Guild Wars 2 Catch All

The key being, ..."go back to your main to continue leveling as normal".

Out of nowhere I decided to install this last night. I remember playing a bunch of GW1 Factions and a bit of the following expansion oh 12 years ago now? It was my first and probably best experience with a modern MMO. GW2 came out when my laptop was still crappy and I was poorer. I started thinking about trying Black Desert Online when I remembered this game went F2P and was supposed to still have a vibrant player base.

Fired up a Ranger since that was my class of choice in the first game. As with the original, the graphics in GW2 are getting dated but it’s more than made up for with their excelllent art design.

So the obligatory: is there a GWJ guild I can join question and open invitation to friend me up in game!

What's your account name? I'm Robear.2504, most likely to find me on as Corune these days.

Many of us have joined Zealots of Shiverpeak (ZoS). Requires that your main be on Northern Shiverpeaks (so you can play and communicate with the other Zealots), and that you rep 100% except for WvW or other situations where you might also be in a specialist guild, and that you have TeamSpeak. The guild is the oldest one in the game, having been started by a Dev at the beginning of the original Guild Wars (who is still in charge, if rarely seen lol). It asks that you help out others with quests and such when you can, and is pretty strongly anti-trashtalk and anti-spoiler for new material. There are usually about 10-15 on at any given time, and 4 or more in TS during peak hours.

It's full of wonderful, nerdy, experienced players who are kind, friendly and interesting. I cannot compliment them highly enough for their company and expertise. They are familiar with GWJ, too. Players range from mostly solo to PvP and WvW and Fractal fanatics. Zealotsofshiverpeaks.com. You can find the sign-up material there, just follow the instructions.

Look forward to seeing you there, if you like what you see!

Thanks Robear. My account name is also Maclintok and my only character right now is Caldorhyn.

Looks like I have some progress to make before approaching the guild (actually I have no idea if Northern Shiverpeaks is 5 or 50 hours into the game). I’ll dig into this for the next week or so and see how I like it!

Northern Shiverpeaks is the server. If you start a character there, that's enough, although eventually you'd need to transfer Caldorhyn there.

Remember you won't have seen anything like the full game even leveling one character to 80, so don't judge just based on 20 or 40 levels. Take your time, enjoy things and settle in for the long run.

As an example, there are:

Five races, each with different personal storylines;
9 classes, each with 3 or 4 different Masteries, each with its own different skills and mechanics;
Each race has its own starter areas for serious variety;
Far more content than you can see even leveling four or five characters to 80;
Mini-dungeons (Fractals), Raid dungeons, PvP and WvW;
Major seasonal storylines that can be purchased and played through (but are free when they come out);
9 different crafting disciplines, with 300-500 levels in each;
Several paid expansions to the game that add their own storylines, periodic local and world events, and even new features like gliding and 5 different mounts (each with its own unique abilities);
Hundreds of achievements;
And, yes, jumping puzzles.

And tons more. So in a week, you're just scratching the surface. Stick with it.

I haven't played in some time but I don't think ZoS requires you to be on NSP unless you're an officer. Regardless, they're a great group that let you get involved with all aspects of the game.

There are actually dungeons, and fractals are a bit different, Robear. Fractals are like dungeons that increase in difficulty and add in more challenges the higher level you are. Regular dungeons start at level 30 and have a total of 4 or 5 different routes per dungeon. Fractals have a lot more variety and can be easier or harder than any given dungeon, but they are always starting at level 80. There are something like 20 or 30 individual fractals at a set difficulty between 1-100, and then when you get to higher levels they turn into a thing similar to mythic dungeons in WoW, where maybe enemies get buffs when hit, or reduce your healing by a certain amount. There are a ton of variations and essentially no two fractals are exactly the same in any given time.

Koz wrote:

I haven't played in some time but I don't think ZoS requires you to be on NSP unless you're an officer. Regardless, they're a great group that let you get involved with all aspects of the game.

Actually they require you to represent NSP at all times unless you're doing WvW or PvP.

Robear wrote:

Zealotsofshiverpeaks.com

it's Zealotsofshiverpeak, no 's'.

I'm looking it up, thinking it's finally time to join since my Legendary progress is going to require me to start doing fractals and life is too short for pugs.

Sorry. I'm bad with names.

no worries, the server and region names do have an 's', the typo is theirs.

So it looks like it does Diablo 3 style auto point allocation for base stats? If so that’s disappointing since I remember being able to tinker with those numbers and respeccing at will with GW1.

You can respec at will with GW2 as well; the system has more features and variability now, but is easy to use. Once you hit 80, you have all the regular skills for your class except the Masteries; those will come as part of the post-80 game. And you can change between them to tilt your character towards the synergies you want. The base stats are manipulated through the use of gear sets, as well as food effects and buffs. So you don't directly change the stats and go looking for stuff to fit to them, you use sets to change your stats in ways that are useful. Not necessarily perfect, but at least useful. You can't really screw up a build, but you can often improve it based on your gear.

Like I said earlier, even running one character up to 80 is barely enough to learn the basics.

Gear doesn't mean that much really till end game and only then if you plan on raiding.

Yes, but it can help up your dps and other stats, especially if you're changing roles. What I mean here is that it's easy to put together a functional set, but if you want to optimize your performance, gear has to be considered. As your gear improves, and you set up synergies in skills, your performance improves.

But you can survive without optimizing, as you say, for normal play.

Discovered it’s kind of fun to dual wield sword and dagger as a Ranger. I think in the end I’d like to stick with a longbow but they allow for weapon kit hot swapping beginning at...Level 10?

