Main Forum Container minimized. Expand Tweet Everything you need to know to get you started on Guild Wars 2 5 replies Gralo a Posts: 13 Admins



Table of contents

PAGE 1 (I-III)

I) Intro

II) Basics

II) 1. Character Creation

II) 2. Trait Builder

II) 3: Starting Areas

II) 4: Combat

II) 4A: Evading

II) 4B: Holy Trinity

II) 4C: Skill Bars

II) 4D: Weapons

II) 4E: Combo Fields and Finishers

II) 4F: Experience/ Recources/ Loot

II) 5: Getting around and Death

II) 5A: Movement

II) 5B: Portals and Waypoints

II) 5C: Death and Respawns

II) 5D: Damage to Armor/Weapons

II) 5E: Mounts

II) 6: The Map

II) 7: Gear

III) Leveling

III) 1: Killing Mobs

III) 2: Reviving Allies

III) 3: Heart Quests

III) 4: Dynamic Events

III) 5: Exploring

III) 6: Vistas

III) 7: Jumping Puzzles

III) 8: Harvesting

III) 9: Crafting

III) 10: Personal Story

III) 11: Dungeons

III) 12: Skill Points

PAGE 2 (IV-VI)

IV) Crafting

IV) 1: Resource Gathering

IV) 2: Storage of Crafting Materials

IV) 3: Beginner's guide to Crafting

IV) 4: Intermediate's guide to crafting

IV) 5: Cooking

IV) 6: Farms

V) Races and Home Cities

V) 1: Charr

V) 1A: Charr Race Abilities

V) 1B: Charr Home City

V) 1C: Charr Home Instance

V) 2: Human

V) 2A: Human Race Abilities

V) 2B: Human Home City

V) 2C: Human Home Instance

V) 3: Norn

V) 3A: Norn Race Abilities

V) 3B: Norn Home City

V) 3C: Norn Home Instance

V) 4: Sylvari

V) 4A: Sylvari Race Abilities

V) 4B: Sylvari Home City

V) 4C: Sylvari Home Instance

V) 5: Asura

V) 5A: Asura Race Abilities

V) 5B: Asura Home City

V) 5C:Asura Home Instance

V) 6: The Cultural Armors for all races

VI) Lion's Arch

VI) 1: The Mystic Forge

PAGE 3 (VII-XII)

VII) PvP Basics

VII) 1. Types of PvP

VII) 2. Gear

VII) 3. Glory

VIII) The Heart of the Mists

VIII) 1. Vendors

VIII) 2. Practice Areas

VIII) 3: Mystic Forge of the Mists

VIII) 4. Selecting a Match

IX) Structured PvP

IX) 1. Points

IX) 2. Teams

IX) 3. Battle of Kyhlo

IX) 4. Forest of Niflhel

IX) 5: Legacy of the Foe Fire

IX) 6: The map with the Pirate ship

X) Tournaments

XI) World vs World vs World

XI) 1. The Map

XI) 2. Structures

XI) 3. Siege Weapons

XI) 4. Upgrades

XI) 5. The Weather Machine

XI) 6. Jumping Puzzles/ The Dungeon Below

XII) Professions

XII) 1. Elementalist

XII) 2. Engineer

XII) 3. Guardian

XII) 4. Mezmer

XII) 5. Necromancer

XII) 6. Ranger

XII) 7. Thief

XII) 8. Warrior

Page 4 (XIII-XIV)

XIII) Guilds

XIII) 1. Creating a Guild

XIII) 2. Multiple guilds at once

XIII) 3. Earning your guild Influence

XIII) 4. Spending Guild Influence

XIII) 4A. Architecture

XIII) 4B. Economy

XIII) 4C. Art of War

XIII) 4D. Politics

XIII) 5. Guild Emblem

XIII) 6. Guild Permissions

XIII) 7. Guild WvWvW

XIV) The Economy

XIV) 1. Money

XIV) 1A. Common currency

XIV) 1B. Karma

XIV) 1C. Glory

XIV) 1D. Influence

XIV) 1E. Gems

XIV) 2. The Exchange Rate

XIV) 3. The Trading Post

XIV) 4. The Gem Store

PAGE 5 (XV-XVI)

XV) Dungeons

XV) 1: Story modes and explorable modes

XV) 2: Dungeons and their Levels

XV) 3: Dungeon armors and weapons

XVI) Quick tips to remember while playing

Hey guys, Gralo here, hope you enjoy the guide!Table of contentsII) 1. Character CreationII) 2. Trait BuilderII) 3: Starting AreasII) 4: CombatII) 4A: EvadingII) 4B: Holy TrinityII) 4C: Skill BarsII) 4D: WeaponsII) 4E: Combo Fields and FinishersII) 4F: Experience/ Recources/ LootII) 5: Getting around and DeathII) 5A: MovementII) 5B: Portals and WaypointsII) 5C: Death and RespawnsII) 5D: Damage to Armor/WeaponsII) 5E: MountsII) 6: The MapII) 7: GearIII) 1: Killing MobsIII) 2: Reviving AlliesIII) 3: Heart QuestsIII) 4: Dynamic EventsIII) 5: ExploringIII) 6: VistasIII) 7: Jumping PuzzlesIII) 8: HarvestingIII) 9: CraftingIII) 10: Personal StoryIII) 11: DungeonsIII) 12: Skill PointsIV) 1: Resource GatheringIV) 2: Storage of Crafting MaterialsIV) 3: Beginner's guide to CraftingIV) 4: Intermediate's guide to craftingIV) 5: CookingIV) 6: FarmsV) 1: CharrV) 1A: Charr Race AbilitiesV) 1B: Charr Home CityV) 1C: Charr Home InstanceV) 2: HumanV) 2A: Human Race AbilitiesV) 2B: Human Home CityV) 2C: Human Home InstanceV) 3: NornV) 3A: Norn Race AbilitiesV) 3B: Norn Home CityV) 3C: Norn Home InstanceV) 4: SylvariV) 4A: Sylvari Race AbilitiesV) 4B: Sylvari Home CityV) 4C: Sylvari Home InstanceV) 5: AsuraV) 5A: Asura Race AbilitiesV) 5B: Asura Home CityV) 5C:Asura Home InstanceV) 6: The Cultural Armors for all racesVI) 1: The Mystic ForgeVII) 1. Types of PvPVII) 2. GearVII) 3. GloryVIII) 1. VendorsVIII) 2. Practice AreasVIII) 3: Mystic Forge of the MistsVIII) 4. Selecting a MatchIX) 1. PointsIX) 2. TeamsIX) 3. Battle of KyhloIX) 4. Forest of NiflhelIX) 5: Legacy of the Foe FireIX) 6: The map with the Pirate shipXI) 1. The MapXI) 2. StructuresXI) 3. Siege WeaponsXI) 4. UpgradesXI) 5. The Weather MachineXI) 6. Jumping Puzzles/ The Dungeon BelowXII) 1. ElementalistXII) 2. EngineerXII) 3. GuardianXII) 4. MezmerXII) 5. NecromancerXII) 6. RangerXII) 7. ThiefXII) 8. WarriorXIII) 1. Creating a GuildXIII) 2. Multiple guilds at onceXIII) 3. Earning your guild InfluenceXIII) 4. Spending Guild InfluenceXIII) 4A. ArchitectureXIII) 4B. EconomyXIII) 4C. Art of WarXIII) 4D. PoliticsXIII) 5. Guild EmblemXIII) 6. Guild PermissionsXIII) 7. Guild WvWvWXIV) 1. MoneyXIV) 1A. Common currencyXIV) 1B. KarmaXIV) 1C. GloryXIV) 1D. InfluenceXIV) 1E. GemsXIV) 2. The Exchange RateXIV) 3. The Trading PostXIV) 4. The Gem StoreXV) 1: Story modes and explorable modesXV) 2: Dungeons and their LevelsXV) 3: Dungeon armors and weapons Posted Jul 1, 12 · OP · Last edited Aug 10, 12 Gralo a Posts: 13 Admins I. Intro:

To start Guild Wars 2 is a sequel to Guild wars, which came out 7 years ago. The setting of the game is 250 years after the closing events of the original Guild Wars, The Charr/Human war is over, with the Charr being victorious. There is now a treaty in place between the two races. Dwarves has become extinct due to sacrificing their race to hold back an elder dragon. Speaking of Elder Dragons, they have awoken from their Slumbers and have started to wreak havok upon the world. They drove the Norn south from their homes, scarred the lands with crystals that corrupt the land to the east, Risen entire contenants from the bottom of the sea, etc. All this is what brings the races together in a united conflict to drive the Dragons back and kill them. There is alot more to the lore so if you are interested in learning more go to this youtube page, this guys goes indepth into tons of Guild Wars Lore.



Most important thing to remember in this game is that this game IS NOT WoW or SWTOR, or LOTRO, or any MMO you have played. So if you go in expecting to play it the same way you did those games, you are going to have a bad time. Be open to the play style, yes there is a steep learning curve, and it takes some getting used to, but when you got the play style down you will enjoy it as much as I have.



II) Basics:

To start off there are no restrictions when it comes to race, gender, class, or professions. Meaning you will not be divided by factions (imperial vs Republic, Horde vs Alliance), everyone is on the same side in their fight against the main enemies (the Elder Dragons, which are basically Gods). Secondly when it comes to races there are no restrictions either, while in SWTOR you could not be a Chiss Jedi unless you unlocked it in Legacy, in Guild wars 2 you mix any race with any Profession.



II) 1. Character Creation:

When you first start making your character you can choose from any of 5 races [Human, Norn (tall humans, basically Vikings), Sylvari (Plant elves more or less), Asura (Tecnologically advanced Little Elves), and Charr (think Weretigers/lions with horns).



Once you chose a race you then choose a gender (male/female) and then progress to the Profession choices. I will go into profession choices later, for now lets go into choosing your story. While in Character creation, you will be faced with several choices, each different for your profession/race/and sex. Each of these decisions will craft your own personal story line that you will play through the game. Unlike in SWTOR where all Sith Warriors have the same story and the only difference is whether you chose light or dark, everyone will have a different story line with decisions to make within those stories. So every character's story is unique. Here is a video example of one character creation:



II) 2. Trait Builder:

Here is a link to the best trait builder on the internet, it is russian so simply click on the english translation button above the builder "En"



Trait builder



II) 3. Starting Areas:

Each race has a separate starting area, just outside their main city, each area is unique however, unlike Korriban and Hutta, players can choose to go to whatever story area you like. So if I made a Charr and a buddy made a Norn, its just a quick portal jump or two to the Norn area and we can run all of the Missions in the Norn area with no issue whatsoever. Individual Story missions do however only take place in the race's home town, so you will have to travel back and do those. The only restriction is that you must complete the tutorial mission in each area before advancing, this takes a total of 5 minutes so not a huge set back if you want to group up with friends once you start.



