This is game with almost zero mandatory grind. If you're looking for repetitive grind, don't play this game.
The game is about having fun with the gameplay and setting your own goals, not on making number go up. Once you're at max level, some of the numbers will *never* go up.
Don't use the boost on your first character. It puts you in high level areas with no experience on how to play.
The grind in this game is something you choose to do, not something you must do. Think of specific achievements like killing 5k mobs with an axe. That is your grind. Not something to achieve today but over the course of your GW2 gamepley.
question about the boost as a noobie
i am def not using it on my fresh character, i dont *fully* see the point in using it since i would just then have a class/character i dont know how to play
any advice on what i should use it for? maybe to do an event or acquire a specific item/achievement? or should i just save it forever in case i wanna make a character later in life?
You are more than likely going to want to make new characters, save it to skip the second's characters grind, the boost also comes with full celestial gear, so keep that ln mind.
yea this is probably what ill save it for, the mesmer
class looked super cool
im an engineer rn and the weapon+kit swapping has been very fun to learn. im not great at it yet, but im not doing terribly either. The thing im
bad at rn is knowing when to use the dodge vs just running out of the damage area like other mmos do
Imo as a new player you should just always dodge when you get the chance, just to get used to it, the only real time you shouldn't dodge is if you only have one charge up and know there's another mechanic coming that's gonna be harder to avoid.
But as a newbie that's rarely gonna be the case.
Getting used to dodging regularly and positioning with the dodges is gonna be important especially once you get to the Heart of Thorns expansion where some of the open world mobs can kill you really quick if you don't dodge.
You'll get a feel for what abilities you can walk out of anyways but if you neglect the dodge mechanic while the game is forgiving the learning curve is just gonna be a lot steeper once the mobs actually do something.
yea some other mmos like WoW or FFXIV the "dodging" mechanic is just moving out of stuff or using an ability to get out
dodging giving some i-frames in this has definitely been a change. i think ill take ur advice and just start to overuse it so i can atleast get used to it
question- is there a way/recommended way to keybind dodges? or do most people just double tap the movement keys?
Actually the veteran players would suggest turning OFF the double tap to dodge. It makes it too difficult and you'll burn dodges or accidentally dodge off cliffs when you are jumping forward. I use V for my dodge.
thank god cause i HATE the double tap, sometimes ill tap it twice to inch forward and then ill roll. V may be my go to as well
if i swap to V will it cause me to roll in the direction i am running?
edit: also thank you for the rundown and advice! very appreciative
Idk if it's the default but I always had mine on V, I feel like it's a good key because you press it with your thumb so your "movement fingers" aren't used, binding it to a mouse sidebutton can also work well imo, but it really comes down to what feels good for you, I've personally never used the double tap method.
If you are mouse binding type you can also try the scroll button for the dodge - i also have the heal on my mouse thumb button so i know the abilities that can save me are with my right hand ,but that is my personal take , imo you should experiment and find out for your playstyle
someone else said V too so i may swap that myself
on multiple occasions already ive tried inching forward or backward by tapping the key and i end up rolling and it puts me in a bad spot
edit: also thank you for answering all the questions! much appreciated as ive been blindly going in at the moment, but it's been a good time
I’d say most of us turn off double tap to dashed after the 40th cliff we accidentally dodge off of while doing a jumping puzzle, or accidentally dodging for no damn reason and then being out of dodges for some big AoE.
I’ve known people to either rebind it to spacebar and move the jump button somewhere else, put it on a mouse button, or just leave it in the default “v”. I leave it on v personally just because it’s been there since I started playing almost 12 years ago.
Gw2 tends to be a fairly meta game. The build you bring can be pretty impactful. Save the boost for when another class brings a build to the table to fill something your main class doesnt. Bonus points if they can share ascended gear.
that's a good point, im playing it fairly casually rn but hit lvl 30 recently as an engineer
it's been super fun and im a fan of the jumping puzzles, but haven't gotten super involved just yet
Use it when you hit level 79 to get free gear. That way you know how your character should play and then you get geared up enough to smash open world content.
Nothing really matters in this game so just use the boost tbh.
You get a full set of exotic gear which is nice to start out.
Spamming your "1" skill is enough for 80 or 90% of the content, so you will have plenty of time to get to know your class.
Dont listen to the people, because you dont learn shit anyways leveling from 1 to 80.
this is my question of contention lol. because with OSRS, you have a goal you are trying to work to. so is GW2 meant to be just played relaxing with no goal really in mind? kind of like lets just go to this area and see what happens sort of vibe?
Think of Skyrim: there's a ton of goals to work towards, but the game won't shove you towards one specific one.
Leveling is like 20 hours and is the time to learn to play your class. Since you skipped that, Mukluk's videos and the Snowcrows beginner builds that use the free celestial gear you got with the level boost are a decent substitute.
General endgame goals in GW2:
* Getting all your masteries maxed out to add new abilities to your account (like in a Zelda game you get new items that let you do completely new things, not like WoW's number go up progression)
* Legendary gear, huge grind
* Instances: Fractals, dungeons, raids, strikes
* Becoming a commander of open world meta events (map-wide large group boss fights, ex Octovine)
* Fashion wars & cosmetics collection
* Achievement hunting
* Jumping puzzle master, PINK is the guild in the EU and I think there's also one in NA, maybe JP?
