Guild Wars 2

To finish LWS3 chapter/part/episode 1, that is. My next objective is to “go to the bottom of the crater”, but I just can’t seem to make myself continue it. I mainly just log into this one toon (my highest level) to complete the Dailies, then I switch back to a lower level toon since I find doing map completion and Personal Story more relaxing. And the higher level my toons get, the more bored I become with them for some reason. Hell, it took me many months to finally push myself to finish HoT’s story, which I only completed last month. Maybe the story and maps just aren’t interesting me as much. I don’t know. I just find it so much more enjoyable to play my non-80 toons. Sometimes I make a new toon just for the fun of it, because it’s more relaxing at that stage. I also feel like doing nothing but relaxing once I get home from work, so that is part of the reason why I can’t make myself focus on HoT/LW these days – they do the opposite for me, not very relaxing.

Has anyone else felt this way? I just worry that I’m going to procrastinate so much that the next episode will be released before I finish the first one.

For me, as I get to the higher levels of the Personal Story some fights become too difficult to be enjoyable. This this can be true of the Living Story as well. I have already lagged behind in the stories so that the new content arrives before I finish the previous.

There’s no obligation to do the story, but if it helps, keep in mind that going to the bottom of the crater will give you an instanced section of story, and the instanced part after that is the last part, so you’re not exactly committing to a huge long slog if you just drop down and enter the green star. Also the story is pretty fun and immersive (other than one conversation that realistically wouldn’t happen in combat; I think it bugged that way and they decided to keep it, per Guild Chat).

And you’ll get plenty of unbound magic etc for doing it!

Donari.5237:

There’s no obligation to do the story, but if it helps, keep in mind that going to the bottom of the crater will give you an instanced section of story, and the instanced part after that is the last part, so you’re not exactly committing to a huge long slog if you just drop down and enter the green star. Also the story is pretty fun and immersive (other than one conversation that realistically wouldn’t happen in combat; I think it bugged that way and they decided to keep it, per Guild Chat).

And you’ll get plenty of unbound magic etc for doing it!

Well that is good to hear that I’m not too far from finishing the episode. Though, when I did venture into the crater, I couldn’t get to “the bottom” – I saw no further entrances. Guess I’ll have to look again when I have the time to sit myself down and commit to instanced play and no doubt several boss fights.

OP,
You aren’t the only one who feels the way you do. I could have written your post myself (except I can’t even to get myself as motivated as you did to finish the HoT story). I only dabbled in LS1 and LS2, never completing either. I swear, I just blank out when the story dialog starts. Don’t know who any of the NPC are – and don’t care.

My end game is WvW, but I’ve leveled many toons just because I enjoy the openness and freedom of the core maps. I like getting that green, level 23 sword drop.

The stories nowdays are just ways to funnel us to the latest theme park map.

Moyayuki.3619:

To finish LWS3 chapter/part/episode 1, that is. My next objective is to “go to the bottom of the crater”, but I just can’t seem to make myself continue it.

My suggestion is you fully explore the map, get the new mastery, unlock all the new gliding abilities and then go down to the crater, because you will have to kill a few mobs; but if you use the two updrafts there to give the fight from air you will kill them easily without taking a scratch.

I love the levelling experience, and even now, the levelling experience still counts for a hell of a lot of your playtime in GW2. GW2 was never originally designed to be a game that made you want to get to L80 ASAP. There is lots to enjoy whilst levelling up and you can make the game as hard or as easy as you want simply by straying into higher level zones if you feel up to it. Unfortunately players come into this game thinking that anything under max level is not worth their time, and that’s so sad to see.

People too easily forget that the game starts at L1, not L80. These days most players seem intent on getting to L80 instantly and skipping a load of great open world content. Well that’s my view anyway.

I don’t get instantly bored of my alts when they hit L80 however, but I do still love to level up a new alt.

Hopefully you figured it out, Moyayuki, but I’ve just had an epiphany as to why you can’t find the spot at the bottom of the crater: the UI is unclear! I ran into this as well.

Your brightly colored text says to get to the bottom of the crater. Under it, in grey, are a couple of steps. One of those is to talk to Bennett in the camp. Only after you talk to him does the green star show up below, at the start of those red streaks leading down to the floating altar.

So talk to Bennett and then go find the bottom!

I’m going to post a suggestion on this to help the devs spot the issue, too.

Donari.5237:

Your brightly colored text says to get to the bottom of the crater. Under it, in grey, are a couple of steps. One of those is to talk to Bennett in the camp. Only after you talk to him does the green star show up below, at the start of those red streaks leading down to the floating altar.

