Guild Wars 2

Since condi builds are king atm, condi burn guardian is good. Firebrand elite spec for PoF kind of takes that up a notch, but at its root, it’s intended for support. Your F1-F3 skills bring back tomes as weapon kits. The special utility skills are mantras with charges.

The HoT elite spec, Dragonhunter, gave guardian a longbow and trap utilites.

Since you’re primarily interested in guardian, I suggest having a look at the class subforum: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian

OP, it’s unfortunate you’ve had a bad experience! Generally, the community here is great. Sure, there are always a few jerks but lately, I see lots of groups running HP trains or folks calling for help in map chat— and receiving it. I’ve seen plenty of helpful chat in Lion’s Arch, too.

Makai.3429:

A few points to help avoid common toxicity:

1) Don’t complain about difficulty, especially with Fractals and Raids.
2) Don’t ask for help or advice on content deemed too easy by the game’s overlords.
3) If you have a disability, keep it to yourself. Because of the elitist mentality that came with HoT, any slight variance from a flawless run will get you scorn.

Other than that, the community seems to be pretty helpful; and there’s a lot of friendly content creators, too.

1) No one likes complaining, but if you phrase it as, “I’m having trouble with X. Can someone give me some advice about how to tackle it?” You will probably get some good advice.
2) Since you don’t know what’s considered “too easy” then feel free to ask for help, or advice, as above.
3) I’ve found that others appreciate you being upfront with them. If you join a group, be sure to say “I’m new to this/ never done this” or “I have this issue so please be patient with me while I’m learning”. Again, if you’re looking for advice, there are plenty of people around who probably have the same issue and can help you.

OP, I’m glad you’ve decided to hang in there for a bit. Best of luck to you.

This has happened to others. Part of the problem is that if he has added you to his follow list, it is very difficult to escape him. You cannot block yourself from his follow choices and he can see what map you’re in and where.

To others who’ve suggested that a stalker needs to keep buying accounts: not true. I have seen cases like this where a stalker spreads rumors and gets all kinds of people involved to pester and upset his victim. A network of folks wind up mailing, whispering, physically following, and chatting bad things about the victim. In this case, I hope it doesn’t escalate to that.

What you can do: It is not perfect, but set yourself to invisible. On the character login screen, (or in-game) click on the 3-people icon in the upper left screen. Next to your name is a little green square. Click the drop-down menu and change it to the grey square. That way, you do not appear to be online and he can’t tell what map you’re in or where. The downside is that guildies and friends don’t know you’re online, either.

It is also good advice to document as much as you can— screenshots of your stalker’s actions, messages, etc. As JustTrogdor mentioned, ask for a higher level of support from Anet. The more evidence you have, the better.

FreakinBeast.8517:

…What would be your advise?
My priorities are (highest to lowest):

• (high) fractals
• wvw (solo)roaming
• raids (and contributing something to the group)
• wvw zerging
• pvp

…

As your title is “most versatile class”, I would suggest you try mesmer. The chronomancer elite spec is welcome in challenging gameplay. Ele is also a good choice, with excellent DPS or support specs available. They are also welcome in all types of gameplay.

As far as your forays into wvw roaming, it sounds like you need more durability. You can run glass cannon builds in open world all day, but survivability is much more important in WvW settings. I suggest you have a look at metabattle (http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki) and take note of build similarities by game mode. Then, either adopt or adapt a build of your own.

Good luck!

Exiled.5781:

…I am under the impression that this game is not suited for those that don’t want to raid or PvP. …

Other than story lines,zone events,and HP trains that people do,there really isn’t anything to do at max level? Or I am just in the dark about things at 80?

I’d say your impression is off, as there are many players here who raid and PvP. That aside, you seem to have fallen into a common trap. Many players jump into this game, either boost to L80 or grind to L80 in very little time, then bemoan the fact that this game is not entirely focused on “endgame”. There’s plenty to do; it just depends upon what you want to do.

Also, GW2 won’t tell you that you must go to X Place next, followed by Y Place, where you are required to do Z. Instead, you should set your own goals and play whatever it is that you enjoy doing in game. If exploration is your thing, there’s a lot to explore. If you’re an acheivement hunter, there’s a ton of things to seek out. If you want a legendary weapon, that’s a great long-term goal. If you like story… etc.

