A few questions;

[Zenopo.3128]

1.) What do you do for events, like for the Festival of the Four Winds?
1.a.) Do you *need* mounts to do anything/everything? (I'm seeing a lot of racing and hard to reach places that mounts are constantly being used for.)
2.) Do you need to buy The Living World quests to fully enjoy the story?
2.a.) There are some Living Story quests that are "locked" and are "playable at level 80". Does "locked" mean I have to buy it and "unlocked at level 80" mean I already own it?
2.b.) Should The Living World quests be completed after the "normal" story?
2.c.) Should you start the Living World quests from the very beginning, like doing all Season 1 first, than 2 etc...? (Honestly, any and all information on The Living World would be appreciated).
3.) How does the Wardrobe work?
4.) How much do you miss out on by only ever playing one race?

[AliamRationem.5172]

If you're referring to the festival dailies, I believe they have enough of them that you can complete them without doing the race.  It might even be possible to complete the race on foot (I'm not sure about this, but the timer is certainly long enough!).

 

Beyond the personal story you complete while leveling, the story continues as a combination of expansion storylines and the living story seasons.  The order is personal story -> recap of the events of LS1 (This content is not playable because the events changed the world in real time.) -> LS2 -> HoT story -> LS3 -> PoF story -> LS4 -> Icebrood Saga.  Any episodes you don't have would need to be purchased for gems if you missed them during the free event which is currently ongoing (the 4th episode of LS4 just dropped today).

 

The wardrobe allows you to reskin your gear with any skins you've previously unlocked for your account, provided you have transmutation charges available.  You may also change your dyes in the dye panel using any dyes you've unlocked for your account.  Dyes have no cost to apply.

 

By playing one race you don't miss out on much.  The story is mostly the same.  Skins can look different and voicework is obviously different between races.  But the gameplay isn't very different.

[Loules.8601]

47 minutes ago, Zenopo.3128 said:

4.) How much do you miss out on by only ever playing one race?

All races have pretty good racial storylines (for 10 and 20 lvl) - so If you want to know about every part of prequel to the main story - they're pretty interesting (but not mandatory)

[ASP.8093]

1 hour ago, Zenopo.3128 said:

1.) What do you do for events, like for the Festival of the Four Winds?
1.a.) Do you *need* mounts to do anything/everything? (I'm seeing a lot of racing and hard to reach places that mounts are constantly being used for.)
2.) Do you need to buy The Living World quests to fully enjoy the story?
2.a.) There are some Living Story quests that are "locked" and are "playable at level 80". Does "locked" mean I have to buy it and "unlocked at level 80" mean I already own it?
2.b.) Should The Living World quests be completed after the "normal" story?
2.c.) Should you start the Living World quests from the very beginning, like doing all Season 1 first, than 2 etc...? (Honestly, any and all information on The Living World would be appreciated).
3.) How does the Wardrobe work?
4.) How much do you miss out on by only ever playing one race?

Best effort at concise answers:

 

1. Typically, a few event-specific zones are open and a some other zones get temporary features like decorations or activities. Look at the daily and festival achievements for an idea of what's around. In Festival of the Four Winds, there's mainly three things:

* Labyrinthine Cliffs: kind of a big hangout spot, with collectible things and races and scheduled events, but no real fighting.

* Crown Pavilion: a group map with a six-way boss fight on a pretty short cycle; pretty sure you get upscaled in this map so even sub-80 characters can attempt it. (Just watch out for red circles and make sure you understand how stun breaks and defiance bars work.)

* The Gauntlet (also in Crown Pavilion, the ring at the top): challenge special bosses to individual battles, for achievements and bragging rights.

 

1.a. Having mounts makes it easier but the events also tend to have "rental" NPCs that will let you borrow a mount. There's a rentable skimmer near the Skimmer race and a rentable raptor in Crown Pavilion. The "Flying Dolyak" race in Labyrinthine Cliffs also doesn't require any mounts, you transform into a little yak and run around picking up Aspect powerups. (Flying Dolyak race: use the Sun power-up to move fast or go through water curtains, use the other two to jump around in different ways.)

