Guild Wars 2

So after 6 years of WOW and 2 years of SWTOR i convinced myself to buy Guild Wars 2.
Super excited to be here.This is a absolutely 100% completely new experience for me since i never player the original Guild Wars.At the moment the game is being installed and i am shaking with anticipation to experience this world.I expect great adventures with the Thief i plan to create.

Anyway… just had to get this off my chest.

Any little bit of advice if someone decides to share is appreciated.

Dodge roll, get us to using it :p

Roll a warrior instead, it’s so much more forgiving to play and easier to find groups for dungeons later.

Warrior or Guardian imo. Those are good starter professions to roll.

I’d roll a Mesmer or Ele first personally, those 2 classes are probably the most unique classes in the game and in MMOs in general. Mesmers in PvP especially.

Roll a guardian or warrio, preferably warrior since right now they are the most OP strongest class right now, guardian if the style doesnt fit you well. Under no circumstances roll an ele, dont make the same mistake many people did, right now they want to eliminate said class.

having said that, do not pay much attention to what forums have to say, they are ful of negative people who will “ruin” part of said fun. Enjoy the game , as another ex-WoW fellow I can tell you it was totally worth it

I’d say Elementalist or Ranger >.> (Ignore my sig, I’m NOT biased…really!)

Ele because I love the game play with so many attunements giving you new skills/roles and being able to do burst/heal/control/support, all with the flick of the F1-4 keys.

Ranger because I believe it has one of the most forgiving learning curves for a beginner to this game packed with very fun play styles. Pew Pew! with a bow, then swap to Axe/Warhorn! ~oh noes, the biiiirds!~ Also, seeing my lil Asura gal go flying across the screen to wallop somebody with GreatSword #3 is just comedy gold.

“You’re dumb, you’ll die and you’ll leave a dumb corpse.” Ganna S.

Depends on whether you’re a hands on guy or a fire and forget sort of guy. Eles are great if you want to be constantly switching skills, all the time…but survival can be harder. It’s not the easiest of professions to play.

Ranger is great, except some people don’t like them for dungeons. I personally never had a problem with that, but that’s what some of the masses say.

I’m a big fan of the necro recently, though, you might want to check them out.

I thought the OP said he was rolling a Thief?

JustTrogdor.7892:

I thought the OP said he was rolling a Thief?

We’re still barracking for our favorite professions. A lot of people come to this game from other games, and roll a thief, expecting it to feel like a rogue profession in other games. Many of those people end up rerolling.

We’re preempting. lol

Play whatever class you want – it doesn’t take years to hit max level and it’s easy to get the top gear. It’s also very cheap to reset your stats so don’t worry too much about choosing the “wrong” ones. I usually start a character by stacking into power/precision/crit damage, and then tweak based on what I need/how often I’m dying etc.

Vayne.8563:

JustTrogdor.7892:

I thought the OP said he was rolling a Thief?

We’re still barracking for our favorite professions. A lot of people come to this game from other games, and roll a thief, expecting it to feel like a rogue profession in other games. Many of those people end up rerolling.

We’re preempting. lol

Okay I was confused because it went from the OPs introduction, his excitement to play and looking forward to playing a thief to a “play this” no “play this” thread.

Good call though. My first character was a Thief and having played UO in the late 90’s once I noticed that the Thief steal skill wouldn’t allow me to steal items and coin from mobs, NPCs, or other players I rolled a Guardian.

Ignore the people in this thread telling you to make other classes for this reason or that.
I have 5 level 80’s and not one of them has been hindered in a group, kicked from a group or been any easier or harder to get into stuff. The posts here are kind of extreme situations, IMO. People will of course have their biases…but that’s all they are. I have my own biases towards the classes I have.

Roll the class that interests you most and try it yourself. You have 5 free character slots and levelling is pretty easy, give a few classes a shot. You’ll find the ones that fit with how you like to play.
Most importantly – enjoy yourself out there =)

Vayne.8563:

A lot of people come to this game from other games, and roll a thief, expecting it to feel like a rogue profession in other games. Many of those people end up rerolling.

