Guild Wars 2

Just looking for “I wish I had known” thoughts from the community – just started my first character last week and I am trying to finish every zone before moving on, making sure to get every POI/SP/Heart. Been hitting the Shadow Behemoth, Fire Elemental and Frozen Maw daily too. I have also been salvaging old gear or non-class gear for my professions and hitting every resource node. Been working to get my Magic Find up (only 38% ATM). Did the Queensdale train to help with some stuff to DE for mats. Been trying to keep paced with my personal story as well….

My only worry is am I missing something that would be helpful as I make my way to 80? Where to spend or just save karma? Events I should add to my list of things to do daily?

Thanks all!

There isn’t anyway you can’t do at 80 that you could have done at a lower level. So unless you desire to complete everything prior to maxing out, there isn’t a necessity.

Still, I do recommend taking a step back and enjoying the journey. There are a lot of pretty vistas and interesting pois. Lots of little hidden things like mini dungeons and jumping puzzles as well. To me, the game is as much about the journey to 80 as it is about actually being 80.

Edit: Karma is an easy way of helping to keep your armor and stuff up to date with your level if you aren’t crafting as you go. You can also get an exotic set at 80 from the temple merchants in orr for about 250k karma, if you don’t want to craft, buy off the tp, or run dungeons. Lots of options.

I did it differently from you. I dislike the whole checklist thing. I want reasons to go back to zones and maybe see stuff I never saw before.

So I enter a zone…usually it’s the gathering stuff and events that drive me around. Usually by doing events I get some hearts done incidentally. I do the waypoints I see, I do the points of interest I pass…but I don’t often go far out of my way. When I’ve seen enough of the zone I look elsewhere. Otherwise the game just becomes a big checklist.

But this is just a matter of personal taste. Everyone is different. Nothing is wrong with how you’re doing it…it just wouldn’t work for me.

Every time I go back into a zone I do a bit more and eventually I finish that zone. I do it on all my 80s.

Probably the most important ‘I wish I had known’ is to just have fun. Do what you find enjoyable and interesting. The only thing with a time limit is the ever-changing Living Story content, so there is no reason to be meticulous on your journey, unless, of course, that is what you find fun.

Welcome to Tyria!

My guide is for mesmers, but there are some useful information in general for leveling too. Feel free to check the link in my signature.

Don’t touch the shiny.

Thanks for the input – I do love that the level adjustment keeps the content fun and not faceroll, which has been part of the reason I am staying in zones past my level and enjoying all the storyline. I am also really excited by how much more helpful people are versus other large MMO’s I have played – people going out of their way to heal, help, and provide info in chat – not just ignoring or trolling. Makes me wish I had jumped ship sooner.

This topic will help you on your way. C:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/OMG-If-you-only-knew-this-tips-for-new-players/page/3#post732156

Edit: blah, I tried to give you a fancy clickable sentence but I couldn’t get the code right. >.< So here you have the plain link. xP

If this is your first character, take your time… enjoy the zones, take it all in. Don’t be in any rush to level 80. Except for level-gated dungeons, you can pretty much do anything at low level that you can do at 80. Go into WvW if you want… you get upleveled to 80.

Enjoy the ride… you can only do it for the first time once.

Firstly, if you’re having fun, then you’re doing it right.

Having said that, your list is actually pretty complete. The bonus XP you get from simple things like map exploration and gathering everything you see is not to be ignored.

Additionally, halfway through your day of playing, take a look at your progress on your daily achievements. If you haven’t yet finished it simply by playing, which usually happens, take care of what will get you 5/5. The bonus XP you get from this is quite nice. Not to mention the laurels come in very handy at 80. As well, shoot for your monthly if it’s enjoyable for you.

As for karma: at low levels go ahead and spend it occasionally on cool looking gear from heart vendors. However, gold is easier to come by than karma, so spend it wisely as you level up since things get pricier. After 40-50, I’d suggest saving all of your karma. I say this because you seem to be the type of player that wants to experience all the game has to offer. As such, there are high level items that require karma. Here is an incomplete list of karma items in game. Crafting recipes are the one indulgence I have.

Oh yea, and dungeons! As you progress your story you’ll gain access to dungeons. Give em all a try for more variety and fun. By doing these as you level you’ll earn tokens good for gear. Which means that if you like running dungeons occasionally, you could have all the currency you need as soon as you hit 80 for a full set of exotic gear. Not to mention that completing a single path will net you like 70% of a level in XP.

dungeon dungeon dungeon dungeon dungeon dungeon….. seems its all i do these days after my 8th lvl 80 i grew bored of questing x.x

Are early dungeons more forgiving knowing that this may be a players first experience with one, or are they pretty tightly tuned so scaled-down 80s are still challenged? I remember WoW trash clears that took as long as some raids with little reward because you scaled out of the gear you got 10 minutes later.

