How do people get to the level cap in MMOs?

[Erana]

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.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Honestly, not all that much. I maxed out WoW just by playing it, pretty much. I had a good guild with lots of helpful people, so that expidited things greatly, but at the end of the day most of it was just going from place to place and doing quests. The important thing to remember is that you have to keep doing things that give you exp. Walking around killing random monsters is pointless unless you want the loot for some reason; questing is the only really reliable source of XP. Also, I kept a steady flow from one area to another, never stopping for very long in an area. The moment I felt I was starting to outlevel it (or felt I could move up regardless), I left for bigger and better XP.

And once I got there...I dunno. I enjoyed instancing and messing around with my guild, but we were never big enough or coordinated enough to do any serious raiding (mostly just latching on to other random guilds every once in a while). Never bothered with PvP outside of the ocassional Horde hunt or griefing. Honestly, even though most people claim its the worst part of the game, I had the most fun in WoW just exploring and questing. The driving force was just seeing what new area and monsters were around the next corner. It helped I was on a serious Warhammer kick at the time, so I really enjoyed seeing everything from Warhammer 3 in 3D.

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.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

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 only game I've managed to cap my level on is Guild Wars, and all that takes really is just beating the PvE story, with maybe a little bit of grinding and searching for any remaining quests to hit 20. I never did get into PVP too much, lacked the proper equipment for it as well.

I'm far too lazy to grind items/equipment/money for said equipment to be really capable in PvP on just about any MMO.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I'm good at grinding, I can just switch off, put on some music and kill boars for hours. I kinda like it as well. I don't just grind though, mixing it up is the best way to level up in MMO's. Do quests whilst you're in the dungeon/pvp queue, level up your professions and make some new gear or just fish for a bit, don't stay in one zone just because you feel the need to complete it, explore the world etc. It works for me and I'm quite a quick leveller, I didn't miss much of the world either, and any things I did miss I could always run through on another character if I wanted to.

There really isn't any dedication required, unless it's some Korean MMO. I think people feel pressured to level up quick because they're paying monthly. Don't.

 

[Myskomunken]

I mainly play Guild Wars, where the max level is 20. I never saw the point in games having such ridiculous high amounts of grinding before you can focus on actually playing stuff.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

I got one character to 70 in WoW, my druid. I started him on day one release, and made it to about 38-40ish before The Burning Crusade. I somehow plowed through the last 20 levels to 60, and managed to get to 70 after TBC was released. Although I burned out after really having nothing new to do once I hit 70 aside from grinding.

I have no idea how people have so many max level characters. I get bored of questing. End game PvE is unbearable. Most of the time I would just explore, run guildmates' alts through dungeons, collect pets, goof off, or go ganking in Stranglethorn and Ravenhill. The first time I went through Uld was after I hit 70, and I went back to see some instances I missed leveling up.

 

[loc978]

The only MMO I've ever hit the level cap in is City of Heroes (with three characters, of three different classes archetypes)... That was back before the game had any sort of economy, though. It was basically just a multiplayer action RPG. The grind didn't feel like much of a grind back then if you fought in a decent group. There were a lot of cover/flanking/aggro tactics that were fun and effective back then... and with the right tank, you could aggro hundreds of mobs, an entire outdoor instance. Those were usually pretty interesting battles.

Unfortunately, that game is dead. It was replaced by a loot system (and mob AI was sharpened up a bit).

 

[StriderShinryu]

I've level capped 3 characters in LOTRO, and it took no real dedication or planning at all. I find it's just really liking the character and the class. I may have capped 3 characters, but I've had at least 10 others who made it anywhere from level 7 (basically just out of the tutorial) to mid range and that I've jsut stopped playing.

In fact, I think planning and dedication are the sort of things that would potentially stop someone from getting to cap as it takes focus away from enjoying the game. Especially if you have never played a character to cap yet, going in with the mindset of having to reach certain plateaus in certain time frames will only hurt your enjoyment. Sure there are times when I'm playing and I know I want to gain X levels or complete X zone, but just as often I'll play until I don't want to play any more and then call it a day regardless of how much progress* I've made.

