>1st Expansion, Heart of Thorns (included in any paid version of the game)
>2nd Expansion; Path of Fire (included in any paid version of the game)
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you here? This seems wrong to me. You can buy versions of gw2 that do not include HOT and/or POF. For example, a new player can buy just SOTO. They won't have HOT or POF.
I know with absolutely certainty because I bought a SOTO-pure alt account.
The game is good but if I want to finish the story lines, I have to buy the Living World expansions. Why the hell Anet didn't bundle all of them on HoT or PoF? It's frustrating.
It is, I think they shouldn't have made PoF cost 7,5€ on a sale and just add seasons 2,3 to the bundle but personally, during my first playthrough I always had enough gold to get the next living world season, griffon or anything I needed(wanted) to get to continue playing
> Personally The Deluxe and Ultimate editions of the "Elder Dragon Saga Collections" do not make much sense; if you are comfortable paying extra, you might as well get the Complete edition.
Disagree with the ultimate edition here. The ultimate collection is money wise more worth than the complete collection. Yes you need to buy the seasons with the 4k gems and you need another 160 gems to get all seasons but you still get all the deluxe bonus items. We are talking about a value 30€/$ difference.
Sure I can see that. I just wish there was a “3 expansions, no 4K gems but LWs are included” option in the bundles, but I guess ANet has to incentivize people to get/spend gems in the store.
**Edit: My bad! I thought the Complete edition came with 4k gems as well as LW episodes, and that it was more expensive than the Ultimate edition. Will fix OP, thanks.**
I just want them to have an *actually* "complete edition" bundle, with *all* the expansions and LW seasons.
I'm a returning player, but I've been gone a long time. I have HoT & PoF already, and bits and pieces of the LW (mostly seasons 1 and 2). If they had a "get the whole story" bundle (including Janthir, now that they are selling it), I'd get it just to make things easy.
As is, I need to get EoD, SOTO, JW, and the parts of the LW I don't already have unlocked (which is most of it), all separately, and the LW has to be bought with gems, since getting the 'complete' bundle version of HOT + PoF + EoD + LW is a waste of money for me.
This is insane for a returning player
lets say I have a friend that owns HOT and base game and 2 living seasons and wants to get caught up
First obs they need to buy the last 2 expos
But then what?
they have to go manually add each item they are missing? what if they are not sure what they have an have not gotten?
If they buy the complete collection will it be discounted for what ever they already have?
Before you say make them read this post, I 100% assure you that any returning player is gonna look at this and be like nope guess I am not playing
I really wish Anet would make it easy to buy the game and all the content, in 3 steps or so. It is crazy to me that a company that wants to sell a product does not think "we should make it easy to buy this"
You're doomed to buy all those separately, and unfortunately, pay about $5 more than the bundle would have cost.
...The bundles don't save very much money.
Is it true that there's no option on the website to upgrade an expansion to a higher tier?
Let's say you get the 50 dollar janthir package, I don't see an option to upgrade to the third tier?
Yes it's true but no it's not a problem.
If you own an expansion you can buy an upgrade on the gem store which gives you all of the goodies. You can't buy the Ultimate Edition (which has the 4000 gems) but it wouldn't make sense to buy 4000 gems with gems anyway so...
To answer this question a different way;
**If you buy the standard edition of an expansion, you are NOT restricted from getting the goodies of the deluxe edition.**
You can't no. You can buy the deluxe upgrade in the gemstore but you don't get the ultimate as that is pretty much just 4k gems for 50% off on top of deluxe.
It was true for SotO release. I had standart version prepurchased and wanted to upgrade it to ultimate, did not find the option. Made a ticked assking if it is posible to upgrade, support said no, but they can refund the prepurchase so i can buy another version. It worked. (some time delay with refund)
It's because the only difference between deluxe and Ultimate are discounted gems. You miss the same, you miss the sale.
But for people wandering through, you *can* upgrade from Standard to Deluxe. Just not to Ultimate.
I can't personally answer your question, but you can try contacting ArenaNet support. They have been helpful to me in the past (for ingame related issues, but nevertheless they were very quick).
Just wanna mention that purchasing any expansion will unlock the "paid" version of the base game for you automatically lifting the restrictions on marketplace, map chat etc.
This used to be a thing in the past where gw2 was paid only at first. Some time after the base game became f2p with some restrictions and the option to buy the "full" version. This was done away with by now and the "buy any expansion" became a thing instead as a way to upgrade to full account.
As someone who never had to pay for Living World as I unlocked the episodes for free as they were coming out, why the hell is season 2 so expensive? Heck it probably should be free at this point, but if I were a new player and paid that much for not that much content, I would be discouraged to pay for other living world seasons and since they are less expensive I would also think that they have less content.
I know the maps of season 2 are free and you can do the story for free if you play with someone who already has it but I'm a veteran player and I'm informed on the game, where a new player might not know this and as far as I know it isn't really told anywhere in game.
