Guild Wars 2

Hey guys and thanks in advance for reading this and maybe replying. I recently purchased GW2 and have started a character and I’m a tad lost. I’ve played MMOs so its really just a case of learning what Guild Wars does different to other games. I’d love to find a guild or even just an individual who can share knowledge of the games intricacies. Things like best server to start on, what best way to deal with leveling, how to use the games many features like PvP or travelling the map. I currently have started a Human Necromancer on the EU server Seafarers Rest. I’d happily relocate if I can find a nice enough person/Guild to maybe show me the ropes a little. Thanks again for reading and look forward to any replies

Hey, first of all welcome to Guild Wars 2! This game is very different due to choices you make from race and class to the order you join. I do understand that there is alot to learn and be happy to help. I am part of a guild that has been around for 16 years. It is called Sinister Swarm. We have website called sinisterswarm.com. We also use a program called Ventrillo. We use it to communicate with each other. Send me a message if you want to learn more.

Welcome to gw2. Yes the game is very different compared to other mmo’s. We do not have the holy trinity as tank/heal/dps and you will have to look after your hp your self because noone else will.

Other things that is good to know about is that the damage in this game is important, but as equal important are the cc (crowd control) buffs and debuffs, heal for your self boons to others, damage mitigation and so on, so knowing exactly what your skills are doing is very important. There are no macro system so you need to know what combo to throw and when.

As for servers. They are not at all important if you are only gonna play PvE, because we have something called mega servers. This means that all players and servers are mixed together on the maps. This means that it does not matter what server your guild are on, as long as it does not involve wvw.

If you do want to join World verses World then servers are really important but i believe that SFR have a good wvw situation and probably a good server to start on.
World verses world is a instansed open world pvp, were 3 servers meet eachother and fight for points and land. The fights goes on 24/7 and resets every week.

Donald.3805:

what best way to deal with leveling

Enjoy it. If you have played other mmo’s you will probably see leveling as a neccessary grind to get to endgame. That is not true for guild wars.
1-80 on your first character is one of the most fun parts this game has, mostly since you dont have to do that stupid mutiquesting system used eveywhere else.
Take your time to explore the map while you are leveling, you will be wanting to do it anyways at some point.
Do not try to speed up the process (exept maybe for the last few levels), there will be plenty of opportunity to do that on alts.

Thanks for the replies and info! I’m not really fussed about rushing the leveling. I enjoy in game exploration. Too many MMOs have these large environments but no reason to explore anything in them whatsoever. So basically for PvE the server choice does not matter? That’s rather nice straight off the bat coming from MMOs with low populations etc. PvP is not something that has ever interested me in games, but I do sometimes take the notion. Do you guys think an Elementalist is something beyond a beginner like me? From what I have read it seems a rather complicated class to play but appeals to me the most.

Ele in pve has a couple of complex rotations to maximize the damage. But the class itself is not unfriendly to beginners. Good healing, nice damage output, some movement skills,some boons…
Pvp ele…its one of the most powerful and boring things there are right now. Might require some basic knowledge of the class, but is very forgiving.
You can basically play every class you like on casual level. I would not be too concerned about maximization, you dont need that in pve outside of raids. Its mostly for finishing fractals more conveniently.
Servers only matter for wvw.

I will recommend against Ele as a starter, unless you did well in previous MMOs with lots of skills to choose from. Of my first five characters, one was (and is) an Ele. There were other factors in why she fell into disuse but one of the reasons was how extremely squishy she was. I tried to solo one PS chapter fighting ghosts down a well in Diessa. 45 minutes and many deaths later I called for help. A guildie came on his warrior and mowed everything down in under 5 minutes.

My second Ele has been much more resilient because I know the game mechanics now. But when it was all new to me and I didn’t have as good dodge reflexes or muscle memory for the F1-F4 keys, I ate a ton of dirt.

This was after 7 years of playing WoW, all classes though mostly mage and priest, after playing LotRO, AoC, 2 years of Horizons, DaoC, etc, I was no stranger to MMO’s in general and Ele still flummoxed me for survival. I think that’s one reason I loved my Guardian so much for so long, she just would not die.

