Need up-to date New Player information.

[PoppaSmoke.1987]

Howdy folks I have had this game since it released, now I have played it very little but am giving it one really good shot. I am about to finish the HoT story and then on to LW3, I am doing all this in order without a flying mount. I did start off with a regular mount but other than that my character is pretty new. I know that I am not the only one who has a character with few to zero masteries, and I know that I am not the only one who isn't able to get all the Hero Points in order to fill out an Elite Spec yet. I know some of yall folks can't afford legendaries. I have become frustrated with certain stories that are required for progressions so many times that I have set the game down for a couple of days and I am sure that I am not the only one. Fortunately, I have so far been able to continue but it is often only after reading a guide to learn the encounter or luck into a group of other players completing the same quests.

My Question is, can we get some guides and core builds aimed at beginners? Imagine having zero masteries and having no elite specs available those folks are the ones that are normally asking for help. I am not saying that there is not a bunch of guides and builds available but most of them are so old we are not sure what is relevant. The only core engi build I have been able to find involves a hammer and the same skills and the gear is never easily attainable. Imagine if you don't have access to the AH  and you have to select what ever gear drops, what would you want your stats to look like at the end, and what stat is most important while you are leveling and replacing your gear?

Thanks, folks I hope everyone is having an amazing day.

Poppa

[Cyninja.2954]

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Core_/_Free_to_Play

FYI: most veteran players didn't have legendaries back when this content released (nor ascended). Exotic was, is and likely will remain fine for most content.

Mounts where not a thing until PoF.

The power creep of the last few years has made things significantly easier. 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Cyninja.2954

[Linken.6345]

celestial you get a full exotic level of the gear with each boosted character.

[Lucy.3728]

5 hours ago, PoppaSmoke.1987 said:

Imagine having zero masteries and having no elite specs available

I started a new account like 4-5 weeks ago and know this situation. Although I've knowledge about everything that account misses, so I'm still in an advantage since I know what to do and reach faster than a player that has no clue. My worst experience was actually the lack of auto loot xD

For story you don't need the mounts anyway. They're a nice to have for the between chapter tasks but in the chapters you can't use mounts anyway in HoT.
The masteries, you are asked to level, are needed in later story parts, like the updraft.
For the points and exp you can do the meta on the maps. Use everything that increases your exp gain per kill/event (guild buff, food, booster,...).
The weekend is often a good time for Verdant Brink metas (night and day meta). Do the night bosses too. Each gives you a mastery point.
For that it'd be actually nice if Anet would somehow help to identify which copter leads to which boss. I had it that other players linked wps to the closest chopter in map chat, but that's not always a given.

You often need to ask for help. That's part of the game.

Ask in map chat for a community guild. They're usually large and have newbies and very experienced players who like to help.
If you're a German speaking player, I recommend DC: https://gw2community.de/forum/board/4-communitygilden-dc/ They're so large, they've 2 guilds.
Playing story with another person is a way better experience. I found 3 other ppl in that forum to play all stories incl lw, of all expansions.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Lucy.3728

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

For guides/walk-throughs, the Wiki is a great resource (link above and accessible in-game by typing /wiki [topic of choice).

[Vayne.8563]

I help a lot of people learn the game, particularly if they don't mind jumping into discord. If you're on a US server, hit me up if you're interested. I'm not a guide, but I'm a pretty good guide. lol

[phaserBanks.7386]

I've played GW2 since it first came out years ago and I still play it as a new player. My first character was an engineer. Since then I've created several characters up to my current Druid but for every character, I've never played them exactly as they were designed (engineer, thief, druid, etc.). Never got close to getting legendary gear only ascended. So yeah I'm in the same boat as "new players" because of my play style. My recommendation, is to complete your personal story, complete every map (vistas, points of interests, waypoints, etc.) and especially join groups in meta events. You can do the strike missions, fractals too if you wish. Doing all these will gain lots of experience points to get those achievements and masteries. I've done this for every character I created and goes by rather quickly if you keep doing it.

[evilcat.6817]

Metabattle is good place to start, there is also hardstuck but the builds should be a same.

https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/

and if you desire core enginnerr

https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/engineer/core-engineer-2/

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Core_Power_Engineer

However you have some build slots, so can experiment with different setups, if you need more healing, more stun breaker and condi clean, go for it.

Gearing while leveling: Ignore it, take gear you have from levelup, and story mission, if you really need buy something power based from tp. You need new set of exotic at level 80 anyway.

Completing story isnt that important, doing expansion stories could be good for mastery points. Completing map isnt that important for anything.

Getting your hero points, open world mastery points, getting exotic ascended gear, mounts glinding unlock, that is better.