The Complete Beginners Guide To Guild Wars 2 In 2024

hey there folks I am the caffeinated dad

content creator for Guild Wars 2 if you

watching this video you were looking to

get started on your Guild Wars 2 journey

and I mean to make that a little bit

easier on you I will explain your basic

entry into the game covering all the

details of classes and race combinations

how to navigate your UI the story and

the leveling experience as well as some

tips and tricks I've learned along the

way lastly I will cover the endgame of

Guild Wars 2 and what you can look

forward to so sit down grab a cuple

coffee and let's teach you something

about Guild Wars 2 so the first thing

that you will be greeted with is your

server selection now in Guild Wars 2

servers mean significantly less when

compared to other games such as World of

Warcraft just about every bit of content

can be accessed regardless of what

server you are on and joining with

groups on across different servers is

not gated to server specific guilds the

only place that server selection really

does make a difference is a PV p p

versus environment game mode called

World versus World this is where the

server divisions truly become important

as for the most part you can only play

with the server that you are a part of

or paired with for that specific time

period but I will cover that more when

we get into endgame content next you'll

be tasked with picking your character's

race now you have five selections here

human Azura norn svari or Char now to be

frank the race doesn't really matter as

much when you compare to say your class

the races do however determine your

character's model their personal

backstory and a handful of other unique

race-based skills really here just pick

the race that you think looks the most

cool honestly so here is arguably the

most important choice that you can make

in Guild Wars 2 there are a total of

nine classes and each one of those nine

classes has three sub classes called

Elite specializations first we have the

war Warrior which is your typical melee

specialist with breathtaking anger

issues then the guardian which is a

well-balanced class mixed with both

supportive capabilities and offensive

power then we have the Revenant which

offers an incredibly unique style of

gameplay by channeling the historic

Legends of Ty's past to gain power for a

short time then we have the ranger which

is a fantastic solo class as it has

access to a Pet Companion who assists it

in combat then we have the thief which

is of course the more stealthy assassin

style of gameplay being able to

eliminate foes and confuse them with

Shadow stepping the engineer is very

unique in its own right as it uses

Contraptions bombs and other various

explosives to do their Dirty Work The

Necromancer is a light armor Caster that

summons Unholy minions and curses foes

to get the job done whereas the

Elementalist uses the powers of Earth

Fire Water and Air to devastate foes

lastly we have the Mesmer which is

another incredibly unique class as it

uses mental manipulation and Illusions

to cause immense damage and trickery

I've included a video in the description

that goes in depth with all nine of

these classes so that you can make a

better informed decision with picking

your class your first login is going to

be this screen let's cover what you have

here first in the top left you have your

basic menu panel your top right will

feature your main story quests local

features or even seasonal events your

bottom left is your chat box and your

bottom right is your mini map the center

is your main hub for skills you have a

total of five weapon skills one heal

skill three utility skills and one Elite

skill the center bubble is your HP and

this feature above your weapon skills

this changes depending on which class

you have pick over in this section is

where you will see any Buffs or debuffs

which we call Boons and conditions

respectively in Guild Wars 2 all right

so let's jump back up and review this

menu at the top the first thing on this

list we have is your game menu that

opens up your main panel options edit

Account Support log out and exit to

desktop basically this is the same for

every game but I'd suggest checking out

the options as here you can edit some of

your key binding amongst other things

next is's your contacts and looking for

group this shows you not only your

particular tag which is important as it

allows you to share this information

with other players so that you can join

groups join guilds and even add friends

but this first panel also shows you your

current friends list underneath of this

is the looking for group panel this is

an excellent way to find and join groups

in various forms of content across the

entire Board of all players you can

break it down to even specific zones

that you are looking for assistance in

so make sure to use this well below that

is your followers panel if you have

anyone following you in game and lastly

is the blocked account panel this shows

you a list of players that you have

blocked because you don't want to talk

to them after that is your hero panel

now this I will cover immediately

following this section as it is quite

lengthy next we have your inventory

which is just that showing you your bag

space and how many items you can handle

also at the top there are specific

shared inventory slots that are shared

amongst all other characters on your

account inventory management is

incredibly important in this game so

this is something I I would suggest you

frequently take a look at this button

right here will definitely help you out

this takes all of your current crafting

materials in your inventory and stores

them automatically in your account

