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Greetings all... 🙂

 

   Having discovered GW2, I have been playing the game for like 3-4 days now, so I figured I would come here and say hi to you all (HI! 🙂 ). Being a old fart and old school PC gamer, I have played several  MMO's in my life, such as City of Heroes, Second Life, FF14 (for a tiny bit), Star Trek Online, and even the Sims Online oh so many years ago, so after finding out about GW2 and doing some research on it, I figured I would try it out... and so far I am loving it and all that it offers. In fact, I am so far quite impressed with the in game community (which reminds me of how the community was in City of Heroes actually), and I hope this also applies to the forums as well (I have seen a few others that did not... impress me much, sad to say).

   I am currently playing a Norn Ranger (named Aka Jlen, who is a bubble shy of 25th lvl atm), and am loving her a ton, but being new and all I not only have much to learn about the class itself, but also a TON about the game in general. So please forgive me if I start asking a lot of questions about it and the game (either specific ones or generally speaking). There is a lot to learn it seems as the game has a ton to offer, so it may take me a while for me to grasp it all. Such as... what are some of the better medium armors Aka can wear at 25th lvl, should I get such armors in fact as lvl'ing seems to be fairly quick in the game generally speaking, can armor gained at lower lvl be improved upon at higher lvl's (and how does one go about doing that lol), and even can a female Norn wear Human (or racial even) medium armors?

   And those are just some questions about Ranger armor, and doesn't even touch questions & subjects such as Weapons, Keybinds, "General" Loot, Gold and other Currency, Guilds, In-Game Team-up's, and so much more. 🙂 In either case I just figured I would come here, say hi to you all (Hi again! 😁, sorta introduce myself, and say that I am very much enjoying the GW2 experience so far. I have all three expansions so far, so for the most part I have access to nearly everything in-game, though being only 25th lvl (at least on my Ranger), I have a LONG way to go I know. In either case, I hope you all have a great one, and as always, Without the Wax...

 

Peace...

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Hi and welcome. Since you're new here I would like to point out where you can ask these types of questions best. It's the players helping player subforum. Chances are this thread will be moved there as it is.

As for armor, the short version is that it doesn't really matter until you hit level 80 what armor you wear, so my advice would be to enjoy the leveling process and story first and then worry about the rest, because "the rest" is a LOT. Just play around with the different weapons your class has available to to it. 

The stats on the armor are very specific to what kind of build you want to use. So if you want to have a rough idea on what you need then just use power for weapon damage and vitality if you feel you need more health. Don't use toughness because the more toughness you have, the higher your aggro is. GW2 doesn't have a taunt system really and all it takes is toughness to attract enemies.

Should be enough for now 🙂

 

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Welcome to Tyria! 😄

I don't recommend going out of your way to get better equipment until you get to level 80, just use whatever you get as drops. As you've found levelling up is quick in this game so if you spend a lot of time and/or gold getting new equipment you'll probably find you've out levelled it and got something better so soon it wasn't really worth it.


One thing you will want to do, especially at higher levels is pay attention to the stats on the equipment you're using, as that makes a far bigger difference than anything else in determining which ones are best for you and how effective your character is. You can learn more about them on the Wiki, or just experiment with different ones and see what works best for you.
 

3 hours ago, BjorJlen.9674 said:

and even can a female Norn wear Human (or racial even) medium armors?

Most of the time the only restriction on what armour you can use is the weight, so for example a ranger can only wear medium armour. Each race has 3 racial styles which aren't available to other races, but you won't get those as random drops (you will get a coat as a story quest reward) so any medium armour you get you will be able to use.

You can see most of the armour skins you can use here (there's also various pieces which aren't part of a set which aren't shown in this gallery). The majority of those you won't find as random drops though, they're rewards from specific places, for example the first group are all purchased with dungeon tokens. A lot of GW2 players spend a lot of time finding skins they like to customise their characters (but again it's not worth worrying too much about that until you get to level 80).

