What is something you wish you knew when you started playing?!

[Milkshake.4370]

I'll start;

 

1) I really wish I could tell myself to activate multiple achievements at once LOL. It would have been so much easier to complete "Visions of Istan", "Return To Istan" and "Daybreak" simultaneously!!! There are many time-gated achievements that are simply unlocked by speaking to a specific vendor. At the same time, I do enjoy returning to older maps and doing more.

 

2) I really wish I spent the extra 3-5 minutes looking things up before salvaging or destroying. I have definitely destroyed Legendary materials or salvaged valuable weapons that were worth gold just because I didn't know the value or need. I destroyed the Olmakhan bandolier only to find out a couple months later that it was needed to craft the 32-slot storage box hahahaha

I know it's just a game but ah would have been so much easier to just keep it

 

3) To anyone just starting the game, unlock the raptor mount. Don't worry so much about others, but definitely the raptor mount will improve your gameplay experience in my opinion. When I first started, I hated walking around the huge maps or trying to follow an HP train and not being able to keep up with the groups. If you are joining now, definitely do the level 80 boost and unlock the raptor (I wouldn't get the others just yet because it would spoil the story).

 

[Farohna.6247]

I wish I would have known you can type /wiki in game for information 😬

[The Boz.2038]

"I don't know what this is, I'll just destroy it."

That there is the problem. It's an exotic weapon with a unique name? Let's just quickly check the TP before we dismantle it for ecto.

This looks like a strange material I have no use for? Let's just deposit it into my material storage, just in case I need it later on.

This strange item has no obvious use, but doesn't get sold as a junk item? Lemme just /wiki and click it, maybe it's important.

[Danikat.8537]

I should have taken the time to learn what all the attributes actually do much sooner, instead of relying on guessing.

Originally specialisations boosted different attributes, and I started out thinking power only applied to melee weapons and precision was for ranged weapons, because the ranger's skirmishing trait line boosted power and marksmanship boosted precision and that's sort-of how it worked in GW1.

[Jukhy.2431]

I'd say salvaging different rarities the way I do it now. Would have made a lot more gold.

[Sahne.6950]

In the beginning i did find it hard to make money, because for some reason i didnt think about the fact that most of the money i am making is going straight to my materialbank. Clearing it from time to time to make some money was a big breakthru for me at one point 😄 I was just stacking mats in my back till this time.

[Dami.5046]

That playing the game for more than 30mins at a time would give me a headache/be sick because the PoV set off my motion sickness 😞

Thankfully they sorted the camera settings, but i still get the odd headache here and there.

missed out on 4 years because of it.

Edited February 18, 2022 by Dami.5046

[Sahne.6950]

2 hours ago, Dami.5046 said:

That playing the game for more than 30mins at a time would give me a headache/be sick because the PoV set off my motion sickness 😞

Thankfully they sorted the camera settings, but i still get the odd headache here and there.

missed out on 4 years because of it.

a very easy fix for motionsickness is to put your monitor further away. Motionsicknedd occurs because your brain sees something moving on the screen but your body in reallife doesnt move. If you put the monitor further away your brain will recognize the room around the screen aswell and that fixes this effect alot of the time.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

1.) Creating and deleting my first character multiple times during the first months was an absolutely dumb idea.
Reason: I cannot get the n'th year aniversary reward until my oldest character reached that age. Which is my first main-chatacter, which I have decided to create after I have wiped my account of my test-characters.

2.) Droprates in GW2 do not work like in other MMORPGs.
Reason: Especially in my first year, I have wasted quite some time farming drop-components from NPCs. Farming money instead and purchasing the stuff from the TP would have consumed a fraction of the time.

3.) Exotic gear when equipped changes to soulbound.
Reason: On my first engineer, I had a set of very expensive gear. When I was about to re-create the character (see above), I've just dropped the gear in the bank. Later I returned, but was unable to salvage any of the pieces. Left with only one option: deletion. Compared to today, it is nothing to worry about. But back then, this threw me back a couple of weeks.

4.) When ascended trinkets have the word "unique" in the description, do not buy two.
Reason: Unique gear means, a player can only equip one of these items at the same time. This applies to both ascended rings and accessories/earrings. If you happen to make this mistake nowadays with rings, there is a rather easy solution to this. >Attuning<
If an ascended ring is attuned, it counts as a separate item, so you can wear 2x the same ring.

Spoiler

I use this strategy nowadays to get cheap stat-swap trinkets from Bloodstone Fen: 2x Rings (1 normal, 1 attuned) + Backpack + Amulet. If I want new stats, I just need to buy one Bloodstone Capacitor. With this method, all I need are only two new earrings/accessories to switch stats. Which is a lot cheaper than purchasing a new set of everything.