storage section and you don't have to do

a thing other than press the button this

next tab is your mail Library every time

that you receive a piece of mail from

either other players or from the in-game

NPCs it will populate here you can send

items gold and other various things this

way after this we have our Guild panel

which after you join a guild this will

populate information here including

those who were online those who are

offline amongst other things you can be

a part of multiple different guilds all

at the same time and choose which one

you wish to represent here this also has

a feature for your particular Guild's

Guild Hall if they have already accessed

it and added it to that specific Guild

the next panel is the World versus World

panel this will show you the current

match the different areas of World

versus World that you can join as well

as if there's any cue for joining that

specific Zone think of World versus

World as the wild west of player versus

player now I'll cover this later in the

endgame mode section the next panel

below shows you the Skirmish details

letting you know the current score of

the game of the match that is happening

as well as where each server group is at

you can also view your rewards your

reward track which progresses

automatically as you are participating

in World versus World lastly this button

will show you your current rank as well

as where you have allocated all of your

current Talent points at I recommend of

course going for the warclaw and War

gliding masteries to start just as a tip

and a few other things typically just

getting started I'd suggest you check

out the few links that I've included in

the description below about World versus

World as this will hopefully get you a

better idea of this game mode the next

panel is your PVP tab this is

specifically structured player versus

player structured player versus player

is an equalized 5 versus 5 game mode

that allows you to compete against enemy

players this main tab here will show you

how to enter the heart of The Mists

queue up for unranked player versus

player matches or ranked matches if you

are the appropriate level this main

panel will also show you your stats over

time which a current rank is as well as

your win loss record I will talk about

this game mode later down the road but

just know that this is a great place to

join in and do some testing the PVP

Lobby is a great place to artificially

boost your character to max level and

test the class for all of its

capabilities that you have on your

account these buttons over here will

show you your current season ranking the

available upcoming tournaments as well

as your PVP reward track which feels

again like World versus World out as you

participate in matches this button here

will show you your list of Miss

Champions this really only applies to

the Stronghold map which is only

available in unranked mode these are

summoned depending on if you capture

specific nodes within that particular

match lastly the game browser which

shows you all active custom games that

other players have created that you can

join now the next panel is very

important as this is your Wizard's Vault

this is essentially your daily system

you can complete various tasks that

award you with astral Acclaim the astral

Acclaim then can can be spent on all

items in the vault some of these can

only be purchased once While others can

be purchased multiple times there are

daily weekly and special tasks to

complete to earn the astral claim now if

you like a specific game mode such as

player versus player World versus World

or just PVE you can change your

preference to what you want to focus on

for your dailies which is pretty neat

lastly there is the black line trading

post this is essentially the in-game

player-driven auction house players can

purchase and sell various items here for

gold in game everything from actual

weapons to weapon skins and more now you

can also exchange some in-game gold for

gems here gems are the cash shop

currency which is typically spent on

purchasing Cosmetics as well as

convenience items for your account I'll

cover this a bit later let's get into

the hero panel so when you open up your

hero panel you were met with a number of

different buttons and tabs so let's go

ahead and review them all the equipment

tab essentially covers what character

customizations and gear outfit will look

like there are multiple different tiers

of items and essentially there are blue

green yellow orange pink and purple

playing the core story all the way

through you will more likely than not

have a few pieces of orange gear called

Exotics and mostly yellows which are

rares the pink gear is a bit more

difficult to come by it is ascended gear

which offers the highest stat values

available in game and then of course

purple gear is Legendary Legendary gear

have the same stats as ascended so the

highest values that you can get but you

can change their stats appearance as

well as the ins slotted items for free

at will crazy crazy crazy amounts of

convenience for most content however you

will only ever really need exotic gear

to participate I've included a link in

the description to cover the specific

gear stat choices for those who need

more information the equipment subtab

manages all your inventory for your

particular gear this can be a great way

to filter out specific items by clicking

on the current equipped piece of gear

for example your gloves and then only

showing items in your inventory that can

augment that specific gear slot on this

panel you will also see your various

stats power toughness Vitality Precision

ferocity condition damage expertise

concentration and Agony resistance the

