Guild Wars 2

1) Server choice does not matter, except for WvW. There’s no “new player” server, but folks here are generally helpful and asking questions in map chat is a good and helpful thing most of the time. Watch for apple/mentor tags for self-designated player helpers.

2) Most useful crafts for necro are probably tailoring and artificer (wands, staves, foci). Crafting is arguably the easiest way to get ascended gear— which has top tier stats.

3) Respec’ing traits/skills is as easy as clicking for any game mode. Respec’ing gear for PvE is potentially pricey, depending upon desired stats.

However, if you just want to experiment, pop yourself into the PvP lobby (crossed swords icon on left screen). There, you are L80 (like everyone else), have access to all build options, all weapon types, and amulets— which are “gear” in PvP. It is easy to experiment with any character class or race in the PvP lobby. There are golems and class NPCs in the lobby for testing.

You need not worry about gearing and perfecting a build until you’re max level. At that point, you can check with the class forums and sites like metabattle to decide what “the meta” currently is. Honestly, your build only matters to others in raids and high level fractals.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/wiki/newplayers

Skip down to the heading, “Got to 80, what now?”

AtheWunder.2301:

I just hit lvl 80 with my first character, and have a full xp bar that is “stuck” as well. I suppose this is normal, and I know after reading this thread that I will eventually unlock mastery points through the story. But the game is prompting me to spend my point with a huge flashing arrow at the bottom of the screen pointing to my mastery point and saying that I have earned one and to click here to spend it. This happens frequently after I earn some sort of experience, and when I click on it it just says that mastery points are locked. Can’t help but feel like I am missing something.

In your case, you must already have HoT. If you do the first HoT story, Torn from the Sky, that starts in the Silverwastes, you will unlock masteries in general. Until then, you can set a mastery to train and rack up XP for it, but until you unlock them and spend points on them, you won’t be able to use them. (For Core Tyria masteries, I reccomend the Pact Commander line, as it ends in auto-looting.)

Likewise, if you’re in HoT maps then you will be training HoT masteries with your XP but you still need to unlock and spend points to use them.

For all players— HoT or not— you can still earn mastery points in Core Tyria and they will be banked so that when you do buy/explore HoT, you won’t have missed out on those rewards.

Agreed. Making chisels with top-tier leather is very bank-breaking.

Specifically, to make the Melandru Statue:

• 1 grandmaster finishing kit (6 ori ingots, 2 ancient wood planks, 2 crystalline bottles, 1 jug of water, 3 pouches black pigment, 3 pouches white pigment, 5 cyrtalline dust, resonanting sliver)
• 1 visage of melandru (rare drop or around 7g)
• 30 orichalcum chisels (that’s 1 ori ingot and 12 hardened leather sections X 30 = 360 top tier leather)
• 25 basic boulders (24 s each)

You are not alone. Many people starting GW2 now have the same “lost” feeling/complaint.

First, I recommend you play through a character and level it from 1-80 without boosts. (You’ll see this recommendation a lot around here.) It will help you learn the game, your character, a good playstyle fit, and playing through personal story will give you some help with gear and materials from leveling rewards.

Second, you’ll see a lot of LS abbreviations followed by the season number— for living story. Living story is GW2’s way of keeping the game world progressing and changing.

• LS1 is not replayable at this time, but if you want to watch a good recap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joLmVI5URak .
• LS2 & LS3 were free if you logged in at any time during its release; if not, you can buy them in the gemshop. (We are currently anticipating the final release ep. of LS3.)
• HoT story falls between LS2 & LS3 and is free to all who buy the HoT expansion.
  Most people recommend getting the living story packages as they are full of useful mastery points and rewards. LS3 also grants access to several new maps. However, there is plenty of stuff to do for a new player without all the extras.

What may contribute to feeling lost is that GW2 doesn’t have strictly linear quest lines and nothing to specifically tell you what or where you should be at any given time. Many new players can struggle with the idea of setting their own goals to play the game. So, here is a list of helpful new player topic links from reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/wiki/newplayers

Finally, play what you like. Explore the game world in all its modes. You can freely test a newly created character by taking it into the PvP lobby (crossed swords icon on the upper left screen) and testing builds on golems to determine whether you’ll enjoy playing something. If/when you become concerned about the ultimate meta-build for you class, you can visit the class forums or sites like metabattle, but absolutely don’t rush it and don’t worry about it until you’re max level.

