The adventures of a returning player #1 The deciding of the profession

[8bithamster]

So it happened. WoW burned me out due to stupidity. (Been stuck on brackenspore normal with my guild for 3 months now), and I decided "sod it! time for GW2"

So me and my wife installed, and after remembering our account details we came back.

First task,

reroll? Play my Charr warrior? Start a new char?

Then it hits me, I have a level 20 boost waiting! Why not use that on the class I wanted to play since launch, Ranger.

The human ranger was born, boosted and started to level. In 2 evenings, I got her to 27 with my personal story done until I couldn't anymore. I recovered my sister from the bandits, proven a minister was innocent, and slaughtered several corrupt Seraph in my way.

And how does this story end? With me not being able to wait until I can play again. A feeling I haven't had for years with an MMO. Instead of feeling forced to play, to raid, I actually want to play.

Just a few questions;

1.) The black wings, still available?
2.) How do I get my other darn pets for my Ranger>< I remember shortly after launch I kept tripping over the creatures but now I can't find any.


And I want to thank the community, never seen such a helpfull, social fun community within the game. Just a few examples;

I was working on my daily, and it was the Events in the charr 1-15 area part. Since I hadn't been there yet, I decided to quickly get the waypoint to the dungeon as well. And what happens? Someone starts talking to me:

"Hey, if you need help with the dungeon later when you're 30, feel free to ask me"
and a few others like that.

I decided to check the Shadow Behemoth. I was there alone at first, and after saying in /map that he was up suddenly a lot of players were all around me. Thanking me for telling them about it.

[Anzaman]

1.) The black wings, still available?

They aren't currently available, but might return some day.

Black Feather Wings Backpack Set
Was only available for 24 hours from March 3rd-4th, 2015.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blac...s_Backpack_Set

- - - Updated - - -

2.) How do I get my other darn pets for my Ranger>< I remember shortly after launch I kept tripping over the creatures but now I can't find any.

I haven't played Ranger myself, but I'm currently leveling up my Warrior and I've seen some friendly, "Juvenile", creatures between hostile ones in the wilderness. There are more in some locations and less on some, guess it's just RNG if it spawns as friendly or neutral/hostile.

List of Pet Locations
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_pet_locations

Acquisition, management, and customization
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pet#..._customization

[lawow74]

I decided to check the Shadow Behemoth. I was there alone at first, and after saying in /map that he was up suddenly a lot of players were all around me. Thanking me for telling them about it.

World Bosses are on a fixed schedule now, BTW. I personally use this if I want to see exactly which are when. For now, the quick reference for you is the four starting zone bosses rotate at quarter past and quarter til every two hours(Svanir Shaman at, say, 8:15, Fire Elemental at 8:45, Jungle Wurm at 9:15, Shadow Behemoth at 9:45).

[8bithamster]

@Anzaman, thanks! Will check out those links when home

@Lawow, didn't know. Thanks for the timers. Now to learn which event is in which zone

[Rukh]

@Anzaman, thanks! Will check out those links when home

@Lawow, didn't know. Thanks for the timers. Now to learn which event is in which zone

The easiest way would be the GW2 wiki:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_boss

Links to them all, tells where they are and what mechanics, etc. Very useful!

[lawow74]

A general tip a lot of players don't realize: You can type /wiki whatever and it'll pop up the official game wiki in your web browser, searching for your whatever on it. So anything you're curious about, just do that and with any luck you'll find your answer.

[Kelimbror]

Glad to see you're getting back into things. It really is a remarkable game. While many MMOs come and go from my system, GW2 is always there. As someone who plays a ranger, I just ran into all the pets organically. However, you can refer to the lists of pets to go get them. I find bears are the best for leveling since they tank for you, while pvp you want a wolves/spiders.

In any case, just keep doing whatever you want and have fun. Probably the only MMO where that is recommended advice.

[8bithamster]

Thought I was 27, but I was 25. Ow well!

Logged in, did my daily. And was wondering "whatever happened to Lion's Arch, the asura gates were in a different position than last time" And yea, suddenly you are trying to 100% the place.

Whatever happened there Oo

Well, 27 now with Lion's Arch at 100%, daily done and just general fooling around.
Tried to do the fractal thing, saw I got boosted to 80, so I entered it and got into some Charr thing (breach the gates). Yea, didn't get far xD

[Anzaman]

Whatever happened there Oo

Lion's Arch: Battle for Lion's Arch
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lion%27s_Arch

In 1327 AE, after months of preparation, the arch-villain Scarlet Briar descended on Lion's Arch with all of her deadly forces. The city was razed and the smoldering husk of the proud port city was occupied, and it was weeks before the siege was broken. After days of battle, Scarlet was slain in the skies above the city aboard her airship, the Breachmaker.

Word of Scarlet's demise has spread like wildfire throughout the wards of the city. With renewed vigor, the heroes of Lion's Arch, the Lionguard, and Order forces have driven out the remainder of Scarlet's armies, their morale and ranks shattered. Cheers and celebrations erupted at the refugee camps and nigh across all of Tyria. All the while, the Breachmaker—the enormous airship looming over Sanctum Harbor—continued to drill uncontrollably before it mysteriously exploded a few days after hitting a magical leyline which was Scarlet's target. The resulting blast caused the pieces of the Breachmaker to be flung out across the city - mostly concentrated around the harbor but with debris landing as far out as the Farshore Ward and scarring the landscape. With the pieces being so immensely large, the resultant rebuilding of Lion's Arch is currently taking place around these seemingly immovable chunks of metal.