power stat increases your on hit damage

your toughness stat reduces your

incoming hit damage Vitality increases

your overall health Precision increases

your Critical Strike chance ferocity

increases your Critical Strike damage

condition damage increases your damage

overtime effects expertise makes your

conditions last longer concentration

increases the duration of your Boons or

or you may know them as Buffs from other

various games and Agony resistance which

is specific to an endgame mode that I

will cover later the panel directly

below that is your wardrobe this allows

you to change the appearance of any item

that you currently have equipped at the

cost of a transmutation charge these are

farmed from various forms of content but

I'll be honest I mainly get mine from

player versus player also again as a

note legendary gear can change their

appearance for free at will legendary

gear also once earned is available for

every character on your account who can

utilize that particular piece of gear so

if you unlock a legendary sword every

character that can use a sword on your

account can have access to that if your

account has access to any outfits they

can be equipped here on any character

typically these are very well put

together and tend to look very very nice

and typically these are only ever

purchased from The Gem Store dyes are

found in a number of different pieces of

content and once unlocked are available

ailable across your account you can

change the different color schemes of

your gear mounts and even your skiff for

free as long as you have access to that

die color you can make it look whatever

way you want next are your glider skins

this is tied mainly to the heart of

thorns expansion and these glider Skins

are mainly found in the cash shop purely

cosmetic next are your mounts now these

are mainly tied to the path ofier

expansion with some exceptions you can

see all the different mounts you have

currently onine locked and their

specific skins that there are tied to

your account and again mostly cosmetic

here then we have the fishing tab which

is just simply shows the pole bait and

lore that you have equipped this is

specific to the end of dragon's

expansion next we have the ski tab also

related to the end of dragon expansion

this allows you to view and purchase

different skiff skins from the cash shop

the next tab is Novelties these are

non-c combat related items earned in

game that make your character do a

number of well odd things like sitting

in a chair flying a kite turning into

The Monkey King then we have the Jade

bot now this is again related to the end

of dragon's expansion the Jade bot has a

number of open world features that make

it incredibly useful to have and if you

own the end of dragon expansion this

might be one that you should go and get

you can also purchase Jade bot skins

here as well minis are just that non-c

combat companions that appear next to

your character and typically represent

characters from in game then we have

finishers finishers are specific to

finishing either a down player or rarely

a down enemy mob this tab shows you all

the different finishers you currently

have earned as well as which ones you

can have access to and again these are

purely cosmetic you can get a number of

these from either reward tracks in

player versus player or World versus

World or just participating in player

versus player lastly we have mail

carriers which are just custom ways to

make your mail come in fancier moving on

to the build tab this shows you

different builds that we have have

specked into and your specific build

paths that you currently have equipped

these buttons here can show you the

different skills that your weapons will

have once you have equipped them next to

that is your utility skill slots

including your heal skill your utility

skills as well as your Elite skills the

next is your different trait lines that

you have access to and lastly is the

build storage that if you have set up

basically allows you to press one button

to swap entire build the next button

here is your training tab as you level

and acquire hero points this will

populate here for you to unlock skills

as you go towards the bottom this also

covers your Elite specializations which

require quite a bit of hero points to

fully unlock these Elite specializations

are unique ways to change how your

character's class plays and are

typically tied to expansions except for

of course secrets of the Obscure below

that is the story Journal this allows

you to view all the different stories

that your character has access to in

their account including expansions as

well as Living World seasons you can

jump from one story part to the next

here by collecting the story aspect you

wish to cover next is the crafting tab

which shows you your different crafting

disciplines as well as the items that

you can craft crafting can be incredibly

useful to create great gear as you were

leveling and even eventually when you

are max level the main use of crafting

after you've gotten decent gear is to

assist on Legendary Journeys however I

will stress that is a whole other video

on its own next is the achievement tab

basically doing anything in game can

earn you achievements and some of these

achievements once earned once unlocked

offer gear titles and currencies there

are a metric ton of achievements to

complete in this game so take your time

looking through all this also once you

hit certain achievement Point threshold

you get pretty cool care packages just

drop to you that's pretty awesome lastly

this is your masteries tab masteries are

an additional way to level up your

character after hitting Max these

typically don't do much more than assist

