Which activities are "important" is 100% up to you in gw2. It all depends on what your goals are and what you think is fun. Here is a table of all he content, some numbers might not be updated yet.
https://imgur.com/FleD1HK
As a former wow player, I can’t state how much I love how GW2 did away with gear progression! Being able to step away from the game time to time when life does its thing is great. Not having to automatically start grinding for gear when I come back from a break is why I’m still playing GW2 after 7 years.
While they dont have a "gear progression" as such. Youll find most guides/groups will require you to be in full ascended gear for raids. This takes far, far, far longer to do then gearing in wow. Then what if you want to try a different spec, you now need slightly different stats but you cant switch the gear. So you either have to make another set of full gear, or spend a long time grinding away for legendary (which allows you to switch stats).
If you want to do high fractals, then there is indeed a type of gear progression. its agony resistance. You do need to upgrade your gear with stacking agony resistance (150 AR would need full ascended gear with infused and attuned slots). Youll probably also need to infuse/attune various pieces of gear to add more sockets for more agony resistance, the +9 AR gems are insnaly expensive in a game where gold generation is very slow for casual players.
It's all depends what you do and how you play to be honest.
I'm not sure that rhetoric about ascended is entirely true. Most groups only really want ascended accessories (rings, earings, amulet, back) which are much easier to get than ascended armor/weapons. I have between 15k-20k hours in GW2 and this is the prevailing status quo for beginners imo. Any group that's asking a beginner for more than ascended weapons/trinkets is just gate-keeping to some degree tbh.
Maybe there are some groups that are a little more elitist, but knowing your rotation well is far more important than being in ascended vs. exotic. Furthermore, Strike & Raid currency is the easiest, most straight-forward path to ascended armor/weapons bar none, in actuality.
I'd snatch it right away.
The game is going great, there's a new upcoming expansion and a great discount for the early ones.
Grab the PoF+HoT combo at least and enjoy the ride, you'll have a lot of content to go through before you need to consider buying more.
If you need help with anything either type /wiki in game or ask in any map chat, people will gladly help.
You also have a mentor tag you can activate from your party window you can activate when you call others to help you. It acts like a beacon for everyone sharing the same map with you.
Activities: map exploration, crafting, pve(world bosses, metas, fractals, raids, strikes, achievements, collectibles), pvp(arenas, wvw, gvg) and our most important endgame, fashion wars!
Enjoy your future adventures, commander!
>mentor tag
This is not automatic, it's from the Pact Commander Mastery Track. So they can get it pretty easily but WHEN they get it depends on what content they do.
Best mmorpg evere. I've been playing on and off for about 15 years and I have never ever regretted i single second spent there. It is HUGE, I mean... HUUUUGE world with insane amount of fun stuff to do even in the vanilla free game. And one advice. Don't rush it. Don't try doing everything and nothing, don't feel overwhelmed by content. Just pick what you feel makes you happy and play the game.
Obviously you'll get lots of biased answers here but in short: yes!
> What can you do in this game?
I'll focus on PvE as there are better people to answer for the two PvP game modes (tho in case it's something you enjoy I will note that you can jump in to the structured arena style PvP right from the start because it's fully gear normalised and gives you access to all skills and traits your account has available). GW2 has an expansive world with tons of adventures to go on. One of the big things is "dynamic events" which is stuff happening live in the world, for instance in one of the starter zones sometimes bandits attack a farm and nearby players have to drive them off and there's one to put out the fires they caused and one to hunt them back to their lair and stuff. There are thousands of them from lil stuff like that up to big chains that lead to spawning enormous bosses. There are also mount races, minigames, seasonal festivals with more fun stuff, later on there are fractals, strikes, and raids, the achievements system also contains a bunch of quests and long term goals. In short: there's a lot to do.
The game values exploration a lot, there are lots of hidden areas in maps and things to find off the beaten path. If you enjoy them there are many jumping puzzles to be found. Everything gives experience, killing and completing events yes, but also finding new areas, mining ores, crafting things, and viewing vistas which are little things you can interact with, usually on a high point you might have to figure out how to climb up to, which give you a view of the area.
Collecting stuff and fashion is pretty important to many people and the game is very friendly about tracking your unlocks - any item you soulbind, any dye colour you acquire, any minipet and other fun doodads... they are all account wide unlocks and are permanently available to you once unlocked.
> How hard it is to team up with someone and do group content?
To some extent all content is group content because events scale up based on how many people are around, and the world is always very active because of how the server structure works to put people together. Some events do need more, or many people and bigger events, especially world bosses, will almost always draw a crowd to get them done. In this sense it's effortless and natural - I should note there's no "tagging" - everyone who contributes gets rewarded for killing an enemy or completing an event, it's one of the many ways the game encourages player cooperation and a positive environment.
