30 replies to this topic

[sjohnson243]

Morning all, I have been playing since release and cant seem to decide on a specific character, I have all of them other than mesmer/elementist up to level 20-35... My wife started  a ranger and now has hit level 52-53 and has just started throwing down the gauntlet saying she will hit 80 first for the first time since we have been playing games together (Beating me to max level)

I understand that its not a race, enjoy the leveling, etc, etc - however, now its a race!

I was curious which character has the easiest time as I crawl up to higher levels in finishing PVE encounters en'masse, or are they all about the same?

Any suggestions with different builds would be greatly appreciated..

I curious if things like conditional AE builds of necromancers would level faster than a great sword warrior or guardian?

Any advice?

Thanks all!

[Proseidon1]

Easy Mode leveling:

• Warrior
  
• Guardian

Pretty Fast leveling:

• Thief
  
• Ranger
  
• Engineer

Slowish leveling:

• Necro
  
• Elementalist
  
• Mesmer

Actually I didn't even mean for it to follow the armor classes until I posted. That's kind of funny. But this is the usual agreed speed (in descending order, with warrior being fastest and mesmer being slowest)

[Rekkwum]

Which ones are at the 35 end?


It's more weapon / trait sets than actual class. You'll need access to speed boost as quick as possible, decent enough AoE, good single-target damage, and a solid defense for not dying.
I'd recommend Thief with double-daggers + shortbow if you can get Signet of Shadows quickly, and are prepared to take more risk, A warrior packing greatsword and longbow for a slower but safer route.

[sjohnson243]

38 Warrior,
32 Thief
32 Ranger,
26 Engineer,
25 Necro...
(Yes, I know, im an addict)

and to add a bit more, Currently my warrior is running around with a great sword and longbow running a signet build.  I hear before I dungeon and do other higher end encounters I will have to change my traits because that frowned upon, but currently with the super high crit rate it seems the fastest...

On a pack of mobs I start with my bow AE, then the full adreniline F1 bow attack for a high burn, then swap to greatsword and finish off the rest....

works so far, but I assume it will change later in life....

Edited by sjohnson243, 19 September 2012 - 03:59 PM.

[Robb the Enigma]

I reckon Thieves, Rangers, Elementalists and Necromancers (and perhaps Warriors when traited) own the fastest levelling when rushing because they have IMS's (Thieves got Signet of Shadows, for example) - the reason? more exploration in less time --> more XP.

But anything pretty much works, you liking it is much more important.

[Proseidon1]

Robb the Enigma, on 19 September 2012 - 04:02 PM, said:

I reckon Thieves, Rangers, Elementalists and Necromancers (and perhaps Warriors when traited) own the fastest levelling when rushing because they have IMS's (Thieves got Signet of Shadows, for example) - the reason? more exploration in less time --> more XP.

But anything pretty much works, you liking it is much more important.

Elementalists are slow due to survivability issues. Necromancers are slow after 30 due to lack of viable builds. Thieves and rangers are fast but they don't have as strong of AoE and defensive power as the warrior. The list I posted is correct.

[Drekor]

I have an 80 necro and thief and 40 something guardian... necro was the easiest and fastest by a mile.

[SuperunknownQt]

I have a 80 necro and a 80 guardian.... get a GS on the guardian and spin your way to 80.Necro is slow and at times boring.

[Mackeo]

Proseidon1, on 19 September 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

Elementalists are slow due to survivability issues. Necromancers are slow after 30 due to lack of viable builds. Thieves and rangers are fast but they don't have as strong of AoE and defensive power as the warrior. The list I posted is correct.

Actually its the player that makes the class slow at leveling.

I have an 80 Warrior (warrior is fully geared in exotics albeit), and I decided to rank up an elementalist as my alt, because they bring a lot to the table in dungeons/events. My ele is hovering around 61 as of now, and I've had no problems with survivability or slow progression.

So to the OP, or whoever this guy quoted, don't listen to this man. His opinion's on "well this class is slow due to.." is skewed, or at least not acurate. Play whichever class you want, and make your own decisions. In the end, it comes down to the player working the mechanics, not the class itself.

[Ingo Verhulst]

In my honest opinion the fastest way to level doesnt have anything to do with the proffession you play. I currently have an 80 warrior, 50 thief, 43 necro and a 41 ele. ALl you have to do is: get all the daily achievments: explore maps to the fullest (might be boring but its the fastest way), craft (read a crafting guide, if you have the money for it you can get like 10 levels in 2.5 hours). All in all, just complete zones 100%, do story mode (crapton of xp) and do the dailys. Good rule of thumb is 40 min/ level = good.

[Proseidon1]

Mackeo, on 19 September 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

Actually its the player that makes the class slow at leveling.

I have an 80 Warrior (warrior is fully geared in exotics albeit), and I decided to rank up an elementalist as my alt, because they bring a lot to the table in dungeons/events. My ele is hovering around 61 as of now, and I've had no problems with survivability or slow progression.

So to the OP, or whoever this guy quoted, don't listen to this man. His opinion's on "well this class is slow due to.." is skewed, or at least not acurate. Play whichever class you want, and make your own decisions. In the end, it comes down to the player working the mechanics, not the class itself.

