Guild Wars 2

So I’m back, looking forward to playing. I do have a few questions

Do I need the thorns exp pack right now for a new player? Does it give any perks or new classes if I buy it right now?

Also, do you suggest I roll a new character? If so what do you suggest and what race.. Its a big question but I’d like something not over played

Okay from looking at it the exp pack does give a new class, what do you think of the new class?

Also I am on the Maguuma server, is that a pretty good server?

Thank you so much for helping a returning player.

Hi and welcome back!
I would suggest rolling a new character and lvling it the old-fashioned way just to refresh your knowledge of the game. There are some changes to really vanilla vanilla game. If you are looking for an easy experience go for warrior, necro or ranger. If you like more complex professions go for engineer, elementalist or mesmer. The rest are in the middle of complexity/fun meter. The new profession is called revenant. I personally don’t have much of experience on it, but it seems not bad at all. HoT gives you the post lvl 80 mastery progression, gliding and more teritories and story to explore. I hope this helps. Welcome back and have fun!

Thank you very much, I do play on rerolling. Not really a warrior fan, but how do the necro and ranger look side by side? Also does race really matter much?

also, should I go ahead and buy the thorns exp pack?

Race doesn’t matter.

If you are into doing jumping puzzles at all, I would suggest not Norn or Charr since the camera angles can get a little crazy with those races. But they’re still doable on those races.

okay, how is my server Maguuma? Do I need to roll on a different server?

Races don’t matter that much really. Warrior is your generic all in kinda guy, but the good thing about the class is it’s easy and fun to play and welcome in every instanced content. Ranger is all about your pet tanks – you pew pew by the side. Necro is a tank-mage you get a second health bar, dots and pets to tank for you if you are into it.
About HoT expansion, I wouldn’t rush it untill I actually decide if I enjoy the game and try-out some core features, like dungeons, fractals, pvp and wvw. However, HoT introduces you to raiding, verry difficult 10 man content, in which you can make your way in crafting legendary armor.

Server only matters now for WvW. If you’re not into WvW, server doesn’t matter.

PvE maps all run on megaservers now. So it’s like everyone always runs on overflow maps now.

I would suggest you play the core game for a bit before you decide on buying expansions since it has been 5 years since you played. Servers only matter for WvW now as PvE uses mega servers where players from all servers in the same region NA or EU play together.

Seera.5916:

Race doesn’t matter.

If you are into doing jumping puzzles at all, I would suggest not Norn or Charr since the camera angles can get a little crazy with those races. But they’re still doable on those races.

There are tonics that can be bought cheap and used on jps, including the tonic in Lake Doric that makes your char tiny.

I’m still needing help on which class to play. I’m looking for something in the middle between hard to play and easy

The only thing you need to worry about with servers (at least in my opinion) is population. If you want a highly populated server then have a look at the server list. Or lower pop respectively.

Race makes no difference, they are all the same stat wise. It keeps the players on an even keel for various activities. I like it that way myself.

I would suggest getting the expac if you can afford the $30US for it. It adds the new class plus at bunch of other tidbits of goodness. I am recently back from 5 years off also and went right for it. I am having a blast, lots has changed in the game. I play mostly melee classes though so I can’t help you with your style of play (as it seems you like ranged characters).

And after all of that I say ta-ta for now, I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.

As to buying HoT — no. I mean, not on its own. If you buy PoF (newest expansion) for 30 bucks, you can add 20 more bucks and get HoT included, a ten dollar saving over buying separately.

I believe Revenant is included in PoF even without HoT. But as Sadismo said, gliding comes from HoT and is a serious game changer. It has to be leveled up in HoT maps, too (and that can be done in some of the LS3 maps as well, you’d need to buy those separately but can do so with gems bought with gold).

I don’t know how Maguuma is for WvW. If you don’t care about World vs World your server is now irrelevant, everyone gets jumbled together. (Oversimplifying a bit there, but the only unavoidable segregation caused by server choice is in WvW and in region — NA/EU can’t play together).

Necro vs Ranger: I love Necro (and its elite Reaper) far more than Ranger. That however is a highly personal opinion. Every profession has those who love it most and those who really dislike playing it. You’ll have five character slots, so make one of each and decide for yourself. You can enter the PvP lobby (the Mists) on a new character and go attack golems to try out level 80 builds to help you choose your favorite. Necro being light armor has a lot more options for appearance; medium armor is almost all “trenchcoats” ie long skirted coat tops that mostly hide the pants.

Race: Cosmetic only. Norn and Charr feel slower when running since everyone covers the same ground. They also have harder to deal with cameras in enclosed spaces such as jumping puzzles. Racial skills are designed to be weaker than profession skills so people don’t feel pushed to making any one race. You cannot race change later, though, so take a little time to decide if you like the animations and voices of your selected characters. (Note: They lost the VA for male charr, so his voice will change rather disconcertingly between combat and raid/newer story comments).

Each race has a set of cultural armor bought for gold that can only be equipped on that race.

