Guild Wars 2

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You may find this helpful (minimal walls of text):
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Another option would be to create a new character and take it through the NPE, which was created just for circumstances like yours. =)
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If you have a character created before the April update do not delete it. The April update changed the trait system. You will still have many of those changes but pre-April characters have their traits grandfathered in. Most traits do not need to be unlocked by performing tasks or buying with gold and skill points.

The Sept updates changed much of the game play for lower level characters. It also changed the actual starter zones. No need to create a new character to experience the wonders of the NPE.

Here is a post I made recently that you may find useful. The whole thread contains good advice for a new player.

And another one

Good luck and hope you have fun.

Shadow Behemoth
World Boss shows times.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

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Anyway, my overall view of the leveling changes is that it isn’t too bad. There are a few things I dislike (like the removal of bundles from starter zones,
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This is my pet peeve with the NPE (most of it doesn’t effect me since I only have pre-April 15 level 80’s). They didn’t need to remove bundles from the game play in the starter zones. The only thing that may have been needed was an explanation of how to exit and get the weapons skills back. It could have been a pop up the first time a character used a bundled object that read something like : “This object has special skills that have replaced your normal weapon skills. To regain your weapon skills, swap weapons by hitting the ~ key or clicking the Swap Button (with a picture of the button).” Instead they removed bundled game play but did not remove all bundle objects.

For example in Metrica Province you can no longer play golem chess toward earning one of the hearts. OK fine, but they left the chess board and golems and the controls for it are still click-able. If a new player sees that it is click-able they may try it and be confused when it doesn’t do anything.

The same thing with feeding the baby bears in Wayfarer Foothills. You can no longer do that activity but you can pick up the fish and when you do it’s confusing because you can’t do anything with it. In both these instances they need to make them un-click-able or remove the objects totally from the game. As is they are more confusing than before.

The worst I’ve come across was last night in Plains of Ashford. The heart instruction says you can fire canons toward completing the heart. But if you click on the pile of canon balls you can’t do anything with them. If you click on the canons you can’t do anything with them. I watched as some poor sucker ran between the 3 canons trying to fire them, then run over to the canon balls and tried to pick them up and back to the canons. If Anet was going to remove that bundle from the game then they should have made the canons and canon balls un-clickable and definitely removed the instructions from the heart description. The only thing you can do for that heart is wait around for some skritt to spawn so you can kill them. I pitied the poor noob characters because my level 80 guardian could kill a whole group of the skritt with one swing of #2 skill on his hammer. They didn’t get much chance to get any hits in until I left.

P.S. And what did postponing encountering bundles accomplish? Nothing since Anet didn’t add any explanation or tutorial for them, that I know of. If someone was going to be confused by them in a starter zone they are going to be just as confused when encountering them in the next higher zone.

The problem with the OPs question is that they did not specify which aspects of PvE they were referring to. There are several PvE activities that would elicit different answers – open world exploring and leveling, Living Story, open world champion and boss zergs and dungeons and fractals are among some of them.

Of course the correct answer is “the one that you enjoy playing” but there are some people who want more direction. We can not really give that to them until we know aspects of PvE they are asking about.

Edit: Also knowing what the OP’s play style would help.

I was given GW2 by my son in Sept 2012. My only on-line gaming experience before that was some Diablo 3 that summer, although I had played Diablo and a little Diablo 2 before that. I really liked GW2 from the beginning, so much so that I bought the guide.

I just got the witch’s hat/skin recently as a reward on one or two of my characters. Unfortunately I don’t remember exactly which reward. Maybe the 2 year birthday reward. I also got some devil horns.

In general the smallest Norn is still taller than the average human. Maybe taller than the tallest human.

If the Norn is male look at their feet. They have giant feet.

Black Panther.3150:

I have all Areas of on the list for Orr, but I am still missing one area. I have 1 area missing. I am unsure as to where to look now.

