What is the endgame? How do I get to it?

[grubbymitts.2839]

Hey, I would call myself a new player but that's a lie. I got this game shortly after it came out, actually. I played it on and off, only at the most casual level, mainly just chillin and explorin. The furthest I've ever got in any endgame is killing a big dragon dude and getting a raptor mount. I have 1 of each class of varying levels, but my only max level rn is an engi who's doing what I think is the main story endgame. 

So I want this to be my main game, right. What is the endgame? How do I get to it? How does it work? I remember being stuck in PoF because I had to get to a really high point and the game was just NOT telling me how to do that lmao. I would like to at least get every mount. Should I go for map completion? How long should levelling take, and should I just power through it to get to max level content faster?? Is there an equivalent to raids I should be looking for? PvP? When I look at a guide it mentions mastery points and things like that and I am just. So confused.

What does endgame progression look like on a character? What is the point of this gaaaaame? Please, explain like, every aspect to the endgame to me like I'm stupid. Thanks <3

[Ariurotl.3718]

The endgame is... FASHION! ⚜️

[ASP.8093]

PvE exploration/experiences:

• Doing the whole story: main story, expansions, Living World seasons

• Getting map completion on all the maps

These aren't mandatory to enjoy the stuff below, but I think most people attempt them with at least one character.

 

Growing your character / account after level 80:

• Unlocking all the specializations and abilities for your character profession

• Getting ascended gear (the topmost plateau of power), or legendary gear (same stats but more flexible and shiny)

• Unlocking Masteries to improve your abilities in open world in various ways

 

Endgame open-world stuff:

Usually there are some big metas that people try to farm for special rare drops or just because they have good gold/hour returns. Many invest that income into crafting legendaries.

Popular maps for doing the big metas include Auric Basin, Dragonfall, and Drizzlewood Coast.

 

Endgame instanced content:

• Fractals of the Mists — bite-sized 5-player missions with a variety of outlandish scenarios; they have their own 100-level difficulty progression and their own little upgrade economy

• Strike Missions — mostly designed as self-contained boss battles for a 10-player group, many are pretty accessible for a fresh 80 who understands basic game mechanics and has decent exotic-level gear

• Raids — like Strike Missions but more expansive and (usually) much harder

• (Dragon Response Missions — Short 5-player missions, I think most people ignore them nowadays.)

• (Dungeons — part of the original game; kinda neglected now but some people still enjoy running them; can be quite challenging, especially if you're trying to speed clear)

In my experience, Fractals have the best rewards for the effort put in, but they also have some mandatory gold sinks as you work your way up. Doing the weekly strikes is pretty satisfying — there's a lot to learn but they're not so hard as to be out-of-reach of the averaged experienced player.

 

Specific kinds of achievement-hunting:

• Jumping puzzles

• Fishing achievements

• Collecting special skins

• Just trying to get your achievement points as high as possible

 

Outside of PvE:

• Structured PvP

• World vs World

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For me, personally? Just as an example:

I have 100% map and story completion on my main thief character. She also has four full ascended gear sets for different builds I might want to play (Berserker, Viper, and Ritualist gear for PvE; Marauder gear for World vs World). I've spent a lot of time and gold picking up skins.

Normally when I log on to do PvE, I'll do the daily "tier 4" Fractals about 3-5 times per week, and I'll do Icebrood Saga and End of Dragons strike missions about 1-3 times a week. I tend to farm Season 3 / Season 4 currencies (Winterberries &c.) about once a week, usually on the day that there's a bonus for doing that activity.

I also do WvW 1-3 nights, with my guild or roaming solo.

I've got a very well-geared Guardian I use for instanced content (when the group needs a Healbrand), and Revenant and Elementalist for WvW. My other characters are in various states of development; I'm currently building up a PvE engineer.

Whenever new PvE stuff drops, I usually set aside my normal "endgame" activities to focus on story, map completion, and maxing out masteries.

Edited May 5, 2022 by ASP.8093

[Sigerk.2897]

I would first recommend you slow down and take some time to get to know the flow of the game. It sounds like you're a bit all over the place. Finishing the story on at least one character is I think the best way to get familiar with the game's core mechanics as that will lead you through most of the core maps and will have you do things on those maps that will help getting you familiar with the game in multiple aspects like who is who, what is where, where can I find X and Y and why am I doing this particular thing here and that particular thing there. 

