, because it feels like arenanet isn't moving in the right direction fast enough.

 

even the changes to the black lion chests and statuettes have been slow coming.

I guess I have not been a "new MMO Player" for many years (even though I consider myself a newbie in GW2 and I wouldn't know how to setup my characters in fractals). So something like a yellow outline is rather obvious to me, even if nobody explains it. MMOs also don't live in a vacuum, there are guides and videos, and plenty of people who create content for this game as they really like it. But as I said before, there are people who like to play it blind and that's I guess 100% understandable. If you did that though, you probably wouldn't use a boost.

As to the marketing practice of a boost - I don't know. They are giving you a free boost with an expansion. It's not really bad practice. I think maybe you can get one from the shop too? In which case that's different... but in a game where you are not skipping content it's really just a personal choice. Do you want spend time or money? That's a different discussion though, it's not really relevant to this.

[Bladestrom.6425]

think of it this way @Xariann.5071  there is a TON of great content in GW2  in a genre where once you get to endgame the content narrows naturally (GW2 is best in market at minimising this narrowing through horizontal progress)  So advising someone to skip all that content would be a crazy thing to do in a game where there is no rush to end game - it will still be there in 6 mnos, a year 2 years etc. 

The best advice for GW2 is always enjoy all the content that the game has to offer and try to avoid rushing, so new players get the same experience as veteran's who started on day 1 and love the game.  To use a well worn analogy if you are reading a book that you know has an amazing ending, you lose out by skipping to the end as it will devalue that ending as well by losing the background and engagement of the world being described.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

11 minutes ago, Xariann.5071 said:

I guess I have not been a "new MMO Player" for many years (even though I consider myself a newbie in GW2 and I wouldn't know how to setup my characters in fractals). So something like a yellow outline is rather obvious to me, even if nobody explains it. MMOs also don't live in a vacuum, there are guides and videos, and plenty of people who create content for this game as they really like it. But as I said before, there are people who like to play it blind and that's I guess 100% understandable. If you did that though, you probably wouldn't use a boost.

As to the marketing practice of a boost - I don't know. They are giving you a free boost with an expansion. It's not really bad practice. I think maybe you can get one from the shop too? In which case that's different... but in a game where you are not skipping content it's really just a personal choice. Do you want spend time or money? That's a different discussion though, it's not really relevant to this.

there is a very big difference between a purchase reward and a shop item. as a general rule, players will only buy the shop item if they feel confident in using it, whereas if they get it as a purchase reward they feel pressured to use it as to not waste it. amoung other things, the player may feel like if they don't use the boost and jump right into the latest content, the content may be abandoned by the time they get to it.

 

having to purchase the shop item gives them a mental barrier that allows more self-control and room for exploration on how they approach the game. its a psychological phenomenon, which is well documented, called fear of missing out (fomo).

Edited July 7, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Danikat.8537]

31 minutes ago, Xariann.5071 said:

I find no difference in challenge in the leveling experience and it is my understanding it's rather difficult to get into a dungeon, as nobody plays them. Unless this has changed recently.

It's not changed but it's also a bit of an exaggeration. Dungeons are not as popular with veteran players as they used to be because they're no longer one of the best sources of gold and exotic equipment, but that doesn't mean nobody plays them. If you put an advert in the LFG tool you'll be able to get a group together fairly quickly, except maybe in the middle of the night for your region. The ones that struggle to get people joining are groups which either don't specify what they're doing or are looking for experienced people to speed clear all the paths one after the other - even if you can do it quickly there's not much incentive to do that any more because there are faster ways to grind rewards.
 

13 minutes ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

boosting is a common marketing tactic to sell shop items and expansions, and its been designed by skinner's box principles to make players quit shortly after so the company keeps the money. this was set in place decades ago when the first mmos came out, and even before that with some muds and such.

That's the opposite of what a skinner box (properly called an operant conditioning chamber) is designed to do. The purpose is to teach and encourage non-intuitive behaviours - to get the participant to keep doing it. The original version was teaching rats and pigeons to activate a series of buttons and switches to get food. There are several variants - within behavioural biology the most significant is that they could be taught to understand that the outcome would change depending on seemingly unrelated factors - if a light is on you'll get food, if it's off you won't. But the one MMOs get compared to is showing that if the outcome was random - sometimes pushing the button produced food, other times it didn't, lead to them pushing the button more frequently than if it worked every time.

