This was the King Maker for me. I have been making up my own objectives as a new Player but you have given me direction. This is the major stumbling block for new players in GW2 and you have solved it in this guide they should have you on the payroll tyvm.

Combos/Combo Fields, and how useful they can be, never gets properly explained ingame. A video on that topic would probably be good for beginners.

This game is so complex to understand. Especially when I started and you helped me understand a lot. I full blown be writing notes as you talk because I truly want to understand how to get everything.

My biggest suggestion to new players is to focus on achievements that give you masteries, specifically the red ones for central Tyria. You're going to want to gain as many as you can and work towards unlocking the ability to autoloot. It's so SO damn helpful; you'll never have to loot a dead body again.

I just LOVE the achievements panel. When a new living world patch comes out, instead of a 3-6 story content I get more than 20-30 gameplay content when I go for full achievements for that patch. Also, doing all of them, as you said, took me to places and NPC`s and etc that I won't go otherwise. It just makes everything rich. I am tho with that camp that the panel itself need some upgrades and more arrangment, espically for new players.

My explanation about the AP system, and which ones are actually most fun to go for first. Any thoughts on favorite achievements or categories you'd recommend, but I didn't?

a fractal's video would be great, and that could be a meaty video. i also mentioned on your second channel that something along the lines of easy builds for fractal is something that i would love since some of the meta builds are pretty hard to execute and i end up doing even worse than if i was using an off-meta build that could be easier to drive. maybe the dmg cealing is not as high but builds that you can comfortably do well in would be awesome, and since you are already dipping your toes into build crafting right now for the updated build series maybe it wouldn't be too hard to do this side project :)

Surprised that since this is for new players you didn't mention the recently added Tutorial achievements. Not only do you get them just for doing stuff in the starter zones, but they also have different sections for all 5 starter zones, so they sort of lead new players to those other areas that they already have waypoints unlocked in.. I also really love the exploration achievements which can be fun to do in conjunction with world completion.

Hey WP, I definitely think you should do a guide just on fractals. They aren't as straight forward as "it's GW2's dungeon end-game".

The AP system has been the main reason I've sunk so many hours into GW2. It may look daunting at first but once you get into it...oh boy... I love the way achievements give you rewards in this game. Not only do you get some really cool/fun/valuable items from them but there's also the AP chests you get every 500 points. Free gems, but more importantly: free spirit shards! Another thing I really like is how Anet manages to keep content relevant by adding older content to achi's like collections. Want a HoT specialisation weapon? Go and do some event in core Tyria. Going for the best scepter skin in the game (Antonina of course...)? Go back to Kessex Hills for those poison spores. No matter the content you're working on, this way there are always other people who'll be doing these old events.

This may be the most important guild wars 2 video I’ve ever seen. This really helped me understand what to do in the endgame

god walking amongst mere mortals is still the coolest title

The achievement system is where i get most of my motivation to play, I do legendaries as well, but the achievements is whats keeps me going through the grind

This is my personal endgame. I LOVE achievement hunting! It’s what I enjoy the most. Thank you for making a video on this!

Working on your housing stuff would be a fun episode (nodes, cats, etc). It also ties into looking for things to do at 80 each day, as if you get, say, the HoT chests to open each day in your housing district, you will need to keep in things like crowbars, and you'll find you'll at least want to periodically set aside some time to run some metas to keep in those resources so you can continue to open those chests every day. Those chest rewards ended up being an incentive for me to periodically revisit HoT.

Great content as always, wish they would bring back the monthlies. Im a veteran player on and off from GW1, through to GW2 - back over the last few months and still learning things from this new series - cheers

It took me so long to really crack the code of the Achievement Panel, it was SO OVERWHELMING at first because I had no explanation and just had to like Wing it and extrapolate out from your older content when I started in 2016-2017

I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 casually for years and only recently started looking at cooking more closely, which has achievements tied to it now. Before I realised, the achievement system had taken me down a path to culinary excellence as I flipped menus left and right buying ingredients and creating new foods in the crafting discovery panel, running around the world meeting new cooking trainers and going for that Gourmet title. I wasn’t even supposed to play for very long that evening! Anet’s done a really great job with the achievement system.

7:50 Nope, every chest gives the same amount of gems and it's always 400.

Very cool, and well done. You have an excellent way of communicating information in an easy-to-grasp way.

Ancient fan from the visualwood era here stopping in for a random bit of support and engagement. Glad to see you and GW2 are still doin well

Fractal rewards and infusions would be interesting. Would love for more ppl to get into fractals

Honestly WP. Been playing this game since mid 2014 and yet I still learned something (a lot of things, actually!) new from this video. Incredible.

