Guild Wars 2

Hello all, I am new to GW2 and I am going to ask a few questions below.
I bought the game around about 7-9 months ago forgot when.

1. How should I level up my character? Quests maybe?
2. Is there only 1 pet or can we find more around the world and tame them?
3. I am from EU, England.. is there a popular/active server I should join to see a lot of players around the world etc?
4. Is there a best class in-game or do they all balance out?
5. Should I join a guild and meet new people or get a highly rank character before doing this?
6. Is GW2 still an active game with a lot of players?
7. Is there a such thing as a rare item, such as armor, weapons etc? Do they have a different color from other items?

That’s all for now, I may post more questions later.
Thank you all.

1 — There are no quests as such. Just explore the world, opening areas, wp’s, vistas, pois, etc. Do heart completions if you wish. Jump in every event you can find. Gather mats. Once at high enough level, try out dungeons. But don’t feel that you must level. Let leveling be a byproduct of playing.

2 — There are a lot of pets for Rangers. The wiki has guides to where they all are, or you can just explore and be happy when you see a Juvenile anything because taming involves walking up to it and interacting. Takes one second. With two pets you can swap between them in combat. Once you have more than two you must pick which two to have active. Warning: write down your names for the pets. Replacing them with different ones wipes the names.

3 — I don’t know, I’m NA.

4 — Purely subjective opinion. Every class allows a wide skill range and has people who think it’s best and people who think it’s worst. Play what you enjoy. Be aware that PuGs may diss you for being a Ranger in dungeons.

5 — Another one that is individual and subjective. It depends on the guild. For me, a guild is best from the get-go, but it’s a social guild with RP and such. My guild formed before beta and RP’d on forums until we could finally get in game. A good core of those present at the start are still playing now.

6 — I find players anywhere I go in the world (NA). Part of that is the megaserver; any low pop map will get merged in with one holding more people.

welcome to gw2 i guess

You can lvl up in a lot of different ways in this game. Depends on what kind of activity you prefer. I suppose at start you will be leveling up with pve to get a hang of the game before trying pvp so just run around the map and the personal story will kind of guide you a bit in the right direction. You can also lvl up in the mist by doing pvp or in the battlegrounds which i wouldn’t recommend to a new player :P

You find many pets around the world to tame but just as a ranger class.

Dunno about which server is good now but i don’t think it matters much since you can switch servers and the server population is merged.

For classes i can only recomend picking one that has a mechanic you would enjoy. Anet is very unpredictable with class balancing so you shouldn’t pick something just because it’s strong atm cuz you might get screwed in a few months. So far every class has been at some point fotm so you just have to wait ur turn :P

Join a guild from the begining because you can take part in many guild missions which are fun to do if you have an active guild. People don’t care much about your lvl as long as your not doing a dungeon or something.

Dunno how active the player base is tbh but it’s a fun game for those who enjoy this style of mmo.
Hope i was helpful :P

Have a great time and enjoy your journey!

Thanks all, is there a race I should choose for the “Ranger” class?
Does a race give better benefits for Ranger or not?

The game is designed not to give racial benefits that will make people choose one over the others for any but aesthetic/lore reasons.

That said, if you have any interest in doing jumping puzzles you may want to avoid Norn and Charr. Both are large enough to cause major camera issues in small spaces, and Charr have a non-intuitive foot box to boot, which only makes it harder to jump onto tiny pedestals. That’s true for all professions, though, not just Rangers. Play whatever race appeals to you; be advised you cannot race change an alt.

1) I leveled mine through crafting then went back through the world once I was capped. You get downscaled, but you are still very powerful and can easily blow through all the mobs, which I like. I don’t like leveling as in I don’t like “having to level” hanging over my head so I do it as fast as possible. I dont do it to bypass questing (since I do it anyway) .. just don’t like it. It’s a quirk of mine. Nothing is wrong with ust organically leveling through experiencing the world and as a matter of fact that’s what I recommend for a new player.

2) Many pets for you to get.

3) I honestly don’t know as I am from USA and only play on NA servers.

4) The best class for you will be the class you click with. Luckily in this game you can roll any character and after a short introduction you can go to the mists and test drive your character at level cap by hitting on training dummies and those sparring characters that fight back. Sometimes people will not be as ready to accept you to groups based on the class you play. The ranger is one of those classes. Elementalists and Guardians are often in high demand. Those are two fun classes to me. Warrior is boring, Engineer is an enigma to me. Necros are fun. Warriors are boring. I straight up don’t like the Mesmer. Just my opinion on some classes.

