What would you of done different?

[Odin.2096]

Hello all and an early happy holidays.

So I and 3 of my friends are brand new to the game ranging from level 11 to 45. We are really enjoying it so far. But I have a question for the more veteran community; Knowing what you know now, what would you of done differently with your first character (if anything)? Any tips, tricks? What to do and what to avoid? Websites/apps recommendations?Basically what advice would you give to the newer members.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The most common advice I see is: take your time leveling. Learn the game's mechanics, learn the profession, stop to smell the roses (i.e. explore off the beaten track, follow NPCs, chase events, etc). In effect: be in the moment (Tyria style).(This advice comes most frequently from people who did not take their time; I see few regrets among those who did so to start with.)

At some point, you'll have specific questions, so come back and ask them here. I can point you to two dozen websites, but they are all distractions while you are seeing things for the first time. (Or you might find things too slow, then your specific questions will be about how to speed things up, at which point there are still other websites worth checking out.)

Welcome to the game.

[Linken.6345]

I would say abuse the /wiki command

Find something you dont know what to do with /wiki itemand you will be redirected to a neat homepage outside of game.

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

I don't think I've done too many mistakes with my first character, but there are certainly some important things I did right.

First of all, don't try to chase a single goal. I found that exploration makes less fun if you think of it as a checklist. I still enjoy running around and doing random stuff, but I loathe map completion. The most important thing you can do as a beginner is to try out EVERYTHING. When I started GW2 you had to unlock weapon skills by gathering exp with them. It's kinda sad that this system was replaced, but I still recommend trying out every weapon and every skill your class has to offer. Also Tyria has many hidden mini dungeons, jumping puzzles or just interesting places. It's important to keep your eyes open and if something looks interesting don't hesitate to check it out.

Usually the game becomes stale around lvl 60. The novelty of doing hearts and events fades off but you're not yet ready for endgame stuff like fractals or the expansion areas. Leveling cook or jeweler to 400 gives around 7 levels each for cheap and can help to shorten this last gap. Once you're lvl 80 the game turns into fashion wars. Searching for new skins and getting rare dies can take up a lot of time.

Some tips:It's usually best to salvage anything you don't need for materials. The cheapest salvage kit does the job just right. For rare (yellow) items you can use a better salvage kit. For rare (yellow) and especially exotic (orange) items you should check the price on the TP first. Most of the time I just salvage rares and sell exos, except if the exo is cheap and I don't have the skin yet. You can deposit your crafting materials by clicking the gear in your inventory and choosing deposit materials. They end up in your bank's material storage.Always carry a set of spare gathering tools. If you don't have infinite tools it can be quite frustrating to run out of them while gathering.Most players in the game are veteran players who have long forgotten what it was like to learn the game. If you do dungeons or other party based content it's better to remind them that there are beginners in the game who don't know everything yet.

As for important websites:

• Official Wiki can be accessed from within the game by typing /wiki (searchtopic).
• Dulfy is probably the first site with quality guides once new content is released. There are tons of guides for achievements, guild missions and stuff.
• gw2crafts for cheap leveling of crafting professions.
• gw2efficiency for all kinds of things. You won't find a better tool for account management. It also has a dungeon tracker, crafting calculator and a world boss timer.

[Danikat.8537]

I still struggle with this one now, but my main tip would be not to worry about doing things wrong - going to places in the wrong order, unlocking the wrong skills, completing one thing before moving on vs. doing bits of lots of things, and so on.

For example when my personal story first sent me out of Queensdale I was really unsure if I should follow the story into the next map or finish exploring Queensdale first. I now know it didn't matter, both the story and the map would be the same no matter which I picked, but that doesn't stop me second guessing my decision to finish the PoF story before fully exploring the map because I keep wondering if things might have changed as a result of the story.

There's very, very little you can do in this game that will mess your character up or prevent you doing other things later on. For example you can eventually get more than enough Hero Points to unlock all the skills and traits, so if you don't like the ones you chose you can change them later on. If you're above the recommended level for an area or a story instance or whatever you'll be scaled down - you'll never be prevented from doing something because you've passed the point where you were 'supposed to' do it.

I think the one exception is the story - once you reach level 80 you can play the different releases in any order, but doing them out of release order means things may not make any sense and there will be spoilers when people talk about past events. (You can still go back and play the earlier story lines, it's just your experience of it that will be messed up).

If you want to play the whole storyline in order it goes: Personal Story > Living World Season 1 recap* > Living World Season 2 > Heart of Thorns > Season 3 > Path of Fire > Season 4**

*Season 1 was designed as tempoary content, only playable during a 2 week/1 month window and has since been unavailable to everyone. They switched to permanent content for Season 2 following player feedback. There's a short recap video in-game and longer ones on Youtube.**Season 4 is going to start later on this month.