If the story really doesn't interest you I guess you can start getting into the Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire maps. But again there, playing the story as you work across the expansions will really help guide you to the essential things you need to get the most out of those maps, and your character's progression as well. In HoT that would be gliding and in Path of Fire this would be mounts. There are other masteries earned in these expansions, but those 2 have the most impact on your overall gameplay. Playing through them chronologically will have you end up with most of what you need and some clear ideas of how the systems work and where to go to progress further. 

Power through levelling if you think you know your class. Take them for a spin in dungeons for some skill testing on a lower level. You can still get parties quick enough by using the group finder. Dungeons are not hard, but its a nice step to see how you are doing with your character in terms of basic skill knowledge. Fractals, which can be accessed from Lion's Arch are also a good way to familiarize yourself with instanced group content. They run from t1 to t4, t4 having a few challenge modes. t4 and challenge modes, or motes (cm) can be considered end game. Each tier becomes progressively harder, t1 being beginner, t4 experienced.

 

The story instances themselves, especially from Heart of Thorns on, can also be a great help and self test in terms of skill knowledge, class knowledge, and knowledge of game mechanics. 

The game does have raids starting with Heart of Torns. These can also be considered end game content. They require squads of ten people and quite a bit of coordination. It's best to start with these when you feel confident about playing your class. There are guilds that do training sessions, you can ask in the world via map chat, and sometimes they appear in the group finder. You can also list yourself there as looking for a training squad. Joining a guild that has regular sessions with static groups is also a good way to get into them. 

They added strikes as well, which are meant to be stepping stones to get players familiar with the sort of content raids offer. Strikes started with the Icebrood Saga, with the first one released being the easiest, and you could say that each release got a little harder, with End of Dragons strikes adding challenge modes as well and really getting into raid territory in terms of difficulty. Strikes are also a lot shorter than your average raid, usually consisting of just one boss fight that you can get into right away. Average time for completing them is about 5 to 20 minutes for Icebrood Saga strikes, and 10 to I'd say 30 minutes depending on group skill for the End of Dragons strikes. 

As for the rest,  it all depends on how much fun you are having. Fun gives you motivation to do more things. World Completion can be worth it for various reasons, all very much depending on the player. But I repeat, I think you will get the most mileage out of taking your time with learning the game, and that is best done by playing it chronologically in terms of releases as much as possible for you. And finding a guild that's active and fits your needs can be a great help. If you're socially inclined, having friends to play with can greatly increase your enjoyment. They will also be able to help you better within the game than people on the forums will be able to.

Also the end game really is fashion. 

Edited May 6, 2022 by Sigerk.2897

[Buran.3796]

 Full legendary gear, at least for your main. That doesn't only make it adaptable to any changes in the meta, or new stats, but also able to re-skin your appareance ad nauseam.

[ASP.8093]

35 minutes ago, Buran.3796 said:

 Full legendary gear, at least for your main. That doesn't only make it adaptable to any changes in the meta, or new stats, but also able to re-skin your appareance ad nauseam.

I mean, the Mystic Forge also makes you pretty adaptable to any changes in the meta.

[grubbymitts.2839]

thanks so much for the responses guys, i really appreciate it!! im ready to play the crap outta this game time to throw wow in the dumpster lets goooooo

[Randulf.7614]

Whilst strong cases are made that endgame is wvw, instances or legendaries, ultimately endgame is hitting level 80 and doing whatever you want. That’s always been the point and a pillar of the game. 
 

Dont over analyse it, just play what you fancy. You can’t get it wrong. Well, unless you dye your fashion choices full neon yellow. Then you are wrong. I know - Ive been there

Edited May 6, 2022 by Randulf.7614

[Drall.2419]

14 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

... unless you dye your fashion choices full neon yellow. Then you are wrong. I know - Ive been there

I feel there should be an achievement for that...!

