Guild Wars 2

Hello adventurers just wanted to intro my self. This is the first initial foray into I GW2 and I am excited. I didn’t spot or find a thread for introductions so I opened one here.
I have been playing mmo since the mid 2000’s and have been involved in PnP rpg’s for over three decades now and feel comfortable and profciient with all things of the fantasy genre and really enjoy the subject matter.
I have many questions and would like help from other kind players to explain what would be some great ideas to really make my travels in the world of GW2 more exciting?

I know about the classes, races and options of PC creation, but I will still probably ask something about them. My main concern however is if there are ‘pitfalls’ to avoid, quests to ignore, heavily laden servers full of unkind ppl, etc? It would help me distinguish effective and efficient effort .vs. unefficient and ineffective protocols in the game as a player.

I am eager to try all the races, but this lil one has my full attention. “Do they make decent rangers?”

Please help

First piece of advice: throw away the idea of efficient vs inefficient. You’ll find it much more fun. Hell, if you feel like it, turn off all of your map completion icons, and aim for map completion. Personally for me, it makes map completion more about exploring, and less about filling in a checklist.

I’d try and find a guild as well. Some content (such as guild missions) is easier done. You also get access to Guild Mission rewards and such.

Any race can be any profession. There aren’t any racial benefits to professions, so roll whatever combo you want. Any profession can go Melee or Ranged also (Rangers are all about evasion, and leaping in and out of combat for melee).

Welcome to the game, and I hope you have fun

Read the sticky post at the top of this forum about tips for new players. Lots of useful info there.

There’s no advantage in being one race or another. This game is all about balance. You can focus on doing some things well, but you can’t min/max your way in this game.

Welcome to the game!

As many have said, any race can be any profession, Asura make great rangers, if you like them, go for it!

In terms of servers to avoid or play for, the only question I would ask is: Do you want to do PvP? If you’re big on World Vs World (3 servers all duking it out), then take a look in the WvW forums for the current world rankings and aim for a top tier server. If that’s not important, then server choice matters less, I’ve met great people from several servers, and you can always guest to another server if you’d like.

Happy gaming and I hope you enjoy your time in GW!

Here’s the thread Behellagh refers to.

Absolutely any race/profession combo will work for you. I’ve always like the idea of an asura ranger because you will probably be able to command pets which are bigger than you are

In terms of other pitfalls, I highly recommend you take an exploratory approach to the game. Basically, just jump in and do whatever seems cool. You will earn experience for many thing (killing, crafting, exploring) and you will probably level up steadily without especially having to try. There’s an awful lot you can do before max level, so don’t feel like you should rush. There’s also very little you have to do, so feel free to play around and pick and choose what you enjoy!

One thing to be aware of is that even from level one (well, two after your tutorial mission!) you have a bunch of things open to you. Structured PvP can be accessed using one of the icons at the top of your UI, and will give you the option of building a max-level, all-unlocked character. World vs. world will vaguely up-level you and although you’ll still be disadvantaged as a low-level character, you can level up there as well as in PvE. You can get to WvW through a gate in Lion’s Arch. Via Lion’s Arch you can also access other races’ cities and starting zones. So don’t feel like your starting zone has to be your world just because you’re a lowbie!