Some New Player Feedback

[Aelin.9317]

I wasn't sure where to put the feedback so I will put it here 🙂

 

I started playing before the steam launch and got myself through the base story and now have started living world one. Since I don't want to do the story out of order I am taking longer breaks as they release the episodes.

 

A few things of note as I was playing through that were not fun/nice to me.

 

Dungeons - I actually really enjoy my first dungeon, I got a group that had another newer person and some vets. So I had helpful guidance and in general a nice time. On later dungeons however I experienced the speed runs, I was left behind, they skipped the mobs and I couldn't follow them without dying. Not knowing mechanics, where to go and being unable to outrun the mobs was not so fun. On the last dungeon I set up my lfg with the note it was my first run but I still got people asking me to skip cutscenes. I understand older players have different reasons for running the dungeon to me. I wonder if Anet could make these soloable for a first clear? Or give me AI to fight with so I can take my time and learn myself. Similar to what ffxiv has done with its older content. I would like to do each path on every dungeon but I am not sure how likely I am to get people for that. 

 

Transmutation charges, I have 27 in my 100 hours playtime. I know they are on the cash shop and as I understand players will make a level 10 char to get another one and repeat? Customisation is so important and having charges to worry about just doesn't make sense to me. There is plenty on their cash shop already. Other MMO I tried, wow ffxiv, do not lock their transmog/glamour behind a paywall or repeat grind. 

 

Buffs... many buffs! So many I have no idea what is what or from who. In large groups of players there are so many things it's a little overwhelming and can make seeing the danger mechanics hard to see. I can't see in settings if I can reduce this? Maybe I missed it.

 

Dailies! I can't do some of them, as in they are in areas I have not even been too. I often find myself unable to do at least three dailies. Can there please be pve dailies in core maps each day at least? Or even two and I can do one pvp one so long as it doesn't need a win x) I don't make gold any other way right now. I haven't done anything but story and am still just clueless on the rest of the game. It's a bit of a bummer when I can't at least do my 3x dailies for a little gold. I want to save for a griffin!

 

Lastly, I feel like (mostly from what I see of veteran players advice) that my core ranger is not really going to be great to take into things such as raids. I really like the classic ranger theme with bow and I love my pet! Soul beast eats the pet, so no ty. The druid seems like an option though very niche? I will try it but I still need to work on the skill points! And then the untamed was one I actually liked the sound of and was working towards but you are really meant to be in melee with that elite spec? I would really like that one not to turn my pet a goopy green colour too :x I really hope they can make the core specs able to compete with the elite spec, not all players will like the elite specs their class has. Core Advancement elite spec or something maybe? 

 

I was feeling guilty trying to do my pvp dailies as a core ranger tbh. I already don't really know what on earth is going on and add to that I am not on a useful class for my team.

 

But just so the topic is not all negative. 

 

I love the game still overall! The open world is the best of any MMO, I love the world changing as I do things. Exploring is really fun and finding the most funny/random things is a blast. Like the ghost in lions arch, loved it. I got adopted by a total stranger to go get some pets, he also took me around the early world bosses and showed me the wiki for their spawn times. Another player kindly gave me some bags and ran a dungeon with me. The community has been lovely and the game is really enjoyable, the above are smaller niggles to me but I thought worth mentioning.  Oh and the MOUNTS look so so cool. And I am desperate to get all the mounts and zip about but I am who knows how many months from that since I am waiting on season 1 releasing etc before I move into the first expansion. I know I will need gold for the griffin so I try and do my dailies when I can but as mentioned.. I cannot always do three. Although it would be nice if there were some mount skins that were earnable. Having them all in cash shop is a bit sad. I don't mind putting some money into the cash shop since there is no sub but having every one in there is not great feeling. Just 2/3 skins you can earn for each mount doing achievements would be lovely. 

 

Oh also jump puzzles, I actually hate them with a fiery passion. I never played Mario, I refuse to play most games the moment I hear platformer. I actually like the ones in guild wars 2!

 

I like that I can take the game at a snails pace, take a break and come back and nothing I have done will be rendered worthless. The game feels great to play, I just think there are some things that could be better 🙂 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Aelin.9317

[Randulf.7614]

The dailies thing is well reported. It could use some improving

Transmutation charges are outdated, but do remember this game is free. WoW and FF14 you cite are subs I believe, so they have paywalls this game does not

Yes the buff ui is a mess. Not sure how to improve it though

I agree that all story dungeons should have a solo mode like Arah

[Xandaresch.5138]

If you want to enjoy dungeons with cut scenes and everything join a guild. To my experience guildies are better for a "leasure stroll" through the dungeons than rnd groups.

