Guild Wars 2

Hello Im new to GW2 today & Id like to hear your impressions of the game when you were a new player looking back on the struggles, fun times etc. If you could give me one piece of starting advice to help me progress what would it be?

Sticky in this forum

It covers pretty much everything. It’s long, but well worth the read

Depending on your class you may have some difficulties early on since some are more complex than others. If you do run into such difficulties, just skim through the profession’s respective subforum for tips and builds that people find to be effective.

I guess this game has been designed to be more co-op than most MMOs even extending it to friendly help in the forums
As far as my race and class go, I am still downloading the game as we exchange messages here. I envisage playing all races so what would you recommend I start with to get used to mechanics of the game?

When watching all the videos I was impressed by the Mesmer , Thief and Engineer.
So my preferred playstyle is very open ie both ranged and melee

It doesnt really matter and depends on your playstyle. For a starting area/race, its all looks and feel so pick what you want. For class it depends on what your used to. Best is to try a few characters out.

As for gameplay. The game isn’t straightforward. Almost everything you can do gives XP for levelinbg. but it never gives enough. So you need to do several things to level.

My advise is to start the game till you see your personal story is two level’s higher then you. Then you have to do alternative things (I usually explore the towns to 100% exploration).

Last advise. Find a good guild and helpfull. If you are going to play on the european server Gandarra, you can always sent me a pm for an invite.

I am in Australia so due to the time difference I will probably try to find a server close to my own timezone but thankyou for your advice so far.

If you want to get used to the game, before you choose a “main”, I’d say play as a “Warrior”. They do a lot of damage, they have tons of armor, they can handle many mobs at a time, and they have lots of health.

If you are new to the game. I Highly recommend you check this (Guide) out:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101-Guide/first

It will tell you everything you need to know on Professions, Combat mechanics, to Armor/Trait selection to get you started!

Also please do Comment on my Guide to Bump up my Thread! =) That be awesome!

No cries of kill stealing, no need to pug except for dungeons, most content doable soloing, every area is a challenge no matter your level, fairly quick movement if you have the cash, straight forward market, straight forward questing system, XP that falls like rain (XP from just wandering, finding points of interest, vistas, crafting).

Downsides include almost no tutorial explaining things, I’m still having “oh THAT’s what that means” moments after 3 months of playing, a crafting system that depends on you experimenting to discover recipes to level in crafting skill, difficulty in figuring out how to earn money crafting with out using external sites for guidance.

A few things:
1. No need to hurry to that plant to gather it; even though one gathers the plant before you, you can still gather it.
2. There is no such thing as kill stealing even when not in a party. If you do enough damage on the mob, you’ll get loot whether it’s “your” mob or not. This loot is yours, other players get their own loot from the same mob.
3. Do whatever the hell you want. Really. Don’t think there is some set path to level, because there isn’t. At all. Stories are fun, but you can level entirely without them if you wanted to, so even they are optional. Everything is optional, and everything (even gathering, crafting, running around and getting to new waypoints and areas) gives exp.

gamerchick.3580:

When watching all the videos I was impressed by the Mesmer , Thief and Engineer.
So my preferred playstyle is very open ie both ranged and melee

With GW2, you don’t want to pick your class based on ranged/melee primarily. Pick the class mechanic that appeals to you the most. The wiki has a good summary

Each of the professions has traits that can significantly change how you would want to play and gear your character, but I think if you completely ignore the class mechanic, you won’t be as effective as you could be.

Very cool. Thanks guys thats a lot of helpful basic advice. I can’t wait to join you all. When I make my first character I will come back here and let you know who/where I am.

I have made my characters on Eredon Terrace server
Tippety is my female Asura Engineer
Nefset is my female Norn ranger
Shadowfoxnight is my male human Thief
Bausly is my male Charr necromancer
Symarillian is my female human warrior

My tip to you is to not try to play the game as effectively as possible, but to just have as much fun as you can during the leveling process. Try out events, make friends as you’re progressing and if you see something that looks interesting, investigate it – you never know what you might find in this game.