Guild Wars 2

With the sale on GW2, the holiday season, and the Great MMO Migration contest, there’s been an influx of new players recently. As not all of them will be bold enough to post their questions here, and as there are a lot of good resources around (but scattered), I’ve decided to make this thread to help people get their footing.

Contents
Resources and links for new players
Newcomer FAQs
List of players willing to lend in-game help

Resources:
-Stickied thread for new player tips – Slightly outdated, but a good read nonetheless.
-DreamyAbaddon’s GW2 Combat 101 – Highly, highly recommend, especially if you are coming from WoW or other traditional MMOs.
-DreamyAbaddon’s Ultimate Newb Guide
-List of GW2 abbreviations/acronyms, as well as general MMO abbreviations for those new to the genre
-Lists of emotes and chat commands
-Looking For Guild and Guild Recruitment boards, and GW2’s Guild Recruitment subreddit
-The Guild Wars 2 Roleplay Hub
-Playing GW2 with a controller/gamepad: Link 1 and Link 2
-Dulfy.net – weapon galleries, update news, achievement guides.
-For those who like to get a jump on theorycrafting: gw2skills.net
-Excellent crafting guide for those who want to level crafting quickly/efficiently
-Very helpful reddit thread with even more resources
-List of server-specific forums. Important note: Tarnished Coast’s server forums have moved to forthetoast.com.

*If you are hosting any outreach-related events (dungeon training, lowbie map completion, etc), please let me know and I will post it here!

And the most important link here: Required reading for every anxious or discouraged new player.

Are we partly responsible? Yes. I would even say that I am partly responsible- I’ve told quite a few people who were lonely and wanted a good community to come to TC.

Do I regret it? Not at all. Many people who I directed here fell in love with the server- talked to other players, made friends, joined a guild here, eventually transferred, and are having a blast. TC is an amazing server, and I am not hesitant at all to share it with other people… who really want to experience the community.

That’s the issue. Legitimate guesters are good and peachy- I will still tell people looking for a great community to come here, and should a change be implemented that requires a host, I will be one of the first to step up and start bringing interested guests here. However, I am willing to wager that the current lag and overflow issues are NOT being caused by legitimate visitors, but event hoppers- the ones who swarm the server without a (friendly) word and then depart right away to farm another server. Even if the problems are in part caused by legitimate guesters, they will be much better when restrictions are in place. The rest, I will shrug and accept as the price of calling a great server home.

To be truthful, I don’t like advocating restrictions. I looked forward to guesting. I invited people in hopes that they’d find a home here, and love it so much that they’d begin giving back. I wanted more people to come here and enjoy the community, and leave happier in a way that had nothing to do with loot. Sure, I did realize there would be some trolls, but thought that the majority of people guesting would be good-natured and interested in the server’s community itself… but again, I thought a random commander in Queensdale had his icon on to help people.

How do I find a guild to join?
Outside of the game:

• You can browse the official site’s guild postings here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/recruitment
• You can make a Looking for Guild* post here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/lfguild
• There’s also the GW2 Guild Recruitment subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/GuildRecruitment
• If you are looking for a RP guild, look here: http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/forum
• You can also check your server’s forums for guild recruitment postings.

*When posting on the Looking For Guild subforum, please include your server in the title of your thread. In addition, in your post itself, it helps to list when you usually play, whether you’re willing to transfer, and what kind of guild you’re looking for (Hardcore/Semi-Hardcore/Casual, PvE/PvP/PvX/Social). Any info you wish to include about yourself is also welcome!

In-game:
Guilds like to recruit in map chat. Keep an eye on it.
Ask around in the following areas: Queensdale, Divinity’s Reach, Lion’s Arch. Specify what kind of guild you’re looking for.

How do I level?
Do everything. Almost everything in GW2 gives exp. Buy gathering tools early on (you do not need to learn anything to gather) and gather every node you come across for exp and materials you can use or sell. Kill yellow-named monsters- the longer a monster’s been alive, the more bonus exp it gives. Do every event you come across and unlock Points of Interest and Vistas. Do your personal story. Do everything.

At later levels, you will also have the option of doing dungeons to level. You may also level in maps below your level- your level and stats are scaled down to match the level of the zone, while rewards are scaled up to match your level. There is also WvW, though it can be hit-or-miss and overwhelming the first time you go in. If you are below 80, stick with groups in WvW.

An important thing to note about GW2 is that the leveling curve is flat. It takes the same amount of time to go from level 79 to 80 as it does 20 to 21, or even less due to there being more options open. While leveling may seem slow at first, it is fairly fast overall.

Is there kill stealing or node stealing in GW2?
There is no kill stealing or node stealing. Everyone who helps kill a monster gets full credit, full exp, and their own set of loot. There is also no node stealing- everyone has their own copy of a resource node to harvest.

Can I go to other starter zones?
Absolutely. You are free to explore any zone as long as it is at or below your level (you can also explore zones above your level, of course, but you may have a tougher time surviving). Head to your home city and locate a purple swirling circle icon on your map. That marks an Asura Gate, which will take you to the main city, Lion’s Arch. You’ll be at a plaza with other Asura Gates, guarded by the peacekeeping forces of each race- head through the gate guarded by the race you’re looking for to be taken to their home city. From there, you can head out to their starting zone.

Important note- in the human city, there are two Asura Gates. Take the one in the center of the city- the one in Rurikton leads to Ebonhawke, a level 40+ area. In the asura city, there are multiple Asura Gates leading to multiple locations within the city- each gate, however, should have text explaining where they lead.

How do I craft?
Talk to a crafting master in the main cities or at a crafting center in the starter zones to get started on learning a craft. You are able to learn all eight crafts, but you may only have two active at a time- in order to change active crafts, you must pay a fee. However, you do not lose progress on inactive crafts.

Crafting in GW2 is based around “discovery.” In the crafting window, there is a tab where you can combine various components to discover new crafted items. After you discover an item once, it is added to your main production panel as a recipe and you cannot rediscover it. Discovery tends to give much more exp per craft than bulk production of a known recipe.

(continued)

Welcome to Tyria!

Regarding server choice, I feel this thread sums it up pretty well: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/PvE-Servers-Which-is-best-for-beginners/first

Regarding class and race, race is cosmetic. There are no stat or hitbox differences, and racial skills are balanced to be deliberately weaker than class skills, as well as unusable in sPvP. Though there are a few things to consider:

-Jumping puzzles are harder on charr and norn due to their camera height and body size/running animations. I mained a charr for the longest time, to the point that jumping with her feels almost more natural than jumping with my sylvari, but that came after months of gameplay and falling deaths.

-Each race has different cultural armors exclusive to them, and some armors will look different on different races- there are some people who can’t stand cloth and metal on sylvari, others who don’t like asura because their size makes it difficult to see armor detail, and others who fret about clipping on charr. For this, I’d recommend making a character of each race and going to the sPvP lobby to try on different armors. You can also check out http://argos-soft.net/GW2ArmorGallery/index.php

Class-wise, try anything that appeals to you. In GW2, you can move while fighting and dodge to avoid all attacks- doing both is important in staying alive. Warrior, guardian, and ranger are the most newcomer-friendly in that they have more raw survivability and are forgiving if you don’t dodge or move a lot; however, in difficult content, you will have to learn to move and dodge no matter what your class is. Elementalist, engineer, thief, and mesmer are considered the more difficult beginning classes- they have steeper learning curves and are more dependent upon movement and using skills actively to counter attacks, and thus will die faster if you don’t stay on your toes.

Regarding demand, every class can be played effectively in dungeons. In dungeons, people favor high DPS builds. Warriors, mesmers, and guardians are the basic classes- more advanced groups will ask for elementalists and thieves, who provide strong niche and offensive support abilities and higher damage, but are harder to play. However, the meta changes a lot and classes are constantly rebalanced- it’s more important to find a class you like and play well than to jump from flavor of the month to flavor of the month and not enjoy any of them. I will emphasize also that any class can be played effectively in groups that coordinate and understand that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. My best advice regarding dungeons is to find a good guild/static group of people you know, like, and work well with. It makes dungeoning a lot more fun than with PUGing.

In any case, though, try every class you’re interested in, and don’t get discouraged by people saying that this and that class is too hard and such.

I won’t be around in-game for much of today and tomorrow, and you won’t be able to send PMs for the first two days as a new player, but if you ever have questions or want to talk, you can PM me in-game by typing /tell Falunel in chat. You are also free to message me on these forums at any time. Happy gaming!

Toxyn.9608:

Cross.6437:

Toxyn.9608:

Guesting implies a temporary stay. Guesting to a server should only work for 24 hours as a trial period. After 24 hours, you are locked out of guesting to that world for 30 days.

I mean really, how was this issue not foreseen?

Another alternative might be that to “guest” on a server, you need to be invited by someone who is on that server. After all, there is a different between inviting a guest into your home and a random hobo from off the street who just steps through your door and starts raiding your fridge.