 

Dailies give a broad variety for core and expansion content but if you have the major expansions and lvl 80 your will be given dailies across all content not only the one you have explored so far. May be a bummer in the beginning but especially with access to mounts you should be able to get there fairly quickly if you invest a little bit of time to get at least access to the maps (e.g. for HoT ressource collecting Bloodstone Fen (LW3) would be an easy option, especially since you can teleport you there with a permanent buyable scroll. Same for PoF - Domain Istan/Kourna or Sandswept Isle).

 

Fashion War is tempting but as you pointed out Transmutaion Charges are limited. But you get some in the 20 day login rewards for free! Also a lot of skins can be applied once for free after you have acquired them.

 

Raids/Fractals/Strikes: yes a meta build helps a lot with them but the build has also to suit your playstyle and getting the equipment for the builds can be tiresome in some cases. But take a look at the meta builds from Snow Crows, Meta Battle or similar sites and give them a go (the gear does not has to be ascended or even legendary (for convenience only!) in the beginning)

 

Take your time and enjoy the game!

[Mungrul.9358]

I've never done raids in GW2 myself, and never really intend to (I'm not a fan of endlessly repeating instanced content), but from what I understand, despite what the community would have you believe, there are a lot more builds that can complete raids than just the meta ones.

 

You may not do them the fastest, but you can still do them.

I think Mukluk and MIghty Teapot have both done multiple runs in the past with people playing non-meta professions and builds, and these runs can be found on YouTube.

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Lastly, I feel like (mostly from what I see of veteran players advice) that my core ranger is not really going to be great to take into things such as raids. I really like the classic ranger theme with bow and I love my pet! Soul beast eats the pet, so no ty. The druid seems like an option though very niche? I will try it but I still need to work on the skill points! And then the untamed was one I actually liked the sound of and was working towards but you are really meant to be in melee with that elite spec? I would really like that one not to turn my pet a goopy green colour too :x I really hope they can make the core specs able to compete with the elite spec, not all players will like the elite specs their class has. Core Advancement elite spec or something maybe? 

You don't have to use an elite specs weapon if you don't want to. I've been playing Untamed since EoD came out and I'm still using shortbow as my primary weapon. I also use sword/torch but that's because I like going between range and melee.

I think it's worth bearing in mind that it's often not practical to stick to purely ranged or purely melee in this game and whatever you're playing you'll need to move around sometimes, but you can also use any elite spec with either ranged or melee weapons (or both) regardless of what their new weapon is.

(Also you'll eventually have more than enough hero points to unlock all 3 elite specs on the same character, so then you can change between them as needed. For example you might end up playing different specs in open-world PvE, in PvP and in groups in PvE.)

[kharmin.7683]

35 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

You don't have to use an elite specs weapon if you don't want to. I've been playing Untamed since EoD came out and I'm still using shortbow as my primary weapon. I also use sword/torch but that's because I like going between range and melee.

 

Ranger main here, too.  Swap between core and untamed (soulbeast and druid on rare occasion) and I certainly don't build for meta and have been able to complete most content with longbow and sword/dagger.  I don't get into much instanced content (fractals, strikes, raids) where my build doesn't really matter.

I dislike the hammer on untamed and on the new elemental e-spec -- personally, I find the hammer to be silly in those roles.  Like Danikat says, you don't need to use the e-spec's weapon.  Many don't.

[Veprovina.4876]

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Dungeons - I actually really enjoy my first dungeon, I got a group that had another newer person and some vets. So I had helpful guidance and in general a nice time. On later dungeons however I experienced the speed runs, I was left behind, they skipped the mobs and I couldn't follow them without dying. Not knowing mechanics, where to go and being unable to outrun the mobs was not so fun. On the last dungeon I set up my lfg with the note it was my first run but I still got people asking me to skip cutscenes. I understand older players have different reasons for running the dungeon to me. I wonder if Anet could make these soloable for a first clear? Or give me AI to fight with so I can take my time and learn myself. Similar to what ffxiv has done with its older content. I would like to do each path on every dungeon but I am not sure how likely I am to get people for that. 