Comparisons to MMOs are often flawed (as were some conclusions drawn from the original experiment) because a key component of traditional skinner boxes was that the candidate had nothing else to do, they were trapped in a box with nothing but the assigned task so they kept doing it because their only other option was to do nothing. They're a lot less effective if there's any other source of food or other activities to do and no one is actually trapped with nothing but an MMO, and certainly not restricted to repeating one activity within it. But the basic premise is that MMOs often (but not always) follow the same principle by 'training' players to repeat actions indefinitely because they can never be sure if they'll get the reward this time or will need to try again.

The point is absolutely not to annoy them so they quit playing but to keep them playing for longer without the company having to make new activities for them to do (because making a game always takes longer than completing it). It's especially used in subscription games because they rely on players wanting to log in regularly for a significant part of their income and getting them into a routine of repeating activities is a good way of doing that.

[Shuzuru.3651]

1 hour ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

historically, boosting is a common marketing tactic to sell a product, and its been designed by questionable principles to make players quit shortly after so the company keeps the money. this was set in place decades ago when the first mmos came out, and even before that with some muds and such.

No, I don't think MMO editor are that dumb.

For a MMO to flourish, you need active player that will actively consume new product that you have in sell (may it be expansion, subscription or ingame shop), a lost player won't grant you any money, and the small starting amount you may gain is insignificant compared to what a loyal player can bring you, money-wise.

Historically, boost with extensions is simply a way to kickstart new player to the new content. It's particularly a good thing with vertical progression game with the gear treadmill as it assured the player to not completely be left behind because there is so much to  catch up.

I would say the confusion and overwhelming is more of a side effect of it, probably insignificant enough to not invest a bunch of ressources to attenuate it (to be fair, they did it a bit in EoD), as it's pretty much assumed that no matter what you did, MMO are game so complex every player will still probably look for external ressources at some point. 

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

i'm speaking from experience of playing mmos since they were first introduced, being on the receiving end of bad practices, and learning alot of information about it over the years. you're free to disagree with me, but it is definitely a very real practice that has always existed for buy to play. you may be confusing it with different tactics used in subscription-based games where long-term retention is a revenue gain rather than, on average, a loss.

Edited July 7, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

1 hour ago, Danikat.8537 said:

It's not changed but it's also a bit of an exaggeration. Dungeons are not as popular with veteran players as they used to be because they're no longer one of the best sources of gold and exotic equipment, but that doesn't mean nobody plays them. If you put an advert in the LFG tool you'll be able to get a group together fairly quickly, except maybe in the middle of the night for your region. The ones that struggle to get people joining are groups which either don't specify what they're doing or are looking for experienced people to speed clear all the paths one after the other - even if you can do it quickly there's not much incentive to do that any more because there are faster ways to grind rewards.
 

That's the opposite of what a skinner box (properly called an operant conditioning chamber) is designed to do. The purpose is to teach and encourage non-intuitive behaviours - to get the participant to keep doing it. The original version was teaching rats and pigeons to activate a series of buttons and switches to get food. There are several variants - within behavioural biology the most significant is that they could be taught to understand that the outcome would change depending on seemingly unrelated factors - if a light is on you'll get food, if it's off you won't. But the one MMOs get compared to is showing that if the outcome was random - sometimes pushing the button produced food, other times it didn't, lead to them pushing the button more frequently than if it worked every time.

Comparisons to MMOs are often flawed (as were some conclusions drawn from the original experiment) because a key component of traditional skinner boxes was that the candidate had nothing else to do, they were trapped in a box with nothing but the assigned task so they kept doing it because their only other option was to do nothing. They're a lot less effective if there's any other source of food or other activities to do and no one is actually trapped with nothing but an MMO, and certainly not restricted to repeating one activity within it. But the basic premise is that MMOs often (but not always) follow the same principle by 'training' players to repeat actions indefinitely because they can never be sure if they'll get the reward this time or will need to try again.

The point is absolutely not to annoy them so they quit playing but to keep them playing for longer without the company having to make new activities for them to do (because making a game always takes longer than completing it). It's especially used in subscription games because they rely on players wanting to log in regularly for a significant part of their income and getting them into a routine of repeating activities is a good way of doing that.

i think you somehow replied to a post i made while half asleep that was edited in 30seconds to remove the incorrect term.

Edited July 7, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

The main reason why we (parts of the veteran community members) recommend new players and returners to level a fresh character from scratch:
We do not want you to get overwhelmed. 

GW2 is more than 10 years old. It became very complex over the years. Combat is one aspect, but only one of many. You can use pre-designed builds (e. g. meta-builds) and skip the 'understanding your class' step. There are plenty of players who do it that way. You may get into trouble if you enter group-content, where this depth-knowledge is needed for certain steps. But most guides cover these nowadays as well.

