67 replies to this topic

[Verelia]

A thought occurred to me the other night when I was crafting a bit on my engineer. In GW 1 levelling to 20 was the "tutorial" of the game, granted this tutorial was a lot more hand-holding in Prophecies than the other campaigns. By level 30 in GW 2, you've got enough of an idea of what's going on and probably unlocked at least one 10 point elite skill.

So I was thinking, what if GW 2 *had* been capped at lv 30? That it was only 30 onwards you got your trait points, and after 30 all the zones were leveled and gave similar loot as far as crafting materials and rares/ exotics were concerned?  I agree that after 30 my engineer was, well, "finished" but then I was also thinking in GW 1 that necessarily wasn't a bad thing.

Useless thoughts I guess...

[Darkobra]

I love playing alts. I got every single class in GW1 to 20 and beat at least their home campaign. But my main character? That was my elementalist and that got all my love. And my warrior got some high-end pieces because I genuinely liked the skins. I mean what else was I going to spend money on? Kept them all! Then came the Hall of Monuments so I could immortalise them!

In GW2, the alts are great. But I feel that after 30 or 40, you've pretty much learned your class and know what you want as a final build. The rest of the levels are tedious and the end-game armour is pretty damn expensive and not readily available. (I'm talking Exotics here. And I'm talking the stats you want and not what you can get away with. The ascended update made the prices more unbearable. Hoping it will settle back down one day.)

I now have the choice of either buying my elementalist the Ascended backpiece I'm after or buying my thief the exotic armour I want. Or just the bloods. In GW1, that was never a difficult thing. You bought the armour, you bought the runes, you could change the runes at will so you didn't need to buy 3 or 4 sets of armour and you were done!

My problem with alts isn't that you see the exact same game over and over. If you are, you're racing from heart to heart and not really seeing anything. My problem with alts is the armour not really being that accessible for what you want.

[Korra]

I cannot count have many alts i have leveled to lvl 10 or so and deleted thinking omg im way to lazy to farm everything

[Steadfast Gao Shun]

To echo Darkobra's post: I feel almost exactly the same way, except I can't even be motivated by armor because a lot of the end-game armors just don't look all that good. Nonetheless, I'm motivated by the possibility of them adding more cosmetic items in the game, and the fact that my alts play quite differently from my "main" (Mesmer, for me) keeps me entertained well enough.

[fathamburger]

Nah couldn't disagree more, it's in how you play them. Generally It will take 3 alts to see ALL of the storyline content and lvl the most useful crafting professions. You can also deliberately level diff alts in diff areas and not do the whole world on one character which I believe is a lot of wasted XP. I

If you level each character differently with different emphases i.e. one on pve, one with more wvw, another with dungeons you have a lot of your "endgame content" right there. I believe arenanet designed the endgame to basically be around alts and having them all support each other. Hell my 3rd alt did a lot of levels just by going along to diff jump puzzles and just letting things be with any events and kills along the way lol

Basicalyl my 4th alt is already pretty boring though with no more storyline content to look forward to and I've decided to do him with mostly dungeons. That's already not working so well being kicked out of a lot of groups though lol

[Cube]

I hate leveling! I have 3 lvl 80's and it was terrible to level all of them, even my main. Yes there was some nice things to see, but the leveling killed it for me a lot of times ^^

In Guild Wars I have about 7 lvl 20's. They all have done all campaigns and I honestly didn't feel as terrible as I did leveling in Guild Wars 2. I have to admit I kinda enjoyed doing the PvE with my heroes and leveling as I went through campaigns. I feel that there's so many levels in Guild Wars 2, I just get tired... This is actually the first game with so many levels I ever decided to not quit within 30 minutes. Most MMO's lose my interest within 30 minutes as leveling is just something I hate. So yeah, most MMORPG's are not for me

I feel that having to level so much really kills of my want to make many characters. I'm a person who enjoys to have many characters and have lots of gear on them, for armor combo's etc. And I feel that Guild Wars is probably the MOST alt friendly game I've ever played, and I loved it!

I have to say it was a bit of a shock for me to go from 20 levels to 80 levels, and it took a lot of boring hours, boring days, and breaks. And if you want to tell me that I should just quit playing if I don't enjoy the game well, I would, but Guild Wars is pretty dead now so there's sadly not much to go back to.