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I usually suggest any gear with Power as the main stat as you level. Your weapons and armor will change frequently as you level, and you really don't need to worry about anything specific (power, condi, etc) until you hit level 80 and wish to go for more of the endgame Exotic (orange) armor and weapons. For now, play around with the weapons to see what suits your play style most. The road to 80 is where you learn the most about the character's profession, skills, and such.

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   Thank you for the replies and kind words of advice guys; I appreciate it a lot. 🙂 So far I am getting some good drops, in weapons, items, and armor, but of course they are only the most basic of equipment. Looking forward, as I really like the longbow a lot, I am eyeing the Storm Bow specifically, though I am sorta confused on if it is a actual weapon per say, or just a skin overlay instead. In fact, having played again for a bit after making this thread, I discovered that much of the stuff in the auction house is locked to me, and it saying I have one more day until they are unlocked. Does anyone know why that is, and why the game uses that feature generally speaking?

   In addition, I am starting to research the mechanics of upgrading items and such (with Runes, Gems, and Sigils), but that also is a bit confusing to me. In regards to them though, I am atm focusing on +power & +precision as I think they are the best things to shoot for as I lvl my character(s) up; the only question I have (well, not the only one, but you know... lol) is what should I focus on as the 3rd upgrade? +vitality or something else? And yeah, I already know to stay away from +toughness, as that only brings the agro to me, and as a ranged Ranger, I sorta wanna keep that off of me as much as I can lol.

   In either case, thanks again, and please... keep the advice coming if you can (and it's not too much trouble). For being a very curious old man who still likes to learn new things (no matter how long it takes due to the steel siv that is my brain nowadays lol), and am definitely up to taking in all the info I can from all of you. Heck, when I believe I have learned enough to at least be semi passable as a teammate, I'll start asking about active guilds, and who wants me and such. Thanks again though... 🙂

Peace...

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If you were previously Free To Play, most of the BLTP listings are locked to you.

Storm Bow is a skin overlay, not a weapon with specific stats.

I wouldn't worry too much about runes and sigils until you get closer to 80.

I usually focus on Ferocity as the third as I level - especially on classes that have a higher health pool. You kind of don't need extra Vitality on a Ranger unless you're eventually going to go for Marauder stats (basically Power/Precision/Ferocity plus Vitality).

The danger is that you'll confuse yourself before you really know what endgame gear/stat set you plan to choose using, which pet will offer the best combinations with your endgame build, and what elite specialization you plan to choose. My advice is just to relax and enjoy yourself for now - level 80 will come quicker than you realize.

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Probably your best resource is/will be the Wiki (link above and accessed in game by typing /Wiki [topic of choice] in chat).  Pretty much anything to do with Guild Wars 2 will be explained in a Wiki article.

Here are some other resources:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/new-player-guide

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Extended_Online_Manual

Welcome to Tyria and good luck.

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Welcome! As others have mentioned, I wouldn't worry much about what your armor is until level 80. Because once you reach level 80, then you'll want level 80 gear and specific stats (whether you go power, condi or some kind of hybrid).

My tip I was going to give was to not change the look of your armor (or weapons) as you level up. As armor and weapons drop that have higher stats than current ones, then they will most likely look different. And because we can use transmutation charges to change the look, it would be best to do that once level 80 is reached. Only mentioning this since Storm Bow was commented about.

When you get to runes, I highly recommend running with all of your armor having the same rune to get the best out of them. This was something I didn't really notice or pay attention to when I started the game.

And finally, definitely try out all of the weapons for your class to see what you like best. That is one of the great ways to try out as you go without having to invest in a weapon that maybe you don't actually like. One of my favorite sets for Ranger has been longbow/greatsword. But I've also enjoyed axe (main hand and offhand) as well.

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On the subject of re-skinning during levelling without burning through stacks of transformation charges, unlocking at least one outfit can be helpful, as the outfit will hide the actual armor you are wearing. Also, as you earn achievement chests down the line, you will have access to Zenith and Pinnacle weapon skins which are free to apply. Or if you played GW1 to any degree in the past, linking your GW1 account gives access to Heritage weapon/armor skins, also free to apply.

