New player to Guild Wars 2 impressions
It all depends what server you’re on and if you want to make/join a guild. I know some of the lower pop servers tend to be very dead in the lower areas. What server are you on?
Have you gone to Lion’s Arch yet? You’ll be guaranteed to find everyone there and you should ask in chat if you can find a guild. Most PvE guilds will be happy to help new players. WvW is also an option but since you’re only a level 19, enemies will focus you and kill you more. Upscaled players=easy kills=easy loot.
The Tyrian Institute (TI)
One of the few Americans on Gunnar’s Hold (EU)
No different then any other MMO, wont be many people in starting areas because everyone is max level and takes a very short time to get there.
DragonBrand – [Agg] Aggression
Let us know what server you are on. I am interested to see which ones are the less active ones. Also the Sylvari area is one of the least populated starting areas. I think the human one has the most people running around it. Good luck in you quest to find some life in game. Also WvW and lions arch should always have players in it.
Thanks guys. I am in the shiverbluff(???) server. Something like that. Said it was high pop.
Also, I am part of a guild already. They are great guys, and they do a lot of stuff. No doubt about that. But they are focused on the higher end stuff. I don’t want to ask them to come down to the starting area so they can kill slugs for 400xp. Its a waste of time for them and wouldn’t make me feel good asking.
Sucks to hear about Sylvari being low pop areas. I chose them because they looked cool, heh. And no, I haven’t been to lions arch. I frankly don’t even know how to get there, nor what I would do if I did. I still have to finish my solo missions first anyways. Going to have to go to Metrica Province and do the heart missions over there to progress.
I went into WvW, but was isntantly overwhelmed. Plus like someone said, upscaled people probably just get schooled anyways.
This is the unfortunate consequence of having many explorable zones and servers. It spreads the population far too thin. I have the same experiences while leveling new characters and it gets to the point where seeing other players is like finding other survivors after an apocalypse.
Thanks guys. I am in the shiverbluff(???) server. Something like that. Said it was high pop.
Also, I am part of a guild already. They are great guys, and they do a lot of stuff. No doubt about that. But they are focused on the higher end stuff. I don’t want to ask them to come down to the starting area so they can kill slugs for 400xp. Its a waste of time for them and wouldn’t make me feel good asking.
Sucks to hear about Sylvari being low pop areas. I chose them because they looked cool, heh. And no, I haven’t been to lions arch. I frankly don’t even know how to get there, nor what I would do if I did. I still have to finish my solo missions first anyways. Going to have to go to Metrica Province and do the heart missions over there to progress.
I went into WvW, but was isntantly overwhelmed. Plus like someone said, upscaled people probably just get schooled anyways.
Far Shiverpeaks? So EU? Hit me up in game tomorrow, I can always take my low level alts around the map by guesting, I don’t mind at all. As a matter of fact, I have a level 20 sylvari who could do with some levels.
The Tyrian Institute (TI)
One of the few Americans on Gunnar’s Hold (EU)
Far Shiverpeaks? So EU? Hit me up in game tomorrow, I can always take my low level alts around the map by guesting, I don’t mind at all. As a matter of fact, I have a level 20 sylvari who could do with some levels.
Just double checked. Its stormbluff. The NA one. Thanks for the offer though.
I’m tired of exploring regions where there is nobody else.
Well, you are going to have issues with the game, then. The best part of GW2 is exploring the world and doing dynamic events, more often than not completely by yourself. The personal storyline (the instanced missions you have been doing) become worse and worse as you progress through the game. Dungeons, the first of which becomes available more or less at level 30, are kinda bad and are mostly used by farmers to make quick gold. The open world is where the fun is, if you don’t mind being alone.
I don’t want to ask them to come down to the starting area so they can kill slugs for 400xp. Its a waste of time for them and wouldn’t make me feel good asking.
That’s not how the game works. High level characters get downscaled to low levels when they move back to starter areas, and they get rewards (experience, karma and items) fitting for their true level. I was playing with a level 80 character in the human starting zone (for levels 1-15) and I got a rare level 80 item when killing enemies there. Considering how achievements work in this game, your guildmates likely are playing in low level areas anyway.
(And the high level areas – Orr – are the worst part of the open world. I have the feeling people only go there to farm.)
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
Far Shiverpeaks? So EU? Hit me up in game tomorrow, I can always take my low level alts around the map by guesting, I don’t mind at all. As a matter of fact, I have a level 20 sylvari who could do with some levels.
Just double checked. Its stormbluff. The NA one. Thanks for the offer though.
Awww. Oh well.