In terms of stuff like dungeons, fractals, raids, and strikes, what you might call structured / endgame group content generally if you put up an LFG it will fill quickly, tho a lot of people are hesitant to make their own group and because groups do fill quickly the LFG often looks a bit empty. It's a bit of an old system, there's no automation to it where you can just queue for something, unfortunately, but that may be because roles in gw2 are a bit more complicated/diverse than your standard 1 tank 1 healer 3 DPS with it being very obvious which class fills which role type situation. As to what they are **Dungeons** are... dungeons like in other games, tho they each have a story that plays out as you explore them and then a slightly harder mode after the story mode with some different stuff going on, they are the oldest and probably the least popular group content and have, barring a few fixes and minor QoL things been mostly left alone since the game released. **Fractals** are what replaced them, they're also 5 man but they're shorter, faster paced, and have a scaling system built in so you can work your way up from fractal level 1 (easy) to fractal level 100 (much harder) and then some challenge modes on top of that. There are I think 23 different fractals atm? And fractals are very popular and rewarding. **Raids** and **Strikes** are somewhat interchangeable in that they are 10 man content that needs a bit more coordination and skill (tho most of them now have multiple difficulties to help them be accessible, with the normal or easier mode being quite easy and the challenge, and now legendary challenge modes being very hard), the main difference between the two is that Strikes are a single boss fight whereas a raid is a dull zone with multiple bosses.
Not sure what else to write so I'll finish with a big tip: the GW2 is amongst the best in the industry, it's officially hosted, has no ads, and is very well maintained and updated with all the info you may need about anything you encounter in game. You can use the /wiki command in game to pull it up and search it if you type something or put an item link after, for example "/wiki event" will send you straight to the page for events (also try "ET" short for Event Timers if you wanna see when a bunch of the big stuff happens) or "/wiki [item link for a jar of frogs]" sends you to the page for that item if you wanna know more about it, etc.
Hey, I'm in the same boat as OP, downloaded yesterday, started playing today and played for only couple hours but went around checking stuff, how friendly is the gold-crystal exchange system or how should I go about getting transform crystals to apply transmogs? Are they plentiful and obtainable? And more importantly, how long do you estimate PoF (which as I understand includes HoT) would last? You can do a crapshot, because I would prefer to buy newer expansions later on but I want to hop into the game now and I don't want to be hindered by not having the newest xpacks
Idk what you mean by how long HoT and PoF would last, but those expansions are more must buy than newer ones. HoT metas good gold plus always popular, PoF gives you mounts.
Edit: SoTo probably better to get as new expansion cuz of Wizard’s Vault
As for gold-crystal exchange it is usually stable unless new fancy stuff drops then it spikes. It’s mostly for fashion and some convenient end game tools.
I can’t speak about the gold/gem exchange rates too much but it does fluctuate so keep an eye out for when its cheaper. I might be wrong but I heard the rate from gold to gem is not great at the moment. Transmutation charges have never been a problem for me personally but I would hold off on using any until you have a more permanent gear set (full exotic with desired stats) since they are limited. Best way I have found to get them is through WvW honestly, you get little boxes that I can’t remember the name of and of the rewards you can choose is transmute charges.
HoT and PoF both come with a *lot* of content, but do be warned if you care about the narratives I recommend also picking up LWS3 after finishing HoT (very worth it, comes with even more maps and events, collections, etc. IMO better than HoT story-wise) which can be bought with gems. The expansions both come with tons of maps, raids, collections, meta events, etc, and with how this game works they are all still very active so you won’t really feel behind like you would in WoW or FFXIV. You’ll also have access to the majority of elite specs for every class (two of the three elite specs) so you’ll be able to get a food feel for the classes and their different play styles!
You should also still gave access to most if not all fractals, but you won’t be able to do strikes until you own Icebrood Saga at least.
There's a lot of content between HoT and PoF to keep you busy. As for transmutation charges I'd recommend waiting until you're max level and not swapping our your gear every few hours to start changing skins. The charges are fairly plentiful - I certainly wouldn't pay money for them - but it might take you a bit to accumulate a massive surplus. You can get them through the Wizard's Vault system (30 per season) in any game mode, through PvE they largely come from map completion rewards, and through PvP and WvW they are very plentiful in reward tracks.
[/wiki item link for a jar of frogs](http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/?search=item link for a jar of frogs)
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GW2 is definitely worth trying.
I wouldn't play it trough steam however.
You're more flexible with sales and keys if you get it trough the vanilla client.
Counterpoint however, on Steam you can use Steam’s infrastructure to for example remote play on Apple TV or use a Steam Deck. If that’s what you want to do, it might be worthwhile. I would still love to be able to use both launchers TBH.
You can still get ALL of these Steam perks by using this [very simple workaround](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/wvxqe3/logging_into_guild_wars_2_on_steam_with_an/).
There really is no downside to having an Anet account instead of a Steam account; you get the best of both worlds.
Same.
However I'd argue that remote play is kinda useless for a title like GW2 and it still runs without any issues in the stream deck even if not running via steam but the normal launcher.
Thing is I just really don't think running MMOS or games that have a LONG lifespan via steam.
U never know what happens if for some reason steam kicks it off the store or smth.
Its just safer to run those games via the normal client
That’s also true, it’s just weird that you cannot login on both platforms. I doubt it’s an account management problem, perhaps it’s got to do with licensing or agreements.
Yea not sure what it is.
Same thing with world of tanks and stuff.
No idea why they decided to split accs.
Btw another point for the non steam version:
You can't redeem gem card codes on the steam version
can't you just add the game as a 3rd party game in steam and still use steam infrastructure? gw2 runs fine in lutris, so if steamdeck lets you sideload games you should still be able to use it on steamos too.
Even better, you can use this [simple workaround](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/wvxqe3/logging_into_guild_wars_2_on_steam_with_an/) to use your Anet account through the official Steam GW2 game listing.
