New player help

[boom.4586]

Hey everyone

 

I class myself as a new player even though i purchased game on release, PC broke down and never came back. Now I'm back and super excited to start again but wow so much has changed. I've been playing wow and ff14 recently and because monthly subscription I've dropped both and want to dive into a non subscription service mmo. Im looking for some little tips to get me started, cheers everyone.

[JSmooth.7654]

As the saying goes...

Question: "How do you eat an elephant?"

Answer: "One bite at a time."

Gw2 is a fun game. It's also a giant elephant of complexity. Both things can be true. You can dive deep into it's systems or stay as shallow and surface level as you want. Take it one bite at a time. Learn what you want. Do what you want. Some systems (raids, strikes, fractals) will require more of you as a gamer. But, you never have to play in those game modes if you don't want.

My first suggestion would be to find a class that you enjoy playing and start from there.

Edited March 15, 2023 by JSmooth.7654

[Farohna.6247]

Pick a profession you like, start  exploring and leveling, have fun!  This new player guide may be helpful!

https://youtu.be/JDvIKkbeCoI

[Nabbut.7480]

Pick a profession you like the most and stick to it, altoholism is bad in this game.

Don't rush the story, take your time grazing in open world and becoming stronger and more skillful to tackle it without loss. Doing one story mission per day is a fine rule.

Try to die as little as you can, focusing on survival instead of "doing damage". This game is about living after all.

GW2 haves one of the best economies in MMO's, acquainting yourself with gathering and crafting is a good way to make lots of gold and help the community by supplying it with stuff.

[Linken.6345]

On 3/16/2023 at 3:38 PM, SpiderZ.9146 said:

Pick a profession you like the most and stick to it, altoholism is bad in this game.

Snip

How is Altoholism bad exactly, cant say I agree having 18 characters.

[Gibson.4036]

On 3/16/2023 at 10:38 AM, SpiderZ.9146 said:

Pick a profession you like the most and stick to it, altoholism is bad in this game.

I've found it absolutelty necessary.

ArenaNet likes to "balance" in big swings. The runes that made your build really strong yesterday may be completely useless tomorrow. One espec may be overperforming, and they nerf a core trait that impacts all especs for that profession. If you have a stable of characters with a variety of professions, you can hop over and take a break from the one you've been playing.

Also, having alts parked at various places can make you the most gold/hr out of any activities in the game, short of swiping your credit card.

While there are some designs that don't feel alt-friendly, there are a lot that are. Mounts, masteries, and account-bound ascended gear are all very helpful to people who play a lot of characters.

For a long time, I've played 9 characters so I can have one of each profession. I've recently set out to make one of every espec I'm interested in so I don't have to rework characters when I want to play a different build.

[Harfang.1507]

"One bite at a time" is indeed the best advice. I came back to the game almost five years ago and have not run out of things to do in PvE. A few general tips:

• Understand that contrary to WoW, GW2's progression is horizontal. Once you hit max level, you can cheaply equip your character in almost-best-in-slot and get into end-game contents (fractals are arguably in exception beyond the entry level).
• Salvage all gear you do not intend to use, send materials to storage by hitting the arrow-in-a-box icon in the top right corner of your inventory. (Some exceptions apply.) If you have overflow, sell it on the Trading Post, accesible from everywhere in the world.
• Scour YouTube for beginner tips videos. There are loads. One of the best content creators imho is Mukluk; he is mostly an entertainer, but his guides are excellent. AyinMaiden and, for older content, Dulfy are also great.

Edited March 17, 2023 by Harfang.1507
Formatting

[Ashantara.8731]

On 3/16/2023 at 3:38 PM, SpiderZ.9146 said:

Pick a profession you like the most and stick to it, altoholism is bad in this game.

[....]

Try to die as little as you can, focusing on survival instead of "doing damage". This game is about living after all.

[...]

I can't agree with anything SpiderZ wrote, but these two claims in particular are just outrageously inaccurate.

• GW2 is very alt-friendly.
• The more damage you deal, the quicker you dispose of your enemies. The quicker you dispose of them, the less likely you are going to die of damage. Therefore, dealing high damage is one of the cornerstones of survival (besides good reflexes/proper movement and some knowledge of your character's profession).

Edited March 17, 2023 by Ashantara.8731

[Gendalfs.7521]

I would recommend starting with Necromancer and going full minion build, just to take some shoes of the gameplay and mechanics (later you can spec into scourge, reaper or harbinger).

