Guild Wars 2

Excelsior!

Today I was playing trough some more missions of the, uh, “kill Zhaitan” story thing. And while kinda like the story behind that, I just wonder myself about a couple of things and it just feels like I am doing it wrong.

1) Since I am still going trough the vanilla story (at least I think it is) I have not been to “the Heart of Maguuma” or whatever. So I can not glide and stuff. Once in a while, my EXP bar (that is full of course) flashes and it basically want me to unlock the trait lines. Or remembers me to do so. I wanted to finish the Vanilla quests first, but it looks like I am giving away so much EXP.

Would the EXP from those story quest fill up the EXP bar and I am basically losing those points by not unlocking yet?

2) Also, is it normal to experience a steep difficulty curve? All out of a sudden, when hitting level 80 areas with their foes, I barely survive 3 foes, sometimes 2 are pretty much a hassle. Right now, a lot of the story missions are in covered areas and I am pretty much running through those areas as fast as I can. It feels “weird” to do that but as soon as I pick a fight, I take a high risk of dying and getting nowhere.

I know my gear is still a mix-up of what I got/get from the quests, but man, I once could not advance because some random zombie veteran dude was blocking a small pass and would hand my Asuran butt to me. I felt kinda weird that I could not progress because of an open-world zombie randomly walking around.

The problem I face is there is a chicken-and-egg problem to me, where I am supposed to get gear from content I can not survive due to the lack of good gear in the first place.

So, is there any advice in what order I should work trough my missions? I changed once the stories to see what this Maguuma stuff is all about but it felt like I am not supposed to be there yet – as Level 80.. That is kinda confusing to me, even though I am glad this game is still a challenge later on. But to be honest, I feel hindered to get anywhere right now. The story missions are easy peasy compared to the random mobs wandering around in the open world…

I assume you are already level 80.

1) Have you unlocked the mastery system yet? I assume not if you have not gone to the HoT maps. I’m not sure what you mean by a flashing EXP bar, but it does sound like you are “wasting” EXP. Go do the 1st mission of HoT and you’ll unlock the mastery lines and your EXP will be counted again.

2) Vanilla game mobs (with the exception of the SW mordrem, and maybe the karka) are quite easy, you shouldn’t have much trouble even with the level 80 ones. What level gear are you using? If you’re mostly equipped with level 80 rares (yellow), you’ll be fine. Easiest way to get those are to do world bosses.

Agree with above,
1. Yes, your wasting your XP
2. Sounds like your build doesn’t suit you, I used to have the same issue, not enough power and no toughness, so I tried a more tanky build and can quietly harvest a node with 3-4 enemies attacking at once then move on. Try a mix of Zerk and Knights. Zerk weapon and Trinkets with Knights armor should help.
Also some enemies have a weekness either power or condi, it’s up to you to know and learn when to use either.
What profession are you?
Skill rotations are a thing too.

Feel free to add me in game, if you see me online, ask and I’ll come be your meat shield

1) You’re right that you cannot unlock masteries until you’ve done the first part of the HoT storyline and that does mean any XP you get before then is wasted. That’s not necessarily a problem because there is no limit on the amount of XP in the game, so it’s not like you’ll be unable to finish your masteries. It will just take you longer.

If you wanted to you could go and do the very first bit of the HoT story now, so the masteries are unlocked and you can start training them. But if you would prefer to do the story completely in order you can just ignore the flashing bar.

2) Yes it’s normal. All level 80 maps are intended to be harder than the lower level maps. It is possible with an appropriate build, high quality equipment and some experience to run past zombies in Orr, but it’s often easier to kill them (especially as many of them can knock you down or pin you in place).

The good news is there are plenty of ways to get better gear which don’t require already being able to survive these areas already. The simplest is to buy it.

At level 80 you should be looking to get exotic weapons and armour (orange text). You can buy armour from the Temples in Orr for karma (252,000 for a full set), from World vs. World Armor Masters for a small amount of gold and Badges of Honor or from the Trading Post for gold. You can also get weapons from the TP. (If you’ve levelled crafting you can also craft your own, but it takes a lot of materials to do that.)

All level 80 exotics are equally good, so you can also mix-and-match those methods if you don’t have enough of one currency for a full set.

Like lower level equipment they’re available with a range of different stat combinations. Many people recommend Beserkers or other full-damage sets, but it may be helpful to choose something with some defensive stats too like Knights (or if you use conditions Rabid).

I’ve been playing since launch, I’ve completed both the personal story and HoT and various other things like dungeons and I still stick with equipment that gives some toughness because I know I’m not the best player and not always paying full attention so the ability to survive some extra hits is very helpful to me.