The green star still points to Bennett though, I think, if you still have to speak to him?

If in doubt, follow the green star, not the written instructions!

Moyayuki.3619:

then I switch back to a lower level toon since I find doing map completion and Personal Story more relaxing. And the higher level my toons get, the more bored I become with them for some reason.

It’s almost like the game is set up in such a way where you have dozens of different options to play and can do those things that you want to do.

Sarie.1630:

I love the levelling experience, and even now, the levelling experience still counts for a hell of a lot of your playtime in GW2. GW2 was never originally designed to be a game that made you want to get to L80 ASAP. There is lots to enjoy whilst levelling up and you can make the game as hard or as easy as you want simply by straying into higher level zones if you feel up to it. Unfortunately players come into this game thinking that anything under max level is not worth their time, and that’s so sad to see.

People too easily forget that the game starts at L1, not L80. These days most players seem intent on getting to L80 instantly and skipping a load of great open world content. Well that’s my view anyway.

I don’t get instantly bored of my alts when they hit L80 however, but I do still love to level up a new alt.

I love this post. I’ve been playing since the Head Start, and I can remember leveling my first Toon and thinking, “Oh, no. I don’t want to get to Level 80!”

I was having too much fun leveling.

I’ve only ever Tome leveled one Toon (a Thief) and ended up deleting it. I like the RPG elements of the game. But then again, I’m also someone who has played Elder Scrolls and Gothic games many, many hours….

Soon.5240:

I love this post. I’ve been playing since the Head Start, and I can remember leveling my first Toon and thinking, “Oh, no. I don’t want to get to Level 80!”

I was having too much fun leveling.

I bought another account during the sales a while back and have been slowly levelling up on that, from scratch, with nothing. It was not quite as glorious as the initial game release because of .. cough .. “new player experience”, but it really did scratch an itch for me.

I came to a stark realisation whilst playing though, and I wonder if it’s why people get so burned out so fast. I’ve watched a lot of let’s plays and they all have one thing in common. Hearts. People feel like they’ve gotta do ALL the hearts. My advice to anyone reading this who is new, or thinking about playing – after the first few super quick hearts in the starting zone (where you’re likely getting to grips with the mechanics anyway) just ignore them.

Explore. Find Hero Challenges. DO EVENTS.

If an event almost completes a heart for you, then finish it off. If you find a heart that you genuinely enjoy doing, then great….but you don’t need to do them. General exploration, dynamic events and personal story is more than enough to keep you leveling at a good rate. Actually, for me the leveling feels too fast even ignoring most hearts, but I suppose that’s subjective.

The only downside to this philosophy is because you’re not map completing zones you end up with very few transmutation charges.

I barely play the game unless theres new content, then i play that for 3 days and stop playing after cuz it gets boring quick. Just play other games, thats how i keep having fun. Dont force yourself to login if its hard. Although i do lurk around here and in reddit alot during work, like now, lol.

Its funny because when this game first came out alot of people i knew didnt care for the story and quit playing.

Alot of people came back for the scarlet saga because it was alot of new content and story. Though many were not big fans of certain aspects of that though many [played the content.

Anet tied many frustrating aspects of HOT story to masterys. I feel they did that because the HOT story was short and imo a bust.

So tie in all the factors and maybe thats probably why you enjoy the journey as oppose to grinding a story you dont have any interest in.

I am frustrated and loose motivation fast because some content in Hot and LS3 ep1 are too difficult or instructions on how to defeat bosses is vague (such as Justicar Adrienne) it becomes mind numbing and you should not have to spend 20 min looking up how to defeat a boss. How am I supposed to enjoy the narrative if I get stuck because of a lack of instructions. By the time I am done afterwards I just dont care about the story anymore. Or wandering around maps hoping that a zerg will show up so you can do something in beautiful enviorments that I think could be really cool? I just want to give up and is not fun. Difficult is not always equivalent to better and I think HOT and Raids and some of the LS are running on the premise that harder is better. I understand difficulty and challenge but I should not be ripping my hair out in a game in which I do to relax. I still play the game but feel defeated in a sense. Where is the new content for those of us who are not looking for the hardest or most time consuming challenge?