I won't be responding to all, good post, just a few "2 cents" things.

 

Dungeons.. Yeah, Anet tried to revitalize them for the Steam release but with LFG how it is, you're sometimes going to have a bad experience. Cause you can't predict people.

 

The best would be to look at a YouTube guide, get a good build, and learn the dungeon path before you do it. This will minimize you lagging behind others. And soon enough, you'll feel comfortable doing them with the "fast" people.

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Transmutation charges, I have 27 in my 100 hours playtime. I know they are on the cash shop and as I understand players will make a level 10 char to get another one and repeat? Customisation is so important and having charges to worry about just doesn't make sense to me. There is plenty on their cash shop already. Other MMO I tried, wow ffxiv, do not lock their transmog/glamour behind a paywall or repeat grind. 

If you wanna drown in transmutation charges, play WvW or PvP, we get them so much i don't actually know what to do with all of them...

And if PvE is more your thing, well, there's gem to gold conversion, PvE gets you so much gold that, really, it's pretty cheap to buy the charges with gold, no "repeat grind" necesary, just buy them.

Or, if you really intend to change your looks all that much that you're spending more charges than you're getting, maybe look into investing into legendary armor, weapons and backpack... Those don't require a charge to change, and you can use them on all your characters, plus, have different looks for each equipment template. You can't do that with exotic or ascended.

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Buffs... many buffs! So many I have no idea what is what or from who. In large groups of players there are so many things it's a little overwhelming and can make seeing the danger mechanics hard to see. I can't see in settings if I can reduce this? Maybe I missed it.

Yeah... And the icons are never at the same place, and they're hard to see, and you can't hover over any cause some other effect will "push" the one you're hovering over to the side... The boon interface is a mess and needs to be improved, i agree.

Good news though - you don't really have to worry about most of them at all...

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Dailies! I can't do some of them, as in they are in areas I have not even been too. I often find myself unable to do at least three dailies. Can there please be pve dailies in core maps each day at least? Or even two and I can do one pvp one so long as it doesn't need a win x) I don't make gold any other way right now. I haven't done anything but story and am still just clueless on the rest of the game. It's a bit of a bummer when I can't at least do my 3x dailies for a little gold. I want to save for a griffin!

Don't do dailies for a griffin, do meta events and farms and stuff, 2 gold a day isn't bad, but it alone won't get you the griffin any time soon.

Also... Mix and match... Usually i do WvW dailies cause i do WvW mostly... But if there's some that are not happening soon like take a fort or whatever and there's no one trying it - i do whatever i can in WvW, then do the rest in PvE.

If you can't get to some place, hop on to WvW, there's usually 5 minute dailies there like big spender that makes you spend badges on whatever (i usually take armor and weapon skins for now), or idk, kill 5 guards, so kill any 5 NPCs like in camp or whatever, or kill a dolyak, or take a sentry...

Here's the list:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Daily_(achievements)

 

The ones you can do in a few minutes - even faster than PvE ones - are:

- Big Spender (needs some starting capital though(

- Caravan Disruptor

- Land Claimer

- Master of Monuments

- Guard Killer

 

Others are potentially more time consuming in WvW.

But, it's probably faster to do dailies in WvW, and you get potions of WvW rewards which you can save up, and when you have 80 of them, you can instantly complete a reward track - something you will be thankful for when you're going to need Gift of Battle.

So i recommend starting to do WvW dailies instead of PvE.

But make sure you do map completion in PvE as well as it'll be required at one point for when you want to make a legendary.

So you know... Discover those areas you couldn't get to bit by bit.

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Lastly, I feel like (mostly from what I see of veteran players advice) that my core ranger is not really going to be great to take into things such as raids.

Raiding is literally copy a meta build, then train and do them. Real raiders have several characters that they take into certain raids only. Some builds are good for one raid, but not as good for other, so you take other build there.

Having one main and expecting it to be great at everything isn't the raid mentality, you either adapt or be unhappy... 😛

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Oh also jump puzzles, I actually hate them with a fiery passion. I never played Mario, I refuse to play most games the moment I hear platformer. I actually like the ones in guild wars 2!

Allow me to introduce:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Not_So_Secret

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chalice_of_Tears

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Searing_Ascent

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skipping_Stones

 

Now, so you don't hate me, there's a bright side:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prototype_Position_Rewinder

 

Get this, you'll thank me later.