[Sugar Min.5834]

Don't listen to them. The real endgame content is FISHING.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Mil.3562

[Buran.3796]

On 5/6/2022 at 2:08 AM, ASP.8093 said:

I mean, the Mystic Forge also makes you pretty adaptable to any changes in the meta.

   You need to spent some gold to make those changes and once you do them they remain untill you spent again, and you lose the sigils, runes and skins attached in each change, whereas full legenday gear gives you fully customization in a second as long as you're not in combat (plus other quality of life things like being able to swap your whole armor stats, weapon stas or trinket stats with a single change of one of those items without having to manually reset every one). Full legendary is the truly end game, and once achieved your only goal should be just having fun.

[Mell.4873]

I would say end game for most players is slowly unlocking each mount and then masterys. I guess after that people farm nodes for there home instance or get legendarys like I did.

In terms of raids/strikes and fractals most of the player base don't bother except for t1 daily fractals. 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Mell.4873

[Nabbut.7480]

Point of this game? Live in an anime world like you live in real life. Run, hunt, gather and enjoy the existence of a primitive savage without getting bothered with dangerous existencial questions.

[Luthan.5236]

The good thing about GW2 is that you can decide for yourself. While for typical western MMORPG the endgame is usually "to raid 1 for a few hundred times until you get lucky and get the gear dropped you need for raid 2, then do raid 2 and repeat ..." GW2 has a lot of stuff to do.

We have PvP, WvF, festivals - and the legendary weapons (mostly for convenience ... also for the skins) - and other minor achievements and stuff to unlock. Getting full legendary in everything might need grinding. But you have different maps and metas and likely a lot of achievements that you don't do at the first playthrough. Playing not always the same stuff ... is a good idea to not get bored/exhausted. Soo many different maps and meta events to play.

I'd say getting to level 80 and doing the core personal story is the tutorial. After that ... everything is the end game. Maybe "middle" game is the masteries and doing each of the stories (living world and expansions) at least once.

For the mounts you unlock them in this order (usually): raptor, springer, skimmer, jackal - then griffon (can be skipped), then beetle (also optional), then skyscale (optional as well but most people want to get it.)

I think for full map completion and doing the story ... only raptor, springer and skimmer are needed while griffon and skyscale as well as a lot of other optional achievements require the jackal as well. If you need to get to a super high point in Path of Fire ... most likely the springer is needed or it was intended to be reached by the griffon or so. (I think there were 1 or 2 optional mastery points - you do not need all of them to max upgrade your masteries cause there are more than you need - were intended to be reached by griffon.)

Personally I played from release 2012 until end of 2013. (I main  an engineer as well but have level 80 chars for the other professions as well - except mesmer only played the core and not the elite specs so far though. On the other ones that are not my main.) When I came back in June 2019 I played verything in release order. Meaning: First HoT without mounts ... slowly unlocking gliding. Doing map completion and story and as much achievements as possible. (The ones that were not too grindy.)

A usual recommendation for new players is: Get the raptor (for more convenience) and after that do stuff in order of release (try HoT first). If you want to be fast you can avoid going for full map completion - doing only the story (to experience it once) and going for mastery points to unlock everything. But the mastery points usually requrie you to spend lots of time in the maps doing certain achievements ... so map completion in the later maps -should not be a big deal.

Only the core tyria maps (very old maps that were there from the start of the game where there is a level range below 80 mentioned) - are not tooo relevant. Unless you need the gift from "world completion" for a legendary weapon.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Nabbut.7480]

Actually, the stated goal of this game is to fight evil dragons and be nice.

[Garrison Storm.3046]

On 5/5/2022 at 3:28 PM, grubbymitts.2839 said:

I remember being stuck in PoF because I had to get to a really high point and the game was just NOT telling me how to do that

I think the really high point was the floating platform in the clouds... as I recall, this was reached through a series of Jackal portals... and you're right, it was not intuitive!  

Edited May 9, 2022 by Garrison Storm.3046
clarity

[IrishPotato.6327]

On 5/8/2022 at 3:50 AM, paShadoWn.5723 said:

Point of this game? Live in an anime world like you live in real life. Run, hunt, gather and enjoy the existence of a primitive savage without getting bothered with dangerous existencial questions.

Anime world would be FF14.