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New player, hit 80 the other day.


Tumpas.4162

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Hey. I don't know what to do now that I'm 80. I've obviously googled this, but all I can find is what I CAN do.

Example - guides tell me to use a build on a webpage. They use a lot more hero points than I have. I try to pick them up, but it's just sooo slow. So I try googling if there's a way to get them quicker. It tells me to lfg and find a hp train. So I do that. The first thing they do is run to a cliff and fly off somewhere. I can't do that.

I'm honestly sooo lost right now and just don't know where to begin. I want to do dungeons and fractals and raids - group content - asap, preferably while doing story things on my own when none of my friends are online. But I just don't know what to do, and whatever I try to do, it tells me that I need something else first that I don't have.

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Welcome to Guildwars 2

@"Tumpas.4162" said:I'm honestly sooo lost right now and just don't know where to begin. I want to do dungeons and fractals and raids - group content - asap, preferably while doing story things on my own when none of my friends are online. But I just don't know what to do, and whatever I try to do, it tells me that I need something else first that I don't have.

To unlock a glider (flying off the cliff)1.) open your hero panel (H)2.) on the left side of the window is a column of icons, click on the star-icon (tooltip: story journal)3.) select Heart of Thorns4.) click on the button with the green star, to start the story5.) follow the directions and complete the first mission, depending on your skill level you may die a couple of times6.) upon completion of this mission you are rewarded with a mastery-point and some mastery-exp7.) open your hero panel (H) once again8.) this time we go for the icon on the bottom, Masteries9.) Heart of Thorns => Gliding10.) if your exp-bar is full, the first mastery Basic Gliding should be flashing, click on it, accept11.) when you now jump off a higher object and hold your jump key (space-bar), you glide

To unlock a raptor (mount)1.) open your hero panel (H)2.) on the left side of the window is a column of icons, click on the star-icon (tooltip: story journal)3.) select Path of Fire4.) click on the button with the green star, to start the story5.) follow the directions and complete the first mission, depending on your skill level you may die a couple of times6.) upon finishing the mission, you unlock the mount permanently

Both the glider and the mount need to be unlocked only once. Then they can be used by all of your characters, does not matter if they are level 2 or level 80. There are however certain areas in the game which prevent the use of either or both.

I fear you have used a level 80 booster. In the spoiler right below you will have a small lecture about leveling a character. I have to write it. But you are free to ignore it.

We recommend every new player to play a character from level 1 to level 80 the normal way. Not using any scrolls or the level 80 booster. It is still the best method to learn the basics of the game and your class. You can try out different weapons, passives (traits) and skills while slowly progressing in difficulty. Thanks to the level-scaling mechanic you are free to play in lower zones, but still get appropriate exp. You can play with different people who are in the same situation as you, there are also plenty of mentors and helpful people in the starter maps. By the time you reach level 80, you may have unlocked most of your passives & skills and tried them out. So you are free to pick any of the recommended builds and start gearing up your character for endgame.

 

Story

  • you can run the personal story (Story Journal: My Story) completely solo, at level 80 it should be a walk in the park
  • aside from HP runs with groups, I would recommend you to stay away from Heart of Thorns until you are fully geared and preferably had a little training as well.
  • Path of Fire is a lot easier in difficulty and more user-friendly designed. Progression of this story will unlock you more mounts and level up your mount-abilities. Returning to the jungle (Heart of Thorns) with a set of unlocked mounts makes the adventure a lot easier.
  • you can always switch between personal story, Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire via the Story Journal

Dungeons contain a story-path, with lore-connections to your personal story and exploration-paths (3) which have more lore and nice loot. The loot and currencies from the dungeons can be used to unlock skins and purchase exotic armor/weapons.

Fractals are smaller mini-dungeons, which have small connections to the lore but nice loot. There are currently 20 different fractal-levels and 100 difficulty levels. Those are separated into 4 tiers. Tier 1 is obviously for starters, with low difficulty. Tier 2 is also doable with little experience. Tier 3 and 4 require preparations. If you want to give fractals an early try, run Tier 1 fractals until you are familiar with the stages.

