Difficulties getting back into the game

I want to ask for your advice on how I should approach the game as a returning player that basically starts at 0 again, how to stay motivated instead of getting frustrated?I am seriously overwhelmed by all the rather necessary content that I missed out over the years which requires a lot of time, a lot of gold until I am able to participate in "end game" stuff. It feels like I have to grind for a year just to catch up again? Everything I need by now is locked behind an insane grind, insane amount of gold or very tiresome and monotonous events and tasks.

A few examples:

• grinding agony infusion to be able to participate in higher tier fractals
• unlocking Skyscale
• unlocking achievement for Infusions (Significant Otter for example)
• getting enough gold for ascended gear so I can use the infusionsOn top of that the gem / gold exchange in store is ridiculous these days

It feels like I am waaaay too late to catch up, it's gonna take months to catch up - for what? What are you all doing each day to keep the game interesting and how do you avoid the grind?

Make a list of short-, medium-, and longterm goals. Don't be afraid to put a lot of things on the longterm list.

Then don't think about the stuff on the longterm list. Just don't think about it. Once a week, check how you progressed towards medium- and longterm goals. Add some items from the longer lists to the shortterm list for those you completed. Rinse and repeat.

Make sure to keep a large amount of "fun" activities in your shortterm list.

unlike popular opinion imo the skyscale really isn't a big grind. every LS4 map has some easy task that can be made half-afk in 5 or less minutes and provides you with enouth map currency to get the skyscale fast enough. the worst part about it is gathering eggs as there is no description provided so it is a boring wiki run instead of a cool exploration and search. also the last rift closer thing is just utter bs, whoever thought porting across the entire map for 1 rift per map that is done in a mimute so that achievement lookups, wp decision and loading screens take more time than the actual collection is fun has a strange opinion of fun.apart from that, skyscale isn't that great and certainly not necessary. roller beetle is faster horizontally, springer is faster vertically and griffon is the aerial master unless you have to actually rise (as griffon can only glide).

i don't know why you say "rather necessary content" end then talk about stuff that is your end goal and not the content to get there. we crafted legendaries before even touching t2 fractals, nothing necessary there. a big goal nevertheless and a big goal in an MMORPG shouldn't be reached in a few days, otherwise the game is boring really fast.

play whatever you like, anything provides you with money, random fractal groups for fractal dailies will work most times to move your personal tier up and gain some agony infusions. ascended gear is not really expensive in the long run, it will just come by, though pushing the crafting skill to 500 might be a grind.

The most important to know is that nothing on your list is required to play 'end game' content, or any other content.

You will need agony for high tier Fractals, but you can play all the Fractals at lower levels. Even the new one (Sunqua Peak) is first available at level 25, which needs just 17 agony resistance to play. If you want to be able to play the higher tier Fractals you can build up your agony resistance gradually at the same time as getting your personal Fractal level up since Fractals are the best source of agony resistance.

The skyscale is fun and can be useful but it's not required for anything except a few achievements and one legendary trinket, which like all legendary items is also optional. (Legendaries have the same stats as ascended, and trinkets are the easiest ascended equipment to get.) There is no part of the game which you cannot access without a skyscale and no content which requires it to complete. That's highly unlikely to change because I think Anet intended it to be an optional mount, like the griffon and roller beetle.

Infusions and enrichments with visual effects like Otter's Blessing are purely cosmetic. They usually do offer some minor stat boost but you can get others with exactly the same stats from vendors for relatively low prices. There is absolutely no requirement to get the ones with cosmetic effects unless you like the effect, they don't give you access to anything new and aren't required to play any part of the game.Info on cheaper/easier to get infusions and enrichments is available here:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusionhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Enrichment

Ascended equipment can be useful, but the majority of the game is still balanced around players using exotics. Ascended isn't required for anything except high tier Fractals (and then only because of the agony resistance). It's recommended for raids because it makes them slightly easier, but you can raid in exotics if you want to.

So there's no need to push yourself to finish anything on your list faster than you're comfortable with. You don't need any of it to play, you won't be locked out of any content as a result of not having top tier equipment or fancy cosmetics, you can focus on what you want to do, in whatever order you need to do it.

