best approach?

I have played guild wars for a while when I bought the trilogy a while back. I did not complete any campaigns and got to about level 10 on my main class. I found the lack of exp gain in post-searing to be really de-motivating. I had to use henchmen, and this resulted in about 8exp per kill, which made progression super slow and a bit boring.

However, I am determined to at least finish out the game and I have a feeling I was doing something wrong, but I am not sure what. I also tried playing a new assassin character in factions or maybe the other campaign, and I found that monsters owned my face off without HH and with HH I was back to no progress on my levels.

I would love to get the hang of the game, as I still feel I am going wrong somewhere. I like to progress and attain rewards and unlocks type of thing, I really don't care much for isolated single player style questing. Really looking forward to the more public style persistent world quest system in GW2.

I wondered the best approach to getting back into the game and getting 50/50 for GW2. I think this focus on 50/50 should give me more motivation to play than just quests.

I love the game mechanics, and I love the play style, just not a big quest fan. I realize the game is quest based, so please don't write me off as it not being suitable, I just don't see that as the most enjoyable part of the game.

GW PvE is designed for team play, whether the team be henchies, heroes, or other players. If you try to play absolutely solo, you will get owned.

The game is also designed so that the majority of the XP needed to level is obtained via quest and mission rewards. Trying to level by simply fighting for XP is going to be much, much slower, even if you use lots of expensive scrolls to boost your XP gain. The best way to level is to do all the quests, including side quests. This is especially true in Factions, which is the fastest-leveling campaign by far because of the large XP rewards. Kaineng Center, in particular, has a huge number of quests rewarding 3000 XP each, and a good handful of them involve little or no fighting.

the exp progression at low levels is slower than most games...but don't forget that the level cap in gw is only 20 whereas in other games it may be 80 or higher.

proph is the slowest campaign, new players may take a couple of weeks to hit lvl20. if you want to hit lvl20 faster, try factions or nightfall which should take you under a week to hit lvl20.

but just to note, a gw vet can lvl to 20 on a new chara within hours.

Yeah early in the game, especially in Prophecies, quests will be your major source of experience. But, as already stated, remember that 20 is the max level in GW, and leveling is by no means even a minor aspect of the game. Experienced players can play a character for literally thousands of hours, but only spend 3-5 hours leveling that character. This is in great contrast to other MMO's like WoW (games you might be more accustomed to). The main draw of GW PvE is the titles, the economy, farming, doing elite areas and dungeons, etc. That and getting the HoM rewards for GW2.

I love the idea of being max level and then having all my options open to me to get content complete, find armors, heroes or w/e etc. I think in a game link GW1 I am more interested in getting the levels out of the way and then working on game goals.

So you guys seem to think factions is the best way to start on a brand new character to hit 20 fast?

Absolutely, just by progression in the storyline and doing a few quests on the side you could easily reach level 20 in a weekend !

I wouldn't start off using an assassin though. Assassin is a bit tougher to figure out and you could be dying more than killing. Start off with one of the core classes first. I would use an elementalist. Nice high damage output for faster kills.

You won't gain any levels fast just through killing, take quests and explore the world - go the co-operative missions, and before you know it you'll be level20. Cantha (Factions) is particularly good for this as the quests have a stupid amount of exp reward for what you have to do.

Also, make your way through Nightfall and EoTN (if you have it) to get heroes - then look in the heroes and AI section here at GWGURU to see how to use them properly, they are much better than henchmen.

Play the game, have fun, do missions and quests. Don't focus on how much XP you're getting - it hardly matters, it's not the point of the game, that's why the level cap is only 20.

You just 1-2-3. Then when you reach level 20 you go to Nightfall to get Critical Agility and you 1-2-3 faster.

xukiza, play what you want. Start where you want. If an assassin, be sure and get a longbow or flatbow and put it in weapons slot 4. You do not need a ranger secondary. Use it to pull and in higher levels of the game to initiate combat. Two or three shots usually and the mob will aggro on your party. Then switch to daggers and go get 'em. Especially true if the mob has elementalists, mesmers, and necros in it. Let the hench warrior go in and take the beating, that is what a hench warrior is for.

Just my two cents for what it is worth, keeping in mind that my primary is a Ranger. Easiest is go to Nightfall and roll a Ranger. Do every single quest. Concentrate on Nightfall and finish the game. Then you will have a group of excellent heroes and be ready to go through Eye of the North in style and cruise through Factions and Prophecies.

Still plenty of time, I think probably six months minimum before GW 2 comes out. The Guild Wars wiki is your friend. Look up missions and quests and read about them and you can get through much faster. Good luck!

P.S. Nothing against Assassins here. I have one that has completed all three chapters and EoTN and who farms.

At level 10 you should already be in the shiverpeaks doing missions to get to Lions Arch, not doing quests in post searing Ascalon (those are worthwhile only for those who left pre at like level 4).

Also, the quickest way to level up BY FAR is killing mobs SOLO - there can't be anyone else in your party at all (not even a henchman). A solo kill of an enemy of your level will give you 100 experience points, mere 5 kills will grant you what a 10-15 minutes quest would. ANY profession can do it without advanced complicated builds, but most people don't even try it. You need just a mix of defensive and offensive skills and finding some small groups of the same kind of mobs, ones that don't counter your build by a skill of theirs. You should try to counter theirs. It's easiest in Prophecies - mobs of just 1 kind of a monster, using just 2-4 skills are a piece of cake to solo with just about anything. To practice you can start fighting mobs 2-3 levels lower than you. Levelling is not a team game.

Since it hasn't been said yet until you buy eye of the north you can't participate in the 50/50 for gw2.

You sound like you're still in pre-searing. I started a character in factions the day after it was released. That character was level 20 in about 6 hours. How? By doing quests, with henchmen.

Ofcourse you're right about Factions, but I was talking about Prophecies obviously as the quests there provide a totally miserable xp rewards. I posted mostly in response to the OP's first paragraph problems (his main is a level 10 in post Ascalon), should have pointed that out more clearly.