Back from 2014

[GrayGhost.3456]

Hello Fellow Guild Wars Enthusiasts,

I am hoping for a little direction. I had played on release about 10 years ago now and finally have a little time back to myself and wanted to check out GW2 again. Any recommendations on how to approach the game at this point? I have two characters at 80, one in all exotic gear and another partially (not even sure if that's good anymore). I really had enjoyed my Mesmer and had the phantasm build going but from a little research it looks like that playstyle got obliterated. There is another "spec"(?) with psi knives that looks pretty fun but I am wondering if I should just start over with something else. The other class is a Ranger which I also enjoyed. I recall it being far more simple with better results most of the time than what I had to do with the Mesmer. Between trying the psi knife, ranger, and starting fresh, a bit undecided. 

Also, if anyone has a newb friendly guild looking for people, I'll be on the hunt soon! 🙂 Thanks for your help everyone!

[Lezantas.9610]

hey, i was in your shoes few months ago as i had not played since LW season 1-2 so i think i have a good chance helping you. I am not sure if one can recommend guilds or its against the rules of the forum, but you could send me email in the game if you want to ask what guilds i have joined. You can join up to 5 guilds at the same time.

First of all, create a test character do the tutorial and go to pvp lobby, there you are able to spec anything you want and get a feeling how they play. do that with other classes too, obviously the old characters are ready to jump in the pvp lobby right away 😉. if you dont have enough char slots just delete one of the test characters you did not like, not one of the old ones as you might latter want to revisit them. when you decide what theme and gameplay you like the most you can start playing.

first you must level your character to lvl80 in the open world, core tyria (meaning the maps the game shipped with, not the expansion maps) is quite easy and will serve as a long tutorial while you get used to playing your class. at lvl80 you open the trading post (TP) and buy lvl80 exotic with the stats you like. you may want to check a site with guides (i prefer metabattle) to see some builds for your class and decide on your equipment stats. exotics are cheap to replace and 95% as good as ascended so dont feel bad to experiment yourself. also many of the upgrades (runes, sigils, etc) are expensive if they are "optimal" so you may go for cheaper ones with a bit different stats 😉

so now you are ready to do whatever you want. story, open world, pvp, WvW, instances, you name it. try a bit of everything, you may like it more than you thought. the most important thing is to have fun. choose a long term goal you want to achieve (maybe a legendary?) check the wiki for the requirements and little by little start working on them. but also allow yourself to get sidetracked, imo its not fun to beeline to whatever your goal is. there is more than a decade of content in the game, experience it.

for instances fractals, dungeons and strikes are all quite easy, with some exceptions here and there, so you should not be scared to try them. i am not sure if there are still people playing dungeons as anet have pretty much abandoned them, but does not hurt to try (story paths are probably possible as solo, never tried it though). raids need coordination so you better do it with a guild. ofc you can always go to lfg, join a group and ask them if they are willing to teach you. if the group is not in a hurry and have experienced people they will agree to help you. fractals need ascended equipment as exotics or below cant upgrade with infusions that are needed for agony resistance. you can still do the first tier of fractals with none or minimal resistance and its easy to drop/buy ascended rings so you should have no problems.

hope i helped a bit, you can always email me ingame and i will help if i can. have fun 😁

Edited November 30, 2023 by Lezantas.9610

[Pirogen.9561]

It makes no difference if you create a new character or use existing one. You can level a new char for 1 to 80 in like a day. If you bought expansions, you should have level 80 booster(s). So insta level 80. Its not very important.

More important is "fun". If you think Mesmer is fun for you, then continue to use your Mesmer. If you think that dunno Necromancer would be more fun, then roll a new Necromancer.

[Danikat.8537]

Welcome back!

A lot has changed since you left and unless you have an exceptional memory you probably won't remember all the details of how things worked before, so my advice is to keep the characters you have but start a new one to play through from level 1 to re-learn the game. You don't have to level them all the way to 80, but going over the basics again will help you re-learn the game and give you a better idea of both what to do and how to do it.

You may or may not need to change the builds and equipment your existing characters are using. Level 80 is still the maximum and exotics are still fine for everything except some of the more difficult instanced areas like high-end Fractals (ascended is the top tier, but it's only slightly better than exotic), but there's been a lot of balance changes so you might decide you want a different build.

Other than that my advice is to focus on whatever you enjoy, the things you imagined or remembered doing that made you want to come back to the game. GW2 is almost entirely open-ended once you get to level 80 so there's a lot of freedom and you pretty much can go straight into whatever you want to do.

[DeadlyDohnut.7052]

Welcome back grayghost.Here are the quick tips and info you will want to know off the top: (and for anyone else returning or new)

Inventory: the deposit all button is moved next to the sort button. and in the options menu of inventory click the"hide bags" option. Level 5 boxes do drop( right click to customize armor) Unidentified armor stacks. There are Right-Click menus for Salvage Kits and Stacked Consumables.