But if you actually want all these things because you like them and not because you thought they're required then I'd say you've got a pretty good list of medium to long term goals to focus on, which is in itself a reason to play. If not then consider why you decided to come back to GW2 and use that as a starting point. What made you want to pick the game up again? What content did you imagine yourself doing? Then do that. Chances are whatever it is you can start doing it very quickly, probably as soon as you've familiarised yourself with your character/s again, or even while you're doing that.

There is no avoiding the grind. This game has become Grind Wars 2.

I started back up again like 4 months ago, after having set the game aside around LW Season 3. I had a full-ascended character but I also switched mains, so I expect I was pretty close to where you were.

I play a fair bit but I try very hard not to "grind," and I've had a pretty good time catching up overall. (In a few months, I was able to max my masteries, get 100% map completion on all the new stuff, build up several characters in full ascended gear, relearn how to do Fractals from scratch, try out some Raids, and craft a Legendary — which I immediately sold for fashion-wars money, lol. Right now I'm working on collecting cats.)

Generally,

1. Prioritize your goals. You don't need to pursue just one at a time, but at least try to have a sense of "I want this now" vs. "I want this sometime."
2. Use the "pin achievement" feature to keep track of what's most important to you for that play session or two.
3. Try to take advantage of dailies — don't feel obligated to get them every day, but, e.g., do your Seasons map farms on the days they've got dailies for extra rewards and more players who can help with achievements or metas.
4. If you can afford to, buy the LW Seasons with real-money-to-gems instead of gold-to-gems. They're fairly cheap but spending in-game gold on them makes the whole endeavor feel crushingly Sisyphean imo.
5. The game actually gives you decent rewards for just completing things the first time rather than grinding the same bit of content, so logging in just to do map completion or story isn't really "wasting time" compared to farming.

If you want some reaaaaaally specific advice, see below…

For gold:Identify all your drops. Copper-kit-salvage blues and greens, Mystic-kit-salvage yellows (before I got a perma-kit, I would make one every time there's a "Mystic Forge" daily), sell exotics on the TP or use a high-end kit like Black Lion to salvage them for ectos + dark matter + sigils/runes. (If you right-click the kit there's a great "salvage all" command!)Don't neglect the resources in your bank. https://gw2efficiency.com/ has a pretty nifty little tool that'll show you if you're sitting on, like, 200 g worth of mats you forgot about. Personally, I don't have much use for Mystic Coins (due to reward-track Clovers), so I made a ton of money just selling the ones I had on the TP.Plenty of maps give you good loot and something else (e.g. Dragonfall meta for Skyscale currency; Drizzlewood Coast meta for mastery points and collectibles; HoT metas and extra currencies you can use to buy gear or unlock cool backpacks) so don't spend your time on just doing gold farm stuff. (I never do.)

For ascended gear:Use laurels, guild commendations, or map currencies to get ascended trinkets. This can take some time but it costs very little gold. Here's the master list: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_trinketGet an ascended weapon when you can afford to optimize, for about a ~5-10% bump in damage (for Power builds).Save ascended armor for last. If your current armor is pure garbage, buy some cheap exotic Named armor on the TP. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Named_armorFractals and Raids will give you ascended drops, so one advantage of not rushing this is you may be able to fill out some gear "for free." (Remember: you can stat-swap ascended armor/weapons in the Mystic for about the cost of crafting an exotic. So almost every drop is useful. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stat_changing )

For Fractals:Pick one character/build to be your "progression" character and gear them first.Any time you do Fractals, try to do the dailies, up to whatever level your current Agony Resistance will allow.Your eventual goal is a +9 agony infusion in each slot. You'll get a bunch of +1 infusions per run, you can just let them pile up in storage and then convert them to a +9 when you have a stack. Gearing for Fractals is costly but they also do drop some meaty rewards, and remember that you can stat-convert any ascended gear you get as a drop.For more gold income, buy the "Deeply Discounted" fractal keys and open Fractal Encryptions.Start with ascended trinkets, as described above. Attuning rings is very cheap and will get you to 2 slots per ring. (Example formula: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attuned_Crystalline_Band ) Later you can upgrade them to 3 slots per ring (remember to extract the infusions you put in there first.)

