Reducing XP requirements to 80?

[Defias.1892]

Hi guys,I was wondering what your guys' thoughts on reducing the amount of XP required to hit 80 are. I, myself, already have 4 80's and enough Tomes to get another instant level 80, but I feel that new players (especially new players from the mass exodus from WoW) might feel bogged down by the roughly 40 - 60 hours that it might take for a player to hit max level. Ideally, I would say that it should be reduced by 20-30% but maybe potentially more. This game is already a few years old, so reducing XP might also encourage Vet players to level alts as well. Thoughts?

[Elspereth.1280]

I would be against it because I like leveling (eleven characters with more in the future I am sure).

[Cyanchiv.2583]

I honestly feel that xp requirements would benefit players by being increased. It is too easy to get to 80 as is (Such as the instant 80 boost from buying expansions, easily obtained tomes of knowledge).

Racing ahead to level 80 in this game also does not serve to getting you into the 'core' of the game either. Story content is available as part of the leveling process, dungeons can be completed by underleveled characters. Competitive content like PvP is accessible and fair long before reaching level 80.

Also getting to level 80 too quickly can prevent players from learning how to play their profession, and they often skip important mechanics they would have learned by leveling such as dodging and break bar mechanics. I've found this led to players new to the game, who boosted to 80 instantly, wondering why they struggle with monsters on the world map, especially in zones like HoT.

[Khisanth.2948]

Lets just get rid of leveling all together since people seems to be getting increasingly impatient. Call it future proofing.

[BlueJin.4127]

Personally, I thought the leveling speed was perfect on my first character. By my 4th or 5th character was when it started to feel like a drag.

I think Anet should change it so that each time a player completes a character’s personal story, the player gets +20% XP (more or less) increase for their account from all sources, not just kills. It should have a cap obviously, so that a player who completed personal story on 100 characters (O_o) can’t just insta 80 in minutes.

[Hugheszie.6291]

You're right about the mass influx of WOW players, Myself and half of my guild, now play Guild Wars. The levelling was fine as we're well... WOW players. However, after getting three level 80's so far, I don't fancy doing it again. Maybe a boost on XP for players whom already have high level toons? But i did play lots of WVW to get tomes, soooo there is that. But I guess not everyone likes player v player gamemodes.

[Little Leota.5849]

I enjoy leveling characters, so it wouldn't bother me whether they decrease or increase the amount of XP needed for level 80.

I have a lot of characters (34 so far), and I've used various ways to level them: playing through the story; doing map stuff, world bosses, etc.; using the birthday level boosts, level 80 boosts and tomes. But my favorite way to level is via The Labyrinth!

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

It really doesn't take all that long to get to 80. Plus, there are various ways to jump start and speed up the process, plus if it comes down to it, people can pay for the gem shop booster.

@Defias.1892 said:Hi guys,I feel that new players (especially new players from the mass exodus from WoW) might feel bogged down by the roughly 40 - 60 hours ... Ideally, ...it should be reduced by 20-30% ...

It's not bad that it takes some time for the newest players to reach L80. There are things we don't notice about the game unless we level, things we learn on the way to L80 for the first time. After the first, the time spent is already reduced by 20-30% because players have access to XP boosters, food, banners, bartender buffs, and techniques that they wouldn't have known about first time through.

---

Full disclosure: leveling is the thing I hate most about any game. I prefer to choose where & when to invest my time learning the game. I prefer fully open content, rather than gated content. The time has never been the primary burden in GW2, for me at least.

The only time I chose not to level new toons was when we had to repeat the same events/challenges for every character to learn traits; I had already done all those things many times before; I had no interest in repeating them every time I started a new toon. The current system does away with all of that: when a character reaches L80, all of their core abilities are fully unlocked: skills, traits, and stats.

[Kal Spiro.9745]

I currently have 22 characters, all Level 80. A handful of them went through leveling along with the story. Most of them I either instantly leveled or leveled through a birthday level boost then sat on the Modnir chain in Hirathi Hinterlands with xp boosters. I have seen no issues with the rate of leveling. I still have so many level boosters that I will never have to level the normal way unless I specifically want to.

[Balsa.3951]

no please i already think those lv 80 bosters are destroying a lot of game fun for new ppl.

start the game slow and explore u will be lv 80 long before u have world completion..there are even mounts now and gliders

[Khisanth.2948]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:After the first, the time spent is already reduced by 20-30% because players have access to XP boosters, food, banners, bartender buffs, and techniques that they wouldn't have known about first time through.

All those are available the first time through as well.

There are also stuff like Tomes are Mentorship(for example completing the personal story gives 5 and there are the Bags of Educational Supplies) which can be easier to get after you have played for a while.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Khisanth.2948 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:After the first, the time spent is already reduced by 20-30% because players have access to XP boosters, food, banners, bartender buffs, and techniques that they wouldn't have known about first time through.

All those are available the first time through as well.Sure, just new players don't usually have that figured out.

There are also stuff like Tomes are Mentorship(for example completing the personal story gives 5 and there are the Bags of Educational Supplies) which can be easier to get after you have played for a while.

Right, it's a long list of things that speed things up.

[phs.6089]

How exactly the should reduce? Exp you ear on any map is % to your current level. lv 70 on starting areas will get same exp like on 70s map.

[gonandro.4768]

No. just don't.Seriously don't people get tired of asking everything in this game to be easier?

