Guild Wars 2

Needless to say, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve played. I know there’s been a lot of changes and content added since early 2014. I was one of the original players who pre-ordered the game when it launched in August 2012. I have a character at (original) max level and several alts. I’m sure the max level is higher now. You are welcome to correct me if I’m wrong.

Please point me to forums or videos to catch me up if you would? Or comment with your pro-tips for a returning player to GW2.

I’m glad to be back and I’m looking forward to seeing you all in game.

Without HoT, there is not a lot of new things. Dungeons are core content, fractals up to 50 are core content, Living Story episodes are core content (but, youre going to have to purchase them.) Other than that, there isnt much without Heart of Thorns. World Boss farming is a thing. Core legendaries can be grinded. The max level has stayed the same, but with HoT there is a mastery system after 80 that goes to 166.

Also, there are build lists on metabattle.com since the traits have been re worked. However, be prepared to only be able to access the builds towards the bottom as most of them require elite specs contained in Heart of Thorns.

Your level NEVER goes beyond 80.
You can get masteries that give some extra things and there are 166 total mastery points to get if you get the Heart of Thorns expansion.

Biggest change is the revamp skill and trait system and to a lesser extent the leveling experience. As for rewards the daily/monthly system was replaced with a login/daily system.

Of course there’s been loads of re-balancing among profession skills around the PvP meta, since skills work the same regardless of game mode (PvE, PvP, WvW).

Just wiki these topics and that should be a fair starting point for your next set of questions.

Thank you so much for your answers. You’ve been very helpful. These are the things I needed to know.

Quarterly updates from Anet are big things now, the last (Spring update) was huge!
Check out Wooden Potatoes on YouTube who reviews and talks about the updates packs, very interesting and insightful.
A lot of new things added and a lot of small things tweaked.
WP talks about Anet internal staff changes which is effecting the future gameplay and in my short time of 6 months playing even I can see the benefits and am really enjoying myself going forward as they continually add new content for us even without HoT.

As a returning player your in a good place, I feel, to see new things and for it to have a slightly different feel to it.

A lot has changed, especially if you left before April 2014. This page is a good place to get a quick summary: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Release
But I’ve also included a list of what I think are the most important changes, in no particular order.

Traits have been re-worked several times and how traits and skill unlock has changed. There are also level-up rewards now which contain a mix of information about the game and actual items.

There’s the wardrobe system which changes how transmutation works. Skins are unlocked when you equip, bind, salvage or destroy an item and then they’re saved forever – even if you don’t have the item any more you’ll still have the skins unlocked and can use them whenever you want. Transmutation stones have been replaced with charges which are used to pay for applying a skin to an item.

WvW and PvP both have a new reward system and new interfaces. Both periodically get special ‘league’ events too with exclusive rewards.

PvE maps are now shared between servers, so no more overflows. The game will prioritise putting you with other people from your server but you can meet people from any server in PvE. Oh, but North American and European servers are still separate.

The Living Story is permanently available now (from Season 2 onwards). Old chapters have to be unlocked for 200 gems each, or there’s a bundle with all of them for a slightly cheaper price. If you just want to see the story you can group up with someone who has them unlocked but you won’t get any rewards doing it that way.

There are 2 new maps (Dry Top and Silverwastes, both west of Brisban Wildlands) which are freely available to everyone. There’s also 4 maps exclusive to people who have the expansion, plus guild halls and raids which use their own maps.

Oh yeah, we have raids now. Or a raid. I’ve not tried it yet but it seems like a harder dungeon which requires a bigger group.

About the only thing which hasn’t changed is the level cap (still 80) and the top tier of equipment (still ascended, with most things balanced around exotic). There are masteries now which add extra abilities but they’re all very situational (e.g. most of the Heart of Thorns ones focus on allowing you to move around the jungle maps more easily), they don’t provide increased stats or anything like that.

You might find it helpful to start a new character. Keep the ones you’ve got (and log into them just to see what they’ve got that might be useful) but I often find making a new character helps me familiarise myself with a game I’ve not played in a while.