Completing personal story with a friend

[Batel.9206]

A friend and I are planning on playing through her personal story together (as well as every story from there on out; Season Two, HoT, etc.). We'll both be playing sylvari, and I've already completed parts of my story on that character. Will it mess up story progression for my friend if I join her in her personal story instances? (For that matter, is joining another person in their personal story instances even possible?)

[Danikat.8537]

Yes it's possible to join another person in their story (the maximum group size is 5) and no it won't mess anything up if you're at different points. She will need to start the instances, since it's her story you're doing, and if you ever come to a step which you haven't completed yet you'll have the option to accept credit for it at the end of the instance - which means it will progress your story too.

 

One thing to bear in mind if you do accept credit for completing an instance with her is any choices made will apply to you too. So for example if your character is level 30 and reached the point in the story where you choose an Order and then you do her story, she picks the Vigil and you accept credit that will put you in the Vigil too. That could be good or bad, depending on what you want. Some people like to make all the same choices, others like to do each 'choice step' twice and pick different things so they get to see more versions of the story and some people decide what they want to do each time.

 

It's really up to you how you do it, you just need to bear in mind the effect of it.

[mercury ranique.2170]

You can join eachothers story instances. An instance has a instance starter. This has to be someone who is on that story step. The other people in the party (and in the same map) will then get a dialogue asking if they want to join in. If you join someones instance who is on the same story step as you and it gets finished, you get another dialogue asking you if you want to accept the progression.

 

More info can be found here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Instance

 

[Batel.9206]

Oh, thank you both so much! :D

 

So it has no effect on my story or hers if I choose *not* to accept her story progression for my character?

[Shailyn Slay.7234]

Correct.

 

There is never any effect of (potential) company on the character/person *starting the story instance*, for them the additional people just help.

 

For the people (ie. you) who accompany someone else there is only an effect if:

1) you have the exact same active story step (so for parts of the story this means you need to have made the same choices, but the different choice paths will meet up every now and then. In case you need to talk with some NPCs in the open world its important that you have done that before the instanced story step is started)

AND

2) you accept progress on *your* personal story (thereby accepting any choices made by the instance owner).

[Batel.9206]

Awesome! Thanks so much! :) I've always been a bit fuzzy on how instances work in this game...good to know it's pretty straightforward.

 

My friend has never played the personal story before; I just wanted to make sure nothing would be messed up for her, and it looks like it won't be. Thanks again for answering!

[DragonForHire.3621]

Be advised that there are bugs to watch out for if you accept story progress while helping someone. When my wife and I tried to do the Core personal story together, it skipped several acts of the Level 70 chapter on two separate pairs of characters, with no way for us to go back and figure out what we missed.

[Hannelore.8153]

Also keep in mind that to get the ~full story~ you need to do the story dungeons along the way, which needs more than two people. Well, two highly experienced players can clear them, but if you're both newer to the game you'll need a small party.

 

They are optional, but the Personal Story and the story dungeons converge on the last act.

[Batel.9206]

> @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> Also keep in mind that to get the ~full story~ you need to do the story dungeons along the way, which needs more than two people. Well, two highly experienced players can clear them, but if you're both newer to the game you'll need a small party.

>

> They are optional, but the Personal Story and the story dungeons converge on the last act.

 

Aye, we're aware. :D We're not new to the game, per se; my friend has been playing for several years, but she's just never done the personal story. I've been playing for a year, and I've managed to solo the first three dungeons, so I'm reasonably certain I can help my friend through those, at least...and we'll either find other people for the last few, or try to duo them. I know WoodenPotatoes has several videos where he's solo'd the dungeons, so I'll be using those for reference, as well as trying to solo them myself for fun. Fingers crossed! :D

 

As for me personally, I've already done all of my personal story, LWS2, and I'm closing in on the end of Heart of Thorns, though on a different character than the one I want to play with my friend. I skipped doing the dungeons on my own run through the story, but I got the gist of it through various youtube videos and wiki crawling. (I did find it pretty amusing when, in the last story instance in Arah, Caithe was thanking the player character for reuniting Destiny's Edge and showing them true leadership...my poor sylvari sounded *so confused* when he said, "I don't know what *I've* done..." Unintentionally echoed my feelings. XD)

 

> @"DragonForHire.3621" said:

> Be advised that there are bugs to watch out for if you accept story progress while helping someone. When my wife and I tried to do the Core personal story together, it skipped several acts of the Level 70 chapter on two separate pairs of characters, with no way for us to go back and figure out what we missed.

 

Ooh...good to know. Do you know if this happens when you *don't* accept story progress while helping someone? I would assume not, based on what others have said, but it can't hurt to ask...

[DragonForHire.3621]

> Ooh...good to know. Do you know if this happens when you *don't* accept story progress while helping someone? I would assume not, based on what others have said, but it can't hurt to ask...

 

We have not yet had a chance to try it with a 3rd pair of characters. The issues may have also been related to the fact that we were alternating who was the "primary" character for each instance. Too many variables to be sure of what exactly triggered the issue. Just wanted you to be aware that this was a possibility.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

> @"DragonForHire.3621" said:

> > Ooh...good to know. Do you know if this happens when you *don't* accept story progress while helping someone? I would assume not, based on what others have said, but it can't hurt to ask...

>

> We have not yet had a chance to try it with a 3rd pair of characters. The issues may have also been related to the fact that we were alternating who was the "primary" character for each instance. Too many variables to be sure of what exactly triggered the issue. Just wanted you to be aware that this was a possibility.

 

I've had that same problem, *also* with pairs of alternating characters. This entire segment of story have also been rearranged at least once, if not twice. This might be related.

 

I think as long as the same character is instance owner from the talk with the Pale Tree until finishing the lvl 70 segment, the risk for complications should be much lower.

 

Re: dungeons - me and my partner, neither of us top tier players, managed to duo all Story Mode dungeons on an ele and a ranger. I remember HotW being a bit tough, as was CoE, but we got through all!