Guild Wars 2

I bought GW2 shortly after release, played for a while (in my world that’s months, not years), burnt out and quit. I just returned a few weeks back and am very pleased to be once again enchanted by GW’s beautifully realized world and smart design; without doubt, they raised MMOs to the next level.

My plan was to raise one character of each class more or less in concurrently. I did that to level 50 (perhaps the reason behind my burn out) before selecting a few that I preferred (though I enjoy them all) and focusing on them. Two days ago they — an elementalist, engineer and thief — reached 80. And now I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do next.

I could, of course, raise the others to 80, something I’m likely to do eventually. But what about enjoying the “end game”? With so many 80s running around now, it’s clear that a huge number of people are finding things to do at GW2’s highest level, but I’m wondering what’s really sustaining people’s interest. I’ve come up with a list of options:

- Dungeon runs (admittedly, I’ve only done Ascalonian Catacombs story, so I’m very much looking forward to covering the rest and doing explorer mode)
- WvW (I’ll likely dabble here, but not terribly interested)
- sPvP (not for me)
- Finish out the story (I’m at L70 of mine, so I have a bit left to do)
- Living Story (I’ve done none of this, but it looks like much of it is pay-to-play)
- Fractals (no experience…seems like random dungeons)
- Silver Wastes (I’ve been goofing about here for the last two evenings…not bad, but seems very limited and likely to get old fast)
- Malchor’s Leap (not been)
- Cursed Shore (not been)
- Southsun Cove (is this even available anymore?
- Dry Top (not been)

Did I cover the lot? I suppose I could pursue world completion, but I think that’d bore me (I’d rather level more characters). I’m not near 100%, but I’ve pretty thoroughly explored all the zones (having gone through many with eight characters).

I wouldn’t mind filling my coffers with gold and getting better equipment, but I’m in it for the gameplay and exploration. Simply grinding for gear isn’t for me — if I’ve reached that point, I may as well move on to another game. I’m not going to be able to handle doing each dungeon 50 times or weeks and months in Silver Wastes.

The one thing that does intrigue me is soloing dungeons, laughable as that may sound for someone with my limited experience. I tried it last night in Ascalonian Catacombs story mode and it was like Dark Souls…only much harder. I must have died 30 times, though I did make it about halfway through. Not sure I have the constitution for it, but if anything will make me stay, it’s challenge.

Anyway, just looking for your thoughts and opinions. Is there something I’m not doing that’s going to be a huge thrill?

And, yes, I’m aware there’s an expansion coming that may well open things up a good deal further for L80s. But I’m speaking of now, before I go and invest in Heart of Thorns without knowing how much I’ll get out of it.

Thanks for reading.

Personally, I love collections. For example, I just completed the Brewmaster achievement where I had to run around the world and collect a multitude of brews to drink.

Another thing that I find extremely important is to find an active, and friendly guild that you can talk to and hang out with whenever you get online.

But seriously – I was getting bored of the game too until I found a nice guild that I could chat, and goof around with.

WvW keeps me going at endgame.

- Dungeons : You can do them all, but what kept me doing for a while was to get better at them and do them in near record time with a team of guildmates. After that, It was solo run that gave me a huge challenge to accomplish.

- Fractals : They are harder than dungeon and even if it’s a small randomness, it will disappear with the expansion anyway. Some really nice specific reward there, but it’s mostly because it’s fun to play. Trio fractal level 50 is a another challenge that you can give yourself later.

- Living Story : Season 1 and 2 were great. Not always, but I still have some great memory with my friends. It’s not really pay to play. Season 1 was completly free but can’t be accessed anymore. Season 2 was free if you played during their release. Is it worth buying? If you really like the game yes, if you try to find something to hook you up, no.

- Silverwaste : The main motivation there is gold. It’s great place for that and it can get old rather quickly if you farm a lot, I always have fun doing it from time to time. I like to lead chest farm. But again, that shouldn’t be what hook you up.

- Collection/Achivement : Not everybody like that but it can be really fun if you are a completionist. Even if you are not, some achivement are very cool to do. Like the jumping puzzle, the mini dungeons, etc. Personnally, that was always a great background motivation for me. I like to complete things.

- World Bosses : You need at least to do them all once. After that a lot of people like to farm them or just do some each day, Teq and Karka Queen being the two most popular. And of course Triple Trouble is awesome but hard to get into.

- Cosmetic : Some skin are hard to get, but I always had fun to gear up my characters with different thematics. My main changed looks a couple of times.

- WvW : I roamed alone for a long time before I joined a zerg bursting guild and it’s one of the 3 most fun I had in gw2. Having your team setup and organized to kill zerg twice as big as you can create some epic situation.

- sPvP : I went through different phase in the last 3 years and for the last one, sPvP was the main focus. Most of my friends didn’t want to get into that, but when you really taste it in a team, it’s hard to leave.

Great reply, Thaddeus. Just what I was looking for. Definitely gives me some avenues to pursue.

What’s the best way to find a compatible guild?

For guilds, you can try browsing through or making a post in the Looking for… section of the forums. Other than that, there are usually a few guilds advertising in the major cities (mostly Lion’s Arch).

The slow accumulation of wealth.

LS and when that’s done, for the moment PvP. Also map completion.

For me it’s a combination of things: the story (both the personal story and the living story), getting new skins I like and finding ways to combine them that work well on my characters, doing dungeons, collecting mini pets, and I also enjoy exploring the map and really like not having to worry about encountering things over my level.

Basically I don’t think of getting to level 80 as the end of the game, and therefore don’t think of things after that as ‘end game’. It just means I’m finished with one, relatively small, part of developing my character. Everything else continues as normal.

The biggest difference IMO is that the game becomes a lot more open – you can go anywhere and do anything without worrying about being under-levelled or not getting enough XP or whatever. Just do what you enjoy because you enjoy doing it instead of because it’s what you have to do next to progress.

I somehow find GW2 endlessly fascinating. So I’ve played for a year and a half or so. One thing that I think will keep me coming back for a long time are the different professions. So in this year and a half, I’ve really only developed 3 toons. The op mentioned leveling several different professions to 80. From my perspective, that’s the first step. Mastering a profession and really appreciating its nuances is the best part for me, and this is why I have so few characters.
Really getting to know the ins and outs of a profession involves taking your characters into all sorts of different situations and trying to do different things. So for example, my builds for pvp, dungons, and open world exploration/farming are TOTALLY different. And even within those activities it will depend on if i’m alone, with friends, or with strangers. I like to think that with my core professions I can be anywhere in game, with anybody, and be as effective as possible in any role you ask of me. Since I have 6 more professions to experiment with, I imagine i’ll be occupied for a long time to come.