EXP and you, how to level in GW2

Hello new player and welcome to GW2!

If you don't currently know, the current level cap for GW2 is lvl 80.  Each time you level you get 1 skill point, in which you can use to buy items for the mystic forge or use it to buy new skills through your heroes tab.

There are many ways to level, and this guide will primarily focus on the earlier levels, but this is applicable for all levels due to the level scaling features of gw2.

First, there are boosts.  You can get an exp boost from bonfires, exp boosters, banners, guild buffs and food/consumable buffs.

• The boosts from bonfires (and fireworks, special gemstore items) and exp boosters are the same 50% exp boost and do not stack with each other.
  
• Guild banners offer 5% exp boost for 30 minutes with a standard exp banner and 10% exp boost for 30 minutes with a karma and exp banner or a heroes banner.
  
• The guild buff is a 5% boost in exp on kills and lasts for 24 hours. You can check which buffs are active in the guild panel for upgrades.  We normally have a constant boost on magic find active, just ask an officer to activate a boost if you need any.
  
• Foods give a standard +10 experience or +10% experience on kills and vary on duration and buffs based on the food eaten.  This buff is called [Nutrition] and the stat boost is viewable by hovering over it.
  
• Consumables, such as maintenance oils, sharpening stones or tuning crystals, give a utility buff similar to the food buff.  It is also called [Nutrition] and is viewable by hovering over it as well.
  
• Food can be accessible through the guild bank.  The Deep Cave should be available for everyone, while the Treasure Trove and Guild Stash need certain permissions to withdraw.
  

Now if you maximize your boosts through the above methods, you can level faster!  Those buffs aren't necessary but it will make leveling faster.  A few ways to level are through chain events, hearts and map completions.

• Always revive!  Reviving counts for hearts, gives exp and introduces you to other players.  If you revive a player, they may join you in mapping.  It is great in building small, personal relationships with players.
  
• Chain events are events that link to each other and are more or less constantly repeating.  These can be found by exploring various areas and there are way to many to actually list all of them.
  
• One such example of an event chain is in the top left corner of Diessa Plateau, at the Village of Butcher's Block.  Found at [Butcher's Block Waypoint].  This is an event chain surrounding Meatober Fest.
  
• Meta events are larger events that need many more people to complete.  They are event chains and can be tracked using http://us.gw2stuff.com/en/events/blackgate.  For higher levels they will drop a guaranteed rare and is a good place to get globs of ectoplasm.
  
• Hearts are a great way to work towards a goal - killing or doing certain actions to progress the heart.  They are found in all areas besides orr and can be a break to mindless killing.  Make sure to read the description of the heart on the top right of your screen to see what you need to do as well as your progression.
  
• By doing hearts, you get a step closer to completing the map you currently are on.  This map can be fully viewed with the 'M' key and the progression is shown on the left side of the map.  Besides hearts, there are also vistas, point of interests and waypoints.
  
• Completing map completion awards you with 10% exp to next level, 2 armor/weapon pieces, a small stack of crafting mats, and can hold transmutation stones and crystals, black lion keys or other small gem store items.
  

Once you reach a decent level (about 40 to 50+), you can start joining dungeons.  Explorable dungeons give 70% exp to next level, as well as gold for each run.  You can also switch to a lower level character at the end boss to get the exp for that character.  Some things to note:

• For pugs (pick-up groups) you may be kicked if you bring in any level not 80.  Make your own group with friends/guild members in order to avoid this.
  
• In addition, if you want to switch to a low level character, tell the group at the start of the dungeon.  Switching characters takes dps away from the group in the middle of a battle.  Standard practice is to switch characters when the end boss has 25% to 50% hp left.
  
• The dungeons can be seen here in the wiki, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon, and also yield a decent gold rate.
  
• If you do all dungeon paths, once a day, you would make 34 gold from just the daily reward itself.  Most people go through rotations daily to make gold.
  
• For a low level character, dungeons also give dungeon tokens which can be exchanged for quick exotic gear when you get to 80.
  

The most recent addition to this list is champion farming.  Specifically for leveling would be the Queensdale champion farm which focuses on killing champs in Queensdale for loot (specifically champion bags).  This rotation includes champions like the Bandit, sick Oakheart, Wasp, Boar and Troll.  Each champion is also an event, which also adds exp, karma and coin to the kill.  It is advised to be in a party to get credit for hits and to ask map chat where the zerg is at.

The final way to level for low level characters is crafting.  Crafting from 0 to 500 gives 10 levels on average and often quite a bit of gold, so it is not advisable to gain levels solely from crafting.  Additionally, 0 to 400 gives about 7 levels on average.  Some boosters that may help are the wvw passive boost, guild boost and crafting booster.  Each adds to crafting crit chance and mainly affects the amount of exp needed to gain a crafting level.  It is advisable to use these boosters to save on mats needed to level.  Also use a crafting site like, http://www.guildwars2-crafting.com/crafting-guides/, to help you craft efficiently.

Not mentioned in this guild are wvw and pvp.  You can join in karma trains in wvw, which happen closer to the end of the week on Thursday or Friday before reset.  Also you can join pvp matches to get tomes of knowledge to gain 1 level.  I don't think these are necessarily the best ways for low characters to level, but it is still a viable option.  Good luck and have fun in all your leveling!

Nice list you got there. I should Explore maps, But....jps. also didn't know all that stuff about the exp, only about the banners and the boosters/food. :O thanks

For all those who want more guides, message me in game and I'll definitely make it for you!

IGN: Tia Xi, Lira Xi, Aelix Xi, Rumi Xi, Draken Brood