Guild Wars 2

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!

I’m very strict on what I keep and what I get rid of.

This is my process for sorting my inventory:
1) Deposit collectables.
2) Sell all junk (as in actual junk, grey text items that have no use except to sell to a merchant, there’s a button on the sell window that gets rid of them all at once).
3) Open any bags and salvage any salvage items (the white text ones that just say salvage item in the description).
4) Deposit collectables again.
5) Move any non-equipment items (like dye or boosters) to a bottom bag to sort later.
6) Check everything that’s left to see if there’s any equipment I can use and which is better than what I’ve already got equipped. If so I’ll equip it. If it’s above my level I’ll move it into the bottom bag to save it.
7) Open up the TP and sell everything that’s got a buy order for more than the merchant price.
8) Salvage any remaining equipment. (You could sell them to a merchant but for now I want the Essences of Luck and the materials more than the money.)
9) Sort the remaining miscellaneous stuff – dyes either get used or put in the bank for another character (unless they’ve all got it, then I sell them), boosters get given to whichever character has the best use for them etc.

You’ll notice I don’t mention anything about skins. My thinking is that it’s not worth worrying about what my armor looks like until I’m level 80 because I’ll be changing it regularly anyway. Sometimes if I have a really ugly skin I’ll transmute it with something else, but I won’t go out of my way to save skins I might want to use one day.

The only things I do save that I don’t have a definite, relatively immediate, purpose for are the one-time only skins and items from the Living Story and other events. Things you can’t sell on the TP and can’t get more than once.

My thinking is that if I can sell it to another player via the TP then I can also buy it from the TP. So unless I’m certain I want to use it I don’t hang on to it. I can always get another one later.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
GW2 is no place for hoarders.

That one doesn’t give credit for personal story completion since you just sit there and listen to them. Just go on to the next mission. There’s a few story line quests that are just dialogue so don’t count.

Did you finish the daily with Keg Brawl? I was not rewarded (with the essence, karma etc.) for completing the daily with that last week.

Rangers rulez!
It was the same way in EQ1, everybody played ranger, including myself (apart from my very wanted cleric), but were the armpit of the classes. It went through nerfs and buff though, but at the height of EQ1 (first number of years) they were nearly trash apart form being overly used for solo play. Rangers are not rangers here, it’s a pet class here, and with really pathetic AI. There is no playing a ranger “good”, broken class, it’s about playing around the broken parts of a pet class. You would be ignored and even kicked. For making gold, your best bet is to get into good groups quickly and not be a drag on them at any point, even casual players don’t want to be held up. That’s all I have to say on the issue.

If level 80s are farming the champ train in Queensdale, they don’t know how to farm. It’s 100x more efficient to farm in Frostgorge. The only reason to farm champ trains in Queensdale is to level up your low level characters. It’s a waste of time otherwise.

Crawford.4135:

I live in Colorado, nothing in this game will be more beautiful than that.

YOU PEOPLE NEED TO GO OUTSIDE MORE!

I live in Arizona (the desert/hot part :P). Any scenery in an MMO looks better than outside.

It may also be helpful to know that all armor of the same rarity/colour has equal stats.

So for example exotics you can craft (or buy from someone who crafted them) are just as powerful as ones that drop from enemies or can be bought with dungeon tokens or whatever.

So you don’t have to worry about missing out on stats by going for one method over another, just go for whatever is easiest for you. If you play a lot of WvW for example you might want to buy them with badges of honour. Or some PvE players get them from the temples in Orr for karma because it can be easier to acquire (or save up) than gold. Or you can do a combination of methods.

A few basics bout gear and what is what.

The first is the name. Lets take a gear name as an example:
Celestial Draconic Coat of Balthasar.

Each gearpiece consists of three components
A:The main stats
B: The Rune
C: The skin (or looks)

When buying gear the first and most important are the main stats. Runes can always be replaced, looks can be changed through a TP item (transmutation crystal in case of level 80 gear). But what you are really buying are the stats.

Now to the name i gave as an example. The only important part is ‘celestial’ cause thats the part that names the stats. ‘Dragonic’ means it is the draconic skin. Coat means it is a chest piece and ‘of Balthasar’ means it comes with a rune of Balthasar.

