The thing the "trying GW2 in 2023" creators miss out on is that between most episodes in the LW story, there are weeks where we grind the map repeatable content, and that content was the most rewarding thing to do at the time, so it wasn't a big deal for players of that time to play those 20mins waiting for the story conditions to be fulfilled.

As a WoW player, it's easier to stomach/understand the Elder Dragon design if you think of them more as this series' Old Gods rather than something more akin to the Dragon Aspects or your typical fantasy dragon archetype

HoT was absolutely one of the best "venturing in an unknown, uncharted land" experiences I've ever had in ANY MMO. By far its still my favourite expansion and the zones for the expansion were some of the best designed, with so much verticality and exploration to do

I hope Mike plays through the zones of HoT and does the meta-events as he finishes the story journal. The big zone events tell a big part of the story and have some of the best events in the game.

the scritt tunnels are locked by a player triggered event, you don't have to wait, you just go over there, start killing bandits until the boss spawns, kill him, and that unlocks the tunnels. Most people actually don't realize this and think they need to map-hop. the upper right hand corner of the zone is the scritt area and just go there and kill until the boss pops.

Heart of Thorns is what made me fall in love with GW2. I'm excited to see what Preach thinks about it! Really looking forward to the next adventures

Heart of Thorns (HoT) is peak GW2 at least in terms of map design. The verticality, complexity, explorability, and jumping-puzzle-ability of HoT maps is just off the charts in HoT. One of the most fun things to do is figure out the hidden ways of getting up into the high forest canopy of the Verdant Brink map (first HoT map). Can’t wait till you get to that and start making vids on it!

Glad to hear you're loving the game. When you jump into HoT be sure to do the Verdant Brink (first zone) night meta event. It's fun and it's a great way to get a full set of exotic stat selectable armor.

The story hits differently according to your previous experiences. As Mike guessed, Rytlock as well as the statue fight mean more to you when you play a Charr yourself (for those never having played a Charr, the catacomb with the statue is the first tutorial boss fight and where you lose your fist squad who are also all your childhood friends). I for my part was a Sylvary from the beginning, with all the mystery of being a whole race not older than 20years. Revealing their origin in that cave scene was quite impactful to me

loving the series so far! Happy to tag along the journey, since I enjoyed GW2 a lot

"Masively overpowered dragons" ... According to lore. An elder dragon from GW2 could bitch slap deathwing into another dimension.

It's exciting to hear you're enjoying yourself considering the content you've played, the best is yet to come for sure. Heart of Thorns has some great moments in the story but probably the best part (for me) are the maps, meta events and the introduction of raids. It really takes off from here and I can't wait to see how you feel about the game going forward!

Can't wait to see preach get put in the dirt by HoT's difficulty spike

The ripples of Scarlet Briar can be felt throughout the entirety of the gw2 storyline. Don't forget about her. I hope you enjoy HoT :)

Your recent look into GW2 encouraged me to come back after 3 years since I'm burnt out from other MMO's, thanks :) Looking forward to trying out many more classes & characters, as well as more content

I'm surprised about all the bugs you've experienced to be honest. I've done the storyline of the game up to the latest expansion (Which I still haven't played) with 3 different characters, and I encountered very few bugs. So it is surprising to me that the community says that there are a lot of bugs.

Really loving these videos. It’s making me want to start GW2 again.

Can't wait for your jurney to HoT. People either loved the expansion or complained about it,it being frustrating and what not, but for me it was the peak of any MMORPG. Truly challenging and interesting open world content. After all, that's the first thing people think about when you say MMO. Big open world, with a lot of people in it, and GW2 took that to another level with HoT.

nice vid, and what ever some might say, i would 100% encourage you to play through the living world season's to see both the high's and lows but also to get the story they built which is one of the big things in gw2 that keeps me getting back to the game

Your take on GW2 Dragons is breaking my heart. I can't wait for you to experience all of the dragons, they are pretty exciting in general when you understand the lore concepts as to what dragons are for the world.

There are Easter eggs you're going to miss if you don't play Heart of Thorns as a Sylvari.

