I need help getting back into Guild Wars 2

[Ranger Lus]

To be honest I was really let down by GW2. I really liked it for a while but now it's starting to become a drag to play and they said that there would be no grind but in between story line quests you have you level a bunch and it really feels like grinding. I feel like it was over hyped but I really like the game and I wanna get back into it! Any help to make leveling in between quests more fun or easier would be nice and any other advice to help me get back into the game. Thank you!

[Vayne]

The story was never meant to be the main way to level. You're not supposed to "just do the story". It's more of a guide to show you where you're supposed to be at what time. Gathering and crafting through discovery can level you amazingly fast, as well as zone completion or just exploring in general.

In fact, if you stop thinking about leveling at all you'd be better off, because when you get to the end of the game, what else is there to do but what you've been doing all along? It's the thought of leveling that's really the problem, not leveling itself.

Just try to get into the game and let the leveling take care of itself. Make sure you do dynamic events to those will help. Hearts are okay but dynamic events will level you fast, and often the hearts get completed incidentally when doing dynamic events. And don't run off after a dynamic event listen to what the NPCs are saying very often you'll end up with 2, 3 even four dynamic events back to back.

[Ranger Lus]

The story was never meant to be the main way to level. You're not supposed to "just do the story". It's more of a guide to show you where you're supposed to be at what time. Gathering and crafting through discovery can level you amazingly fast, as well as zone completion or just exploring in general.

In fact, if you stop thinking about leveling at all you'd be better off, because when you get to the end of the game, what else is there to do but what you've been doing all along? It's the thought of leveling that's really the problem, not leveling itself.

Just try to get into the game and let the leveling take care of itself. Make sure you do dynamic events to those will help. Hearts are okay but dynamic events will level you fast, and often the hearts get completed incidentally when doing dynamic events. And don't run off after a dynamic event listen to what the NPCs are saying very often you'll end up with 2, 3 even four dynamic events back to back.

Right I know that the story line isn't the main thing but I really like it. Also my friends are never on and there all higher levels than me because they get more chances to play Thanks for the advice though I will definitely start exploring and completing maps!

[Vayne]

Right I know that the story line isn't the main thing but I really like it. Also my friends are never on and there all higher levels than me because they get more chances to play Thanks for the advice though I will definitely start exploring and completing maps!

Find other friends as well. Join a second guild. Playing MMOs alone, for many people, sucks. If your friends are higher level, and you aren't with them, then of course you're not going to be thrilled playing. It feels like you're left out. So just see if you can find someone to level with. It makes all the difference in the world.

[chiria]

Do it all, when I get lonely I say to guild and or world "Come grab me shake me twirl em round let's go yonder". There is no end game the whole world is it, crafting yep all 400, except for an empty slot for alt rest are 80's all geared in exotic's with weapons to boot. Starting to get into WvW now and fractals. Vayne puts up with my stressfulness and worries and places me at ease when I was worried about not doing well, Tiger teaches me stuff and the rest of my guild seems to tolerate me. I can compete almost well sorta and that was something I could never do any other MMO. Heck if you are want pm me (Unkind) I am friendly very chatty cant type worth a hoot and will stress over any jump puzzle and may need pushed, but I wont let you down in doing it or trying to do it.

[Vayne]

Chiria, everyone likes you. I don't know why you have that opinion of yourself. You're a good guy. And you play well. Don't let the naysayers get you down.

[hlindegar]

How can you have trouble leveling in this game? Walk. Click things. Kill something. Boom, you've leveled. Easiest leveling of any game I've played!

[Izzy]

How can you have trouble leveling in this game? Walk. Click things. Kill something. Boom, you've leveled. Easiest leveling of any game I've played!

Actually just killing enemies adds hardly any experience to the bar. The best ways to level that I've found is the personal story and completing hearts. Vistas, crafting, and dungeons are also very good but more optional.

[hlindegar]

Actually just killing enemies adds hardly any experience to the bar. The best ways to level that I've found is the personal story and completing hearts. Vistas, crafting, and dungeons are also very good but more optional.