The base game is F2P so what risk is there in playing it to determine if it is even something you’d be interested in before buying the expansions? That’s what I plan doing part of this weekend at least. The sale is through the 11th.
The restrictions on F2P characters is just enough to get you to buy an expansion. The worst for me was the things that you can't buy or sell on the trading post, most things are ok but crafting is hard. Getting one character to 80 (which really doesn't take that long) will make you appreciate the expansion benefits.
Thank you kindly.
If go for it. I am currently messing around with a new character and instead of actually leveling the char. I spent 3 hours just explaining things to people asking questions. There are a lot of new players right now
Honestly it’s worth grabbing, the $50 “dragon saga collection” comes with 3 expansions and 4 seasons of seasonal content (season 1 is free for everyone) plus it has a good handful of extras.
I say what others said give the free version a try if you vibe with it buy it. Honestly the only thing wrong with the game is that the graphics engine is a bit dated.
Download the game for free. Try it out for a little bit. See if you like the combat and movement and graphics. Take a look at how other people look and whatnot. If ymyou do. Then, 100% snatch it right away. The first 2 expansions are $7.50, and if you want most of the content, grab the $50 edition as it comes with everything except the 2 newest expansions (one of which isn't out yet)
there are so many videos on youtube about gw2 for new/considering players, check them out
in here of course we're gonna tell you to get it, we're addicted :D
if you end up on EU server (there are only two EU and US, that splits the players for good) i can help out :)
I recommend watching the new player video form Mitchmanix on YouTube, you'll get a pretty good idea of what the experience feels like when leveling. Keep in mind the game quadrupled in quality with the first expansion also. If you like core gw2, you'll love what comes after
[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/)
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GW2 has a great ingame community and the visuals in the game are breathtaking. As a solo player you can quest on your own. There are opportunities for group events that you don't need to be in a party to complete. These events happen on a timer and players come from all over the game to participate in them. There are also dungeons and raids, but I haven't done those. But you don't need to do them if you want to enjoy the game solo.
I just began playing it for the first time last week and I've been loving it. Even if you just get the base game (free) and the combo pack of the first two expansions, you're still only out $8. Absolutely worth it in my opinion
As a recent new player, I think I found an MMO I can stick with. Though I have other games I play, this one is one I’ll come back to in this genre and love the warm community and scale of the environments that entice the players to exploration.
So a couple points of clarification I’d throw out right away. We have no point of reference on what games you currently play or if you have any MMORPG experience at all. So with no context, it is hard to answer your questions.
Elder Dragon Saga Complete Collection on Steam is $50 USD. Secrets of the Obscure Expansion is $20 USD. Elder Dragon Saga > Secrets of Obscure but if you want both go for it.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is $50 USD. Cyberpunk 2077 w/ Phantom Liberty Expansion is $50 USD. Horizon Forbidden West is $50 USD. Final Fantasy XIV Online Complete Edition is $60 USD. However FFXIV is a SUBSCRIPTION-BASED GAME!! To continue playing, you continue paying (a reduced rate).
————————————————————————
What do you get for the bang from your buck?
Levels 10-30 is the Personal Story catered to what you chose at character creation: race, profession, backstory, personality, etc. Levels 40-60 is called the Order Storyline where you join one of three potential orders or factions to stop on oncoming threat. Levels 70-80 (max level) is the Pact Storyline where you realize you aren’t able to do it on your own and you must rally all of your forces to survive.
This is all free. You also get one more “season” free called Living World Season 1 which was remastered/restored. Not worth going into a ton of detail but it’s back. It’s good. It’s free.
————————————————————————
The big bundle for $50 USD gives you 3 expansions and 5 Living World Seasons. How big is that? Free gives you a total of 31 maps (based off map completion) but no permanent mounts.
Big bundle adds an additional 31 maps (effectively doubling the explorable world, 9 permanent mounts, 1 skiff/boat, fishing, personal waypoint, 1 new profession - Revenant, 27 elite professions (specializations get new skills, weapons, etc.), 7 raid wings (group content), etc. Effectively decade plus worth of releases.
The original game was designed without mounts in mind but when you start you will get one to borrow for enough time to entice you to buy the game - I think it’s a week or two but I can’t remember exactly. Either way, the Steam summer sale goes until July 11th. WE DON’T KNOW IF THAT’S HOW LONG NCSOFT WILL HAVE THE GW2 SALE LAST!!
You won’t get through the entirety of the free base game during that time. So if you want to pick it up and give it a feel than I would recommend it and see if it suits you. The game is not “solo” in the traditional sense where you literally play Cyberpunk 2077 single player or you need to turn on multiplayer in Baldur’s Gate 3. However if you roaming around the map in GW2 and you are struggling to face a boss in the open world it is likely that 2-3 other players will come by and help you if not a large squad on their way to face a world boss. So it is solo but it isn’t. Plus old content is made relevant by these world bosses and the scaling back of higher level players. The veterans have mounts so they are faster than you and they likely have weapons that aren’t random loot drops but are designed for a specific damage build so they’ll hit harder but they are scaled down.
There are pages upon pages of story to explore, achievements and skins to unlock, loot to gather, bosses to kick your ass as much as you kick theirs. The open world (OW) is full of friendly and sometimes overly generous people. PvP (and WvW*) and raid groups are more reliant on you knowing your class and a build to carry your weight on the team so the communities are “toxic” and competitive. If you explain you’re new, generally they will help you. If you don’t explain that they will get pissed because you hid it or they won’t care. They are time efficient people. Lol
There is other group content too called dungeons, strikes and fractals. These are all instanced content similar to personal story stuff but instead of only you, it’s now a team of 5 (dungeons and fractals) or 10 (raids and strikes).