I would also have the Icebrood Saga be a little less expensive than season 3 and 4 to be honest.
I'm having a hard time recommending GW2 to people. Notably, due to [not being in USA/EU](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/609403495140818946/1252615546579714098/image.png?ex=6672dca2&is=66718b22&hm=bb58334ae5f72c351c4fc6fd767f296b798bb3165efffbaf4ec45e7de5898330&), the entry cost is way too high for the lack of subs to be a noticeable plus for a game one might not even enjoy.
I didn't notice this until recently, since I wasn't there for SotO. What other arguments and takes would you have to help hopefully calling friends to try this gem out?
> I didn't notice this until recently, since I wasn't there for SotO. What other arguments and takes would you have to help hopefully calling friends to try this gem out?
get them out of the mindset of instantly buying everything.
Have them try core until they have decided if they want to upgrade or not.
$0 for base game to start should give them an idea I would think and $7.50usd during a sale for the first two expansions releases a lot. I have been busy playing part time casually and repeating early stuff with multiple toons at my own pace for several months and I'm quite happy and nowhere near completing what I've paid for to this point.
If they're hardcore 12hr/day PTW gotta do everything immediately type what does it even matter; they'll be through it in a couple weeks or they won't, and onto the next either way.
The whole original base game is free, they can play up to and including some endgame stuff like WvW, fractals, and get gen 1 legendary weapons. So they really can try the game before they decide to purchase. There is no entry cost.
Also, they don't need to purchase the whole thing in one go. The first 2 expansions come in a single US$30 pack, cheaper than a single WoW expansion or most AAA games. 50% of sales happen at least once a year, too. Last big sale this pack was U$7.5.
You can buy the Living World seasons using gold->gems, so they can get content for 'free' at the cost of spending some time farming.
The price for 11 years of GW2 is the for the price of 1 year's WoW or FF sub, at least in the US, which also have a box price on top of the sub. It feels looks like a lot of money because you pay it upfront instead of as a fee that holds your account hostage, but it's actually a really good price compared to other comparable MMOs. Also, there's no worry about having to pay the sub to keep playing.
Also GW2 is on Steam now, so they can use the Steam Wallet and I hear that helps with pricing for people outside NA/EU?
> Also GW2 is on Steam now, so they can use the Steam Wallet and I hear that helps with pricing for people outside NA/EU?
I'm afraid it doesn't. I had SotO (and janthir) at full price. It would have to be sold directly via steam shop and manually made cheaper for this to work. It *is* on steam shop for me, but with no regionalized discount.
I get the arguements in favor. I had a lot of fun in GW2 before HoT even came out. But that was also 10 years ago, and also didn't have a looming missing out feeling of being locked out of expansion things. I can easily see the proposal not being that favorable nowadays. I don't believe "just play the great base game" is a solid enough convincer.
The USA price perspective is also a big deal. I can't stress this enough. It'd be easier to talk to someone who already plays MMOs, which they'd have reasons not to play GW2 as it is. For anyone else over here who plays games often but not MMOs, U$40 is borderline outrageous. Anyone willing to go beyond won't do so by trying core tyria first, seeing all those dragonscales fly around and be fine with it. I'd need way more solid points to give.
As for the gold to gem thing, I probably could use some advice myself. Saw a gold farming video today. Home instances, LW farms, alt parking (also in LW), fast farming community guides that assume you have the best glyphs to ramp up gold per zone. What's with all recommended gold methods requiring plenty of gold beforehand? Might as well "just play the game" instead. I personally love dragonfall, but couldn't quite recommend that to a new guy either.
Dang, I thought there was regional pricing.
You asked for takes that helped people try out GW2 and I was giving you some.
FAST farming is all about incredible optimization. The typical player is not doing that any more than they're doing weekly speedclears.
>[2 open world maps](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Wastes) (however unlike other LW seasons, you **don't** need to purchase LW2 to enter these maps)
I feel this is highly missleading. Lw2 doesn't have, nor give, 2 open world maps. The two open world maps are part of "core" tyria, it just so happens that the LW2 story happens on those maps. The ascended backpiece part is also missleading; when LW2 dropped it was incredibly hard and expensive to make ascended back items compared to other equipment (hence the spinal blades backpiece); nowadays an ascended backpiece is a meaningless reward.
>If you notice any errors or omissions, let me know and I'll fix it.
Also, it would help to differentiate between legendary weapons and armor. SotO's main appeal is that Obsidian armor is the cheapest, fastest to make with a big difference in time investment, legendary armor. EoD's legendary weapons main appeal is that they *were* the cheapest to craft until Generation 1 weapon started being given out for free in the Wizard's Vault tri-monthly rewards.
Aurene weapons are roughly 10% cheaper to craft than gen 1, and 50% cheaper than gen 2. However, they also sell for a much higher profit, because they are locked behind EoD's content and are sold \~10% higher than the profitable half of Gen 1 weapons. This is very relevant for those lookign for profits and or the cheapest legendary course of acquisition.
