Level 20 = now what?

I have been working very, very hard at this game, trying to level up enough to get over how incredibly difficult the monsters around Kryta (not to mention Shiverpeaks) are, so that I can actually beat them (remembering time well-spent playing Diablo2, where I could actually kill stuff)...

And so finally, today (after clearing much of Kryta's objectives, quests, etc) I got to level 20...

...and then someone tells me you don't get anymore Attribute Points after that. Only skill points, for buying spells (I have 17 that I dont know what to do with and dont need).

So now I'm at the Desert, freshly level 20, and I don't know what on earth to do. The game is pointless now. My attributes are stuck where they are, even though I can only have a couple high enough to be worth anything... I have the best armor already... I have the best weapon my class can ever carry... (I still can't take on more than 2 monters at a time)

XP is useless to me now, because leveling up gives me nothing (just "Skill" points that do nothing for me). No more reason to do quests for XP, so you can throw all questing in the trash, because it's useless now. No more reason to kill monsters for XP, because I cant use XP, and therefor there no reason to fight monsters. Cant upgrade my character, so I don't need gold... dont need crafting materials... nothing to buy... nothing to sell...

So now what? Do I just keep on finding groups in towns, and going out to finish quests and kill monsters, for no reason, for the whole rest of the game? Is this game *meant* to fall apart at Level 20?

This is the reason i dont play any other games that dont have grind, i mean why play a first person shooter, when theres no xp!!

You are at the desert which means you dont have alot of skills, skill is what this game is about not a number next to your name.

GuildWars is based on your skill, if you this is your first character and you just reached lvl 20, you got 17 skill points that means you almost never buy a skill, try to make new builds, different set ups for specific places.

GuildWars missions - quests are ment to be a team based play, if you go out on your own well without a decent build you will get killed. It's not like diablo, never compare it to that, diablo was just lvl, lvl, lvl, weapons and then click click click and every1 around you was dead, you call this fun? well maybe you should try D2 again or go play WoW.

try to enjoy the game as it is ment to be played

You are in Desert so you can't have best armors yet because those you can get in Droknar's Forge.

There is two attribute quests left where you get total 30 points. Have you ascended yet? I guess you haven't. Do the three missions at the desert.

Gaining levels as the only goal is so cliché in RPGs. Guild Wars is different. Capture all elite and normal skills, change secondary profession, capture skills to it, find out good builds, play the game to the end because desert is not the last place. After completing the game, do all Droknar quests, go to Sorrow's Furnace and kill the golem, do all quests at UW and FoW, do PvP and gain access to Team Arenas, then get your guild to rank 1, own Hall of Heroes and do it again and again, get all max stat rare skin weapons and off-hand items, get FoW armors to all your characters, get 1 million gold and 1000 ectoplasms. Then play GW Factions and have fun exploring new things with two new professions.

I hate to state the obvious but you really understand the concepts of the gameplay, dont you?

If your idea of working hard is to reach lvl 20 then you should just wait until you understand the game. You cant kill stuff b/c its a team game. Having 6000 att points to spend and doing 1000 dmg with one attack is not the point of the game. If you want to kill stuff learn to solo or go back to ascalon and kill the poor defenceless enemies there.

Lvl20 is the skill cap and Anet has said it will NOT be raised. You can do 2 quests to get 30 more att points (200 total). Skill points are good for buying skills for your secondary(s) from skill trainers.

You dont have the best armor in the game, I'm 99% sure you dont have the best weapon in the game and if you cant take on more than to enemies at a time then you need to change builds.

The Desert is only a little over half way through the game. You still have the Southern Shiverpeaks, Fire Islands, all the quests, and the "End Game" quests. Not to mention Factions release is pretty close at the moment.

XP = skill points = able to buy skills later (running out is bad)

Buy runes, collect money, start running, start farming, start Tombs/FoW/UW/SF/IDS/etc runs. Im not even starting on the PvP side of the game. If your bored start a secondary profession, start a new character, start unlocking the Hundreds of elites that are out there.

I have Droknar's Armor...

And replying to someone above: there's no motivation for me to try new builds or buy new skills, because the only reason to do that would be to kill monsters better. And for what? It would only benefit me if I played this game just to watch monsters die... when infact, I only like to watch them die if I get reward from it. Having a better build after 20 would only be for the purpose of amusing yourself with your ability to kill better... there wouldnt be any other reason, because the monsters dont give you anything.

By the way, I study the skills very carefully (I even have the ranger's Barrage elite skill...) and have already bought 5 or 6 spells that I could actually use (60% of the skills are useless anyway). There arent any other ones that I need, and if I do, I can buy them with one of my 17 leftover points. No worries there... I understand that the rest of the game is only for adjusting your builds (apparently just to kill monsters faster, with no reward whatsoever for a character like mine, since I cant use anything they drop at that point, and I dont need their XP anymore)

You have to understand that Ive lost all motivation to play this game anymore, for reasons clearly stated (I thought) above. Ive spent weeks playing this game, studying it carefully, and planning my course of action for days in advance before setting out to do things, and go after certain Elite skills (Barrage), charm a rare pet (Lvl 15 wolf), etc. ...but now that I've reached the top, the only reason to continue would be to play with builds, and not a thing more (which makes playing with builds useless to someone like me).

