Guild Wars 2

I am only asking this to get opinions on the game itself.

I am under the impression that this game is not suited for those that don’t want to raid or PvP. Dungeons might be of interests at some point but for now I will skip.

Other than story lines,zone events,and HP trains that people do,there really isn’t anything to do at max level? Or I am just in the dark about things at 80?

Well I’ve never done raids and I’ve only ever played 21 PvP matches but I’ve managed to spend just over 4,000 hours in this game, and over half of that on one character.

I spend a lot of time playing through the various storylines and doing map completion. But I also collect mini pets which takes a lot of time because some come from specific achievements and others need specific currencies, or are just very expensive. I also complete achievements to get skins and items, or simply because an achievement sounds interesting. (I was literally in the middle of doing another one when I discovered there’s an achievement for finding a golden chicken in Tarir, so then I dropped everything to look for it, and refused to resort to using a guide.)

And then there’s random things like trying to break out of maps or reach points I don’t think you’re supposed to get to, taking screenshots of the scenery, replaying the personal story on alts so I can do every possible variation, helping friends with whatever they’re doing. At some point I’m going to finish doing all the dungeon paths and Fractals too…probably.

You’re just in the dark; in fact, I’d say you’re totally off the mark regarding raids and pvp.

There was a huge outcry against the addition of raids to this game, specifically because a huge portion of the community really liked the “this game isn’t about elite gameplay” feeling GW2 has.

I do a mixture of pvp, dungeons, and fractals on a daily basis; I’m on the fence about whether or not to start raiding, but I do have a raid-ready character and have unlocked every single mastery except for the raiding ones. That being said, there are some days where I do none of those because I get sucked into doing Silverwastes or HoT meta-events, another thing I love doing.

So yeah… you sound new, just learn what classes and activities you like in the game, and those can easily keep you occupied into endgame.

I am an open PvE player, no raiding, dungeons or WvW. I do the occasional PvP or Fractal but not enough to matter. I also don’t craft, I salvage and sell everything.

For open PvE the story lines, dynamic events and boss’ are the thing to do, plus masteries if you have HoT and general exploring. I fully enjoy the game at level 80 and I’m really looking forward to open PvE in the expansion.

The personal story is has different paths depending on the race and chosen order up to the battle at claw island. I’ve made several characters to play each path, once I get to claw island I tend to delete them unless I really liked playing the character.

Living world season 2 is very good. If you are a new player you’d have to buy it at the gem store but it is well worth it.

The HoT story and living world season 3 are okay, the stories are a mess but it’s still a fun challenge playing through them. I did like the story in the last two episodes of season 3.

The boss events are fun, especially the harder ones. Once you’ve done them a few times you can start on the side achievements for each one.

The game has a lot of neat out of the way locations that I enjoy finding. Many of them serve no purpose in the game, but they show the care and attention that the devs gave to the maps. This mostly applies to the core maps.

Then there are all of the collections. I’m still trying to get all of those cats.

Hope that helps.

Danikat.8537:

But I also collect mini pets which takes a lot of time because some come from specific achievements and others need specific currencies, or are just very expensive.

I do this too, I have a long way to go. I’ll never have enough gold for the karka mini.

DeadTreeJig.6714:

Danikat.8537:

But I also collect mini pets which takes a lot of time because some come from specific achievements and others need specific currencies, or are just very expensive.

I do this too, I have a long way to go. I’ll never have enough gold for the karka mini.

Have you noticed the karka has dropped in price a lot recently?

It’s certainly not cheap but not as impossible as it was. But even then it’s possible to do eventually, just takes a long time.

For most of the games life I thought I’d never be able to afford all the minis on the TP. Now there’s just 3 left for me to get – the Oakheart, Undead Chicken and Flame Legion Effigy and I finally feel like I might be able to do it. Just need to keep saving up.

@OP: If you haven’t already, register on gw2efficiency.com. There is a Daily category there that lists all the things that get rewarded or are otherwise limited to 1/day.

There are also achievements, which others have mentioned, that may be of interest to you. You can look up achievements in your hero panel, on the wiki, or on gw2efficiency.

You might find inspiration somewhere in those things. Sometimes it’s the journey, sometimes the reward, and sometimes both.