It is absolutely worth it to start at L1. I recommend leveling up normally with 1 character so that you “relearn” the game and gather the leveling rewards. People still level characters all the time— particularly key farmers leveling to do the L10 story, which rewards a key. You will not be alone in starter zones.

Groups are not hard to find when they’re needed. Events will attract plenty of other players. They may not officially group-up, but everyone will work together to accomplish event goals, especially for open-world boss fights or on a daily-event map.

Server doesn’t matter for PvE. It only matters for WvW.

Reddit actually has a nice set of new player/welcome back info, which may be useful to you: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/wiki/newplayers

Good luck!

My guildies and I explored that expanded area on Day 2 of getting the hall. It wasn’t that difficult to access before. Sure, the oakheart thing makes it easier (as do decorations), but it’s not a big deal, either.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Two words for the OP:
Second account.

I concur. There are several benefits to having a second account and even to “starting fresh” again.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Jojo.8973:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Ubi.4136:

Goldfox.5729:

Sorry to disappoint you, but no. Every character that has 4 years and 364 days will be permanently deleted and you have to start over again. A fifth birthday is not allowed!

That’s fine. I just deleted 7 of 9 classes (including the thief I made the day the servers went live) most of whom already got their 4th birthday stuff so I could “fix” random things I didn’t like about them.

It’s one way to artificially create more content to do.

All the altoholics here share shocked glances.

I know, right? That’s just cold. ALT LIVES MATTER

After that he was sent to sit on the group W bench. And there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly, looking people on the bench there. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one there was coming over to him and he was mean ‘n’ ugly ‘n’ nasty ‘n’ horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to him, And he said, “Kid. What are you here for?” And he answered, “I deleted some alts in a video game”

and they all moved away from him on the bench.

Lol! I was lurking, but I had to login to +1 this.

Chak are an intelligent, sentient race; they aren’t pets. You can use a chak mini instead.

+1 for bunnies!

Bunnies for the home instance would be terrific, too.

Happy to help.

In order to get Scribing: Guild Banquet schematics, your guild must be at least L23 and you need to meet the material requirements listed at the Tavern Restoration.

As others said, if you instant-boosted your character, then set it aside. You really should level normally at least once to learn your class.

To glide, first you have to unlock masteries by doing the first Heart of Thorns (solo) story quest called Torn from the Sky. It will not be easy on an ele, especially if you do not know the class well. Next, you’ll need a full XP bar earned strictly in HoT maps. Your XP bar will flash at you and might give you a pop-up about training your mastery. Gliding is automatically the first skill trained but after that, you can pick what you want to train next. (I recommend bouncing mushrooms.)

As for what to do next… this a question that often comes up with this game. It will not lead you by the nose. Instead, you must come up with your own goals but you have the absolute freedom to explore the game and do the things that you enjoy doing. Here’s a link to a really useful collection of new player helps: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/wiki/newplayers

Cheers and good luck!

They have already stated they have no intention of undoing the trenchcoat. They said they want to keep the distinctive sillhoutte of each armor class and specifically the trenchcoat for medium.

It does suck, but no strawpoll is going to convince them.

TheOrlyFactor.8341:

Am I the only one that finds the possible addition of mounts to be concerning?

No, you’re not the only one. You cite the homogenization of the game, which I totally agree with. Meanwhile, others point out increased visual clutter. (We all love it when 10 mounted people stand on top of the merchants, right?) From the balance changes, (epidemic) it sounds like they’re concerned about server loads but won’t mounts be another extra large load?

If mounts are going to be a trade of speed buff for waypoints, I’d rather take waypoints. Remember how everyone complained about getting to the far side of Bitterfrost map? They took away waypoints because there were oh-so-convenient thermal tubes. No thanks. Waypoints are much faster. I’d like to arrive before the events end.

From the looks of things, I doubt mounts are just going to be fashion wars sink; they’re also going to absorb a bunch of mastery points! We’ll see what shakes out, but I am not very optimistic about the impending herd.

Here’s a wiki link to the eaters/ converters: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Converter
Chasing down a few of them can be fun. Herta, in particular, is a fun achievement, eats a whole stack of bloodstone dust and gives you map currency if eaten in AB.

• Bloodstone dust can be useful if you craft. Use it to make toxic consumables or ley line tools.
• Empyreal fragments are good to have when making ascended stuff but otherwise feed ’em to an eater.
• If you’re not building up a guild hall, there’s not much need to keep airship oil. In small amounts it does go into making fulgrite (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fulgurite) for jeweled ascended mats or pieces for the regrow-Caladbolg quest. If you’re not working on those, dump ’em.