Loving this series of vids for sure!

Rytlock went from being one of those 'so he is a character...' characters in guild wars... To a badass very notable hero from HoT and onwards. I can't wait to see preachs reaction to him in the future. Season 4 is still absolutely stellar, and I'm looking even more forward to that !!

Every time those skritt tunnels are inaccessible it means the mission to make them accessible again IS active. There's a spot you have to go to on the map to clear out some bandits. If the tunnels are closed it means the bandits ARE there and as soon as you clear them the tunnels open again. You don't have to wait for anything unless you just want to wait for somebody else to clear the bandits for you.

You want a f*cking dragon fight? Just wait till season 4 😍😍😍😍

I'm glad you're doing living world seasons. I skipped ahead to expansions and it was actually a really jarring experience. I'm going back and doing living world and it explains so much. It also has a lot of maps and gameplay that you won't experience with the base game.

Mouth of Mordremoth meta fight is so epic. Blew my mind the first time I did it. I just did it a few more times recently for the new legendary weapons and it still hold up really well as an epic fight from 9 years ago. One great thing about horizontal progression is that all these old zones are filled with life and active players. They keep adding optional achievements like legendary skins that gets you to complete collections in older contents and breaths more life to all parts of the game despite of when they came out.

THE HYPE!!! I can't wait for your next video!

~ 5:19 without really spoiling (as you already pretty much noticed the theme behind the Elder Dragons), there´s a distinct reason why the Elder Dragons (Note: they´re Elder! Dragons. Not just any Dragons or some kind of Dragon-Like Creatures) are designed that way. The Elder Dragons are all assigned to one specific Domain of Magic that is represented in the Eternal Alchemy (pretty much what scarlet discovered during LWS 1), so you already defeated the Elder Dragon that was assigned to the domain of "death" (aka Zhaitan). Obviously, as you can clearly see from the visuals that represent the eternal alchemy, there are more domains of magic out there, which makes it pretty obvious that there are Elder Dragons sleeping out there in Tyria (as at this point of time, only the destruction of the Ley-Line in Lions Arch, and the death of Zhaitan, the released magic from the "domain of death" woke up Mordremoth, the jungle dragon) As i hear you commenting on how you imagine Dragons: well, that may be true to the "average" dragon, but this is NOT the case for Elder Dragons. Elder Dragons are primordial beings, that are deeply connected to their domain of magic. They´re better described as "natural disasters" that are deeply connected to the world itself (it´s hard to describe without spoiling anything, it will make sense the more you get into the later parts of the lore). 11:26 this is basically what Living World is all about. The biggest thing about Living World is, that it connects each expansion, or rather: it creates the path going from one expansion to the next. This does NOT mean that there won´t be new "villains", and it does ESPECIALLY NOT mean that they´re not important. In fact you can view Living World more as "expansion-like" content, just without new specializations. And they are (story-wise) just as important as Expansions (and as a small teasing hint: we have more Elder Dragons than the game has expansions. I think i don´t have to say more than that). ~14:41 in this case, it often helps to limit the framerate. The engine is over 10 years after all, and there´s still stuff left in the game that is related to the DirecX 9 -compatibility. And while DX9 will be removed, until the process is complete this still indirectly limits the game unfortunately. Once the transition is complete though, we can expect improvements (as ANet won´t have to take care of basically 2 Graphics-engines anymore). What often helps is to actually cap your FPS to 60FPS (you won´t need more than that in an MMO anyway). 17:45 well..... i would not call Living World "optional for story", because (as you already correctly expierienced), it contains important story-relevant stuff. While yes, Living World Season 2 is probably one of the least interesting or important chapters (i personally think that LWS1 is even more important for some context), at this point of time you probably don´t understand the importants of (at least some) the events you witnessed (yet). But i can assure you: it WILL become important later on and i can only encourage you to keep going through the story in order, and not to skip anything. (In fact, you are already taking the first steps towards some essential characters of the latest expansion (End of Dragons). You just don´t really know why, or who i am referencing here, for now). Also, the later Living World episodes will be WAY more on the impactful story-parts than what you expierienced so far.

