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Returning player - finish vanilla before buying expansion?


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I'm a returning player; bought the game on launch before it went free-to-play. I've always been on the fence about the game, I usually quit because I get bored while leveling. Do you think buying an expansion while greatly improve my leveling experience? Can I get a mount or glider right away, will that make exploring leveling zones more fun? Or is it not worth investing the money until I've finished leveling to decide whether it's worth getting the expansion?

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Well.. for gliding, that requires you to have the Heart of Thorns expansion. You also have to play through to a certain part of the first Act of HoT to even get Basic Gliding. Mounts, on the other hand, require you to have the Path of Fire expansion. Your first mount is essentially free, but you have to fully train and trait its third mastery before you can get the next two mounts. If you just stay with the core game, you can't use a glider or a mount.

To be honest, only you know for sure if you'll stick with the game through one of the two expansions to either get a glider or a mount. Both require you to be level 80, but all masteries are account-wide. Once one character unlocks a mastery, it's unlocked for your other characters too.

I could recommend that you stick with GW2 until the cows come home but I can't put in the work for you to get the "cool stuff". That's a decision that rests upon you. There's still plenty of things to do in the core game.

I'd say for you to get to level 80 first, but be mindful of the decision ahead of you along the way. That's about the best advice that I can give to you.

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The big picture is exactly as @DebraKadabra.5278 said; you have to decide how you want to proceed. It does sound like leveling was a hurdle for you. Buying PoF gets you a level 80 boost, which will at least give you one lvl 80 decked out in Exotic gear. You can create a character, boost, test it out and decide whether you want to stick with it or not. I'm not sure if the HoT standard edition that you can tack onto your PoF purchase (web-purchase route) will give you another level 80 boost or not.

Since you already have an account, play-testing professions and determining whether you like any of the changes since you last played are essentially free. I'd start there. Getting the boosts to lvl 80 and having access to gliding and mounts makes a big difference in what content you'll likely focus on and how you'll get around. The elite specializations available to HoT and PoF are another factor for character progression. These are things you should look into and plan for before committing to one expansion or the other (or both).

EDIT: I should add, specific to your thread title... I would finish the core storyline to better understand my profession. You don't need the expansions for this, and you own the core game. The other side of the argument is that having gliding or mounts will make certain open map portions easier. I have no idea if you like to complete stories and whether the Living World chapters would be valuable to you. There's a lot to consider in Season 2 and Season 3 of the Living Story, and they're an additional cost (purchased via Gems in-game, watch for packages/sales).

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i think you got most of your questions answered above. we can't tell you to buy either the expac if you don't feel any enjoyment playing the core game.i maxed out my first character in like a few days of playing. then i couldn't wait any longer, i got HoT right after that. i don't like doing hearts but exploring and going places are neat. and the game is very pleasing to the eyes, the graphics are amazing. not to mention when you pass certain levels, dungeons will be opened to you. they all have a lil back story behind if you happen to play the personal story. you can solo most content in game except for anything with group play, but it maybe boring. so i'd suggest you get with a guild or find some friends you want to play with. it usually makes exploring less of a burden.

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Thanks for all the advice! Yeah I pretty much concluded as much; I just joined a guild that's super friendly. I've been trying to get my friends into this game forever but they're addicted to League of Legends :disappointed: There's a lot I like about the game, I was just told by so many sources that the leveling was the funnest part but I've been unimpressed. Mostly by the combat, there are so many mechanics and skills and combos and I feel that the vast majority of the enemies and encounters you find in open world don't reward you for using any of them; it's mostly just spam your highest DPS AoE abilities. But I've heard leveling doesn't really compare to endgame, enemies are far more challenging there. I do like the story missions as well as some of the dynamic events. I've done a few dungeons but everybody just runs through them as fast as possible so I haven't been able to go through and actually pay attention to the story. So I guess I'll just keep leveling and experiment in finding ways to enjoy it more, and hopefully there will be some early endgame stuff that will actually engage me.

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