Coming back since before Heart of Thorns.

[Solodin.4681]

General question for the community (and maybe a little difficult to answer). I played GW2 at launch until right up before HoT released and I stepped away from the game, never experiencing that first expansion. I had a level-capped Mesmer at the time but was completely lost when I logged into the game this last weekend. Considering how much the game has changed since launch, would it be better to just start the Mesmer fresh and experience the leveling process again or is there a good guide out there that could catch me up since I never experienced expansions 1 and 2?

Edited July 29, 2021 by Solodin.4681

[Dayra.7405]

Welcome back. Mesmer isn't and never was an easy class for solo open-world and story (at best it's clumsy against many easy mobs). Keep your mesmer for later and start a new easy class to come back into the game would be my suggestion. Quite easy classes to learn are ranger, warrior and also the "new" (with HoT) class revenant.

 

 

[Danikat.8537]

Welcome back! My advice is to start a new character (either another mesmer or a new profession) and play them from level 1 onwards, but keep your existing mesmer so you can switch back to them when you're ready.

 

It's likely there's relatively little you need to do to get your existing character 'caught up', besides possibly collecting more hero points to unlock an elite specialisation and training masteries. Most of what you'll need is to re-learn the game, both the stuff you used to know but have forgotten and the stuff which is new or changed since you last played, but I'm not sure just following a guide would be an effective way to do that. Playing a new character from the start will enable you to learn the game from the beginning, both through direct experience and through the advice pop-ups you get when you level up which explain different features, then whenever you feel ready you can switch back to your existing character, rather than having to repeat everything they did. (You can of course keep playing the new one as well or instead if you want to, but you don't need to make that choice now.)

[Trebuidoi.4701]

I recently came back to Gw2 about a month or so ago. I played briefly for a couple of months last year, but prior to that I had not since before Heart of Thorns. I however did not make a new character to get back into the swing of things. Unless you want to try a new class I would suggest just trying to get through the story with your current 80. And/or just run around in the openworld getting back used to things. Experience is going to be the best teacher.

 

I haven't touched my mesmer outside of farming winterberries, so I can't truly give any advice on it, in particular, in any gamemode. I would suggest as well to try to get hero points to unlock one of the new (or both) elites that interest you. The core professions are mostly neglected and have very few viable niches.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Don't delete your existing character.  Character birthdays (and their associated rewards) are bound to each character's age and not account age. 

 

Necro is also a good and easy class to learn.  I like axe over dagger for main hand, and warhorn or dagger for offhand.  That's for leveling to 80.  Once you hit 80, you can choose to go condi or stay power. 

 

If you buy any of the expansions, the instant level 80 boost included with them will give you condi exotic gear (sinister I think) for a necro, valkyrie gear for a thief, and soldier's gear for the other 7 classes. 

[Harfang.1507]

I was exactly in your situation about three years ago. Moving from the old core Tyria I knew into HoT's Heart of the Maguuma was like hitting a wall. I support the idea of easing into it with a new character or sticking with your old character in core Tyria. Unless you are naturally gifted, HoT's mordrem will turn you into so much plant mulch.

For better or for worse, PoF, if you own it, is an easier step up from core Tyria than either HoT or LW Season 3. As a bonus, it gives you access to mounts. Just unlocking the raptor would greatly improve your quality of life.