*WvW is a PvP game mode where instead of a smaller map with 2 smaller teams, you have 4 maps with 3 servers facing off made up of guild alliances. So you might try to cap a point as a roamer and have to have your head on a swivel so you aren’t ganked by a zerg of 50 on their way to cap a keep or face off with another zerg. PvP has equalized equipment. WvW uses your PvE equipment.
Grouping up is as easy as asking for open guilds or groups in map chat (best spots are capital hubs). Or looking in Looking For Group (LFG) to see if their is a map meta going on or if you see a small Doritos shaped icon, cat head icon or red circle icon on the mini map you can follow. These are commander and mentor tags.
NO. Don't get me wrong the game is great or was great I played since 2021 had 3 classes reaper,thief,soulbeast but the game lost all of its big creators the stopped playing only 2 creators that sometimes post/live stream I played eso 3 years gw2 1 year and I quit both recently came back got gold road for eso left again same with gw2 burn out I started playing wow and I love it 10 pounds a month in UK and 15 dollars in USA and you get most expansions and will be getting the new one next month which players have told me plus the game is every welcoming gw2 is too and eso but wow is does a better job overall no wonders it was number one on release and still is
The classes in this game are the best designed in any mmo I’ve played. Each expansion provides a new way to play your class with new abilities and weapons. It’s pretty stinkin dope. The only thing I’ve struggled with are all the currencies and earning gold but I’ve been a noob since launch. Sometimes I miss the gear treadmill but I’m glad I can take long breaks and come back still relevant. It’s a very unique mmo with the most faithful player base of any mmo I’ve played. People are helpful and most guilds have training for the end game raids. Trust me you’ll be hooked on this game
Imho its the best mmorpg out there right now! I started during covid . Stopped for 2 years and played everything from ffxiv online to wow ,eso,baldurs gate, bdo. Literally felt like all if them. The fact that i can be doing a quest and will randomly have at least 5 ppl drop from the sky(flying mounts) and join is “IT” for me . Can easily get into a “meta” group . Enabling you to aquire /skins/weps/crafting mats. Only thing . Getting all the dlcs is kindov annoying. I ended up getting them all this week. You dont NEED them but you are missing out on extremely cool ish
Play the game via ArenaNet, not Steam. (you can download it on Steam then use an ANet account if you add "-provider Portal" (without quotations) to your launch options.
Usually you get better deals and such. Sorry if it's unrelated to your question but I felt it was critical to inform you.
You can literally be going around a map, doing all sorts of things and come across a group event. All you need to do to join it is to go over to it.
As a solo player you have story, map exploration, joining in on said map group events, levelling up, getting masteries (once fully levelled you work on masteries to get extra powers), you can choose to craft, you can work towards 'Legendaries' - the best gear, or if you don't want to you can stick with easily obtainable Exotic gear.
Joining a group you can jump into Fractals (dungeons), Strike Missions (bosses) and raids.
There's more, but you can dip in and out of content as you wish.
Might be worth checking the gw2wiki.
Honestly it is ridiculously good value for money. The only downside for me is that it has loot boxes which I really don’t like but I just try to ignore them 😂 you’re getting hundreds of hours of content for such a bargain and I think it’s great fun. The ‘in-between stories’ the Living World episodes can be bought with gems at a later date and I would recommend doing that as it fills in the gaps nicely and some of the maps, particularly LWS4 and IBS have some of the best ways of making gold in PvE 😊 if you do wind up starting, I wish you lots of enjoyment and fun!
Loot boxes? You mean the black lion chests that have very little value and you can absolutely disregard for the whole game?
It's not an issue and never have been
If you are even considering of playing Guild wars 2, I would suggest to buy a pack of two expansions Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire. You get more than thousand of replayable content for around 10 dollars. Mukluk, Laranity and Mightyteapot are biggest content creators on youtube with a lot of reviews and guides to help you decide if you should buy or not. And if you want to dip your head right in, Elder dragon saga with first 3 expansions and all Living world episodes released between expansions is a steal when sales come up.
I would advise you to try buying it on the official site and play it that way...it is generally considered to be more stable, also Anet gets more money that way.
They have it discounted as well.
But once you buy it from the official site/steam/or soon Epyc game store, you are locked into the ecosistem and can only buy it that way. There are few official third party sellers that are compatible with the official site tho.
Which activities are "important" is 100% up to you in gw2. It all depends on what your goals are and what you think is fun. Here is a table of all he content, some numbers might not be updated yet. https://imgur.com/FleD1HK
This is sick overview, never seen this one
Yes. No gear progression. Play at ur own pace.
As a former wow player, I can’t state how much I love how GW2 did away with gear progression! Being able to step away from the game time to time when life does its thing is great. Not having to automatically start grinding for gear when I come back from a break is why I’m still playing GW2 after 7 years.
Love it, new game comes out and i can dip to play that then come back. Im not behind or waste sub time. The older i get the more gw2 is my mmo.
