boom.4586 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 So I played game on release didn't get far due to PC problems and general work/life. now I have a PC again and want to start again from the beginning. I noticed there are 2 big expansions and unsure what to do. play free game up to max level then purchase expansions or does expansion add stuff to main game and best to start with expansions? From what I remembered I enjoyed the story and I don't wanna miss out on important quests etc. I hear people saying using the max level boost is a bad idea when buying expansion why is that? Whats best for me treat me as a new player.thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanhelin.3480 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 While GW2 seems to be simple due to restricted amount of usable skills a character build cannot be reduced to visible weapon and utility skills only. There are other dependencies hidden in the skill trees, gear, sigils and runes that makes building a character more complex than it seems. Also fight mechanics differ from other games, e.g. dodging is a key for surviving, and also differ on the maps ingame. Core Tyria maps are designed for leveling, to introduce game mechanics and therefore are pretty easy to complete. Failing to dodge on a core map could result in losing some health, failing to dodge on expansion maps easily can result in your death. HoT and PoF maps and their related Living Story maps are designed for maxlevel characters, thus, depending on profession and build, not really suited or pretty unforgiving to learn the basic mechanics.If you buy the expansions you probably want the glider and the first mount, so you can use the boost for this purpose but aside from that to learn the game and get into it I'd recommend to go to the 1-15 maps. The hero and mastery points on the core maps you'll want anyway. You can stop a personal story chain anytime and continue it later, so to get the glider start the HoT story, to get the Raptor start the PoF story and then start your personal story. This slightly corrupts your personal story chronology, but has no disadvantages besides that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dashiva.6149 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 You could begin with a "free account" to get your feet wet and get a feel for the game, but you would be locked out of a decent chunk of features in the game (as seen here).You can play at your own pace for free for as long as you like until you feel ready to invest in the expansions. I would however recommend that you get the expansions sooner rather than later for a couple of reasons:Getting access to the features I mentioned for smoother gameplay. Just simple things like writing in mapchat (if you need help), increased inventory and using the Trading Post should make for a more enjoyable experience.Leveling in GW2 is faster than usual for a mmo and you will hit lvl 80 rather quick if you play somewhat consistenly (seriously, you get XP for basically everything you do). Once you hit 80 you will most likely have a decent chunk left of Core Tyria to explore, but you also have the option to branch out into expansion content.GW2 have regular story and content updates called "Living Season" or "Living World" that are released as episodes. If there is an episode active, it will be unlocked for your account for free the next time you log in. The trick though is that you need the relevant expansion unlocked for your account in order to experience its content. For instance the first episode of season 4 is currently active and most likely unlocked on your account, but you need Path of Fire to play it.As for the lv80 boost, it is a frequent problem that new/inexperienced players use it instantly and then feel lost, lose interest because they don't understand how the class/game works or assume they are not smart enough to know how the class/game works. It is also not helping that the boost teleports the players to Silverwastes, a map that features some rather advanced enemies and events, and is not representative of how the rest of the game is.IMO the boost should be locked until you have played a character to 80 the traditional way, as there is no better tutorial than the 1-79 period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turin.6921 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 You can start with a free account and if you enjoy the game still you an buy the expansion. The core game is fully accessible to use so all the story step up until lvl 80 and the core game maps you have with no restrictions. The only thing that might annoy you on a free account t is the f2p account restriction which are not that problematic. If you already have a core account from when you played then there is nothing to care about. You have the full core game without any restrictions. The reason using the boost is a bad idea is because the leveling maps are actually pretty enjoyable and you will be skipping pretty good content otherwise. Also you will learn the game system better since the actual tutorials tend to be very few or non existent if you use the boost. Since you care about the story you need to know that in between expansions there are extra story and maps added. That is called Living world or Living Story and they come in episodic form and are organized in seasons (season one is LS1, the second is LS2 and so on). so if you want the full story you need to get those first.If you are already a player and login when an LS episode comes out you get them for free. The older ones since you missed them, you will have to buy. The story goes as such: core game (that you already know)-> LS1 (not playable anymore - you get a summary of it in-game and on youtube)-> LS2 (you have to buy)->Heart of Thorns Expansion -> LS3 (you have to buy and already have heart of thorns)-> Path of Fire expansion -> LS4 - currently in episode 1 (you have to already have Path of Fire but if you login now you get it for free and you will get all later episodes for free as well if you stay active. Even if you do not have Path of Fire yet, if you login now you will "bank" the episode and will be waiting for you when you buy the expansion). BTW the LSs you can buy with in game gold as well. Use your account to go through the game from scratch and if you enjoy it just buy LS2 and then the expansions and LS3, if you want to see the story in the correct