Welcome to Guild Wars 2! Whether you’re new to the MMO genre or a
veteran of other games, GW2 isn’t quite the same as anything you’ve
tried before. To that end, there are plenty of things all new players
need to know to start off right. While the in-game tutorial will teach
you the most basic mechanics of the game, there is still much that need
more explanation. Now, this guide isn’t going to tell you how to create
the most overpowered character, or to be a PvP master, since those are
apt to shift every patch. What we will cover is the basics of starting
the game and its different modes, as well as a few helpful tips that
will allow new players to start off in the best possible position.
Servers
The first thing any player must do upon logging into Guild Wars 2 is
to select which Server to play on. Also called Worlds or Shards, Servers
determine your team in WvW and the people you most often see in the
world. If you have friends who also play, you will probably want to ask
them which Server they are on so you can join them easily. But if you
find yourself on a different Server from your friends, don’t fret! In
GW2 you can still talk to, party, and play with friends from other
Servers, you just won’t be able to go into WvW with them.
Once you’ve decided on a Server, time to create your character.
Races
First, you must decide what race to play as. There are five races to
choose from in Guild Wars 2. Each race has their own appearance, story
lines, and racial abilities. However, unlike other MMO’s all races can
be all professions and racial abilities are fairly weak and not usable
in PvP. There are no opposing factions to worry about, and all players
are friendly when outside of PvP and WvW, no need to choose a race based
on that. So don’t worry about trying to squeeze out a slight advantage
or choosing the right faction, just play what you like!
Human -
Diverse and robust, the Humans of Tyria have endured much through the
ages. Now unified under the nation of Kryta, Humans are led by their
Queen and pray to their six gods for favors.
Norn
– Great northern warriors, the Norn look much like stout, oversized
Humans but are a faction onto their own. They have a hunting-centric
culture and the ability to shapeshift into various were-animals.
Charr-
An imposing race with feline features, the Charr are fierce combatants.
Their culture is extremely militaristic, relying on strict discipline
and ingenuity to secure their place in Tyria.
Asura -
An entire race of mad scientist midgets, the diminutive Asura have
towering egos and a rodent-like appearance. Obsessed with advancing all
forms of science and magic, they never miss a chance to remind everyone
of their superiority.
Sylvari -
Plants imitating Humans, the Sylvari have an elvish nature and leaves,
bark, and stems for flesh. Their earnest and curious nature is owed to
their recent introduction to the world of Tyria, and they believe it is
their duty to protect it from the Elder Dragons.
Professions
Next, you must choose your character’s profession. Each of the eight
professions or classes in Guild Wars 2 possess their own, unique methods
of attack, as well as the ability to heal themselves and provide aid to
allies. Unlike other MMO’s there are no dedicated tanks or healers
here, so don’t worry about what role will get you in groups and instead
choose based on which profession will fit your play style best.
Warrior -
A versatile weapon master, the Warrior wields blades, guns and
blunt instruments with unmatched proficiency, using them to tear through
battle in a fury and build their adrenaline levels to unleash
terrifying blows. Exemplifies the Knight or Berserker archetype.
Guardian -
With heavy armor and fanatical conviction, the Guardian uses massive
Hammers and Greatswords to smash enemies, unbreakable Shields to defend
themselves, and holy magic and virtues to help allies or trap foes.
Exemplifies the Paladin or Magic Knight archetype.
Thief -
Specializing in stealth and poisons, Thieves rely on traps and tricks
to escape from bad situations, aid allies, or get in position to steal
from and assassinate their opponents with devastating attacks using
Daggers, Swords, or even Pistols. Exemplifies the Assassin or
Rogue archetype .
Engineer -
Possessing the most ingenious machines and potions throughout Tyria,
Engineers use their cunning to modify their Pistols and Rifles with new
tricks, wield a number of gadgets and explosives, and empower themselves
with potent Alchemical concoctions. Exemplifies the Mechanic or
Alchemist archetype.
Ranger -
With the ability to command nature’s most fearsome beasts, the Ranger
also uses Long Bows to attack from afar, Greatswords to face a charging
enemy and nature magic to fortify themselves, their pets, and allies.
Exemplifies the Hunter or Archer archetype.
Elementalist -
Able to harness the immeasurable powers of the elements, Elementalists
use Staves and Daggers enchanted with Fire to devastate their enemies,
Air to zip around the battlefield, Earth to protect themselves and Water
to restore their allies. Exemplifies the Mage or Wizard archetype.
Mesmer -
Bending the fabric of reality itself, Mesmers manipulate minds and
bodies with Staves, Swords and Greatswords to help or harm others, open
portals for allies and create illusionary clones to distract enemies
before shattering them for powerful effects. Exemplifies the Illusion
Mage or Magician archetype.