That would not be as effective as a flat limitation, but it would help.

Allow me to share a rather interesting experience I had in Queensdale the other week.

I’d come back to do my daily events, and judging by map chat, the Shadow Behemoth was up- hence the presence of a blue dorito in Godslost Swamp. I wasn’t familiar with the commander, but I figured he had it up to show his guildmates/random lost people where to go. So I paid it no mind and went back to troll/bandit farming.

A short while after it died, someone in map chat said something about commanders, at which point a Coaster piped up and said they were hoping to get a dorito for their guild leader to use in WvW. Which got the reply, “Yes please, more TC commanders to farm for badges!”

It just went downhill from there. That same person (the commander on the map) also said something along the lines of “All of you can shut up and go back to RPing making marshmallows in your keeps,” as well as making other insults about TC’s WvW crew and RP. His flaming caused others to join in… and yes, I know they were guesters because they said things like “I’m from (server name omitted), we play for real and don’t do this kitten **** you all do.” Eventually I had enough of it and told them as politely as I could to get off the server, which they thankfully did (though likely to chase timers and not because of my request).

Really, I have no issues with guesters who come because of our community- and when I say that, I mean they come because they want a mature, active, friendly community and not because they want a bigger audience to troll. I also don’t mind if you’re a hobo off the streets if you’re a nice hobo with some great stories who I can have conversations with regarding pink elephant pants or runaway dragons. But if you not only raid my fridge without a word of thanks, but also curse me out and insult my family… well then. We’re going to have issues.

For this reason, I would support Cross’s suggestion- that the only way to guest on another server would be being invited by someone. Guesting was, after all, meant as a way for friends on different servers to still play with each other- this would fulfill that original purpose while cutting down on the coattail-ers.

I do like hopping to other servers just to check out the communities there, and for convenience if, say, Balthazar is derped, but at this rate, the problems solved by implementing restrictions would be worth any inconveniences. Yeah, I know there will be people who will still coordinate to smuggle in troll squads and event hoppers, but the average troll/hopper won’t bother to organize that, and will likely just be lazy and stay on their own servers. It will be harder for people to just drop in if they’re interested in the personality of a server, but again… it won’t be much different (better even) than before paid transfers, when many servers were full. And I’m sure people could arrange something to help interested players over.

The people who will be hit hardest by this, unfortunately, will be the players in sparsely populated servers… that’s the only thing that gives me pause.

Frequently asked newbie questions:
What server should I play on?
Depends on what you’re looking for. Unofficial roleplay servers are Tarnished Coast for NA and Piken Square for EU. The unofficial Oceanic NA server is Sea of Sorrows. Highest-population NA servers are Blackgate, Sanctum of Rall, Jade Quarry, and Tarnished Coast. Tier 1 NA WvW servers are Blackgate, Sanctum of Rall, and Jade Quarry- these servers are the highest ranked and populated WvW servers, but suffer from extremely long queues for WvW maps.

Can I play on another server without transferring, or transfer for free?
You can play PvE content on other servers via guesting. To guest on a server, go to character select, and then open the server list in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Select the server you want, then hit “Guest.”

Guesting has the following limitations:

• You cannot do WvW for any server other than your own.
• You may only guest to servers in the same region as your home server- NA cannot guest to EU or vice versa.
• You may only guest on two servers every 24 hours.
• Every time you access the character select screen, you must reguest.
• Guild upgrades are unlocked on a per-server basis. You will not be able to access guild upgrades that have been unlocked on a different server than your own. However, you will be able to do (and get full credit for) guild missions by guesting.
  In addition, you can talk and party with people from any server (even ones in a different region). You can also do dungeons and sPvP cross-server without guesting, though the region-specific restrictions do apply.

You can transfer for free the following ways:

• Save up enough in-game gold to convert to gems (cash shop currency, needed for transfers).
• Delete all of your characters and you will be able to do a free transfer. Be sure to put all of your non-soulbound items into your bank so you can take them out on your new character.
  Note that with both paid and free transfers, you will only be able to transfer once every seven days.

What class (aka profession) and race should I play?
Race in GW2 is primarily cosmetic. All races have the same stats, hitboxes, and class traits. There are race-specific skills, but they are deliberately weak next to class skills.

There still are a few things to consider when picking a race in GW2:

• Armor. Every race has different cultural armor, and the same armor may look different on different races. Some people can’t stand light armor on charr, don’t like how small asura are, or how cloth and metal look on sylvari.
• Speed. All races move at the same speed, but their sizes create the illusion of slowness or quickness. This means the small asura seem extra speedy, and norn and charr may feel big and slow.
• Jumping. Some find doing jumping puzzles difficult on charr or norn due to their size or running animations.
  As for class: The only person who can answer that question is you. Every class has its strong and weak points, and its own “feel.” The best way to know what class is best for you is to try them all out- you can level several classes, and also enter the sPvP lobby, where all of your skills and traits are unlocked and you are leveled to 80. There, you can take a look at everything and spar against some practice NPCs.

If you want to ask for help regarding class choice, please include the following in your post if possible:

• Your preferred playstyle and fighting personality. Do you like to be in the enemy’s face, beating them down with pure power? Or do you prefer cunning and trickery, leaving your opponents on edge and unsure of how to act? Do you like physical prowess or magical finesse? Flash or subtlety? Agility or resilience?
• Your gaming experience or comfort level. Are you a beginner to gaming or a veteran? How comfortable would you be with varying levels of difficulty?
• What are you looking for in a class? High damage, strong group support, head-spinning speed? What is most important to you?
• What content are you planning to do? PvE or PvP? What roles do you like to take in them? Are you a roamer in PvP or a group fighter?

Answering those questions (and providing what other information you may want) will help us pinpoint classes that most closely match what you’re looking for. But don’t be afraid to try new, unsuggested things- you may fall in love with something you never would have considered. I had a devout healer friend fall in love with thief; I personally played ranged classes throughout my MMO history, but found that I loved melee in GW2. Experiment away!

(continued)

When can I start doing dungeons?
At level 30, Ascalonian Catacombs Story Mode (aka AC SM) is available. It is located in the Plains of Ashford, the Charr starting area.

You can find a group by using the LFG tool in your contacts window (second tab down). However, here are a few things of note regarding LFGs:

• The LFG tool does not automatch you with players and port you into the dungeon. It is simply a place for people to post that they are looking for a group or additional members. In order to enter the dungeon, you must be in the same map as the dungeon. When another party member enters the dungeon, you will get the option to enter as well.
• Many people will speedrun dungeons at level 80 for profit. It is highly recommended that you make your own LFG listing with a description like the following: “New player LFM to teach AC Story Mode. Casual run/no rushing, watching cutscenes.” That will filter out the impatient players and attract ones who will be glad to teach.
• If at all possible, go with friends or guildmates over PUGs (pick-up groups, i.e. random people). Runs are smoother and more enjoyable with people you know.

Here are a few things to know about dungeons:

• Monsters in dungeons are a drastic step up from monsters in the open world. They have much more health and hit harder. You WILL be required to dodge, stay moving, and avoid red circles in order to avoid going down. While AC SM is fairly easy, both it and other, harder dungeons can be a brutal wake-up call if you developed bad habits while leveling. Learn how to survive by dodging/blocking/interrupting/strafing/etc sooner than later, rather than just eating damage.
• Remember, there are no dedicated tanks or healers in GW2. In a dungeon, you will not have a tank, a healer, and DPS- instead, everyone will be trading off aggro and avoiding damage, while using support skills on each other to make avoiding damage easier and fighting more effective. They will use control skills to interrupt powerful attacks and weaken the enemy. The rest of the time, they will all be contributing to DPS, no matter what build or class they are.
• It is highly recommended that your gear is up to date- wear at least blue quality on-level gear, greens if possible. Play with whatever stats you’re comfortable with while learning- you do no DPS while downed or dead.
• Change your utilities to match the situation. For example, if you are a guardian and your group is about to face a strong ranged boss, swap out a utility for Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger. Both can completely nullify projectile attacks and will save your group a lot of headaches.
• Do not be discouraged if you struggle in dungeons at first. They are a step up from open-world PvE and take time to learn. With experience, they are much easier.

What about PvP?
See this post.

I have a friend who wants to try GW2/I am not a current player but thinking of trying GW2. Is there a free trial?
GW2 periodically holds free trial weeks and weekends. Keep an eye on the site in case they announce one.

A few other FAQ posts I’ve made:
Server choice, class choice/demand
Player/server population, questing and endgame in GW2, leveling
Server transferring, cross-server guild membership, character creation
An editorial on “the best class.”

Excellent posts other players have made:
Types of “quests” in GW2 by Danikat.8537
The purpose of dynamic scaling by Behellagh.1468

Helpful hint: Confused about something in-game? Type /wiki in chat to open the wiki, or if you want to look up a certain term, type /wiki [term] without the brackets to be brought to that term’s page.

In-game help list
If you are in need of assistance or have questions, feel free to PM or mail the following people.

