Returning player looking for guidance

[MetalFoX.7290]

Hi all,

Apologies if this sort of post is in the wrong place. I looked for a good 20 minutes or so trying to find where it would be most appropriate.

I have recently started playing both Guild Wars games again (I play 1 with a friend every now and then but I focus on 2) and I'm looking for some general guidance and support from any and every long-running experienced player who may be able to point me in the right direction of getting back onto my feet.

I have only one level 80 character, my Human Guardian. I am currently working on 100% map completion (Because I'm not too sure what else to do, I'm at 54% at the moment) and thinking about starting a second character to have another level 80 (I've been thinking of making a Thief, haven't decided on a race). My knowledge of the game from 1-80 I would rate as average / below-average and every other aspect of the game even lower. I have only a very basic understanding of the crafting system and its function/purpose, no knowledge of the mystic forge or ascended gear, limited knowledge on builds / weapons / gear etc. and no end-game experience whatsoever (fracticals, etc.). Even though i'm 80 and have what I think is excellent gear, I feel dwarfed by every player around me.

At this point it feels like I might as well start the game all over again on a level 1 and learn everything from scratch because I feel so out of date. I last played GW2 approximately 3 years ago (before HoT came out) and almost everything feels like it has changed. I don't own either of the expansions, but I have been seriously looking at them both since restarting about a week ago, plus the two level 80 boosts would be nice to get some more end-game going with a wider variety of characters and playstyles (although I have no idea what the other characters would be like at 80 and I wouldn't want to waste them).

Any help, advice, guidance, even the ability to make some new friends or people to play with would be fantastic.

Thanks all.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

Cranking out the rest of 100% map completion is worth doing if you ever want to look at Legendary weapons - the completion rewards you, on every character that does it, with a pair of "Gift of Exploration", which is an essential (account-bound) ingredient in making Legendaries. And you get to see all the weird corners of the original game maps. (Maguuma Wastes and HoT/PoF maps aren't included in the Map Completion percentage.)

Aside from that, yes, it isn't a catastrophically bad idea to create a new level 1 character and re-learn the game. It is a catastrophically bad idea to delete your existing charcters in the process, however. Path of Fire gives you access to the mounts you've probably seen people tooling around with - they are loads and loads of fun, but you'll need a level 80 character to begin the expansion's story.

[wardog.3598]

Whenever I hope on after a period of time off game, I like to find a guild to get involved with. It serves as both a reference to get caught up on mechanics, but also it a nice group to try out new material with.

[Oglaf.1074]

I strongly recommend against starting over again. Mostly because the leveling experience in core Tyria will be nowhere as epic as it was all those years ago: it is naturally not as populated as it was back then. I still remember the bustling chaos following launch with all the players crawling everywhere in the low-to-mid Tyria maps... sigh.. good times.

Nowadays most of the action is at lv80 be it in Tyria, HoT or PoF. (The former being of course a bit lighter on content than the two latter).

[MetalFoX.7290]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I've decided that I'm probably going to get the two expansions either today or tomorrow so I can play their stories and get the gliders plus mounts. Until then, I'm going to keep working on 100% map completion for my guardian, followed by making a ranger from level 1 (because I don't have one yet). I won't use my level 80 boosts anytime soon just because I'd want to map complete all my characters in the end anyway so I figure I might as well level them through map completion.

Also, I play on Underworld. Sadly, the world is very quiet and I can't change to a more populated one without forking out money for 1800 gems which is very disappointing, so I'll have to live with quiet gameplay on a server with little to no guilds (at least, from my research online I can't really find any).

[Holykitten.3064]

@MetalFoX.7290 said:Also, I play on Underworld. Sadly, the world is very quiet and I can't change to a more populated one without forking out money for 1800 gems which is very disappointing, so I'll have to live with quiet gameplay on a server with little to no guilds (at least, from my research online I can't really find any).

If you only play PvE or sPvP, world doesn’t matter because of how the Megaserver system works.Servers only (currently) matter for WvW, which has proposed changes to nullify server identity anyway, meaning the only thing that would matter is if you play on EU or NA (or China, but that’s completely independent of EU/NA already)

[Urud.4925]

@"MetalFoX.7290" said:I have only one level 80 character, my Human Guardian. I am currently working on 100% map completion (Because I'm not too sure what else to do, I'm at 54% at the moment) and thinking about starting a second character to have another level 80 (I've been thinking of making a Thief, haven't decided on a race). My knowledge of the game from 1-80 I would rate as average / below-average and every other aspect of the game even lower. I have only a very basic understanding of the crafting system and its function/purpose, no knowledge of the mystic forge or ascended gear, limited knowledge on builds / weapons / gear etc. and no end-game experience whatsoever (fracticals, etc.). Even though i'm 80 and have what I think is excellent gear, I feel dwarfed by every player around me.

Map completition is a good thing to do, if you don't find it boring. Let's see some of your points.

• Crafting can be quite expensive if you level it by your own (I spent almost 200 gold to max leatherwork by myself, but only 40 to max armorsmith/tailoring, following the guides to discover new recipes). It might be a good idea to level it to craft your ascended gear, but it's not something to do ASAP.
• I've also limited knowledge of the Mystic Forge, but basically it's a way to throw your useless items and hoping for a better reward. But it can also be used to change the stats of your ascended gear (no trinkets though) and to craft some particular item (you can find the recipes on the wiki).
• The ascended gear is the best gear in game (the pink one) and is mainly used for high tier fractals, because you can socket agony infusion into it (you can't on the other gears). But for general PvE, the exotic is definitely good (and in sPvP it doesn't matter at all).
• Try to learn your builds a bit, this is the only important thing in your list. There are usually "meta" builds suggested by most of the players, for end-game contents, but it's always a good thing to experiment a bit by yourself, according to your playstile. Same for the weapon (I can only suggest to keep 1 melee and 1 ranged weapon, they can be both useful, according to the situation).

There's no need to start from scratch, as Oglaf said. You are downscaled in any case in the lower maps. Use this time for the map completition to try your weapons and change your build. On a side note, since you mentioned that you have no idea about other professions and playstyle, you can create a new character, complete the tutorial (until level 2) and join the PvP lobby. Inside there, you'll be leveled automatically to lv80, with all your builds unlocked (not the 2 specializations that come with PoF and Hot though), so you can try the class with several training dummies. When you are done, you can delete the character and make a new profession, if you have limited character slots.