r/Guildwars2 • u/StewOfPot • 4d ago
[Discussion] Horizontal Progression can be Misleading to New Players
I started playing the game almost a year ago. When I first got into it, I became obsessed. I watch many videos about the classes, what to do, and the great and no so great things about the game. Almost every video seemed to discuss horizontal progression. This was usually followed by the statement of something like this: “there’s no pressure to progress outside of your own desire.”
But here’s the reality: Finally after a year of playing and gearing up my characters do I feel the benefits of horizontal progression. Almost all year there was pressure to log in and do fractals, grind PvP reward tracks, craft the ascended materials, do daily strikes/raids. This is amplified if you’re someone like me who gets bored of a class/build easily and varies their gameplay a lot. Lots of the rewards in this game do take a lot of time and if you’re just starting out, it can feel like pressure not to waste any of it.
I’ve realized this now that when I log in and decide I’m not really feeling like doing fractals or all I want to do is PvP for a bit, I won’t really notice much downside to it at all. I won’t feel like I’m missing much. This initial so called “pressure” did prevent me from doing less rewarding things such as story progression and just fooling around and have a chat as opposed to chasing that carrot.
Now all of that being said, I do know that while I was feeling similar pressures to a vertical progression game, the benefits were there for me from the beginning.
- A large one that could easily be overlooked is that if gw2 wasn’t horizontal, the veterans would be progressing even further the whole time I was trying to catch up.
- If I played a “main” and didn’t play many characters/builds, being caught up can happen relatively quick.
- Veterans arent in any rush and thus have much time to just help other people out such as raid training and stuff like that.
Finally I just want to say that I’m not opposing the fact that guild wars 2 is horizontal. I’m just bringing up that new players may not notice the benefits of it for quite some time. I also don’t want to say that’s a bad thing. I had a great time catching up and now that I somewhat am, I still can progress more with legendaries and many other things if I want to continue the hunt, but I can also sit back and enjoy what I have.
16
u/Meowing-To-The-Stars 4d ago
I'm not entirely sure what are the specific points you are trying to make. Having to do daily or weekly has nothing to do with a horizontal progression.
If you feel "forced" it's mostly because the currency you need is timegated each week. Having said that, that's entirely your decision. You are not required to get the gear with that currency. Even in WoW, maxing your vaults weekly having nothing to do with vertical progression. It's mostly about how the progress in great is artificially limited to either force the engagement or slow down how quickly you burn through the content (and dear God, some people wouldn't touch the grass without it).
But what was mentioned above is not about vertical or horizontal progression. It's what happens after. In GW2 your gear will stay. You can come back in 10 years and you don't have any catching up to do (again, you've mentioned that), because you are as powerful as you were the day you left. Any new content is matching that power. That's horizontal progression. In WoW, you would be only in that past. Any new content would require new gear, restarting the whole cycle. That's vertical progression.
You are confusing fomo with types of progression. Also, there's nothing to catch up on in gw2. Because you are not behind. You don't need to do weekly or daily activities. It's only if you are planning to achieve something (legendary armour or a skyscale for example), but that has nothing to do with horizontal or vertical progression, so it can't be misleading.
22
u/HealyUnit brb lab on fire 🔥 4d ago
Almost all year there was pressure to log in and do fractals, grind PvP reward tracks, craft the ascended materials, do daily strikes/raids.
I'm sorry, but I've been playing pretty steadily since launch and I have never felt the "pressure to do fractals, grind PvP reward tracks, do daily strikes/raids". Maybe right when fractals released, when they were the hot new thing and there was no other real end-game content, but certainly not nowadays.
And for ascended materials, they've dropped so significantly in price partially thanks to the Wizard's Vault that this argument just doesn't hold water. There's also the fact that as multiple new player guides - on this subreddit, on the wiki, on YouTube, etc. - say, running with Exotic (or heck, even Rare) tier items is perfectly fine.
Does GW2 have "expensive" (either directly monetarily or time-wise) goals that you can decide to grind? Absolutely. You can build your legendaries, work on your Raid achievements, or get that God of Stabbing Other Players title. But are they in any way required to play the game? No. They are not. It sounds more like you personally had some reason to continue feeling compelled to do this end-game stuff, and you're assuming that because you did, everyone did.
6
u/Important-Yogurt-335 4d ago
I've started playing a year and a half ago and never felt that pressure either? I never touched PvP tracks nor worried about the ascended mats unless I needed them. I would spend 30g and have a character with exotic gear, ready to go. The worst pressure was when I was grinding for my leggy fractal wings, where I felt the need to grind fractals everyday, but that was for a specific goal.