I've been following your journey through Tyria, and I can't wait for you to start Heart of Thorns! It has some of my favorite game mechanics and extremely good music.

Nice video. I remember the end of the beta testing. They did a great event where players who died got corrupted and basically came after you, untill you died yourself and joined them hunting the remaining players. This was for us a goodbye to our betta characters, who got deleted afterwards (got corrupted so it makes sense)

Regarding the skritt's tunnels: to open them you just need to go the part of the map where there are a lot bandits taking control of the site and kill them off, not really hard to do tbh, and then the tunnels are opened up. I think the skritts even tell the player something along the lines of "bandits have taken control of important locations so we closed the tunnels" or something like that. Been enjoying your videos btw, nice work!

I look forward to these videos more than any others! Buddy Heart of Thorns story, meta events, fractals, and raids will blow you away.

GW2 made the mistake at the beginning of putting some of its backstory into a novel rather than in the game. It’s not a huge deal since you get a new team of friends later on that are really more your squad than the previous group, but the fact that some of Caithe’s backstory is hidden there doesn’t help here. She and Faolin were an item, and it takes her some time to get past that relationship once she realizes Faolin is lost to the Nightmare. That’s why she turns on the other sylvari rather than hurt her lover.

God can not wait for you to play the next few releases

Hey i just ended it today! It was amazing! The last shadow deagon boss was a pain but I had a blast

Love this guys journey

It's worth noting you can force the event to spawn by going over there and killing bandits.

Really looking forward to your HoT review!

i hope people see preachs gw2 content and ends up giving it a go i returned to gw2 before seeing this and its rather nice seeing others enjoying it ive played guild wars over brackets of time since the base game i joined guild wars around 2014

cant wait for your video playing through dragons stand event. i still remember my first time reaching and beating the final stage. so cool.

13:04 yeah... there was a time Guild wars 2 was called Bug wars 2 lol And about that... I heard Teapot say they've tried to fix those bugs but then more bugs were created by that fixing... so they eventually give up :( Thank you for the vid Preach. Loving to listen to your thought ;D And... I'm excited also terrified to wait and see your journey in HoT ;p

so thrilling to listen to Mike experience all of this. GW2 is a wonderful game that more should immerse themselves into.

Love watching these even though I played very little GW2 on initial release.

loving the GW2 content guys, I've not played since first expac but I might have to re-install!

I hope you keep doing these. Do the whole story...HoT living world S3, PoF, S4, S5 aka Icebrood, EoD The story is just going to get better and better. Yes..sure..there are some weird moments but overall its great

cant wait for preach jaw droppin when he start heart of thorns later to fight a big dragon

talking about revamps in HoT, i believe the defiancebar mechnic was introduced in HoT and replaced to old defiance

Holy crap you've begun playing GW2?! Subscribed.

I hope you're able to stumble upon the pvp . I discovered it about 2 years ago and still really rave about it and believe someone can play just the pvp and enjoy your time (and even gear your player) which is what I did although I did end up finding my way to the story. I would recommend, even if you would like to play with 5 that are also new to pvp, to have 1 veteran player outside of the group to give to tips on setting up ur player and maybe vague tips to help understand the objectives. glad ur enjoying gw2!

Firstly, has he not done the OG Shatterer or the claw of Jormag? Second, I'm proud to say i one shot the Shadow dragon in that story instance Preach! Guardian op

Whenever he gets around to playing HoT, someone should tell him to experience the meta-events of the maps, specifically the last map. Just playing the story quests is not enough to fully enjoy the expansion.

I like the fact you cant progress unless the meta events are completed although i understand the frustration/confusion. The rat tunnel area mentioned is a endgame event thats still relevant to players today and has 24/7 grps running

Man, it's been years since I've played these seasons, I don't remember anything. Might need to replay them.

I wonder if the difficulty spike that's about to happen in heart of thorns is going to be seen as welcome or unwelcome. It's pretty big.

The skriit tunnels problem for anyone having that problem as far as i know by experience is related to a single event, related to bandits, the tunnels get closed everytime that event is going, is an event thats accessed by going by the north path and then right to the cave, when you finish that little easy event the tunnels get open again.