I highly recommend you to join a guild which helps new players, runs PVE (dungeons & fractals) and maybe even does raid-trainings - but that is optional. In your current stage it would be best to get familiar with your character, unlock the basics. Then focus on unlocking an elite-specialization, gearing up and training/farming until you have an acceptable level of skill.

Note: If you intend to use the LFG, be warned. Most random parties, even the ones which contain "relaxed/chilled" in the description expect you to at least know your class, when to press what button and the mechanics of the dungeon/fractal. When entering an existing party, always inform them early that you are a newbie. So they can decide if they want to try it, or you have to make room for a more skilled player. Best option would be to start a party on your own, put a useful LFG description like "newbie, first run" into it. So only people will join who are willing to teach and support you. LFG is frequently used by farmers and speedrunners who have neither the intention nor the patience to help a newbie. If you want to do dungeons and fractals, do it with your friends and guild. They know of your skill-level and can assist you properly.

[EDIT] lol. I picked the post with the highest count of views, assuming people would answer to it first. Turns out my assumption was incorrect. Could any moderator merge the two topics together, please?

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(This is going to be long, apologies in advance. I've used heading to break it up.)

@"Tumpas.4162" said:Hey. I don't know what to do now that I'm 80. I've obviously googled this, but all I can find is what I CAN do.

That is pretty much the core of GW2. The way I think of it is that once you reach level 80 the game becomes effectively free roaming. There's no linear path through content and very little you have to do to access other stuff, so it's up to you to choose what you want to do. And it sounds like you've got a pretty clear idea of what you want to do, so you're off to a good start. :)

Hero Points

It also sounds like you've found some unhelpful guides which assume more knowledge than many newer players will have. If you want to get hero points to unlock an elite specialisation then Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire maps are better because each hero challenge there will give you 10 points, whereas ones in the core game maps only give 1 each. Following an HP train is one way to do it, but for that you probably will need the glider and/or raptor. There should be more considerate groups who won't rush between locations but HoT maps are designed to need the glider and PoF maps are designed to need the raptor.

The other option is to do it yourself. Use a map like the ones on the Wiki to find hero points, make your own way there and either complete the hero challenge yourself if you're able to, ask your friends to help, or wait until some other people show up or ask for help in map chat. If you do this I recommend doing it in PoF maps because they're easier to navigate.

The third option is to play World vs World to earn Testimonies of Heroics which can be traded for hero points, but since WvW isn't on your list of things you want to do you're probably better off with the PvE approach.

Gliding & raptor mount

The glider is needed to navigate Heart of Thorns maps, the raptor is needed to navigate Path of Fire maps and both come in useful everywhere else (although they can't be used in core story instances). The glider is unlocked by playing the first part of the HoT storyline and the raptor by playing the first part of the PoF storyline. Both stories are accessible as soon as you reach level 80, but both will give away events you're not supposed to know about until that point in the story so if you don't want the surprise you could do it with a friend and have them play through the story while you're afk so you don't see what happens.

The raptor can be used as soon as you finish the story, the glider requires you to gain enough XP in Verdant Brink to fill the XP bar (events give the most XP of the options available) and then spend 1 mastery point (which you'll get for completing the storyline) to unlock the mastery.

Both can be trained up by earning more XP in the relevant expansion and earning more mastery points which are found around maps and earned from completing storylines and achievements, but the basic versions are enough for collecting hero points.

Other options

Whilst elite specialisations are interesting and generally considered better than core specialisations they're not required for anything, including group content. Dungeons and Fractals pre-date the introduction of elite specs so both can definitely be completed without them and even raids can be done without them, although it might depend on what your overall group composition is like. Your best approach there is to find a guild or group you want to raid with and find out what they need and expect you to have. They should also be willing to help you get what you'll need.

Equipment

I know you didn't ask about equipment, but it can make a big difference - at least as much as using an elite spec - and I'm not sure how many newer players realise that, so I'm going to mention it. Feel free to ignore this section if you already know what you're doing with it.

