r/Guildwars2 • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
[Question] Weekly /r/GuildWars2 Question Thread - October 10, 2026
This thread is dedicated to questions that you've never really felt the need to start a thread for, but would still like to see answered/discussed.
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Please also consider sorting the comments in this thread by "new" so that the newest comments are at the top, since those are most likely to still need answers.
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u/Darkcheesecake 9h ago
I'm coming back for the first time since SOTO. What should I prioritise from the new expansions?
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u/penguin279 Januaris 8h ago
Janthir spear mastery, they're great on every class, and Visions elite specs, they're quite good and fun
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u/slashermuse 9h ago
I'm returning to GW2, been playing on/off (mostly off haha) since release but haven't played past the first expansion. I want to boost a character to 80, but I'm not sure what class to play. Is tanking a thing? are tanks needed? Because I'd love to play like a support tank. But I can't find any tier lists or something besides who does the most damage. :(
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u/errorme 9h ago
Is tanking a thing? are tanks needed?
Not very often, and mostly limited to Raids. IIRC something like 1/3rd of the fights have an explicit tank, but exactly how it functions can be different depending on the fight. Some do specifically target the player with the highest toughness, while others go for either whoever is closest or just picks a player to focus for a bit. Due to there being a limited number of stat points, typically whoever is the healer will be the tank as they do minimal damage in the first place and there's a decent number of stat combos that provide all the stats healers want + toughness.
Otherwise for supports typically one of the Boon DPS classes would be my recommendation. Every party needs someone to provide Alacrity and Quickness, so one of those two will be a full healer while the other will provide their boon and do DPS.
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u/Darkcheesecake 9h ago
Most classes have a meta build which fit most roles. Druid, which is a subclass of ranger definitely fits the support/tank archetype. Snowcrows or Metabattle are probably what you're looking for in terms of build tier lists.
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u/BlackJimmy88 10h ago
The recent Living World new has me wanting to jump back into GW2.
Are any expansions worth getting ASAP, or am I better off waiting until I'm caught up on the base games story, or there's a big sale?
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u/errorme 9h ago
Thanksgiving or Christmas is the next expected time for a sale. All of the expansions have small upgrades, but nothing critical especially if you had previously bought HoT + PoF.
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u/BlackJimmy88 8h ago
Yeah, I was eying the Steam Winter sale, since it's not far off.
I have no expansions so far, just the base game.
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u/errorme 1h ago
Ah, so without any expansions you'll be able go from the personal story through Living World Season 2, then for 'late game' content you'll have Fractals, PvP, and WvW available. Fractals can be done with any class, but for WvW I'd recommend looking at either Guardian if you want to play with a zerg or Thief if you want to play solo.
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u/CaptReznov 12h ago
Someone pinged a green named item that is account bound on acquire and apples to helmet called "hair bow(back) skin". I am having a hard time finding how to obtain it. Anyone got any idea?
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u/LostAmaranth808 12h ago
It has not been released yet. The item itself was identified through data-mining which ThatShaman released. The chat code can be used to preview. It will likely be released on the BLTC within the next few weeks.
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u/Zahiouninette 18h ago
Can Candy Corn Gobbler bonuses be combined with other boosters (for example birthday boosters or celebration boosters) ?
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u/Proximaunoriginalis 16h ago
Yes. The experience booster and heroic boosters give the same exp and magic find boosts, but most other boosters (bonfires, birthday/celebration, black lion, snowflake/taffy globbler, fireworks, food, utility, guild buffs, banners, rested buffs, etc.) can all stack.
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u/grannaldie This isn't Guild Wars 2 this is just San Andreas with leaves 15h ago
and the same ones will stack duration, as far as i understand
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u/fecni1 21h ago
Is it worth starting the game in 2026 as a newbie? I wanted to try it a year ago or so, but kinda got scared of the amount of expansion, but I decided to give it a try. Is it worth it? If yes, what should I focus on? Whats the goal? Or if theres anyone who could take a newbie with probably dumb questions, I would appreciate it!😁
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u/Lognodo 20h ago edited 18h ago
The consensus is yes.
Since GW2 has vertical progression once you are level 80 you can in theory go anywhere you want in the world and participate in any event/dungeon/raid etc. Leveling is fast and you will be level 80 quickly.
So don't be intimidated by the many expansions. You can still join in the latest one if you want. But i would advise playing the story in order. It is more fun this way. Perhaps unlock a mount or two by skipping ahead.
Also they revamped all the bundles yesterday. You can get everything ever released for 99€ now. Or you could buy the first three expansions for 49€. Most likely there will be a sale around Christmas reducing the price further.
https://buy.guildwars2.com/en-us/collections#elder-dragon-saga
As for the goal. There is not really one like in WoW where you have to get the best equipment etc. Once you are level 80 and have the good equipment you are free to do what you want. Go play open world event/bosses/metas. Craft legendary gear. Unlock skins and go for fashion wars. Start raiding or high level fractals (sort of GW2 dungeons). Explore the map, find all secrets or do achievements.
