How do people get to the level cap in MMOs?

[Aetera]

I have three level-capped characters in WoW, as well as an 80, a 76, a 65, and a few others. The best advice that I can give is to find a good, fun, friendly guild. The game is so much more fun if you have a bunch of fun people to talk to, whether through guild chat or vent. I know that I enjoy playing a lot more when I'm chatting with other people while playing. Plus, you have a lot more incentive to reach the level cap when you want to do the really fun things with your guild like raiding. Especially if you're playing a tank or healer that your guild could really use.

I always play DPS characters, and I know that I still have a lot of fun and always have the promise of a quick guild run of something, instead of waiting for a 45 minute queue like I'd normally have to do.

It's also a big inspiration to spend the time to become the best that you can be at your class, since instead of not wanting to look like an idiot in front of people that you'll probably never come across again, you want to impress/not disappoint the friends/guildies that you chat with every day.

With the complaints of people out-leveling you really quickly, if you like your guild, you're still always chatting with the same people no matter what level they are, and most are even willing to help you out.

 

[KeyMaster45]

I have friends who somehow manage around level 80 in WoW in about three weeks. They never tell me how, but say they'd be willing to show me if I played it; but I'm not falling for that trap. From what little I have played of WoW I'd need a ton of friends to keep me entertained on it and I still doubt I'd ever hit 85.

The secret to it is nothing more than experience with the leveling progression. With each character you make you're able to level them faster and faster (to an extent of course) and the only reason is because you get more efficient at it. Once you know where all the quests are in an area you start to recognize the grouping patterns of them and start stacking them together so that you kill more birds with a single stone.

Essentially what your friends want to show you is what leveling paths they've figured out for themselves after playing for so long. With the nerfing to the leveling time Blizzard has done over the expansions you would literally blast through levels regardless of experience. Not too mention they also have questing addons that highlight quest locations on your map, though that kinda takes the fun out of new areas.

At any rate, the point is that there's no secret. Your friends have just been playing long enough that they know the leveling content by heart.

 

[ace_of_something]

With WoW a lot of times the first character you level to cap is the longest. However nowadays if you get in a good guild they'll help you speed it up. Once you have one character high level every low level character is really easy to level because you can buy and send them awesome stuff so they don't struggle or have to find bigger bags etc. I actually enjoyed leveling more I used my highest lvl (troll shaman) strictly for PvP and occasionally gathering money. That being said it took me like a year to get to level 70, then from 70-80 like 4 months, 80-85 like 4 months.
I play(ed) like maybe 8 hours a week.

 

[krasus7]

I think it also helps to be into the story line, there were certain areas where I kept wanting to do the next quest just to see how the story progresses. And now they have quests that actually change the area after you complete them. Of course it is way easier to level now, but I remember back in classic WoW, I was stuck in the 40s myself . Took until crusade to start level capping.

 

[Nuuu]

Getting level capped in MMO's is really just about having fun. If you have a relative or a friend who plays, that can greatly make the game more fun. You can also just make friends in game, mainly find a good guild with nice people, having people to talk to really helps.

If you get bored before you can get level capped in most-all MMOs, maybe they just aren't for you. WoW really is the only MMO i got lvl capped in, mainly because after that, most of the others just seemed like clones. The original ones had a major flaw that just made me quit (i.e Sudden lack of quests, large difficulty curve)

 

[Merkavar]

i quest till i can dungeon then dungeon with quests in the gaps. so say it takes 20 mins to get into a dungeon i spend that time questing.

you really just got to do what you enjoy. whats the point in playing a game in a way you dont like and have to force your self to play.

 

[Domou]

I level capped two characters in Rift pretty quickly. It took longer for the second one, though. That's because I enjoyed the exploration element, the story, the spontaneous(Sometimes giant asshole) rifts, and the people. After doing it all, doing it again was sorta boring. Luckily, I always had My Little Pony running in the background, so I always had entertainment when going through anything boring.

 

[t3h br0th3r]

Now, I know how it goes. You play, you get there eventually.
Except, I never do. The farthest I have ever gotten on any MMO was 47, and I signed up for that thing in 2007.
I bet I'd like a lot of end-game content, but usually when I hit level 20 or 30, the whole thing starts dragging on too long, and the tedium outweighs my ever getting to the next level. I like MMOs, but it seems like it takes two weeks for me to go even five levels when its the game I'm playing at that time. I feel like its too significant commitment for me to take on, and I wind up giving up.

And yet there are people who get to 85 in WoW in a month or two. Or even get to the cap of any MMO at all. Level-capped Escapists, (of any MMO) how did you do it? How much dedication and planning did it take you? How fast did you do it? Was being as efficient as possible half the gameplay? How much of a commitment did you find it to be?

I expect for people who are at endgame WoW content to be seeking a very different gameplay experience from my very casual gaming outlook, but I'd like to learn more about what they like to better understand this perspective.

There are two ways to reach level cap that might work for you.

1. Play Guild Wars
-Level Cap is only lv 20, most will hit it before they finish the main storyline.

2. Don't focus on hitting level cap
-I have a lv 85 hunter and a lv 84 warrior in WoW. It took me about a year to get a character to level cap (the warrior was lv 80 in the last exspantion). while i was annoyed for a little bit towards the end and pushed hard to hit level cap, most of the time I played when i felt like it, joined a good social guild, and generally enjoyed the company of (or trolling the hex out of) my fellow players.

 

[Saltyk]

Not too hard in WoW. Just complete quests, que for dungeons or even pvp. Read on the Escapist that someone even hit lvl 85 without killing anyone or anything. Which seems pretty insane.

Oh, and I also played FFXI, but I barely got anywhere in that. Still liked it, but the sheer difficulty of the game and how restrictive it was to solo players started to wear on me.