[Ardeni]

I also have a problem with alts but my problem is not the same as the OP's. I have my main at level 80 and I've played about 500 hours on her. I have two alts at about level 50 and the rest at about level 10-20. The problem is that I never really have the time to play my alts since my guild asks me to do different kinds of things such as dungeons, WvW, dragons or and so on. This distracts me from leveling my alts (even though I like doing those activities) and thus it takes a long time for me to get anything else than my ranger to level 80.

[Ryoto]

I have my main with 600 hours and I cant really bring  myself to play my other chars until I get him his idea armor set, Unspoken Curse, 100% map completion and a set of t3 cultural armor. Then I may move on to my female thief for a bit...

[Resolve]

XPhiler, on 23 November 2012 - 02:02 PM, said:

you mean getting him to level 80 or getting the gear?
I guess leveling him up right? since getting the gear is pretty quick. but if you're having trouble with the gear, keep in mind this is a skill based game. gear helps but just a little bit a full set of rares can be aquired very easily in less then a day and its more then good enough to start with!

No, gear.

I know you can still play with rare but I'd rather it just be a balanced fight.

[Trei]

JHCinSC, on 23 November 2012 - 03:29 AM, said:

I enjoy playing my alts as I have one of each profession and they are each a blast.  The biggest problem is that a single player can't do a lot of the content alone and most areas seem to be dead.  I can only make real progress during large guild events when we have a zerg going.  If I had henchies or mercs then the game would be much better.

Make friends.

[Raveous]

farkov47, on 22 November 2012 - 01:23 AM, said:

When I start an alt at this game, I pretty much felt 'done' by level 30ish.
Elite slot I wanted unlocked. Barring any bad picks on utility, most of the utility slots are filled with what I considered 'good picks'

Then I start picturing myself running the same dungeons I've done with my main, gearing this alt with the skins I want. Imagining what sort of build and gears I'd need to clear the content over and over.

Reality kicks in and I usually just concluded 'I'm done with this guy'. Log off, character select, go back to main for dungeons / World v World until I'm bored.

Do you face the same issue?

No, I have 4 80's now (war, guard, ele, ranger); and I enjoy playing each of them.

[Minion]

I don't face the same thing because my main character is a thief. When I made my guardian alt, I was furious that I even wasted time on that flimsy mock-assassin. Guardian op, yo.

[Biz]

I just don't repeat content that gets old really fast, like dungeons, exessive map completions etcon my alts. I got 10 characters in total - all made on -3 day, most of them serve as storage mules, I play regularly on 3 of them.
After getting Master Crafter by leveling crafting on 4 different characters I just park them in LA and use them as mules. Those that did not get trough tutorial I use as storage for free holiday hats. I will with time level them all to 80 to both have something to do for years between expansions as well as getting more crafting materials out of hard to find nodes, finding one node means I will have up to 10 times more material out of it per day then some one who has only one level 80-ish character.

My level 80 warrior (100% map etc) is the one I gear up in exotics and use for dungeons etc, my level 80 ranger still runs around in mix of greens and yellows - I use it mostly for doubling up oric ores and acient wood - it was quite fun leveling it but I did not do any dungeons with it. Now I level a Guardian to be my third level 80 character, I don't intend to give it gear better then rares and will probably use it to triple amount of materials I gather. Also I don't bother buying the 2g manual on alts.

Edited by Biz, 24 November 2012 - 03:11 PM.

[Arquenya]

Minion, on 24 November 2012 - 01:48 PM, said:

I don't face the same thing because my main character is a thief. When I made my guardian alt, I was furious that I even wasted time on that flimsy mock-assassin. Guardian op, yo.

I kind of recognize this too.

After trying mesmer, ele and thief I got a ranger to lvl80. Got her nice exotics and stuff (she still has the most gear and xp of all).
Then I tried warrior, which I (unexpectedly) found so much more enjoyable; the playstyle, armour, not having to kite everything .. only using my ranger for dungeon runs now, I parked her in front of the door to easily get groups ..

Levelling a guardian now .. it's quite a chore sometimes but I managed to get her to 72.

Edited by Arquenya, 24 November 2012 - 03:37 PM.