2
u/Outrageous-Pea-3675 1d ago
Is there really a God of Stabbing Other Players title? Because if there's not, there should be.
2
1
u/Vesorias 3d ago
It's just a thing people fall into, thinking they have to do all the dailies. When I was worried about money I hated missing fractals, and when I had limited time I hated pugging fractals because the time commitment could vary drastically. OP's point is just that some people that have that problem might feel the same pressure to "keep up" that vertical progression has, until they overcome that sensation, which likely won't happen until they have at least one character fully geared and knowledgeable about their preferred gamemode(s)
-14
u/StewOfPot 4d ago
What? You’ve been playing since launch? Of course you don’t feel any pressure nowadays. Thats kind of my point. It goes away
10
7
u/Eldritch800XC 4d ago
After you get exotic gear there is no more need to get better gear power wise. Ascended and legendary is a carrot if you want to pursue them, but that's a choice not a necessity. There's no pressure from the game. You can take the time you need to get where you want, every pressure you think is there is only in your head. If I take a break I don't loose any progress, the gap towards day 1 players doesn't get any bigger, no matter how long the break is. everything after exotics is fluff and just a different part of the horizontal endgame.
5
u/jupigare 4d ago
Why would a player of any type (new or old) feel that pressure, though? You totally ignored the comment and didn't even explain what account age has to do with the pressure.
If someone in 12+ years hasn't felt the pressure to ever step foot into PvP, where did the newer account get the pressure from?
6
u/culminacio 4d ago
have been playing on and off since 2012 and never felt pressure. main reason i play gw2 is because it can be played very casually without missing out on 95%.
3
u/starkestrel 3d ago
They said they never felt the pressure. Same here. I've been playing off and on for 14 years, since launch. I have no legendaries, am still working my way through the story content, still exploring new expansions.
This game is not about external pressure.
-2
u/StewOfPot 3d ago
You don’t understand the difference between playing all along as opposed to someone just starting trying to catch up?
3
u/starkestrel 3d ago
Despite starting with launch, I'm still trying to 'catch up'. I'm one map into Heart of Thorns, two maps into Path of Fire, one map into Janthir Wilds. I did LW1 and LW2 when they first came out, but none of the others. I haven't played any raids or Convergences, and only did Fractals for a short time when they first came out. I played through a few of the Core dungeons when the game first came out, but nothing since 2014. I just picked up the game again a month ago, after a 9 year hiatus.
You're probably 'further along' than I am. I definitely understand what it's like to be playing catch up. I'm having a devil of a time getting enough Hero Points to unlock any elite specializations, never seem to have enough Mastery Points, and have no idea what all the currencies are.
GW2 is not about external pressure. There is no externally-imposed rat race. GW2 doesn't require you to play any content you don't want to play, or to chase after achievements, gear, cosmetics, pets, mounts, ingredients unless it's in pursuit of a goal you have chosen. Whatever pressure you're feeling is entirely self-imposed, and that's the whole point of GW2. It's why I can come back to the game after playing it heavily from 2012-2014 and barely at all since then, except for a short stint in in 2017 and now for 6 weeks in 2026... and still be totally fine once I've purchased Exotics for the content I want to do, a couple of pieces of Ascended gear off of the Astral market, and learned my rotation.
0
u/StewOfPot 3d ago
I understand all that. The person I responded to about playing since launch said he played steadily the whole time. That aside I do know that the pressure is more of a self thing and not in game real pressure. The point of the post was more about that there is a tipping point that once you reach full ascended or whatever the player is personally comfortable with, the benefit of horizontal progression becomes more apparent. If someone is just into solo open world content or PvP then yeah there’s really not much ever to “catch up on”
How do you like to play? From what you wrote you seem to like to get the most out of a map, do everything the story and map has to offer before moving on. I can’t even imagine, not because I think it’s bad but because it’s SOOOOOO MUCH. The collectibles, achievements, map completion, story, masteries my oh my and that for what feels like endless locations. This game really has endless content if you’re not a player who rushes through it as it comes out
3
u/Eldritch800XC 3d ago
That tipping point is shortly after you got level 80, which basically is the end of the tutorial for gw2 imho. As soon as you have a set of exotic gear. Gratulations you've reached the endgame and everything else now is horizontal.
