New Players: Welcome to Guild Wars 2!

[Bast.7253]

Not sure if anyone has said this already, but to the new players don't feel overwhelmed. You have plenty of time to learn and plenty of things to do. I think one person mentioned focusing on dynamic events instead of hearts and that's good advice. If you focus on hearts you will find leveling a lot slower and perhaps more tedious than it really is. (Though always make sure to talk to npc's with hearts over their head after you complete them because they sometimes offer neat stuff for sale. In some cases unique devices you can use like teleporter guns and things that aren't really weapons so much as silly unique ways to enjoy the game.)

 

Most importantly, ask for help if you don't know where to find something or what to do, whether that's equipping a certain piece of gear, knowing how a skill works, or where to go, because unlike many games you will almost always get a straight answer from people excited to help.

 

 

Also, look for commander tags on your minimap. They're colorful icons that look like... pentagons? Or cat faces. It can lead you to a fun event like a world boss, guild missions to help you find a guild that will make the game that much more enjoyable, or even something like a 30 person squad marching through several zones in a day to make a semi-roleplaying voyage across the continent completing events and just exploring the open world.

 

Admittedly, check the guild wars 2 reddit forums for a better preview of player-hosted events that are upcoming.

 

My last word of advice, remember to dodge, and remember that in another game when you see something bad coming your way you probably won't have the ability to dodge and will immediately realize that you miss the combat system in this game. :-P

[Vayne.8563]

> @"aspirine.6852" said:

> Is Vayne already in this topic? If so the rest of us do not need to do anything any more ?

 

Nah I'm trying to keep a low profile. ;)

 

But as long as I'm here, welcome to all the new players. If anyone needs help and you're on a US server, feel free to message me in game.

[blackheartgary.8605]

Hello again!

I ditto everything said above, but there is one thing i would like to touch base on, and that is this wacky thing called "meta"

In guild wars 2 "meta" can mean a couple of things.

for starters... on the maps you are exploring, there are these nifty things called dynamic events. you will notice them when you see a yellowish-orange starburst icon on your minimap, or if an NPC has that same icon over their head.

Now... when an event is triggered, sometimes, this event will lead to another event immediately afterwards. that is called an event chain.

when there are several event chains taking place in a small area, you will notice something change on the upper right hand corner of your screen... for example, "the battle for Beetletun" in queensdale. that particular series of events is collectively known as a map meta. there are several in the game, and participation in these events can give you pretty good experience, karma, and rewards. some, like the Temple of Balthazar Meta in the Straits of Devastation, can take up the entire map, and ultimately end up in a huge boss fight against either a champion or a legendary boss.

speaking of which...

the mobs in this game are set as follows: ambient(white) non aggressive(yellow) agressive regular(red) Veteran(gold circle around their face when targeted) elite(silver circle around their face) champion (circle with an X) and Legendary(purple spike-like image around their face), as well as world bosses (these have an image all their own). each mob will take from 1 to several to a Massive amount of players to fight against. if you don't think you can handle it on your own, ask in the map for help or use the LFG system by typing Y.

digressing.

the other form of use of the word "meta" is relating to the build of a character. a build is a combination of a player's gear, skills, and traits as well as a "rotation" or series of skills used in a row.

now, as a new player, I would seriously recommend you do not use the "meta" builds right away. why? i might get heat for this... but when you start out using the "meta" for a class, there is a chance that a player can get tunnel vision and only stick to the "meta" build. what this eventually leads is a lack of use or knowledge of what the class you are playing truly can be capable of, and a lot of skills become unused. as a way of learning your class... try to play around with the various skills and traits that you acquire over time. try different gearsets... try all of the weapons in your class, experience and get used to underwater combat... heck, try everything. as a good scientist friend of mine once said... "unless you examine and test all the variables, the results will always be inconclusive". don't be afraid to use a skill because it isn't "meta". the key is to try to set up skills and traits that work for YOU. what makes YOU comfortable. variate at will, and when something doesn't work in one area, it might work in another. as a thief main, sometimes i have to use all stealth skills and come in and sneak attack. sometimes i have to use my conditions and cc. and sometimes i have to use all power no defense. if i were to play guardian, sometimes i will have to focus on dealing damage and sometimes i will fill the role of healing and supporting my team. with so many variations out there, the possibilities are seemingly endless. so... While i will never discourage someone from trying the meta builds, especially if they are in an organized raid group or working on their pvp... i will absolutely encourage you to experiment and explore. remember the repeated saying here... it is about the journey, not the destination.