We’re preempting. lol

Ya know, though, I didn’t think I’d like the idea of a Thief what didn’t have out of combat perma-stealth for exploring; seeing as that’s what I always used it for in other games. But I really liked the way Anet used stealth in this game. It’s got some problems in pvp – I won’t argue the “l2p” vs “it’s broken” crowd here – but for PvE it’s interesting and a lot of fun to learn.

I’ll warn ya, the Thief has a steep learning curve early in the game – what with them being super squishy and combat being pretty deadly until ya get the hang of it. The main thing ta know about combat in GW2 is to stay on your enemy’s flank and rear – and learn to use your dodges! You won’t survive long if ya try to stand toe ta toe and duke it out with monsters – especially early on. A Thief’s survival relies on stealth and being slippery as heck. And knowing there’s no shame in kiting. Attack ranged baddies up close and keep melee monsters at a distance.

And use your Steal! It doesn’t seem super at first, but once ya get the hang of it, (and especially once you can trait it up a bit) it’s a game changer.

Lol dont roll a Ele or ranger. Thief is cool but Guardian and Warrior are the best choices.

1) Dodge roll is your bff! While rolling, you’re (mostly) invincible. As an ex-WoW player, think of how powerful it would to be able to avoid all incoming damage for even a half-second.
2) Watch the world! Environmental effects, creature attacks, and all sorts of other things have giant graphical tells for “Get out of the way, stupid!” When an ettin’s club starts glowing, you either get ready to dodge, get ready to be out of range, or be ready to eat dirt.
3) Enjoy! This game is all about playing however you want and having fun, There’s tons of stuff to do, and more is constantly being added. Take advantage of everything going on.

Yeah, let me say I actually didn’t see your top post, sorry. Well rather…I did but immediately got distracted when one person mentioned rolling a guard or warr.

reading comprehension fail on my part

For your thief, or for any other class you choose to create, a nice way to take a trial run is to make class X and then take it into the PvP lobby (crossed swords symbol at the top of your screen). Dont have to play thru more than the first story bit in order to access PvP and you get to try a class at max level. All skills and weapons are unlocked and there’s a mini map of tutorial training areas where you can see what it feels like a bit. You aren’t locked in to PvP, you’re just temporarily up-leveled while in the zone there. If you tool around with it a while and then want to try a different class or race or just want to go out into the real world with that character—you can do that just by pressing B and leaving the PvP lobby.

Welcome to Tyria. If you can, make Maguuma your home server and you are invited to our guild Aeon of Wonder [AoW]….

Thief is a good starter class, just stay away from dagger/dagger to avoid frustration early on.

If you like an easier pace, and very much in demand in dungeon, stay away from Ranger class and go either Warrior or Guardian. I don’t hate Ranger, but the consensus of those I played with seems to be turning away from Ranger.

Elementalist and Engineer are very versatile class, but requires constant attention to game compared to the other class. They are unique, and can be very powerful if player correctly. However, note that if you love skins, you may stay away from Engineer.

Necromancer and Mesmer, they are great class. Necro can tank a lot, have a lot of HP pool, and can do decent damage with lots of AoEs. Mesmer, on the other hand, doesn’t have a lot of AoW but makes up for awesome clones/phantasms and better yet: portal and time warp.

Choose the build you want, and don’t let anybody tell you different. Play how you want, but know that open world PvE is not indicative of how it’ll be in dungeons, in World versus World, or PvP. While it’s often easy in open world PvE, it’s a different ballgame in the other sections. Just be sure to have fun!

I’d just recommend you join a high pop server, otherwise you might return asking why the maps are empty. Seen this happen numerous times, it gives people the impression that the game is dead.