For Skyscale:Pace yourself!Generally the way to get the LW S4 map currencies you need is to do the repeatable hearts (which reset daily) and buy some of the map currency from the heart vendor upon completion. Don't neglect harvesting, either — some maps like Sandswept Isle have a lot of resources you can just pick up!You can do the hearts on multiple characters each day if you're feeling impatient. Easiest way to get all your alts there is to buy a Portal Tome (and a scroll from each map vendor), so you don't actually need to do Story with them.Map completion also awards some resources and it can be a nice break from doing stuff more repetitively.Eternal Ice from Bjora Marches can be converted into any LW S4 currency at a rate of 75-to-10 (which isn't as bad as it looks: you get a lot of ice on that map very quickly). I like this option a lot, especially for skipping whatever S4 map you like least, because Bjora Marches has a pretty big variety of stuff to do.Don't neglect the meta events in Dragonfall, they give you a lot of good loot in addition to the stuff you need for Skyscale. (You can use Springer or the map's temporary Skyscales to keep up with the group.)

For cosmetics:A bunch of items you get as rewards for PVE currency or achievement completion can also be unlocked using an SPvP/WvW track. Last week, I looked at the achievements for Houndskin Mantle and thought, "Man, this will take days to get" and then noticed it was on a reward track so I just went and earned it "passively" by doing my normal WvW stuff instead.Birthday gifts give you guaranteed (non-tradeable) dye unlocks. Check the wiki for a nice little table of dye values when you pop one open — you can save yourself thousands of gold in the long run.

For building up more characters:You can use Experience Tomes (from login rewards and reward tracks) and Scrolls (birthday gifts) to instantly level another character to 80.Easiest way to blitz an Elite Spec from scratch is to do the PoF hero points. You can do it solo in under two hours once you've got the basic mounts unlocked and a sense of the maps' layout from playing them before.Your ascended gear is account-bound, so you can swap it around if you change your mind on which characters you want to play most.

Yes of course it will take months to catch up - it is an MMO and MMOs of 8 years will have content that took a long time to get to. But, that is how it should be approached.

A lot of the stuff you want is unessential things that large numbers of veterans haven't even gone for.

• Ascended doesn't take masses of time to get, but it should be expected to take a few weeks on hitting level 80. The sources are quite varied these days
• The Otter infusion just came out and is a medium-long term goal for players in the newest map
• The Skyscale is cool, but the very epitomy of something that is not essential. It is designed to take a long time (I agree it takes a tad too long, but at least you work on it in stages)

The infusions for T4 fractals are the only end game thing you need to get. Strikes, raids and other skilled content require good knowledge of builds and implementation of skill.

Social endgame like infusions, later mounts, new skins etc are just rewards to work on at leisure and are in no way needed or required for anything

Basically, don't worry about it. Just play the game naturally, with a couple of priority goals and let things gain naturally. Yeah it will take months, but I've been working on my 9th and 10th legendaries for 2 years now and I don't even have full ascended on a single toon or any infusions. I've been here since day one!

If you are stressing out over a game, then the game isn't doing what it is meant to be doing for you

I was a happy camper when I came back to the game. So much to do, and in no hurry to finish it all. But I do not have your plans on doing high level fractals so I dont or didnt need ascended gear for something. I think I only have one char that has ascended gear anyway :/

I'm sorry OP I just don't think this game is for you. In fact, MMOs are not for you. I am sure there are games out there that just hand out stuff as you please but in games like GW2... you work for your stuff, that should be your motivation. In fact you listed a bunch of stuff that should be the very motivation you are asking the forum to give you.

Otter is 100% optional since all it gives is cosmetic and the karma boost useful but not necessary.The direct way to progress Otter is doing Drizzlewood which also happens to be one of the best ways to get gold which would help with the other points such as crafting ascended weapons and armor.Otter infusion requires an ascended amulet but you can buy one with laurel just from logging in 28 days. That is completely passive.

You are not going to be able to have everything all at once and especially not without spending some significant amount of effort. However it is possible to do them one at a time and just prioritize based on preference.

@"ASP.8093" said:For Fractals:Pick one character/build to be your "progression" character and gear them first.Any time you do Fractals, try to do the dailies, up to whatever level your current Agony Resistance will allow.Your eventual goal is a +9 agony infusion in each slot. You'll get a bunch of +1 infusions per run, you can just let them pile up in storage and then convert them to a +9 when you have a stack. Gearing for Fractals is costly but they also do drop some meaty rewards, and remember that you can stat-convert any ascended gear you get as a drop.

There is no need to have +9 in each slot. There isn't even a need to get all slots which means you can skip infusing the back item. Even with only 17 slots you only need 14 x +9 and 3 x +8(actually 5x for classes with weapon swap since you also need two in the other weapon set)

Thanks all for the answers.