I really hope you get stuck into the map meta events during heart of thorns. They are so much fun and really help tell the story of the zones. I still do Octovine daily because of the loot and map chat banter. Was slightly disappointed you didn't do the silverwastes meta, really fun intro to meta events

Oooh boi you are in for a treat. Heart of Thorns will blow your mind. Please do consider joining the meta events as it is really good in every way.

just you wait mike, it only gets better!

The living world episodes are getting even better. You are in for a treat when you reach LW3, and LW4 after the PoF expansion is the peak. Also, do the masteries they are a really fun experience and are eventually required for the Legendary rings.

The really awesome thing with LW2/HoT is how intimately tied to the plot they Sylvari are, and that it directly relates back to you if you play a Sylvari commander. Like, the Shadow of the Dragon? If you haven’t played Sylvari you wouldn’t know, but it’s actually a recurring boss - it was the area boss for the Sylvari starting instance, like the wurm Issormir is for the Norn instance. So if you play “The World Summit” as a Sylvari, the Pale Tree directly calls out that “you know it from your Dream.” And the book that mentions its attack in the “Hidden Arcana” also mentions you by name. And that’s not even getting into all the things in the actual HoT content that are unique to playing a Sylvari commander.

7:30 My revenant uses Belinda's sword too. It's neat looking.

I don't know how you do it Mike, but you've encountered more bugs since you started playing than I have in over ten years now. I think it's a skill you can put on your CV. :D

"It's the plant dragon!" Oh Mike has NO idea.

Any idea when he is going to pick gw2 back up? Been checking his streams for two weeks. 😭

I'm looking forward to coverage of Preach stumbling his way through the verticality of the HOT maps. the first run though tangled depths usually has this "WTF" moment for a lot of players

If you've ever had Smilax in your backyard, you understand the terror of the Mordremoth vines. It's an invasive (at least where I live), thorny vine that grows scarily fast, and can spring up anywhere from an extensive root system. Actually terrifying how fast they grow and how out-of-control they can become in a short period of time. And the thorns on the big ones are no joke. Come to think of it, Smilax is a pretty good name for a dragon.

can't wait for him to get to Tangled Depths

I've been going through the story of GW2, and if you don't give a damn about the plot I understand the desire to skip LW and get on with it, but there are so much context and character introductions/developments you're missing out on. It's the biggest problem I had with getting my raptor. As soon as I hit 80, hopped into Path of Fire, saw all of these characters I'm supposed to be familiar with, and blitz through the story until I get my Raptor and then turn right back around again to finish off Orr. It was a miserable experience and when I tried to bring it up in chat in Lion's Arch it was nothing but name calling, accusations of being a troll, or dismissals of "why is it a problem? Who cares about the story, lol?" It bothered me so much I set the game aside for months and ended up levelling a new character through the Personal Story to then take through LW, and I had the benefit of my Raptor for the entire way through.

Oh man he likes S2, jusr wait for 3 and 4

I think Mike should do the big meta events as he progresses through the HoT story. Get a good group together to give him a slight hand through the process. As a new player going in blind is a bit confusing for the meta events.

there are jumping puzzles in the base game too,, some of them are even harder as well

The mouth of mordermoth fight is so worth the wait.

You'll enjoy the villainous Joko in Path of Fire expansion! 🙂

I'm glad you're enjoying Season 2 because imo the story there is the slowest of all the seasons 😁

As someone who played through that at its launch, the big kicker was the pale tree, not the dragon fight

I kinda wiiiish the game was a bit more clear that the Living World isn't "optional" if you're into the story. They aren't filler to hold you over or whatever. Went to expansions always finding people that seemed very important and always went with no introduction. What do you mean hot milf has a son? And I know him? What happened to you Rytlock? Are you BLIND? Who is this tiny girl with a golem that seems to be 100% my best bud? Well now I know better and plan to come back to all the story in order with a new character but I just think it was a liiiiittle bit odd and confusing at the time. lol

