Looking for player input on what I need to get caught up on

[Lunah.4517]

I haven't played in a few years and am looking for advice on what expansion to get. I think Path of Fire is the last expansion I played mostly on my necromancer. Should I buy the expansions in order and go through them all or just buy the newest one since that is where more people will be? I like storyline but also would like to be able to do the events in the zones and am worried the older expansions won't have enough folks in zone to complete the content. Please give me your advice on buying and playing them all in order or starting with the newest one first then going back to the ones I missed! Oh and on a side note how do I preview what items look like in game, I have two birthday gifts but don't want to pick which weapons until I can see what they look like. Thanks!

[kharmin.7683]

You might look over here as there are several other threads from returning players: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/forum/25-players-helping-players/

[RavensSorrow.6128]

Hi and welcome back. For the most part you don't have to worry about older expansion areas being too dead. This game does a good job of keeping old areas alive.  They also do Rush events that push people back into those areas in mass for extra rewards (Dungeon Rush, PvP rush, Season Rush ect). 

As for what to buy. Well depends what you want. You can just by Janthir and come to the new maps, just remember we only have 2 maps and the third will come next year as this expansion progresses.

Janthir: Warclaw mount, All classes get Spears, New raid soon, Legendary backpack and spear soon

Secrets of the Obscure: Alternate Skyscale mount acquisition, Legendary Armor + Relic, Weapon Mastery + new weapon.

End of Dragons: Third Elite Spec, Turtle and Skiff, Gen3 Legendary weapons and Fishing

Those are your options. I may have missed a feature been a while since I bought them. Secrets and Janthir are story adjacent with the Wizards appearing in both. End of Dragons is the cap to the dragon story arch everything else goes through. 

For item previews, you can right click on items (even chests) to preview what they give. You can also go "/wiki (item box name)" to see a list of everything in them as well. Though the in-game preview is probably more useful to see it on your character. The bank has a wardrobe tab too. If it's the weapons I think I believe they are called "Dragon Decade" weapon skins. If you type that name into the wardrobe, you should see them too.

Hope that helps. See you in game! 🙂

[Mistwraithe.3106]

If you like storyline then I would go through them in order. From PoF it is Living World Season 4 (LWS4) next, then Icebrood Saga (aka LWS5), then End of Dragons, then SOTO, then JW.

I've been slowly working my way through the story (doing a bunch of WvW and other things such as legendary collections on the side) and I just started Icebrood Saga. The LWS4 maps were pretty busy in peak times (eg for NA server that means US evenings or weekends) and quieter outside that. For LWS4 (and LWS3) there is a daily map in the achievements tab which cycles through them and each map tends to be a bit busier when it is the daily.

If you decide you aren't fussed about story then RavensSorrow's post above covers the main features of each expansion.

[Tula.6021]

If you care about story then you'd need the seasons too, not just the expansions. The seasons don't come with the expansion but fill the gap of the story from one to the other.  And follow by order of release.

I don't know how well populated the maps are but usually late afternoon is a good time to play until early evening. You should keep that in mind for metas you need to do. Other content you often can do alone and thus do in times with less population.