Necromancer -
Controlling the forces of life and death, Necromancers channel their
power through Staves, Daggers, or Foci to summon horrific creatures of
rotting flesh, curse their enemies, or even drain life away before using
it to fuel their most fearsome spells. Exemplifies the Death Mage or
Lich archetype.
Starting Tips
Once your character is created, you’re ready to go off into the
world. Now, I can’t detail an entire game tutorial for you here, and any
attempt would just pale in comparison to the tutorials the game gives
you as you enter the world. So instead I’ll emphasize
pay attention to the tutorial and tips, and give some extra tips everyone should know but isn’t always covered in-game.
- The very first thing you should do in Guild Wars 2, and any PC game,
is press Esc, go to Options, and carefully peruse every option and key
binding available to you in the game. Adjust the settings to your
liking, this will help you to learn the game and help it customize to
your play style.
- One option that most players recommend disabling is “Double Tap to
Evade” under the Combat/Movement header. While some players enjoy it,
its generally considered to be a nuisance in combat and jumping puzzles
and is better to give Dodge its own unique button.
- Never be afraid to explore. Its a big beautiful world out there, and there’s no rigid quest hubs to tie you down, so go see it!
- Starting at level 2, you can always teleport instantly, for free, to Lion’s Arch, the central city in GW2. Click the PvP icon
in
the top left area of your screen and in the PvP window that appears
click “Go to the Heart of the Mists.” This will take you directly to the
Mists, the PvP hub of GW2. From here, you can click the same button
again to go back to where you were, or continue past a short tutorial to
go to the main hub where a teleportation gate to Lion’s Arch awaits.
Lion’s Arch also possesses gates that will take you to any of the other
cities in the game. Be sure to abuse this.
- You can easily clear bag space at any time. To do so, open you
Inventory window, click on the gear icon in the top right, and select
Deposit All Collectables. This will send all your crafting materials to
your bank, which can be access from any crafting table or NPCs in every
city.
- You can sell on the Trading Post anytime, anywhere. Also called the
auction house, the Trading Post lets you buy and sell from other players
from anywhere. The default shortcut key is ‘O’. Note that you will have
to visit a Trading Post NPC to pick up any items or money you earn
there.
- Buy gathering equipment as quickly as possible. Harvesting Sickles,
Logging Axes, and Mining Picks are available from most NPC merchants and
will allow you to gather valuable crafting material and Experience
from the world around you. Be sure to find a merchant and start
gathering as soon as you can.
- Don’t be afraid of other players. Years of other MMO’s have
taught people to avoid one another in the world, not helping others out
of fear of ‘kill stealing’ or getting attack by hostile players. In GW2
there is no world PvP or ‘kill stealing’, every player attacking an
enemy will get full Experience and their own loot drops. Also anyone can
Revive a dead player by approaching them (default ‘F’), and it gives
you Experience, so never avoid helping someone out!
- Don’t squander money. Again, many other MMO’s give
you exponentially more gold as you level up. Not true in GW2. While you
will make more money as you level, it is not the crazy, exponential
amount most new players expect.You can afford to spend money on what
you’ll need, but its always a good idea to save up as much as you can,
even one gold coin can be quite valuable at max level.
- Learn to dodge. Observe your enemy’s movement carefully, and learn
when and how to dodge their attacks. The quicker you get the hang of
this the better off you’ll be. It may not feel very necessary at first,
but later in the game it is your only hope of staying alive.
- Learn Combos.
These are skills that combine a ground effect (the “field”) with
another skill (the “finisher”) to add special and powerful effects to
skills. They’ll become essential to understand in the late game, and if
you learn about them early, you can perform a lot of neat tricks. Be
sure to check your skill tooltips to see which ones combo!.
- Every time you use a Trait book (needed at levels 11, 40, and 60),
all your character’s Trait’s are reset. You can use this to adjust your
build or try out new ones.
PvP
PvP in Guild Wars 2, also called structured PvP or sPvP, consists of
two teams of 5-8 players each on various maps that feature ‘Conquest’
style game play. Both teams fight to capture 3 nodes, gaining points for
each node held, first team to reach 500 points wins. While all the maps
have these 3 points as the main objectives, each have an additional
mechanic unique to the map to spice things up.
To start, open the PvP window by clicking the PvP icon
along
the top left of your screen, then click the ‘Go to the Heart of the
Mists’ button that appears on the PvP window. This takes you to the
Heart of the Mists, the PvP lobby in GW2. If it’s your first time,
you’ll have to go through or skip a basic tutorial that does a decent
job of drilling the basics of PvP into you. Continue on and you’ll find
yourself in the lobby proper.
