What is the best way to understand the story?

So I'm playing a Human Guardian (got to level 80 yesterday!) but there are many things that I don't understand. Who is this guy, who is that guy, why are we attacking this, why they are attacking us?Do I need to level every race and finish the story quests to understand the whole world's happenings? Is there a written stoy post somewhere, or books etc? What would be the best way for a new player to learn about the Story? :smile:

Thanks.

Most of the "why are we attacking this, why are they attacking us" is detailed in the story chapter you're in; as for who's who, in the later personal story (particularly from level 60 onward), there's a lot of NPCs from various earlier storylines showing up, so knowing who everyone is would need going through all 15 early storylines, but they should introduce everyone in their first appearance of that chapter anyways.

If you have specific cases you'd like clarification on, feel free to answer, but the "bare minimum" should always be provided in terms of the story instances with one notable exception: the gap between the personal story and Season 2 caused by Season 1's temporary nature. And all storylines are linear with the same characters returning - so if you suddenly hop into, say, Heart of Thorns, you're missing the entire buildup caused by Season 2, and some characters met during the personal story or Season 2 or Season 1 are not reintroduced if they're frequently showing.

Without knowing where you're getting lost, it's hard to say what the cause is though.

I will add that there are bits of lore in every racial stories (before joining an order), some npcs that appear afterwards out of the blue are usually introduced first in some race's initial instance.

However, it's not necessary to play every race (thrice, due to branching paths) to understand the story. Some characters may not have a more fleshed out background, but they will suffice as eventually your army is that: a collection of people with a common goal.

Those who pay attention to detail will be able to figure out the many subtle references to GW1, as well recurring characters that appear on different bits of the personal stories.

Up until the end of HoT, I think sylvari characters have the best approach to the story.Still, the best way to learn about the story is to play it. :) Levelling several characters of different races helps understand the different story threads that finally lead to the same path. Or you could just go to YouTube and look for WoodenPotatoes' recent playthrough of the core story. He makes quite an effort to combine all the important plot points and characters.

@Fenella.2634 said:Up until the end of HoT, I think sylvari characters have the best approach to the story.

Up to HoT is definitely more flavored for sylvari characters for sure. Season 3 onward feels more geared towards human players so far though.

Personally, I've found the following to be the best playthrough options per race:

1. Sylvari, Green Huntsman, Act with Wisdom, Priory, Quaggan, Invade with Vigil.
2. Asura, Statics, VAL-A Golem, Order of Whispers, Quaggan or Hylek, Invade with Whispers
3. Charr, Iron Legion, Gladium, Priory, Ogre, Invade with Priory
4. Human, Noble, Dead Sister, Order of Whispers, -race irrelevant-, Invade with Vigil / Whispers
5. Norn, Defeat Ancient Foe, Lost Heirloom, Vigil, Quaggan or Ogre, Invade with Priory

This maximizes returning NPCs for each race. Other, smaller, choices can further the experience even more though (like humans devoting to one of two specific gods for 1 or 2 unique lines in PoF) - and there are, of course, alternatives.

There are also 3 books

Edge of Destiny which sets up GW2 and some of the biggest NPCs. Theres some decent Dragon lore as well. The dungeons link in to this as to some aspects of the personal story. Later on when you get to Path of Fire and Season 4, there are some strong nods back to this books events. It is basically a partial prequel to the game.

Ghosts of Ascalon which details what has happened in the Charr lands and why there are ghosts around.

Sea of Sorrows. Details the Rise of Zhaitan, the Risen and the evolution of Lions Arch after the events of GW1 leading up to how it was prior to GW2.

Once you have done the Personal Story, the game is as follows

• Season 1 (no longer available)
• Season 2 download
• Heart of Thorns expansion
• Season 3 download
• Path of Fire expansion
• Season 4 download
• Season 5 (coming soon)

@Tyrick.9805 said:So I'm playing a Human Guardian (got to level 80 yesterday!) but there are many things that I don't understand. Who is this guy, who is that guy, why are we attacking this, why they are attacking us?Do I need to level every race and finish the story quests to understand the whole world's happenings? Is there a written stoy post somewhere, or books etc? What would be the best way for a new player to learn about the Story? :smile:

Thanks.

well, if you do the story and the heart quests, you'll learn sooner or later what happens. especially the events and dungeons. :)

There is a very helpful YouTube series that delves into the entire personal story and thoroughly explains it.

Why would you even need to know every minor character that shows up in the story? As long as you know the major ones, you're good to go.

The Destiny's Edge characters each mention they were once in a Guild together at some point in the personal story but yes, Each race does have different beginnings which involved you getting to know a specific member of this disbanded Guild.

The story of Destiny's Edge however is not directly part of the Personal Story but it's does eventually tie into it at at the end and they become a part of the story going into living world and expansion content.