* bear in mind that progress in an MMO is pretty ephemeral. Everyone has their own measure of progress. Some finish raids, others finish a crafting tier, others progress an RP storyline, etc. And it all amounts to nothing in the end if you're not enjoying yourself. SWG is shutting down this fall after 8 years in existence, and all MMOs will shut down eventually. If your idea of progression in an MMO is something concrete and everlasting, you're fooling yourself. Enjoy the individual moments!

 

[ShadowKatt]

I mainly play Guild Wars, where the max level is 20. I never saw the point in games having such ridiculous high amounts of grinding before you can focus on actually playing stuff.

Same here. The level cap of 20 meant that once you hit that mark you HAD to focus on refining yourself, your skills, your tactics, and it forced cooperation with the players or, later on, forced you to build a working team of heroes. MMOs withat have exceedingly high level caps or NO level caps(Runescape, I'm looking at you) tend to be all about 'the grind'. Just keep playing, and as long as you do we'll throw in a level every so often.

 

[Twilight.falls]

It really isn't that hard.

I don't think about hitting the cap. I enjoy the journey to the cap.

In WoW, I hit 4 level 85s over the course of 6 years. I play incredibly leisurely, not like people who can raise a character from 1 to 85 in a month. They aren't focusing on enjoying the game at that point.

If you just take it slowly and enjoy the process, you get there barely even trying.

 

[Stammer]

I do it really, really, really slowly.

I think it took me 4 years to get my first Lv.75 job in Final Fantasy XI.

To be honest, I think the leveling aspect is the best part of a good RPG. To me it's the journey not the destination. And I actually started getting really bored of the game as soon as I started doing endgame events and subsequent level cap upgrades and new areas made the fun grind of leveling up a thing of the past.

Makes me think of all the times I heard people whining about each new WoW expansion making the game less and less fun.

 

[Erana]

* bear in mind that progress in an MMO is pretty ephemeral. Everyone has their own measure of progress. Some finish raids, others finish a crafting tier, others progress an RP storyline, etc. And it all amounts to nothing in the end if you're not enjoying yourself. SWG is shutting down this fall after 8 years in existence, and all MMOs will shut down eventually. If your idea of progression in an MMO is something concrete and everlasting, you're fooling yourself. Enjoy the individual moments!

Except all the friends I was playing with at level 20 are level 70 by the time I'm 30. And most of the content is unavailable until you hit at least 50 in most MMOs, whether its regions, sub-classes or hub towns.
The individual moments are nice, but I can never keep up with the people I meet, and I don't like MMOs without the M part.

 

[Valiance]

I find it impossible to NOT have a level capped character, especially in WoW, where changes to questing and experience gain and recruit-a-friend and heirlooms all contribute to how quick (and yes, it's quick) you can plow through most of the content.

Honestly...? It only takes a couple hours of playing and I just go through zones and finish them. That's not even the most efficient way, considering how the exp gain scaling really screwed things up (ie: if you start in a zone for levels 40-45 at level 40, you will hit 48 while not even half-way through it...)

The bottom line is I just do quests, follow them, and sometimes do instances. Most people just do instances constantly, and PvP leveling in WoW has been improved (50-60 in AV is really fast, I think).

Wow is the only MMO I have level capped characters on other than Guild Wars, which I don't count because of how easy it is to get a level capped char, and the game has much more content after you are level capped (so does WoW...). Anyway, WoW I find relaxing to grind in, because the combat is mind-numbingly easy. I think I did all of Tanaris while watching Goldeneye 007, and somehow leveled like 5 or 6 times without even focusing. My friends use addons like Questhelper and Carbonite, but WoW itself has changed itself a lot to make it easier to find what you need to find and locate what is required for quest objectives (even if it's something else to kill, they show you on the map where they spawn.)

EVE doesn't really have a level cap, or really a leveling system...Guild Wars I don't count since I was level capped in about a week of just playing it...

And I don't really think WoW is a "grindy" game...You want a "grindy" game try Diablo II which gets to the point where you are literally doing the same boss ~150 times for one level. I never got past level 94 in that game, due to me grinding like 100 boss kills, and then some idiot decides to grief and get everyone in the game killed. Dying in Diablo II made you lose half of your EXP bar, which at that point, was about ~50-60 Baal runs. So if you find WoW difficult to cap out in, I would ask a friend to powerlevel you through Scarlet Monastery or Karazhan (lol), and I wouldn't recommend trying to level-cap in any MMO.