Account Name: Falunel.7645 (NOTE: Currently on leave. See this post.)
About myself:
Hello! I’m Falunel: writer, GW2 player since launch, minor theorycrafter, and devout elementalist. I am primarily a PvEer, though I do my share of WvW and occasionally pop into sPvP to duel with my friends. I enjoy dungeoning, exploration, and building siege, but my favorite activity, both in GW2 and my old MMOs, is helping other players. I can often be found hanging around starter zones, keeping an eye on /map for newcomers and their questions.

I have four level 80 characters- two elementalists (Falkra and Falunel), a mesmer (Falche Graysong), and a guardian (Asha Lzurei), with two lowbie eles and an assortment of other classes. I know something about each class, having run with skilled players and played them all at some point; however, my primary specialty is elementalist. I will not outright tell you what class to play or what class or build is the “best”- I am a strong believer in the idea that the best class is the class you play -and- enjoy best, and only you can decide what class that is. However, I can give you pointers on what each class excels at, which may give you a starting point. Likewise for elementalist- I can help you find a build that is tanky, that supports well, or that does high damage, but I won’t be able to answer you if you ask, “What build/weapon is the best for elementalist?” That ultimately is something you must find for yourself.

In any case, if you ever need a hand, have questions, or just want company while playing, you are free to hit me up anytime. Either send me a PM in-game (type /tell Falunel in chat) or mail me in-game or on the forums. You may also email me at paxcaiant@gmail.com- this goes for prospective GW2 players as well. As long as I’m not afk, battling in WvW/sPvP, or running a dungeon, I will answer- if I am otherwise too busy to answer, I will let you know and get back with you as soon as I can. If I don’t answer, by all means feel free to PM/mail me again. I play on the Tarnished Coast server and will gladly run with you if you’re on the same server, provided I’m not busy helping someone else. If you are not on Tarnished Coast, there is no guarantee I can play with you, given that I can only guest to two servers per day- however, you are free to guest to TC yourself. Regardless of your server, I will answer any questions you have about the game to the best of my ability.

Account Name: Equinox.4968
About myself:
I’ve been playing GW since 2005 and GW2 since the betas, over 11000 AP, and I’m good at explaining things. Add me under Edge Equinox (that’s my main character). I also run a guild that specializes in training new players, if anyone is interested in joining.

Account Name: shaquinna.2869
Main character name: Evanny
About myself:
Hi there! My name is Evanny and i’ve been playing GW2 since launch. I play on the EU server Piken Square and i’m from the Netherlands

I’ve always enjoyed helping other players to get around in the game. I’m most experienced in PvE, but I know a little about WvW. (I’m not really good at PvP though :P ). I like showing others where to get a Vista, help them get a SkillPoint and show them Jumping Puzzles.

Everyone has to learn the way a game works and the only way to learn is to actually do it. If people are kind to me I am kind to them and I can be very patience in helping someone _ I don’t mind answering a lot of questions, or if someone needs more time to finish a Jumping Puzzle for example.

You will find me online in the weekend and some evenings during the week. Send me an ingame mail if you need any help or better yet: send me a whisper when i’m online. If I cannot help you at a time because i’m busy I’ll get back to you for sure!
(I hope this is enough information, if you need any more feel free to ask)

If you would like to be added to the list, simply post or PM me with whatever info you want to include about yourself.

Since I haven’t seen a page devoted to this yet, and still see some players confused by abbreviations, I thought I’d make this thread. Feel free to correct me if you see something missing/wrong.

-Other lists:
For those new to MMOs: General MMO Abbreviations and Terms

-General GW2 Abbreviations:
AC: Ascalonian Catacombs. Level 30 dungeon (35 for explorable) located in the Plains of Ashford, the Charr starting area.

Arah: The Ruined City of Arah. Level 80 dungeon for both story and explorable. Located in the Cursed Shore, a level 80 area in Orr.

Champ: Champion, the third (arguably fourth) tier of enemy, usually distinguished by the prefix “Champion” and a large golden border with crossed swords around their portrait. These are even tougher than veteran mobs and have a boon that makes them resistant or immune to control effects.

CM: Caudecus’s Manor. Level 40 dungeon (45 for explorable), located in Queensdale, the Human starting area.

CoE: Crucible of Eternity. Level 78 dungeon (80 for explorable), located in Mount Maelstrom, a level 60-70 area.

CoF: Citadel of Flame. Level 70 dungeon (75 for explorable), located in Fireheart Rise, a level 60-70 area.

DE: Dynamic Event, one sort of quest in GW2. This occur randomly and require you to fight off invading enemies, protect NPCs, and so on, and are marked by large orange circles on your map.

Explorable/explore/exp: Explorable mode of a dungeon. These take place after story mode and can be accessed at a higher level. They are typically harder than story mode, have different paths that can be taken, and award tokens upon completion that can be traded in for gear.

FotM/FM/Fractals: Fractals of the Mists. A new dungeon located in the hub city of Lion’s Arch that is available to any level (recommended level: 80). This dungeon is composed of nine mini-dungeons that the group encounters in sets of three- after completing a set, the dungeon becomes harder. Teamwork and coordination are extremely important.

Heart: Renown Heart, another variant of questing in GW2. You do a variety of tasks, such as killing monsters, talking to NPCs, and fetching items, to fill a meter that appears when you enter an area.

HotW: Honor of the Waves. Level 76 dungeon (80 for explorable), located in Frostgorge Sound, a level 70-80 area.

Jormag: Breaking the Claw of Jormag. An event chain in Frostgorge Sound (level 70-80 area) that has a chance of dropping precursor weapons.

Plinx: An event chain in Cursed Shore (level 80 area in Orr) that was once widely farmed for gold and karma. Now occurs less frequently as of a recent update.

Penitent/Shelter: An event chain in Cursed Shore (level 80 area in Orr) that is often farmed and best done in parties.

POI: Point of Interest, special places discovered in exploration and required for map completion.

SE: Sorrow’s Embrace. Level 60 dungeon (65 for explorable), located in the Dredgehaunt Cliffs, a level 40-50 area.

SM/story: Story mode of a dungeon. These introduce the story behind a dungeon while progressing the Destiny’s Edge plotline, and can be repeated. Finishing story mode awards a significant amount of experience and karma, and allows your character to lead an explorable mode party for that dungeon- however, you can still enter explorable mode without completing story mode, as long as someone else leads your group.

TA: Twilight Arbor. Level 50 dungeon (55 for explorable), located in Caledon Forest, the Sylvari starting area.

(Temple of) Balthazar/Lyssa/Dwayna/Grenth/Melandru: Large event chains in the Orr region that unlock exotic karma gear vendors, uncontest waypoints, and disable statues of the respective god in the region, which inflict negative effects on nearby players when active.

TP: Trading Post

Vet: Veteran, the second (arguably third) tier of enemy, distinguished by the prefix “Veteran” and a golden border around their portraits. They are tougher than normal mobs, but still soloable.

(test edit)

Hey, no worries. Welcome to the elementalist class.

Regarding permavigor, put 10 points into the Arcana trait line and choose trait II, Renewing Stamina. This trait will give you 5 seconds of vigor every time you crit, with an internal cooldown of 5 seconds. You can stack permavigor by having a high enough crit chance to proc it consistently and/or having high boon duration, which will extend the duration of the procced vigor so it will keep stacking. I am able to achieve permavigor with +45% boon duration and 33% crit chance (not counting fury), but these are not absolute numbers.

As for permafury and permaswiftness, there are several ways you can achieve them. The first is to run a build with 30 points in Air Magic and at least 20 points in Arcana, choosing the traits Fresh Air (recharge Air Attunement on critical hits) and Elemental Attunement (gain a boon whenever you attune to a certain element). Elemental Attunement gives swiftness on attuning to air, the 5-point minor in Arcana gives fury upon attuning to any element, and Fresh Air will make it so that, with a high enough crit chance, you will be able to swap into Air Attunement constantly, stacking up fury and swiftness. You can also put ten points into Air Magic and choose Zephyr’s Boon, which grants swiftness and fury upon using aura skills, and stack them up that way. You can stack permafury (but not permaswiftness) by putting 30 points into Fire Magic and choosing Persisting Flames, which will give you and nearby allies fury whenever you use a blast finisher in a fire field.

In addition, you can gain a permanent +25% speed boost without swiftness by slotting Signet of Air, or using Superior Runes of the Traveler or Superior Runes of Speed. Both come at a price, though- you are giving up either your runeset or your utility slot.

Hope that helps!

Welcome to GW2!

kittyjamin.8142:

First off, transferring to another server. Is paying to move to another server the only way? Or can I just make a character to learn the ropes, delete him and choose another server later?

If you delete all of your characters, you can transfer servers for free. Be sure to put your non-character bound items in your bank first, though, so you can take them out on other characters. Note that you can only transfer servers once every 7 days (regardless of whether you did a paid or free transfer).

