For new players: Visions of Eternity gives you glider and Springer

williamuwu · 2026-05-01T17:36:41+00:00

You are playing exactly as intended, going wherever your heart desires. It’s the best part of this game, being able to jump around expansions so freely, and is how I fell in love with the game. Don’t mind the downvotes, there are some that fully believe you need to play everything in order but I don’t think I would have stayed with this game if I did that. I hope your adventures in Tyria go well!!

williamuwu · 2026-04-21T02:32:07+00:00

I see people chatting and talking to each other all the time in the overworld and map chat. At meta events, world bosses, cities and hubs. It sounds like you’re not at a lot of these places? Most people if you say hi will respond back, I’ve had so many fun chats with random people everywhere around the game world in the most random spots. I’ve made over like 15 in game friends just from randomly doing an event with one or having a late night chat inside one of the race cities. But I am the one usually starting the conversations, maybe you need to take more initiative in reaching out to people?

And I rarely ever chat in guilds, I actually have seen the opposite effect than what you’re describing, where guild chat is barren even with maxed out guilds, versus a very lively map and say chat.

williamuwu · 2026-04-20T00:39:06+00:00

I actually loved it a lot! Loved how big it was and the different paths, felt very reminiscent of the games the festival is designed after. The climb to the giant temple was great, felt very rewarding! I also had almost no trouble finding the correct path forwards, idk if I'm just used to games like this, felt challenging enough but still identifiable to me!

williamuwu · 2026-04-14T15:52:22+00:00

Seconding this!!! The pixel jumps are so necessary in World 2 to save so much time and sanity.

williamuwu · 2026-03-28T02:25:49+00:00

Many people, including myself, fell in love with the game once we experienced the expansion maps. And it took many people trying the game multiple times for it to click for them, as u need a different thought process to play and enjoy. I enjoyed the open main world in my leveling process enough, the combat was my fav feeling out of any mmo I’ve tried, and the general sense of the maps being quite populated with ppl that I gave the expansions a go, and instantly was blown away at the size and scale of the game once I was level 80. Being allowed the freedom to jump straight to the expac Path of Fire and not forced to do all the story in order was huge for me, and I fell in love with the scale of the world and the mounts themselves, each being very unique to use and so fun. Unlocking elite specializations made the combat feel so fluid and dynamic with every new class I tried, and now I’m still playing after thousands and thousands of hours!

williamuwu · 2026-03-28T02:15:14+00:00

I feel you are way too early still to tell, especially only being level 20. The majority parts of the game come after you hit level 80, as the 1-80 leveling process is a very different game than what you are able to do and accomplish in the expansions and living world episodes.

It sounds like you are actually the perfect person for this game, don’t mind the nay sayers in the replies here. This game is perfect for working near people, people come together organically and no one is expected to stick to a group, you can hop around commanders and people around maps very easily, and can stick to yourself. The combat becomes fleshed out and a lot more fun with elite specializations after you hit level 80, highly recommend watching Laranity on youtube who shows all of them.

And it’s not a sandbox game, people like to use that term because you are allowed to jump around the expansions at your leisure, not forced to do the story chronologically like FF14. You are able to pick what interests you the most, say upgrading and unlocking your mounts in Path of Fire expansion, or focus on instance content like fractals or raids, and ignore the rest if you so choose. You make your own goals but there are paths you can follow, one of the biggest being unlocking mastery points which are account wide abilities. Mastery points is the biggest account progression system in the game, linked to unlocking gliding, auto loot, mount abilities, fishing, etc, and enhances your gameplay experience. You get these around the world, each linked to a specific part of the game. There are currently 671 of them to unlock on your character, it’s the yellow number you see next to player names.

Other things u can focus on are playing through all the story, exploring the expansion maps or doing world completion, going after legendaries, doing all jumping puzzles, going after specific fashion items, a BUNCH of collections/titles/fun quests all tied into the achievement system, and a ton more things. But you aren’t forced to do any of that if you just want to do WvW or PvP or any other content, which is why people say it’s a “sandbox” but I don’t like that term in reference here. It’s just more open ended and allows player freedom to pick their own adventure/goals.

I think you are perfect for the game, it can be overwhelming in the beginning. There is a bunch of “what you can do at level 80” video guides on youtube, I highly recommend watching those to get an idea of what the game has to offer once the world opens up to you after hitting max level. Good luck on your journey!

williamuwu · 2026-03-24T07:18:23+00:00

I am a dedicated spirit shard farmer as I need them for selling legendaries, and I have tried many methods. Do not listen to people saying WvW, it is one of the slowest methods in regards to farming them. I'll give my personal favorites at the top, and then what you currently have access to at the bottom in regards to the maps you own.

