RavensSorrow.6128

Never be afraid of doing anything in this game. There are guides online, raid training guilds/discords, and even just putting in the Looking for Group "hey I'm new, no idea what I'm doing" can get you assistance as well. I have a social anxiety and hate feeling like I let the group down because I messed up. So, I waited for my gear to be "good enough" and when I finally stepped into Strikes/Fractals, I was blown away how over prepared I was. I could have used all that time doing those strikes and getting currency to get the high-level gear I was trying to dig up. Don't get me wrong there are some harder ones even on normal but once you clear them a lot of them are laughably easier than even some world bosses. I now "lead" newbies through a few to show people what they are missing. It really doesn't take a lot. So come play. Fractals, Strikes, Raids get in there and hit stuff! I'm even about to craft my 6th legendary! All this with semi-casual play. Some weeks I can do more and some I do less. I've almost never grinded for anything. I log in, do some dailies and then chase achievements*, do some strikes, or just bounce around to world bosses. Just have to learn how to turn what you get into gold or materials for your own crafting. It does take a minute to learn and I'm even still learning it. I came from WoW so the fact that I wasn't handed gold and had to instead use currencies and the trading post to get it through me for a loop at first. As I was learning I found Mukluklabs and his streams to be very helpful. His guides on the strikes and fractals let me know what I was in for, and his guides are gear gave me goals. The guildwars wiki is a great resource too. Type "/wiki (item/place/ect)" in game to get the page open on your topic. Great for finding those hidden PoIs on maps or looking up recipes for the mystic forge! Welcome to the game, hope you enjoy your time in Tyria! *You can get skins, gold, items and even Gems from the achievement chests as you get higher Achievement Points. Don't sleep on these!

For this, I'm going to assume future relic will work similar to how skins do now. Once you bind/salvage the skin it gets added to your wardrobe. Future relics added to the game sound like they'll be like that. Bind/acquire it and then it will be in your legendary.

Mastery Points are account wide. If you got all the ones in the open world, check your achievements. Next to the search bar is a little cog that can search for Mastery. The green ones are Heart of Thorns. On my account I have all the masteries done (except raid) and still have points left over. So there are definitely more for you to collect.

Don't disrespect the mats! I see you have another thread open here asking how to make money. Well materials are a great way to do it. Even if you don't want to craft yourself you can sell these on the TP for a lot of money. Loot in GW2 comes in a few forms: 1) crafting mats. Great to sell or build up legendaries of your own. 2) Currencies. Often used to buy gear or more material bags to make gold. 3) Unidentified items: Identify these and salvage them for mats. Occassionally you can get a high value skin or Precurser to sell. Can also just be sold as unidentified if you are lazy like me. 4) The rare items. Ascended items, rare skins, or even the big infusions. The hire the value on the TP the rarer it is usually. You actually will see ascended drops fairly often, but they tend to be account bound. Strikes have a good chance for weapons, world bosses do drop some boxes and fractals have a good drop for rings! (trinkets and armor typically come from currency vendors). 5) Junk! Those grey items actually can add up. In fractals you'll mostly get items worth a few silver but they add up. You can make good money just selling the junk. Don't discount it if you get junk. So go look at your material storage. Maybe you have some mats to sell if you want to build up your gold.

This is important. While Berserker or Viper are common for damage builds they are min/maxed for Group content. So you'd have healers and buffers with you to help keep you alive and focusing on damage rather than survivability. Make sure you have runes in your gear. Even if you can't afford the best/expensive ones as long as you have a set as they give a lot of stats. Also if you look at builds look for ones that are LI (low intensity) it will let you learn and do good damage without having too many buttons. Depending on if you have an expansion or not, End of Dragons introduced the Jade bot. It has an item slot that gives at least 100 vitality extra. So, take a character through the story there until you get the bot (second map) and all your characters can equip an item easily bought off the TP for extra life.

This for sure. Why change what is and instead make new items? Some people enjoy the item they've taken time to craft. I'd rather see new items be made that people can choose to go for. IF they choose to "improve" old items then I would rather see an "upgraded" version of them existing. Something like turning Dusk into Twighlight. You still have the old one, but you made a new shiny version through some collection or mystic forge mumbjumbo. That's the only way I'd want them to improve a classic skin.