I played it, too. I really enjoyed the game. The party dynamics were a lot of fun. But like you said, it was pretty difficult and unforgiving. You really had to know what you were doing or listen to those that did. I quit not long after I hit lvl 75 (the cap at the time). And that was largely because, even at that level, you were going to have a hard time accomplishing much of anything solo. Oh, and money issues. Gil Sellers pretty much destroyed the FFXI economy.

 

[Flutterguy]

I hit 85 in 10 days from level 1 on WoW before I quit, basically dungeoned when the questing was at bad parts. just constantly moving and always have a 2 hour+ long playlist, and ventrillo is necessary, talking makes the time go much faster.

 

[kjh242]

Guild wars.

Although with the upcoming release... Woah, Double Guild Wars, all the way across the Internet, it's so intense...
and even then it won't have an annoying "grind-to-me" level cap as your level can and will fluctuate, plus the campaign(s) pretty much get you to the max lvl just by playing through.

 

[vazzaroth]

I definitely am in the same boat as OP.

I hit about 25-30 in any MMO and just fizzle out. And then I hear people complaining about how easy it is to level in X game and my mind is just boggled. I mean, it's not like MMO's are a HARD genre... they are just SOOOOOO time consuming. And I find it hard to justify sitting through the same experience over... and over... and over... and over again ad infinitum when I have 20 other steam games just a quick click away...

(And I suspect thats why all the MMO players I know ONLY play WoW on their PC. Probably too tempting if they gave themselves other options...)


Edit: I just remembered, I almost rage-uninstalled LOTRO just last night when I remembered /played is a thing and it read that I had spent 2 days 5 hours to get to level 28. TWO DAYS. That's not just, like, a weekend spent playing, that's 48 straight hours. That means it's closer to 3 straight days of me waking up, instantly logging in, and then doing absolutely nothing else until loging off and sleeping for 8 hours. That's only to get less than half way to the cap, and the way that MMOs exponentially increase their level XP required, it's actually alot less than a bit under half.

 

[Nieroshai]

In WOW if you're really lost I suggest WOW-Pro. It's a very good leveling guide and even has a GPS. It has a few glitches, but otherwise will hold you by the hand for the first attempt at maxing your toon.

 

[Cridhe]

This is what I hate about most MMOs, the grinding before the good stuff...and by the good stuff I mean legitimate PvP. This is what makes me love DAoC and Guild Wars so much. In DAoC you had a series of low level battlegrounds you could stop in and break from leveling, have some real fun and competition against something other than bland old pre-programmed AI mobs on a spawn timer.

In Guild Wars, 20 is max level... AND it has a PvP-only mode. In PvE you just need to get through the story missions which are actually fairly good. After that you kill a few boss mobs to unlock whatever skills you want for PvP.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

World of Warcraft, in Classic, I got to max level by single minded determination and doritos.
During my summer holidays, I sat my ass down with about 5 bags of doritos and a lot of water, and I didn't leave my computer for anything but the toilet and actual meals until I was level 60.
Sadly, 1-60 was a LONG journey.
In The Burning Crusade, I just pushed through, no weeks of gaming, just a couple of days playing a few hours each day.
Wrath of the Lich King is when the alts kicked in, I got my main to level 80 after four different characters and by the end of it I had 7 80s, 4 60-69 and 5 70-79.
Cataclysm I have yet to play because I lost access to my old account.

Age of Conan I hit max level about 2 weeks before the first expansion, I started playing on release day. It was a massive pain due to extensive grind and constant ganking.

Aion, I hit max level fourth on the server, I was doing it with a group of 4 mates so it was no trouble at all, just pure laughter.

Rift, I hit it within 4 days, then at about 10 days in I leveled my next character to max, it wasn't that much of a pain but that was due to all the experience.

Then theres lots of other games I cant think of atm.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Snip

If you want to hit max level, you could always use World of Warcrafts system "Recruit a Friend" 3x EXP until level 80, it takes about a day to hit max.
Im looking for a partner, hinthint.

 

[Cazza]

I get bored of my character to quickly and end up restarting. If I could just make the perfect character I would get there.

 

[Limecake]

And yet there are people who get to 85 in WoW in a month or two. Or even get to the cap of any MMO at all.

my first character to max out in wow was my warlock back at 70, I have really bad character ADD with games like wow so I ended up creating a lot of new characters and maxed a couple more.

the trick to doing it at all is to stick to it and mix the gameplay up a bit. do a couple levels through dungeons then quest a couple etc.

the trick to doing it fast is to have it planned out (starting zone until level 10 then next area, there until 15 then sign up for dungeons/next area). I found leveling with my buddy who was just starting out was frusturating for me. He was so taken in by the world and was enjoying the atmosphere and taking his time with his character and I was just running to the next objective.

being able to level your character fast in an mmo kinda takes the fun out of it. Plus end game content is not for casuals (except PvP) you need to find a guild and then set up a raiding schedule to keep advancing.

Too much effort IMO

 

[CalabusDabus]

I've gotten far too many characters to max level in EQ... and like 3 in EQ2... (once you get the first one, the rest are easy.) But, in general you just need to get some friends to play with you.

 

[danintexas]

I mean this with no disrespect. But if you find WoW hard then perhaps MMOs are not your style of game. Of all the MMOs - WoW is one of the easiest there is. One of the reasons I left. After maxing 5 lvl 85s - my wife had 10 lvl 85s on 2 accounts - We walked away. There was nothing left to see in the game for us.

For me RTS are not my game. I suck at them and know it. So I stay away from them. Not saying the OP sucks at MMOs - but just maybe it isn't his/her style of games