Related to the topic :

The game is very good, but have flaws like everything, the first 1000 hours of gameplay can be magic.
Some advices i can give you are:
- Since you came from games with much more static combat, get used to move, dodge and read the enemy animations, that will be very usefull.
- Dont sell low tier crafting material, they can be usefull to craft the more powerfull in game gear.
- Go with people of the guild you joincreate at least the first time to the dungeons.
- Thief isnt difficult but to be honest it has the higher learning curve for classes in game, this is because it is one of the three classes with lower health and in dungeon has more probabilities to get agro than the elementalist (another low health points class) and needs to be more dynamical than the guardian (the reamining low health point class).

Enjoy your purchase and the game, only piece of advice i’ll give is steer clear of Ranger and Engineer if you want to enjoy all aspects of the game.

Kaedus.8051:

So after 6 years of WOW and 2 years of SWTOR i convinced myself to buy Guild Wars 2.
Super excited to be here.This is a absolutely 100% completely new experience for me since i never player the original Guild Wars.At the moment the game is being installed and i am shaking with anticipation to experience this world.I expect great adventures with the Thief i plan to create.

Anyway… just had to get this off my chest.

Any little bit of advice if someone decides to share is appreciated.

Play it for fun and not to be the best, if you keep that mindset you won’t get upset about how it isn’t a gear treadmill like WoW / SWTOR. It’s a great game if you allow it to be.

I don’t know if the GW1 servers are still up, but I’d imagine they are. That’s a whole different game and I’d encourage people to try it out because it’s fun in its own aspect. Albeit seriously outdated now.

Coming from a more static gameplay model like WoW (for me it was GW1 & LotRO), this video about movement might be of some assistance to you in getting your head wrapped around the differences in GW2 style battles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKWeaXZeOY

Another thing, which sort of came to mind while thinking of this vid is: each class has different game modes, but there is some overlap. Meaning that a warrior is great at melee, but can still use a rifle or longbow to good effect. Elementalist can be ranged with staff or in your face and hard-to-handle with dual daggers. Thief can use a shortbow, pistols, daggers, shortsword.

So even within a certain class you can have variety. Go on and make your 5 chars and play around to see what you like. Maybe leave the 5th slot for your experiments and delete/make new versions as the mood strikes you.

Dante.1508:

Enjoy your purchase and the game, only piece of advice i’ll give is steer clear of Ranger and Engineer if you want to enjoy all aspects of the game.

I play all aspects of the game on a ranger and an engineer.

Thanks to everyone for your comments ,they were great help in regards to my first experience with the game.
Now…

Carize.8532:

Coming from a more static gameplay model like WoW (for me it was GW1 & LotRO), this video about movement might be of some assistance to you in getting your head wrapped around the differences in GW2 style battles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUKWeaXZeOY

Thanks for the link,but this is already known to me since the first 1 month in WOW so many years ago.I was an avid pvper in WOW and am an avid pvper in SWTOR.
If people think you just face your enemy facerolling while you stay in 1 place in those games ,they are hugely mistaken. If you don’t do the things mentioned in that link and much more in wow and swtor you’re just a nooblet and dead meat.Even with the obvious gameplay difference.

Ahh, OK. Well in my previous games movement was good, but not neccessary as it is in this game. It took me a couple weeks to really get the idea that I should always keep in motions. My Sylvari Elemantalist spent her first nearly whole week being chain “whomped” by Risen Brutes.

If you played Gunslinger in SWTOR you will enjoy Thief here. Not that those 2 classes have same playstyle, well to some extent they do, but the general feeling and squishyness is the same. Also both have rather high learning curve.

Vayne.8563:

JustTrogdor.7892:

I thought the OP said he was rolling a Thief?

We’re still barracking for our favorite professions. A lot of people come to this game from other games, and roll a thief, expecting it to feel like a rogue profession in other games. Many of those people end up rerolling.