I don't disagree the GW2 loot system lacks the excitement of other systems. However I think I prefer this system. It's slow but the currency and crafting components come at a decent enough pace that I can plan when I'd get my rewards. There are still some fun drops, skins, ect to make loot interesting but they are rare. After playing WoW for 10+ years though I am tired of the "hope the item drops and hope its my turn" kind of loot style. Being able to slowly build an Ascended or Legendary item has a nice feel to it. I know it's not for everyone but that satisfaction of making something I've been working for is so nice. I also love that I don't have to grind this game at all. I can play any thing I want anywhere and still be building it. Sure there are more efficient paths but that doesn't matter to me. I can see how this loot system can confuse or dishearten players used to other systems. A lot of the loot is unidentified piles, rare but non-upgrade items, or crafting materials that vanish into the void of storage. The stuff is there, you can profit off it, but if you aren't aware, it does feel hollow. So how can it be fixed for people like you? More obvious how currency is spent and turned into rewards. Better more front facing collection giving players more obvious goals. The loot system is one of those things GW2 does to be the Anti-WoW. So overall I don't think it's going to change much. But I'll ask you, how often do you need to see a drop to feel it's there? How powerful should the item be to make it satisfying?

Legendaries are more of a luxury item. Same stats as Ascended but account wide access. So you craft say Bolt the legendary sword then every character you have that wants a sword can equip it from the Legendary Armory. There is also a "legendary starter kit" in the Wizards Vault, which can give you a great boost forward in making one. These can be long projects but are so worth doing if you have multiple characters. As for ascended don't grind it. As you push into Fractals and Strikes and even Raids, all which can be started in Exotics, you'll get drops or currency to buy the items rather than grinding out crafting mats. Unless it's a cool skin you want or collection to complete don't worry so much about it. Also look up in your achievements "Guide for the Lost" it's an ascended torch for your specialization you can get by just doing a few things. You can track the achievement by clicking the eye and it will appear next to your story in the top right so you can track it. Just do a piece of this every day/week and you'll eventually have a powerful item for your build.

You can equip them from the Hero Panel. Just click on the weapon you want and you should see them in your inventory on the left. Right click and equip it to the item and it should show you both slots. Just don't put them in the same slot as that will destroy your other sigil. If you are just doing open world don't worry about buying "the best" sigils either. If they are too expensive just play around with others that give you more power damage. Also things that say "on weapon swap" work for when you equip kits for the Mechanist. As for Fractals, what scares you so? Social thing or just don't feel prepared? I'll gladly take any new players through them, they are great fun! Tier 1 is just about learning the dungeon for the most part. Just smack some bosses and get loot! Strikes too if you haven't, the first few are so easy you'll laugh later when you realize how silly it is to be scared of them. Take it from someone who "wasn't prepared" for years in this game. Wish I didn't wait. As for great, ascended is great but did you know the game is kind of built around Exotic! So having full exotics is good enough to do any content in this game (almost). You can get a good set of the Trading Post by searching for stats rather than by name or in WvW they added an entire set of stat selectable exotics for cheap currency too! If you still need to see what you are getting into try Mukluklabs for guides. There is a lot of good content here to make you feel more prepared. There are many other sites but that is a personal favorite and the one I used to get into fractals, strikes and even raids!

hey congrats!

While people do not run it generally, you can find people doing it when it opens up to a public grouping every few hours. Event Timer here will show you when it comes up (along with Marionette and Battle for LA in season 1). I know the place is not easy to navigate, especially for someone new. However, those little Robots at the beginning are a great lifesaver. They can port you up levels if you ever die or fall behind. Hope that helps!

Ah well then let the good vibes be had! 🙂

Other spots for Juvenile Brown Bears: Harathi, Gendaran, Fields of Ruin. You don't need the pet stowed to tame I believe (it's been a while for me). After you charm it, go into pet management and it should be available to select to one of your active slots. Pet Wiki

A question for you; Why let what other people think effect your enjoyment? I know people out there dislike meat, doesn't mean I won't enjoy a cheeseburger. Maybe we are just socially different but I find it sad that people can talk you out of a game you say you enjoy. Also this "steep learning curve for instanced PvE" shocks me. I am sorry you've had that experience. I watched a guide and started doing it that day for Strikes/fractals. For raids I was just in a group for other stuff and someone said we are doing a raid now and that was that. No requirements or anything. Just hanging out blasting bosses. I bet you I did like 100dps the entire time too and no one said boo. Training guild and guides exist out there. Don't let social anxiety get in the way. I am sure there are some groups like you describe like in any other game. Just go around them. You can make your own groups, ask for help, and more to get into the content you enjoy. But onto your question. The biggest thing that holds me here is no sub fee. I'm a very casual and ADD gamer. I'll jump from game to game to suit my moods. Sometimes I want to shoot, sometimes strategies and sometimes just hit some dragon's toes. With that said there are many other positives I enjoy. The community, account progression, the class variety and combat. Like I said ADD so just switching a weapon on my Warrior, Ranger, Necro and then having a new experience is quite fun! I can strike or chill, lead or follow, blast damage or engage in wanderlust. GW2 fills a lot of my gaming needs and even when it doesn't I know it's there ready for me to go when I need it.

