Guild Wars 2

Hello.
I am Scrump and I just bought GW2 during the sale. I had heard of the game but I have been incredibly Blizzard loyal for many years. This game really surprises me. It runs amazing on my sub par machine and the mechanics are both refreshingly new and unique as well as familiar, providing a minimal (aka enjoyable) learning curve. I dig it.

That said, I am lost on a couple things. As a level 9 Ele I have no hearts to go to that are my level with the next one I can see being level 13… I tried it, it didn’t go well. Are we expected to just grind out on boars in this game? The exp per kill is pathetic and it will take me a lot of time to grind all the way to 11 or 12 so I can go to the next heart-quest-thing… So I was hoping for some insight there.

Then I was wondering about crafting. In every game I play that has a crafting element, I dive right in on that. On my ele, I have collected a grand total of 3 jute scraps… Which equates to nothing. Are we supposed to do crafting later in the game or did I again miss something?

Next thing I was curious about is when you create a character there are many choices to set up your background and story, love that. But I worried that those choices were also setting up my talents, skills and traits… How much of those choices affect my actual in game skills and how much affects the storyline and backstory?

Lastly, when creating my ele I spent too much time on dyes and color combinations and then by level 4 I was wearing all grey/brown gear… What is the point of the starting color scheme if its gone 35 minutes into the game? I spent more time making it than I did wearing it. Should I save that starting gear or is it a waste of time to color it?

Thanks in advance,
Scrump

1. I’m not sure where you’re looking, but the beginner zones have numerous lower-level hearts, and I feel like you should have been presented with one almost immediately upon entering the zone. Perhaps you went the wrong way and ended up in a higher-level part of the zone?

2. Crafting can be a little difficult to get into right off the bat as a new player, but as you do more stuff, you’ll acquire more materials and be able to craft with much less effort. One issue is that cloth, such as jute, can only be obtained from enemy drops, whether from loot bags or salvaging light armor. Same goes for leather and medium armor, but leather prices tend to be much lower than cloth. Other basic materials like ore and wood can be gathered from the world.

3. All the choices just affect your backstory / the progression of your personal story.

4. I’m not sure if this has been the case the entire time, as I seem to recall a day when this wouldn’t happen, but yeah when you equip new armor, it doesn’t retain the colors you had on the previous armor. Because of this, there isn’t really much point in dying armor while you’re leveling up, since you’ll be getting newer, better gear at a rather quick rate.

Hello Scrump and Welcome!!

For the hearts: if you can get to level 10 you start your personal story (which is nice exp); if you’re still too far from that (e.g. starting lvl 9 now), I suggest going to your racial city (that is, Divinity’s Reach if you’re human, etc..), go through the asura gate (big pink circle on the map) to LA (Lion’s Arch). From there there you can go through one of the other asura gates to the other cities. Exit the city you’ve choosen and you’re in a new 1-15 map (new hearts and map to explore—> exp :P)

Welcome to the game!

First of all, killing mobs is only one way to level up. But trying to level up solely by killing mobs is going to take forever. Do hearts, do events, explore. You get more exp for doing events than anything else. For starters, try following the little compass thing in the corner of your screen. If you are still out leveled, try to explore a little bit, or try to find some events. They are marked on your map with big orange circles, and also a little pop up that says an event is nearby. Plus map completion. Doing all the hearts, finding all the waypoints, vistas, points of interest and skill points grants a large amount of exp plus some special rewards and items for completion.

You can start crafting right away if you want. However, you’re not going to get very far just gathering the mats. It can be done solely that way, but it does take much longer. Also get some gathering tools from a vendor. Gather all the materials you can along the way. Honestly I would start looking into ita bit later, when you have a bit more money, and a few more materials.

Character creation. None of those choice effects your game skills, traits, etc. But they do have some effect on the personal story (which starts at level 10) but not so much that it makes a huge difference. It’s mostly flavor.

Honestly I wouldn’t worry about trying to customize, or dye your gear just yet. As you are leveling you change gear so quickly with bigger and better things it’s almost not worth it. Most people just wait until level 80 to start doing that, as they get BiS gear and can change the look as they want without changing their actual gear around too much.

If you have any more questions please let us know!!!
Good luck!

Experience Hearts: If you’ve plowed through all the hearts in your immediate zone, I would have to then recommend running back up to your race’s main city, finding the purple Asura Gate to Lion’s Arch, go through it and into another race’s capitol gate and find the starting zone for that race to continue doing content your level. The good news is that once you hit lvl10 you start getting personal story quests to do which greatly smooths things out, so you’re not far off.

