Thinking of Coming back......

I am thinking of giving this game another go.... I thought about buying Path of Fire but realized when I logged on I havent even finish Season 1 (I think its called of my personal story)? Do I need to (or should I) finish the story prior to Path of Fire? Since its been so many year should I just start over from level 1?

Nope, you can just jump right to PoF, and start your story there.

Also I think they give you a level 80 booster.. so leveling is not an issue.

Ah good to know....is it hard to gear up and learn to play your class if you boost to 80?

If I was you I'd keep your current character/s but also make a new one (if you have a spare character slot) to play while familiarising yourself with the game. It's simpler and therefore easier to survive at low levels, but also as you're levelling up you get info on various systems that will help you learn about the game (a lot will have changed since you last played and you'll likely have forgotten some things too).

But you don't need to do that, or complete your Personal Story before playing PoF unless you want to. If you're interested in the story then you probably will want to play it in order because it will make more sense that way. The full story is: Personal Story (base game) > Living Story Season 1 > Season 2 > Heart of Thorns > Season 3 > Path of Fire > Season 4. S1 is unavailable to everyone because it was made to be temporary and each release was removed when the next one came along. S2 & 3 can be purchased from the gem store (using gold or real money) if you don't already have them unlocked and of course the HoT and PoF stories are included in the expansions. Only the first Episode of S4 has been released so far and that unlocks automatically when you log in. But if you're not worried about playing it in order you can just do whichever bit/s interest you (or you have unlocked) in any order you like.

As for the level 80 boost - gearing isn't an issue because you'll be given a full set of exotic equipment with defensive stats which is fine for the vast majority of stuff in the game. The top tier is ascended (1 above exotic) but that was designed to be an optional long-term goal. The stats are only slightly better but it's much more expensive and hard to get, so I wouldn't worry about it until you either need it or want to make it for the sake of completion.

Learning to play your profession might well be harder, I know a lot of people feel overwhelmed if they boost their first character or return to the game with a level 80 character after a long break. But without knowing you it's really not possible to say how difficult you'd find it. As I said if I was in your position I'd make a new character first to get used to the game (I often go back to games months or years after I last played them and that's what I always do) but other people are fine jumping onto a level 80 and spending a few minutes looking through their stats and skills.

One option is to use the boost to try it out. If you double check it the character you're on will be temporarily boosted to 80 and taken to The Silverwastes where you can try playing on a level 80 map with all your skills and traits unlocked. You can't use the boost permanently without going through at least 2 more, very clear, confirmation messages so don't worry about that. If you try it out and find it overwhelming I'd hold off on using the boost permanently for a while.

@"rtuba.4958" said:Ah good to know....is it hard to gear up and learn to play your class if you boost to 80?

That depends on your skill/comfort level. If you haven't played in a long time, chances are you will have a lot to learn. That generally translates into some difficulty at first, particularly if you boost straight to level 80 before feeling things out. However, in my opinion that just leaves plenty of room to learn and improve (just be aware that this can also be more frustrating if you aren't very tolerant of "learning" by dying a lot!).

In fact, I'd say it's one of my favorite things about this game. There are a ton of these active defense abilities that are only in play for a moment. Using them thoughtlessly (as players new to a class will do) is ineffective. But once I become familiar with these abilities and practice them a bit, I find I can literally go from dying to trash to dominating champions! That kind of improvement feels very satisfying to me.

This is one of my favorite videos, because a forged raiding party event just happens to encroach on this bounty champion about a minute into the fight. When I first started playing mirage several weeks ago, I would sometimes die just to the raiding party! But at this point I had familiarized myself with the class enough to know how to survive even when things get hectic!

When I returned, I started a new character and played it and personal story til lv35...just to get an idea of everything again.

I would suggest doing that first ..or things could be very frustrating as a boosted lv80.

But you don't need to...you can switch to any story arc you want, in the story journal.

Seems a waste not to use the booster, but my own preference is to start at 1 and work up. You get the content, the story, everything at a pace that feels right and helps you learn your class. Then, use the booster for a second toon, try a diffent class knowing the game.