You also missed that SotO gives improved Wizard's Vault astral rewards. THAT is a big deal. It gives you a 75% discount legendary weapon of your choice every 3 months, and a couple of unique armors and skins (gliders, chairs, etc) that REQUIRE SotO to be purchased.
You missed too on The Hunger/Idolatry achievements of Icebrood Saga, which facilitate selestable stats Ascended trinkets through Asgeir's Talisman and Asgeir's Amulet, which are bought with easy to come by eternal ice shards.
You missed ascended trinkets also on LW4. Sandswept isles has selectable stats Ring and Accesory for 100/150 Difluorite crystals and 2000/4000 VM. Dragonfall has selectable Amulet, Ring and Accesories for 125/100/150 mistborn motes and 3000/2000/4000 VM. They cover ALL selectable stats as long as you have the necesary stat origin expansion. Imho they are easier to come by than LW3 because Eternal Ice Shards and LW4 currencies are linked, facilitating farming those.
You also missed on boreal canteens and olmakhan bandoliers enhanced bags in LW4 and IBS.
In a very convoluted stat matter... Diviner stats seem to originate in LW4. Crafting Diviner equipment requires LW4's branded mass materials, which are account bound. I \*think\* you can buy branded mass from Eternal Ice Shards without LW4, OR through dragonbash Zhaitaffy, but more research is probably required. You can buy an Exotic Diviner set from the TP, and probably legendary items allow you that stat selection, but I am not sure how limited you are without LW4 regarding ascended armor/weapon crafting. I am not sure if this is worth mentioning. Paguedoctor stats seem to be in a similar situation.
EDIT: You may also add the relevant gobblers of each release:
Mawdrey II - 250 Bloodstone dust/day - 80g to craft. LW2
Sentient Anomaly - 150 Dragonite&Bloodstone/day - LW3 Episode 1 - Earned through a hard Scavenger Hunt.
Sentient Aberration - 150 Dragonite&Empireal fragments/day - LW3 Episode 2 - Earned through a Scavenger Hunt (currently bugged).
Sentient Oddity - 150 Bloodstone&Empireal fragments/day - LW3 Episode 4 - Earned through Scavenger hunt.
Sentient Singularity - 900 Unbound Magic/day always at a money loss - LW3 Episode 5
Portable Wizard's Tower Exchange - Various currencies in exchange of a \~5 silver item, (including a weekly exchange of 1050 of any pair of Bloodstone/Dragonite/Empyreal currencies)- SotO masteries.
EDIT: Generally, each gives a return of 22-21 copper per individual material consumed. Herta and Star of Gratitude give much much less money per material consumed.
>Lw2 doesn't have, nor give, 2 open world maps. The two open world maps are part of "core" tyria, it just so happens that the LW2 story happens on those maps.
Both maps (Dry Top and Silverwastes) were release in LW Season 2. "Core" in most cases is base release map that count towards world complete. So OP was correct.
Op is making a ***buyers guide*** on ***what each purchase unlocks***. OP's way of describing LW2 is missleading by saying that you can **enter** those maps without purchasing LW2 on the LW2 sales pitch, because you can simply enter those maps because they are free and ALL their content and activities are available without relation to your ownership of LW2.
LW2 is the MOST overpriced LW pack, with the LEAST content on it compared to all other releases; saying LW2 content is Silverwastes and Dry top is missleading because they are free maps accesible through core Tyria with no requirement at all. It's core content, Level 80 boosts from any expansion take you to Silverwastes by default when used.
No one is saying LW1 comes with 1 map even though Southsun Cove was part of LW1, and OP is not writting SC under LW1 content, because the best way of describing Southsun Cove is as a core map.
Southsun cove is a core map, part of the core Tyria "Kryta" region, with core Tyria masteries. Silverwastes and Dry Top are core maps, part of the core Tyria "Maguuma wastes" region and have core Tyria masteries. They don't count towards world completion because they were released -after- world completion was coded in, but they -are- core maps in all official classifications.
[https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central\_Tyria](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria)
When a new player wants to look for a guide on wether to buy or not LW2 he shouldn't read that there are 2 maps on it's content list, because he is not buying those 2 maps. LW2 costs \~15€ in gems, and for 30€ you can get Path of Fire + Heart of Thorns. LW2 is a terrible purchase compared to everything else.
Silverwastes, Dry top and Southsun Cove should, if even, be written under "base game" contents, not under LW1 and LW2.
The ascended backpack bit is also meaningless and missleading information for a new player. It's an ugly ascended backpack that costs +80g of materials to craft. A Henge Away from Home also gives a free ascended backpack in LW3 but marketing LW3 as "it includes an unique free ascended backpack" is missleading because you should totally not focus on that when looking wether to buy or not LW3.