The bank, is it account wide, region wide, server wide or character based? (goes along with making toons to test out the classes)

It is account-wide.

I noticed there’s a guesting tool but how exactly does a guild work, is it server based? Or are we able to use the guest tool to drag members together from multiple servers?

A guild can have members from any server. However, guild upgrades are server-bound. Every server has a separate upgrade and influence pool, so if your guild has the guild bank unlocked on the Blackgate server, guild members based on Tarnished Coast cannot use it, but must build their own. Hopefully that makes sense.

Guild members also have the same restrictions regarding guesting, in that they cannot WvW together if they are on different servers. However, they can participate in guild missions together if one server has them unlocked, and get full rewards. They can also play PvE content together through guesting. Note that they can only guest together if they are in the same region. NA players cannot play with EU players.

Can you have characters on multiple servers? I figured with the world versus world it’d be sort of a bad idea to be able to due to “Spies, traitors, griefers and etc.” roaming about. Yet I haven’t been able to find out if you can or not.

You cannot.

Do the questions they ask you in character creation affect how your character progresses -as in skill acquiring, specialization and etc.?

They affect the first and second arcs of your personal story- you will have different story missions depending on what you pick. Some of them also give you different-looking starter gear. Others put different NPCs in your home instance that you can chat with (for no benefit than just chatting). The charr warband choice determines the profession of an NPC you fight alongside for the first three arcs of your story. That’s the extent of it.

Are the race based abilities / traits / powers w/e they’re called significant enough to affect my choice of character?

Not really. All races have the same stats, hitboxes, traits, and so on. There are racial skills, but they are deliberately weak next to class skills. Only things to consider when choosing a race are the following:

-Cultural armor (which is cosmetic)
-Appearance- some people hate how armor looks on charr, or how small asura are, or the look of cloth and metal on sylvari.
-Size- some people find norn and charr unbearably slow (they move at the same speed as other races, but appear slower due to being bigger). It’s also harder to do jumping puzzles on norn and charr due to their size.

In videos I have also noticed there’s 3 choices, ferocity-charm-dignity (at least I think), are those choices just story progression / branching or does that eventually affect skills / power acquisition?

They determine a few flavor dialogue choices for NPCs, but that’s it.

If you enjoy ele, keep playing ele. Don’t change because of what other people say.

I’ve done runs with 3 eles, a necro, and a warrior that went flawlessly. I’ve done runs with two warriors and a guardian that wiped over and over. Class is not the deciding factor in dungeons.

PvP in GW2 is divided into two fields: sPvP and WvW.

sPvP is the arena form of GW2’s PvP, and encompasses tournament arenas, standard/hotjoin arenas, and custom arenas. In sPvP, two small teams of players compete against each other to capture and hold control points, with control of each point awarding score points- the team that is first to reach 500 points or has the highest score when time runs out is the victor.

Standard arenas are just like random game servers in a first-person shooter, with anyone being able to join and go as they please. These arenas tend to be disorganized due to the random nature of the groups. Tournament arenas are structured matches with premade groups and different rewards, and are usually more organized/serious than normal, open arenas. Custom arenas are arenas owned by players, with settings adjusted to their preferences- they may require passwords, may only feature one map, or other differences.

In sPvP, you are leveled to 80 and given the same level of gear as everyone else. You also have access to all of the class’s traits and skills, though you do not have access to racial skills. In addition, some sPvP versions of skills differ slightly from their PvE counterparts for balance purposes. You may join sPvP via the crossed-swords button in the menu in the upper-left corner- click it and select “Go to the Heart of the Mists.” After a tutorial stage (the first time you go there), you will be sent to the sPvP lobby.

The second form of PvP is World versus World. It involves week long battles between three entire servers, with the purpose of capturing structures such as castles, keeps, and supply camps. WvW is much more group-oriented and involves knowledge of how and where to build defensive/offensive siege, cutting off enemy supply lines while defending yours, and zerg (armies of 20+ players) warfare as well as smaller havoc group raids. Each server gains points for controlling structures, similar to sPvP, and the server with the highest score at the end of the week is the victor.

In WvW, you are scaled up to 80. However, you keep the gear, skills, and traits you have unlocked in PvE, putting you at a significant disadvantage against true 80s. To join WvW, click the tower button in the menu in the upper-left, click “Enter World vs. World,” and select the map you wish to play on. There are a number of maps in WvW- each server has their own Borderlands map which they defend from the other two servers, and there is a map called Eternal Battlegrounds, which is essentially a massive three-way equally split among the three servers. The final option, Obsidian Sanctum, brings you to a massive jumping puzzle that has open PvP and also features an open arena for guild battles.

I made a thread for this a while ago, but the “white wall” forum bug that prevents edits hasn’t gone away. So I’ll take the liberty of making a new thread.

That being said, here goes!

-Other lists:
For those new to MMOs: General MMO Abbreviations and Terms

-General GW2 Abbreviations:
AC: Ascalonian Catacombs. Level 30 dungeon (35 for explorable) located in the Plains of Ashford, the Charr starting area.

Arah: The Ruined City of Arah. Level 80 dungeon for both story and explorable. Located in the Cursed Shore, a level 80 area in Orr.

Champ: Champion, the third (arguably fourth) tier of enemy, usually distinguished by the prefix “Champion” and a large golden border with crossed swords around their portrait. These are even tougher than veteran mobs and have a boon that makes them resistant or immune to control effects.

CM: Caudecus’s Manor. Level 40 dungeon (45 for explorable), located in Queensdale, the Human starting area.

CoE: Crucible of Eternity. Level 78 dungeon (80 for explorable), located in Mount Maelstrom, a level 60-70 area.

CoF: Citadel of Flame. Level 70 dungeon (75 for explorable), located in Fireheart Rise, a level 60-70 area.

DE: Dynamic Event, one sort of quest in GW2. These occur randomly and require you to fight off invading enemies, protect NPCs, and so on, and are marked by large orange circles on your map.

DR: Divinity’s Reach, the human racial city. OR diminishing returns, a code that decreases rewards if a player does the same event over and over for a significant amount of time.

Ectos: Globs of Ectoplasm, a material gained from salvaging level 68+ rares and exotics. Used to craft many things, most notably exotic gear and legendary weapons.

Explorable/explore/exp: Explorable mode of a dungeon. These take place after story mode and can be accessed at a higher level. They are typically harder than story mode, have different paths that can be taken, and award tokens upon completion that can be traded in for gear.

FotM/FM/Fractals: Fractals of the Mists. A new dungeon located in the hub city of Lion’s Arch that is available to any level (recommended level: 80). This dungeon is composed of nine mini-dungeons that the group encounters in sets of three- after completing a set, the dungeon becomes harder. Teamwork and coordination are extremely important.

Heart: Renown Heart, another variant of questing in GW2. You do a variety of tasks, such as killing monsters, talking to NPCs, and fetching items, to fill a meter that appears when you enter an area.

RedCobra.7693:

RLHawk.3290:

If you don’t have friends to do it with, you can also often call out in map chat to see if anyone wants to go along with you.

I personally found the whole map very fun. But I enjoy exploring. One thing I will say though — it’s more fun when you’re doing it because you want to do it than when you’re just trying to rush through it.

this seems to be the issue, i really want to enjoy it but the legendary is teasing me, do i enjoy the explore that i have left or rush for twilight, ive been on the game 1200 hours now and every minute has been dedicated to twilight

Stop and think about why you want Twilight, and what you plan on doing after it.

The core game won’t change after you get Twilight. You’re not going to get access to top-tier raids or dungeons or PvP, unlike other games after grinding for a certain piece of gear. Neither are you going to have mass admiration or fame. Nor will you become a more powerful player. A legendary is a skin and a personal goal, not a game-changer. You get one because you like how it looks (as in, even if it was common as a blue drop, you would get it because you like how it looks) and then you continue playing the game as always.

With that in mind, is it worth getting the skin if you just burn out and blow past content you want to enjoy? My friend has multiple legendaries (all of which he made himself) and 100% map completion on five characters. As soon as he decided he wanted a certain legendary or map completion, he went after it hammer and tongs whenever he was in-game and didn’t stop unless someone needed his help. Yet the work hardly bothered him- rather, he enjoyed the feeling of making progress towards his personal goal, and after finishing those goals, just played the game as always.

However, I on the other hand don’t go after things so fervently. I like doing things on a whim and will usually drop everything if someone calls in with a question or even just wants to chat. I have my legendary’s precursor, WvW map completion, and more than enough clovers, so all elements of chance are out and the only thing that keeps me from finishing my legendary is straightforward work. Still, I spend most of my time online not actively working, but just doing things I like to do. When I explore, I pick an interesting direction and just walk and see what I find.

My way of doing things is much slower than my friend’s, but we both enjoy the game and progress without burning out or getting bored, and neither of us feel forced to work. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing. Make sure you’re getting the legendary because you want to, not because you feel you have to or that it’ll earn you admiration or make you a better player. And when you do the work required, try to do it in a way where you’ll enjoy it. Your legendary’s not going away, and there’s hardly any point in getting it if the process leaves you burnt out on the game itself.