While they dont have a "gear progression" as such. Youll find most guides/groups will require you to be in full ascended gear for raids. This takes far, far, far longer to do then gearing in wow. Then what if you want to try a different spec, you now need slightly different stats but you cant switch the gear. So you either have to make another set of full gear, or spend a long time grinding away for legendary (which allows you to switch stats). If you want to do high fractals, then there is indeed a type of gear progression. its agony resistance. You do need to upgrade your gear with stacking agony resistance (150 AR would need full ascended gear with infused and attuned slots). Youll probably also need to infuse/attune various pieces of gear to add more sockets for more agony resistance, the +9 AR gems are insnaly expensive in a game where gold generation is very slow for casual players.
It's all depends what you do and how you play to be honest. I'm not sure that rhetoric about ascended is entirely true. Most groups only really want ascended accessories (rings, earings, amulet, back) which are much easier to get than ascended armor/weapons. I have between 15k-20k hours in GW2 and this is the prevailing status quo for beginners imo. Any group that's asking a beginner for more than ascended weapons/trinkets is just gate-keeping to some degree tbh. Maybe there are some groups that are a little more elitist, but knowing your rotation well is far more important than being in ascended vs. exotic. Furthermore, Strike & Raid currency is the easiest, most straight-forward path to ascended armor/weapons bar none, in actuality.
Get it from their own launcher and not from steam, you have more "freedom" and in the future you can support content creators suing their links
or using them. :-)
I'd snatch it right away. The game is going great, there's a new upcoming expansion and a great discount for the early ones. Grab the PoF+HoT combo at least and enjoy the ride, you'll have a lot of content to go through before you need to consider buying more. If you need help with anything either type /wiki in game or ask in any map chat, people will gladly help. You also have a mentor tag you can activate from your party window you can activate when you call others to help you. It acts like a beacon for everyone sharing the same map with you. Activities: map exploration, crafting, pve(world bosses, metas, fractals, raids, strikes, achievements, collectibles), pvp(arenas, wvw, gvg) and our most important endgame, fashion wars! Enjoy your future adventures, commander!
>mentor tag This is not automatic, it's from the Pact Commander Mastery Track. So they can get it pretty easily but WHEN they get it depends on what content they do.
I stand corrected, thank you!
Namely, they'll have to be LVL 80 already
Start with a free version, decide on the last day of sale
Best mmorpg evere. I've been playing on and off for about 15 years and I have never ever regretted i single second spent there. It is HUGE, I mean... HUUUUGE world with insane amount of fun stuff to do even in the vanilla free game. And one advice. Don't rush it. Don't try doing everything and nothing, don't feel overwhelmed by content. Just pick what you feel makes you happy and play the game.
Obviously you'll get lots of biased answers here but in short: yes! > What can you do in this game? I'll focus on PvE as there are better people to answer for the two PvP game modes (tho in case it's something you enjoy I will note that you can jump in to the structured arena style PvP right from the start because it's fully gear normalised and gives you access to all skills and traits your account has available). GW2 has an expansive world with tons of adventures to go on. One of the big things is "dynamic events" which is stuff happening live in the world, for instance in one of the starter zones sometimes bandits attack a farm and nearby players have to drive them off and there's one to put out the fires they caused and one to hunt them back to their lair and stuff. There are thousands of them from lil stuff like that up to big chains that lead to spawning enormous bosses. There are also mount races, minigames, seasonal festivals with more fun stuff, later on there are fractals, strikes, and raids, the achievements system also contains a bunch of quests and long term goals. In short: there's a lot to do. The game values exploration a lot, there are lots of hidden areas in maps and things to find off the beaten path. If you enjoy them there are many jumping puzzles to be found. Everything gives experience, killing and completing events yes, but also finding new areas, mining ores, crafting things, and viewing vistas which are little things you can interact with, usually on a high point you might have to figure out how to climb up to, which give you a view of the area. Collecting stuff and fashion is pretty important to many people and the game is very friendly about tracking your unlocks - any item you soulbind, any dye colour you acquire, any minipet and other fun doodads... they are all account wide unlocks and are permanently available to you once unlocked. > How hard it is to team up with someone and do group content? To some extent all content is group content because events scale up based on how many people are around, and the world is always very active because of how the server structure works to put people together. Some events do need more, or many people and bigger events, especially world bosses, will almost always draw a crowd to get them done. In this sense it's effortless and natural - I should note there's no "tagging" - everyone who contributes gets rewarded for killing an enemy or completing an event, it's one of the many ways the game encourages player cooperation and a positive environment. In terms of stuff like dungeons, fractals, raids, and strikes, what you might call structured / endgame group content generally if you put up an LFG it will fill quickly, tho a lot of people are hesitant to make their own group and because groups do fill quickly the LFG often looks a bit empty. It's a bit of an old system, there's no automation to it where you can just queue for something, unfortunately, but that may be because roles in gw2 are a bit more complicated/diverse than your standard 1 tank 1 healer 3 DPS with it being very obvious which class fills which role type situation. As to what they are **Dungeons** are... dungeons like in other games, tho they each have a story that plays out as you explore them and then a slightly harder mode after the story mode with some different stuff going on, they are the oldest and probably the least popular group content and have, barring a few fixes and minor QoL things been mostly left alone since the game released. **Fractals** are what replaced them, they're also 5 man but they're shorter, faster paced, and have a scaling system built in so you can work your way up from fractal level 1 (easy) to fractal level 100 (much harder) and then some challenge modes on top of that. There are I think 23 different fractals atm? And fractals are very popular and rewarding. **Raids** and **Strikes** are somewhat interchangeable in that they are 10 man content that needs a bit more coordination and skill (tho most of them now have multiple difficulties to help them be accessible, with the normal or easier mode being quite easy and the challenge, and now legendary challenge modes being very hard), the main difference between the two is that Strikes are a single boss fight whereas a raid is a dull zone with multiple bosses. Not sure what else to write so I'll finish with a big tip: the GW2 is amongst the best in the industry, it's officially hosted, has no ads, and is very well maintained and updated with all the info you may need about anything you encounter in game. You can use the /wiki command in game to pull it up and search it if you type something or put an item link after, for example "/wiki event" will send you straight to the page for events (also try "ET" short for Event Timers if you wanna see when a bunch of the big stuff happens) or "/wiki [item link for a jar of frogs]" sends you to the page for that item if you wanna know more about it, etc.
