Guild Wars 2

Like I said, I’ve been away from the game for quite a while now. I began playing when the game was released and quickly grinded my Guardian to 80. My reason for quitting wasn’t due to a lack of enjoyment or anything like that – I just didn’t have the time to play anymore.

Now my circumstances have changed and I’m looking to get back into the swing of things, but I’ve obviously missed quite a lot.

I’ve scoured the internet and these forums – looking for some sort of comprehensive guide on how the game has evolved and whatnot – but to no avail. Of course (and many of you will probably say exactly this) the best way to go about this would be to simply log on and start learning these things for myself; I’m well aware of this. So keep that in mind. That being said, here’s the gist of what I’m asking:

What are the major avenues of endgame content right now? For someone returning to the game at level 80 – what are the various directions I can start devoting my time to, and what should I work on to make this possible? For example, what will be expected of me – both gear and knowledge-wise – if I join a group for ‘FotM’ (which is the same thing as ‘Fractals’, right?); and what should I do to prepare for that?

Basically, I’m looking for someone to be that wise old player to walk me through some of the new developments and send me off in the right direction for a smooth return to this game. This is just me reaching out and saying, “Where do I start?” Any help is appreciated – I’m grateful for anything you have to say. Thanks in advance and I wish you all the best.

Find a decent guild and join it. Talk to people about the game while playing. That’s the best advice I can give you. Joining a guild is a much better way to get information than something like the forums. That’s because guilds tend to have a uniform playstyle and so what you hear from them should match what you need to know…at least if you join the right guild for you.

Anyway the game is more fun to play with others.

First thing’s first, they added a new tier of gear. But it’s very important to know that none of the game’s content is gated by not having this gear. This will be a concern for WvW though as it will take a while to get fully ascended, so you may feel like you’re at a slight disadvantage during some fights.

Let’s start with fractals. This will be your fastest way to getting your ascended rings, and the only way to getting your ascended back piece. You’re free to jump into fractals as soon as, well as soon as you start the game really. Of course it’s recommended you go in there at lvl 80. Once you hit Fractal Scale 10 you will be hit by attacks that cause Agony and this damage is mitigated only by the Agony Resistance stat which can be obtained through Ascended item specific upgrades. The Fractal vendor can be found in the Fractal hub in LA.

Next, be sure to do your dailies. Each daily rewards you with a Laurel which can be used to purchase Ascended Rings, Accessories, and the only way to purchase Ascended Amulets. You need only do 5 of the 10 listed dailies to gain this reward. The Laurel Vendor can be found a little south of the Dungeon Vendors.

February added Guild Missions, which is another way to get Ascended Accessories. This stuff is for groups of more than 5 people and are separated into 5 different mission types. The barrier to entry to these atm isn’t due to gear, but Guild progress. Join a guild that has these unlocked, afaik the most progressed guild(s) have unlocked the 3rd mission type. Finishing a guild mission event will award you with 50s, 2 rares, and 2 Guild Commendations which are used to purchase Guild Mission specific rewards, such as the Ascended gear mentioned earlier. The guild comm vendor is south of the bank in LA.

It’s worth mentioning that the vendors I’ve mentioned offer cosmetic, vanity, and utility items as well.

Tomorrow’s patch will add a WvW specific progression and will upgrade the honor badge vendor with a wider selection of armor skins and stat combos.

I skipped over a few things, such as the updates to existing dungeons (AC just got a complete revamp), updates to dungeon rewards (not sure when you took your break but they updated the amount of tokens you receive), and updates to the Orr events. I didn’t want this to be too heavy with text, but this touches upon the many many things you can do post launch.

Oh, fight your dragons and search the wiki for “daily chests”.

EDIT: Search the wiki for “chest” and read the Daily Chests section.

goals you should achieve (imo)

• get a guild
• get max exotics or close to
• planning for the future as there is little endgame stuff witch you can grind to, most of the stuff in this game is time gated over real time ( dailys , weeklys, monthlys) and not so much ingame.

very very very rough summury of the pve changes

• added endgame dungeon, this dungeon scale, once you’ve completed lvl1 you can start at lvl2. every level takes 20-60 min to finish depending on group skill. the higher up you go the harder it gets. from lvl 10 they introduce agony to the bosses witch is an incurable condition and deals a set amount of % of your max hp and can only be reduced via agony resistance. highest possible lvl to reach is 49.

• added some ascended gear. its a new gear tier basically. its like rare armor is to exotic armor. there is only rings,back,assec and amulets ascended gear atm. this is heavely time gated. i.e if u make 20 dailies in a month and the monthly you can afford 1 piece.

my advice if you like pve and playing dungeons is:
to get atleast a exotic weapon and rare gear. look up a guide on the profession topic and see what build you want to roll with. start playing some dungeons. either with your guild or with pick up groups. if you want you can start with fotm, lvl 1-10 is realy simple and you quickly get a hang of it. maybe in your freetime use the wiki to check up on a few stuff that you have questions about. my recomendation is to start reading about fotm and ascended gear.

Roll a warrior, only use berserker’s gear and have fun.

Drew.1865:

Roll a warrior, only use berserker’s gear and have fun.

I have a berserker warrior and I don’t find it fun. What am I doing wrong? lol

Check out Dulfy . net that site has a pretty comprehensive list of most things added to the game.

Vayne.8563:

Drew.1865:

Roll a warrior, only use berserker’s gear and have fun.

I have a berserker warrior and I don’t find it fun. What am I doing wrong? lol

Oh you must have a Mesmer and or gaurdian in berserker gear then or if you play another class you must be support which means even less loot and not run very many dungeons.

Drew.1865:

Vayne.8563:

Drew.1865:

Roll a warrior, only use berserker’s gear and have fun.

I have a berserker warrior and I don’t find it fun. What am I doing wrong? lol

Oh you must have a Mesmer and or gaurdian in berserker gear then or if you play another class you must be support which means even less loot and not run very many dungeons.

Only if farming is all I do, especially when I farm with people around.

Thank you NetherDiver and Waraxx, that was actually very helpful. I really appreciate you guys taking time to do that.

Airok.4712:

Thank you NetherDiver and Waraxx, that was actually very helpful. I really appreciate you guys taking time to do that.

Of course. I briefly skimmed over this but if open world events are more of your cup of tea, the world bosses and meta events are well worth your time. A perfect example of this are the Orr events, the chest at the end of each event now rewards a guaranteed rare. Though these don’t directly lead you to getting Ascended gear, you can salvage/sell the rares for a decent amount of cash that you can use to craft/buy many of the unique looking exotics in the game. The dragon events award the same chest, as well as other specific meta events detailed in the wiki article I mentioned.

Be sure to try out sPvP as a warrior, they are top tier there.