Just FYI, I am NOT new to the game and I love MMOs. I already played GW2 for over 1000 hours so I guess that's where my frustration is coming from. I'm running around with a self-crafted Twilight, posing with the GWAMM-title (7000 hours in GW1) and I'm sitting on 2'513 Spirit Shards which are pretty much useless now - but apparently I lack the experience to craft Legendaries again because things like mastery points didn't even exist back then. So I have to grind literally millions of experience points just to be able to craft legendaries again even though I already crafted Twilight (just as an example).

Anyway, for now I'll start by rotating between low tier fractals first as I think getting ascended gear & agony infusions is the most important part. It will help me through most parts of the game (higher stats gear than exotics and additional infusion slots) and since Skyscale/Griffon clearly seem to be unnecessary, I won't waste any time on those for now. I'll look into the ascended gear for Laurels aswell because currently I only very few Infusion slots on my gear so that really won't get me far.

@"Pii.8574" said:

I am seriously overwhelmed by all the rather necessary content that I missed out over the years which requires a lot of time, a lot of gold until I am able to participate in "end game" stuff. It feels like I have to grind for a year just to catch up again?

That is understandable, If I had missed story episodes and then had to pay for them I would just uninstall.

This game doesn't have end game armor chase after you complete your ascendant set. So it needs other things to do to keep you hooked. I came back to the game to play seriously after i stopped playing in 2012. So you can imagine my surprise when i started playing again this year since it's like a new game now after 8 years. But I took my time tried to understand how the game works now and doing good. Read up on your characters and practice rotations. But most of all have fun that's the ultimate point :)

@waxx.3619 said:This game doesn't have end game armor chase after you complete your ascendant set. So it needs other things to do to keep you hooked. I came back to the game to play seriously after i stopped playing in 2012. So you can imagine my surprise when i started playing again this year since it's like a new game now after 8 years. But I took my time tried to understand how the game works now and doing good. Read up on your characters and practice rotations. But most of all have fun that's the ultimate point :)

Well, you still have the legendary armour!

But I am exactly in this situation now, I played GW2 from day 1 but soon (maybe after close to 1000 hours / half a year) went back to GW1.So fast forward 8 years later I come back and I feel like I have to start at zero again.

I wish I had spent my gold for gems back then because now not only is it more or less worthless but gems actually cost 50x more gold!

@Pii.8574 said:Thanks all for the answers.

Just FYI, I am NOT new to the game and I love MMOs. I already played GW2 for over 1000 hours so I guess that's where my frustration is coming from. I'm running around with a self-crafted Twilight, posing with the GWAMM-title (7000 hours in GW1) and I'm sitting on 2'513 Spirit Shards which are pretty much useless now - but apparently I lack the experience to craft Legendaries again because things like mastery points didn't even exist back then. So I have to grind literally millions of experience points just to be able to craft legendaries again even though I already crafted Twilight (just as an example).

Anyway, for now I'll start by rotating between low tier fractals first as I think getting ascended gear & agony infusions is the most important part. It will help me through most parts of the game (higher stats gear than exotics and additional infusion slots) and since Skyscale/Griffon clearly seem to be unnecessary, I won't waste any time on those for now. I'll look into the ascended gear for Laurels aswell because currently I only very few Infusion slots on my gear so that really won't get me far.

Just FYI you don't need ascended gear for anything other than fractal progression. The difference between legendary/ascended and exotic is about 5% stat. It's about as game-changing as forgetting to apply a food buff. I don't know about you, but I forget to do that all the time without even noticing it! GW2 is not a game where you outgear content. That is not a thing at all here.

@"Pii.8574" said:So I have to grind literally millions of experience points just to be able to craft legendaries again even though I already crafted Twilight (just as an example).

I think the old Legendary crafting system is still there if you just want to craft a "series 1" legendary with a precursor you found or bought off the TP. That's how I did one recently and I never went through any of the legendary collections or talked to any of the special trainers, just normal Mystic Forge + crafting Gifts stuff.

The new system is for going on a big ol' quest to get a Precursor instead of just buying one (required for "series 2" legendaries, rather inefficient resource-wise for "series 1" legendaries).

FWIW, that Core Tyria XP track fills up pretty fast if you just do some Fractals.