[pumpkin pie]

My problem with alt is that I have
1) not enough time
2) not enough character slots

my main is an Asura Engineer, my alt is Norn Ranger (lvl 25) as I have originally plan to be my main, another alt, a human Elementalist (lvl 18)  and i really really want to play an Asura Thief, and Asura Guardian, Asura seem fit for the thief profession very well, and Asura Guardian would be so cute! but i really don't want to start out from the same place again so soon because with the little time i have i want to play as many different story lines as possible, it is also not so good when the character slots is limited, because I want to have a Charr Engineer, Charr Thief, etc. Basically i want to have all profession for every race .... which is impossible ... with the time allow to me ... I don't know, my problem is not that i don't want to play the game, is that i simply do not have time to do all that . and not being able to solo the game is a hindrance too, since it means i have to spend time waiting for other players and vice versa ...  anyway .... i hate one time event too

[turbo234]

The thing that killed leveling alts for me, was once I completed an area I didn't want to go back. The only things I like to do now is dungeon runs and farming orr along with spvp now and again.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

Resolve, on 24 November 2012 - 09:09 AM, said:

No, gear.

I know you can still play with rare but I'd rather it just be a balanced fight.

I simply refuse to buy exotic...  That is so out of my price range, I won't even consider it.

I leveled my necro to 30 yesterday (or rather, she reached 30, didn't do anything special to get her that far), I found a problem I have with alts: They're all so squishy compared to my ranger!  Whenever I switch to Rhonwyn, everything becomes fun and not painful to proceed.  And it's not that I am under-leveled on my alts, rather the opposite...

[Arquenya]

Lady Rhonwyn, on 26 November 2012 - 09:08 AM, said:

I simply refuse to buy exotic...  That is so out of my price range, I won't even consider it.

But .. but .. you only need 3 dungeon runs for a piece (and 26+s and some vendor stuff for a little extra money) .. that isn't that much effort? There's quite a number of easy dungeons and by now all the pugs know how to do speedruns so you can acquire tokens rather easily these days.

Lady Rhonwyn, on 26 November 2012 - 09:08 AM, said:

I leveled my necro to 30 yesterday (or rather, she reached 30, didn't do anything special to get her that far), I found a problem I have with alts: They're all so squishy compared to my ranger!  Whenever I switch to Rhonwyn, everything becomes fun and not painful to proceed.  And it's not that I am under-leveled on my alts, rather the opposite...

Yes that was also a main factor on my alts. My highest levels are warrior, guardian and ranger. And they have a lot less deaths/level than my thief, ele and mesmer.

Edited by Arquenya, 26 November 2012 - 09:42 AM.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

Arquenya, on 26 November 2012 - 09:40 AM, said:

But .. but .. you only need 3 dungeon runs for a piece (and 26+s and some vendor stuff for a little extra money) .. that isn't that much effort? There's quite a number of easy dungeons and by now all the pugs know how to do speedruns so you can acquire tokens rather easily these days.

3 runs a piece, 6 pieces, that's at least 18 runs.  I hate running with a party of strangers, and I am not allowed to play with friends by ANet.  So, yes, that's way too much effort.  Besides, I don't like any of the sets on the female human ranger...  I might get an exotic once I reach Orr (at least, I think that's where that karma merchant is...) or not.  So far, my rare sets have been working perfectly... (the only exotic armour I'd really like will be virtually impossible to get by me, as that requires Badges of Honor and I don't really care for PvP )

[Arquenya]

Lady Rhonwyn, on 26 November 2012 - 10:15 AM, said:

3 runs a piece, 6 pieces, that's at least 18 runs.  I hate running with a party of strangers, and I am not allowed to play with friends by ANet.  So, yes, that's way too much effort.  Besides, I don't like any of the sets on the female human ranger...  I might get an exotic once I reach Orr (at least, I think that's where that karma merchant is...) or not.  So far, my rare sets have been working perfectly... (the only exotic armour I'd really like will be virtually impossible to get by me, as that requires Badges of Honor and I don't really care for PvP )

Well .. more than 18 runs as the bigger pieces require more tokens .. but personally I only like the gloves of one set, the leggings of another and put together my own composition. If you just restrict your target to 1 piece it's a lot easier. And well, I find 3 speedruns with strangers not a lot of effort for one exotic piece plus ~1 gold reward.

Orr, I really dislike the temple sets (except the light version) but there's T-stones for that as well .. it's still very little effort to get an exotic piece.

Didn't know there was PvP only armour by the way, which set do you mean?

