Does leveling through crafting feel like cheating to you?

[kayoticwrath]

I just recently hit 80 on my first toon. Having hit level 55 I found out how leveling a crafting from 0-400 gives you 10 levels. So I looked up the cheapest, of which is cooking. All up it took me about 40 minutes, all of which was looking for a guide of what to buy off of the trading post, buying the items, equipping my crafting booster an as for the actual 0-400 took me 27 minutes.

I was then level 65. I bought a set of Lvl 65 gear of the TP as my current gear was lacking. I leveled to 70 and decided ok it's time craft again and decided on artificing. That one took me longer as the guide was more focused on discoveries. The actual 0-400 on that took me roughly 40 minutes. Needless to say I bought another set of gear off of the TP.

All up the cooking cost me between 2-3 gold and artificing cost me a little over 4 gold. Yes it's awesome I am now 80 but I feel like I have robbed myself of some awesome content that I will probably go back and see at a later time on this character or a new one.

So my question is.. Do you like being able to level so fast with crafting or not?

I can't remember how many crafts are in the game but if you had a lot of gold backing you it seems you could make nearly level 80 in one day. Is that too much?

[nightshark]

No, it's not cheating, because being level 80 doesn't mean much. At the same time, it's good to get to 80 asap because it opens more content and gives you more freedom in what you do. But if you want 100% completion or a legendary, you have to go back and explore anyway.

I like being able to drop a bit of gold and get an easy 30 level boost on my alts, especially since I don't care about completion on them and in terms of gold per hour, you make a pittance through levelling.

[Zilong]

I just recently hit 80 on my first toon. Having hit level 55 I found out how leveling a crafting from 0-400 gives you 10 levels. So I looked up the cheapest, of which is cooking. All up it took me about 40 minutes, all of which was looking for a guide of what to buy off of the trading post, buying the items, equipping my crafting booster an as for the actual 0-400 took me 27 minutes.

I was then level 65. I bought a set of Lvl 65 gear of the TP as my current gear was lacking. I leveled to 70 and decided ok it's time craft again and decided on artificing. That one took me longer as the guide was more focused on discoveries. The actual 0-400 on that took me roughly 40 minutes. Needless to say I bought another set of gear off of the TP.

All up the cooking cost me between 2-3 gold and artificing cost me a little over 4 gold. Yes it's awesome I am now 80 but I feel like I have robbed myself of some awesome content that I will probably go back and see at a later time on this character or a new one.

So my question is.. Do you like being able to level so fast with crafting or not?

I can't remember how many crafts are in the game but if you had a lot of gold backing you it seems you could make nearly level 80 in one day. Is that too much?

No.

Some people (Alot more than we give credit for) loves crafting and gathering. And really dislike the combat part. So I think it's really good. To be honest one of the best implemented things on Gw2.

So if you are a lover of the "art", you could simply level by that. Which is awesome.
If you dislike it, you ignore that completely and make money selling mats you find on PvE. No harm done.
If you are anywhere in the middle, you can close gaps of experience missing as you go (which I did at some point).
If you want to level an alt just to spend all the mats you gathered with all the other alts before that. you can.

We have 8 crafting disciplines on the game. Each one can give 10 levels, which means you can get to level 80 without ever leaving your starting area.
Is it cheating? Nope.
Simply because when your level adjusts accordingly to the area you are at. (It does get easier of course, with traits and gear) but still not 1hit.

Not to mention that I honestly think that crafting on Gw2 is one of the best implemented in the MMO's to date.

It's a game where the sPvP already took you to max level (80) when you are level 2. And it's a game with no competitive focus in PvE. So what are you cheating? right?

[Thelxi]

Don't worry, you will most likely feel the need to run through it all anyways if you keep playing long-term.

[Zilong]

It's not cheating because it's fairly obvious that it's intended that people use crafting as a leveling engine more than anything else right now.

Brilliant.

Have you seen Gw2 site recently? I think they were hiring, maybe they need you.

