Questions from a returning player

[tommy.1924]

So I been away from GW2 about 4-5 years, Something about Heart of thorns did not really grab me...but I miss the game, so i fired it back up. and I forgot EVERYTHING, which is fine i dont mind starting a new character, but I had two main questions:

 

is it worth 100% the map? I feel like am leveling way too fast and I Don't recall the point of leveling past 80

 

Is living stories something you can just miss out on, totally? like as i finish the main story do i access 1, 2, 3, 4, ect up to HOT? I don't understand it at all

thanks if you can help

[Harfang.1507]

9 minutes ago, tommy.1924 said:

So I been away from GW2 about 4-5 years, Something about Heart of thorns did not really grab me...but I miss the game, so i fired it back up. and I forgot EVERYTHING, which is fine i dont mind starting a new character, but I had two main questions:

 

is it worth 100% the map? I feel like am leveling way too fast and I Don't recall the point of leveling past 80

 

Is living stories something you can just miss out on, totally? like as i finish the main story do i access 1, 2, 3, 4, ect up to HOT? I don't understand it at all

thanks if you can help

I don't get your second paragraph. One of the characteristic features of GW2 compared to, say, WoW, is that it is horizontal progression. Level 80, in a way, is just a beginning.

How the story goes:

My story (aka original game) --> Living World Season 1 (not replayable) --> LW S2 --> HoT exp. --> LW S3 --> PoF exp. --> LW S4 --> Icebrood Saga --> EoD exp. next year.

To access any Living World episode you have not yet unlocked costs 200 gems at the Gem Store. There is currently a Seasons of Dragons event that unlocks one or two episodes each week. At the time of writing, logging on before next Tuesday should unlock LW S3 episode 5 for you. Doing so next week will unlock LW S3 episode 6, and so on.

While the storytelling is linear, there is nothing that prevents you from doing any expansion or Living World episodes in whatever order you see fit.

Edit: The Icebrood Saga works like any other LW season, being de facto Season 5. Ask the marketing department . . .

Edited August 2, 2021 by Harfang.1507

[tommy.1924]

lord o mighty is that confusing, so can you unlock all the LW ....episodes just by playing?

and you can only do em once per account? I recall this whole living story mess being a reason I just uninstalled the game before. I don't like/get timed events .

[Jukhy.2431]

Level 80 is the maximum level, aftet that the "endgame" starts with getting better gear, mastery points for elite the specs, and perhaps start doing fractals and/or raids (if you like those).

The main reward for getting all maps completion to 100% (known as world completion) is two Gift of Explorations which are used for crafting legendary weapons. World completion does not include any of the expansion or season maps. Many people do "mapping" for a chance to get a Black Lion Chest Key, since each completed core game map has ~30% chance to reward you with a key.
You can do map completion only once per character but the expansion and season stories you can replay as many times as you like even with the same character, so you don't have to get the achievements done on first try. Except season 1 which is sadly no longer playable since it involved the destruction of old Lions Arch.

Hope this was of some help. If you need help with items, achievements etc. the official GW2 Wiki is very helpful site with lots of information. Also most times the /map chat is willing to help if you need quick advice while playing. Have fun gaming! 

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by Jukhy.2431

[Danikat.8537]

5 hours ago, tommy.1924 said:

is it worth 100% the map? I feel like am leveling way too fast and I Don't recall the point of leveling past 80

 

You don't need to 100% complete maps if you don't want to. There's 3 reasons you might want to, but all of them are optional:

1) It's a good source of XP (especially if you do dynamic events when you see them)

2) Each map you complete gives you some bonus items and world completion gives you an item required to craft some of the legendary weapons.

3) There's a lot of story telling and lore in the maps, if you take the time to talk to the NPCs, listen to them talking to each other, look around as you're exploring etc. and some people find that interesting.

 

Level 80 is the maximum, but once you reach it if you own Heart of Thorns and/or Path of Fire you'll be able to put XP into mastery tracks, which are additional (usually non-combat) abilities. For example gliding is a mastery and each mount has a mastery track which gives it new abilities. As well as XP you'll need to collect mastery points to unlock each ability and those are gained by completing story steps and doing certain achievements (the ones marked with a brightly coloured star - red for core game masteries, green for HoT, purple for PoF and blue for Icebrood Saga).

 

But there's an infinite amount of XP available and the best source is events, which are repeatable, so there's no need to worry about saving XP for later. You also won't be locked out of anything by levelling up. But if you feel like it's going to fast for you right now you can focus on other things instead.

 

5 hours ago, tommy.1924 said:

lord o mighty is that confusing, so can you unlock all the LW ....episodes just by playing?

and you can only do em once per account? I recall this whole living story mess being a reason I just uninstalled the game before. I don't like/get timed events .

 

Think of it this way: the Living World is Anet's name for DLC. It works like DLC in any other game. Episodes can occasionally be unlocked for free just by logging in (there's currently a thing running where each week a different episode is free, and each new one is free for a few weeks when it's first released) but outside of that you have to buy them to unlock them. (Because they're bought with gems you can use gold to pay for it.)

 

Once you've unlocked them they're on your account permanently and all your level 80 characters can play them whenever you want.

 

If you want to do the entire story in order it goes:

1. Personal Story (level 1 - 80)
2. Season 1 recap video
3. Season 2
4. Heart of Thorns
5. Season 3
6. Path of Fire
7. Season 4
8. Season 5
9. End of Dragons (not out yet)

But you're not required to do that. Once a character is level 80 you can use the story journal in the Hero Panel to select which story you want to play next. For example a lot of people like to do the first step in the Path of Fire story first to unlock the raptor mount, then start on other things.

 

The story is written as if your character has done everything which preceeds it, so it may not make sense if you haven't and other characters will talk about past events as if your character was there, but other than that it won't cause any problems to do them out of order.

 

You can also skip the story entirely and focus on other things if you prefer, like World vs World or PvP, dungeons and Fractals, Raids, Strikes or open-world meta-events.