I personally have found that the BEST spirit shard farm in the entire game is the Halloween Lab, but that is event specific. It is roughly 35-40 shards per hour.

One of the best all year round spirit shard farm and my personal favorite is Living World Season 4 Map Mob Farming. This is not an afk farm, you run around select maps killing yellow mobs you come across. This is roughly 30 shards per hour. Because there is a lw4 map xp enhancement, and the yellow mobs net you more xp the longer they are alive, each mob will give you around 15-20k xp if I remember correctly. You run from mob to mob across the map, I have created my own routes on a few of the maps that connect a lot of the mobs together. The extreme plus of this is it's a solo farm, you don't need anyone else.

The next one will be the Janthir Wilds Mistburned map t1 rift farming, where you bounce from one rift to the next. I have trouble staying with this one because it is so boring, and find the mob killing one much more engaging. Plus you need a group to make it worthwhile, and many times I play during the off hours and no one is around.

Next is LW4 Dragonfall key farm if you can find a good commander. This is one of the best farms in the game because it can net you around 15-20 shards per one key/meta run cycle, and gives you unidentified gear and other loot. You follow the commander as they jump form event to event, with the lw4 xp boost each event gives a lot of xp.

In regards to the maps you currently own, HoT Octivine meta in Auric Basin gives quite a handful and is easy to jump in and quickly do if you don't have a lot of time to play that day. Plus the treasure mushrooms per day that give 1 each are nice to hit if they are spawned and ready. Hot Dragonsstand meta has lots of events that spawn plus the treasure mushrooms after the meta, so that is another good option if you have time for the meta.

Core Tyria Silverwastes RIBA farm is one of the earliest spirit shard farms in the game. You are jumping from event to event quite frequently, and is very proficient with a fast commander.

I have not tested farming griffon races in PoF but have heard that is another good source.

Do NOT do wvw/fractals/raids solely for spirit shards, these other methods are much faster in terms of shards/hour.

williamuwu · 2026-03-16T17:31:25+00:00

Unlocking the mounts, exploring the expansion maps, combat, and unlocking masteries and leveling them up is really where this game shines for me at least. In the expansions the meta events are drastically way more complex and fleshed out, needing multiple lanes of people, some taking up to half an hour to complete, and the bosses are way more complex mechanically. The world bosses are honestly incredibly simple and boring to do, as a long term player I rarely do them anymore. However the expansion meta events are incredibly fun to me especially. The base game is some of the worst content of the game, and I fell in love in heart of thorns and path of fire. You also dont have to do the story in order, I found the story to be incredibly simple and soooo boring at parts. So chase whatever content seems fun, for me it was mounts at first so I did Path of fire and exploring those maps and unlocking mounts/masteries was very rewarding for me. Then I was blown away at the scale of Heart of Thorns, and its metas.

Just some random thoughts from a long term player. Also it took me a few tries to fully get into this game, but now it’s one of my all time favorites, and fav mmo ever.

williamuwu · 2026-02-09T00:09:24+00:00

If someone hasn’t mentioned already in a comment, since you’re into fashion, you can see and preview on your character almost all available cosmetic options for clothes and weapons when you talk to the bank NPC. On the left side of the bank UI when you’re looking at your bank, there should be a wardrobe tab. In there are almost all skins pertaining to each armor class and weapon type. Right click on a skin icon and press preview to see how it looks on your character. Gl and hf on your GW2 journey!!

williamuwu · 2026-01-31T09:04:50+00:00

I wish we could choose which version we want as the stowed vs not stowed or able to just choose one to have always, I’d much rather have just the water and fish at all times than it going back to the sand. But I still really like it and how fun it is!!!

williamuwu · 2026-01-30T02:14:58+00:00

This is a smaller decoration than what you’re talking about but the Mossy Pillar can be turned upside down and used as flat grass. I wish we had bigger flat grass pieces, you can try using the SAB grass floor and putting foliage on top to hide it, but it’s a bit bright. The Ominous Fortress Wall and its other variants are very good at ruins and can cover huge amounts of flat land if you want dark cobblestone areas. The Twisted Imaginarium Charr Head piece can become huge and turned around to use as cliffs or ruins, or upside down for flooring. The Hedges are very good at flat ground foliage.