Edited by Arquenya, 26 November 2012 - 01:17 PM.

[Gremlin]

Im with the poster that said they level alts in different areas, I should have thought of it earlier and kept completely out of norn and Charr areas.

I leveled 5 characters to the point I had all the weapon skills then took one to 80, when I was bored I swapped and leveled an alt for a little.
Norn alt is still in the norn area asura in asura and so on.

Only part of this game I don't like are dungeons, understand the need to run them how they do but I hate things that ruin the flow.

GW1 I could try a dungeon with ai help guildies or strangers.
gw2 I have to depend on other players, I don't want to stand around I want to get in there and play.

[Crom_The_Pale]

I actually had the opposite thought when I started.  I wanted my main to hit 80 and was going to just level a couple of other chars to 30 and let them sit while I grinded out the best gear for my main.  As it turns out I got my gear really easily while maxing my main so now I've got an alt to 80, one at 70 and another at 35.  Chances are all my alts will be 80 and fully geared before long.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

Arquenya, on 26 November 2012 - 10:27 AM, said:

Didn't know there was PvP only armour by the way, which set do you mean?

The one you can get from those Badges of Honor.  The medium version is called Mistwalker.

And I'll probably get the karma version once I reach Orr and transmute it into something more pleasing to the eye

[Red Intensity]

I see alt-leveling as extremely tedious. Crafting is a no-go, since it's both expensive and tedious, hearts thankfully don't take a long time but are annoying to see and do, and I hate WvW with a fiery passion (got sick of getting insta-gibbed by thieves).

All in all, each time I choose an alt, I waste time I could be spending in a dungeon with my mesmer main,

[Stellarthief]

Usually not an alt guy... started to level my 3rd class for now.

I dont really mind it in GW2. The content breezes by a bit quicker than in other games and can also play fractals with alts.

[AetherMcLoud]

My main problem with alts is that dyes aren't accountwide.

[Gremlin]

AetherMcLoud, on 26 November 2012 - 12:57 PM, said:

My main problem with alts is that dyes aren't accountwide.

True especially now that Dye drops are so rare.
I had maybe 50 playing from playing from the headstart, since the nerf a while back I have found 6

[Stellarthief]

Gremlin, on 26 November 2012 - 01:01 PM, said:

True especially now that Dye drops are so rare.
I had maybe 50 playing from playing from the headstart, since the nerf a while back I have found 6

No nerf here... This week I have 12 dyes... (last monday to now, and I dont play more than a couple hours a day in combat).

And with my thief (lvl 80) most dyes I open now are rares...

But I am sad... we were told explicity dyes would be account bound.. But of course, they didnt mean it like that.

Edited by Stellarthief, 26 November 2012 - 01:03 PM.

[SirthOsiris]

Not really. I did gear up a lot of my main ele, but was starting to find my necro more fun sometimes. Thinking about making it my dungeon runner, my ele my Ori runner, and maybe the Mesmer my WvW. My necro is going to grab Whispers armor while it works towards a CoF set. Mesmer is doing the same with Vigil, but probably TA armor eventually. Don't know if I want to do armor crafting again yet.

Edited by SirthOsiris, 26 November 2012 - 02:32 PM.

[evilbob]

Just like every other MMO I've ever played, I started my main as a light armor wearer.  Then, after playing for some time, I started an alt that wears heavy armor.  And I wanted to cry.

You'd think I'd have learned by now.  I have yet to find a game where the massive PvE utility and easy-of-play of heavy armor classes is even remotely offset in any way by light armor classes (other than "enjoy a challenge" or "it gets better at endgame").  Heavy armor sails through the game like you're on rocket-powered skates coasting on butter.  Light armor slogs through the game like you're wearing cement-covered shoes pushing through the mud.

If you really want to see a wide range of gameplay experiences, play an elementalist for 10 levels and then play a warrior for 10 levels.  Then see if you play the elementalist ever again.


Re:  low level areas being dead, I think they should implement "underflow" servers, or something to that effect.  Basically:  if there are fewer than ~100 (some number) people in your zone on your server when you zone in, you are moved to a type of overflow server that then queues you along with everyone else in your home server back for your zone.  Once there are more than ~100 from your server, you can choose to switch.  Even WoW now seemlessly merges servers with each other so that zones are more populated, and that game's 9 years old.