Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, or "Uh, I've been away for a year or more so now what?"

Just saw that there’s a secret hidden mount, once you finish PoF-- a griffon. It flies. Yeah. That gets me excited.

So I’m thinking about playing GW2 again. Still have to buy the expansion, and I have such a backlog… maybe 60% in favor of starting back up. Any deals on PoF that don’t involve grey-market sites?

Well, it’s somewhat hard to actually get the griffon. It requires a lot of things and collections, and items that you have to buy that sum up to around 250 gold. I just started the collections required (you can only start after you’re done with the PoF story) and it’s a lot of work, and it’s expensive, but it’s awesome. ;)

If I’m lucky, I might have mine in a couple months. We’ll see. ;)

Well it isn’t a secret now.

No deals that I’ve seen yet - it is pretty much $26-$30 everywhere (or $46-$50 for the HoT/PoF bundle).

I 100%ed Metrica Province! Up to level… uh, 17 I think (although it says “effective level 13” which I assume is because my equipment sucks).

And yeah, I’m in the guild now, although I doubt there’s much I can do to contribute at this point (I don’t even know what contributing would consist of).

Still not really sure what I’m doing!

No, you’re seeing the “dynamic level adjustment” mechanic of GW2 working. Areas have a “cap” in level; if you go to such an area with a character that has a higher level than the area “cap”, the game will adjust your stats to the area level, “downleveling” your character. In that way, high-level characters can go to low-level areas and still have plenty of fun, with level-appropriate rewards, etc. So you’re fine. ;)

EDIT: just make sure your gear is appropriate to your level. Try not to let it get more than 5 levels lower than your level or you might find yourself lacking in damage or survivability.

Which doesn’t mean your equipment doesn’t suck, though!

-Tom

I love how it’s also a way for the game to not lower too much the XP rewards, and entice you to play those areas still.

Dang, I just love this game. Wandering around is so great, even without a mount.

What happened to the monk class? is there an healing class still, besides the F key?

I saw your name in-game yesterday. On the map. So the map shows locations of guildmates? Pretty cool. Except I couldn’t figure out how to get over there. You were in the mountains, or something.

Just noticed that with @SadleyBradley, and proceeded minutes later to stalk your bald archer’s face!

GW2 tried to move away from the “holy trinity” by making all classes versatile enough. Well, in theory. In practice, some classes are better than others at certain things.

So, as for healing, the strong healers in the game currently are Rangers (with the Druid elite, which is the closest to a dedicated healer GW2 ever had), Guardians, and Elementalists (by using water fields and multiple blast finishers and whatnot). Necromancers (with the Scourge class) could join those, but it’s still a bit early to really know.

Sorry not to have responded. I went away for the weekend and missed your post. Here is the skeleton of the build I’m using. I don’t have all the weapons yet (with viper stats).

The key to this build is staying in evade/mirage cloak as much as possible. Using the heal skill and swapping weapons both give you back 50 endurance. Obv, if you decide to use the signet heal skill, then switch Self Deception to Riddle of Sand.

I rarely get hit. The potential for soloing Champions is definitely there.

So I found the Griffin roost in the last map and they let you borrow one. Initially I never thought I would pursue the Griffin as it requires 250 gold (which I don’t have) and a whole bunch of item collections that look difficult to get.

Well, now I am not so sure, as they are so cool. If anyone is unfamiliar with how they work imagine a glider which has a good jump before starting to glide, along with the great ability to flap your wings every now and then to maintain altitude. With the mastery upgrades it probably gets even better. After having run around all of these maps there is something very satisfying in soaring above them.

At 250 gold, I had almost ruled the Griffin out, but I think I can make some $ doing Living Season 3, so I’ll give it a shot.

So, I’ve gone back to playing my Scourge. I always had the most fun on Necro; and now I’ve finally adjusted to the new gameplay style (no where near mastery, but it’s comfortable now). It’s a very strong elite spec. A little glassier than core necro/Reaper but the damage is incredible. I’ve never seen a skill in GW2 I love more than Epidemic. Ah, Epidemic, my love!

Not sure if it’s still the case (FF14 has monopolized my time lately, yay housing!) but the generic Common/Uncommon/Rare Gear loot bags drop like candy and made me an easy 10 gold in one night’s play around PoF launch. Unless your magic find% is crazy high the math I saw made more sense to sell the bags and take the sure money than hope you get a higher tier drop from one.

Scourge is fantastic for damage and can also be used for support. Necros are much more versatile now, and of all the PoF elites I’ve tried so far, Scourge is easily my favorite.

Not sure if this is the right GW2 thread for a total newb question but here goes: rather than jump to 80 I started at lvl 1 and now and lvl 9. My question is how/when do I get a mount? Some of those flying mounts I see whizzing by look amazing.

I believe you need to be level 80 and do some PoF content. Mounts unlock account wide so I suggest boosting a character to 80 and getting the first mount then returning to your leveling character with the speed boost.

Specifically, the very first Path of Fire mission, if all you want is any mount. You have to do a bit more for some of the specific ones.

The training tab includes Skills and Traits. They can be hard to tell apart, but have different shapes. You unlock them one at a time by spending hero points. They are unlocked in order along multiple tracks that can be completed in any order. You can start training Elite skills and traits once you have completed all the core tracks.

Skills are mostly active and equipped in the skill bar of the UI. Traits are always passive and equipped in your hero panel. There used to be minimum level to equip traits, I’m not sure if that was patched out.

All traits belong to a specific trait line. To equip a trait, first you must choose the trait line. This will equip 3 minor traits (if they are unlocked), and then allow you to choose 3 of 9 possible major traits.

You can choose up to 3 trait lines, so in the end you will have 9 minor traits and 9 (of 27) major traits. An Elite spec is nothing more than one of two slightly overpowered trait lines, with a minor trait that unlocks a new weapon and other abilities. You cannot select both Elite trait lines at the same time.

The passives often interact and can significantly affect game play, so have fun experimenting with them!

You get your first mount by completing the Path of Fire prologue, but you need to be lvl 80 to do that (and with appropriate gear).

Now, the flying mount - the griffon - is an endgame thing for sure. I have all 4 mounts unlocked, but to fully unlock the griffon you need to do a lot of collection achievements and you also need about 250 gold. So yeah, it takes a while to unlock.

I just got to 100 gold. I have another 150 to go before I can unlock the griffon, but I’m looking forward to that moment. ;)