Overview

Leveling a new character to level 80 can be a tedious grind if you focus too much on map completion and dragging yourself solely through Player versus Player for Tomes of Knowledge. This guide makes use of multiple aspects of the game to make sure you are progressing as efficiently as possible. Using this guide will not only allow you to hit 80 swiftly but also makes certain you are adequately equipped in Exotic items when you eventually reach the finish line.

Levels 1-35

These levels tend to be the slowest due to a lack of burst experience obtained from completing dungeons and from the inability to quickly and efficiently handle your enemies. To get through this as soon as possible you will find that Map Completion and your Personal Story are the best ways to gather large amounts of experience. Edge Of The Mista also provides a significant amount of experience when you're following a Commander.

The first thing you should do is unlock Waypoints for Queensdale, Plains of Ashford and Caledon Forest. Primarily this is so that when you reach level 15 you can undertake Caudecus’ Manor, Ascalonian Catacombs and Twilight Arbor Dungeon runs. To do this you’ll need to first complete the tutorial before visiting your races’ respective capital city and portaling to Lion’s Arch. Once at Lion’s Arch you can then find portals to the locations you need.

Once you’ve accessed these three cities you should head straight out of their main gates and into the racial zones. By completing these three areas you’ll reach level 15 in only a couple of hours. You should ensure that you explore it fully for maximum experience and harvest every node you see on the map (these also provide experience).

From here you should begin to complete your personal story. Even though you’ll be higher level than the quests being provided, this should allow you to quickly breeze through the content without any difficulty and while still receiving maximum amounts of experience points. You should complete the Personal Story until level 25.

Here You Have a Choice Until Level 35

Edge of the Mists

Running around with Commander led groups so you can complete events quickly for massive amounts of experience is an incredibly quick way to level up. This method can also be the most frustrating as you can be completely denied experience if the enemy teams are constantly harassing you. Having recently spent a great deal of time in Edge of the Mists, it’s rare now to fight any opposing sides when a Commander train is running. As a result, it’s not only very fast but excellent Karma. Just head into the map and follow the tag on the map.

Participate in PvP

Tomes of Knowledge provide an instant level up and can be obtained by ranking up your Reward Track in PvP. These Tomes grant you a level instantly on use and can be obtained pretty quickly in hot join or solo queue matches. This is recommended for a player who is familiar with the mechanics and meta-game of Guild Wars 2.

Crafting

If you have a surplus of resources or have purchased Gems to convert into gold you can begin crafting and use that experience to progress through a host of levels. This can be done with any crafting profession for incredibly quick progress. Each crafting profession tends to provide 10 guaranteed levels but it’s pretty expensive to do it at around 50 gold per crafting profession.

Map Completion

Completing the areas that your personal story has sent you through will guarantee your level progression is quick. You do however have to make certain you continue to gather resources and complete dynamic events to get the most out of the process. This will be the slowest method in comparison to Edge of the Mists and Structured PvP but will give you a large amount of resources and money for your character.

Levels 35-60

Level 35 is when you really get the opportunity to blaze through your levels swiftly by doing dungeons. If you have experienced people running those dungeons with you it will be even faster. You get around one level per explorable Dungeon path so it can be the fastest way to level if completed with an optimal group. You will, of course, want to begin at Ascalonian Catacombs in Plains of Ashford to start churning through these levels.

Between dungeon runs you will also want to start gathering your Traits. It is highly recommended that you get these Traits by doing the task each Trait requires you to do. This way you save money and get more experience to help you level.

At level 45 you can start doing the explorable paths in Caudecus’ Manor to go along with your explorable paths in Ascalonian Catacombs. This will provide you with six Explorable Paths to go through each day. At level 55 you’ll then gain access to Twilight Arbor which adds an additional 2 Explorable Paths.

Levels 60-80

Once you hit level 60 you will need to begin to unlock your Master Tier Traits. Once again it’s highly recommended that you go through each tree and obtain every Trait. Doing this provides a considerable chunk of experience while it will save you a significant sum of money.

At this level you will also want to start making your way to Dredgehaunt Cliffs, south of Hoelbrak, and Fireheart Rise to the north of the Black Citadel. In these locations you will find two more dungeons: Sorrow’s Embrace and Citadel of Flame (and additional 6 Explorable Paths).

Once you get to level 65 you can start working on the Dungeon paths to Sorrow’s Embrace. This will give you a total of eleven dungeon paths to choose from. You can start being picky about which dungeons you want to do here but remember that more dungeon paths mean more levels.

After you’ve begun working on Sorrow’s Embrace you’ll quickly reach level 75. When you have you can begin running Citadel of Flame which offers some of the fastest dungeon Paths in the game. With this, and your other dungeons you have done to this point, you won’t have issue getting those last five levels to reach 80.

It should be noted that some Dungeon paths are quicker than others:

  • Ascalonian Catacombs – Path 3, closely followed by Path 1. Most players avoid Path 2.
  • Caudecus Manor - Path 2 can be very fast but most people run Path 1 and avoid Path 3.
  • Twilight Arbor – “Up” Path, closely followed by “Forward, Forward”.
  • Sorrows Embrace – Path 1 and Path 3 are very fast. People avoid Path 2.
  • Citadel Of Flame – Path 1 and Path 2 are very fast. People avoid Path 3.
  • Crucible of Eternity – Each Path tends to be the same length.
  • Honor Of The Wave – Each Path tends to be the same length.
  • Arah – Path 1, 2 and 3 are similar in length. Path 4 is much longer and more difficult.

Consumables

Up until level 45 getting any food is a worthwhile investment and you can buy anything you need off the Trading  Post. You’re mostly looking for the bonus experience and you won’t really be making much use out of +10% bonus experience until then. At level 45 you will want to buy an abundance of Candy Corn Almond Brittle for the bonus +15% experience to help you squeeze out every drop of experience out of kills. On top of this you will also want to keep some utility buff, like cheap Tuning Crystals, for another ten experience per kill.

You should also try to make use of Experience and Kill-Streak Boosters to give yourself a further edge. Use these between levels 1 to 35 so you can get to the Dungeons quickly. You can also make use of Crafting Boosters during this time if you are grinding out those last few levels through Crafting.

Final Thoughts

With all Dungeons you’ve completed by the time you reach level 80 you should have a large amount of Tokens at your disposal. You should use these Tokens at the Dungeon vendors in Lion’s Arch to purchase yourself a full set of exotic gear for your freshly leveled 80. For PvE, we’d always recommend you pick up Berzerker items (Power, Precision and Ferocity) as it makes future play so much easier.

 


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Lewis is a long standing journalist, who freelances to a variety of outlets.

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