Thinking about coming back. A few questions.

[donthackmebro.6829]

Title. I played on release way back when and kind of just stopped for whatever reason I cant remember. Before I drop $50.00 to upgrade both expansions I was curious about some things.

1.) How is the player base? Still plenty of people?

2.) Any P2W transactions or are they purely cosmetic?

3.) I know I will get character boosts but how long does it take to level? I like to learn my characters rather than going in blind.

4.) Anything major I should know about since the base game release?

 

Thanks for any responses!

[Blocki.4931]

There are always a bunch of people around on all maps thanks to how the maps work. They try to group people together from one region, regardless of server. The different gamemodes also have solid playerbases.

 

There aren't any pay to win transactions in the game. They are all purely convienience (unlimited gathering tools) or cosmetic (skins)

 

Leveling is very fast, but keep in mind that base content does not reflect content from the expansions. Both expansions in general are a huge step up from that, so don't feel discouraged. The real fun begins at 80.

 

Only tip I'd give you besides that is that you shouldn't give too much about negative opinions on this. Many people have something they are sour about and it always ends up sounding like the game is completely dead or too inbalanced to play. See for yourself if possible.

 

(Also gliding and mounts are great and you'll enjoy the new forms and comfort of movement a lot from upgrading)

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

1. Yes, plenty of people. Good people overall. We have an outstanding in-game community who will go out if their way to help you.

2. The only thing that comes close to pay to win are the infinite gathering tools and the new glyphs. You get more materials for gold if you sell those materials or use them for crafting. Otherwise, nope.

3. Playing casual, it took me two months back in the day to get to level eighty. If you skip all the content and farm, I've known people to hit the cap in three days or less.

4. (laugh) Don't run a cheat program while playing this game. Otherwise, no, just play the game and salvage or sell everything that you can't use unless you intend to craft. Explore and map. The rewards and experience are worth it.

 

Hope this helps and welcome to the game. ?

[DarthFurby.3970]

1. Depends in the map really, but there seems to be groups of people pretty much everywhere with the highest concentration in new zones. Also meta events in HOT are usually really busy.

 

2. Not really. It is really pay for convenience like bag or bank space, character slots and the like. You aren't really winning anything, but it makes things easier. Also you can convert gold to gems and gems to gold, so if you can grind it out you can buy everything without real money, though it will take time.

 

3. Depends on your playstyle and hours you put in. For me it took not even two weeks to reach 80 playing only 3 or 4 hours a day, and fairly casually trying to take the game in. I recommend using the boost first on a class you are interested in but might not main to get raptor from path of fire story 1. It is across all characters then go back and play from level 1. The mount will make things much faster in terms of exploration.

 

4. Can't speak much here, only been playing a few months. I would say that mounts have made the game much more fun and easier to navigate, specifically the griffin.

[Fallesafe.5932]

> @"donthackmebro.6829" said:

> Title. I played on release way back when and kind of just stopped for whatever reason I cant remember. Before I drop $50.00 to upgrade both expansions I was curious about some things.

> 1.) How is the player base? Still plenty of people?

> 2.) Any P2W transactions or are they purely cosmetic?

> 3.) I know I will get character boosts but how long does it take to level? I like to learn my characters rather than going in blind.

> 4.) Anything major I should know about since the base game release?

>

> Thanks for any responses!

 

1) Lots of people (too many even).

2) No

3) You could hit 80 in a couple days of old fashioned grinding. But just use the level 80 booster... There's nothing you're going to learn about your class by killing hornets, bears, and other trash mobs to fill an xp bar.

4) Gliding and mounts are KEY things to have. In HoT, put a priority on basic gliding, updraft mastery, and bouncing mushrooms (movement skills). And in PoF, put a priority on getting raptor, Springer, and skimmer to level 3.

[Rauderi.8706]

> @"donthackmebro.6829" said:

> 1.) How is the player base? Still plenty of people?

Plenty active. A good chunk of the player base is always going to chase the best loot farm, but there's always plenty around.

 

> 2.) Any P2W transactions or are they purely cosmetic?

P2W, nah. It's all convenience items and cosmetics. And inventory management, but I had no qualms about paying for it.

But there's no purchase to give you an advantage in PvP or WvW (barring expansion specs, which I don't consider P2W).

 

> 3.) I know I will get character boosts but how long does it take to level? I like to learn my characters rather than going in blind.

You get experience for just about everything. Gathering, world events/bosses, heart rep quests, personal story, map reveals... And killing ignored mobs gets you much more loot, and you probably have boosters in your inventory if you feel things get slow. It can go *very* quick if you do it right. If you have a birthday scroll to get to 20-50, I'd recommend using it and sorting out your character from there. It's enough that you still have time to learn the 30+ levels of gameplay but you have enough options to sort through to not be too bored.

 

> 4.) Anything major I should know about since the base game release?

