Guild Wars 2

Hello All!!!
I’ve heard nothing but good things about this game, so I picked up a digital copy!!!

Installed, selected my Toon!!!
Went to the Inn……

I must say, I’m lost lol!!!
The Controls…Map….Quest Log….Everything!!!!

I am coming from playing WoW (Please no flaming lol)…..

WHat should I be doing?

Where are all the people on-line to help me????

Thanks!

on ur minimap go towards the green dot

The very first area won’t have many people because it’s a ‘tutorial’ instance that is accessible only to newly created characters.

For now just follow the green dots and arrows and do what the NPCs tells you. After your character wakes up in an inn and you get a quest reward you’ll be in the main world and there should be more people around you.

But it’s still a good idea to listen to the NPCs and follow their advice for a while. Like most games the first few tasks you’re given are intended to introduce you to the world and the game mechanics and give you an idea of what to do.

A few things to bear in mind, especially if you’re coming from WoW or other MMOs though:

• The controls probably will be a bit different. But you can see them all in the options menu (cog symbol in the top right, then click options, then the mouse picture) and change any keybindings you don’t like.
• This game doesn’t have a conventional quest structure. There’s your Personal Story and Heart quests but to get XP and really experience the game you need to be doing Dynamic Events – the things that show up in orange on the map and the top right corner. Gathering crafting materials and crafting also gives good XP.
• You can’t survive in areas above your level but you will be down-levelled in areas below it so you can still play there and get decent XP and loot. This means if you find yourself below the required level for the next Story Quest or area and you’ve done everything in your zone you can go to another starting area and play there to level up at the same speed you would doing content at your level.
• At level 5 you start earning skill points which you can spend on skills. Try to pick good ones but don’t worry too much if you make the ‘wrong’ choice – you get an infinite number of them so eventually you’ll have all your skills unlocked and can switch between them feely.

Once you get into the open world, talk to scouts (NPCs with spyglass icons on the map) any time you see their icon (and any time it’s in an area you’re leveled enough for, obviously). Listen to them talk if you want (a little immersion and info on the “why’s” of the area") or don’t, but what’s important is that they’ll direct you to the nearby renown hearts (yellow hearts) that you can complete. They’re basically all there is in terms of in-game guides for what to do, outside of the personal story (the green text/indicator).

After you finish the tutorial then you roam around and explore. The structure of this game is intentionally loose. There are hearts to do to give a bit of structure but they aren’t the meat of the game. That is the DEs, the dynamic events. Those will pop up around you. Some you can trigger and some are internally triggered by the game.

Different areas in a zone will have different levels. For example the starter zone is 1 to 15. So where you start out is suitable for you and the far end of the zone is for when you reach level 15. Mouse over the hearts to see what the area level is.

Get harvesting tools and salvage kits as soon as you can. Merchants may sell them for money and heart people may sell them for karma. Heart guys will also sell armor, trinkets and weapons for karma. You can keep the mats you harvest for later use or sell them in the trading post for money.

You don’t have to stay in your starter zone. You can visit any starter zone and play there. Then you can play in any level appropriate zone. To get to another zone, go to LA (Lion’s Arch).
Getting to LA
To go to LA, you look at your UI. Crossed swords will be on the top left. Click on that. Select go to the mists. This will take you to the PvP training area the first time you do it and the PvP lobby afterwards. From the PvP training area, head north to a broken looking staircase. Go up. There’s a portal up there. Go through. This will take you to the PvP lobby where you will arrive each time you go to the mists from now on. Go thru the portal directly in front of you. That will get you to LA. You will arrive right by the portals to WvW.
From there you can look at your map and see the central hub (5 pink swirls near each other on the map). Those are the portals to all the starting cities, including your own. There are other, single portals on the map but they lead to other places. From there, each city has other portals. One of which will be that areas starting zone. You can ask in map chat for someone to ping the nearest waypoint to that portal if you are having trouble finding it.

Check out this stickied thread for more hints: hint thread

What these guys just said.

((Heart Tasks)) are designed for players to have something to do within the area while ((Dynamic Events)) occur. The Events give more exp!