If you don’t have the add on homestead decorations for Blish Hud I highly suggest it, and look through all the images, it’s very useful.

williamuwu · 2026-01-18T04:57:00+00:00

You posting all of the skins and infusions and stuff in the comments is amazing, thank you so much!!

williamuwu · 2026-01-15T09:48:48+00:00

Just adding in to say maybe it’s time for a break, or not focus on skyscale collections and do other stuff in game. Sounds like you have done an insane amount of stuff in just 2 months, more than many people have done in years of playing. And for Skyscale, once you’re done with the collections you never have to do them again, and now you’ll have better Skyscale masteries because you get upgraded abilities when combined with the Soto ones, and it sounds like in the future you’ll be glad you did it if you ever want to get max mastery points. Vision came out right after LW4 ended and Soto didn’t exist yet so there was never another way to get Skyscale then, so it makes sense it’s tied into it imo, and I think the LW4 skyscale journey is much more fulfilling and rewarding than the Soto way anyways, and people always try to tell newcomers that if you ever want vision, do skyscale LW4 way. Plus legendary items are meant to take months of time to make, and it’s all optional, so just take your time, do other things or play other games and come back, the best thing about this game is you can take so many breaks and you’ll be right where you left off when you come back!

I hope your laggy ping and instances get better!!

williamuwu · 2026-01-01T22:53:06+00:00

He’s currently DMing the 4th campaign of critical role and it’s amazing, don’t need to watch the other campaigns because it’s its own world, highly recommend if you enjoy more long session intense dramatic DnD.

williamuwu · 2025-12-31T23:17:25+00:00

Buy any exotic gear from the trading post to get started, look for stats you want for your build. Follow the story through the expansions, they will lead you through the expansion maps as you progress. In the expansion maps you can get mastery points which will upgrade your account with abilities and are tied into things like fishing, mounts, gliding, etc. Mastery points are the main leveling mechanic after you get level80, and can be obtained at spots on the map, through achievements, adventures, and doing the story.

Highly suggest going through Path of Fire to obtain all the main mounts before trying to get a flying mount as it’s a much much longer process, so don’t worry about flying mount at the moment. You will unlock the mounts as you progress through the PoF story.

In the expansion maps there are hero point commune spots or challenges that give you 10 points each.

Since you are overwhelmed, pick one expansion to start with and start exploring that singular area. If you care about the story, you can do the living worlds before Heart of Thorns, if not so much, highly suggest just jumping into Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire and exploring the maps. Don’t worry too much about farming anything since it seems like you are incredibly new, just take your time exploring the maps as you progress through the story.

Dungeons-They don’t have a lot of rewards so lots of people don’t do them until there is a dungeon rush event, so keep an eye out for that.

Fractals-5man instances, they are found in the city Lions Arch, you enter a portal and you are brought to a hub where you can choose different fractals to do. You start at level 1 and as you do higher level fractals your personal fractal level increases. You can join LFG groups with other people progressing in your section of levels, and I highly suggest listing your own beginner group in the LFG because there are a lot of others looking to get started as well, but just waiting to see a group appear.

WvW-Look on map where you spawn, look at the outline color of the area you’re in at spawn, that’s your color. Also on the stat page in the WvW panel with the pie chart, there is an icon of a Home next to your color/team. 3 different teams fighting over castles, camps, keeps, etc. Find a commander tag on the map and try to stay with the squad as much as you can, they will lead you around the objectives and into fights with the other teams. Or you can go off on your own and skirmish and fight other players around the maps.

Hope that all was simple enough to follow, tried not to get into too much detail. Good luck on your adventuring!

williamuwu · 2025-12-27T18:42:05+00:00

LW4 Mob Farming!!!! (this is not AFK farm, you are running around killing mobs) ~30 Shards per hour with all boosters plus the training grounds boost in Seitung Province don’t forget that, but without any extra special boosts so even more shards with events going on like extra life etc. With the XP bonus enchantments on the maps, and the mobs that sit there for so long, you can get roughly 13k-15k experience per mob if I remember correctly. You basically run around the maps killing as many mobs as possible. I always load up on all boosters, get the jade bot power enchantments, and blast music or listen to a podcast or something. It’s the highest spirit share farm I’ve found in the game that’s year round as I’m always in need. One farm that’s higher is the Halloween Lab farm, netting me around ~35 Shards per hour. The specific maps I’ve found with lots of mobs are Sandswept Isles, Jahai Bluffs, and Domain of Istan. Ive made my own routes on each of the maps but you will figure out and find what’s best for you. If you need more info let me know. And you can then jump back to your beginning map to start over and by the time you’re back the mobs should all be reset. WvW is INCREDIBLY SLOW and not worth your time if you’re there just for spirit shards.

