Guild Wars 2

I know this has probably been asked a thousand times over, but recently I discovered how much I like playing in the silverwaste. Theirs more of a challenge and it has some decent payoffs, at least ive had some good one so far. This is however with my engineer, Im not a huge fan of it with my ele.

All that being said what is your favorite area to play in.

Silverwastes is possibly the best designed “gaming area”. It has group events, a decent difficulty vs the rest of the World and the option to farm. It also looks nice, has one of the single best jumping puzzles and a variety of map navigations. Auric and Verdant have mostly the same selling points, hence why I spend most of my time there. I think they are rewarding and fun to play in, I love the verticality design and Auric is notable for being incredibly easy to get around in.

Beyond those 3 I’d say my favourite core maps are

- Frostgorge for map variety in an endgame zone
- Bloodtide for being a drop dead gorgeous tropical area with lots of underwater
- Queensdale for being the first map I ever saw and thus remaining my fav starter zone

Honourable mentions go to the below for being great maps, but vastly under utilised

- Southson Cove for being a stunning and unique looking map, but has virtually nothing to do there

- Snowden. Prob the “snowiest” feeling of the shiverpeaks map, but lacks interesting events and stories. I like to for the atmosphere and lanscape beauty more than the map gameplay itself.

- Tangled Depths. Wonderfully intricate and yet rarely uses that intricacy for any reason beyond a couple of mastery points. It does the meta stories reasonably well, but needs so much more content. We have a huge underground river simply for one hero point (I know its a travel option as well, but it’s a long/slow one)

I prefer Dry Top over Silverwastes myself. I don’t know if I can say an absolute favourite though, but after completing map completion several times, I think the ones I tend to do first (other than the starter zones) are Gendarran Fields and Fields of Ruin, so probably those two are my overall favourites. Queensdale as well as a starter zone I like. Well balanced zone, that one is.

I’d say Silverwastes and Dry Top once I actually learned to navigate that place :-)

Auric Basic is gorgeous but the meta event/HoT Story access gating is a pain when I just want to map it on a new chara.

My favorite maps are—Silverwastes and Dragon Stand. I felt that these two maps are so well put together and cohesively epic in scale. ANet did a great job with these.

I personally enjoy Silverwastes (The exploration was amazing), Dry Top (ditto), Queensdale and Gendarran Fields.

Oh, and I forgot to mention Auric Basin. That area excels in music, lore, environment and the whole ‘feel’.

Wow… you honestly stumped me.

I think it’s been a long while since I played just to enjoy playing in an area. Played to enjoy LW or Personal Story, yes…. Played to experiment with builds, yes…. Played to farm crafting mats and TP mats, yes….

huh… food for thought… o.O

~EW

Eternal Battle Grounds.

The secret garden in regent valley.

I love Timberline Falls…so gorgeous.

I love Orr.

The idea of venturing into a long lost world, laid waste by the actions of an implacable foe, to reclaim it for humanity really appeals to me. Its desolate devastation makes adventuring there one of my all time favorite gaming experiences. I wish Orr foes were a bit more challenging to match the feel of the zone.

For play and farming – Silverwastes
For Beauty – Frostgorge and Timberline
For Starter Zones – Queensdale
City – DR and Hoelbrak

I like the zone-wide dynamic events with progression so the maps I like for those are;
- Harathi Hinterlands
- Silverwastes
- Tarir, the Forgotten City

But my favorite is the Silverwastes.

The Grove, bottom level.

Quaggan cave at Desert Borderlands.

I would put Dragon Stand at the top of the list, followed by Silverwastes.

As far as old Tyria, I’ve always enjoyed Fireheart Rise. The event chains in the mid southern part of the map + Vexa’s Lab give the map flavor and options in terms of events.

I like the Black Citadel.
I idle in the home instance, and wish I could have an instanced version of Gladium Canton so I could idle there instead.

If I want a change of environment when I’m looking at my storage I run over to Desider Atum in Metrica Province.

If I want to just aimlessly gather it’s Gendarran Fields. Familiar and nice and I don’t have to run far to get there.

I like… hmm.

Auric Basin is definitely up there, thanks to its music, art, and cool event cycle, though it lacks the variety of Verdant Brink (But fortunately doesn’t have the bogglement of Tangled Depths).

