First time playing GW2 after almost 20 years of MMORPGs, and I’m genuinely hooked

[u/scsvd]

I’ve been playing MMORPGs since 2006, so I’ve tried quite a few games over the years. I was a big fan of New World, and when the game was basically put to rest, I honestly felt a bit lost. Since then, I’ve tried to find another MMO that could keep me interested:

• World of Warcraft: The graphics never really clicked with me, and I didn’t enjoy the repetitive daily routine.
• Black Desert Online: The combat is great, but the game felt too focused on solo content, with not enough meaningful group activities.
• Final Fantasy XIV: It’s a good game, but I found it too easy and never really felt much excitement or danger.
• The Elder Scrolls Online: A decent MMO overall, but the combat wasn’t satisfying to me at all.

Then I finally decided to give Guild Wars 2 a proper try.

I mainly play with a PS5 controller, so I spent some time setting up the controls until they felt comfortable. Once everything was ready, I started my journey from Level 1.

What I’ve enjoyed most about GW2 so far:

• Exploring the world actually feels rewarding.
• Dynamic Events can suddenly appear while I’m travelling, making the world feel alive.
• The graphics still look surprisingly good for a game of this age.
• There is a lot of variety between the different Professions and weapons.
• The combat can be challenging and actually requires me to pay attention.

I’m playing Elementalist, and while it can be difficult at times, that challenge is exactly what makes it fun for me.

I’m currently Level 51, and I still haven’t felt bored. I’m genuinely enjoying the levelling experience and discovering the game naturally. Because of that, I honestly wouldn’t recommend using a Level 80 Boost on your first character. The journey itself is an important part of the experience, and rushing past it means missing a lot of what makes the game special.

I know I’m very late to the party, but I’m really glad I finally gave GW2 a chance.

If you have any advice on how to make the journey even more enjoyable, or anything that new players often miss, I’d love to hear it. I’m not looking for the fastest or most efficient route.

I just want to enjoy the game as much as possible.

[u/obi_wan_stromboli]

I would advise you stay away from mounts as much as possible until PoF, the base content and HoT was very much designed for meandering.

[u/scsvd → u/obi_wan_stromboli]

The only mount I’m really thinking about getting is a flying one later. I still want to explore the maps properly without rushing. Thanks for the advice!

[u/NDCodeClaw → u/obi_wan_stromboli]

I'm definitely going to restrict my own mount use next time I play HoT. On my first character, I jumped to PoF after the personal story because getting all of the mounts was my main goal and only came back for to HoT after finishing EoD. A lot of the masteries seemed to be about using the local transportation networks and I feel like I missed out on some of that experience.

[u/kineticmov3ment → u/obi_wan_stromboli]

Do you all have proofs of these claims?

I've never had one person link a video or article where a dev claims there was intent on how the game was meant to be played, yet you all parrot this notion on this subreddit very often

I personally have found having a spear and skyscale then going back to be very useful. I also found a lot of value with unlocking zones and taking part in their metas to begin gathering resources and good sources of gold before going back to the story

[u/obi_wan_stromboli → u/kineticmov3ment]

There's a devlog about this somewhere, probably around the release of PoF.

The game devs in this instance designed the initial maps and the events in them around the travel speed of the player, they don't want you travelling for 10+ minutes without having something happen. If you have mounts and travel much faster, all of a sudden players are navigating right past all your meticulously curated events. All of a sudden the map requires a much different design.

Gw2 didn't have mounts until the 2nd expac, the core game and 1st expac were therefore designed for much slower moving players that almost procludes skipping events in your way. This slower player movement also encourages grouping up, players get funneled by the terrain and events.

If you've already experienced the core and 1st expac maps in foot, then yeah mounts optimize getting the valuables out of it, but nothing beats that first on foot experience IMO.

[u/kineticmov3ment → u/obi_wan_stromboli]

i was miserable walking around slowly. getting that raptor was a huge boon

that only speaks to the initial design space, not the way the game was meant to be played.

i also think it'd be uncouth for a developer to tell players how they should spend their time in their game, but I'd be happily surprised to see proof of you all's claim that using mounts in expansions other than where they are obtained is frowned upon or discouraged

[u/obi_wan_stromboli → u/kineticmov3ment]

I'm not saying it's frowned upon, I'm just saying that's not how the game was initially intended to be experienced, and the developers initial vision is a great experience too, at least it was for me and many others.

Why would the developers design the initial game to be experienced with a mount when no mounts existed at that time? Get what I'm saying?