But we have a lot of things that are not as easy to figure out as the combat. The currency-mess, the crafting-system (including ascended, time-gated stuff, jeweler & artificer specials, 22+ slot bags, ... etc.). Gear-acquisition is a topic large enough to fill multiple videos, forum posts and direct player communication. And you may still miss 1/3 of the options. The whole gear topic is another sub-section where you can get lost easily. And at this point, I am not even thinking about the legendary gear. Questing, collections, what to do when, how and why. There are for example a couple of important things that should be done on your first login, which you may learn on the go from level 1 to 80 - or a few years later. ... etc.

Each of these sub-categories is complex enough to keep you busy for a while. Sometimes content is split among multiple Living World Seasons and Expansions. There are guides and we recommend to use them. We also recommend to slow down and take your time.

In the end, you have a player who is either new or returned after 1-10 years. Instead of following our advise they go all in. Boost a character, pick a meta build and want to start raiding barely 1 day into the game. They look in their inventory, which is filled with lots of stuff they have not clue about. Anyway, RAIDING, NOW! ENDGAME! They go for the specific guides and ... the wikipedia effect kicks in. One question leads to more questions and even more questions. In the end they are completely confused and overwhelmed.

My personal guess is that we lose about half of the players. They buy the game and the expansions, the full LW, gemstore-items, maybe even a legendary weapon and quit within < 2 months. And that is what we want to prevent. Going with a new character slowly from level 1 to level 80 helps you understanding a lot of things, not just combat. You also learn to understand how GW2 unfolds. Even if you find confusing content, you know how to get along with it. You will not come out as a GW2 expert, but your chances of enjoying this game for an extended time-period are drastically higher if you do a normal start instead of a boost.

Sorry for the wall of text.

edit: q.e.d.

Edited July 8, 2023 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[Shuzuru.3651]

9 minutes ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

i'm speaking from experience of playing mmos since they were first introduced, being on the receiving end of bad practices, and learning alot of information about it over the years. you're free to disagree with me, but it is definitely a very real practice that has always existed for buy to play. you may be confusing it with different tactics used in subscription-based games where long-term retention is a revenue gain rather than, on average, a loss.

I wonder where you saw that, as the buy to play model is the rarest in the whole industry (the only one I know are gw1 and 2, and maybe destiny), and buy to play have the same constraint as subscription or f2p game. A loyal customer is always more beneficial. 

It's a know fact that it's easier to keep a customer than to gain new customer, so that's always the goal of any company. 

[Custodio.6134]

There´s a multitude of reasons why people (rightfully) discourage boosting your first character. 
 

1. Guild Wars 2 has a LOT of mechanics built into the professions. Traits interact with other traits. Traits interact with skills. Skills interact with stats, that interact with traits, that interact with other traits. If you don´t know what your traits and skills even DO, you´re always be less efficient. 
2. the 1-80 phase is meant to serve you your "tools" (skills, traits, weapon-choices) gradually. This gives you a lot of time to read through them, learn what they do, understand how they interact. Basically, it gives you the opportunity to understand your profession, which brings me to:
3. Understanding your profession, skills, traits and weapons has BY FAR the highest impact on your "performance", alongside understanding basic mechanics to avoid damage (dodging, blocking, evasion-skills etc). Gear alone will not even remotely compensate for the lack of class-knowledge. Especially when it comes to the point, where you have to become flexible (for example: swapping out utility-skills for specific encounters). if you don´t even understand your options, how are you supposed to adapt to different situations?
4. there is absolutely ZERO benefit to boosting your first character. older content (in majority at least) always stays relevant. For example: fractals (core-game), raids (HoT/PoF), world bosses (core-game), meta-events (from all over the place in expansions and LWS), EVERYTHING of that is still relevant today, no matter when it was released. It´s not gonna go away, and you have unlimited time to do everything in the game. 
5. boosting your first character to 80 will affect your daylies (a source of gold and other stuff, that gets massively under-appreciated). Your daylies will be set to level 80 for ALL of your characters, and will always send you to areas your account has general (purchase-based) access to. This includes areas you haven´t even visited yet, or unlocked via story yet, and as result, you sometimes may even be unable to complete your daylies at all (or at least, it gets harder). And 3 gold per day adds up a lot (3 per day, that´s 21 a week, or 84 per month). And gold is a very common issue for beginners apparently. 
6. another reason is simple experience. the community has witnessed a massive amount of players quitting, because they were overwhelmed by all the different systems that were presented to them AT ONCE (due to boosting). We´re talking of 11 years of systems over systems added on top of each other here. By boosting, you have to catch up on ALL OF THAT, AT ONCE, and people rarely are able to handle the flood of information they get showered with and/or have to look up 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Custodio.6134

[robertthebard.8150]

3 hours ago, SoftFootpaws.9134 said:

there is a very big difference between a purchase reward and a shop item. as a general rule, players will only buy the shop item if they feel confident in using it, whereas if they get it as a purchase reward they feel pressured to use it as to not waste it. amoung other things, the player may feel like if they don't use the boost and jump right into the latest content, the content may be abandoned by the time they get to it.