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I'll only say that don't really worry about what happens until lv80. This was originally the end-game, but after ten years of content its less than 10-15% of the game right now and that's if you do everything Central Tyria offers. Getting to max level should be thought of more or less as just a tutorial.

 

Once you do reach lv80, I recommend properly gearing (just exotics are fine), grabbing a good build off Metabattle (both solo and group), and starting on dungeons, Fractals, world bosses and Dry Top/Silverwastes meta farming so you can start stockpiling gold and materials for future endeavors.

 

Even after completing all of Central Tyria, Personal Story, LWS1 and LWS2 you'll still only be about 20% of your way into the game then it really starts to open up with Heart of Thorns!

Edited by Mariyuuna.6508
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   Thank you much for the help and comments folks. 🙂 Currently, my Norn Ranger (Aka Jlen) is level 52 and I am loving it more and more day by day as I gain more understanding and experience with her and her abilities. In fact, I have also been running her threw the labyrinth each day with a fairly solid group run by a commander who knows what he is doing. And besides getting killed every now and then, she is really doing quite well within it and bringing the pain. It's just funny to see that the pet I tend to mostly use in it (the Lynx) is extremely durable and really rocks, despite the fact that I read somewhere that Ranger pets are not the best generally speaking.

   However, after reading your comments and playing her a lot more as she is definitely my main, main character now, I do have a few more questions, such as...

1) Besides the bow, which I use most often, I have chosen to go with a axe/axe setup as a backup so to speak, but fortunately I have not had to use it all that much as I've been able to keep my distance to get the most out of my bow. That being said, I have chosen to focus on a semi "berserker" sigil setup for my weapons and armor (I have been avoiding toughness ones like the plague as I discovered that it increases one's agro, and as a long range Ranger, I wanted to avoid that as much as possible), though I keep running into references about something called a "threshold". What exactly is that, and does it have something to do with the range cap of the bow?

2) Currently, I have as yet to use any transformation charges (and as such have no idea how to use them, or when even) but I have been able to "save" a few weapon & armor skins accordingly. However, there is one longbow which I used, that I no longer do because I now have a more powerful one that I got as a drop, that I am unable to save the skin as (the option is completely grayed out sadly, even though it is there to see). So except for the time I used it, I have yet to have any longbow have a great appearance and/or skin besides the most basic one (which I am very, very tired of by now). So why is it that, that particular longbow skin is unable to be saved (as in the option is grayed out)? In fact, why would any weapon skin who's weapon I have and can have the save option grayed out?

3) I have checked out the trading post skins from top to bottom, and so far I have yet to be able to see and find any skin for the Storm Bow, which is the prime skin I would like to get for my longbows. So, how am I able to get ahold of one by chance? Currently I have only 15 gold, one Black statue figurine, and like only two chests, so my options are sort of limited there I am afraid. In fact, getting them as drops is also exceedingly rare it seems as well, even though I have been selling item drops by the bucket load on the TP to earn as much gold as possible.

   But, as I really want to change the look of my longbow, I am sorely tempted to buy a different skin of the TP for now, despite the fact that if I do, I'll be essentially broke (which does suck in my opinion lol). So how can I get the Storm Longbow skin if it's not on the TP (or am I just missing it)? And if it costs like 600gp, from what I have read, how in the heck can I get it any other way? lol

4) After doing some research, which I seem to be doing every day now (which I actually like btw), is it true that Dungeon's are no longer popular, as Fractals have basically taken over? As a old man, old school PC gamer from way back during Zork days (ok, yeah, I am dating myself I know lol), running dungeons have been sorta my thing for a long time (I have also been a old time pen & paper D&D player too), so while I would love to run a dungeon to experience them (at least), if fractals are the "thing" now, then can I do them now, or do I have to wait until I am level 80 instead?

