Guild Wars 2

Hey
I used to play GW2 since it was released but I stopped about 3 or 4 months later as I got bored with the story. So it’s been really a long time and I miss the game and the graphics. What has changed since then? The story, the PvP, the classes, etc? Is it worth giving it another shot?

Depends on who you ask. I always think a game that’s free to play is worth giving another shot…because it costs you very little to find out on your own.

The Dragonbash festival is about to start, the Living Story on Southsun Cove is just about over, so you’d be coming in just in time for a new festival, with new rewards.

Anet has gone with a living world update. We’ve been getting smaller updates every couple of weeks to every month with different achievements and events that are removed when the next chapter starts. It’s an interesting way to do business and not everyone likes it.

On one hand, you don’t have people sitting around trying to get a group to do old content that people don’t want to do, on the other hand, if you weren’t around for it, you won’t be able to do it after the fact.

The good news is the Living Story chapters are only loosely tied together so there’s not much that you have to know to learn what’s going on at any given time.

At the top of this page, under ‘The Game’ is releases, that will tell you about what’s been going on. Also, on the home page of the forum is ‘News and Announcements’ where you can find all the patch notes.

You have nothing to lose by giving it another shot. Welcome back! Just in time for Dragon Bash. =)

So, if most people don’t group for the old quests and events, how am I supposed to level up? I remember before quitting leveling was already getting hard as I was slow and most people were ahead plus the areas I was in were kinda desolated..

Craft. No one is in open areas, because they are horrible for time/reward. Its actually faster to craft to 80 vs open world. The time you spend leveling, could be used for CoF runs, and CoF will pay for your crafting ++ more. So no self respecting player will do open world leveling. Saying its “Fun” isnt an argument. History has shown people in this game arent in it for “fun”, they are in it for progression, loot, etc.

Who is this “History”? I am in this game for fun, and I spend most of my time in explorable zones.

My reasons?
- It is generally easier to do daily achievements in one or two explorable areas.
- It does not have a minimum time requirement to achieve anything.
- I like to play solo.
- Crafting ingredients found in level 45-70 areas tend to be in short supply and high demand.
- Variety.

Having said that, here is an update on the state of the game:
- Everything that was there on release is still around. A new area, Southsun Cove, was added in November.
- Fractals of the Mists was added in November. It is a set of repeatable mini-dungeons with relatively good rewards.
- Daily and monthly achievements were streamlined and now award laurels, which can be spent at the laurel vendor in every major city.
- Guilds can now upgrade to start guild missions (in the open world). While anyone can participate in guild missions, the special rewards are only available to members of the guild that started it.
- Ascended trinket gear (pink) was introduced. You can acquire these in the following ways:
Amulets – laurel vendor
Rings – Fractals (cheaper) or laurel vendor
Accessories/Earrings – guild missions (cheaper) or laurel vendor
Back items – fractals and/or mystic forge
Most ascended items are also available in WvWvW, costing a combination of laurels and badges of honor.
- WvWvW now has a separate experience system where you can build up some passive WvW-only bonuses based on your deeds there.
- Many skills and traits were revised, rebalanced or debugged.

JJBigs.8456:

History has shown people in this game arent in it for “fun”, they are in it for progression, loot, etc.

You are so very wrong. I’m pretty sure the majority of the playerbase play this game to have fun.

depends on your class, your goals and your daily activities. Personally in PVE they have a long long way to go and if you played anything other than a warrior or guardian i wouldn’t look for PVE class balance just yet, and finally I would hold off on trying to get legendaries until they fix the lack-o-rewards system they got going on here. That’s just me tho.

JJBigs.8456:

Craft. No one is in open areas, because they are horrible for time/reward. Its actually faster to craft to 80 vs open world. The time you spend leveling, could be used for CoF runs, and CoF will pay for your crafting ++ more. So no self respecting player will do open world leveling. Saying its “Fun” isnt an argument. History has shown people in this game arent in it for “fun”, they are in it for progression, loot, etc.

No self-respecting player just does crafting to level to 80….what a boring waste of time. Craft to 80 then do unending CoF runs? Seriously? Why do you even play this game lol. I have 5 level 80s, all leveled from open world. Crafting for levels is what lame players do that want to speed level so they can farm dungeons. I mean…do you really find that enjoyable? I bet you hate this game.

I mix open world with crafting….

Sarcasm on

What JJBigs fails to realize is COF p1 is currently the flavor and it WILL be nerfed sooner or later…. Anything that provides the player with a good amount of money is something that just will not stand in arena.nets books. You must play the game the way that arena.net wants you to play or you can kitten off…… Sorry just how it is…

sarcasm off

Actually reading back at that…. I’m not being completely sarcastic because that’s how it feels lol… Anything that I found enjoyable has been removed,nerfed or flat out changed.

Let me give you a short answer (I returned for a couple of days after a 4-month break): it’s still garbage, not likely to get better.

The game is excellent until you get to 80. From there, opinions vary.

Reloading.3260:

Don’t bother coming back.

World boss timer mini game now new and improved with api. Now you have no excuse to not be bored killing jormag for the 200th time.

New and challenging wealth generation through nerfed events, zones, spots.

Enjoying our new sab/ss/mf content? It’ll be gone in a couple of weeks.

Bugspotting mini game. Spot the bug that hasn’t been addressed the longest and win a prize.

Marvel at the hackers teleporting around the map gathering mats and opening chests just like they were during beta.

Come for the 2 hours of content, stay for the endless grind you’ve convinced yourself is worth it for that shiny sword.

MY SIDES PLEASE STOP YOU’RE KILLING ME!

JJBigs.8456:

Craft. No one is in open areas, because they are horrible for time/reward. Its actually faster to craft to 80 vs open world. The time you spend leveling, could be used for CoF runs, and CoF will pay for your crafting ++ more. So no self respecting player will do open world leveling. Saying its “Fun” isnt an argument. History has shown people in this game arent in it for “fun”, they are in it for progression, loot, etc.

I love when people make their story a general state of afairs :P.

There are people in open world, however not everywhere, and not at every time. Low level areas are populated quite well, middle one are the least, high are scattered and filled with farming mob, but it’s not a desert. And while CoF+crafting might be a solution to leveling he forgot to remind you that CoF is from 70 (story) and 75 (explo), so it’s almost end of your leveling.

Besides I pretty much respect myself and did mostly with open world roaming (3 times already), so I have completely no idea what the hell did you mean by that. The sole thing I detest is personal story, I’d really like to see an option to skip it on alts.

As for the game itself and how is it going… well I came back a month ago, found a decent guild and have fun with them (if you play on Underworld you might be interested in joining NWA ranks ). Some people complain about farming rates, probably furious about another farming spot nerfed. Other do not try to rush their legendary in a month or two and simply have fun. Other are proud of kicking a back of another server in WvW… or beg for nerf of not-their-class.

To put things simple – game runs as a MMOs usualy do. There’s some new content to play with, some old bugs to be angry about, some balancing to adress, and some whiners to ignore.

If you get to an event you’re having problems with, post it in map chat and make sure to link a waypoint. There are times I’ve sworn I’m the only one in a zone, until I ask for help. Usually I start the event by myself and before it’s done, one, two, three, six people show up, and we have a small group.

It happens if you put a bit of effort into it. Not every time, but often enough to do it.