Other easy class is Mechanic, but you start as engineer and thats not the most beginner friendly class.

Most qol improvement in this game is mount. If you purchased GW2 you got raptor, but you need to go for Skyscale, but thats long term goal, but I suggest you start as early as you can, because having flying mount opens many locations much faster and easier.

Tho dont rush too much.

p.s. as previously mentioned GW2 is alt friendly and leveling is pretty fast so if you dont ''feel'' class take another.

 

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

First of all, I would drop your old characters, as you likely don't remember anything about them. However, don't delete them as they'll be holding many birthday gifts.

 

Reserve one character slot for a mule and invest in 18-20 slot bags for it, this frees up alot of space in your bank. This is especially important for a new player who doesn't have alot of bank tabs, as you'll quickly get overwhelmed with the the game gives you.

 

Use your other character slots to create multiple classes and find which one works for you, though keep in mind later on elite specialisations (subclasses) change their gameplay quite significantly, and some players don't like the core classes but do enjoy the subclasses. You can test all specialisations on the training golems, in the PvP lobby if you own the expansions, as PvP unlocks everything by default.

 

Sepnd alot of time exploring the world. Central Tyria is absolutely massive and there's alot of content to experience even after reaching level 80 without ever stepping foot in expansion zones. Avoid using level boosts, mounts or anything else until you're accustomed to the game, as these cheapen alot of the experiences. Enjoy completing maps, learning your class, salvaging gear you don't need and selling the raw materials for gold on the Trading Post. You can also experience some end-game content here with dungeons, Fractals, meta events like Silverwastes and a single strike mission called Old Lion's Court.

 

When you're ready, complete your Personal Story and move on to LWS1, which is free for all to play. At this point you will likely have to gear up and build properly to not get demolished.

 

After this you can move on to the buy-to-play Living World seasons (LWS2, 3, 4, and 5), and the expansions (HoT, PoF, EoD), all of which happen in a linear order and tell a single story for the most part. There's a decade of content here so take it slowly, don't break your wallet, grind out what you can (the Living World can be bought entirely with gold) and you'll gain access to elite specialisations, mounts and skiffs, advanced meta builds, exclusive gearsets like Viper's, entirely new zones in new continents including Cantha and Elona, and end-game content like raids from HoT and PoF and strike missions from LWS5(IBS) and EoD.

 

I also recommend trying out WvW whenever you have the time. Its changed alot and while its not extremely different to how it was before, its alot more fun and rewarding.

Edited March 17, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134

[Nabbut.7480]

On 3/18/2023 at 3:32 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

I can't agree with anything SpiderZ wrote, but these two claims in particular are just outrageously inaccurate.

• GW2 is very alt-friendly.
• The more damage you deal, the quicker you dispose of your enemies. The quicker you dispose of them, the less likely you are going to die of damage. Therefore, dealing high damage is one of the cornerstones of survival (besides good reflexes/proper movement and some knowledge of your character's profession).

• Yup, pubs are very alcohol friendly too, does it makes alcoholism good? Playing multiple characters is like building multiple houses simultaneously while you can live in only one at a time.
• Yeah yeah I see players dropping down all the time on simple bosses like Svanir Shaman and in fractals it is considered a norm to wipe and use /gg. Not to mention Verdant Brink where players die to Mordrem waves, etc, etc, the whole kitten game is an example. So don't you try to kitten me and the new players please. You cannot deal more damage on something that downs you because of a glass cannon failbuild, and on big champions and bosses like Molten Twins sustain matters more than damage.

But you can't agree because you are triggered by letter Z amirite?

[costepj.5120]

56 minutes ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

Playing multiple characters is like building multiple houses simultaneously while you can live in only one at a time.

Or like having multiple TV channels and streaming services even though you can only watch one at a time. Or going to a restaurant with a menu of different options even though you can only eat one at a time. Having a choice available is a good thing.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

•  Playing multiple characters is like building multiple houses simultaneously while you can live in only one at a time.

You do know people do this right?

You rent them out and are a landlord mate.

[Gibson.4036]

38 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

You do know people do this right?

You rent them out and are a landlord mate.

Or you stay in one in the summer and the other in winter because they are in better climates for those seasons.

[Gibson.4036]

2 hours ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

• Playing multiple characters is like building multiple houses simultaneously while you can live in only one at a time.