Scroll down to “Got to 80, What Now?” for some ideas. https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/wiki/newplayers

Good luck!

Yakez.7561:

Looks like Raptor was tweaked a lot since previous demo weekend. Now it feels so unrealistic like mounts in other MMO. Very fast response, bouncy animation, and no where near the previous feel of handling 1 ton of raptor meat and bones.

I noticed a difference. They feel more… slidey now. Last demo, I could use arrow keys to gradually guide the direction of a mount. This time, a short tap in direction practically spun me 90 degrees! I prefer the weightier handling of the mount from the first demo. Weird so many people didn’t notice a difference.

Rhanoa.3960:

I gotta say it is pretty generous for just handing out a Profession originally locked unless you purchased HOT.

What does that say about about YOU Veteran players who have purchased GW2 & HOT? …

I think you already summed it up— it is generous. Personally, I think that’s great! It shows new and returning players that not only is this an awesome game, Anet is generous about sharing their world with players.

Getting the Core Game for free with the purchase of the expansion makes sense. The Core Game IS free. Getting Rev with the expansion is okay with me, too. The game has evolved and Rev is part of team after Core.

As a veteran player, I get:

• the PoF expansion (+ bonuses with fancier editions)
• a level boost for my new character (because I’m keeping Elite 1 and want Elite 2)
• another shared inventory slot
• a fresh crop of new blood in the game.

Sounds good to me!

I’m saving my make-over kits for the release of PoF, hoping we’ll have some new options then.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/path-of-fire/
Scroll down to “Explore and Play” header for the new GH Promo video.

They have said a guild may only have one GH. There’s nothing preventing you from having an alternate guild and getting some folks to help you take a new GH, though.

Jinn Galen.2468:

Why not redesign home instance into your own personal house?

That would be lovely… if it was possible. Currently, you can’t put your nodes and such where you want them and you cannot decorate. If they changed this so that the home instance could be personalized, I think people would be happier about it.

First, kudos to the animators! Skill animations look really great on everything I tested.
Second, disappointing that PvErs like myself really didn’t have a good bout of testing.

Weaver – I liked sword even it is currently weak damage. It feels great to get so many new skills to play with! Element swapping feels like it takes forever. Barrier is a bit weak too.

Mirage – Mirrors are bad. Not loving the not-dodge. Sad damage. Absolutely NO reason to give up Chrono.

Scourge – Very fun. Love to see all the condis appear.

Holosmith – Wheeee! Because of this, I will play my neglected engi.

Firebrand – Aesthetically, very pleasing. In play, very slow. Do you want players forced into quickness traits just to offset this? As is, I wouldn’t use any mantras. (Except maybe the open-palm hand in a circle.) I like the tomes, but they feel very limiting because they’re slow with long CDs. Still, this is thousands of times better than the awful obsolecence of the previously ill-named guardian elite spec.

Renegade – What happened? The shortbow animations are cool, but mild damage and heavy energy costs are imbalanced. The utilities stink; it would be better if they worked more like mesmer illusions, IMO. Placing them feels awkward and then they don’t do much at all. Further, why don’t they follow the pet/minion exemption rule in regards to damage? Rev is still screwed underwater. I hoped for better.

I did not test Soulbeast, Deadeye, or Spellbreaker.

Eiffel.8937:

Rev still looses its utilities when it takes up a tactic banner in wvw…

Not just banners— any bundle at all. For example, story or hearts that require you use a specific item or weapon makes all utilities vanish. When reported, I’ve been told it’s a “known issue”. It has been for a long time, now. When is the fix?

Setting aside the fact that it’s difficult to judge the elites based solely on some PvP lobby testing, I’m excited about the Scourge. Holosmith will get me to play my long-neglected engi. I think Weaver will be fun to play. I like Firebrand so far.

I main mesmer and ever since the early halcyon days of Chrono, it seems we’ve had a long series of hits with the nerf bat. Mirage seems to be in that vein. As wet-noodle as mesmer damage is right now, I still see no reason to give up Chrono.

Similarly, I like the way Renegade shortbow plays, but I’m not thrilled with the very static “summons” utilities. Also, the damage kinda sucks. I’m not ready to give up Herald for this.