 

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

I like that I can take the game at a snails pace, take a break and come back and nothing I have done will be rendered worthless. The game feels great to play, I just think there are some things that could be better 🙂

Yup! The reason why most of us play so much and to this day. Cause it's not a gear grind every time.

[Farohna.6247]

I'm glad you're enjoying the game and having fun and taking your time OP!

Dungeons....yehhhh speed runs can be an issue for players even if they've played for a while.  If a player hasn't been into a particular part and joins and must catch up with the group, it can be a problem.  Your best time to find groups for helping out are when they are a daily.  Don't hesitate though to post your own group in LFG and state new to dungeon, looking for friendly group who want to kill it all.  Veteran players usually will join and happily guide.

Transmutation...yes it's annoying and outdated but that's what they have atm.  Do not buy them off the store, a waste imo.  You will accumulate them.  As someone else mentioned especially in PvP or WvW.  Some achievements also reward them as well as daily log ins.

Buffs...you're right, they're a messy glob of things on your screen.

Dailies....some of the PvE ones you may not be able to reach, you can always hop in WvW and do one of the easy ones like killing the veteran creature or guards.  May not be what you're interested in but it's a PvE element that can help you finish your dailies until you get to more of the open world ones.

Ranger!!  I love rangers.  I loved my hunter in WoW, so when I came to GW2 I thought it would be similar....not exactly.  They have pets and can use a wide variety of weapons.  Other than that, they're pretty different.  So not mistake ranger for archer.  Think Aragorn from LoTR.  He uses a sword primarily and melee, though can use a wide variety of weapons.  I also love the classic long bow and a pet.  Soulbeast is actually really fun.  Think of it as being so bonded with your pet that you can merge as one, not consumed, and then separate and go back to hanging out together.  

And jumping puzzles.  If you hate them, there is usually one for the dailies, and usually a friendly mesmer to make portals!  Just take those, tip them if you can (50 silver to 1 gold is customary).  Always say thank you.  They get a little easier with practice, but there are some very dedicated players who keep characters parked at the end just for that purpose.  To let someone teleport to them or to make ports.

Sorry for the long reply, I enjoyed reading your observations and experiences, and found myself nodding along at remembering when I started playing.  Please continue to have fun, ask questions, and welcome to GW2! 

[Aelin.9317]

Big thanks to people who have responded ^.^ Some very helpful advice, it is much appreciated and also helps settle some worries about my ranger. I have also tried elementalist and really enjoy that one too! It seems like the stance dancing will give it quite the skill ceiling that I look forward to tackling. For raids and such with their meta I suppose I will cross that bridge if/when I get to it. If I like a meta build I will play it if not hey I just won't raid till something I like rotates in!

I did remember one more thing reading the replies. On hitting level 80 and finishing my main story I was at a bit of a loss what to do for gear. So ofc I went and did some googling etc and got some gear from a dungeon vendor I had no clue existed, them making all dungeons have one currency saved me there too. It's another case of community to the rescue which is great! But I think the game should maybe give us new players some hints for how/where to go about getting some gear for the coming content as when I went into season one in the older gear I was struggling a little. I did feel a shift in the difficulty compared to before. 

I have followed a bit of a guide for leveling my crafters but I am too poor for the power leveling right now so back to the story I went ^^

At the moment I am on episode two of living world season 1 and it had me in stitches with it's intro, love the over the top cheesy detective moments. It was also really cool to see old lions arch. I do wonder if it took me 100 hours to do the base game how long it will be till I finish all this content @.@ 

I will do some googling on wvw, I really don't know how to get into it. I went in there to get myself a pet and got killed on my way... that's about all my experience with it so far xD 

It is really nice I can post a bit of criticism and not be flamed for it though, thanks for that! xD

[Veprovina.4876]

3 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

I will do some googling on wvw, I really don't know how to get into it. I went in there to get myself a pet and got killed on my way... that's about all my experience with it so far xD

WvW is basically a huge 3v3 server v server v server battle on who controls most land.

Press B to see which server you're on and what color.

Then you can see on map how many lands you own.

The maps are different from PvE.

 

Here's the basics on how it works:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World

To not overwhelm yourself with score and ticks, read just the intro and Mechanics up to 3.6.

The rest will just bee too much confusing, and most of it totally unnecesarry to know for most people.

