Guild Wars 2

So after a year or so checking out some other games, I think I’m coming back to GW2 for a bit. Of course on Log In I realize Lion’s Arch is a much different place. I figured there’s some story arc somewhere that will explain.

PvE wise, what is out there for some old lvl 80’s to do? I deleted a toon just to start over from scratch to remind myself how to play, but I’d also like to pick up whatever story pieces are out there for my leveled toons. Where can I find some story arc stuff? Is Lion’s Arch just decimated, or is that part of the story arc like in other mmo’s where once I finish it it goes back to normal? If there’s no Lion’s Arch, what is the main city every hangs out in these days?

Love a little guidance for getting back into the game. Thanks all.

Hey and welcome back!

LA got destroyed as part of the Living Story’s first season, it won’t go back to normal from you doing something specific – it’s like this for everyone. People are now kind of spread out depending on their racial city preferences – Divinity’s Reach is pretty poplar, as well as Rata Sum.

If you want to catch up on the story, I believe there are recaps on Youtube. The wiki also has a summary of every LS episode, but it’s something of a read given a lot of stuff went on.

As for what to do – the new Living Story (aka season 2) was released in small chunks which you can access from your story journal in the hero panel. They unlocked for free if you logged on as they happened, but as you weren’t around you either will have to unlock them for 200 gems/chapter (which comes out ~28 gold) or you can ask a friend who has them to party with you and go through them with them. I believe summaries are also available.

About the story, it was all Living World Season 1 temporary content, aka you’re unable to play it.

I’d suggest go to youtube and try to watch it on there, so at least you know what’s been going on.

Lion’s Arch is still the main hub, but other racial cities have gotten quite popular aswell due to the destroy of LA + megaservers.

Don’t think there’s a whole bunch new, the april / september feature packs, you should know fractals right? World Bosses schedule etc, just reply with what you wanna hear

yeah I got to about lvl 35 in fractals before I headed out. I did check the quest log and saw the story stuff I can unlock for gems, there’s like 5 or 6 of them, so if I’m not mistaken that’s 150+ gold… are they worth it? Other than that, I did have some stuff I could do in my quest log, and there’s dailies and wvwvw, dungeons, etc. I’m kind of remembering why I left in the first place, I had done everything you could in pve, and was playing nothing but wvw and pvp, which is fine, just wasn’t enough to keep me involved. Bummer that you had to be live for the story line stuff to unlock it. Oh well, perhaps I’ll just start fresh on the new toon and see what I come up with.

I found the story to be improved over S1, but not everyone is of that opinion. Unlocking them for yourself would mostly have advantages in that you could get the rewards/achievements for them, else if you’re just curious but unwilling to pay just ask someone to open them for you or find them on Youtube. It might be worth catching up as the season finale is going to drop the coming tuesday (and you’ll have it unlocked for free, as happens when you log on during story time).

Re: what to do, there hasn’t been a huge lot of changes on what to do but stuff like the meta has changed – elementalist FGS nerf was a big change, there’s been some balance changes in classes, rangers are now good, etc. Level up and Personal Story rewards have also been improved, so that might be a cool thing for you to see too.

yeah, I don’t know if you run an ele but that was my main. When I left, the 0,10,0,30,30 d/d build was still pretty much everyone’s favorite (or some variation therein), fractals was still new enough that people cared what level you were, EVERYONE made a warrior just to speed run that one dungeon for gear (the fire dungeon, can’t remember what it was called, I had a mesmer for it)… guess some things have changed, others haven’t

I do have an ele, though I barely use it as I prefer my engie. These days for dungeons s/d and staff are favored (staff I believe is highest DPS but s/d has better might stacking? something like that), though d/f utility is also used for fractals. Ice bow is loved by all.

Specific dungeon path rewards are now given out fully once per day and then suffer diminishing rewards so CoF isn’t farmed as it used to be (though a lot of people still run p1 and p2 daily). Stacking several warriors is also no longer as common – still happens frequently in PUG groups because a lot of people play it and it’s safe mode, but if you get into speedrunning or stuff like that then one warrior per party is usually considered enough.

One caution on deleting your old alts: Traits got revamped. Alts made prior to the change got grandfathered in and have all traits unlocked except the new tip-top traits that got added. Alts made since then must do odd tasks beyond their level to open traits they want, or play without traits, or spend gold and skill points at a trainer to get the traits.

So check out the leveling feel on the new one you made before you casually remove any more old alts.

Slight visual recap. If you aren’t into the music, turn it down.

For less dramatic videos as to what happen to LA.

What happen to Scarlett

TL;DW version, 1:30 recap