Have you tried reddit as well? They sometimes have people who say “hey I’m new to the game, I’m on blahblah server, would anyone like to level with me?” Lots of people would be willing to help. Don’t despair yet.
Also, Erasculio is partly right in that the story gets “worse”-it gets slightly harder as you go along. It’s MUCH easier to do the story when you are 5-10 levels above the recommended level. And not all the dungeons are used to make a quick buck-I’ve been playing Ascalonian Catacombs and Sorrow’s Embrace (level 30 and level 60) to level alts. If you have a good group, the runs can be anywhere from 15 minutes to around an hour at the worst. Neither of those dungeons are known for their rewards. That dungeon that everyone farms for easy money is Citadel of Flame, explorable path 1.
Eras is also correct in that you are automatically downscaled if you enter a low level area. Your characters health and level are downscaled to match the area but your armor and weapons are not; so you can in theory waltz into Wayfarer Foothills (norn area) and take on 2 level 7 vets by yourself at level 75 with barely a scratch on you.
And Eras is also correct in that Orr (the level 70-80 southernmost region) is mostly used to farm. It’s an extremely harsh area, filled with veterans and champions, the waypoints are often contested making death a nightmare and not many people want to go there alone.
The bottom line is that most of the time in this game you will be alone, which makes it great sometimes, but like you’re experiencing, makes it not that great if you aren’t used to it. That said, ask for help like I said above.
And if you have questions, don’t me shy about whispering me either even though I’m in the EU. I’m more than happy to help.
The Tyrian Institute (TI)
One of the few Americans on Gunnar’s Hold (EU)
(edited by Kyven.7514)
Adding to this, if you want to see an active starter zone, try Queensdale. It’s known as Queensdaily as many of us use it to do our daily achievements. Not sure what it’s like on Stormbluff, but Jade Quarry is usually extremely packed.
hi and welcome.
As people have said some servers are more busy than others and I hear that in NA Tarnished Coast is the goto server, so maybe you can guest there.
Lion’s Arch you can access through the Asura gate in the Grove- and form there you can go to any race’s starting zone- try Queensdale.
Your main source of XP is Dynamic events ( the orange circles on your mini map) and you gain quite a bit by gathering too so make sure you have harvesting tools.
Your personal story is just that- a story you can do from time to time.
hearts are mostly there to keep you in areas long enough to pick up events- each heart also turns into a Karma shop once you complete it- very useful to pick up good low level gear.
Because of downscaling an 80 level character can pretty much play anywhere including starter zones- so don’t be shy to ask for help.
Hope this helps- Sylvari ranger is a great choice
they have the tech but the six only know why they haven’t used it. (because another game has perhaps, way too much pride to learn from history and use those tools which have made other games great for years, seems to be what I’m seeing.)
They have the tech to make a cross server sectional of the lower and mid level zones so that players of all servers would always see someone, who knows why they haven’t used it.
I started about 8 weeks ago and i felt exactly the same as you do, i even considered just deleting gw2 as it felt like a single player game, but im glad i stuck with it.
As others have said go to queensdale ( the human area) you can get to lions arch by going into heart of the mists, ( the pvp icon at the top of the screen) then do some basic pvp instruction thing and you can go lions arch, in lions arch is the portals to all the citys, from there go to the human one.
There will be lots in map chat saying where the next event is, just go there and join in,
the game changes from being a solo game to a mmo at this point, at lvl 30 you can look or post gw2lfg for ac dungeon story mode, a few lvls later you can go explore, doing the events and some dungeons you will be surprised how quick the levels can go and the being alone feeling will be gone.
It does seem like you got the short end of it by chance. Salad down is one of the more underplayed zones.
When you do go over to metrica if you have not already things should change a bit for you. Inquire about the Fire Elemental event and take part in it, if you are on a high pop server you should meet most of your server there.
This is a solo game, with “zerg” multiplayer attached.
It’s pretty though…
There will be lots in map chat saying where the next event is, just go there and join in,
the game changes from being a solo game to a mmo at this point, at lvl 30 you can look or post gw2lfg for ac dungeon story mode, a few lvls later you can go explore, doing the events and some dungeons you will be surprised how quick the levels can go and the being alone feeling will be gone.
I ran kitten backwards into a huge dragon event earlier. I was just trying to do some story quest. Everyone just spammed damage until the dragon was dead, looted the chest and dispersed…
NOT an MMORPG.
NOT an MMORPG.
Of course it’s a MMORPG.
Do you know why no one stopped to play with you after the event ended?
Because no one wanted to.
MMORPGs give people the option of playing with others. This does not mean people want to play with others all the time, or even most of the time.