So do yourself a favor and skip reading it, it's not important for you right now.

 

Quick startup guide:

 

There's camps (no defense, which can be soloed and taken), towers (which require siege to break - they have one line of defense - 1 wall, 1 gate), keeps (have 2 walls and 2 gates that you need siege for) and Stonemist Castle which is in the Eternal Battlegrounds and the highest scoring land per tick for whoever owns it. Hardest to take, most fun fights here. 🙂

Also, there's shrines and ruins that grant special buffs if you own 3 or more. You can solo those too.

Along the way you'll see sentries which will mark you and whoever's near them for all to see on map (if enemy sentry). Don't worry about this too much, one solitary roamer won't attract too much attention, feel free to kill them and take the sentry for your team.

 

Siege, tricks and traps require blueprints to deploy and supply to build.

Camps generate supply, dolyaks take that supply to next 2 neighboring towers/keeps.

You can kill enemy dolyaks to stop the resource flow, or if they're yours, you can escort them to the tower to guarantee safety. As long as you're near, they're invulnerable.

You can take supply from any camp/tower/keep your team owns. There's separate masteries for WvW, one of them raises supply amount you can carry at once. You get them by leveling up your WxP and allocating points where you want. For starters, i recommend Warclaw.

 

For the most part, you won't be handling any siege, this will be done by your commander. You just make sure you always have some supply on hand so that when it's needed to build something you can contribute. Like building catapults to take down a wall, or repairing broken walls etc.

 

Of course, if you just want to be there for dailies, here's the easiest ones:

Daily WvW Big Spender — Spend at least 25 Badges of Honor.

(you get badges from any kills in WvW, and most anything, if you spend any amount of time in WvW you'll have plenty)

Daily WvW Caravan Disruptor — Destroy a supply caravan.

(dolyak that runs from camp to tower)

Daily WvW Land Claimer — Capture a sentry point.

(litle flag icons on map)

Daily WvW Master of Monuments — Capture a shrine (Desert Borderlands) or a ruin (Desert and Alpine Borderlands).

(shrines are air/fire/earth, you'll see their special icons on the maps. They have guards to kill. Ruins are mostly in the center of the map, just capture one, stand in it until the bar fills to your color.)

Daily Mists Guard Killer — Kill five veteran or higher NPC guards.

(easiest to do is go to an enemy camp, and kill veterans there, but guards are also at tower and keep gates)

Daily WvW Camp Capturer — Capture two resource camps.

(go to enemy camp, kill guards, stand in circle - repeat)

 

There's more daily possiblities in WvW, but they often can't be soloed so easily, or take more time to do.

The ones i listed will be super easy and will be a great introduction into WvW, what it is, etc.

Plus, each daily done gives you potions of WvW rewards, and you'll want them to complete a reward track instantly (takes 80 potions to complete a full track). You can select which reward track you want to do in the WvW menu (B). You have to unlock most in PvE before you can do them. They priodicaly give you rewards with a big one at the end.

Without buffs, it takes 8 hours to complete a reward track, and with full buffs, 4 hours.

First select non repeatable reward tracks, they will give you great rewards after you do them.

Repeatable ones are well, repeatable, but don't offer as much stuff as the one off ones.

The one reward track everyone who wants a legendary needs to do, and it can only be done in WvW is Gift of Battle.

So if you keep doing dailies, and your potions keep piling up, you'll have it all ready when you need it.

 

Anyway, if you spend more time in WvW, you'll earn skirmish chests, and stuff from them too. But only if you really participate. You get participation for doing pretty much anything, so just take camps, sentries and kill dolyaks, it'll fill up. Once it does, every 5 minutes you get progress toward your selected reward track and the skirimish chest.

 

And when you feel comfortable, if you see a commander tag, feel free to join it, then follow the group around, see what they do.

 

And lastly - don't worry about dying, ask any WvW player to tell you their /deaths, and you'll see it's perfectly normal to get killed in WvW, and killed a lot depending on what you do. Happens to the best, so don't worry, the only penalty is returning to your spawn point. If you get killed repeatedly in one map, switch maps, there's 4 to choose from, not all will have high player activity all the time.

