Where to start at 80?!

[Kootz.4102]

Good morning all,

 

I hit 80 last night just before going to sleep on my first character (not used the boost yet), so I logged on this morning to make use of it...and I have no idea what options I have available. I have HoT and PoF btw.

 

1. Should I buy all the living story content for gems and work through it, or just go straight to PoF? Should I complete HoT too? If I dive straight into PoF, will I be completely lost with the storyline?

2. What group content should I be doing? Do I need to have certain criteria before trying fractals? Are dungeons relevant? Should I read up about them before I go in? How do I know what my role is in those? (I'm a mesmer)

3. I see people running around in cool looking armor... where can I get me some?

4. Is map completion worth anymore than an OCD fulfillment?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Haleydawn.3764]

> @"Kootz.4102" said:

> Good morning all,

>

> I hit 80 last night

 

Gratz!

 

> 1. Should I buy all the living story content for gems and work through it, or just go straight to PoF? Should I complete HoT too? If I dive straight into PoF, will I be completely lost with the storyline?

 

If you care about the story and timeline, you should buy LS2 and LS3 and whatever you’re missing from LS4.

You can start which ever story whenever you like, but you will feel lost, it’d be like reading a book but from a random page each time. (There’s no playable LS1 currently but there is a brilliant

which has all the Story in from LS1.) It *is* long, but it is worth it. I played LS1 when it was live, but about a year ago, I popped this fanmade movie on in the back ground while just running around gaming. Worth it to hear the lore and story again.

 

> 2. What group content should I be doing? Do I need to have certain criteria before trying fractals? Are dungeons relevant? Should I read up about them before I go in? How do I know what my role is in those? (I'm a mesmer)

 

Group content is entirely optional. Dungeons are no longer supported but people do still run them. Fractals are easy to get into, but you would be required to kit your character out in near full Ascended items by the end of the Tier 2 bracket. Full Ascended is heavily warranted by t3 and especially in tier 4.

A Mesmer can fill two roles with the recent PvE balance; Power or Condition DPS, or Boon Support. Pugs that ask for a chronomancer Mesmer, want the support variety. You can find good builds for instanced content on Snowcrows and Metabattle.

 

> 3. I see people running around in cool looking armor... where can I get me some?

 

 

Check you wardrobe via the bank! See what you like, and look it up on the Guild Wars 2 Wiki. You’ll find out where/how to obtain what you like. The Wiki is an incredibly useful tool, I’d recommend this your first ‘lookup’ for any item.

 

> 4. Is map completion worth anymore than an OCD fulfillment?

 

 

If you want to make a Legendary, you’ll need 100% in Tyria for the Gen1 legendaries, or 100% in either HoT or PoF original release maps for Gen2+ legendaries.

 

 

 

[Fallesafe.5932]

Do these things to build a good foundation for anything you might want to focus on in game:

 

1) Buy HoT, PoF, and LWS3.

2) Unlock all HoT Waypoints.

3) Get basic gliding, Bouncing Mushrooms, and Updraft Mastery.

4) Unlock all PoF Waypoints.

5) Get raptor, Springer, and Skimmer to level 3.

6) Choose a meta (or slightly off-meta) build that supports the kind of play you want to do, and fully unlock the elite spec required for it.

https://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

7) Buy exotic (orange) equipment that supports your build.

8) Get ascended trinkets in the LWS3 maps.

9) Slowly work towards GM tradeskills, and fully ascended gear.

10) And DON'T listen to the people who are bound to chime in with nonsense about "playing how you want" (i.e. not having a meta-build). If you read their posts, you'll see nothing but 24/7 salt and tears about how groups don't accept them.

 

To answer your specific questions:

 

*You don't need anything special to get into fractals. Gear only begins to become an issue in the second tier, and makes a very big difference in the third and fourth tier. Jump right in to tier one and learn the basics!

 

*You can do dungeons for fun. But they're not supported content anymore. In other words, you'll get a much better reward for your time/effort somewhere else.

 

*The easiest way to learn fractal and dungeon mechanics is by watching YouTube Guides. Deroir has an awesome channel on all of the fractals.

 

*Learning your role is a lot harder than it probably should be. You'll just have to scrap for information, tips, guides all over the internet (YouTube, profession forums, etc), and learn by doing.

 

*The "cool looking armor" usually involves a lot of very expensive skins and dyes. I'd highly recommend that you don't waste your gold on looks until you have the equipment you need. You're eventually going to need grandmaster trade skills, ascended armor and weapons, 18 infusions, etc etc. And it will slow you down SO much if you spend all your gold dying and re-skinning exotic armor.

