Should I return and boost? Not boost?

[BiggestLebowski.5976]

Hi guys,

I am looking for a new mmo to play. I played this when it first came out. Rushed my necromancy loved it. I stopped after a year and I was thinking of returning. I have a few questions.

Should I return? Should I boost? I don’t remember literally one thing from the story. I feel if I boost I’ll be lost with a character I don’t know how to play. But on the other hand I don’t have the time I had 7 years ago. I don’t want to sink my time that this is all I can do just to get max level.

I really like the look of the Druid. I usually heal when I play mmos. I always do actually and I love to raid.

How long will it take if I don’t boost to be able to play a max level Druid ?

Thanks guys

[Bassdeff.1895]

I would say it depends on what you want to get out of the game.

I came back in september after a 3 year break, started a new account (gave the old one to my wife so she could raid more) bought the bundle which all the xpacs and it came with a auto lvl 80 boost. I kept it for my second toon as I wanted to experience the game as a new player. Leveling to 80 didn't take all that long but having played before I new some trick to make my play time more efficient.

That being said, had I used my lvl80 boost right off the bat I could have just jumped into HoT and PoF to unlock the glider and mounts and start working on the masteries right away but I really wanted to experience the entire story in same order and fashion that a player who started in 2012 would have..

[ArchonWing.9480]

That depends on what level you are.

It's ok to use a scroll to skip to 20 or 30 or w/e; those first levels aren't a big deal. Play through the zones as usual.

When you reach about level 60, you can use the boost, or maybe if you picked up any level up tomes to just use those as the last 20 levels are really not any different. The good thing about playing the mid levels is that the mid-level materials which can be salvaged from the gear that drops for you is more valuable than high level gear as they are too common. This will help you afford better gear in the long term and in some cases I feel makes you more gold than just rushing to 80 and into zones you might not have an easy time with.

Leveling conventionally might take like 30 hours depending on the rate you go at and your familiarity with controlling your character.

tl;dr the mid levels are probably worth playing

[Danikat.8537]

It doesn't have to be one or the other. You could make a new character, play them from level 1 and level them up gradually, then when you feel like you know enough about how the game works that you wouldn't be overwhelmed by trying to choose specialisations, traits, skills, weapons, stat combos on your equipment etc. boost them to level 80 so you don't have to spend a lot of time levelling just to unlock stuff you already know how to use.

Alternatively you'll get Tomes of Knowledge from login rewards (10 per month, with the option for another 6 from the final chest) which each give 1 level of XP, so if you want to skip ahead a bit when it feels slow but don't want to go straight to level 80 you could use those instead.

[Wizler.8192]

Some people will say don't boost because you learn to play the profession while leveling. Maybe true but I've boosted toons and learned to play the class by doing dailies, map completion, meta events, studying Metabattle, etc. There is so much to do at level 80 that you'll want to get started on, for example getting elite specs.

The above argument for boosting and getting mounts is a great point.

[devastoscz.9851]

If I were you I would do this:

1.) Boost 1 character (or old necromancer) to 80 and get to PoF/HoT zones for mount and glider respectively. After that this will become your secondary character.2.) On an old toon (your necromancer) get your birthday presents from the mail and get your XP boosts and level boosts. Use a level 20 Boost on this new toon, cause opening up skill slots sucks.3.) Play from lvl 20 until the end of the story (should get you to 80) so you can get a feel for the game again, relearn mechanics and possibly pick up on new game systems.

After that you can boost whatever characters you like. I feel that after 1-2 characters maxed out normally you basically understand how skills and utilities work so it shouldn't be a huge issue to class swap.

[BiggestLebowski.5976]

Thanks guys! I like your ideas and learned a lot. Is it hard or take long to get the elite specializations? Is that something you can start earning while leveling?

[Linken.6345]

@BiggestLebowski.5976 said:Thanks guys! I like your ideas and learned a lot. Is it hard or take long to get the elite specializations? Is that something you can start earning while leveling?

Yes by grabing all the hero challanges while you level up, but its alot quicker in expansion map were you get 10 instead of 1 for each of them.You will need 250 for a elite spec if I remember right.

[Chichimec.9364]

Generally I very much agree with the conventional wisdom that a brand new player should level up at least 1 character before using a lvl 80 booster. That's the best way for someone new to learn the game mechanics. Your situation is a bit different though. One thing you could do is to boost a character then take that alt back through the beginner content to re-familiarize yourself with the game and its various mechanics. As for earning the elite specs, I can do that in a few hours of game play by picking off some of the easier Heart of Thorns hero points then running through the Path of Fire maps to pick up the rest of what I need. The suggestion for getting the mounts and glider asap is an excellent one as those will help greatly in getting the HoT and PoF hero points.

As for your question about whether you should come back, all I can give you is my opinion. A lot of doomsayers show up regularly on this forum crying out that the sky is falling and the end is nigh. Me, I've been playing GW2 for two years and two months at this point. I've been gaming since the days of Sega Genesis / Super Nintendo and I've never played any other game for this long. I don't see any signs of the game dying. Instead, I see people actively playing on every map I go to. So yeah, I think this game is very much worth playing.

[TheGrimm.5624]

Would play one thru to remind yourself of mechanics and get a better feel of the evolution of the game and then boost the alts from there.

[Danikat.8537]

@Wizler.8192 said:Some people will say don't boost because you learn to play the profession while leveling. Maybe true but I've boosted toons and learned to play the class by doing dailies, map completion, meta events, studying Metabattle, etc. There is so much to do at level 80 that you'll want to get started on, for example getting elite specs.

The above argument for boosting and getting mounts is a great point.

That's true, but I think there's a difference between a current player boosting a new profession and someone returning after years of not playing trying to start fresh on a boosted character.

In the first case it's probably a matter of trying to work out which are your ranged or melee weapons (knowing it's not always obvious - ranged greatsword for mesmer for example), which are condition or power weapons, choosing a stat combination etc. It's a lot to think about but at least you know what you'll need to think about and how to approach it.

Trying to make sense of all your skills and traits at the same time as trying to learn (or remember) what skills and traits even are and what defines a build in this game would be much more complicated. Some people might be ok with that, but I think it would be better to start off slow, decide it's too slow and then boost than boost, get confused and frustrated and end up quitting because the game is too complicated.