[Labjax.2465]

Re: transmutation charges. Take it with a grain of salt if anyone tells you they are easy to get. Some half truths get perpetuated about them on these forums every time they come up. It's true that it's easier to get them in WvW and PvP than in PvE, but in WvW, for example, a large part of getting them faster is going to be from picking them from Skirmish Chests you get each week (you can only get so many, it's a time-gated thing). Getting progress on Reward Tracks, the other way you get them in WvW, is time-gated in its own way. Progress on both has to do with participation level in WvW and time passing in there.

There are some people who hang out here who are evidently veteran players who don't customize their characters' looks much and have passively stockpiled them over years, and they tend to misrepresent how easy it is to get them.

[Leger.3724]

1 minute ago, Labjax.2465 said:

Re: transmutation charges. Take it with a grain of salt if anyone tells you they are easy to get. Some half truths get perpetuated about them on these forums every time they come up. It's true that it's easier to get them in WvW and PvP than in PvE, but in WvW, for example, a large part of getting them faster is going to be from picking them from Skirmish Chests you get each week (you can only get so many, it's a time-gated thing). Getting progress on Reward Tracks, the other way you get them in WvW, is time-gated in its own way. Progress on both has to do with participation level in WvW and time passing in there.

There are some people who hang out here who are evidently veteran players who don't customize their characters' looks much and have passively stockpiled them over years, and they tend to misrepresent how easy it is to get them.

 

When do they get limited? I've done the Diamond division a couple of times this week. You don't get skirmish tickets but I still get 1 skirmish chest per diamond chest.

[Labjax.2465]

21 minutes ago, Leger.3724 said:

 

When do they get limited? I've done the Diamond division a couple of times this week. You don't get skirmish tickets but I still get 1 skirmish chest per diamond chest.

Sounds like I made a slight mistake on the detail there. For some reason, I was thinking the chests are cut off with maxing out the diamond rank. But at any rate, I'm not sure it changes my point to a degree that matters, since that track is heavily time-gated (and unlike the regular reward tracks, you can't even speed it up with boosters) and you have to spend a lot of time in WvW each week to even get to the end of it in the first place. Fair correction to make tho for accuracy sake.

[Donari.5237]

There are many helpful replies here.  I'll agree with them, and add that the transmutation charges build up from map exploration and from black lion chests (don't buy keys unless you really want to and can afford to, you can get a key a week by running a character made for that purpose through the level 10 story, stripping them into the bank, and deleting them to make room for the next week, plus they will occasionally drop from completing higher level maps).  You can also make and delete characters to run around completing the five cities and Lion's Arch, you get a charge from each one of those completions.  It's tedious but relatively quick to do.

And while you have hit 80, you may be leveling other alts.  If you invest in just one outfit you like enough, you can toss it on a character (it's account-bound and free to toggle on and off per character) and dye it to your own taste.  That will cover up the armor while you adventure and gather the transmutation charges to set the look you prefer.

I also wish they'd just ditch the transmutation system and make everything free to apply.  As much as I've spent on the gem shop and as much RP as I've done I don't recall ever paying for the charges.  Before the wardrobe came along I just kept bags full of armor to put on for RP.  It seems odd to me that ANet can sell enough of them to make it worth their while, and at this point they certainly can't restrict their in-game faucet of them in order to force more sales without getting huge player backlash.

[Silent.6137]

11 hours ago, Labjax.2465 said:

There are some people who hang out here who are evidently veteran players who don't customize their characters' looks much and have passively stockpiled them over years, and they tend to misrepresent how easy it is to get them.

I'm one of those players. I have 600+ Transmutation Charges that I'll never use. I do customize all my characters occasionally but are basically satisfied with the looks I want to achieve for each. In addition, since all my gears are legendaries, they do not consume any charges. So, they'll keep increasing. To get the Transmuting Skins achievement from the Adventure Guide Vol. 4, I had to wear a basic armor from a drop and transmute it.

However, they're not difficult to obtain. There are so many sources: map completions, login rewards, reward tracks, achievements and various chests. And if you desire, can trade with festival vendors, gem store or BL statuettes. Or obtain from skirmish chests. For new players, they'll take a while before you have all you need, of course.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Silent.6137

[RadiantWolf.2058]

Regarding Transmutation Charges: Hold on to them until you hit level cap and get exotic gear, gear that will last you a while. As you level remember you can DYE your armor any time for free. I am often surprised by just how different gear sets can look with different dyes.

[Aelin.9317]

15 hours ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

WvW is basically a huge 3v3 server v server v server battle on who controls most land.

Press B to see which server you're on and what color.