Crafting: I think it ramps up at later levels, but you’ll need to use salvaging kits to break down gear you don’t need for crafting materials. The alternative is to simply sell that loot to the vendor and use the proceeds to purchase the crafting materials from the Trading post. Also, for harvesting herbs, lumber and ore you’ll need to purchase and equip gathering tools from a merchant (harvesting sicle, logging axe, mining pickaxe). I think that only starts once you’re beyond the starter zone, though. The game should point it out to you when you get to that stage.

Personal story: They only serve to change what dialogue scenarios you’ll experience as you play the game. These choices have 0 impact on the mechanical capabilities of your character. You’ll have the same skills/traits/utilities as every other character of your race/class. However there are RACIAL skills that augment the main skillset that EVERY character of a given race has access to, regardless of which class they play. From what I can tell, these are not monumentaly game-changing and shouldn’t put you at a disadvantage over other races.

Coloring: Yes, it’s a waste of time to color starting gear because it gets replaced by uncolored gear. It used to keep the same dye scheme when you upgraded armor, but that got changed a long time ago when they revamped the dye system. You should still be able to re-color your gear at-will without having to spend transmutation crystals from your Hero menu (H key). You start with a set of starter dyes to choose from and can unlock more from drops or purchasing them on TP/Gem store.

Welcome to the game and feel free to ask more questions.

Mob killing is the worst XP source. Hearts are there to give some guidance but also are only partially useful. The real xp comes from doing events, and once you are of level, dungeons. You can get most of a level from one dungeon path. You also get xp from exploration and from gathering nodes.

Speaking of crafting … that gives a lot of xp as well. It does take a bit of time to start your mats collection. Over time you’ll get more. Also, use salvage kits on any gear you don’t want to keep or sell on the TP. Most cloth comes from salvaging cloth armor.

Character creation: The choices set up your Personal Storyline for the first 20 levels of it. They have no impact at all on your game mechanics; everyone has access to the same skills and traits for their profession. Warning on Personal Story, it starts with many paths and narrows down to the same end for everyone.

Dyes: Don’t worry! You can toss any random colors on at the start. If you open your hero panel (press H), and click on the top part to get the drop down list, you’ll see “Dyes” as one of the tabs. With a recent change, you’ll be able to see all the game’s dyes and preview them in that panel on your current gear. The starter dyes are all there and unlocked for you. Any dyes you collect (mostly via purchase on the TP, most cost a couple of silver, pricey ones go up to a lot of gold) will be applied account wide. Any time you want you can open your hero panel and change your colors around.

I think originally the idea was your starter color would be applied to any new gear until you used other dyes on it, but ui advances have made that obsolete. Dye changes you make to a specific item do persist so long as you have it in inventory.

Note there are gem-store-purchaseable items called “Outfits.” These are costumes that cover up your armor. In your dye panel there is a place at the top to set up your Outfit dye scheme. Whatever colors you put in there will go on any outfit you equip. I think they’ve fixed the bug that occasionally wiped those dyes. Regardless, I keep a Word document listing my preferred dye scheme for each outfit on each alt so I can more quickly replicate it.

Welcome and have fun!

You are never expected to grind mobs in this game. In fact, I highly recommend never grinding mobs unless you have multiple XP boosters active.

Hearts are merely one avenue to level up. I highly recommend exploring (keep an eye on mob levels, anything 2 levels above you will likely give you trouble if you are new). Stay within your level range and look for events that pop up. Events are a great way to level up in addition to hearts.

I also recommend travelling to one of the other race’s starting zones to give you completely fresh content. To get there, go to your race’s capitol city and look on your map for a purple swirling portal that goes to Lion’s Arch. When you arrive in Lion’s Arch you will see multiple portals to the other race’s capitol cities. Pick one (at random if you wish) and then find your way to the exit and into their level 1-15 zone.

Normally I’d say to go through Heart of the Mists, but I don’t believe you have that button unlocked yet.

Become familiar with Lion’s Arch. It is essentially a hub for everywhere else. Including access to WvW/PvP if you want to check that stuff out before the game unlocks the Tooltips explaining it. Be warned though, if you go in before you officially have it unlocked you may find yourself very confused with what to do, but you have the choice either way.

Arianhod.3485:

Hello Scrump and Welcome!!

For the hearts: if you can get to level 10 you start your personal story (which is nice exp); if you’re still too far from that (e.g. starting lvl 9 now), I suggest going to your racial city (that is, Divinity’s Reach if you’re human, etc..), go through the asura gate (big pink circle on the map) to LA (Lion’s Arch). From there there you can go through one of the other asura gates to the other cities. Exit the city you’ve choosen and you’re in a new 1-15 map (new hearts and map to explore—> exp :P)

OHHH! Someone in game said to “go to other start zone” but I had NO IDEA how to do that, I might just do that. Thanks a ton!

And thanks for all the responses!