TheMaskedGamer.5708:

Hey guys, hope you guys are having fun. Anyway, i just wanted to ask what are the fundamental differences between a guardian and a Warrior. I only know the simple basics that Guardians have more health and use magic, while the Warrior can use almost all weapons and are possibly have more resistance to damage(Correct me if I’m wrong).
But I want someone to give me the specifics between their stats, and who is more effective when assigned to certain roles like Healer, Support, Damage Dealer or Tank. (Basically who is better in each role. Add other that I may not have mentioned in this post.) Give me numbers even to see the major differences. Hope you guys can help.

First of all, Guild Wars 2 does not use the Healer/Tank/DPS trinity. Every class can heal itself and has ways of avoiding damage (which is more important than healing damage), there is no way to control aggro, and each person is ultimately responsible for their own survival. Give this a readthrough: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101-Guide/first

Onto your main question- guardians are a more defensive, supportive class (arguably having the best party support in the game), while warriors are an offensive class with access to some offensive support and control ability, depending on their weapons/build.

Guardians have the same amount of armor as warriors, but actually have lower health than warriors. Their health pool is the lowest in the game, right next to elementalists. However, they have access to many active defenses- powerful self-healing and numerous ways to mitigate damage, including but not limited to blinds, blocks, projectile reflections, condition cleanses, and numerous defensive boons such as aegis, protection, and regeneration. A properly played guardian can survive just as well, if not better than a warrior. They support the group by bringing healing, shielding the party from projectiles, and sharing their boons. Their damage output can, with the right gear and build, be decent, but it’s not as high as a warrior’s.

Warriors, on the other hand, have the highest amount of health in the game, but possess far fewer defensive tricks. Their heals are relatively weaker and on long cooldowns, so a good warrior must be highly mobile and skilled at dodging in order to avoid damage. They have the highest direct damage in the game and are wanted often for speedruns. Though their support capabilities aren’t as high as that of guardians, a warrior can boost the damage of allies with offensive boons, provide light health regeneration, and interrupt enemy attacks with control skills.

Gryz.8376:

Stooperdale.3560:

A lot of players have had their butts kicked in AC story, their first dungeon, but then have realized just how much more they can get out of their character. I’m guessing you’ll do the same.

A lot of players got their butts kicked in AC story. And in other story-mode dungeons. But then they realized that the dungeons were just not fun. And there was no way they would enjoy dungeons in GW2. And then left the game. I’ll guess the OP will do the same.

I played GW2 at launch. With 3 friends. Nice game. Beautiful graphics. Some of the exploring was fun. Then we tried some dungeons. I was appalled how terrible they were. Then 2-3 weeks after launch, these forums opened. Many many many many players were disappointed in the dungeons too. Lots of threads pointing out what the flaws were. Why the whole pve experience in dungeons was wrong.

Then the main pve guy posted on this forum. “Dungeons in GW1 were even harder. Nobody could finish them ! Our design goal in GW2 is that you’ll like the dungeons even less. And that they are impossible to be finished by an even larger part of our customers”.

I hit level-80. And then stopped playing. So did one of my friends. The other 2 didn’t even get to 80. And from what I’ve seen, lots and lots of other pve players left the game too. I guess for many other reasons too. But the fact that the dungeons are so bad must be a significant reason for many people.

I haven’t played since September. Once a month or so, when I am really really bored, I read these forums. Just for laughs. To see how the pve design team actually made a negative contribution to the overall game, and they are still clueless to what they did.

Of course there are people who keep playing. And there will be a constant influx of new players. (The PayOnce model is attractive to a certain group of players). But I don’t see anywhere on the web people discussing how great a game GW2 is. Because it isn’t. Big thanks to the pve design team.

And yet there are a significant number of people who keep playing, and a surprising number of PUGs who, once they learn to focus fire, avoid attacks, and use controls, find themselves sweeping paths with little to no trouble and look back thinking, “Gee, that wasn’t bad at all.” And a significant number of players who enjoy dungeons enough to volunteer for one for the sake of running one, or attempt four-man, trio, duo, or even solo challenges. I personally prefer the system here to being completely dependent upon a healer/tank, standing in the same spot facerolling keys, carried by a gear crutch I do not have time nor desire to grind. To each their own.

I ran AC story yesterday with a ranger and three thieves. The highest one (aside from myself) was 41, the lowest was 27. We cleared the place with no wipes and in an hour, even though we didn’t spam boulders on the Lovers or Adelbern and had the misfortune to pull extra mobs at times. The ranger, who had gone in previously with a bad group and gotten wiped, said that it wasn’t that bad at all now.

It does suck that they hike the difficulty up so suddenly, but dungeons really aren’t bad at all if you know what to do, pay attention, and use the game’s mechanics to your advantage. Having people throw cripples/immobilize/freeze on Napa while kiting him around is much less painful than trying to facetank his attacks, praying that the elementalist/guardian will outheal it (spoiler: they can’t). On Adelbern, standing in fire pools will get you killed no matter what… but they take so long to activate that as long as you pay attention to the ground and walk out of red circles when they appear, you’ll never get touched. See a warrior raising his sword in the air? That means he’s about to heal- use an interrupt on him and finish him off. See a bunch of ranged mobs? Slot Feedback as a mesmer, reflections/blocks as a guardian, or focus as an ele.

The main issue with dungeons right now is that silver mobs are often harder than the bosses, while giving few rewards- even then, that’s starting to be remedied with the sharp cut to silver HP. Still a ways to go, and there’s quite a few flaws remaining, but overall it’s all about knowing how to run them, coordinating with the group, and using the game’s mechanics to your advantage.

Also, OP: I’m willing to take you through AC story and explain everything, if you’ll give it another shot. I’ll try to get my guild in, so you can see how things work when people are coordinated. You can add/PM me with my account name. I should be free late tonight, probably past 8 central. The same offer is extended to anyone who feels discouraged or anxious. No class requirement, and you can be on-level- just have a good attitude and be willing to learn.

woofdang.6397:

No real reason to chat in GW2 it seems being you don’t need other class help. Nor do you have to chat about specs or armor and such as there is not much variety. In other MMOs it was nice to talk about different specs and armor enchantments and where loot was obtained as well as make friends of various classes for help. None of this is needed in GW2 and it’s just a very very simple linear MMO.

As a minor theorycrafter and boss soloist, I chat daily about all of the things you’ve mentioned with both friends and strangers, and have helped (both over the forums, in Reddit, and in-game) numerous players with their classes and with transitioning to the combat of GW2 from the combat of other games. With every LS that comes out, I switch on /map and get to work directing people and answering their questions about which NPC to turn in what item to, where LS-specific events can be found, and where they need to look to find things for an achievement. Having been around since the game came out, I can say GW2 is hardly simple nor linear.

Though I may sound caustic, you’ve hardly scratched the surface of the game. It feels like you came into GW2 already determined to hate it because it isn’t WoW, when a major selling point of the game is that it’s an anti-WoW. If that’s so, you’re better off dropping GW2, asking for a refund, and playing something you actually like. Nothing wrong with having different tastes, just realize that not everyone will share them and that not all games will be tailored to them. That’s not an attack- just the best course of action, one that’ll make you happier than lingering around and complaining.

To the OP: It’s a matter of keeping your ears open and putting yourself out there. Help people out if you see them calling for help, involve yourself in /map when the chat is nice, join a talkative guild, and when you’re experienced yourself, hang around helping or just shooting the breeze with newer players.

I, too, came to GW2 alone, not knowing anyone or knowing how to talk to anyone. Over a year later, I have a close-knit group of friends, who I all know and call by their real names. We’ve given each other materials for legendaries without asking a copper back, four-manned and three-manned dungeons, and minizerged map completion together on our alts. I also have a range of acquaintances who I can chat with if I ever feel the need to, and some new players who have taken me up on my offers to help and PM me with questions or to chat. I assist two guilds with guild missions and get requested to help with runs by another guild I’m on friendly terms with, despite not being a member. Outside of that, I often jump into /map when it’s friendly and just chat about whatever with whoever’s on.

This didn’t all fall into place automatically. I said hello to people when they logged on, made a point of welcoming newbies and offering help (two of my close friends were actually new players I ran across and helped), teleported across the zone (or world) to help people with vistas and skill points, ran around as my mesmer portalling people through jumping puzzles. I also worked to improve myself as a player so I could give better advice and hold my own in dungeons, and be a tap rather than a bucket in groups. I let people know that I was always glad to talk to them and help them, that they were free to talk about whatever with me, and that I wouldn’t bite their faces off if they liked cats better than dogs.

As with all MMOs, building a social base takes time, and you’re going to be lonely at first. But it is definitely not impossible, especially not in GW2. It’s just a matter of work- keeping your ears open, making yourself into the kind of person people want to know, and putting yourself out there.