Equipment in this game is relatively simple, but the majority of your attributes (stats) come from it, so it's important. There are 6 tiers: common (white), fine (blue), masterwork (green), rare (yellow), exotic (orange) and ascended/legendary (pink/purple) and all equipment with the same level requirement and tier is equally good. A level 80 exotic helm you craft or get from a story reward will be just as good as one from a dungeon or raid boss.

What does make a different is the attribute combination. All level 80 equipment gives 3 or 4 stats and each combination has a name. You'll often hear players saying things like "should I go for zerker gear or assassins?" and this is what they're talking about (unlike a lot of other games where similar conversations and terminology refers to where you find that equipment).

There is no absolute best choice, the important thing is to get one which works well for you. A lot of people like to use pure damage combinations in PvE for glass cannon builds (hits like a cannon, shatters like glass if it gets hit) and then rely on active defences like dodging, kiting and interrupting to avoid getting killed. In other game modes where it's not as easy to avoid or heal all the damage, or if you don't want to have to be constantly on your toes in PvE some defensive stats are useful but purely defensive/healing combinations are only really used in raids if you are the group's healer/support character. You also need to think about if you do most of your damage from direct damage (in which case power is the most important) or conditions (condition damage is the most important) and if you need/want lots of critical hits, which will require precision (to increase the chance) and ferocity (to increase the damage).

If you used a level 80 boost you'll have a full set of level 80 exotics with defensive stats which are suitable for open-world PvE and the story but you might want to swap for something with more damage if you're confident keeping yourself alive and want to kill things faster. If you levelled up any other way you could be using a whole mix of equipment and it's worth getting a full set of exotics with matching stats. The easiest way to do that is to buy them from the trading post (use the filters and click the cog next to the search bar for additional options to search rather than typing in the stat combination name, you'll get cheaper options that way). But you can also craft them, buy them from the temples in Orr with karma, buy them with dungeon tokens or badges in WvW and get them in several other ways. Whatever is best for you.

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Awesome help, I appreciate it!

Another stupid question - how do I know which maps are HoT or PoF maps? By playing through the story, by just googling, or is there a way to see it ingame?

I fear you have used a level 80 booster. In the spoiler right below you will have a small lecture about leveling a character. I have to write it. But you are free to ignore it.

I haven't. I just misunderstood a comment somewhere as that you would get all the hero points once you reached lvl 80, and that hero points on the way were more about unlocking things earlier. So I skipped a lot of them while leveling (once I found skills that I really liked), and the ones I didn't skip, I used on skills that I then never used... So once I reached 80, I had 0 hps, and the guides I find sound like the elite specs are where it's at (I play guardian), so that's what I want hps for...

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HoT - Verdant Brink is the first map and all which follow (connected).PoF - Crystal Oasis is the first map and all which follow (connected).

If you are insecure, just click on your exp-bar. The Masteries window will open, with the current mastery-type selected (Heart of Thorns, Central Tyria, Path of Fire).

Guardian is a good choice. The Hero Points you gain by speed-leveling are usually enough to unlock the core-profession completely. Sadly for elite specializations you have to collect HP on the maps. You are not forced to collect everything, there are more points in the system than actually needed to unlock everything on a character. This is useful knowledge, especially when you collect HP in Heart of Thorns, as most of the combat-challenges are optimized for groups. You need a good class, proper equipment and a good level of skill to solo them, sometimes it is almost impossible.

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@"Tumpas.4162" said:Awesome help, I appreciate it!

Another stupid question - how do I know which maps are HoT or PoF maps? By playing through the story, by just googling, or is there a way to see it ingame?

One simple way is Mastery panel. Press H, bottom page (Masteries). You see Heart of Thorns, Core tyria, Path of Fire. If its "grey", you are not on that map.

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@Tumpas.4162 said:Awesome help, I appreciate it!

Another stupid question - how do I know which maps are HoT or PoF maps? By playing through the story, by just googling, or is there a way to see it ingame?

I fear you have used a level 80 booster. In the spoiler right below you will have a small lecture about leveling a character. I have to write it. But you are free to ignore it.