Battle for Lion's Arch
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bat..._Lion%27s_Arch

Escape from Lion's Arch
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Escape_from_Lion's_Arch

[8bithamster]

and let me guess, there's no more way whatsoever to do that quest anymore?

[Anzaman]

and let me guess, there's no more way whatsoever to do that quest anymore?

It was part of Living Story #1, which sadly can't be played anymore. But apparently they realized that it was an mistake and allows players who missed Living Story #2 to purchase those chapter unlocks.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_season_2

Yeah.. I missed it as well, returned to this game couple days ago.

[lawow74]

Maybe with a financial boost from HoT they can look at going back and giving S1's story a replayability treatment. Though personally I doubt it.

[Edge-]

Maybe with a financial boost from HoT they can look at going back and giving S1's story a replayability treatment. Though personally I doubt it.

I don't think their finances are the problem, seems like they've been doing very well for themselves. I mean, they're the only MMO dev I can think of in the past what...nearly 10 years? That hasn't had major layoffs post-launch. Even the most recent big layoffs that hit NCsoft West and Carbine hard left ArenaNet unscathed, reportedly. That alone should be a very strong indication that they're financially stable in a way that few other MMO developers have been in the time following launch.

Honestly, I don't think they really planned for the content to be permanent in any form when they were designing it, hence the limited (from my memory, I don't remember it too well since I missed much of it) instancing and heavy reliance on changes to the existing world compared to S2 which uses heavy instancing for all storytelling and takes place almost exclusively in new zones.

IMO it's more a design issue than anything else. They could if they wanted, but it wouldn't really make sense and would cause all kinds of problems in the game world.

[Kelimbror]

I think that's likely the reason...the first season was designed with a sense of permanence in the game world whereas S2 added new areas that will continue being relevant (to not segregate players) while the actual story and most achievements are handled via instancing only. There's additionally no financial reason to rehash the first season as the number of people that would pay to play it are likely not worth the cost to develop it.

[rhandric]

I think that's likely the reason...the first season was designed with a sense of permanence in the game world whereas S2 added new areas that will continue being relevant (to not segregate players) while the actual story and most achievements are handled via instancing only. There's additionally no financial reason to rehash the first season as the number of people that would pay to play it are likely not worth the cost to develop it.

Unless, of course, the achievements were re-obtainable

[Arlee]

Honestly, I don't think they really planned for the content to be permanent in any form when they were designing it, hence the limited (from my memory, I don't remember it too well since I missed much of it) instancing and heavy reliance on changes to the existing world compared to S2 which uses heavy instancing for all storytelling and takes place almost exclusively in new zones.

This has been confirmed. They would like to make it so everyone can experience it, but the way it was done doesn't lend itself to the new way living story is done, and then when you consider all the events were designed with the idea you had to do them with large groups that's another issue. So far they don't feel like an of the solutions they have available would really allow them to bring it back in a really good way and they don't want to slapshot it. Plus then there is the whole thing of them being focused on getting the expansion right at the current moment.

[Kelimbror]

Unless, of course, the achievements were re-obtainable

Oh as much as I'd love that I doubt the number of people to fit the crieria:
- weren't players for the first year of the game -or- somehow didn't play S1 even though they were playing
- have an interest to do outdated content simply for vanity rewards
- would pay premium price to do the last

...is very small and wouldn't offset the cost to reimplement the content. Just a guess. I was playing, but didn't really get anything accomplished, but I would not pay money to do it. I would only do it if it was free. Now I could see them offering a discounted price for access to the entire season, but I still don't think it would sell well enough. Additionally, since a lot of it wasn't instanced like I said, they would have to create special instances to accomplish the same stories which would require vast amounts of work.

Since you would be segregated from world players, they would have to retune everything to be soloable like S2 was. It really sounds like a monumental battle when they could just invest in future content and moving forward...especially with an expansion on the horizon. To me it sounds like asking for Blizzard to make Vanilla servers. Same type of audience, same limited scope, same expensive cost to make.

[Kazgrel]

This may be an oversimplified way to look at it, but trying to play living story season 1 now would be akin to playing Azeroth zones now in their pre-Cataclysm form.

Just stating that to help OP make sense of it. I found myself like the OP last year after logging back in after a year or so of not playing.

[8bithamster]

Level 42 reached!

Joined the Order of Whispers, had a drinking contest against pirates, and killed several corrupt guards. It was a good day.

Currently doing a Longbow/Greatsword build, and it's working out just fine. Weirdest part, I have yet to set foot in anything higher than 15-25 areas

My wife just got to 28, she's taking it a lot slower, but also really enjoying the game.

Still have to find a group for dungeons though All I see is "80 and blabla at 5k+ or such. So no groups for a levelling person like myself.


Oh and Huntsman is now at 75 <3 That was a fun thing to do actually. Can't wait to get the mats to continue to 150 (will do that at max)

[lawow74]

If you really want to do the story dungeons at level, start a group. People will join up because many have chars that want to do them and unlock the explorables. IME they won't care if you've never done it, esp. if you say it's your first time up front in the LFG tool.