The dungeon is quite tough for beginners. Not necessary because of the scaling. But it is tough for unexpeirenced players.

If you intend to finish your map completion. It is a good idea to focus on that at low level. Since you gain level while explore at the same time.

AC story is the first dungeon. It isn’t hard. But the main problem is the reward isn’t as good as the explorable dungeon(which most people do).

I recommend forgetting entirely about getting to 80 and just play how you want as long as you are having fun.

I strictly play Open World PvE (OWPvE) …no PvP (WvW IS PvP) or Dungeons, which are Instanced PvE (IPvE).
I’ve started to just make a new character when I reach level 73-78, even if it is a clone of that one just so I don’t hit 80. I wish I could turn off experience gain (like other games) to keep myself from hitting 80, but the level 80 transmutation crystals sales would drop too much so that will never happen with the current system (i.e. no armor skin closet). I outfit my characters with the styles I want at level 11 (helm/shoulder able to be equipped) so they look the way I want the entire time I’m playing them, which means using 6-8 transmutation crystals once (if I outfit them with level 80 skins) and then use the free transmutation stones that rain down on us (can get 3 in less than 5min as many times as you want) to copy appearances to upgraded gear. Getting to 80 means nothing to me but then needing to purchase many additional transmutation crystals to change my look at any point in the future (haven’t gotten any from map complete, personal story or BLChests in over a year so I think they’ve removed them from being awarded in those cases). Most of my characters that hit 80 become mules due to a character slot being cheaper than a bank expansion in terms of slots made available to you.

Levels really are irrelevant in this game and should not have even been implemented as a gauge for stat modifying (stats shouldn’t even have been locked to armor or weapons in the first place). Stats should have increased dynamically based on what skills you use. Using skills from specific skill categories would boost certain stats based on frequency of their use… you know, experience granted based on actual experience using those skills. You would really be leveling up your character’s experience with individual skills and not some overall stat modifier (character level). That’s why I think they didn’t really fail at replacing the trinity with something else, but that they really failed to effectively remove the trinity and all elements that only exist because of the use of the trinity to the extent that they needed to (armor weight class restrictions for one).

finishers + combo fields

I didnt know about it till a year later

Also:

Smaller Tips Part 1:

• If you see anyone in chat asking for 10 silver to buy their Adept Trait Manual, do not give them 10 silver, they are scammers and your coin would be going into the gold seller’s pockets.

• Copper, Silver, Gold, Gems:
  100c = 1s
  100s = 1g
  100g = Lots ’o coin
  Gems can be bought with real money or with in-game gold.

Trading Post #1 – Trading Post Taxes

• When you list an item to sell (or even if you sell directly to a buy order) you will be instantly charged a 5% non-refundable listing fee. If the item sells then an additional 10% of what the item sells for will be deducted from sale of the item (direct sell gets the total 15% taken out as if you had listed it and it was then bought). On the sell screen is “Projected Profit” above the “Sell” button…always pay attention to that amount when listing. The listing fee isn’t deducted from this “Projected Profit”, so you need to manually subtract the listing fee from the Projected Profit to see if you actually do make any profit on the sale. You are actually able to list an item and make back less than what the item would ‘vend’ for due to this system. So, always compare your Projected Profit minus listing fee to the vend price of the item and do not sell it if it is less.

Can also salvage blue and green (fine and masterwork) armor, weapons and trinkets to earn Luck to increase your account magic find percentage.

Trading Post #2 – Bulk Orders and Vending

• When you go to sell an item on the trading post you will only be shown the very highest buy order and very lowest sell price of the listed item. On most items you will notice that the highest buy order is 1 copper above ‘vend’ price …never sell to these rock bottom bulk orders. As stated earlier, due to the TP taxes you will actually make less from selling it to them than if you vended the item at a merchant.

