Is finishing LW stories that important?

Im very new to the game and there’s so much more i want to learn and i just wanted to know if finishing the stories is important. Cause its kinda expensive to buy all the chapters. And i refuse to spend actual money aside from buying the full account. Thank you in advance.

I haven't purchased the LW stories yet, but as far as I'm aware there is content gated behind them like maps, new currencies, armour/weapon skins, etc. I'm completely unaware as to if you actually have to do the story or simply own it to access this content, though....I would purchase LW to access the maps, but I personally don't like doing story mode.

@"Pacificterror.7805" said:I haven't purchased the LW stories yet, but as far as I'm aware there is content gated behind them like maps, new currencies, armour/weapon skins, etc. I'm completely unaware as to if you actually have to do the story or simply own it to access this content, though....I would purchase LW to access the maps, but I personally don't like doing story mode.

Well once you own it, you can use teleport to friend if you can get a guildie or just lfg on said tabs for the maps to get into them.Would advice doing story since it unlocks achievements that make it easier to get the meta skins unless you wanna do wvw or spvp tracks.EditTo the OP if you dont like the story and dont care about the maps there is no reason to buy the living stories.Some unlock more mounts tho.Whole season 4 to access skyscalehttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/SkyscaleS4E03 to access roller beetle.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Roller_Beetle

@"Catti.6927" said:Im very new to the game and there’s so much more i want to learn and i just wanted to know if finishing the stories is important. Cause its kinda expensive to buy all the chapters. And i refuse to spend actual money aside from buying the full account. Thank you in advance.

Just a little breakdown on what comes with each purchase:

Season 2 - Aside from the story episodes themselves, this season doesn't offer much. I believe there's a recolored armor set and I think some ascended amulets to unlock via achievements. If the story is not a particular draw for you, this would be the DLC to pass on, in my opinion.

Seasons 3 & 4 - Every episode in these seasons has an associated open world map. There are quite a few unique armor and weapon skins to unlock. These seasons also offer the ability to purchase the full array of stat-selectable ascended trinkets in exchange for map currencies (no gold needed!). In addition, there are masteries and other skills to unlock as well as a variety of minis, recipes, novelties, and achievements. Finally, season 4 offers access to two mounts: the roller beetle and the skyscale! In my opinion, if you are into PvE and plan to play this game long-term, these episodes are easily worth the purchase price in gold or cash.

Icebrood Saga - This one brings a little less to the table than season 3 &4. The first episode (prologue) has an associated map and the usual variety of rewards. The next 4 releases occurred on two new maps, divided into two parts each.

The final "episode" is series of mini-releases called "Champions". These introduced a new type of content known as "Dragon Response Missions", which are short instances that play more like open world events than fractals or dungeons, but also feature challenge modes which are on the level of upper tier fractal normal modes.

The rewards got a lot less interesting at this point, with mostly weapon skins on offer. Worse, most of them are just reskins of each other and the collections seem obnoxiously expensive to complete. However, there is an infusion and some new masteries to unlock.

@Linken.6345 said:Well once you own it, you can use teleport to friend if you can get a guildie or just lfg on said tabs for the maps to get into them.Would advice doing story since it unlocks achievements that make it easier to get the meta skins unless you wanna do wvw or spvp tracks.

Good to know...I'll have to purchase them and have a guildie help me out with unlocking waypoints. Good tip.

@Pacificterror.7805 said:

@"Linken.6345" said:Well once you own it, you can use teleport to friend if you can get a guildie or just lfg on said tabs for the maps to get into them.Would advice doing story since it unlocks achievements that make it easier to get the meta skins unless you wanna do wvw or spvp tracks.

Once your 1st char got access to the maps you can buy a teleport scroll to the map per map (and store them into a Tome per season) and use it to get your other chars to the map.

• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Map_navigation#Teleportation_devices
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Season_3_Portal_Tome
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Season_4_Portal_Tome
• https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Icebrood_Saga_Portal_Tome

Don't forget you can convert gold into gems to buy the living story (and other gem store items) if you want to. Each episode is 200 gems, or you can get a slight discount (20% I think) for buying a whole season together and those packs sometimes go on sale so they're discounted further.

You don't need to play any of them unless you want to see the entire story, but you might find you want some because of the maps and the rewards available. If you want to find out exactly what each episode includes you can look them up on the Wiki, the episodes page will list all the stuff which comes with it, with links to the individual pages so you can check if you actually need to own the episode or if there's an alternative way to get it.

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"Catti.6927" said:Im very new to the game and there’s so much more i want to learn and i just wanted to know if finishing the stories is important. Cause its kinda expensive to buy all the chapters. And i refuse to spend actual money aside from buying the full account. Thank you in advance.

That's a good summary. Season 2 offers the Carapace armour and the glowing upgraded version Luminescent armour. I think you can get most of the carapace set as drops from the meta-event bosses in Silverwastes without having the story unlocked but you can't get luminescent armour without the story. There's other bits and pieces too of course. I think the most interesting one for a lot of people is Mawdrey II which turns bloodstone dust into random loot.

Thank you everyone :D

if you is just curious about history u can watch videos, or read dialogues on wiki page.

@AliamRationem.5172 summarises it well.A few things to add:My general recommendation is to first finish your Personal Story with one character, unlock basic gliding in HoT and raptor mount in PoF. Then decide what to do.Harcore story fan? Start with Season 2 if you can afford it. It also gives you precious Central Tyria mastery points.You dream of the fabled skyscale mount? The whole of LS 4 then. IMHO, it is the most fun content the game has offered to date.You want crafting material and gold? The Icebrood Saga's episodes 3 and 4 take place in Drizzlewood Coast. For better or for worse, this is arguably The Map for that.You want a challenge? I found Season 3 to be the most brutal in the game. (Or I am just a really bad warrior player.)LW comes on sale a few times a year. If it is not on sale, I would only buy one episode at a time, when you are ready to play it.

I bought all of them when on sale last month. I pick a them but soon get bored as they all seem to follow the same format. The actual story part is okay and opens up a understanding of the game world as to why things are where they are and how they got there. What I don't like about the story's are the compulsory boss fights that basically leave you alone to fight a very time consuming and pointless boss.