II) 4. Combat:

Combat in Guild Wars 2 is much more demanding than in any MMO I have ever played. Why you ask? well in most mmos combat is simply standing still or kiting while mashing abilities to hurt the enemy. This changes in Guild wars 2 simply due to 2 elements; Evading, and the Removal of the holy trinity.



II) 4A. Evading:

Everyone can evade, all you need to do is double tap one direction or hit a bound key to evade an enemy's attack. Evade if used properly will negate any incoming attack provided you are able to get out of the way. In guild wars 2 if you want to be the best you should never stop moving.



II) 4B. No more Trinity:

The holy trinity of MMOs is the classic Tank, Healer, DPS team make up. In past MMOs this was completely necessary in order to have a successful run at anything. Arenanet has decided that this is crap and they threw it out completely. Everyone can be their own healer, tank, and dps. Wait what? Every single profession has the ability to heal themselves for tons of health. The heal slot is slot 6 (see below). This heal is a self heal, Healing others is usually included in some heals or various abilities where small amounts of health are given to allies close by, but as far as a dedicated healer goes, they no longer exist. Tanking in the conventional sense in this game is gone too, through evasion the need for someone to stand still and take all the aggro has been eliminated. Each profession has some form of a defensive ability where they can sit and take damage if they need to (sheilds, Death shroud, etc.), but it is far wiser to avoid the damage than take it at all. Well what about DPS in the conventional sense? well these are gone too, while yes there are still glass cannon builds the inherant "everyone who is DPS has shit everything else" is gone too. So all of this combined means that the Holy trinity team wise is gone, and that every player has the capacity to be their own holy trinity, if you will.



So, in the formation of groups for dungeons, dynamic events, whatever is now extremely quick, all that you need to do is find someone of the appropriate level and head on in, thats right now more shouting needlessly in the chat channel "LFM HEALER for blah blah blah"



II) 4C. Skill bars:

Evading is great i know, but what about the other aspects of combat, well thats simple. When you equip a new weapon type, there will only be 1 move available for that weapon. Unlocking other abilities is super easy, all you have to do is attack and kill things with that weapon, and in no time you will have all the move available for that weapon type forever. No additional level required for weapon moves.

In this image you can see what I'm talking about, the grayed images are the ones not yet unlocked, while the colored ones are available for use.

Click

As you may also see in the Image you have locked skills for 7,8,9, and 0. These skills require level ups to unlock and are unlocked at levels (unsure about the exact level) 10, 15, 20, and 30. The level 30 skill is your "Elite Skill" and is the most powerful of them, usually resulting in a form change or super special attack depending on your race and profession.

Skill 6 you automatically have.



II) 4D. Weapons:

Weapons are pretty simple in this game, each profession has a different weapons available and restricted to that profession, Warriors have the most variety of weapon choices, however just because they can use more weapons doesn't mean they have an advantage over anyone else. Each weapon has a different set of skill (see above) available to them depending on the profession, meaning while a necromancer and a warrior can both use axes, their animations and abilities will be completely different. Here is a basic pic of every Weapon type available.



Spears and Trident(not shown) can only be used in underwater combat.



II) 4E. Combo Fields and Finishers

Combo Fields

This aspect of the combat system which in my opinion I discovered far too late into the Betas, completely changes how you fight in both pve and pvp. Combo Fields are persisting areas of effect that allow allies to utilize in combat. These combo fields are features of certain skills that are usually either targeted attacks (you choose where it is placed) or on player aoes (spawns on your position. The combo fields vary between professions and weapon choices.

Combo Finishers

Combo Finishers are moves that utilize the combo fields in order to gain additional effects in combat. They come in different types: Blast (an immediate area AOE attack), Leap (an attack that causes the character to leap or charge), Projectile (any attack that shots or throws something), Whirl (the character spins around attacking in the immediate area).These finishers are marked in the attack description under "Combo Finisher". To use a combo finisher on a combo field the character must begin his attack and the attack must pass through the combo field somehow. Passing through the field can be done by standing in the area of effect the combo field presents or by leaping/charging, or shooting through the field at an enemy either in the field or outside but still in line with the field.

Here is a list of the Combo fields and the different effects they have when used with different Finishers



Combo Field__________Blast Finisher________Leaping Finisher_______Projectile Finisher____Whirling Finisher

Dark________________Area Blindness_________Blindness____________Life Steal____________Leeching Bolts

Ethereal___________Area Chaos Armor________Chaos Armor__________Confusion___________Confusing Bolts

Fire_________________Area Might (x3)_________Fire Armor____________Burning_____________Burning Bolts

Ice________________Area Frost Armor_________Frost Armor___________Chilled______________Chilling Bolts

Light_______________Area Retaliation_________Retaliation_________Remove Condition________Cleansing Bolts

Lightning___________Area Swiftness__________Dazing Strike__________Vulnerability__________Brutal Bolts

Poison_____________Area Weakness_________Weakness____________Poison______________Poison Bolts

Smoke_____________Area Stealth____________Stealth_______________Blindness___________Blinding Bolts

Water______________Area Healing___________Healing_______________Regeneration________Healing Bolts



II) 4F. Experience, resources, and Loot: NO MORE ROLLING OR NINJA LOOTS!!

Unlike every other MMO there are 0 player locks on enemy mobs, resources, chests, or loot. YAY!!! But wait, what so how does that work. It means if you attack an enemy you get credit for it, which means that lets say two people are trying to kill the same mobs but are on two different teams, they no longer have to stick to different areas or race for kills, they can work together and kill everything each recieving loot and experience for every enemy they each do damage to. So player 1 kills an enemy and player 2 does one hit of damage to it, they both get the same experience for the kill and each get their own individualized loot. Individualized loot simply means that you get your own things of loot, not necessarily tailored to your character. This eliminates need/greed rolling completely. You will never see your loot be taken away from you after a boss, kill. what drops is what you get. What drops is not always the same for every character tho, meaning I may get a sword and a helmet and you get a sword and crafting supplies. Crafting resources are the same, when a player gathers them they only become unavailable to harvest again for that one character. meaning X amount of people can all harvest the same resources from the same node/plant/enemy.



Well that about wraps it up for basic combat, any questions please ask I will answer to the best of my ability.



II) 5. Movement/portals/respawns/Damage/ mounts

This part will cover how you will get around in the world, pretty simple stuff



II) 5A. Movement:

basic WASD system or click left and right mouse simultaneously move. You can always rebind them. I prefer QWES and holding right mouse to turn rapidly, but to each his/her own.



II) 5B. Portals and Waypoints:

Portals are the the teleporters to the 6 main cities, They can be found on your maps as purple swirly symbols. The fastest way to get to each city is through the Race Neutral City known as Lion's arch. While some cities have only 1 or two portals, Lion's arch has them all. So if you need to get somewhere quick head to lion's arch, the use of Portals is completely free. Waypoints are small teleport beacons that need to be discovered to be unlocked for each individual character. The Waypoints allow characters to rapidly travel to areas already discovered for a price. The price changes on how far away the waypoint is to the character's current position. if its in the same area its usually only 9 copper. If lets say you want to travel from the Charr area to the human area it should be only 33-40 copper. Overall pretty cheap. Wayoints aslo act as spawn points for when your character dies.



II) 5C. Death and Respawns:

When a character is reduced to 0 health they enter what can be referred to as a "Fight to survive" or "last stand" for those who play COD, where the character is on the ground and fighting for their life.

Click

As you can see you are limited to 4 moves, each changing depending on your profession. The above image is for what i believe to be a thief, their abilites is 1) attack, 2) attack 3) special move (they go invis and can move for a short time before re-entering "fight to survive" and 4) call for help (this is the same for all characters they begin to heal themselves slowly and call for aid from allies.)

The red bar above the skills is your final health, when that runs out, you are dead, your allies can quickly revive you by hitting "F" near your downed self. If you are able to self heal enough to fill the bar or you kill an enemy whilst downed you will rally and come back to life. When you are dead however, allies take much longer to revive you, or you can respawn at a waypoint for a small fee.



II) 5D. Damage to Armor/weapons:

When you die your armor/weapons will take a small amount of damage. Over time these weapons will recive a damaged Icon, this icon simply notifies you that the item is close to breaking. While damage the item receives no reduction in stats. The reduction only comes from breaking, which occurs when every piece of gear is damaged, and will happen one piece at a time. The cost to repair is minimal at first but increases as your gear increases. This is a basic money sink in the game and doesn't hurt your wallet too much.



II) 5E. Mounts:

Currently the only "mount" in game is something called an "Airship" these are basically zeppelins and I am unsure of their use, they may be featured in traveling to places lacking portals, but in an interview it was mentioned they would play some role in missions/events/ or Dungeons. From this i can imagine that there will be a flying boss that will need to be killed while you and your party is aboard an airship. Mounts in the conventional sense are rendered unnecessary due to the presence of portals and the fact that there are so many waypoints in each zone.



II) 6. The Map:

The current Map for guild wars 2 only features the areas in the Beta weekends, The map is going to be larger with several more areas upon release.

The map contains several different Icons:

Heart = Quest Giver

White and Orange Box= Point of interest

Blue and Brown diamond = Waypoint

Purple Swirl= Portal

Blue military arrow thing= Skill Point

Double Doors = Dungeon

Here is a Link to an interactive map made by players detailing the current World (beta weekend)

http://gw2cartographers.com/



Here is a link to another interactive map made by players which details where to find Crafting Resource nodes in game

http://bteamgaming.com/gw2craftmap/



II) 7. Gear:

Gear ranking in GW2 is pretty much the same as every othe r MMO, but with some minor alterations

Gray= junk

White = common

Blue= fine

Green = Masterwork

Yellow= Rare

Orange = Exotic

Red= legendary



So greens are now better than blues and reds have replaced purples



Legendaries, stat wise are the exact same as exotics. They are rarer due to their unique appearances and effects they have on the characters, like a bow that shoots rainbows, or a hammer that turns you into a liquid metal version of yourself.