We’re preempting. lol

Strange. Thief is the only class I feel really comfortable playing, because initiative works exactly the same way as rogue’s energy in WoW, which I played for 5 years. With other classes in GW2 I have to watch CDs all the time, which makes no sense to me and feels unrealistic (I mean why would I be able to do the same move only every 25 seconds…?), and in the meantime I can see better what’s going on around my character, instead of checking the action bar. It’s no surprise that thief is strong 1vs1, it’s completely different from other classes, feels much more fluid and reactive.

Not even going to read what everyone else has told you. Enjoy the game. Enjoy exploring Tyria; it’s gorgeous! Never stand still. Dodge often. Try everything. If you want to give each profession a look, roll a new one & (after your 1st mission) click the PvP icon at the top-left of your screen to travel to the Heart of the Mists (HotM). There, you’ll be auto-upleveled to 80 (level cap) and can participate in all PvP immediately. But, it also means you can test out your skills and traits on target golems (dummies) to get a feel for what each profession will eventually bring. Or, don’t and let it all be a surprise. Welcome and good luck and have fun.

Prepare to be disappointed. I came here from WoW as well, and went right back because WoW is less grindy.

Kaedus.8051:

So after 6 years of WOW and 2 years of SWTOR i convinced myself to buy Guild Wars 2.
Super excited to be here.

Any little bit of advice if someone decides to share is appreciated.

Welcome Kaedus!
I love dodge in combat, but my best advice is don’t rush. Walk around enjoy the scenery and do not compare. This is a very different game and my favorite of any that I have ever played.

If you are in Sea of Sorrows server. send me a message and you can play with us. We are on 8:30 to midnight ever night Easter time -5

How you find the experience as fun as we do.

Strayhand.8216:

Strange. Thief is the only class I feel really comfortable playing, .

I am going to so need a thief class from you (for real). That is my least fav because I have trouble doing well it with. I know it is wildly popular but just do so much better with every other class! LOL

this game is more about a leisurely journey

try not to play it as a rush to max level

at max level there isn’t much to do after a while. Anet adds regular updates that are like seasonal events in WoW but not much actual content.

The learning curve is fun, so I don’t want to say too much; but here’s some stuff that’ll save you silvers:

1. All characters share the same bank, and the bank has dedicated slots for “collections”, which are mostly crafting material. If you click the gear icon in the top-right of your inventory menu, you can select “Deposit all collectibles” to send all of your gathered crafting material straight to the bank from anywhere in the world.

2. Armor becomes “damaged” when you die, but it only “breaks” (and loses effectiveness) when you die while ALL of your armor is damaged. Until that happens, repairs are unnecessary (while you’re leveling, your armor is typically going to be replaced so often that you’ll literally never need repairs).

3. Most crafting disciplines have intermediate components; for example, to create a bronze sword, you first have to refine bronze ore into bronze ingots, and then craft bronze ingots into a bronze sword hilt and a bronze sword blade. Refined materials (the ingots) have collection slots in the bank; intermediate components (the hilt and the blade) DO NOT. Because recipes make less experience as your crafting level rises, crafting all of the components you’ll need all at once while the recipes are fresh will net you lots of crafting experience but will fill up your inventory with crap you can’t bank, so it’s usually a good idea to plan out your crafting in advance (or sell the leftovers on the trading post). This is particularly important for chefs, who can easily end up swimming in chicken broth and balls of dough if incautious.

4. Crafting magic equipment requires both common (white-named) materials (like wood, metal, or cloth) and special fine (blue-named) materials (like vials of blood, or ghost dust). Salvage kits and gathering tools come in different qualities, with higher-quality tools having a higher chance to produce “rare” crafting materials. HOWEVER, “rare” in this case DOES NOT refer to the aformentioned “fine” materials, or to the yellow-named “rare” materials (used to craft special things like runes and sigils), but to the TIER of the common material. So, neither a crude salvage kit nor a master salvage kit will produce a magic bone fragment from a bronze sword, but the master salvage kit may produce an ingot of iron instead of bronze – the special components can only be obtained from loot (or from the trading post). Since you can just mine the iron ore yourself and master salvage kits are expensive, high-quality salvage kits are generally not worth the expense (unless you want to get a socketed upgrade out of a piece of equipment).