/wiki is still your best friend. :)

**/wiki defiance** is everyone else's best friend. Go say hi. :) Learning to "CC the blue bar" is vital in some open world and story fights.

Might also want to glance over https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery before you hit 80. The Mastery system is how you progress after level cap.

[donthackmebro.6829]

I see that some are saying I should just play the boost. I like story, am I gonna be hella confused if i dont play through from 1-80 with personal stories and all that?

[Fallesafe.5932]

> @"donthackmebro.6829" said:

> I see that some are saying I should just play the boost. I like story, am I gonna be hella confused if i dont play through from 1-80 with personal stories and all that?

 

Not at all. You can boost to 80 on day one and jump right into your personal story. My reason for suggesting you just boost is that your level 80 skills are totally different from the skills you'll be using to grind up from 1-80 the long way. Also, the junk mobs you'll level up on die so fast that you'll only use a tiny sliver of your total abilities over and over ad nauseum. You might as well just start learning on the skills/build you'll actually be using long term.

[joneirikb.7506]

Counter argument for using the 80boost, you might feel like you don't know what you're doing by jumping right into an 80, with all skills and traits. Some people prefers to just level up and learn (re-learn) the class from bottom again if they've been away for extended times.

 

Also an option to do both.

[donthackmebro.6829]

So I almost bought the expansions and saw the living world pass. Not a fan of story content that connects the expansions being behind a paywall. I understand the current living story things are free though.

[RoseofGilead.8907]

> @"donthackmebro.6829" said:

> So I almost bought the expansions and saw the living world pass. Not a fan of story content that connects the expansions being behind a paywall. I understand the current living story things are free though.

 

Yeah. You have to unlock episodes by logging on during each episode's initial release period. If you missed one, then you have to buy it on the gem store if you want to play that episode's content. This applies to both Season 3 and Season 4, and Season 4 is currently on Episode 2's release period. Edit: You'll be able to unlock the current and future Season 4 episodes even if you don't own PoF, btw; just log on at least once every few months to make sure you unlock them, if you're interested in ever playing them.

[donthackmebro.6829]

How important are they to understand what's going on?

[RoseofGilead.8907]

> @"donthackmebro.6829" said:

> How important are they to understand what's going on?

 

They're a connecting story that fits between expansions. In the case of Season 1, if you missed that, you missed out on the first introductions of characters that ended up being important parts of Season 2 and then HoT. Season 3's story, particularly the last couple of episodes, definitely set up the beginning of the PoF story. Some of it could definitely be skipped without it affecting too much story-telling. So, I imagine Season 4 is going to be the same way. I am the kind of player who has to play through as much of the story as possible because I like knowing everything that happens. If you're not as concerned with story as I am, then you might be fine just missing some of it.

 

Outside of story, Season 3's maps provide some of the easiest ways to get lots of ascended trinkets/back items. They all require a little bit of grinding in each individual map for the map currency and the Season 3 currency (Unbound Magic), but it goes by really quickly and is a good way to start gearing up any alts.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Don't forget, you can acquire all available Living World Season Episodes at no real-money cost by exchanging Gold for Gems. No idea what you might have in storage, but some items may have an increased worth over these past 5+ years that you could sell.

 

I would really recommend foregoing using the L80 Boosts, and level your first couple of characters naturally; of course, you could use one (or more) just to get access to Gliders and Mounts, and then level up another character, or two. You can also just try out the L80 Boost on different Professions in The Silverwastes, just to see what it would be like.

 

Welcome return, and good luck.

[Odinens.5920]

> @"Fallesafe.5932" said:

> > @"donthackmebro.6829" said:

> > I see that some are saying I should just play the boost. I like story, am I gonna be hella confused if i dont play through from 1-80 with personal stories and all that?

>

> Not at all. You can boost to 80 on day one and jump right into your personal story. My reason for suggesting you just boost is that your level 80 skills are totally different from the skills you'll be using to grind up from 1-80 the long way. Also, the junk mobs you'll level up on die so fast that you'll only use a tiny sliver of your total abilities over and over ad nauseum. You might as well just start learning on the skills/build you'll actually be using long term.

 

This is actually what I do now. I used to prefer leveling to "learn" what ever class it was I rolled, but using a boost, or in my case all those extra tomes as well, and going through the story with all of the skills and abilities I'd use at 80 seemed like a much more practical way of learning the class.

[Cerioth.7062]

I do not recommend level boosters, or rushing for HoT/PoF content. Do things in order and enjoy the game. You get some of the best experience that way.

[kharmin.7683]

Some suggest level boosting one character to at least get the glider, then going back to lower characters and running through the stories from there. Of course, doing so subjects one to spoilers.

[Danikat.8537]

Don't forget that you can play the base game without buying the expansions. If you need to you can download the game from the main GW2 site, and then you'll be able to log into your old account and play all the base game maps without having to pay anything.

 

So if you wanted to you could check the game out yourself and decide if you want to keep playing before spending any extra money.