I’m not interested in Soulbeast, Deadeye, or Spellbreaker. However, I may try Spellbreaker later to familiarize myself with what it can do and what effects it has on surrounding players.

Overall, it’s like reading an anthology. I’ll generally find a few stories that really click with me and make me hunt down longer works by that author. I’ll find one or two that cause me to blacklist an author and avoid any work by them, and several that are just average. I’m glad there’s a range of appeal.

masterJP.5048:

What is the best way of making money atm ? Since I want to craft Ascended armor for a few toons and get them geared for raids. And is there a way to farm leather ? Since the prices sky rocketed

Assuming you have no crafts to sell (or are keeping them for yourself), the best way of making money is to sell gathered raw materials— like chopped wood. There’s always demand for these. If you have an excess of laurels, you can buy bags of mats to sell too.

There is a way to farm leather, but it’s efficacy is debated often. In the upper right corner of the Lake Doric map lies a centaur stronghold and leather drops from the centaurs and the chests therein. I do not recommend going alone. Check LFG for a group to join.

Eve.9812:

…is it possible to preview dye options on outfits from the gem store? i know that previewing armor skins usually applies your current dye to the preview (i think?), but when i preview actual “outfits,” in the wardrobe or from the gem store, it does not apply my dye selections to them.

it also just occurred to me that they could simply be undyeable. is this the case? if not, is there a way to preview dye selections on outfits i have not yet purchased?

Yes, you can preview outfit dyes in the dye tab the same way as armor. You may have to click on the outfit in the dye tab to get the UI to show that instead of your armor. ALL outfits are dyeable and usually have 4 channels. While you can preview locked outfits and locked dyes, you cannot preview-dye outfits you don’t own.

I think it was a dev interview conducted by Bog Otter that mentioned why you cannot… IIRC, devs thought everyone would use the springer/bunny mount exclusively to jump really high and glide everywhere, allowing players to reach everything easily. Devs didn’t want the bunny to be The Meta mount and they didn’t want to give players such an easy circumvention route.

I believe this is the result of Anet walking the “new expansion” line while trying to bring in fresh blood.

• New players don’t want to lay out money for xpac 1 &2 and possibly LS seasons. They probably want the latest version to play now with friends. Does Anet ruin their feeling of newness by making them feel like they totally missed out by not buying HoT? Filling PoF maps with HoT masteries would make a new player feel behind. If a new person decides they love the game, maybe they’ll buy more content later but they shouldn’t feel pressured to do it before having fun in the new zones.
• There is a group of folks who hated HoT (or didn’t buy it) and want nothing to do with it. They don’t want to see any signs of HoT masteries and they don’t want to feel “forced” to go back to those maps and do stuff they didn’t like or didn’t play from xpac 1.
• If Anet accomodates the vet players by re-using lots of HoT masteries, they alienate the aforementioned non-HoT players. Perhaps Anet can weave in a few uses of HoT masteries as optional alternatives here-and-there, but they really are trying to keep separate the paid portions of the game.

Personally, I feel I benefited from the HoT masteries and I continue to love gliding throughout the game. I used gliding to get around to several difficult-to-reach places in the PoF demo. I explored a good portion of the demo on foot, too. I don’t feel chained to using mounts but I see their potential usefulness as another mastery option.

Jenstone.6891:

It may just be a demo thing? I remember there was something in heart of thorns that, during the pre weekends, that a lot of stuff was unidentified.

The difference is that in HoT, we had items marked “???” and they were probably not named in order to avoid spoilers about new rewards. With PoF, we have an actual item called “unidentified gear” and more importantly, a mechanic in place to identify bundles.

Charrbeque.8729:

You mean 1.68s at the NPC to trade it in for a random item? I admit, I must have missed that. Still, I don’t think it’s a big deal since it would be more worthwhile (to me) to salvage it for crafting materials. Besides, I get plenty or random gear as loot drops.

Hmm…..it’s possible there may be 1 or more exclusive items that you can only get from trading the unidentified gear item to the NPC. Amnoon Oasis does have a “casino” building.

I think I understand now: this gambling crap is bad enough with lockboxes, and that skritt you trade ectos in to. We don’t need more of it added to the game. The problem is there are too many gamers that get suckered into these things. I admit I like to open a few black lion chests here and there, but I’m not going to allow myself to become homeless so I can feed a gambling addiction in a video game.