There are:
((Minigames)) ((Personal Stories)), ((Story Dungeons)), ((Explorable Dungeons))
((Mini Dungoens)), ((Jumping Puzzles)) ((Vista Challenges)) ((Points of Interests)), ((Waypoints)), ((Gathering)) ((Crafting)) ((Live Story Events)), ((sPvP)) ((tPVP)) ((WvWvW)), ((Fracticals of Mists))), ((Holiday Events)), and so much more!

This game doesn’t have quests like WoW but it has tons of contents for tons of different types of player! I say do them all and have fun with the game!

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

There are:
((Minigames)) ((Personal Stories)), ((Story Dungeons)), ((Explorable Dungeons))
((Mini Dungoens)), ((Jumping Puzzles)) ((Vista Challenges)) ((Points of Interests)), ((Waypoints)), ((Gathering)) ((Crafting)) ((Live Story Events)), ((sPvP)) ((tPVP)) ((WvWvW)), ((Fracticals of Mists))), ((Holiday Events)), and so much more!

This game doesn’t have quests like WoW but it has tons of contents for tons of different types of player! I say do them all and have fun with the game!

You do realize once you have used bold for everything in the paragraph its only effect is to harass others eyes.

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions….
I just got to the 1st big city and haven’t done anything except wonder around!!!

I just don’t want to miss anything. I read on the forum that content changes every few weeks and doesn’t come back…..

Is that true???

RunDougRun.4691:

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions….
I just got to the 1st big city and haven’t done anything except wonder around!!!

I just don’t want to miss anything. I read on the forum that content changes every few weeks and doesn’t come back…..

Is that true???

Living story content does come and go every 2 weeks – 1 month, depending. The bazaar of the four winds stuff won’t be here come next month, something else (presumably) will be in place by then. So at least take the time to get a taste of it now and decide whether it’s worth focusing on. You can get there from lion’s arch (macha’s landing, the docks on the north side of the water; there’s a sail icon that will take you there). You don’t have to be level 80 to do any of it, really (you can’t use some of the special crafting recipes until you get to 80, if you wanted to do that, but you can obtain them now).

Everything previously stated and……
Browse the forum, find yourself a guild that fits you.

cpg.7140:

RunDougRun.4691:

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions….
I just got to the 1st big city and haven’t done anything except wonder around!!!

I just don’t want to miss anything. I read on the forum that content changes every few weeks and doesn’t come back…..

Is that true???

Living story content does come and go every 2 weeks – 1 month, depending. The bazaar of the four winds stuff won’t be here come next month, something else (presumably) will be in place by then. So at least take the time to get a taste of it now and decide whether it’s worth focusing on. You can get there from lion’s arch (macha’s landing, the docks on the north side of the water; there’s a sail icon that will take you there). You don’t have to be level 80 to do any of it, really (you can’t use some of the special crafting recipes until you get to 80, if you wanted to do that, but you can obtain them now).

So should I go for the special monthly quests? Right now, I’m finding all of the waypoints lol!!!!

I’m coming so late into this game, that I don’t want content do disappear, thats why I’m trying to establish a “To-do” list…..Although, there seems like a ton of stuff!!!!

I’m sure I will get a feel for it over the next week or so!!!
I’m just going crazy for now lol!

RunDougRun.4691:

cpg.7140:

RunDougRun.4691:

Thanks for all of the tips and suggestions….
I just got to the 1st big city and haven’t done anything except wonder around!!!

I just don’t want to miss anything. I read on the forum that content changes every few weeks and doesn’t come back…..

Is that true???

Living story content does come and go every 2 weeks – 1 month, depending. The bazaar of the four winds stuff won’t be here come next month, something else (presumably) will be in place by then. So at least take the time to get a taste of it now and decide whether it’s worth focusing on. You can get there from lion’s arch (macha’s landing, the docks on the north side of the water; there’s a sail icon that will take you there). You don’t have to be level 80 to do any of it, really (you can’t use some of the special crafting recipes until you get to 80, if you wanted to do that, but you can obtain them now).

So should I go for the special monthly quests? Right now, I’m finding all of the waypoints lol!!!!

I’m coming so late into this game, that I don’t want content do disappear, thats why I’m trying to establish a “To-do” list…..Although, there seems like a ton of stuff!!!!

