Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing WoW for years, now I’m getting into GW2.
Is there any advice and gameplay tips to help rewire my mind for this game?

There is no Trinity!
There are no mounts!

/suffice 4 now!

Some tips:

- Green gear is better than blue gear (most games do it the other way around). In general the gear is white (basic), blue (fine), green (masterwork), yellow (rare), orange (exotic), pink (ascended, currently only weapons and accesories, but armor is coming soon), purple (legendary, currently only weapons)

- If you see an event or someone doing something, you can join in. There’s no mob tagging, so you won’t be stealing kills, and as long as you do enough participation you will get full rewards.

- Move!!!… with most professions you won’t be able to just sit there and go around your rotation (well, maybe at first but less so as you level up) you need to move and dodge out of enemy attacks (if you see a red circle around you, get out)

- You can’t outlevel an area (but you can be too low level for one). When you’re in a lower level area, the game scales you down so you’re not too strong for it. On the lower left area of your screen you’ll see two numbers, one is your true level, the other is your effective level that will show if you’re in an area lower than your true level. All your stats are scaled down to that level so you can’t just zip by one shooting everything in lower level areas. All rewards and most loot is scaled to your true level, so you can be a level 70 in a level 10 area, downscaled to level 10, but still get level 70 rewards.

- This one for later. There are no best in slot items, any two exotics with the same stat distribution will be virtually identical, the difference is usually only on how they look. You’ll find that the most expensive and/or hard to get items aren’t the ones with the best stats, but the ones with the (arguably) coolest looks.

- When you reach the level cap, you keep leveling up. You get a skill point for every level up (and from other sources as well), you use them to unlock skills and purchase some items later. Chances are you won’t have all skills unlockes when you reach level 80, but don’t worry about unlocking the wrong one, there’s no limit to how many skill points you can get.

- And last one… there’s no traditional end-game, the game does NOT begin when you reach level cap… don’t rush it.

This was in response to a person asking how GW2 compared to SWTOR, but I feel a good amount of the information is still relevant:

I have not played SWTOR, but going on what I hear, the cash shop in GW2 is not like SWTOR’s. The stuff in the cash shop is cosmetic, fluff (toys and extra dance emotes), or convenience/luxury (extra character slots and bag slots). The most “needed” things in the cash shop are Transmutation Crystals, which are used to copy the looks of one level 80 gear to the stats of another, but this serves only a cosmetic purpose and does not give you an advantage over other players. In addition, if you don’t want to spend actual money, you can convert in-game gold to cash shop currency and buy what you want that way.

The combat in GW2 is extremely active. You can move while attacking and dodge roll to avoid all incoming attacks- not only can you do this, you should do this. Many skills do more than damage and can be used to buff allies, debuff enemies, or counter/block incoming attacks. Standing still and spamming stuff without paying attention gets you killed quickly in harder content, as you MUST avoid the big attacks (and the smaller ones as well if you build glassy).

Your effectiveness as a player is dependent on how well you play, not on your gear. No matter how good your gear is, you will get killed if you play poorly. Good gear makes things easier and faster, but it doesn’t carry you like in other games. It is also relatively easy to gear up- exotics (second-highest tier gear) can be gotten quickly through a variety of methods and is enough for 99.9% of the game. Ascended (top tier) takes longer to get, but is only marginally more powerful and meant more as a way to round out a character than as a requirement- if you want to opt out of Ascended gear, you’ll be perfectly fine. You can also run around in rares (third-highest tier gear) and do fine as well as long as you’re a skilled and aware player.

There is also no healer/tank/DPS trinity. There are no dedicated healers- every class has self-heals, and though some can heal other party members, those party heals are weak and cannot save a sloppy player. There is no way to control aggro- mobs will aggro one person, then the next, or even fixate on one random person with no rhyme or reason. Every class has their ways of surviving aggro, every class has a way to support teammates, and every class can bring damage to the table while doing so. Every person in a team is responsible for keeping themselves alive while supporting each other and damaging an enemy.

There is no kill/node stealing. Everyone who helps kill a mob gets equal exp and their own set of drops. Everyone has their own personal copy of the same resource node. In dungeons, everyone gets their own set of loot from bosses and chests, as well as dungeon tokens to trade in for the gear they want.