5.) Celestial stats are not the best gear in the game.
Reason: I came from an MMORPG named Lineage II, where the most powerful gear set was an extremely overpowered armor with a rather long tooltip, all kinds of boni listed. When I have first seen the celestial stats, I though that would be the ultimate armor GW2. It took me about a year to figure out that gear is not so insanely overpowered in GW2 than it was in Lineage II. 

6.) Do not crash cool skins!
Reason: We did not have a wardrobe from the start. The old transmutation-system was quite annoying and tedious. You basically fused 2 items and decided which skin, stats and rune/sigil you wanted to keep. I have lost a couple of LW skins that way. Fortunately for me, they were later added to the laurel-vendor and to the reward vendors for the Festival of the Four Winds.

Edited February 18, 2022 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[Milkshake.4370]

22 hours ago, Farohna.6247 said:

I wish I would have known you can type /wiki in game for information 😬

LOL a bit of a weird reply since when you start playing a game, you dont immediately start to wiki each thing you encounter....otherwise its not fun? if that is your type of gameplay narrative then enjoy but i can assure you that the majority does not do that LMAO

[Milkshake.4370]

17 hours ago, The Boz.2038 said:

"I don't know what this is, I'll just destroy it."

That there is the problem. It's an exotic weapon with a unique name? Let's just quickly check the TP before we dismantle it for ecto.

This looks like a strange material I have no use for? Let's just deposit it into my material storage, just in case I need it later on.

This strange item has no obvious use, but doesn't get sold as a junk item? Lemme just /wiki and click it, maybe it's important.

Love this response!!! but also sometimes this isnt always the case, especially when its stuff that can be combined in the mystic forge as something that could be a precursor of a precursor of a precursor!!

Thats when /wiki comes in handy

[Milkshake.4370]

17 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I should have taken the time to learn what all the attributes actually do much sooner, instead of relying on guessing.

Originally specialisations boosted different attributes, and I started out thinking power only applied to melee weapons and precision was for ranged weapons, because the ranger's skirmishing trait line boosted power and marksmanship boosted precision and that's sort-of how it worked in GW1.

totally agree! Thank you for a wonderful response! 

[Milkshake.4370]

12 hours ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

1.) Creating and deleting my first character multiple times during the first months was an absolutely dumb idea.
Reason: I cannot get the n'th year aniversary reward until my oldest character reached that age. Which is my first main-chatacter, which I have decided to create after I have wiped my account of my test-characters.

2.) Droprates in GW2 do not work like in other MMORPGs.
Reason: Especially in my first year, I have wasted quite some time farming drop-components from NPCs. Farming money instead and purchasing the stuff from the TP would have consumed a fraction of the time.

3.) Exotic gear when equipped changes to soulbound.
Reason: On my first engineer, I had a set of very expensive gear. When I was about to re-create the character (see above), I've just dropped the gear in the bank. Later I returned, but was unable to salvage any of the pieces. Left with only one option: deletion. Compared to today, it is nothing to worry about. But back then, this threw me back a couple of weeks.

4.) When ascended trinkets have the word "unique" in the description, do not buy two.
Reason: Unique gear means, a player can only equip one of these items at the same time. This applies to both ascended rings and accessories/earrings. If you happen to make this mistake nowadays with rings, there is a rather easy solution to this. >Attuning<
If an ascended ring is attuned, it counts as a separate item, so you can wear 2x the same ring.

  Reveal hidden contents

I use this strategy nowadays to get cheap stat-swap trinkets from Bloodstone Fen: 2x Rings (1 normal, 1 attuned) + Backpack + Amulet. If I want new stats, I just need to buy one Bloodstone Capacitor. With this method, all I need are only two new earrings/accessories to switch stats. Which is a lot cheaper than purchasing a new set of everything.

5.) Celestial stats are not the best gear in the game.
Reason: I came from an MMORPG named Lineage II, where the most powerful gear set was an extremely overpowered armor with a rather long tooltip, all kinds of boni listed. When I have first seen the celestial stats, I though that would be the ultimate armor GW2. It took me about a year to figure out that gear is not so insanely overpowered in GW2 than it was in Lineage II. 

6.) Do not crash cool skins!
Reason: We did not have a wardrobe from the start. The old transmutation-system was quite annoying and tedious. You basically fused 2 items and decided which skin, stats and rune/sigil you wanted to keep. I have lost a couple of LW skins that way. Fortunately for me, they were later added to the laurel-vendor and to the reward vendors for the Festival of the Four Winds.

this is exactly why I created this post! with the massive influx of new players, information like this is super helpful!

