New player questions - am I doing this right?

[Innokatsu.2937]

I'm pretty new to the game, bought the expansions last week and manually leveled my first char to level 80. Skipped Living World Season 2, finished HoT story and I've just started Season 3. I'm doing daily fractals, joining on map METAs whenever someone makes a group on LFG, and joining in on as many world events as I come across with. At the same time I'm slowly progressing through Season 3. Oh and I'm crafting time gated mats for my gear and weapons every day.

Am I doing this right? I feel like there's so much to do and I don't know what I really should be doing first. There is just so much "stuff" and sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in it. The game doesn't really tell you if you are on the right track of progression so I'm just doing everything.

I want to know what I should be focusing on first. Should I just bulldoze through Season 3, POF and the rest? Or should I take it slow and farm mats for ascended trinkets? Should I be doing more fractals than just daily ones? Should I focus on leveling masteries?

I'm a person who likes lists. I like plans. This game gives none and I'm a bit frustrated.Appreciate the help.

[DeanBB.4268]

I'd say you're doing okay. Two things I'd put up on that list are fully unlocking elite specs (if you haven't already) and completing masteries. The central tyria in particular, with the auto-loot, provide excellent QoL update. Maxing gliding would be a good goal. World completion so you can make legendaries.

If you are not going into WvW at least for dailies (veteran creature, monument, guards...) try that out so you can get a gift of battle from the reward track.

Look through the achievements for interesting things. Some are quite easy.

Otherwise, find what you enjoy. Sometimes it's nice not to have a list so you can explore, finish stories, do whatever. I find that too many daily tasks causes burn out, but everyone is different.

[Innokatsu.2937]

@DeanBB.4268 said:I'd say you're doing okay. Two things I'd put up on that list are fully unlocking elite specs (if you haven't already) and completing masteries. The central tyria in particular, with the auto-loot, provide excellent QoL update. Maxing gliding would be a good goal. World completion so you can make legendaries.

If you are not going into WvW at least for dailies (veteran creature, monument, guards...) try that out so you can get a gift of battle from the reward track.

Look through the achievements for interesting things. Some are quite easy.

Otherwise, find what you enjoy. Sometimes it's nice not to have a list so you can explore, finish stories, do whatever. I find that too many daily tasks causes burn out, but everyone is different.

Thank you for the fast reply. Should I go back and do Season 2? I hear it's easy mastery points for Central Tyria. I'm not into PvP but I'll look into WvW dailies.

[Wolfb.7025]

The story is independent on what you plan to do as "endgame" on this MMORPG. Look at it as if it was any single player game campaing like Skyrim, you can basically play it normally, get exotic equipemt, an that's all.It goes like this:Personal Story -> LWS1 -> LWS2 -> HoT -> LWS3 -> PoF -> LWS4 -> Icebrood SagaUnplayable ATM, you can watch a movie on yotube and read the wiki article, it will be enough explanation to understand what happened before HoT.

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Now for what you might want to aim for, the Endgame.

1. Fractals of the Mists, what you're doing already, its a series of fun mini dungeons with mechanics and challenging content, the further you advance the harder it gets, and it gets even more fun. Try to get ascended gear and collect AR infusions to climb to T4, its one of the best sources of gold in the game (although, limited per day) you should only do dailies and recommended fractals.
2. Learn rotations and other support classes, you can check snowcrows or metabattle for DPS rotations and such, you need to do this in order to prepare for T4 fractals and Raids since its hard content and requires you to do good dps.
3. Strike Missions, its a series of short 10-player encounters that are relatively easy, its Icebrood Saga content and you can access to it through the Eye of the North ( WP link [&BAkMAAA=] ). Here you can basically train yourself as DPS or Support so you can prepare yourself for Raids.
4. Raids, its basically a series of high level 10-player encounters that are challenging and require coordination and good group dps and boons. You only require exotic gear at minimum but you need to practice your rotations before. Try lookign for a raid training group.
5. Achievement Points (AP). Its basically a number on your account but its fun to increase it, you get some rewards out of it, you get AP by doing achievements, which keeps you busy in the game. There are 10 daily AP you can get doing 3 PVE/WVW/PVP dailies, I recommend you do this everyday.
6. Any PVP Content: You can aim to play sPvP or WvW, undoubtedly the hardest content in this game, and leads to frustration if you're not used to competitive gameplay. Optional, but the option is there.

Honestly, this game offers so little endgame content, but I hope you have your share of enjoyement while you learn. Trust me, it takes you months, or maybe years until you become a really good Fractal/Raid player and its when the game potentially starts getting boring for you.

[DeanBB.4268]

@Innokatsu.2937 said:

@DeanBB.4268 said:I'd say you're doing okay. Two things I'd put up on that list are fully unlocking elite specs (if you haven't already) and completing masteries. The central tyria in particular, with the auto-loot, provide excellent QoL update. Maxing gliding would be a good goal. World completion so you can make legendaries.

If you are not going into WvW at least for dailies (veteran creature, monument, guards...) try that out so you can get a gift of battle from the reward track.

Look through the achievements for interesting things. Some are quite easy.

Otherwise, find what you enjoy. Sometimes it's nice not to have a list so you can explore, finish stories, do whatever. I find that too many daily tasks causes burn out, but everyone is different.

Thank you for the fast reply. Should I go back and do Season 2? I hear it's easy mastery points for Central Tyria. I'm not into PvP but I'll look into WvW dailies.

