Frequently Asked Questions
| Guild Wars 2 frequently asked questions | ||
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Use the search feature to look for more details here on the wiki. If you still can't find an answer, ask on the official forums or on the Guild Wars 2 subreddit, and the respective communities should be able to help.
See the Tips page or join a guild and ask in guild chat. Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet[edit]
Start with the Guild Wars 2 and Extended Online Manual articles here on the wiki. Then check out the Guild Wars 2 subreddit's new player guide, which is a compilation of links to guides that cover nearly every aspect of the game.
ArenaNet is a game development studio based in Seattle, USA; their sole property is the Guild Wars franchise. They are a subsidiary of NCsoft, the Korea-based company who publishes the franchise.
ArenaNet has an official website for the game, as well as a presence on many social media sites.
No, there is no monthly subscription fee. Once you purchase the box or a game key, you are free to play as much as you want.
The core game is now available as free to play, with multiple interaction restrictions to prevent the abuse of this offer and encourage new users to purchase the game.
Yes, a guide was published by Brady Games to coincide with the game's release. However, it is now mostly out-of-date, due to the large volume of changes introduced in all the game updates that have occurred since then. If you wish to obtain a copy, it can be found in the official store and at other online retailers.
Yes. SteelSeries offers a mouse, a pair of mousepads, and a gaming headset.
Yes. During development, ArenaNet specifically stated that they were not trying to make another World of Warcraft clone. Their core ideals of accessibility, playing how you want to play, the ability to play with your friends, and not having to wait until maximum level to "begin playing the game" were prominently mentioned in the press for the game. To support these ideals, they replaced the conventional "holy trinity" system of DPS, healer, and tank with a more adaptable system of damage, control, and support.[1]
The best place to propose and discuss suggestions for the game is in the General Discussion section of the official forums. Make sure to include a [Suggestion] tag in your thread's title.
Every purchased account starts with five character slots. Free-to-play accounts start with two character slots, and will receive extra slots if they purchase the game. You can also purchase additional slots through the Gem Store, up to a maximum of 64 slots per account.
Yes. Items in the gem store are mainly of a cosmetic or convenience nature, such as skins, miniatures, and consumables that provide immediate access to the bank or trading post. There are also account services, such as the character slots mentioned above, as well as storage expansions and character rename and makeover kits. There are some items called boosters that have a direct effect on gameplay; they can provide buffs to damage, armor, or gold or experience gain. However, these buffs are generally small, and do not offer any substantial gameplay advantage. Gems, the cash store currency, actually don't have to be purchased with cash: the store includes a currency exchange where players can trade gold, the in-game currency, for gems, or vice versa.
ArenaNet's first expansion "Heart of Thorns" for Guild Wars 2 was released on October 23rd, 2015. There are plans for future expansions.[2]
The North American/European client supports English, French, German, and Spanish; audio is available in English, French, and German. The Chinese client supports Chinese only. The original Guild Wars[edit]
Yes, although it was just called Guild Wars. The first campaign, set about 250 years before Guild Wars 2, was released in 2005, with two additional campaigns and an expansion pack following over the next two years. After that, ArenaNet switched to providing smaller but free content updates (similar to Guild Wars 2's Living World model) in order to transition most of their staff to begin developing Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars still receives periodic maintenance updates, but primary development ceased with the final content release in early 2012.
When they started to develop the fourth Guild Wars campaign, the team realized there were too many things they wanted to do and problems they wanted to fix that were impossible within the existing game engine. They decided that the best way forward was to develop a new game from scratch that would allow them more freedom to innovate in the future.
Yes, ArenaNet is maintaining the Guild Wars servers indefinitely. A number of automation improvements were made before development ceased to ensure that things like seasonal festivals would continue to recur on schedule. You can still purchase copies of the campaigns and the expansion pack through the online store (digital-only) or though other online retailers such as Amazon (boxed and digital). Like Guild Wars 2, the original game was and still is subscription-free.