 

2. The whole story goes like this:

Core game

(Living World Season 1 - not directly playable now but you'll get a summary of it, and you can experience a lot of the maps and boss battles in modified form as Fractals)

Living World Season 2

Heart of Thorns

Living World Season 3

Path of Fire

Living World Season 4

Icebrood Saga (basically Living World Season 5)

next: End of Dragons

 

Dungeons and Raids are a supplemental part of the story that runs concurrent to the single-player arc. You'll get some mail introducing you to dungeons as you go. Doing them is optional but a story completionist might want to do the story mode of the dungeons before they get to Orr, and then the final dungeon (City of Arah) after they finish the core personal story.

 

If you signed up a few months ago and have been on at least once a week, you should have gotten all or almost all of the Living Story stuff unlocked for free (Season 4 Chapter 4 dropped free this week). If you're missing some and strapped for cash, I recommend asking around a bit before picking them up — people here can help you figure out which ones you'd like and which one are skippable for you. (Season 2 is the most skippable, imo, since there's already a bit of a time gap in Season 1, and it's not required to access the two Maguuma Wastes maps.)

 

3. Any item you soulbind or salvage will be unlocked in your Wardrobe. To use the skins, click the Wardrobe option in your hero panel, pick an item in your inventory, and you'll get to choose a new skin for it. Changing skins costs Transmutation Charges — I don't recommend buying these for gems, you get freebies instead from other sources. You can also redye your equipment on the next tab under that any time you want for free.

 

You can also see your unlocks and preview skins using the "wardrobe" tab of your bank.

 

4. Every race has different starting story up to level 30, and occasionally has moderately different dialogues past then (usually some extra/different "insider" dialogue in specific situations, e.g. Sylvari when they're interacting with the Pale Tree). You can, however, visit each race's starting areas on any character.

Edited September 15, 2021 by ASP.8093

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Zenopo.3128 said:

1.) What do you do for events, like for the Festival of the Four Winds?
1.a.) Do you *need* mounts to do anything/everything? (I'm seeing a lot of racing and hard to reach places that mounts are constantly being used for.)
2.) Do you need to buy The Living World quests to fully enjoy the story?
2.a.) There are some Living Story quests that are "locked" and are "playable at level 80". Does "locked" mean I have to buy it and "unlocked at level 80" mean I already own it?
2.b.) Should The Living World quests be completed after the "normal" story?
2.c.) Should you start the Living World quests from the very beginning, like doing all Season 1 first, than 2 etc...? (Honestly, any and all information on The Living World would be appreciated).
3.) How does the Wardrobe work?
4.) How much do you miss out on by only ever playing one race?

1. Achievements: Daily and Annual ones. In addition, anything you consider fun.
1.a. Yes, some mount-related achievements require the respective mount.

2. Living World consists of Seasons, which are split up into Episodes. For the full story, you need those, too.
2.a. Living World episodes unlock automatically for you on release day and the following weeks. You need to log into the game between an episode's release and the next, or else you will have to buy it.
2.b. The chronological order of story contents can be found here.
2.c. See 2.b., and yes, you usually do them chronologically. Also, all expansions and Living World Seasons are made for max level characters, so don't attempt any of it on lower levels or you will constantly be killed.

3. You find a weapon or piece of armor. If you don't have its skin unlocked yet, you can right-click the item and choose "Add to Wardrobe". This, however, will render the item untradeable. So if you don't like the skin and it is worth a lot on the Trading Post, you might decide to rather sell it. (Look out for Legendary Precursors - don't accidentally do anything with them that you might regret later.) Once you unlock a skin, you can apply it to any other piece of armor or weapon - it will cost you a Transmutation Charge, unless it is a legendary item you are transmuting (those can be transmuted for free now). You can preview a lot of skins (not all) in your Wardrobe, which can be accessed via the Bank.

4. You will miss out on a lot of Personal Story branches (story in the core campaign is branched depending on your choices), alongside achievements that can only be acquired by going through a certain number of story variations per race. The personal story also differs between races and the three Orders up until the Claw Island story part.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Ashantara.8731

[Zenopo.3128]

18 minutes ago, ASP.8093 said:

-snip-

If you signed up a few months ago and have been on at least once a week, you should have gotten all or almost all of the Living Story stuff unlocked for free (Season 4 Chapter 4 dropped free this week). If you're missing some and strapped for cash, I recommend asking around a bit before picking them up — people here can help you figure out which ones you'd like and which one are skippable for you. (Season 2 is the most skippable, imo, since there's already a bit of a time gap in Season 1, and it's not required to access the two Maguuma Wastes maps.)

