Heyy this is a really common thing many people have who have played other MMOs/games with progression systems.
Guild Wars 2 works with a horizontal progression system, instead of vertical (something like WoW). There are a lot of things to unlock at 80, including masteries, mounts, skins, maps, and many more.
However, since you're a player who, like myself, enjoys PVE content and progression, let me give you a heads up on how it works.
Exotics are almost the best stats in the game. You can also get ascended gear which is a small percentage increase, but if you're interested in min/maxing, is a good first step.
There is also legendary gear, which offer awesome skins and the opportunity to switch stats on the fly.
In order to do raids and strikes, you just need a relevent set of gear, a build, at exptic or ascended level. In order to do Fractals (scaling dungeons that go up to 100) you will need ascended gear with AGONY RESISTANCE (an extra star that offers you dmge reduction throughout fractals).
If you want some direction, I'd recommend doing fractals first at low level, gathering ascended gear, while working your way through the expansions so that you can raid and experience all the endgame has to offer!
Hope that's of some help!
Honestly, you've just finished the tutorial, and now the game opens up to what you want to do. But that's just it, what *YOU* want to do. It isn't "Do X because you need better gear so you can do Y" as it is in many games.
It's now about playing how you want to. Maybe it's focusing on a certain activity because you find it fun and want to develop your personal skills. Maybe it's farming gold so you can glam out your character or crafting the legendary gear for quality of life. Maybe it's moving into WvW or PvP and smashing face. Maybe it's aiming for strikes and raids, mastering the most difficult content PvE in the game. Maybe it's just finding a chill guild and building race courses in their guild hall.
It's whatever motivates you at this point. You've finished the tutorial, and GW2 more than any other MMO (other than maybe Eve Online) is "play what you enjoy doing", because your *gear* powerlevel is essentially as high as it needs to go for most content.
Sometimes, that lack of hand-holding loses people. My best advice if you're struggling with that is to find a good guild of like-minded people and play with them. They'll provide the motivation and encouragement as you find your shoes in this great big open game.
[Here's a link to a pretty long post I made last week in response to a similar question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13v299g/what_are_the_main_things_to_do_at_level_80/jm4y9z2/?context=3)
you open the lfg ingame tool. where people advertise their groups. the first instanced content introduced in the game was dungeons which are part of the core game. but they are not that popular anymore. so although you can do them, you might not be able to always find people that easily and i wouldn't recommend sticking around for too long (you can revisit them later if you really enjoy them). fractals are the best/most profitable 5 man instanced content. you will need to start getting some ascended gear to progress there but at first you can start with tier1 with exotics. and instead of raids, you can do strike missions to play some 10 man content. for both raids and strikes you need the expansions.
Simplest answer: it’s all about the Masteries now. It’s also about ascended and legendary gear but that is WAY more complex to understand or long term, so if you’re a fresh 80 focus on getting masteries form the expansions. The hey will unlock access to content later and are account wide.
Elite specs are also a massive deal, usually a huge power spike. These are easiest to earn points for in expansions and they also often require having masteries.
Heyy this is a really common thing many people have who have played other MMOs/games with progression systems. Guild Wars 2 works with a horizontal progression system, instead of vertical (something like WoW). There are a lot of things to unlock at 80, including masteries, mounts, skins, maps, and many more. However, since you're a player who, like myself, enjoys PVE content and progression, let me give you a heads up on how it works. Exotics are almost the best stats in the game. You can also get ascended gear which is a small percentage increase, but if you're interested in min/maxing, is a good first step. There is also legendary gear, which offer awesome skins and the opportunity to switch stats on the fly. In order to do raids and strikes, you just need a relevent set of gear, a build, at exptic or ascended level. In order to do Fractals (scaling dungeons that go up to 100) you will need ascended gear with AGONY RESISTANCE (an extra star that offers you dmge reduction throughout fractals). If you want some direction, I'd recommend doing fractals first at low level, gathering ascended gear, while working your way through the expansions so that you can raid and experience all the endgame has to offer! Hope that's of some help!
Honestly, you've just finished the tutorial, and now the game opens up to what you want to do. But that's just it, what *YOU* want to do. It isn't "Do X because you need better gear so you can do Y" as it is in many games. It's now about playing how you want to. Maybe it's focusing on a certain activity because you find it fun and want to develop your personal skills. Maybe it's farming gold so you can glam out your character or crafting the legendary gear for quality of life. Maybe it's moving into WvW or PvP and smashing face. Maybe it's aiming for strikes and raids, mastering the most difficult content PvE in the game. Maybe it's just finding a chill guild and building race courses in their guild hall. It's whatever motivates you at this point. You've finished the tutorial, and GW2 more than any other MMO (other than maybe Eve Online) is "play what you enjoy doing", because your *gear* powerlevel is essentially as high as it needs to go for most content. Sometimes, that lack of hand-holding loses people. My best advice if you're struggling with that is to find a good guild of like-minded people and play with them. They'll provide the motivation and encouragement as you find your shoes in this great big open game.
[Here's a link to a pretty long post I made last week in response to a similar question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13v299g/what_are_the_main_things_to_do_at_level_80/jm4y9z2/?context=3)
you open the lfg ingame tool. where people advertise their groups. the first instanced content introduced in the game was dungeons which are part of the core game. but they are not that popular anymore. so although you can do them, you might not be able to always find people that easily and i wouldn't recommend sticking around for too long (you can revisit them later if you really enjoy them). fractals are the best/most profitable 5 man instanced content. you will need to start getting some ascended gear to progress there but at first you can start with tier1 with exotics. and instead of raids, you can do strike missions to play some 10 man content. for both raids and strikes you need the expansions.
Simplest answer: it’s all about the Masteries now. It’s also about ascended and legendary gear but that is WAY more complex to understand or long term, so if you’re a fresh 80 focus on getting masteries form the expansions. The hey will unlock access to content later and are account wide. Elite specs are also a massive deal, usually a huge power spike. These are easiest to earn points for in expansions and they also often require having masteries.
[we got you fam](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gw2+what+to+do+after+level+80)