Behellagh.1468:

I never understand threads like this. There is an entire world of adventure out there, areas you’ve never seen full of events and people to save. What the dynamic scaling of levels buys you is the ability to leave a zone when you want to, you aren’t pushed out because nothing there will give you XP or decent loot and it keeps those zones dangerous to you. It’s up to you to choose to finish all the content in the zone now or come back later to do it. Sure if you are now an exoticed, skill and trait out level 80 coming back you may wonder how one of those critters were so much trouble before since now it takes 3 or 4 to become worrisome. Plus you can play with friends who rolled a new character without you needing to roll a new character as well.

MMOs should never have evolved into a race to max out your character to get to the “end content”. This game tries to break that mold by keeping every zone challenging forever. The majority of an MMO shouldn’t be “leveling through” country, only needing to return if you choose to roll a new character.

Champ trains in zones, even in their current form, are a broken reward system. It hooks new players into a play style that shouldn’t be rewarded as much as it is. It’s poisonous to the game and the OP is an example why it’s poisonous. Why should you leave the starter zone? Because the rest of the game is out there, that’s why. You shouldn’t have to rely on the game to give you a reason to leave.

This post needs to be framed and stickied on every forum and handed to every single prospective new player as required reading.

Galtrix.7369:

lordkrall.7241:

Because both Necro and Warrior have much worse defensive/restorative capabilities than Ele and Guardian.

Name 3 defensive/restorative skills that the Elementalist has. I have an 80 Elementalist and I sure can’t name that many.

Defensive:
-Mist Form
-Armor of Earth
-Cleansing Flame
-Lightning Flash
-Arcane Shield
-Magnetic Surge
-Obsidian Flesh
-Swirling Winds
-Earth Shield: Fortify
-Static Aura
-Frost Aura
-Magnetic Aura
-Earth Attunement (when traited for AoE stability/protection on attune)

Healing:
-Water Attunement (traited for AoE regen, AoE heal, AoE condition removal)*
-Evasive Arcana (Water Attunement)*
-Any traited cantrip (vigor + regeneration)
-Cleansing Wave (dagger skill)*
-Cone of Cold
-Geyser
-Healing Rain
-Water Trident*
-Any blast finisher + water fields
*these scale 1-to-1 with healing power

This is not counting all the slows/snares/CC ele has, or its dedicated healing skills, or skills like Burning Speed, Updraft, and Ride the Lightning which can be used as escapes, or the burst heal that the summoned water elementals do. Probably a few more I’ve forgotten.

It’s very easy to level in GW2, so many players will have hit 80 already and won’t be hanging around the open world. They tend to be in:

-Dungeons/Fractals
-WvW
-Wherever the current Living World release is happening (in this case, the Twilight Arbor dungeon)
-Maps where megabosses spawn, or hopping between maps to catch spawns
-Champion farming trains in Frostgorge Sound or Cursed Shore (level 80 maps)

In addition, some starting zones are more populated than others. Queensdale, the human zone, will tend to be the most populated due to the majority of players rolling humans, the champion train there, and the easy-to-reach events and layout of the zone. A lot of players who champion farm also like to guest on higher-population servers for faster kills.

Also, I play on Tarnished Coast and see lots of people around, so it may either be just the server or your timezone.

No, you must download the entire game, as it is still in its vanilla (no expansions) stage.

Hello, Jasper!

I am on Tarnished Coast, but I can still lend you a hand if you wish via guesting, which allows people to play all PvE content on another server in the same region. Feel free to add me and poke me whenever, and I can guest to you or vice versa. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here as well.

Welcome to GW2!

Hello, Jazzy, and welcome!

Thief and mesmer are more advanced classes, yes. However, if they interest you, by all means give them a try. Don’t listen to people saying they’re too hard for newcomers- jump in and find out how they suit you. For my first class, I mained elementalist, a class many people say has the steepest learning curve and is least newbie-friendly. It was rough at first, but I fell utterly in love with it. I still main it to this day and I feel I became a better player overall by starting with a difficult class.

If you have lots of difficulty and get stressed out, warrior, guardian, and ranger are the most forgiving newcomer classes. You can play them for a while to get the hang of the game before moving to other classes. Or if you like them, you can main them. What’s important is that you find a class you love.

As for RP, Tarnished Coast is the unofficial North American RP server, and Piken Square is its EU counterpart.

EDIT: Here are some helpful links:
GW2 Roleplay Hub: http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/
TC Server Forums (mainly used by WvWers, but anyone is welcome, even non-TCers. They’re lovely people): http://tcgw2.com/forums/index.php

Can you post a screenshot? Also, check your chat tabs- you might have accidentally made an empty tab.

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z373/Falunel/SeraphHQ.png

From the Seraph Headquarters loading screen. Took it off the GW2 wiki and scaled it up. EDIT: Photobucket apparently doesn’t like wallpaper-size pictures, though. Here’s another link: http://oi46.tinypic.com/wi09lh.jpg

The “Full” status only reflects the players online at that given time. In off-peak hours, it can drop enough for you to join.

I moved to Tarnished from Yak’s Bend recently and also had difficulty getting in. I was able to move at about 1 PM on a weekday, if I’m remembering correctly, and others have gotten in at extreme hours of the morning. Considering that Lion’s Arch wasn’t full for once at 2:30 AM, you might want to try that as well. (I’m on Central time.)

Best of luck, and welcome to GW2!

Is this your first 80? Then no.

It’s best to play the game through yourself to get a better feel for combat and your class, not to mention that it’ll unlock WPs along the way. You’ll also be doubly poor from leveling by crafting- in addition to being short on gold already thanks to the cost of crafting, your gear will also be nearly thirty levels outdated when you finish crafting, making it harder to earn gold to update your gear.

If you’re not enjoying playing your main, you may want to step back and ask if you really do enjoy the class.

I cannot answer 1 or 3, but Tarnished Coast is the unofficial RP server for NA, and is very populated. I don’t recall if the server is full or not, though.

Some links that may be of use:
GW2 Roleplay Hub: http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/
TC Server Forums: http://tcgw2.com/forums/index.php

You can travel to another race’s starting zone right off the bat. Just head into your home city (Divinity’s Reach for you, The Grove for her), look for a circular purple swirl on your map, and head over to it. It marks an asura gate, which you can use for free to get to Lion’s Arch, the hub city.

Once you’re in Lion’s Arch, you’ll be at a dock with four other asura gates. Just find the one guarded by members of the race whose area you want to go to, travel through their gate to their home city, and then travel through their city to their starting area. You can return at any time to your own starting area, and you’re always scaled down to match the level of the area you’re in if you’re a higher level, so don’t worry about missing anything. Overall, you’re free to play in whatever area you want from the start- GW2 doesn’t have a linear quest/leveling path.

You can also accompany each other on personal stories- just be in a party and be in the same area. When one of you enters, the other will be given a prompt to enter as well. Personal stories are separate from each other for the most part- i.e. when one person advances their story, the other person’s story will not advance. However, the exception is if both characters share the same mission- apparently the story will advance for both characters in that case. I soloed most of my missions, so someone else will have to elaborate on this.

Warrior is still a very solid PvE choice, but not the absolute “best.” It is the easiest to play well, but other professions (guardian, thief, and elementalist) have been shown to outdamage it by a notable amount while bringing utilities that warriors cannot. Many organized, hardcore minmaxing groups will only have one warrior for banner buffs and fill the other spots with other classes who can bring other utilities and forms of support or higher DPS to the group. You will find many warriors in PUG groups, but that is again not because they are the “best,” but because they are the hardest to screw up on and therefore easier to play in disorganized and inexperienced groups than thieves or eles.

Also, the above paragraph is looking at things from the zerker meta PoV, which believes that the most effective group is the one that does the most damage. It is very possible to clear dungeons easily without stacking DPS, and there are a significant number of players that won’t care about speedclears. In those groups, really any class will be fine as long as you understand both it and the dungeon and play well.

tl;dr the best class will be the one you like and play best (especially considering how balance patches change the meta all the time). If warrior happens to be that class, more power to you, but any class should be fine with PvE if you understand it.

PS: And if you are into min/maxing, here’s a relevant link for you. http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/84416-guide-minmax-dungeon-groups-with-any-class-composition/

You’re probably best off sending a ticket directly to support if you don’t get an answer here.

From what I know, macros that basically allow you to carry out full key sequences with a single button are definitely forbidden, as they’ll give you an advantage over other players, ruling out 3 for sure. 2 can already be simulated in-game with autotargeting, and you can rebind Tab to target the nearest enemy. Not sure about the chat macro, but you can work around that by copy/pasting with ctrl+v.

To add on, I’d say as a general rule of thumb, assume all macros are forbidden. There was a mod released a while ago that modified GW2 to act like TERA, combat control-wise, and Anet pretty much said they had no issues with it. But that was a mod rather than a macro.

Some world bosses are Legendary or Epic rank, so they won’t count.

