Guild Wars 2

Returning after 3 years, could really use some tips as the game has really changed. I was greeted by a ton of icons and notifications as soon as I logged in. It was kinda overwhelming. Hopefully the community is able to help a struggling returning player.

My main character is a Lvl80 Necromancer but my gear are pretty outdated. I’m wearing 3 year old exotic power gear. How should I get around to gearing up and what should I be doing? Any content I should be doing to gear up,etc?

Also need some insight on the Necromancer class. Is it a good class for a returning player like me to get into or should I start off fresh from another class.

Basically I’m pretty lost on what I should be doing right now.

Welcome back! I’m not surprised you found it pretty overwhelming at first, a lot has changed in the past 3 years.

The good news is your character probably isn’t as out of date as you think because GW2 is designed around the concept of horizontal progression, which means that while there’s lots of things to do it’s about what you want to do rather than constantly chasing better stats.

Level 80 is still the maximum and exotic equipment is still perfectly fine for most of the game. There is one tier above that, which is called ascended, but it’s only slightly more powerful and quite a bit harder to get because it was designed as a long-term goal. So I wouldn’t worry about that yet.

I’ll leave other people to comment on the Necromancer profession because it’s probably the profession I know the least about.

But what I’d recommend for now is keeping the character you have but making and playing a new one, so you can familiarise yourself with the game again. It’s easier to do that by levelling a new character partially because the game gives you more directions and introduces mechanics gradually as you level up but also because the level up notifications include information on various game mechanics and modes.

You can also ask on here or in-game for help with anything you need to know, and the Wiki is a great resource too.

I thought I was the only one with this issue! I’m a returning player after 3 years as well and when I logged in I got a ton of birthday gifts, updates and I was totally overwhelmed. As I’m walking around in the map again I’m noticing so many new armor sets, skins and weapons its like a whole new game to a certain point. Even Lion’s Arch is unrecognizable haha. As for me, I’m keeping my level 80’s and just rediscovering the map.

After three years, I think “it’s a new game” is probably closer to true than “returning to…”

It’s comforting but strange that there are quite a number of us who are returning to this game after 3 years. Welcome back, fellow veteran!

Keep your old chars as the birthday gifts you get are per char and not per account. So if you make a new char then on it’s birthday you get the 1st yr gifts while the 3 or 4 yr old char will get that yrs gifts

The difference between Ascended gear and Exotic gear, I’m told, isn’t a really huge one.

Most guides I’ve read say Exotic is perfectly fine to go on.

Irensaga.6935:

The difference between Ascended gear and Exotic gear, I’m told, isn’t a really huge one. Most guides I’ve read say Exotic is perfectly fine to go on.

It is somewhere between five and ten percent, for most classes. However, the guides are absolutely correct: the only content that is mechanically impossible to complete without ascended gear is high tier fractals, due to the agony mechanic leading to 100 percent health per second loss without sufficient agony resist — which can only be added via ascended gear.

It is possible, though more challenging, to complete raids in exotic gear, and to do the first tier of fractals without any ascended at all. You can get through the entire second tier, too, on only ascended rings, trinkets, and an ascended back, since that gives you a cheap path to 7 slots for AR, making for 63 AR using the (recommended) +9 AR infusions.

So … it’s a nice thing to work toward, but exotic gear is good enough that you won’t miss it until you want to do the highest end PvE content in the game.