It’s more like having different tools in your toolbox. Last night I used my Mesmer to do a JP so I can port people, then ran Drizzlewood with my renegade so I could toss out alac, then did Rock Dodger and Shrubsplosives on my Mechanist so I could easy mode the fight and concentrate on positioning.

2 hours ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

 

• Yeah yeah I see players dropping down all the time on simple bosses like Svanir Shaman and in fractals it is considered a norm to wipe and use /gg. Not to mention Verdant Brink where players die to Mordrem waves, etc, etc, the whole kitten game is an example. So don't you try to kitten me and the new players please. You cannot deal more damage on something that downs you because of a glass cannon failbuild, and on big champions and bosses like Molten Twins sustain matters more than damage.

The right tools for the right job. New players used to get frustrated trying HoT for the first time in their PVT Soldier’s gear. Vitality and toughness looked like it would protect you, but fights took longer, which made more time to make a mistake, and building a little more offensively can lead to more survivability.

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Ashantara.8731]

2 hours ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

But you can't agree because you are triggered by letter Z amirite?

😂 What? I didn't even think about it until you mentioned it. Now that you mentioned it, I sincerely hope it doesn't mean what you are insinuating, because that would be disgusting.

Now can we get back on topic?

2 hours ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

• Yup, pubs are very alcohol friendly too, does it makes alcoholism good? [...]
   
• Yeah yeah I see players dropping down all the time on simple bosses like Svanir Shaman and in fractals it is considered a norm to wipe and use /gg. [...]

When you use metaphors, at least use some that make sense in the context of what's being discussed.

And people drop because they either can't see all the AoE circles in the blob of people and blinding light effects or because they simply never cared to learn how to move properly in a fight to avoid heavy damage.
 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Ashantara.8731

[Luthan.5236]

Try to play one core profession to level 80 in the core maps + the core personal story. To get into the game again. Getting to know a bit about the story and lore. Try an alt or different chars if you find that you really do not like the first profession you tried. (At least try to give it some time though.)

After that: Expansions. The whole core stuff imo is the tutorial nowadays. Ideally in release order. If you want the mounts you can start with later stuff. There are different choices. A common suggestion is to unlock the raptor early (not much spoiler of later story needed) but then playing in order of release.

I would not go for multiple chars with "everything" (map completion, story, etc.) - though the game is alt-friendly. (As already explained. You level fast. Though some people claim it is not alt-friendly cause you need gear and jade bot cores for each chars lol. Which later should not be that expensive though.) Keep one main where you try to complete most stuff (map completion and story) and other chars maybe ... trying out - if you want to try different professions. You can focus on more (bringing other chars to all the maps + story) later ... if  you want.

For elite specs you can look up the wiki ... or youtube or ask in the forums. Hero challenges in the expansion maps are needed. Since they give a lot more (10 instead of 1 as in core maps) hero points and an elite spec needs 250 to fully  unlock. There usually is help available. (Hero point trains in lfg or you can ask in chat.) The HoT ones are the hardest - a lot intended as group content. HoT in general (if you play in release order you will start with that earlier than with PoF/EoD) is considered to have the hardest/most annoying open world content. No shame to die there - should not disencourage you. Especially if you still optimize builds and improve your gear. (Should have at least full exotics set if you want to move into HoT.)

In my opinion (I have only played core professions of all the 9 ones + the elite from mesmer and engineer): Elementalist and thief ... are hard to play. Low health and/or relying on dodging a lot + "keyboard acrobatics". Other than that ... everything  is fine I guess. Pet classes (ranger, necro) and the necro cause of his shroud (often called a second health bar) seem easier to play. Someone recommended necro already.

As for the damage vs. survivability thing people talked about: Of course it makes sense to kill enemies faster. (Then they have less time to deal damage to you.) Makes no sense though to go full berzerker (especially if you play one of the classes squishier by design) and then die too fast. I always found it helpful to use more gear with toughness/vitality ("soldiers" is one of the trinkets I think - for this) ... the slowly switching when yo notice there is leeway. (= thinking like "would have been nice to deal a bit more/faster damage and they even did not do that mcuh damage to me" - then changing the stats more towards damage)

Edited March 20, 2023 by Luthan.5236

[Gibson.4036]

Just popping back in to note that there are stat sets between the defensive but plodding Soldiers (Power, Vitality, Toughness) and glass cannon (Berzerkers, Vipers).

Marauders (Power, Precision, Vitality, Ferocity), Rabid (Condition Damage, Precision, Toughness) and Trailblazers (Toughness, Condition Damage, Vitality, Expertise) are all options good for various builds where you can trade some damge for survivability without turning your damage into mush.