I haven't. I just misunderstood a comment somewhere as that you would get all the hero points once you reached lvl 80, and that hero points on the way were more about unlocking things earlier. So I skipped a lot of them while leveling (once I found skills that I really liked), and the ones I didn't skip, I used on skills that I then never used... So once I reached 80, I had 0 hps, and the guides I find sound like the elite specs are where it's at (I play guardian), so that's what I want hps for...

That's not possible. Reaching level 80 provides you with exactly enough hero points to get all core class skills and traits. Any hero points you got before reaching 80 would remain available since they do not disapear.

HoT and PoF Hero challenges also provide 10 points versus 1 from the challenges in core Tyria.

As to what you should do first:Find a guild.

While looking for one do what people recommended so far.

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That's not possible. Reaching level 80 provides you with exactly enough hero points to get all core class skills and traits. Any hero points you got before reaching 80 would remain available since they do not disapear.

Ok, I thought I had 0, but I might have had 10 or so then. Like I said earlier - I skipped most of them while leveling. But I need 250 to unlock one of the elite specs, and since both seem really good and interesting, I'd like to feel both of them out at least. But I didn't have many hps, and I did max out the core class skills and traits along the way. So I still need a lot of hp.

And I know that the ones that were there when I did the qs are still there, but I think it's taken me more than an hour to do that and get ten points so I can unlock more traits from the elite specs, so it simply wasn't any fun. Now that I know I can do the expansion zones to get more hps, I'll do that. And I know to get some better gear and get a glider - I've unlocked the raptor and found myself a guild now, though it doesn't seem like it's the biggest guild (most often like 1-4 ppl online other than myself, and while some are helpful, some aren't... which is understandable - people want to play the game too and not just help a newbie). So everyone here have helped me a lot and I feel a lot less lost on what to do to progress.

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@Tumpas.4162 said:

That's not possible. Reaching level 80 provides you with exactly enough hero points to get all core class skills and traits. Any hero points you got before reaching 80 would remain available since they do not disapear.

Ok, I thought I had 0, but I might have had 10 or so then. Like I said earlier - I skipped most of them while leveling. But I need 250 to unlock one of the elite specs, and since both seem really good and interesting, I'd like to feel both of them out at least. But I didn't have many hps, and I did max out the core class skills and traits along the way. So I still need a lot of hp.

And I know that the ones that were there when I did the qs are still there, but I think it's taken me more than an hour to do that and get ten points so I can unlock more traits from the elite specs, so it simply wasn't any fun. Now that I know I can do the expansion zones to get more hps, I'll do that. And I know to get some better gear and get a glider - I've unlocked the raptor and found myself a guild now, though it doesn't seem like it's the biggest guild (most often like 1-4 ppl online other than myself, and while some are helpful, some aren't... which is understandable - people want to play the game too and not just help a newbie). So everyone here have helped me a lot and I feel a lot less lost on what to do to progress.

You can test out both elite specs om spvp to get a feel for them without having to spend any hps in the lines.

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Hot maps are in the far west part of the world map, jungle maps beyond Rata Sum or Silwerwastes. First map is Verdant Brink.Pof maps are desert maps in the far south east of the world map. First map is Crystal Desert. You can always go to Crystal Desert with an air ship from Lion's Arch where the Pof Story begins.Off course you can always teleport to any way point in any of the maps once you unlocked it.

You can also freely change between the stories (core personal story, hot, pof, living world stories) you have available in you hero panel. Find the story chapter and start it. You will not lose any progress while changing them. So you can play Hot one day and freely change to Pof the next.

If you are new lvl 80 I would recommend to play the stories. Core personal story is easiest. Hot and Pof are harder but shouldn't be so hard once you learn (content quality is a big step up from the core). You will get different rewards, explore maps and way points and learn about the game in general. Open world play is really good in GW2 and is not just a filler to instanced group play like in Wow. It offers big group events that are easy raids without the player restrictions like in real raids (well up to the point when the map is full).

Explore lfg and trading post. You probably have more gold in your storage than you know.If you join a group and it is in another instance of the map just right click on a player in a squad and press join instance.

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