Mastery Points are both in open world and in achievements. You can sort the achievements with the little cog next to the search bar on the achievements panel. There are a good amount of them and you'll usually end up with extra by the time you train everything so don't think you have to do every single one.

Welcome back! Enjoy the world and leveling. There is no rush. Though if you want a faster path to 80 follow the Adventure Guide in the achievements tab. A lot of small things you can do to get big experience as you level. Once you get used to it you can really level quickly if you ever want to try other characters. Everything you do gives xp too. Mining, crafting, fighting, exploring, even resurrecting a downed player/npc. Also, all loot is personal, so you'll never feel bad about loot stealing or tagging mobs like other games have. So always join in a fight, event or whatever to keep that experience coming. There is a lot of stuff to do at 80 even for Free players. You get the entire core maps, story and living world season 1 all for free. When and if you decide to play an expansion, you don't have to go through them all if you don't want to. Grab the newest one and come join us there. Or go back and relive everything through the older but certainly not dead content. Because of how gearing works all the old stuff is still run fairly consistently. I came back around path of fire and have rarely found a dead map outside of my weird hours. Follow tags! If you see someone with a commander tag up, ask map, see what they are doing. Sometimes they are just marking a puzzle for people. Other times they are killing world bosses. Join them. Do the stuff! Doesn't matter if you are level 10 or 80. If you're on the map go see it. You can contribute thanks to the scaling and still get cool skins or crafting materials needed for later. You can click on the tag to join them too, most leave their tags open. Being in the group gives you priority on receiving buffs and heals vs those outside of the squad. Never be afraid to ask for help. This game is great at rewarding players working together so you'll almost always find a helping hand. You can also do "/wiki" in game to bring up the wiki on anything in game you have questions about. It's a great resource and very helpful. For any other guides I recommend Mukluklabs as a streamer and content creator. There are many other good guide sites but he is who I used to get started so I share the love! Most important have fun! Enjoy your time in game and do what you find fun. There is no rush to catch up and you aren't as behind as you feel. If you have more questions feel free to mail me here or in game. I'm on fairly often as work allows.

Added you in game. If you ever want to run something or have questions just message me. I'm on often.

I was about to say the PVP thing Donari said. Good stuff! Pvp lobby is a great test of weapons, specs you are unsure of. As for squishiness, yes the guardian has the lower life total between the heavy classes but the game overall wants players to be more active in their defense. This isn't WoW. You are not stuck casting for 10 seconds to hit the opponent with a fire ball. You can move, even while casting most things! Keep that in mind when fitting. Don't let the enemy just get free hits on you. You can strafe, dodge, or as a guardian block and Aegis fairly easily. Learning the monsters patterns are a good idea too. How does it attack? What hurts the most? Are you getting a lot of burning or poison you should cleanse? Stuff like that. Learn what is hurting you and how to block/dodge it effectively. The heal button is more of an emergency button rather than something to hit on cooldown to stay alive. Crowd Control (CC) will also save you a lot. Learn what spells stun, knockdown, push, ect. Tougher mobs will be immune to CC but have a blue Break Bar under their portrait. Your crowd control spells will deal Defiance damage (noted on most skills) to this bar like a health bar. Once it breaks the mob will be stunned and take extra damage. Taking advantage of this window will help you take on much toucher monsters with ease. CC is also quite important in endgame fights as well, so learn it. Take a look at your skills and other weapons. You can freely swap spells, talents, weapons all out of combat! Don't be afraid to switch it up to make taking on your target easier. Or for classes that can swap weapons in combat, have a set of heavy CC weapons on the other hand. Also, all classes are "good". Some are more sought after or popular but pretty much everything is playable. My main story character is Soulbeast and I love it! I also have every profession at 80 and most have at least 2 specs, if not more, set and geared. You really don't have to pick one, I was just curious what interested you overall. Really you can have a lot of options. A starter set of gear at 80 is easy to get and can take you quite far into the end game stuff. Anyway, that's enough to chew on for now. Feel free to add me in game or shoot me a mail. I'm around often and love to help!

Hi and welcome! If you had an 80 you could get more Account wide mounts, Account bound items for the next 80, participate in events going on right now (season 1 replay) ect. However, as others said there is no rush. All this stuff will be around or come around again when you have an 80. Enjoy your time in the game. Also use the Adventure Guide, located in the achievements tab, for extra experience and a guided path when leveling if you get unsure of what to do next. For addons or other guides I suggest Mukluklabs . He streams on twitch and youtube and has been around forever. I used his guides when I came back to the game and they really helped me out. Great source of information and his community/discord can probably sort out any addon questions you have. As far as dungeons, if a story with full cutscene run is what you want, then yea put that. People will join. You can even do them without a full party if need be. Though some of the mechanics can be a little outdated being release content, they are still a fun time and offer some unique and valuable rewards. Otherwise I'm more curious about you. What classes are you excited about? Have you seen the Elite Specializations they can learn at end game?