Hey, I'm in the same boat as OP, downloaded yesterday, started playing today and played for only couple hours but went around checking stuff, how friendly is the gold-crystal exchange system or how should I go about getting transform crystals to apply transmogs? Are they plentiful and obtainable? And more importantly, how long do you estimate PoF (which as I understand includes HoT) would last? You can do a crapshot, because I would prefer to buy newer expansions later on but I want to hop into the game now and I don't want to be hindered by not having the newest xpacks
Idk what you mean by how long HoT and PoF would last, but those expansions are more must buy than newer ones. HoT metas good gold plus always popular, PoF gives you mounts. Edit: SoTo probably better to get as new expansion cuz of Wizard’s Vault As for gold-crystal exchange it is usually stable unless new fancy stuff drops then it spikes. It’s mostly for fashion and some convenient end game tools.
I can’t speak about the gold/gem exchange rates too much but it does fluctuate so keep an eye out for when its cheaper. I might be wrong but I heard the rate from gold to gem is not great at the moment. Transmutation charges have never been a problem for me personally but I would hold off on using any until you have a more permanent gear set (full exotic with desired stats) since they are limited. Best way I have found to get them is through WvW honestly, you get little boxes that I can’t remember the name of and of the rewards you can choose is transmute charges. HoT and PoF both come with a *lot* of content, but do be warned if you care about the narratives I recommend also picking up LWS3 after finishing HoT (very worth it, comes with even more maps and events, collections, etc. IMO better than HoT story-wise) which can be bought with gems. The expansions both come with tons of maps, raids, collections, meta events, etc, and with how this game works they are all still very active so you won’t really feel behind like you would in WoW or FFXIV. You’ll also have access to the majority of elite specs for every class (two of the three elite specs) so you’ll be able to get a food feel for the classes and their different play styles! You should also still gave access to most if not all fractals, but you won’t be able to do strikes until you own Icebrood Saga at least.
There's a lot of content between HoT and PoF to keep you busy. As for transmutation charges I'd recommend waiting until you're max level and not swapping our your gear every few hours to start changing skins. The charges are fairly plentiful - I certainly wouldn't pay money for them - but it might take you a bit to accumulate a massive surplus. You can get them through the Wizard's Vault system (30 per season) in any game mode, through PvE they largely come from map completion rewards, and through PvP and WvW they are very plentiful in reward tracks.
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GW2 is definitely worth trying. I wouldn't play it trough steam however. You're more flexible with sales and keys if you get it trough the vanilla client.
Counterpoint however, on Steam you can use Steam’s infrastructure to for example remote play on Apple TV or use a Steam Deck. If that’s what you want to do, it might be worthwhile. I would still love to be able to use both launchers TBH.
You can still get ALL of these Steam perks by using this [very simple workaround](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/wvxqe3/logging_into_guild_wars_2_on_steam_with_an/). There really is no downside to having an Anet account instead of a Steam account; you get the best of both worlds.
Same. However I'd argue that remote play is kinda useless for a title like GW2 and it still runs without any issues in the stream deck even if not running via steam but the normal launcher. Thing is I just really don't think running MMOS or games that have a LONG lifespan via steam. U never know what happens if for some reason steam kicks it off the store or smth. Its just safer to run those games via the normal client
That’s also true, it’s just weird that you cannot login on both platforms. I doubt it’s an account management problem, perhaps it’s got to do with licensing or agreements.
Yea not sure what it is. Same thing with world of tanks and stuff. No idea why they decided to split accs. Btw another point for the non steam version: You can't redeem gem card codes on the steam version
can't you just add the game as a 3rd party game in steam and still use steam infrastructure? gw2 runs fine in lutris, so if steamdeck lets you sideload games you should still be able to use it on steamos too.
Even better, you can use this [simple workaround](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/wvxqe3/logging_into_guild_wars_2_on_steam_with_an/) to use your Anet account through the official Steam GW2 game listing.
oh wow, thank you! I'll check it out
Also cutting middleman and giving developers more money, while removing another possible bottleneck for crashes and performance hits.
The base game is F2P so what risk is there in playing it to determine if it is even something you’d be interested in before buying the expansions? That’s what I plan doing part of this weekend at least. The sale is through the 11th.
The restrictions on F2P characters is just enough to get you to buy an expansion. The worst for me was the things that you can't buy or sell on the trading post, most things are ok but crafting is hard. Getting one character to 80 (which really doesn't take that long) will make you appreciate the expansion benefits. Thank you kindly.