you in open world content such as

improving your mounts gliding or even

unlocking unique vendors for your

troubles you can select which Mastery

path you wish to work on but be warned

you will also need Mastery points which

are found out in the open world as well

as tied to specific achievements and

other various forms of content so happy

Hunting okay so now let's talk about the

rest of your UI depending on your weapon

or weapons you will have five weapon

skins SKS two-handed weapons are granted

all five a main hand weapon and an

offhand weapon will have three and two

skills respectively now each weapon

skill set will be different depending on

the class that you play if you are using

a great swword as Warrior you will have

five completely different weapon skills

when compared to a guardian who have

their own five unique weapon skills the

healing skill is slotted next and they

each have some unique options depending

on your build same with your utility

skills that can be customized to choose

any three abilities that you would like

this is also where you might find some

of those racial skills that I had

mentioned earlier lastly the elite skill

which is usually significantly more

powerful than the other skills and

typically has a longer cooldown for of

course greater effect on either side of

your action bar you have these little

popup menus including mounts which are

off to your right if your account of

course has access to them cosmetic and

Novelty items and then over here is your

expansion specific features such as

Skiffs fishing and Rift exploration

this button right here is your weapon

swap now this is only available for

every class except for the Elementalist

or the engineer those two have their own

Unique Mechanics essentially while you

were in combat every other class can

swap weapons for a brand new set of

weapon skills that can be used then

after a short cool down you can swap

back into your other weapon set okay so

in your first experience of the Guild

Wars 2 game will greatly depend on what

race you choose to start as the tutorial

instance will have you fight a big boss

as a start now as you move through this

it is fairly simple meant to teach you a

bit of the basics and of course

beginning your taale once you have

finished this first instance you are now

popped into the real world of Guild Wars

2 this means you can interact with all

the ambient players around you not just

the new characters that were created in

your opening scene your starting zone is

meant to get you used to the open world

here this game has a great portion of

beauty that comes just from the open

World Experience lots of Vistas to see

renowned Hearts which are basically

quests in this game to complete hero

Point challenges to take on as well as

other points of interest to see your

remaining levels up until the level 10

will focus on this aspect purely and

we'll have a heavy emphasis on the

exploration now once you hit Level Two

you will get a popup of new features

unlocked as well as what your next

couple of levels will unlock for you I

suggest taking your time reading each

one of these points as they will teach

you critical things about the game the

game play and other various mechanics

also as a note you can press M and you

can see the entirety of Gil Wars 2 in

all of its Glory but I also want to make

mention that you have access to the

other starting areas meaning if you

rolled a Char and your buddy rolled a

svari you can teleport to calan Forest

to meet with them and explore together

now once you hit Level 10 you begin your

personal story as mentioned this is

specific to your choices made during

your character's creation this will be

very specific instances tied to your

combination of choice and influence the

storytelling of your character the green

arrow will pop up and usually ask you to

go somewhere nearby to start the

instance and move on from there I will

also stress that while I recommend you

doing your story as it helps set up the

entirety of the guil Wars 2 Universe

please know that the story is not

mandatory but I would be remiss to say

that that it does offer a mess of

experience and can level you up pretty

quickly so keep that in mind speaking of

max level your journey from here will

emphasize each of the zones that you

choose to explore now technically you

can gain experience to level up from

each Zone you are in even if you vastly

outlevel that specific Place Gil Wars 2

does a great job of changing your

current level to match that specific

area so the content is always relevant

as you level I also

go for the zones that are specific to

your current level as I feel that they

give a little bit more experience and a

bit more of a challenge to keep things

interesting you will also get a new set

of story missions every 10 levels and I

of course always recommend to do those

to move your character story as well as

Grant you a ton of experience for very

little time there are many different

paths and zones you can explore and

there is no one right way to do it and

that is the beauty of go Wars 2 and what

it does great go and explore have an

adventure and figure figure it out on

your own so getting to max level which

is level 80 is where the true player

experience begins you can literally go

into a thousand different directions

depending on the different styles of

content that you want to get involved in

and of course that also depends on what

you have access to so the expansions In

Living World seasons which are basically

DLC mini expansions are all available

only for level 80 that means that you

can now jump ship and start any of the

other content your character has access

to while this is great this can also be

