Back after 6 years!

[Centess.5406]

Good day everyone!Like many of the other posts I've read, I tried out Bless for about 6 hours and that was all I could take. It has literally been 6 years since I've played an MMO. I played GW2 for a short time at release but at that time I still had accounts active at EQ2 and WoW. Anyway, I have heard soooooo many players recently tout GW2 that I had to give it a try again. I do have concerns that my PC may not be up to snuff. I'm running a home built rig with an i7-4790K and my GPU is a GTX980. I do plan on upgrading in the near future but with the 1080ti being over 2 years old now, I was hoping to wait for a new release.

I'm excited to dive back in. I have just one level 42 ranger but I may start all over again since I don't even remember how to use the controls, etc. Any advice on where to begin would be appreciated. I have heard that there is a way to start at level 80? I don't even know if I would want to do that. How long does it generally take to get a character from 1 to 80? Do you recommend people start at max level? I began wondering if there would still be players in the lower level areas to partner up with.

Thanks for the read and I look forward to seeing the changes GW2 has made over the past 6 years!

[Cyrin.1035]

@Centess.5406 said:Good day everyone!Like many of the other posts I've read, I tried out Bless for about 6 hours and that was all I could take. It has literally been 6 years since I've played an MMO. I played GW2 for a short time at release but at that time I still had accounts active at EQ2 and WoW. Anyway, I have heard soooooo many players recently tout GW2 that I had to give it a try again. I do have concerns that my PC may not be up to snuff. I'm running a home built rig with an i7-4790K and my GPU is a GTX980. I do plan on upgrading in the near future but with the 1080ti being over 2 years old now, I was hoping to wait for a new release.

I'm excited to dive back in. I have just one level 42 ranger but I may start all over again since I don't even remember how to use the controls, etc. Any advice on where to begin would be appreciated. I have heard that there is a way to start at level 80? I don't even know if I would want to do that. How long does it generally take to get a character from 1 to 80? Do you recommend people start at max level? I began wondering if there would still be players in the lower level areas to partner up with.

Thanks for the read and I look forward to seeing the changes GW2 has made over the past 6 years!

The only thing I enjoyed about Bless was how it opened players minds to other MMO's, specifically GW 2 ;)

You chose a great class to begin with. I suggest starting fresh and anew. Recreate your ranger or create any other profession you connect to and go all the way through the story. Do what motivates you whether it's world exploration, leveling with parties, upgrading and skinning your equipment, ect.

When you get to 80, that's when the next stage of your journey begins. There's so much to do and learn. There are lvl 80 boosts available, but I wouldn't recommend using them until you get at least one character to 80 and you are at the point where you don't want to redo the 1-80 experience and just want to do the max-level content. It can take a couple weeks to level to 80 the usual way or it can take a few hours if you do full craft leveling.

If you are into dungeons and group content, you can level quickly through that but you will probably want to be in a guild first to form a party that is dedicated to completing dungeons. Random groups are flaky and will ditch when things don't go their way.

There are also PvP and WvW modes that you can level steadily in. Only play these modes if you enjoy the competitive, salty, often vulgar type of player environment.

There are usually players around that you can partner with. LFG isn't the most useful tool as some will suggest. I recommend going to a town like Divinity's Reach or Lion's Arch and trying to form a party. There are often mentors and veterans that hang out in starter-level areas that love to help new players. Just ask for help in map chat.

Welcome back to GW 2, I hope you stay for years to come. We need more heroes if we are to survive the coming wrath of Bubbles!

[costepj.5120]

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/41918/new-players-welcome-to-guild-wars-2#latest

[Michram.6853]

Why is Bless that bad? I am out of the loop. :D

Welcome back though :)

[Endless Soul.5178]

@Centess.5406 said:Good day everyone!

I'm excited to dive back in. I have just one level 42 ranger but I may start all over again since I don't even remember how to use the controls, etc.

Oooh don't delete that character! You might be interested in the birthday rewards they've gathered.

[Randulf.7614]

Dont start from lvl 80. The boost comes with the expansion, but it will confuse more than help. Start from scratch, dont rush and have fun.

And keep your existing toon for the birthday gifts

[qbalrog.8017]

@Randulf.7614 said:Dont start from lvl 80. The boost comes with the expansion, but it will confuse more than help. Start from scratch, dont rush and have fun.

