Guild Wars 2

Hey Guys,

So just started last night, and seems like a really fun game! I was wondering as both a new GW2 player and being completely new to an MMO, what should I be doing? I am thinking to complete those little heart things and fight stuff? (I am an elementalist b/c mages/magic are always my favorite in RPGs) Any big things that beginners should do to (a) avoid kitten ing people off, and (b) get your monies worth out of the experience? If this is simply to general, no worries I will just run around and eventually find my way

Basically, just start leveling and exploring the map. Do the hearts, kill some champs, do events, gather mats…..

Everything you do will give you experience, so it’s pretty easy to level. Some starter zones have world bosses that pop every 1-3 hours so make sure to get in on those if you can.

The game is that, you run around exploring and doing the hearts, if an orange event pops up on the top right feel free to join in and you will be rewarded upon completion.

The green star on your map will indicate where you need to go to continue your Story Missions which you can do if you enjoy story dialogue and acts as an alternate way to level in a single player environment, yet people on the same story line can join in.

It’s kinda hard to kitten people off in this game, most people are braindead anyway and just run around farming stuff or pressing F.

Exploring an entire map/zone gives you special rewards so try aim for that, it’s very fun at the start. This means visiting all Points of Interest (POI), activating all Vistas (some are hard to get to), doing all skill challenges, completing all the hearts/quests.

Ele’s are quite squishy so try to stick to areas with the same or lower level mobs.

It’s also quite helpful to frequently buy new gear from the Trading Post whenever you have the gold, especially weapons, that will help you level a lot faster and die less. Sharpening Stones also level you up faster. Gathering AND crafting both grant XP, as well as nearly everything else in the game.

Do your daily achievements, these can be seen in the achievement tab under ’Daily’s & Monthly’s’.

With unwanted green/blue gear, you can either sell it or salvage it with salvaging kits, and this will give you Mats but also Essences of Luck which grant you Permanent Account Bound Magic Find.

Ahh yep, have a nice time, enjoy leveling.

thanks guys (or gals), I am currently just doing as instructed in the human starting area! I have been gaming for over 2 decades at this point, but first time ever trying online, hope it all works out..

Read this thread.

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

Check the wiki for basic info.

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

Don’t fear helping whoever you see. You can’t kill their steals or affect the loot or XP they receive. Rez downed players and NPCs when you find them. Besides being nice you get XP.

Always gather/chop/mine resources so make sure to buy gathering tools. There is a button on your inventory to shift crafting materials to your account bank. Even if you don’t care about crafting you can earn a bit of coin selling them off plus you get XP for gathering them.

Explore and uncover the map. You get XP. Find points of interest (POI), visit Vistas, activate waypoints and do Skill challenges. Also for XP.

Check out and explore all six cities. Pretty much no harm can befall you there, except falling damage. Waypoints within cities are free to use once discovered.

Pop over to the PvP area, do the trivial tutorial and go to the PvP staging area. There’s a gate there to the city of Lion’s Arch and you can jump to the PvP staging area from anywhere for no cost.

Hearts denote activities you only need to complete once to unlock a vendor that can sell you unique, as in not found anywhere else, items for Karma, which is as it sounds a good will currency for completing Hearts and Dynamic Events (DEs) which is the other source of organized activities. DEs repeat, large ones are marked as Group Events.

But to feel pushed into doing any one thing. If you just want to hunt, hunt. If you want to find all waypoints, POIs, vistas and skill point challenges and do all the Hearts on a map, no problem.

You have quite a bit of freedom about how you play and where you play. There is suggested activities for daily and monthly rewards, daily activities change daily. There are events tied to the Living World content that changes every two to four weeks. Just do what you find enjoyable.

Honestly Ele is a really bad class for a newbie in my opinion do to its learning curve . Mesmer would be the better caster class to start with but as long as you have fun thats what matters . Hearts and Personal story are always a good start. Grabbing the skill points and vistas along the way which are marked by blue books and and red triangles respectfully isn’t a bad idea either .

Also here’s some free advice on trade . Only use the trading post as its the only safe way to do it you are likely to get scammed otherwise and there’s no reimbursement for that .

I’d start off with a Ranger personally, then work your way up to others. Understand Queensdale now has Champ trains running around and map chat can get toxic with them around.

Other than that, take in the scenery, do your Heart Quests and prepare for a future of grinding, farming and bugs. Welcome aboard.

Poooh! Nothing wrong with Ele.

It’s a bit more complicated to play properly than others but that just makes it more interesting.

Here’s a guide that will help you understand the subtleties of the class.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-7-15-13/first
It’s mainly for D/D Ele but the general comments apply to all Elementalist styles.

I wouldn’t sweat too much on other people’s opinions, just go with the flow and do the things you enjoy. Just remember that you can visit any races starting area from lions arch, so there is plenty of variety in locations for wandering around when you first start

The best piece of advice I can offer is to stick around after the dynamic events because more often than not another one will lead from your actions.

enjoy your time online!

