Well, “quests.”
There’s one quest – your “personal quest,” the story of your character. Play that until you just can’t stand it anymore (it’s pretty bad).
The rest of the game is events and little hearts that you fill in by completing tasks nearby. They’re functionally quests, and they kind of suck, but you get sweet rewards if you fill in every heart in a map and visit all the vistas and places of interest.
Go from heart to heart, doing events along the way, basically. You’ll fall into the rhythm of it pretty quickly.
Absolutely. I played a couple of characters up to around 30 before I decided to focus on my necromancer, and the only thing I did other than “whatever quest I ran into” was take a trip through Lion’s Arch to a different race’s starting area around level 10, just to explore a bit. Be sure to do plenty of the heart-quests (and whatever events you run across) in the early levels, as if you try to follow the personal story exclusively, it’ll quickly outlevel you.
Also harvest everything–trees, plants, and ore–as you explore a zone. Some areas are more resource rich than others. I forget when you can start crafting, but look at a basic beginner’s guide and figure out what crafting professions you want to pick (something that complements your class) and start crafting as soon as it is feasible. You gain a ton of experience from crafting and you will make useful items that are occasionally better than dropped loot. Even if you are crafting what looks like sub-par equipment initially keep doing it since the experience gain is significant and it will unlock better creations as you progress. I found crafting more straightforward and interesting in GW2 than something like Wildstar.
Daagar
6185
Hmm… if anyone has more details on the unlock requirements, that would be helpful. I don’t have any 80s, but I’d be a touch sad if a lack of 80s preventing unlocking in the future (I don’t care that I have to be 80 at some point to do it - I just don’t want to miss the credit for having logged in or whatever).
Titan
6186
I have a 20 something Necro and it told me I needed to be 80. I have 2 level 80s and played the content with one of them. An engineer no less.
You just need to login to the game during the period when that episode is current, that’s it. You don’t need any 80s to unlock it forever for free.
The message was indicating that you need to be level 80 to PLAY the content, but any character should be able to unlock as long as they login during the time-frame. I logged in with my sub-30 level character and was able to bank the content for later.
-Todd
Titan
6189
Some people were in chat talking about getting the content if you don’t unlock it. They were saying it will cost 200 gems ($2.50 I think) per episode. The next part unlocks on the 15th. Be sure to log in.
Daagar
6190
Thanks, turns out I simply didn’t know what I was looking for but I finally found it sitting there waiting for my 80 :)
I have to admit, the new release schedule is providing just the carrot to get me back into the game. I don’t have a character at 80 yet, but knowing that I can unlock the content just by logging in is providing me with enough incentive. And while I’m there, I do some dailies and gain a level here and there. And I may or may not have spent some gems on a few cosmetic items.
Remember to login today (or any time in the next 2 weeks) to permanently unlock S02E02.
Is that really what they’re calling it, or is that just your description? If that’s ArenaNet’s choice, they’re really embracing the TV model!
-Tom
Excellent!
I’m still in S02E01, but I’m really enjoying it so far. Even the writing. I thought all that fantasy noir stuff in S01 was a bit clunky, but at least it was attempting something different. This time, I really like how they’re tying the usual Ancient Evil Awakened schtick into the concept of fallen zephyrites and a new (?) desert culture. I can say about the Guild Wars living world stuff something I can say about very few videogames and almost no MMOs: I’m interested in finding out where it’s going.
-Tom
They had 4 separate teams working on updates last year, which enabled much quicker content generation but it all felt disjointed. In season 2 now, it’s just one large team crankin’ em out, with one coherent story. That’s the theory anyway.
Reemul
6197
I got an email reminder today to log in for episode 2 which was pretty cool.
Played through episode 2. Combat wasn’t as difficult as the first one, I thought. The last big fight was a pain since keeping someone else’s pets alive isn’t exactly my necromancer’s forte, but it was still easier than that damn bomb-thrower dude in episode one. Story-wise, …
in case people haven’t played it yet
…can’t say I’m surprised to see sister Belinda die. When she showed up, you could see it headed toward either death or an interpersonal clash with Kasmeer. As a fellow necromancer, I really hope Marjory is off someplace plotting to raise Belinda from the dead. Maybe she’ll sell her soul to this new dragon and we’ll have to kill her.
stusser
6199
S02E03 airs today, remember to log in!
Apparently S02E03 is broken…I got through the initial instance (which is a lot of talking) and then headed off to the next point, only to find that you can’t proceed. I guess there’s supposed to be some kind of event that isn’t triggering. Log in to grab the content, but don’t bother playing it until they fix it. Hopefully as soon as tomorrow.