I’m sure I will get a feel for it over the next week or so!!!
I’m just going crazy for now lol!

Check out the bazaar of the four winds stuff. Put that at the top of your to-do list, and then just cross it out if you find you hate it or whatever. That’s the stuff you risk missing out on. There are guides online (dulfy.net) so read through them in your spare time if you want, to get a better feel for it.

If achievements are your thing you have 15 days or whatever left to do the monthly achievements (if you have a lot of time to play and spend a lot of time in, say, Queensdale, you might be able to get it done; but if it’s more work than fun then I wouldn’t bother).

Everything else will still be there when you come back to it. But above all do the things you enjoy, and don’t feel like you have to plow through a given set of stuff; take breaks, explore, refresh yourself, whatever.

RunDougRun.4691:

So should I go for the special monthly quests? Right now, I’m finding all of the waypoints lol!!!!

I’m coming so late into this game, that I don’t want content do disappear, thats why I’m trying to establish a “To-do” list…..Although, there seems like a ton of stuff!!!!

I’m sure I will get a feel for it over the next week or so!!!
I’m just going crazy for now lol!

The fact that temporary content is temporary is a criticism I have about gw2 for the very reasons you mention. That said, it does keep giving you something new to do.
Honestly, the Bazaar is probably not the best spot to get acquainted. Most of the achievements are tough for vets. Even getting to the second way point I would think would be a challenge for someone not completely familiar with the controls. It’s not impossible, but it would take you longer.
It’ll be there for a couple more weeks, I recommend learning the game in the open world for at least a few days before going there – especially try out a few easy jumping puzzles (http://dulfy.net/2012/09/16/gw2-jumping-puzzles-guides-guild-wars-2/. Even if you don’t get everything there, it’s not a big deal. All you’d miss out on are some achievement points, Quartz node, and a ship-in-a-boat model. The model you can see someone else’s, it’s purely visual effects. The AP and node could be useful, but not required: Quartz can be purchased from the trading post later, and there is an infinite amount of AP

I found the Bazar and it seemed to be a bunch of merchants selling goods I couldn’t afford……
I made it to that waterfall puzzle but kept on dying on the air part…..

I went back to the main map and went to the “Scouting” locations…..
Like I said, tons of stuff to do, just want to maximize my effort =)

The Baazar’s first area is only a bunch of merchants, but it goes up and up in the sky for a while :P

We receive content updates every 2 weeks, and each release focuses the content on what’s going on currently in the game. Most of it goes away when the following chapter gets released, but some of the content introduced remains. You definitely want to check out what’s going on, but it shouldn’t be your priority if you don’t enjoy that particular chapter. Also, some of it might not be suited for newer players: for example we got a really tough dungeon the previous release.

It’s an original, bold project and it has been received with mixed feelings, as some people think the quality of content might drop due to strict time-schedules, or have other issues.

Anyways, you can find a summary of each patch here : https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases

You are currently doing the best thing you can. Wander around, getting accustomed to the world and leveling beside that. These are the first steps. If I’d start right now, I wouldn’t mind the living story. Thats stuff for those who are bored and always cry for something new.

Never mind that! Get level to 80, play the story, just explore the world. Living story isn’t the games core functionality, it doesn’t help newcomers at all.

After you are done with that, new living story content will be waiting for you.

Cheers.

bare in mind this is not like WoW you are not really limited to what you can do so take your time while leveling and enjoy it, there is honestly no rush, everyone has covered everything else i think

Vanthian.9267:

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

There are:
((Minigames)) ((Personal Stories)), ((Story Dungeons)), ((Explorable Dungeons))
((Mini Dungoens)), ((Jumping Puzzles)) ((Vista Challenges)) ((Points of Interests)), ((Waypoints)), ((Gathering)) ((Crafting)) ((Live Story Events)), ((sPvP)) ((tPVP)) ((WvWvW)), ((Fracticals of Mists))), ((Holiday Events)), and so much more!

This game doesn’t have quests like WoW but it has tons of contents for tons of different types of player! I say do them all and have fun with the game!

You do realize once you have used bold for everything in the paragraph its only effect is to harass others eyes.

That’s a good point… lol sorry