 

I too struggled with creating multiple characters and deleting them! Totally agree with all of your points, thank you for the contribution

[Farohna.6247]

2 hours ago, Milkshake.4370 said:

LOL a bit of a weird reply since when you start playing a game, you dont immediately start to wiki each thing you encounter....otherwise its not fun? if that is your type of gameplay narrative then enjoy but i can assure you that the majority does not do that LMAO

LOL a bit of a rude reply, since you started destroying things instead of looking up more info or utilizing your resources.  I guess that's your style of gameplay, to just rush through and not pay attention but I can assure you that the majority do not do that either.   

Many new players do not know they can use it from within the game itself if they encounter unfamiliar objects.  Not sure what you're missing here, perhaps rushed again and didn't understand a reply.

 

[Dami.5046]

19 hours ago, Sahne.6950 said:

a very easy fix for motionsickness is to put your monitor further away. Motionsicknedd occurs because your brain sees something moving on the screen but your body in reallife doesnt move. If you put the monitor further away your brain will recognize the room around the screen aswell and that fixes this effect alot of the time.

Another easy fix was to just play another game 😅

 

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

6 hours ago, Milkshake.4370 said:

LOL a bit of a weird reply since when you start playing a game, you dont immediately start to wiki each thing you encounter....otherwise its not fun? if that is your type of gameplay narrative then enjoy but i can assure you that the majority does not do that LMAO

When the game started, this was not really a problem indeed. But the game is quite complex nowadays. There is so much going on, you cannot really risk playing without the wiki anymore. Especially if you are new to the game. Two small examples:

- When I have started, the only instanced group content we had were dungeons. New player arriving, want to play group-content. There are: Dungeons, Fractals T1-T4 and CM with dailies and recs (this point alone is quite confusing), Raids (which are discontinued right now), Strike Missions, Dragon Response Missions as well as open-world group content such as bounties, meta events and world-bosses.

- When I have started, we had plenty of currencies. We had gold, karma and the 8 dungeon-tokens. If you open your wallet for the first time today, there exist more currencies than you have inventory-slots. We have multiple threads on the board which are just about how to properly use karma. Some currencies can be converted, some combined and some can only be acquired during certain times.

And there is GW2's special understanding of tutorials. You find yourself running into concrete walls over and over and over. We have content creators with plenty of guides in their channels, even for the (from veteran player perspective) easiest things you can imagine. A guide for inventory management? Cute. And then you realize that you have made your life unnecessary complicated for the past few years. If I only knew that earlier! ^^

I like topics like this on the forums, because we can learn from each others. If things go as planned, what they never do, it just ends as a long list of people sharing their experiences. But some feel the urge to correct others or even pick up a fight, same as in "post your opinion" topics. On the other hand, this is a discussion board, people come here to discuss with others. 

[mikansei.5742]

Right click bouncy chests and completed renown hearts on the right side of your screen to instantly loot them to your inventory. If I think too hard about how many years I spent left clicking thru all those pointless confirmation windows I could cry.

Alt + click & drag will split a stack of items in your bank or inventory. Ctrl + click, on the other hand, will immediately broadcast whatever you clicked into your current chat channel, such that all of Lion's Arch now knows you tried and failed to split a stack and has witnessed your subsequent shame. Shift + click will enter whatever you clicked into your chat window but not immediately broadcast it, giving you the chance to backspace your shame.

Alt + left click on the map/minimap to place a personal marker visible only to you and your party. Shift + left click on the map/minimap to place a little pulsing red "ping" that's visible to everyone. Similarly, Shift + right click & drag to draw directly on the map/minimap. (Please only use that power for good.)

Shift + scrollwheel on the world map to scroll between elevation levels. Very handy in Mistlock Sanctuary.

[Kaliwenda.3428]

This one is trivial, but I didn't know that lots of items of gear that I'd worn/equipped and then switched out for better versions could be sold on the TP.  I came from a game where you couldn't do this and it never occurred to me to try, I always just sold them at the vendor. I stumbled on this completely by accident.

[Ashantara.8731]

On release, I wasn't aware of how the birthday gift system worked. I learnt much later -- after having deleted several day-1 characters (except for 2). Oh well, not the end of the world, but still a bit aggravating.

What else? Oh, I would have liked to understand crafting better at the time, or have liked to know that you could buy +5 infusions in WvW, instead of wasting so many resources on crafting those infusions or so many laurels on +4 infusions.😆

Also, I didn't get the whole leveling up your fractal rank system at first (i.e., that you need to play a fractal that is equal or higher than your current rank in order to progress). That really drove me crazy for a while, I think I even opened a support ticket because I thought something was broken.😉

[Sindust.7059]

Ranged weapons aren't always actually ranged, and melee weapons aren't always melee. I wish I knew that before I picked engineer as my first char.

[LSD.4673]

I'd always refine excess materials (or with Ecto, salvage). I've got a bunch of worthless materials now, like Charged Ambrite, which are worth much less than their constituent parts.

Always check prices before you mess about.

