Guild Wars 2

I’m a new player. Well, not new I suppose as I played this game at release and unfairly dismissed it for a few reasons large and small. Those large being part of the whole “Ban Wars 2” era, and a questing system that still has me a little confused (I’m always behind in level vs. my relevant content). I just don’t understand why the zones jump from one level to the next while I’m still a previous plateau under.

Any who, jumping off of that tangent, I’m looking for some good direction on GW2 end-game pve. I remember hearing that the game carries hard mode dungeons at cap, and that there’s some armor to be earned therein. But, after acquiring, what does the game offer? Are there different tiers of end game content?

What has driven some of you to play since release? What do you do day after day that keeps the routine log fresh?

I look to the end-game of GW2 and I, at least for the moment, don’t see too much. Is there a sufficient amount to keep me on?

I’m going to give this game a level cap. As in, I will ride my guardian to 80, enjoy the zones, and take it from there. But really, outside of several dungeons to hop in to (and pvp), what’s there to do?

EotM, WvW, Personal Story, Map Completion, Living Story, World Bosses, Temple Events, SPvP, Dungeons, Guild Missions, and i’m probably missing something else. That’s pretty much all there is, but for a new player that’s quite a bit to do for months, depending how much you play. I don’t know if any of that interests you though.

This is a tough question because different people have different end games.

Most games: Linear end game…do this dungeon, get this gear, to do this dungeon to get this gear, to do this raid to get this gear. Game leads you around by the nose.

This game: Do what you want at max level. That means different things to different people. My end game is living story, which comes out often enough to keep me playing, achievement points, and going for various things that I want like the vine backpack right now. I’ve beaten every dungeon and run them sometimes. I play WvW sometimes. I PvP sometimes. But mostly I PvE.

To me I like looking at how the world has changed since launch. There are lots of little changes. It makes me feel like the world is more alive than most other games.

Needing mats to get the stuff I need for the stuff I want keeps me going to different zones and I almost always find something I’ve never seen before.

That keeps me going.

The people that seem to have the most problem with this game are people who have to be challenged constantly. Some of them people have end games soloing dungeons.

Everyone does what they like at end game. This is better to me than a raiding end game, because I never really liked raiding.

this game dont has “endgame” – you get alot content what other games would call “Filler Content” and you have to play this forever

filler content i talk about dungeons, fractals, some worldbosses, story …. and some more

Nothing.

/15chars

I have not run out of stuff to do in two years and 5000 hours. Others feel very differently. It is all subjective.

Thaon.6927:

Any who, jumping off of that tangent, I’m looking for some good direction on GW2 end-game pve. I remember hearing that the game carries hard mode dungeons at cap, and that there’s some armor to be earned therein. But, after acquiring, what does the game offer? Are there different tiers of end game content?

There aren’t tiers of end game content. There is simply “find what you like to do and do it”. A fair amount of the people who play seem to think it’s all about hoarding gold and being rich. Some think it’s about owning legendary weapons.

There are still people who do WvW, and I hear whispered rumors there’s actually a sPvP mode in the game. (I think it’s just lies and charr propaganda, honestly.)

Unlike other MMOs, there’s . . . not really a singular goal all players can aim at and go “when I do that, I’ve beaten the game”. There’s no extra-difficult raid, dungeon, event, or whatever which is the top of the mountain. There’s no awesome gear which is definitively the top-tier thing to get via content. All there is is a world in which to play, and to find things to entertain you for a time.

. . . on the bright side, you’re not paying every month for it. And Tyria will always welcome you back to have another weekend off from whatever other games you play.

If your not into pvp (which is amazing imo) then you’re talking about either fractals or the living story (there are those achievements and gear to get). The LS is new content every 2-3 weeks. Its not some epic raid where you go off to fight the main bosses of the game. Its plays out like a single player game where at times you can do world events with groups if you like. Its a bit slow at times although the latest chapter was great.

Welcome back to the game. As an advanced player who has played consistently since release and has experience in every area of the game, here are my experiences.