Like with every game, there’s elitism, trolling, and immaturity, but GW2 has a generally friendly and helpful playerbase. I can’t say their names, but there were servers that were chosen by Something Awful and 4chan to be their hubs; I’d recommend steering clear of those, and also either running dungeons only with people you know, or putting your own postings up in LFG, stating that you’re new and looking to learn. Otherwise, people are generally pretty nice.

If you have questions in-game, you can PM me anytime by typing /tell Falunel in chat. Welcome to Tyria!

Here’s the rest of that thread, has some good stuff: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1ob2fi/caved_in_and_bought_the_game/

Another thing- the journey to 80 is supposed to be a journey, not a rush or an obstacle. There’s a lot of content to see while leveling in the open world- you’ll be rewarded for exploring, and you might encounter some hidden events or interesting dialogues. You’re also free to level in any zone at or below your level thanks to downscaling. Don’t rush to 80- enjoy the process.

And reemphasizing: do what you want in the game. Get Ascended gear if you want to, go higher in Fractals if you want to. Neither are required. If you’d rather continue to explore, go ahead! If you’d rather hang around Queensdale and chat up new players, go ahead. If you want to play hardcore, min/max, and clear everything in the shortest time, go ahead. If you want to do laid-back runs and play casually, go ahead.

If you ever need anything, I’ll make the same offer for you: PM me anytime, in-game or on the forums, if you have questions. Welcome!

Move around while fighting and dodge. Don’t just stand in front of the enemy and hammer your skills down in a specific order.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/OMG-If-you-only-knew-this-tips-for-new-players/first

Those two links will answer a lot of questions you have as well as give you useful tips that may take a while to stumble upon.

There aren’t any traditional quest lines, with the exception of your personal story. Just wander the map and you will encounter two types of “organized” activities.

The first are “Renown Hearts”. When you get close enough the basic info on completing it will appear in the upper right. Complete the requirements and the NPC that has the heart over it’s head will unlock and act as a vendor who will buy items for coin and sell mostly unique (to them, not unique as in quality) items for Karma, which you get for completing Renown Hearts. You can only do these “quests” once per character.

The second are Dynamic Events or DEs. They will popup, sometimes triggered when you get close enough (larger events are on timers) and they can range from catching bunnies that are eating melons to stopping bandits attacking the waterworks to forcing some dark netherthing back into the abyss. Tougher ones are labeled “Group” and they mostly mean it, very tough to take down as an individual. Some DEs may chain into other DEs in the same area as a meta-event.

Since there is no triad, no kill stealing, no loot ninjaing, formal parties are largely irrelevant. With the exception to dungeons and fractals of the mist (wiki it) events are largely flash mobs that form when the event starts and dissolves as soon as it ends. This doesn’t mean you can’t party up with your friends, just that showing up to an event you don’t need to find a party to join to participate successfully.

Thanks so much, I was not expecting such friendly and detailed replies.
I will apply this information well, thanks again!

Be selective with your dodging. you can only dodge every so often, so use it wisely. also, do it just before the mob attacks. it sucks when you hit it a moment too soon or late, and get hit even though you dodged.

The economy is upside down compared to WoW (or any other economy )

Anything you craft will sell for less that the cost of materials because the act of crafting gains you valuable XP.
You have to decide whether to turn loot and gathers into gold (at the TP) or XP (by crafting with it) or you may decide to buy crafting materials from the TP just to gain levels. Similarly, salvaging always seems to give you materials worth less than the original item.
And those loot bags, pouches and unidentified whatnot’s that you’ll be tempted to open? Don’t. The contents are invariably less than the value of the item itself on the TP.
Personally, I recommend selling everything on the TP – you can always buy stuff when you need it – there never seems to be a shortage of anything. White and blue stuff you will probably need to vendor – but not always – sometimes it’s quite desirable – always check first.

Oh. The #1 difference you’ve noticed already. People are a LOT more friendly. It’s a much more co-operative game than WoW.

P.S. Don’t wait to reach lvl 80 before going into WvW. Providing your gear is reasonably current, the up-scaling makes you competitive enough.