There’s a screenshot below for you from the first heart in the demo with the cost to identify gear.

Now, I’ve seen many people say they only saw blues and greens anyway and for them, perhaps it’s best just to salvage until their magic find is higher. Personally, I had about half a dozen rares and one exotic from identifying maybe 25 bags of gear and those were all Elonian collection weapons. IMO, this system is very similar to gamble boxes and I don’t like it.

I’m eager to try several of the new specs. It’s difficult to say how well I will like them before I can test them, so at this point I am cautiously optimistic.

IMO… Scourge’s mechanics will bring something entirely new and I want to try it! Weaver is bound to be good. Holosmith looks interesting but I’m not sure if it’s for me. Firebrand has the potential to win me over, especially since I hated the theme for guardian’s first elite spec; even its horrible name has become defunct. I may not want to give up Chrono for Mirage, but I’m willing to give it a try. Renegade seems very charr-focused, which turns me off, but it may bring an interesting playstyle to rev. Deadeye and Soulbeast don’t really interest me but I’m sure many will find them fun. Spellbreaker… if it’s more than pressing 1 or 2 keys, I may actually play warrior.

Funny that you’ve seen a lot of negatives. Talking with guildies, we’re all pretty excited. Youtubers, too, sound excited about several specs and as far as I’ve heard, no one has predicted that a spec will be across-the-board bad. Some specs will have niches, or will probably be best for a certain type of gameplay (PvE, PvP, or WvW) but I think each one offers something.

Nilix.2170:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

A small sample size of 85 salvaged unid. Then 85 ID’d & salvaged.

At current prices:
(Salvaged)10g,1s,48c profit worth in mats
vs
(ID+Salvage)4g,20s,06c profit worth in mats and sigils + 94 Eyes of Kormir

I don’t remember if Eyes of Kormir are account bound or not, but for the latter to surpass the former, the Eyes need to have a value of 6.19s each.
Which it probably WILL if it’s not account bound. All things considered though, Path of Fire is going to affect the value of materials directly so my current numbers can be completely out of relevance once the game comes out.

Eyes of Kormir and Sliver of Twitching Forgemetal (the other craft mat that dropped) are both open to trade and not account bound. Hopefully, they’ll be worth trading.

I’m enjoying the demo. I normally don’t care for desert settings, but this one is very well done. I like the setting a lot. I was against mounts coming into this game and while I’m unhappy about the corresponding lack of waypoints, I have to say that the raptor mount is fun to use and I like its movements and animations very much.

At this point, my biggest concern is the unidentified gear. As it stands, I do not like this system at all. (Reasons detailed in other threads.)

My second biggest concern is keys. In this abbreviated demo, we got: Casino coins, Treasure Hunting Kits (aka shovels), trade contracts (click to consume for map currency), and trader’s keys. Of these, only trade contracts can be clicked so they don’t take up space. I’m not sure if there’s any benefit to not clicking, but if not, why aren’t they simply added to your wallet?

Also, we were given Small Kormir Icons which convert to karma. I only saw small ones, but I think it’s safe to assume there are other sizes. However, what was wrong with vials of liquid karma? Why did we need a new container? More inventory space! THIS is the sort of thing that should be tapered down rather than creating the ID system.

Naurgalen.2374:

Something I forgot: Right now if I want to jump while riding of a cliff and glide I must do it by attacking from the edge of the mountain (or whatever) because you just cant do it with the space-bar.

While I think that the space-bar limitation may be intended to “not break the immersion by making the mount fall to its death” not only it can be overcome with other actual mechanics but its IMHO a realism is-not-fun situation.

Check your options. Under “Mounts” (Last category on the wrench tab), check the box “Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input”. This will take mount jump off spacebar. When testing, I couldn’t figure out how to do a long jump with this option in effect, but you can disconnect mount movement from your spacebar this way.

Edit: long jump uses the dodge key instead of spacebar with the box option checked.

It does go into shared inventory slots. That’s where I put mine.

There are new scribe crafting mats dropping in the PoF demo, so we’ll be getting something…

A few more pictures to add, for the curious.