I agree with the OP. It is an unecessarily grindy achievment. I felt the first part was good— going into the world, revisiting other druids. In that way, it was like the regrowing-Caladbolg quests. We revisited places from our past and faced old heros. It felt good, heroic, epic, and nostalgiac. Even collecting stuff from DM map events is fine, it encourages folks to do them and connect with the druids. The repetive hearts, though…

In contrast, grinding those four map hearts for the druid backpiece over and over got old FAST. I’m trying to make myself do at least one per day and I’m not always succeeding. I’ll eat my veggies to get dessert, but I don’t want piles of the same veggies at every single meal for more than two weeks.

When I start a new game, one of the first things I do is dive into settings, tailor the mouse buttons, get the lighting right, etc. Do most people gloss past settings? Do devs really need to mention settings in a tutorial?

Just adding my own HELL NO.

This has been asked for many times and the answer always comes back that you can duel in PvP, WvW, or in guild halls. IMO, PvP in open PvE would destroy this community and drive away much of the casual player base.

Since GW2 is open-ended and you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to… don’t.

Setting yourself a long term goal like gaining a legendary is good, but don’t let that “job” weigh you down or make you feel obligated to login. Try to give yourself short-term goals or 1-session playing objectives that you’ll enjoy. Say, play one piece of personal story or do any three dailies to net your 2g reward.

This reddit post may help you come up with some ideas, too: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3nzfkw/psa_what_you_can_do_at_level_80/

Map – interesting. Rewards – eh.

Mastery – fun! I hope this one reappears often!

Story -

• Very short.
• Elder dragons? Let’s prepare and we can do this. A god? Bring it! Apparently, the commander eats gods for breakfast. The reaction seemed really out of whack.
• Speaking of reactions, I was really disappointed the only human reaction was Kasmeer’s.
• I actually liked the realization that killing all the dragons would be bad for the environment. They always seemed to be a necessary cyclical evil so putting them to sleep is— while anti-climactic— a good thing, IMO.
• Bad Logistics. The nature spirits are very clear: take care of the problem and leave. So, all these players have inundated this really important sacred garden, grabbing trees and flowers and killing stuff. It feels wrong and bad to stay. To do the right thing, I should go and not come back.

Other – Thank you for currency storage!

As Ayrilana said, pay once and you can make as many attempts as you need to clear the hall. If you ever decide to swap to a different hall, you pay the fee again but retain any and all upgrades you had.

Guild Wars is not Black Desert.

No.

Similar to the bobble-head transform, shrinking is only visual. It doesn’t let you sneak into smaller spaces, either. Your hit-box remains the same.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Like the old MMOs […] makes getting certain items harder and forces players to explore the world to farm their own mats and items.

Trading Post makes things too centralized and easy to obtain. It kills the spirit of MMO world exploration and interaction.

This is some old school thinking. That kind of run-around time sink sounds horrible and tedious. I like centralized and easy to use. I can also still explore the world and interact with others. The first does not negate the second. Also, the current system cuts down on bots which is always a good thing, IMO.

EremiteAngel.9765:

While we are at this, scrap “search for party” functions too. […] So many games are adopting the “convenience” route of having centralized TP and centralized everything that it kills the flavor of MMOs.

I’ve heard a lot of ‘bring back the old days of real MMOs’ reminiscences before. GW2 is not that game. Frankly, if that’s the kind of experience you’re after, you can still go play Runescape or Ultima Online. There are even new games on the horizon like Camelot Unchained that may be more to your liking.

Cheers and good luck.

Sylvari, as much as I love to play them, have the absolute worst home instance. The trees are outside the portal and if you don’t position yourself right for chopping, you’re kicked from the instance. Same goes for the HoT chests. You can see them from the inside, but can’t reach them unless you walk the fine instance line on the outside! The gift tree is up one of four spiralling bridges… which one was it again? And I hope you like climbing spirals to try to find the bandit chest on any given day! It may be pretty if you have time to waste, but it’s a PitA to navigate for gathers.

Thank goodness Rata Sum counts as maguma because I never want to visit the Grove home instance. Hoelbrak may be spread out, but at least it’s straight forward.

Since you’re new, just try a few that sound good. It’s hard to pick a “wrong” class, really. “The best” class will vary by opinion and currently accepted meta, but nothing is really an automatic outcast.

