Guild Wars 2

Hi…

I’ve looked around the world, and it doesn’t look like there are quest givers and direct quest objectives like in other MMO’s.

Can someone give me some feedback?

You’re right, there’s none of that in gw2

Yup, there are no quests, rather there are events. They’re like quests, except you don’t have to talk to some guy to get it, just go to the area shown in the map, do what the event is asking you to do (read the upper right text), and once it’s done you will receive your rewards immediately.

The closest thing we have to a traditional quest chain it the personal and living stories.

In general PvE we have Scouts, on the main map with a little spyglass icon who will inform you about “renowned hearts” in the area. These are one time personal quests. You don’t need to see the NPC at the heart to start the quest, just the active area, unless you like a bit of backstory or clearer instructions. Once the heart is filled you can’t do it again with that character.

And while the reward for doing it is dropped on you, the NPC at the heart is now a karma vendor and sells unique items that can’t be found in the rest of the game. They will be at a level similar to the region you are in as oppose to your actual level. They may also have unique crafting recipes and mats.

Thanks. Seems most likely worthwhile to continue to play… I’m liking the no monthly fees…

I’ll give it a shot for a while and I am thinking I’ll probably like it.

Although – if there are no quests, how do you know how to advance in the world and to go to new areas and when?

If you zoom out on the world map, you’ll see numbers like 1 – 15 or 15 – 25 and such. Those are level ranges for that area. (The numbers will appear below the area name if you’ve ever been to that area, otherwise it’ll just be where the name would appear once you do). When you’ve finished a map, or reached a certain level, take a look at the map and see where you can go next.

It’s an MMO without quest rails. Exploration is big in this game. You get XP and rewards if you find all the important areas on a map. Unlocking waypoints and finding hearts will lead you to notice Vistas and Points of Interest.

But yes, nothing really pushes you out of a zone. The game’s auto down leveling means you can still have challenging play even if you are significantly over level. So it’s up to you to find the exits to the zone and check if the land beyond is doable at your level. There are usually at least three exits to every zone.

Or as Elsdragon suggests, zoom out and see which adjacent area is level suitable and make your way toward it.

The map areas are largely designed so that as you progress through a map you’ll level up,, if you do everything, to match the mobs in the area. So for instance, Queensdale is a 1-17 area which borders Kessex Hills, a 15-25 area. As you progress from Divinity’s Reach and provided you level up by doing the personal story as well as the various things in the zone, you should be between level 15-17 by the time you reach the portal that leads into Kessex Hills. The best push to move to a new zone is doing map completion. This definitely should get you up to the level you need to move on.

There are dynamic events that appear from time to time within each zone. These plus the renown hearts are the replacement for quests in GW2. Renown hearts can only be done once as part of map completion but dynamic events can be done repeatedly, but they don’t restart straight away. So the best way to do them is really just to wander around a zone and join in as they pop up.

This game puts a lot of emphasis on exploring yourself. It’s not a completely open sandbox type of game but there’s a lot more freedom than other MMOs and RPGs.

There are 3 kinds of content you’ll be doing at low levels, and you should be doing a mix of all 3:

• Personal story – Green star markers on your map and green text in the side bar. This is what you’ll start off doing and it’s the main storyline of the game. It follows a traditional quest system (but all instanced and no ‘collect 10 rats’ type quests) but quests only become available every few levels so you’ll need to do other things in between. When you finish the reward appears in an on-screen pop-up like you got at the end of the introduction.
• Renowned Hearts – Yellow heart markers on the map and yellow text on the side bar. These are similar to quests in that you’ll find an NPC out in the world somewhere who wants your help with something. But you don’t have to talk to them to start (only for background info) and you’ll have a variety of tasks you can do to complete it. The reward appears in a pop-up in the corner.
• Dynamic Events – These appear in orange on the map and on the side bar. The activities are like quests; collect this, kill that, defend an NPC etc. but they start up, proceed and finish regardless of whether anyone is doing them or not. (Some are on timers, some follow on from other events ending, some have specific start conditions that can make them seem random.) You can join in (and stop) at any point during the event and you’ll be rewarded for your participation. It’s also worth sticking around a bit at the end because many of them are part of chains so another related event will start up shortly afterwards.

As you’re exploring you’ll also find vistas (orange triangle icons), points of interest (yellow squares) and skill challenges (blue arrows) which all count towards map completion and give XP. You’ll also see nodes of crafting materials (plants, trees and metal ore) which you should collect. They give XP and if you’re not interested in crafting you can sell the materials.

As for where to go it’s fairly flexible. The Personal Story will send you to different areas of the map which will always be appropriate to the level of the story chapter. If you open the main map and zoom out each zone has a level range (they’re also colour-coded, white is below your level, green is at your level and orange/red/purple is above your level) and within a zone the leave recommendation for hearts and events and the enemies in the area will give you an idea.

But nothing will actually stop you going into higher level zones, if you knew the way you could try to walk right to the end of the level 80 zones. Which reminds me, when you enter a new zone do check the level requirement because they’re not always in order. One of the level 80 zones (Frostgorge South) can be entered from the Norn starter area (Wayfarer Foothills).

You can also go back and do lower level zones at any point. The game has a system called down-scalling where if you’re above the level for an area the game will automatically adjust your stats to the equivalent level so you can play as if you were doing it at the right level. You’ll still get loot that’s at the right level for you too.

Edit: On a related note it’s also worth knowing that you don’t have to worry about kill/loot stealing or anything like that as everything is given out individually. Everyone who participates in an event or heart gets their own reward based on their participation, everyone who damages an enemy gets XP when they die and any loot drops you see are exclusively for you. Similarly everyone gets their own turn at crafting material nodes, if you’ve mined it recently it’s gone for you but still available to everyone else.

All of which means you can join in with anything you see going on without worrying that you’ll mess up someone else’s game.

Thanks for the input all.

I’m going to give it a shot.

• There is a starter city for each race (5) and Lions Arch (kind of in ruins right now) for everyone.
• Adjacent to each starter city is a starter area (for levels 1-15).
• Areas adjacent to those starter areas get progressively higher in level.
• You can travel (via Asura gate) from any Racial city to Lions Arch and from LA to any other Racial city. This allows you access to ANY low level zone whenever you want.

You are NOT isolated to your own Racial city or starter zone….go explore them all! Note that you may want to look at the map and make sure you aren’t entering a zone you are too low to survive in as several of the cities (Norn Hoelbrak & Charr Black Citadel) DO also have direct access to higher zones you likely do not want to venture into until you are high enough level.