Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone,

I’ve recently been looking for a class to main, and that started me thinking about what I actually do in GW… It’s basically nothing.

I do a few CoF runs for the gear, and a bit of WvW for well… no reason. Can anyone suggest some things that there are to do which aren’t dungeons or PvP related?

To me the dungeons don’t seem like experiences, they seem like gear-grinding, and then the PvP is not rewarded at all basically, except for a few titles whoop dee doo.

I really want to get stuck into this game and get a character (not sure which class) geared up and mastered, but I can’t really master him if there’s not much to do with him…

I never do CoF runs. The reason is that everyone is doing them and it is too easy and too boring. I do however do all other dungeons and I try to make it not repetitive.

I got 4 characters at level 80 and am getting them the gear I want. This is an RPG, so although they have all the stats I want, they lack the looks I want the gear to have. This can be ‘challenging’ to achieve to be honest.

What also can help is level a new character to 80. Try to do it different then before (pick different story-steps and level in different zones).

Being in an active guild can be really helpfull. The weekly guildmissions are fun. Many guilds organise other events like cleaning all Orrian temples. Also it means you can help other guildmembers.

GW2 rewards people who see the experience of doing something as the reward itself. NEVER do PvP just for a material reward- it’s the worst reason to PvP and leads to people trying to cheat through everything or people being forced into PvP just for the reward. Do it to gain a deeper understanding of your class and to test your skills, and see any rewards as nice bonuses. As reviled as shooter games may be, realize that people play them regularly despite not being “rewarded,” because playing the game is the reward itself. If you don’t enjoy PvP, don’t do it.

Dungeons are extremely fun when you run them to learn, in coordinated yet easygoing groups with friends who know their classes and the game. My group in particular likes to mix things up and push stuff to its limits- we’ve trio’ed AC P1 and CM P1. We’ve also duo’ed CoE P2 (had several others come in to activate the switches, but duoed everything else), AC story, CM P3, and TA F/U. In runs with less than five people, you learn to pay extra attention to everything. You notice enemy behaviors that you never noticed before, ways to play your attacks off each other, and you have to approach situations with a puzzle-solving mindset. You’ll make mistakes and get wiped the first time you attempt something, but you brush yourself off and figure out an alternate plan, and it is awesome when you succeed.

About the other stuff that I do in GW2:

I try to master my class, elementalist. It all started with defying some notions about ele’s solo survivability near launch. I went out and soloed a champion, something everyone thought was impossible for an ele. Since then, I’ve made it my GW2 life goal to learn everything possible about the class, and it’s an ongoing process. I’m currently learning how to solo with staff, a weapon I’ve only recently warmed up to. I also set myself to doing solo challenges to test myself- open-world champions and dungeons. I was the first ele to solo AC story (to my knowledge), and I’ve partially soloed the Molten Facility (up until the weapons room) and fully soloed the endbosses of TA F/U and CM P2. Before the champion rewards update, the champion spider in Queensdale was my benchmark- I took my characters to meet it and deemed myself passable at a class only when I could solo it.

I level alts- I plan on having a full 80 of each class, so I can see the game from a variety of perspectives. I also have two geared level 80 elementalists and am working on a third, because you can never have too many eles. (Yes, I border on obsessive at times.)

I explore. I love exploring in GW2. I like to pick a random direction and walk and see what I can find, and I find a lot of hidden caves, wolf dens, secret treasure, waterfalls, etc. I’m thrilled by little sights like a family of wolves hunting a dolyak, or hunters tracking a deer, or a flock of moas running around the fields- that detail is something I’ve never seen in any other MMO. I enjoy stumbling upon jumping puzzles and scaling impossible heights. I stop to watch vistas all the way through. I follow NPCs I see running somewhere and talk to them, and follow their hints to find secret events. After events, I stick with the NPCs and talk to them to see their follow-up conversations. I just chat with all the named NPCs I see.

I work on my legendary. So far, I have the precursor, 3/4 of the Gift of Mastery, 80 clovers, and 250 bloods/scales/venoms. I don’t stress about finishing, but set myself little goals while restricting myself from buying anything other than T6 materials until I reach a threshold, and I just enjoy measuring my progress. I participate in Frostgorge runs, but only if I feel like it, and if the farmers kitten me off, I’m more than glad to drop and do something else. I run dungeons and invasions on a casual basis. Most of my gold comes from gathering, which I enjoy a lot. It’s zen-like.

I socialize. I banter with my friends, who I treasure like real-life friends. We group up in-game and talk about builds and life. We help each other towards goals by trading or donating mats or running a dungeon daily until someone gets the item they need (even if that dungeon happens to be Arah exp). We run Tribulation Mode together and swear and laugh together. I talk to new players in map chat and argue with people over how easy it is to solo stuff as an ele. Sometimes I take newbies on relaxed learning runs in AC with my group. I’m always looking to answer newcomer questions and encourage them to find something that works for them.

There are probably some other things, but those are the main ones.

Hello again.

This time, I’ll make it very short. If PvE fails to capture your interest sufficiently, WvW might interest you more. Plenty of fights, more strategising, human enemies as opposed to mindless AI and more!

Ok, so I sound like a promoter for WvW. Anyway, this game features much more horizontal progression than most others, which I personally think is, well, dressing up your character, making it look great and all rich and powerful, and yeah… something like that. And then marching into WvW and stomping enemies as a cute pink asura ( that’s me).

That’s quite easy: You farm and grind.

So, you don’t want to do dungeons (i.e. PvE) and you don’t want to do PvP?

That kinda narrows the options.

Or try raising a pacifist character just by exploring and collecting herbs. It can be quite fun and makes you see the (non-dungeon) PVE world quite differently. 85% world exploration is definitely possible without a single tick of damage dealt.

From my tiny experience (1,5 month playing) I can tell what works for me – it’s trying out everything, one by one, and then stick to things that really make me happy with this game.
I love leveling, so i have 2 80s already.
I go for W3 coz i love crowding and really admire commanders jobe.
I farm Queensdale champs in hope to get some cool weapon skins.
I farm Frostgore Sound champs for money, and also because i like to outrun other people ^^
I do world boss events cuz it field really epix, especially Claw of Jormag, when he crushes from sky into the ice ocean – WOW! thats the coolest thing ever!
I explore maps and it makes me feel more like a part of this world, and like a daring adventurer.
I’m fond of achievements, so i track them, and try to progress them every day a little bit. I really look forward to getting some cool titles.

So you should try things, and put some reasoning in them, and you’ll be fine :P