How do you guys manage alts in the open world?

[Ashgar.3024]

I was a one character kind of person for a long time playing this game, slowly opening up to other professions over time mostly for the sake of playing end game with them (Fractals and both forms of PvP mostly).

 

So it means i have one character with everything done and unlocked and  others with basically nothing, which makes going anywhere in the world kind of a pain on them.

 

Another very personal and probably borderline OCD reason is that i  can't bring myself to do the story on any other character, having done every single season (except season 1) and story quests as my main character, it feels completely weird to pluck another (specially if he's the same race as my main) in the middle of it.

 

It feels there's so much more rewarding things i could be doing with my  time in the game than redo map exploration and if i need to farm something or go anywhere for any reason i can just log on my Thief anyway. But on the other hand changing things around (going on tankier classes for example like Holo when i want to take a break from Thief) is nice, but i open my map and get discouraged and immediately log back on my Thief lol.

 

So yeah anyway, how do you guys handle this?

 

Feels like i'm making it a bigger deal than it needs to be but i've been going in circles about it for a bit now.

[costepj.5120]

All my 14 mains (I don't really do alts!) have full world completion so it's a non-issue for me.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

I have multiple level 80 alts. I have one char that does the story. The rest I alternate to do events, non story achievements, etc.  I did map exploration years ago on several alts but at this time, I feel like I’ve been there, done that and don’t need to do it anymore.

 

so I log on to my char of the day and play. I don’t concern myself about story so much. If you prefer you can consider one char the Commander and the rest are anonymous foot soldiers in the battle.

[Gehenna.3625]

12 minutes ago, Griever.8150 said:

So it means i have one character with everything done and unlocked and  others with basically nothing, which makes going anywhere in the world kind of a pain on them.

I do map completion and I have a lot of teleport items.

Quote

Another very personal and probably borderline OCD reason is that i  can't bring myself to do the story on any other character, having done every single season (except season 1) and story quests as my main character, it feels completely weird to pluck another (specially if he's the same race as my main) in the middle of it.

This is a myth, you don't have to do the story on alts to access any maps. Why people still think that is puzzling to me.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Gehenna.3625

[Ashgar.3024]

Just now, Gehenna.3625 said:

I do map completion and I have a lot of teleport items.

This is a myth, you don't have to do the story on alts to access any maps. Why people still think that is puzzling to me.

 

I mean, the ways to unlock them outside of it are kinda obscure. I have the Lilly of the Elon teleport for PoF base maps so its one way, but for HoTS i'm kind of stuck doing the story.

 

Otherwise friends + Teleport to Friends yeah but that's kind of clunky.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

5 minutes ago, Griever.8150 said:

 

I mean, the ways to unlock them outside of it are kinda obscure. I have the Lilly of the Elon teleport for PoF base maps so its one way, but for HoTS i'm kind of stuck doing the story.

 

Otherwise friends + Teleport to Friends yeah but that's kind of clunky.

if you have a guild that’s located in HoT then any char can get into Verdant Brinks. I’m pretty sure the first waypoint unlocks when you go through the portal leading from the guild hall to the map. 

[Ashgar.3024]

Noted. Didn't know that.

[Gehenna.3625]

10 minutes ago, Griever.8150 said:

 

I mean, the ways to unlock them outside of it are kinda obscure. I have the Lilly of the Elon teleport for PoF base maps so its one way, but for HoTS i'm kind of stuck doing the story.

 

Otherwise friends + Teleport to Friends yeah but that's kind of clunky.

If I remember right you can go through to the Silverwastes on the West side of Brisbane Wildlands and then again in the Silverwastes on the South-West corner (behind the outpost there is a little passage) and from there you can enter Verdant Brink. Of course the primary way is to do the story and that's what Anet prefers but you can get there without teleport to friend.

Edited September 15, 2021 by Gehenna.3625

[Linken.6345]

5 minutes ago, Griever.8150 said:

Noted. Didn't know that.

You can run into verdant brink from silverwaste no story needed.