I often see forumers demanding ArenaNet to make grouping with other players a requirement. Which is rather ironic – those demands come from forumers who don’t understand that people don’t want to play with them, and whose complaints are basically a way to try to force people to play with them.
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
If you are in a deserted area, try asking in map or local chat if anyone wants to team up with you to do stuff. Maybe you will get a bite. Make a friend.^^
NOT an MMORPG.
Of course it’s a MMORPG.
Do you know why no one stopped to play with you after the event ended?
Because no one wanted to.
MMORPGs give people the option of playing with others. This does not mean people want to play with others all the time, or even most of the time.
I often see forumers demanding ArenaNet to make grouping with other players a requirement. Which is rather ironic – those demands come from forumers who don’t understand that people don’t want to play with them, and whose complaints are basically a way to try to force people to play with them.
Yeah bro, no one wanted to play with me…
That has to be it.
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
I’m in a guild, I have run zergs with them too, we just banter but run as our own zerg. Is that what you mean?
Not an MMORPG.
Well I was in Caledon Forest yesterday and did loads of events with people. I guess time and server can make a huge difference. Also, in the starting zones the more people are close to where the big chains are happening.
By the way, the starting zones in Guild Wars 2 are a thousand times more crowded that the starting zones of other MMORPGs… at least in GW2 you have a reason to go back (downscaling helps too)
I’d team up if you’re ever lonely ^.^
Open world pve tends to be empty, with the exception of Queensdale and occasionally Orr when people do temple runs. Most people stick to WvW and run through CoF1 when they need money at this point.
Garbage at every profession 2015
NOT an MMORPG.
Of course it’s a MMORPG.
Do you know why no one stopped to play with you after the event ended?
Because no one wanted to.
MMORPGs give people the option of playing with others. This does not mean people want to play with others all the time, or even most of the time.
I often see forumers demanding ArenaNet to make grouping with other players a requirement. Which is rather ironic – those demands come from forumers who don’t understand that people don’t want to play with them, and whose complaints are basically a way to try to force people to play with them.
Yeah bro, no one wanted to play with me…
That has to be it.
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
I’m in a guild, I have run zergs with them too, we just banter but run as our own zerg. Is that what you mean?
Not an MMORPG.
So guilds dont’ get together to WvW in numbers? That sounds a whole lot like an MMORPG to me.
When my guild does guild missions with 15-30 people at the same time, that’s not an MMO?
Maybe you should look MMO up online, I’m not sure it means what you think it means.
NOT an MMORPG.
Of course it’s a MMORPG.
Do you know why no one stopped to play with you after the event ended?
Because no one wanted to.
MMORPGs give people the option of playing with others. This does not mean people want to play with others all the time, or even most of the time.
I often see forumers demanding ArenaNet to make grouping with other players a requirement. Which is rather ironic – those demands come from forumers who don’t understand that people don’t want to play with them, and whose complaints are basically a way to try to force people to play with them.
Yeah bro, no one wanted to play with me…
That has to be it.
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
I’m in a guild, I have run zergs with them too, we just banter but run as our own zerg. Is that what you mean?
Not an MMORPG.
So guilds dont’ get together to WvW in numbers? That sounds a whole lot like an MMORPG to me.
When my guild does guild missions with 15-30 people at the same time, that’s not an MMO?
Maybe you should look MMO up online, I’m not sure it means what you think it means.
It means exactly what I know it means. Zergs are a snorefest. The outdoor (PVE/WvW) ‘grouping’ system in this game is nice, but all we do is safely DPS, until the mobs and boss are dead! The dungeon system is on a third party website, so no one even looks for groups in game anymore.
MMOs are about standing out for your effort, networking, being helpful and learning to play.
I started this hobby in EQ1. Played AO along side of EQ1 (actually met my wife there in that awful grouping system, that gave MMOs instances and flight) and EnB after that where guilds and grouping were very coordinated. Played FFXI for years too, but that was a bit over the top… And, of course WoW from launch, mostly raid healing or DPS.
This system is a hyper-casual, zergfest. It’s not an MMO. So much is lost in translation from old MMOs to what we have now. Old school was too grindy and painful, I spent 2 months grinding lv40 in EQ1@KFC. Yes, that was over the top. The current version of MMOs, need a new name. It’s single player, it’s boring, it’s grindy and it’s killing the genre.
A balance must be struck.
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
The concept may be hard to grasp, but if you wanted to talk to people, you could have tried talking to people to see if anyone wanted to engage in conversation.