I think you might actually have an easier time learning the game as someone new to MMOs. Most of the people who get confused seem to be veterans of other MMOs who expect GW2 to work just like their last game and get confused when things are different.

Since you’re aware it’s a new type of game for you I suspect you’ll be paying more attention to learning how things work and have fewer existing expectations.

Having said that if you’ve played RPGs before a lot of things will be familiar. The big difference is that there are no quests in the conventional sense. There are heart quests which are similar, but you get to choose what to do from a list of tasks and you don’t need to speak to an NPC to start.

But there’s also dynamic events which in some ways are like typical quests – you’ll be asked to defend people/places, collect items, go and defeat a boss, things like that. But they start up on their own and carry on with or without player participation. They show up on the map and on the top right of your screen in orange. You can jump in any time and leave any time and you’ll be rewarded for your participation. But I recommend sticking around after you’ve finished because often another related event will start.

Also don’t worry about interfearing with another player, or them interfearing with you. You might have heard of issues in MMOs like player-killers (PKers), or kill-stealing but that’s not an issue here. Everyone gets their own loot and XP, their own turn at gathering nodes and unless you’re in PvP or WvW no one can attack you. You can also revive and be revived by any other player.

If there’s anything you’re not sure about feel free to ask. Either here or in /map chat in-game. Or check out the wiki.

There’s one quote from the Risen that works best for newbies in my opinion:
“Kill….everything.”

If you are at level with some creature or one level above or below and its name is in red or yellow, take it down. Sometimes they drop stuff, but most importantly you get EXP. Take any and all exp boosters you can get and use them.

Explore the maps, do jumping puzzles, help in events, revive folks, climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow, till you find your dream…
(takes a second to stop his Sound of Music MP3s while posting)

If you see a large group of people (basically called a zerg or train) killing a Champion join in! When he’s taken down maybe you’ll get something neat.

Also a guild helps most folks. I don’t join them but I don’t mind being outside grunt work for bounties and such. Replace armor and weapons if you find better stats and don’t worry about the looks of them. Believe me you’ll have plenty of time going over your look when you reach level 80 and have most of the map explored.

Also telling folks here what server you are on wouldn’t be a bad idea. If you are on Isle of Janthir you can message me and I’ll travel a bit with you to help when I’m online.

The one piece of advice that I can give that I wish someone had given me-

Do not rush to 80.

A majority of the experience in this game is exploring the world, learning your class, and enjoying the scenery. I wish a game of this level of artistry was my first MMO. But seriously, enjoy yourself. Once you hit 80 the game plateaus very quickly and you will never regain the experience of playing through the game for the first time.

I can suggest completing every area at max completion – all points of interest, skill points, vistas, and hearts.

Remember your lvl will scale downward to the zone you are in so you can go back and do content you missed with challenge. I’m new as well, just hit lvl 64 last night! It’s an amazing game. Try a few classes and don’t get frustrated or listen to the trolls. You will hear how such and such class sucks no end game etc … play what you like and remember it’s a game.

Apart from all the “technical” stuff that has been already mentioned the only thing I would like to add is – do not get discouraged by unfriendly people. Always just ask if you have a question, in-game or here. There will often be “smart” people who may call you noob or the like, just disregard them – the majority of people are quite nice.

Enjoy the game, have fun, don’t feel pressured and welcome to Tyria

I was new to MMO’s with GW2 (well, I did play GW1 for a week, and then found something else that took my interest). So this was my experience that may help you.

I started with an elementalist and was getting killed quite often.

1) Generate a guardian. The elementalist is squishy and you will die a lot until you learn some tricks to stay alive longer. The guardian tends to be a lot tougher.
2) Keep moving when in a fight. Some weapons/skills won’t let you move while doing something.. use them when you’re not being attacked or can get one off without too much damage to yourself.
3) Dodge. This is the big life saver. Use it judiciously, like when a big attack against you is about to happen (you can practice dodging bears in Queensland, lower left area, they rear up just before attacking, the perfect time to dodge). I’m still learning when to dodge some of the enemies.
4) Fight everything you find, just to get use to it.
5) Dodge… (very important tactic).

Once you’ve gotten good with a guardian, then the elementalist will be a lot easier.

Adine.2184:

Honestly Ele is a really bad class for a newbie in my opinion do to its learning curve.

It’s also arguably a great class, as if they get it enough to avoid death and become comfortable with swapping attunements, the player will likely gain a better understanding of the combat system and be a better player as a result. Many of the other classes will probably feel easier to master, as a bonus, while leveling afterwards.

I see no mention of jumping puzzles!!! How can you not suggest a new player to look for some of them?

Basically jumping puzzles are (generally hidden) areas that require you to do some platforming and/or puzzle-solving to get through. Some of them have unique quirks such as enemies knocking you down into pits full of scorpions (yay) or visual-impairing spells thrown at you. There’s a jumping puzzle in the human starting area, but imo it’s not that great, and is also combat-heavy.