Unfortunately Anet made a mess of Destiny's Edge story in Gw2 as their story is told through the Story mode Dungeon content.The first of this Story content becomes available at level 30 with Ascalon Catacombs and you get mail introducing you to it when you hit level 30.Likewise you'll also get mail directing you to Caudecus Manor at level 40.

The problem with this is that both of these Dungeon Stories take place after a level 40 personal story instance in Lions Arch where you meet all the members of Destiny's Edge..If you're not keenly aware of what's going on and you play the dungeons when they become available or you skip the dungeon content entirely it's very easy to end up confused and wondering who these characters are, what their problems are and why they're important.

In your case as a first time human reaching level 30 getting mail and heading off to Ascalon Catacombs.. you're not going to have a clue who Rytlock and Eir are or why you were summoned to help them.Likewise when you meet them in the level 40 story instance it's like they've never seen you before and you'll be wondering what Eir's talking about when she says she has a plan to fix some of the conflict between her friends.. which is literally the setup for the Ascalon Catacombs story.

I strongly advise against doing the Dungeon storys until you've completed this level 40 personal story instance, after that run them in order from lowest level to highest to get the full story in continuity.When you finally get to the last Dungeon Arah, the Dungeon story's and the Personal Story will merge together so make sure you've completed all the previous dungeon stories before doing this one otherwise you'll be wondering what the hell happened between these guys and why are they even here lol.

Unfortunately the absense of Living World 1 leaves a big gap in the story between the end of the Personal Story and Living world Season 2.There is nothing you can do about this besides watching a detailed step by step walkthrough of Living world 1 on youtube(I recommend this one but it's over 3 hours long so keep that in mind)

Without experiencing season 1 or watching a video like that you will jump straight into season 2 wondering again who all these new characters are and where they came from not to mention being completely lost as to why you're doing what you're doing and wondering who the hell some of the characters are that are being talked about.The game will direct you to a living world season 1 recap video in game after the personal story but it's very short and it leaves out a lot of information etc.

@Yannir.4132 said:Why would you even need to know every minor character that shows up in the story? As long as you know the major ones, you're good to go.

I'm not talking about every minor character. I'm just interested in everyone's background story.But obviously I weren't talking about random NPC's...

@Teratus.2859 said:The Destiny's Edge characters each mention they were once in a Guild together at some point in the personal story but yes, Each race does have different beginnings which involved you getting to know a specific member of this disbanded Gu.... < snip >

This looks awesome!And yes, I never finished any dungeon, I'm level 80 and I'm really curious about Rytlok's story. I know why he became what he is now, but I'm just curious about everything. That character is really interesting and his voice acting is really good in my opinion.Thank you for that video!

Also my SO wants to surprise me with a GW2 book, I don't know if they are any good, but I can't wait. :lol:

@Tyrick.9805 said:Also my SO wants to surprise me with a GW2 book, I don't know if they are any good, but I can't wait. :lol:

Np, I havent read the books myself but I've heard good things about them ^^One of them is about Destiny's Edge and details the events that lead them to breaking up, I plan on reading it myself one day but it takes me a long time to get around to reading books lolI'm not much of a reader :P

Watching that makes me want to play season 1. I wish I did it when i had the chance

the events were rly cooltoo bad they did not have the replayable option rdy like we now haveparts of the story can be found as mini dungeons in the fractals though

@Tyrick.9805 said:Also my SO wants to surprise me with a GW2 book, I don't know if they are any good, but I can't wait. :lol:

Depends on what you're after.

IMO, Edge of Destiny is the worst written, but it has the most lore to it. It details the rise and fall of the guild Destiny's Edge, but the key points of the fall are covered in the Sorrow's Embrace story dungeon.

Ghosts of Ascalon was, imo, the best written, but has overall minor relevance to the game in general, as the main characters of the book are so minor they're irrelevant to the game, though it does establish why charr and humans are no longer staunch enemies. It also has a much better introduction of the Vigil than what the personal story gives.

Sea of Sorrows, the writing falls inbetween imo, and the lore is similarly minor overall, but it does establish a proper beginning to the lore and story for Zhaitan and Lion's Arch.

If you're interested in the lore, all three are worth reading. If it's just quality writing you're wanting, I'd stick to GoA and maybe SoS.

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@Tyrick.9805 said:Also my SO wants to surprise me with a GW2 book, I don't know if they are any good, but I can't wait. :lol:

Yeah Edge of Destiny was TERRIBLE to read. I couldn't even make it halfway through--as much as I love GW2, the novel seems like it was written by a 12 year old. I just went to the Guild Wars 2 Wiki to get the lore on Destiny's Edge. The other two Guild Wars books are much better.

I wouldn't go that far. It's a very, very different style- much simpler, much faster-paced, very color-by-numbers towards the end, but it also had the best dialogue of the three. It's still at the bottom of my list, but I'm sure it'd be to some people's tastes.