Guild Wars 2 Leveling (1 To 80) Beginners Guide

Today we would like to talk to you guys about how to Level up in Guild Wars 2 from a new player perspective. Now it's debatable if this guide is even really required or you might even ask yourself why would you even make a guide like this considering well pretty much everything in Guild Wars 2 gives you some kind of Experience. 

In response to that, we would say you're 100% right but we feel like one of the shortcomings of Guild Wars 2 is that the game doesn't really give you a whole lot of direction. 

Now don't misinterpret because from a new player perspective with literally no connection to the lore or the original game it is obvious that lack of direction could be a little off-putting if you're used to it in other games. 

Another thing to mention here is that we might jump right straight over some aspects of the Leveling process because it is a written guide summarized from YouTube Video Guide by CommonTate Guides. If you want to learn more about those aspects, you can check out his YouTube Channel. 

As a bit of a side tip, if you do not own Guild Wars 2 and you feel like you really like this game it might not be a bad idea to buy at least one of the expansions because this is going to unlock a daily login reward that can make Leveling a little bit easier. 

Reaching Starting Zone

Now before we can actually get started on Leveling you first need to create a character and play through the first bit of story Guild Wars 2 hands to you. This is just one short instance with a Boss fight at the end but the Boss isn't very hard because well you only have one skill. 

After defeating that Boss you're going to be dumped out into the open world on a starting map based on the race that you chose. Now before going out into the land of Tyria to enjoy all of its splendors, first quickly open your map and get a good idea of where you're at in the world. 

Once you have a good sense of where you're at go to the upper left-hand corner of the screen and towards the tail end of all the UI icons. You should see some crosswords, clicking on those crosswords will bring up the PvP lobby UI and you want to enter the PvP lobby. 

Once you load into the Heart of the Mists or the PvP lobby, again open your map and look for a purple portal that says it takes you to Lion's Arch. Back in the game navigate to that purple portal and head to Lion's Arch. 

Once you load in, if it's your first time you'll see a cutscene but after that cutscene, you should be able to walk around the city and all you really need to do here is grab one of the Waypoints. 

These appear as diamond-shaped icons on your map and minimap. So just make sure that you stand close enough to one of them that it lights up blue and once you have that Waypoint you can open your map again. 

Take into account where Lion's Arch is actually located on the map so you can use that Waypoint to travel back here if need be. Then navigate back to where you originally started. 

We know this seems a bit strange but we'll cover why we did this later on in our Guild Wars 2 Leveling (1 to 80) beginners guide.

Symbols and Icons

Now that we're back in our very first starting zone you can just start exploring the map. Basically, you're just looking for any icon you can interact with on the map. Now obviously not every single icon does something. 

So let us break this down real quick; 

If you see a diamond that's a Waypoint, as we discussed before 

• If you see a tiny square that's going to be a Point of Interest 

• Two red triangles are going to be a Vista

• Arrow pointing up is going to be a Hero Point

• A yellow Heart is a Heart Quest

It's the collection of all of these activities per map that are known as map completion. That means getting all the Hearts, all the Vistas, and all the points of interest you get on each map. 

Getting Experience and Leveling

The act of completing a map is only going to get you a little bit of Experience and a chest that does scale to the map Level that you're on. But it's the act of completing all of these activities that give you the bulk of your Experience in-game. 

Events or Live Quests

Additionally, there are Events or live quests as you would probably perceive them and those appear on the map in orange. Anytime that you see an orange circle or an arrow that's orange pointing somewhere you should probably try to be involved because Events typically give some of the best Experience in-game. 

Not only that but for the Heart Quests in particular. if you happen to find an Event that spawns close enough to a Heart the chances are pretty high that the enemies you're killing for that Event will also count for a nearby Heart. 

Reaching Level 9

Also once you reach Level 9 you're going to be given some gathering Tools and you just need to equip those to begin gathering all of the Nodes around the map. Each time you gather from a Node you'll be allotted a small amount of Experience. 

But for the most part, what we're trying to do here is just gather some mats in the early game so that we don't have to pay for as many later on when we use a little bit of Crafting to help speed up this process. 

Reaching Level 10

Just continue completing Activities on that first starter map and eventually, you should hit Level 10. At Level 10 your main story quest or as it's known in Guild Wars 2 the Personal Story becomes available. 