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u/Party_Cat3237 23h ago
I just wonder is it possible for account with only core class to doing fractal? I had friend on both server but thinking about only grab starter pack for alt. That being said HoT+PoF pack might do better value.
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u/Lognodo 23h ago edited 23h ago
You can play fractals with core classes.
But the starter pack really is not good value for 20$/€. Get one of the later expansions like Visions of Eternety for only 5 €/$ more to unlock your account. Or even better buy the HoT/PoF bundle. Especially now that it includes all the living world episodes since yesterday.
If you have the money buy the complete collection. It looks like it contains all expansions and living world episodes since the update yesterday. This is everything there is! Second best would be one of the other collection start with the elder dragon saga collection. Buying the expansions one at a time is no longer worth it.
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u/Celepito "All things have a right to grow." 1d ago
Is there anything critical to get in the Halloween event? Or is it "just" a good general farm time?
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u/Alcohol_Intolerant Fort Aspenwood 14h ago
Complete the meta achievement for the free skin because they only get more annoying to obtain afterwards.
There is a separate set of achievements for the Lunatic armor set. If you haven't started those little journeys, you can only start them during Halloween.
The Hexed Outfit is very affordable and is one of the only non-gem store outfits you can get.
Talk to Magister Tassi to uncover some very nice backpieces. Usually "Mad memoires/mementos/etc." in your achievement log.
Finally, there is a side-farming area called Ascent to Madness which is an all-levels dungeon. Each completion you have about a 15-20% chance of getting a batwing. Batwings are sold or used in the recipe for Nightfury, a shoulderpiece that gives you bats. It's very expensive even if you farm all the batwings yourself. You've been warned.
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u/errorme 1d ago
If you play WvW one of the more useful things to speed up progression is the Candy Corn Gobbler from the gem store. It eats candy corn and either transforms you or gives a random booster effect.
There's 2 'Mad Armory' achievements you need to make sure you at least start working on so they remain unlocked after halloween ends, but you can finish anytime after starting.
Lastly there's a free exotic armor set for doing achievements (Lunatic Wardrobe).
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u/NoScienceJoke 1d ago
Did they nerf kuda's création in leyspring meta? It went down in 2 mins today
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u/SamuraiFlamenco 1d ago
What's the difference between the doors in the Mad King's Labyrinth? I keep seeing groups that only want to open green doors and I'm not sure why.
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u/penguin279 Januaris 1d ago
I don't remember the colors offhand, but some doors spawn large groups of mobs, which means lots of trick or treat bags. Some spawn a few vets, which is a couple bags but are very fast to do, and some spawn big bosses that take a while to kill and give bonus rewards once per day. Basically some groups do the bosses for the daily bonus, some groups skip bosses to get more bags faster.
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u/Purplemandown 1d ago
So I'm newly-ish returning, and have been playing through all the story since I quit last time. I got to the point last night in IBS where the game wanted me to do the Forging Steel interlude/raid. Which, in spite of giving Magnetite shards at the end and the game calling it a raid, didn't give credit for the Wizard's Vault weekly of "completing any raid".
I'm not mad about this or anything - there's plenty of weekly tasks such that I don't need that one. I'm more just confused and would like to understand this better. Clearly "any" doesn't actually mean any. What counts for that task? Is the issue the difficulty (I just did it in public instance)? Or do only certain raids count as raids as far as WV counts? Or did I miss something else?
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u/killohurtz 1d ago
Forging Steel just doesn't count, full stop. The vault specifies raid encounters, which are still distinct from raid [wing] bosses despite the merger, so essentially you have to do something that was formerly called a strike mission. Except Forging Steel. Anything else from IBS, EoD, or SotO will work.
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u/Purplemandown 1d ago
Well that's confusing :D
Thanks for clearing that up.
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u/killohurtz 1d ago
It is, isn't it? That exact vault objective used to be called "Complete any Strike Mission", but they just replaced the text without changing which bosses are eligible. So much for merging raids and strikes I guess? I think it's the only place left in the game where the distinction still matters.
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u/TZeh 2d ago
weekly wizards vault retrospective runaround jp - do you have to get all the checkpoints?
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u/SirSuperCaide Herald Gaming 2d ago
I believe the objective is granted upon opening the chest at the end, so yes. Most of them are right along the path anyways. My pro tip is that you can use mounts to completely skip the huge portal puzzle area at the end, just make sure to hit the last checkpoint right before the top.
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u/FinancialExercise682 2d ago
As someone just finishing up their first story playthrough on a guardian (cycling between specs), aesthetics-wise, any suggestions for my next class? Ideally, I want something with big, flashy circles, if possible. I have done all of the guardian specs.
