Advice for a player with limited time

I’m a fairly new GW2 player who has very limited time to play, but very committed to the game. I’m look for some advice on what I should spend my time on.

Right now I’m able to play GW2 for 4 to 6 hours a week, due to work, family and other commitments, and so I’m asking what my realistic expectations are for what I can achieve with my time and some advice on what to skip if it doesn’t help me in experiencing what I would like from the game.

Here are my objectives:

World Completion (including HoT and PoF)Personal Story CompletionLiving World CompletionComplete all Fractals (on their easiest)Complete all Raids (this is more of a stretch goal)

Basically, I want to experience everything PVE has to offer in the game and enjoy all the story. Even if it is only dipping my toes in with fractals, for example.

So here are my questions.

1. Should I obtain World Completion before I move on to HoT and PoF?

To progress story should I finish all original content before moving on or should I complete the Personal Story and then move on to the HoTs story and skip back to map complete gradually so I don’t get bored?

Basically, I would appreciate some advice on how I should plan my journey through GW2.

2. Mounts and Gliding

I currently have gliding. I read how to get it so used a level 80 boost to get a character, ran to the gliding person, obtained it and then haven’t played that toon since.

With mounts, I’m currently getting the War Claw with WvW (and having a blast doing it). I figure this is the best spoiler free way to obtain a mount and I won’t feel so slow when running around.

Note: I’m trying to avoid story spoilers. I did walk into some storyline getting my glider and was called “Commander”. Didn’t realise why this was until I progressed further into Personal story with my main, so I want to avoid that.

3. Gear

I currently have full orange gear level 80. I bought the cheapest sets in trade and just changed their appearance a bit. From my understanding, this is enough, right? To obtain what I want, I don’t needn’t to try for ascended?

4. Could/should I forget about Crafting?

Because my play time is limited I don’t really want to spend it maxing out crafting and sitting in menus and juggling materials etc when I can be exploring the world.

So I guess I’m asking if it would damage my experience to never craft. Could I or should I just forget about it?

5. If I never craft, can I simply sell all my mats?

Is it best to just save materials as I have been doing since I started playing or should I liquidate them into gold? Do I still need them for anything other than crafting?

Also I have other items like warrants to defeat a boss which I have to hand in after completing. I have about 10 of them and completed a couple. Should I try do these? Do they add to story or can I free up bag space?

6. Items from ANet that help

I have bought the various harvesting tools from ANet and the Copper Fed erm... thing? I forgot the name. I also bought the World Boss teleported/timer.

I don’t mind if it is money well spent or could be cheaper in game etc. Simply, I don’t want to waste time in game buying from vendors when I can have unlimited of them and am happy to have items that speed up my experience.

Are there any other items I should consider?

7. Is there anything else in GW2 you would recommend I add to my experience?

Having listed my goals and clearly not knowing everything about the game. Is there anything else you would recommend I try and fit in?

I know that as I experience the game more I will have more revealed to me and gain a richer experience. But I would also love to learn what you love the most and what you want others, like me, to experience.

Thank you!

Welcome to GW2!I think you already have pretty good grasp on the game and more importantly you know what you want, so you I don't think there is anything you can do 'wrong' in general.

1. World completion is not necessary. The only thing it's required for are legendary weapons and those are (super) long term goals, especially if you don't play a lot. If you really like exploration and the little story/lore elements the maps provide, sure go for it, but you can always revisit the maps later as well and forcing yourself to complete everything 'in one go' might indeed burn you out.One of the best aspects of GW2 is that you can always revisit (almost) any content at any time, there is no 'worng' way to play the game - just do what you like most at any moment.The only exceptions to this are the core personal story (for existing characters) and Living world season 1 both of which were done before the current systems that allow revisiting of story instances were in the game.

2. Getting the Warclaw is probably the most spoiler free way of a mount so you'll be fine with that, for the raptor you'd have to play the opening instance of PoF (similar to how you got gliding). Other mounts are even deeper in the PoF maps/story.

3. Exotic (=organge) gear is absolutely fine and sufficient for at least 95% of the game, the more important aspect is actually which stat/attribute combination on your gear you go for (and also don't forget to obtain trinkets/jewelery; those contribute a fair share to your total attributes).The only aspect of the game that absolutely requires ascended gear are higher level fractals. You don't have to worry about that though since playing the lower levels will allow you to gradually acquire some ascended items as needed.

4. You can probably forget abut crafting for the near future. Crafting is only required for: ascended armor and weapons (though you can get lucky and get some from drops), legendary weapons and certain stat/attribute combinations for HoT & PoF. Especially due to that last part I'd advise you to at least keep all the materials your bank storage can hold, in case you ever want to pick up crafting for some of these stats.

5. For the materials see above, if you're short on money selling crafting materials (on the TP) is one of the easiest ways to get gold though (most materials can be worth quite a bit, I'd always try to get as many of them as you can by salvaging or harvesting - independent on how you plan to use them).Personally I'm a hoarder, so I save both materials and various 'quest items' (which are mostly only needed for certain achievements) in case I might ever need them again - my bank space is pretty full ...