Then you can see on map how many lands you own.

The maps are different from PvE.

 

Here's the basics on how it works:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World

To not overwhelm yourself with score and ticks, read just the intro and Mechanics up to 3.6.

The rest will just bee too much confusing, and most of it totally unnecesarry to know for most people.

So do yourself a favor and skip reading it, it's not important for you right now.

 

Quick startup guide:

 

There's camps (no defense, which can be soloed and taken), towers (which require siege to break - they have one line of defense - 1 wall, 1 gate), keeps (have 2 walls and 2 gates that you need siege for) and Stonemist Castle which is in the Eternal Battlegrounds and the highest scoring land per tick for whoever owns it. Hardest to take, most fun fights here. 🙂

Also, there's shrines and ruins that grant special buffs if you own 3 or more. You can solo those too.

Along the way you'll see sentries which will mark you and whoever's near them for all to see on map (if enemy sentry). Don't worry about this too much, one solitary roamer won't attract too much attention, feel free to kill them and take the sentry for your team.

 

Siege, tricks and traps require blueprints to deploy and supply to build.

Camps generate supply, dolyaks take that supply to next 2 neighboring towers/keeps.

You can kill enemy dolyaks to stop the resource flow, or if they're yours, you can escort them to the tower to guarantee safety. As long as you're near, they're invulnerable.

You can take supply from any camp/tower/keep your team owns. There's separate masteries for WvW, one of them raises supply amount you can carry at once. You get them by leveling up your WxP and allocating points where you want. For starters, i recommend Warclaw.

 

For the most part, you won't be handling any siege, this will be done by your commander. You just make sure you always have some supply on hand so that when it's needed to build something you can contribute. Like building catapults to take down a wall, or repairing broken walls etc.

 

Of course, if you just want to be there for dailies, here's the easiest ones:

Daily WvW Big Spender — Spend at least 25 Badges of Honor.

(you get badges from any kills in WvW, and most anything, if you spend any amount of time in WvW you'll have plenty)

Daily WvW Caravan Disruptor — Destroy a supply caravan.

(dolyak that runs from camp to tower)

Daily WvW Land Claimer — Capture a sentry point.

(litle flag icons on map)

Daily WvW Master of Monuments — Capture a shrine (Desert Borderlands) or a ruin (Desert and Alpine Borderlands).

(shrines are air/fire/earth, you'll see their special icons on the maps. They have guards to kill. Ruins are mostly in the center of the map, just capture one, stand in it until the bar fills to your color.)

Daily Mists Guard Killer — Kill five veteran or higher NPC guards.

(easiest to do is go to an enemy camp, and kill veterans there, but guards are also at tower and keep gates)

Daily WvW Camp Capturer — Capture two resource camps.

(go to enemy camp, kill guards, stand in circle - repeat)

 

There's more daily possiblities in WvW, but they often can't be soloed so easily, or take more time to do.

The ones i listed will be super easy and will be a great introduction into WvW, what it is, etc.

Plus, each daily done gives you potions of WvW rewards, and you'll want them to complete a reward track instantly (takes 80 potions to complete a full track). You can select which reward track you want to do in the WvW menu (B). You have to unlock most in PvE before you can do them. They priodicaly give you rewards with a big one at the end.

Without buffs, it takes 8 hours to complete a reward track, and with full buffs, 4 hours.

First select non repeatable reward tracks, they will give you great rewards after you do them.

Repeatable ones are well, repeatable, but don't offer as much stuff as the one off ones.

The one reward track everyone who wants a legendary needs to do, and it can only be done in WvW is Gift of Battle.

So if you keep doing dailies, and your potions keep piling up, you'll have it all ready when you need it.

 

Anyway, if you spend more time in WvW, you'll earn skirmish chests, and stuff from them too. But only if you really participate. You get participation for doing pretty much anything, so just take camps, sentries and kill dolyaks, it'll fill up. Once it does, every 5 minutes you get progress toward your selected reward track and the skirimish chest.

 

And when you feel comfortable, if you see a commander tag, feel free to join it, then follow the group around, see what they do.

 

And lastly - don't worry about dying, ask any WvW player to tell you their /deaths, and you'll see it's perfectly normal to get killed in WvW, and killed a lot depending on what you do. Happens to the best, so don't worry, the only penalty is returning to your spawn point. If you get killed repeatedly in one map, switch maps, there's 4 to choose from, not all will have high player activity all the time.