also... as this came up tonight while i was mentoring...

there is literally NO best class in this game. despite what people will tell you... every single solitary class in this game is capable of being amazing to play. when i hear someone asking me that question... i ask them "what is your favorite style of play?" from that question alone, you can kind of figure out which class would be stronger for YOU, not what everyone is telling you to play. in fact... play them all. at least once. examine all the variables, yanno? once you find the one class(or two or nine) that you feel the most comfortable playing... consider that your "main" but don't make that your only character. try others. try them all.

above all else... have fun and make sure you are having fun. if your game becomes a job instead of a game... step back a bit... remember what made you come to Guild wars 2, and get back in there!

Blessed be,

Sin of Anubis

 

[X T D.6458]

> @"chopchop.1623" said:

> No support in this game ,none what so ever ,here take my money but dont say nothing ,refund and wont be back .

 

I've played a lot of games and dealt with a lot of support staff. Anet has some of the best, most friendly and helpful support staff that I have ever seen. You may not always get the response or solution you want but they are always reliable and I never had to wait long to hear back from them, sometimes multiple times in a single day.

 

If you want terrible and useless support go to Microsoft, they are absolute garbage.

[X T D.6458]

Also welcome to all the new players, been a fan of the Guild Wars franchise for almost 9 years now and can honestly say that GW 1 and 2 are hands down the best games I have ever played.

 

And a word of advice, Wiki is your friend...

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page

[Tonori.1483]

There are those players who want xp boosts & those who want to take their time & really learn the game.

So? The solution is simplicity itself.

Make XP Boosts _auctionable_.

;)

[Kam.4092]

Don't let the Meta deter you from playing a certain Profession or viable build. Play the game the way you want to.

[Theros.1390]

I guess that all those new players are not coming only from US. So imo it would have been great to share the word on others forums too. ;)

 

Anyway, welcome to all of them o/

 

[Skynet.7201]

Welcome to all the new players. Hope you enjoy the game!

[ReaverKane.7598]

My best bit of advices:

(I've said this to a lot of people this week)

- Boost ahead, don't worry about it, use it to unlock Raptor or whatever, but then create a new character (i advise Warrior or Ranger) and play from 0 to 80. That way you'll truly learn to play.

- People are friendly, ask around and you'll get helped.

- type /wiki followed by whatever you want to learn more about and the game will open the relevant wiki page for you

- Don't worry too much about builds until you're going for ascended gear.

[Rysdude.3824]

Hi there,

And welcome to GW2! The non competitive side of the game is extremely fun! If you do decide to do WvW or PvP, the overpowered profession that has a blind-eye turned to it is Mirage, and its great for new people as it takes no skill, near unbeatable and is very forgiving if you do make a mistake. So if you're interested in giving PvP/WvW, join the Mirage bandwagon today!

[Louro.2810]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> Don't use the level 80 boost, save it for after you leveled your first toon. It'll just confuse you if you do.

 

So true!

By going from Zero (lvl 0) to Hero (lvl 80) for the first time;

Out of 9 characters, picking up one to find whats owe favorite, each of those 9 are totally different from the other!

Suppose we created a Elementalist...play with it until reach lvl 80, by completing as many achievements as possible, getting a good feel of the Elementalist and a good feel of the game play.

With the first character, its always plenty of mistakes to make with it, so many, some are not possible to turn back. So we use it and abuse it.

The more mistakes, the more to learn.

Its like driving the road for the first time with an old car, when we get to know the road and the car, we trash the old car and get a brand new clean turbo one!

When we feel ready, we create a new Elementalist and use the level 80 boost in it, now we can delete the first one after transferring all its inventory to the account bank to recycle some profit from it.

We got to try each one of the 9 characters before waste a level 80 boost with one that we never used to know before ;)

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

> > @"Solidaris.5423" said:

> > > @"Leablo.2651" said:

> > > Any interesting reasons for the influx? Or just marketing doing its job?

> >

> > Bless Online came out yesterday which was hyped pretty much for a looooooong time now.

