How far into the game will I meet my friends?

[Whisperawr]

I really want to get all my friends into the game with me when it comes out and I want to go through the starting zones and some of the beginning play with them for sure. I was just wondering, if we select different races, then how far into the game will we meet?

For example, in WoW, you'd normally meet around level 10-20 at Orgrimmar if you made a quick run.

[Delias]

If you watch the Yogscast videos of the starter areas, they don't look particularly long. If you were to rush through them it should be relatively quick.
After that I think you can pretty much just teleport to your friend's races city.

[Larynx]

You can meet up with your friends at a minimum of level 2.

For the starting areas, all the cities are connected via Asura gates, so the race shouldn't matter. If you don't want to use the asura gates, then the zones start intermingling around level 15.

For example, the Charr and Norn share a common level 15 area (there are other options for zones, as well)

Asura/Sylvari are near each other and Charr/Norn are near each other. Human are in the middle of everything. By around level 20-30 race should largely be irrelevant in zone progression, assuming the personal stories for each race are similar.

[Heltoray]

nevermind, wrong forum section^^

[Edge-]

It depends. If you more or less ignore your personal story (which you can), you can all get together at level 2 (once you get outta the noobie zone, which takes maybe 10-15 minutes). If you want to do your personal story though, you'll all be going back and forth between your faction specific starting zones/adjacent zones to them which would break up the leveling flow a bit.

[Whisperawr]

If you watch the Yogscast videos of the starter areas, they don't look particularly long. If you were to rush through them it should be relatively quick.
After that I think you can pretty much just teleport to your friend's races city.

Yeah I was just going through his videos now. But him and his friend were always the same race playing together and if I really wanted to play through it with my friends they'd have to be the same race. I was hoping it'd be about the same as WoW so we could meet up after about an hour or a few of gameplay.

---------- Post added 2012-03-11 at 11:51 AM ----------

It depends. If you more or less ignore your personal story (which you can), you can all get together at level 2 (once you get outta the noobie zone, which takes maybe 10-15 minutes). If you want to do your personal story though, you'll all be going back and forth between your faction specific starting zones/adjacent zones to them which would break up the leveling flow a bit.

Hm. Are you expected to do your personal story? How much am I missing if I skip it? It sounds like something I'd like to do, but you said it would break up leveling flow.

[Edge-]

Hm. Are you expected to do your personal story? How much am I missing if I skip it? It sounds like something I'd like to do, but you said it would break up leveling flow.

Not expected at all, but it's a decent chunk of gameplay that would be worth doing. The thing is that you can go back and complete it whenever you want though since you'll automatically be brought down to the appropriate level. So if you want to go back and catch up with your personal story while friends aren't on that's an option.

[Whisperawr]

Not expected at all, but it's a decent chunk of gameplay that would be worth doing. The thing is that you can go back and complete it whenever you want though since you'll automatically be brought down to the appropriate level. So if you want to go back and catch up with your personal story while friends aren't on that's an option.

I think the best thing to do would just be to convince them to play the same race as me the first time trying a profession, or me playing the same race as them. Would you agree?

[Noomz]

I really want to get all my friends into the game with me when it comes out and I want to go through the starting zones and some of the beginning play with them for sure. I was just wondering, if we select different races, then how far into the game will we meet?

For example, in WoW, you'd normally meet around level 10-20 at Orgrimmar if you made a quick run.

You can start questing with friends who have chosen different races right away, they can go to your zone and you can go to theirs.

[Deleted]

See the Yogscast (Charr Warrior and Norn Engineer), pretty much after the tutorial area which is around level 2, 3, 4 ?
One has to travel and somewhat abandon his/her personal story though. Not completely sure on this though.

[thestigmata]

i think you can play with them right off the bat regardless of level

[grandpab]

I was wondering this just a couple weeks ago too.

So far my friend and I both plan on playing Asura, but if the beta changed our minds I was worried about how we might meet up. It sounds like it won't be a problem though. I can always go back and do my personal story, that's no problem for me.

[Squirrelbanes]

I think the best thing to do would just be to convince them to play the same race as me the first time trying a profession, or me playing the same race as them. Would you agree?

You can also help friends with their personal story. They could then help you. You can enter the instance areas etc with them. Not a major roadblock really.

[Malthurius]

You can also help friends with their personal story. They could then help you. You can enter the instance areas etc with them. Not a major roadblock really.

This. You and your friends can take turns doing each other's story if you hang out a lot with them. One day you could do your personal story with your friends, and the next day you can go with your friends into their personal story. I believe the personal story quests cap out to a full party of 5. Personal Story content scales to the numbers of players the same way the rest of the game does.

They designed the game so that you can play with whoever you want regardless of character choice. You can meet up with a friend right after the tutorial area (which takes about 5-15 minutes depending on how well you and the other players there do) and take an Asuran portal from your racial major city straight to any other racial major city to meet your friends, and then from there you can do whatever you want to together; Personal Story, PvP, WvW, Events, Renown, Dungeons, Skill Points, mini-games, ect.

[Leben]

The shortest answer possible:

Level 2


The slightly longer answer:

As soon as youve finished the very brief tutorial you can travel to any other races city and thus, their starter zones. So you can meet up with your friends then, or if theyre higher level, you can group up and be upscaled to their level.

[Snow White]

Oh god don't rush through the game! Your friends will still be there later on but you only have 1 chance to experience the game for the first time. Slow down! Smell the roses!

Just my opinion!

[Delias]

Oh god don't rush through the game! Your friends will still be there later on but you only have 1 chance to experience the game for the first time. Slow down! Smell the roses!

Just my opinion!

Meh, a good majority of people play MMOs specifically to play with friends,
he may not enjoy the friends-less gameplay leading up to meeting with his friends as much as he'll enjoy the friend-filled gameplay a couple levels later.
Plus, rushing through the first hour of the game hardly qualifies as rushing THROUGH it, this isn't a FPS game with a 2hour campaign.

[Squirrelbanes]

Oh god don't rush through the game! Your friends will still be there later on but you only have 1 chance to experience the game for the first time. Slow down! Smell the roses!

Just my opinion!

Totally this
Take the time to enjoy this beautiful game. Smell all the roses! But be careful of apples...

[Delias]

Speaking of rushing through things, I started reading Ghosts of Ascalon a couple days ago and now have about 3 chapters left. I'm quite sad.

Also, lucky for me, the main person I'm going to be playing GW2 with is rolling a charr. My friends seem to be pretty diverse in the races/professions they wish to play (No asura though) but the person I will likely be 'questing' with the most wants to roll a charr engineer.

[Deleted]

Totally this
Take the time to enjoy this beautiful game. Smell all the roses! But be careful of apples...

...and eat all the cookies you can find! *damped evil laughter*