I would love to see you do a video on the meta events of tyria. I love doing them even tho i have no idea what's going or what rewards are good.

this is a commendable series, but one thing in particular that needs to be pointed out with this particular installment is that *Heart of Thorns Elite Spec collections do not give you you an ascended weapon for free.* the mystic weapon component of each and everyone of them alone costs around *100g.* that is enough to level a crafting profession to 500 _and_ get you half way to a finished ascended weapon of your choice. quite a few collections were created during a time when the economic landscape of the game looked very different, as a result some of them that were meant to give newer players a bit of a boost turned into traps that have you waste significant amounts of resources that are particularly useful as you start out.

I'll tell you what WP, I would really have liked to have something like this series to watch when I started playing way back in the day before living world season 1. I will be sharing it with everyone I know that is into the game or interested in getting into it! Thank you for your content, I always enjoy your insight!

A quick tip for new players doing jumping puzzles. Disable double-tap dodge and map it to a key instead (mine is on a mouse thumb button), this'll save you a lot of heartache. I accidentally double-tapped off many platforms to my death before I finally disabled and remapped.

I’ve played since launch and I have never once looked at achievements, this got me excited to have something new to work on!!!

So glad I watched this. I’ve played this game off and on (mostly off) since beta and had no idea you can get gems from achievements. Really enjoying this game lately and exploring all the systems and content has been great fun - this mmo is so underrated

WP you are the man, your GW content has kept me coming back to this game for years. I'm trying again to get back into GW2, because there is so much about the game I love (the art, combat, world, music, and the little PVP I've done has been really fun) but once again I'm feeling overwhelmed. My only 80 is a day 1 sylvari necro with bags full of stuff I don't understand, mismatched gear, and a few of the mounts and masteries. I just get so confused looking at my bags, the stockpile of karma and crafting mats and random bits and bobs from my on and off time with the game, I never know what to do. Help!

This is great, sent this to a friend of mine that had the same question

Hey WP - please can you do a guide on how to get started with build craft/creating your own builds?

I really enjoy the achievements and collections at time. I fondly remember the diving one. One dive was extremely difficult for me I kept dying was after a difficult jumping puzzle 😊

Honestly, I'll watch any and all GW2 content you put out - haven't had time to dedicate for a couple of years now (thanks, kids/job), so I vicariously "play" by listening to your content while I work/run.

Bro that wiki tip just blew my mind, I've played this game for years and never knew you could do that

Funny timing. I only just found out about the Caladbolg achievements today! After beating HoT I must have tossed out the broken version of it thinking it was just another rare taking up inventory space. There's even some humorous dialogue associated in recovering the broken Caladbolg as it turns out it's kind of an important relic that should be held on to. The reward is also quite nice for those who are in need of easy-to-get ascended gear.

Thanks! I feel a bit dumb, i have to say. I didn't really see the achievements as the quests they are. I actually am looking forward to diving into them again. :-)

27k + AP here ! Festivals are really nice for AP.

This is great. I've never bothered with achievements at all. I'll definitely be putting more time in this feature

Achievements are awesome hooked me often to the game again.

Use the specific food and utility archievments for the primers, blood in the water archievment, diving mastery and the jump puzzle archievment, salvage archievment is funny and gives some good ap points, that’s what I did

So much to do, so much to see

Something I see a lot of new players struggling with is the salvage/material system I find so many people that either dont know about salvaging or have no idea what to salvage and what kit to use.

Achievements are a game in the game. Sometimes I log in and find nothing to do. So I go for achievements hunting, and it brings me back to places I totally forgot or episodes from living world I enjoyed (or hated) so much.

This helped. Thanks!

Fractals would be a great idea. Like how do fractals work? I’m a veteran player but I just never got into fractals and now I feel like I kind of missed out on the opportunity. What’s the best way to get into it? Maybe even some of the lore you find interesting from there. Maybe also a how to get into PVP in the sense of people like me need to do PVP for legendary crafting… so what’s the best way to get in, and get those legendary ingredients with some air of competency

I wonder if there might be value in a video explaining the timeline of the side stories, expansions, and living world releases. It reminds me of the MCU. "Which movie should I watch next?" was a question I had the Google.

Pretty cool you're using the Chapters thing (not sure thats the name of it) on youtube to jump to segments

If you're like me, and you suck at jumping puzzles (I do N O T like them, at all), simply go through them when they're on the dailies - there will be mesmers there to help you, and you'll save yourself from a lot of headaches!