Plains of Ashford is also one of my favorite core maps, simply because it was the first. There’s always something about the ‘first map’ in a game that can’t be recaptured, especially in large game worlds like MMOs. I can mentally divide it into so many different little areas thanks to exploring it before I had my sense of scale calibrated to the rest of the game.

Verdant Brink, though, I feel is one of the best-designed maps in the game. Sure, there are some who cry about it because it’s a “Wall” to Maguuma (So many masteries to use, that new players won’t have yet), but it’s an amazing “Welcome to the Jungle!”, showcasing almost everything HoT has to offer, without being oppressive with it. And, its open/explorable nature (Especially after the April patch fixed the meta) keeps it from being as oppressive/frustrating as Tangled Depths, and more inviting to casual play than the “Massive Dungeon disguised as a map” that’s Dragon’s Stand. That, and we get to see Lord Faren run around in a loincloth.

Fields of Ruin is also a big favorite of mine (Though Champawat made me hate a certain quest chain), because you can argue with idiots in Ebonhawke and actually win!

Queensdale back in the days of the train. I miss the huge population, tons of RP on Tarnished Coast, and . . . ahem . . . Meat Chop.

He brought me tons of entertainment.

Timberline is a pleasant place to be. Looks nice, things to glide off, decent amount of water, good nodes.

I think Silverwastes is the most fun to play on, but alas to get gold out of it you have to do chestfarms. If only we could sell the keys on the TP to people who actually like doing that…

But all things considered, my favourite area is the Sorrow’s Embrace dungeon specifically paths 1 and 3. It’s the only place I still play mesmer.

Visually … I like Auric Basin, EBG (just lvoe the castleque feeling) and Southsun.

Peaceful music – Snowden drifts, Timberline Falls, AB

I might seem a bit boring, but for me, it’s Lion’s Arch. It’s such a pretty place, always full of players and activity, it’s great to relax in and it’s fun to climb the buildings. I usually do at least 2 of the 3 JPs in LA every day and love to sit on top of the bank or the crafting area and just watch the sky change colors.

For me it’s a toss-up between Verdant Brink and Tangled Depths. I enjoy both maps for their complexity, event cycle, and it’s fun to farm and collect loot in these zones as they just seem to be splitting at the seams with it.

I also enjoy Auric Basin, but I don’t enjoy the event cycle or the boss meta as much as in the other two.

Dragon’s Stand just isn’t my cup of tea. The massive zerg is exhausting and I think I prefer spending more of my time in smaller groups as I typically do through most of the event cycle in the other maps.

Core Tyria is beautiful and there’s plenty to enjoy about it, but I have a strong preference for the HoT style maps.

In HoT: Verdant Brink. I love its looks and its meta events, and the vertical mechanics work very well with it imo.

Core Tyria: Bloodtide Coast and Plains of Ashford. Bloodtide Coast has stunning scenery and I love the pirate theme. The Plains of Ashford— I love all the fall-coloured trees, it’s my favourite place for a beginning character. I find it quite calming.

City: I think Rata Sum is the most gorgeous home city.

Nobody asked for least favourite, but mine are all the Shiverpeak/Norn lands. They are all way too similar: snowy and bland. Zz.

Queensdale, before the champ train.
It was nice just occasionally doing a challenging foe like troll on a map you could 1-2 shot alot of the normal monsters with a zerker build.

Cursed shore. It has a great mix of exploration, solo events, and meta-events. You can go there and just hang out and do your thing, whatever that is. It’s a little spartan since they removed so many mobs (it needed toned down to be sure, but naturally they overdid it), but overall a great zone.

Silverwastes in 2nd place, maybe a bump to first if we’re looking at gameplay only. It’s the ideal meta/repeatable content map. The meta has no timer, it’s just player driven, only takes about an hour per cycle, and you can roam solo, as small groups, or large zergs and still find content to do. It’s only downside is the bland landscape.

HOT maps tried to imitate SW and missed badly. No room for exploration or individual gameplay, and not really even much difference between the 3 main maps other then what enemies your fight. You do the meta chain as scripted, or you go somewhere else. I was very dissapointed with them, except for DS, which I don’t see as a map but just a single, huge, epic battle event. That’s how dragon fights should be done. I only wish it gave loot worth the time it takes.

The jungle is so green and beautiful, all the maps are lovely. Specially Auric Basin. But I also enjoy more creept things so Orr gets a nice vote too.

I love Borderlands.

Dragon Stand. Then Queensdale