Great sword was fun to use as well. I suppose I’ll be maining different weapons depending on whether I’m doing PvE or PvP. How is the PvP in this game?

there are 2 main PvP game modes, WvW and sPvP.

WvW is open warfare between 3 servers across several dedicated maps over the course of a week. there are fortifications and siege engines and most of the combat is large scale battles between big groups. you can roam and look for small/individual fights but the availability of those will depend on your server pop and when you play.

sPvP is more like a sport, 2 teams of 5 players fighting over 3 capture points, using standardised equipment. fights are a means to an end(capturing and holding the points), not the primary objective.

Level 10 for weapon hot swap, excepting Elementalists and Engineers of course. Different mechanic for them. You'll maintain a set for each configuration of a class that you like to play (and it could be very different from how someone else plays that config). So you might have a greatsword and sword/torch combo for one setup, but also a staff/hammer one for another setup, on the same character. Lots of flexibility.

speaking of pvp has a new season started yet or in the past month or so?

the current season ends on Monday.

gonna spend a portion of tomorrow trying to grind out 4 more Warrior wins to finish off Year of the Ascension Part II before the season ends.

good! how long is the wait to the next season?

I know ZoS is the favored guild around here, but I've never been able to get past their always rep requirement. It's a holdover from early guild mechanics and hasn't had a rational basis for PVE play for years. I will admit I'm not exactly neutral towards them as it greatly accelerated the functional death of the GWJ guild (it still exists, but almost everyone who still plays joined ZoS). There are plenty of other friendly guilds that don't require you to abandon your other guilds to join them.

ranalin wrote:

good! how long is the wait to the next season?

not announced yet, could be anywhere between 2-5 weeks.

Stengah wrote:

I know ZoS is the favored guild around here, but I've never been able to get past their always rep requirement. It's a holdover from early guild mechanics and hasn't had a rational basis for PVE play for years. I will admit I'm not exactly neutral towards them as it greatly accelerated the functional death of the GWJ guild (it still exists, but almost everyone who still plays joined ZoS). There are plenty of other friendly guilds that don't require you to abandon your other guilds to join them.

You're still in the guild and nothing is abandoned, but what are the odds that the GWJ guild would have the resources that ZoS does EVEN if everyone stayed repping GWJ back when it really mattered? GWJ's history in maintaining their own guild inside MMOs isn't that stellar.

Besides still has a purpose with making public/guild events that much easier to follow.

dp

ranalin wrote:
Stengah wrote:

I know ZoS is the favored guild around here, but I've never been able to get past their always rep requirement. It's a holdover from early guild mechanics and hasn't had a rational basis for PVE play for years. I will admit I'm not exactly neutral towards them as it greatly accelerated the functional death of the GWJ guild (it still exists, but almost everyone who still plays joined ZoS). There are plenty of other friendly guilds that don't require you to abandon your other guilds to join them.

You're still in the guild and nothing is abandoned, but what are the odds that the GWJ guild would have the resources that ZoS does EVEN if everyone stayed repping GWJ back when it really mattered? GWJ's history in maintaining their own guild inside MMOs isn't that stellar.

Besides still has a purpose with making public/guild events that much easier to follow.

I'm not saying people who joined ZoS shouldn't have, or should quit it now. It's not an either-or thing, one can be in 5 different guilds at once, switch which one you're repping on the fly, and see the chat from all 5 at once. The only thing ZoS loses when members rep a different guild is advertisement. While GWJ does have issues keeping any guild going, ZoS was definitely the cause of death in GW2. The leaders all joined ZoS without appointing a replacement.

You don't have to abandon your other guilds to join ZOS. Here is the relevant section of The Rules:

ZOS Rules wrote:

Zealots of Shiverpeak asks that you represent the guild at all times, with exceptions below. We are a community with a rich history, and by joining, you agree to be a part of it and help us continue building strong bonds.
Initiates (new recruits) and Zealots are allowed to remain on their current server. Northern Shiverpeaks will remain our home server and all officers, Mist, and Veterans are required to be on NSP.
We expect members to represent ZoS in all public game modes.
100% rep required in WvW for Mist/Veteran/High/Arch ranks; Initiates/Zealots are encouraged to rep ZoS in WvW but it is not required.
100% rep required in PvE maps (non-instanced).
Do not hide behind “invisible” to not represent.
Here are some of our exceptions to the 100% rep policy:
Use of personal guild banks.
Sanctioned Events in PVE (ex. Triple Trouble Wurm, Orr temple zerg, Tequatl).
Visiting or claiming Guild Halls.
Story missions.
Fractals.
PvP.
Dungeons.
Raids.
Other exceptions may exist (we’re reasonable and friendly people, when in doubt, ask an officer).

I hope that's helpful. This post may explain more of what went on in 2014.

Dude, I was here for it. I know what happened and I don't fault people for leaving. But this rule: "We expect members to represent ZoS in all public game modes" hasn't been necessary since 2015 when HoT changed how guilds work. Exceptions don't mean much since they have to constantly check up on people to make sure they're in a "sanctioned" exception. They don't make people leave old guild but they expect it, and many people do since they're so limited in what they're allowed to do with other guilds.

Stengah wrote:

Dude, I was here for it. I know what happened and I don't fault people for leaving.

GWJ was a ghost town for months before any one of us left for ZoS. When I left I made damned sure a new leader was promoted (Eleima).

You're letting your disdain for their requirement to represent colour your perception of how few GWJers were on GW2 at the time.

It just doesn't fit with what I've seen of the folks in the guild, either. But everyone has their own perceptions.