[Zok.4956]

13 minutes ago, Griever.8150 said:

 

I mean, the ways to unlock them outside of it are kinda obscure. I have the Lilly of the Elon teleport for PoF base maps so its one way, but for HoTS i'm kind of stuck doing the story.

 

You can just walk with your alts from The Silverwastes to Verdant Brank, no need to use teleports or to do the story with alts.

 

 

[Doggie.3184]

It helps having all the Living World teleport tomes with some shared slots.

[Gehenna.3625]

2 minutes ago, Doggie.3184 said:

It helps having all the Living World teleport tomes with some shared slots.

yep that's the best way to give your alts access to all the LS and IBS maps.

[Xanadrine.4352]

The problem becomes when you need to go to bitterfrost or DM or any of the other zones you need for certain ascended or even legendary gear. Now you have to drag alt after alt through these stories to get into the zones. I dont mind stories the first couple of times, but its tiresome having to do them again and again. They should sell or have a vendor ingame with a skip portal if you have done the story on the account already you can choose to do it again or not to get into the zone.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

16 minutes ago, Zuldari.3940 said:

The problem becomes when you need to go to bitterfrost or DM or any of the other zones you need for certain ascended or even legendary gear. Now you have to drag alt after alt through these stories to get into the zones. I dont mind stories the first couple of times, but its tiresome having to do them again and again. They should sell or have a vendor ingame with a skip portal if you have done the story on the account already you can choose to do it again or not to get into the zone.

Here’s a list of available Portal scrolls

as a specific example, here’s a link to the Bitterfrost Frontier Portal Scroll

[DeanBB.4268]

Should we make a list...which doesn't include just getting on a raptor and running...

Guild halls have access to HoT or PoF

Lily of the Elon, and similar hubs

Portals, for season 3 and 4

World Boss Portal Device - I use this and the Maguuma one constantly on a new character, to open up waypoints

Maguuma Pact Operation Portal Device

Sunspear portal gizmo

Waypoint unlocks (if you want to spend the gems)

Teleport to Friend 

[SexyMofo.8923]

LS tomes  and rollerbettle.  If I’m super lazy, find some random party in lfg and tp to friend. 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

2 hours ago, Zuldari.3940 said:

The problem becomes when you need to go to bitterfrost or DM or any of the other zones you need for certain ascended or even legendary gear. Now you have to drag alt after alt through these stories to get into the zones. I dont mind stories the first couple of times, but its tiresome having to do them again and again. They should sell or have a vendor ingame with a skip portal if you have done the story on the account already you can choose to do it again or not to get into the zone.

I'm sorry, but I am surprised after, at least, 2 years you are not familiar with Portal Scrolls.  Never looked at what the Unbound/Volatile Magic NPC vendors offer? 

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

Most of the common stuff has already been posted. I will just add a few tricks and hints. How to save time and money. There is no need to purchase every portal-scroll that exists. Here we go:

Note: The Living World shortcuts only work for episodes you own. 

The Jahai Bluffs Portal Scroll is a good alternative for the Invitation to "Lily of the Elon", Spearmarshal's Plea and the PoF Guildhall (Windswept Haven). I know portal-scrolls have been mentioned a lot in this thread, but this one in particular is actually worth carrying in a shared inventory slot. When you activate it, you are teleported to the Jahai Bluffs. Then you dodge backwards 2x and you are teleported to the Domain of Vabbi (PoF), near the Necropolis Waypoint. If you head south in the Jahai Bluffs, you can enter the Domain of Kourna via Wurmhaven. That is three maps with one item. 

Upon reaching level 80, you have the Eye of the North automatically unlocked. Just head for the pink Asura Gate and enter the following Strike Missions. Leave through the blue portal, but pick the map instead of the Eye of the North. That way you can unlock all IBS maps:

- Shiverpeaks Pass => Grothmar Valley

- Boneskinner/Whisper/Kodan/Fraenir => Bjora Marches

- Cold War => Drizzlewood Coast

In addition, you can also use the Dragon Response Mission for Lake Doric, head straight to Doric's Landing Waypoint, which magically unlocks the real waypoint outside the instance as well. This works with the other maps including Thunderhead Peaks, too. The real-world waypoints will show up automatically, just get close to unlock them. They will vanish from your minimap afterwards, but they stay unlocked when leaving the instance.