6. The Copper-Fed-Salvagomatic is probably the best convenience item you can get in this game. Other good gemstore items are unbreakable harvesting tools (they come in a variety of skins and with possible extra effects), bank tab expansions and potentially additional character bag slots. (Additonal character slots are probably not very interesting for you right now).

7. Have fun and don't worry! There's nothing you can do wrong as long as you're having fun. Do try out all the different things GW2 offers (world bosses, jumping puzzles, WvW, sPvP, activities, fractals/dungeons/raids, meta events, ...) and maybe try to find a nice guild to play with and just see what you like most.

Overall I'd say don't worry about not having a lot of time to play. GW2 is a great game for that - there's very little you have to do to unlock access to content or to be able to complete it and they haven't increased the level cap or added new gear which is required for anything except raids and Fractals since the game came out so you're very unlikely to fall behind as a result of not having enough time to play.

Also all the things on your list can be done a bit at a time, as and when you get around to it. Raids will be the hardest to complete just because they need an organised group and that usually means committing to playing for a few hours at a time on a specific night which might be difficult to manage.

1. Should I obtain World Completion before I move on to HoT and PoF?

If you're starting a new character and not using a level 80 boost you'll need to do some map completion in between story chapters to level up (your personal story is split into chapters which unlock every 10 levels. If you are using a boost, or after you get to level 80 it's really up to you. You don't need to actually complete any of the maps to play the story, but if you talk to the NPCs, particularly the ones related to hearts and events, it can give you extra background information, which does tie into the story.

Finally if you're wanting to complete both it probably is best to break it up a bit. My advice would be to just do whatever you feel like when you log in - if you want to carry on with the story do that, if you'd rather do map completion pick a map and do that instead. That way you're less likely to get burned out on it.

Quick note: the full order for the story goes: Personal Story > Season 1 recap video > Season 2 > Heart of Thorns > Season 3 > Path of Fire > Season 4.

2. Mounts and Gliding

If you want to avoid spoilers you will need to avoid getting the other mounts for now, but you also don't need them for anything until the PoF maps. Everything in the earlier maps can be done without them. The Warclaw is one of the slowest, but still faster than running.

3. Gear I currently have full orange gear level 80. I bought the cheapest sets in trade and just changed their appearance a bit. From my understanding, this is enough, right? To obtain what I want, I don’t needn’t to try for ascended?

You don't need ascended gear for anything except high level Fractals and ideally for raids (although even raids can be done with exotics, it's just harder). So yes you can leave ascended gear for later.

One thing you might need to consider is the stats you have on your equipment. GW2 has a relatively 'flat' gear system - there's very few tiers and the stat difference between exotics and ascended is minimal - but that also means you can't simply out-gear content. Instead what you need is stats which suit your build. For example if you're using skills which cause a lot of conditions (like short bow on a ranger) you'll probably want condition damage as one of your main stats, if you rely more on direct damage then power is more important. If you find yourself dying a lot you might want to get vitality for extra health or toughness for extra armour. Having the wrong stats for your build can be nearly as bad as having low level/tier equipment.

4. Could/should I forget about Crafting? & 5. If I never craft, can I simply sell all my mats?

I grouped these together because they're related. You don't need to worry about crafting for any of the goals you've listed, except maybe raids and Fractals because it is the most reliable and straight-forward way to get ascended equipment. There are also a number of other items (mainly cosmetic) which can only be obtained by crafting so you might at some point find you want to craft something.

The crafting system in this game is fairly easy. It's confusing at first but importantly you can never fail to craft an item, destroy an item you're trying to upgrade or use or lose crafting XP or levels. It's literally just a matter of having the materials and recipes (some recipes unlock automatically when you get to the right crafting level, some are discovered and some are purchased) and going through the steps. It's also relatively quick to level up, so I wouldn't say crafting is something to avoid because you don't have a lot of time to play, it's not a huge commitment like it can be in other games.

My advice is to keep your materials for now. You can use the inventory menu to deposit them into the material storage section of your bank from anywhere in the world, and those slots hold 250 of each material (and can't be used for anything else) so there's no downside to keeping them. If you do decide to level crafting you'll have them there to use and if not you can sell them. Or both (if I need extra gold I tend to sell off materials I rarely use or have a lot of, but I always keep a bit for crafting).

6. Items from ANet that help

You'll definitely want to buy the Living Story Seasons if you haven't already since they continue the story from the main game and the expansions. It's cheaper to buy a full season together from the Upgrades tab of the gem store, but you can also buy individual episodes for 200 gems each in the story journal.

You might also want some extra bank tabs and maybe character slots, but you can get those as and when you need them (or when they go on sale). One of the nice things about this game is although the cash shop has things which can be useful there's very little you need to play, so it's really up to you what you choose to buy.

I wouldn't bother with world completion prior to HoT and PoF.

You can always grab world completion gradually as you do other stuff. For instance, when doing my three dailies each day I log in, I try to combine the gathering/mining/lumberer dailies with unfinished map-completion. Like when it says "Shiverpeaks lumberer" I pick a Shiverpeaks map I haven't completed and go there to hunt for lumber while downing some hearts or vistas at the same time. This gets me closer to map completion a little at a time without burning out on it.

Of course, if you just find map completion fun... then knock yourself out and go for it.