Gear of the same level but different qualities (green vs orange) will have different stats, orange being the better. PvE gear cannot be used in PvP and vice versa (WvWvW uses PvE gear, but it has a different system than PvP see below).





III. Leveling

In guild wars 2 leveling is made easy and the opportunities to level are everywhere, so there is no reason to ever be under level when you finish an area of the map. If you choose to do all of the leveling opportunities you will be far over level when you leave an area. Now here is the awesome part... Unlike in most MMOs where once you level up past an area's max level the only reason to return to an area is to waste your time, In GW2 they made it so when a higher level toon goes to a low level area their level is reduced to that area's level. The level doesn't remove any skills or abilities, it only takes you down to a level where you would be an aid but not a juggernaut destroying everything in your path. So why go to a lower area? well the loot that drops from enemies is scaled to your level! that means if your 22 and kill a level 5 mob you get... level 22 gear. Plus its nice to help out others.

Here is a video depicting everything I'm about to type below... more or less

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g36woC3LJ8Y&feature=g-user-u



III) 1. Killing Mobs:

Killing mobs for experience is pretty much the same as in any MMO, Killing stronger mobs = more xp than killing weaker mobs. Just do damage to a mob and when it dies you will get experience.



III) 2. Reviving Allies:

Reviving a fallen ally in the world, whether they be an NPC or Player character will grant you XP, you get more xp for reviving than you would if you were to kill a mob. So for that extra boost of xp, help up your fallen allies.



III) 3. Heart Quests:

Guild Wars 2 has thrown out conventional questing and has instead implemented things called heart quests, and dynamic events (see below). Heart quests are more or less your standard quest. When you enter a new area a quest will appear on the right hand side of your screen, that is right people there is no need to talk to anyone to get quests. If you decide to stick around and complete the quest you will get xp, if you decide to leave, once you get out of the area the quest will go away. This means you won't accumulate tons and tons of quests in your quest log as you run around.

Heart quests can range from collection, escort, killing, and disarming style of quests. each area has individual quests. For collecting style quests you will need to talk to someone but for all others once the quest is finished, the reward is automatically sent to your in game mail, which is accessible from anywhere. simply click on your mail tab and accept the reward. Pretty simple stuff



III) 4. Dynamic Events:

Dynamic Events is the big ticket fun stuff here, these events are not listed on the world map and can only be picked up if you happen to be in the area. These dynamic events are the most fun. They automatically scale to the amount of players participating in the event. example: 1 person is in an event area and doing the event... he will be able to finish the event by himself. if more people come then more enemies will spawn, and enemy mobs will become harder. These offer the most XP and the most fun for the players. Dynamic events take place whether or not players are there, so they are always happening and the results have temporary changes to the game's environment.



So lets break this down... Each event has a pass or fail result. A pass result is gained when the players complete the event successfully (this definition ranges from the types of different events). A fail result is gained when the players are unable to complete the challenge successfully. A failed event will remain a failed event until players are able to return and fully complete the event with a passing result. So lets say a town is being laid siege to by Ice Golems, in a win scenario the golems are defeated and the town is saved. while in a loss scenario the Ice Golems will take over the town, cause damage to the town and kill all the inhabitants. They will remain in the town until players come and force the Ice Golems out.



After a both a win and loss of a dynamic event players will receive money, xp, and Karma (another form of currency). Wins will recieve much more of those rewards so winning is benificial. If you leave the event early you will still get xp but you may not get the same amount as others who stayed the whole time.



Your rewards are determined by participation in the event. you are rewarded Bronze, Silver and Gold medals. gold gives the most xp/money/karma, and bronze gives the least. Pretty simple, just go for gold.



Singular Dynamic events are cool and all, but the real fun comes from Meta events, or Dynamic event Chains. Progression into these events hinges on the players abilities to get a win. If you win one dynamic event you will proceed onto the next dynamic event after a few seconds. You are rewarded for each stage in the meta event so there is no requirement to go through the entire event if you so choose.



At the end of Meta events there is normally a Large boss to kill which gives greater rewards and sometimes drops a chest giving better loot.





III) 5. Exploring:

So why explore? Why go to other zones when i can just keep going?

In so many games exploring is more or less pointless, there is no extra stuff just more map. GW2 rewards those players who choose to explore their world. If you reference back to the map you will see several icons all over each area. if you get all of those icons in an explorable area you will be rewarded with xp, money, and loot. A chest will appear and all that is needed to click on the chest and you will receive the stuff.

Example 1: If you explore a level 15-25 area fully you will receive 52 silver, thousands of xp, and green loot. (green loot is better than blue and white loot, but not as good as orange, red)

Example 2: if you explore a player city you will receive experience, Transmutation Stones(allows you to put the appearance of one item on another, keeping the appearance of one and the stats of the other) and some money.



III) 6. Vistas:

Vistas are scattered around cities and the wolrd, they are mini jumping puzzles(see below) that at the end of each vista is a short cutscene that shows the surrounding area. These are enjoyable to do and give you xp and needed practice jumping for the more intense jumping puzzles.



III) 7. Jumping Puzzles:

Jumping puzzles were initially added to the game as a feature to do on the side, but with their huge popularity have expanded into the game fully. There is one jumping puzzle in every area and at the end of each jumping puzzle is a chest that is sometimes guarded by a boss. Along with the loot you also get experience and an achievement. The chests do respawn so check back every so often and get some loot that is at to your level. Below is a video showing one example of such a jumping puzzle (disclaimer this guy is doing a speed run, you may fall alot during these)



III) 8. Resource Gathering:

Not a crafter, or the material is something you don't use? You still should gather every resource you come across. For each node of materials you gather you gain several times the amount of xp than you would by killing a single mob. There are no gathering skills in the game, so there is nothing you need to train before gathering, all you need are the the gathering tools, Axes (trees), Sickles (plants/food), Pickaxe (minerals/metals). These tools can be equipped to your character into their own slots, so they do not take up any space in your inventory. I will go more into gathering in the next post. For cloth and leather mats, you will need to salvage them from armor or pick them up from bags and scraps that npcs drop.



III) 9. Crafting:

For each skill profession in crafting (there are 8) there are levels 1-400. If you max out one skill to 400 you will have gained 10 player levels. So 8 skills, 10 levels each... you can level up to 80 (cap) from only crafting. so you can make a character that is only a crafter and all you have to do is send your mats to him. I will go more into crafting on my next post.



III) 10. Personal Story:

Your personal story is determined by the choices you made while creating your character. From there on it is shaped by the choices you made while doing the missions. There is one personal story mission for every 2-4 levels. Each mission gives you good loot and amazing XP. Seriously do these quests, they are alot of fun and give tons of xp.



III) 11. Dungeons:

Dungeons are 5 man raids first available at level 30. These dungeons gives tons of xp. Do them. I will expand on dungeons in a later post. At the moment I have not run a dungeon, only seen a video.



III) 11. Skill Points:

These don't give alot of experience but each skill point goes into your skill point count which can then be spent on skills for when you unlock skill bar slots 7,8,9, and 0. As well as those, if you collect 100 skill points you can use them in the mystic forge to get a Legendary (best in game) piece of Gear.



