Disclaimer. This is a product review of a pay-for Guild Wars 2 Leveling Guide. This is not a gold guide, but I opted to review it because streamlined leveling can really help you get an advantage over your competition which will translate to more gold for you in the long run. This review does have affiliate links in it. The guide is reviewed as honest a possible and in no way do these links effect my review of this product. All affiliate links are used to support the site. This is a review, if you are opposed to pay-for guides entirely then please skip today's topic. All reviews will be done on weekends. They will never replace the normal gold-making content that this site has on all weekdays.
One of the things that I have always been open to doing is reviewing the different guides that people have created for Guild Wars 2. If I get enough requests for it I will do a review of just about any guide provided it isn't an obvious scam or cheap attempt at getting money from people. I had the opportunity to take a look at a Guild Wars 2 Leveling Guide a few weeks ago thanks to a family member purchasing it and allowing me to take a gander at it. Today I would like to share with you all my review and what I think of the product. I want to stress that this is only my opinion of the product. I am not a critic or any sort of authority on these sort of things other than that I run this blog and have a medium to share it all with you.
I had the opportunity to take a look at "Guild Wars 2 Leveling." Before I you read on I do want to warn you one last time that is is a review for a pay-for Guild Wars 2 E-Guide. Last chance to skip today's topic--no hard feelings if you do. I will be back on Monday with regular topics of discussion as always.
Sales Page - "Meh, about what you would expect from an e-guide"
The guides sales page looks like just about every other guide out there. It pretty much screams everything that I despise about gold guides. "You can only get this information here!" is the general tone you get. He has a pretty good video on the front page, but if I weren't doing this for the purpose of a review I don't know that I would have really bitten on it to be honest. Johnathan Bradley Smith is the author of this guide and he also wrote a Diablo 3 Gold Guide which I've never looked at. Bottom line; the sales page is just another sales page. It really doesn't claim anything that isn't just a sales hook.
Product "Useful, but not necessary.."
The Leveling Guide itself is put together pretty well. It's not some magnificent site like some others, but it fulfills its intended purpose I guess. I would say that I was just satisfied with what I seen. I wasn't blown away or let down, but I felt like
The only real thing that I care about is the content itself though. The guides information is pretty much your standard stuff that you would expect to see in a leveling guide. It tells you where to go for certain vendors. It is essentially a compilation of all the information you would get from the Guild Wars 2 Wiki to be honest. It is nice that it is all in one place, but if I am going to be honest it really doesn't blow the doors wide open on the leveling process in Guild Wars 2. There are a few tidbits of information that I found in it that I hadn't heard before which I decided to do a quick Google search and see what I came up with. I did end up finding the tips, but they were well hidden on different obscure fansites. I will show the creator of this guide a bit of respect and not spill the beans on them because they are, at least for now, most prominently featured in his guide. I will say that eventually they will be pretty common knowledge though so if you are willing to wait 2-3 months you will likely not have much trouble.
Is this guide useful?
I would say that it is useful, but it is in no way necessary to level effectively in Guild Wars 2. He does a great job of creating a compilation of a lot of information, but the bulk of it can be found if you dig around the Internet. There is a certain level of convenience to having a guide like this and I believe that is what you are paying for. If you enjoy having everything in one place then I would suggest this as a supplement for you just as I did to my subscribers. You will not become some expert leveling machine from this guide, but you will level faster and he claims exactly that. I say you will level faster because this is more of a time saver than anything else. There is no product that can magically transform you into a speed leveler and still allow you to maintain your preferred playing style. It is just not possible.
Bottom Line
The guide makes many bold claims which are impossible to back up. You're not going to "walk around equipped with the best gear." just because you buy this guide. That is going to happen no matter what assuming you play the game after you reach level 80. What he is going to do is save you time doing research which will get you there sooner. If you were to do the research yourself you would become a better player and level more effectively. There is no question. What this guide does it just cut out the searching and put it all in one place which is nice to have for some people. If you have a few bucks to spend freely I would take a shot on it, but don't expect the moon because that is not what this guide is going to do for you.
If you do decide to purchase the guide you can help out the site by purchasing through the affiliate link on this site. Any funds earned go back into this site and go towards prizes and new features for all of you fine folks.