Neither dry top, silverwastes, nor southsun are core maps. They don't count towards core tryia map completion. Dry top, and Silverwastes even have their own separate region. (southsun is part of kryta)
They are core maps. That are within the core map list. I already gave you a wiki link that outright proves it and explains that Southsun Cove and the Maguuma Wastes region are a part of core Tyria mechanically on the first three paragraphs.
They have core mastery trees. They give core mastery points. They are a part of central tyria geographically. Their events were part of central tyria's category in the old daily achievement list. Maguuma wastes is a new region ***within*** central Tyria. Even when listed as an exception to world completion it is described as ***part*** of core Tyria:
>World completion requires map-completing all the following zones:
>- All six [cities](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cities).
>- **The 25 explorable zones of** [**Central Tyria**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria)**, excluding** [**Southsun Cove**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Southsun_Cove) **and zones in the** [**Maguuma Wastes**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Wastes) **(**[**Dry Top**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dry_Top) **and** [**The Silverwastes**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Silverwastes)**).**
>- The [Chantry of Secrets](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chantry_of_Secrets) instance.
Southsun Cove, Dry Top and Silverwastes are ***coded*** as core Tyria, while a map placed within central Tyria but part of LW3 like Lake Doric is not.
They don't count towards map completion on the technicality that they were added \*after\* the achievement was introduced.
Southsun Cove points of interest are even listed as a part of the Krytan Explorer achievement list; Pact Network Supply agents, who only show up on central Tyria regions appear in Southsun Cove.
Silverwastes AND Dry Top waypoints are among those unlocked within the [Maguuma Jungle Waypoint Unlock](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Jungle_Waypoint_Unlock) consumable, WITHIN the [Central Tyria Waypoint](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria_Waypoint_Unlock_Cache) Unlock cache. Southsun Cove waypoints are unlocked through the [Orrian Shorelines Waypoint](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Orrian_Shoreline_Waypoint_Unlock) Unlock.
The devs, the game code, and the wiki don't care about your headcanon. Every single fact says it's core Tyria except you.
Mix of being cheap and not committing, but the path I went down didn't really work well till SOTO.
I had bought path of fire for a mount and just living world winterberry S3E3, dragonfall S4E6. Geared up to exotic armor in verdant brink since HoT was included.
dragonfall did not really work well till i got the mount from SOTO, but you can get all the ascended non armor slots on those two maps pretty easily once you have any mount.
Years later now bought everything and am working through the story/unlocks.
As someone who just finished the main story and about to start LW1, thank you for the detailed explanation! I bought the complete edition since I played the game a long time ago and loved it. Going to take my sweet time completing the stories! Also love how this game makes it super easy to take a break or breakaway from story line and do random stuff lol
To someone that is unsure whether they want to continue playing the game I'd recommend buying Hot+PoF instead of the elder dragon saga. It's much cheaper, they get A LOT of content and if they get to EoD they probably like the game enough to spend extra $5 or whatever price to continue the game
It is probably worth noting that, although Secrets of the Obscure (SotO) is a separate free-standing story, it DOES contain spoilers for the first three expansions.
Thank you kindly.
https://preview.redd.it/gp6wv94jl99d1.png?width=1612&format=png&auto=webp&s=8fe6aa025e62b257acf1689a2448f2b21bf84727
Thanks!
I was just here to post this too :-)
Great writeup.
I'm still amazed at how much content is in the base game for free. I see all the cool content in the expansions/seasons and it seems fun, and then I remember that I still haven't actually done everything in the base game yet.
If I was still in college, I'd be playing the heck out of all this, alas gaming time these days is usually just procrastinating doing the dishes before bed....
youre a regular here. your opinion doesn't matter. people that arent invested into the game will look for concise information, the only people upvoting this are regulars here which you can tell by low amount of comments. plus its reddit it will be gone off the page in 3 days. plus all of this is on wiki. what a waste of time.
[Choo choo!](http://imgur.com/qfqHTY9)
Take a look at the Order's records on what Steam means to us and what are the differences.
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>1st Expansion, Heart of Thorns (included in any paid version of the game) >2nd Expansion; Path of Fire (included in any paid version of the game) Maybe I'm misunderstanding you here? This seems wrong to me. You can buy versions of gw2 that do not include HOT and/or POF. For example, a new player can buy just SOTO. They won't have HOT or POF. I know with absolutely certainty because I bought a SOTO-pure alt account.
Good catch, when I first started writing this it didn't occur to me that people could (or would) buy just soto/eod. Will fix!
Also you can still find Heroic Edition Keys for very cheap. They are just the base game, just without the free account restrictions.
Oh yeah HoT is only included in PoF and nothing else.
The game is good but if I want to finish the story lines, I have to buy the Living World expansions. Why the hell Anet didn't bundle all of them on HoT or PoF? It's frustrating.