order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eramonster.2718 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 It depends on the player, some like to start from beginning while some will start from the latest content where the crowd usually is, before it thins down and return to the previous stories for catching up story. I would advice you to start a character and play it for a while, meanwhile try to to observe other profession class/specializations that looks interesting to you to use the max level boost on (and look for the latest popular guides / builds for the class). You can buy the expansion later if you want, doesn't change anything unless you're going to start from the latest content first. Unless there's a reason to...like discount or sale going on; buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danikat.8537 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 @boom.4586 said:So I played game on release didn't get far due to PC problems and general work/life. now I have a PC again and want to start again from the beginning. I noticed there are 2 big expansions and unsure what to do. play free game up to max level then purchase expansions or does expansion add stuff to main game and best to start with expansions? From what I remembered I enjoyed the story and I don't wanna miss out on important quests etc. I hear people saying using the max level boost is a bad idea when buying expansion why is that? Whats best for me treat me as a new player.thanksPople say it's a bad idea to use the level 80 boost right away because you'll miss everything that teaches you how to play the game. You won't know which weapons, skills or specialisations to pick or even how to choose between them, what equipment would go with the build you choose. You'll probably want to head straight into 'end game' areas but won't know the mechanics well enough to survive there, or even what end game areas are available and how to find them. And on top of that the game gives you very, very little direction at level 80 because it's very open-ended and you're supposed to know by then what you want to do.The boost can be great, even for new players, if they're playing with friends who are willing and able to help them with all of the above or if they've done enough research that they actually understand the game really well. But for most people it's better to leave it until you've gotten to grips with the basics of the game and your character.I assume you still have access to your old account since you're able to post here (the login details will be the same), so I'd strongly recommend using that rather than setting up a new free account because that way you won't have to deal with all the restrictions put on free accounts (like being unable to buy or sell most items on the Trading Post). Also if you've got any characters from before they should have several birthday gifts waiting for them, which include some nice/useful things and may have skins you can add to your wardrobe and other useful things.I do think you should wait before buying the expansion packs though - you'd need to play at least some of the base game before starting on the expansion so you may as well do that first and make sure you enjoy the game and want to stick with it before spending more money. But maybe also use the time to shop around for a good deal on the expansions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khisanth.2948 Posted February 7, 2018 Share Posted February 7, 2018 @Danikat.8537 said:@"boom.4586" said:So I played game on release didn't get far due to PC problems and general work/life. now I have a PC again and want to start again from the beginning. I noticed there are 2 big expansions and unsure what to do. play free game up to max level then purchase expansions or does expansion add stuff to main game and best to start with expansions? From what I remembered I enjoyed the story and I don't wanna miss out on important quests etc. I hear people saying using the max level boost is a bad idea when buying expansion why is that? Whats best for me treat me as a new player.thanksPople say it's a bad idea to use the level 80 boost right away because you'll miss everything that teaches you how to play the game. You won't know which weapons, skills or specialisations to pick or even how to choose between them, what equipment would go with the build you choose. You'll probably want to head straight into 'end game' areas but won't know the mechanics well enough to survive there, or even what end game areas are available and how to find them. And on top of that the game gives you very, very little direction at level 80 because it's very open-ended and you're supposed to know by then what you want to do.The boost can be great, even for new players, if they're playing with friends who are willing and able to help them with all of the above or if they've done enough research that they actually understand the game really well. But for most people it's better to leave it until you've gotten to grips with the basics of the game and your character.I assume you still have access to your old account since you're able to post here (the login details will be the same), so I'd strongly recommend using that rather than setting up a new free account because that way you won't have to deal with all the restrictions put on free accounts (like being unable to buy or sell most items on the Trading Post). Also if you've got any characters from before they should have several birthday gifts waiting for them, which include some nice/useful things and may have skins you can add to your wardrobe and other useful things.I do think you should wait before buying the expansion packs though - you'd need to play at least some of the base game before starting on the expansion so you may as well do that first and make sure you enjoy the game and want to stick with it before spending more money. But maybe also use the time to shop around for a good deal on the expansions.Such as https://www.dlgamer.com/us/games/buy-guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-29808 $17 USD for HoT :)It's one of the official retailers as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarminx.3624 Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Even if you purchase the expansions and boost, you can still play the lower zones to learn the ropes, you are leveled down to fit the zone/quest areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.