   Also, what exactly is "Dry Top/Silverwastes meta farming", and how/when can I start doing it too, as I really want to start getting as much gold & other resources as quickly as possible. Oh, and @Mariyuuna.6508, thank you very much for the Metabattle build comment. I have never heard of that before, and having looked it up I see that it is a cool place for builds and such, so thank you again for that.

 

 

   @Linken.6345, thank you as well for posting that link to the Hexed Outfit; I will definitely look into getting it, even though it might take some time. Cob drops seem to exceeding rare for me to get unfortunately, even with me running the labyrinth at once a day for at least an hour, so looking at the link, I see that I can actually buy it off the TP even now. However, that would require spending quite a bit of my gold from the little I have atm, and as such I sorta /cringe at doing it (God, I need more gold and other resources lol). In either case, I wanted to thank you for the link just the same.

   In either case, I guess I'll stop asking questions atm, as after looking at what I wrote, I sorta got carried away with doing it (sorry about that guys; my only excuse is that I have a lot of questions and all). I again thank you all for your kind replies, and helpful comments and advice, and hope that you will continue to do so as I absolutely have a lot to learn still, and as you can see, I am eager to do so. 🙂 You all have a good one, and as always, Without the Wax...

Peace...

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5 hours ago, BjorJlen.9674 said:

   Thank you much for the help and comments folks. 🙂 Currently, my Norn Ranger (Aka Jlen) is level 52 and I am loving it more and more day by day as I gain more understanding and experience with her and her abilities. In fact, I have also been running her threw the labyrinth each day with a fairly solid group run by a commander who knows what he is doing. And besides getting killed every now and then, she is really doing quite well within it and bringing the pain. It's just funny to see that the pet I tend to mostly use in it (the Lynx) is extremely durable and really rocks, despite the fact that I read somewhere that Ranger pets are not the best generally speaking.

   However, after reading your comments and playing her a lot more as she is definitely my main, main character now, I do have a few more questions, such as...

1) Besides the bow, which I use most often, I have chosen to go with a axe/axe setup as a backup so to speak, but fortunately I have not had to use it all that much as I've been able to keep my distance to get the most out of my bow. That being said, I have chosen to focus on a semi "berserker" sigil setup for my weapons and armor (I have been avoiding toughness ones like the plague as I discovered that it increases one's agro, and as a long range Ranger, I wanted to avoid that as much as possible), though I keep running into references about something called a "threshold". What exactly is that, and does it have something to do with the range cap of the bow?

2) Currently, I have as yet to use any transformation charges (and as such have no idea how to use them, or when even) but I have been able to "save" a few weapon & armor skins accordingly. However, there is one longbow which I used, that I no longer do because I now have a more powerful one that I got as a drop, that I am unable to save the skin as (the option is completely grayed out sadly, even though it is there to see). So except for the time I used it, I have yet to have any longbow have a great appearance and/or skin besides the most basic one (which I am very, very tired of by now). So why is it that, that particular longbow skin is unable to be saved (as in the option is grayed out)? In fact, why would any weapon skin who's weapon I have and can have the save option grayed out?

3) I have checked out the trading post skins from top to bottom, and so far I have yet to be able to see and find any skin for the Storm Bow, which is the prime skin I would like to get for my longbows. So, how am I able to get ahold of one by chance? Currently I have only 15 gold, one Black statue figurine, and like only two chests, so my options are sort of limited there I am afraid. In fact, getting them as drops is also exceedingly rare it seems as well, even though I have been selling item drops by the bucket load on the TP to earn as much gold as possible.

