Haven't played in 6 years - catch me up

Hey folks,I've been out of the game for about 6 odd years after some serious burn out - I used to play a bit of WvW and was marginally well known on these forums before they appear to have been updated!Can anyone give me a brief summary of whats changed in the last 6 years, other than all my old anet friends leaving!Thank folks :)

Here you go read up mate.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Updates

@"Rob.7624" said:Hey folks,I've been out of the game for about 6 odd years after some serious burn out - I used to play a bit of WvW and was marginally well known on these forums before they appear to have been updated!Can anyone give me a brief summary of whats changed in the last 6 years, other than all my old anet friends leaving!Thank folks :)

Warm welcome back to Gw2 :-)

My advice to such requests for returning players is simplest to jump in game, join an active friendly guild or even better still a few guilds advertising they do combination of Fractals/Raids/WvW/Open World Meta's etc. don't be afraid to jump on discord or teamspeak, ask questions: The vast majority of players I find in a helpful guild will be more than happy to help and answer questions: You'll soon pick up on stuff. Then it's really upto you want you want to do: i) Catch up on storyline & achievements, ii) Catch up on Masteries, iii) Participate in Open World Pve, iii) Raids, iv) Fractals, v) WvW, sPvP, vi) Choose a nice Legendary or Collection you would like and go for it, vii) Unlock mounts etc. etc. Also best thing about Gw2 imo is horizontal progression so am sure you can just jump into competitive game-modes sPvP, WvW with items you have and compete with the best of them if that's your cup of tea. Enjoy coming back to play :-)

Now we have mounts.... And we can fly also...

6 years is a lot to summarise. The whole game has changed in that time. I'll throw some bits out and add as I remember

• 2 expansions - Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire
• 3 Living Story Seasons
• 7 raid wings
• New fractals
• Guild halls, guild missions, guild decorations
• 1 new class (Revenant)
• 2 new versions of every class (elite specs)
• 8 mounts, 2 of which fly
• Gliding (alongside new rep-like skills called masteries)
• A new WvW borderlands
• Build templates
• Nearly 25 new maps since Heart of Thorns
• A new set of legendary weapons, backpacks, jewelleries
• 500 cooking and a new crafting profession - Scribe
• At least one new festival (new Dragon Bash) and the rest brought back or slightly revamped
• Capes

Also this forum isn't the one that was used when you last played, the old one got retired and archived around 2017. You can still look it up but its in read only mode.

Here's an easy way to see all the additions to the game: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/

You can just skim or go in-depth.

Welcome return.

@Randulf.7614 said:6 years is a lot to summarise. The whole game has changed in that time. I'll throw some bits out and add as I remember

• 2 expansions - Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire
• 3 Living Story Seasons
• 7 raid wings
• New fractals
• Guild halls, guild missions, guild decorations
• 1 new class (Revenant)
• 2 new versions of every class (elite specs)
• 8 mounts, 2 of which fly
• Gliding (alongside new rep-like skills called masteries)
• A new WvW borderlands
• Build templates
• Nearly 25 new maps since Heart of Thorns
• A new set of legendary weapons, backpacks, jewelleries
• 500 cooking and a new crafting profession - Scribe
• At least one new festival (new Dragon Bash) and the rest brought back or slightly revamped
• Capes

Thanks to all but this is the best.Going to work on a mount which I think probably means buying something with cash, knowing NCsoft.Two new versions of every class is weird though and I think the mastery system looks pretty complicated. Probably enough for me to jump back into as I've never touched the expansions.

Thanks again!

@Rob.7624 said:Going to work on a mount which I think probably means buying something with cash, knowing NCsoft.

Yes, you need PoF expansion :)

@Rob.7624 said:Two new versions of every class is weird though

They are so called "elite specializations". You can slot three trait lines for a class. In addition to core trait lines, there are now two "elite specializations" from HoT and PoF. You can either slot HoT or PoF elite spec (with two core lines), not both at the same time, or you can go without one (three core lines).

@Rob.7624 said:and I think the mastery system looks pretty complicated. Probably enough for me to jump back into as I've never touched the expansions.

Well, the basics are simple. You collect mastery points which you get from wide variety of sources. You use them to unlock additional abilities. What complicates this is that masteries are organized in regions (core, HoT, PoF, Icebrood Saga), and to unlock them you need mastery points (and XP) from those certain regions: that is, you can't get mastery points & XP for HoT masteries from core maps. They are sort of like map currencies.

@Rob.7624 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:6 years is a lot to summarise. The whole game has changed in that time. I'll throw some bits out and add as I remember

• 2 expansions - Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire
• 3 Living Story Seasons
• 7 raid wings
• New fractals
• Guild halls, guild missions, guild decorations
• 1 new class (Revenant)
• 2 new versions of every class (elite specs)
• 8 mounts, 2 of which fly
• Gliding (alongside new rep-like skills called masteries)
• A new WvW borderlands
• Build templates
• Nearly 25 new maps since Heart of Thorns
• A new set of legendary weapons, backpacks, jewelleries
• 500 cooking and a new crafting profession - Scribe
• At least one new festival (new Dragon Bash) and the rest brought back or slightly revamped
• Capes

The mounts do not require any real world money (beyond buying the expac or assocaited story season). Mount skins however do. Some of the more prestige mounts require a lot of gold and at least two require time and effort and access to Living Story Season 4Your first mount - the raptor - will require starting the second expansion as you get it as part of the story

The eliet specs sound weird prob from my basic description. You are given a new traitline to select from and as you accumulate skill points to unlock it, you end up with a way to play the class which is different. FOr example the Deadeye allows the thief to equip a rifle and utilise new sniper skills. The Berserker equips the Warrior with a torch and access to intense burning skills. The Druid gives the ranger access to a staff and a variety of healing skills. And so forth. They keep some aspects of the core class, but change their playstyle accordingly

The mastery system isn't too complicated although throws people at first. The wiki is prob a better guide if you get stuck

Actually, nothing really requires real money in this game. But they save lots of time.You can buy gems with gold from the game if you're very active. Those gems will buy you everything you need, think you need and never thought you'll ever need.But using real money may save you a year or two.

@Lucio.4190 said:Actually, nothing really requires real money in this game. But they save lots of time.You can buy gems with gold from the game if you're very active. Those gems will buy you everything you need, think you need and never thought you'll ever need.But using real money may save you a year or two.

The expansions do, no way to buy with ingame gold.

@Linken.6345 said:

@Lucio.4190 said:Actually, nothing really requires real money in this game. But they save lots of time.You can buy gems with gold from the game if you're very active. Those gems will buy you everything you need, think you need and never thought you'll ever need.But using real money may save you a year or two.

True! Forgot about that. Thanks for correcting me.