New player to the game kind of.

[Mcnaschty.9867]

I’m coming from world of Warcraft and wanting to start this game. I’ve never been a hard core gamer and more of a wanderer and completing quests along the way. Am I going to fit into this game?  Also is there crafting in this game or is it all quests and dungeons?  I’m not sure what I’ll play yet. 

[Arnox.5128]

11 minutes ago, Mcnaschty.9867 said:

I’ve never been a hard core gamer and more of a wanderer and completing quests along the way. Am I going to fit into this game?

 

This game was made for you.

 

12 minutes ago, Mcnaschty.9867 said:

Also is there crafting in this game

 

Yes. Lots. I hate leveling up crafting though and think it's a giant waste of time. I get that it acts as a good gold sink but ANet can still have that and cut out all the unnecessary fluff as well.

 

-

 

This game is super expansive and it's so awesome to experience as a first time player, if rather daunting. I'm sure you'll love it.

[Zephire.8049]

If you love exploring, definitely. The maps—especially core maps—are beautiful and have hidden areas where the purpose is to be pretty, not have a secret for something else. And instead of traditional quests, there are renown hearts where doing things in designated areas gives progress. So think of instead of talking to an NPC to get a quest telling you to slay 12 creatures, you walk into a spot where you can slay creatures or fix broken machines or retrieve items or help train soldiers. Or a combination of them all. It's much more free-form compared to WoW's quests while having familiar mechanics.

 

Crafting is in the game. It's not forced on you in that it's required for leveling, but you can level your character from it. There's also a discovery mechanic where the game gives you hints at what's needed but you have to figure out the exact combination of items for a recipe that's a mystery to you.

 

Dungeons are sadly no longer being developed, instead Guild Wars 2 has Fractals which are more condensed dungeons that have unique mechanics known as instabilities as you progress to higher tiers that rotate daily and change up how they play. There's also Strikes and Dragon Response Missions, with the former's intention being a step between Fractals and Raids, the latter is... not great. They're fine but there's a lot of grind tied to them.

 

End game is what you make of it, though. If you just want to explore and take screenshots, you can absolutely do that. Gear never goes out of date so there's no pressure to grind dungeons or raids every few months and you can do what you want. Even if you get bored, the journey to 80 and throughout the expansions is worth it alone. Right now they're even giving out free episodes (think mini content patches of story) each week as a way to hype the third expansion, and all you need to get them is to log in.

 

But since Guild Wars 2 is free up to the first expansion (and with both expansions (they're bundled together) going on sale for $15USD regularly), it's definitely worth checking out as there's no financial risk and very few limits even on free accounts—you can do the whole base story and get to max level without spending anything on the game unless you choose to do so.

[Follyfoot.2803]

37 minutes ago, Mcnaschty.9867 said:

I’m coming from world of Warcraft and wanting to start this game. I’ve never been a hard core gamer and more of a wanderer and completing quests along the way. Am I going to fit into this game?  Also is there crafting in this game or is it all quests and dungeons?  I’m not sure what I’ll play yet. 

Turn around and run away as fast as you can.

 

Only kidding you will probably love it.  The game has it's problems like any other, but overall it's a good solid game that will test you at times.  It's one of the easiest games to learn, the tutorial does a good job.

Try doing a hour or two on each class and see if any off them light your bulb.  It's super easy to knock up and delete characters.

Crafting is extensive and one of my personal joys.  It can get expensive though both in gold and time.

Tip.  If you find you want to stay with the game then buy the expansions.  The mounts will blow your mind.

Welcome.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Follyfoot.2803

[Kaliwenda.3428]

Yes, buy the expansion (Path of Fire gets you Heart of Thorns for free).

 

Once you unlock a mount, all characters on your account have access to it at any level.

[Farohna.6247]

Welcome to GW2, be reassured many former and current WoW players highly enjoy playing it!  It's very casual overall, you may feel free to entirely play open world, and will probably try other game modes as well. 

 

There is no gear grind like in WoW, so doing instanced content, i.e. dungeons, raids, fractals, is largely for cosmetics or profit. 

 

There is indeed crafting.  It's not as intuitive as some games, and may need a guide occasionally, but overall it's quite simple and fun.  You can craft gear and weapons, and can work on legendary items if you want more of a challenge later on.

 

I'd suggest try everything, have fun with it, explore, craft at your leisure, ask questions as the community is very helpful, don't worry about making mistakes or rushing.  It's very forgiving, it's a lot of fun, and hopefully you will find it a good fit for you!

[mindcircus.1506]

11 hours ago, Mcnaschty.9867 said:

I’m coming from world of Warcraft and wanting to start this game. I’ve never been a hard core gamer and more of a wanderer and completing quests along the way. Am I going to fit into this game?  Also is there crafting in this game or is it all quests and dungeons?  I’m not sure what I’ll play yet. 

If crafting/lifeskilling is an important part of your MMO experience, this is not the game for you.

The only relevant function crafting has in this game is that occasionally there are rewards gated behind it.

[ASP.8093]

If you like the free-to-play exploration experience, I think you'll like the whole game even more.

 

I've enjoyed doing map completion (100% exploration) in both the core game and the expansions. Not something I'd do more than once or twice, probably, but there are lots of little "wow!" moments the first time you visit a location. I feel like the level-scaling system and action-combat mechanics also keeps exploration from feeling entirely trivial or tedious, while still allowing you to experience a serious sense of mastery in how boldly you can engage enemies in level-scaled maps with a good build.

 

A steady trickle of new movement abilities via gliding, mounts, and a few advanced convenience items (::cough:: Position Rewinder ::cough::) also means that you can "set aside" a few areas you find too difficult to navigate and return to them later with more tools at your disposal.

 

If you don't want to do PvP/world-vs-world or instanced group content, there are also a lot of "endgame" maps with big rolling map-wide event chains to keep you busy. Often with pretty lucrative loot.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Few points to help make you life easier:

1.  Shift-left clicking on an item will put that item in the chat window.  Typing /wiki in the chat window and then shift-clicking on that item (and hitting enter) will open the wiki page for that item.  The wiki is your friend. 

2.  /wiki et will get you the event timer page on the wiki for things like world bosses and such.

3.  You can split stacks of stuff by holding down the ALT key and dragging them in your inventory.

4.  Dodging is important.  You cannot tank everything, you will die.  Keep moving out of the way of attacks, don't just stand there and try to take everything coming at you.

5.  If you haven't already figured this out, feel free to ask stuff in map chat - the community is generally very friendly and helpful with answers and also just tagging along to help you defeat that one bad guy that keeps stomping you.

6.  When/if you decide to start leveling your crafting professions:  gw2crafts.net is the place for crafting guides that I've used for leveling crafting on all of my accounts.

7.  You get experience from pretty much everything - killing stuff, doing events, mining/harvesting/chopping trees, doing hearts, doing story, and even just exploring maps - you can normally get 10-15 levels just map completing the major cities alone.  And make sure you are always running some food and a utility (like sharpening stones).  Food is cheap and it all offers some bonus experience for kills and such.