5) In my opinion, guilds can make the game fun. You have people to talk to and many guilds do dungeons and events together which can make the game more enjoyable. If you are new and not confident in your ability, running with guilds can help because you are less likely to be removed from groups for dying a lot. Having that happen can really crush your confidence and take some fun out of the game.

6) Yes this is a very active game with a lot of players. I always see people out in the world and there are always conversations in map chat. Groups are very easy to find. These forums are active. The devs seem to care about the game and interact with the community.

7) Items here are color-coded like in many other MMOs. Some items are rarer than others.

I always found it easier to do jumping puzzles on my charr, though I am not a large charr :p

Come to Aurora Glade EU, best server!

3. All servers are active, because of Megaserver system. WwW is where servers matter.

Also, what’s the best profession for Magic?
Is it.. Necromancer? Thanks.

“Best” is subjective.

For dungeons: Elementalist>Mesmer>Necromancer (this is a broad generalization on community opinion, all are fun and welcome in most parties anyway).

For World vs. World: Necromancer=Elementalist>Mesmer (again, very broad generalization and all are welcome and fun).

For Tournament PVP: Elementalist>Mesmer=Necromancer (repeating same as above).

For roaming around open world doing events and world bosses: play whatever appeals to you.

Game On

I very much understand and share the desire to want to do everything optimally, but speaking as a player who plays all races and classes and has leveled 27 characters to 80, my advice is: just get out there, explore, play and have fun.

That said, it is indeed natural to want to know more, and for that GW2 has the best wiki of any game I’ve played:

Guild Wars 2 Official Wiki

You can access the wiki while in-game by typing “/wiki” in a chat window. This will alt-tab you out of the GW2 client and open a browser window, so be in a safe place when you do.

As for best professions, I play them all and enjoy each of them in their own way, but when I just want to have fun, I inevitably find myself coming back to play one of my Mesmers.

Once you get dodge clones, the world just seems a lot more hilarious.

Thanks all.
On my Hunter character I got a speargun but when I Equip it, it goes in to another slot and not my primary slot? Can’t guns be used on GW2? The gun goes in another slot not in the off-hand or the primary slot it’s in another slot, thanks.

spearguns are underwater use only, rangers do not have the option to use guns at the time!

Spearguns are underwater weapons so you’ll only see them whilst swimming,

Imp.5621:

4. Is there a best class in-game or do they all balance out?

The elementalist for both PvE and PvP. It is hard class for a beginer though so I would recommend a warrior, thief or guardian. These are somewhat balanced classes.

Should I keep doing events to rank my character up and so on for items, weapons etc?
Or should I start doing dungeons for better items? Thanks all.

Before lvl 80:

Spend karma on better gear while leveling – there is no point to save it for lvl 80. You should these stats: power, precision and ferocity. If you die too much, mix in some vitality and toughness.

Upgrade your gear with cheap runes (I mean really cheap ones) – this helps a lot.

Salvage everything and sell materials that u get from salvaging on trading post.

Check metabattle.com and look for any dungeon build for your class and buy traits that u need from vendor in major cities.

post lvl 80:

Run Citadel of Flames path 1 and path 2 every day for zerker gear – this is the fastest and easiest source (other can be Crucible of Eternity, also sPvP CoF and CoE reward tracks), craft and buy rest if you have enough gold or just continue with this and you should have full zerker including weapons very fast. Do not care about the looks of mixed gear, you can put any skin you want on it later, it is just for stats.

:)

Imp.5621:

Thanks all.
On my Hunter…

twitch >_o

(as someone who has mained a ranger since beta!)

On Q3…

I would highly recommend you join a US server. Much more casual friendly and helpful, and far fewer people who don’t understand English. I’m in England, and as with every game I play, I will never choose an EU server again.

On guilds, I suggest you join a guild based on having played with them first rather than joining one which advertises or just invites you. Get to feel comfortable with them, then join.

from all the classes i leveled i like engineer the most after that i like necromancer and elementalist. the easiest class to level was warrior (ferry dull) and guardian (less dull but still dull) the hardest class i leveled was for me the thief. mesmer and ranger i found a normal pain (maybe because i did those two after september ’14).

Thanks exp.

What’s better for the elementalist, Power, Vitality or Precision?
I keep accepting Power items when I complete an event etc.

Thanks all.

Imp.5621:

Thanks exp.

What’s better for the elementalist, Power, Vitality or Precision?
I keep accepting Power items when I complete an event etc.

Thanks all.

Doesnt matter at all until you are 80. Power is easiest when leveling though.

Imp.5621:

Thanks exp.