But really. Of course you can and honestly is very easy.

Now, unless you enjoy it, why the hell would you do it? I mean I can think of one that is probably doing this, but doing it for the "cheat" is basically throwing your money in the garbage. But doing it just to have all the content at your hands to explore freely, that might be a good idea.

[Karizee]

I mostly play my main. I maybe got a couple levels through crafting when I first level capped just farting around, but I have since leveled a couple more crafts just to grab some free skill points after spending so many on my Mystic Clovers. I like it!

[metalgemini]

I like using it to play catch up. I can't count how many times in an mmo i have been a couple levels away from getting into the next zone, dungeon, story line, etc. so now i can do a tier of crafting, get 2 levels and be right back on track.

[Fencers]

So my question is.. Do you like being able to level so fast with crafting or not?

No.

This isn't Everquest or FF11. Leveling isn't some difficult, far off or rigorous accomplishment. It's just a matter of course. Given enough time every player will reach the same point.

Levels don't really mean much in GW2 either.

[Valeron]

I don't care either way. Perhaps a little off topic but I'd rather the game not have levels at all then this (and other stuff like the "end game" nonsense) wouldn't be nearly as much as an issue.

[Fencers]

Definitely would have been a better game without levels. As was originally planned. Anet did do a good job of minimizing the need and disparity of leveling though. So, not too bad.

I always get the feeling a lot of things in GW2 Anet did better in GW1 already. Anet seemed to have made the sequel far more populist and trite in the interest of the obvious.

You did level in GW1. Yet leveling to 20 was so meaningless the game pre-20 bordered on a 19 level tutorial in subsequent editions. GW1 was much faster paced and had few barriers of time.

I still hold GW1 is pretty close to perfect in structure if lacking execution. Anet can be a bit sloppy design wise, historically speaking.

[Meledelion]

Definitely would have been a better game without levels. As was originally planned. Anet did do a good job of minimizing the need and disparity of leveling though. So, not too bad.

I always get the feeling a lot of things in GW2 Anet did better in GW1 already. Anet seemed to have made the sequel far more populist and trite in the interest of the obvious.

You did level in GW1. Yet leveling to 20 was so meaningless the game pre-20 bordered on a 19 level tutorial in subsequent editions. GW1 was much faster paced and had few barriers of time.

I still hold GW1 is pretty close to perfect in structure if lacking execution. Anet can be a bit sloppy design wise, historically speaking.

This is true if you disregard prophecies entirely.
It was a very big deal if you were lvl 15 when you got to the desert or lvl 17.
I do think that it would've been better to make the game end at 50 lvl wise and make all zones significantly harder from then on.

[Fencers]

This is true if you disregard prophecies entirely.

You quoted a post where I just said that. "Subsequent editions". -_-

Proph leveling was never too big a deal really. The game was more group orientated back then. Such that mission progression was far quicker & effective with a group.

My sister and I are of the opinion that Prop leveling was only slow going for those that wanted to play solo. Which we never did in the first months of GW1. Also part of why I enjoyed the original Guild Wars [pre-heroes] so much-- you had to work together to be truly good at the game.

All that soloing crap later on in the game was stupid. Heroes, PVx and consumables sorta ruined the franchise.

[Meledelion]

Waking up at 5am and commenting is a bad idea, my sincerest of apologies.

I liked playing alone though since I basically did pve>pvp>pve>pvp>pve and teaching people how to do stuff got tedious.
(TK boosting wasn't fun if ppl didn't listen...)

[kayoticwrath]

Thanks for the replays, didn't think I was going to get this many .

After reading the replies and thinking about it some more, it really is a great addition. Not as much importance on levelling makes this game feel really unique to me and a welcome change. It is great being able to roll a new character and be instant level 80 in PvP just to see if I like the feel of the character.

I think it willbea long time before I resub WoW when I have a great f2p MMO.

[Deleted]

My 2 cents: it's not "cheating" because in GW2 there is not much incentive to be at the cap. You can access pvp as 80 at any time, and the down ranking means low-level content stays relevant longer, really the only reason to be 80 is access to the world zones. The levels just really function as a guide through the content.

