Request: Top tips for a returning player

[DazLightSox.9627]

As above, I haven't played since PoF launched. Lots has changed and looking for some tips to get back into the world. 

 

I'm reading up on meta builds and rotations etc. But would really appreciate some inside knowledge from the experts!

 

Happy new year all

[Pirogen.9561]

Get griphon and skyscale mount. Yes, both. I mean, get all mounts.

Do/finish story before new expansion comes out.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

1 hour ago, DazLightSox.9627 said:

As above, I haven't played since PoF launched. Lots has changed and looking for some tips to get back into the world. 

 

I'm reading up on meta builds and rotations etc. But would really appreciate some inside knowledge from the experts!

 

Happy new year all

Is this for PvE, PvP or WvW?  Raids/Strikes or Fractals?  Do you have a main or are you looking for a new one?

 

The standard advice I give returning players is level a new character to 80 to get reacquainted with the game mechanics and such. Once you hit 80 you should have a good idea of what you want to do in the game (if you don’t already).  

Edited December 31, 2021 by Mungo Zen.9364

[DazLightSox.9627]

I've always mained as a thief and haven't ventured into anything other than pve / some pug fractals and pvp conquest. 

 

I thought about leveling another character as i have 4 level 80s and no clue where to start lol

Edited December 31, 2021 by DazLightSox.9627

[DazLightSox.9627]

2 hours ago, Pirogen.9561 said:

Get griphon and skyscale mount. Yes, both. I mean, get all mounts.

Do/finish story before new expansion comes out.

Is there any guides on how to get these?

[Mungo Zen.9364]

32 minutes ago, DazLightSox.9627 said:

I've always mained as a thief and haven't ventured into anything other than pve / some pug fractals and pvp conquest. 

 

I thought about leveling another character as i have 4 level 80s and no clue where to start lol

It really depends on how prepared you feel.  You already have those lvl 80 characters available and gearing them and putting them in a current build shouldn't be that expensive.  But you can do that at any time, and if you have a free character slot you can start leveling another character to get the feel for the game again as well.

If you like Thief, you can get an idea for the current builds at a site like Metabattle which will cover build, gearing, rotation/priority and alternate setups.

Thief - MetaBattle Guild Wars 2 Builds

There is usually a Core or Basic build for each profession under the Open World which can get you started.  When you have unlocked any eSpecs like Daredevil or Deadeye, you can transition into one of the other builds.

If you are not sold on Thief, you can trial a different profession by creating a new character and take it to the PvP lobby to try out the lvl 80 skills and traits.  This might give you some inspiration for what you enjoy playing.  If you don't like it, you can delete the character and try a different profession.

You may have a lvl 80 boost that can be used as a trial as well, running around Silverwastes.  Although you are limited by the weapon choices they provide you, you can still trial the core builds in a PvE setting.

Once you have a build put together, just keep following whatever you enjoy.  This game is very easy and has a lot to offer, be it exploration or story or meta events alongside instanced content and competitive modes.

[Dayra.7405]

Clearly it depends on your interests.

Play PoF and get the mounts there at least to 3, and get the griffon, if you don't care for the gold.

Get dead-eye specialization, you cannot use dead-eye rifle and daredevil-staff at the same time, but you can now easily switch builds when you are out-of-fight, one of my favoured chars at moment is a (marouder) thief switching daredvil and dead-eye depending on the fight I am awaiting.

Get LS 4 and get the skyscale (you need at least raptor-3 and springer-3 or a good mesmer/thief friend 🙂)  at the end of LS4 (save map currencies on the way through it, you will need 250 each for skyscale), it's the most versatile mount for everything.

The legendary armory gives new good reasons to gather legendary items.

These are the most important things since PoF I think.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Dayra.7405

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

3 hours ago, DazLightSox.9627 said:

Is there any guides on how to get these?

There are:  https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mount#Types_and_acquisition

[DazLightSox.9627]

Thanks guys. 

How important/ unimportant is it to find a guild?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

For some players, it is important; for others, not so much.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

51 minutes ago, DazLightSox.9627 said:

Thanks guys. 

How important/ unimportant is it to find a guild?

It depends on what your goal is to join a guild. Guild that have an upgraded Guild Hall and do regular Guild Mission can also offer you to earn Guild Currency that you can use to buy things like Guild Banners (that give boost to different things like XP, Gold, Karma and so on), you can change a base boost (Enhancement) and you will have faster access just by teleporting to GH to maps that are close like HoT maps (Gilded Hollow/Lost Precipice) or PoF map like Windswept Haven.

I would recommend to read this wiki to know what possible NPC vendors and feature each GH might have. There are two currencies related to Guilds: Favors and Guild Commendation. Favors are used to upgrade Guild Hall and Guild Commendation work more like Karma in PvE where you can use it to buy different things from GH NPC Vendors instad of Karama or Laurels combined with some Gold.

(Guild Mission is the only source to get Guild Commendation and is resticted to once a week - meaning you will not earn more just by being member of up 5 Guilds and doing the same GM, but you can cover different GM more easy)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_mission

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Commendation

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_hall

Guild Halls are also the only place where you can use Craftstations for Scribes, so there is another reason for getting into a guild and start working on getting a Scribe (which can craft Guild Related things that are also useful for yourself, for guild or that you can sell at TP).

If you play WvW you also have Tactics that Scribe can craft for so there is another reason to join a guild and with WvW Restructuring Guilds are meant to replace World vs World as Guilds now will instead become the main focus for who is fighting who and not which World your character might have been placed into when you started to play this game.