Good thread, I was in the same situation a few weeks ago then instead of rolling a new char I have decided to just continue my warrior that I left after HoT (boy it does feel weak in pvp now, but I will endure). New char felt superior overwhelming with all the stuffs, gear, stories, etc..

I have 2 questions to the friendly crowd that might be asked anyway:

• I'm constantly running low on bag space. I have 18 slot bags in every slot, but the power/condi/healing gear sets + all weapons eat up almost all the space... my bank slots are full for some materials and others can't be placed there (like boosters)... how do you guys handle this? There are so many buff items in the game I can't even track (foods, sharpening stones, and the like, etc..)
• About Agony infusions, can I have your advice please... right now I have 31 agony infusions... should I place them into my empty agony slots OR convert them to +9 right away (didn't even know you could do this ffs...) and place those (3 for +27 in this case) instead?

@"kmark.8519" said:I have 2 questions to the friendly crowd that might be asked anyway:

• I'm constantly running low on bag space. I have 18 slot bags in every slot, but the power/condi/healing gear sets + all weapons eat up almost all the space... my bank slots are full for some materials and others can't be placed there (like boosters)... how do you guys handle this? There are so many buff items in the game I can't even track (foods, sharpening stones, and the like, etc..)
• About Agony infusions, can I have your advice please... right now I have 31 agony infusions... should I place them into my empty agony slots OR convert them to +9 right away (didn't even know you could do this kitten...) and place those (3 for +27 in this case) instead?

The game now supports "equipment tabs." Go to your equipment screen in the "Hero panel," and you'll see some tabs there above the picture of your character. If you switch to a new tab, you can make a new equipment profile. Any gear used in any of those profiles will be stored on your character without using any bag space, just like your currently equipped gear. (If you see a little "link" icon over an item, it means it's used in more than on profile. Remove it from all slots it's in to get it back to your inventory.) Unfortunately, you have to pay for more than two. But even two will help a lot for wrangling your gear.

NOTE: PvE/WvW/SPvP all "remember" which equipment and build tab you're on, which can be really useful but it might surprise you if you're not expecting it.

~

If you've got Fractal Mastery level 1 unlocked, removing an agony infusion from an ascended item costs 24 silver ( https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infusion_Extraction_Device ). Slotting a bunch of +1s you have lying around and then removing them later is probably not worth your time, but just using a bunch of +5 or +6 AR infusions while you get started isn't a bad idea.

(Infusion upgrading is geometric, and this is reflected in the TP price and the vendor prices. You can buy about 9x +6 for the cost of a single +9. The trading golem will sell you a single +9 infusion for 256x +1s and a gold fee about equal to the Reagents fee for upgrading them.)

You should approach it like you would approach eating an elephant. One bite at a time.

Its not a race take your time and enjoy the little things learn your class, the UI, navigation, find a guild that has your interests in mind. I suggest starting by playing through the whole story in order.

I'll second that the skyscale is not that big of a grind. I'm a pretty casual player, so I'm not saying that from a place of being a full-time-job kind of player.

And don't let the "millions of experience" for masteries fool you. They level pretty fast as long as you are playing the game. Meta events level you really quickly.

@"Pii.8574" said:Thanks all for the answers.

Just FYI, I am NOT new to the game and I love MMOs. I already played GW2 for over 1000 hours so I guess that's where my frustration is coming from. I'm running around with a self-crafted Twilight, posing with the GWAMM-title (7000 hours in GW1) and I'm sitting on 2'513 Spirit Shards which are pretty much useless now - but apparently I lack the experience to craft Legendaries again because things like mastery points didn't even exist back then. So I have to grind literally millions of experience points just to be able to craft legendaries again even though I already crafted Twilight (just as an example).

Anyway, for now I'll start by rotating between low tier fractals first as I think getting ascended gear & agony infusions is the most important part. It will help me through most parts of the game (higher stats gear than exotics and additional infusion slots) and since Skyscale/Griffon clearly seem to be unnecessary, I won't waste any time on those for now. I'll look into the ascended gear for Laurels aswell because currently I only very few Infusion slots on my gear so that really won't get me far.

There are only 4 (out of 37) Legendary Weapons that require the Legendary Crafting Mastery.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_weapon

What's the hurry? What is it that you want to do? What is "end game"? Look at that content ahead of you! Amazing! You have years worth of fun and adventuring.

Isn't there a saying, "it's the journey not the destination".

(Like most things in life, perspective is king.)