As I said you do get five slots to start, and you can buy more. Usually it’s ten bucks per slot, sometimes there are sales. The current PoF preorder Deluxe edition includes some digital goodies as well as a character slot, but you still have to pay twenty bucks beyond that for HoT so you may wish to keep expenses down. Anyway, max character slots is around 70. (You shouldn’t delete your 5 year old characters, though — they will be receiving some pretty nice birthday gifts).

Welcome back!

First of all: Even if you reroll, don’t delete your old characters. They are still good for birthday presents. And even if you don’t end up playing them again, they can still serve as storage characters.

The server you’re currently on does only matter if you’re into WvW. For PvE you’re joining the map that get’s chosen by the megaserver-system for you.

As for the expansions: The biggest selling point of HoT is gliding. PoF brings mounts. Both bring their own Elite-Specializations, which change the way you’re playing your class a bit. The Revenant and Central Tyria Masteries are unlocked with either expansion.

As for your new character: Armor usually is designed for humans and still looks good on norn and sylvari. Asura and charr have some fashion-related shortcomings…

thank you so much everyone, very helpful. I believe I will roll necro. What profs should I tie in with this class?

also what does condi mean?

Darnock.1752:

thank you so much everyone, very helpful. I believe I will roll necro. What profs should I tie in with this class?

If you want to gain exp and level your character by crafting, go for cook and jeweler.
If you want to make equipment for your character, go for tailor and artificer for staff, weaponsmith for daggers and greatsword or huntsman for a warhorn.

Though crafting is really only required for making ascended equipment, so you have a lot of time before you have to choose. Also you can switch your profession at a master craftsman for up to 50s without loosing your progress in the replaced profession.

Condi refers to dealing damage via conditions like bleeding, burning, etc as opposed to direct damage. There are condi characters, condi stats, condi builds, etc… They all refer to dealing damage via conditions.

You mean craft skills? (Nomenclature here is weird: Necro is a Profession, Chef is a Craft).

Light armor is made with Tailor, and you need max Tailor to make Ascended Light Armor, so that’s likely a good choice. Weaponsmith and Artificer will make most of your weapons. Jeweler is for trinkets, Chef for consumables. Don’t worry about Scribe, that is super expensive to level without a guild funneling you materials and not at all needed for regular play.

You can buy extra profession slots on one character, or learn two professions on each of five characters, or learn all the professions on one character and pay some coin to activate the ones you need each time.

If you don’t want to make Ascended gear, you can save your money. Crafting is only lucrative in certain niche cases and only for those who really know how the market works. If you sell your mats on the Trading Post instead of hoarding them for yourself, you’ll easily have the coin needed to buy any gear on the TP you want except ascended. Which is gear you need for high end fractals or for max efficiency in raids but is only a small increment better than Exotic for normal PvE.

TP advice: Never sell to vendor what you can get more coin for on the TP. Bear in mind that between listing fee and sales tax, you will get a payout of 15% less than your listing price. If that’s still higher than vendor, it’s worth it. Also don’t sell to highest bidder unless you are feeling generous. The TP is global and most everything you list towards the bottom end of sale offers, even for items with hundreds or thousands on offer, will sell very quickly.

thank you, someone had said I could buy both exp packs for 50.. where can I see that at? I don’t see it in the store

i figured it out

Darnock.1752:

I’m still needing help on which class to play. I’m looking for something in the middle between hard to play and easy

HoT is worth the price – and the next expansion is soon.

Druid is one of the best for PvE, just don’t go all “zerk”, put some healing and toughness in the mix at least on the trinkets, which, btw ARE easier to get now that HoT has given the vendors in those maps ascended trinkets for each of the new map currencies.

If you want to stop being poor, look in LFG for both Silverwastes and Cursed Shore, both of which are available in the older game.

What makes Silverwastes unique is the 5X multiplier on magic find, which does matter and does help you gain more gold and loot faster than any other map for new, returning and veteran players.

Crafting and gathering go hand in hand, so if you are a gatherer, you will be making more gold than those who do not.

WvW has gone downhill – after five years it is now more of a mess than a competition between ‘servers’.

Fractals are now a lot easier to do and also, like all other game modes, have not only unique loot but also ascended and infusions.

If your gear isn’t all exotics and you don’t have the cash, I’d be happy to talk to you about getting suited up to start! Message me in the game. Remind me who you are.

With mounts coming up and harder content and ‘forced’ groups, I am not sure I am even getting the next expansion – solo players, those who don’t play in ‘prime time’ time zones (I am NA, but live very backwards from most, very allergic to sunlight and other even more toxic fluorescents), if one can’t find groups, those bounties in the Ex-Pac will be frustrating and nigh unto impossible for many.

Builds are in the usual places, metabattle but now qtfy.com has also come to the table with specialized builds for raids that also work for some people.

You will constantly need to tweak your build when changes occur – so just remember if you find or create ascended armor and weapons, you can change them with a few items including an exotic piece, not an ascended one – cheaper than creating a new piece.

Glad you’re back.

Wish the over 250+ whom I have seen leave in the last year would do so also.

Welcome back the best MMO ever created so far.