In Cursed Shore you probably need to visit The Artesian Waters. From the Cathederal of Verdance POI go toward the back heading east and jump in the water. Keeping going east-northeast.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

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I think his point was that he can put up with the some of the bad changes but that traits were too much. I agree with you though, 90% of these changes are complete trash and ruin the experience. The other 10% that I actually like and think are good for the game (trait respect button) could have been done with out these other changes.

OK maybe the way I quoted that was distracting. I should have done it this way.

Kumion.7580:

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I’m getting very tired of people making blanket statements about what type of players dislike the new trait system. Dismissing everyone who dislikes the new system as power levelers/ key farmers/ people resistant to change for change’s sake/ people who aren’t playing the game as intended is a cop out and it’s insulting. People who don’t like the new system have MANY and VARIED reasons for their dislike. You can read 55 pages worth of why, here. GW2 was billed as a game you could play the way you wanted to play and now it isn’t, largely because of the highly flawed new trait system.

I am not a power leveler. I am not a key farmer. I am not a ‘push to endgame’ player. I am not a Mists farmer. … I am someone who plays the game to enjoy the journey. I like to make alts and grow them, experimenting with different classes and character types or race/class combinations. In what category do I fall? The group for whom the new trait system ruined gameplay.
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ITA

fireflyry.7023:

Asuran/Thief is my main/first.

Just fits really, being sneaky and such it seemed a no-brainer, to me at least, that Asuran was the way to go being the smallest body type in the game and it’s helped me no end in PvP being that small. …

That is why I made one of my mesmers the shortest and smallest Asuran female I could. I also picked a very short name, K Ki. I thought if I ever play PvP or roaming in WvW I would use her so that it would be harder to notice her, harder to distinguish her from her clones and harder to read any possible telegraphs of what she was going to do next. I also chose her skin color and armor colors so she would blend into the background more.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

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and I chose an Asura Ranger because I wanted my pet to tower over me.
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Love this idea.

Being a big C. J. Cherryh fan this reminds me of an ending image in the multi-generational Forty-Thousand in Gehenna of the apprehension other travelers on a way station experience when they see a human inhabitant of Gehenna accompanied by their native sentient giant lizard companion.

I have at least one of every race and at least one of every profession. I wanted one of every race so that I could experience a personal story for all races. I wanted one of every profession so if I ever played 1vs1 I understand the opponent better and if doing dungeons or group events I could understand how to coordinate with them or how to work combos with them.

My first, and oldest, character was a female ranger. I decided to make her a Norn because I think that is a good combination and I miss living in Alaska. Try different professions because some I like even though I didn’t think I would (warrior comes to mind) . My favorite profession is mesmer (I have 3) which I had no idea about before trying. I just try to pick the race that I think fits, even if others think it is cliche.

rogerwilko.6895:

Brother Grimm.5176:

killing every yellow creature you can find (especially on the edges and and in hidden areas). Note that the bonus XP is based on how long the enemy has survived on the map….yellow creatures in out of they way places net the best).

you mean the champion guys? but can 1 solo random low level guy kill them?
I’m lv 21 atm, and even the silver ones are Tough. (low lv thief, bad gear and low money)

They mean the ambient creatures that will not attack you on their own because they are neutral (yellow). Red means enemy, green means ally, yellow means neutral.

Kumion.7580:

I’m getting very tired of people making blanket statements about what type of players dislike the new trait system. Dismissing everyone who dislikes the new system as power levelers/ key farmers/ people resistant to change for change’s sake/ people who aren’t playing the game as intended is a cop out and it’s insulting. People who don’t like the new system have MANY and VARIED reasons for their dislike. You can read 55 pages worth of why, here. GW2 was billed as a game you could play the way you wanted to play and now it isn’t, largely because of the highly flawed new trait system.

I am not a power leveler. I am not a key farmer. I am not a ‘push to endgame’ player. I am not a Mists farmer. I am not resistant to all change and am willing to adapt to the NPE. I am someone who plays the game to enjoy the journey. I like to make alts and grow them, experimenting with different classes and character types or race/class combinations. In what category do I fall? The group for whom the new trait system ruined gameplay.