Turn on your action camera go to key binds and see what it is bound to makes combat very nice not having to hold right mouse button constantly to turn your character really well worth it you can toggle on and off if you want to go into a menu or something i use it when i fight .

can't wait for him to play through HOT maps

I was there when HoT was released. We were so full of confidence, we did not have any builds at the time other than full exotic berserker glass cannon DPS. We defeated Zhaitan and Scarlet's armies, and we conquered Orr. We thought there was nothing Maguma jungle could throw at us that we would not be able to just grind down with power DPS spam. We were so very wrong, HoT launch was a massacre of players. We had to rethink the way we played GW2, first tanking builds were created, condition builds became a must. Many players including myself gave up and quit the game.

imagine doing the Meta event of the last map for heart of thorns before doing the last couple quest of Heart of thorns

Our ally characters getting elite specs always felt really nice and fun, wish they did it a bit more but it's always quite fun

His comments about the dragons. I hope he really continues to play.

just wait till he gets to season 4 bros...

7:15 months later, Jory eventually crafted a legendary greatsword and salvaged the sister/sword for crafting materials. Either that or got to PoF and ditched Reaper for Scourge. Rip Belindablade. Edit 8:43 Oh btw, Trehearne is also a necromancer who wields a Greatsword. You could say he was also a hint for the Reaper elite spec.

LWS2 bosses underrated by the GW2 community imo. I'd love to see them go back and revamp some of them into strikes, I absolutely think it could work.

I can’t wait to see preach try destiny 2 raiding

"It's the plant dragon" Oh my, wait 'til he realizes the truth.

Did you know that marjory’s greatsword wasn’t a hint to the reaper. Anet stated that themselves but it’s a nice headcannon

I am propably the only person, that I know of, who really disliked HoT maps. I was bothered by them, not being able to reach ongoing events on time was the biggest problem for me, cause I just could not orient in their new vertical space fast enough (not all the maps suffer from this verticality). So I do not really remember HoT as an enormously joyful experience. Completely opposite feeling with PoF, where the maps were naturaly suited for new mounts and were truly fun to hang around in, plus LS3, which again lead to new expansion, PoF and LS4 being in my opinion the best of the best Guild Wars story has to offer. Looking forward for your take on it in future.

Can't wait for you to experience Palawa Joko, Balthazar and the other dragons!

It's nice to hear a fresh perspective on this franchise. A lot of us played it since vanilla GW1, and certain opinions are just talking points that were regurgitated for years.

Cant wait for living world season 4. That one is by far imo peak mmorpg story line.

i wonder if some of the bugs have been fixed. i played through living world 2 last night and did not get the bugs.

Either way, please don't leave before the 28. of this month, something cool coming back to the game 😁

The /wiki command is in the game to help you. The /wiki is your friend.

Scarlet was a warmup and buildup for mordremoth's story

you are correct about the large amount of characters, this gets even larger as you play different races and each of the 3 backgrounds for each race (arenanet learned their leason in the end); some of these characther make sense and are loved , vets know them since we had months to go over the content saldy you wont enjoy the true living world as it evolved over time but you will still see characters youve met during Tyria, some you wont recognize since youi have only done 1 race,1 personal story. dont recommend going back and doing all zones and stories, but I do recommend to keep in mind what you have learned about GW2 vanilla and that others/new forget, each zone tells its story and has their own charaters; moving forward, speacially in HoT, I recommend doing story and before the next chapter takes you in the the next zone for you to do the meta of that zone (nice if you do all events) but meta is sufficient to get a better understanding and if you can, alwayus do the last meta map before the last chapter (not requiered but In a way, you are missing content. ). Later you can see how arenanet tries to re-invent the wheel again. FYI, dont get frustrated with the jungle its great but hard to get GPS signal down there

Im about to start living world content too. The main story was a little bland, but the ending was fckn awesome. Im very exited for living world 😁

Ye, there is a fair few of small bugs. It's an incredibly complex world system they're using and they have incredible tech (their servers have virtually never been down in the entire game's life) but on the flipside little glitches can be left if it's not related to the immediacy of professions etc.