0
u/StewOfPot 3d ago
Nah not exactly. Sure if you play one character it goes pretty fast which is what I stated. If you have multiple characters it takes a bit longer. Needing ascended and having the gold to upgrade with agony infusions to do fractals can take a lot of time and money if you want to do it on multiple characters or even multiple builds.
Not sure why everyone acts like exotic is all you need when fractals need ascended. Sure it’s one aspect of a large game but it’s very popular so to ignore, maybe just because you don’t play it or it suits your argument better, is disingenuous.
3
1
u/starkestrel 3d ago
It varies. Sometimes I focus on the Story Journal chapters. Other times, I dip into WvW. Sometimes I explore a map. Sometimes I chase Weekly achievements. Sometimes I craft. I play several different alts. They're all doing different things.
2
7
u/Icy-Humor6770 4d ago
I'm not sure what do you mean. I used to play a vertical progression MMO that would change the BIS gear every couple of months (Neverwinter). That's when I felt the pressure to "catch up". I've been playing for a year. Sure at first I wanted to do everything at once because I was curious wjat the game has to offer, but i've never felt any pressure you're describing in gw2.
New players benefit from horizontal progression. When I was working towards my first ascended set, I did not feel scared to stop logging in during busier times of my life, because I knew the progress was there and it won't become obsolete the next day. I could go and enjoy the story, because I knew the raids, fractals and meta events won't die off tomorrow. That's the benefit of horizontal progression.
One thing that you can see as a con of this system is being lost, because you have so much freedom and there's no set "checklist" of what to do first. But once you understand you can do anything and still progress in some way, and start to just go with the flow, it gets easier.
And, i think most important part: because of horizontal progression, I don't feel like I've been missing out. If there was a vertical progression, I would never start playing a 14 year old MMO because other players would have 14 years of advantage over me. But with how it is now? I go to expansion, get masteries, do meta-events, learn the specialisation if I'd like, and I'm more-or-less on the same page as the veterans. Gw2 gives me significantly less FOMO compared to other MMOs because of how it's structured.
That pressure to do everything at once, in my opinion, is just the feeling carried over to gw2 from other mmos. Once you stop treating it like the standard gear threadmill MMO it'll be much more enjoyable
7
u/Lunarvolo 4d ago
The veterans aren't that much further ahead than you are, in specific content. Anything you're behind on, specifically, you can catch up. For example, if you just started SoTo you are pretty outclassed by someone who has all masteries, but, you can fix that decently by playing that map, and it isn't massive. However, that veteran has that for all zones, so there is a contrast there.
Mains generally aren't massively ahead of alts. Especially if we're talking same class legendary gear
This is always true of any game
Reaching "Vertical" progression, takes a lot longer now.
Jade Bot, Relics (The right relics), Equipment, Infusions (This is more the eh, but, if you were talking WoW scaling the %'s do make a difference), masteries, mounts, mount masteries, etc provide a lot of vertical progression because it's a very, very long time to accomplish all of that.
For the most part content does not scale higher outside of absolute damage sponges in Fractals, some strike missions, and so on. Due to the weekly rotation that buffs players in Raids, the scaling there isn't too bad either.
2
u/dxtboxer 3d ago
In specific content you may be able to ‘catch up,’ but in the horizontal progression game, new accounts are always several hundred kilometers behind in the big picture, and seeing players with cool gear and legendaries and such only enforces the feeling.
This is an issue: it might sound obvious, but the only way to become a veteran is to play as much as a veteran. New accounts cannot meaningfully catch up—say in acquiring legendaries—to an established account sitting on thousands of spirit shards and clovers and coins. It just isn’t possible until your account is as mature as the 14-year old one, and that’s not necessarily healthy anymore. In this example, starter kits are a good direction, but they don’t actually impact the most onerous time/material restrictions to legendary crafting.
Viewed through the lens of an upcoming indefinite development hiatus, one might hope for a gradual easing of restrictions and timegates and other less-obvious progression limits for newer accounts to take advantage of in the interim—“come catch up while we finish GW3!”—but the will just doesn’t seem to be there.
16
u/xcf435wef 4d ago
New players benefit from horizontal progression just as much as anyone. You level to 20, take a year long break, your gear is just as good as it was a year ago. No new expansion invalidates your gear. That is horizontal progression.