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In my opinion, no game should have players resenting the time (and money) they spend indulging in escapist entertainment.
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I totally agree (except the part about the NPE. I don’t like that either since it seems to be all part of the same thing.)

I think the cycle of 70 minutes of day starts at 12 midnight GMT and there after every 2 hours. I was trying to take a picture of my Sylvari mesmer during the night to see her glow patters and night seemed to start at quarter after the hour right on schedule. So night starts at 1:15 GMT, 3:15, 5:15, etc.

Alkonium.9164:

I simply made a point of playing at least one of every race and profession. Nothing else to it.

This pretty much.

I initially picked a profession – ranger and then a race that I thought fit – Norn. She’s still one of my favorites. Next I created a female Sylvari elementalist and a male Charr warrior. Neither lasted very long.

I got lost in the Charr tutorial, fell off platforms, hated Black Citadel, didn’t like the way the Charr hopped along and the “everything for the band of brothers” just didn’t fit with my loner personality.

It was only after I was rounding out my characters with every profession, every race that I created my current female engineer Charr. Being a fan of the Chanur novels I had to make a female named Pyanfar. (Had to pick a different last name since of course the name was taken.) Now that I have traited for speed on equipping a kit she’s almost got permanent speed and so doesn’t hop along. Py was one of the last to be leveled to 80 but I’m starting to enjoy playing an engineer more and more. My only dissatisfaction is the lack of variety for medium armor that looks good on a Charr and the camera issues in tight spaces (same problem I have with my Norn).

Alkonium, he’s got an interesting face – 8.5/10.

SkeletallHorses, I changed Amber’s nose to be shorter because I agree. Not sure if I went too far though. Here she is with shorter nose and also new staff skin.

My last two humans, Bruce a warrior and Kat(herine) one of my mesmer.

Alkonium, since your character’s face is so small it’s hard to judge her looks. I’m going to guess about a 7/10. She seems pleasant.

Here is a close-up of my human elementalist, Amber Everglow:

Danikat.8537:

On a related note portals can be really useful when you’re attempting to complete a jumping puzzle: Lay down an entrance portal before a particularly tricky jump, then if you fall you can create the exit and portal yourself back up.

Thank you very much. I’m just starting to use portals more on my mesmers and I’m not great at jumping puzzles. This is a very useful tip. It reminds me of instructions I got from an experienced climber friend when I was learning “place your protection before your difficult move”. (Protection in that instance was a piton.)

Also when doing difficult jumping puzzles trait for less damage.

P.S. Tip when placing a portal if possible don’t place it right over the vista or the chest. My sister ended up portaling herself back down to the beginning when she thought she was pressing F to view the vista.

My Charr engineer Pyanfar Cherryh:

Just took some pictures of my female Sylvari mesmer in the Grove:

I’m more excited about Winter’s Day. Hope Bell Choir is back.

Show me yours, I’ll show you mine.

Thanks.

Since the recent Crown Pavilion events when I got the gathering nodes in the home instances I have been gathering there for dailies. I had been using my warrior but only recently switched to using my ele. My warrior and mesmer chose to help the quaggans but my ele chose the hylek. I didn’t really pay much attention to the fountain so didn’t notice the quaggan. My mesmer was in the circus; I’ll have to look out for circus performers in the future.

I’m in the process of doing my PS on all my characters (10) so will pick skritt for one of them, maybe one of my asura.

Anybody know what’s going on with all the Hylek in Divinity’s Reach home instance?

Lion’s Arch (LA) is the central city, the hub for GW2. There are asura gates between it and all the racial cities – Divinity’s Reach, the Black Citadel, Hoelbrak, Rata Sum and the Grove. Each race starts the game in their own starter area. From within a starter area you can run back to your race’s city or pay a fee to use a waypoint (WP) to get close to it. Once in your race’s city you can then go to LA. Using WPs in any city does not cost any money.