Enter either sPvP (Heart of the Mists) or WvW and walk through the pink Asura Gate to get to Lion's Arch. As usual, the cinematic automatically ports you to the Trader's Waypoint near the bank. Head east to Farshore Ward and use the portal next to the Cavern Waypoint to get into Lonar's Pass. Head up the wooden path north to the Durmand Priory and use any mount to get to the Asura Gate. You will be teleported to the Straits of the Devastation, Fort Trinity. There you can head straight into the Vigil portal and reach the Vigil Headquarters in Gendarran Fields.

From there you can quickly get to Snowden Drifts (east) or Harathi Hinterlands (north-west) via Povern Waypoint. 

Either via Gate Hub Plaza or by heading North from Shaemor Waypoint, you enter Divinity's Reach. Entering the portal at the Plaza of Lyssa grants access to Lake Doric (LW3), the portal at the Rurikton grants access to Fields of Ruin.

Edited September 17, 2021 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[Keymaster.7362]

I have over 20 characters. I love all of them and i am not really able to choose a Main. Only a handful of them have map completion, needed for the legendarys and not a Single char has 100% of the Story.

By every new Living Story and addon i use the most fitting char, or i simply want so play a specific one that didn't get enough attention in the last months.

The great thing in GW2 for alts is that you only need to play the story once and you aren't forced to play it in chonologic order from level 1, like in other games.

You can buy teleport tomes for every living Story map. For the addonmaps you can use the guildhalls or the exclusive lounges. Or you can still use teleports to friends for everyrhing.

And all the fractals, strikemissions and raids are also availabe for every character after you unlocked them with a single one.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Keymaster.7362

[Kaliwenda.3428]

I use alts for crafting and as extra storage.  I started using a few as festival players.  Of course I have my weekly key run alt.  And when I have time to kill waiting for the daily reset and don't have other stuff to do, I take my lower-levels out and do map completion/leveling with them.  (Usually that turns into an exercise of remembering how to play their class) . 🙂

One thing I enjoy about running the story on different characters is that the dialog you get changes sometimes depending on their race or class.  Just recently,  the conversations I  heard in passing among the olmakhan were very different when my commander was a charr vs. an asura.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Kaliwenda.3428

[Grimlineman.6759]

2 hours ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

Most of the common stuff has already been posted. I will just add a few tricks and hints. How to save time and money. There is no need to purchase every portal-scroll that exists. Here we go:

Note: The Living World shortcuts only work for episodes you own. 

The Jahai Bluffs Portal Scroll is a good alternative for the Invitation to "Lily of the Elon", Spearmarshal's Plea and the PoF Guildhall (Windswept Haven). I know portal-scrolls have been mentioned a lot in this thread, but this one in particular is actually worth carrying in a shared inventory slot. When you activate it, you are teleported to the Jahai Bluffs. Then you dodge backwards 2x and you are teleported to the Domain of Vabbi (PoF), near the Necropolis Waypoint. If you head south in the Jahai Bluffs, you can enter the Domain of Kourna via Wurmhaven. That is three maps with one item. 

Upon reaching level 80, you have the Eye of the North automatically unlocked. Just head for the pink Asura Gate and enter the following Strike Missions. Leave through the blue portal, but pick the map instead of the Eye of the North. That way you can unlock all IBS maps:

- Shiverpeaks Pass => Grothmar Valley

- Boneskinner/Whisper/Kodan/Fraenir => Bjora Marches

- Cold War => Drizzlewood Coast

In addition, you can also use the Dragon Response Mission for Lake Doric, head straight to Doric's Landing Waypoint, which magically unlocks the real waypoint outside the instance as well. This works with the other maps including Thunderhead Peaks, too. The real-world waypoints will show up automatically, just get close to unlock them. They will vanish from your minimap afterwards, but they stay unlocked when leaving the instance.