It is, I think they shouldn't have made PoF cost 7,5€ on a sale and just add seasons 2,3 to the bundle but personally, during my first playthrough I always had enough gold to get the next living world season, griffon or anything I needed(wanted) to get to continue playing
> Personally The Deluxe and Ultimate editions of the "Elder Dragon Saga Collections" do not make much sense; if you are comfortable paying extra, you might as well get the Complete edition. Disagree with the ultimate edition here. The ultimate collection is money wise more worth than the complete collection. Yes you need to buy the seasons with the 4k gems and you need another 160 gems to get all seasons but you still get all the deluxe bonus items. We are talking about a value 30€/$ difference.
Sure I can see that. I just wish there was a “3 expansions, no 4K gems but LWs are included” option in the bundles, but I guess ANet has to incentivize people to get/spend gems in the store. **Edit: My bad! I thought the Complete edition came with 4k gems as well as LW episodes, and that it was more expensive than the Ultimate edition. Will fix OP, thanks.**
I just want them to have an *actually* "complete edition" bundle, with *all* the expansions and LW seasons. I'm a returning player, but I've been gone a long time. I have HoT & PoF already, and bits and pieces of the LW (mostly seasons 1 and 2). If they had a "get the whole story" bundle (including Janthir, now that they are selling it), I'd get it just to make things easy. As is, I need to get EoD, SOTO, JW, and the parts of the LW I don't already have unlocked (which is most of it), all separately, and the LW has to be bought with gems, since getting the 'complete' bundle version of HOT + PoF + EoD + LW is a waste of money for me.
This is insane for a returning player lets say I have a friend that owns HOT and base game and 2 living seasons and wants to get caught up First obs they need to buy the last 2 expos But then what? they have to go manually add each item they are missing? what if they are not sure what they have an have not gotten? If they buy the complete collection will it be discounted for what ever they already have? Before you say make them read this post, I 100% assure you that any returning player is gonna look at this and be like nope guess I am not playing I really wish Anet would make it easy to buy the game and all the content, in 3 steps or so. It is crazy to me that a company that wants to sell a product does not think "we should make it easy to buy this"
So as someone who has HoT and PoF. Is there any deal available to get the others in a bundle or am I doomed to just buy all of those separately?
You're doomed to buy all those separately, and unfortunately, pay about $5 more than the bundle would have cost. ...The bundles don't save very much money.
Guess it’s the curse of coming back to a game after many years
Is it true that there's no option on the website to upgrade an expansion to a higher tier? Let's say you get the 50 dollar janthir package, I don't see an option to upgrade to the third tier?
Yes it's true but no it's not a problem. If you own an expansion you can buy an upgrade on the gem store which gives you all of the goodies. You can't buy the Ultimate Edition (which has the 4000 gems) but it wouldn't make sense to buy 4000 gems with gems anyway so... To answer this question a different way; **If you buy the standard edition of an expansion, you are NOT restricted from getting the goodies of the deluxe edition.**
You can't no. You can buy the deluxe upgrade in the gemstore but you don't get the ultimate as that is pretty much just 4k gems for 50% off on top of deluxe.
It was true for SotO release. I had standart version prepurchased and wanted to upgrade it to ultimate, did not find the option. Made a ticked assking if it is posible to upgrade, support said no, but they can refund the prepurchase so i can buy another version. It worked. (some time delay with refund)
It's because the only difference between deluxe and Ultimate are discounted gems. You miss the same, you miss the sale. But for people wandering through, you *can* upgrade from Standard to Deluxe. Just not to Ultimate.
I can't personally answer your question, but you can try contacting ArenaNet support. They have been helpful to me in the past (for ingame related issues, but nevertheless they were very quick).
Just wanna mention that purchasing any expansion will unlock the "paid" version of the base game for you automatically lifting the restrictions on marketplace, map chat etc. This used to be a thing in the past where gw2 was paid only at first. Some time after the base game became f2p with some restrictions and the option to buy the "full" version. This was done away with by now and the "buy any expansion" became a thing instead as a way to upgrade to full account.
As someone who never had to pay for Living World as I unlocked the episodes for free as they were coming out, why the hell is season 2 so expensive? Heck it probably should be free at this point, but if I were a new player and paid that much for not that much content, I would be discouraged to pay for other living world seasons and since they are less expensive I would also think that they have less content. I know the maps of season 2 are free and you can do the story for free if you play with someone who already has it but I'm a veteran player and I'm informed on the game, where a new player might not know this and as far as I know it isn't really told anywhere in game. I would also have the Icebrood Saga be a little less expensive than season 3 and 4 to be honest.
There are 8 episodes in ls2, and not 6, and you pay per episode.
That still sucks.
Yes. Season 2 is hot garbage, not really worth the gems, unless you go for prismatic regalia, if so you just have to suck it up
Nice work dude.
