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HOw long does it take to level?
Czzarre
Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 3,742
in Guild Wars
How long does it take to get to max level in this game?
Im looking for a game I can jump in and start players without too much of a grind. Its my understanding that Guild Wars is one of the best PvP games currently on the market. Whats your experience? HOw long does it take to grind up?
Thanks
Torrential
Comments
Well... I think you have to follow the storyline in order to level, but thats pretty fast. I recently bought the platinum edition and after 1 day I had one lvl 10 and one lvl 6... so its rather easy
Sup dude!
Umm it depends. If you want to go level 1 to 20 the fastest in the PVE game, buy the Factions game. (You don't need original to play either Factions or Nightfall, but you do need a level 20 toon to play the new content in Eye of the North)
Or, you can start a level 20 PvP character from day 1 and get straight into it!
But I've heard of people going 1-20 in Factions in a couple of days of steady play time. You can solo everything with the henchmen system.
Being that the point of the game is not to have people grind in order to keep them paying their subs and that everyone can only get to the same level so as to keep balance, the leveling is quite fast.
Prophecies - Chapter 1 - Slowest Leveling, but most things to do and what most people consider to be the best skills in the game. Takes about 3days - 5 days of playing casually (what I consider 2-4 hours). The missions here award XP and Skills, unlike other chapters.
Factions - Chapter 2 - By far the fastest leveling, short campaign, very PvP centeric setup. Takes from 1-3 days to level up. I helped a friend recently just kill stuff while he collect the missions and he went form lvle 2 - 8 in 25 minutes. Factions has the highest quest XP awards.
Nightfall - Chapter 3 - Slow leveling but faster than Prophecies. A lot to do and most people are level 20 before they leave the starter island. The addition of Heroes assists in the leveling process.
If you really sit down and play a full day and you are new, then you can level a charcter in a day or two max. Most longtime players can level a player within 3-5 hours if that. As I tell most people though, use the PvE as your training ground because it unlocks skills and items you can use later in your PvP playing time. Plus you get to see work works as far as skill combos and the sort.
People who are used to grinding lvls are usually like "WTF...I am max level and only halfway through the game what do I do?"...and the answer is sit back and enjoy playing the game.
"It is easier to be cruel than wise. The road to wisdom is long and difficult... so most people just turn out to be assholes" Feng (Christopher Walken)
start in Factions, new character will be lvl 20 in 6 hours, 7 hours tops!
it really depends on the expansion..
if your new to the game it would probably take you a month or 2 to get to level 20 in the prophecies campaign. but if you know what to do and where to go you can get to level 20 in less than 2 days.
id recommend playing campaigns in order.
well to get things straight, you get more XP from quest and missions than fighting..
There really is no grinding in GW. By playing through the Prophecies PvE, you'll learn which skills work in which situations. You can jump into PvP but you may end up confused and out-gunned.
................................
My current Guild Wars character:
Dauthix The Avenger (Paragon/Ranger)
Actually there is grinding, but it's (with the exception of some in Factions and Nightfall) totally voluntary.
I'll address the OP in two ways:
1) Since you specifically mentioned PvP, I'll add that you can create a PvP-only character who is already capped with a decent starting set of pvp skills (including at least one elite skill) and good gear.
2) If you're playing the PvE game, "time to level cap" doesn't matter. GW is not a levels game, it's a skills game. I've said this many times on these forums and I'll repeat it again: the only thing that "20" over your head tells us is that you've gone through the noob stuff and you now have enough skills to put together a good build and you probably have max armor to help stay alive a bit longer. That's all. In many ways, the real game begins at 20, that's when you really get into the meat of the PvE storyline and are able to explore the areas the story doesn't cover, capture elite skills, etc.
Overall the game is designed to get you through the noob content fairly quickly and up to 20 so you can get on with the real stuff. Don't rush, this isn't WoW. You're not hurrying to level-cap so you can raid here. Just enjoy the journey, it doesn't last long.
I leveled my last Prophecies Necro (N/Me) from new to 20 in 2 days. And you don't have to follow the entire storyline in Prophecies to do it. Here's how I did it:
Stayed in Pre-Searing until level 8, which both gave me enough skills and made my minions powerful enough to tackle anything from Ascalon City to Beacon's Perch. By the time I got there, I was level 12. Once there, I grabbed some henchies and fought my way to Lion's Arch and from there, to Temple of Ages. This is important: Temple of Ages allows you to fill a team of 8, not 6.
Once I had my team of 8, I fought my way to Sanctum Cay and did the mission (using henchmen) there. That got me to the Crystal Desert, where I filled a team of 6 with henchies and fought my way to Augury Rock.
The next day, I did the three Ascension missions (Elona Reach, Thirsty River, and Dunes of Despair) using only henchies. Completing my desert run got me to level 14. When I got back to Augury, I switched my skills from MM to Curse Necro, and took a couple of Mesmer skills along to fight my Doppleganger. (Basically, I loaded up with Empathy, Shatter Enchantment and a number of Necro enchantments, then watched from behind a wall as Empathy took his health to 50%. When that happened, I hit him with Shatter Enchantment, which killed him.) All told, I dropped him in about 20 seconds, and because I had beaten the bonus, I dinged 20 right then and there.
0-20 in 2 days on a Prophecies character. And here's the scary thing: you can do 0-20 on a Factions character in about 5-6 hours.