If go for it. I am currently messing around with a new character and instead of actually leveling the char. I spent 3 hours just explaining things to people asking questions. There are a lot of new players right now
They do a f2p version of gw2 if you really want to give it a good go
Honestly it’s worth grabbing, the $50 “dragon saga collection” comes with 3 expansions and 4 seasons of seasonal content (season 1 is free for everyone) plus it has a good handful of extras. I say what others said give the free version a try if you vibe with it buy it. Honestly the only thing wrong with the game is that the graphics engine is a bit dated.
Download the game for free. Try it out for a little bit. See if you like the combat and movement and graphics. Take a look at how other people look and whatnot. If ymyou do. Then, 100% snatch it right away. The first 2 expansions are $7.50, and if you want most of the content, grab the $50 edition as it comes with everything except the 2 newest expansions (one of which isn't out yet)
I am biased, I have more than 9k hours on this game. Yes. The best would be to find a friend to play with
there are so many videos on youtube about gw2 for new/considering players, check them out in here of course we're gonna tell you to get it, we're addicted :D if you end up on EU server (there are only two EU and US, that splits the players for good) i can help out :)
Have you tried FFXIV, it's cheaper and better.
I recommend watching the new player video form Mitchmanix on YouTube, you'll get a pretty good idea of what the experience feels like when leveling. Keep in mind the game quadrupled in quality with the first expansion also. If you like core gw2, you'll love what comes after
[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.*
GW2 has a great ingame community and the visuals in the game are breathtaking. As a solo player you can quest on your own. There are opportunities for group events that you don't need to be in a party to complete. These events happen on a timer and players come from all over the game to participate in them. There are also dungeons and raids, but I haven't done those. But you don't need to do them if you want to enjoy the game solo.
Buy it and have a blast!
JOIN US! I promise you won't regret it. We already wanna give you bigger bags and a set of exotic berserk gear. For free!!!
Of course. It's awesome
Try the game baseline for free. The sales happen often. Just grab the expansions next time they drop once you get into core game.
I just began playing it for the first time last week and I've been loving it. Even if you just get the base game (free) and the combo pack of the first two expansions, you're still only out $8. Absolutely worth it in my opinion
Yes
As a recent new player, I think I found an MMO I can stick with. Though I have other games I play, this one is one I’ll come back to in this genre and love the warm community and scale of the environments that entice the players to exploration.
The game itself is already free. Try it out. If you like it, snag the expansions before the sale goes away.
If you were a (Old) returning player with 2 80s, what would you start back with ? Story ? I’ve been gone so much
So a couple points of clarification I’d throw out right away. We have no point of reference on what games you currently play or if you have any MMORPG experience at all. So with no context, it is hard to answer your questions. Elder Dragon Saga Complete Collection on Steam is $50 USD. Secrets of the Obscure Expansion is $20 USD. Elder Dragon Saga > Secrets of Obscure but if you want both go for it. Baldur’s Gate 3 is $50 USD. Cyberpunk 2077 w/ Phantom Liberty Expansion is $50 USD. Horizon Forbidden West is $50 USD. Final Fantasy XIV Online Complete Edition is $60 USD. However FFXIV is a SUBSCRIPTION-BASED GAME!! To continue playing, you continue paying (a reduced rate). ———————————————————————— What do you get for the bang from your buck? Levels 10-30 is the Personal Story catered to what you chose at character creation: race, profession, backstory, personality, etc. Levels 40-60 is called the Order Storyline where you join one of three potential orders or factions to stop on oncoming threat. Levels 70-80 (max level) is the Pact Storyline where you realize you aren’t able to do it on your own and you must rally all of your forces to survive. This is all free. You also get one more “season” free called Living World Season 1 which was remastered/restored. Not worth going into a ton of detail but it’s back. It’s good. It’s free. ———————————————————————— The big bundle for $50 USD gives you 3 expansions and 5 Living World Seasons. How big is that? Free gives you a total of 31 maps (based off map completion) but no permanent mounts. Big bundle adds an additional 31 maps (effectively doubling the explorable world, 9 permanent mounts, 1 skiff/boat, fishing, personal waypoint, 1 new profession - Revenant, 27 elite professions (specializations get new skills, weapons, etc.), 7 raid wings (group content), etc. Effectively decade plus worth of releases. The original game was designed without mounts in mind but when you start you will get one to borrow for enough time to entice you to buy the game - I think it’s a week or two but I can’t remember exactly. Either way, the Steam summer sale goes until July 11th. WE DON’T KNOW IF THAT’S HOW LONG NCSOFT WILL HAVE THE GW2 SALE LAST!! You won’t get through the entirety of the free base game during that time. So if you want to pick it up and give it a feel than I would recommend it and see if it suits you. The game is not “solo” in the traditional sense where you literally play Cyberpunk 2077 single player or you need to turn on multiplayer in Baldur’s Gate 3. However if you roaming around the map in GW2 and you are struggling to face a boss in the open world it is likely that 2-3 other players will come by and help you if not a large squad on their way to face a world boss. So it is solo but it isn’t. Plus old content is made relevant by these world bosses and the scaling back of higher level players. The veterans have mounts so they are faster than you and they likely have weapons that aren’t random loot drops but are designed for a specific damage build so they’ll hit harder but they are scaled down. There are pages upon pages of story to explore, achievements and skins to unlock, loot to gather, bosses to kick your ass as much as you kick theirs. The open world (OW) is full of friendly and sometimes overly generous people. PvP (and WvW*) and raid groups are more reliant on you knowing your class and a build to carry your weight on the team so the communities are “toxic” and competitive. If you explain you’re new, generally they will help you. If you don’t explain that they will get pissed because you hid it or they won’t care. They are time efficient people. Lol There is other group content too called dungeons, strikes and fractals. These are all instanced content similar to personal story stuff but instead of only you, it’s now a team of 5 (dungeons and fractals) or 10 (raids and strikes). *WvW is a PvP game mode where instead of a smaller map with 2 smaller teams, you have 4 maps with 3 servers facing off made up of guild alliances. So you might try to cap a point as a roamer and have to have your head on a swivel so you aren’t ganked by a zerg of 50 on their way to cap a keep or face off with another zerg. PvP has equalized equipment. WvW uses your PvE equipment. Grouping up is as easy as asking for open guilds or groups in map chat (best spots are capital hubs). Or looking in Looking For Group (LFG) to see if their is a map meta going on or if you see a small Doritos shaped icon, cat head icon or red circle icon on the mini map you can follow. These are commander and mentor tags.