For some episode would be interesting to see one explaining a bit how to use the ui, especifically the lfg tool. New players don't even know it exists, everytime i get a fresh from the garden guildy is what i fist have to be sure they know about, due to the game feeling so much isolated and dificult to do simple stuff as to even kill a world boss. They just go to an empty map and hope there are a few comanders to atract players. Also maybe talk on the surface of meta timers and that kind of stuff

Even though I know all this stuff it really it sparks something in me. I am now suddenly hyped to do achievments again. After 6,5 years of playing I almost got 15k. That's not that much since I have never been a big ap hunter. Maybe i should go for some of them again. Thanks for your great content WP.

The Living World episodes are super rewarding atm with these new "Return" achievements. You get lots of bonus rewards just for playing the game, and it leads to Ascended weapon and stacks of Living world materials (which can go for ascended trinkets or even useful for your Legendries or skyscale). They barely ask you to go out of your way to these achievement tabs filled. They throw in a few black lion weapon skins on the way too. This week they added more achievements for Lake Doric (that is permanent), and gives you two stacks of the Jadeite shards.

I wish they would update the you UI for achievements so that when you open the achievement panel it shows you all achievements that could be accomplished in whatever particular map/story you're in, of course hide the hidden ones still

Good video. I'm similar to the first commenter. I was a WOW raider since vanilla and left just as Pandas came out, but I don't care for the way raiding is done in GW2. I didn't start playing until the second expansion, so it felt like I was having to catch up with too much. It was overwhelming in a way. I put my head down and got all the mounts, but grinding for gold to buy gems just to get the living stories was annoying. So, I felt forever behind. I had a great guild in WOW to explore content, but so far I can't find a good one here. I'm an old guy, 63, and I can't handle guilds run by 15-year olds. Just not a good fit. Bottom line, thanks for the push toward achievements. The only ones I've focused on so far have been achievements that gave me mastery points. I'll give the others a try.

Topic suggestion: Home instance completion! I know it's not for everyone, but I've really enjoyed getting all of the nodes for my home instance! There is a lot of content here. And I've never bought any of it from the gemstore.

Hey WP, can you explain fractals? Tiers, progression, agony and the like. Thanks!

Another banger content for new player like me, thanks!

Inventory management, for some the account wide bank is strange. Also the lack of direct trading and how the TP can be easily used on the fly to clear up inventory space. In general how you dismantle gear for resources to either store or sell on the TP as a way of making money.

Hey WP, I just watched the video about Xotecha and asked myself: "What even are the mists?" I think this might be an actual topic to make a video about, I mean at least I am very certain I am not the only one not really understanding what they are. You would be the right person to clear up the mists (pun intended). Maybe this shouldn't be a new players guide video, since this has nothing to do with the gameplay, but I think that this is something many people have been asking themselves and now that I see that many in the GW2 community are aware of your videos (just came across people nodding to your Defiance Bar video), it would be amazing if this is a video that you can find time for.

Please do the fractal infusion video. I think many don't understand that with fractal potions scale with Agony Resistance. When I finally finished my Omni potion and now working towards fractal god. I learned that infusions can go up to +24 at an extreme cost, but that makes me question how much concentration, precision & toughness you can actually get when using a ton of agony resistance combined with the potions.

Dope video!! Thx

Loved that introduction! Great series WP, these videos have been fantastic. Any tips on how to effectively use LFG system for content?

I thought to myself as a three-day newb in the game and checking vids tonight, "man, I like this guy's content. Very helpful."

Please do the skill combos, I saw some on the tool tips but I never used them or tried understanding them, had no clue how to use em or how useful they are/can be.

Awesome Video 👍👍👍👍

I think people like me who came from a console background are just naturally used to looking for this sort of content that they can solo. The Achievement panel is my friend! And yours!! :)

Up to 15k achievement points it is fairly easy to get, and there are a few achievement that give you some quality of life items like 20-32 slots backpack or hair style kits, so it's worth to try them out... i would recommend tho that new players don't botter with expensive collections as there are better ways to get ascended weapons/armor

I don't know if I would even play GW2 if they hadn't achievements. That's my jam! Story Journals are my favorites as well as Side Stories

In the EoD stream they mentioned you can earn a precursor token by playing the living story achievements? Could you make a guide on what to do as a returning player before EoD?

Tips: using GW2Efficiency to look at hidden cheeves, wiki as well. Look up YT vid on how to get them.

Ok I’ve got a question!! How would you rank the classes from fav to least fav ? I recently have have been pondering on this myself, trying to be objective using criteria such as class mechanics, specialization and weapon diversity. So what criteria would you use and how would you rank the classes?

I totally agree that achievements are a great way to enjoy the game. I'm at 28,366, and have a whole lot more to get. Still enjoying them all the time.