 

 

*Map completion is mainly useful for unlocking the waypoints you're going to need again and again. Unless you just love map completion, I'd focus on waypoints more than the other stuff.

[Shailyn Slay.7234]

The above comments cover most things.

Never forget that you're playing for fun, so consider what kind of things you like most (Lore/Story from LS & achievments, challenge from fractals, achievments, exploration, ...) and go for that. If you want to play high end content (t3 or t4 fractals/raids) you'll likely need to go into the expansions at least for access to elite specialisations (they are pretty strong, esp. on mesmer) - I'd generally recommend to play them anyway for the story ;)

Starting with PoF right of the batch isn't so bad: you'll skip a lot of parts of the story, but if that bothers you just read up on the storyline of LS1, LS2, HoT & LS3 before. Gameplay wise PoF is much easier to get into than HoT.

 

 

Another thing that noone has mentioned yet:

If you don't have a guild yet, you might consider looking for one (e.g. here on the forum). There are of course lots of different types, but many 'general' guilds will not only repeatedly run a lot of the different contents, they also give you easy contact to more experienced players that can introduce you to these things and help out.

[Linken.6345]

I would speed through first story of pof just to get the first mount you can replay it later and read/watch everything.

[Neeman Oria.7504]

Go to the new maps and do the collections/bounties/meta, play with others, that's the real joy of GW2.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"Haleydawn.3764" said:

> If you want to make a Legendary, you’ll need 100% in Tyria for the Gen1 legendaries, or 100% in either HoT or PoF original release maps for Gen2+ legendaries.

 

@"Kootz.4102": the reason for the above is that Gen1 legendaries all require a "Gift of Exploration" as part of the process, and that is only available by getting a character to 100% map complete on "Central Tyria". You get two per character that does this.

 

[Zushada.6108]

The auto- boost gear is really good and will keep you alive. Don't get rid of it because you will need it later. I still use mine on my rev in wvw

 

[Ringlin.1863]

Two things to add to Haleydawn's excellent post (2nd one, above).

 

First, although the story order goes LW1-> LW2 ->HoT->LW3->PoF ->LW4, you may still want to skip ahead.

 

Fallsafe (3rd, above) and Linken (5th) note that you can get useful abilities - like gliding and riding - by skipping to HoT and PoF. And if you're like me (I hit 80 last week), you'll quickly max out on your Mastery track, which triggers a pop-up warning about that every 3 seconds. The only way to get rid of it is to unlock masteries, at the start of one of the expansions. (I'm still sticking with the lore route, but many players will be happier going to HoT right away.)

 

Also, if you want a summary from LW1 (which played out as a series of events), the video Haleydawn linked is great, but it is 3 hours long. The key lore you need is summarized in three minutes starting at 2:20. You could then skip around to get a feel for the characters, some of whom you may see again.

[Rhatha.2376]

Lots of good advice here.

 

 

If you enjoy doing the story, the LS episodes are well worth buying. Even if you don't, LS3 in particular is useful since it' the easiest place to get ascended trinkets. For your first time through I would suggest doing it all in order (again, that's Core story > LS1 cutscene in game or fan made summaries > LS2 > HoT story > LS3 > PoF story > LS4).

 

The first thing to do is to get an exotic set off weapons/armor/trinkets with the stat combo you want to use. The group content is up to you. Dungeons has little tidbits of story that fit around the Core leveling experience, but aren't required at all, they just flesh it out a bit more, and then have side stories. Fractals are the most common 5 man activity. You can easily start by doing the first 25 or so levels right out of the gate. Reading ahead might help a little if you're new, but often the best way is to start an LFG group or join one that isn't asking for experience and just explain that you're new to them. Most people will explain the basics. As a mesmer, the majority of people will ask for support chronomancer, but that will take some time for you to get fully set up for. It' not a huge deal at the lower end, though, but something to be aware of for later on. If you have mesmer specific questions feel free to message me in game as well.

 

Also, as far as group content goes, meta events (e.g. large scale events that often involve chains or smaller buildup events followed by some boss battles) are present on many maps in the open world. The HoT maps and Istan are common these days, though there are also some in PoF and the old world. There's also a chedule for world bosses, see: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_boss

 

As for armor skins, you can go into your bank, and there's a Wardrobe button in the top left, I believe, that will let you preview a ton of armor pieces, searching by type and slot. When you find something you like, you can type /wiki followed by the item name in chat to open a page that can tell you where to get it. If anything looks super fancy, though, there's a good chance that it's not easy to get, but this is a good way to find some fashion goals.

 

Map completion can wait for when you want to work on a legendary weapon. If you enjoy a certain map, you do get a bonus chest for completing any given area, but it's not something you should try to do unless you're enjoying it.