It is still in developement stage for WvW Restructering, but expected to go into final stage (public) some time after EoD have been released in Feb this year. It means that which Guild you will pick to join in WvW will have a larger impact then it had before in WvW. You can see this if you open WvW Panel where there is new tab added for which Guild you set to be your WvW Guild (it might only show when you have at least joined one guild).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_vs._World_panel

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2021-09-21#World_vs._World.E2.80.94World_Restructuring:_Phase_One_Beta


GH that also have upgraded Synthetic nodes that you farm are also another reason to be a member as you can fast gather some materials from those nodes which can be used in crafting or sold. There also often members in Guilds that have a complete or at least more nodes in their Home Instance then yourself that offer Guild members to Party with them to be able to use their Home Instance.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Home_instance

When farming from Home Instance and GH depending on which map region they belong to can also give you one or two of Daily Gathering Achievement done while you do this, so from a strategical point it is good to be member of more then one Guild with which have GH located in different regions (PoF or HoT maps), so you can fast just farm the one GH that is the right region for that Daily Achevement.

Using Guild UI teleport into GH and when leaving that instance you will be back where you where in game World, if you don't exit through maps connected directly to GH instance. So those GH do work like fast teleport network to get to close maps or to just do things at GH and back continue where left of from in game world.

Edited January 1, 2022 by ShadowCatz.8437

[ShadowCatz.8437]

13 hours ago, Pirogen.9561 said:

Get griphon and skyscale mount. Yes, both. I mean, get all mounts.

Do/finish story before new expansion comes out.

@DazLightSox.9627

To unlock Griffon you need to finish all PoF story as it first then you will be able to find those Feathers that start your collection towards Griffon. For Skyscale you need to finish a large part of War Eternal story which is LW Season 4 last episode. That will give you access to new map, Dragonfall, where you can borrow Skyscale. Here is can be useful to unlock all Crystal Desert mastery as you will have access even on borrowed mounts to those added mount skills. As an example with Springer (when you have gained it fully as a permanent mount) you eject from mount when you jump at the highest peak and glide down to some Mastery Insights which would be almost impossible to reach before you have Griffon or Skyscale.

Here is list of Mastery:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery

Use this to find which Mastery that are easy to find on maps, collect those and then finish up some Story as (there are instruction for which story you need to unlock Mastery Tracks in wiki) you will be rewarded Mastery Points when you finish story parts. There is plenty of video guides on YT where and how to find those Mastery.

Make sure that you at least finished up Gliding until you have Advanced Gliding Mastery unlocked as you will drop down very fast and end up dead if start gliding and don't land in time on ground.

Stealth (which you unlock before Advanced Gliding) helps also a lot (when you are in air gliding use dodge and it now work as a stealth independent on your characters profession) to avoid getting hit in air. Mushroom from Itzel loore Mastery will also be useful even when you later have Griffon or Skyscale as you can get higher up to Glide or use flying mount. (Mounts will be blocked sometimes from being set in combat mode, so you can't always use be depding on mounts when you an active aggro from hostile NPC on you and here all tools on form of Musroom, Updraft etc are still useful where those exist on maps like PoF, LW related to HoT/PoF and probably also later expansion. In IBS maps like Drizzlewood you will also find Mushroom and some other HoT tools like Ley Line Gliding).

(A) Get Gliding from doing HoT maps (see (E) down here for LW Season maps that also give XP towards green Mastery Points) and related LW season (you will earn some easy Mastery Insights and gain XP to those green Mastery - you check can which map that you earn XP mastery track for in the right lower corner and see how XP bar - yellow line at button of screen will increase over time until it is full and you place your MP into that skill/ability).

Don't forget that when a XP line is full that you can change where those XP (Mastery Tack) will go, if you have an grey out Mastery that are ready be set to active. Finishing some story for the first time also reward a large ptions of XP, so here it is useful to make sure you have an active Mastery Track where those XP will go into when you are at the end of that part of story. It will be automatically be consumed when you accept your reward.

(B) Get Raptor and Springer - do the necessary unlock from story and progress those until you have at least base abilty to jump further both in distance (horizonal) and hights (vertical).

(C) Unlock Crystal Champion which give will give all your mounts tools to get around and survive better. The most important from these are Bond of Faith as you with that jump off your mount and glide down (if you dont use Gliding) without getting killed and reach places that would be impossible before you have flying mounts or Jackal (which to some degree can also work in air before you land on ground)

(D) Skimmer will be necessary for some area like on Dragonfall where you take damage from standing on ground too long time (you can jump to avoid this, but it will be hard) and also land from higher level on maps, if you don't want to Glide or have a flying mount. It is also necessary for quicksand area. In Dry Top you have special skills that make it possible to cross quicksand, but with Skimmer you can cross those places without sinking too fast to stay alive. There are also some PoF Masery you will have trouble to reach without Skimmer.

(E) Crystal Champion also unlocks necessary currency in form of Volatail Magic and the same with Bloodstone Fen or Ember Bay unlock (read GW2 wiki for which story and what each maps offer as you only need one of these to unlock also Unbound Magic which work as HoT currency). Those two main expansion currencies are useful to unlock as early as possible as you will collect those over time every time you are the map where those exist. For Skyscale you can also use VM to buy map currency on LW season 4 map currency at Dragonfall main WP NPC, so you will faster have enough to buy what is needed for Skyscale. Some of these can later be converted into VM, if you don't have enough of space in Material Storage when you use Consume option instead of Dispose option which will place them into Material Storage.

On Sandswept Island it is possible to jump and collect a large part of VM that are in air before you get Griffon or Skyscale with only Springer and Raptor/Jackal.
 

[DazLightSox.9627]

Thanks all lots to chew on