And keep your existing toon for the birthday gifts

Definitely good advice! I've come and gone from GW2 over the years and always level a new character when returning; gets me back into the swing of things. And keep as many characters for anniversary gifts as you can!

[Josif.2015]

@Centess.5406 said:Any advice on where to begin would be appreciated. I have heard that there is a way to start at level 80? I don't even know if I would want to do that.

The only way to instantly get to level 80 is by using level 80 boosters. These can only be obtained by buying expansions. Unfortunately, like many veterans have said that this method is horrible for new players to start out the game. It boosts you to level 80, but the problem is the gear and weapons you get are awful.

First impressions are a key element in players liking to play a game and using level 80 boosters just ruins the whole experience, as they will be lost and confused about the stuff they receive when they boosted themselves to level 80.

How long does it generally take to get a character from 1 to 80? Do you recommend people start at max level? I began wondering if there would still be players in the lower level areas to partner up with.

No. Start from the beginning, level up appropriately and learn how to play your profession. The professions that I would recommend you are warrior, ranger and necromancer. These are the most beginner friendly professions that do not throw so much information at your face, like with the engineer, elementalist etc.

There are plenty of players in lower level areas, both veterans and newcomers. Though partnering up with other players isn't that necessary because it's not that difficult to play in lower level zones. Maybe in higher level zones, but in starting zones not so much.

[Centess.5406]

Thanks for the replies! So from 1-80, how much of the content requires partnering with other players? Anyone know if there are many players in the lower level areas? At whay point will it cost me money to continue in the game?

[Endless Soul.5178]

@Centess.5406 said:Thanks for the replies! So from 1-80, how much of the content requires partnering with other players? Anyone know if there are many players in the lower level areas? At whay point will it cost me money to continue in the game?

1. You don't have to partner with anyone if you don't want to. However, in Open World, you'll probably find a lot of players around just helping you take that target down, especially attackable Hero Points.
2. I always see a lot of other players in low level maps, so no worries there.
3. Not sure what you mean here, real life money? None as far as I know. Almost all Gem Store purchases are cosmetic or convenience and not necessary. EDIT: @Ashen.2907 reminded me two posts below that there are expansions that I forgot about (duh!) and if you want mounts, you'll definitely need to buy the Path of Fire expansion. Thanks Ashen!

[Imperadordf.2687]

I think others explained what you asked for, just answering this part;

I do have concerns that my PC may not be up to snuff.

GTX980 and i7 4790 are more than enough for playing the game. Actually, there's someone in my guild who plays with AMD Radeon HD 4350 and an i3.

You'll probably run the game at over 60 FPS on high-medium settings. And welcome back. Good to see you here.

Edit : It will depend on how many people - NPCs are there too, but you'll average 60-70ish FPS I think.

[Ashen.2907]

@Centess.5406 said:Thanks for the replies! So from 1-80, how much of the content requires partnering with other players? Anyone know if there are many players in the lower level areas? At whay point will it cost me money to continue in the game?

The two expansions (Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire) are paid content. Everything in the cash shop is cosmetic or convenience (and in game earned gold can be traded for gems to spend in the cash shop).

[Kal Spiro.9745]

Starting over is a good plan, but hold onto your ranger. Basically nothing works the way it did when you left. where character development is concerned so you'll have a fair amount to learn again.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

Welcome back to Tyria!

I hope you'll find our ["Welcome to GW2" thread](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/41918/new-players-welcome-to-guild-wars-2 ""Welcome to GW2" thread") of value. It contains a lot of really helpful advice from veteran and newer players!

[dylyn.9681]

I basically did the same thing -- got GW2 right when it came out and then left it for 6 years. I had a level-80 boost when I got both expansions, and used it on my only character, a warrior. It wasn't a good idea, though, for all the reasons people have mentioned. I just finished leveling up a necro to 80 and I'm over halfway with my thief, and I think I learned how to play better doing it that way.

BTW, I did the necro mostly solo, with a few group events where there were a lot of other players. Doing the same with my thief.

[Chasind.3128]

I'm actually moving from GW2 to Bless and WoW, bc I've played GW2 for 6 years and want something new where you actually feel rewarded.Also, welcome back!