What’s better for the elementalist, Power, Vitality or Precision?
I keep accepting Power items when I complete an event etc.

Thanks all.

Does not matter until your a high level and have a specific trait in mind, for example you want a crit build and your character trait offers you more crit chance,etc you want to level up precision and put points into the crit chances at your characther trait.

Thanks both.

Also jumping off building courses health damage does this damage armor etc as well? Because I do a lot of building jumping instead of walking around :P

I have 19k Karma points I got told you can spend these points on armor and what not right? I have been to a few vendors and they only have helms is there anywhere on the map where I can buy armor for my elementalist with Karma points? Thanks!

You don’t damage armor from falling damage. As for karma points, every time you finish a heart in the open world that heart becomes a karma vendor. Different vendors offer different items.

You only get armor damage from being killed by anything other than falling to your death. Meaning if you get splatted from a high mountain it will not damage your armor. It’s no problem if you get armor damage by the way, just find a NPC who will fix your armor (it’s free). They have a red shield icon above their head.

For karma armor, you may be interested in this list. It shows all items available and at which karma merchant. You can also opt for buying armor with gold at the trading post (the lion icon at the top of your screen), or wait until you get some nice drops or level up reward armor.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_karma_merchant_items

Race is mainly about personal preference and racial traits. And, for me, being able to jump.

As far as racial/ class elites, look at the race’s and the classes’ elites (2 different things). This would give you a hint where you want to go on the race of your Ranger, or whatever class you want to play.

I find human racials to be extremely uninspiring, I love the Asuran Golem, like Sylvari racials, have not played a Charr or Norn because I am a Jump Puzzle addict (addressed here).

You only have 1 elite skill active at a time so look at the class elites and racial elites for the various races. Go onto google to see player reviews of them. For instance, on the surface, Hounds of Balthazaar (human) sound pretty awesome. In reality, not so much.

On my Ranger, its class elite “Rampage as One” never leaves my bar. Hence, other than needing smaller toons for my JP addiction, race does not matter. Same for Ele’s “Glyph of Elementals”.

About armor damage: repairs are free and repair places easy to get to. You suffer no game play issues from damaged armor until you have died six times or more; once all your gear is broken — shown by a gold shield on top of it in your equipment panel — then pieces of it start disappearing along with their stats and procs. Die six more times without repairs and you’ll be fighting in your skivvies at much less effectiveness.

Unless you’re in a hard LS fight and have no repair canisters, you are highly unlikely to ever die enough to lose armor pieces as long as you take a moment to get to an anvil or repair merchant as you travel about.

Thanks all.

Also I’ve noticed a few players with gold/yellow circle crown things on there names are these something to do with world event finders?

Do you mean like this? That’s the star you get for world completion

Imp.5621:

Hello all, I am new to GW2 and I am going to ask a few questions below.

3. I am from EU, England.. is there a popular/active server I should join to see a lot of players around the world etc?

7. Is there a such thing as a rare item, such as armor, weapons etc? Do they have a different color from other items?

The other questions have been answered in detail, so I’ll just touch on these.

3. Server doesn’t matter so much these days because ArenaNet has put out patches that automatically consolidate low-population instances. When you’re out in the world you will often encounter players from other servers and can interact with them in the same way you would interact with someone from your server. The only real difference your server makes is in World vs World battles.

7. As someone else pointed out, there are color coded items, but I’ll elaborate a little more. In order from worst to best the colors are:

• White – Common
• Blue – Fine
• Green – Masterwork
• Yellow – Rare
• Orange – Exotic
• Pink – Ascended
• Purple – Legendary (these have the same level stats as ascended, but you can change the stat allocations between fights)

In order to get a legendary you must first obtain a precursor item that can then be crafted into a legendary. You probably won’t have to worry about this for quite some time. When you hit max level your first order of business should be to equip yourself in exotics. Those are the best that you can get without maxing your crafting, grinding extensively, and or spending lots of laurels at the vendor. The gear won’t matter so much while leveling.

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Do you mean like this? That’s the star you get for world completion

Sorry I am new to GW2, the guy was only level 25?

Imp.5621:

Hello all, I am new to GW2 and I am going to ask a few questions below.
I bought the game around about 7-9 months ago forgot when.

1. How should I level up my character? Quests maybe?
2. Is there only 1 pet or can we find more around the world and tame them?
3. I am from EU, England.. is there a popular/active server I should join to see a lot of players around the world etc?
4. Is there a best class in-game or do they all balance out?
5. Should I join a guild and meet new people or get a highly rank character before doing this?
6. Is GW2 still an active game with a lot of players?
7. Is there a such thing as a rare item, such as armor, weapons etc? Do they have a different color from other items?