As others have pointed out, this supposedly inventory saving idea doesn’t work because:

• You still get blue/green drops on top of the new unidentified bag; no clutter reduction.
• The new unidentified bag is more cost (1s 68c per just to ID)
• More run-around becuase there aren’t any heart vendors near banks/merchants
• and much more clicking since you ID one at a time
• In order to ID, you have to use a completed heart vendor and these are on daily reset in the Crystal Oasis.

Trise.2865:

Prove it. Prove that anything but blue/green garbage comes out of them.

I didn’t take a screenshot, but I had at least five rares drop out of them when I ID’d a bundle of six or so, including 3 Elonian weapons like the one you can choose as a pre-order package bonus.

Also: Confirmed that hearts in Crystal Desert are on daily reset and you cannot ID gear at a heart vendor unless you do the heart that day.

It’s bad because rare and exotic items can hide in the “unidentified” label. If you just salvage, you’ll never know. If you ID, you have to go to a heart vendor (and I assume you have to have done the heart) then pay to ID them — by each, then pay to salvage.

IMO, it’s a lot of run around and extra fuss to save a bit of inventory space.

I haven’t done the lore gathering in Siren’s Landing because I didn’t want to get more books with no place to put them. I love reading the lore, but I can’t just keep stacking up all these lore books with no end in sight. As a bibliophile, I cannot bring myself to throw away any book.

My current plan is for Isabis to become a Necro/Scourge.

slashlizardy.9167:

From the title, what exactly is a HoT exclusive Mastery. I’m assuming it’s not gliding, as it can be done in core, but does that mean all the others are HoT exclusives?

The PoF FAQ explains: https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/115010688287?_ga=2.170710179.2096702833.1501764616-1605282297.1457490234

“Owning Heart of Thorns isn’t required to access Path of Fire content. However, some content is exclusive to Heart of Thorns.

• You must purchase Heart of Thorns to unlock and use the gliding mastery, as well as all other masteries introduced in and exclusive to that expansion. You will be able to complete all of the content in Path of Fire without the use of any Heart of Thorns-exclusive masteries.
• You must purchase Heart of Thorns to unlock and use the 9 elite specializations introduced with that expansion.
• Path of Fire includes access to the revenant profession, but not the Herald elite specialization. If you only own Path of Fire, you will be able to create a revenant character and unlock the Renegade elite specialization.
• You must purchase Heart of Thorns to claim the new guild hall released in Path of Fire, and access the Scribe crafting discipline to fully upgrade your guild hall."

Hope that helps!

I’m all for gender equality, but I don’t find this a strong example of sexism. Just give it some time; many of the one-gender hairstyles migrate to both after a while.

For now, give them credit for making the current new hairstyles standard and not kit-only.

Absolutely not. A legendary should be something you work for. Giving them away would cheapen them— and kitten off all the players who worked hard to get them.

Short version:
Overall, disappointing. Least favorite map and very low replayability for me.

Specifically:

• story was very short and feels like a total non-sequitor. As others have said, if you’re not playing as human, the oath stuff seems really out-of-place.
• buying waypoints is crap.
• the tone of the entire episode was verbally cutting and had a lack of levity.
• I’ve done over 90% of the map and I’ve not seen anything about acquiring the mastery. From what I’ve read about it, I don’t think I’ll bother.
• Why is Braham only a footnote? Sure, he has been superbly annoying, but aren’t his actions kind of important?
• Orr map feels stale; I wish it had offered a more visible difference from other Orr maps.
• I’d hoped to see a lot of lore but apparently it’s behind a challenging treasure hunt.
• Sadly, the team didn’t learn their lesson from the HoT finale in which players were side-lined during the story instance and couldn’t play with friends. We don’t play this game to become bored.
• Final fight sucks. SpoilerPutting aside the seeming stupidity of resurrecting Lazurus only to kill him... Between adds and CCs and Livia's lack of living, the fight really sucks. I couldn’t solo it, which is okay in the first week but miserable for players past that first-release high point.
• I’m disappointed there’s a cat I’ll never get access to.
• Final cut-scene didn’t make sense to me Spoilerbeyond 'Balthazar wants to destroy the world' …and I already knew where we’re headed.

