I thought I’d try GW2 after years of not playing (last I played was PoE era, bounced off fully before Icebrood saga) and finally managed to get into it!
I used to live and breath this game and while I was not what you’d call “hardcore” player, I knew about everything going on. Now I’m totally in the black which is weird. I try not to get it to me, I just play through the Icebrood saga story now and try my best not to open inventory and achievement tabs etc to not get discouraged. GW2 was always a bit convoluted, but with so much added in the meantime, it’s much.
How do you deal with this? What would be your recommendations for me to “ease into it”? What should I engage after getting my groove back in the story? How to dip my toes slowly into buildcrafting? What new systems should I check out?
Bonus question: would you expect the xpacs to go on sale anytime soon? Next one should be around the corner by now, no?
I was gone for 10+ years (I started with beta) and I just picked it up again a year or so ago by continuing the storyline and rolling a few new characters for their race-/class-specific stories, and it’s been great.
Having a few people to play with on a regular basis makes all the difference. We do PvE for events/specific things (e.g. mounts) and now mostly play WvW because it’s dynamic and fun - and it’s an easy way to grind for legendary gear.
In that time, one mate’s completed his legendary armour and two legendary weapons, another’s not far off completing his armour set, and I’ve nearly completed my second armour piece because I’m the slacker. :)
The DLCs go on sale fairly regularly - usually the “seasons”. Occasionally you’ll see an “all seasons and latest expansion” go on sale, and should probably grab that if you haven’t got them. After that, just buy the missing ones as and when you’re ready to pay for them.
I have all the LS luckily, been logging in to get them. I think the new ones are just tied to the expacs, no?
Friends would be nice but all seem to have left GW2 behind, need to look for an active guild at one point I guess. Though my schedule will be far from regulr in near future for any scheduled group play.
Some still have the WoW heyday raid guild mentality, but there are plenty of large, casual guilds without the expectation of specific days, hours, taxes, “must login at least twice a week”, and such stuff.
Happy to recommend one to you. They have opt in sections in their Discord for PvE, WvW, PvP, etc, etc. And have an “all members welcome” Guild Missions session every Saturday, which is an effective way to meet and catch up with everyone.
And having access to a guild’s hall is great for cheap travel, extra resources, permanent boosts, crafting, etc.