INDEX To start Guild Wars 2 is a sequel to Guild wars, which came out 7 years ago. The setting of the game is 250 years after the closing events of the original Guild Wars, The Charr/Human war is over, with the Charr being victorious. There is now a treaty in place between the two races. Dwarves has become extinct due to sacrificing their race to hold back an elder dragon. Speaking of Elder Dragons, they have awoken from their Slumbers and have started to wreak havok upon the world. They drove the Norn south from their homes, scarred the lands with crystals that corrupt the land to the east, Risen entire contenants from the bottom of the sea, etc. All this is what brings the races together in a united conflict to drive the Dragons back and kill them. There is alot more to the lore so if you are interested in learning more go to this youtube page, this guys goes indepth into tons of Guild Wars Lore. http://www.youtube.com/user/WoodenPotatoes?feature=g-user-u The game is being produced by arenanet and NCsoft, both companies have a strong history with MMOs and making them last and enjoyable. ArenaNet with Guild wars, and NCsoft with City of Heroes/Villians (their most recognizable game). The two companies set out a game to redefine MMOs, and change them from their current set in WoW clone styles of play. What does this mean, well lets get into the basics.Most important thing to remember in this game is that this game IS NOT WoW or SWTOR, or LOTRO, or any MMO you have played. So if you go in expecting to play it the same way you did those games, you are going to have a bad time. Be open to the play style, yes there is a steep learning curve, and it takes some getting used to, but when you got the play style down you will enjoy it as much as I have.To start off there are no restrictions when it comes to race, gender, class, or professions. Meaning you will not be divided by factions (imperial vs Republic, Horde vs Alliance), everyone is on the same side in their fight against the main enemies (the Elder Dragons, which are basically Gods). Secondly when it comes to races there are no restrictions either, while in SWTOR you could not be a Chiss Jedi unless you unlocked it in Legacy, in Guild wars 2 you mix any race with any Profession.When you first start making your character you can choose from any of 5 races [Human, Norn (tall humans, basically Vikings), Sylvari (Plant elves more or less), Asura (Tecnologically advanced Little Elves), and Charr (think Weretigers/lions with horns).Once you chose a race you then choose a gender (male/female) and then progress to the Profession choices. I will go into profession choices later, for now lets go into choosing your story. While in Character creation, you will be faced with several choices, each different for your profession/race/and sex. Each of these decisions will craft your own personal story line that you will play through the game. Unlike in SWTOR where all Sith Warriors have the same story and the only difference is whether you chose light or dark, everyone will have a different story line with decisions to make within those stories. So every character's story is unique. Here is a video example of one character creation:Here is a link to the best trait builder on the internet, it is russian so simply click on the english translation button above the builder "En"Each race has a separate starting area, just outside their main city, each area is unique however, unlike Korriban and Hutta, players can choose to go to whatever story area you like. So if I made a Charr and a buddy made a Norn, its just a quick portal jump or two to the Norn area and we can run all of the Missions in the Norn area with no issue whatsoever. Individual Story missions do however only take place in the race's home town, so you will have to travel back and do those. The only restriction is that you must complete the tutorial mission in each area before advancing, this takes a total of 5 minutes so not a huge set back if you want to group up with friends once you start.Combat in Guild Wars 2 is much more demanding than in any MMO I have ever played. Why you ask? well in most mmos combat is simply standing still or kiting while mashing abilities to hurt the enemy. This changes in Guild wars 2 simply due to 2 elements; Evading, and the Removal of the holy trinity.Everyone can evade, all you need to do is double tap one direction or hit a bound key to evade an enemy's attack. Evade if used properly will negate any incoming attack provided you are able to get out of the way. In guild wars 2 if you want to be the best you should never stop moving.The holy trinity of MMOs is the classic Tank, Healer, DPS team make up. In past MMOs this was completely necessary in order to have a successful run at anything. Arenanet has decided that this is crap and they threw it out completely. Everyone can be their own healer, tank, and dps. Wait what? Every single profession has the ability to heal themselves for tons of health. The heal slot is slot 6 (see below). This heal is a self heal, Healing others is usually included in some heals or various abilities where small amounts of health are given to allies close by, but as far as a dedicated healer goes, they no longer exist. Tanking in the conventional sense in this game is gone too, through evasion the need for someone to stand still and take all the aggro has been eliminated. Each profession has some form of a defensive ability where they can sit and take damage if they need to (sheilds, Death shroud, etc.), but it is far wiser to avoid the damage than take it at all. Well what about DPS in the conventional sense? well these are gone too, while yes there are still glass cannon builds the inherant "everyone who is DPS has shit everything else" is gone too. So all of this combined means that the Holy trinity team wise is gone, and that every player has the capacity to be their own holy trinity, if you will.So, in the formation of groups for dungeons, dynamic events, whatever is now extremely quick, all that you need to do is find someone of the appropriate level and head on in, thats right now more shouting needlessly in the chat channel "LFM HEALER for blah blah blah"Evading is great i know, but what about the other aspects of combat, well thats simple. When you equip a new weapon type, there will only be 1 move available for that weapon. Unlocking other abilities is super easy, all you have to do is attack and kill things with that weapon, and in no time you will have all the move available for that weapon type forever. No additional level required for weapon moves.In this image you can see what I'm talking about, the grayed images are the ones not yet unlocked, while the colored ones are available for use.As you may also see in the Image you have locked skills for 7,8,9, and 0. These skills require level ups to unlock and are unlocked at levels (unsure about the exact level) 10, 15, 20, and 30. The level 30 skill is your "Elite Skill" and is the most powerful of them, usually resulting in a form change or super special attack depending on your race and profession.Skill 6 you automatically have.Weapons are pretty simple in this game, each profession has a different weapons available and restricted to that profession, Warriors have the most variety of weapon choices, however just because they can use more weapons doesn't mean they have an advantage over anyone else. Each weapon has a different set of skill (see above) available to them depending on the profession, meaning while a necromancer and a warrior can both use axes, their animations and abilities will be completely different. Here is a basic pic of every Weapon type available.Spears and Trident(not shown) can only be used in underwater combat.Combo FieldsThis aspect of the combat system which in my opinion I discovered far too late into the Betas, completely changes how you fight in both pve and pvp. Combo Fields are persisting areas of effect that allow allies to utilize in combat. These combo fields are features of certain skills that are usually either targeted attacks (you choose where it is placed) or on player aoes (spawns on your position. The combo fields vary between professions and weapon choices.Combo FinishersCombo Finishers are moves that utilize the combo fields in order to gain additional effects in combat. They come in different types: Blast (an immediate area AOE attack), Leap (an attack that causes the character to leap or charge), Projectile (any attack that shots or throws something), Whirl (the character spins around attacking in the immediate area).These finishers are marked in the attack description under "Combo Finisher". To use a combo finisher on a combo field the character must begin his attack and the attack must pass through the combo field somehow. Passing through the field can be done by standing in the area of effect the combo field presents or by leaping/charging, or shooting through the field at an enemy either in the field or outside but still in line with the field.Here is a list of the Combo fields and the different effects they have when used with different FinishersDark________________Area Blindness_________Blindness____________Life Steal____________Leeching BoltsEthereal___________Area Chaos Armor________Chaos Armor__________Confusion___________Confusing BoltsFire_________________Area Might (x3)_________Fire Armor____________Burning_____________Burning BoltsIce________________Area Frost Armor_________Frost Armor___________Chilled______________Chilling BoltsLight_______________Area Retaliation_________Retaliation_________Remove Condition________Cleansing BoltsLightning___________Area Swiftness__________Dazing Strike__________Vulnerability__________Brutal BoltsPoison_____________Area Weakness_________Weakness____________Poison______________Poison BoltsSmoke_____________Area Stealth____________Stealth_______________Blindness___________Blinding BoltsWater______________Area Healing___________Healing_______________Regeneration________Healing BoltsNO MORE ROLLING OR NINJA LOOTS!!Unlike every other MMO there are 0 player locks on enemy mobs, resources, chests, or loot. YAY!!! But wait, what so how does that work. It means if you attack an enemy you get credit for it, which means that lets say two people are trying to kill the same mobs but are on two different teams, they no longer have to stick to different areas or race for kills, they can work together and kill everything each recieving loot and experience for every enemy they each do damage to. So player 1 kills an enemy and player 2 does one hit of damage to it, they both get the same experience for the kill and each get their own individualized loot. Individualized loot simply means that you get your own things of loot, not necessarily tailored to your character. This eliminates need/greed rolling completely. You will never see your loot be taken away from you after a boss, kill. what drops is what you get. What drops is not always the same for every character tho, meaning I may get a sword and a helmet and you get a sword and crafting supplies. Crafting resources are the same, when a player gathers them they only become unavailable to harvest again for that one character. meaning X amount of people can all harvest the same resources from the same node/plant/enemy.Well that about wraps it up for basic combat, any questions please ask I will answer to the best of my ability.This part will cover how you will get around in the world, pretty simple stuffbasic WASD system or click left and right mouse simultaneously move. You can always rebind them. I prefer QWES and holding right mouse to turn rapidly, but to each his/her own.Portals are the the teleporters to the 6 main cities, They can be found on your maps as purple swirly symbols. The fastest way to get to each city is through the Race Neutral City known as Lion's arch. While some cities have only 1 or two portals, Lion's arch has them all. So if you need to get somewhere quick head to lion's arch, the use of Portals is completely free. Waypoints are small teleport beacons that need to be discovered to be unlocked for each individual character. The Waypoints allow characters to rapidly travel to areas already discovered for a price. The price changes on how far away the waypoint is to the character's current position. if its in the same area its usually only 9 copper. If lets say you want to travel from the Charr area to the human area it should be only 33-40 copper. Overall pretty cheap. Wayoints aslo act as spawn points for when your character dies.When a character is reduced to 0 health they enter what can be referred to as a "Fight to survive" or "last stand" for those who play COD, where the character is on the ground and fighting for their life.As you can see you are limited to 4 moves, each changing depending on your profession. The above image is for what i believe to be a thief, their abilites is 1) attack, 2) attack 3) special move (they go invis and can move for a short time before re-entering "fight to survive" and 4) call for help (this is the same for all characters they begin to heal themselves slowly and call for aid from allies.)The red bar above the skills is your final health, when that runs out, you are dead, your allies can quickly revive you by hitting "F" near your downed self. If you are able to self heal enough to fill the bar or you kill an enemy whilst downed you will rally and come back to life. When you are dead however, allies take much longer to revive you, or you can respawn at a waypoint for a small fee.When you die your armor/weapons will take a small amount of damage. Over time these weapons will recive a damaged Icon, this icon simply notifies you that the item is close to breaking. While damage the item receives no reduction in stats. The reduction only comes from breaking, which occurs when every piece of gear is damaged, and will happen one piece at a time. The cost to repair is minimal at first but increases as your gear increases. This is a basic money sink in the game and doesn't hurt your wallet too much.Currently the only "mount" in game is something called an "Airship" these are basically zeppelins and I am unsure of their use, they may be featured in traveling to places lacking portals, but in an interview it was mentioned they would play some role in missions/events/ or Dungeons. From this i can imagine that there will be a flying boss that will need to be killed while you and your party is aboard an airship. Mounts in the conventional sense are rendered unnecessary due to the presence of portals and the fact that there are so many waypoints in each zone.The current Map for guild wars 2 only features the areas in the Beta weekends, The map is going to be larger with several more areas upon release.The map contains several different Icons:Heart = Quest GiverWhite and Orange Box= Point of interestBlue and Brown diamond = WaypointPurple Swirl= PortalBlue military arrow thing= Skill PointDouble Doors = DungeonHere is a Link to an interactive map made by players detailing the current World (beta weekend)Here is a link to another interactive map made by players which details where to find Crafting Resource nodes in gameGear ranking in GW2 is pretty much the same as every othe r MMO, but with some minor alterationsGray= junkWhite = commonBlue= fineGreen = MasterworkYellow= RareOrange = ExoticRed= legendarySo greens are now better than blues and reds have replaced purplesLegendaries, stat wise are the exact same as exotics. They are rarer due to their unique appearances and effects they have on the characters, like a bow that shoots rainbows, or a hammer that turns you into a liquid metal version of yourself.Gear of the same level but different qualities (green vs orange) will have different stats, orange being the better. PvE gear cannot be used in PvP and vice versa (WvWvW uses PvE gear, but it has a different system than PvP see below).In guild wars 2 leveling is made easy and the opportunities to level are everywhere, so there is no reason to ever be under level when you finish an area of the map. If you choose to do all of the leveling opportunities you will be far over level when you leave an area. Now here is the awesome part... Unlike in most MMOs where once you level up past an area's max level the only reason to return to an area is to waste your time, In GW2 they made it so when a higher level toon goes to a low level area their level is reduced to that area's level. The level doesn't remove any skills or abilities, it only takes you down to a level where you would be an aid but not a juggernaut destroying everything in your path. So why go to a lower area? well the loot that drops from enemies is scaled to your level! that means if your 22 and kill a level 5 mob you get... level 22 gear. Plus its nice to help out others.Here is a video depicting everything I'm about to type below... more or lessKilling mobs for experience is pretty much the same as in any MMO, Killing stronger mobs = more xp than killing weaker mobs. Just do damage to a mob and when it dies you will get experience.Reviving a fallen ally in the world, whether they be an NPC or Player character will grant you XP, you get more xp for reviving than you would if you were to kill a mob. So for that extra boost of xp, help up your fallen allies.Guild Wars 2 has thrown out conventional questing and has instead implemented things called heart quests, and dynamic events (see below). Heart quests are more or less your standard quest. When you enter a new area a quest will appear on the right hand side of your screen, that is right people there is no need to talk to anyone to get quests. If you decide to stick around and complete the quest you will get xp, if you decide to leave, once you get out of the area the quest will go away. This means you won't accumulate tons and tons of quests in your quest log as you run around.Heart quests can range from collection, escort, killing, and disarming style of quests. each area has individual quests. For collecting style quests you will need to talk to someone but for all others once the quest is finished, the reward is automatically sent to your in game mail, which is accessible from anywhere. simply click on your mail tab and accept the reward. Pretty simple stuffDynamic Events is the big ticket fun stuff here, these events are not listed on the world map and can only be picked up if you happen to be in the area. These dynamic events are the most fun. They automatically scale to the amount of players participating in the event. example: 1 person is in an event area and doing the event... he will be able to finish the event by himself. if more people come then more enemies will spawn, and enemy mobs will become harder. These offer the most XP and the most fun for the players. Dynamic events take place whether or not players are there, so they are always happening and the results have temporary changes to the game's environment.So lets break this down... Each event has a pass or fail result. A pass result is gained when the players complete the event successfully (this definition ranges from the types of different events). A fail result is gained when the players are unable to complete the challenge successfully. A failed event will remain a failed event until players are able to return and fully complete the event with a passing result. So lets say a town is being laid siege to by Ice Golems, in a win scenario the golems are defeated and the town is saved. while in a loss scenario the Ice Golems will take over the town, cause damage to the town and kill all the inhabitants. They will remain in the town until players come and force the Ice Golems out.After a both a win and loss of a dynamic event players will receive money, xp, and Karma (another form of currency). Wins will recieve much more of those rewards so winning is benificial. If you leave the event early you will still get xp but you may not get the same amount as others who stayed the whole time.Your rewards are determined by participation in the event. you are rewarded Bronze, Silver and Gold medals. gold gives the most xp/money/karma, and bronze gives the least. Pretty simple, just go for gold.Singular Dynamic events are cool and all, but the real fun comes from Meta events, or Dynamic event Chains. Progression into these events hinges on the players abilities to get a win. If you win one dynamic event you will proceed onto the next dynamic event after a few seconds. You are rewarded for each stage in the meta event so there is no requirement to go through the entire event if you so choose.At the end of Meta events there is normally a Large boss to kill which gives greater rewards and sometimes drops a chest giving better loot.So why explore? Why go to other zones when i can just keep going?In so many games exploring is more or less pointless, there is no extra stuff just more map. GW2 rewards those players who choose to explore their world. If you reference back to the map you will see several icons all over each area. if you get all of those icons in an explorable area you will be rewarded with xp, money, and loot. A chest will appear and all that is needed to click on the chest and you will receive the stuff.Example 1: If you explore a level 15-25 area fully you will receive 52 silver, thousands of xp, and green loot. (green loot is better than blue and white loot, but not as good as orange, red)Example 2: if you explore a player city you will receive experience, Transmutation Stones(allows you to put the appearance of one item on another, keeping the appearance of one and the stats of the other) and some money.Vistas are scattered around cities and the wolrd, they are mini jumping puzzles(see below) that at the end of each vista is a short cutscene that shows the surrounding area. These are enjoyable to do and give you xp and needed practice jumping for the more intense jumping puzzles.Jumping puzzles were initially added to the game as a feature to do on the side, but with their huge popularity have expanded into the game fully. There is one jumping puzzle in every area and at the end of each jumping puzzle is a chest that is sometimes guarded by a boss. Along with the loot you also get experience and an achievement. The chests do respawn so check back every so often and get some loot that is at to your level. Below is a video showing one example of such a jumping puzzle (disclaimer this guy is doing a speed run, you may fall alot during these)Not a crafter, or the material is something you don't use? You still should gather every resource you come across. For each node of materials you gather you gain several times the amount of xp than you would by killing a single mob. There are no gathering skills in the game, so there is nothing you need to train before gathering, all you need are the the gathering tools, Axes (trees), Sickles (plants/food), Pickaxe (minerals/metals). These tools can be equipped to your character into their own slots, so they do not take up any space in your inventory. I will go more into gathering in the next post. For cloth and leather mats, you will need to salvage them from armor or pick them up from bags and scraps that npcs drop.For each skill profession in crafting (there arethere are levels 1-400. If you max out one skill to 400 you will have gained 10 player levels. So 8 skills, 10 levels each... you can level up to 80 (cap) from only crafting. so you can make a character that is only a crafter and all you have to do is send your mats to him. I will go more into crafting on my next post.Your personal story is determined by the choices you made while creating your character. From there on it is shaped by the choices you made while doing the missions. There is one personal story mission for every 2-4 levels. Each mission gives you good loot and amazing XP. Seriously do these quests, they are alot of fun and give tons of xp.Dungeons are 5 man raids first available at level 30. These dungeons gives tons of xp. Do them. I will expand on dungeons in a later post. At the moment I have not run a dungeon, only seen a video.These don't give alot of experience but each skill point goes into your skill point count which can then be spent on skills for when you unlock skill bar slots 7,8,9, and 0. As well as those, if you collect 100 skill points you can use them in the mystic forge to get a Legendary (best in game) piece of Gear. Posted Jul 1, 12 · OP · Last edited Aug 23, 12 Gralo a Posts: 13 Admins IV) Crafting