You can't argue that with anecdotal evidence. That's always such a lame argument. "Oh yeah? Well I DID IT." Sure, you CAN do it. Just like I was #1 raid dps as an elemental shaman in TBC. It's POSSIBLE. But the odds are against you, and right now, elementalists have a lot of odds against them, and warriors have an extremely easy time leveling up. I'm not making this up, I'm just sharing information that I've gathered since the beta weekends about where classes stand.

[thedeapee]

I'm going to go ahead and differ...

I've leveled the following:

Necro: 64
Elementalist: 29
Thief: 42
Warrior: 39

From my experience, necro may be slow, but you will never die...and it's pretty straight forward.

The thief, you will also never die, but it's a bit slower as there isn't as much aoe and they are a lot less tanky than necros.

The warrior will do one of two things: kill things very fast, but die very fast -- or kill things very slow, and also die very seldom.

The elementalist is just squishy but as long as you can keep your distance, you will not die as things die very quickly.

Easiest:

Necro, Thief

Middle:

Warrior

Harder:

Elementalist

--

I'd venture to guess the guardian would be in the top (easiest) category as well.

[Red_Falcon]

Drekor, on 19 September 2012 - 04:41 PM, said:

I have an 80 necro and thief and 40 something guardian... necro was the easiest and fastest by a mile.

SuperunknownQt, on 19 September 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

I have a 80 necro and a 80 guardian.... get a GS on the guardian and spin your way to 80.Necro is slow and at times boring.

These quote go a long way in showing how it's not about classes.

The only somewhat impaired class is the Thief due to lack of AoEs, which are better than sheer 1v1 killing power in PvE.

[Blixcoe]

it's called a profession.
up until now, no one knows this. kind of amusing.

[jondifool]

Well OP, if you want to lvl fast, its all about crafting !! buy gems, change gems to gold, trade for crafting materials and craft and you will win that bet. There is plenty of lvls in crafting. I think its around 10 lvls when getting to 400. the first guy to get to level 80 was actual crafting his last 20 levels. You might need to change crafting disciplins a few times instead of paying crazy amount to get the 400 with materials you don't have. Remember that there is some levels in just making planks and bars, that doesn't cost  to much as the the produckt can be sold back without loosing alot.

If you consider that cheating well the other advices here is good too.

[AndrewSX]

Engi 80, Guard 70, Ranger 40

Guard > Ranger > Engi. Both for speed and smoothness.

[Drekor]

Red_Falcon, on 20 September 2012 - 03:15 PM, said:

These quote go a long way in showing how it's not about classes.

The only somewhat impaired class is the Thief due to lack of AoEs, which are better than sheer 1v1 killing power in PvE.

Thief has tons of AoE on shortbow, while I may have said Necro was fastest and easiest it doesn't mean thief was hard by any stretch of the imagination. Spam clusterbomb and things die pretty quick!

[sjohnson243]

Blixcoe, on 20 September 2012 - 03:18 PM, said:

it's called a profession.
up until now, no one knows this. kind of amusing.

And yet everyone here understood what I was talking about.. Ama-zing.

/sigh.

Everyone else thank you very much for the input lots of choices!

[Zun]

Necro seems pretty popular, but I never tested it.

From what I've tested, ranger and warrior are really fast levelers. But also quite boring.

[Nyth]

Ranger goes super fast in the first 60 levels. You can spec into beastmaster, take a cat or something as dps pet. With the signets (toughness +regen for pet) and right traits (like master's bond which increases the pets stats for each mob killed); your dps pet can tank anything but champions.
While he tanks you flank behind the mob with a shortbow and shoot your way to victory.

After that however it totally turns around, because for some reason mobs start to ignore the pet totally.

As for the question though. When the OP says most smooth leveling curve; I'm surprised everyone suddenly dives on what is the fastest.
I can sure as hell grind fast with a thief, but it ain't smooth at all; one mistake and I bite the dust. if I pull an add, i get in trouble, etc etc.

That's why I think smooth leveling classes are the ones that don't just level fast or kill mobs fast 1v1 but are flexible in a lot of situations.
If you compare a necro to an elementalist for example; the latter would flat out win in most 1v1 and AoE time to kill races. However if you get into that hairy situation or if you just need that little extra flexibility; IMO the necro has a bit more to work with.

One of my highest ranking criteria for "fun and smooth leveling" is speed buffs. On my ranger I use my elite (Rampage as One) almost exclusively for the swiftness boon. On my elementalist I absolutely love Ride the Lightning (even though that skill got me killed so often xD). I wouldn't dream of playing thief without Signet of Shadows.

Edited by Nyth, 20 September 2012 - 11:11 PM.

[Humungous]

My mesmer has been below 40 mins per level to 67 so far, and i have been chronically under geared by as much as 18 levels. I dont particularly power level or anything. Just explore, double dip DEs and hearts, but otherwise get your daily achievements. If you find a nice pack of bonus mobs, say bonus is 3x base, so like 4x, gobble them up for the fat xp.