Oh there's also some decisions in the Personal Story that cannot be changed once you've made them. I think the only one that continues to have an effect is which Order you choose to join (and that mainly affects dialogue and how you can unlock some item skins), the other choices just affect the story itself. Those choices are always clearly labelled so you'll know when you encounter one.

[hornswroggle.8023]

@Odin.2096 said:Hello all and an early happy holidays.

So I and 3 of my friends are brand new to the game ranging from level 11 to 45. We are really enjoying it so far. But I have a question for the more veteran community; Knowing what you know now, what would you of done differently with your first character (if anything)? Any tips, tricks? What to do and what to avoid? Websites/apps recommendations?Basically what advice would you give to the newer members.

Collect EVERYTHING! Well not literally but mostly. Use the "Store materials" option to un-clutter your inventory. you will more than likely need some of those materials once you're 80, and there were multiple occasions where I bit myself because I tossed or sold something.Also if you happen across food or utility consumables (the Apple and the Wrench) just use them you get littered with them.

Cheers

[Danikat.8537]

Oh, another thing I wish I'd known was not to sell equipment to merchants unless there's no other option.

Sell it on the Trading Post for a better price or salvage it for materials if it can't be sold (either because it's account bound or simply because no one's buying). The materials are usually worth as much or more than the item they come from and they come in very useful if you want to level crafting.

[Alatar.7364]

I would have never bothered equipping my Character with Better Gear and Focused Stats before I Reached lvl 80.I'd also join some Guild much Sooner than I did.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

I would have played Living World Season One when it was available.Instead, I had difficulty finding a playable build for my Elly and quit the game for a year or so. Only discovering much, much later that the content of LW S1 had been removed already.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

I'm a slow PvE player and have no regrets but agree with others who say don't rush, take your time, learn stuff, explore, try things. By try things, I mean try some crafting to see if you enjoy it, try jumping puzzles (many good guides online about which are easiest -- don't start with the hardest ones or you might get discouraged), and so on. Remember, in PvE you're not in a race or competition to finish fastest.

And take time occasionally to stop and just look around at the beautiful world created by the artists.

[Dust Errant.3081]

Do your research. I got my first character to 80, and 100 map completion before I completely realized I wasn't really enjoying how my class was playing. Make sure the class you're playing is one that's going to fit your gameplay style for what you want to accomplish with it.

[Aninika.6819]

It's very hard to say what I would've done differently since I only leveled one character to level 80 the hard way and that was back when the game first came out, and the game is very different from those days. But if I had to say something that I could've done differently, it would be to not buy new armor constantly. Unless you're doing a dungeon run or really struggling with your story, don't bother upgrading it (do get more armor than what it gives you at the start). Armor stats don't really matter below level 80 since most of the gear have bad stats. Utilize whatever resources you have. You have access to the command /wiki and to the forum and Reddit. Use /wiki first but if you can't find the answer there usually the forum or Reddit will have you covered. Dulfy.com is also very useful for achievements. I didn't have access to any of these things when the game started, but I wish I had. It would've been so helpful! Go to higher level zones as soon as you can! You level up faster in these zones. However, make sure you can survive in them first. Going to a higher level zone is useless if you can't stay alive. Also, don't start fashion wars until lvl 80 or you're just wasting transmutation stones/money.

[Oh Griffo.3148]

I would have filled all my character slots up on day 1 of playing, in order to get all the birthday boosters on the same day. Even if I didn't end up playing them, I could delete them and create new characters. For example, the 5th and 6th anniversary dye packs are amazing and having a few more of those wouldn't hurt my dye collection.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

I made my 1st character from a Minion Master Necro to a Minion Master Scourge after not liking Minion Master Reaper.

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

Easy question as I confront what I regret on a daily basis: At time it comes in the storyline, I would select a different race to help. With my first char - who is my main char - I did chose Hyleks and regreted it forever after that.Aside of the fact that I generally do hate Hyleks, especially in fights due to the amount of poison they can stack on a player, the location where they stand in my home instance is a real bother, spoiling the farming of the several nodes that are literally "in" them.

For all my toons who did the storyline after my main, I have selected Quaggans, first because they are cute and second because I prefer that storyline.

[Game of Bones.8975]

The thing that hurt me for the longest time was misallocation of Mastery Points.

Work backward from what you want to do with your account and use your MPs in those slots. If you are wanting to craft Legendary items, you'll need to max the Legendary Crafting line, not the Fractal Attunement.

I learned by the time I got to PoF; I got all my main mount abilities before spending skills on the cross-overs. And by the time I got my griffon, I saved 12 points to max it off the bat.

Craft Mystic Salvage Kits, they're cheaper per use than Master Salvage Kits.

[Cynz.9437]

Do not bother with gear and skins until you are max level.If you want to pve a lot, get zerker gear. It is good enough (and relative cheap) for starters.Salvage everything but orange and purple quality items, chances are they sell well on market.

Use metabattle website if you don't know which build to use. They are good for starters and have some guides.