Crafting in game has the greatest potential in any game I have seen so far, much more than star Wars for that matter. Crafting has 8 professions to choose from, they are

---Profession____________What they Craft_______Upgrades they Craft_______Other stuff they Craft

1. Armor smith__________Heavy_Armor______________Runes_________Inventory Box (new gear goes here first)

2. Leather worker________Medium_Armor____________Runes_________Inventory Packs (loot)

3. Tailor________________Light_Armor______________Runes__________Inventory Packs (loot)

4. Artificer______________Magical_Weapons_________Sigils______________Potions

5. Huntsman____________Ranged_Weapons_________Sigils_______________N/A

6. Weapon smith_________Melee Weapons__________Sigils_______________N/A

7. Jeweler__________Rings/Earrings/Necklaces_______Sigils_______________N/A

8. Cook__________________Food___________________N/A________________N/A



IV) 1. Resource Gathering:

I touched on this subject before but I will reiterate for those who may have skimmed past it.

Resource gathering in this game is extremely easy and noncompetitive. Each node (ingame source of where you harvest crafting materials i.e. trees, plants, Ore veins) is individualized for every player, meaning that when one player harvests a node, it is still available to be harvested by other players. The node will only become unavailable to harvest after you have harvested the maximum amount of resources allowed from it. This takes away the racing and ninja grabbing of nodes. You can harvest at your own pace. The resources are harvested through the use of harvesting tools that are obtainable through merchants and other NPCs. There is a Sickle for harvesting plants and food, an ax for harvesting trees for wood, and a pickax for harvesting metals and Minerals.



When a resource is gathered the tool used to gather the resource will deplete slightly. Now lets take a second to explain, next to each tool in your inventory is a small number. When this tool is used that number will deplete slightly. How much it depletes is based off of how many actions are done with the tool.

Example 1: to harvest a plant you will use your sickle once. therefore the number will deplete by 1. This does not mean you will only get 1 resource from the node, it is merely the number of actions your toon makes to harvest the node.

Example 2: To harvest Ore you will use your pickax, striking the ore node 3 times. This will deplete the number on your pickax by 3. As said before this does not determine the quality or number of resources you will receive.



So what happens when the numbers run out? On the last use of your tool you will get a unusable material, this is basically junk to be sold to a vendor. This signifies that the tool has broken and is not gone from your inventory. So its always good to carry or be prepared when your tool usage is running low. There are different rankings of tool types based upon your character's level.



Along with Harvesting materials in the Wild you can also get crafting mats from looting off of fallen enemies and from using Salvage Kits to reverse engineer junk loot.



IV) 2. Storage of Crafting Materials:

So i know what your thinking, with all these mats I won't have any space in my inventory for loot right? WRONG! Arenanet saw this coming and implemented a super simple system to instantly transfer from your inventory to your storage bank. You heard right no more running back to your ship or the fleet just to store shit to use later. just right click and choose send to collections. This will instantly transfer the material to the collections page in your bank for all of your toons on the server to use. No need to fill out mail anymore either. Everything is simplified and convenient for the player. So you can fill up in the field drop it all off and then be on your merry way. There is a finite storage in your collections tab but if you are crafting or selling this shouldn't be an issue.



IV) 3. Beginner's Guide to crafting:

For these next sections, I would type everything out but I found videos describing and demonstrating everything that could be said. The Video is by Enigmius enjoy



IV) 4. Intermediate's Guide to Crafting:

same thing for this one, video by Enigmius



IV) 5. Cooking:

final video by Enigmius



IV) 6. Farms:

In each area players can find Farms. not loot or gold farms, just farm farms. Each farm has an abundance of one food resources used for crafting. These farms respawn their materials once every 24 hours so you cannot farm a farm (irony). These farms can be found all over and here is a link provided the location and materials found at every farm so far in game.



http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/cooking-ingredient-farms-gw2/



Video by xARxNomaD depicting how to get to one of the secret farms



V) Races, Home Cities, and Player Home instances

There are 5 different Races in Guild wars 2, each with their own unique cities, abilities, and Home instances.

So far due to the beta I only have information on the special abilities and limited information on the home instances of 3 out of the 5. This will change as more details are released.

Home cities are the starting Areas for each Race, and te home Instances are a small area in each Home city that is customized for each individual player. The home instance changes based upon the desicions you make in your story line etc. There are many vendors in the Home instance, and not much is known about how it will evolve as players progress, being the storyline in beta only goes to level 20.



V) 1. The Charr



The charr is a horned feline race. They are extremely industrious and have built their home city on the fallen Human city of Rin. which they conquered and destroyed in the last war. The charr are split into three factions: The Iron, The Blood, and The Ash Legion. The Iron Legion is the most industrious, the blood crave war, and the ash cling to the shadows and subterfuge. Each charr character can align themselves with one of these legions in character creation, which affects the personal story line for each player. The char run animations is more like an animal's than a humanoid's, which makes jumping puzzles a bit more difficult to be honest. But if you can figure out when to jump then it shouldn't be too difficult.

additional Charr info can be found here

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/charr/



Charr Male Character Creation:



Char Female Character Creation:



V) 1A. Charr Race Abilities:

Much like normal skills the char have 3 skills that go into the skill slots 7,8,9 and 3 skills that can go into slot 0.