If you want champions, my best advice is to hang out in Queensdale and watch for people calling them out. There are 6 champions:

-Champion Wasp Queen in the woods near the Hunting Lodge
-Champion Boar, same place
-Champion Forest Spider, on the hill south of the Hunting Lodge. This one doesn’t have an event attached to it, which can be a good thing (isn’t zerged down ASAP) or a bad thing (you have to solo it).
-Champion Cave Troll, near Vale Waypoint
-Champion Bandit Lieutenant, in the bandit caves near the vista
-Champion Rotting Oakheart, west of Phinney Waypoint

Boar, Wasp, Spider, and Troll seem to come up fairly frequently, about every ten minutes or so. If you head south to Kessex, the boss at the end of the Battle of Fort Salma chain is a champion and the chain cycles fairly frequently.

Clumsy.6257:

@falunel: let me give you a metaphor, when you teach someone how to make a wheel you don’t tell them to use the very first version that inevitably was a square and didnt work well, you tell them to go straight to a circle because thats what works best

Here is my metaphor- the calculator.

It is inarguable that using a calculator is easier and faster than mental math (unless you have a godly gift with numbers, which most people do not). Calculators are also in easy access, portable and cheap. Why, then, do you think math teachers forbid students who are just learning the fundamentals from using calculators?

Solve this in your head or on paper, right now: 314 + 128. It shouldn’t be too hard for anyone here. But I’m pretty sure everyone here has had math teachers who’ve refused to let them use calculators when they were learning to add.

Here’s what your thought process likely was on that question: you added the numbers in the ones position, 4 and 8, to get 12. You carried over the one and added it to the tens, 1 and 2, to get 4. Then you added the hundreds to get 4. Answer: 442.

It seems like such an easy and logical process to you. However, imagine a person who has never learned to add beyond counting things on his fingers. Perhaps he might not have even learned that. Instead, whenever he had to solve a problem, he was handed a calculator and taught how to punch in the numbers. That’s all math is to him- punching in the numbers.

Now, ask him to solve 314 + 128 without a calculator. Remember, he hasn’t learned -anything- at all about math. Chances are, he’s going to struggle. When he goes out on his own, into a world that demands addition of grocery prices, bills, gas, etc, he’ll be bound to his calculator. He can’t do anything without it.

Now, take that a step further, and imagine if all the calculators in the world stopped working. Or imagine him getting thrust into an alternate universe where there are no calculators at all. What can he do then? He can learn, but better to learn early on than when he’s at the stage of needing to buy groceries. Meanwhile, the people who have learned early on how to add without calculators will have a better grasp of the situation.

That’s what teaching traditional before speedruns is all about. It’s less efficient, it’s clunkier, it’s rather painful at times. But it teaches you how to add instead of just handing you a calculator. You’re better equipped to understand the game and adapt to novel situations. I fight Kholer without stacking and have zero issues. I ran with a guildmate the other day, though, who has only ever killed him by stacking. He struggled, a lot. Fell prey to almost every pull.

Now, imagine if Kholer was altered so he was unskippable and unstackable. Or if a boss was added like him that was unstackable. Recall that Anet’s looking to address the zerker meta. And what if that player looked to enter PvP, our alternate universe where calculators don’t exist? Of course, dungeoning alone won’t make you a PvP master, but in traditional runs, you are exposed to fights that do not end in a blink, where you must dodge more than two attacks and understand how to sustain yourself.

Granted, as I said before, this is a game. If someone outright says, “I don’t care about mastering everything, I just want to speedrun,” go ahead and teach them the speedrun. However, in other cases, especially cases where people say, “I want to learn,” teach traditional before speedruns if at all possible.

And @Anierna.6918, that’s NOT a “play how you want” problem, that’s a reading comprehension problem, which is an entirely different thing. In those cases, yes, it’s the PUGs’ faults for not reading. It’s illogical to insist EVERYONE adopt the zerker meta just because you ran into some dumb players, just as it’s illogical for someone to insist that all rangers should reroll because they asked for heavies only and a ranger joined. Many of the non-meta players I know outright avoid zerk/speedrun parties and make their own groups. If someone doesn’t read when you ask for zerkers only, go ahead and kick them (you have every right to do so if they don’t read), then get on with your day.

Also, for your latter post, that’s why I included point three:

-Explain the zerker meta and why it’s efficient, but emphasize that it’s ultimately a matter of choice and group. If the student’s into speedrunning or hardcore PvE, let them know to use zerker. If they just want normal runs with PUGs, explain that some PUGs are going to ask for zerkers, but they can join PUGs who don’t care or even start their own groups. If they’re doing casual runs with friends/guildies, then it’s entirely up to them.

http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/

Yes, it is. It works just like normal- you can switch between representing your guild and another. A lot of people make their own guilds for extra bank space.

You can get the Proxemics Lab zone just by going up to the door- you don’t have to actually go inside.

As someone who finished Maguuma Explorer just yesterday, the spot that had me stumped was Cubular Fells in Mount Maelstrom. If you have Proxemics, check for that, and check Spekk’s Lab (Caledon Forest) and Aurora’s Remains (Brisban Wildlands) as well.

I don’t know if you’ve seen this link already, but

http://dulfy.net/2013/02/27/gw2-guild-bounty-guide/

Half Baked Komali has a fire shield that makes him extremely resistant to damage and gains 1 stack of might every time someone attack him. To remove this shield, you must do the following: 1) Stop attacking Komali when the shield is up to avoid an increase in stacks of might 2) Use boon removals to stripe both his might stacks and stability. Once his stability is removed, you can use knockbacks to push him out of his circle, which cause him to lose the fire shield. It is very important to stop attacking him when he has the fire shield as not only you do no damage to him, you also cause him to gain might stacks, making removing his stability a pain. (strategy provided by vrava on reddit).

Also note that mesmer is not the only class that strips boons. I believe necromancer focus and certain thief traits will also rip boons, as well as the Sigil of Nullification.

EDIT: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon#Skills_that_remove_boons
Also, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon#Related_traits

Check your PMs

Armor is T2 heavy sylvari cultural armor: http://argos-soft.net/GW2/ArmorGallery/index.php?color=0&sex=1&race=4&w=3&skinID=culthaci&lang=en

I don’t have a character that wears that armorset, so I can’t give advice on dyes at the moment.

Face looks like the first, most human-like face, but with the sliders for eye angle, eye size, and squint, adjusted to look more sinister. Skin tone would be Dark Olive, eyes would be any dark color. Physique would be one of the middle-weight ones.

Unless things have changed recently, server population in GW2 is based on number of people online. During Christmas, on the busiest travel day of the year, server populations fell from High/Very High/Full to Medium/Low across the table, then surged back up at the end of the day.

Yesterday, I ran AC exp path 2 with 2 80s, a level 45, and… a random level 30 ele who had never been to the new AC before. We cleared the dungeon in just over an hour with no wipes.

Yes, the fact that one of the 80s was a mesmer, the other a guardian, and the 45 was a mesmer made it easier. However, said guardian also three-manned path 3 with a warrior and a thief. So having a ton of mesmers/guardians isn’t necessary.

For Spider Queen:
-The Queen and all the extra spiders spawn when all the level 2/3 spiders are dead. Therefore, proceed carefully, killing the spiders in the back of the room first without aggroing the ones at the doorway. Once you’ve cleared out as many as possible, along with the gargoyle heads, kill the last lowbie spider to spawn her.
-Anyone with a projectile nullifier (eles with focus air 4 or aurasharing and Magnetic Aura, mesmers, guardians, theives with smokescreen, lucky engis) should slot it. Take turns using the blocks so they don’t all get wasted at once- when one block is about to go down, step in and put another up. Meanwhile, focus down the little spiders one by one.
-When all of the little spiders are gone, go for the Queen. Dodge out of poison the moment it appears- projectile blockers do destroy the poison shots if you can place them. If a melee gets immobilized, jump in and cure them. If you’re uncomfortable going melee, use a ranged weapon.

The hardest part was the troll, though he wasn’t so much dangerous as annoying due to fear and daze spam. His waves can also be blocked like projectiles, or you can hide behind a pillar between attacks. I suspect they can also be dodged with the right timing.

Kholer isn’t an issue if you focus down his adds while keeping an eye on him in case of a pull- he actually pulls less now to make up for the adds. Then again, other groups skip him.

The champion scavenger got nerfed. Its attack no longer hits as hard and can still be dodged if you pay attention.

For Ghost Eater, the entire group charges one trap at a time. One person zaps the Ghost Eater with a beam from afar to spawn globs- this typically doesn’t aggro him. That person then marks one glob, lifts it, and the other four pull it over. Repeat. For the actual fight, projectile blockers once again help a lot, but again aren’t necessary.

tl;dr the new AC isn’t bad with proper coordination. The main issue is that many PUGs won’t slot useful skills to match the situation, or can’t coordinate their way out of a paper bag.