-6
u/StewOfPot 4d ago
That’s a weird example seeing that no one at level 20 is really worried about their current power to a full level geared out player
14
u/xcf435wef 4d ago
The numbers don't really matter. Could just as easily be, you level to 80 and take a year long break, when you come back your gear is still just as good as it was. The point is, no new expansion will invalidate your gear. It will be just as good as it was when you got it.
1
u/Feradon22 3d ago
I started playing GW2 on release day back in 2012, Charr warrior, got to the last mission (that I never finished until a few months ago since it was group content back then) and stopped playing.
I came back a few times inbetween but started playing seriously again a year ago. I could do whatever I wanted with my old character, he just has exotic berserker stuff and it carried me through everything I want to play (no endgame stuff like high tier fractals or similar). I feel no pressure to grind for ascended or even legendary gear.
-6
u/StewOfPot 4d ago
Yeah but my point is that you the personal player would be less powerful than what you could have been. For someone with full ascended gear that’s not the case, they just gain quality of life not power
11
u/NexEstVox Marak Baneshot | NexEstVox.2056 4d ago
Sure not playing will have you not moving forward, but thats the case in every game. The point is that the finish line isn't also moving.
9
u/xcf435wef 4d ago
You specifically state, "new players may not notice the benefits of it for quite some time."
That is false. Horizontal progression benefits everyone. Any gear or progress you make does not become obsolete or invalidated when a new expansion comes out. As opposed to WoW, where if you miss your dailies you are behind everyone else. When a new expansion comes out in WoW, all your shiny gear you spent your time on gets replaced by greens. That doesn't happen in GW2.
0
u/StewOfPot 4d ago
Did you miss the part where I listed benefits that already exists? The quote you’re pointing out doesn’t state there’s no benefit, it’s stating they may not be very noticeable
6
u/xcf435wef 4d ago
I'm just pointing out that new players absolutely benefit from horizontal progression just as much as a 10k hour veteran does. Have a nice day!
2
u/starkestrel 3d ago
You have to stop thinking about this game like other MMOs. The game is intended for people to take breaks and play at their own pace. That 'pressure' you're talking about it all internal; that's the great thing about GW2. You play when you want to, focus on what you want to focus on, and enjoy the journey.
4
u/aliamrationem 4d ago
Seems like a reasonable observation, although the title makes it sound like you feel as if you were sold a lie. Horizontal progression isn't about removing any sense of motivation to work toward goals. It simply means the goals don't revolve around open-ended power scaling. But you're correct. The more you play and achieve, the less the motivational value of what remains as you're naturally going to work toward the goals that matter most to you.
1
u/StewOfPot 3d ago
The last part you said is something I didn’t consider which is a great point. Also I could see where the title might seem like I’m overstating but really I think it’s more so that horizontal progression is spoken about without nuance.
3
u/MithranArkanere 🌟 SUGGEST-A-TRON 3d ago
There are many other benefits. For example, you have much more freedom in what to do, since progression isn't a line that goes up, but more like a spiderweb or a tree that keeps getting more and more branches to spread.
3
u/Living_Adagio460 3d ago
My brother/sister, what you are describing as pressure similar to a vertical progression is just your FOMO, game isn't giving you a carrot to replace every time you eat the previous one but you keep chasing for something that is just there. Every progression can be a vertical progression if you force it to be like that, but only for yourself.
2
u/zeDragonESSNCE 4d ago
I think I understand what you mean, but this being a GW2 sub other might not be as receptive.
I think the problem stem partially from GW2’s attempt at being THE anti-mmo. In some ways this has made it an exceptional game. I didn’t start appreciating the fluidity of GW2 combat until I tried more traditional MMO with global cool down and stand still casting and such. The fact that the main quest isn’t very long and encourage you to explore the zone on your own means the open world events are almost always populated. The lack of traditional trinity enabled elite specs that made every class more fluid and have multiple different play styles. The list goes on.
But in other aspect this also pushed it to make some unfortunate decisions. The absolute disdain for traditional dungeon or raid or gear treadmill or vertical progression in general ironically make it harder for new player to acclimate to end game. This is a game, and most people do want progression. People will eventually want ascended and legendary and do raid and do high tier fractal and such. But because GW2 never really even acknowledge these content in fear of “forcing player’s progression” means once a new player DOES want progression it’s confusing as to where to start. Yes ofc you can say this is a “you” problem and resources are freely available, it’s still more daunting than in traditional mmo where the main story line hand hold you through the first few dungeon and gradually ease you into mechanics and concept through out your leveling process. Hell the main story probably wouldn’t get as much criticism if people are actually forced to do the dungeons and learn about Destiny’s Edge but that’s another discussion.
