Guild Wars 2

I started playing an Asura Engineer three days ago. I had some difficulty with the mechanics of the game so thought I’d leave the quest ‘Golem Positioning System’ until I became more assured at moving around. Then I began exploring using various waypoints and portals. I thought I’d find other quests to do, but there didn’t seem to be anything.

All very interesting except that now I can’t seem to get back to ‘Home’ so I can do that quest. Is there a hotkey that will get me there or something of that sort?

The quest system works differently in GW2 to other mmo’s you may be used to. Around the map are heart icon’s, when you are close to one it will also show up on your quest panel which is top right of the screen. Most of the time you just do one of the activities it says (usually 3 or 4 options) and if your actually required to talk to the “quest giver” it will let you know.

There are several ways to get around. Firstly if you open your map you can teleport to any of the waypoints you have found (blue diamond shape). You should have some in your home city which for Asura is Rata Sum.

There’s also a “cheat” way which requires you go to the pvp hub (crossed swords on your toolbar, top left) and then through the portal at the opposite which takes you to the pve hub/main city Lions Arch. Once there you can get a portal to any of the race’s main city’s.

Hope this helps, good luck

Thanks for the help. I (a former WoW player) am really enjoying this game. A lot friendlier and less regimented than WoW. A lot more fun, too, I’m beginning to realise. I’ve still got a lot to learn about it, but definitely will carry on. I’m sure it’s going to get even better

No problem m8, feel free to add me to your friends list and if you have any questions or need any help don’t hesitate to ask.

Not to give you a “life story” here, lol. Though i have been playing GW2 since release and MMO’s in general since the late 90’s so i can explain any differences or discrepancies in things you might be used to with other games.

Anyway enjoy the game

Mind that the majority of the quests in GW2 are dynamic events. The human starting area for example has 17 heartquests and like 87 dynamic events.

Dynamic events are basicly zone specific quests that get “triggered” in a certain way. There are a lot of ways to trigger them. Just a few examples:

- Entering a certain area
- As a follow up of another quest (make sure you follow NPCs after dynamic event quests are finished…they might have more quests for you.
- Spawns every x minutes or hours
- If you talk to a certain NPC (some of them run up to you and ask for help for example)
- Opening certain chests or other objects.
- If you perform a specific action like bowing in front of a memorial stone or w/e. NPCs in that area often give you hints about potential “hidden” dynamic events.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dynamic_event

If i had to give you a checklist of things to do in zones while leveling it would be something like this:

- Main storyline
- Heartquests
- Dynamic events
- Jumping puzzles
- World bosses if they are available in that zone.
- Vistas (red triangle), skillpoints (lightblue arrow), and Points of interests (small squares) if you want to complete the map. (you get some nice rewards if you do).
- Pick up gathering tools and gather while youre busy leveling. You dont need a profession (craft) to gather in GW2. It gives good exp though and everything you gather can be send directly to a collectables tab in your bank (in your inventory click on the wheel on the top right and deposit collectables).

More than a little discouraged now. Have spent over an hour wandering around Rata Sum and can’t seem to get back to the Snaff Lab. I’ve gone up and down steps, through waypoints, all sorts of things, still can’t seem to get there. Periodically it asks me if I want to return there, I say yes, but somehow I’m nowhere near it. Worst of all, I fell a couple of times, died, sold all the possible stuff I could from my bag, but still don’t have enough money for repairs. Confusing place, Rata Sum, think I’ve talked to everyone there without making progress. Hmmmmmmmm……

Aww. I hope you did find it. But if not, whisper me and we can go find it together.

I think the Snaff lab is through one of the Asura gates on the mid-level at Rata Sum? One of the big portals. If you get close enough, they should be labelled with where they lead to.

Snaffs lab can be accesed via one of the southern asura gates (purple icons) in rata sum. Its on the “surface” level.

If youre on eu i can show you.

Death by falling doesn’t damage your armor, so if you need to repair it then it won’t be related to falling. It’s only being killed by enemies (and objects, like traps) that damages your armor.

Also, something I didn’t realise for a long time which may be helpful: Damaged armor (orange shield symbol) still works the same as normal, you get the full benefits from the armor rating and any stat bonuses.

It’s only a problem when all of your armor is damaged, because then the next time you die a piece will break (red, cracked shield symbol I always think looks like a heart). Then it turns invisible and you don’t get any bonuses from it.

So you don’t need to repair it until either some is broken or it’s all damaged and the next death will break it. It’s usually cheaper to do that, then repair it all in one go, than to keep repairing it as it becomes damaged. (Especially when you’re levelling up and might well find better armor to swap it for before it needs to be repaired.)

Thanks, all, for the very helpful advice and suggestions. I think what I’m going to do is start all over and create a new character. I’ll mail what stuff I can to the new one and then delete the original one. Why? Well, I think I can use what I’ve done as valuable experience and can start over and do it better from scratch. I had to do this in WoW years ago when I started and was an absolute novice at mmo’s. In many ways your first character is a learning experience and deleting him/her and starting over is not an admission of defeat, just a chance to try it all again.

P.S. Still love this game, love the way it’s so flexible and you can make it ‘your game’, not just adapt to rigid rules and requirements and fall into line with everybody else.

Yeah, Rata Sum is confusing. all the different levels makes it hard to read the map.

I would seriously suggest you leave the Asura territory and head to the Human city of Divinity’s Reach. It’s much more conventional and the local countryside will probably make you feel more at home

On the top level of Rata Sum there are 3 ‘sets’ of Asura gates. The northern-most one includes a gate to ’Lion’s Arch’ this is THE major hub of the game. You will be spending a lot of time there one way or another.

If you step through the Lion’s Arch gate, you will arrive at a travel hub, surrounded by gates to each one of the race main cities. You can take your choice which you select but the Human one (Divinity’s Reach) is the most conventional. Once you get there head directly south and leave the city for Queensdale. Or you can hang around and explore a bit – your choice.

As for being lost and broke – welcome to real life. It’s no big deal. Just kill stuff and loot it. Or take any work that someone offers you.
Now, whatever you do, don’t sell your stuff to merchants – they will rip you off something rotten if they can. Learn to use the Trading Post (The Lion Head icon on your game menu bar – top-left of the screen). Some of the stuff you get is pure junk. It even says so on the tool-tip. That, you can sell to merchants.
You’ll be surprised how easy it is to make a reasonable living just travelling around doing odd-jobs for local farmers etc.

Don’t be in a hurry to level. This game is different from WoW. It isn’t all about grinding levels so that you can play end-game content. It’s hard to break that habit and many people never do but the game is all around you. Notice how many level 80’s there are running around Queensdale? They are all there for a reason.

Relax, explore, let the game-world take you where it will.
And if you’re into large-scale PvP at all, there is a big treat in store.

Again, thanks to all. I created a new Asura (I rather like them) and the whole thing makes much more sense this time. So I’m making some progress, figuring things out, learning a lot. I really like the fact that even as a new character you’re into everything in the area. I always deplored the rush to level up for end-game content in a couple of these games. Seems silly, since getting there is really half the fun. And now they say the next WoW expansion will give you an ‘instant level 90’ either on a character you have or a newly created one. Not sure how you play a character you know nothing about, but that’s what they’re promising and one very good reason I turned to this game.

One way to avoid going broke:
Be aware that waypoint usage costs coin. It’s not much at low levels, but you should probably avoid using waypoints every 5 seconds on a whim.

The exception is inside cities (like Rata Sum or Lion’s Arch). Waypoint use inside cities is always free. Teleport around all you want in there.