Guild Wars 2

I finally got my first character to 80 (I just picked up the game last month). I have a few goals in front of me that I am working on (map completion, story/exploration mode dungeons, personal story (I’m 2 steps short of Arah), crafting)… but I would like to get into the ranked aspects of end game and was hoping I could pick up a few tips for where to start.

sPvP: I hopped into a few matches and was told to go practice more before I joined. Is there a low-rank sPvP matchmaker that I can go to so I’m not grouped with people that are going to make fun of a rabbit rank but still work towards upping my game against real people? Or do I just ignore the haters and die, learn, repeat my way up? I don’t think fighting the practice dummies is going to help me gain a lot of sPvP experience…

FotM: I’ll be at level 1. I guess I need to find a guild willing to help run me up fractals levels or wait for people to join via gw2lfg … am I missing something? On a related note, should I be in all yellow 80 gear for my first fractals runs, or can I gain the gear I need as a fresh 80 by just hopping in?

WvWvW: There aren’t a lot of roamers to duel with in T1 (I’m on Sanctum of Rall) … so I guess I just hop in and follow commanders around…

Perhaps the answer to all of the above is to be in a big active guild willing to have “fun” carrying newbs …

sPvP, do Hotjoin at the beginning and grit your teeth. It’s very unforgiving to new players. There’s a guild made for teaching new players, I think it’s Academy of the Mists.

Fractals, you’re not going to get too much gear here, I’d suggest focusing on getting into exotics and learning your class (even better) while slowly working up. Do daily Fractals (even number runs). Preferably run 2,4,6,8 once a day. If you want to keep doing Fractals that day, run even numbers 3,5,7,9. Make sure you’re running either your level or higher runs. Also make sure that your group knows you’re inexperienced so they can explain the fights.

WvW, you can just hop in and follow them. If you want to learn more, there are WvW guilds out there, I’m not sure about your world specifically.

Dungeons is where you’re going to want to spend most of your time. These provide you money, loot (which you can sell for money) and dungeon tokens which you can use to buy yourself Exotic armors and weapons (BiS for now and Orange rarity).

See: this link here to figure out what dungeons you want to do

My tip for you is to start with tanky gear and slowly progress down to squishier and squishier gear. If you read a guide that has all zerker gear, don’t immediately rush into all zerk gear, for the love of all that is holy.

Thanks for the response!

Re: sPvP “hot join”
Is “hot join” where I go talk to the NPC and select a server off to the left as I enter the prep zone or the NPC by the statue to the right closer to the PVP gear vendors?

PvE: I’ve watched a lot of streamers do fractals and asked questions so I have a pretty good idea what is going on with the fights. You recommended dungeons over fractals… can you explain the relationship between dungeons and fractals? If there’s more gear in dungeons, why do people work up fractals ranks?

I have been playing a fairly tanky condition/boon build for personal story/map completion soloing (staff mesmer) … but have started using more power/crit gear (switched to greatsword built around lots of phantasms/clones).

NPC to the left and there’s a button called Hot Join (or Play Now or something). It automatically places you with people around your rank. It’s not perfect, but that’s the best thing to do as a beginner.

I am also in SoR and I suggest you to get TS3 and go to ts.zerodrama.org
it makes WvW a lot more fun!

sPvP: do hot join (the PvP Browser guy @ the LA Portal) untill you know the game(PvP isn’t Pve!) and than go do Tournies, because that is were PvP is the funnest.

FotM, I suggest you find a guild for everything, just because it’s 1. a lot more fun 2. it’s easier to find dungeon groups 3.Guild Missions 4. they will have more patience
the first lvl’s could be done in Green lvl 80 gear, but I suggest going for Exotics

Gear: it depends what prof you are and what build you are working for, I crafted my first lvl 80 gear, but nowadays dungeon running is the best for Power/Precision/Crit dmg (Berzerker gear) because CoE/CoF are runned the most. The temples in Orr can also give you Exotics for Karma(Check the wiki for more info on stats) @ Fort Marriner in LA are mukltiple vendors which sell you rares and exotics(you need the exotics) you can check which dungeon gives you wich stats.

lfg.com is a great tool, but I wouldn’t use it to run a dugeon for the first time, use your guild for that!

If the stats you want isn’t from a easy dungeon, you might want to go the TP and buy it there, or craft it, this are the most exspensive but fastest ways.

Grtz

-wouw