There are many ways to gain experience. Killing monsters is the most obvious way, but there are more. Exploring the world itself, completing your personal story events, fi nishing renown tasks, and participating in dungeon runs are all ways to acquire experience. You can even gain experience by crafting, and by harvesting the ingredients for crafting. e most eff ective way to gain experience in Guild Wars 2 is to do a number of these things during a play session.
RENOWN TASKS AND NPCs
For an easy way to tell where you should explore, look at the renown hearts while you walk through each region. Highlight these hearts on your map to see their level; even at range, this lets you know if you’re in a place with monsters that are appropriate for your character to fight. Let the hearts be your guide to the world! Complete the tasks that NPCs associated with renown hearts give to earn experience, gold, and sometimes gain access to special vendors!
Participating in Events
For many MMOs, characters gain experience by completing quests. These are activities offered by non-player characters (NPCs) that players accept and perform. They include killing a set number of monsters (kill quests), picking up items from the ground (groundspawns) or from bodies (gathering quests), or protecting an NPC or group of NPCs from enemies as they move through the wilderness (escort quests).Guild Wars 2 handles these activities differently. As you enter a region and move around, you’ll encounter events, which encompass just about anything that’s going on in the area. New events occur regularly, and they’re heralded by a message across your screen. In addition, if you look on your minimap, there are icons indicating event locations.
A standard event in Guild Wars 2 would be to go over to, say, a dam and drive out harpies. The harpies have a concentration of force over the dam, and they have strong morale. As you kill the harpies, their morale decreases, and once enough of them have been defeated, the rest of the flock scatters and runs. You get experience from killing the monsters and from completing the event!
Events that require gathering materials from the ground or bodies are easier to complete than the typical MMO model. Instead of having to find an NPC and have them ask you to do something, you have more control over how much you want to help and where you go. First, the NPC is clearly marked on your minimap (by an asterisk), and most of the time you don’t even have to talk to them to start participating. As you move around or defeat foes, you pick up the materials. Once you feel like you’ve gotten enough, then you talk to the NPC and drop off the stuff. The event meter tells you how much you contributed and how close the event is to completion. You can choose to stay and complete the event or go on your merry way; you will always get some reward for your trouble, but the more you help, the better the reward.
Escorts are marked by shield symbols on the minimap. Generally, you talk to the NPC and off er to help them by protecting them (and/or their group or beast of burden) as they go between locations. is gives you an opportunity to see more of the world and can lead you to new and interesting locations (with new and interesting events in them).
COME ONE, COME ALL
Events in Guild Wars 2 are open to everyone. All it takes to join the event is simply to be in the area. Killing one enemy (or even just hitting several as you run by) can help to complete the event and gain you a little bit of a reward. Even if the event fails, you’ll get something. And this works for escorts and gathering events as well. If you’re in the area, all you have to do is walk for a few feet and help protect a caravan; if you have a gathering item, all you need to do is pass one to the NPC for it to help. There is no reason not to chip in on an event! Conversely, there’s no penalty for not doing the event. You won’t miss out on subsequent follow-up events or a vital piece of rare equipment. You simply won’t get the rewards (money, experience, or karma) associated with the event’s completion.