almost everything you get is replaceable. I remember when I started I dared not even click ‘sell all junk’ because I didn’t know what I would or wouldn’t be able to ever get again. there is not one piece the game identifies as junk that is of any use besides selling to merchants for coin. I often wish that it would identify white and blue items as junk as well (except for right now – where salvaging those will give you luck). The only exceptions to this (where the item is the only one you will get) are rewards from achievements (especially living story) and special events.
crafting can be profitable, but usually it isn’t. same with salvaging – I personally use salvaging as my primary income and make huge profits. you just have to be very selective.
people will often say in map chat when something important is going on. Unless I’m waiting on something else, I will always participate in these. Things like ‘champ at Vale WP’ or ‘Fire Elemental in 2 minutes’ or ‘Claw up’ or ‘Lyssa needs more people’. These events do scale with how many players are present, but more players will almost always make it easier (the only exception is dead players who don’t wp and revive themselves). And, as stated before, everyone who participates gets full rewards.
‘participate’ means dealing damage (usually to the main boss, sometimes minions will count). reviving people, healing people, removing conditions, ad control are helpful, but usually don’t give you participation credit. spend at least some of the time dealing damage to the boss. I think it goes by percentage. so with up to 10 people there, 1 attack should give you full credit. with a lot of people (50+), you need 3-5 attacks to get full credit. Sometimes if I just barely make it there in time, I’ll get credit for the event, but not for killing the boss.

Here are my 2 cents:

While leveling:

• SAVE your Karma. Recent patches have made it harder to obtain and it is valuable once you start gearing up Max level character(s). It’s ok to spend a little on jewelry and possibly a chunk on a few rare weapons along the way, but GREEN gear drops a lot and is more than good enough to use until you reach LVL 80. I wouldn’t start searching to replace equipment until it’s 7-10 levels below your current level.
• If you plan on crafting (or just want to make some extra money on the Trading Post), get some gathering tools and harvest EVERY resource node that pops up on your radar. Nodes respawn for each character every day (but move when updates happen).
• Ask for help in chat….most players will readily assist. On that note, revive everything you can….free XP!

The game does not do a good job explaining itself so you’ll want to bookmark the Guild Wars 2 Wiki. It is a good resource of general game info and it has most of the info you’ll need on mechanics not explained in game.

Like Dodging. The repeated point people make about dodging and moving in combat is very true.

Even if you play a heavy armor class (Warrior,Guardian), you still can’t just stand there and be a meatshield. You’ll die. Even in heavy armor you need to dodge (also there are high level traits that produce effects when you dodge so check those out when you get to higher level)

Also check out helpful websites like GW2Spidy and GW2Stuff. One is a pricing website, the other monitors open world mega-events.

Mindprowess.1078:

Thanks so much, I was not expecting such friendly and detailed replies.
I will apply this information well, thanks again!

Thats another thing you’ll find here…people are so much nicer!

Some important differences between gw2 and WoW (and other games).

1: there is no trinity. (Tank/dps/healer). There are classes that can specialize more in being protective, being tanky, or being specialized in DPS more then other classes. But the game play makes a traditional trinity model impossible. The first reasons is that the best protective class is melee-range. But also cause no class can keep other players alive forever. Self-healing is much more important for survivabillity. The most important reason however is that foes don’t stay on the tank. ranged classes (on average) have an advantage that they have a better overview to avoid (dodge) damage. But almost all classes can do melee damage and the melee damage is the best DPS.

2: No tagging needed. If you participate in a fight you get a reward. Some claim people dont have to do enough. With most fights it is enough to get one shot in to get rewarded. This means however it is a much more friendly game. You are rewarded by playing together not only with guildies, but also with people you randomly meet.

3: No gear grind. or atleast not as much. The highest level gear (just recently introduced) takes a good amount of gameplay. But that will be it, and that level of gear is just slightly higher then the second best rank. This second best rank is very widely available. The grind is for good looking skins.

4: Everything rewards. Crafting, killing foes, discovering map, gathering materials. All reward experience and help you to level up.

5: An important note is to not trick yourself to higher level. there are very viable ways to grind your way to max level a lot faster then by playing the game (doing story, exploring new maps, going to higher level zones, etc). These methods like crafting you to max level or joining a so called champ train in the starter area, make you level up faster. But you will not have the right learning curve. The game is very different then WoW and you need to learn to play it. these methods are good for your second or third character, but not your main.

play warrior its imba

Try different weapons! The weapons you use change your first five skills and can drastically alter how a class functions and feels.

You can sell on the Trading Post (equivalent of the AH) from anywhere in the game. You can send/receive mail from anywhere. You cannot mail yourself items. Your bank is shared by your account, and that is how you transfer items between characters.

You can move while casting (there are exceptions, but this is largely true)! Enjoy! You can also avoid being hit by an attack simply by moving out of its way.

Learn how your self-healing works. It’s actually meant to keep you alive in GW2.