Yes, although you still have to purchase activation keys for the distinct games/campaigns.
No, nothing can be transferred directly between the games, due to the drastically different game engines. However, it is possible to earn rewards in Guild Wars 2 based on your achievements in Guild Wars. For more information, see the Hall of Monuments article here and the Hall of Monuments article on the Guild Wars Wiki. Technical stuff[edit]
The minimum requirements are:[3]
ArenaNet reserves the right to update these requirements, depending on changes to the game. This might require that a small number of players upgrade or replace their system to continue playing.[3]
No. You must have a broadband connection, i.e. a DSL or cable connection.
No. Only DirectX 9 is required. However, DirectX 10 is supported. [4]
Mac - Yes, ArenaNet has just released a beta client for OS X; Linux - Not officially. ArenaNet has not given any indication that they will offer support for those platforms. The MAC OSX beta is a cider wrapper, so if you are using Linux the best bet would be to use cider.
No. There are no plans to implement the idea. However, a small team is exploring the possibility.[5]
Not at this time. ArenaNet has mentioned the idea, but never released any specifics about it.
Not officially. As with the original Guild Wars, neither ArenaNet nor NCSoft support the use of third party software with GW2; any problems that you have as a result of doing so must be resolved on your own. In addition, players must take care that they are always in compliance with the terms and conditions of the End User Licensing Agreement. The companies reserve the right to suspend or ban accounts that are found to be using software that gives an unfair advantage to players.
Yes. The soundtrack can be altered with customized playlists and audio files. You can also choose to replace some music in certain situations (e.g. during combat), but not in others.
Possibly. Depending on your computer's hardware you may experience reduced performance, visual artifacts, and/or crashes.
Lower the quality of video and audio options. When performance is affected because a large number of players are in the same location, the game makes certain automatic adjustments.
Any time the game patches, it requires downloading 8 content files for a total of 48MB in addition to any changes made to the game. Servers/Worlds[edit]
Yes. When you log into the game for the first time, you will have the opportunity to choose your home world, which you will represent during World versus World.[6]
No, it is not possible to play on servers outside of your chosen region, unless the player decides to transfer to a different region (e.g. from NA to EU). You are not able to join the Chinese servers either, due to the vast differences between the Chinese and Western version of Guild Wars 2.
Yes. You can change your home world. There is a limit of one such transfer every seven days per account; each transfer will cost gems determined by the destination server population—500, 1000 or 1800 gems for medium, high or very high, respectively. After a transfer, all existing and future characters on your account will play in the new world. You can also delete all characters and it will allow you to transfer for free. Your gold, bank, achievement points and titles will not be affected if you delete all characters.
Since the April 2014 Feature Pack, all servers are linked together with a megaserver. If you have a friend, they should be in the same map that you are in, regardless if you are in another server or not. However, you will not be able to play WvW with them if you are on different servers; the rest of the game can be completed together without being on the same server.
Each world will host "many thousands" at a time. There is a limit per map in the world, although ArenaNet hasn't offered a specific number. Each World versus World map is going to support up to 500 players.[7]
Gameplay[edit]
Yes. Your character is able to jump as a movement mechanic. Jumping off cliffs and up platforms is also possible, though long jumps can damage your character and jumps from higher distances can be fatal.
No, but a similar mechanic called gliding has been implemented in the first Guild Wars 2 expansion entitled Heart of Thorns. Gliding is a mastery skill; after mastering basic gliding, the player can continue to master new and improved gliding skills. [8]
Yes. You may instantly travel to any discovered waypoint.
No. For traveling long distance, the game will offer the two types of teleports above (waypoints and asura gates), but the game does not have any other methods, i.e. there are no mounts or ships.[9]. There are various Travel items, obtainable from the gem store that change the appearance of travel, but not the mechanics.
There are several types of rewards available in the game.