You can also split stat sets. I used to start new characters with one of those sets in armor, then take the pure damage equivalent in my trinkets and weapons. This gave a little cushion of survivability but still kept down time-to-kill. As I learned my build I'd then swap out the Marauders/Rabid/Trailblazers to the Zerkers/Vipers.

The important thing to note is that defense in this game is more active than a lot of MMOs. You can't just throw on "tank gear" and wade in. You will likely end up dying more often that way, not less.

Edited March 20, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Type /wiki et into chat in game and hit enter.  It will bring up the event timer page on the wiki for you.  Typing /wiki something-you-want-to-lookup-in-the-wiki will bring up the wiki article (or search results) for that thing you want to lookup.  The wiki is your friend and will help you solve many a frustrating problem.  Good luck and welcome to GW2!

[Rogue.8235]

On 3/15/2023 at 4:20 PM, boom.4586 said:

Hey everyone

 

I class myself as a new player even though i purchased game on release, PC broke down and never came back. Now I'm back and super excited to start again but wow so much has changed. I've been playing wow and ff14 recently and because monthly subscription I've dropped both and want to dive into a non subscription service mmo. Im looking for some little tips to get me started, cheers everyone.

 

One thing that will help in the long-run is mastering active survival before attempting to master dealing damage.  GW2 is built around active defenses, so survival is not based only on defensive stats.  Every profession has their own flavor of staying alive, such as guardians with their blocks, invulnerabilities, and self-healing, and thieves with evades, mobility, and stealth.  The reason players can run max damage builds and deal huge amounts of damage all the time is because they have mastered how to survive through active defenses and positioning.

An easy way to begin mastery is to run around, fighting everything in low level maps.  However, focus on not getting hit at all.  Not even once.  Pretend that every enemy can insta-kill you with one hit.  Again, every profession will do this in their own way.  In addition to this, play around with all the different skills to avoid getting hit.  The early game should be about exploring what your profession can do, rather than deciding on a single build for all time.  Simply fighting and using all the different skills will help you master the profession.

Once you're able to easily avoid getting hit at all, without really thinking about it, you'll be way ahead of most players in the game.  You'll also be ready to play those max damage builds.

 

On 3/17/2023 at 6:32 PM, Ashantara.8731 said:

• The more damage you deal, the quicker you dispose of your enemies. The quicker you dispose of them, the less likely you are going to die of damage. Therefore, dealing high damage is one of the cornerstones of survival (besides good reflexes/proper movement and some knowledge of your character's profession).

 

And the ability to deal high damage is dependent on the player's ability to survive without the need for defensive stats.  This is why I suggest mastering active survivability first.  It is one of the fundamentals of the GW2 combat system.

 

[Ashantara.8731]

9 hours ago, Rogue.8235 said:

And the ability to deal high damage is dependent on the player's ability to survive without the need for defensive stats.  This is why I suggest mastering active survivability first.  It is one of the fundamentals of the GW2 combat system.

👍

[Buran.3796]

1) If you have old characters keep at least the first one since there's annual rewards for longevity (for the alts it stops afterv the 8th year, so you can reset those if you want).

2) There's 9 professions and 5 races of two sexes, each one with a different voice actor. Unless you want to play each profession as the same avatar I'll advice you to rely on variety, since having the same voice with each character ends being annoying. Speed is shared across races, but smaller characters make easier to do jumping puzzles and larger characters make easier to cover your captain in WvW. Racial skills are subpar and irrelevant outside the lore.

3) Alts are useful even if you only main one spec since they provide a lot of space; in terms of both muling and alt-parking they are one of the best inversions in the game (plus you can try new gamestyles):

4) At mid term focus on trying to get a full set of legendary armor for your main (you can get the pieces from PvE, WvW, PvP or a mix of all of them. Legendary armors allows you to reset the stats at no cost, change the skins at no cost, and insert and extract runes and infussions at no cost without destroying them. Ascended trinkets can easily be farmed in Bjora Marches, Sandswept Isles, Dragonstorm, Bloodstone Fen and Bjora Marches, so in my opinion legendary trinkets aren't as important as the first legendary armort set.

5) For gathering the best option is to buy either the Infinite Unbound Magic Gathering Tools or the Infinite Volatile Gathering tools (IMO Unbound + Consortium Molten Sickle are the best since the faster animation, glyphs can be purchased apart). Shared account slots are high value to use with those tools and some teleport devices.