* bear in mind that progress in an MMO is pretty ephemeral. Everyone has their own measure of progress. Some finish raids, others finish a crafting tier, others progress an RP storyline, etc. And it all amounts to nothing in the end if you're not enjoying yourself. SWG is shutting down this fall after 8 years in existence, and all MMOs will shut down eventually. If your idea of progression in an MMO is something concrete and everlasting, you're fooling yourself. Enjoy the individual moments!

Except all the friends I was playing with at level 20 are level 70 by the time I'm 30. And most of the content is unavailable until you hit at least 50 in most MMOs, whether its regions, sub-classes or hub towns.
The individual moments are nice, but I can never keep up with the people I meet, and I don't like MMOs without the M part.

Try to find someone who's willing to commit one of their characters to being the character they level with you. That way, they can play one on their own time, and you can play on your own too, just don't get too far ahead or behind them. That's what I did for one of my WoW alts, and it was great, because even though I only played this character 4 or 5 hours a week, it was all with one of my closest friends, and it was very enjoyable, more enjoyable than the time I spent on my level-capped characters. I'm not saying you need to -plan- when you're going to play, but you can try to arrange a time or date or say "Hey, I'm free, let's play this char now if you aren't too involved in your main."

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Depends. In WoW, it was super easy to hit cap. I got 4 characters to 80. Granted, i also had a job at the time that enabled me to play almost 24/7.

The only time hitting cap was actually difficult for me was in FFXI. I don't think i could have pulled that off without a static party from 40-70 and then an awesome high-level linkshell to help me along from 70-75.

 

[StriderShinryu]

* bear in mind that progress in an MMO is pretty ephemeral. Everyone has their own measure of progress. Some finish raids, others finish a crafting tier, others progress an RP storyline, etc. And it all amounts to nothing in the end if you're not enjoying yourself. SWG is shutting down this fall after 8 years in existence, and all MMOs will shut down eventually. If your idea of progression in an MMO is something concrete and everlasting, you're fooling yourself. Enjoy the individual moments!

Except all the friends I was playing with at level 20 are level 70 by the time I'm 30. And most of the content is unavailable until you hit at least 50 in most MMOs, whether its regions, sub-classes or hub towns.
The individual moments are nice, but I can never keep up with the people I meet, and I don't like MMOs without the M part.

Oh, no arguments there, but that's hardly an MMO restricted phenomenon. Any game you plan to play with others but don't end up playing as much as they do has a similar result, even if it's not in the form of a hard restriction like MMOs tend to have.

It's a tough spot to be in to be sure, and maybe the only advice to give would be to have you and your friends arrange a play time together that doesn't place major demands on you (or them, so they can keep playing their mains on the "off hours"). Pick, say, Saturday nights and only play together in ways that directly advance your "friend play" characters at that time. If your friends are more hardcore, just make sure that their Mains aren't their "friend play" characters. I hear about people who do this in LOTRO all the time. That's the one aspect in MMOs that makes it better for this type of situation than other genres; because the genre is so progression and stat/gear based, outside of basic familiarity with certain quests/scenarios, there's not much transferrable practice or skill involved. It's not like a fighter or FPS where they have to some how magically forget all the stuff they learned when not playing with you.

 

[PlasmaFrog]

Be patient, always have someone on Skype, and listen to a lot of music. It's a long, grueling repetitive task that sucks every last inch of life from you.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

The only game I have ever gotten to the max level in is City of Heroes. No power leveling or anything. Nowadays its a joke to get to lvl. 50 with all the changes they've done but back in MY day, getting to lvl. 50 was a chore! Not to mention I had a shitty wireless connection that would drop me in missions half the time. I spent like all of lvl. 20-40 in debt.
Anyways, I never really care about level. I just play the game and if I am entertained, off I go. A lot of people focus just on getting that max level as if it meant something. If at any point it feels like a chore to get to max level, the game isn't worth playing.
It should be about the experience, not the end result.

 

[Raijha]

Generally, and usually this is my favorite part of playing MMO's, I'll be watching a movie or TV series with my wife on a second monitor while I play. This lets me zone out and just kinda not even pay attention, so in the end, I just click and hit my rotation till stuff dies while I'm mostly paying attention to something else. Its almost entirely how I managed every character. But even so I usually go pretty quickly. 1-85 in 2 or 3 months of casual play in WoW, 1-50 in Rift in under a month.