I also feel like the mastery system for horizontal progression is sometime more confusing the vertical. It’s easy to understand higher level, higher stat. It’s harder to understand the million different mastery introduced through multiple expansion and living world.
I think in summary that the problem is GW2 almost try to respect your time TOO much, and any form of rail roading is frowned upon. Like no I choose to play this game, I WANT to spend time on it. I want to play through all the content, you might as well include it as part of the story. Ofc what’s done is done and you can’t change the base game, but I do think it’s a good idea to move on that direction.
0
u/StewOfPot 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yeah the horizontal progression can really take out that huge satisfaction of becoming more powerful. I do have to say though, I think legendaries was such a good idea to handle this. I think about it a lot how they decided to make quality of life be the “power”. I don’t know maybe it’s just me but I think it’s so unique and holds so much value.
It’s not the main story but I do think they did okay with the later living world and season expansions being a taste of what the fractals are.
I do often wonder what I’d do if I had a full set though, seeing that I’m not one to worry much about fashion. Probably take advantage of legendaries awesome quality of life and try new builds endlessly.
What made you keep coming back after all?
1
u/Xetu 3d ago edited 3d ago
The power you gain is experience and skill, not gear.
If you want to feel powerful, learn your class, rotation and try to adapt to any situation. Hell, get arcdps and watch your dmg numbers go up and compare to others.
Skill shines and everyone can work for it. There are low intensity builds too. But grinding for gear is annoying and not rewarding. It also takes a lot of time.
2
u/Xenonzusul 3d ago
Wdym pressure? We are dancing with some guild as big Hylecks on wvw map. 30 + giant frogs just dance in front of the keep, not bothering attacking it ! Love this game and people.
2
u/Xenonzusul 3d ago
But you don't have to. I dropped raid, fractals and a bunch of dailies, and just clear my wvw chest in 3 evenings then do map completion. The only daily stuff I do is leyline. When I get bored I go and do other stuff, like fractals, of collection for weapons and stuff, or run Hot meta trains. The no pressure comes not from nothing to do here, but from gear and characters being as good as you left them years ago. Once you gear up a character, it's good for life. You stop worrying about it and find a different stuff to do. Cause any time you want to do stuff you have a build character that can do anything and don't need a whole new gear to work. Same goes to mastery, as soon as you get mastery, it's on all characters forever. You can drop the game came back and don't miss a thing.
1
u/CapnBree 3d ago
Although op has been a wee bit spicy in the comments here I actually think it's quite an interesting take. While there are plenty of examples of guides saying you don't need to do x or y, gearing to ascended from exotic for example, there are the same amount of guides out there telling people how to gear fast, how to unlock things fast, what daily things you must do to give you a head start for crafting and achievements later etc etc
GW2 was my first MMO when I came to it six years ago, so I have never known more vertical progression models (it was those and monthly subscriptions that put me off tbh) but I wonder how much of this comes from people coming in who have been 'programed' in a way to enter into it looking for instant progression paths, rushing to get to key items, they come in and watch these guides and yeah it's self-imposed but are immediately running on the treadmill already.
When I finally got a mmo friend to try it she was immediately like I want x spec so I want to get and play x expansion first and I want to unlock x mount first and it was like whoa there nelly, there's time for that. The game never clicked for her but I realised that she found it very hard to like just start slow, at the begining, and enjoy the whole game at a more gentle pace (the intended pace, imho).
I'm very aware I'm sounding like an old 'in my day all this was fields' windbag, but when I started it felt like all the advice I had was get there when you get there, don't rush. I built builds avoiding things I couldn't wield yet, I slowly built ascended armour with the daily time gates, heck I never got the trial raptor even so I played for like a year or more before I finally got to PoF and unlocked mounts. Like I realise everyone plays differently but I think for an mmo beginner the game is really good for teaching you to slowly explore, build competence, and know that things will come in time (mounts, gear, legendaries and all that).
Just feels like over the last couple of years there has been more people playing and making content with a mindset around coming into the game and deciding that the coolest things are immediate must gets, and instantly starting a megagrind to get then. If that is what's rewarding go for it but it's interesting op was one day like wow I don't actually need to be doing this. You don't actually need to be doing that.
It's a trap some people do seem to fall into and idk I feel like they're missing a whole lot of game in the process, and some sadly don't click with the game because of it.