Mesmers are a bit slow, but i can handle craptons of mobs at once. Today, i took on a dozen ranged red mobs (roughly 4 at a time, as they kept adding all fight long) getting nearly 700 bonus for each. The fact that i can go into those areas solo means that kind of bonus is available to me. I have literally soloed 15 melee mobs all at once (not adds) plus ranged dungeon boss in gear 15 levels below. Mesmer with crit gear plus 20 dueling doesnt die

[Necrobolt22]

If you concentrate on a character, any character is more or less "fast". Later on exploring some areas grand waaaay more exp than like waypoints or points of interest gave in areas 30 levels ago. Take me for example: I started my Ranger like 3 days after launch-day and I'm only level 55. I know I could be waaaay further but I enjoy my time and keep on watching starting-zones of other races. Turning GW2 into a level-cap-racing may be the dumbest idea ever since this game clearly build on exploring. The content on the way is waaaay better than the high-end-content from what I've heard and since u're able to participate in WvW whenever you want the need to level up is almost 0.

[squalleonahar]

you all must be kidding me. whoever said Element and necro slowest to lvl are knowing nothing about GW2 lvling. lol
in GW2, all class that have AOE are fastest to lvl because they can hit multiple mobs and get multiple exp/drops from them. the more AOE, the faster. and Element have 4 AOE with shortest recharge lavafront 4s.
the key is go to " Zergs " event. it's the event with tons of Mobs attack. and then AOE to kill them. the Exp from event reward is nothing. the Exp from killing those many waves of mobs + using cake with +10% exp per kill are what u aiming for. in zerg location like junction way camp (35-45) you can hit more than 1 lvl for just 1 chains events.

Warrior and Guardian are also fast to lvl, but they require good gears which you have to spend times and money to maintain.
element and necro at lvl 80 can wear full magic find set (129%) to farm anywhere while melee class can never do because of the low defend.

Edited by squalleonahar, 22 September 2012 - 02:03 PM.

[Afya]

I agree to previous points on AoE. In power leveling, AoE is key. The point is you need to tag as many monster as possible in those "wave" events. Not necessarily you kill the monster, but to do enough to tag them.

The only profession I play after release is necro, and there's one build that does that job very well: the staff/wall build. It levels ridiculously if you know how to.

However, since you mention the word "smooth" in your question, I wouldn't rate necro as the smoothest leveling class. As said before, the staff/well build levels very well but to get that build works, it requires certain utility skills/trait, which starts to work no sooner than level 30 maybe!? Before that, it's SLOW, very slow. Warrior probably levels twice as fast than necro pre-30.

The conclusion is, it largely depends on your build/style. Necro can be fast but it's limited to one or two builds. I believe that's same as every class. As long as you can dump out AoE, it's good.

[4arsie4]

Choose the slowest one, because you should let her win. Then she can carry your sorry lowbie butt through the last bits.

[Drekor]

So I'm leveling an elementalist now as well so I'll redo my ranking.

Necro > Guardian > Elementalist > Thief

Elementalist starts off pretty underwhelming but once you get lightning hammer it's smooth sailing. I would rate it the easiest class to level once you get it but that period until then can be ugly.

[Zlidrit]

Wait a minute

Mesmer : You can easily tackle 8 level higher champion monster + all his adds. And live trough it.
Seriously. Nothing kills mesmer.

They have bit slower time killing. But can do anything anywhere.

---

Ele: Perhaps have it though when he is alone. But this being group game. Ele brings best damage in the game in events. And you will always get most gold, and kill credits. And thats XP

[Soylent]

My vote goes to Warrior and Ranger tho I still haven't tried a Guardian or Engineer, but I suspect they're both in the "somewhat easy" department.

The rest of the classes had some problems early levels or I just found them straight up boring.

Thief was okay as long as you kept it 1v1 and had an offhand pistol (dat blind) but nowhere near as easy as warrior or ranger.
Elementalist is just a huge pain, and ironically their best weapon choice is a conjure weapon, which until you get lv40 is somewhat limited.
Necro was okay-ish, but I just bored me to death. Dagger and Axe mh I found lacking, Scepter was okay but as a condition weapon it's kind of boring as well. Staff was terrible outside AoE situations.
Mesmer starts off weak but as you gain traits the illusions get better and better. Possibly being very strong in the end.

[squalleonahar]

i guess some people never do "zergs" events.
Element can get 1 lvl for each chain Event at junction way camp 35-55.
warrior and guardian are also fast lvl but nothing compare to Element AOE and they require good gear to move on while Element can lvl at place 5-10 lvl ahead of them.

the key is not to kill but to tag mobs. if u tag enough AOE damage when other people kill u get both exp from kill and Bonus exp.
1 or 2 AOE can get u full exp from 3-4 group of 10 centaurs.
i almost got all class to 80 and i dont see any class that can out lvling element.

[Sword Hammer Axe]

Depends on your playstyle. Took me 3 weeks to get my warrior to level 80, but my ranger's been alive for 1 and is already level 62, even though I play less hours a day than I did the first 2 weeks of the game.