which currencies should I work on?

New player, just unlocked my mounts and key masteries. Now I want to gear up but I'm clueless about what currencies I need to go after, and what the he'll is Volatile magic?! How can I gather it?

I have barely scratched Hot (just did enough to unlock gliding) but I want to finish the story on a new character. I've finished the pof and lws4 stories.

Should I buy LWS3? Are the meta events/items worth going after?

And I haven't even started on fractals or raids.. or wvw...it seems there is so much to do that i dont even know what to do next! I haven't started crafting either! arg!

I want ascended armour/weapons but I don't have as much time as I'd like, maybe 2-3 hours a day so I want everything I do to be productive as well as fun.

I am in a guild but I'm unable to stick to their schedule religioost of the time. I may get more involved with them though and take the plunge into discord.. I love this game but I fear I may lose interest if I can't get anything meaningful done soon.

Any advice on specifically what I should do would be much appreciated. also which gathering and qol items do I need?

Thanks and sorry for the sprawling nature of this, I know it's a tricky one to answer! ?

You can gather Volatile Magic from LWS4 gathering nodes, found in LWS4 maps. Volatile Magic is the LWS4 equivalent of the LWS3 Unbound Magic. See also wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Volatile_Magic

If you liked HoT, PoF, and LWS4 so far, then I would recommend buying LWS3. It has some nice maps (Bloodstone Fen and Draconis Mons are my favourites), it adds a lot of story, and you can get a bunch of unique items.

Before you think of doing fractals or raids I would recommend doing dungeons, especially Ascalonian Catacombs, Caudecus' Manor, and Twilight Arbor. If you want to WvW you should ask for advice on the WvW forum, if you are lucky they will say something other than "don't play ranger pls" or "just follow tag for ppt lol".

Why do you want ascended armour/weapons? Do you have full exotic yet? If not, I would recommend running dungeons and using the dungeon currency to buy exotic armour and weapons from the dungeon vendor.

You don't -need- any gathering and QoL items. If you want to buy something, I would say to buy bank tab expansions, and if you have a shared inventory slot (or just use one character) then you could consider the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic (read https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Copper-Fed_Salvage-o-Matic).

@"sakura.7961" said:You can gather Volatile Magic from LWS4 gathering nodes, found in LWS4 maps. Volatile Magic is the LWS4 equivalent of the LWS3 Unbound Magic. See also wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Volatile_Magic

If you liked HoT, PoF, and LWS4 so far, then I would recommend buying LWS3. It has some nice maps (Bloodstone Fen and Draconis Mons are my favourites), it adds a lot of story, and you can get a bunch of unique items.

Before you think of doing fractals or raids I would recommend doing dungeons, especially Ascalonian Catacombs, Caudecus' Manor, and Twilight Arbor. If you want to WvW you should ask for advice on the WvW forum, if you are lucky they will say something other than "don't play ranger pls" or "just follow tag for ppt lol".

Why do you want ascended armour/weapons? Do you have full exotic yet? If not, I would recommend running dungeons and using the dungeon currency to buy exotic armour and weapons from the dungeon vendor.

You don't -need- any gathering and QoL items. If you want to buy something, I would say to buy bank tab expansions, and if you have a shared inventory slot (or just use one character) then you could consider the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic (read https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Copper-Fed_Salvage-o-Matic).

Thank you for a great reply! this is really helpful. Yeah I do have full exotics but I'd like ascended for the ability to switch sats accordingly and use it on future characters. Is that a good idea or not worthwhile? also becaise i like my characters to look flashy ?

I'll defo grab lws3 as you suggest ?

Having ascended will not give you the ability to swap stats at will, that is legendary. You can stat-swap ascended gear but it will cost some gold. But indeed ascended is not soulbound, only accountbound. If you want to do fractals and raids then it will eventually be necessary to get ascended gear, but for other content it is not necessary.

To look flashy you can just use transmutation charges on your current equipment (unless you mean that you like the ascended gear skins).