All gear pieces use the same naming system. So it is important.
Dragonic is the default skin made by crafters (real players crafting armor and selling it) and is therefore pretty common available.

For a warrior it is important to ask you what you want to do now your level 80.
What are your goals with that character?.

There are basicly two streams of warriors.
a: those that use beserker gear in all situations
b: those that recognise that beserker gear is best for many dungeons, but for other kinds of game play it is less viable.

So easy you say: Lets go Beserker.
Yeah, but please check the tradepost for the beserker draconic gear. It is a lot more expensive (due to the high demand).

But with 38 gold you should have enough to buy a set (without the proper runes).
The runes you ultimatly want on a beserker set are runes of the scholar. But they are very expensive.

Now what is beserker gear:
It gives you + power, +precission and +critical damage.
This means that you hit hard, you have a high change to hit even harder (critical hit) and if you hit harder you hit even harder then harder :P
This off course means you have little health and toughness. So you are killed quickly. So you have to be prepared to have heavy damage spikes but also receive heavy damage. Knowing how to dodge and avoid damage is the key element.

Having said that it is up to you to go for a beserker set as your first set or for something with more toughness (for example Knights armor) (wich would only cost bout 20 gold for a full set with appropiate runes) and getting beserker gear later on.

On top of that, you can use the knights armor to farm mats and level up to be a level 400 weapon smith so you can make your own beserker gear.

Hope this helps in making the right decision for you

Arimahn.3568:

Harper.4173:

Arimahn.3568:

Just make it so that a forum ban translates into a game ban.

That’s the worst idea i’ve heard.
The forums are a platform for discussion – a user’s behavior on the forum can be and usually is completely different from his in-game behavior.

It’s like punishing one thing for another.

Also the real name idea comes at a close second.

Someone who is prone to grammatically atrocious rageposts probably doesn’t behave much differently in the game. Just like a kid that is prone to throwing a tantrum will do so at home as well as in school.

Besides, it’s not about punishment (Although I like the idea, personally), it’s about having stronger incentives to make good posts or at least not post like a chimp.

That’s not entirely true. That is YOUR supposition.
The forums are one thing, the game is another. They are separate entities and should be treated as such.
If someone does in-game offences they should be banned in game, same if they do forum offences.
One does not equal the other – why would you ban someone in game for something they said in a totally different context to a different group of people.
By your logic we should also monitor each person’s facebook for appropriate behavior and when people step out of line ban their accounts.

A very active player on the forum might be deaf-mute in game – I’ve known quite a lot of players like that.

And given GW2’s Trading post ( as opposed to GW1’s Spam Kamadan to trade) a players can play for days on end without uttering one typed out word to another soul in GW2.
I’ve done this on many occasions.

Now as far as using real names and why it is a terrible idea.
People would stop using the forums. I do not want my personal information on the internet within the reach of not only every 12 year old out there who has an account but literally EVERY living soul on the internet.

If you think people would agree and like this kind of system just read through the usernames above. Do you see many ( or any) " Firstname+Last name" structures?

People are now free to use this if they want – do you see them doing it ? no. Why? because who would want to?

If you want to murder the forums as a place for discussion and just end up with a minority of a few dozen ( maybe a hundred or more ) players that keep posting then – this seems the way to go.

The solution is a “gag” system – where if break certain rules ( cannot maintain a civil tone, insult others) you’re unable to post on the forums for a determined period of time.
It’s a " time out ". Eventually people will be tired of not being heard at all so they’ll decide to either communicate in a civil way or stop posting. Which cleans up the forum quite fast.

Mel.8769:

This. I used to manage forums for a game company. When I came on board the trolling and negativity was out of control. Some users were pure trolls, while others were just following the bad behavior of others. I implemented a system where staff would basically give points to every post that was constructive and helpful. It could be anything from feedback to suggestion, answering a player helping player with a thorough answer, or posting a guide or walk through. Even negative feedback could get positive points from staff as long as it was well thought out, respectful, and constructive.

When someone posted something constructive a staff member would comment in the thread praising the post (public praise). Once users acquired a certain amount of points, we would put a star in their signature.