At any level, you can go directly into the PvP lobby where everything is unlocked for you. Test stuff to find out what you like, or have a look at a site like metabattle to get some build ideas and test those. In PvP, everyone is on even footing and PvP build/gear is common to all.

Another introvert here. I play solo a lot. I also use inivisibility if I’m feeling unsociable. I’m an active participant in a couple of small guilds and will join voice chat if I’m feeling more sociable. Right now, everyone else is in SAB mode, but we do guild stuff at least once per week. I could do fractals with guildies most evenings, if I wanted to. It’s nice to have the option without the obligation.

Something I love about GW2 is that you can participate in events or large scale battles without being tied to a group or required to do exactly what everyone else is doing. You can go to Tequatl and do pre-defense or not, DPS or support, and bounce to whichever laser you feel like defending. If you have to leave immediately after, or if you can’t stay for the whole thing, it’s okay. There’s no pressure of people relying on you to fulfill your role.

IMO, Wooden Potatoes lays out the pros/cons pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oVADcOSTeY&t

For my part, I really hope Tengu is part of the next expansion.

Lol, yes! All the characters on the non-flight account have falling damage traits equipped because I’d kill them all if they didn’t.

While many players would love to see small-medium sized guild halls with scaled requirements, the large guild halls are technically attainable for everyone.

As others mentioned, you simply need to recruit about 4 extra people to claim your hall. Just call out in map chat and you will likely get some helpful folks to fill out your group. Guilded Hallow is a little easier to claim, as Lost Precipice is more spread-out and has more ups and downs, the time limit may catch you. (Note that you can attempt to claim your hall as many times as needed at no extra charge.)

Why scribe? Because that’s the way to get the best decorations. If you’re really against scribing, you can buy a half dozen ‘basic’ pieces from the guild hall merchant. There are a few things to purchase with guild tokens, a couple of raid pieces, and a few festival decorations (in season only). There are also some expensive luxury items to buy from a vendor in the Lake Doric map. Generally though, if it’s really neat, it’s crafted. Those crafts aren’t transferable, either; they are bound to the scribe’s guild hall and cannot be traded or sold.

Yes, building up a guild hall is an expensive project. For just a couple of people, the task may seem very daunting. It is doable, though. If you decide to go for it, take a long view and celebrate the small triumphs.

I excitedly scribed some of the new super decorations… but cannot decorate with them because they aren’t in storage— at all. Once they’ve been through the assembly device, they don’t exist!

I hope my decorations aren’t lost completely. Please fix? Thanks.

1. Yes, I realize this is a year-old thread. I was specifically referred here by GW2 Support.

2. As I reported to support: when I recently played through sylvari personal story on a new rev for nostalgia’s sake, after recovering Caladbolg, a rev has NO other skills available for use against BBEG Mazdak. This means no heal skill, no condi clear, no utilities at all.

3. You might say it’s no big deal because story is easy. However, it is certainly proof that rev is still lacking basic amenities other characters have. No rev wants to get into a fight underwater, either; they have only 1 weapon and 2 legends available. Why hasn’t Anet fixed these gaps?

4. Support gave me a pat answer that implied they had no understanding of this issue. So, here I am, asking again for Anet to pay attention to rev class.

I suspect/hope that we’ll get some action in the Black Citadel as we see things play out with Rytlok’s arrest. He was summoned by higher powers (Smodur?) to account for his new magic. Whether we’ll get to see a tribunal or not, who knows?

I am completely happy that the asura do not wear gender specific clothing. I like the fact that asura females don’t have to wear skirts all the time. I wouldn’t mind if Anet gave everyone the option to use the female (or male) version of outfits but most of the time, I think the male version looks better. I was disappointed the wintersday outfit caved on this.

@notebene, there are a couple of shields that you can ‘sheathe’. One is the dreamthistle and another is the plasma. Both condense so there’s minimal clipping with hair. The wiki pages don’t show them very well, but you can preview them in your wardrobe as sheathed or wielded.

The festival vendor can still change your 1000 candy corn to 1 cob, which stores more easily. You can still get the regular node via the laurel seller, but the greater node is a Halloween-only update.