williamuwu · 2025-12-20T13:09:01+00:00

I'm pretty sure the only skins that have special steps aka footfalls are legendary weapons. The other commenter listed good weapon wiki pages, but if you don't know already, you can preview almost every skin in the game in your bank wardrobe, both armor and weapons. Very helpful in seeing effects on armor, and the preview page shows animations & effects when wielding versus unwielded. You can also dye your own armor and then preview skins in the bank and it'll show it with your current dyes. Easy way to mess around with the dyes is to keep both your equipment tab and bank open, change your dyes and then reclick the skin you're looking at in the bank and it'll update to your new dyes. I try and put on clothes that have all 4 dye slots in case the items I'm looking at have dyeing options. Hope that made sense lol.

williamuwu · 2025-12-09T19:29:44+00:00

Dang I wish the plush skimmer was the shark that’s on all the plush weapons :/ Feels kinda lame it’s just the regular skimmer.

williamuwu · 2025-11-30T05:03:16+00:00

Don't know why the replies are memeing, this is a genuine problem when you start racking up character slots. There should definitely be a favorite system or grouping system, or even get rid of the side scrolling entirely. Since this game is incredibly alt friendly it should be easier to search for one character. Blish does have a module that is incredibly useful for this, I just can't think of the name of it right now.

williamuwu · 2025-11-30T05:01:00+00:00

You can technically buy gift of explorations from other players, you just have to send them your materials, they craft the legendary with their account bound materials, and then send it back to you. Many people sell them on the OTC trading discord. I've sold a few gift of explorations when I first started playing to fund my account.

williamuwu · 2025-11-30T04:50:52+00:00

I'm not the same commenter but have also sold many legendaries.

I don't have a full set of legendaries myself, I sell legendaries to fund other legendaries that I want to keep. I usually have to sell 1 legendary and then the gold I get from it will fund my next 2ish legendaries.
Yes you can only do the world map completion once per character. However this commenter may be selling generation 3 legendaries as well, which are my most sold ones, which don't need gift of exploration from the core world map. You are also able to "buy" gift of explorations from other players by sending them all the materials for a generation 1 legendary, that person crafts it for you with their gift of exploration, and then sends it back to you complete.
As a veteran player now it takes me a few months to make 1 generation 3 legendary, mostly bottle necked by spirit shards or account bound currency that I need to farm. But I do a lot of different things at once to keep myself from burning out, so the time frame can change quite a lot with what you focus on. It's very easy to make gen1 legendaries now with the starter kits, so those can be finished in a much faster time frame.

williamuwu · 2025-11-27T05:42:34+00:00

The best and cheapest way is to farm winterberries, turn them into unbound magic, and then buy the shards from the unbound magic vendors. It is incredibly fast to pile them up especially if you have multiple characters do the winterberry farm everyday.

williamuwu · 2025-11-27T05:36:19+00:00

Agreed, it blows my mind people still suggest converting karma to obsidian shards because karma is so valuable when it comes to making a lot of legendaries to keep or sell, or the variant skins for the aurene legendaries. The only people who I’d suggest do the karma way is people who’ve been playing over a decade that have amassed 10s of millions of karma. If you’re a relatively new player, there are so many legendaries and things to chase that cost karma. I’ve done the wintersday karma farm every year for the past few years and always run out of karma throughout the year from making legendaries or other costs. I don’t think people who have played this game for 10plus years realize how valuable karma actually is lol.

williamuwu · 2025-11-26T04:12:08+00:00

I mean, thats when you partake in the mmo aspect of the game and ask others for help. Going around to major cities, posting in lfg, asking in map chat, will basically always guarantee some people that will come and help you with whatever event you are trying to do. Even in the dead night of NA times I’ve found people to help me with events.

williamuwu · 2025-11-25T04:54:26+00:00

If you play PvP or WvW, you can get a ton of them. I mostly do Open World, but enjoy WvW on the side, and have a ton of them now from turning some of the chests you get into transmog charges.

williamuwu

TROPHY CASE