Guild Wars 2 Level Cap - how to reach it fast and what to do after

Multiple MMORPGs have shown different approaches to capping the maximum level. Some titles want to keep the vertical progression rolling forever – they raise the cap with major updates and expansions. They’ll also often introduce stronger items and more challenging zones. This system introduces power creep to the game and makes the players grind to keep up with the best.

Other games keep the maximum level at a certain point, but they provide some secondary progression system – either through items or through collecting some points that increase your character’s power. It lets the players progress even after hitting the cap. Finally, some MMOs are focused almost entirely on the horizontal progression – players can get to their full strength relatively quickly and it stays like this forever. The game still has a lot to offer at that point, but it’s not about gaining more power. GW2 belongs to that last group.

The Guild Wars 2 level cap is set at 80 and it’s unlikely to change. It has been like that since the beginning of the game and it still remains the same. The game has been released almost eight years ago, it received two expansions (third one coming up soon) and there were no changes to the level cap. Moreover, the most powerful items from 2012 are still top tier right now! There are more skins and visual designs, but no additional stats. How can GW2 stay fresh over the years, without the power creep? Let’s find out!

Check also safe Guild Wars 2 Gold Store!

GW2 Progression – how to reach the Guild Wars 2 level cap?

A new player experience is really interesting. You spawn in the starting city of your race and instantly get the impression of getting thrown into a huge world that has a lot to offer. Even the starting cities are explorable areas that will grant you rewards! Besides discovering all the beautiful areas of Tyria, you will also get to play through the Personal Story. It’s the combination of the base game’s campaign that’s slightly different based on the choices that you made during character creation process and in-game.

The subsequent chapters of your Personal Story are locked behind the character levels. Players have to collect experience in order to keep progressing in the campaign. While technically you could do it by killing the same mobs in a single zone over and over, it’s neither fun nor efficient. This is why the leveling process often includes a lot of exploration. The combination of map completion, Personal Story, some dungeons and other optional activities sprinkled in between is the standard and fastest way of leveling up to 80. Then, after hitting the level cap you can finish the last chapter of the Personal Story. A skilled GW2 veteran is able to reach level 80 in around 20-30 hours of game time (they can also do it instantly with Tomes of Knowledge). Of course, a new player will need significantly more time to complete such task.

Moreover, it’s clearly the intended way of playing the game. ArenaNet wants the players to explore as much of Tyria as possible. It’s visible in both the beautiful designs of different locations and in the great rewards that you can get for completing maps and participating in meta-events. The same design philosophy is present in the new content that’s being added to the game over the years.

Besides the levels, players also have to collect Hero Points. You can later spend them to unlock skills and traits. A significant amount of them is granted for leveling up, but you can get more for finishing the Hero Challengers that are parts of the map completion. This way you can accelerate the process of reaching your full build and get your favorite skills earlier.

At the same time, ArenaNet introduced some mechanics that make low level map completion interesting, even for the max level characters. GW2 features level scaling (officially called Dynamic Level Adjustment). This mechanic reduces the stronger character’s stats to match them with the hunting zone that they’re in (they remain slightly stronger as they get to keep their skills and traits). Somewhat similar solutions are present in multiple other MMORPGs. However, Elder Scrolls Online scales the players up to match higher level zones, while GW2 scales them down.

How does GW2 keep the players engaged?

Even though you can’t really get stronger than a player who reached the endgame in 2012 or 2013, a lot of people are still playing Guild Wars 2. In terms of the power level, many of the active players have reached the top years ago! From the moment that you get your full Ascended set of gear, you’re not really going to become any stronger. Of course, you might need some separate items with different stat distribution for playing other builds, but that’s the definition of horizontal progression. You’re not becoming better at a single thing - you’re getting the ability to do multiple things extremely well.  

That being said, the devs actually introduce a lot of additional content to the game. Players get to enjoy new specializations, maps, storylines and various challenges. The first expansion – Heart of Thorns - introduced a lot of groundbreaking ideas into the world of Guild Wars 2. It added an entirely new profession, the concept of Elite Specialization and a new form of endgame PvE content in raids. Besides, every major update and DLC does a lot with the game’s story.

Living World

The main storyline of Tyria continues through the Living World feature. The Personal Story was the original campaign on the game’s release, but the time goes on and there are new threats to face. The events that take place in subsequent seasons of the Living World have a visible impact on the geographical and political state of Tyria (we’re not going to talk about it in details, to avoid spoilers, but a lot of things can change, so don’t get too used to the status quo).

Besides introducing new locations and potentially affecting the pre-existing ones, new chapters and seasons of the Living World feature a lot of memorable NPCs. This applies to both the major enemies and long-time allies. A large portion of the Guild Wars 2 players gets heavily invested in the character arcs of some of the most interesting NPCs.

This makes Guild Wars 2 a really story-driven game, especially for an MMORPG. At the same time, you still don’t have to care about the Living World. You can ignore the story missions, or simply blitz through them.  This way, you’ll be able to stay focused on your favorite aspects of the game – whether it’s PvP, group content or anything else.

The developers manage to keep the players interested without the endless power creep. They show that you don’t have to keep raising the level cap and introducing stronger items to make people want to play your game. As long as you’re able to offer well-designed content and top tier storytelling, you will be able to build a loyal playerbase.