[Edge-]

While I wish there was a separate set of proper crafting levels (a la EQ2), I do like that crafting is a legitimate means of progression. I think it can be a little too good, allowing for insanely fast leveling if you do the proper prep to have all the crafting mats ready for another character. But I still enjoy that I was able to supplement some of my experience by crafting. I like games where you can progress as a crafting "class" in addition to/instead of combat only.

[Kelimbror]

My 2 cents: it's not "cheating" because in GW2 there is not much incentive to be at the cap. You can access pvp as 80 at any time, and the down ranking means low-level content stays relevant longer, really the only reason to be 80 is access to the world zones. The levels just really function as a guide through the content.

I echo this sentiment. I think the desire to be max level in this game specifically is artificially generated as a consequence of other games' leveling styles. In regards to character progression, you really need to get out there and do everything no matter what level you are. Additionally, you will get downleveled. It might make everything a bit easier, but not by a longshot.

There's only one huge problem that bothers me about it, but it's pretty much negated now. The fact that you have an auction house, the ability to 'buy' gold in game, etc etc means that getting the higher level materials early on is a huge benefit to you. The people who first leveled through crafting from joint efforts with guildies or w/e had a bit of an unfair advantage to farming materials.

The only solution would be to provide some sort of cap or window where crafting couldn't be used in excess when new levels/content is implemented. It would be awkward and people wouldn't like it though. Like I said, moot point now in any event. Until the expansion.

[sacrypheyes]

You quoted a post where I just said that. "Subsequent editions". -_-

Proph leveling was never too big a deal really. The game was more group orientated back then. Such that mission progression was far quicker & effective with a group.

My sister and I are of the opinion that Prop leveling was only slow going for those that wanted to play solo. Which we never did in the first months of GW1. Also part of why I enjoyed the original Guild Wars [pre-heroes] so much-- you had to work together to be truly good at the game.

All that soloing crap later on in the game was stupid. Heroes, PVx and consumables sorta ruined the franchise.

^ this.

at the time i actually bought gw1 prophecies, i played a lot with my roommate and leveling was pretty fast.
at that time, heroes didn't exist yet (was at the time factions just came out) and mercs were (are!) quite limited in what they could do so people were grouping a lot. and it wasn't that hard to find a group as you would meet dozens of players in each hub (not to mention there was like 100+ disctrics at peak hours, god i miss these times so much).

edit:

back to the topic, leveling through crafting isn't a cheat imo as you spend quite the mats and gold into it. not to mention the time you spend crafting, you don't spend it leveling outside or running events/dungeons. sure the experience gain is high but i think it's intended to make crafting "not a waste of time" which it is.
and like many already said, it's not like reaching lv80 is that hard/long anyways.

[Zilong]

I don't really understand your post. Are you agreeing or disagreeing with the idea that crafting is primarily just a leveling engine right now?

Erm...neither really. But really towards disagreeing about your post.

I just said you can use it primarily as level engine. But it would be very dumb to do so simply because doesn't change anything. I said that if you do it, it better be towards a tangible goal such as freely explore the world or just because you love crafting. The rest of the post was really just sarcasm because you said "it's obvious they want to be main levelling way" when by doing so you just lose the content you paid for (assuming your only goal is reach max lvl)

The "right" usage is if you love it, you do it all the way for the fun it provides to you.
if you hate it, you sell mats, get rich, and still easy to reach max level.
If you don't care either way, you close level gaps that you might get (not liking an area or maybe unlucky to get much events), or you do it because it provides "limited fun" (aka not your main goal) so you just do it occasionally, or you just sell the mats again for gold.

[Lofats]

I kinda felt that way too. I recently took a fresh toon from 1-80 doing only crafting. Took about 15 hours, including getting mats that I didn't already have. But I also wanted to go for the Mastercrafter title and figured I'd just start a toon that would serve as my crafter.