That’s all for now, I may post more questions later.
Thank you all.

1- Do everything you can when you can. This means hearts, random events that pop up while running around, gathering all the nodes, crafting your equipment when you can/want, opening maps, and doing personal story when it comes up. All of these things will speed you along with leveling.
2- A ranger cam tame a bunch of pets all around the world.
3- pass on this for someone from the EU side to chime in
4 – Play what suits you/try them all/learn them all
5- Join up to 5 guilds if you want, but be sure they are a good fit for you.
6- Yes.
7- Yup, although you don’t HAVE to get the most top tier armor, you can definitely work towards getting it.

Imp.5621:

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Do you mean like this? That’s the star you get for world completion

Sorry I am new to GW2, the guy was only level 25?

Don’t be fooled by the apparent level. GW2 has a downleveling system so that you get downscaled to roughly the level of the area, and that’s what you see. So for example if I take one of my level 80’s and go to Queensdale, it will have the stats of a level 2-17 depending on where in the zone I go. That’s also the level others see when they look at me.
This means that you can’t expect to totally faceroll low-level zones, but it also scales so you get XP relative to your own true level. Kind of tricky formula, but basically if I do a level 15 event on a level 80 char, I get a lot more XP than if I do the event on a level 15 char.

Zohane.7208:

Imp.5621:

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Do you mean like this? That’s the star you get for world completion

Sorry I am new to GW2, the guy was only level 25?

Don’t be fooled by the apparent level. GW2 has a downleveling system so that you get downscaled to roughly the level of the area, and that’s what you see. So for example if I take one of my level 80’s and go to Queensdale, it will have the stats of a level 2-17 depending on where in the zone I go. That’s also the level others see when they look at me.
This means that you can’t expect to totally faceroll low-level zones, but it also scales so you get XP relative to your own true level. Kind of tricky formula, but basically if I do a level 15 event on a level 80 char, I get a lot more XP than if I do the event on a level 15 char.

Another thing to note about this system: you get weaker as you level up when in lower level zones. Unless you’re extremely anal about keeping all your equipment constantly updated (and even if you are, it’s impossible), you have the potential to be weaker as a level 30 than a level 6 in a level 5 area. The downscaling affects your equipment stats based on some arbitrary standard for your level. So if you’re level 40 wearing level 20 armor in a level 10 zone, the game will downscale you harder than if you were a level 20 wearing level 20 gear in a level 10 zone. This is extremely noticeable if you’re level 80 and using a very low level weapon in a low level zone.

Moral of the story: don’t go too long without updating your equips.

Welcome aboard, mate!

If you mean his/her user name of “Imp” I bet there are others with it just with different numbers at the end. I saw a thread just yesterday with two different “Mea” posters.

Regarding the apparent level, you can tell the person is downleveled if there is a green arrow pointing down next to the level.

Welcome!

Take a deep breath and just play. There is no “I Win” button in GW2 unlike other games. There will always be a “favorite of the week” build out there. And there will always be a thousand opinions about how you should progress through the game.

I play all the races and all the classes with the exception of mesmer and necro. Not that I don’t like them. I just ran out of character slots and I’m struggling to catch up on leveling on my existing toons so I can participate in more living story events.

Enjoy. You start out with 5 character slots.. so start 5 professions and 5 races and roll with all of them.

Thanks.

I thought Divinity Reach was only the Human race home town?
Why do I see norns etc there?

Also I am looking to make a high Human character stand out more
But when I set my height to the highest I am not tall? I have seen a few tall human races at the divinity reach if I am correct I have no clue how they get that tall?

Please see what I mean by how tall this Human is – http://i.imgur.com/6gIJWkc.jpg

Thanks.

Imp.5621:

Thanks.

I thought Divinity Reach was only the Human race home town?
Why do I see norns etc there?

Also I am looking to make a high Human character stand out more
But when I set my height to the highest I am not tall? I have seen a few tall human races at the divinity reach if I am correct I have no clue how they get that tall?

Thanks.

Divinity’s Reach is indeed the captial city of the humans. But that doesn’t mean other races are locked out. All races can freely enter each others home cities. So you can check out Rata Sum some time (the Asura Home city) if you like.

The tall humans were probably Norn.

Edit: Yea, now I’ve seen the pic, pretty sure that’s a Norn.

hey imp,

If you feel like taking a look at other races’ capital cities you can use the Asura gate (teleportation gate) in the center of Divinity’s Reach to get to Lion’s Arch, which is/used to be a central hub for all races.