1. “As a level 9 Ele I have no hearts to go to that are my level with the next one I can see being level 13” I believe you unlock your first chapter of personal story at level 10. To reach that level, have you collected all the waypoints? New player Experience was changed, so you can’t exactly see points of interest or vistas yet, however those give exp too. Also have you revealed all the land close to where you were leveling? All you really need is 1 more level to continue gaining exp at a good rate, so if you have indeed revealed the majority of the map and collected waypoints, then try to catch some events. No use grinding boars

2. “Are we supposed to do crafting later in the game or did I again miss something?” in your main city you should find merchants that sell salvage kits. Buy the cheapest one and salvage the gear that you can’t/ are not planning to use. That should most definitely help with gaining materials. Also exploring your main city would also grant you exp

3. “How much of those choices affect my actual in game skills and how much affects the storyline and backstory?” everything is just story related. The only thing that influences your skills is the race that you’ve picked (different races have different racial abilities) and your class.

4. “Should I save that starting gear or is it a waste of time to color it?” every time when you equip a new item the dyes reset. If you reequip the old item, the dyes once again reset. It’s not that annoying on a level 80 because you barely change your gear. Not ideal solution, but if you want to look like a rockstar while still leveling it would be an idea to spend a little bit of real cash and pick up a costume. You can find those in your hero panel → costumes. They’re also account bound, so it’s kind of an investment for all of your possible characters. IF you bought a costume you could just tick to use that as your appearance, recolour it and your appearance then wouldn’t change with each new piece of gear that you pick up. Otherwise you will either have to pick up with re-dyeing yourself, or waiting till level 80 to look awesome

I haven’t leveled a new character from scratch for awhile, so I may be wrong, but I think the option to freely dye your gear is unlocked fairly low (or maybe there is no level requirement at all?) . But for some general information, all the dyes that you obtain in your travels are saved, and you can use them as often as you like. In the hero screen, there will be a dye tab that you can play with. Doesn’t cost any stones to dye your clothes.

Scrump.8614:

Arianhod.3485:

Hello Scrump and Welcome!!

For the hearts: if you can get to level 10 you start your personal story (which is nice exp); if you’re still too far from that (e.g. starting lvl 9 now), I suggest going to your racial city (that is, Divinity’s Reach if you’re human, etc..), go through the asura gate (big pink circle on the map) to LA (Lion’s Arch). From there there you can go through one of the other asura gates to the other cities. Exit the city you’ve choosen and you’re in a new 1-15 map (new hearts and map to explore—> exp :P)

OHHH! Someone in game said to “go to other start zone” but I had NO IDEA how to do that, I might just do that. Thanks a ton!

And thanks for all the responses!

Hint on other start zones: Some of the cities have multiple exits. You could end up in a dangerous place! So if you are in Hoelbrak you want to take the east side exit, same in Black Citadel. South from Hoelbrak takes you into a level 40 or so area, north from BC is kinder but still starts at level 15ish. And when you do the starter Norn area (Wayfarer, east from Hoelbrak), be wary of the north facing zone exit in the northeast corner of the map, as that takes you to a level 80 zone.

Hi

1) As was mentioned: If you go to your racial city, you can take a portal to Lion’s Arch. There you’ll find portals to the other cities and their beginner zones. Funny thing though: You’ll get down-levelled to be zone appropiate. So if you enter a new start-zone you’ll be down-levelled to 2 or 3. Doesn’t matter though, you’ll get XP that’s appropiate for your real level. So you can do lower level maps without taking too much of a penalty.

2) You can take on 2 crafting professions, but some of the mats can be difficult to aqcuire. So for myself, nowadays I sell the mats I get and buy what I want from the Trade Post. Low level mats are worth quite a bit, and can be an easy moneymaker while levelling.

3) Those choices mainly affect backstory. The only thing of real influence (IMHO) is race. Each race has a couple of Elite skills that are unique to that race. But those skills are never better then your class-elite skills. For example: Asura get a skill that will allow to summon a golem to fight for 30secs, while a Sylvari will be able to summon a Fern Hound. And a Norn will get the ability to shapeshift to a bear-from. Most of them are more for flavor then real use.

4) When you get a color combo you like, it can be relatively quick to reapply it from your inventory. In ye olden days, the color combo would stay when switching armor pieces. But it got changed along the way

There are more than just Hearts, there are Dynamic Events that can spring up as you are wandering around exploring and these are the main source of XP with their completion bonuses. But lots of things give XP, gathering mats at nodes, exploring areas that are still blurred out on your map. Rezing downed NPCs and other players.