You should probably play the Personal Story simply because it's the main story of this game but also because it's a pretty good way to get a couple of quick Levels and it breaks up the monotony of just clearing maps over and over again. 

Every time you complete a Personal Story chapter you're bound to be rewarded with some gear upgrades, especially for the earlier Levels. So it makes the most sense at least for a beginner to complete these story steps. 

The Personal Story becomes available every 10 Levels from Level 10 all the way to Level 80. So for the most part you're going to play some Personal Story every 10 Levels and then return to map completion. 

From Level 11 to 20

So for Levels 11 through 20 you should start off with the Personal Story and then you can head back to the map you were originally completing. If you've already completed that map or you're simply just bored with your surroundings go ahead back to Lion's Arch at that Waypoint you unlocked back at the beginning of this Guild Wars 2 Leveling (1 to 80) beginners guide

One of the many great features of Lion's Arch is a ring of portals in a place called Coriolis Plaza and it's here that you can actually just use any of these portals to go to any of the starting zones. 

Simply just look outside of the portal at the race of the NPC standing outside and you should have a pretty good idea of where you're headed. Now your first stretch of Personal Story will take you to your own capital city. 

But it's through this that you can actually unlock all the other capital cities as well. The only reason we even bring this up is that capital cities are map-completable as well. 

All you have to do is run around and collect all of the points like you would in an open world map, only there aren't even enemies to deal with. So all you really have to do is just walk around and explore. 

So for the rest of the Levels required to get you to Level 20 and your next Personal Story chapter. We recommend just completing the capital cities and starter zones until you hit that Level. 

At Level 20 you'll be able to resume that Personal Story. So go ahead and knock out your story steps first and then you can either head back to those starter zones and capital cities or if you open your map you should see the maps that touch those starter cities are actually slightly higher Level zones. 

This isn't anything new for any kind of an MMO but just something we thought we did point out for anybody who didn't immediately notice. Now it's here that we'll tell you a little nugget of information that might sway you one way or another as far as how you handle Leveling at this point. 

But if you happen to map completely to 100% of every map in this game you'll be awarded something called the Gift of Exploration and this is a crucial component for Crafting the core Tyria Legendaries later down the line. 

This is the only way to get this item. We are just saying that that's a thing. Either way, you want to handle it, just make sure that you're continuing to complete either of those earlier maps, or if you decide you'd like to move on to some of the more difficult content at least for your current Level. 

From Level 20 to 30

Feel free to just complete any of these maps that you find to be interesting all the way up until Level 30. At Level 30 you again can knock out a couple more chapters of your Personal Story and once you're done with that you might not be surprised at what we are going to say. 

You can resume map completion or we do actually have a few options now that we're Level 30. Around levels 25 and 30 you should have gotten a male that tells you about Dungeons. 

Now we will quickly tell you that Dungeons are not nearly as supported as they used to be and players might not be playing these as frequently as they once were. But if you click on those males they should show you on your map where to head, to go ahead and get started with these.

If you've never done a Dungeon before like you probably haven't. You're going to first have to complete the Story Mode on any character that's never done it before. It's only after you complete the Story Mode of each Dungeon, that the exploitable paths will become available. 

You want to have access to those exploitable paths because that's where you'll actually get some Dungeon Tokens, that you can use a little bit later on to unlock some gear or skins.

They tend to be the most rewarding in terms of Experience as well. Dungeons do have a few diminishing returns meaning, that if you keep repeating them over and over again on the same day they won't be as rewarding as they first were. 

So we recommend Dungeons as they become available, as a daily activity if you're still trying to get a boost to your Level. Just to clarify this means that you can run all of the individual exploitable paths but not the same path over and over again or you will see some diminishing returns. 

From Level 30 to 40

As an alternative or in addition, you could also Level up a Crafting profession. In Guild Wars 2 gaining Levels in your Crafting profession also gains you Experience for your character.

It's because of this that we recommend at least Leveling Cooking and we say Cooking because it's almost always the cheapest one. Actually as of right now Cooking only costs about four gold to max out. 

Now it would be kind of crazy if we tried to include a Crafting guide inside of this guide. So we will just tell you what you typically should do. 

Go to a website called Guild Wars 2 crafts.net and here you can actually just select the Crafting profession that you'd like to Level and it'll tell you how much gold it costs to do that. 