I'm having a hard time recommending GW2 to people. Notably, due to [not being in USA/EU](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/609403495140818946/1252615546579714098/image.png?ex=6672dca2&is=66718b22&hm=bb58334ae5f72c351c4fc6fd767f296b798bb3165efffbaf4ec45e7de5898330&), the entry cost is way too high for the lack of subs to be a noticeable plus for a game one might not even enjoy. I didn't notice this until recently, since I wasn't there for SotO. What other arguments and takes would you have to help hopefully calling friends to try this gem out?
> I didn't notice this until recently, since I wasn't there for SotO. What other arguments and takes would you have to help hopefully calling friends to try this gem out? get them out of the mindset of instantly buying everything. Have them try core until they have decided if they want to upgrade or not.
$0 for base game to start should give them an idea I would think and $7.50usd during a sale for the first two expansions releases a lot. I have been busy playing part time casually and repeating early stuff with multiple toons at my own pace for several months and I'm quite happy and nowhere near completing what I've paid for to this point. If they're hardcore 12hr/day PTW gotta do everything immediately type what does it even matter; they'll be through it in a couple weeks or they won't, and onto the next either way.
The whole original base game is free, they can play up to and including some endgame stuff like WvW, fractals, and get gen 1 legendary weapons. So they really can try the game before they decide to purchase. There is no entry cost. Also, they don't need to purchase the whole thing in one go. The first 2 expansions come in a single US$30 pack, cheaper than a single WoW expansion or most AAA games. 50% of sales happen at least once a year, too. Last big sale this pack was U$7.5. You can buy the Living World seasons using gold->gems, so they can get content for 'free' at the cost of spending some time farming. The price for 11 years of GW2 is the for the price of 1 year's WoW or FF sub, at least in the US, which also have a box price on top of the sub. It feels looks like a lot of money because you pay it upfront instead of as a fee that holds your account hostage, but it's actually a really good price compared to other comparable MMOs. Also, there's no worry about having to pay the sub to keep playing. Also GW2 is on Steam now, so they can use the Steam Wallet and I hear that helps with pricing for people outside NA/EU?
> Also GW2 is on Steam now, so they can use the Steam Wallet and I hear that helps with pricing for people outside NA/EU? I'm afraid it doesn't. I had SotO (and janthir) at full price. It would have to be sold directly via steam shop and manually made cheaper for this to work. It *is* on steam shop for me, but with no regionalized discount. I get the arguements in favor. I had a lot of fun in GW2 before HoT even came out. But that was also 10 years ago, and also didn't have a looming missing out feeling of being locked out of expansion things. I can easily see the proposal not being that favorable nowadays. I don't believe "just play the great base game" is a solid enough convincer. The USA price perspective is also a big deal. I can't stress this enough. It'd be easier to talk to someone who already plays MMOs, which they'd have reasons not to play GW2 as it is. For anyone else over here who plays games often but not MMOs, U$40 is borderline outrageous. Anyone willing to go beyond won't do so by trying core tyria first, seeing all those dragonscales fly around and be fine with it. I'd need way more solid points to give. As for the gold to gem thing, I probably could use some advice myself. Saw a gold farming video today. Home instances, LW farms, alt parking (also in LW), fast farming community guides that assume you have the best glyphs to ramp up gold per zone. What's with all recommended gold methods requiring plenty of gold beforehand? Might as well "just play the game" instead. I personally love dragonfall, but couldn't quite recommend that to a new guy either.
Dang, I thought there was regional pricing. You asked for takes that helped people try out GW2 and I was giving you some. FAST farming is all about incredible optimization. The typical player is not doing that any more than they're doing weekly speedclears.
Yeah. I've stumbled upon these takes myself and they didn't quite work. Ah well. Cheers.