Positives:

• Thank you for not introducing another stupid key to keep track of.
• A thousand thank yous for the material storage update, even if forge stones didn’t make it in.
• Thank you for the portal tome (and I hope you update it slightly to organize the list).
• I thought the Dwayna flying area was fun.

Generally, WvW roamer builds are good for sturdy solo play. Looks like Metabattle has two top scorers: Condi, and Condi PU. https://metabattle.com/wiki/Mesmer

I would just pop into the PvP lobby and do some testing. I like to look at the standard sites for inspiration, then customize it to my preferences. Then maybe evaluate whether I want to alter my PvE armor stats.

Pathos of Fandom

Run for your lives!

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Magnito.6187:

Making us able to dye the Magic Carpet glider would be pretty neat.
Just saying.

Yes please.

There are two reasons I am not willing to spend more than 50 gems on the magic carpet glider:

• You can’t die the base rug color.
• You must use your represented-guild logo. (Which often clashes with the rug and is remarkable difficult to match using the guild emblem colors.)

I agree! I don’t mind the guild logo, but I would really appreciate it if I could dye the rug away from that ugly brown colour.

I suspect it is because each character who plays L30 story gets an order weapon for free. Like leveling gear, they don’t want players salvaging or mystic forging them to make money.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

… 2 Iron Marches (Ascalon)

• for not being ocnnected to diessa plateau (sounds trivial but has been a frustration since my 1st character. …

Agreed! Although, I like to hang this blame on Diessa Plateau.

Sure, they probably made Diessa a dead end because it’s a 15-25 zone and didn’t want 20-ish characters wandering into Fireheart (60-70 zone) or Iron Marches (50-60 zone). However, they didn’t wall-off Frostgorge (70-80 zone) from Wayfarer (1-15 zone)! Not sure why they didn’t connect Blazeridge (40-50 zone) to Iron Marches (50-60), either.

It would have been much better, IMO, if they allowed easy access from one map to the others and just stationed a scout NPC there to warn explorers about the potentially dangerous territories.

Tangled Depths – beyond horrible to navigate, no flow to the map. No way to tell what level anything is on or where egress is from one level to another. Portions of the map are totally segmented from the rest. It’s a nightmare.

Harathi – annoyingly far away from access to other maps and no reason to return. Ever.

There are 6 lumber cores, which I would really, really like included. + Pruning shears.

I understand you’re looking to trim the list, so I propose leaving off these 7 items:

• Unid Fossilized Insect
• Bottle of Elonian Wine – used in lots of recipes, but purchasable in single quantities as needed.
• Eldritch Scroll – while used in many recipes, they’re purchased in single quantities as-needed.
• Bloodstone Shard – only used in three recipes and generally purchased as needed.
• Anthology of Heroes – only used in three recipes, purchased as needed.
• Mystic Runestone – only used in four recipes, always in the quantity of 100.

• Brick of Clay – while I’d like it included, it is only used in four very specialized recipes. With such limited use, it could easily be excluded.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

This is great effort tyvm, the only thing i’d like to see added to the list in the scribing area, is the lumber cores, i got 5-6 different types permanently occupying my bank and i keep getting them. there are number of other items for scribing like flower seeds etc, but lumber cores are lot more common to get, i’d greatly appreciate it if u could add them as well and once again, tyvm for all your efforts. As others have said, sorry to hear u had to repeat all that work, that would have been very frustrating

I would like to second this. Lumber cores are strictly material components and they are stacking up. Pruning shears would be a nice inclusion, too. I would very much like to have these in material storage. I could give up nibs, though. I only make nibs as needed and don’t usually have odd spares as they are 1:1 usage. Pruning shears, OTH, you have to plan your map currency and purchase ahead of time and store in preparation for… hedge trimming.

That said, a thousand thank yous+ for the work you have done (and redone) on this!

I believe they also drop in the No-So-Secret jumping puzzle from aetherblade foes and the chests.

6. Crafting. I would recommend armorsmith and weaponsmith. Those two will cover heavy armor and bladed weapons. (Guardians can use scepter and staff, which are artificer, but I suppose it depends upon what weapons you like best or use most.) Any character can have two active crafts at a time. You can pay an in-game fee and make one inactive to get another… or have another character take up a craft. Crafts are easy to acquire and not terribly time-consuming to level. Everyone can mine/gather/chop at will— and no worries about node-stealing because everyone can use the nodes.