The skills for 7,8,and 9 are as follow:

Shrapnel Mine_____________________Throw a mine that cripple and bleed enemies

Hidden Pistol______________________Pulls out a hidden pistol that shoots an enemy while evading backwards

Battle Roar_______________________Let out a battle roar that gives Fury and Might to nearby allies



The Elite skills, for skill slot 0

War Band Support_________________Calls in two NPCs to fight alongside you for a limited time

Artillery Barrage___________________Calls down an Artillery Barrage on a targeted area, massive damage to foes

Charzooka________________________Pulls out a bazooka with 12 rounds, replacing skills 1-5

-Fire Rocket______________________Shoots a rocket at a foe, setting them on fire

-Rocket Spray____________________Fires rockets in an arc any enemy hit gets knocked back

-Heat Seeker_____________________Fires a powerful Heat seeking rocket, follows an enemy on fire, unevadable

-Rocket Jump_____________________Fires a rocket at the ground doing damage and knocking back foes, launching you backwards (evading)

-Rocket Barrage__________________Fires a barrage of Rockets at a targeted area



V) 1B. The Charr Home City

The charr Home city is known as the Black Citadel. It is built ontop of the fallen human city of Rin and is now a cacophony of Industry. The city has very few non charr inhabitants due to the charr's uneasy alliance with the humans. The city's presence has had some detrimental effects to the landscape and atmosphere.

Here is a video of the Black Citadel



V) 1C. The Charr player Home instance:

The Charr player home instance is located on the east side of the Black Citadel. It is called The Hero's Canton

Here is a video of it



V) 2. Human:



If you don't know what a human is then I am sad. Lore wise, humans are aliens that came to the world of Tyria long ago, but they have been there too long to be considered alien anymore. A link for more info on the Humans:



http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/human/



Human Male Character Creation:



Human Female Character Creation:



V) 2A. Human Race Abilities:

Abilites in slots 7,8,9

Prayer to Dwayna_______________Beseech Dwayna to Restore your health

Prayer to Kormir________________Beseech Kromir to remove 3 conditions

Prayer to Lyssa_________________Beseech Lyssa, Granting one boon to yourself and one condition to a targeted enemy

Elite skills in slot 0

Reaper of Grenth________________Become a Reaper of Grenth, Freezing and crippling nearby foes

Hounds of Balthazar_____________Summons 2 hours that fight at yourside

Avatar of Melandru______________Transform into the Avatar of Melandru replaces first five skills with new moves while transformed

-Oakheart Swipe________________Strike nearby enemies with a massive swipe

-Cleansing Leaves_______________Shake, removing conditions from nearby allies

-Roar of the Forest______________Grants protection to allies

-Summon Healing Spring__________Slam your fist into the ground, creating a healing spring to heal allies

-Binding Roots__________________Entangle all nearby enemies with binding roots, immobilizing them until the roots are destroyed



V) 2B. Human Home City

The human home city is known as Divinity's Reach it is a Massive citadel bristling with humans. Homes built on the walls and support structures of the city. It is the last stronghold of humanity in Tyria after being driven back from the other races.

Here is a video of Divinity's Reachand its country Kryta:



V) 2C. Human Player Home Instance:

The human home instance is known as The Salma District, here is a video:



V) 3. The Norn



The Norn are race that are basically giant humans, visually. They used to live in the high Shiverpeak Mountains until they were driven from their homes by an Elder Dragon, which transformed the high mountains into inland seas. The Norn now reside in the lower Shiverpeaks separating the Human and Charr cities. Here is more info on the norn if anyone is interested:



http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/norn/



Norn Male Character Creation:



Norn Female Character Creation:



V) 3A. The Norn Racial Abilities

Skills for slots 7,8, and 9

Call Owls__________________Call an owl to attack and bleed your foe

Call Wurm_________________Call a Wurm to fight for you

Skills for Slot 0

Become the Wolf______

Become the Bear______l

Become the Raven____l-- Pretty much all have the same attacks, a charge attack, swipes, bleeds, bears have fear, leopards have stealth

Become the Snow Leopard_^



V) 3B. The Norn Home City

The norn as a race prefer to live in the wild, they only constructed their home city in the lower shiverpeaks as a place to gather, drink, and trade hunting stories. The city has several grand halls, each in homage to one of their animal spirits.

Here is a video of their home city of Hoelbrak and the shiverpeaks:



V) 3C. The Norn Player Home Instance:

The charr home instance is known as the Huntsman's Hearth, a Grand hall:

V) 4. The Sylvari:



The sylvari are a Plant race that resemble what we would refer to as elves. They spawned from a great tree deep in a forest. They are very intune with Nature and have pilgrimages back to the Grove several times in their lives. More info on the Sylvari can be found here:



http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/sylvari/



Sylvari Male Character Creation:



Sylvari Female Character Creation:



V) 4A. The Sylvari Racial Abilities:

Skill for slot 6

Healing Seed________Creates a healing seed at a target location that periodically gives nearby allies regeneration

Skills for 7,8, and 9

Grasping Vines_______Target Foe becomes entangled in vines and is unable to move until the vines are destroyed

Seed Turret__________Creates a seed turret at the targeted area that will attack enemies

Elite Skills

Take Root_____________Immobilizes yourself, spawning several seed turrets around your location

Summon Fern Mastiff____Summons a Fern Mastiff to fight at your side

Summon Druid Spirit____Summons a druid spirit to fight at yourside



V) 4B. The Sylvari Home City:

The Sylvari Home city is known as the Grove, it is where all sylvari are born and is made up up a giant tree and cities and buildings grown from plants. This Grove is where all sylvari call home and houses few to no outsiders

Here is a video of the Slyvari Home City:



V) 4C. The Sylvari Home instance:

Video by Ixie92x



V) 5. The Asura:



The Asura are a small race, shorter than dwarves. They accomodate for their lack of size and strength with intelligence and technology. They are the most advanced race merging magic with science. They are a new race as far as the world is concerned. They make their home in a floating cube near the Grove. For more info on the Asura click here:

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/asura/



Asura Male Character Creation:



Asura Female Character Creation:



V) 5A. Asura Racial Abilities:

Skills for slots 7,8, and 9

Pain Inverter_______________Apply confusion to nearby enemies, you gain regenration

Radiation Field_____________Creates a Radiation field at the target area, inflicting poison and weakness to enemies in the field

Technobabble_____________Daze a targeted foe

Elite Skills

Summon 7-series Golem_____Summon a 7-series offensive golem to fight for you

Summon D-series Golem_____Summon a D-Series Defensive Golem to fight for you

Summon Power Suit_________Summon a power suit that you or your allies can enter and fight enemies with



V) 5B. The Asura Home City:

The Asura Make their home near the grove of the Sylvari. Their home is in a Giant floating cube, they erected it from the earth with little concern for the surrounding environment. The Asura Home city, Rata Sum is truly a marvel to behold. Here is a video of their Home city:



V) 5C. Asura Player Home Instance:

Video by LoreSong



VI) Lion's Arch

Lion's Arch is an old human city that was destroyed when an Elder Dragon awoke and rose Orr from the Sea, creating massive tidal waves and wiping out the city. It was later rebuilt by Pirates, mainly out of their own ships and acts now as a hub for all races. This will more than likely become the central hub of Guild wars 2, it has pirate ships and beautiful scenery. It even has a diving board which players can jump off of and perform tricks to impress the ladies.

Here is a video showing off Lion's Arch:



Now for a little bonus here is the diving board:



V) 6. The cultural Armors for all the races:

Cultural armors are armor that are restricted to your specific race. They are first obtainable at level 35 and cost gold to buy. Below are videos by Tales offlumin