I'm not into PvP either, but if you're on NA I can show you what I do in WvW. Let me know here or via PM if interested.

[Danikat.8537]

This question comes up a lot and no matter what the person is doing the answer is almost always yes. Once you get to level 80 this game is very open-ended, there's not really anything you have to do, just lots of things you can do. So it's really up to you to try anything which interests you and then decide which ones to focus on.

The important thing is to remember that you can't really do it wrong. You'll never be locked out of something for doing it in the wrong order or make some change to your character which can't be undone, so whatever you want to be doing is right.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Yeah you might wanna slow down a bit there, this can burn you out immensly.First off a lot of game special modes (such as Fractals) offer you chests with ascended gear for purchase, given you have enough of related currency. So maybe you don't need to hardcore farm mats for it in open world PvE.

Unlocking especs and masteries is a good idea as someone stated above. You may wanna sell what you can to get gold for yourself. When it's time to get stuff you want, be it skins, materials for big crafting (like legendary) or whatever else.....having a nice reserve of gold in bank is really awesome.

Lastly if you play through Living World season 3 and 4 maps - see which you like best and invest in it! I'm talking things like Karmic Retribution.I did it for Ember Bay and whenever i return there i can get a nice chunk of karma simply off mob kills, keeping my karma pool afloat. And there are some cool things you can do with karma, so it's always good to have a healthy reserve!

Ah almost forgot - Bloodstone Fen - farm it daily!Bloodstones from there can be traded for ascended accessory set with resettable stats - closest you'll get to legendary trinkets without having to go through the chore of making one. Once you have'm - 100 unbound magic for a consumable that lets you reset their stats and use same set of trinkets for a new build!

[Chyanne Waters.8719]

Nope it's all wrong this game is supposed to be just like WoW you must comply. Just kidding your fine this game is all about having fun in how you play.

[Innokatsu.2937]

Thank you all for the responses! So far I'm loving the game, literally learning so much content every day and still there's just so much more.

[Kichwas.7152]

You need to narrow down your focus to the elements that interest you.

This isn't one of those MMOs where you're grinding for something before the next patch makes it obsolete. There is no specific goal. So you need to set your own and then push other things aside.

For living story - either you do it all for the story, or you can just dip into each chapter long enough to unlock the zone and buy the portal scroll so you can use it for random open world farming. I would not have skipped chapter 2 if the story itself was how I wanted to do it.

There is no point to doing fractals other than doing fractals. You are not unlocking anything or advancing anything other than the fractals themselves. If you like this kind of content - go for it. If not, don't. The same can be said of open world groups, world bosses, and so on...

Each element can be looked at by itself and chosen on the basis of whether or not you enjoy it. NOT on the basis of grinding it to be ready for patch day and the next tier - because that isn't happening here.

So narrow your focus a bit.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Do your daily time gated crafting, that is a good start for those ascended mats you will need when you want to craft armor later on. I'd also add quartz to the list - Dry top has two quartz nodes in fixed locations and one that has 3 spawn points on the west side of the map, and if you get on a tier 4 map, you can get the rich node during the last 10 minutes of a sandstorm. It is not a high priority, but it does take 25 quartz to make a charged quartz crystal and you can only make one per day. When you get around to getting your skyscale, having some on hand will mean not having to wait for one of the steps. And you need a bunch for Mawdrey if/when you go back and do season 2.

Biggest thing I'd say, though, is...relax and have fun. Don't stress out on getting everything on your list done every day. I've been in the game 5 years and still do mostly low level fractals, and those not every day. You also have the world bosses that can be fun to hit occasionally. And then you have all those other character slots you can fill... The game has been around for 8 years now, there is a tremendous amount to do, and it isn't a race to see who can get to the end first.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

ACK! I forgot to mention, go have fun with Halloween! You can power level a character in the Mad King's Labrynth, plus there are a lot of achievements and stuff that is only available during the different festivals.

[Cuks.8241]

You already have it planned better as most of the players.Going through the story at least once is nice, you naturally discover the world and everything that comes with it.I would say continue with the story. The quality just gets better, Pof and LS4 are great. How are you with the mounts? Lot's of content and fun there. When you finish Pof you are able to get Griffon and with LS4 beetle, both require some additional effort and later Skyscale even more.If you already skipped Season 2, I would leave it for now unless you really really need those core masteries. But if you are already doing fractals you probably already have enough to unlock the basic stuff like auto-loot and mentor tag.Don't bother with farming for now unless you have a clear goal. As you will discover more of the game, the better your farming options will be.Ascended trinkets you can buy with living story season 3 or 4 currencies. Bitterfrost frontier and Bloodstone fen are good places to farm for the season 3. Unless you are progressing through fractals fast and you need ascended for agony resistance exotics will do for anything else. Check Trading Post.

How much are you into pvp? Regardless of all the tears on the forums, the pvp modes in this game are decent and fun.

[Anchoku.8142]

Yes, please take it a bit more slowly. There are many fun NPC conversations, jumping puzzles, personal stories and so on. Hang out in Lion's Arch, play some of the activities, try crafting or participating in fashion wars. World versus world has a number of different roles you can play, too, and, along with PvP, you can play instantly leveled professions and see how they work. Give up on the idea of plowing through all of the gameplay in a few months. It is impossible because there is too much to do that fast. Relax and enjoy doing different things.

[Hesione.9412]

Grothmar! Demolition derby! Metal legion concert! I am never going to get tired of either of those.