Story goes:

• Personal Story 1-80, every 10 levels (all access)
• S1 (as others mentioned, was temporary) Movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joLmVI5URak
• S2 — good to have for several reasons. For one, you’ll understand what lead up to going into the jungle. It’s full of nice rewards and playing through will give you several mastery points. If you go for the achievements, you’ll get some top-tier accessories too.
• HoT story — free with purchase of Heart of Thorns.
• S3 — you’ll have a lot to do before you get to this point, but as others mentioned, you will unlock ep. 5 by logging in now and ep. 6 if you login anytime when that goes live. If you decide you want 1-4 later, you can always convert some gold to gems or buy them with cash. No need to worry about it just yet, though.

Welcome and good luck!

I recommend a copper-fed salvage-o-matic. You will not regret it. After that, it depends.

• Do you already have the story all unlocked? (If you enjoy story)
• Do you have unlimited gathering tools? (If you like gathering)
• How are you doing on inventory? Bank tabs are always good.
• Shared inventory slots are great, particularly if you have many characters. If you’re a “one main” kind of person, these won’t matter.

Personally, I’m not a mini collector and I have terrible luck with keys. When you can level a character to 10 and do story for a key 1/week or you can complete maps for keys, I would rather earn them in-game.

As far as home instance gathering goes, check the wiki to find out what is available in-game; there are plenty of earnable mining nodes, for example. You can get enough in-game mining to do daily. Leather rack, OTOH, could be worth buying.

I think the new maps are worth it. If you’re feeling cautious, convert some gold and buy the first one to try it. If you feel it’s worthwhile, try another.

The big draw for most of these maps is to get ascended trinkets/backpiece and several offer a home-node for easy gathers. All the maps have masteries, including a new line called Ancient Magics. Bloodstone Fen (the first one), is a really fun flying map. It’s very easy to collect unbound magic there— which is a currency on all the new maps. I usually find all these maps populated and people doing events and I don’t tend to play during prime-time, either.

Team One’s Bloodstone Fen’s story is good and the map offers a device to change stats on the ascended trinkets you acquire there. You can also buy some nifty shoot-from-the-air skills, which are fun. They’re only useful in one other map (Lake Doric— Team One’s other map), but still fun.

Next, Team Two’s Ember Bay also has a good story, IMO. Several of my guildies love the zone and say it’s very $ rewarding to do events. It’s very volcanic and has several achievements, if you’re into that. This Team was also responsible for Draconis Mons.

Team Three did Bitterfrost, which is a beautiful map… but really only good for berry farming, IMO. The winterberries are easy to grab currency for the map but can also be converted into unbound magic. A first-time draw for the map is a potion that turns you into a Kodan and works in combat too! We’re waiting for the final ep. to see Team Three’s second map.

So, if any of that entices you, give them a try.

My guess: he was trying to send you something that is account-bound or soul-bound.

Range has nothing to do with sending mail, nor does grouping.

Most people here are going to recommend that you level a toon naturally to get back into the swing of things. It’s really worth doing as much has changed since launch.

The boost doesn’t expire, so there’s no harm in hanging onto it. Alternatively, if you decide to take the boost, it will give you max level gear and a testing period in the Silverwastes— which is easier than the HoT maps. So, feel free to test on any character and see how you’ll do without knowing the game. The benefit here is that if you decide the boosted character isn’t fun or that you aren’t ready, you can try it on another one or save it while longer.

To answer the “which class” portion of your question, it all depends upon your play style and what you’ll enjoy. There’s a pretty good rundown on each class here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1ojgdr/what_class_should_i_play_a_summary_of_each/

Rauderi.8706:

I told him not the bring the webby.
HE BROUGHT THE BLOODY WEBBY AND NOW THERE’S A SPIDER IN MY HOME THAT I CAN’T MURDER AND MY CATS REFUSE TO EAT.

Bad golem. :| Worst episode ever. 0/10.

Hehehe. According to the dev who built him in, there is a very small chance for a webby to show up. You probably don’t want to know what else he said about this in the stream. For those who do...The dev said Mox didn't intentionally bring the spider, but that his inner body was riddled with them so that he inadvertantly brought some along.