On the flip side, the nonconstructive posts violating the rules would be removed, and the user would get negative points and a personal message explaining exactly why the post was removed. Temporary bans were implemented for repeat offenders.

It took a while, but after a few months the trolls moved on and the forums were a much happier place.

After I left the company, they went to a social media linked style forum where instead of a user name, your real name and picture were next to every post. Needless to say a wonderful community tanked very quickly and never rebuilt after that. Even the good constructive user wouldn’t use the system.

Excellent post, I give you a star

If people are harassing you in game and breaking TOS, you report and block.

I suggest rewarding good behavior in addition to punishing bad…that was at least he “good” people will benefit and the “bad” people will have something to strive for. For example: I would love the ability to have an image in my signature and this might be a way to implement that. Just a random thought.

iniside.4736:

Just to be clear. I’m generally agaist such solution, but the amount of hate, trolling and other generally bad behavior on this forums is jut beyond ridicuouls.

Force real world last and first names on forums, instead of nicknames. It probably won’t shut up come persons, but at least most of people will think twice before posting something stupid.

Just no, that is wrong, people would get in hate mail in real life, be pursued on social sites.

If this happen, good thing I don’t use facebook.

Tyria has outlawed it because people were spitting, not realising there was an Asuran standing next to them. Think of the asurans

Yeah this system needs a dramatic overhaul asap.

and yet the gold spammers can sit in LA and spam the same thing over and over for hours!

Daywolf.2630:

Mel.8769:

Anyone else run into this?

Yes, a lot when doing commander stuff. Isn’t that peachy? :/
Like how many ways do I need to write “keep off the stairs!” at grenth? Stopping to think of a new way to write it every time someone floats into the event and starts twanging their ranger longbow at the risen priest while standing next to Jonez.

I rearrange the words.

1. “Keep off the stairs!”
2. “Off the stairs keep!”
3. “Stairs keep off the!”
4. “Off keep the stairs!”

And so on… funny thing is, I got my chat suppressed one time for doing this. That chat system is wacky.

1800! how many animals have you harmed?

I do, and I love Trahearne. He can be king as long as I’m the prince. :<

Mel.8769:

Maybe these guys in Lion’s Arch?

Those are Tengu; aka: Samurai Werebatbirds.

They will most likely be the next race added, whenever it happens.
Hopefully Cantha comes with them, or it can come first, and then make them playable after. Either way is fine. ;3

Thank you everyone!

My ranger has actually been running around with an axe all the time. So, perhaps she will get a second ascended once I have the remaining parts. She already has a longbow.

Yes, I know about selling inscriptions and dowels, but I made an axe blade and a shaft.

Travel to all the cities (via Lions Arch) and clear them (all Vistas, Waypoints and Points of Interest). That is worth about 10 levels (last I checked).

Then do the same for the connected starter areas. The most Experience to be had in open world zones are the Renowned Hearts, so find and complete all of them (needed to clear the zone), if you don’t want to fully complete the zones.

Crafting is also a leveling option, but I hate to even mention it.

I also do not understand why people want to rush to LVL 80 and skip the actual fun part of this game.

I vote the poor unplayed ranger in the corner.

Seriously: You do know you can sell the ascended inscription (or ascended dowel and exotic inscription) on the TP? Perhaps you can recuperate financially from your slip?

Seras.5702:

If you still have problems with the mail hint, delete all of your mail, then start anew. I’ve heard this helps.

As for forcing broken gear, strip down to a single piece of cheap gear that you’ll just salvage when you’re done (to save on repair costs). Then throw yourself from a cliff. Preferably one near a WP. Repeat until thoroughly trashed.

Falling damage does NOT damage armor….must die from attacks. (if you are IN combat when you fall, that WILL count).

Seras.5702:

If you still have problems with the mail hint, delete all of your mail, then start anew. I’ve heard this helps.

As for forcing broken gear, strip down to a single piece of cheap gear that you’ll just salvage when you’re done (to save on repair costs). Then throw yourself from a cliff. Preferably one near a WP. Repeat until thoroughly trashed.

As frugal as I am, I’d recommend doing it on a low level toon to save the Wp costs, or have a friend res you.