I can’t help but laugh at the idea of damage meters or tanking to increase social interaction.
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
The concept may be hard to grasp, but if you wanted to talk to people, you could have tried talking to people to see if anyone wanted to engage in conversation.
I can’t help but laugh at the idea of damage meters or tanking to increase social interaction.
Also to add to what you said; if you wanted to talk to people and interact, get on Team Speak.
Most people don’t talk in chat during WvW for example because it’s thousands of times more convenient to simply talk in TS; you know with actual voices instead of having to stop and type whenever you need to say something in the heat of the moment.
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
The concept may be hard to grasp, but if you wanted to talk to people, you could have tried talking to people to see if anyone wanted to engage in conversation.
I can’t help but laugh at the idea of damage meters or tanking to increase social interaction.
Also to add to what you said; if you wanted to talk to people and interact, get on Team Speak.
Most people don’t talk in chat during WvW for example because it’s thousands of times more convenient to simply talk in TS; you know with actual voices instead of having to stop and type whenever you need to say something in the heat of the moment.
I give up…
NOT an MMORPG.
Of course it’s a MMORPG.
Do you know why no one stopped to play with you after the event ended?
Because no one wanted to.
MMORPGs give people the option of playing with others. This does not mean people want to play with others all the time, or even most of the time.
I often see forumers demanding ArenaNet to make grouping with other players a requirement. Which is rather ironic – those demands come from forumers who don’t understand that people don’t want to play with them, and whose complaints are basically a way to try to force people to play with them.
Yeah bro, no one wanted to play with me…
That has to be it.
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
I’m in a guild, I have run zergs with them too, we just banter but run as our own zerg. Is that what you mean?
Not an MMORPG.
So guilds dont’ get together to WvW in numbers? That sounds a whole lot like an MMORPG to me.
When my guild does guild missions with 15-30 people at the same time, that’s not an MMO?
Maybe you should look MMO up online, I’m not sure it means what you think it means.
It means exactly what I know it means. Zergs are a snorefest. The outdoor (PVE/WvW) ‘grouping’ system in this game is nice, but all we do is safely DPS, until the mobs and boss are dead! The dungeon system is on a third party website, so no one even looks for groups in game anymore.
MMOs are about standing out for your effort, networking, being helpful and learning to play.
I started this hobby in EQ1. Played AO along side of EQ1 (actually met my wife there in that awful grouping system, that gave MMOs instances and flight) and EnB after that where guilds and grouping were very coordinated. Played FFXI for years too, but that was a bit over the top… And, of course WoW from launch, mostly raid healing or DPS.
This system is a hyper-casual, zergfest. It’s not an MMO. So much is lost in translation from old MMOs to what we have now. Old school was too grindy and painful, I spent 2 months grinding lv40 in EQ1@KFC. Yes, that was over the top. The current version of MMOs, need a new name. It’s single player, it’s boring, it’s grindy and it’s killing the genre.
A balance must be struck.
So your definition of an MMO is based on what MMO meant 12 years ago? Okay now I understand better.
This is not a HARD CORE MMO. This isn’t like EQ where you wait around for days for a boss to spawn and call up your friends in the middle of the night to get online because if you miss it it won’t spawn for another month. It’s a different game for a different time.
Your rather hard core view of what an MMO should be is just that…your hard core view. It doesn’t fit most MMOs coming out today and I don’t think it’s likely to fit most MMOs coming out in the future.
If I wanted a second job, I’d go out and get one.
NOT an MMORPG.
Of course it’s a MMORPG.
Do you know why no one stopped to play with you after the event ended?
Because no one wanted to.
MMORPGs give people the option of playing with others. This does not mean people want to play with others all the time, or even most of the time.
I often see forumers demanding ArenaNet to make grouping with other players a requirement. Which is rather ironic – those demands come from forumers who don’t understand that people don’t want to play with them, and whose complaints are basically a way to try to force people to play with them.
Yeah bro, no one wanted to play with me…
That has to be it.
What should I have done in a zerg, that no one speaks to eachother in, has no damage meter, tanking or healing; to stand out as Rudolph the kittening Reindeer?
I’m in a guild, I have run zergs with them too, we just banter but run as our own zerg. Is that what you mean?
Not an MMORPG.
So guilds dont’ get together to WvW in numbers? That sounds a whole lot like an MMORPG to me.
When my guild does guild missions with 15-30 people at the same time, that’s not an MMO?
Maybe you should look MMO up online, I’m not sure it means what you think it means.