Male



Female

Crafting in game has the greatest potential in any game I have seen so far, much more than star Wars for that matter. Crafting has 8 professions to choose from, they are---Profession____________What they Craft_______Upgrades they Craft_______Other stuff they Craft1. Armor smith__________Heavy_Armor______________Runes_________Inventory Box (new gear goes here first)2. Leather worker________Medium_Armor____________Runes_________Inventory Packs (loot)3. Tailor________________Light_Armor______________Runes__________Inventory Packs (loot)4. Artificer______________Magical_Weapons_________Sigils______________Potions5. Huntsman____________Ranged_Weapons_________Sigils_______________N/A6. Weapon smith_________Melee Weapons__________Sigils_______________N/A7. Jeweler__________Rings/Earrings/Necklaces_______Sigils_______________N/A8. Cook__________________Food___________________N/A________________N/AI touched on this subject before but I will reiterate for those who may have skimmed past it.Resource gathering in this game is extremely easy and noncompetitive. Each node (ingame source of where you harvest crafting materials i.e. trees, plants, Ore veins) is individualized for every player, meaning that when one player harvests a node, it is still available to be harvested by other players. The node will only become unavailable to harvest after you have harvested the maximum amount of resources allowed from it. This takes away the racing and ninja grabbing of nodes. You can harvest at your own pace. The resources are harvested through the use of harvesting tools that are obtainable through merchants and other NPCs. There is a Sickle for harvesting plants and food, an ax for harvesting trees for wood, and a pickax for harvesting metals and Minerals.When a resource is gathered the tool used to gather the resource will deplete slightly. Now lets take a second to explain, next to each tool in your inventory is a small number. When this tool is used that number will deplete slightly. How much it depletes is based off of how many actions are done with the tool.Example 1: to harvest a plant you will use your sickle once. therefore the number will deplete by 1. This does not mean you will only get 1 resource from the node, it is merely the number of actions your toon makes to harvest the node.Example 2: To harvest Ore you will use your pickax, striking the ore node 3 times. This will deplete the number on your pickax by 3. As said before this does not determine the quality or number of resources you will receive.So what happens when the numbers run out? On the last use of your tool you will get a unusable material, this is basically junk to be sold to a vendor. This signifies that the tool has broken and is not gone from your inventory. So its always good to carry or be prepared when your tool usage is running low. There are different rankings of tool types based upon your character's level.Along with Harvesting materials in the Wild you can also get crafting mats from looting off of fallen enemies and from using Salvage Kits to reverse engineer junk loot.So i know what your thinking, with all these mats I won't have any space in my inventory for loot right? WRONG! Arenanet saw this coming and implemented a super simple system to instantly transfer from your inventory to your storage bank. You heard right no more running back to your ship or the fleet just to store shit to use later. just right click and choose send to collections. This will instantly transfer the material to the collections page in your bank for all of your toons on the server to use. No need to fill out mail anymore either. Everything is simplified and convenient for the player. So you can fill up in the field drop it all off and then be on your merry way. There is a finite storage in your collections tab but if you are crafting or selling this shouldn't be an issue.For these next sections, I would type everything out but I found videos describing and demonstrating everything that could be said. The Video is by Enigmius enjoysame thing for this one, video by Enigmiusfinal video by EnigmiusIn each area players can find Farms. not loot or gold farms, just farm farms. Each farm has an abundance of one food resources used for crafting. These farms respawn their materials once every 24 hours so you cannot farm a farm (irony). These farms can be found all over and here is a link provided the location and materials found at every farm so far in game.Video by xARxNomaD depicting how to get to one of the secret farmsThere are 5 different Races in Guild wars 2, each with their own unique cities, abilities, and Home instances.So far due to the beta I only have information on the special abilities and limited information on the home instances of 3 out of the 5. This will change as more details are released.Home cities are the starting Areas for each Race, and te home Instances are a small area in each Home city that is customized for each individual player. The home instance changes based upon the desicions you make in your story line etc. There are many vendors in the Home instance, and not much is known about how it will evolve as players progress, being the storyline in beta only goes to level 20.The charr is a horned feline race. They are extremely industrious and have built their home city on the fallen Human city of Rin. which they conquered and destroyed in the last war. The charr are split into three factions: The Iron, The Blood, and The Ash Legion. The Iron Legion is the most industrious, the blood crave war, and the ash cling to the shadows and subterfuge. Each charr character can align themselves with one of these legions in character creation, which affects the personal story line for each player. The char run animations is more like an animal's than a humanoid's, which makes jumping puzzles a bit more difficult to be honest. But if you can figure out when to jump then it shouldn't be too difficult.additional Charr info can be found hereCharr Male Character Creation:Char Female Character Creation:Much like normal skills the char have 3 skills that go into the skill slots 7,8,9 and 3 skills that can go into slot 0.The skills for 7,8,and 9 are as follow:Shrapnel Mine_____________________Throw a mine that cripple and bleed enemiesHidden Pistol______________________Pulls out a hidden pistol that shoots an enemy while evading backwardsBattle Roar_______________________Let out a battle roar that gives Fury and Might to nearby alliesThe Elite skills, for skill slot 0War Band Support_________________Calls in two NPCs to fight alongside you for a limited timeArtillery Barrage___________________Calls down an Artillery Barrage on a targeted area, massive damage to foesCharzooka________________________Pulls out a bazooka with 12 rounds, replacing skills 1-5-Fire Rocket______________________Shoots a rocket at a foe, setting them on fire-Rocket Spray____________________Fires rockets in an arc any enemy hit gets knocked back-Heat Seeker_____________________Fires a powerful Heat seeking rocket, follows an enemy on fire, unevadable-Rocket Jump_____________________Fires a rocket at the ground doing damage and knocking back foes, launching you backwards (evading)-Rocket Barrage__________________Fires a barrage of Rockets at a targeted areaThe charr Home city is known as the Black Citadel. It is built ontop of the fallen human city of Rin and is now a cacophony of Industry. The city has very few non charr inhabitants due to the charr's uneasy alliance with the humans. The city's presence has had some detrimental effects to the landscape and atmosphere.Here is a video of the Black CitadelThe Charr player home instance is located on the east side of the Black Citadel. It is called The Hero's CantonHere is a video of itIf you don't know what a human is then I am sad. Lore wise, humans are aliens that came to the world of Tyria long ago, but they have been there too long to be considered alien anymore. A link for more info on the Humans:Human Male Character Creation:Human Female Character Creation:Abilites in slots 7,8,9Prayer to Dwayna_______________Beseech Dwayna to Restore your healthPrayer to Kormir________________Beseech Kromir to remove 3 conditionsPrayer to Lyssa_________________Beseech Lyssa, Granting one boon to yourself and one condition to a targeted enemyElite skills in slot 0Reaper of Grenth________________Become a Reaper of Grenth, Freezing and crippling nearby foesHounds of Balthazar_____________Summons 2 hours that fight at yoursideAvatar of Melandru______________Transform into the Avatar of Melandru replaces first five skills with new moves while transformed-Oakheart Swipe________________Strike nearby enemies with a massive swipe-Cleansing Leaves_______________Shake, removing conditions from nearby allies-Roar of the Forest______________Grants protection to allies-Summon Healing Spring__________Slam your fist into the ground, creating a healing spring to heal allies-Binding Roots__________________Entangle all nearby enemies with binding roots, immobilizing them until the roots are destroyedThe human home city is known as Divinity's Reach it is a Massive citadel bristling with humans. Homes built on the walls and support structures of the city. It is the last stronghold of humanity in Tyria after being driven back from the other races.Here is a video of Divinity's Reachand its country Kryta:The human home instance is known as The Salma District, here is a video:The Norn are race that are basically giant humans, visually. They used to live in the high Shiverpeak Mountains until they were driven from their homes by an Elder Dragon, which transformed the high mountains into inland seas. The Norn now reside in the lower Shiverpeaks separating the Human and Charr cities. Here is more info on the norn if anyone is interested:Norn Male Character Creation:Norn Female Character Creation:Skills for slots 7,8, and 9Call Owls__________________Call an owl to attack and bleed your foeCall Wurm_________________Call a Wurm to fight for youSkills for Slot 0Become the Wolf______Become the Bear______lBecome the Raven____l-- Pretty much all have the same attacks, a charge attack, swipes, bleeds, bears have fear, leopards have stealthBecome the Snow Leopard_^The norn as a race prefer to live in the wild, they only constructed their home city in the lower shiverpeaks as a place to gather, drink, and trade hunting stories. The city has several grand halls, each in homage to one of their animal spirits.Here is a video of their home city of Hoelbrak and the shiverpeaks:The charr home instance is known as the Huntsman's Hearth, a Grand hall:The sylvari are a Plant race that resemble what we would refer to as elves. They spawned from a great tree deep in a forest. They are very intune with Nature and have pilgrimages back to the Grove several times in their lives. More info on the Sylvari can be found here:Sylvari Male Character Creation:Sylvari Female Character Creation:Skill for slot 6Healing Seed________Creates a healing seed at a target location that periodically gives nearby allies regenerationSkills for 7,8, and 9Grasping Vines_______Target Foe becomes entangled in vines and is unable to move until the vines are destroyedSeed Turret__________Creates a seed turret at the targeted area that will attack enemiesElite SkillsTake Root_____________Immobilizes yourself, spawning several seed turrets around your locationSummon Fern Mastiff____Summons a Fern Mastiff to fight at your sideSummon Druid Spirit____Summons a druid spirit to fight at yoursideThe Sylvari Home city is known as the Grove, it is where all sylvari are born and is made up up a giant tree and cities and buildings grown from plants. This Grove is where all sylvari call home and houses few to no outsidersHere is a video of the Slyvari Home City:Video by Ixie92xThe Asura are a small race, shorter than dwarves. They accomodate for their lack of size and strength with intelligence and technology. They are the most advanced race merging magic with science. They are a new race as far as the world is concerned. They make their home in a floating cube near the Grove. For more info on the Asura click here:Asura Male Character Creation:Asura Female Character Creation:Skills for slots 7,8, and 9Pain Inverter_______________Apply confusion to nearby enemies, you gain regenrationRadiation Field_____________Creates a Radiation field at the target area, inflicting poison and weakness to enemies in the fieldTechnobabble_____________Daze a targeted foeElite SkillsSummon 7-series Golem_____Summon a 7-series offensive golem to fight for youSummon D-series Golem_____Summon a D-Series Defensive Golem to fight for youSummon Power Suit_________Summon a power suit that you or your allies can enter and fight enemies withThe Asura Make their home near the grove of the Sylvari. Their home is in a Giant floating cube, they erected it from the earth with little concern for the surrounding environment. The Asura Home city, Rata Sum is truly a marvel to behold. Here is a video of their Home city:Video by LoreSongLion's Arch is an old human city that was destroyed when an Elder Dragon awoke and rose Orr from the Sea, creating massive tidal waves and wiping out the city. It was later rebuilt by Pirates, mainly out of their own ships and acts now as a hub for all races. This will more than likely become the central hub of Guild wars 2, it has pirate ships and beautiful scenery. It even has a diving board which players can jump off of and perform tricks to impress the ladies.Here is a video showing off Lion's Arch:Now for a little bonus here is the diving board:Cultural armors are armor that are restricted to your specific race. They are first obtainable at level 35 and cost gold to buy. Below are videos by Tales offluminMaleFemale Invalid video code

VI) 1. The Mystic Forge:

The mystic forge is something that has amazing potential in Guild wars 2. It offers great crafting opportunities as well as getting rid of unwanted gear in exchange for better Items that cannot be otherwise obtained. So how does this work? simply head to the mystic forge and open up the window, add 4 items that you do not want and activate the forge, it will spit out an Item that is better than all of the other items put in. I can drag on but here is a video instead:



The mystic Forge is one way to get Legendary weapons as well as improved gear and, pretty much everything. There are certain things in game that you buy with:1,3,50, and 200 skill points in order to increase the rarity of the items produced. From exploring or completing achievements you may also get items specifically used for the mystic forge



INDEX The mystic forge is something that has amazing potential in Guild wars 2. It offers great crafting opportunities as well as getting rid of unwanted gear in exchange for better Items that cannot be otherwise obtained. So how does this work? simply head to the mystic forge and open up the window, add 4 items that you do not want and activate the forge, it will spit out an Item that is better than all of the other items put in. I can drag on but here is a video instead:The mystic Forge is one way to get Legendary weapons as well as improved gear and, pretty much everything. There are certain things in game that you buy with:1,3,50, and 200 skill points in order to increase the rarity of the items produced. From exploring or completing achievements you may also get items specifically used for the mystic forge Posted Jul 1, 12 · OP · Last edited Aug 16, 12 Gralo a Posts: 13 Admins VII) PvP Basics



VII) 1. Types of PvP

In guild wars 2 there are several different types of player vs player combat available. There is Structured PvP, 8 man teams going head to head until there is a clear winner. Tournament PvP; 8, 5 man teams compete head to head in a single round elimination style tournament. Where there can only be one victor. Finally there is WvWvW, where 3 entire servers collide in one fight that lasts for 2 whole weeks. Each type of pvp grants their own benefits. For Structured pvp there currently are only 2 maps available with one match type (conquest). They are working on an additional 3 maps and another game type currently. It will most likely be ready for release... I hope



VII) 2. Gear

PvP gear can be obtained through several means, Looting in WvWvW, placing 3rd,2nd, or 1st in a tournament, or from purchasing from a vendor. The PvP gear in Guild wars 2 is unlike gear in other MMOs, where in other MMOs new gear makes you better and gives you a distinct advantage over your opponent, in GW2 it simply makes you look cooler. This makes it so that fights aren't won or lost depending on what you are wearing, but how you play.