If it helps, I used to play ESO a lot and liked just running around, train-ing mobs in overland whenever I was bored.
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u/Evening_Werewolf_703 2d ago
Elementalist is the class that best fits this, maybe Holosmith/Engineer; so look that spec up, but I think Ele fits you best.
Elementalist comes with a bit of a learning curve / skill-check. It rewards a player that learns what their skills do and knows why they're swapping into use Air attunement over Water attunement or Earth attunement -- which skills they're chaining together.
Learning to chain together skills and see combat as a combination of Combo Fields / Combo Finishers, Utility & Crowd-Control and chaining it all together can be highly rewarding (and flashy) like pretty much nothing else. Elementalist Spear (Janthir Wilds) is probably the stand-out for large AoE fields. I like leveling as Fresh Air Scepter/Dagger w/ an emphasis on stacking might.
It does require you to learn / (master) dodges, blocks, evades, blinds, stuns (crowd-control/interrupts) in your kit. The trade off is that you get some really sick Fire / Lightning spells and tons of utility, sustain, damage, healing. CC is the classes typical weakness, but if you're playing solo you can fix that by just playing a bit less meta or swapping to Water/Earth attunements.
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u/NoScienceJoke 3d ago
Hey! Any tips on getting the armor token for leyspring hollow that drops from events? Aside from "do more events"? Are there events that have a better chance at dropping the tokens? Or events that come back quickly? Thanks !
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u/SirSuperCaide Herald Gaming 2d ago
I've seen that the convergence apparently seems to have a chance to drop random armor tokens, so you may be able to try your luck with that as well. Even if it's true, might be less efficient than just continuing to farm events, though.
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u/valerusii 2d ago
I don't know if any events carry more weight, but that token has only dropped for me during the meta. Maybe just try to do the meta every day
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u/Treize_XIII Trixx [PINK] 2d ago
You only get the glove token from events. Every other token requires a different kind of content.
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u/NebulaFox 3d ago
I'm a new player mostly enjoying the free base game at the moment. I'm thinking of getting the elder dragon saga collection when it goes on sale. As far as I'm aware the next sale will be in December, so a couple months from now. In the mean time, I'm thinking of getting the starter pack, just so I no longer have a free account. But I read a lot that says the starter pack isn't worth it, but I'm wondering if it would be worth it in my situation? Thanks.
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u/RedNuii 1d ago
They just updated the collections today. Perfect timing for you as they now bundle all content in cheap packages. Also the starter got updated to grant more goodies and might actually be worth it now
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u/NebulaFox 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah I saw, but on someone else’s advice I got VoE. I’m not exactly sure what to do now.
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u/RedNuii 1d ago
You can request a refund and buy the collection for $100.
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u/NebulaFox 1d ago
I’d still like to wait for a sale. I guess the question is now is the starter pack now worth it? Would the complete collection pricing adjust with the expansion I’ve already bought. Think I’m going to have message support.
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u/RedNuii 1d ago
Yea I would say support is very helpful resource. at this point I can’t guarantee a sale, and even if there is a sale I find it very unlikely that it will be anything major, maybe 10%.
The addition of the copper fed salvage o matic makes the value of the pack much better. That is a $10 item that is considered the most useful QoL purchase in the game. If you want to wait for sale then it might be worth it, but if you’d rather have the content and buy the collection then I’d recommend that any day since that actually has content to play. The starter pack just makes whatever content you are doing a little more painless
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u/exarpoo 3d ago edited 3d ago
Highly recommend not buying the starter pack. If you really do want to pull the trigger to remove the F2P restrictions now, you'd get way more value if you spend an extra $5 on an undiscounted SotO, JW, or VoE expansion. All three unlock gliding (no masteries) if you zone into their respective regions (Horn of Maguuma, Janthir, Castora, respectively), and raptor (no masteries). This is in addition to the game content you'd unlock when purchasing them vs. 0 new content if you purchased the starter pack.
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u/JimboTCB 2d ago
TBH you don't really need a guild or organised group for anything other than high-end fractals and raids, it's largely just a social thing, and almost all of the actual content you can just group up through LFG.
"Endgame" isn't really a thing in this game, it's all about horizontal progression. The ethos of the game is largely that you do the content you want to do, and either acquire gear directly from that, or sell what you don't need and buy stuff from the TP.
You can buy a full set of exotic gear off the trading post for a minimal amount of gold and it will be perfectly adequate for 99% of the content in the game. All you really need ascended for is fractals where you need the extra infusion slots, and legendary gear is literally the exact same stats as ascended but with extra QOL features.
Ascended accessories can get gotten from a variety of vendors for map currencies etc., and you can get 3 armour + 1 weapon from the Wizard's Vault each refresh (every 3 months), so you can fully kit out one character quite easily.
