Help a noob out and get a chance at 100g!

[Weindrasi.3805]

Personally, I think the story in PoF is much better-done than in HoT. I think the reason why, is that PoF is revisiting areas from Guild Wars 1 to a much greater extent then HoT did. Arenanet have tons of plot material, detail, and lore from Guild Wars 1 they can use to enhance PoF--even for players who never played GW1. In HoT, the primary elements of the plot--Mordremoth, the Exalted, and the Sylvari--are all new Guild Wars 2 era things. Because of that, Arenanet had to start from scratch in many regards to build the story of HoT, and depict it to the player base.

PoF is different because Arenanet already had years worth of old material, notes, designs, lore, and so-on to help them build the story. All this old material was extremely helpful, in that it created a much more rich and detailed expansion--story wise--than HoT was capable of being.

If you get PoF, it will essentially be like you skipped a book in a series. You've read book 1 and book 2, but you skipped book 3 and went straight to book 4. So some things will be familiar and make sense, but other things won't. To get the full impact of the PoF story, you need--either by playing or reading on the wiki--an understanding of the events that led up to PoF.

If you don't care about following your character's story, then you're in the clear. Storyline aside, PoF is a very fun expansion. The mounts and the maps of PoF are a lot of fun, and the new specializations are interesting. The terrain of the maps is beautiful, and the NPC's and their cultures are very detailed and well-portrayed. Unlike HoT, you do not need a group to do any of the Hero Points or Mastery Points--you can get map completion alone.

 

#24

[Karrier.9604]

193 thx :)))

[Sky.7610]

I know people play content at different speed but assuming a 'normal pace' of not rushing but not taking time to explore every little detail, how long would it take me to finish hot content (storyline and living story)? Also how much current content for PoF to complete?

 

Is the best gold farming spot or expensive items in PoF?

[Game of Bones.8975]

I have always like Mystic Salvage Kits (250 uses).

[Erhnam.5732]

I can only tell you the classic advices:

* Buy the copper fed salvage tool and place it in a shared inventory slot

* Buy a set of permanent gathering tools, and place them in 3 shared inventory slots. If your characters have their own normal, vendor bought gathering tools, you just need to double click on each of them when you log in with a character, and remember to place (again, by just double clicking) the permanent tools back in the shared slots. Extra bonus if these tools are the magic unbound ones, as you will get extra currency each time you use them

* Buy a permanent pass (I love mistlock) and place it in a shared inventory slot

* If you can afford it, get a permanent stylist contract and place it in another shared inventory slot. God knows I would spend more time playing with it that playing the game if I could get one

* Get a character slot per class (at least)

* Get more material storage (I am currently sitting at 1k material storage, I think anything between 500 and 1000 should suffice, depending on you crafting habits)

* Get two extra bank tabs

* Get more, more, more, shared inventory slots. Honestly, I don't know if I can go back to other games that do not have this

* And the most, biggest, bestest, advice you can get. Roll a female Asuran necromancer. You won't regret it

 

And my number for the lottery! #132

 

Thanks for this!

EDIT: Forgot one: buy all the LW episodes, if you can

[Svarty.8019]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> ##### Should you buy PoF?

> * I think the story is easier to get into, easier to navigate, and easier to solo.

>

My guildmates came back from a lengthy absence and played PoF for two weeks. They said it _was_ worth the money. I haven't seen them since. They played HoT for over a year.

 

 

[FrizzFreston.5290]

> @Svarty.8019 said:

> > @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > ##### Should you buy PoF?

> > * I think the story is easier to get into, easier to navigate, and easier to solo.

> >

> My guildmates came back from a lengthy absence and played PoF for two weeks. They said it _was_ worth the money. I haven't seen them since. They played HoT for over a year.

>

>

 

Singleplayer games are also worth their respective money. Ofcourse, its a bit strange that PoF has the replayability of a singleplayer game. But if the quality is high enough that is just fine. If Anet can keep living story coming soon after then that does definitely help.

 

I can't say I replayed HoT over and over because it was so much fun. And more that it was needed for certain goals.

[Sky.7610]

> @Sky.7610 said:

> I know people play content at different speed but assuming a 'normal pace' of not rushing but not taking time to explore every little detail, how long would it take me to finish hot content (storyline and living story)? Also how much current content for PoF to complete?

>

> Is the best gold farming spot or expensive items in PoF?