Exiled.5781:

…I am under the impression that this game is not suited for those that don’t want to raid or PvP. …

Other than story lines,zone events,and HP trains that people do,there really isn’t anything to do at max level? Or I am just in the dark about things at 80?

I’d say your impression is off, as there are many players here who raid and PvP. That aside, you seem to have fallen into a common trap. Many players jump into this game, either boost to L80 or grind to L80 in very little time, then bemoan the fact that this game is not entirely focused on “endgame”. There’s plenty to do; it just depends upon what you want to do.

Also, GW2 won’t tell you that you must go to X Place next, followed by Y Place, where you are required to do Z. Instead, you should set your own goals and play whatever it is that you enjoy doing in game. If exploration is your thing, there’s a lot to explore. If you’re an acheivement hunter, there’s a ton of things to seek out. If you want a legendary weapon, that’s a great long-term goal. If you like story… etc.

Scroll down to “Got to 80, What Now?” for some ideas. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/wiki/newplayers

Good luck!

Just try to do all the jumping puzzles and diving googles.

As some have pointed out, I am fairly new to game. I have had the account/game since launch and played for a great while back then and just recently got my account active and started playing again after 5 years.

Trying to find the right profession for me to enjoy and to thrive on is another issue which might also hinder my outlook of game.

Currently only have ranger to 80 and kinda frustrates me picking a ranged class that does better or is better with melee weapons.

Exiled.5781:

Currently only have ranger to 80 and kinda frustrates me picking a ranged class that does better or is better with melee weapons.

I feel your pain there. My ranger is my first and main character, and I was disappointed to find out how much better she is at killing things in melee range. That still doesn’t stop me from running longbow builds where content allows, and I’ve made my peace with it.

Keep messing around with classes and builds until you find one that satisfies you – that’s another thing people love to do at endgame. Messing around with builds is a widely-shared hobby, the meta builds really exist for increasing the chance you/your group will succeed in very specific forms of content.

Here is the way it works.. if are a player that enjoys PvE, eventually.. you will be forced to raid to continue your progression in this game, it’s really just a matter of how long you can occupy your time doing other stuff before that happens.

STIHL.2489:

Here is the way it works.. if are a player that enjoys PvE, eventually.. you will be forced to raid to continue your progression in this game, it’s really just a matter of how long you can occupy your time doing other stuff before that happens.

Other than running out of other stuff to do (which is just a matter of waiting for Anet to add more content) what is there that forces you to raid?

Danikat.8537:

STIHL.2489:

Here is the way it works.. if are a player that enjoys PvE, eventually.. you will be forced to raid to continue your progression in this game, it’s really just a matter of how long you can occupy your time doing other stuff before that happens.

Other than running out of other stuff to do (which is just a matter of waiting for Anet to add more content) what is there that forces you to raid?

Due to the hugely disproportionate pay outs, and lowest effort-cost for Legendary armor. The reward system still hasn’t been normalized, despite Ascended gear basically becoming baseline after LS3 trinkets blew the lid off obtaining HOT stat builds.

Its long been known that players will flock to whichever content offers the best rewards; and Ascended gear has been both a Hard and Soft gating mechanism to force minimum investment to those higher reward activities.

Fractals use them for AR, but the only reliable way to get Asc gear is by crafting them. Yeah they drop in T4… but you can’t run T4 without major gold investment in either Asc armor (for more slots) or very high AR infusions (which cost scale steeply beyond +9).

Raids use them to shore up DPS output, since the vast majority of players are incapable of optional skill rotations (and was proven with DPS meters being green lit). Yeah you can do them in exotics…. but that extra group DPS output from Asc stats is always desirable.

Compare the rewards of both and Raids and Fractals to Open world meta, or even dungeons, and you’ll quickly realize how much better the first 2 are when it comes to generating coin, and outfitting alts with top level gear. Hell….. WvW used to run at a deficit due to the cost of siege upgrades (which are single use), tower/keep upgrades (which you regularly lose throughout the day), and the extremely low rate of mat generation. Worse still….. you could only get Core stats up to exotic from WvW vendors, and HoT stats required you to do HoT metas for the supplies to craft them. It wasn’t until Skirmish rewards, which added asc gear for tokens+marks, that WvW players had solid net gain in their income, because skirmish rewards now covers the cost of play.

