Guild Wars 2

So I am a returning player. Created a new account with a Heart of Thorns key (my old acct had a phone authenticator linked to it and I cant get to it, but it was no biggie) and I am planning to use my Level 80 boost on a Necromancer, as I tend to solo.

From what I understand, I can leave the Silverwastes and go do my personal story stuff, and I know from experience I can basically go anywhere at 80 to do the Hearts and events and things. But I have some questions as its been a LONG time since I played (like last time I touched the game was when Living Story Season 1 was just starting).

I know I cant play Season 1. How can I get access to Season 2, and is it neccesary?

Also, I read about some sort of LFG tool. Is that like a dungeon / raid finder? Or more like just getting people together who then go do whatever?

Further, what are “Adventures” that I have read about?

Finally, as a Necromancer, how do I go about unlocking the Elite Spec “Reaper”, and anyone got tips for a Minion Master / Reaper build?

Oh actually, any major things about crafting I should know? I was thinking of taking Tailor and something else…but I dunno.

Thanks in advance, and its good to be back

Season 2 is for sale in the Gem / Trading Post. If you had logged in while it was going on you would have gotten it for free. If you want to complain there is rather large post about it.

You can do any part of the personal story or HoT story at any time. You do not have to do them in order unless you are following the story completely. Honestly I did not nor does it matter to me really about the full story. I can read the synopsis online if I really wanted the whole thing without it being broken up by playing the game.

LFG is for finding any group to do what you need help with and that includes story parts, hero points and dungeons and yes even the new 10 man dungeons otherwise known as raids. Thou to be honest I would not do a pug for those as you need to be more coordinated with the team.

As for adventures, look at the wiki as there are lots and it will give you pointers on what you need to do in them.

Hitting level 80 you will have all the hero points you need to unlock everything for your basic skills, for the elites specs you need more hero points.

You can now (with some help from the gem store) have 4 crafting disciplines on each char at a time. You can max one out and move to another and still be able to go back to the maxed one at anytime without loosing levels in it, just a few silver to do it each time.

Game access at level 80

You’re right that you can go anywhere at 80. You’re only restricted to Silverwastes while trialling the boost, once it’s permanent you can leave the map. Everything below level 80 (personal story, low level map completion etc.) will still be accessible and I can’t think of anything else that would restrict where you go.

I strongly recommend you do the first part of the Heart of Thorns storyline first, because then you unlock access to masteries and can start levelling them up. Although if you don’t all that will happen is any XP you earn while they’re locked is wasted and you’ll have to start from scratch when you do decide to do it.

Season 1 & 2

You’re right that Season 1 is not accessible. You have two options for playing Season 2:

1) If you just want to play through the storyline you can find someone who has it unlocked and is willing to go through it with you, group with them and play it that way. You can do the whole storyline but won’t get any rewards or achievements.

2) You can buy chapters in the gem store for 200 gems each or 1280 gems for the full pack (20% saving). This means you will have permanent access to it on all your character, including new ones you create in future, you can do the instances as many times as you like, get the achievements and get rewards for playing them.

LFG Tool

I’ve only played games with GW2 style group finders but as I understand it the second one is correct. All it does it let you advertise for or find a group. There are different categories for different areas of the game so you can easily find groups doing the activity you want and groups can add a message to specify what they’re doing (e.g. speed clear vs. normal run) or who they’re looking for, but you have to manually choose a group to join and all it does is add you to the group. You then need to make your way to the map/dungeon they’re in to actually play with them and going through it is exactly the same as if you’d formed a group any other way.

Adventures

They’re basically mini games. I’ve only done a few but some are essentially jumping puzzles and others are ‘collect/kill/tag as many things as you can within a time limit’ or trying to get through an area using special skills.

Elite Specs

You need to collect Hero Points (aka Skill Points) from Hero Challenges around the world. These have a yellow arrow symbol. The best ones to use are the ones in the HoT maps because they give 10 points each whereas ones in normal maps give just 1 point each.