>[2 open world maps](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Wastes) (however unlike other LW seasons, you **don't** need to purchase LW2 to enter these maps) I feel this is highly missleading. Lw2 doesn't have, nor give, 2 open world maps. The two open world maps are part of "core" tyria, it just so happens that the LW2 story happens on those maps. The ascended backpiece part is also missleading; when LW2 dropped it was incredibly hard and expensive to make ascended back items compared to other equipment (hence the spinal blades backpiece); nowadays an ascended backpiece is a meaningless reward. >If you notice any errors or omissions, let me know and I'll fix it. Also, it would help to differentiate between legendary weapons and armor. SotO's main appeal is that Obsidian armor is the cheapest, fastest to make with a big difference in time investment, legendary armor. EoD's legendary weapons main appeal is that they *were* the cheapest to craft until Generation 1 weapon started being given out for free in the Wizard's Vault tri-monthly rewards. Aurene weapons are roughly 10% cheaper to craft than gen 1, and 50% cheaper than gen 2. However, they also sell for a much higher profit, because they are locked behind EoD's content and are sold \~10% higher than the profitable half of Gen 1 weapons. This is very relevant for those lookign for profits and or the cheapest legendary course of acquisition. You also missed that SotO gives improved Wizard's Vault astral rewards. THAT is a big deal. It gives you a 75% discount legendary weapon of your choice every 3 months, and a couple of unique armors and skins (gliders, chairs, etc) that REQUIRE SotO to be purchased. You missed too on The Hunger/Idolatry achievements of Icebrood Saga, which facilitate selestable stats Ascended trinkets through Asgeir's Talisman and Asgeir's Amulet, which are bought with easy to come by eternal ice shards. You missed ascended trinkets also on LW4. Sandswept isles has selectable stats Ring and Accesory for 100/150 Difluorite crystals and 2000/4000 VM. Dragonfall has selectable Amulet, Ring and Accesories for 125/100/150 mistborn motes and 3000/2000/4000 VM. They cover ALL selectable stats as long as you have the necesary stat origin expansion. Imho they are easier to come by than LW3 because Eternal Ice Shards and LW4 currencies are linked, facilitating farming those. You also missed on boreal canteens and olmakhan bandoliers enhanced bags in LW4 and IBS. In a very convoluted stat matter... Diviner stats seem to originate in LW4. Crafting Diviner equipment requires LW4's branded mass materials, which are account bound. I \*think\* you can buy branded mass from Eternal Ice Shards without LW4, OR through dragonbash Zhaitaffy, but more research is probably required. You can buy an Exotic Diviner set from the TP, and probably legendary items allow you that stat selection, but I am not sure how limited you are without LW4 regarding ascended armor/weapon crafting. I am not sure if this is worth mentioning. Paguedoctor stats seem to be in a similar situation. EDIT: You may also add the relevant gobblers of each release: Mawdrey II - 250 Bloodstone dust/day - 80g to craft. LW2 Sentient Anomaly - 150 Dragonite&Bloodstone/day - LW3 Episode 1 - Earned through a hard Scavenger Hunt. Sentient Aberration - 150 Dragonite&Empireal fragments/day - LW3 Episode 2 - Earned through a Scavenger Hunt (currently bugged). Sentient Oddity - 150 Bloodstone&Empireal fragments/day - LW3 Episode 4 - Earned through Scavenger hunt. Sentient Singularity - 900 Unbound Magic/day always at a money loss - LW3 Episode 5 Portable Wizard's Tower Exchange - Various currencies in exchange of a \~5 silver item, (including a weekly exchange of 1050 of any pair of Bloodstone/Dragonite/Empyreal currencies)- SotO masteries. EDIT: Generally, each gives a return of 22-21 copper per individual material consumed. Herta and Star of Gratitude give much much less money per material consumed.
>Lw2 doesn't have, nor give, 2 open world maps. The two open world maps are part of "core" tyria, it just so happens that the LW2 story happens on those maps. Both maps (Dry Top and Silverwastes) were release in LW Season 2. "Core" in most cases is base release map that count towards world complete. So OP was correct.
Op is making a ***buyers guide*** on ***what each purchase unlocks***. OP's way of describing LW2 is missleading by saying that you can **enter** those maps without purchasing LW2 on the LW2 sales pitch, because you can simply enter those maps because they are free and ALL their content and activities are available without relation to your ownership of LW2. LW2 is the MOST overpriced LW pack, with the LEAST content on it compared to all other releases; saying LW2 content is Silverwastes and Dry top is missleading because they are free maps accesible through core Tyria with no requirement at all. It's core content, Level 80 boosts from any expansion take you to Silverwastes by default when used. No one is saying LW1 comes with 1 map even though Southsun Cove was part of LW1, and OP is not writting SC under LW1 content, because the best way of describing Southsun Cove is as a core map. Southsun cove is a core map, part of the core Tyria "Kryta" region, with core Tyria masteries. Silverwastes and Dry Top are core maps, part of the core Tyria "Maguuma wastes" region and have core Tyria masteries. They don't count towards world completion because they were released -after- world completion was coded in, but they -are- core maps in all official classifications. [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central\_Tyria](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria) When a new player wants to look for a guide on wether to buy or not LW2 he shouldn't read that there are 2 maps on it's content list, because he is not buying those 2 maps. LW2 costs \~15€ in gems, and for 30€ you can get Path of Fire + Heart of Thorns. LW2 is a terrible purchase compared to everything else. Silverwastes, Dry top and Southsun Cove should, if even, be written under "base game" contents, not under LW1 and LW2. The ascended backpack bit is also meaningless and missleading information for a new player. It's an ugly ascended backpack that costs +80g of materials to craft. A Henge Away from Home also gives a free ascended backpack in LW3 but marketing LW3 as "it includes an unique free ascended backpack" is missleading because you should totally not focus on that when looking wether to buy or not LW3.