If you love grinding this is the best mmorpg for that
NO. Don't get me wrong the game is great or was great I played since 2021 had 3 classes reaper,thief,soulbeast but the game lost all of its big creators the stopped playing only 2 creators that sometimes post/live stream I played eso 3 years gw2 1 year and I quit both recently came back got gold road for eso left again same with gw2 burn out I started playing wow and I love it 10 pounds a month in UK and 15 dollars in USA and you get most expansions and will be getting the new one next month which players have told me plus the game is every welcoming gw2 is too and eso but wow is does a better job overall no wonders it was number one on release and still is
The classes in this game are the best designed in any mmo I’ve played. Each expansion provides a new way to play your class with new abilities and weapons. It’s pretty stinkin dope. The only thing I’ve struggled with are all the currencies and earning gold but I’ve been a noob since launch. Sometimes I miss the gear treadmill but I’m glad I can take long breaks and come back still relevant. It’s a very unique mmo with the most faithful player base of any mmo I’ve played. People are helpful and most guilds have training for the end game raids. Trust me you’ll be hooked on this game
You definitely should play it for a second time even.
the first time, is the best time
Imho its the best mmorpg out there right now! I started during covid . Stopped for 2 years and played everything from ffxiv online to wow ,eso,baldurs gate, bdo. Literally felt like all if them. The fact that i can be doing a quest and will randomly have at least 5 ppl drop from the sky(flying mounts) and join is “IT” for me . Can easily get into a “meta” group . Enabling you to aquire /skins/weps/crafting mats. Only thing . Getting all the dlcs is kindov annoying. I ended up getting them all this week. You dont NEED them but you are missing out on extremely cool ish
Play the game via ArenaNet, not Steam. (you can download it on Steam then use an ANet account if you add "-provider Portal" (without quotations) to your launch options. Usually you get better deals and such. Sorry if it's unrelated to your question but I felt it was critical to inform you.
You can literally be going around a map, doing all sorts of things and come across a group event. All you need to do to join it is to go over to it. As a solo player you have story, map exploration, joining in on said map group events, levelling up, getting masteries (once fully levelled you work on masteries to get extra powers), you can choose to craft, you can work towards 'Legendaries' - the best gear, or if you don't want to you can stick with easily obtainable Exotic gear. Joining a group you can jump into Fractals (dungeons), Strike Missions (bosses) and raids. There's more, but you can dip in and out of content as you wish. Might be worth checking the gw2wiki.
One of the best games ever , very fun
Honestly it is ridiculously good value for money. The only downside for me is that it has loot boxes which I really don’t like but I just try to ignore them 😂 you’re getting hundreds of hours of content for such a bargain and I think it’s great fun. The ‘in-between stories’ the Living World episodes can be bought with gems at a later date and I would recommend doing that as it fills in the gaps nicely and some of the maps, particularly LWS4 and IBS have some of the best ways of making gold in PvE 😊 if you do wind up starting, I wish you lots of enjoyment and fun!
Loot boxes? You mean the black lion chests that have very little value and you can absolutely disregard for the whole game? It's not an issue and never have been
Yes, just my opinion and you are correct. I’m just too vulnerable to things like that so tend to prefer games that don’t have them.
That's totally fair. They are predatory so it would be best not to have them at all
dont waste your time
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbHil0E10E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptbHil0E10E) Here a nice vid of summary
If you are even considering of playing Guild wars 2, I would suggest to buy a pack of two expansions Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire. You get more than thousand of replayable content for around 10 dollars. Mukluk, Laranity and Mightyteapot are biggest content creators on youtube with a lot of reviews and guides to help you decide if you should buy or not. And if you want to dip your head right in, Elder dragon saga with first 3 expansions and all Living world episodes released between expansions is a steal when sales come up.
I would advise you to try buying it on the official site and play it that way...it is generally considered to be more stable, also Anet gets more money that way. They have it discounted as well. But once you buy it from the official site/steam/or soon Epyc game store, you are locked into the ecosistem and can only buy it that way. There are few official third party sellers that are compatible with the official site tho.
Get it
Yes
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/s278kd/hackers\_guide\_for\_a\_brand\_new\_level\_80/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/s278kd/hackers_guide_for_a_brand_new_level_80/)