I am hopeful that you will do some Fractal coverage

Honestly, I wish this was the norm in other MMO's... This way of doing achievement is so much more rewarding than the usual "Here's some useless brag points" method other MMO's have been using for ages now... anyways, nice video! I've been playing since 2015 and even I didn't know some of that stuff, that goes to show how IN-DEPTH this whole system is.

You should've mentioned that mastery points mainly come from achievements. Also GW2Efficiency has good filters for achievements you haven't earned yet. GW2Efficiency in general should be mentioned, it's a great site for new players, especially crafting calculator.

I can listen to you talk about the game for hours. I really think you can start a podcast. With guests maybe devs, friends of yours pvp players casual players, beginners. And just talk about staff not always about the game it self. To ask people what the game mean to them. Of course you could always talk about lore I think it will be awesome.

I believe this is one of the best MMORPG i ever played since release in terms of questing, exploring, legendaries and pvp. But the problem is, removing the gear progression from the game unlike other games and this make me feel i dont have objective in game or chasing something. I like to farm new gears when it comes bcs this is what all RPG games made for. Fight monsters, loot them get better gear and so on. I just believe the game only missing gear progression once it have it i think more players will play than now.

The unfortunate truth is many gamers went through an oversaturation of chasing achievements when they were introduced to gaming in the mid-late 2000s. Many of us got incredibly burnt out chasing every achievement possible, some being incredibly time consuming grinds, since they were a new exciting metagame that tied into cooperating and competing against friends. Eventually though we realised that the rewards were worthless that nobody really cares about, you burn out trying to do them all with many taking away from the fun of games and most have written off anything with the name "achievement" altogether. The problem is Guild Wars 2 achievements are far more important, rewarding and creatively entertaining than just the mindless grinds and distractions of traditional achievements, but players ignore it immediately since "achievements" are always seen as optional or worse, a waste of time. Even something as simple as changing it's name would have a huge change in how players perceive them. Maybe "Adventures", "Accomplishments", "Advancement" or "Goals", anything to shake that boring association people have with achievements.

This is fundamental, I always got bored before realizing achievments are what leads you to content

I am now more overwhelmed with achievements after watching this. Thanks for the video tho

Do you want to refresh your video on getting to the stat cap?

lol that question "I don't want to play gw2's content, so what do I do in gw2's without playing the game" Achievements!

As a GW2 player I’m curious what it would take to complete GW1 and get all the associated GW2 achievements and rewards ?

While I was gearing out my main and my alts in end level gear I had a huge incentive to do achievements but once I achieved that any incentive I had went out the window.

You meantion around 7:50 that at 10k AP it's a bigger chest with more gems. For me it's the same amount as the 5k one. Can you clarify this a bit?

Please by all that's holy explain the fractal gear grind. Every time I think I understand it I find out there's a different way to get new infusion slots, or a different type of infusion, and I'm just trying to keep up with my very excited veteran friends.

aaawesome job

It never really occurred to me that there isn't really traditional quests in gw2 like gw1, I'm a big fan of achievement hunting

Is there a daily dungeon ever day? I go into daily achievements and dont ever see it in there, but i know its a thing

Achievements hunting is pretty fun for me. I didn't even realize it until I start crafting legendary trinkets which require you to do a lot of achievements (ya u can get some of it from wvw but that's not my style.) but even that some achievement is far from my reach like Bjora march achievements. It's the only map/story I haven't completed the achievements. Like I don't wanna do hundreds of the same strikes u know? lol

Hey WP, I want to play GW2 with a buddy, what’s the best stuff to do together? Should we start with the main story if I’ve already played it and he hasn’t?

this video should literally just be on the main page of GW2's website

I have a question- I chose Ranger as my first character and absolutely loved it, up until I had to elite specialize (I ended up not at all liking Druid, and don't own path of fire yet). I've tried making new characters, but can't seem to adjust to any playstyle other than Ranger. Is there anything I can do?

so that's where all the content is hiding, thank you!

Let's keep it real. Once you have reached full ascended gear, that's it for character progression. It's over, done and dusted. (except for masteries but that's account wide not character specific). The only thing left to do is unlock stuff for completionist sake. But that's ok, because it's a lot of fun doing that. Unless you are not a completionist. I would redirect any such person to a different game.

Why do his graphics look sharper than mine? Are there mods that can be used for image quality?

This game has sooooo much of meaningful things to do. It is a true mmorpg.

wiki is every achi hunter's best friend!

I had no idea there was a wiki call out.

This is something that should be considered when playing breath of fire because you have to spend a ton of time there trying to get mastery xp for mounts, might as well get achievements at the same time.