 

having to purchase the shop item gives them a mental barrier that allows more self-control and room for exploration on how they approach the game. its a psychological phenomenon, which is well documented, called fear of missing out (fomo).

Except that the primary target audience for expansions are veterans and are not necessarily new players.  So, if I bought an expansion, and it came with a boost, I may never use it.  I still have at least one from PoF/HoT purchases.  fomo does not apply, because I'm really not afraid of missing out.  Unlike in say swtor, where if I take a year off, I may find that I have to relevel my crafting disciplines, and will definitely have to acquire new BiS gear, if I take a year off here, my builds and gear are going to be just as good as they ever were, I'll just have more stuff to do in stories.  

I'm sure that there are people who feel similarly to you, but your own experience is not definitive for the genre.  Especially not here, where you won't be required to upgrade all of your gear if you miss some time in game for whatever reason, and when we take into consideration the intended target for an expansion sale, established players.  No, A-Net isn't going to complain about new players buying expansions, why would they?  However, the main target is also going to be buying them, and that's what's intended to happen.  For that audience, a booster is a way to literally just start in the expansion, instead of replaying content they have run countless times before.  Yes, new(ish) players may be "caught in the crossfire" as it were, but they are not the intended target, and they are why people advise against using a booster on a new character.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

So that people actually learn the basics of the game by leveling and doing story once. After that noone cares if you boost characters.

[Bladestrom.6425]

1 hour ago, IAmNotMatthew.1058 said:

So that people actually learn the basics of the game by leveling and doing story once. After that noone cares if you boost characters.

In addition to this, If i was joining a new game i would want to enjoy everything it has to offer including the levelling journey, to lean the game, engage with the world etc etc.  New players are not going to be overwhelmed, because GW2 is not the only rodeo they've been on and the complexity of the new world is what makes mmorpgs so enjoyable.  Sometimes I think vets give advice to others not based on what's best for that person, but based on their own personal feelings on the levelling journey for  themselves at that moment in time.  

The vet that advises new players to boost should ask themselves what would they do on day one if GW3 was released, would they want to boost to max level or would they want to enjoy the journey.

Edited July 7, 2023 by vesica tempestas.1563

[Khisanth.2948]

For some reason people assume you can't learn the game on a level 80. Maybe that is true to some degree but there were also plenty of clueless lv80 before the boost was ever introduced so leveling normally is not a guarantee that you will learn anything either. In terms of learning to play the class it is no different than jumping into PvP after making your first character.

The key point is that there is no single correct answer. It is up to each person to know themselves well enough. The "what is the best build?" question suffers from the same problem. The actual correct answer depends on their goals and skill. Although skill is becoming less of an issue for group play with ANet making things more passive.

[Bladestrom.6425]

6 minutes ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

For some reason people assume you can't learn the game on a level 80. Maybe that is true to some degree but there were also plenty of clueless lv80 before the boost was ever introduced so leveling normally is not a guarantee that you will learn anything either. In terms of learning to play the class it is no different than jumping into PvP after making your first character.

The key point is that there is no single correct answer. It is up to each person to know themselves well enough. The "what is the best build?" question suffers from the same problem. The actual correct answer depends on their goals and skill. Although skill is becoming less of an issue for group play with ANet making things more passive.

the core aspect is not learning, its simply that the levelling process equates to hundreds of hours of content to be enjoyed, just like vests enjoyed it.  read the book and enjoy the final chapter all the more for it.  This aint wow and you don't get punished by not being at max level asap.

think of it this way, vets cry out for more content at max level, but some advice new players to skip masses of content!

Edited July 7, 2023 by vesica tempestas.1563

[CAA.9653]

Leveling from 1 to 80 by exploring this huge open world was one of the best experiences when I started playing 10 years ago. You can't replace that experience, and you will miss out if you boost to 80. You also learn a lot of basic mechanics as you progress. After your first 1-80, boost away!