Ok......i'm totally confused! Help! (please)

Ok, new player here and pretty much totally confused! what I'd like to know is how do i get access to ALL the content GW2 offers? Specifically, ATM, I seem to need season 2. Now I see I can buy it in the gem store, but will I get it if I upgrade to HoF and PoF? Again, is there a simple way to just purchase all the game has to offer at once? Or, are sepatate purchases required? Yep....I'm lost here folks! I'd love ALL the game has to offer as I'm really enjoying it! I guess I'm confused between seasons and xpacs?

The living world episodes are free of charge IF you log in while they get released. Unfortunately you will have to pay for all the ones you missed (maximum 200 gems per episode).

HoT and PoF simply unlock access but not the episodes. Meaning in order to play Living World Season 3, you need to have HoT. In order to be able to play Living World Season 4, you will need PoF.

Old Seasons are often discounted as a full set with usually 20% off or more.

As is, this is what you can get or need:

• Core GW2 (included in any HoT or PoF purchase)
• Living World Season 2 - 8 episodes total, needs separate purchase with gems
• HoT - expansion 1
• Living World Season 3 - 6 episode total, needs separate purchase with gems
• PoF - expansion 2
• Living World Season 4 - 4 episodes with the 5th getting released next tuesday, needs separate purchase with gems (you will have episode 4 unlocked for free)

EDIT: definitely. The story alone will take you 50-60 hours to complete if not longer.

Living seasons are separate purchases from expansions. However, you can unlock episode for free while it's the newest one by just logging in.

I believe that you can also bundle expansions with LS on the website (it's probably better to look for official retailers if expansions are on sale and maybe buy ultimate version of PoF to get gems for LS, or separately buy gems and standard versions of expacs).

Dlgamer is usually the best choice for sales, but it's recently been 50% off on amazon, it might still be.

Thank you folks so much! Not the answer I was hoping for......but a great answer none the less! Perhaps i can skip the seasons and just get HoF and PoF for access to the zones?

It is called HoT

ooops! apologies! Warned ya i was brand new!

@KyleJudd.6824 said:Thank you folks so much! Not the answer I was hoping for......but a great answer none the less! Perhaps i can skip the seasons and just get HoF and PoF for access to the zones?

No doesn't work.

If you want to play Living World Season 3 for example, you need:

• Heart of Thorns expansion to be legible to play Season 3 (which plays chronologically after the HoT story)
• purchased the episodes of Living World Season 3 you want to play (or gotten them unlocked in the 2-3 month release period when they were added)

You can skip the Living World Content and just play the main campaigns (core, HoT, PoF), though you will have to use out of game resources to get caught up on story in-between (like youtube or the wiki).

Thank You!

You should check whether you can buy the LW seasons at the official store website (when you're logged in), then you could place all missing content in your shopping cart at once, if you want more convenience.

@Cyninja.2954 said:You can skip the Living World Content and just play the main campaigns (core, HoT, PoF), though you will have to use out of game resources to get caught up on story in-between (like youtube or the wiki).

I would recommend playing it. Not just for the story content but also for the valuable resources the LW seasons (3 and 4 in particular) have to offer, like easy access to ascended trinkets and other stuff.

Thank You Ash.......! I must comment......Tho new to GW2, I am a die hard MMO'er........Basically I've played most all of em, starting in 1999 with a 5 year run in EQ1. The community here seems so much more FRIENDLY and helpful. I REALLY must tip my ancient hat to you folks. It's absolutely refreshing to be allowed to join you folks! Just thank you all for trying to get this ancient gamer off to a proper start!

You need to buy each expansion and each living world episode separately. Unfortunately this is getting more and more expensive for new players who need to catch up, I think it would be nice if the episodes became free after 1 year or something.

Former Eq1 player here and Eq2. You've picked the right game. It's still the best MMO out there.I'd recommend you get living story season 3, episode 3 for Wintberry farming and perhaps Living story season 4, episode 1 for Domain of Istan farming. Although I don't farm Domain of Istan myself, it's good for new players not only to get POF mastery experience, but also gold.