Reddit is generally the best place to check for current builds in the meta. Click on either of the links depending on which type of builds you want PvE Builds or PvP Builds. You can also check the official forums, but those builds tend to be outdated. Levels[edit]
80.
No. The level cap remains at 80 even with the release of the Heart of Thorns expansion.
For PvE, Guild Wars 2 uses a dynamic level adjustment system that scales high level characters down to match the area in which they play. This ensures that a higher level character never feels that a level is too easy for them to return to, making all content, "end-game" content. Additionally, a higher level character can not grief lower level areas, by killing every thing in sight. In World vs World and structured PvP, all characters are scaled to level 80, however only sPvP characters will also see their weapons scaled up.
No. There is no kill stealing in Guild Wars. Everyone receives the same opportunity to receive rewards, kills, or harvest from nodes. If multiple players kill a monster together, each will receive credit for killing it.
No. The time needed to go up one level should always be about the same and should never exceed 90 minutes.[10] On average it would take about 60 hours of game time played to reach maximum level, which is about half of what it would take in other MMO's.
Think of achieving level 80 as the "end of the beginning." There is end game content designed specifically for players after reaching level 80, just waiting to be explored and enjoyed:
Playable races[edit]
There are five races in the initial release: asura, charr, human, norn, and sylvari.
ArenaNet has said that they plan to add other playable races, sometime in the future.[11]
Yes. There are appearance differences and unique customization options for each race. Each race comes with a number of racial skills which give them a unique flavor. For example, the norn are able to shapeshift into animal forms and the asura are able to use golems. These utility skills are weaker than equivalent skills provided by a profession.[12] ArenaNet wants the choice of race to have a significant effect on gameplay but, at the same time, for races to be equally effective at playing all professions; for this reason, there are no racial traits. Professions[edit]
There are 8 professions in the initial release of Guild Wars 2.
The Heart of Thorns expansion adds a ninth profession, which is only available to players who purchased the expansion:
Each class has one skill slot reserved for a self-heal. There are also support skills that will heal allies, although these are weaker than self-heal skills. Additionally, there are no skills which directly target allies; any skills which affect the user's allies will do so because the allies are in the area of the caster, in the area of a ground-targeted ability, or in the area of an enemy who is struck by a skill with a secondary effect. The intention is to give support classes an outlet for their protective nature while also requiring them to be fully aware of the battlefield, instead of just watching their allies' health bars. The guardian's defensive magic is based around wards and blocks and, like any profession, it has no skills that can directly target allies. Guardians will don heavy armor and they can do some minor healing, but they have few other similarities to paladins or traditional Warrior/Monk classes. Even though it is considered a heavy support class, it is still capable of doing just as much damage as any other class because of the trait system.
No. Unlike the original game, it will not be possible to have more than one profession. The reason was because of balancing issues.
No. There will not be any restrictions based on race. There are racial skills, but these are generally weaker than similar profession-based skills.
No. Skills[edit]
No.
The first weapon skill and one healing skill are available from the start of the game. Weapon skills are unlocked as your character progresses in level, all other skills are unlocked by spending hero points in the hero panel interface. Hero points are obtained by leveling up or finishing hero challenge events on a map. You can unlock all the core skills and traits with just leveling to max level so completing the hero challenges is generally optional.
The Guild Wars 2 skill bar has ten skills. The first five skills are determined based on your profession and your currently equipped weapon set (or environmental weapons, such as wielding a rock, using a siege weapon or carrying a bucket). The last 5 skills are selected by the player: the sixth slot is reserved for healing, the next three slots for utility skills, and the tenth for an elite skill.
In the initial release, there are over 450 skills: over 250 from weapon choices, 35 from healing, 200 utility, 8 racial, and 60 elites.
