Guild Wars 2

PC problems kept us out for the last year or more. Finally got back in last night. WOW I missed this great game. The new Lions Arch is cool (it was destroyed last we played), but I miss the “old” one still. Also, the “sandy” area had recently opened up and we were exploring it.

But now, even though we have 6 level 80 characters, I feel like I’m having to start from scratch. Is there a link someone can give me on how to learn the game, especially the skill tree? Last I played we had “traits”, and every 5 points or so you got a new ability. I think it went as high as 30 in certain columns, and at level 80 you had something like 70 points available, so I might have them allocated 30/30/10, or something similar. Is any of this making any sense to you veteran players?

Now that screen looks VERY different, and I’ve temporarily lost some abilities I had, although I see a lot of points on the hero screen that I can spend. So do traits still exist or have they been replaced? Are there new abilities? New weapon fighting styles?

Right now I’m just running around hitting 1-5 because I don’t know much about traits and abilities now. Thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction.

Well, you might find it easiest to remember how to play if you start a new char up and level it. But a start on answering your questions

Traits. They no longer have stats attached to them and you now get 3 full lines. Your best bet is to go to wiki and read the section on traits
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait
Go to your hero panel and mouse over the different traits in each trait line to see what they do and which trait line would be best for you.

Different abilities/weapons
If you have Heart of Thorns you can get an elite specialization (trait line) that will give you the ability to use a new weapon and its skills.

I see a lot of recommendations about starting up a new character and play them enough to get a hang on all the systems and how they may have changed since you were last here.

Biggest thing now are the trait rework into specializations. It’s important to note here that upon level 80, you will have enough hero points (formerly skill points) to unlock every base specialization traits and every skill on your character. You can always get there quicker by doing the hero point challenges through out the maps but it will never be a case where you don’t have enough to unlock everything upon hitting 80.