Not only that but it'll give you a checklist of items that you'll need to purchase off the trading post and as prices fluctuate the site will update to always try and give you the cheapest method for getting that Crafting profession all the way maxed out. 

So for this guide, we are just going to recommend that you use that site and Level up Cooking. We choose Cooking here because it is by far the cheapest way to get a Crafting profession 100% maxed out and it doesn't really matter what you're Leveling up as long as you max it out so that you get the full benefit of all those extra character Levels. 

Not only that but Cooking will result in several foods that you can then consume for bonus exp, bonus damage, and overall just helps the Leveling Experience along. Once you've maxed out your Cooking profession you should be a few Levels higher than you once were and only for four gold. 

From Level 40 to 80

Now right now we're around Level 40 or at least you will be soon after you complete some of those maps. But this is actually a good point. They kind of stop talking about Leveling. 

That's because well we've pretty much-covered everything there is to know about. Every 10 Levels you can start with some Personal Story and then move on to map completion until Dungeons become available. 

You can start doing a couple of Dungeons a day and then return to map completion, always making sure to complete Events whenever you see them because they're going to give you the most bang for your buck and round and round we go all the way to Level 80. 

You basically have to do things in a loop to level up, which takes quite a lot of your precious time. In case you want an easy way out, you can Buy Cheap gw2 HOM points accounts from gw2sale.com. You can also Boost your account at cheap rates through their gw2 power leveling service. 

Tips for Leveling

Crafting Discipline

If we had any additional advice it would be that anytime during your playing you think you have enough money to craft up a second Crafting discipline. Definitely do so before you hit Level 80 because we feel like those character Levels go a little bit neglected if you don't.

If you are going to do that, make sure to pick something that makes sense for your character. In other words, just make sure that your Crafting discipline reflects the armor that you're currently wearing or the weapons that you typically use. 

Hero Points

Also while Leveling be sure that you're spending all of the Hero Points that you've been obtaining for map completion. So you can unlock new abilities and make yourself stronger as you play or you'll be at a disadvantage as you progress through the game. 

Don’t Buy Gear

There are times while playing where you might feel a little bit weaker than you'd like to be and we would actually suggest that you do not buy gear off of the trading post until you hit Level 80. 

We say this because the Personal Story should be giving you plenty of gear to clear all of this content. We've seen several players cave and start upgrading trying to max out their potential every step of the way and you're just going to start digging into money that you could be using for Crafting or getting yourself some gear once you finally do hit 80. 

Events Are your Best Friends

Firstly as we said before Events, Events, Events, and Events. Definitely, be completing Events as often as humanly possible, and again try to make sure those Events are happening near a Heart so that you can get bonus Experience.

Daily Login Reward

Also as we said earlier there are ways to make this process a lot faster if you own the game. We are not suggesting that you buy it if you're still unsure. But if you have a good feeling about Guild Wars 2 and you want to support the game or maybe one day play some of the expansions you'll also get access to a daily login reward. 

Literally, all you have to do for this reward is log in and the rewards are pretty worthwhile for starters you can get tons of knowledge. If you don't know, tomes of knowledge are just an item that you double-click and instantly Level up. 

Laurels

Additionally, you will also get laurels which is just a currency that will help you gear your character to max Level and you will periodically get yourself some boosters as well. 

Final Verdict

All of these things together in this Guild Wars 2 Leveling (1 to 80) beginners guide are going to result in you Leveling much faster than before. Just keep conscious about some things that we mentioned in our Tips section if you are catchy about the speed of your experience gain. 

Again we would always recommend that you play through Guild Wars 2 your first time at your own pace. If your pace is fast so be it but we recommend taking a little bit of time and enjoying the game. 

After all, this is probably your first character and with those, we are going to wrap this up but we just wanted to say that we hope this helps somebody out there Leveling or learning how to play the game for the first time. 

We went over some of this stuff a little quickly in our Guild Wars 2 Leveling (1 to 80) beginners guide. That's just because there's a lot to cover. That being said, if at any time you felt like you just weren't following or you didn't know what we were trying to convey in our written guide, you can check out the Video Guide made by CommonTate Guides. We appreciate the Author of the YouTube channel for sharing their precious work and feel free to support us by liking, commenting, sharing, and subscribing.