It means exactly what I know it means. Zergs are a snorefest. The outdoor (PVE/WvW) ‘grouping’ system in this game is nice, but all we do is safely DPS, until the mobs and boss are dead! The dungeon system is on a third party website, so no one even looks for groups in game anymore.
MMOs are about standing out for your effort, networking, being helpful and learning to play.
I started this hobby in EQ1. Played AO along side of EQ1 (actually met my wife there in that awful grouping system, that gave MMOs instances and flight) and EnB after that where guilds and grouping were very coordinated. Played FFXI for years too, but that was a bit over the top… And, of course WoW from launch, mostly raid healing or DPS.
This system is a hyper-casual, zergfest. It’s not an MMO. So much is lost in translation from old MMOs to what we have now. Old school was too grindy and painful, I spent 2 months grinding lv40 in EQ1@KFC. Yes, that was over the top. The current version of MMOs, need a new name. It’s single player, it’s boring, it’s grindy and it’s killing the genre.
A balance must be struck.
No
I find it’s actually worthwhile chatting while you’re doing things like escort quests. The “walk” is time enough to strike up conversations. Often, that way, you’ll find you will temporarily team up (without even having to form a team) to do a string of a few heart quests, or DEs. Sometimes you even pick up more people as you go, and you become a zerg
There will be lots in map chat saying where the next event is, just go there and join in,
the game changes from being a solo game to a mmo at this point, at lvl 30 you can look or post gw2lfg for ac dungeon story mode, a few lvls later you can go explore, doing the events and some dungeons you will be surprised how quick the levels can go and the being alone feeling will be gone.
I ran kitten backwards into a huge dragon event earlier. I was just trying to do some story quest. Everyone just spammed damage until the dragon was dead, looted the chest and dispersed…
NOT an MMORPG.
It is an MMO but it’s not got the conventional items we’d all expect, I think they seriously left out entirely too much with the design, the combat, and the ui. There’s so much missing in fact that it feels like it’s one of those games that was created just when mmo’s first burst on the scene of the gaming world, not visually mind you but under the hood.
I’m level 62 I think and I’m still doing Caledon. It’s not the friendliest of low level zones. Which is also probably a reason it’s empty. If I ever started in the grove I think, knowing what I know now, will head to Lion’s Arch and so do any another race’s starting area.
Then again I remember my first character and how long it took me to get use to how the game works. Now it’s 2nd nature.
Unlike most other MMOs, GW2 mainly uses a very informal teaming method for most of the game’s content. It’s more flash mob like rather than LFG style formal teams. That doesn’t mean that you and a bunch of friends can’t team for the evening but more often than not it’s a group of strangers who happen to be going in the same direction taking on things that get in their way until you part company because they turn left and you want to go right.
Yes it’s very strange compared to traditional MMOs.
RIP City of Heroes
It is true the Slavari are not a highly played area.
Don’t be afraid to ask for someone to play with in map chat. It is possible and even on some servers likely someone is just as bored as playing alone as you are. Also don’t be afraid to ask your guild to join you in lower level areas. I personally play more in the lower level areas when I PvE then the higher level areas as do most players. Look for the down arrow on the players name for proof. The game encourages this because it down-levels the player to not make it one hit wonders(in most areas) and scales the loot to the players real level.
Not to mention there are really only 2-3 “Level 80” Areas. So your guildies are actually likely not doing “Level 80” stuff anyways. They are either off in lower level areas doing Living story stuff.
What time do you play? I have added you to my friends list. You are also actually lucky Storm Bluff Isle is actually mostly a PvX leaning to the PvE side so you should see at least one or two pepole running around during NA prime time. In addition to that it is extremely friendly and likely has quite a few people willing to help new players. But you have to get out of your comfort zone and ask. Ask for someone to adventure with you in Map chat. Head to Lions Arch and ask if someone wants to join you. You might get someone. Posting in this forums just asking you found someone willing and wanting to adventure with you… Me.
I have a character around that level and would love someone to adventure with(Leveling solo is boring I would agree) I am also on StormBluff Isle. My Level 80 has also not done much map completion in the Savari area either so I would love to join you. I would also be willing to join you in the personal story.
There is normally a lot of people during NA prime time. Also don’t be afraid of asking people to come play with you on the lower level stuff. Especially around daily reset time. You can also try to meet new PvE friends on the Unofficial Server Forums. http://www.stormbluffisle.com/
I know how you feel about being alone. I joined Guild Wars 1 late in the game there I had to join somone to even progress and I had a really hard time doing it. Luckely I bought Guild Wars 2 at launch so I did not experance that problem for my main my alts on the other hand…. Luckely my guild helps when asked.
(edited by anzenketh.3759)