Also:

5. Do not attempt jumping puzzles while you have dodge set to activate when you double-tap a direction.

6. The rewards for reknown hearts come in the mail.

7. You buy your first training manual at level 11, not level 10.

Welcome!!!

My advice:
Much has been mentioned above, but it bears repeating.

Forums
1) Haters will hate, complainers will complain, fanatics will be fanatic, and trolls will troll (as seen in this thread). Try to read objectively, consider others’ point of view, and form your own opinion. Oh yeah, and try not to feed the trolls. :P

2) The forums are actually a great place to learn about updates and patches, discuss features, make suggestions, get help, report a bug, and follow up with support issues.

3) The search feature is broken. Yes, they know about it. No, it doesn’t seem like it’s high priority. Work around: Go to your search engine and type “site:forum-en.guildwars2.com [search term]” This will use your search engine to search only these forums for what ever you are looking for.

In game

1) Everyone has their favorite profession(s) and builds, and tend to be very passionate about it. You have 5 character slots. Try them all out! Find what you like, and what makes you happy. Experiment, play, and have fun learning.

2) There are lots of things to do in this game. There is content for almost every play style and personality. Don’t feel like you have to do it all, or conversely don’t feel like you have to pick and choose. Heck, don’t even feel like you have to like it all. That’s one of the things I love about this game, I don’t have to do the things I don’t like.

3) Guilds. There are lots of them. You may go through a few before you find one that’s a good fit. You can also be a member of multiple guilds. Lots of guilds have a focus. Some do dungeons and bosses, some are purely social, some are into storylines, some like guild events, some are PvP, others are WvW, etc… I’m a member of several guilds. When I want to WvW, I rep one guild. When I want to do a dungeon, I’ll rep the dungeon focused guild. I even made my own guild that is only for my family and IRL friends so we can play and be social together.

Again, welcome to the game!

Great game but seems to be 99% wvw/pvp now. World events are dead with players. Its impossible to get runs in dungeons. Even seasonal events are half stagnant.

If you like pvp/wvw you’ll love the game. If you like a more traditional role of adventuring you will enjoy it for the first 40 or so levels. Possibly more.

Unfortunately like every other game out there while it has its unique aspects its still the cooky cutter MMORPG (as of about the time WOW came out) tailored to the teenage crowd (or adults that stopped maturity at 13ish) whos’ parents money typically pays for and they are all about killing one another. Ok maybe thats going too far. =)

Personally might as well well FPS because while this game is cool and has potential its now about wvw/pvp and standing around in places like Lions Arch showing how “cool you look”.

Its worth the buy though because even if your not out for just wvw/pvp etc then you’ll get dozens of hours of entertainment out of it so its a good deal. Better than most. And anyone from the GW1 days knows anet just tends to do a kitten good job overall. Beautiful scenery, great story lines, jumping puzzle madness if you like it and some definitely unique aspects. You wont be sorry you bought it but depending on your persuasion you might find yourself going “WTF happened to all the fun?”.

jniel.3581:

“WTF happened to all the fun?”.

It’s in an orichalcum node.

some pieces of advice….

1. get off the forums…so many doomsdayers, haters, and QQ in here it paints a bad picture.
2. if you’re still in the forums (you should be playing the game), don’t listen to all the play this class yada yada. Roll as many toons as you can…seriously. I ran a ranger to 80, then a thief to 80, now i’m back on my 51 mesmer a week ago and hes now at 80. Seriously bouncing between the different classes just opens up new fun all the time.
4. get off the forums lol
5. just play the game and have fun. It will only feel grindy if you make it a grind. If you play the game (do quests, events, explore, craft, pvp, wvw, living story) and just have fun it makes it so much better.
6. get off the forums.

that should cover it, have a blast, glad you’re here!

p.s. get off the forums…

my advice to you OP, on your spare time, hang out in the thief forum; they are very helpful and forgiving in helping out their own.