(I’ll leave build suggestions to people more knowledgeable about necros.)

Crafting

Tailor is a good one to choose if you’re playing necro because then you can make your own armour. I’d suggest a weapon crafter as well (Artificer or Weapon Smith, there’s Huntsman too but I don’t think Necros can use those weapons) but maybe wait until you know which weapons you want to use before you do that.

Crafting can be confusing at first but there are some really good guides out there, and once you get used to it it’s not too bad.

Danikat.8537:

Game access at level 80

You’re right that you can go anywhere at 80. You’re only restricted to Silverwastes while trialling the boost, once it’s permanent you can leave the map. Everything below level 80 (personal story, low level map completion etc.) will still be accessible and I can’t think of anything else that would restrict where you go.

I strongly recommend you do the first part of the Heart of Thorns storyline first, because then you unlock access to masteries and can start levelling them up. Although if you don’t all that will happen is any XP you earn while they’re locked is wasted and you’ll have to start from scratch when you do decide to do it.

Season 1 & 2

You’re right that Season 1 is not accessible. You have two options for playing Season 2:

1) If you just want to play through the storyline you can find someone who has it unlocked and is willing to go through it with you, group with them and play it that way. You can do the whole storyline but won’t get any rewards or achievements.

2) You can buy chapters in the gem store for 200 gems each or 1280 gems for the full pack (20% saving). This means you will have permanent access to it on all your character, including new ones you create in future, you can do the instances as many times as you like, get the achievements and get rewards for playing them.

LFG Tool

I’ve only played games with GW2 style group finders but as I understand it the second one is correct. All it does it let you advertise for or find a group. There are different categories for different areas of the game so you can easily find groups doing the activity you want and groups can add a message to specify what they’re doing (e.g. speed clear vs. normal run) or who they’re looking for, but you have to manually choose a group to join and all it does is add you to the group. You then need to make your way to the map/dungeon they’re in to actually play with them and going through it is exactly the same as if you’d formed a group any other way.

Adventures

They’re basically mini games. I’ve only done a few but some are essentially jumping puzzles and others are ‘collect/kill/tag as many things as you can within a time limit’ or trying to get through an area using special skills.

Elite Specs

You need to collect Hero Points (aka Skill Points) from Hero Challenges around the world. These have a yellow arrow symbol. The best ones to use are the ones in the HoT maps because they give 10 points each whereas ones in normal maps give just 1 point each.

(I’ll leave build suggestions to people more knowledgeable about necros.)

Crafting

Tailor is a good one to choose if you’re playing necro because then you can make your own armour. I’d suggest a weapon crafter as well (Artificer or Weapon Smith, there’s Huntsman too but I don’t think Necros can use those weapons) but maybe wait until you know which weapons you want to use before you do that.

Crafting can be confusing at first but there are some really good guides out there, and once you get used to it it’s not too bad.

Cool thanks.

So how do I start the HoT Storyline, as far as unlocking the Mastery portion? Do I just again need to leave the Silverwastes and lock in the boost first?

I will probably end up buying the Season 2 pack as I like to have access to stuff in case I wanna do it

To find the HoT story, go to your hero panel, story, and select HoT rather than the personal story. I think it then asks if you wish to make this one active. The pointers, etc will then direct you where to go for that storyline.

You can switch back to the original, or LS2 if you decide to buy it, as desired.

Here’s my power reaper MM build that I use for solo PvE:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR3YnM0AN1gd1AebCs3glpBL+DmCfhSDgCQAY6BcBOWA-TRRBABXt/o8jS1fMTJ4DXBAAeIABAOA43f/93f/NA-e

It works great and you can easily switch to a non-MM power reaper build (e.g., spite/SR (or BM)/reaper with shouts/wells) for grouping if you want. I used dagger/warhorn and DM/BM/SR until I got reaper. It doesn’t take long getting the points for reaper if you just join hero point trains on HoT maps.