Once you create your character for PTR, the spot to choose your level is titled “Choose your backstory”.
Initial thoughts are that it is an asset that is being tested for character boosts (as the game gets older, they are planning on add them) or being able to choose your starting territory (but I would assume they would test that feature, right now). It maybe nothing and I might be looking into it too much, but it is interesting that we have a “backstory” section for character creation now.
There were 1000 of us on the beach. All of us had 20+chests all full of massive amounts of gear, crafting items, consumables etc. Many many of us clicked open on chest then open next etc. We were slammed by gravity and stuck on the beach with all the dream inventory items in plethora.
But out of all of the things they are calling this part of character creation, they choose “backstory” and not something simply as “starting level”. It adds some RP vibes to character creation and I am sure this is an asset for a future addition to create creation outside of PTR>
It is literally just a fancy interface to give you a character that is setup to take on a specific testing purpose as listed.
I strongly doubt we will see anything like that for the live game, not even as a paid service.
They promised us no p2w, character boosts is about as p2w as you can get in a game that runs heavily into PvP.