Back After A 3 Year Break

[Legit.5869]

Hello all returning to the game after a 3 year break. I left with "some" ascended gear and around 100 gold. I just bought PoF and HoT expansions. I plan on doing both stories completely but also want to get full ascended viper's gear for my Ranger. Are they any suggestions in the order I should do things or anything you consider a MUST do from either of the expansions? Any help is truly appreciated. Happy to be back :)

[crashburntoo.7431]

I wish I was a better resource, but I'd recommend hitting HoT up first. You've got some mastery to pick-up there, and HoT material is essential to Viper's. It sounds like you can sit with an ascended/exotic mix on your ranger for the time being and work on the full ascended, Viper gear as your first goal.

 

It's also worth checking to see if you can re-stat your existing ascended items to Viper's... could be a faster option with your goal in mind.

 

Big picture, enjoy the expansions! Play the meta's in HoT. You may want to start PoF just to get your Raptor mount and enable some quicker running around, but glider will be a big part of your HoT travels. Welcome back!

 

Edit: There are WvW/PvP/Raid paths to get the gear, but I'm not sure if you're into that or have a group/guild that you would run with for raids based on your 3yr hiatus.

 

When looking at the Wiki page ([Wiki - Yassith's Armor](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Yassith%27s_armor "https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Yassith%27s_armor")), there's a note that it's far cheaper to use the Mystic Forge on other, crafted ascended armor than it is to craft directly. You may save yourself time and money by finishing your current ascended set and then stat-changing it.

[nyterose.4930]

I just returned myself as well. Welcome back!

[Raven.1524]

Don't rush it, there's really no need for it. Seasons 2-3 are also really nice.

[Valiant.5078]

My recommendation is to unlock your Raptor, just do the first story mission in PoF, then switch back to LWs2/Hot/LWs3.

[Legit.5869]

Thanks everyone for the input. I see that you can get trinkets from LWs3 would you suggest that over LWs2? I haven't purchases either.

[alceste.8712]

Living world season 3 is really good and has some ascended rewards that you can select viper stats on. My recommendation would be to pick up season 3.

[Purgatori.3645]

> @Legit.5869 said:

> Hello all returning to the game after a 3 year break. I left with "some" ascended gear and around 100 gold. I just bought PoF and HoT expansions. I plan on doing both stories completely but also want to get full ascended viper's gear for my Ranger. Are they any suggestions in the order I should do things or anything you consider a MUST do from either of the expansions? Any help is truly appreciated. Happy to be back :)

 

Please watch this video done by Brazil ... it actually helped me a lot. Vipers gear is awesome so I also recommend HOT first!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy-7RTdJGVc

 

[Diswan.8156]

Yeap, as the others have been saying i would recommend to go "pof" first, do the first story so you get your raptor and then go to "hot" so you can unlock druid. I would strongly recommend to buy living season 3, specially "a crack in the ice" which is fairly cheap.

With a crack in the ice unlocked you get acces to bitterfrost frontier map which is the best map for farming ascended trinkets including vipers. Farming berries with 4 characters gives you 1 ascended trinket a day, the most expensive ones like the backpack can be farmed in just 2 days.

There is no better way currently in the game to farm ascended stats that fast.

Good luck mate!

 

 

[TEKnowledgy.1760]

I'ma toss up some advice for ya here if you quit for 3 years gw2 musta bored the heck outta you like it did me (i quit for 2 1/2 years from may '14 to nov '16) I just randomly lost interest think because of burnt out effect and slight bordum.

Anyways when i returned i bought HoT pof hadn't released it, anyways hardcored the crap outta HoT man it was a bad idea as a whole. As content lasted about a month for me, accross 4 chars (have 9 now). I almost quit a again, but decided to try something else, I just switched it up to casual mind set some nights i'll do 6hrs, some nights 5 mins.

 

I have been like this for about 10 months haven't lost interest in anything. Actually it is the longest I have played consistently on a daily basis, since the day i bought gw2 5 years ago. This game in my eyes just works better for me at casual pace. (probably would for many more look around for all the im bored or quitting threads lol)

i have the time for hardcore I could sit here day in day out 12 to 16 hrs a day I just have that much time to literally burn I do not live a normal 9 to 5 life style no kids mo wife no burdens so to speak.

Now i got PoF last week been playing it just like i did pre-PoF. So far all doing good game needed little grow time on me last night i was getting into it pretty good and I believe long as I maintain that casual mind set this content will last me a while. I figure bout 2-3 months and minimum. Not hardcoring it.

 

So moral of it is, don't play it like theres no tomorrow or you may just very well find yourself quitting again. Also don't abuse expansion content, really isn't enough there to keep ya busy long term at a hard core mind set. It seems like at first there is, but once you get all mastery and hp points all thats left is AP. AP dont do crap other than just to have and the chest stuff every 500 AP.

Set other goals, that is also something i did do. Set the hardest PvE goals or collection goals there was still keeping me busy.

 

 

Anyway, welcome back. Hope you can find a groove again and can get back into the game. Take care and happy gaming.

[Alga.6498]

For storywise and to keep up with the lore, play _(Vanilla story first)_ HoT expansion first then Living World Season 3 to make sense. After S3, play PoF expansion.

This will take awhile but hope you'll enjoy it!