I can't see anything to say they did to minis. Other than the WvW change.

Just to add to this. When you train the elite spec you get a weapon of that spec to use of exotic quality. But did you know there is an Ascended one from an achievement as well? For druid it's called Yggdrasil. It that wasn't the one you were talking about? And yes it's also one per account. If you need more staves for other characters or specs the Iron Legion staff is a great stat selectable starter for cheap on the Tp.

Skills: Soul shout for healing, Well of Suffering, Signet of Spite, Rise shout, and Chill shout Specs: Spite 1-2-3, Reaping 1-1-2, and Reaper 1-1-3 But Like I said I mostly do open world stuff with this guy. I've done strikes and fractals and some WvW but it's all casual fun. I find the sword super fun. I do have a quickness Condi Harbinger too which is amusing. Just bad at getting out of shroud before I'm too low on life when soloing. 🙂 Cafpow has some good advice it seems for incorporating the staff into a rotation. Plus if WvW is your thing the big aoes are probably very useful! Hope it's been going well.

So I will say I am not a meta follower. So sorry I can't really answer those. Remember when following a guide what the guide was made for. If it's for raiding you'll see less pets, tanky stats or self utility in favor of boons or more damage since you are in a group and can be healed/saved by a squadmate. It's the same I said about stats if you follow raid meta you'll be squishier solo since you won't have boons or a pocket healer following you. There is a reaper condi build, I have not tried it so I can't say what it entails. I do Berserker GS and Axe/torch* and just squish stuff. I'm not a pet guy so I take signets and that Elite Chill CC and just blast. But remember your skills can be switch anytime out of combat. So when solo take more survivability then when you go into a group setting get some team buffs or go riskier knowing you have friends. Also, if you don't like Melee, maybe try the Harbinger pistol is fun. Scepter is also a good range weapon though more condition based. On my Reaper Axe is my "range" even though it's not max range it keeps me out of dangerous spots if need be. Reaper itself is more of a Deathknight (from WoW) style than typical caster necromancers in other fantasy games. I'm also not saying "don't use staff" just not a weapon I've spent time with post leveling. It can smack for sure. Sounds fun to cast big circle from a top a wall in WvW! If that's your thing then do it. In WvW I do my Virtuoso and just fire daggers into piles of people and laugh. Gets me my points and makes me happy, doesn't matter if I'm good people still get stabbed. *Note I have SotO so I can use other elite spec weapons on any spec

Hi and welcome! Saw you in the new player forum and followed you here 🙂 Necro is a blast to play. I started out with Staff and then axe as well. However once I picked up a greatsword with Reaper I haven't put it down. Don't get me wrong I tried scourge and Harbinger but that sword is sweet. I don't WvW on him much but it's great for open world and pve. If you want to go power damage Berserk is a great stat set with the power and crit. With staff/axe that's probably your main damage anyway. Not that you can't grab another set if you ever wanted to try Condition stuff. You can really play anything in all 3 modes for the most part. Obviously there are optimal builds but I've had no trouble getting into whatever I've wanted to do even with off builds or subpar gear (raided with a char with yellow soldier items, oops). However depending on how good you are at dodging you may want a bit of Vitality that Berserker gear lacks when in Story or Openworld. While it will bring down your damage it may help if you get frustrated when dying. As Necro we have our shroud as well so it's kinda up to you. Remember a guide is just that a guide. Build something you enjoy first and formost! Edit: Did you know you can try stuff out in the PVP lobby too. Even stuff you don't have unlocked in the open world. Mess around in there sometime to get a feel for some of the other weapons. I'll also be in game later. Feel free to mail or add me and whisper whenever.

Just to help you with the interface a bit. I love the achievement system but it is a bit bloated and confusing. The adventure guide has Meta Achievements. It will say "Do 20 achievements in this section" out of 23 or whatever. Once you do you get a big rewards (in this case experience) and it opens up the next section. I assumed you had map completions or other things done which gave you the bunch of same xp from the next volume of the guide. The achievement panel however only shows the last 3 completed so it pushed the others off. They do pop up on the right side above the map as well briefly when completed. You can also track an achievement by using the "eye" icon on them. Click that and it will go under your story in a "watch list". You can pin a bunch of these to remind yourself of things you are working on so you don't forget what you are working on between sessions.