Where to start after 5 years away

[Max.3094]

After being away for 5 years playing several other MMO's, I find myself so very lost upon logging back in to GW2. In theory, I'd like to pick up where I left off in the Path of Fire story, start season 4 of Living World, rejoin my old guild, buy the expansions I missed out on,  and play through them. 

But in practice, I am in no way ready for that.  I have 9 level-80 characters I don't know how to play, with years of birthday gifts plus a ton of other stuff in inventory that I don't remember what it's used for or how to use it. I don't remember how my mount masteries or gliding masteries work. All these portal scrolls and sigils and another 8 categories of stuff I've forgotten - the info is out there somewhere and I can search for it.

Currently I'm just running around low-level areas trying to get re-oriented and figuring I'll work my way up to being able to handle the level-80 areas, at which point I can pick up where I left off. I figure that as I relearn how to play a class or two, I will relearn the maps and gear stats and builds and how to find my way around.

If anyone has ever been this incredibly disoriented upon returning, what did you do? I suppose I could start a new character on another server, but I suspect it makes more sense to just gradually wade in with a level 80 character that has a few skills I vaguely remember.

[Randulf.7614]

Start a new character if you can. You can then relearn and move back to your old toons when ready

[Padrion.7382]

I came back after a 7-year break. Had stopped playing right before the first expansion was released, didn't know what masteries were, was surprised that there are mounts in the game now. I just took one of my characters went out somewhere and got a grasp of what the abilities do. Controls in this game aren't trivial so it took a few days until I felt comfortable again and tried my other characters. Soon after that I found myself already tweaking my builds. When there was a question I couldn't answer, I looked it up on the wiki. IMHO it is not that different from any other game you jump back into after a very long break, just take your time and have fun.

[Buran.3796]

    Chose a character you want to play and which doesn't have tthe core Tyria maps or story mode completed and start to do the 100% map completion and story mode at least once. You can ask for a build and I gladly provide one once you make your choice.

   In parallel, start to complete the expansion maps and masteries. Once you reach some level of finesse playing that character start trying out dungeons, fractals, maybe PvP or even WvW.

   Start to gather resources or tokens to get your first ascended armor and weapon set; get the ascended trinkets from Season 4/4 Icebrood Saga maps. Then focus your goals in getting your first legendary armor set and then the trinkets.

[evilcat.6817]

Chill and enjoy the ride.

Maybe trying to clean some low tier map (100% completicion) will teach you controls back? There is lay line, Pinata, Tequila, Claw of Jormang, Jungle Wyrm meta events which are so chill, and you can get rewards just from being there. Augury Rock is easy and popular meta event.

You can visit gw2 events timers and try to do everything at least once, then try fractals, and dungeons. However some meta events are actually dead and horrible, and one and never again experience.

Fractals tier I  1-19 have no agony resistance requirments, so you can do them and just chill, there will probably be at least one try hard who can solo them or something.

Starting new character and learning from the bottom is also an option, but i would not cancel any of the old characters.

You can try to complete wizard vault task and buy... build slots. The point is that you could experiment with some meta builds, and some yours custom chill builds.

my sad story: i had similar experience, i did created lv 1 alt and run some cool storyline, i did complete some low tier maps, and i was running fair amount of world bosses, dungeons and fractals at various point.

Edited February 23 by evilcat.6817

[Garrison Storm.3046]

I think your plan is sound.  Although you are currently unfamiliar with the nuances and mechanics of your builds, those 80-level toons will be strong enough in low-level maps to avoid any learning-curve frustrations as you figure it out, as opposed to re-immersing yourself into level-80 content... and it will come back quickly... Welcome back!   

[Max.3094]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer, lots of great input. I think I will try the existing characters in the open world, starting in low-level zones and working up to level 80 zones in the core game and then on to the expansions.

I took the advice to check timers, and tried a very easy world boss. And died. Only once, but I need practice.

Based on the gear I see, it looks like my main character was an elementalist weaver and like my second choice was a guardian firebrand. I feel like I still have some muscle memory on the elementalist, after playing around with it for an hour, and those 2 characters were the ones with ascended gear. So I will try and find what the current builds are. Or at least the current builds that I can play with just the first 2 expansions.

Anyway, good to read others survived long absences and returns! Thank you for the welcome back.

[Lucy.3728]

I had a 7 year break too, played gw2 one year after release and stopped then and came back with so much content released and so much crap dropped. Arriving in HoT was such a steep dmg curve that my ranger died so often it was no fun.

I switched to warrior and played silverwastes quite a long time (to get a hang of the game again) and re-equipped my chars from soldier to berserker (marauder would be better but I didn't have access to that yet) and then tagged along with meta squads in the HoT maps while doing the story (which I dropped at some point because it was too difficult alone). Built myself a rev inbetween and switched to him as a new main char because I liked it better. For PoF I switched back to warrior though because I played him better.

Then I found other players, on a community forum, that were looking for ppl for story mode and I joined them and played all stories and seasons with them. Best what could happen to me. Much better with ppl who already know everything and it was fun too.

In short: you got thrown into the water and need to learn to swim by yourself. Look for a guild or other players you can play with and learn from them. Rest is trail and error.