[leetwheat.6381]

That computer will do just fine. That's actually a decent rig. remember this game was being developed way before 2012 and had a long development cycle ( which is why the game is so fun and polished) That current set up would crush most gaming rigs built in 2012. I run an i5 6600 and a gtx 960 and play 1080p everything on max when just out in the world at 70 fps. Cities drops to 30fps. and I drop the model count down when doing world bosses or wvw. but that's it. Guild wars 2 in my experience is a heavily CPU dependent game so if you are having troubles id get a new MoBo and CPU before upgrading the graphics, as a gtx 980 is still a decent card for 1080p gaming. I just wouldn't push it to 4k. hope this helps and welcome back!

[leetwheat.6381]

@Chasind.3128 said:I'm actually moving from GW2 to Bless and WoW, bc I've played GW2 for 6 years and want something new where you actually feel rewarded.Also, welcome back!

Might want to look at the disaster that is bless. Just as a friendly warning. Its so bad and broken, steam is giving away refunds no matter how much you played and pulled the game from all best selling lists.

[Centess.5406]

So many great replies. thank you everyone! @Gaile Gray.6029: Thank you for that link. I had not seen it yet! When I mentioned, "real world money" I was referring to the expansions. I'm not sure if there has only been two expansions? So my original copy bought when the game came out; what level will that work up to? Are both of the expansions for level 80 and above? I'm actually relieved somewhat that I won't have anything to spend $ on. Some of the IOS games I've played got a lot of $ out of me.

As an aside, I can tell just from the replies to my thread here that this is an entirely different community then most games I have played over the years. I'm a 53 (ikr!) and with the exception of maybe EQ1 & EQ2, I've found most games (and forums for that matter) are just openly hostile. I get that most are younger people probably under 18, but yea, hard to find a game where there's not a lot of trolling, etc going on. Very happy to be here!

[Skynet.7201]

Welcome back to GW2. Hope you enjoy it!

[leetwheat.6381]

@Centess.5406 said:So many great replies. thank you everyone! @Gaile Gray.6029: Thank you for that link. I had not seen it yet! When I mentioned, "real world money" I was referring to the expansions. I'm not sure if there has only been two expansions? So my original copy bought when the game came out; what level will that work up to? Are both of the expansions for level 80 and above? I'm actually relieved somewhat that I won't have anything to spend $ on. Some of the IOS games I've played got a lot of $ out of me.

As an aside, I can tell just from the replies to my thread here that this is an entirely different community then most games I have played over the years. I'm a 53 (ikr!) and with the exception of maybe EQ1 & EQ2, I've found most games (and forums for that matter) are just openly hostile. I get that most are younger people probably under 18, but yea, hard to find a game where there's not a lot of trolling, etc going on. Very happy to be here!

So the level cap is still 80. The expansiosn are just giant feature sets and unlock the continuation of the living world story. Each expansion unlocks a unique specialization for every profession (or class in every other mmo). HoT unlocks the revenant and gliders as the main features. PoF introduced mounts and raids as its marquee features. Each Xpack also unlocks several cool new maps and areas to explore and quest in. (the newer maps also have better graphics imo.) hope that explains some things.

[Chasind.3128]

@leetwheat.6381 said:

@Chasind.3128 said:I'm actually moving from GW2 to Bless and WoW, bc I've played GW2 for 6 years and want something new where you actually feel rewarded.Also, welcome back!

Might want to look at the disaster that is bless. Just as a friendly warning. Its so bad and broken, steam is giving away refunds no matter how much you played and pulled the game from all best selling lists.

I'm aware! I'm just so burnt out from GW2 I have to find something new, even if it is a poop-show- it's something different

[Trise.2865]

Welcome back to GW2!

Definitely agree with rolling a new character, if you have open slots for it. The level cap has not and should never change. ANet work really hard at making sure people can leave and come back and not feel "invalidated" by power creep. Also agree with holding on to your original character(s), as Birthday gifts can be very valuable for leveling alts.

Depending on how hardcore you play, and whether or not you use available boosts, you can level to 80 very quickly. I've known some to reach cap in only a few days without boosts. Login bonuses will also help level you quicker, as you are straight-up given 10 levels (Tomes of Knowledge) per every 28 cycles... if you're into that. Similarly, both Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire should provide you with an instant-80 boost if you don't want to level a couple alts at all. (Again, you probably want to play through normally first, but after that? have at it!)