The trait system will enable players to create different builds to suit their play style, even while using the same skills. Traits affect recharge times, can add or lengthen the duration of conditions, and affect profession-dependent abilities, such as stealth for thieves. In addition, players can alter their attributes with traits or by their choice of equipment, thus directly or indirectly improving things like health or damage. Equipment[edit]
Yes. Armor, weapons and trinkets will all affect your stats and boost your attributes, depending on upgrades and bonuses. Each piece of equipment also has a minimum required level in order to use it, with those specified for higher levels offering better bonuses.
Back items are a type of gear, sharing characteristics of both trinkets and armor. They provide the lowest magnitude of attribute bonuses out of all equipment types, only 65% of an equivalent (same level and rarity) boot, glove, or shoulder armor, the next-lowest equipment types, or 12% of an equivalent two-handed weapon.
You must periodically repair damaged armor or it will become broken and ineffective.
Ascended rarity is roughly 5% more powerful than the next highest rarity, exotic. Level 80 is required to equip it. Legendary weapons have identical power to their ascended equivalents.
Ascended equipment is account bound and therefore not available on the trading post. It's more reliable to craft ascended armor and weapons rather than relying on loot drops. Ascended trinkets are available from merchants. Certain legendary weapons may be purchased from the trading post.
Cosmetics, prestige, and convenience. Legendary weapons are very expensive and time-consuming to craft, and typically have much more grandiose visuals than other skins. Their stats are identical to ascended weapons, but unlike ascended or lesser gear, players may change the attribute bonuses of their legendary weapon at any time while out of combat. Player versus Environment[edit]
Yes. Each playable race starts in a different area and has a different storyline. However, friends playing different races can meet up after completing a short tutorial and traveling via an asura gate to a racial capital city of their choice. Each race also has a specific capital city that is not shared with another race as well.
In Guild Wars 2, the auction house is called the Black Lion Trading Post. This can be accessed at any time to sell or buy items right from the interface of the game. However, if you need to pick up money or items, you have to visit a Black Lion Trader, which is available as a consumable item in the store or in any of the cities in-game. Several zones have a Black Lion Trader, so buying a consumable in the store to get your items is completely optional.
No. Not in the initial release. However, each character will have access to a home instance in their race's capital; it is personalized according to the character's biography choices. However, at this moment they seem under-utilized and do not offer any customization. The living story patches may change the way the home instance is used in the future however.
You no longer have to speak to an NPC: most events will begin without player intervention, putting an end to the green exclamation points that hover above NPC heads in many games. However, some events still require manual activation, for example hunt and slay the giant boar.
Yes, at least, much of the time. You can participate in your personal storyline, crafting, and dynamic events without anyone else around, if you choose. Any dynamic event listed as a Group Event will also be difficult or impossible to complete alone.
Not exactly. While each race has a unique tutorial instance where new characters begin play, the content is limited to a short, single event chain.
Yes, however Looking For Group (LFG) is not automated and is more of a recruitment board. Since there are no healers or tanks in this game, filling groups generally take anywhere from a few seconds to 10 minutes.
The personal story is the line of events that your character follows as the general story and tasks are progressed; there are similarities to GW's primary mission/quest system. It does not seem likely that the personal story is repeatable, since its completion has a persistent impact on your home instance, but ArenaNet has not specifically ruled the possibility out. The living story is intended to keep the story of Guild Wars 2 alive, even after the personal story has been completed.
The personal story is a customized story for your character that is determined by the choices at character creation and the choices of your actions during the personal story. The living story on the other hand is a progressive story that is consistently updated for free with 2 week period gaps, this takes place after the personal story; but you do not have to complete the personal story line in order to participate in the Living Story. Setting[edit]
You are unable to travel to these areas in the initial release of Guild Wars 2, but they are expected to be added in future releases. To read up on lore, refer to the The Movement of the World article.