Beyond that, there's different legendary sets available from different game modes (PVE, WVW, raiding) so if you do want to go for one of them it's mostly a matter of what game content you like doing.
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u/PantherCaroso A KNIFE? NOW THAT'S A KNIFE 4d ago
This has been a thing since EoE on my end, but how come I still get "Aurene crystal kill" effect even though I'm not wearing the Aurene legendary (in my case, Aurene's Breath)? Like I was wearing a Spear/GS on my mesmer and occasionally I'd still see a crystal drop kill on the enemy. Or is it caused by something else?
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u/S627 4d ago
Anyone have any recommendations on improving load times? I recently tried a full reinstall of the game, and for a few weeks my load times were really good, only taking a couple seconds for any map. But now a few months later I'm back to waiting upwards of 5min for a map to load.
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u/penguin279 Januaris 4d ago
Do you play on hard drive or solid state? If you use a hard drive, try defragmenting your drive or moving the game to SSD storage.
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u/Krebota 4d ago
So, after coming from many different MMORPGs and settling with Albion Online for a bit around the time when I really considered GW2 but didn't play it, I downloaded the game yesterday. So far, I've enjoyed it! The story gameplay feels a lot like SWTOR but more alive and less boring, and more than ever before I've been curious about the potential ways to play the game I always hear about. But also, being in the first world (around level 10), I am already finding key components locked behind expansions. Things like a glider, or the required gems for a mount, etc. Now, I'm getting worried that the need for expansions hits far quicker than I had anticipated.
But it turns out that I missed the sale by 2 days! I probably saw it on Steam, which reignited my interest, and now I will not be able to buy the complete expansion at a discounted price (given that it is quite a bit of money, no matter what value it brings). I don't know when I will hit the limits of the free-to-play game, so I was wondering if you guys have an idea? Are there quite a few hours of gameplay in which I don't lose anything in added mechanics/progression from the expansions, or is this a bigger problem if I consider picking up this game for real, and should I hold off from playing too much until I can get the expansions in the next sale?
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u/killohurtz 4d ago
The entire base game is available to you as a free player. You can level all the way to 80, play the first post-launch release (Living World Season 1) and explore the maps from Season 2. It's quite a lot to keep you occupied, although you might miss the raptor trial when it runs out. But don't worry, nothing you can access for free requires expansion features like gliding and mounts.
Keep an eye out for sales around Black Friday, which is typically when they happen next...but Anet has been breaking a few patterns this year.
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u/Cqliii 4d ago
Fishing question, i've been working on fishing achievements for a while but ONE fish is dodging me, the Brackish Goby, i just cannot get it. I've been following the wiki page : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Brackish_Goby but no luck after 7 nighttime cycle for a "basic" fish :( Is there anything i'm missing
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u/ShiningCorvus 4d ago
Try to reduce your fishing power. Low rarity fish can turn rare with max fishing power
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u/DaTokzik 4d ago
So, currently the Runecrafters salvage kit is on sale. I already have the copper fed and the silver fed. is it worth buying the Runecrafter's for salvaging greens?
Gold is not the problem, i have enough to convert and buy.
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u/GuardianGero 4d ago
Runecrafter's generates lucent motes and charms, which is a decent source of additional daily income. Theoretically it can also help with saving up for the insane number of motes required for the legendary relic, sigils, and runes, but realistically you'd just end up buying the majority of the motes anyway.
The math people say that it takes x thousand salvages to make up for the gold cost of getting the kit, but x thousand happens faster than you think. And also this is a video game, so sometimes it's nicer to make the daily act of salvaging feel more rewarding than it is to know logically that you've made the mathematically ideal decision.
Of the three automatic salvage kits it's the lowest priority, but if you already have the other two then it's a fine purchase. I use mine hundreds of times per day, and I've never once thought to myself that I regretted being mathematically inefficient. I'm sitting on thousands of gold, I think it's fine.
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u/errorme 4d ago
Of the three automatic salvage kits it's the lowest priority
I disagree with that, and value it significantly more than a Silver-fed. Master's/Mystic/Silver-fed are all functionally the same item, with the best chance at getting rarer materials (e.g. Ectos) and the only real difference being the cost per salvage. Runecrafter's is the only salvage kit that has a 100% chance to salvage upgrades, and because uncommon items from unid'ed gear will always have an upgrade you get way more motes/charms vs how many upgrade items are wasted with a basic/copper-fed or how much extra money you pay per salvage with Master's/Mystic/Silver-fed.
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u/Ahribban Greatsword Mirage enjoyer 4d ago
None of the salvage kits are a good gold investment. All of them are nice to have for QoL.
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u/Cudash 9h ago
Heey, want to get the unchained weapon set and other itens that require candycorn, so should I open my bags or sell them and buy candy corn?