This may come off as flippant, but why not just play your warrior? You seem to enjoy it a lot, already have one leveled, and it fits what you’re looking for (especially regarding WvW commanding, where heavies tend to suit zerg leading the most).

I believe it is the pit fighter set (heavy armor) with Heavenly Bracers. The Bracers can only be gotten if you played GW1.

http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/human-heavy.htm

Stand The Wall.6987:

Pandemoniac.4739:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Most people who PvE expect others to go into Power Precision Critical Damage to down mobs faster. If this isnt what you want then join a Role Playing guild.

I think you mean “most people that speed run dungeons in PUGs” not most people that PVE. And I’m sure the RP guilds would prefer folks that actually have an interest in role playing. Just because you don’t follow the lemmings doesn’t mean you are an RPer.

Build your characters however matches your play style and ignore the folks who insist that you have to be in full Berserker’s or you suck. I’ve got a high toughness ranger and she does just fine. She’s extremely useful in pulling aggro off of the folks in full Berserker’s who keep getting downed, and she can go mano-a-mano with a Champ and his minions and keep them busy long enough for the folks that can’t wrap their brains around anything but DPS to get rezzed.

Don’t get me wrong – a good player in full Berserker’s tears things up, but simply wearing a full set of Berserker’s gear does not immediately confer an aura of awesome on you.

I also have a high vitality Necro that plays differently, but is just as durable. I figured with Death Shroud it would make sense to go full kitten and focus my build around having a large life pool. My ranger uses more of a combination of toughness and evasion. Whichever way you go, just make sure that your build supports the path you’ve chosen and don’t emphasize one aspect to the exclusion of all others ( there are diminishing returns as someone mentioned earlier in the thread).

I should’ve worded my response better than I did. I meant to infer that there are other ways of playing the game than going full berserkers in dungeons, even though I fall into this grouping. Generally speaking if you are not someone who speedruns dungeons then you are a roleplayer, and if this is not the case, then I am unaware of this other 3rd grouping.

As a resident of the unofficial RP server and a strong advocate of RP and all gameplay styles, I feel obliged to provide this clarification:

Not speedrunning dungeons does NOT make you a roleplayer. A roleplayer is someone who “acts without a script”- who pretends to be their character and tells a story by acting as their character, as sort of a collaborative creative writing exercise. RP guilds are devoted to this practice (with storylines and sometimes elaborate plots), and not necessarily to dungeons, etc.

If you try to optimize everything, you are a min/maxer. If you do not care about optimizing everything, you are a non-min/maxer and simply a normal (or casual, depending on who you ask) PvEer. Thus, a player who does dungeons without caring about optimal setups (and there are a lot of people who don’t care about super deeps) would be considered the normal or casual PvEer, and a player who always strives to optimize everything would be a min/maxer. These definitions are blurry and depend most on the perspective of the person you ask, though.

Overall, the takeaway message is: RPer does not equal non-min/maxer PvEer.

GW2’s quest system is much different than TERA’s. TERA sends you on a linear path, from one quest hub to another. GW2, on the other hand, is about exploration and free roaming. If you see a path that’s interesting, you can follow it north to discover a cave of skritt who need your help defending themselves from marauding ettins. Or you can go south, to the farmers who are fighting off centaurs. Or east, to explore an underwater system of tunnels and fight an undead monster in the deeps. It’s all up to you.

You do not turn in quests in GW2. Once you’re done with the task, you get your reward. However, you can talk to the NPCs to see if they have any interesting items for sale or any new information, and even continue following them to discover new events. I highly recommend giving this a read: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Completely-New-to-GW2/first#post3353537

As for combat, the combat system here is much different than from most MMOs. There are no tanks or healers. Everyone is responsible for keeping themselves alive, damaging the enemy, and using support and control to help keep themselves and others alive. Some skills do less damage, but do additional effects that help you stay alive.

For instance, watch this video of a level 12 elementalist (the class with the lowest base HP and armor) soloing a veteran (harder-than-usual) enemy that’s four levels stronger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubm6k-AX2U8

You will notice that the enemy hits me for over half my health. If I’d stood there and tried to take it, I would have died, even if I had used my heal (on a side note, it’s more important to avoid damage than it is to heal it in GW2). However, I defeated it by cycling my skills. Some of my skills, like the ice blast skill, do not do much damage at all- however, they slow the enemy down, allowing me to avoid being hit, keeping it at arm’s range while I cut away at its health.

I recommend reading https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Combat-System-101-Guide/first
As for a general newbie guide, allow me to toot my own horn and link this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/New-Player-Outreach-Resources-Events-FAQs/first

Welcome to the game!

Since no one else will say it… Thank you, Anet.

Welcome to GW2!

Firstly, don’t do only your personal story. In between story missions, you can level by doing map completion and events. Complete all hearts, and unlock all points of interest, vistas, and skill points. In addition, do any events (the orange quests) along the way- they reward a good amount of experience.

Also, get gathering tools and harvest everything. Harvesting here gives you additional exp and grants credit towards your daily achievement, which also gives exp upon completion.

Regarding fighting, do you move around and dodge a lot in combat, or do you stay still?

I can’t offer you a guild, but I’ll be more than willing to explain upgrading equipment. Just ask me anytime.

The first most important thing is to do what -you- want to do in a game. Don’t let other people sway you from questing if questing is what you enjoy, or even from playing WoW if WoW is what you enjoy. That being said:

What is the approximate population for GW2 players? How many active accounts are there?
I have a took on Yaks Bend I believe the server is called. Is that a decent place to play?

I can’t find a current estimate of player population, nor have I been on Yak’s Bend for a long time. I can say that I always see people around on my server (Tarnished Coast). The game itself is well-populated, though most players will be dungeoning/doing the Living Story/fighting in WvW/farming in the Queensdale or Frostgorge Sound maps, which will make certain zones feel empty.

In WoW I LOVE doing my quests and exploring new areas, and then doing quests WITH fellow guild members if they become challenging, such as if I start to die during them.

What is the same in GW2 and WoW, and what is different?

The nature of questing is much different in GW2 (where they are called “events”) than WoW. The best way to illustrate it- in WoW, a random villager gives you a quest to go ten centaurs wandering around just outside the gates not doing anything, because they’ve apparently been “menacing the town.” In GW2, you’ll be passing by the town when suddenly, an alarm sounds. Centaurs will swarm over the hills and bash down the gates of the town and begin killing villagers, and you must save them. If you fail, the town is taken over by centaurs and you must retake it. The world is much more dynamic.

My big concern / question I want answered is exactly what you do in GW2. I would appreciate it if someone actually took the time to spell it out to me, as far as what you do, objectives, basically what there is to do (in simple terms, well explained), and the such.

What you do in GW2… is entirely up to you. I realize that’s a trite answer, but GW2 is about finding what you want to do and doing it, setting your own goals and going about them at whatever rate you choose. People who need objectives handed to them tend to get lost in GW2.

Here are some of the things you can do in GW2:
-Get a legendary weapon
-Level multiple characters of different classes/races
-Do Fractals (a dungeon that gets harder as you progress) and get to scale 50
-Master every dungeon. Or just do every dungeon.
-Train newcomers and do community events with a guild
-Fight for your server in World vs World
-Fight in structured Player versus Player arenas
-Hunt achievements and titles
-Set personal challenges (solo a champion or a dungeon) and do them
-Participate in the Living Story (the two-week updates)
-Explore the world. There’s a lot of it to explore, and a LOT of detail put into it.

In addition, I wanted to know if the GW2 population is growing, or decreasing…

Also wanted to know if it is easier to get in groups in GW2 than WoW.

The game itself has been growing- they’ve needed to up server population caps several times.

It is easier to get groups in GW2 in that you don’t have to wait hours for a healer or tank (there is no healer/tank/DPS trinity here). Many LFG groups I see fill up fast.

I read there are bi-weekly updates… Could someone let me know a bit more as to what is in these updates, as well as an approximate total count of quests in GW2?

The biweekly updates (Living Story) progress the story of the world. They contain a mix of things, usually some temporary activities with permanent additions and improvements. There have been both temporary and permanent dungeons (with the next update adding several new mini-dungeons to Fractals and revamping it), maps, and quality-of-life changes such as the account wallet.

As for quests, there are tons of quests. I’ve been playing since launch and still find events I’ve never seen before.

I love getting on EQ2/WoW and just doing quest after quest… Wanted to know if you can do that in GW2, or if you do something different?

Are there even a lot of quests in GW2? I really enjoy questing, and questing with people in the guilds… Someone in GW2 earlier when I logged in prior told me that questing is not a big objective in GW2, and, the main thing you do is just do map completion. That really turned me off. I can’t imagine that is true – is it?

You absolutely can get on GW2 and just spend your time exploring and questing. I know a number of people who do, and I’ve done it myself.

Regarding map completion, it’s a very effective way to level, but not required. I leveled via dungeoning on my first elementalist, structured map completion and crafting on my second, and just exploration on my third, running around the map as I pleased and doing events I came across. So it is entirely up to you.