Thaon.6927:

Any who, jumping off of that tangent, I’m looking for some good direction on GW2 end-game pve. I remember hearing that the game carries hard mode dungeons at cap, and that there’s some armor to be earned therein. But, after acquiring, what does the game offer? Are there different tiers of end game content?

Unlike some other games, there is no “hard mode” for content. Almost all dungeons can be easily completed by any moderately skilled player. Only some Arah dungeon paths and high level fractals are harder, but are still only moderate in their difficulty.

The same goes for the rest of the game. The game has little that will challenge someone who has learned the basic mechanics of the game, and upon learning the more advanced stuff, nothing will challenge you as an individual. The only thing really “challenging” in the game are the “elite” world bosses like Tequalt, but the challenge there comes solely from coordination of the group which isn’t the type of thing advanced players crave.

For goals, everything past ascended gear is purely cosmetic and is obtained via gold or bad RNG, not through player skill. The only reason to run most content again is to get more gold or a chance at an exclusive cosmetic item.

Thaon.6927:

What has driven some of you to play since release? What do you do day after day that keeps the routine log fresh?

I look to the end-game of GW2 and I, at least for the moment, don’t see too much. Is there a sufficient amount to keep me on?

I’m going to give this game a level cap. As in, I will ride my guardian to 80, enjoy the zones, and take it from there. But really, outside of several dungeons to hop in to (and pvp), what’s there to do?

What has kept me playing is a combination of gaining wealth and just finding the game itself fun (smooth combat, jumping around, it just seems to have an appeal to it). I have 4 legendaries and the endless fractal tonic, yet going for further cosmetics hasn’t grown boring to me yet. I still find running dungeons fun, but open world content has grown very much dull as the challenge on the individual very rarely goes beyond casual, and there’s far too much waiting around for events to show up involved.

The living world releases and feature updates give something new to do which also helps keep my interest. Even though they aren’t very challenging, don’t seem to last long, and don’t offer much replayability, its still interesting to try them out, get the achievements, and go for the new items they add like the Mawdrey back piece.

Thaon.6927:

I look to the end-game of GW2 and I, at least for the moment, don’t see too much. Is there a sufficient amount to keep me on?

That depends entirely on your definition of endgame. Unlike other games, in GW2 “endgame” really begins with character creation. Reaching level 80 is just one small step in the entirety of playing this game, and not a very important one really.

What makes GW2 different from most other games out there is that you essentially have to decide for yourself what to do. Choose the maps you want to explore, choose the depth in which to explore it (just tick of the waypoints, pois, skillpoints etc., do or ignore the hearts, look out for dynamic events, go hunt for some jumping puzzle or exploration achievement that is hinted at in the achievement tab), choose whether to level by exploration, WvW/Edge of the Mists, or just enjoy PvP for a while (and gain a few PvE levels through experience tomes you can win in the reward tracks). Follow event chains and get immersed into the story and lore hidden in there, or just do the bare minimum to gain event participation to win some experience and karma, then run off the the next “cheap” experience source.

Experience gain to get to level 80 (again and again and again ) is actually one of the easiest things to do in this game, once you’ve figured out how it works. You gain experience (relative to your level) for each waypoint, poi etc. you uncover, so just running around maps gets you a long way. You gain experience for resources you gather (and you can gather each and every resource on the map, even if you don’t intend to craft at all, it can be a good source of income for new players to just put those resources on the trading post), and you gain experience each time you craft something relevant to your crafting level. You gain experience for hearts completed (a bit like traditional quests, but most give you a variety of options to contribute), and you gain experience for events you participate in (more if they succeeded than if they failed). You gain experience for running dungeons, you gain experience for playing personal story episodes (the closest this game has to classic quest chains), and of course you gain experience for killing monsters (and since your level is scaled down to the content you do, there will never be a point where killing things won’t give experience any longer). Once you’ve figured it out, it’s actually difficult to go more than a few steps in this game without gaining experience.