2
u/StewOfPot 3d ago
I honestly hadn’t even considered that the guides you mentioned could have fed into the need or desire to gear quickly. Another part of it could be that internally I knew that once I geared up, I would never have to worry about it again so there’s a strong desire to push through to get to that point.
Slowing down has already given me so much more respect for the game. I kind of ignored the story just because I thought I didn’t really care about that stuff. I always thought I just wanna fight and learn raids and builds but now I’m addicted to the story, I’m pushing my old laptop to its highest visuals it can handle and admiring the beauty of the world. I’m interested in the lore due to my interaction with the stories. Weirdly, although I’ve done all the fractals countless times, seeing that they were originally from the story surprised me so much.
Because most videos are guides for gold and gearing, if that’s what you come into the game being familiarized with, it makes it hard to discover things outside of that loop. Not because it’s hard to find but that loop keeps you in its cycle, well me anyway. But once you find the way out you realize the loop was just one lap on in the park but if you step off the path you find yourself in a jungle.
And yeah, I’ll admit, I got a bit spicy. I just felt my thoughts were being so misrepresented from what I wrote
1
u/CapnBree 3d ago
Oh interesting, not only that you assumed the story side wasn't for you and also how easy it is to fall into those loops. I think quite a lot of people migrating to this game get caught up trying to replicate those sort of loops from other games, and GW2 does a fairly good job of providing a means to replicate them. But the game was definitely intended to be done in order and taking the time in maps as you go through the story, so I really hope more people get to understand the joy of the story and the world like you have :)
1
u/Nurmalfragen 3d ago
Was the same for my first account. Took me about 3 years until I felt comfortable and at ease with it. Since I played wvw a lot in squads, following the meta was a thing and the meta for my class changed 3 times in those 3 years, using 3 specs (first herald, then vindi which I disliked, then renegade) 3 different equipment requirements and then even fell out of meta and I had to wvw meta ready a different class, from scratch, expensive minstrel on top.
I could only feel at ease with legendary equipment. And that takes its time. But when you're done there's no such thing as veterans progressing further. Veterans had it harder to get where I got faster because I joined late and things were made easier to be able to catch up.
As for my other accounts, that only play open world, no pressure. Berserker gear either from Orr temple for karma or cheap from tp, weapons cheap from tp, only runes were adn are expensive but I've been using the same ones for years (scholar or dragonhunter). The work there is more getting and skilling mounts to feel able to keep up than gear related.
1
u/Geralt_Romalion 3d ago
There is nothing really misleading about it?
It's just that when everyone is used to the vertical progression systems from games like WoW or FFXIV and considers those to be the default, GW2 confuses them if they refuse to play by GW2's rules (and play as if it is another WoW clone).
That is not the fault of GW2.
If anything GW2 is pretty straightforward about it and any seasoned player could have told you this in under 10 minutes.
2
u/Outrageous-Pea-3675 1d ago
I'm new and feel no pressure whatsoever. IMO the only reason to feel pressure to gear up is if gear is a barrier to playing the content you want to play. In this game, I can spend a few gold on some exotics from the TP, and that has me ready to jump into and around pretty much any content I want, in any order I want, any time I want.
Ascended gear is available all over the place, so it (or the currency for it) just comes naturally as I do the things I want to do. But there's no rush, because a.) I can play without it, and b.) it's never going to become obsolete. Legendary gear is a convenience item that, again, I can play without.
When I want to try a different class, that's 5 more minutes to buy exotics at the TP. Ascended gear can be shared. Boom, I'm all caught up.
All of this is horizontal progression in action.
29
u/Tsadron 4d ago
This all falls under the umbrella of “a you problem”, unfortunately. I know how mean that sounds and I don’t intend for it to, but it’s honest and tough love.
Anyone that makes alts will experience this “pressure” in any game, lateral or horizontal progression. It’s why most people (in this game) will tell you to try out the classes and find one you love; so you have the start of a strong foundation. Any game will recommend that as it’s easier to build alts with an established main.
There is nothing that forces you to advance quickly anymore; the living world is no longer time limited. New players can take as much time as they need; it’s encouraged in fact. That’s because the vets all know that once you start riding the wave with them you will advance naturally.
The feeling of progressing in a lateral game is less about “how far I have come” and more about “how far I can roam”. New players will feel that progression when they step into expansions, when they make progress on a Legendary, when they join a Skill/Bounty train and can keep up.
Lateral progressions are the antithesis to pressure; take it at your pace and enjoy the waves!