There is a group of folks who’ve been politely requesting more access to decor for non-humans for a while now. I would love to see more diversity on this issue.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Guild-Hall-decorations-I-feel-are-missing/first#post6503584

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Non-human-centered-decorations/first#post6521069

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Suggestion-Beds/first#post6529949

I’m not sure why they didn’t include beds as decor. I want asura hammocks. Sylvari have flowery hammocks, too. Norn beds are super cool. I think char just sleep on their rugs? Humans can have some nice beds, if boring. Still, why not include them when they’re around in the rest of the game?

Having experienced bugs where the floor is gone, but you must use an objective out in thin air, and where the updrafts fail to function, I am hopeful these will be fixed. I also hope the stupid penalty box is erased and that this horrible fight gets an ‘easy restart’ mode so we don’t have to slog through everything just for another go at an achievement.

Thank you for revisiting this mess of a final battle and may you squish many bugs.

I agree with the others that you have to make it relevant. Sadly, a lot of folks just don’t care about the guild halls in general. In my experience, it tends to be just a few people in a guild who drive a hall’s build up. Scribes tend to be the real whipping boys, IMO, but guild leaders are certainly expected to pick up any slack in donations. If you care about it, then accept the burden you’re shouldering. Be thankful for those who do contribute and shrug off the fact that most won’t.

Maybe give the MotD a break for a while or just mention some benefits, “Hey, be sure to pick up your map bonus or XP potion from the guild hall tavern! Enjoy your adventurers, everyone!” Encourage people to use the place. “Check out our latest guild hall jumping puzzle — just look for the green flag to begin.” or “Pop into the guild hall and see our latest trophy. Good job, everyone!”

Maybe just ask for a specific donation once per month for one week? You don’t want to be a nag, just offer them a guild service. “Thanks to those who donated mithril ingots last month. We were able to open the hall’s market. This month, please consider contributing a ______. We’re really close to unlocking waypoint discounts for everyone!”

Done and good luck!

Just wanted to add: when you’re gathering ALL the things, open your inventory, click on the gear symbol in the upper right corner and “deposit all”. All those materials are automatically put into your collections, accessed from any bank or crafting station. It’s an easy way to free-up inventory.

Also, keybind your dodge or be comfortable with double-tapping your movement keys. Dodge will keep you from death many, many times.

I hope you enjoy the game!

The creature calling itself Lazurus is still 3/4 “real”. Even if one the aspects used to ressurect him wasn’t his, (and we don’t know what was in that last aspect piece), he was still able to come back as mostly himself.

I look forward to the story explaining what that last aspect piece was and what effects it has had on the current Lazurus. What was that final piece? Was it someone else’s aspect? Was it an artifact? How did it power/affect his ressurection? Are his abilities more limited without his last aspect? Is he looking for his final piece? Does he have a new/different purpose from his old life? There are a lot of possibilities going forward.

I would love to make Asura hammocks and have Sylvari plant lights. Yes! to lab equipment, big Norn braziers, and other non-human furnishings and decorations.

Non-potted plants FTW. Such a pain to mess around sinking plants through the floor so the ugly pots don’t show.

Expansion Possibilities:

• Stick with your sylvari and try chronomancer. I think you’ll really like it.
• Play the guardian in the new maps and either don’t worry about Core Tyria or you could just pick up some waypts. as needed.
• Create a sylvari guardian and jump into new material with both feet. (You’ll get a L80 booster with HoT purchase). You can always pick up some waypts. later.

At this point, no one knows which option is “best”. We don’t know what, if any, reprecussions there are from either choice.

Khisanth.2948:

The more confusing thing is the labyrinth after Vinewrath. Why does that exist at all?

Who is stuffing random gemstones into trees all over the world? Are they angry at me for stealing all their hidden troves?

Mordy is a dragon, right? Dragons do love their hordes. I figure some of that rubs off on the dragon minions, who kill lots of people and animals. It’s only natural those now-deceased creatures dropped stuff for the dragon minions, just as if they’d drop stuff if killed by characters. It’s a murderous cycle.

I enjoyed the Caladbolg quest and collection very much. As a sylvari main, I feel it’s fitting that we finally get to officially keep the thing as a powerful planty weapon.

Ashantara.8731:

Wait, what collection was connected to the Shadowstone/Krait Oil quests?? It ended abruptly for me and I am still waiting for the whole point of it. What did I miss?

We did collect slivers, even if it wasn’t really a full-blown collection, but it was under the “Current Events” umbrella. To check if you’re missing any steps: look for “Burden of Choice” or http://dulfy.net/2016/10/04/gw2-october-4-current-events-guide/