 

Welcome back! :)

[Alga.6498]

For storywise and to keep up with the lore, play _(Vanilla story first)_ HoT expansion first then Living World Season 3 to make sense of the story. After S3, play PoF expansion.

This will take awhile but hope you'll enjoy it!

 

Welcome back! :)

[TEKnowledgy.1760]

> @Alga.6498 said:

> For storywise and to keep up with the lore, play _(Vanilla story first)_ HoT expansion first then Living World Season 3 to make sense of the story. After S3, play PoF expansion.

> This will take awhile but hope you'll enjoy it!

>

> Welcome back! :)

 

Some people don't play games for story personally I don't. I could careless if any game had a story or plot or what not. But I'm from the 80s of gaming I'm used to games never had a solid story or plot. I'm here for game play purely all my games im the same. Ya know we all just different or should say different mind sets.

Only been few game stories that actually sucked me in. i think deus ex human revolution has been one my favs story wise both its main and side story but I love that conspiracy stuff.

 

Lifestyle & play styles like the real world you got ya tycoons base life on money and making the most money as quickly as possible got ya loners and outcasts that base life on anti-social behavior got out going life syles love the social life and large group events got ya protesters and rioters got ya common folk work 9 to 5 and supporting family and friends got explorers and historians so much more out there in real world.

 

In the game those people are still here, living the game life for different reasons and enjoy it differently. Yet those same people that live real world stuff mentioned also live alternative lives in the game based on even real world lifestyles.

 

Loners and outcasts like myself solo game content have been from day one and always will be. Tycoons market manipulators material sellers etc Explorers that love to just explore the furthest reaches of the map and content within. Then ya got ya historians that are firm followers of story and lore. Then got ya common folk in guilds that maintain that family in game and friends on outside of the guild. Then ya got the social types like in game group content. protesters rioters I'd have to fit that to im not sure maybe forum complaints? lol i can fit a play style to just about every type of life style that exists in the real world. Serial killers are ya PvP and WvW types lol i'm teasing. Naw guess those could be like athlete lifestyles.

 

 

[Vayne.8563]

Keep in mind you don't have to make viper's gear. It's sometimes cheaper to make other ascended gear and then convert it to vipers in the mystic forge. Make sure you check before you start crafting.

[nekretaal.6485]

I disagree with everybody here. I would go to HoT first, unlock basic gliding, then head over to PoF.

 

The hero points in Path of Fire and general Open world mobs are far friendlier to a solo player. Plus the Path of Fire hero points can be used to unlock either the HoT or the PoF specialization.

 

Edit: if you really care about story, then you should buy the living story 2 and 3. (Living story 1 is a cutscene that you can watch in Lions arch). Living story 2 is really the first half of the Heart of Thorns story that was created to hype that release. Every Episode contains about 2-3 hours of content and every single episode has some high quality boss fights. Not bad for about 2 bucks each. Living Story 3 is kind of an interlude between the two expansions and includes high quality story content AND five new zones. It is very highly recommended. So get those and play them in order: 2, HoT, 3, PoF.

[blambidy.3216]

> @nekretaal.6485 said:

> I disagree with everybody here. I would go to HoT first, unlock basic gliding, then head over to PoF.

>

> The hero points in Path of Fire and general Open world mobs are far friendlier to a solo player. Plus the Path of Fire hero points can be used to unlock either the HoT or the PoF specialization.

>

> Edit: if you really care about story, then you should buy the living story 2 and 3. (Living story 1 is a cutscene that you can watch in Lions arch). Living story 2 is really the first half of the Heart of Thorns story that was created to hype that release. Every Episode contains about 2-3 hours of content and every single episode has some high quality boss fights. Not bad for about 2 bucks each. Living Story 3 is kind of an interlude between the two expansions and includes high quality story content AND five new zones. It is very highly recommended. So get those and play them in order: 2, HoT, 3, PoF.

 

Agreed with you saying gliding first because you can’t finish hot without gliding. Get the gliding. Then get the mount real quick. Go back to hot and group up to finish some hps to get fast exp. then run that butt to auric basin. Get waypoint in the battle of tarir. Then after that continue story. Then always look up lfg for the meta. It gives a lot of exp to lvl fast. Hots masteries are longer to get up then pof exp. and hot hps are much harder when your battling an hp boss. If it’s a boss ask for help. You won’t kill it by yourself unless you a mf boss and stacked armor. Or look up hp trains. Because you will updraft in gliding to finish the hot story. I would give more detail with pof. But leveling up in pof is way easier. Just run to hps. You will need the springer to finish. Maybe the skimmer. Haven’t fully thought about if you NEED to continue pof story.

 

[blambidy.3216]

One pointer to realize. In the beginning leveling 1 to 80 you can lvl in every map. Now that masteries are added. Hot masteries you can only level up exp in hot maps. Pof masteries you can only level in pof maps. And tyria masteries you can only in tyria maps but I think you can in dungeons and fractals also to level up for tyria masteries. This is Just so you know. Which means gliding. You have to get exp in hot maps to level up gliding. Mounts you have to be in pof maps. So you can’t level up your mounts in tyria or hot maps. And the masteries are also split. Tyria mastery points in tyria. Pof mastery points in pof maps. Hot masteries are in hot maps. So your wondering one day you need more masteries, you got to go to those type of maps to get them.