Example: In SWTOR before i took a break from pvp and went raiding, I used to wipe the floor with almost everyone i fought, in fact in the beginning months i had a undefeated streak of 32 wins in 1 vs 1 battles on Ilum, but when i took a break that all went away because people got full war hero and my days of winning were over. In SWTOR gear mattered.

In GW2 this doesn't matter, a good player can win no matter what he is wearing.



Now there are gear improvements called sigils and runes that upgrade and change your stats, but they are free to buy and available to everyone. These are meant to give your fighting style that extra bit of concentrated power. There is no cost to buy, unequip, equip or remove sigils from any gear. This I think is wonderful.



VII) 3. Glory

So, like in most games there is a seperate form of XP for PvP. in GW2 it is called glory. From what i experienced you can only get glory from running structured and Tournament style PvP. In WvWvW you earn PvE xp. but we will go into why that is later. Glory can purchase pvp loot chests that contain completely random gear and weapons, you never know what you will get. Other than that I have no clue what benefit glory is, maybe just a prestige thing, I didn't find anything detailing the benefits of glory but that may just because no one got to the next "stage" if there is one.



VIII) The Heart of the Mists

The heart of the Mists is a location in GW2 where players go to enter pvp matches, get gear/weapons, and practice their builds. The heart of the mists, to put it in SWTOR terms is like the fleet. It is more or less an area people gather before doing something else. Something you will also notice is that once you enter the Heart of the mists you are bumped up to level 80 with all of your abilities and traits unlocked and available (Race traits are unavailable in PvP, sorry no charrzookas for you) There are several things to do in the Heart of the Mists so lets jump into it.



VIII) 1. Vendors

First thing you may notice is the vendors, they are to the right as you enter and have amulets, armor, weapons, and upgrades for each. Whats that? all this shit is free! Hell yes. free stuff makes it so that anyone can afford to start pvping as soon as they make a character. well technically you can start pvping once you finish your race's tutorial which takes all of 12 minutes. But yes everything is free, so buy everything and experiment all you want to get that best combination.



VIII) 2. Practice Areas

Heart of the mists plays host to several different practice zones for players to test out their builds/ armor/ weapons/ skills. These practice areas are found by going straight ahead once you enter the mists. These areas include practice dummies to attack and see what kind of damage you can do without worrying about being attacked. These dummies come in small (light armor), medium (medium armor), and large (heavy armor) forms. These dummies can be found to the left for normal pvp, and if you go right there are underwater versions of these dummies as well. Next are the live combat NPCs that you can fight, there is one NPC per profession type, so 8 in total... Now I fought a few and these are no dummies, they will fight to the death and their AI makes it a tough battle, after all its to simulate a PvP fight. These dummies are to test your survivability and command over in combat skills. Lastly there is the siege weapons area. This area only has cannons and Trebuchets but they are the two types of aiming and firing styles so the commands translate over to the other weapons easily. This area is for practicing for WvW matches so you aren't blindly firing into a bush trying to figure stuff out while an enemy storms your keep.



VIII) 3. Mystic forge in the Mists

The mystic forge in the mystics functions exactly like the mystic forge in Lion's Arch. The combinations are much more predictable tho. The mystic forge takes pvp materials(acquired from salvaging pvp gear, pvp weapons (acquired through chests, not the free weapons from the vendor), and pvp tokens(aquired form chests).

PvP Tokens

There are different types of pvp tokens that are acquirable, each token will guarantee a set of gear to come out of the mystic forge. The tokens are named after each of the ranks that are available in pvp. There are Rabbit, Deer, Dolyak, Tiger, Dragon, (if there are more I was not sure but this is the rarest i saw), and tournament tokens. To acquire a certain peice of gear/weapon, simply buy a certain token from the glory vendors in the mists. The tournament and dragon tokens will produce the best gear for pvp.

Using the Forge

If you skipped over the previous forge post I will amke this one simple.

Put token in, Put materials from salvage kits in, put weapons in. hit forge, get item.

Here is a video Detailing the Process:



VIII) 4. Selecting a Match

Cross server, How about Cross every server. In GW2 to enter a structured PvP match, simply talk to the guy to the left and choose one of 300+ available live pvp servers to join, you will join instantly and will play continuously, match after match no queues, until you decide to leave the server.

For Tournaments talk to the guy to the right, invite 4 other people and you will be queued for the next available tournament.



IX) Structured PvP

Structured PvP is completely cross server (see above), and is meant for fun matches, you earn glory win or lose, and additional glory depending on your medals (most caps/most kills/ most revives/etc.).

These matches are 2 teams of 8 players going head to head until the first team reaches 500 points, they are random and unfortunately if you are trying to group with your friends you have to hope to get lucky, there are no join with group options at this time so you may be on different teams, but hey what good are MMO friends if you can't kick their ass in game.



IX) 1. Points

The point system is pretty simple, the team who reaches 500 first wins.

Capturing a node: 15

Killing an Enemy: 5

Killing an enemy on a node that you own: +10

Killing a PvE boss: 40

Reviving a teammate: 10

Killing the Lord (FoeFire only): 100



IX) 2. Teams

There are two teams, A classic Red vs Blue face off. Its kind of random who you will fight profession and server wise so its good training to see who you are weak/strong against, and which classes compliment you the most. To capture a node for your team you have to stand in the area for several seconds, an enemy being in the area will pause your capture until he leaves. To neutralize a node, simply stand in an enemy's node for 3 seconds and it becomes neutral, it is faster to neutralize a node than capture it, so always fight on the node and kick your enemies off of it. Every point matters.



IX) 3. Battle of Kyhlo

The battle of Kyhlo is set in a townlike setting. Highwalls make the surrounding perimeter, there are 3 nodes to capture: the clock tower, the windmill, and the mansion. The mansion and the clocktower are on the left and right sides of the map and our outside capture points. The clocktower is in the center and requires players to go upstairs to get the node. There are several shortcuts all over the map, from running atop buildings to cutting through back alleys to avoid and attack your enemies this map is my favorite of the two currently available. In addition players can grab hold of a trebuchet (one for each team) and lay waste to virtually all in their way. They can destroy certain buildings, leaving nodes exposed while doing massive damage to enemy players who are unfortunate enough to be caught in the fire zone. A direct hit will not kill an enemy who is at full or 75% health but firing it into an ongoing battle will aid great support for your team. image below







IX) 4. Forest of Niflhel

The map is set in a clearing of the forest, the teams start really close to one another and rush to the closest nodes to grab them for their team. This map also has 3 nodes: the mine, the keep, and the hendge. Like Kyhlo the mine and the henge are outside (have a bit more cover than kyhlo's) and opposite one another. The keep is in the center atop two stair cases, creating a bottleneck more or less. This map has two PvE bosses on each side. The Cheiftan a giant weilding two giant cleavers, and Svanir, a giant polarbear man who loves to charge. These bosses can be easily dispatched by two players. However, and this is important, whoever gets the last hit gets the points. So if you get the boss down to one health and an enemy ninja kills him at the last second, the enemy team gets all 40 of the points for killing the boss. These bosses determine the victor.







IX) 4. Legacy of the Foefire

The Legacy of the Foe fire takes place on a very large map. Each team starts in their own base equipped with walls, a destrucable gate, 4 npcs protecting a NPC boss the "Lord". The rest of the map is divided into 3 areas with pathways to each. The areas are the quarry an open area on a hill; the waterfall, an open area on a hill surrounded by knee high water (no water combat), and the graveyard, or sanctum, an area surrounded by cliffs (areas that lead in from the quarry and waterfall) in the center of the map. The sanctum is the largest control point I have seen yet.

To score additional points each team can assault the enemy base by breaking down their gate and proceeding to kill the Lord. The Lord will grant 100 points to the team once defeated, giving a huge advantage or closing in a large gap.Image of the graveyard below







IX) 5. Raid of the Capricorn

The Raid of the Capricorn takes place in a small alcove inhabited by pirates and shark infested waters. There are 3 main point to capture, one point on a hill, called the Beach, which offers high ground advantages around the point. This point is closest to the Blue team spawn, Next is the Dock located in the center of town and has a few Line of sight objects and a high ground advantage. Finally is the Ruins, the first underwater capture point in PvP. This is located at the top of the map and with this point comes amazing control of the water. The water is infested with level 80 sharks that swim around and attack everyone, however, once the point is captured all of the sharks will only attack the opposing team who does not control the point. There is also a large cannon at the southern most point of the map that is neutral for players to use. Plyaers must first gather cannon balls from the upper deck of the pirate ship. The cannon can hit any point on the map (not underwater) and does massive damage. The cannon has only 5 shots but allies can reload the cannon for you by bringing more cannon balls.







X) Tournaments

Tournaments are PvP matches where 6-8 teams of 5 players compete for cool looking pvp gear. Each round is single elimination, The points go to 500 and winning team goes on to the next round, the losers are then disqualified and will have to try for another tournament later. The tournaments take place on the structured pvp levels (Round 1: Legacy of the Foefire, Round 2: Battle of Kyhlo, Round 3: Forest of Nifhel)



Along with the ongoing daily tournaments are Monthly, yearly, and player run (custom, 1v1, 5v5. you choose who to fight). these were not featured in the beta but i believed they are planned for release.



There are prizes for teams who win. each player will get a chest filled with pvp gear if their team places 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in a tournament. so win a round, get loot no matter what.



Communication is key here, if you don't have a solid strategy you will lose.



Here is a video of the strategy Team Paradigm uses to guarantee a victory on the Forest of Nifhel



XI) World vs World vs World

Three servers, 2 weeks, 1 winner. You enter and are bumped up to level 80. You however retain all of the skills/abilities for your pve level. You are given and can carry over gear form The heart of the mists. You earn PvE xp in WvW, allowing you to unlock more skills/abilities (its faster to level PvE and then go WvW tho)



XI) 1. The Map

I would