In other word, they’re ready to recieve you with open arms, for choosing their class.

Everything said till now has been noted and much appreciated.This thread i think turned out to be informative also for other new players or people wondering whether or not to buy the game.

I gotta say this feels kinda strange.The community in this game is somewhat different than in other games i have been involved in,including mmos.Everyone is kinda helpful ,much more than other games,as opposed to just a few people trying to help out a newb.(me not being one of them :P )Not sure what the reason for this is but it is pleasant to observe.
The ongoing mood and atmosphere among players ,here in this thread ,the whole forum and game itself is kinda positive and natural(if you think people hating the game or trolling here are a big deal,you have seen nothing-take it from some1 that has beein a part of the bandwagon of flamers and trolls for years).
Maybe it’s the nature of the game that attracts certain kinds of people or because of the nature of the game the same people behave the way they do,maybe i am overidealizing my new mmorpg of choice ,not sure what is the reason.

I have started a couple of hours after the creation of the original post on a server and i am level 8(Thief) at the time of this post’s making. I wanted to make this update since i am getting PMs from people wanting me to roll on their server and to level with me to show me ropes and join their guild,ect.
Again all the help is appreciated and i am having a blast in the game.This is going to be my next big time sink. :P

jniel.3581:

Great game but seems to be 99% wvw/pvp now. World events are dead with players. Its impossible to get runs in dungeons. Even seasonal events are half stagnant.

If you like pvp/wvw you’ll love the game. If you like a more traditional role of adventuring you will enjoy it for the first 40 or so levels. Possibly more.

Unfortunately like every other game out there while it has its unique aspects its still the cooky cutter MMORPG (as of about the time WOW came out) tailored to the teenage crowd (or adults that stopped maturity at 13ish) whos’ parents money typically pays for and they are all about killing one another. Ok maybe thats going too far. =)

Personally might as well well FPS because while this game is cool and has potential its now about wvw/pvp and standing around in places like Lions Arch showing how “cool you look”.

Its worth the buy though because even if your not out for just wvw/pvp etc then you’ll get dozens of hours of entertainment out of it so its a good deal. Better than most. And anyone from the GW1 days knows anet just tends to do a kitten good job overall. Beautiful scenery, great story lines, jumping puzzle madness if you like it and some definitely unique aspects. You wont be sorry you bought it but depending on your persuasion you might find yourself going “WTF happened to all the fun?”.

Impossible to get runs with dungeons. I get my group filled with the LFG tool, usually in a couple of minutes or less. Today with the daily it was filled in seconds. Maybe you’re playing a different game?

Welcome to the game

Roll an Elementalist after your thief

Have fun

Just roll for initiative and you’ll be fine.

Kaedus.8051:

So after 6 years of WOW and 2 years of SWTOR i convinced myself to buy Guild Wars 2.
Super excited to be here.This is a absolutely 100% completely new experience for me since i never player the original Guild Wars.At the moment the game is being installed and i am shaking with anticipation to experience this world.I expect great adventures with the Thief i plan to create.

Anyway… just had to get this off my chest.

Any little bit of advice if someone decides to share is appreciated.

First thing: don’t play because you have to. Don’t drop into the grind pit. I have been there, I crossed it, and I will never farm again in this game.

Kaedus.8051:

EEveryone is kinda helpful ,much more than other games,as opposed to just a few people trying to help out a newb.(me not being one of them :P )Not sure what the reason for this is but it is pleasant to observe.

Actually, this is something that deserves to be pointed out:

If you see someone fighting something, feel free to run up and start smacking it around as well. There’s no kill stealing/diminished experience/only-one-person-gets-the-loot nonsense here!

The entire game is pretty much set up to reward you for helping others.