Thx Mush.......just bought LS 2 and 3........4 and 5 not being offered to me? Could that mean I have them already? AND......is there any way to check and see what I might need? I checked my acct pace and all that shows me is the two xpacs which I have.......After only a few says I find myself wondering WHAT I would do without you folks.....Just saying! Also tending to agree......this is a damn nice world to be traveling in.......Gonna cheat and ask another question.......What site(s) you folks recommend for the best and most current info? I confess again, tho I'm really enjoying myself, I'm totally confused on what I should be focusing on for progression. Any tips GRATEFULLY accepted. Specially so on current info sites!

5 havent started yet and if you have played when season 4 ep was released you unlocked them already.

A few sites which should/could be helpful at timesThere surely are more, but that are the ones that i useGeneral Infohttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_PageGuideshttp://dulfy.net/category/gw2/Crafting Guidehttp://gw2crafts.net/index.htmlUpdate notes (in this forum but somehow some people don't know about it)https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/categories/game-release-notesBuildshttps://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wikihttps://discretize.eu/buildshttps://snowcrows.com/raids/Build Editor (nice for (some kind of) theorycrafting, saving builds (outside of gw2), or simply beeing able to link them on e.g. the forum)http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

I think if you look at your story journal in the Hero panel, it should show which Season 4 episodes are already unlocked for you.

Dang folks.......you REALLY are the best community EVER......Why was I not playing here much sooner??? IGNORANCE! One more question and I'll TRY and leave you folks alone for a bit.......Gathering tools and Salvage tools......Best to go cheaper or get ones that grab bonuses? There seems to be a fairly large selection. Do I want the unbreakable for pure convenience or ones that give me a better shot at upgrades? I am a HEAVY crafter...........Same on salvage kits please? What you experts all using??? At the risk of being extremely redundant......THANK YOU ALL for taking the time to HELP!

Ok.....I lied....I have one more important question for you ubers........Best way to start leveling a guild? I seem to be seeing that I can only do those races???? I'll shut up now.......I REALLY will try to!

@"KyleJudd.6824" said:Dang folks.......you REALLY are the best community EVER......Why was I not playing here much sooner??? IGNORANCE! One more question and I'll TRY and leave you folks alone for a bit.......Gathering tools and Salvage tools......Best to go cheaper or get ones that grab bonuses? There seems to be a fairly large selection. Do I want the unbreakable for pure convenience or ones that give me a better shot at upgrades?

Gathering tools fall in the category of convenience you can pay for. Some people enjoy permanent gathering tools on their "main" character (I do), some keep 1 set of gathering tools in 3 shared inventory slots and exchange them on characters they play (super annoying when you forget on whom you left them). The one common theme: they will not pay for them selves in a loooooong time.

This counts double for gathering tools with unique bonuses (Unbound or Volatile Magic or other extra rewards). These will be more expensive, but will accumulate resource over time which will lead to potentially less grind. Nothing game breaking though since all these resources can be farmed quite easily (Istan farm for Volatile Magic, Winterberry Forest farm for Unbound Magic).

Then there is karma versions of gathering tools which work similar to the permanent ones. Well worth getting if you plan on using Unbound or Volatile Magic in the near future.

@"KyleJudd.6824" said:I am a HEAVY crafter...........Same on salvage kits please? What you experts all using??? At the risk of being extremely redundant......THANK YOU ALL for taking the time to HELP!

There was a new Runecrafter's Salvage-O-Matic added just now, so evaluation on this one is ongoing, but it seems it is a very slight upgrade over the Silver-Fed at current prices. You can see all available Salvage Kits here and their respective costs: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Salvage_kit

Rule of thumb: none of the Salvage Kits will ever pay for themselves or will take years. Basically a convenience items.

I'm still using a Copper-Fed in a shared inventory slot for everything Masterwork (green) or below (Runecrafter's is superior is seems for Masterwork items with runes/sigils) and a Silver-Fed for rare 68+ (yellow) items and low value exotic items. Black Lion Salvage Kits on high value exotic items with valuable runes.

@KyleJudd.6824 said:Ok.....I lied....I have one more important question for you ubers........Best way to start leveling a guild? I seem to be seeing that I can only do those races???? I'll shut up now.......I REALLY will try to!

Leveling a guild solo is near impossible and or will take ages. Most guild missions require multiple people. You can get a personal guild up a few ranks by doing easy races, treks or bounties. The cost and workload does increase down the road though. Nothing wrong with having a personal guild for stash and space, but eventually you will have to join a bigger guild for advanced services or invest a LOT of time and gold into yours.

Thank You Cyn......Exactly the info I was looking for!