Where are the Communities of GW2?

[Sinifair.1026]

How do you do, fellow gamers?

I've been wondering about the communities of GW2. The people who do PvP, WvW, Fractals/Raids and Open World.

• Where are you hanging out and getting together to do content?
• Where do you discuss your game modes?
• What resources do you have to help guide new players into the content that you play?

Getting into a new type of content can feel daunting, as there already seems to be expectations to know everything, despite being new. Proper guidance and communities getting together to help new players into their game mode is key to growing the various communities of GW2 and keeping them healthy.

I thought shining a spotlight on what resources are actually out there might help both myself and other players have a smoother time getting into whatever new content we've been wondering about.

[Anchoku.8142]

This forum is a community and there are other communities outside of this one and links to them are scattered around here. Start with stickied posts in different sections of this forum.

[Danikat.8537]

For me there's 3 answers (or 2, the third could be a sub-set of the first). Although I know almost nothing about PvP. I've only really done it once, which was organised via my guild, but that was an exceptional situation involving llamas and a fair bit of desperation.

1) In-game. It might seem like stating the obvious, but that is the best place to find other players. If you want to find people to do PvE content with then the Looking For Group tool is a great place to start. It can be used for everything, not just instanced group content like dungeons and raids and if there isn't a group for what you want to do you can always start your own. Or if it's something like open-world content you can just do it and see who shows up. You might need to turn up early to get into a populated map for big events like Tequatl and the Shatterer though.

For WvW I just drop into the maps to see what's going on and then pick one which seems reasonably active to play on, but I think this might vary a lot depending on your server. Simiarly if I don't understand something or need help I'll ask in map or team chat while in WvW and will usually get at least a few helpful answers, but I've heard this can be even more different depending on which server you're on. (I've only ever played on Desolation, so I don't have much experience with others, except occasionally being grouped with them.)

2) This forum. Good for longer and more in-depth answers which aren't practical to type in the game itself, getting a wider range of opinions rather than just whoever happens to be around, chatting about things that may not necessarily come up while you're in the middle of playing (like lore) and meeting people you wouldn't run into in-game, like people in the other region.

3) Guilds. If there's a specific area of the game you're interested in chances are there's at least one guild devoted to it and they can be a great way to find like-minded people to play with, although it can take some time and probably trial and error to find the right one/s for you. I think it helps to have an idea of what you want (and don't want) when you go looking for one and to be willing to ask the recruiter questions to see if they're likely to be a good fit for you.

[voltaicbore.8012]

I think @Danikat.8537 's response pretty much covers all the meaningful bases. The one exception is the Heart of the Mists sPvP lobby, but (like most other pvp chats in other games) it's mostly trolling, trash talk, and silly mess.

In my experience a properly diverse guild is the best place to get a broad variety of information about various activities. I find most raiders have a working knowledge of WvW and sPvP, and vice versa. If you have a good mix of people who are at max mastery ~30K achieves at the top, then ranging down to brand new players at the bottom, a lot of the right questions get asked, and are answered competently.

[Atomos.7593]

Joining some large, active guilds will be very helpful for all of these things, as well as making chat in-game seem more active and lively. You can find lots of guilds that are recruiting and detailed information about them in this section of the forum.

It is possible to join up to 5 guilds at any time and they can be on a different server to you. You can even join guilds both on NA and EU, so it's very easy to find ones that you like and are helpful. (Although guilds being NA or EU etc. based could help you determine when members of those guilds will be most active.)