Guild Wars 2?

Thanks, good to know that the tools are about the best thing available. The development of a character isn’t something I mess with too much; I prefer the slow and steady increase in abilities and equipment, so buying up advancement isn’t my thing.

I have about 13% of Central Tyria left to explore to get 100% map completion, so that’s what I’m working on now before heading back to the HoT or PoF areas. Although, I may have to start hunting the Central Tyria mastery points as I need 8 for my next advancement and only have 2 to spare.

The Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic is the best QoL upgrade in the gem store. Throw it in a shared inventory slot (you should have a couple from owning the expansions, iirc) and you’ll never worry about running out of salvage kits again. Helps out immensely with inventory management when you’re roaming the world or opening up a bunch of treasure bags.

Thanks, I’ll look into the Salvage-o-Matic, too. I’ve a 1000 gems leftover from my crafting tools purchase (since they were on a 25% sale) and was pondering what to do with them.

Best things to buy by far are bank slots and permanent tools (salvage, mining, axe-ing, foraging). The only non-permanent tool in my main is the foraging one, and only because I spent most of the gems I got on bank slots.

I’m going to cast another vote for the Salvageomatic as first quality-of-life improvement. Here is my simple reasoning: if you don’t mine nodes (I don’t) then you will need to salvage loot. But if you do mine nodes, then you will still need to salvage loot. Hence, salvage QOL > mining QOL.

Is there a short explanation of WvW in GW2? It’s a bit confusing to me. I jump in and wander around and it seems like there aren’t that many people in the game. I’m not sure what to do.

When I look at some of the online articles they are so in-depth it’s a bit overwhelming.

Short explanation:

  • You can enter the mists and roam around by yourself, looking for enemies players to kill. Then you will be ganked by a WvW-specced thief who can one-shot you from stealth.

  • You can enter the mists, find the Zerg for your side, and then go on a rampage against an unprotected enemy outpost, taking it easily over from the PvE enemies there. However, the enemy zerg then takes your unprotected outpost. Basically a never-ending, tail-chasing charlie foxtrot.

TL;DR: don’t bother with WvW.

Most all of my exotic gear has come from WvW rewards, and I had a lot of good fights (not PvDoor) earning it. To each his own.

Yeah, that’s what I saw. I found a group by chance and we roamed from outpost to outpost, taking them. It was pointless, though I did get some gear.

So what do players do at level 80? I have two of my five characters at 80. I havae 33 tomes of knowledge and one free bump to level 50 for any character. Just from logging in and playing a bit now and then I will have all five slots at 80 before long. Two of them are at level 40+ and the other is at 32.

I’m not really an achievement grinder. I don’t care about map completion. I’m not that into crafting. I do like PvP stuff because players are more interesting than PvE encounters.

I think I am hitting the wall with this game. Is the PvE content in the expansions better than the stuff in the base game?

Oh dear god yes. AFAIC, GW really doesn’t start until L80. L 1-79 are just there to teach you how to GW.

Related to Defiance overstepping and changing system files: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/8c2j0y/a_technical_analysis_of_the_spyware_arena_used/

I have the base game but at level 80 I don’t see how the PvE is better. Actually, I’m not sure I’ve even been in the level 80 areas. That’s one of the weird things about the game. I never really know where to go other than to follow the personal story quest.

The expansions are meant for characters who are already level 80.

And the first time you enter Verdant Brink with your level 80 character, you will likely die. Quickly. Because it is far more challenging than anything in vanilla GW2. Surviving the rest of the expansion requires learning new tactics, and often this means leveling and using your new elite spec.

When you start Path of Fire, the same thing happens again.

I get that about the expansions, but I’m trying to figure out what interest the game may have for me without getting the expansions?

I may get them, mind you, but since I haven’t leveled all five slots to 80 yet, there’s no rush – though I do wish I had a mount.

If you want a challenge but don’t want to buy the expansions, you can always try Fractals of the Mist. They have graded difficulty levels, so level 1 is not so hard but it gets tougher as you move up the ranks, until you find a satisfying challenge.

Fractals generally require a full party by the way, don’t go in solo.

Is there a good dungeon finder tool in GW2? Does it transport you to the dungeon?

Yes, there is party finder tool within Gw2 for anything you want to do: fractals, dungeons, open world, etc. That said, very few people want to do dungeons these days, most of the people who used to do them have migrated to fractals.

The party finder does not transport you anywhere, you need to port there yourself. I assume you already have waypoints for all the dungeons.

Last thing, have you already explored Orr? That’s the end-game open world PVE zone, and it’s worth a visit if you don’t have the expansions and want to play solo.

I don’t think I have, probably because I got to level 80 just by wandering around doing quests, etc. There doesn’t seem to be much in the game to guide players to different zones.

The personal story will guide you through most of the zones, and it will eventually take you to Orr. But you can find Orr before that, either by exploring a lot on your own or by consulting off-line resources.

Without Expansions (and even with?) Fractals are the PvE end-game. The dungeon concept was abandoned and they’re… doable, but have some issues (at least one bug in Ascalonian Catacombs that has persisted for years now) and the power creep without any rebalancing makes them a breeze for geared groups.

Adding the expansions gives you some additional ways to get ascended gear (slightly better stats than exotic, the top gear tier and required for fractal progression past a certain point – not due to the stat boost but the slots for agony resistance, a gating mechanic in fractals), more “stat combos” for gear and raids.

I can’t speak to PvP because I’ve only dabbled for daily achievements. There’s 5v5 structured PvP and the massive, zerg-ball of WvW. Both have their own reward tracks and enough people playing that you won’t have trouble finding a group.