Server wise: It really doesn’t matter any more thanks to megaservers unless you want to do World vs World (big battle PvP), but if you like RP you might want to go to Piken Square (EU) or Tarnished Coast (NA) as at launch they were the unofficial RP servers and the megaserver supposedly tries to put you in maps with your server people. TC also is fairly robust in the WvW scene, and when your server is doing well in WvW you are getting bonuses in PvE such as up to 18% crit bonuses on gathering mats.

If you do come to TC (or NA in general) I am generally happy to answer any questions if I’m in game and not in combat. Also you will want to memorize a very simple thing to type into your chat window:

/wiki

/wiki (subject), that is. If you type /wiki Necromancer, you will get a detailed wiki page opened in your browser chock full of information on the profession. Any object, quest, or game mechanic is highly likely to have a wiki entry at this point. So you can look there first as questions come to you, and if it doesn’t explain things well enough for you then you can ask friends or strangers (via Map chat) for more details.

Welcome to GW2!

I’ll be happy to answer any questions too. I have characters in both regions, so I may be actully come do stuff together if wanted. But questions I can ( try to) answer no matter which account I play.

Something it looks like hasn’t been mentioned yet is level scaling. If you go to a low-level area, your stats and gear will be scaled down to match, and you can still earn xp. This means someone at level cap can immediately play with you when you exit the tutorial, without one-shotting the mobs or getting no reward. It also means that as you level the playable world just keeps getting bigger, because you can always return to places you missed and still benefit.
Also worthy of note is that there’s no kill stealing. Two people hit a mob, both get full credit and loot. More people can only make an event get bigger to match the number of participants — usually a good thing, because all of you will get more loot. You don’t have to race for gathering nodes, either: everyone gets to harvest the ore or wood without removing it for others. Anet has made a game where you should be happy to see other players. Yep, there are ways to troll, but people are generally pretty nice, because you’re rewarded for helping each other.

The big thing about this game is that you aren’t pushed along to level. While there is a personal story, it’s really not a requirement to follow right away. Since the game will down level you in lower level areas while still giving you XP rewards that are based on your actual level (although slightly less) maps don’t become obsolete as you level.

Just about everything in PvE will give you XP from exploring the map, gathering materials, rezing fallen players/NPCs (which everyone can do). A tip about XP from critters is that those who’ve spawn a while ago have considerable bonus XP so hunting off the beaten path can help you level quicker than just picking off critters adjacent to the obvious paths.

The gear on your inventory screen triggers a drop down where the first item is “Send to Collection” which will dump materials directly into your bank. Also you can sell almost any drop directly on the player trading post from anywhere (O). You can only pick up items and coin when you visit them (or by use of a Gem Shop item) but it with the send to collection means you can manage your inventory in the field fairly well and not needing to run back to a vendor, TP merchant or delete something to make room.

Due to the action-ish nature of combat, where moving and dodging is the way to mitigate damage rather than relying on massive armor, HP pool and a healer. Every character have minor self heals, buffs, debuffs available so it’s not just a straight up face punching exorcise to see who lasts longer.

With the exception of Dungeons, Fractals and Raids, you can solo core Tyria as major dynamic events players in the area will simply show up like a flash mob with swords and spells to finish an event and then go their separate ways.

Remember one of the core tenants of the game is that players shouldn’t be afraid of seeing another player in PvE. Everyone has the same material nodes, no first come first serve, everyone gets the same XP and loot roll as long as you participate some minimal amount. There is no tagging a critter first to get you some additional credit. So when you see someone fighting, simply run up and help. See a player down, run up and rez them. See an ore node, no need to race another player there.

Can’t address PvP or Necro.

So kick back and enjoy the game. It’s mellow nature will spoil you when you try out another MMO.

Teaniel.9052:

Something it looks like hasn’t been mentioned yet is level scaling. If you go to a low-level area, your stats and gear will be scaled down to match, and you can still earn xp.

It should be noted that while the stats are scaled down to match the exp is actually scaled up.

This means someone at level cap can immediately play with you when you exit the tutorial, without one-shotting the mobs or getting no reward.

This is actually not as realistic in practice. I tried this once with a friend. I had to switch to my guardian who is wearing cleric and using a staff to avoid killing everything before my friend got to do anything.

Anet has made a game where you should be happy to see other players.

Except for some of the extremely badly scaled events.

Again thanks for all the replies and info! Does it matter what race/choices I make before the beginning of the game like what god blessed me etc?

Not really. There are some racial skills in pve, but they dont matter much. Some of your decisions may influence your early personal story.