-snip-

Thanks all who replied so far! As for this, I have not been logging in once a week for the past few months. Will this type of thing happen again/has this sort of thing happened before? Should I wait before progressing with the story until I have all Living World quests first? I wouldn't really want to skip any, because I very much enjoy  a good story, it helps to keep me engaged in a game.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Sometimes, Episodes are either given away free or discounted; nothing as grand as the 'Return to...' event going on now, though.  It could be quite awhile before all Living World Seasons are offered at a discount/free, again.  Doubtful before the release of End of Dragons. 

[Ashantara.8731]

11 hours ago, Zenopo.3128 said:

Thanks all who replied so far! As for this, I have not been logging in once a week for the past few months. Will this type of thing happen again/has this sort of thing happened before? Should I wait before progressing with the story until I have all Living World quests first? I wouldn't really want to skip any, because I very much enjoy  a good story, it helps to keep me engaged in a game.

Again, they are not quests, they are story episodes. A quest is a specific directive ("Go there, do that" etc). A GW2 story season is like an expansion, only chipped up into smaller bits called episodes.

If you don't want to be put on pause when progressing the story, you could wait until you have acquired all episodes of a full season. But this is your choice and not mandatory.

And yes, the Living World format the way it is today is always the same: episodes are for free if you log in in time for their release. It is not weekly, though, or we would have tons of story seasons by now. However, you should log in weekly for other reasons, like getting the latest news and checking on updates in the Gem Store as its offers change frequently.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Ashantara.8731

[Zenopo.3128]

9 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Sometimes, Episodes are either given away free or discounted; nothing as grand as the 'Return to...' event going on now, though.  It could be quite awhile before all Living World Seasons are offered at a discount/free, again.  Doubtful before the release of End of Dragons. 

Dang, thanks.

 

7 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Again, they are not quests, they are story episodes. A quest is a specific directive ("Go there, do that" etc). A GW2 story season is like an expansion, only chipped up into smaller bits called episodes.

If you don't want to be put on pause when progressing the story, you could wait until you have acquired all episodes of a full season. But this is your choice and not mandatory.

And yes, the Living World format the way it is today is always the same: episodes are for free if you log in in time for their release. It is not weekly, though, or we would have tons of story seasons by now. However, you should log in weekly for other reasons, like getting the latest news and checking on updates in the Gem Store as its offers change frequently.

My bad.
Double dang, despite not being mandatory, it is for me who likes a good story, so jumping all over the place, being unable to fully follow, is not something I would like to do.
Aye, it looks like I should have been doing that, if only so I could be getting all these story episodes =/

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

19 hours ago, Zenopo.3128 said:

Dang, thanks.

 

My bad.
Double dang, despite not being mandatory, it is for me who likes a good story, so jumping all over the place, being unable to fully follow, is not something I would like to do.
Aye, it looks like I should have been doing that, if only so I could be getting all these story episodes =/

The good news is, now you know!  If you log in this week, you'll get Season 4 episode 4 for free.  If you happened to login last weekend or on Monday, you also got episode 3.  So login over the next 2 to 3 weeks any you'll get episode 5 and 6, meaning you will only have to buy episodes 1 and 2.  That's a big savings, but wait, there's more!  If you wait for the whole season pack to go on sale in the gem store, it will be cheaper and Anet DOES pro-rate the season package, even when on sale.  If you can't wait for a sale...well, at least you're only buying two episodes for season 4.  I will note that both Season 3 and Season 4 introduced a new map with each episode, so that is 12 additional level 80 maps.  Season 3 maps have stat-selectable ascended trinkets (bought with unbound magic (think season currency) and the map specific currencies) that make having many of the maps worth the cost of the episodes alone.

One point I haven't seen anyone address - Labrynthine Cliffs.  All of the achievements, except for the mount specific ones, are doable without mounts.  LC was reintroduced to the game before mounts, so, all of the collections and such can be done without mounts.  Mounts do make it MUCH easier.  I remember doing it the hard way.

Festivals are huge for achievement points, so, it is always worth doing the annual achievements associated with them.  The first 80 gold I made in the game came from selling stacks of wintersday presents - I joined during the wintersday festival just after HoT came out.