 

If anyone have any general info on this, would be appreciated! :)

[pah.4931]

Here is my advice to any GW2 player:

 

Stop caring. This is not the game for caring. Can't afford mount skins? Who cares. Can't afford the Black Lion weapon skins (and don't want to buy or farm keys for black lion chest RNG)? Find one that you can get in game. Learn stuff as you go. Have long term goals, but if you see an event, go to it and enjoy. Create alts and mix it up -- gear is so easy to get in this game and you can have plenty of fun in exotics. Use the LFG tool early and often. Do what's fun, forget the rest.

[Goblin Beet Farmer.3045]

I just recently came back after having not played in 4 years. I suggest purchasing PoF and doing the introduction mission to unlock the Raptor mount. Then going back and finishing HoT. In my opinion having a mount really helps navigating through HoT.

[Sky.7610]

I'm hoping there is a Blackfriday discount on POF or do you guys think it's too soon for the discount to hit the expansion?

[Randulf.7614]

> @Sky.7610 said:

> I'm hoping there is a Blackfriday discount on POF or do you guys think it's too soon for the discount to hit the expansion?

 

Far too soon

[Sky.7610]

> @Randulf.7614 said:

> > @Sky.7610 said:

> > I'm hoping there is a Blackfriday discount on POF or do you guys think it's too soon for the discount to hit the expansion?

>

> Far too soon

 

True but if they do discount it a bit, they can cash in on the shopping and holiday craze though...

[Veprovina.4876]

> @Sky.7610 said:

> > @Randulf.7614 said:

> > > @Sky.7610 said:

> > > I'm hoping there is a Blackfriday discount on POF or do you guys think it's too soon for the discount to hit the expansion?

> >

> > Far too soon

>

> True but if they do discount it a bit, they can cash in on the shopping and holiday craze though...

 

Well, unless you want mounts like, right away, you don't need Path of Fire if you haven't completed other stories yet. You might want to finish what other stuff you have before buying Path of Fire, and maybe by that time, they'll do some kind of a discount. There might be one during holidays, but it's too soon after the release so they'll probably discount HoT instead and a bunch of gemstore items. Or maybe they'll do a bundle, HoT + PoF for cheaper or something.

 

Do you have Heart of Thorns and living world seasons already?

[Donari.5237]

I think you've gotten a lot of insightful advice. I would add some myself but I'm lightheaded hungry due to this being a diet day and cannot focus enough. So I will take you at your word that gold comes easily to you and I'll just toss in my favorite number:

 

6

 

And see how that works out. (And if I win most likely donate the 20 g to guildmates new to the game).

[Veprovina.4876]

> @Sky.7610 said:

> > @Sky.7610 said:

> > I know people play content at different speed but assuming a 'normal pace' of not rushing but not taking time to explore every little detail, how long would it take me to finish hot content (storyline and living story)? Also how much current content for PoF to complete?

> >

> > Is the best gold farming spot or expensive items in PoF?

>

> If anyone have any general info on this, would be appreciated! :)

 

Heart of Thorns is reasonably long since you can't finish half the story until you unlock a certain mastery for which you have to play HoT maps to get. You need experience to train that mastery (and all the ones before it), and mastery points to unlock it. Only then will the story continue since that new mastery will be relevant to whatever happens in the story. So you'll be playing a lot of Heart of Thorns maps, they're full of meta events, hero points, and just general fun to explore. Except Tangled Depths, that map is horribly confusing.

 

So expect to get quite a mileage from Heart of Thorns, espectially if you plan on getting all the masteries trained. I don't own Living world 2 or 3, but i hear 3 is pretty long, and each episode has a whole map for you to explore. Path of Fire isn't as long as Heart of Thorns, but the maps are pretty expansive and there's a lot of stuff to discover there. Most time will be spent getting access to mounts and training them so you can use their movement ability to access the new story part.

 

Be warned though, both of those are high level content, if you get into a fight with mobs, some of them can down you pretty fast, especially in Heart of Thorns. Smokescales and Pocket raptors. Fear them. You'll see them fast enough in the first map so don't worry, i didn't spoil anything.

 

Path of Fire has a different "mechanic" because there are mounts there, so mobs have huge aggro radius and respawn really fast, so expect some long drawn out fights with veterans and elites accompanied by a legion of trash mobs in some areas. And since you can't mount up in combat, you have to finish fighting them because they'll follow you across half the map otherwise (this was done because mounts are very fast so mobs have to react to them in a larger radius, but that radius doesn't narrow down on foot).