Yet despite those changes to WvW, Fractals can generate around 10-20 gold from just daily rewards and discounted keys…. and rarely take more then an hour, hour and a half, to do. And Raid tokens give you steeply discounted gear, allowing you to gear up alts every couple of months for 130g (thats a full gear set), where as Crafting just the armor set is around 350-400g. For reference, MasterMarks discounts for WvW/PvP Gear vendors results in half price (in coin) over crafting for each gear piece, but also costs tokens from that game mode.

In terms of time efficiency, and general control, Fractals and Raids can reliably generate the highest rewards, and easily fund alts while still turning a profit. WvW has a huge list of X factors that dictate reward output, and the enemy steam rolling you can almost halt it completely. Even skirmish rewards get dodgy, because the conditions for the Outnumbered bonus are very touchy, and ramping up participation is very difficult unless you’re succeeding in some capacity. Open world rewards are easy, but hugely time consuming….. HOT map metas are at least 2 hours long, only a hand full of event trains in Core Tyria make competitive gold/loot, but become mind numbing after a couple of cycles. Compare that to a 30 minute run in Raids or Fractals, make at least 5g in drops/daily, and free to do something else.

Danikat.8537:

DeadTreeJig.6714:

Danikat.8537:

But I also collect mini pets which takes a lot of time because some come from specific achievements and others need specific currencies, or are just very expensive.

I do this too, I have a long way to go. I’ll never have enough gold for the karka mini.

Have you noticed the karka has dropped in price a lot recently?

It dropped way down, finally got one. It’ll be interesting to see how long before the price goes back up.

Exiled.5781:

I am only asking this to get opinions on the game itself.

I am under the impression that this game is not suited for those that don’t want to raid or PvP. Dungeons might be of interests at some point but for now I will skip.

Other than story lines,zone events,and HP trains that people do,there really isn’t anything to do at max level? Or I am just in the dark about things at 80?

Aren’t Raiding and PvP most MMO end games? What else would people do at endgame?

voltaicbore.8012:

Exiled.5781:

Currently only have ranger to 80 and kinda frustrates me picking a ranged class that does better or is better with melee weapons.

I feel your pain there. My ranger is my first and main character, and I was disappointed to find out how much better she is at killing things in melee range. That still doesn’t stop me from running longbow builds where content allows, and I’ve made my peace with it.

Keep messing around with classes and builds until you find one that satisfies you – that’s another thing people love to do at endgame. Messing around with builds is a widely-shared hobby, the meta builds really exist for increasing the chance you/your group will succeed in very specific forms of content.

My main is a ranger and my favorite class. I almost always play longbow and dual axes. I actually find/feel that I do more damage with the dual axes than I can with the longbow. I’ve used a greadsword as well, but prefer the axes for closer-range combat since the first 4 skills still work at range. When I get surrounded I will use whirling defense (skill 5). If you haven’t tried dual axes as a compliment to the longbow, you should give it a try.

I’m pure PvE player, played since launch pretty much every day and I never raid or PvP so they are not required in any way if you don’t feel like it

A lot of games claim that the game just begins at max level, but I feel GW2 really does begins at max level. But that is very suggestive and depends what you find fun.

I am PvXer though so I have a bit more at end game. To me here is a short list, which I will call mini-games since some are just different parts of overall game:

• Alt-o-holic so alts (24/31 so far)
• Helping guildmates
• Story line (multiple races/classes/builds)
• Living Story
• World exploration
• Map meta-events
• Adventures
• World Bosses
• Dungeons
• Fractals
• Festivals and holidays
• PvP (Ranked/Unranked/Stronghold)
• WvW (Never-ending fight)
• Fractals
• Achievement hunting
• Jumping puzzles
• Gearing up
• Legendaries & Precusor journeys
• Trading Post
• Gold/Gem acquisition
• Guild Hall building
• Guild missions
• Home Instance building
• Crafting/gathering
• Collections
• Forum Wars

Again depends what you find fun, and I think a big part is finding others that you like to do things with and engage in group activities, that alone can create more games in games. Good gaming!