Best leveling guide ever:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c..._than_me_or_a/

It's short. I'll copy and paste it right here:
When I first started, I was kinda befuddled for a bit on the leveling since the game was so much different than what I was used to. However, recently my wife has let my 5 year old son play it about 30 minutes a day, and after watching him, my wife told me that it was absolutely fascinating how he played and she (my wife :P) can't explain how he levels so quickly. She (my wife :P) encouraged me to play together with him, since in a very short amount of play time he has reached level 12. So last night I took my Necro over and we played together. He was very excited to teach me his tips and tricks to success in GW2, so I thought I would share.
Here is what I learned.
Apparently, you must wander in what ever direction kind of looks interesting to you.
A. If he sees another player, he may get very excited and run toward them to "help them out".
B. If he's surrounded by mobs, he will carefully look around and decide which mob he likes to kill exclaiming "Ooo he's level 11! I'm just 10! He could kill me!"
C. A lot of his focus is going to "win the diamonds" (discovering the waypoints).
D. If he sees a body of water, he might exclaim "Let's go have a swim! Follow me, I'll show you how to swim!"
When downed, wait patiently even if no one is around, because someone will eventually come along and rez you.
A. We've explained to him he can come back at the waypoints, but he remarks "I know! But watch! Someone will come save me! I promise!" and then proceeds to look around and wait patiently for as long as it takes. Luckily during our run, I was there and could "get his back".
B. When getting rezzed by two or more people, he gets so excited apparently that he leaves the game immediately to go throughout the house to tell everyone the exciting news. Of course, I exclaimed "Aren't you in a battle?! You just left them?!" to which he responded "Oh yeah!!!" and ran back.
He finds Youtube unnecessary when discovering challenging undiscovered vistas. His preferred method of technique is simply to wait patiently for as long as it takes for someone else to come discover the vista. He then watches them closely and follows them to discover the vista.
The most perplexing mystery of all, is the evening I spent with him playing, I didn't really feel like I was doing much of anything. It was a strange sort of relaxed just look around and enjoy your surroundings sort of play. However, he leveled up twice during our playing that evening. TWICE, without any of my normal "Ok what heart do I go to next? Any events in the area? How's my gear doing? Where should I put these points?" type play.
Anyways, I thought it was interesting...

[StacyX]

Best leveling guide ever:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c..._than_me_or_a/

It's short. I'll copy and paste it right here:
When I first started, I was kinda befuddled for a bit on the leveling since the game was so much different than what I was used to. However, recently my wife has let my 5 year old son play it about 30 minutes a day, and after watching him, my wife told me that it was absolutely fascinating how he played and she (my wife :P) can't explain how he levels so quickly. She (my wife :P) encouraged me to play together with him, since in a very short amount of play time he has reached level 12. So last night I took my Necro over and we played together. He was very excited to teach me his tips and tricks to success in GW2, so I thought I would share.
Here is what I learned.
Apparently, you must wander in what ever direction kind of looks interesting to you.
A. If he sees another player, he may get very excited and run toward them to "help them out".
B. If he's surrounded by mobs, he will carefully look around and decide which mob he likes to kill exclaiming "Ooo he's level 11! I'm just 10! He could kill me!"
C. A lot of his focus is going to "win the diamonds" (discovering the waypoints).
D. If he sees a body of water, he might exclaim "Let's go have a swim! Follow me, I'll show you how to swim!"
When downed, wait patiently even if no one is around, because someone will eventually come along and rez you.
A. We've explained to him he can come back at the waypoints, but he remarks "I know! But watch! Someone will come save me! I promise!" and then proceeds to look around and wait patiently for as long as it takes. Luckily during our run, I was there and could "get his back".
B. When getting rezzed by two or more people, he gets so excited apparently that he leaves the game immediately to go throughout the house to tell everyone the exciting news. Of course, I exclaimed "Aren't you in a battle?! You just left them?!" to which he responded "Oh yeah!!!" and ran back.
He finds Youtube unnecessary when discovering challenging undiscovered vistas. His preferred method of technique is simply to wait patiently for as long as it takes for someone else to come discover the vista. He then watches them closely and follows them to discover the vista.
The most perplexing mystery of all, is the evening I spent with him playing, I didn't really feel like I was doing much of anything. It was a strange sort of relaxed just look around and enjoy your surroundings sort of play. However, he leveled up twice during our playing that evening. TWICE, without any of my normal "Ok what heart do I go to next? Any events in the area? How's my gear doing? Where should I put these points?" type play.
Anyways, I thought it was interesting...

That's awesome! I think a lot can be learned from this and watching children play. They only do what's fun, and that was Anet's aim with this game. Most adults tend to look for a check list of stuff to do. "I have to go to Point A and do this and this. Then I need to go to point B and do this and this." But you really can just level in this game doing nothing but explore and have fun. Great article and a really cute story! Thanks for sharing it!