 

As for gold farming, Auric Basin meta event in Heart of Thorns gives you *tons* of loot if your map completes it, you get rewards based on participation, the overall event success etc. So if you need ecto and mats, go do Auric Basin meta and just salvage everything. LW3 has it's own currency and a lot of ascended trinkets and gear can be obtained by farming that currency and buying stuff from vendors. There's also a leather farm i believe in one of the maps.

 

All in all, you get a lot of bang for the buck, and the stories are atually really well done, i personally enjoyed them a lot.

[Sky.7610]

Results are in for gold giveaway! All winners has been ~~scammed~~ paid! ;)

 

Thanks for all the helpful information guys!

 

**MVP post for me: @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" - 40g , great summary and clear**

 

Lottery Results entries:

6 - Donari.5237

42 - Tanner Blackfeather.6509

69 - Vavume.8065

77 - Ceridwen.6703

116 - Shirlias.8104

123 - CedarDog.9723

125 - FrizzFreston.5290

132 - Erhnam.5732

168 - Skyline Crash.6254

176 - BaconReaper.5719

177 - Veprovina.4876

193 - Karrier.9604

242 - Neutra. 6857

300 - TheSlothArmada.6709

 

**Winning #: 153, 281, 246** : https://imgur.com/a/fL1bn

 

**Players who won lotto: @"Skyline Crash.6254" (168) , @"TheSlothArmada.6709" (300), @"Neutra.6857" (242) - 20g each**

[Donari.5237]

Hurray for helpful people and grats to lottery winners. Sky, I imagine you'd have gotten just as helpful posts without the incentive, but it was very nice of you to offer.

[ThunderRonn.7615]

While I am not the biggest gamer I do like this game. HoT was something that I really did not like due to all of the vertical things and it was just a lot to process while trying not to be eaten lol. I did love gliders so that is awesome and the story was great. I am really loving PoF however. Great story and it was tough but not so tough that I could not finish it by myself. The areas are beyond beautiful where as I dont see HoT being that pretty save like two spots. The mounts are fun minus the whole adoption stuff. I really hope you get both so you can enjoy it for what the story is.

[World War III.3869]

My 2 cents.

 

I'm in the same boat half the time. If you truly enjoy the game, just take the plunge and buy a gem card(s) and trade it for gold. Obviously if RL budget permits. That's always the best bet to get back into things. Use one of the many GW2 economy tracking sites to maximize your trade in value. If you like the story as I do , play it in order, otherwise in my opinion(even though mounts make HoT easier) you will be missing out on a lot of what the game offers.

 

Aside from that here's an idea of what you can do: At the very least log in daily for the bonuses and to keep up with them. Kill Teq daily. I have gotten many ascended weapon drops from it over the years. Do at least the minimum amount of dailies for the 2G etc. Do the fractal dailies for other ascended stuff. Complete the Triple Trouble Event daily. I have gotten many ascended armor drops from the event. Stock pile mats so it's easier later to craft Legendaries and/or ascended you need. Activate a couple Legendary weapon quests so you have some other goals and while doing other stuff you'll get some items needed for them. Do the AB meta when you can and have around 30 keys. Don't buy skins unless it's 100% must for taste. If and when LAB or Wintersday is around, farm them to your liking. LAB for instance, run Guildhall MF bonus, Birthday bonus and MF food/utility, use a thief with shortbow or a Daredevil w/same. I averaged 400-500 bags an hour that way. Sell them or gamble them.

 

Save a character slot and follow a weekly BL Key farm guide. Rowangrey on youtube has one of the best and detailed ways to do it. Knockout the stories and come back for the achievements. Join a helpful guild, don't worry about raids or advanced Fractals right away. When you do want to get into them, study your arse off with videos/guides and join a training guild that helps newbies. USE LFG. Take HOT for instance, there's a guild that runs ALL the HP and does the DS meta and sometimes other HOT meta weekly. Usually start at 4pm EST TUES/THURS/ SAT. At reset there's a guild that runs around doing everything, look for them as well. Use youtube or Dulfy for achievement guides. Worth noting: Dulfy's guides are not the be all and end all for doing some achievement. There's other too and for example 9 times out of 10 if Dulfy's guide isn't doing it for me if I scroll down below to the comments I almost ALWAYS find a solution that works for me there. Don't be afraid to ask in map chat for help or to make your own LFG or to use commander tag, mentor tag or a good friend that has them when needed.