> > But it had a catastrophic launch which made some youtubers (like Lazy Peon) to say that he does not recommend Bless but people should come to GW2 because they now enjoy it.

>

> The dudes got a cult following, the comments section was loaded with people saying they were coming for the ride; I tried pointing that out in a thread where I suggested ANet make him a partner.

 

You should definitely hit up the forum feedback thread and pass that on. I have not yet tried a long response from my iPhone, but ... it'd be nice if this was fixed before I do. :)

[Dami.5046]

Hello and Welcome to Guildwars, I have been a fan of Tyria since 2005 :)

MY first tip is once they appear to do your dailies, complete 3 and you get 2 gold. As you get the levels. you can also do WvW and SPvP which also has dailies that can be mixed and matched with the PvE ones to get your 3 (although you can do as many as you like!) Don't be scared of WvW and sPvP. As a rule the GW community are quite a friendly bunch ;)

Another tip which will help your leveling too, is too explore the world and get Your 'way points' -These will look like grey 'diamonds' to start and will change colour once you have reached it. It is super helpful if there's an event running and you can get there super quick rather having to run - I even suggest joining in all the events you bang into as they will give you money and items.

At the top of the screen is a 'lions head' among other icons - you can sell things you have collected on your travels anywhere in the open world without having to find a

merchant and freeing precious inventory space. As you get money try to buy bigger bags you won't regret it!

Don't get too bogged down with builds and gear at level 80. You can buy quite cheap exotics (orange) gear on the trading post. This will see you though most things until you decide on a build or start crafting gear.

Above all enjoy yourself!

happy hunting.

 

[Donari.5237]

Side hint on the "everything gives xp" -- just killing mobs is about the slowest method to gain xp there is. It's great to kill them for xp *as part of doing other things* and to seek out mobs that haven't been killed by anyone recently so you get even more bonus xp, but if you grind mobs only for xp you're most likely going to get frustrated and bored. Diversify your efforts!

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Theros.1390" said:

> I guess that all those new players are not coming only from US. So imo it would have been great to share the word on others forums too. ;)

>

> Anyway, welcome to all of them o/

>

 

Rest assured that was my intention from the start. I needed to wait to get my words localized, but that's now done for two or three languages, with the third coming on Monday (due to staff outages today). Posted in German and Spanish, with French on Monday. :+1:

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Kam.4092" said:

> Don't let the Meta deter you from playing a certain Profession or viable build. Play the game the way you want to.

 

Agree, and that applies to the profession you choose, your weapons, your path through the game, your daily activities, and much more. Look no further than me to see an unconventional build: Dual-Bow Ranger. But with that, I'm a very happy player who plays the game with a character chosen not for "The Approved Build" or "The Best Meta Build" but because the character suits me perfectly. <3

[Louro.2810]

i can´t help from sending out this beautiful message as a big welcome for anyone new to the game because despite not being about tips and tricks or better advice in game playing options or styles, its about all of us truly...its the spirit and soul in the entire community of players with a brilliant and healthy approach to it. We can´t forget but celebrate Poz and Bria´s amazing Story and get inspired by it, please take a look:

Another beautiful experience its the Nicole & Tyler's Story:

Welcome, enjoy, have lots and lots of fun <3

[Goettel.4389]

Do what's in front of you: hearts, events, nodes, whatever, instead of running off to 'endgame'.

Don't. Rush. Have fun!

[neven.3785]

Is it a coincidence that Maguuma is locked when theres an influx of new players? I can only imagine the reception they would get on reset night...

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

> @"neven.3785" said:

> Is it a coincidence that Maguuma is locked when theres an influx of new players? I can only imagine the reception they would get on reset night...

 

Yes. HTH, HAND.

[Zalavaaris.5329]

My advice to you new players.... dont mute the music....

[Eekasqueak.7850]

I'll just echo what others are saying about saving the boosts. I leveled up ~3-4 characters to max before using a single boost. Really good to get a grounding in the mechanics over time and learn as you go first.

[Delweyn.1309]

You should forbid access to the "pvp section" of the forum for those new players or they will run away faster than they came. ^^'

[Birdack.6714]

#GW2projectAidAN #WelcomeToGW2

It's almost a goodbye for Queensdale people (for this week at least) ! What do you suggest to be the next stop in Aid.A.N. 's quest to help newcomers?