Enter either sPvP (Heart of the Mists) or WvW and walk through the pink Asura Gate to get to Lion's Arch. As usual, the cinematic automatically ports you to the Trader's Waypoint near the bank. Head east to Farshore Ward and use the portal next to the Cavern Waypoint to get into Lonar's Pass. Head up the wooden path north to the Durmand Priory and use any mount to get to the Asura Gate. You will be teleported to the Straits of the Devastation, Fort Trinity. There you can head straight into the Vigil portal and reach the Vigil Headquarters in Gendarran Fields.

From there you can quickly get to Snowden Drifts (east) or Harathi Hinterlands (north-west) via Povern Waypoint. 

Either via Gate Hub Plaza or by heading North from Shaemor Waypoint, you enter Divinity's Reach. Entering the portal at the Plaza of Lyssa grants access to Lake Doric (LW3), the portal at the Rurikton grants access to Fields of Ruin.

 

This post came a little to late for me 😞 I just spent a bunch of currency buying all the scrolls and tomes for the 3 living seasons

. Oh well hopefully I’ll get some use out of them.
 

Good info! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Xanadrine.4352]

On 9/15/2021 at 2:44 PM, Griever.8150 said:

Noted. Didn't know that.

I didnt either, I thought the portal scrolls were for the new areas. One problem I noticed is the game dont really give you any information unless you /wiki everything. People always go...how do you not know that? im like because the game isnt very intuitive. You have to wiki everything and really dont like playing that way with a browser open all the time, wish they had more ingame information and hints pointing you where to go. Newer players sometimes just stand there going...i dont have a clue where im supposed to go or what im supposed to do. This game is overload, in other games you can jump right in follow the quests lines there is a type of path so you dont stand there going...what now? I missed so much because I didnt know about it.

[costepj.5120]

2 hours ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

Enter either sPvP (Heart of the Mists) or WvW and walk through the pink Asura Gate to get to Lion's Arch. As usual, the cinematic automatically ports you to the Trader's Waypoint near the bank. Head east to Farshore Ward and use the portal next to the Cavern Waypoint to get into Lonar's Pass. Head up the wooden path north to the Durmand Priory and use any mount to get to the Asura Gate. You will be teleported to the Straits of the Devastation, Fort Trinity. There you can head straight into the Vigil portal and reach the Vigil Headquarters in Gendarran Fields.

 

As far as I'm aware, Fort Trinity portals don't work until the character has completed that part of the story.

[StrangerDanger.3496]

I like Alts, it provided flavor to whatever i want to do in game where I can look at my alts and go "today i will do necromancer things" and then I either start progressing PVE tasks that I haven't done, or, I go into PVP.

 

So the way I look at alts, I have some I've done a lot in, some I've done nothing but boost effectively.  I have more fun things i can do on those than one I've played longer.  That turns into, I tend to PVP/WvW with my older characters that have done most the PVE and with my lesser played characters I have more to do.

 

So its whatever I'm in the mood for.  In the mood for core game open world casual play?  Well I need to do that on Alt X, Y, Z....ok which class feels like it will be fun today?  Then do stuff on class choice.

 

I do not care about completing 100% on any one character really, more its just options that i now have...and its nice to have some characters boosted with no progress in anything as those are sort of blank slates that ill use when i want to do PVE and exploration when I'm in the mood for that.  Yeah sometimes I'm in the mood to just run/raptor through the game world hitting teleports ect.

 

 

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

1 hour ago, Grimlineman.6759 said:

This post came a little to late for me 😞 I just spent a bunch of currency buying all the scrolls and tomes for the 3 living seasons.

I intended to post a little earlier, but I'm quite short in time at the moment. Those lists take a little time to assemble.

59 minutes ago, costepj.5120 said:

As far as I'm aware, Fort Trinity portals don't work until the character has completed that part of the story.

My Necromancer is a Human with the current personal story step The Floating Grizwhirl (level 20). I was able to use all three portals. There is an auto-teleport mechanism to kick players out of the portal-section, who have not done that story section yet. That is correct. But that mechanism can easily be bypassed. There is actually a path, from the right where you do not even need a mount to get inside and close enough to the portal. As far as I remember, this path exists since vanilla.

Edited September 17, 2021 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870