Ultimately, though, Guild Wars isn't about leveling. It's about all the things you can do after you reach 20 plus PvP.
Believe it or not, I think Nightfall has a slower leveling curve than Prophecies, precisely because Prophecies allows you to skip the whole Maguuma Jungle part of the story.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Also just a foot note: What kind of PvP are you wanting to go for?
The standard Arena stuff is found with all campaigns. The same with the Guild vs. Guild battles (which is pretty fun with the right group).
But if you like the Battle Ground-type stuff (bigger maps with objectives; although they're all "cap points" objectives like a Battlefield game) you're going to need Factions.
Nightfall has a "Hero Arena" where it's you with a team of 3 NPC's you've unlocked vs another player with the same. It's kinda cool in that pseudo-rts sort of way, but I believe it's the least popular of the PvP.
Like others have said, GW isn't about gaining levels. It's about buying and capturing skills.
You can collect skills for a very long time.
But you don't need every skill in the game to PVP or even finish all three campaigns.
Charr: Outta my way.
Human: What's your problem?
Charr: Your thin skin.
To me personally it sounds like you are wanting a first person shooter game. In my opinion if you are not into character building and long adventures then MMORPGs are not for you. Guild Wars might work for you but there is a little character building and trivial leveling but it sounds to me you just want to pvp. I would go with a first person shooter if I was you.
goto the ingame store, buy the PvP access packs and skill packs and go and make a insta lvl 20 PvP character and go PvP to your hearts desire without having to ever PvE again
i'm a fairly hardcore gamer, it took me one day to get a Necromancer, an assassin, and a Dervish to level 20 - then i kinda slowed it down -- after around a year or so i have every class to level 20 all with FoW and all with endgame Nightfall weapons :P but trust me, after you get to 20 - if you dont like repetetive pvp, you wont enjoy this game... it's like fury but way better :P LoL
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IVE PLAYED WOW AND LIKED IT SO IM A FANBOI PLZ FLAME MY THREADS CUZ I MIGHT MENTION WOW
Dont get Factions, you want to start with Prophecies. You will learn all you need to know about the game playing through the first campaign, like using your skills, setuping up builds, basically practice. THEN get Factions for more the exrta skills and enhanced PVP, but dont even bother starting out with PVP unless youre hardcore. Which your not since youre asking this question.
I can't say much, since im mainly PvE in Guild Wars, but if you aren't remotely looking for character development and some PvEing, you'd miss out on a big chunk of the game. Youd be missing the Frozen tips of the shiverpeaks, the deep, trecherous reaches of the Maguuma jungle, unbearable heat of the Crystal Desert, weary streets of Kaineng, the glistening Jade Sea, many a number of foes that requires you to keep your eyes open more than occasionally......I'll shut up now
But I'd agree with maybe it isn't for you if you just want PvP. Granted, there are people who stick to it, but dont expect people not to be amused if you do it so much you forget what Hard Mode is, Henchmen are, or the fact that youll be fighting a lot of monsters a higher level than you are. I suppose in a sense it makes ame a hypocrite, since I dont do much PvP. I enjoy the event PvP battles and Alliance Battles in Cantha, but if you jump into the PvE side and get into it, you'd soon find that theres plenty to keep yourself occupied with, and level 20 isn't even the tip of the iceberg
For the fastest grind, Id definitely advise Factions too. prophecies can be slower/faster than Nightfall, depending on various things. E.G. if you have multiple campaigns, you can swap from Phophecies to the other campaigns when you reach Lions Arch, whilst in Nightfall, you need to be level 17, which will always take longer than being run to Lions Arch would take
How long does it take to level to 20 in GW's?
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if your in prophecies do the first 3 missions then buy armor 30 and 6-8 weapon.
then keep questing and farming monsters and play some team arenas you'll be lvl 20 in no time.
also take advantage whenever there is a double xp event.
currently their is a free trial for eye of the north offering triple xp dont miss out on that trust me.
the shocking thing is that arenanet is planning to raise the lvl cap to 100-120 in guild wars 2 when its out.
i actually find this a good thing.
What happened to DAoC? You've been promoting that game like crazy on other forums. Population getting to low? Anyhow, I'll be happy to answer you questions. Guild Wars doesn't require you to grind up to PvP. You can create a PvP character right off the bat, but you won't have many skills and won't be very competitive. That is why people generally start with a RP character. In Prophecies, it took me a week and a half to get to 20, playing every Mission and quest. In Factions, you can get lvl 20 in 2 days, but it still takes you about a week and a half to beat the game. Don't know about NF yet, since I am still playing that one. NF introduced grind to Guild Wars by making it slower to level and also requiring you to have a certain rank before continuing along with the main story. In the other two games, I never had to repeat kill a creature for xp. In NF, you will need to to fill in the gap of where the quests stop before the next mission and the rank you need to be.
Prophecies is known to have the best story, Factions is known for its contribution to PvP, and NF is known for the introduction of heroes. If your only goal is PvP, I suggest buying Factions, because you can level up to 20 without any real effort in 2 days by doing quests and will have a healthy amount of skills already. It also allows you to take part in Alliance battles, which you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't own Factions. I think Alliance battles are more popular than GvG PvP now, since the best alliances control towns.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.