A number of features are level locked, I’m not sure about crafting but each of the starting zones does have a crafting location where you can talk to a crafting master to unlock a particular craft, there are 8 and you can only have two active at a time. As a Elementalist Tailor (light armor) and Artificer (staff/scepters/focus) would be a lightly pairing. You also get XP from crafting.

An alternative is selling mats you get to the Trade Post, again, not sure when you are introduced to it when leveling a new character (they redid new character progression some months back and I haven’t rolled a new character since then).

As for the picks about your background, that only really affects what quests you get during the first 1/3rd of your personal story but they all converge for the next 1/3rd of your personal story so it’s just flavor.

You can dye your outfit at any time via your character panel, for free, with the dyes you have unlocked. Different pieces of armor have varying number of dyes they can take, 2-4. But once you dye them and accept the change, they are permanent. I don’t remember if swapping a piece copies over the previous color scheme or not.

The game’s wiki is your friend.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Xp
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dye

“No need to kill/grind mobs”

I just want to add that in fact killing mobs does help with some XP and also loot, whether for salvaging into materials you can use for crafting or equip. So you may want to kill all you can stand, just for that.

I think I saw while skimming posts, advice to get a salvage kit and sickle, axe, and pick, and collect every node you run across. Holding CTRL shows them if in range even if your map doesn’t show them yet. Salvage low value items, sell higher value items.

Also, check the trading post to see what light armors sell for, you’d be surprised what the demand is for them. Just right-click on a piece of armor and pick “sell at trading post.” You should be able to figure it out from there.

Behellagh.1468:

You can dye your outfit at any time via your character panel, for free, with the dyes you have unlocked. Different pieces of armor have varying number of dyes they can take, 2-4. But once you dye them and accept the change, they are permanent. I don’t remember if swapping a piece copies over the previous color scheme or not.

Just to clarify, the dye job is permanent in the sense that if you swap to other gear, when you swap back, your dye job for that first set will still be the same. You can dye your clothes as often as you like

“Permanent dye.”

There is a dye remover, no?

Yes, but I mean that they don’t reset on their own.

DeanBB.4268:

… Salvage low value items, sell higher value items.
…

Good advice. To further clarify, you can sell on the BLTP (Black Lion Trading Post) or sell to a local vender (identified on the map by a stack of coins). Most things can be sold for more on the BLTP but not all.

Every so often I go through my inventory by opening it and then opening a window to BLTP by clicking on the “lion” icon on the top left of screen, then select buy/sell, then buy. Everything you sell on the TP cost a commission so sometimes it’s not worth it to sell there. I usually salvage those. Some few things sell for more at a local vender. Also you can “sell junk” to the local vender. Some things you can make more money salvaging the materials and selling the parts/materials on the TP. Since I save most of my materials for crafting I click on the top right corner of inventory and choose to deposit all materials. But if I’ve already got a full stack (250) I will sell the remainder.

Another thing to consider is to unlock any new weapon or armor before selling it or salvaging it (although one of those actions unlocks it automatically). Once they are unlocked they can be used as a skin by any character on your account.

As a note on crafting:

I generally throw myself at crafting systems in games as well. Wasn’t too thrilled with my GW2 experience, but I think a few tips might help move you along. Make sure you have salvage kits and tools, they’re available from every training vendor.

As you get laurels in your daily rewards, track down your major city’s laurel vendor (green laurel thing on the map). They sell one-time starter packs that can give you a huge boost to start, and they sell material bags for whatever tier you may be working in. At endgame, the Tier 6 bags can bring in some decent cash.

I remember my early experience in crafting. Oy. I was level 25 before I got out of Plains of Ashford (level 1-15), because I insisted on crafting my own gear. Pretty hard to do when you go Weaponsmith and Armorsmith. They share the same major material line, so my progress was really slow. Point being, pick two trades that are different enough, if you can. For elementalist, tailor and weaponsmith (if you go daggers) or artificer (for most other weapons) should prevent a similar conflict.
For the best XP, use the discovery system, and it might do some good to look up a leveling guide so you have an idea of what to grab.

If you get your hands on a Crafting experience booster, take some time and get ready to use it. It really helps by adding a chance for the bonus experience you can get. If you get most other kinds of boosters, you can trade them in for “Enchantment” boosters near most Black Lion Trading Post vendors. Those Enchantment boosters can turn into whatever non-combat boost you’d want.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Enchanted_Reward_Boost

Hope that helps! It’s a long way to 500.

Rauderi.8706:

…
As you get laurels in your daily rewards, track down your major city’s laurel vendor (green laurel thing on the map). They sell one-time starter packs that can give you a huge boost to start, and they sell material bags for whatever tier you may be working in. At endgame, the Tier 6 bags can bring in some decent cash. …

If you plan to get ascended trinkets for your level 80 from the laurel vender then you may want to save 180 + laurels for that purpose.