What keeps people playing? Ask 10 people, and you will get a dozend different answers. Personally, I like that the game gives me options to do all kinds of different content, depending on my mood, and still feel like it’s a “worthwhile” activity. Last weekend for example, I spend some time exploring a couple of maps to 100% to advance a character’s world exploration, gaining some nice weapons in one of the completion rewards that gave me new skins for my wardrobe, and crafting components that I was able to sell for several gold pieces on the trading post. I ran a couple of dungeons with friends, having lots of fun and gaining some tokens to invest in lvl 80 equipment (and more new skins ) for any of my collection of alternate characters. I stepped into WvW for a couple of hours, running with an offensive zerk to bother the opposing server’s garrison, and defending keeps on our home borderland. I spent a whole evening on a kind of scavenger hunt for parts for one of the new crafted back pieces (mainly for the skin ), in the process revisiting a world boss and a minidungeon I hadn’t done in a while. I created a new asura ranger and proceeded to have a blast going through the starter areas and the asura personal story (again … it’s my 9th asura I think, 6 of which are already at level 80 ). I probably did some other things I don’t recall just now … too busy having fun to make a list.

Looking around at my friends and guildies in-game, I see that people have many different interests. Some like to do world events and bosses a lot, and can be seen following the world boss schedule all day. Some like to craft, and are out and about gathering crafting resources all the time. Some virtually live inside dungeons, others rarely step outside World vs. World. Some do personal and living story with their dozends of alternate characters, while others spend all day hunting out activities that give out achievement points. The difficult thing about GW2 endgame is not finding things to it, it’s to figure out which of the multitude of things there is to do suit you, and which you enjoy. And don’t hesitate to break out of the mold and try something different every now and then, you’ll be surprised about some of the things you actually enjoy once you try them .

Vayne.8563:

My end game is living story, which comes out often enough to keep me playing, achievement points, and going for various things that I want like the vine backpack right now. I’ve beaten every dungeon and run them sometimes. I play WvW sometimes. I PvP sometimes. But mostly I PvE.

Your end-game are these forums! I’m rather sure that you spend more time here then in the game.

HiddenNick.7206:

Vayne.8563:

My end game is living story, which comes out often enough to keep me playing, achievement points, and going for various things that I want like the vine backpack right now. I’ve beaten every dungeon and run them sometimes. I play WvW sometimes. I PvP sometimes. But mostly I PvE.

Your end-game are these forums! I’m rather sure that you spend more time here then in the game.

Why not go in game, check my achievement points and then say that. Or do you think I have 19,500 achievement points just doing the forums. The advantages of two monitors and hating load screens.

Vayne.8563:

HiddenNick.7206:

Vayne.8563:

My end game is living story, which comes out often enough to keep me playing, achievement points, and going for various things that I want like the vine backpack right now. I’ve beaten every dungeon and run them sometimes. I play WvW sometimes. I PvP sometimes. But mostly I PvE.

Your end-game are these forums! I’m rather sure that you spend more time here then in the game.

Why not go in game, check my achievement points and then say that. Or do you think I have 19,500 achievement points just doing the forums. The advantages of two monitors and hating load screens.

sure loadscreens^^

Romek.4201:

Vayne.8563:

HiddenNick.7206:

Vayne.8563:

My end game is living story, which comes out often enough to keep me playing, achievement points, and going for various things that I want like the vine backpack right now. I’ve beaten every dungeon and run them sometimes. I play WvW sometimes. I PvP sometimes. But mostly I PvE.

Your end-game are these forums! I’m rather sure that you spend more time here then in the game.

Why not go in game, check my achievement points and then say that. Or do you think I have 19,500 achievement points just doing the forums. The advantages of two monitors and hating load screens.

sure loadscreens^^

Well, load screens, the fact that my guild is American but I’m in Australia so no one is on at this hour and I like to play with people. During the day, when the guild is awake, I barely post at all.

I always come to the forums when loading maps. Some of us don’t have the quickest computers.