From there you can reach all other cities with ease and explore. Don’t worry about “wasting time” as you will gain experience exploring as well

here some pictures, you really can’t miss the portals

make sure to check out Rata Sum, it’s home to the Asura who will rule Tyria one day

Hoelbrak is the home to the tall humans if you want to see more of them

The best advice I give new players is: “Just play the game and have fun.”

Honestly, every problem you’ll encounter will be solved. From Loot to Vistas to Builds…

Just play the game and have fun.

Although I tend to agree most with MFoy: “Just play the game and have fun,” I’d also add to that what I usually tell folks in chat: if you want to level quickly, with challenging gameplay you should keep foes 3-5 levels above your character, constantly explore new maps/areas and do as many events as you can find.

I say this with one caveat: having played since beta, the trend I see most with folks who are in a hurry to get to maximum level and get the highest stat gear is that they tend to grind themselves into a stupor and quit the game in 6-18 months.

Role playing games are marathons, not sprints.

Take your time. Feed your curiosity. Exercise your whimsy. Be helpful to as many people as you can. That’s how I’ve managed to play GW2 after playing GW1 for 5 years, without getting bored. Your mileage may vary.

Have fun out there.

With what’s been said above this post, I add the following: poke your nose in everywhere, go places that shouldn’t have anything in them, dive down holes, climb up as high as possible, talk to the NPCs, click on random objects (could be funny, could spawn something in your face).

Who knows. You might find something totally off the wall like a war-room of cats tucked into a hidden cranny in the middle of a jump puzzle. Or a bunch of turkeys randomly crammed in a nook in a dungeon. Or clamber your way through to a beautiful sub-world with the most amazing Charr cub.

One of the first things that won my heart about this game is a random, unnamed NPC in Div Reach who loves cats… and will talk to you at length about them. And I nearly hurt myself laughing at the NPC exchanges at the Cow Launcher.

Gregori.5807:

With what’s been said above this post, I add the following: poke your nose in everywhere, go places that shouldn’t have anything in them, dive down holes, climb up as high as possible, talk to the NPCs, click on random objects (could be funny, could spawn something in your face).

Who knows. You might find something totally off the wall like a war-room of cats tucked into a hidden cranny in the middle of a jump puzzle. Or a bunch of turkeys randomly crammed in a nook in a dungeon. Or clamber your way through to a beautiful sub-world with the most amazing Charr cub.

One of the first things that won my heart about this game is a random, unnamed NPC in Div Reach who loves cats… and will talk to you at length about them. And I nearly hurt myself laughing at the NPC exchanges at the Cow Launcher.

Its not a cow launcher its a cattlepult

Been There, Done That

Gaile Gray.6029:

Majic.4801:

~ snip~ ….speaking as a player who plays all races and classes and has leveled 27 characters to 80… ~snip~

I just have to pause to say “I salute you!” (And ask, of all you’ve chosen, what’s your fave? I’m genuinely interested.)

Edit: I just realized I sorta posted in an off-topic theme. Perhaps a different thread would be best, eh?

I have to /salute right back, because your endless patience and compassion are truly one of our community’s greatest assets.

Respect.

I know there are a lot of players who have far more alts than I do and have many more hours played (a little over 4200 hours at present), thus I doubt my own tale would be worthy of its own thread.

The Grand Illusions

So I’ll just reiterate that I’m apparently a Natural Born Mesmer, because I simply cannot stop playing that silly profession no matter how hard I try.

Mesmer is probably one of the hardest professions to level (and I’ll throw in the jab that the NPE/Trait changes make it worse), but once leveled up, fully traited and blessed by Lyssa with the sacred dodge clones, there’s very little a Mesmer can’t do, and do well.

That is to say, I can take on larger crowds of top-level mobs (Risen, Mordrem, etc.) and solo more different kinds of champs with my Mesmers than I can playing any of the other professions.

I should point out that I mainly enjoy just running around the open world, doing random events, completing maps and whatnot, so I can’t necessarily speak to PvP or dungeons — although I’ve had great fun when I’ve been in a WvW mood, and apparently even a clueless Mesmer like me can be a threat out there.

I have four level 80 Mesmers currently: Human (my “main”, I suppose, since he was my first lvl 80), Sylvari, Asura and Charr. I can’t name a favorite because my race preferences change often based purely on my mood at the time.

I’m all about clone-spamming regardless, so lately I’ve tended to choose the full-sized Charr because it’s such a kick to see four of those darkly-dressed giant cats crowding the battlefield.