   But, as I really want to change the look of my longbow, I am sorely tempted to buy a different skin of the TP for now, despite the fact that if I do, I'll be essentially broke (which does suck in my opinion lol). So how can I get the Storm Longbow skin if it's not on the TP (or am I just missing it)? And if it costs like 600gp, from what I have read, how in the heck can I get it any other way? lol

4) After doing some research, which I seem to be doing every day now (which I actually like btw), is it true that Dungeon's are no longer popular, as Fractals have basically taken over? As a old man, old school PC gamer from way back during Zork days (ok, yeah, I am dating myself I know lol), running dungeons have been sorta my thing for a long time (I have also been a old time pen & paper D&D player too), so while I would love to run a dungeon to experience them (at least), if fractals are the "thing" now, then can I do them now, or do I have to wait until I am level 80 instead?

   Also, what exactly is "Dry Top/Silverwastes meta farming", and how/when can I start doing it too, as I really want to start getting as much gold & other resources as quickly as possible. Oh, and @Mariyuuna.6508, thank you very much for the Metabattle build comment. I have never heard of that before, and having looked it up I see that it is a cool place for builds and such, so thank you again for that.

 

 

   @Linken.6345, thank you as well for posting that link to the Hexed Outfit; I will definitely look into getting it, even though it might take some time. Cob drops seem to exceeding rare for me to get unfortunately, even with me running the labyrinth at once a day for at least an hour, so looking at the link, I see that I can actually buy it off the TP even now. However, that would require spending quite a bit of my gold from the little I have atm, and as such I sorta /cringe at doing it (God, I need more gold and other resources lol). In either case, I wanted to thank you for the link just the same.

   In either case, I guess I'll stop asking questions atm, as after looking at what I wrote, I sorta got carried away with doing it (sorry about that guys; my only excuse is that I have a lot of questions and all). I again thank you all for your kind replies, and helpful comments and advice, and hope that you will continue to do so as I absolutely have a lot to learn still, and as you can see, I am eager to do so. 🙂 You all have a good one, and as always, Without the Wax...

Peace...

Cobs are kinda easy to get if you do lab.

When you got 1000 candy corn you go to a hallowen vendor and buy it.

You can also type in weekly into your achievement panel press h and go to achieve tab.

When you do 100% that each week of hallowen you get another cob.

 Sadly you just missed 1 of them since it is monday today

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If you rightclick a weapon or armor and "unlock skin" is grayed out it means you already unlocked that skin - you press H and go to Wardrobe to reskin gear 🙂

 

I would recommend that you salvage all your loot with salvage kits (blue kits are fine), because you WILL want to max all crafting professions eventually and having alot of materials will be important. 

In fact, you should start on crafting while levelling because it awards you good exp. There are crafting guides online to help you understand how it works 😊

When you reach level 80 you need to be careful with salvaging exotics and check TP price for them first - some are quite expensive, especially "precursors" which people use to craft legendary weapons. Precursor exotic weapons will always have a lightblue text in their description which tells you that they are used for a legendary weapon. 

 

Silverwastes is a level 80 map, and I can actually recommend that you go there when you reach level 80, it will help you understand how meta events works in GW2, and learn how to survive/play your class efficiently! 

 

The Storm Bow is a gemstore skin (it's the one made of clouds and lightning right?), if you press O to open the gemstore and then go to the middle tab you can see that you can actually convert ingame gold to gems and thus grind gold to buy gemstore items. 

The skin might not be available at rhe moment, but in General Discussion here on the forums there's a daily updated thread which shows you which items are available/on sale, that way you can keep an eye out for that skin without logging into GW2 every day. 

 

Last note: if you type "/wiki " and hold down shift and leftclick any item you can look it up on the wiki, this is a great way to understand what certain items are used for. The wiki in general is your best friend, you can look up everything: items, maps, story chapters, classes, skills etc. 

Edited by vinterberg.2783
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Zork?  DUDE!  Been a long time since that one has come up in conversations!  Kinda miss it myself.  🙂

Dungeons are sorta abandoned in favor of fractals, similar to how raids have been abandoned in favor of strike missions (for now at least, hopefully more raids will come in time, but strikes are really fun too).  HOWEVER, you will frequently and regularly find groups forming up in the LFG for dungeons, and not just when one of them is a daily either.  If you are following the personal story as you level up, the dungeons, especially the story mode, is interwoven in it and introduces you to the various members of Destiny's Edge (Caithe, Ritlock, Eir, Zojja, and Logan).

