I need help getting back into Guild Wars 2

[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!

[Vayne]

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!

You know this is true. I'm a checklist guy in real life. I make lists for EVERYTHING, or nothing gets done. And when I started playing Guild Wars 2, I was going through the list. That's the very reason I ended up turning off my map icons. Not because I was going to be the explorer and find them all myself, but because if they were there, they became a list that was causing me to lose enjoyment in the game. I felt like I was just following a list.

And since I've turned them off, my enjoyment has increased. It's not so much the explorer thing but the list thing for me.

[StacyX]

hahah Very cool. I might have to try out the turning icons thing off too, next time I get to a new zone - just to see where it takes me. It would probably make me crazy, but it's worth a try. lol

[Ender4000]

Actually killing mobs can easily give as much XP as doing hearts. You just look for the mobs with the XP bonus. You find a good pack with heavy bonus and you will easily outpace hearts. I think the absolute fastest way to level is to go heavy on certain events but just trying to level fast is kind of silly in a game like this one. Just go out and do whatever you feel like, everything gives XP so you are never wasting time.

[StacyX]

The Dynamic Events give a TON of exp too, I think that too few people realize just how much exp you can get by focusing on DEs. If one pops up in my area I make a V-line straight to it. heheh

[Vayne]

hahah Very cool. I might have to try out the turning icons thing off too, next time I get to a new zone - just to see where it takes me. It would probably make me crazy, but it's worth a try. lol

Basically you only need to go for zone completion on one character. If you have others, don't worry about zone completion. For example, I have Cador Shrike who goes for 100% and for everyone else, I just run around and don't care. I like playing him least. lol

[Fantaghiro]

I love the 5 year old child's approach to playing the game. I guess that through studies and work most adults have learned to be goal-oriented, and apply that to games.

While trying to be different to other games in insisting that the journey is more than the destination, Anet have forgotten that most gamers don't read all that stuff and go in with what they've learned from playing other games, i.e. the endgame is the thing; it's all about leveling quickly so that you can get to join in on the endgame, because that's where the game really starts.

Even though much has been written and published about how GW2 is a new gaming concept, most people don't even use the wiki to find out the answers to their own questions, let alone read reviews and articles published online about the game. Just delivering a game that has a different concept about journies/destinations/endgames doesn't mean that players inherently understand that is what it's about. And that applies to the "trinity" concept, as well. I can't tell you how many times I've seen in chat "What's a good tank build for a [guardian/warrior/ranger]"? Despite developers' intentions, gamers are so accustomed to the Tank/Healer/DPS concept, they've found ways of making the "trinity" so in GW2.

I didn't need to learn stuff about journies/destinations/endgame/no "trinity" because I was interested enough in the game throughout its development to read the advance media, but I believe that is the sort of information that could well have been contained in an introductory tutorial. Players would realise that there was no real hurry to get to max level, and would enjoy the experience of interacting with other players or just exploring, without feeling compelled to level. Or would they? If they knew at the outset that there was no end game, no ultimate goal, would they even bother to start?

F

[Gismo]

Hmm, interesting. I played 1-80 solo and it wasn't all that long before I was level 80. I never set out to level, it just happened by accident on the way - yes I like the heart quests, yes I like the dynamic quests and yes I love exploring. Now I appreciate that going solo is not for everyone and indeed some people will need more of a reason to go somewhere other than just because it's there. It's funny to read Hlindegars post because I play GW2 like a 5 year old lol.

So if you do need something to keep you hooked the question you have to ask yourself is what do you want to do? Gather enough mats for a legendary item? Map completion? There is an entire list of objectives you can work towards - if you want. Aside from the dailies, there are some long term goals in there too - seems like I still need to kill another 300 centaurs - genocide may be in order . . . .

To be honest, that is a lot more I'd like to be doing in GW2 but I simply don't have the time. I wish my next holidays would hurry up . . . .

[qvor]

When I started playing, I had a multitude of questions. That's where the guild came in
Stuff like the crafting was new to me. I also never knew that the heart chars sold you green armour and weapons. Only found that out on me third week.

But... Isn't it part of the fun? I mean, I love when I find a game and I get lost in the beginning. Part of the fun, for me, is learning the game. What I have to do? When I figured about the game "hints" (points of interests, vistas, etc...), the game lost its charm a little bit. I had to unmark the map content to get it back: the exploration, the new discoveries. Otherwise, the game becomes too mechanical.

I know each one has different points of view and entertainment means different things to each one. I respect that. But try to see in this light and you will have a lot of fun in the beggining. Let the "fine tune" for later in the game. As "fine tune", I mean: the best skills, weapons, traits, how to lvl faster, etc... And when you get it all, you will be able to create another character and experiment your experiences on it with new profession mechanics.