Creating and gearing alts

Guild Wars 2 is a very alt-friendly game. A single character can only play one profession. While the GW2 professions often have multiple strong and interesting builds to play, most people want to try out a new class after some time. Leveling new characters is not that tedious of a process, but getting multiple alts geared up and ready for all types of content is much more difficult. Of course, it’s a purely optional activity – you can use alts for only practical purposes like crafting disciplines et cetera. You can also completely ignore them and play exclusively on your main.

That being said, every GW2 profession is unique and there are no cross-class skills or anything like that. In general, testing out multiple classes to find your favorite playstyle might be a good idea. The differences can manifest in profession-specific mechanics, specializations and skills as well as armor types, available weapons and Health pools.

We recommend having at least a single maxed out alt, to have an ability to switch things up when running different types of content. Of course, you should focus on leveling and gearing your main character first. Besides, there’s a lot of skill expression in GW2. The fact that your character has strong items doesn’t mean that you will be able to play it well. Learning to execute properly in high level fractals and raids is an entirely separate challenge.

Prestige and cosmetics

Of course, players need some goals to chase after reaching the maximum level. First of all, there’s equipment. Exotic gear is relatively easy to come by and it’s more than enough for most of the game’s content. However, the “best in slot” Ascended items are much harder to get - they’ll most likely require maxed out crafting disciplines and tons of valuable materials. In all honesty, the difference in effectiveness between Exotic and Ascended isn’t even that huge, but most players want to eventually get the strongest gear. It really starts to matter in the most difficult fractals and raids.

However, GW2 players also farm for multiple items that don’t provide any significant stat boosts. Some of the best examples are the Legendary weapons (and to some extent Legendary armors). Saving up for one of these weapons literally takes months. Besides the gargantuan amounts of the most expensive materials, they also require completing various achievements. It’s an absurd amount of effort that you have to put in to acquire an item that isn’t even stronger than a way cheaper Ascended weapon. While Legendaries have the useful option of swapping stat distribution out of combat, they’re mostly chased after because of the visual design and the prestige associated with them.     

In general, looks are a huge part of GW2 endgame – there’s even the humorous term Fashion Wars associated with that aspect of the game. You can’t grind for extra stats, but you can unlock tons of skins, outfits and other awesome cosmetics. It can apply to various weapon and armor skins, including cultural and heritage armors. Besides, players can grind for miniature pets, full body outfits, transformation tonics, mount skins and dyes.

Level Caps in other MMORPGs

As we mentioned earlier, multiple MMORPGs have slightly different approaches to level caps. Old school titles like World of Warcraft and Lineage 2 are examples of the power creep approach. They featured multiple increases of the level cap and new items that outperform the older ones in terms of stats. The biggest downside to that method is the fact that a large portion of the game’s content becomes obsolete with every update. Lower level zones provide less currency and experience and new raid gear is stronger than the older “best in slot” items. It turns the previous endgame locations into just another stop in the leveling journey. This fact doesn’t have to be detrimental to the game’s success. After all, World of Warcraft has been the most popular MMORPG for a long time now.

That being said, most of the newer MMOs have a somewhat different approach. Elder Scrolls Online has a level cap of 50. It’s very easy to reach, but after that point the players can still gain a significant amount of power via the Champion Points system. Players accumulate these points by gaining experience after the cap and they can spend over 800 of them on extra passives. There are diminishing returns, so the early points provide much more stats than the later ones, but it takes a really long time to get fully maxed out. However, new items added to the game in subsequent updates don’t overpower the older ones – a large portion of the endgame revolves around aesthetics and versatility.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XIV has a combination of both horizontal and vertical progression. New DLCs increase the level cap and introduce stronger raids as well as items. However, catching up to the maximum level isn’t that difficult and you can do it relatively quickly. At the same time, FFXIV has the unique mechanic that allows the player to unlock all the jobs (advanced version of classes) on a single character. Instead of creating alts, you can train your main character to excel at everything. Of course, leveling and gearing every job would require huge amounts of time and effort. Besides, there are tons of cosmetics that play a big part in the endgame.

Finally, there are games like Black Desert Online. This tile is almost entirely focused on progression through gear and it doesn’t even have a hard level cap.  

GW2 Level Cap

The Guild Wars 2 approach to level cap seems to be working wonders for the game. The title remains successful over the years and it established itself as one of the top MMORPGs. The veterans keep playing, even though they can’t get any items more powerful then what they already have. The great storytelling as well as the beautiful design of locations and cosmetic items keeps them engaged and interested in the game. Guild Wars 2 has a lot to offer – try it out and see for yourself!

FAQ

What’s the Guild Wars 2 level cap?

It’s level 80. This remained unchanged since the game’s lauch in 2012 and it's likely never going to be increased.

How long does it take to reach GW2 level cap?

The best players can do it in 20-30 hours on a new account. A new player will likely need more playing time to do so. Depending on how much you play, you should be able to reach the level cap in 2-3 weeks.

Is Guild Wars 2 free to play?

You can play the base version of the game for free, but for the full GW2 experience you’re going to have to buy the expansions (one-time purchase, no subscription fees). To start thing up, it’s a good idea to test the game out on the free version and then decide whether you want to commit or not.