You’ll also want to upgrade your trinkets and for this the best option is actually to go straight for ascended (the top tier) because you can buy them with laurels from any laurel vendor. If you’ve got spare Badges of Honour you can get them slightly cheaper from the ones in World vs. World.

Excelsior!

Now that is quite an amount of information here! Great!
I have already contacted a very helpful guy via PM but the problem is that he gave me so many possibilities it made my head spin – eventually, I have not even looked into it at all. Not because I want to be rude, but simply I am kinda overwhelmed.

1) No, I have nothing unlocked so far. So I basically should just rush to that place wherever I am supposed to go, accept and then go back minding my business in Orr? The EXP bar flashes once in a while and the two pull-up menus as well, like: “Dude! Here! Man! Check me out!” and then it opens my (locked) HoT trait window (the lowest of the Hero panel’s tabs).

It’s good to know that because I wasted probably a good 150.000 EXP.

2) The confusion mostly comes from the fact that I am in Orr, having trouble getting rid off two zombies, enter an instsance in the very same area with the very same enemies in it and suddenly it becomes playable. Usual business. Then the mission is over and I am supposed to run like the devil himself is after me. It feels odd and wrong.

About my masteries, equipment and stuff, I have nothing really done so far. The same reason as #1 above. The friendly PM person gave me links to some meta builds (none of them feature my beloved dual pistols due to t easily cleansable conditions. . . . . . . .) and it all focusses mostly on Scrapper. I have no clue about Scrapper because from the looks the gameplay sucks so I was pretty much like… “ehh, later maybe.”

Apart from that I just have random stuff I got, some stuff here and there with yellow tags, some stuff I am getting from the finished quests.

I literally have all mix’n’match, from clothing to weapons, I have not upgraded any weapon yet, trinkets I have no idea and my built is what I felt fun to play with so far.

And I had a blast (no pun intended), but now the error margin is becoming thinner and thinner and I also planned to get everything set up at Level 80/when I am done with the story. Meanwhile, I ran into the problem of tough zombies and flashing EXP bars.

The only way I could get stuff is by buying gems which I don’t mind. I think I got 80,000 Karma so far, so that’s not an option. And any other things, like Fractals, WvW or diverse tokens is probably something I won’t touch as “lone wolf”. I survived 6 years of SoloQ in League of Legends an 1.5 years of Duty finder in FF14. But I am kinda tired of the stress it gives me.

So yeah, that’s the story of my life. Your information was quite good, at least I need I gotta to sneak myself into the Danger Zone (I am looking to you, Kenny Loggins!).. I mean, Maguuma and at least stop losing EXP.

If you have something to add I would not mind. I’m like a sponge…sucking everything up!

Sincerely and Excelsior,
Zed

As a L80, you will get L80 drops no matter what level the map you play in. You might consider completing some lower level maps for loot, equipment (armor/weapons/trinkets), etc. before tackling the higher level maps.

There’s really no rush; the game is probably more enjoyable when you aren’t frustrated by dying often, and, as stated above, there is no ‘wasting’ of XP, truly, as once you’ve maxed out Masteries (or hit the not-enough-Mastery-Points wall), it goes nowhere, anyway.

Good luck.

Yesterday I had a blast!! It felt like shifting two gears up gameplay-wise!
Thank you all for all these hints and tips (including the PM guy!)!

I finally sat down and stepped up my game and that was even more of a pleasure!
Before, I enjoyed it, but my equipment and abilities (skills of my brainy midget) were less and less suitable. But finally I did all the stuff I saved up for Level 80, even things I totally forgot about (I feel like a Bookah!). The design changes in HoT are also awesome and the fights are really intense* but fun. Had to be spoiler’d a bit about Trahearne but whatever.

*Compared to “vanilla” mobs and HoT mobs.

Also I finally understood how the mastery system works. Reading and getting it explain is totally different to actually seeing it!

I finally stepped into Scrapper, I opened some exotic boxes that I had in a closed bag in the inventory and got a neat rifle from it, I finally can glide and all. First this game was a little but warm flame, now it’s bursting. Thank god I bought Heart of Thorns instead of Heavensward on its release date at July, 23rd 2015. Like an 180° turn. Best decision!

Thank you guys for all!
I will check the information regarding clothing and see what I can get/think is the best for me and then I am done with these steps.

(At least I got a bit of experience in “unnecessarily hard gameplay as Engineer due to lack of equipment” . Could maybe help later…)

Excelsior!
Zed