LA also has asura gates between it and the WvW maps and the PvP area (Heart of the Mists). You can go to Heart of the Mists (HotM), as described above, from any place and it does not cost money. Run straight across to the asura gate to LA and it doesn’t cost any money.

You can get XP toward leveling up by doing many things – gathering resources from nodes, killing mobs, completing reknown hearts, skill challenges, visiting points of interest (POIs), viewing vistas and participating in Dynamic Events (DEs). If you do every heart, skill challenge, poi, WP and vista n a map you get 100% completion of the map and extra XP and a reward.

After 100%ing your starter area you can 100% your race’s city (they do not contain any hearts or DEs) or 100% LA or visit another races starter area or go to your race’s next highest level or anything else you want to do.

Since crafting xp was nerfed in one of the more recent updates those old guides don’t have the right numbers any more. I don’t know if the update notes contain the info needed to recalculate everything or not.

In general gather/accumulate all the basic crafting materials needed for a particular crafting tier before refining them since you used to only get crafting XP for refining basic crafting materials at the lowest levels of a tier. Make all the components for the tier next because you only get XP at the early levels of the tier for that too. The amount of basic material and number of components is what needs to be recalculated.

Furesy.6935:

Lazuli.2098:

Dutch Rental.8360:

My fine looking characters Thief and Guardian

What top and pants are your guardian wearing? They look good. I like both of your pictures.

I was wondering the same thing, looked through the gallery multiple times before I realized it could also be an outfit… And naturally it was! It’s the Shadow Assassin Outfit, very well dyed

Thanks.

In general melee does more damage than ranged. For a warrior I use a great sword and an axe/horn or axe/axe (I use the horn number 4 skill for running through territory quickly then replace it with a second axe before combat).

(Go to the wiki and type in “warrior skills”). Notice Greatsword number 5 skill – rush. Try it out. Also try GS number 3 skill. When using an axe mainhand when you have enough adrenaline use the F1 (or whatever key you have it remapped to) skill to leap at our foe. Those 3 skills help the warrior get to their foe quickly. Also axe skill 3 throws an axe to cripple a foe so they can’t get away.

Silmar Alech.4305:

I feel the Asura need more attention here.

He’s looking good. To add to the Asura attention my necro is also rockin’ the hat:

Randulf.7614:

My nobly dressed ele taming the Shai-Hulud. And my guardian shaman

Your guardian shaman looks good – the pose and scenery are great and love the staff.

In the Golem chess unless you did something stupid or had extremely bad luck you always won. OK maybe it took a game or two to figure it out but after that it was always a win so not really much of a challenge. But what gets me is they left the chess boards and golems in place and it looks like you should be able to do something with them, but you can’t. Imagine a new player discovering them right in the beginning of Metrica Province map and wondering what the heck am I supposed to do with these. Anet should have removed them from the game if they were so confusing. I think they are more confusing now.

If you want to go for some ascended gear go for trinkets – rings, amulets, earrings. You can get them from the laurel venders if you have laurels and gold. Do not get 2 of the exact same kind of trinket for the same character.

Then getting ascended weapons is better than getting ascended armor.

One other point – you can steer yourself while in mid-air – especially useful when dropping down to a small platform or beam. Also when jumping to a beam or a log try to jump so that if you over jump you still land on the beam/log. In other words don’t jump perpendicular to the length.

My bad. When I looked again the sigil was not in the focus any more. I don’t remember replacing the focus with a new one so not sure how that happened but I placed the sigil into the (new?) focus and everything is fine now. Yeah I got 2 mins+ just this evening. I love that sigil on my mesmer.

mondello.2940:

I think the whole idea that female characters have skimpier armour than guys is unfair tbh. I think there should be an option where no matter what gender your playing as you can choose between the female look and the more male look for every piece of armour that has a difference between male and females.
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I like this idea. I would also like to be able to wear all classes of armor on any profession in PvE. Also more variety in armor – some sleek full plated mail, some sleek leather and sleek cloth. (By sleek I mean form follows function with less protruding embellishments that serve no purpose.) Also more race specific armor so all races can have some interesting looks.