**Since this, or any, review is not meant to be a discussion topic I have decided to disable comments on all review posts. This is not to prevent people from vocalizing their disapproval of me doing a review. I do this to prevent everyone from either promoting the product or cutting it down. I don't do these reviews to sell guides for them. I do them so people are informed about these products from my point of view. I have stated on numerous occasions that I will give an honest review to any product that I have seen personally and I stand by that.
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One of the things that I have always been open to doing is reviewing the different guides that people have created for Guild Wars 2. If I get enough requests for it I will do a review of just about any guide provided it isn't an obvious scam or cheap attempt at getting money from people. I had the opportunity to take a look at a Guild Wars 2 Leveling Guide a few weeks ago thanks to a family member purchasing it and allowing me to take a gander at it. Today I would like to share with you all my review and what I think of the product. I want to stress that this is only my opinion of the product. I am not a critic or any sort of authority on these sort of things other than that I run this blog and have a medium to share it all with you.
I had the opportunity to take a look at "Guild Wars 2 Leveling." Before I you read on I do want to warn you one last time that is is a review for a pay-for Guild Wars 2 E-Guide. Last chance to skip today's topic--no hard feelings if you do. I will be back on Monday with regular topics of discussion as always.
Sales Page - "Meh, about what you would expect from an e-guide"
The guides sales page looks like just about every other guide out there. It pretty much screams everything that I despise about gold guides. "You can only get this information here!" is the general tone you get. He has a pretty good video on the front page, but if I weren't doing this for the purpose of a review I don't know that I would have really bitten on it to be honest. Johnathan Bradley Smith is the author of this guide and he also wrote a Diablo 3 Gold Guide which I've never looked at. Bottom line; the sales page is just another sales page. It really doesn't claim anything that isn't just a sales hook.
Product "Useful, but not necessary.."
The Leveling Guide itself is put together pretty well. It's not some magnificent site like some others, but it fulfills its intended purpose I guess. I would say that I was just satisfied with what I seen. I wasn't blown away or let down, but I felt like
The only real thing that I care about is the content itself though. The guides information is pretty much your standard stuff that you would expect to see in a leveling guide. It tells you where to go for certain vendors. It is essentially a compilation of all the information you would get from the Guild Wars 2 Wiki to be honest. It is nice that it is all in one place, but if I am going to be honest it really doesn't blow the doors wide open on the leveling process in Guild Wars 2. There are a few tidbits of information that I found in it that I hadn't heard before which I decided to do a quick Google search and see what I came up with. I did end up finding the tips, but they were well hidden on different obscure fansites. I will show the creator of this guide a bit of respect and not spill the beans on them because they are, at least for now, most prominently featured in his guide. I will say that eventually they will be pretty common knowledge though so if you are willing to wait 2-3 months you will likely not have much trouble.
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| Guild Wars 2 Leveling |
I would say that it is useful, but it is in no way necessary to level effectively in Guild Wars 2. He does a great job of creating a compilation of a lot of information, but the bulk of it can be found if you dig around the Internet. There is a certain level of convenience to having a guide like this and I believe that is what you are paying for. If you enjoy having everything in one place then I would suggest this as a supplement for you just as I did to my subscribers. You will not become some expert leveling machine from this guide, but you will level faster and he claims exactly that. I say you will level faster because this is more of a time saver than anything else. There is no product that can magically transform you into a speed leveler and still allow you to maintain your preferred playing style. It is just not possible.
Bottom Line
The guide makes many bold claims which are impossible to back up. You're not going to "walk around equipped with the best gear." just because you buy this guide. That is going to happen no matter what assuming you play the game after you reach level 80. What he is going to do is save you time doing research which will get you there sooner. If you were to do the research yourself you would become a better player and level more effectively. There is no question. What this guide does it just cut out the searching and put it all in one place which is nice to have for some people. If you have a few bucks to spend freely I would take a shot on it, but don't expect the moon because that is not what this guide is going to do for you.
If you do decide to purchase the guide you can help out the site by purchasing through the affiliate link on this site. Any funds earned go back into this site and go towards prizes and new features for all of you fine folks.
If you would like me to review your guide please contact me through the "contact us" form on the navigation bar of this site.