The TP search and filters are terrible. You will long for the AH at times. However, being able to name your price (and see what prices other people are naming) is pretty awesome.

‘Kitten’ is the word the forum uses to filter out cursing. So if you see kitten appearing randomly, it’s not some secret game-speak.

You earn experience by doing events, renown hearts (which replace quest hubs), exploring, crafting, gathering, reviving, dungeons (eventually) and so on. Some of those things involve killing other things, but killing stuff as a grind is generally not going to be your best route to leveling.

When you get defeated by a monster, you still get to fight! If it’s nearly dead, you might be able to kill it and rally. Or if it wanders off, you can heal yourself up from the downed state and rally.

Waypoints are fantastic. Find all of them. Use them. The cost of using them increases as you level up.

Note: I do not do PvP or WvW, so this is just from a PvE perspective.

Welcome to GW2! I left WoW earlier this year (after playing since mid vanilla), looking for something more relaxed and friendly. Overall, I’m quite happy with GW2. Feel free to whisper me in game if you have any questions!

When the ogre swings his club, you need to dodge it.

Don’t stand in red circles.

Coming from a WoW player, and an MMO player since 1997, this game is one of the most difficult I have had to play.

The classes are unbalanced in that some you can dominate from the beginning, while others you have to really be on top of things.

I like a lot that the game has to offer, but there is so much that is difficult to overcome, or is poorly designed (ie: dying and choosing a way point to rez that says it is clear, only to find it surrounded by mobs and dying again.)

I have only been playing for a week, and I am on the fence as to whether or not I like the game.

This game is nothing like WoW, and makes the challenge of WoW look like the Sims.

My opinion.

Priam.8079:

Coming from a WoW player, and an MMO player since 1997, this game is one of the most difficult I have had to play.

The classes are unbalanced in that some you can dominate from the beginning, while others you have to really be on top of things.

I like a lot that the game has to offer, but there is so much that is difficult to overcome, or is poorly designed (ie: dying and choosing a way point to rez that says it is clear, only to find it surrounded by mobs and dying again.)

I have only been playing for a week, and I am on the fence as to whether or not I like the game.

This game is nothing like WoW, and makes the challenge of WoW look like the Sims.

My opinion.

You may need to read some of these posts and linked threads as I have NEVER heard this game described as, “one of the most difficult I have had to play.”. I can only think you are playing the game based on a incorrect assumption of how to play it (standing still attacking, not dodging, fighting in areas you are not leveled or equipped for, etc.) The contents of this thread (or links contained here) may help with that.

One players “unbalanced” is another players “different” and what you consider a “poor design” I might consider “challenging and realistic”. BTW, no waypoint in an open world zone should ever be considered 100% SAFE. There are those that I have never seen an enemy near, but you have to learn the zones to find them.

Priam.8079:

This game is nothing like WoW, and makes the challenge of WoW look like the Sims.

As a long-time Wow veteran myself, yes GW2 shows some substantial differences, some of which I struggled with myself at the very beginning. Once you get your head around those, the game is actually easier than WoW, mainly because most of its content is designed to be very easy. The possibility of more challenge is there, but not utilized so far. Compared to much of the raid content of WoW, what GW2 currently has to offer is laughable.

That being said, the main points for me were: learn to dodge (and when), and don’t expect to be handheld by quest chains sending you on your levelling way. Rather, learn to explore and enjoy the journey :-)

What Bezayne said

Priam.8079:

Coming from a WoW player, and an MMO player since 1997, this game is one of the most difficult I have had to play.
…snip…

I have only been playing for a week, and I am on the fence as to whether or not I like the game.

This game is nothing like WoW, and makes the challenge of WoW look like the Sims.

A week isn’t really long enough to come to any valid conclusion. Admittedly the game is complex but I don’t see it as significantly different from WoW in terms of mechanics.
You have an avatar with armour and weapons and fake monsters to fight. Or you can join the grown-ups in the real battle between the servers. (WoW had you fighting each other, which was why it was such a social nightmare).

Anet have tried to make it a place you won’t get bored with in a hurry, it’s huge and it’s deep and there are lots of tricks and secrets hidden away. Plus they keep adding to it so there’s no real end-game, just a continuation of the adventure.

Difficult? no.

You can do PvP and WvW as soon as you finish your intro event (level 2). There is a PvP icon along the top-left of your screen. Click it to bring up the menu and to travel to the Heart of the Mists. Hit B to bring up the WvW menu and to travel there.