Jana.6831:

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Most people in this game don’t know too much about it, let’s be honest.
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If that problem is the justification for redesigning the trait system, the NPE and nerfing the starter areas, then has any of that helped solve the problem? Will players going through this whole new leveling experience know anything more about the game? They certainly won’t by level 15, or 40 or 60 and not even at 80. So what was the point of spending all this time and money on reworking everything? Did it improve game play? Definitely not. Was it all so they could make more money? If so then I guess time will tell but I wish they would just quit lying about it.

Last night I played my mesmer who has a Superior sigil of speed on her focus. In the past when she killed something she would get 20 sec of speed. Each additional kill would stack another 20 sec. But last night I was getting almost no speed boons at all.

Has something changed in the last week or so?

I like the hood, jacket and boots. Too bad it’s an outfit so it’s all or nothing.

Jana.6831:

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The quests – weren’t that smart before that but I do miss feeding the bears in Wayfarer’s. But would a new player notice? Guess not.
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Maybe the players that need directions on what to do like zombies from their zombie master might not notice but many players are used to games that if you can interact with an object there is usually a reason and a purpose. So if they are exploring the area and can pick up the fish they may expect to be able to do something with it. The same thing with the golem chess in Metrica Province, and probably other things in other starter areas. If Anet was going to remove those things they should have removed all vestiges of them instead of doing a half-fast job of it. As is these things are more confusing then they were before.

And what was so confusing about bundles anyway? They are still in the game. Have they introduced some tutorial or instruction on them so that when they are encountered later they will be any less confusing? (That is not a rhetorical question I’m actually asking.)

Korossive.7085:

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( and no one got the joke on last image yet? XD )

Not until you pointed it out.

I’m glad I read this thread. I didn’t know about the “hit space for jump before moving forward” technique. Thanks everyone.

I’ve been playing for 2 years. I’ve always liked jumping puzzles even though I was awful in the beginning. I’m no expert now, obviously, but they are a lot easier now and more fun so practice does help.

The only things I want to add is that teleport and blink type skills don’t generally help reach platforms you couldn’t normally reach (just makes it easier) but since those skills often negate crowd control they are good for getting past traps. And also to use the w, a, s and d keys and even the q and e to position yourself correctly before a difficult jump you keep missing.

You can walk using only the mouse on a windows system by holding down both the left and the right mouse button at the same time and steering with the mouse. My sister uses this method although I prefer using the right mouse button and the w, a, s and d keys.

If you are both on NA (North American) servers then you can play together in all aspects of the game except WvW.

Each of you would add the other to their friend’s list. Then when you are on you can check to see if your friend is logged on. If so “invite” them to the party before entering the map you want to play on. Hopefully you will be on the same version of the map.

Since the mega server functionality was added we no longer play on our own server’s version of the map but on a communal version. At any one time there may be different overflow versions of the map if it is very popular. By being in a party before the second one of you enters a map your chances are better at being in the same instance.

Welcome.

There are a few things that may help since they are different from WoW.

There is no trinity (tank, healer, DPS). Everyone can heal themselves (utility assigned to the “6” key by default). Each profession (class) can be played different ways depending on weapons used (skills are tied to weapons), what utility skills used, what traits chosen, what stats and sigils and runes chosen for weapons and armor and what foods and other boosters are consumed. By changing some of those things you can play your character to fit the situation so you are not locked into one role.

Also there is no aggro gaining skills. The first one to hit a mob gains aggro first but with more attackers the mob usually shifts aggro to the one closest and/or dealing the most damage. You do not need to be stationary to use most skills or cast spells. Keep on the move. Learn to dodge by double tapping w, s , a and d. The fastest dodge is dodging forward using W.