[Cyninja.2954]

Can't agree, but I shall explain why:

1.) A major problem is longevity and similarity between GW2 and other MMOs. What I mean is, people who come to try GW2 often are not used to the open nature of the game. They are used to a gear grind and end game level progress which hold their hand while throwing meaningless items at them which will get devalued through future content. There is a constant amount of new threads titled:"What to do at level 80." or some variation there of.

2.) leveling another character becomes a non issue very fast. Even when only playing PvE, players get tons of Writs of Experience or Tomes of Knowledge. Even more so in Spvp and WvW. Birthday Gifts give instant level 20-60 tomes. Suffice to say, any veteran of 6 months or more can instantly push a character to level 80 within minutes.

3.) Leveling helps with introduction to a class. The limited requirements put on players in base Tyria are already a negative factor. Having people push to level 80 even faster would exacerbate this problem.

4.) The leveling process is already very fast if so desired. I believe my very first character took me around 36 hours of play time when the game launched. This was without crafting, knowledge of the game, Tomes of Knowledge, mounts, the amount of movement speed buffs, the power creep, etc. Any casual player can hit level 80 in sub 24 hours played, sub 48 hours if they take it VERY slow. This is already significantly faster than any other MMO in the market.

TL;DR: there is no need to speed up the leveling process since it should function as introduction and bond to the game and character and can be significantly sped-up already if so desired.

[InvaGir.9158]

Leveling feels right to me and has felt right for the past 6 yearsI don't think it needs to be changed besides giving tomes of knowledge before players hit level 80I do agree that tomes of knowledge should be available only to anyone who reached level 80 if they ever wish to level up another character faster(since they already experienced leveling from 0~80 for the first time)

[Khisanth.2948]

@Cyninja.2954 said:2.) leveling another character becomes a non issue very fast. Even when only playing PvE, players get tons of Writs of Experience or Tomes of Knowledge. Even more so in Spvp and WvW. Birthday Gifts give instant level 20-60 tomes. Suffice to say, any veteran of 6 months or more can instantly push a character to level 80 within minutes.

I don't think PvP and WvW tomes should be counted since they are basically replacements for the exp you aren't getting.You can get up to 8 tomes in a track which takes around 8 hours. 1 level per hour is around the same rate PvE is expected to give although it can go quite a bit faster.

4.) The leveling process is already very fast if so desired. I believe my very first character took me around 36 hours of play time when the game launched. This was without crafting, knowledge of the game, Tomes of Knowledge, mounts, the amount of movement speed buffs, the power creep, etc. Any casual player can hit level 80 in sub 24 hours played, sub 48 hours if they take it VERY slow. This is already significantly faster than any other MMO in the market.

Completely forgot about crafting. With cooking and jewelcrafting that is ~20 levels in 30 minutes for ~14g(assuming you buy everything but gathering gives exp as well so why would you do that?).

[Moira Shalaar.5620]

Between tomes, level scrolls, purchasable boosts, expansion bonus boosts, XP boosts, foot/utility, permanent account XP bonuses, guild boosts, and even some older gear that gives XP bonuses leveling a new character from 0 to 80 is not at all difficult if one wants to do so rapidly. It can be markedly easier for veteran players who have had more time to save up login rewards, but even for new players it isn't difficult at all. I have leveled over 40 characters to 80, not counting key farms, and most of those the "hard way". Rather than changing the existing system, more benefit might be found in taking fullest advantage of the existing system for those in a hurry. But has also been mentioned earlier, taking the time to work through the levels provides a good opportunity to learn a class, especially if it is the first time through playing it.

[SoulSin.5682]

Biggest problem of leveling on GW2 is how a bunch of story missions got bunched together at lvl 80 when they could help leveling up players in the last rush.

The second problem is the "lvl 30~50" issue.For some reason, leveling gets harder around lvl 40. Mostly because dungeons at those levels are insanely hard for no reason. And the events of maps at those levels are not that good.

Once you get access to easier dungeons paths and the Or maps the whole grind gets easier. Or has one event chained after another. And you can farm Ascalanian Catacombs and Sorrow's Embrace.Once you unlock Citadel of Flame, lvl 80 becomes a jump.

[Khisanth.2948]

Each chapter is only around 1 level so the story change doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@Khisanth.2948 said:Each chapter is only around 1 level so the story change doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

Agreed.

Additionally:

• Rewards from the PS and from leveling were buffed, making it easier to level.
• It's not clear that many people used the PS to level. I saw a lot of people aim to get several levels above the (then) recommended level of the stories before starting them.

[TexZero.7910]

I'm gonna go with nah.

It's already plenty easy to level to begin with and i disagree with the "40 to 60 hours". I've seen people brand new to the game get to 80 in under 20 hrs.

[Dante.1763]

@"TexZero.7910" said:I'm gonna go with nah.

It's already plenty easy to level to begin with and i disagree with the "40 to 60 hours". I've seen people brand new to the game get to 80 in under 20 hrs.

This.

Ive done it in less than 10 hours once, and i wont ever do that again, burnout was real.

[sorudo.9054]

the game is quite boring so i can understand the boredom in leveling, there is nothing in it so unless you're lvl 80 there is not much to do really.crafting is more a painful chore, the world is quite empty for a big world and hearts do get annoying after you've leveled enough characters already.

i don't think the leveling rate is the problem tho, it's the world that's so frikin empty it bores ppl really fast.we need quests instead of hearts and achievements, we need more open world dungeons instead of more instance story. (and not just for lvl 80)i know they want to add more for maxed out characters but they're forgetting the slow leveling ppl, the ones who just want to explore the world while they level.

[Goettel.4389]

Leveling is great as it is, thanks.