Now for some info dumps: 

  1. Hero Points.  You can't refund them once you've spent them.  But don't worry about that.  Just from leveling alone to level 80, you will have enough Hero Points to fully unlock all of your core skills and trait lines.  Any extra points you get from hero challenges in the open world will just speed that up.  Core Tyria hero challenges award you 1 hero point.  When you get to the expansions and unlock elite specializations (Druid, Soulbeast, and Untamed), those take 250 hero points to fully unlock/train.  FEAR NOT! The Hero Challenges in the expansion maps award 10 hero points each, so training elite specs up is not an endless task. 
  2. Make sure you are doing your 3 dailies (assuming you aren't free to play).  Any combination of PvE, PvP, and/or WvW dailies counts towards your 3, and the reward for doing 3 dailies is 2 gold.  So 7 days of doing just dailies will nearly double your current gold.
  3. Crafting:  When you get around to crafting, gw2crafts.net for a crafting guide.  It calculates the cheapest way to level up your crafting professions, and if you plug in your API key, will even take into account materials that you already have in your material storage.  Don't forget to run the Guild Crafting Booster from the bartender in the guildhall, it will save you a ton of cash even over what gw2crafts does.
  4. General info about your account (and data mining your account for stuff you never even knew you didn't know...):  gw2efficieny.com.  And there are instructions there on creating an API key so you can really get every detail about your GW2 account.  Make sure you enter into the lottery drawing - I won the Halloween great sword skin a few years ago.
  5. Never be afraid to ask questions or for help in Map chat.  You may run into a jerk once in a while, but, overall this community is really friendly and super helpful.
  6. Type "/wiki et" in chat in-game will pull up the Event Timer page on the wiki for world bosses, meta events, and other special events.
  7. I run axe/axe and Great Sword on my rangers (both set up as open world druids and PvP valkyrie core rangers).  Axe 3 is a great opener as it chills whatever you hit (pay attention to the little red line below your weapon and utility skills - if it is there, the enemy you have targeted is out of range for that attack/skill).  Axe 4 is a good CC skill and pulls them in, but it is ground targeted (which makes it a terrible skill IMO).  Axe 5 is really devastating, along with also bouncing incoming projectiles back at the jerk that shot at you.  With great sword, I open with the utility skill "Sic'em", GS 2 (Maul), GS 5 (hilt bash) (which resets GS 2), and then GS 2 again.  That will get you a long way through many open-world fights on Ranger.
  8. Armor and weapons stat combinations have various names assigned to them.  Berserker's stats, for example, are Power (major), Precision (minor), and Ferocity (minor).  So if someone starts talking about berserker stats, you know they are talking about power, precision, and ferocity; which directly translates to hit damage, critical strike chance, and critical strike damage.  /wiki stat combination has a very good explanation of all the stat combos and what they mean and where to get them.
  9. As a 6, almost 7 year GW2 vet, I'm really happy you are enjoying yourself.  Welcome to GW2, have fun, and good luck!
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Wiki is great, though currently it isn't perfect as they were having some bugs. So if something doesn't show up when you follow the note above on linking something in chat, that might be why. You can type the name in the search bar though on the Wiki to find the item. It seems to be getting better with some items though.

 

Dungeons can be done when lower leveled. I think level 30 is when they start depending on the dungeon. Fractals, raids and strikes are for level 80 as part of the end-game content.

 

When you get unidentified gear, it is recommended to either sell it or open and then salvage. An above tip given by another person was great of checking to see how much it sells for at the TP when it is exotics. Rares I often check to see if they sell for more than what a glob of ecto sells for, as that has a chance of dropping from the rare items. Greatswords are often the only one I end up selling for rares though as most everything else is lower than the glob of ecto so I'll salvage in the hopes I'll get the ecto.

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