If there is rememdy for my situation, someone please tell me what it is (!)

Problem:
Ranger/Mo + max armor + max weapon + max attribute points + best skills + 17 leftover skill points + only halway through game = no reason to collect money for armor/weapons/inventory = no reason to do quests for XP/attribute points/skill points = no reason to fight monsters because XP wont give me anything I dont have already = no reason to do ANYTHING = BOOOOOORING!!!!

Solution:
Amuse myself with new builds for rest of game? So that I can get better XP that I cant use?

Complete the game/story perhaps? Still quite a lot to go if you're at the desert. Reaching level 20 isn't the end of the game, just part of it; later on you'll encounter fights where you win/lose depending on your skill and party abilities (hence realising levels don't really mean a great deal to begin with)

Try creating a new character with different classes from those you already have.

It makes for a totally different game.

If you just play for rewards, that's your fault, but then this probably isn't the right game for you. You don't get a reward if you have everything in this game, unless you consider playing a reward. I've played this game ~1500 hours now, and I get rewards, just not in the form of XP, which is FAR from everything in the game.

You obviously have ran to Droknar's Forge because you can't go there if you are in the desert...someone ruined your game.

You get rewards by killing monsters. You get money, maybe even rare skin items. Use money to buy ectoplasm and shards or go the Underworld or Fissure of Woe to get them. Buy FoW armor. Have you tried PvP? If these things sound boring then Guild Wars has nothing to offer you. Time to play WoW or something else.

The reward is the killing. Take Diablo, killing a group of Fallen is no achievement, heck even killing a group of Baal's minions reaches a stage where its no achievement, so you need rewarding with xp and items.

In this game the rewards are many. Monsters in general are tougher, you need to learn how they act and each type of monster is different (then they become easy but ssh ). Learn to solo Ettins, Hydras and Minotaurs, and you get a reward for doing solo work in a team-play game. Collect perfect weapons and get your reward from the money you make selling them

And as a Ranger since April, you can't possibly expect me to believe 60% of ranger skills are useless; you need different skills for different areas and if you're refusing to swap your build round, well thats why 1. you can't kill anything and 2. you don't like the attributes being so 'low'.

Seriously, try using an Ettin farming build for regular play, or a trapping build against mixed mobs (it does work but its tedious). Try a spike build against all warrior mobs... try a completely defensive build against casters. I use completely different builds for Ettins, Sorrows Furnace, UW and the Desert. I used to always stick to the same build coz its what I was used to; I knew the skills and they worked... and then I saw how my bf was doing so much more damage and I tried some of his skills. And then I saw people posting how they could solo things, and I tried and tweaked their builds.

Thats the reward in this game. Finding a build that works for something, and that works well.

*sigh*...I skipped half the game and all these monsters are so hard

Just play the whole thing through as others have said and it will be fine...PvE become laughably easy I promise.

Just to add as well if you've been spending days "planning" things out in advance, does that mean reading up on stuff before playing/finding them? e.g. droknar armour? quests etc? If so might I in a friendly manner suggest changing that behaviour; the game is finite in length and things you can do ultimately (hence a lot of people end up farming) but reading up beforehand is essentially spoiling the game for yourself (assuming that's what you've been doing)

I for one probably won't be visiting GWG much once I get Factions, to avoid spoiling it for myself, it will be like starting out all over again and discovering/exploring everything from new

This is a competitive PvP game where the playing field is level and player skill determines the winner. If you bought the game for killing monsters and raising your level, you wasted your money.

Your character progress is determined more by the amount of skills you have obtained rather than what level you are because everyone is going to be 20 very quickly. You can get a few more attribute points from two quests but otherwise you've reached the cap as far as levels are concerned.

Now now, let's not change this into a PvP vs PvE thread (again).. a huge number of people enjoy just the PvE bit, and vice versa

I heard there's PvP in Guild Wars.

^ Can you animate it so his head splatters?

*edit* two posts up Avatar

Man drama queen city. IF your bored of the game move on if not.

Finish the damn game, I bet you haven't tried Heros Ascent, Team Arenas, Random Arenas. Your not ascended you have no clue whats Fissure of Woe is or the Underworld. Go kill stuff make gold, do some Guild versus Guild. Try to win Hall of Heroes. Join an active guild, its okay to ask what else to do. May get tedious but try more of the aspects of the game than just being stuck with forge armor in the desert.

You still got a lot to do. Remember you still have to learn the meaning of skill by beating the game. Beat the end of the titan quest and you'll learn what skill truelly means.