Yes. The day and night cycle is faster than real time. Events and monster spawning will change based on the time of day. Centaurs might attack a camp at dawn, and ghosts haunting an ancient battlefield might only be visible at night. Currently, the cycle lasts 2 hours with 80 minutes of day and 40 minutes of night.[13]
There are extensive underwater areas to explore. Aqua Breathers replace normal head armor, but are not required to avoid drowning. Additionally, an entirely separate combat system has been designed for underwater battles; characters are forced into underwater mode when submerged, swapping automatically to an aquatic weapon and modifying the effects of non-weapon skills to suit an underwater environment. Player versus Player[edit]
No, there is no open world PvP of any kind, this includes dueling. If you wish to fight against a player, you must do so in custom arenas. If you wish to participate in large scale battles against other servers, then World versus World would be the closest thing to open world PvP.
Currently, the game includes two types:
In addition, certain activities are also considered PvP, e.g. bar brawling and snowball fights.
Since the April 2014 Feature Pack players will have to unlock all skills or traits that have been added to the game since April 2014. New players will have access to all skills, except for the new healing skills that were introduced and 3 grandmaster traits implemented to every trait line. The cost of these is roughly 20 skill points, which is 20 PvE levels but you may also unlock them by completing the specified event on the trait. The gold amount and skill points it takes to unlock these skills is rather high for low levels, and to unlock them through PvE would essentially require max level. Runes, sigils and some amulets also cost gold but only the ones that were added during the April 2014 patch. Armor and weapons are scaled to be the same regardless of what is equipped, so there is no gear grind.
Yes, although the rate is much slower than it would be by playing PvE. The levels are granted through account bound consumables, so you can play on your favorite character and acquire level up consumables and give it to your alt character to level up.
Yes, you able to purchase a PvP custom arena with gold or cash and host your own games with a specific rule set.
Yes, there is a rating system in both Structured PvP for tournaments and WvWvW. Guilds[edit]
There are many benefits.
Yes, up to 5 different guilds may be associated with an account. Each character can choose to represent a different one of those 5 guilds. Only one character per account needs to be invited, since each will show up in the guild roster as a single member, however, each character must individually press the "represent" button to enable their participation with that guild.
Yes and much more cheaply, although it cannot store account bound or soulbound items. If you purchase the required influence from a Guild promoter, a 250-slot personal guild vault will cost 107 Gold. The cost of adding 240 slots to your account bank will vary with the exchange rate of gold for gems: 480 Gold (at 15 gold per 100 gems), 720 Gold (at 20 gold per 100 gems), 960 Gold (at 25 gold per 100 gems) and 1,440 Gold (at 30 gold per 100 gems).
No.
Yes. The game includes guild achievements and guilds can accrue influence which can be spent on upgrades, including guild storage. In World vs World, guilds are able to conquer and maintain keeps. The game will include a guild calendar and enable guild chat from a web browser.[12] There also guild missions and events that a guild can start that awards commedations which can be spent to purchase powerful items, including the most powerful rarity in the game ascended.
No. If you want to do that, the guild leaders have to manually restrict membership based on character race. There is also only one faction in Guild Wars 2 that is playable, so there is no worries about rolling a faction that your friend does not play.
At this time, there is no Alliance feature for guilds. There has been no communication about this subject since beta.
The initial size of a guild is 50. It can be upgraded to 500, about half the maximum size of an alliance in Guild Wars.
Yes. These ranks are set by default and you can change that. You can also create additional roles, e.g. to manage guild storage or guild upgrade choices.
No.
Guild Halls were added to Guild Wars 2 with the Heart of Thorns expansion. While claiming a Guild Hall requires participating players to own the expansion, once it is claimed, all guild members may fast-travel to the hall, even those without the expansion. Troubleshooting[edit]The Wiki documents numerous anomalies and bugs with related articles. If you have a problem or issue, it's best to first determine if there is a configuration issue or if other players have already found a solution to a similar problem. Otherwise, you may create a Support ticket or use the in-game Support panel. Can't see myself[edit]Occasionally when transformed, your character may appear invisible. This seems to occur most often in an instance such as Fractals. Generally, your character will reappear upon leaving the instance or relogging. References[edit]
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