a bit daunting so I stress take your

time and figure out what you want to do

you will also be able to access your

Elite specializations which for all

intents and purposes are one of the

crowning features of the expansions and

the game I'll take this time now to

cover endgame activities so you can make

a better decision of what you want to

invest your time in so Gil Wars 2 offers

a variety of endgame content that you

can spend endless amounts of hours on

here progressing in this game first

let's cover open world content as

mentioned with all the different

expansions and even the cerion

experience there is lots of open world

content that you can spend your time on

the big ones that players love

especially in open world is the open

world boss metas that features a buildup

to massive bosses that take dozens of

players to bring it down these have

their own mechanics hard-hitting

abilities and cool theatrics to say the

least this does not limit the open World

Experience however you can go into many

different Maps maps and even have a

smaller map-wide meta that features

either a unique fight Gathering or what

have you but just know that there is

always something going on even when

you're exploring the open world and many

of the major boss fights that you have

are actually featured in the core Tyrion

experience not just the expansions next

is the PVE endgame content and there are

a few ways that PVE can be engaged the

first one is the one that you may have

seen during leveling which are dungeons

these are specific group setting content

that are very similar setup and scripted

basically however I will say that

dungeons are not done quite as often

when compare to other forms of endgame

content and technically dungeons can be

done before hitting max level so just

keep this in mind next when you hit

Level 80 you will gain access to a whole

library of other endgame content so

let's go ahead and talk about the

fractals of The Mists fractals of The

Mists are small instant style dungeons

consisting of groups of five players

these dungeons have certain story

elements that must be completed to

finish and typically end with a boss

fight also just note some are simply the

boss fight and that's it now depending

on the level of the fractal they scale

in difficulty upwards to level 100 the

scaling adds certain aects that make the

instance run much more challenging major

scaling modifier however is Agony which

is essentially a damage overtime effect

that deals percent Health damage the

higher the agony the higher the percent

damage you will take now to combat this

we slot ascended or legendary Gear with

Agony infusion that add resistance to

this damage overtime effect this reduces

the scaling damage you take from Agony

into bite-sized pieces making it

significantly more manageable typically

you get an Agony debuff from taking

damage from the various things inside

each fractal I always recommend getting

into fractals as a start as they are a

fantastic way to get gear and gold in

game next we have raids raids are 10-man

instance boss combat that feature a

specific Wing these require a good

amount of coordination as well as decent

amounts of skill to complete these

bosses usually have multiple phases and

interesting mechanics that truly offer a

challenge and raiding in Guild Wars 2

also offers a fantastic way to get

ascended and legendary gear to make

rating also more accessible on a

rotation there is a feature called the

emboldened mode this gives up to 100%

more Health up to 50% more damage and up

to 50% increased healing output which

builds up after every failed attempt on

a boss in that particular Wing once that

boss is defeated then the stacks are

then reset until your group fails

against one of the following bosses to

get started I'd suggest searching for a

raid training groups within the guil

Wars 2 communities many offer

educational ways to get your foot in the

door also as a note raids are included

mainly with the heart of thorns and path

of Fire expansions finally the last

major piece of PVE content is Strike

missions which are single boss

encounters a decently complex fight from

the story of Guild Wars 2 and makes it

into a repeatable 10-man instance again

requiring coordination and skill these

strike missions typically can offer

currencies for Unique gear and other

various items something also to note as

well is that some of the raid bosses

feature challenge modes as well as many

of the strike missions offer challenge

modes

which are basically harder versions of

those particular bosses strike missions

are also exclusive to the ice brw Saga

The Living World DLC the end of dragon

expansion and the secrets of the Obscure

expansion moving on to PVP there are

essentially two different modes

structure PVP and World versus World

structure PVP or SVP is a typical five

versus 5 capture and hold type style of

contest in structured PVP you have two

sub modes either ranked or unranked

unranked is just that non-season

recorded matches versus ranked which

keeps a record of how well you do each

season now to join ranked PVP you do

also need to be PVP level 20 to get

started but the seasonal rewards for

ranked can be a great way to get gear

all the way up to Legendary structured

player versus player is also equalized

meaning that if you join a match at

level two you will be boosted to max

level and have all of the account-wide

features Available to You including any

access to Elite specializations on that

specific account your gear is

essentially chosen through this amulet

along with your Relic runes and sigils

anyone can join structure player versus

player and participate and I always

recommend to give it a go especially if