6) Mounts and Masteries provide high quality of life. Get them ASAP. In core Tyria masteries get the auto loot ASAP.

7) Leveling is fast an you can 1-80 in ~24 hours just exploring the core maps.

[Gibson.4036]

25 minutes ago, Buran.3796 said:

 

4) At mid term focus on trying to get a full set of legendary armor for your main (you can get the pieces from PvE, WvW, PvP or a mix of all of them. Legendary armors allows you to reset the stats at no cost, change the skins at no cost, and insert and extract runes and infussions at no cost without destroying them. Ascended trinkets can easily be farmed in Bjora Marches, Sandswept Isles, Dragonstorm, Bloodstone Fen and Bjora Marches, so in my opinion legendary trinkets aren't as important as the first legendary armort set.

I calculated differently. Legendary amulet was the easiest, followed by legendary trinkets, so I did those first. They also can be used on every character, as opposed to armor that can only be used on a third of the professions.

By the same logic, I then went backpack. Doing that in PvP meant I also had enough mats for two pieces of legendary armor by the time I’d finished the backpack achievements.

IMO, based on cost-difficulty/utility, the order is Amulet->Trinkets->Backpack->Armor->Weapons—————>Runes/Sigils

This may be colored by the fact that I don’t have a “main” and play several characters of different armor weights.

[Buran.3796]

13 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I calculated differently. Legendary amulet was the easiest, followed by legendary trinkets, so I did those first. They also can be used on every character, as opposed to armor that can only be used on a third of the professions.

By the same logic, I then went backpack. Doing that in PvP meant I also had enough mats for two pieces of legendary armor by the time I’d finished the backpack achievements.

 Yeah, no.

I understand the convenience of getting the legendary trinkets (I have some of them -Trascendence, Conflux, The Ascension-, and this year I will have the full set). But let me explain why the legendary armor (for your main and the other professions in the same tier of armor) has priority over the legendary trinkets:

Option A: You craft the legendary armor, and at the same time you get your full set of ascended trinkets for 0 gold farming currencies in the maps I cited. So you only need to spent gold in ascended weapons (untill you chose to go directly for the legendaries). Each ascended weapon/armor piece usually costs ~40/60 gold coins, by the way. Also, the amulet, ring and back pack from Bloodstone Fen can be reset in stats for barely 100 unbound magic, which is almost nothing.

Option B: You craft the legendary trinkets first (which takes longer and is more expensive than a single set of legendary armor, by the way), so now that gear is free for all your characters. Now you can farm ascended armor pieces in...  0 maps. You have to farm PvP, PvE or WvW content for tokens (oftenly capped by time) in content which is harder in time and requires WAY more effort than gathering winterberries or the icy currency from Bjora Marches, or rely in random drops of ascended gear from those content.

  So, you go for the armor for 1/3 of your roster and get free ascended trinkets, or you go for the trinkets which benefits your whole roster BUT you  grind harder content or spent ~300 gold coins x each ascended armor set. And each different set of armor gear costs you the same whereas you can get ascended trinkets for almost nothing.

  That's my point of view. New players: prioritrize the legendary armor for your main, the ascended accesories are almost free in farmeable currencies from Season 3 & 4 maps.

Edit: also, extra reason to go armor first: trinkets only can store infusions, and you can extract them with tools which require 24 silver coins x extraction. Armors can store infusions AND runes; while infusions can be removed the same way as in trinkets, runes require tools for extraction which are more expensive than any rune in the game (outside legendary runes). A legendary armor allows you to insert & extract both infusions and runes at 0 cost, infinite number of times.

Edited March 22, 2023 by Buran.3796

[Krexen.9057]

On 3/15/2023 at 3:20 PM, boom.4586 said:

Im looking for some little tips to get me started

Learn how to dodge, and when to dodge. Some bosses have a circle that expands outwards. Instead of running out of the circle, dodge the 'activation'. I learned this as a healer, and carry it with me to my alts.

 

If you have questions in-game, ask. This community loves to help others. Having spent 16 years on Warcraft myself, this was a refreshing turn of events. I thought all communities were like Warcrafts, but it turns out, that toxic cesspool is of its own creation.

 

Not a tip, but helpful to know - Sideways progression, not tiered. There's no carrot on a stick here (from what I've seen so far). If you log out tomorrow and come back in a week, you're not behind.

Edited March 21, 2023 by Krexen.9057
Clarity.