[Cuks.8241]

That there is a toggle to show all object names. I think I went all the way through vanilla, hot and pof without it. And usually the first thing I do is go though all the settings (maybe I even turned it off :)).

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Cuks.8241 said:

That there is a toggle to show all object names. I think I went all the way through vanilla, hot and pof without it. And usually the first thing I do is go though all the settings (maybe I even turned it off :)).

It might not have existed when you started and first looked through the options. I can't remember when it was added but I'm fairly sure it wasn't there at launch.

Oh that reminds me of another thing I wish I'd known, a fairly minor one but it felt like a big deal at the time: I wish I knew that the introduction isn't a real event. I'd been following the development of the game and read a lot about how instead of traditional quests it would use dynamic events which start and progress with or without players help, so if someone says centaurs are attacking the town they mean now and if you don't help it might be destroyed.

So I logged in for my first beta test, made a character and was planning to do what I usually do in new games; taking a minute to look through the menus and options and get used to things before I get going. But centaurs were attacking the town! Everything I knew about this game told me this had to be dealt with now, there was no time to stand around getting ready! I ended up rushing through the whole introduction without really knowing what I was doing or even what all the controls were and only had time to sort myself out when I woke up in the inn afterwards.

I think I only realised how it actually worked when I made my second character, noticed the exact same 'event' running and that it was at exactly the same point when I loaded in and decided to try doing things a bit differently this time. I spent more time rescuing the villagers around Shaemoor and fighting the centaurs coming in from the sides and in the process realised it's not a dynamic event and the situation won't actually change so you can take your time with it.

[Milkshake.4370]

On 2/18/2022 at 9:12 AM, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

1.) Creating and deleting my first character multiple times during the first months was an absolutely dumb idea.
Reason: I cannot get the n'th year aniversary reward until my oldest character reached that age. Which is my first main-chatacter, which I have decided to create after I have wiped my account of my test-characters.

2.) Droprates in GW2 do not work like in other MMORPGs.
Reason: Especially in my first year, I have wasted quite some time farming drop-components from NPCs. Farming money instead and purchasing the stuff from the TP would have consumed a fraction of the time.

3.) Exotic gear when equipped changes to soulbound.
Reason: On my first engineer, I had a set of very expensive gear. When I was about to re-create the character (see above), I've just dropped the gear in the bank. Later I returned, but was unable to salvage any of the pieces. Left with only one option: deletion. Compared to today, it is nothing to worry about. But back then, this threw me back a couple of weeks.

4.) When ascended trinkets have the word "unique" in the description, do not buy two.
Reason: Unique gear means, a player can only equip one of these items at the same time. This applies to both ascended rings and accessories/earrings. If you happen to make this mistake nowadays with rings, there is a rather easy solution to this. >Attuning<
If an ascended ring is attuned, it counts as a separate item, so you can wear 2x the same ring.

  Hide contents

I use this strategy nowadays to get cheap stat-swap trinkets from Bloodstone Fen: 2x Rings (1 normal, 1 attuned) + Backpack + Amulet. If I want new stats, I just need to buy one Bloodstone Capacitor. With this method, all I need are only two new earrings/accessories to switch stats. Which is a lot cheaper than purchasing a new set of everything.

5.) Celestial stats are not the best gear in the game.
Reason: I came from an MMORPG named Lineage II, where the most powerful gear set was an extremely overpowered armor with a rather long tooltip, all kinds of boni listed. When I have first seen the celestial stats, I though that would be the ultimate armor GW2. It took me about a year to figure out that gear is not so insanely overpowered in GW2 than it was in Lineage II. 

6.) Do not crash cool skins!
Reason: We did not have a wardrobe from the start. The old transmutation-system was quite annoying and tedious. You basically fused 2 items and decided which skin, stats and rune/sigil you wanted to keep. I have lost a couple of LW skins that way. Fortunately for me, they were later added to the laurel-vendor and to the reward vendors for the Festival of the Four Winds.

This is probably one of the best posts on this thread, thank you! Although I knew about #1, I never thought about it this way. I too played on my first character for 3 months and then deleted it instead of creating a 2nd.

 

2) Echoing the info from #2 - this is so true! Unlike other MMORPG's, in GW2 players are rewarded more with actual gameplay and event participation. For example, completing the achievements which reward prizes or doing the Halloween events is far more lucrative than conventional farming, NPC interaction, and hoping for drop rates.

3/4) so true! only Legendary weapons are interchangeable!

 

for the new players; play the actual game content and participate in events and world bosses to be rewarded. Learn to work the trading post and use your profession to craft items that yield profit. This is far more fun than farming and hoping for drops. 

 

 

[nottsgman.8206]

I wish I'd known that right-clicking on utility skills brought up the panel that allows you to switch them instead of trying to click the little up arrow. spent way too much time accidentally activating skills while trying to switch them out back in the day 🤣