Thank you so much for such a detailed response! Happily I was able to do my dailies today and with your help I should not struggle with them going forward ^.^

I also took a better look at reward tracks and noticed I was on a repeating one for regular pvp, so I swapped it to a one time one. I look forward to seeing what this EoD reward track gives.. there were a few to choose from and it will be nice to work through them all. 

I have a whopping 36 gold now!

My newest challenge now is my bank, it is full. I think I need to start moving things to other characters to make up some room. But I am hoarding boosters since I have no idea when best to use them. I am just glad I can make a little money everyday now. I expect it will be several months before I get around to working on a griffin and that little gold will add up over time \o/

[Freya.9075]

You got some valid criticism and I’m glad the community helped you with some of your concerns. 
 

about items, it can feel like a lot. Specially in the beginning. If you’re getting a lot of items you’re not sure what to do with, you can type /wiki and shift click or ctrl click the item in question (can’t remember which one that links the item as I’m not in game now) and it will take you to the wiki page. That can help you see if it’s an item you will need later on or if you can discard/sell it. 
 

enjoy your journey in tyria! 

[Veprovina.4876]

7 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

Thank you so much for such a detailed response! Happily I was able to do my dailies today and with your help I should not struggle with them going forward ^.^

Nice! 🙂

Remember, if WvW has the longer ones, you can always do the fast one, and go to PvE or PvP to do the rest. Doesn't have to be all in one game mode, just do the ones that are fastest. WvW ones just happen to be the fastest ones usually (except "view a vista" and similar).

7 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

I also took a better look at reward tracks and noticed I was on a repeating one for regular pvp, so I swapped it to a one time one. I look forward to seeing what this EoD reward track gives.. there were a few to choose from and it will be nice to work through them all. 

You can see what they offer here for WvW and here for PvP, but all of the one time tracks are worth doing because the last reward gives you 7 Mystic Clovers. Theese are extremely rare, only come from a few sources, and you'll need a lot of them to make legendary gear some day, so you know, start piling them up bit by bit. 🙂

7 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

I have a whopping 36 gold now!

Wait til you get to Dragonfall and Drizzlewood coast. 😄

Those maps give up to 30 gold per hour. 🙂

They're also very fun, but are late game farms for several reasons. One of which is - for it to be most effective, Skyscale or at least a Griffon is recommended. But you can definitely do them without flyling mounts, it's still valuable.

7 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

My newest challenge now is my bank, it is full. I think I need to start moving things to other characters to make up some room. But I am hoarding boosters since I have no idea when best to use them.

Which ones do you have?

If they're combat boosters (strength, rejuvenation, defense, speed), take them whenever you like. When you go do a world boss or some large meta event.

Cause they only work in open world and they're not some big boost you can't do without so just spend them whenever you feel like it.

 

Experience booster, black lion booster, heroic booster, birthday booster - save for WvW, when you have a big squad following the commander and when you plan on being there for the duration of the booster. You get faster leveling AND it will speed up rewrad track progress. XP in open world and dungeons isn't that valuable.

Fun fact - you can stack birthday booster (also celebration booster, they give the same buff), experience or heroic booster and black lion booster at the same time.

 

Karma booster - save for Wintersday. There's a Karma farm possible in wintersday that - if you do it every day - will give you millions of karma, but you need boosters for that.

 

Item booster - when doing meta events like Dragonfall and drizzlewood OR when farming gathering nodes.

gw2efficiency has a farming checklist, also tons of other helpful stuff like crafting calculator etc.

Log into the site with your API key which you create in your gw2 account management.

Go to API keys, make one with everything enabled, and paste it to gw2efficiency when you make an account.

That site will then show you everything you have, what materials you can sell for most gold etc.

Very useful!

 

Gathering booster, explorer's booster - when gathering of course. 🙂

 

7 hours ago, Aelin.9317 said:

I am just glad I can make a little money everyday now. I expect it will be several months before I get around to working on a griffin and that little gold will add up over time \o/

Definitely master all mounts and their abilites, they'll help you a TON when going for achievements such as Skyscale or Griffon.

[Chyro.1462]

For dungeons, just put the LFG up yourself and write clearly what you're looking to do. If you write "1st time, want to watch cutscenes. Patience appreciated" then it should be less likely that you get players that rush ahead.