Yesterday was scale-down day for me in Guild Wars 2. I finished the Asura area and went on to the next zone only to find that the hearts were two levels above me. I went in at 15, almost 16, with my main story totally up to date and couldn’t find a heart past the first that was lower than 17. To remedy the situation I went to the human starting area and completed their entire 1-15 zone as well. Although the experience wasn’t as good — I only hit level 20 from it — I was still able to go there and experience the content and have it be actually challenging at times.
When scaling down in GW2 you can also get loot your level. I was finding level 18 blues off of level 5 mobs. Sometimes lowbie items would drop too. Then there’s the skill points. I picked up another 8 skill points to use which will help me a ton when I go back to the Asura area.
Unless I’m missing something, or supposed to fight hearts above my level a bit, I think I’ll have to occasionally go back to a different area to prevent myself from being under-leveled.
I also did a fair bit of crafting, but something feels off there as well. It feels like I never have enough stuff to make the few items I have to skill up. I’m on the cusp of a new tier I think. If I had more tiny claws or scales I think I could power through it. My LW is around 48 and my Huntsman is the same. Crafting takes work, but the items so far have been better than any drops or rewards.
Anyway, that’s just a quick update with where I’m at. I hope to be able to comment on more of the game’s design and systems when I level a bit more.
Yes I have had the same problem when following the flow of the quest areas. I thought maybe I just got lost but it happens in every zone to me. Planning to hit the human area at level 12-14. The extra XP from crafting is nice.
Same on both accounts for me. I spent time running around the beginning sylvari zone after level 15/16 just gathering mats (Chef/LW). I would do any events I came across, I still enjoyed the experience even though I already went through it once.
Even after collecting materials for an hour or so, I went to go craft and really didn’t get too far. I think once the trading post gets back online, it should help with crafting as there will be more resources available (and I can sell a bunch as well!)
Kinda off topic, how many crafting professions can you do?
It may vary by class, but as a badly-equipped ranger I can reliably kill single mobs up to 5 levels above me and comfortably kill two to four at once 2-3 levels above me. I learned this in beta and it remained true into the mid-30s, which is as far as I got.
You actually get a hint early in the game that tells you you get an increased chance of better loot drop if you fight creatures above your level, so it’s entirely intended that you range a few levels upwards.
As a thief going for a crit build with dual pistols and pistol/dagger I find it is hard to fight anything more than 1 level above me, and that fighting multiple mobs more than 1 level above me is a big no no. I did notice that if I go melee though with sword/dagger it’s actually somewhat possible with careful planning due to the fact that melee attacks seems to hit in a cone in front of you unlike ranged attacks.
Which actually brings me to a question. Is it possible to reset your skill/trait points? Specifically trait points as you can’t get extra ones of those and my skill points would work fairly well for melee as well.
Make sure you’re using discovery to it’s fullest if you wanna level crafting up efficiently. I wouldn’t produce any final products you don’t intend to use directly outside of the initial discovery.
Also, it’s probably worth it to splurge on more effective salvage kits. You get a much better chance of returning the useful insignia materials from the blue/green items you break down. I’d probably still just use crude or basic for the salvageable trophies though.
I had this same problem in beta when I was just going from heart to heart. Try going off the beaten path and finding other stuff to do. The other night I saw a cave that didn’t seem to have a purpose to it, went in and found a cave troll. After the cave troll went down, another event started to clean up the rest of the cave mobs. I came out of that cave 2 levels higher than I went in, and had a blast!
I was having a huge problem leveling up my crafting to 75.
I leveled my character much faster than I did my crafting, even though I was mining and chopping everything I saw. The problem im running into is, without the auction house im having to grind every single material myself, and it was taking upwards of an hour just for a 1-3 skill boost. (Needing 8 tiny claws that only drop every so often from certain low level mobs, etc) but now that i’ve hit 75, i went from 75 to 99 in about 2 hours just because its much easier. I suspect 100-150 will be a pain, though.
As others have stated crafting is a chore without access to the trading post. Refinement of materials gathered only takes you so far, eventually you need the blue drops (for example, huntsman needs vials of weak blood) to level efficiently because those are items are needed to create the actual item (huntsman it is bows, rifles , pistols, inscriptions, etc). Basically any time you have to farm all of the mats yourself crafting is going to be more tedious then when you have access to the AH.
To be honest in that sense it may simply make sense to just gather, hold on the mats, and then wait on the AH IF there was any timetable on it coming back up, but I have not heard word on that as of yet.
One thing people miss is this old hint. Go and complete all the capital cities, get every vista and point of interest these give you amazing XP and rewards I do this on every new character right after tutorial and it gets me to level 4-5+ this once you hit the starting zone you are in a good place.
And crafting without the trading post as someone stated is pointless: you cannot sell the stuff you do not need to buy the stuff you do.
Faster levelling, crafting etc. would just make the game another of Keen’s 3 monthers (if that). As it is Arenanet are going to have their work cut out keeping the game fresh, even for those who aren’t trying to burn their way to level 80 in the first week.
Where are the guild wars 2 forums?