friend wants to return but never played previous expansions

[robintan.4068]

I was contacted by an old guildmate and buddy of mine who stopped playing right before the expansions came due to studying abroad. He wanted to come back and thought Secrets of the Obscure looked like a good expansion but was unsure of doing so, thinking he may need to do more of the story just to catch up to everything and needs to upgrade his gear. I just wanted to ask, if someone were to return from the core game and wanted to jump straight ahead to the latest expansion, can they still enjoy the rest of the game without HoT, PoF, and EoD? I don't even remember if Revenant becomes available for them in SotO. He's not the type to do raids or strikes though and prefers exploration more than anything too.

[Randulf.7614]

There will be spoilers and there will be skills and elite classes they won’t have access to. But nothing that will outright handicap them from playing. SoTo is as good a place as any to start from and is still enjoyable without gliders and raptors etc. They will also get quicker access to the skyscale which is pretty big plus.

If they prefer exploration, I’d say the bigger expacs are better for it though 

[robintan.4068]

59 minutes ago, Randulf.7614 said:

There will be spoilers and there will be skills and elite classes they won’t have access to. But nothing that will outright handicap them from playing. SoTo is as good a place as any to start from and is still enjoyable without gliders and raptors etc. They will also get quicker access to the skyscale which is pretty big plus.

If they prefer exploration, I’d say the bigger expacs are better for it though 

I pretty much told them about trying to get the other expansions as well if they wanted to explore more and they don't really have any of the mounts, let alone gliding. My friend just really loves games that take place in the sky. 😄

[Danikat.8537]

Is there a reason you linked random letters in your post to spam 'listicles'? If you're being paid to generate clicks for them there's better ways to do it.

The only downside to going straight to Secrets of the Obscure is he won't understand some of the story (for example he'll have no idea who Aurene is or why the Commander cares so much about her not being around) and will get spoilers for earlier storylines.

Also if he hasn't played in years he may want to take some time to re-learn how the game works before jumping into anything new. That might include changing his build because skills and specialisations have been changed since he last played, but he doesn't necessarily need new equipment. As you may have noticed equipment in newer expansions (and LW maps) aren't actually better, there are a few new stat combinations but they're not going to be right for everyone. He only needs to change it if he wants a different stat combination.

[phaserBanks.7386]

By "enjoy" I'm guessing you mean the playing aspect of the game, so maybe yes because GW2 in general is a fun game and SOTO is enjoyable too. But if you care about the story, jumping to SOTO can be a little confusing. It would be like watching Return of the King without seeing Fellowship of the Ring or The Two Towers first. But I think there may be new players who did just that and don't mind. This all really depends on the player. SOTO is the only expansion that I could complete with all the achievements (as indicated on my Hero panel). I couldn't do that with any of the others, so having said that, for me, SOTO is probably the easiest compared to the others. The other expansions are more challenging, at least that is my opinion since I'm not close to completing all the achievements for them.

Edited November 14, 2023 by phaserBanks.7386

[costepj.5120]

5 hours ago, phaserBanks.7386 said:

SOTO is the only expansion that I could complete with all the achievements

Gz on completing 100 convergences so quickly!

[robintan.4068]

So a bit of an update. He wound up getting both HoT and PoF first because of exploration. He plans on speedrunning the story and masteries. I did warn him that the Legendary Bounties might be a bit of a challenge if he plans to solo them for the griffon mount, but he says he's confident he can get them after looking up a guide. Meanwhile there's me just cheering him on as he struggles against the Hero Points in Verdant Brink (summons random Mordrem). 

[Urud.4925]

I thought there was some hidden message by putting all the red letters together... I was disappointed.

Yeah, HoT + PoF offer the best content for the price (and good elite specs). I'd recommend that to a player with the core game as well. EoD is only useful for the strikes and if your main is an engineer (and maybe mesmer). SotO... I guess it's good if you want to get the skyscale fast (so far that's the only reason I can find, considering that a lot of players even decided to disable the most expensive mastery skill).

Edited November 16, 2023 by Urud.4925