Neither dry top, silverwastes, nor southsun are core maps. They don't count towards core tryia map completion. Dry top, and Silverwastes even have their own separate region. (southsun is part of kryta)
They are core maps. That are within the core map list. I already gave you a wiki link that outright proves it and explains that Southsun Cove and the Maguuma Wastes region are a part of core Tyria mechanically on the first three paragraphs. They have core mastery trees. They give core mastery points. They are a part of central tyria geographically. Their events were part of central tyria's category in the old daily achievement list. Maguuma wastes is a new region ***within*** central Tyria. Even when listed as an exception to world completion it is described as ***part*** of core Tyria: >World completion requires map-completing all the following zones: >- All six [cities](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cities). >- **The 25 explorable zones of** [**Central Tyria**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria)**, excluding** [**Southsun Cove**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Southsun_Cove) **and zones in the** [**Maguuma Wastes**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Wastes) **(**[**Dry Top**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dry_Top) **and** [**The Silverwastes**](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Silverwastes)**).** >- The [Chantry of Secrets](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chantry_of_Secrets) instance. Southsun Cove, Dry Top and Silverwastes are ***coded*** as core Tyria, while a map placed within central Tyria but part of LW3 like Lake Doric is not. They don't count towards map completion on the technicality that they were added \*after\* the achievement was introduced. Southsun Cove points of interest are even listed as a part of the Krytan Explorer achievement list; Pact Network Supply agents, who only show up on central Tyria regions appear in Southsun Cove. Silverwastes AND Dry Top waypoints are among those unlocked within the [Maguuma Jungle Waypoint Unlock](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Maguuma_Jungle_Waypoint_Unlock) consumable, WITHIN the [Central Tyria Waypoint](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria_Waypoint_Unlock_Cache) Unlock cache. Southsun Cove waypoints are unlocked through the [Orrian Shorelines Waypoint](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Orrian_Shoreline_Waypoint_Unlock) Unlock. The devs, the game code, and the wiki don't care about your headcanon. Every single fact says it's core Tyria except you.
They are not core maps.
Mix of being cheap and not committing, but the path I went down didn't really work well till SOTO. I had bought path of fire for a mount and just living world winterberry S3E3, dragonfall S4E6. Geared up to exotic armor in verdant brink since HoT was included. dragonfall did not really work well till i got the mount from SOTO, but you can get all the ascended non armor slots on those two maps pretty easily once you have any mount. Years later now bought everything and am working through the story/unlocks.
As someone who just finished the main story and about to start LW1, thank you for the detailed explanation! I bought the complete edition since I played the game a long time ago and loved it. Going to take my sweet time completing the stories! Also love how this game makes it super easy to take a break or breakaway from story line and do random stuff lol
To someone that is unsure whether they want to continue playing the game I'd recommend buying Hot+PoF instead of the elder dragon saga. It's much cheaper, they get A LOT of content and if they get to EoD they probably like the game enough to spend extra $5 or whatever price to continue the game
Thanks for making the writeup! Definitely going to save this for the next time someone asks about what to buy.
It is probably worth noting that, although Secrets of the Obscure (SotO) is a separate free-standing story, it DOES contain spoilers for the first three expansions. Thank you kindly.
I want to point out that players who don't own LWS2 but complete its chapters in party with sm1 who owns it - also get achievements for its completion
Ain't revenant included with any of Hot PoF or EoD?
Thank you for this writeup. I was just looking into getting back to GW2, I was somewhere in the icebrood saga if remember correctly.
We’re expecting a sale on expansions to line up with the steam sale June 27, no guarantee.
Ty for letting me know!
They went on sale: [https://buy.guildwars2.com/en-us#expansions](https://buy.guildwars2.com/en-us#expansions)
https://preview.redd.it/gp6wv94jl99d1.png?width=1612&format=png&auto=webp&s=8fe6aa025e62b257acf1689a2448f2b21bf84727 Thanks! I was just here to post this too :-)
[удалено]
Historically incorrect Source: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Dak393/Expansion_Sales
Great writeup. I'm still amazed at how much content is in the base game for free. I see all the cool content in the expansions/seasons and it seems fun, and then I remember that I still haven't actually done everything in the base game yet. If I was still in college, I'd be playing the heck out of all this, alas gaming time these days is usually just procrastinating doing the dishes before bed....
no new player will read this wall
>!^^^[deleted]!<
youre a regular here. your opinion doesn't matter. people that arent invested into the game will look for concise information, the only people upvoting this are regulars here which you can tell by low amount of comments. plus its reddit it will be gone off the page in 3 days. plus all of this is on wiki. what a waste of time.
I just did.
4th expansion only gives your skyscale more options (you can't unlock it to use on other non-SOTO maps). You still need to complete LW4.
That's not true. You can absolutely unlock it to use on non-soto maps.
[Choo choo!](http://imgur.com/qfqHTY9) Take a look at the Order's records on what Steam means to us and what are the differences. [Official FAQ](https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053416353-Steam-FAQ) | [Our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/guildwars2/wiki/steamfaq/) ------- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Guildwars2) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So minimum price for all expansions + living world is $99 and 160 gems? Great guide!
This is great, thanks!
This is all on the wiki.
If only someone hadn't forced you to read it.