[Dashiva.6149]

Take your time. Go off the beaten path.Using guides and wikis are fine, but don't be afraid to explore and examine things on your own for a bit.You outlevel gear rather quick in this game, so be aware of that if you want to change skins using Transmutation charges between level 1-79.

One regret that I have is that I focused too much time on my main (a Thief) and didn't properly experience the other classes until much later. Eventually it became slightly boring to play the same class all the time. That might just be me though.Now my Thief has completed PoF and every other character has barely entered HoT.

[Zark.9720]

My .02

Don't be in a rush to hit 80 ... nothing so special about it. Take your time, do the story, explore the maps.Gather, gather, gather ... then hoard those mats for future crafting or sales.Don't be too worried about gear (stats or appearance) as you level, just check it every few levels to stay up to date. You'll out-level it too fast to spend much coin on it until your 80 anyway.Also try out a couple of the classes, you might like something you didn't expect.

But most importantly ... be Asuran. (kidding ... but seriously)

[PyrateSilly.4710]

Birthdays in the game are PER CHAR, that means that you will miss out on a birthday gift if you delete the char. If I wanted to do something with a throw away char then I only keep the char around to do what I need to do and then delete, usually within a few days of making it. Any char I keep beyond a certain time frame I will keep just because of the birthday gifts each char will get on there birthday.

[Biff.5312]

I would NOT spend my laurels frivolously. Same for karma or any other currency. Save all that stuff until you're lvl 80 and find something you really want to spend it on. You may end up not wanting anything - that's fine. Better than realising you pissed away dozens of laurels on things like dyes when you find yourself with too few to buy the ascended rings you want.

[Biff.5312]

@PyrateSilly.4710 said:Birthdays in the game are PER CHAR, that means that you will miss out on a birthday gift if you delete the char. If I wanted to do something with a throw away char then I only keep the char around to do what I need to do and then delete, usually within a few days of making it. Any char I keep beyond a certain time frame I will keep just because of the birthday gifts each char will get on there birthday.

But, all birthday gifts are the same. So if you have two toons hit their birthday, you still only get the one mini. It's a duplicate present and not useful. You might use the lvl-up gift, but why keep a toon a whole year for an item that saves you maybe 4 hours of gameplay?

[Rauderi.8706]

@Danikat.8537 said:Oh, another thing I wish I'd known was not to sell equipment to merchants unless there's no other option.

Sell it on the Trading Post for a better price or salvage it for materials if it can't be sold (either because it's account bound or simply because no one's buying). The materials are usually worth as much or more than the item they come from and they come in very useful if you want to level crafting.

Bonus item: Right click on an item and select "Sell at Trading Post". You can clear some of your crowded inventory directly to the market without moving a single step! (Or on the move if you're like me and auto-run everywhere. :P)

@Biff.5312 said:I would NOT spend my laurels frivolously. Same for karma or any other currency. Save all that stuff until you're lvl 80 and find something you really want to spend it on. You may end up not wanting anything - that's fine. Better than realising you pissed away dozens of laurels on things like dyes when you find yourself with too few to buy the ascended rings you want.

Something to not spend your karma on: Exotic gear in Orr. It can't be salvaged, and if you stick good runes in there, you could be out several gold for doing so. That's definitely on my "would do differently" list.

[ReaverKane.7598]

I can't say i have any regrets, but i can give you some tips.What the other guys said, take your time, Dulfy efficiency and such help a lot, also /wiki is awesome!Don't waste money on bling early on. Get the essentials like exotic gear, bags, and try to get a couple extra bank slots (and/or material storage). These will be handy early on.Try to find a good guild, i'd advise on smaller ones, since usually larger ones have groups within groups and people will be less attentive to you. (If you're in EU you can give mine a shot).Also, use the fact that you can be in several guilds to your advantage.Play PvP and WvW, they can be fun, and have some nice rewards.When you get to 80 and are sporting a jumble of assorted gear, it might be time for you to pick your build so you can start focusing on a certain stat-type and such.Check QT's site (https://qtfy.eu/) and Meta battle (https://metabattle.com/). I DON'T advise you to straight up copy what they have there. But read it, understand the interactions, and adapt it to your style.For example, those rotations are designed to output the maximum possible dps, but you can still do reasonably well with a simpler one, provided you understand what are the goals of the rotation, and you understand your character enough.

Finally don't be afraid to ask for help ingame. Most people are nice, regardless of how it might seem here in the forums.

[leftharted.7102]

as a returning player myself, my best advise to give is to at least Start leveling crafting while your in the mid-level ranges and get consistent materials relevant to your crafting level.

I rushed to 80 and never did a lick of crafting. Sure, I had handfuls of various tier mats in my bank; but it wasn't enough. I still had to either farm certain level ranges or spend precious gold on buying the mats...

level your crafting while you level your character... it'lll save you headache + time in the long run.