Here, everyone is level 80 (the max level), can access all skills and
respec your traits at will. In addition, your gear will be
automatically replaced by special PvP gear. This special gear is equal
in power for all players, but you can customize the stats and bonuses
you receive. Seek out the NPCs to the east and they will supply you with
all the gear and upgrade components you could ever want. Be sure to
check them out.
Getting started in PvP is simple, just go talk to the ‘PvP Browser’
NPC in the west side of the lobby and choose a match to head into. If
you’re feeling lazy, you can just click the Play Now button in the lower
left of the Browser window, but unfortunately that seems to have
a tendency to throw players into matches devoid of other players.
There’s far more to PvP than just this, but you will now be able to get in there and begin learning the intricacies of PvP.
WvW
World Vs. World is one of the most unique and interesting features
available in Guild Wars 2. It is a massive, 3-way war between three
different servers labeled as red, green, and blue teams, represented by
hundreds of players each. Each WvW match continues for a week of
non-stop action before a winner is declared and servers are matched up
again for the next round.
There are a total of four massive battlefields that compose WvW. Three
of these maps serve as home base maps, one as a home for each server
which generally owns the majority, but not the entirety, of their map.
The fourth map, dubbed the Eternal Battlegrounds, serves as the central
map for conflict as each server is given an equal slice of the map to
occupy.
Here, the goal is for players to gather and coordinate to assault the
other teams’ towers, camps, and keeps. Teams earn points every few
minutes for every location they are in control of. These points can give
bonuses to everyone on the entire server and ultimately determine the
winner of the match. Players can pick up a resource known as
Supply in order to build vehicles to lay siege to locations and to upgrade or repair structures that their team owns.
tarting at level 2, any player can enter WvW at nearly any time. All
players will be automatically leveled up to level 80, the max level,
while in WvW. However, all your skills, traits, and gear will remain the
same as they are in PvE. Because of this, higher level players will
still have a significant advantage over lower ones, so some players may
wish to wait until they reach a higher level before taking on WvW.
To enter WvW, simply open up the WvW window by clicking the tower icon
in
the top left area of your screen, or by pressing the default hotkey of
‘B’. Now, Click on the ‘Go to World vs. World’ button button at the top
of the window and select from the drop-down menu which map you would
like to enter.
Upon entering a WvW map, its easy to get confused by all the icons
crowding your map. However, its actually not very complicated once you
understand it. The color of the icon denotes which world currently
possesses that location. As for what each one means…
Resource Camp
– WvW starts here. These small camps generate the Supply and Supply
Caravans that power the rest of the buildings. Resource Camps by
themselves have fairly weak defenses and, if undefended by an opposing
team, can be captured by a small group of about 2-4 players.
Supply Caravan
– These caravans originate from Resource Camps and travel to the other
locations, keeping them supplied with… well, Supply. Without
regular deliveries from caravans, Towers and Keeps won’t last long
against sieges. This is why it is often a good idea for enemies to
target and destroy these caravans. Caravans by themselves are fairly
weak and, if undefended by an opposing team, able to be destroyed by 1-3
players.
Tower -
Towers have a sturdy defensive wall and a small contingent of NPC
defenders. They’re good for serving as bases for small groups of players
looking to head out to further into the battlefield. If looking to
assault one, its generally a good idea to set up a Ram to bust down the
gate. Overall, their defenses are a bit stronger than Resource Camps
and, if undefended by an opposing team, should be able to be captured by
4-7 players.
Keep -
Large bases with two separate sets of walls and a decent contingent of
NPC defenders, Keeps provide an excellent base of operations for large
groups of players. Siege vehicles are absolutely necessary when
assaulting one of these. Has strong defenses and, if undefended by an
opposing team, may be captured by 10-20 players. But don’t expect to
capture these without heavy resistance!
Stonemist Castle
– The pinnacle of WvW, Stonemist Castle is located only in the center
of the Eternal Battlegrounds. It is the largest structure in WvW and
serves as a focal point of conflict. All servers want it, but only one
can own it. Possessing two very sturdy sets of walls and a sizable
contingent of NPC defenders, not to mention a massive defending force
from the opposing team, be sure to bring as many players
and siege vehicles as possible when assaulting this Castle.
And a few other icons worth recognizing right away…
Skirmish -This icon shows up wherever a fight is currently going down. If you’re nearby, you’ll probably want to head over and help out!
Commander
– Commanders are players with this special icon over their heads. These
icons denote them has generally being leaders of other players, so if
you’re looking for something to do, try following one. To join a
Commander’s group, click on their icon on the main and select ‘Join
Squad.’
Of course, there’s far more to WvW and all of Guild Wars 2 then what is
mentioned here. But this should provide you with the basics you need to
know to get out there and start playing effectively. Good luck and get
going!
Source: http://intothemists.com