Stream: if you stream that you are returning, players like me will join your stream and either help via your stream chat or come in game and help out. alot has changed in 10 years.

Character Level Guide: this is located in achievments directly under the daily tab. this tab has 5 volumes. each will unlock as you complete the previous volume. this will basically help you learn all the basics in the game and level you up pretty fast. (ex: dye your armor, dodge 3 attacks, use healing skill, mine ore, use the bank...)

Mounts: yes we have the best mounts in any mmo. you will get the free raptor at lvl 10 but if you want all the mounts you must earn them from Path of Fire Exapansion and beyond. expansions likley to go on sale soon for xmas. you can only buy skins in the store. must unlock all mounts in the game through an acheivement. mounts have added abilities with mastery points.

Master Points: after 80 and have acqured an expansion you may start finding mastery points these are our awesome side progression, instead of increased levels. theres far more mastery points that you can earn than you can spend. lots of points are awarded through specific achievments, story, and insights found throughout the maps. using these points on mounts will increase their abilities. I suggest maxing out pack commander for tyria for the AUTO-LOOT from kill to your bag. All mastery progress is across all characters on your account.

Build: constant changes, just like GW1, GW2 will constantly tweek and change skills and traits. review what you had. go to the pvp lobby and mess with different combonations, attack the practice dummies and swap up the traits switch weapons find out what you like. Specializations unlock at level 21, 45, 71. this is where you will learn your builds with traits. Elite Specializations came out with each expansion and new weapons available with those elite specs per class. any class can be a Tank, DPS or a Healer. (I like my specter which is a Theif Healer and my Reaper Mionion Master which is my Necro Tank)

Guild: you can go into any map and ask for a guild invite you will likley get messaged quickly. join one asap you can always leave it later if you want. there are alot of benefits just to be a member. its basically instant access to a merchant, a bank, and free permanant buffs for your characters( i'd suggest Guild Exp). once u accept the invite check mark the rep guild box and go to guild hall. when you want to return to where you were in the game open the guild menu and leave guild hall. it is one the best and cheapest ways to manage your inventory when leveling.

 

The rest will come in time Good luck!

[Nabbut.7480]

If you are diligent enough, start crafting so you can relatively quickly dress into full ascended gear to help tackle story and fractals.

Regardless of whether you are starting a new character or continue with existing one, spend some time practicing in low level zones or you are going to lose.

Sticking to one character you like and understand the most is good idea whatever altoholics may say.

[Sarkonis.4036]

This thread is helpful, thanks. I just redownloaded the game last night and am in the same boat. Last played when the "Shatter Cat" Mesmer was solid... I don't even have an xpac yet, but I did craft all my gear for my 3 lvl 80 toons, at least that's a start.

Going to start a new character, get familiar with the game again, revisit this post, then look at expansions.

[Ember.8510]

Welcome back, there's some nice simple, relaxed open-world playstyle builds available here that I use pretty frequently, they'll be able to help you explore the world and get used to it again: https://guildjen.com/open-world-builds/

I would suggest the celestial gear builds considering they are more forgiving of mistakes and are all-round more tanky while still doing decent damage - they are good for when you want to solo open world content and celestial gear is still useful long term. Regarding acquiring celestial exotic gear, you can either get it through a level 80 booster which comes with free full celestial gear, or you can get very cheap/easy stat selectable exotic gear either from WvW or Verdant Brink. And yes, exotic rarity gear is still great and the go-to rarity when trying new builds without wanting to invest in ascended and if you don't have legendary. It's perfectly acceptable to use in just about all late game content and is only a very small insignificant stat decrease from ascended/legendary.

My advice would be to look for a hero point (HP) train in the lfg for Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire to level all the specs you can play on your chosen profession(s). Whatever profession you choose doesn't really matter - I'd keep your Mesmer and your Ranger and fill your other remaining character slots with whatever professions sound the most interesting to you. There's an absolute ton of new player class overviews on all the professions on YouTube so feel free to check those out first before deciding. But know that all classes have so much versality with different playstyles and weapons and elite specs available to them that your class these days is not as relevant - any class can do pretty much anything and play however they want in whatever game mode you want.

My in-game name is Ember.8510 if either you @GrayGhost.3456 or @Sarkonis.4036 or anyone else wants to add me and whisper me when I'm online if you are struggling, have any questions or just want someone to play with - I'm more than happy to do low level content as I need to farm dungeon currency and map completion anyway amongst other things like WvW (which by the way is not as scary as it sounds). I really don't mind, in fact you'd be doing me a favour because most of my friends have left the game at this point and I'm kind of bored. Either way, best of luck!

Edit: Sorry just to add since you may not have bought the expansions already - there's some core/f2p class builds available here in the meantime: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Core_/_Free_to_Play - My same advice in obtaining the needed exotic gear through WvW still applies, or you could get it through crafting/trading post/Orr vendors/dungeons. For hero points you could just do core Tyria map completion, which is also a totally fine way to get them.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Ember.8510