you want to see what your class can do

the other major PVP mode is World versus

World and this is widely one of the most

popular endgame modes in game this is a

player versus player versus environment

style of game essentially the wild west

of player versus player content you walk

into the mists with whatever gear you

have on and essentially good luck you

were tasked to capture Towers keeps and

camps with the help of other players on

your server and it can be incredibly fun

especially if you join in with those

other players this is the limiting

factor however even if you are in a

guild with lots of players as it stands

you can only join groups with other

world V World players from your specific

server or the server that you are joined

with on that rotation if you you intend

on playing World versus World with a

friend or a small group of players I

suggest you join a server that they are

located to maximize the fun as it is

quite challenging to get into worldview

world without any friends World versus

World also can be a great way of getting

gear including legendary gear as well as

the exclusive warclaw Mount other

endgame modes include but are not

limited to achievement hunting legendary

crafting role playing Mount racing and

map completion just to name a few the

best part about Gil Wars 2 is that even

if you're on working on one of these

features you're still progressing your

character so no worry about a wasting

time currently there are four expansions

available for Guild Wars 2 as well as

quite a bit of DC the heart of thorns

expansion being the first expansion has

your character traversing the Muma

jungle to hunt down mamoth the jungle

Dragon this expansion includes gliding

as its major feature as well as the

aforementioned rating this expansion

also includes the first set of elite

specialization ever introduced into the

game next we have path of fire which is

the second expansion introduced to guil

Wars 2 and this takes you to the elonian

desert to hunt down a disgraced human

God the major feature of this expansion

is the mounts that were introduced this

expansion will grant you just about all

of the mounts with the exceptions of the

roller Beetle the skyscale or the turtle

this expansion also has the second set

of elite specializations that all have a

hint of desert flavor tied to them end

of dragons is the third expansion for

gilor 2 and this expansion crosses the

sea to the ancient lands of cantha to

find out what the hell all these Earth

shaking disturbances are the major

features of this expansion are the

fishing skiff riding which is your boat

as well as the Jade bot the expansion

also includes the latest set of elite

specializations that emphasize the use

of canthan powers to augment their

classes the secrets of the Obscure

expansion is the fourth and most recent

one that takes us to the Northwestern

section of the Muma jungle where we

discover the secrets of a long obscured

order of interdimensional wizards this

expansion's major features are the use

of the skyscale rift hunting and then

the weapon Master training which allows

all class builds to be able to utilize

each of the elite specializations

weapons this is also the most current

form of content so if any additional

content is included in the game you will

also get this as it comes out now the

Living World seasons SE the stories of

the major expansions together and each

in their own individual right offer a

great story new maps and some pretty

long lasting features for example Living

World season 4 can offer the roller

beetle in the skyscale mount as well as

a legendary amulet not to mention the

best bit of Storytelling in game that's

that's just me these are great to have

but I wouldn't say that they're

absolutely necessary so Gil waru has an

in-game cash shop that offers a ton of

different items in cosmetics however

they are just that convenience and

Beauty many of the items here increase

bag space all for faster travel amongst

other things now you purchase these

items using gems now gems can be used

with real life currency or they can be

exchanged from gold in game so if you

earn enough in game you can exchange

them for gems to purchase other features

that you may like as I wrap up this

beginner guide I want to include some

tips that I have learned in my time

playing this wonderful game first Guild

Wars 2 is meant to be a casual game many

features of this MMO emphasize taking

your time and taking breaks so don't try

to rush it you won't have a good time

second Gil Wars 2 mostly is a game that

features horizontal progression that

means a lot of what you earn on one

character is shared with other

characters and there really isn't much

of a gear treadmill essentially you earn

gear that holds its value forever

incentivizing working on ascended and

legendary gear as an optional Quest not

a major pushing feature but even then

their effectiveness isn't that much more

between exotic gear and ascended and

legendary lastly there is no one right

way to play this game this is a

customization gold mine for many

different players not just talking about

the builds and game but what you spend

your time on many things do not need to

be completed but you do reap the reward

if you do if all you want to do is play

player versus player you can do that if

all you want to do is just open world

events go ahead have a great time truth

be told that's the most beautiful thing

about this game it's just you can do

whatever you want and you're still just

as valid now this was all quite a bit

and I hope that it does help if you want

to see some other new player mistakes

that I have made in my guil Wars 2

journey click this video here as always

stay caffeinated

[Music]

folks