Get gathering tools, anyone can gather from any resource node if they have the right tool. There is no competing for those resource nodes, everyone has their own instance of them. Just as everyone gets their own loot if they contributed to the kill of a mob. It is not a competition in GW2 so go ahead and jump in and help someone fighting a mob. It’s not their mob but everyone’s.

Crafting used to be a fast way to level up since gaining crafting experience level added to you character’s overall level. Crafting XP has been nerfed though and usually you don’t get enough materials on your first character from gathering and salvaging (yes forgot to mention get a salvaging kit to use on drops you don’t want use on your character and that are not worth much on the Black Lion Trading Post). But if you decide to craft you gain more XP discovering new recipes rather then making the same thing over and over and definitely read up on it first.

One last thing. The way the game plays has been changed recently starting this past April so there may be some confusing info in the excellent guides previously written and mentioned. As a general rule things that used to be available earlier in the leveling process have now been pushed back until later. If the guide mentions something that you don’t have available to you at a certain point have patience.

God luck and have fun!

P.S. Also there is no “right” way to play so even if you don’t level efficiently according to some people it doesn’t matter as long as you are having fun.

Tiger Ashante.1792:

Lazuli.2098:

Tiger Ashante.1792:

I have tons of screenshots, but i’ll just add one for now, too tired lol. This is a shot from Dry Top in the Oasis.

I really like this shot. Please show us more of yours.

Well ok here are a few more.
1) Timberline Falls
2) Black Citadel
3) Sunset in Cursed Shores
4) Lonar Pass
4) Moonlight Walk – Gendarran Fields

I like them all but that’s the best picture I’ve seen of the Black Citadel.

Gregori.5807:

Gaile, while I appreciate you coming in after Jon posted his stuff and vanished, what he said was not generally well received. That is why your post is not getting good reception. Here is what I heard Jon say:

“Sorry, we weren’t paying attention to the thread we started and don’t care enough to read your suggestions now. I’m here now because we were badgered to come to this thread in the “Communicating with You” thread. Here, have a hamster wheel: crank out more suggestions to keep yourselves busy so you don’t complain.”

I will only be satisfied by 1 of two things:

1) a significant change for the better
2) a dev finally coming clean and telling us that we are kitten out of luck, live with it.

I believe the avoidance of this issue for so long followed by Jon’s hamster wheel and his vanishing are the dev version of #2.
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I would be happy with #1 but I’m afraid we’re only getting #2 (Jon’s post and now Gail’s are just a passive-aggressive way of saying #2).

aerial.7021:

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Could it be as simple as one player wants the experience and another just wants to level ? because they are radically different ways of playing the game.

Yes I enjoyed leveling my 10 characters to level 80 under the pre-April version of the game but I opt out of leveling under this new system by not buying any more character slots. Those who didn’t or don’t enjoy leveling but want another character I guess EotM would work to get their character to level 80 (although I don’t know since I’ve never been there).

Tachenon.5270:

It’s like you’re asking us to offer suggestions about place settings and silverware while there’s a dead skunk in the middle of the dinner table.

What’s the most offensive trait unlock location? I find the trait system revamp in its entirety to be offensive. I don’t think it makes the game better in any way, shape, or form. I think it made the game worse. I think it takes all the fun out of trying different builds, which makes it something we have to get through to get to the ‘fun stuff’. I don’t think any tweaking or adjusting will help.

Please: just put it back the way it was.

LOL.

I totally agree. If Anet doesn’t revert the trait system it doesn’t really matter to me what superficial stuff they do since I’ll never create another new character in this game.

aerial.7021:

There is something to be said for ‘pre-Searing’ you could opt out almost the instant you entered and continue on and leave the tutorial area alone, every expansion had one of sorts except of course for EOTN, I’m wondering if GW2 would have benefited from a similar area too.

The problem is the beginner systems are being enforced upon those that know the game with no option to opt out.

The way I opt out is not create any new characters.