 

Other people have pointed out that you can camp out inactive characters at farms. Like you can leave all your extra characters at the flax farm in Hot. There's also a good wood spot in Orr and jump puzzles you can leave characters at to open it up once a day. Don't forget to farm your home instance, guild instance, and EB in WVW daily for mats if you get bored, but at the least do the Guild Hall and your home instance. Make sure to buy some of the Nodes you're missing with Laurels from the vendor. Save all other Laurels because you will need them for mats, a much needed asc gear, a recipe, to complete something or SOMETHING. Just don't spend them to spend them till you're 100% sure. As for bags as someone pointed out, on average you make more money opening certain bags on a character with a certain level. Or you get to snipe the mats you need the most more often as opposed to getting mats you do not need. As for story rewards, research what's most beneficial to get. Like in HoT you want to get the 2H Auric weapons as reward because they cost more to craft for example.

 

After story it completed go back and start doing achievements you're interested in and do all the HP/Masteries that are left. Prioritize ease of life by getting the Auto Loot mastery maxed out asap, it will save your soul from hell. Pick a season and farm the mats needed for the final rewards. All I got right now off the top of my head. Feel free to message me in game as I'm catching up all the time as well and usually always willing to help or give advice. This is all advice. I don't consistently do all this stuff weekly. If you get caught up doing something else and are having fun and not burning out, that's a good thing. Don't worry about all the other crap. If you are burning out, play something you find fun like WVW(which btw has a good chance for ascended and has some good reward tracks to work towards now such as legendary stuff). Don't feel overwhelmed or that you'll never catch up. Forget about being top AP for example because people that have played consistently since beta will almost always have more AP due to monthlies and stuff that doesn't exist now.

 

EDIT: The guy that runs Hot map HPs also does the masteries, waypoints and strongboxes. Worth noting that if you just breeze through the story and move on to POF for the mounts, it's much easier as most HP/mastery groups run with mounts now. The particular guy I'm talking about runs without mounts. With mounts you'll have an easier time getting around however. It will be easier to do the "commune" HPs yourself and a lot of the masteries because you can get to places that requires things like maxed out gliding easier with Springer or (better) Griffon. PoF bounty/achievement/HP runs? Make sure you have the WPs and the mounts(Griffon not 100% necessary) or you will fall behind the zerg.

 

EDIT 2: Want a super easy time with open world and most activities? Build a Power Reaper with minions. It will almost feel like you are cheating. Keep a backup set of armor for conditions to use vs some bosses and single targets. PR/minions will literally destroy most of the game's story mode bosses/open world/HPs and everything in between. You can practically AFK some things that normally destroy you if you're another class. There's one exception: HoT Hero Points. Most of HoT is hard mode and many of the HP you can not solo under normal circumstance. Sure I've soloed some of the impossible ones but it's far easier with a group. I easily soloed everything in POF and Vanilla with the build. Now I'm using the new POF reaper spec and it kicks ass for conditions. I'm using that now to not only learn the new rotations(what order to use skills in for max dmg) but because a lot of the achievements I'm currently going for this build shines in. Also worth noting is that necromancer has imo one of the top 3 best skills in the game. Epidemic. Dump your condis on the boss, pop epidemic and watch the 20 trash adds around it die fast.

Note: Minion master can be bad. You don't want it for Fractals/Raids. You usually don't want them out if you don't want aggro: Triple Trouble Event for example or if you're just running from X to Y they will slow you down getting aggro. if you want to rambo through an open world area, they will kill everything you click on.

 

That being said, IF you want to use X class to complete Y? GO FOR IT. I have 15 characters, all have their quirks, weaknesses/ bonuses etc. All of them can complete all content with differing degrees of difficulty depending on the content and your skill level. And what better way to get better than actually using the class? Also worth noting: Get a good keyboard(I like mechanical ones) and a good mouse. It helps a shhhhhh ton having dodge/loot/whatever right on your mouse, etc. I can't stress it enough. Sure you can play with a touchpad or on generic stuff, but your life will be easier with good gear IRL.