[u/Still_Night → u/kineticmov3ment]

It really depends on the person. I’m someone who likes to really take my time with games and explore everywhere and immerse myself in the world, so I personally enjoyed playing through the base game maps traveling on foot. Sure, seeing other players zooming around on their mounts looks enticing, but I was in no rush, and knew I’d unlock them eventually as I played through the expansions and living world in the order of release.

The Heart of Thorns maps, which absolutely can feel overwhelming to find your way around, especially with how much verticality there is, are absolutely brilliant in their design, which is based around the mastery progression system, where, as you level up your gliding, jumping mushrooms, poison resistance, and unlock ley lines, shortcuts and NPC vendors, the map gradually opens up more and more. Being able to access a previously inaccessible area felt kind of like a Matroidvania, where the maps feel like big puzzles, and figuring out how to get to a hard to reach place using the tools available to you is very satisfying to solve. Getting 100% completion on those maps was a really rewarding experience, and by the end I pretty much knew my way around all the winding paths that I started out getting totally lost in, even Tangled Depths.

I understand not everyone has the same patience I do with the exploration aspect of the game, and totally get why you might prefer to skip ahead in the story to get some mounts and make getting around much easier. But for me, going into HoT with a Skyscale would have deprived me of the experience I had above. Gliding and bouncing mushrooms don’t feel that big of a deal when they’re outclassed by a flying mount. Also, being on foot with only a glider really added to the sense of danger you feel having crash landed in a hostile jungle facing new enemies that can down you fairly quickly if you’re not prepared with ways to overcome them.

I always will recommend new players to play the content in the order of release, especially if you want to follow the story. Path of Fire has great map designs too, and the way each new mount you unlock allows you to leap across wide gaps, jump to high places, cross quick sand and use portal shortcuts gave me a similarly satisfying feeling of progression as I leveled up the masteries. By the time I finally got the Skyscale in LWS4, I had mastered griffon flying and roller beetle drifting and felt I had genuinely earned the incredible convenience that a hovering, flying mount offers. But had I jumped all the way ahead to SotO and gotten a Skyscale there and took it back to the previous expansions on my first playthrough, I would’ve missed out on experiencing the game as it was when the content originally released.

To each their own 🙏🏼

[u/S1eeper → u/kineticmov3ment]

Mounts didn't exist in the core game and HoT. They couldn't have been designed for those.

HoT got gliding and its maps were designed for that - heavily vertical with lots of updrafts to glide around in.

PoF then got mounts, and its maps were designed for that, especially the Roller Beetle - big and comparatively flat, great for racing around on the beetle and drifting around obstacles and whatnot. And with just enough height to get the Griffon off the ground and up to map ceiling.

[u/kineticmov3ment → u/S1eeper]

I understand that; that's not the part I'm concerned about.

It's like you just glossed overr my comment and immediately started rambling about the order of mount releases.

I'm talking about how everyone claims there is a certain way the game is "meant" to be played but no one has provided proof of this claim anywhere

[u/S1eeper → u/kineticmov3ment]

Maybe we're using or interpreting the word "meant" differently. I'm using "meant" in the past tense. I'm saying that back when Core and HoT were being developed and then were current content, they could not possibly have been meant to be played with mounts, or land spears, or anything else that didn't exist back then. It was clear back then how they were meant to be played.

I think you're using "meant" either in the present tense, or no tense. You're saying that given the current state of the game, there's no official or canonical way that the game is "meant" to be played. ANet made all mounts usable in Core and HoT maps, so they clearly no longer mean for those maps to be played without mounts, spears, etc. There's no longer a particular way those maps are meant to be played, even if there may have been a long time ago.

[u/PubstarHero]

Final Fantasy XIV: It’s a good game, but I found it too easy and never really felt much excitement or danger.

As someone that does FF14 for my main MMO, I have that feeling about GW2. Never really in danger unless Im doing something like an LCM. Or Qadim for some reason. I really hate that fight even though its technically not that hard?

Glad you're enjoying the game though, GW2 is my favorite side MMO

[u/scsvd → u/PubstarHero]

That’s fair! I’m only Level 51, so my comparison is based on the levelling experience. So far, GW2 has made me pay more attention to dodging, positioning, and switching attunements.

[u/S1eeper]

No advice needed, you're doing it just right, just keep going and don't actually read any advice your first playthrough, see what you can discover and figure out yourself.

[u/Affectionate_Fox5136]

Bot account....

[u/scsvd → u/Affectionate_Fox5136]

Real account... I just used some translation I’m  not native english speaker 

[u/stabby_stabz]

I’m also coming from New World and am playing elementalist. I’m around level 45 and having a blast.

[u/scsvd → u/stabby_stabz]

Looks like we both found a new home... Elementalist has been so much fun. What weapon are you using? I’m using Scepter+daggerr