Anybody else having new toon issues?

[ursen]

Now that achievements have been made more lucrative it is in my better interest to play all classes and races, for story line, weapon maxing, and occasionally farming by sending them into new areas. The problem? Lack of builds for lower levels, and keeping them alive, even the warriors. Due to plentiful b'day presents all are at least at lvl 20, which means the first thing I trait for is half fall damage. Next bringing up vitality and/or healing. Is anybody else caught trying to catch up on unplayed classes and races and having difficulties? How are you handling the catch up learning curve? And no Wiki does not help very much, it carries either base information that works on all toons which has already been covered by the main 'toon. Or it carries advanced info for higher lvl toons. Short of playing 12 hrs a day there seems to be no quick way of learning all the gaps.

 

[direpath]

I found the game a lot harder at lower levels when i initially returned and started Ezra. I didn't notice it as much on Kali but I got her well above the zone level early on.

I do have a hard time getting into other toons after playing the same build on my engineer for so long. My guardian feels slow as molasses (doesnt help that he is a Norn) without the speedy kits non-stop swiftness of my engy.

 

[Enok]

I tend to be vastly overleveled on my alts for the content I do with them, so I've never had a problem with them. Before Ascended weapons I usually crafted them to 40, but with the cost of things that doesn't look as reasonable. On the other hand, with the level 20 scrolls you can still get a jump on things.

I've had no problem getting XP with a level 20 running around starter zones like Queensdale and Wayfarer. I still level very quickly doing underleveled stuff.

I've also taken advantage of some of the living story stuff. I ran around the Pavilion a bit with a level 10 warrior, and was able to wade in as easily on my full exotic lvl 80 Guardian, and got several levels in an extremely short time. I also took my level 60 necro (crafted up to there) to the Scarlet invasions and leveled like crazy with no real effort. In that kind of environment life force is produced at a ridiculous rate. Pavilion's gone, and invasions are less frequent, but keep an eye out and we might get something equivalent in another update.

I've never traited for the fall damage except for WvW. Do you end up falling that much?

Also, it might be counter-intuitive, but I expect some professions you would get better survivability off of traiting for damage rather than vit/healing/toughness at lower levels. Power/Precision on warrior lets you kill an amazing amount of stuff before it even has a chance to dent you.

 

[Prophet Elhanan]

I've been running the Queensdale Champion farm, personal story, and then zone completion to level my new toons. I've saved all my Level 20 scrolls if/when they release and Expansion Pack so I can have one of the higher level Tengu (or whatever race is made available.) I've not tried crafting to gain levels but I think i really should. It's just down on the list atm.

 

[ursen]

Fall much? I madly run off of cliffs, fall off vistas, etc., etc, etc., my left hand does not always cooperate very well with my right. The damage to my left, and the spasms in my right ensure that jumping puzzles are out of my range of achievements. The only classs/character not traited for half-fall damage are eles, specifically Jotun The Baptist. As for my warrior dieing, she is now at 50 and staying alive in Diessa, but sometimes just barely. A pack of hyenas will always take me down. Whether I am running axe/axe, hammer, or mace/mace it does seem axe/mace works a little better. Also stand back with a rifle and I can pick them off easier.

 

[Enok]

I knew you avoided jumping puzzles, so that's why I was wondering about the fall damage. It's funny that ele is the one that you trait, since ele was the one profession I was forever falling off stuff. Running around the world with d/d, I was always dodging to proc traits, using ride the lightning, burning speed, and updraft at all the wrong times to hurl myself off Krait towers and Dredge catwalks and random cliffs.

Axe/mace, axe/warhorn is what I've settled on for my level 25 warrior that I play when my wife plays. The mace is nice for that vulnerability stack (plus her vuln stacks she builds with her Ranger), as well as the knockdown. Are you keeping your gear updated every five levels or so? Greens whenever possible?

 

[Enok]

I've not tried crafting to gain levels but I think i really should. It's just down on the list atm.

Unfortunately it's had a pretty heavy nerf. You used to get 10 levels getting a craft to 400. That meant 30 levels for under 10 gold with the three cheapest crafts. With ascended weapons, though, it got adjusted to 10 levels for getting to 500, and since 400-500 is crazy expensive, you're only going to realistically get 7 levels per craft now. Unless you're rolling in ridiculous amounts of money, of course.

 

[ursen]

I craft all my own armour for warrior keeping it up to date, and weapons crafted by one of my eles as often as needed. And it's not just warrior, it's all classes but ranger. It's just I am not very good at a lot of skills, but I really needed to figure traits at lower levels. Eles just have too high a requirement to trait for half fall damage in the early stages. Everybody else get it.

 

[Enok]

Ah, gotcha.

On the official forums for each profession, if you search "leveling build" you can usually find a thread. They often sit back on page two or three, since people, as you pointed out, are most often interested in discussing endgame builds.

For Warrior, I've just been doing the 4 signet thing with Deep Strike (ten points in arms, +precision for each unused signet). Apparently it's been nerfed at some point, but I still have a ridiculously high crit chance, at least in the lower levels. Axe/Mace to chop through things and build Adrenaline fast.

It's been a long time since I leveled my Mesmer, but I leveled her all the way without help from crafting. At the time, Illusionist's Celerity was the must have skill, but then it was only a 10 point trait in Illusions, and they have since moved it to a grandmaster trait, for some reason. It makes a huge difference in how many illusions you can create. Linked to that, as soon as you can get reduced cooldown on the weapon you're using most, the better, as it also means faster illusion generation. Sharper Images in dueling was also a must-have trait at the time, as it signficantly increases your DPS because suddenly your clones can do damage by applying bleeding.

On Guardian (which I also leveled without crafting), Inspired Virtues, at 5 points in Virtues is also a must-have, since it grants boons every time you use a virtue, which is often.

On Engineer, my must-have was speedy kits, but that's just about getting around maps, not survivability.

On thief, I've got no idea. I died a lot, which is probably why mine still sits at level 63 at a crafting station in LA, leveling weaponcraft for my other characters. I had trouble getting even the so-called "immortal" or tanky builds people post for ezmode leveling to work. So much of the profession design is oriented around active defense, and Thief seems to be the epitome of that.

That's about it for what I've got on early traits for various professions.

Mostly, I just stay out of zones where I die a lot until I get leveled and/or geared up enough for them to be manageable.

 

[ursen]

Oddly enough I have found Jotun the Baptist effective as a D/D water ele. Traited with 10 points in water.

 

[Enok]

Yeah, water is a strong trait line.