 

EDIT 3: I reread everything and I'm sorry for it being so disorganized and not grammar perfect(normally I am, lol). Don't have the time to fix it all and I just spewed everything out that was on my mind as it entered it. Hopefully I gave you some insight though on how I do things. Remember MOST of all Rule #1: HAVE FUN.

#23

[World War III.3869]

> @Sky.7610 said:

> > @Sky.7610 said:

> > I know people play content at different speed but assuming a 'normal pace' of not rushing but not taking time to explore every little detail, how long would it take me to finish hot content (storyline and living story)? Also how much current content for PoF to complete?

> >

> > Is the best gold farming spot or expensive items in PoF?

>

> If anyone have any general info on this, would be appreciated! :)

 

Hot? Casually maybe a week? Depends on class/skill level and someone else's idea of "normal" daily play. Someone with a RL job or school for example, their idea of normal will be much different from someone that is retired or works from home. Not 100% sure either way, but it's not 100% important imo. Just have fun, take a break from progressing when things are getting grindy or stale. If you only play story and know your way around, have the masteries maxed etc, PoF for example in subsequent play throughs, skipping cut-scenes etc you can do most if not all in 1/2 days depending on how much you play. HoT? If you don't have maxed out HoT masteriers you will have to spend additional time maxing them out with experience. If you don't know Tangled Depths and the other areas well, you will wander needlessly here and there adding additional time, hell even with a guide some in TD lol. People move at different paces, just like I can read a whole book in a couple days casually. My friend reads the same book in a month. She's not stupid, she just reads at a different speed and reads a different amount daily in between other things. I read a book I dive all the way in.

 

Right now in the current climate POF is bad for farming. Definitely not horrible(bounty runs are ok, etc). I mean doing something is better than chatting in Lion's Arch in regard to farming, unless you're a power merchant on the TP. Otherwise, The HOT Metas and SW are better and more profitable. That does not mean that POF's Metas are bad or not fun though. They just don't produce as much $$$/hour. There is a 10k gold mini and 10k gold confetti aura thingy that you can get as a drop from two different events and they are a pipe dream and 1 in a million so don't worry about them. You'll get a precursor drop from a trash mob in vanilla GW2 before them. If you enjoy doing dungeons for $(even though it's half dead), hell go for it man. I do them sometimes for fun. That's what it's all about. Fun.

[TheSlothArmada.6709]

I WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!

I CAN'T FUCKING BELEIVE IT OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(20g is a lot for poor AF players!!!)

[Super Hayes.6890]

My favorite thing to do in this game is take one of my 9 alts and remake them. After I change their look, gear and traits I put them through whatever part of the storyline I miss the most (usually living story season 3 head of the snake). Then I keep playing them on random maps with random people until I get bored and move on to the next character. For me constantly trying a new play style is fun. I spent too many years sticking to my main and missing out on how different each encounter can feel on different characters. Hope whoever wins your lottery doesn't blow it all on ecto gambling ;)

[World War III.3869]

> @"Super Hayes.6890" said:

> My favorite thing to do in this game is take one of my 9 alts and remake them. After I change their look, gear and traits I put them through whatever part of the storyline I miss the most (usually living story season 3 head of the snake). Then I keep playing them on random maps with random people until I get bored and move on to the next character. For me constantly trying a new play style is fun. I spent too many years sticking to my main and missing out on how different each encounter can feel on different characters. Hope whoever wins your lottery doesn't blow it all on ecto gambling ;)

 

A good example of that would be playing a Sylvari in HoT.

[Matick.4132]

**Err... seriously?!**

 

These days, when the chatter is all over RNG & Lootbox sh...tuff.

Giving help because you want money is a preposterous behaviour, imho!

 

And to the OP. If you're serious and not a troll/bot/trollbot this forum is – unlike the mystical forge or BLC – a pool of helpful stuff, whatever you throw in it. Most of the time your effort isn't wasted – unlike the mystical forge or BLC –, so take a short trip around the forum and a warm WB to you.

 

The art of monetising and value something by linking it to money, is the reason why we're in this deep trouble anyway. Hence Lootboxes, hence RNG stuff, hell... hence the whole economy. Yeeez.

 

**I don't want gold for rezzing someone, an advice, or a port, or whatever. Just be nice to each other and shout out a TY.**

 

 

TY

 

 

Edit: Well, I've seen in this fred that you've already rolled the dice. Was that your attempt of satire on this whole RNG sh...tuff?!