Returning Player - What should I Prioritise?

[Shaft Master.9261]

Hi!

 

I'm a returning player to GW2, I played the game during launch and also played briefly for Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire. Whilst I did hit 80, I never really progressed my characters that far and I feel like there is a lot of content I have yet to do!

 

My question is , as a returning player, what should I prioritise to make the game more **fun**.

 

One of the biggest turn offs for me was when I logged in and saw everyone around me with maxed out characters (or what seemed like maxed out characters) in super flashy gear, whilst I had no idea what was going on nor what I should focus on. It can be quite overwhelming, especially with all the new stuff that has been added to the game. I really want to pick this game up again, make some friends, and start enjoying it.

 

My favourite things to do in games are:

* Story

* Exploration

* Playing with friends

* PvP (to a lesser extent)

* Dungeons

 

I'm thinking about starting from a clean slate with a brand new character and progressing to 80. I really enjoy playing with others, so if there are any resources out there that help players communicate and group up that would be great. It would be awesome if I could level up with someone, but I do find with GW2 there's never really a need to communicate much (hence asking for external resources.)

 

Any help would be great!

[Skotlex.7580]

In your case, I'd say that the first step is to get into a social guild so you can make some friends. Take one of your levelled characters and engage in the map chat of Lion's Arch, Divinity's Reach, or Queensdale, in order to find a "casual, chill, friendly guild" (or adjust wording to what you prefer).

 

Afterwards, it's up to you how you plan your journey. Generally speaking, what I do is: level a character to 80, then plan my character (decide on what build I want, which elites, what gear I'll need) and work on that. If certain gear I want will take time to acquire (eg: diviner's stats), then I either make a medium-term project to acquire them, or I let it go and find something easier (it doesn't get more accessible than getting exotic pieces from the Trading Post). Once I have a character geared up, I go to any crafting station and open the wardrobe, and start browsing skins for the look I want. If I like a particular piece which I don't have, I look up online to see how it's acquired. Depending on difficulty it'll may end up being another medium/long-term goal, or if it's too much of a hassle I leave it aside and find something else to wear.

 

Unlocking the elites will mean delving into the zones of PoF and HoT for the hero points, and if you find the latter pretty hard (it was for many of the casual core players back at release), then I suggest gettinng the mounts from PoF to make navigation and avoiding the enemies of the jungle a lot easier. Raptor's canyon leap and Springer's high jump is all you'll need for this.

 

If exploration is your thing, you may want to hunt achievements, it's one way that will get you to experience pretty much all the game has to offer (just be wary of achievements that require doing things not of your liking, like, perhaps, hard jumping puzzles).

 

Players with all the flashy looks just have been around for a long time and had nothing better to do than hunt for hard-to-acquire skins; however, statwise, all you need to stay competitive is exotic level gear with the correct stats for your build.

 

I think this is enough advise for a while. :P Welcome back.

[Shaft Master.9261]

> @"Skotlex.7580" said:

> In your case, I'd say that the first step is to get into a social guild so you can make some friends. Take one of your levelled characters and engage in the map chat of Lion's Arch, Divinity's Reach, or Queensdale, in order to find a "casual, chill, friendly guild" (or adjust wording to what you prefer).

>

Thanks! This is all super useful. I'll definitely try and join some sort of guild because I think the social interaction is the main thing which will pull me back into the game.

I'm intrigued by what you said about the difficulty of the game with regards to gaining hero points. This is probably far too open ended to answer, but how do you get better (combatwise) at the game? Are there optimal rotations to follow? Enemy patterns to learn? Not spamming all your abilities off CD (which is what I do haha).

 

 

[Kaliwenda.3428]

One way I recommend to meet people in addition to joining a guild is to use the LFG menu to find groups that are running world bosses/metas.

 

These are often groups that run these events daily.

 

I've met a lot of really nice, fun, helpful people by showing up and participating in their events as often as possible.

[Mewcifer.5198]

I agree with Skotlex that achievement hunting sounds right up your alley. I love it. Some achievements are a little grindy (especially living story ones) but there is plenty that take you to places you never even knew existed before.

 

Besides finding a guild to have around to socialize and call for help into when you need it, I suggest at least getting all the mounts if you havn't already. They make exploration a lot of fun.

 

As for getting better at combat. Most of it is knowing what your skills/traits do and wearing gear that compliments the weapon/skills/traits you are using. Like if you are using a shortbow on ranger you probably want gear that increased damage done by conditions and use traits that go with shortbow skills. Optimal rotations are really only something you need if you want to raid and reach maximum DPS. For general gameplay you can be much more lax, just having the proper gear and traits will put you above a lot of other players. After that it's learning about enemies, most enemy attacks that stun or knock you down have telegraphs you can dodge. And don't stand in red AoEs on the ground.

 

If you want to learn how to optimally play a class there is sites for that. Look up snowcrows or metabattle for builds and basic guides. But don't ever feel like you are forced to play meta. The majority of the game is playable on just about any class as long as you aren't using traits for a weapon you aren't using and gear that doesn't match the type of damage you are doing.

 

(Ironically most ranger builds are all about spamming things off cooldown. It is referred to as a "priority based rotation" in which you just use all the useful skills whenever they are open, but if skill A and skill B are both off cooldown you should use skill A first, kind of stuff)

[Vrath.1754]

> @"Shaft Master.9261" said:

> > @"Skotlex.7580" said:

> > In your case, I'd say that the first step is to get into a social guild so you can make some friends. Take one of your levelled characters and engage in the map chat of Lion's Arch, Divinity's Reach, or Queensdale, in order to find a "casual, chill, friendly guild" (or adjust wording to what you prefer).

> >

> Thanks! This is all super useful. I'll definitely try and join some sort of guild because I think the social interaction is the main thing which will pull me back into the game.

> I'm intrigued by what you said about the difficulty of the game with regards to gaining hero points. This is probably far too open ended to answer, but how do you get better (combatwise) at the game? Are there optimal rotations to follow? Enemy patterns to learn? Not spamming all your abilities off CD (which is what I do haha).

>

>

 

Some HP advice as I returned after a long gap as well.

 

I would say for the HoT HPs typically if you ask in map chat when the meta event isnt taking place a few people almost always will help. Just say thanks afterwards and they'll help again I've found.

 

Also open the looking for group in the evening or the weekends the best time and join HP trains. They are fun to run with a bunch of people and mow down. When I returned and was trying to get the elite spec I found it to be super helpful to run with them.

 

For the HP trains it will help you learn the as well since they have 3 layers it can be confusing getting around. Just make sure you unlock gliding first. And it can help to get the Raptor mount first, just do the intro to PoF story on an 80. Its super easy and pretty quick and it helps a lot in map movement in HoT.