Trading Post #3 – Proper Listing and ‘Clotting’

• Much of the time the lowest listed item is a large order of several dozen to several hundred and it shows it is from a single buyer, and the lowest sell order is one or two copper above that bulk buy order. Do not list your item with that lowest sell listing. If you go to sell anything on the trading post, first click to “Buy” more of the item, so you can see what all of the selling prices are for that item, not just the lowest. Many times the ‘going rate’ / ‘clot’ of the item for sale is much, much higher than the lowest sell order. This is mainly due to the fact that the same person making that bulk buy order for one copper above vending, also frequently lists one (or a couple) of that item at 1 or 2 copper higher than their buy order so people would be more likely to just sell to their buy order.
  Example:
  - Item vends for 10 copper
  - Highest buy order is for 500 of them at 11 copper by a single seller
  - Lowest sell order is one or two of the item at 12 copper
  - Going rate/‘clot’ (bulk of the selling items and the actual value of the item) are actually at 1 silver 20 copper
  _
  In this example, the bulk buyer is actually listing a few at 1 copper above their buy order to increase the likelihood that people would just sell the item to their buy order since in the sell screen you cannot see that the actual value of the item is 10x that amount. They may have lost one or two of their item by listing them to sell, but in the time that they were listed at dirt cheap, dozens had been sold to their buy order.
  It may take a while longer to list all of your items on the TP, but the extra time is very much worth it to ensure you’re actually getting what your item is worth, as well as not letting this buyer, who is actually exploiting the fact that only the lowest listing is visible on the sell screen, get away with this underhanded tactic.

Although they are rare, Transmutation Crystals are available in ways other than outright purchase. In the last 2 months I got a set from a BLTC Chest (from farming keys) and a set from Map/Zone Completion. (I have been lucky lately.) =)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Although they are rare, Transmutation Crystals are available in ways other than outright purchase. In the last 2 months I got a set from a BLTC Chest (from farming keys) and a set from Map/Zone Completion. (I have been lucky lately.) =)

I had been very fortunate to acquire many of them from zone completion and non-farming of BLTC Chests in the first 6-8 months of playing the game. Then my luck died and I ended up using all of them and buying many more (prompting my new sub-80 style of gameplay). Even with doing the 25min key runs that I finally gave in and started doing about 3 weeks ago, I haven’t gotten a single Transmutation Crystal yet (though I did get enough scraps to get a sclerite greatsword during the sale). I have not looked them up on the wiki for quite a while to see if they were still acquirable via those methods. Glad to hear they still do drop from them. It seems my luck with RNG is just not that great anymore in regards to those dropping for me.

Hmm if only I had known it doesnt really matter at all what you do at your first main character. Just enjoy the game, anything you do at 80 is probably way more efficient at 80 than when you do it at lower levels. However make sure you reward yourself properly!

Skill points: At 80 you gain them so easily it ain’t even funny. Shouldnt be a focus after you got your most important skills, again at 80 you get them so easily.

Currency wise, gold is the most important, you can buy gear sets or materials needed for crafting at the trading post. As such don’t spend to much gold at the trading posts when leveling. Additionally you can turn tokens into gold by salvaging rares and exotics bought with tokens, globs of ectoplasma sell for 30 silver each. You can buy gems with gold and vica versa ( make absolutely sure to check exchange rates).

Saving up karma to directly buy exotic gear at 80 is a waste, unless you do it for the skin. Better more easily available alternatives ( dungeons, TP and crafted sets) are out there. You might wanna save up skill points and karma points for getting recipes and you’re ascended + legendary gear. Keep in mind obtaining these takes so long karma becomes a non issue IMO. So if you during leveling face a dillema whether to spend gold or karma, spend the karma.

Do you’re daileys, when I did hit 80 I believe I only had about 9 of them xD. Laurels however are one of the few resources absolutely needed for obtaining ascended amulets.

Get waypoints, achievements+daileys, do farm map nodes and don’t spend ridiculous amounts of gold. Secondly make sure you reward yourself properly! You wanna have enough inventory space ( 18 bag slots help alot :P) and don’t sell your items to cheap! Third make a salvaging vs selling strategy, at low level character I immediately sell whites at merchants, salvage blues and greens (unless they sell for more than 1 silver), and sell rares + exotics

Rares + exotics = profit at lower levels and they do not give many important materials when salvaged. I think in general people just do not pay enough attention to the trading post, sure magic find is important but if you sell a green for 3 silver and you buy back 3 greens of 1 silver, you end up with more magic find. Do keep tax rates and listing fees in mind though!

At 80 I do salvage any rare or exotic under 40 silver.

Most importantly, salvaging light armor gives you components used in tailoring, same holds true for medium and heavy armor ( I didnt realise hehehe). So salvaging heavy armor is probably less important when you do not want to craft heavy armor. Just get a feel for the market and by the time you hit 80 you can make alot of gold by exploiting inefficiencies at the trading post ( just takes 5 minutes a day really).

Again more great info – I feel like I am on a bit of a detox program from my past MMO playstyle now. Smelling the roses…until they attack me.