Madeline.9504:

I am frustrated and loose motivation fast because some content in Hot and LS3 ep1 are too difficult or instructions on how to defeat bosses is vague (such as Justicar Adrienne) it becomes mind numbing and you should not have to spend 20 min looking up how to defeat a boss. How am I supposed to enjoy the narrative if I get stuck because of a lack of instructions. By the time I am done afterwards I just dont care about the story anymore. Or wandering around maps hoping that a zerg will show up so you can do something in beautiful enviorments that I think could be really cool? I just want to give up and is not fun. Difficult is not always equivalent to better and I think HOT and Raids and some of the LS are running on the premise that harder is better. I understand difficulty and challenge but I should not be ripping my hair out in a game in which I do to relax. I still play the game but feel defeated in a sense. Where is the new content for those of us who are not looking for the hardest or most time consuming challenge?

i don’t know how good your skills, but man i do all the Personal Story, HoT story, and living world episodes(all LS2 and LS3.1 so far) SOLO….

I never read guides on my 1st few tries either, i always want to prove to myself that i can solo everything in this game except hard core pve content aka t4 fractals or raids(i don’t even raid,last time i did was last december~got bored of game, came back a few months later, never got the chance to do it again)….maybe its just a L2P issue(no offense), but i really can’t tell why you have a hard time doing it when its easily soloable….

I’ve done in in full berserkers gear, full condi gear, full tanky gear(soldier’s) all SOLO, and they are all doable…obviously tanky gear makes it slow and tedious but still doable, glass canon gears like berserker and vipers make any story instance EZ mode. Took me probably 5 hours to finish LS3 ep. 1 and finish all achievments….then logged off and played a different game.

TL’DR: i don’t want to be spoon fed everything, but if its not a raid or high level fractals….you can solo it, otherwise its L2P.

Soon.5240:

Sarie.1630:

I love the levelling experience, and even now, the levelling experience still counts for a hell of a lot of your playtime in GW2. GW2 was never originally designed to be a game that made you want to get to L80 ASAP. There is lots to enjoy whilst levelling up and you can make the game as hard or as easy as you want simply by straying into higher level zones if you feel up to it. Unfortunately players come into this game thinking that anything under max level is not worth their time, and that’s so sad to see.

People too easily forget that the game starts at L1, not L80. These days most players seem intent on getting to L80 instantly and skipping a load of great open world content. Well that’s my view anyway.

I don’t get instantly bored of my alts when they hit L80 however, but I do still love to level up a new alt.

I love this post. I’ve been playing since the Head Start, and I can remember leveling my first Toon and thinking, “Oh, no. I don’t want to get to Level 80!”

I was having too much fun leveling.

I’ve only ever Tome leveled one Toon (a Thief) and ended up deleting it. I like the RPG elements of the game. But then again, I’m also someone who has played Elder Scrolls and Gothic games many, many hours….

I feel exactly the same way!

I leveled up my first character (a sylvari ranger) and then decided that I don’t like her name (roleplaying issues lol) – instead of just changing it the way the game allows me to (there’s an option in the gem store afaik), I deleted her happily and started again. I savoured every moment and level (I used one tome of knowledge – I admit – but I had a critical need of a place in the bag and I lacked only 2 k XP to 80 lvl) and now since she’s already 80 lvl Druid I’m just running around the Heart of Thorns maps and having fun participating in events and completing maps. I’ve just finished exploring Auric Basin.

There’s no way I’m going to get to the LW 3 on time and it’s totally cool with me.

Before reading through this post in its entirety, please understand that I’m not out to telll you why you’re wrong, or even why I think you should be “motivated.” I’m only telling you why I do feel motivated.

I happen to belong to an excellent guild whose leadership has trusted me with some veteran/leadership privileges (such as freely accessing the guild bank, WvW management, et. al). I know most of the PvE content is soloable in theory, but for my money, the social experience is what keeps me coming back.

been playing mmos since 2002…i like the social experience, but i’m one of those people who hate 100% socializing and get nothing done(might as well do skype/FB chat) in the game, 3 out of 4 times i prefer to solo and play the lone wolf card aka Solo beast mode…..but when i need people to talk to their there. Almost everything in this game is soloable, hence why i keep coming back to it every patch(though i leave soon after finishing the content and achievements, better things to do/play for the moment).

J envy.5270:

been playing mmos since 2002…i like the social experience, but i’m one of those people who hate 100% socializing and get nothing done(might as well do skype/FB chat) in the game, 3 out of 4 times i prefer to solo and play the lone wolf card aka Solo beast mode…..but when i need people to talk to their there. Almost everything in this game is soloable, hence why i keep coming back to it every patch(though i leave soon after finishing the content and achievements, better things to do/play for the moment).

That’s where the guilds come in. They’re not strictly necessary for everyone’s enjoyment of the game, but they do come in handy for me quite often when things get stale and/or too difficult. As always, YMMV.