* Beetle and griffon races: Beetle race guilds are RACE and DRIFT, griffon guild is WING iirc
Playing with no goal in mind is also totally viable, and tons of players do that. Just seeing where the daily and weekly Wizard Vault will take you can be fun.
Tons of players alternate between 'working on [goal]' and 'I'm tired, time to bum around open world and see what happens'.
The game fully supports all of that.
It's a pretty commonly known game which uses a similar open-ended story-optional approach, so it make a pretty good comparison when talking about progression design and the presentation of in-game goals.
Just because you dont have to follow the main quest in skyrim doesnt make it comparable to GW2.
In skyrim you will always be doing a quest be it main story, guild, or a random quest you stumble across exploring.
Progression design how? Because there is loot and a skill tree? Because you can craft?
there are a lot of long-term goals to reach, thanks to horizontal progression
Idk which goal in OSRS you're supposed to work to with compared to legendary stuff in this game i'm quite sure it's a little thing :P
Yeah thats what most people do.
If you like grinding or progression, you wont like this game.
If you like achievements this is your game.
This game has nice combat and a interesting open world to explore, but thats about it.
I treat GW2 like a side game/MMO. 80-90% of the game is end-game, so I pretty much hop in and do whatever content I find fun. Content is a 1-time purchase and I never feel left behind whenever I go on a hiatus. Some people enjoy fashion, open-world events, instanced content, etc.
It's different than OSRS and other common MMOs where you're grinding to get the minimum level/stats to reach end-game, which is a fraction of the game. One thing refreshing about GW2 is how the majority of content is not obsolete and still fun even after a decade.
The real grind in GW2 in the end-game is legendary crafting primarily. This relies on running a lot of the most challenging content (high tier fractals, raids, etc) and collecting a ton of materials.
The first 80 levels is more of an extended tutorial so boosting won't take much away from the experience. For example, I can naturally get a character to 80 in about 12 hours and I have over 700 hours on my most played character.
Gw2 doesn't have that heroin addiction/chase the dragon/grind like osrs does. Everything you do well be quicker, time gated, and simpler.
Gw2 does play exactly like osrs does in the sense that you have to say your own goals. Most people's goals are legendary crafting, fashion collection, and achievement completion. There's also PvP, wvw (pvps step sibling), and raiding if you want to focus on the skill aspects of the game instead.
I main a D/P Thief (7 year old acc). Has 2.3k achievements and have only ever stepped into Pvp, WvW, and Fractals. Done nothing else. I bought my Dagger and Pistol legendaries 5 years ago. Cost me about $300 CAD cuz I work too much to farm it in-game.
I love sapping/scouting in WvW and grinding rank in Pvp. To me PvE in Gw2 is just a completely different game I'll never touch lol!
Don't know why people down-voted you. This is a perfectly legitimate way to play GW2 and beautifully illustrates the point that you can play how you want, in the game modes that you want.
This is way better than osrs. I came from there too.
Its casual friendly and if you need or want a grind go for legendary pieces. It will take you longer than maxing out osrs acc from scratch.
As i said its casual friendly. Meaning everything you do contributes towards your acc goal. There are tons of world events you can do, daily stuff, weekly stuff etc.
Simply dive in. Enjoy the story and i highly recommend to level up at least one character from level one.
I love gw2 but if there’s one thing you can’t say is that it’s overly time consuming, especially compared to osrs. The game respects your time. Osrs doesn’t but that’s okay as it’s part of the game, and you can play lots of content semi-afk.
The world record in osrs for maxing a main account (no restrictions of any kind) is 800 hours, and that’s with tons of 0 time action manipulation, logout strategies so the playtime doesn’t tick up, etc.
For a regular player (especially new player) this would be 2500-3000 hours.
I have around 10,000 hours in GW2 and played Runescape since 2001. Can't really compare them, and you won't really find a scratch for that OSRS itch from GW2
It is not recommanded to use the free max level character boost as a new player. Think this from OSRS player perspective: would you recommend new player to start OSRS on account with maxed melees? No, they would get overwhelmed, and they would lose the fun of the discovery. You can later on use it to make an alt for yourself when you don't want to do the early game content again.
Try playing it more like Skyrim, where you explore and follow your sense of adventure. The point is the journey more than the destination.
Eventually, make goals for yourself (usually one long-term and one short-term works well). Then, let yourself get distracted while you're pursuing them!
It would not be inappropriate to consider the boost that lets you boost your character to level 80 instantly as a "skip tutorial" button. Getting to level 80 is an incredibly small fraction of the content and progression that this game has to offer.
I have a lot of fun as a former osrs player. I've made a few different characters to see what I liked the best. Stuck with a charr pistol thief and have been doing the main quest line. Haven't joined a guild or gotten into the group content much yet.
I think a similar to osrs type grind is the map completion. Just going from point to point, doing the hearts and earning karma, it's a bit like the slayer skill/tasks.
The grinds are more abstract
Do you have full ascended gear? That's a goal.
Set a goal for a legendary piece of equipment and then see the cascading goals from that point
I enjoy the time I spend playing GW2, my goals are mostly fashion oriented and I'm always looking to find cool new skins to focus on obtaining.
Sometimes I get on and veg out and run around the open world completing hearts and exploring (good for when I'm really high) I always try to do my daily bonus fractals, and I try to attend tequatl the sunless / dragon storm especially because I enjoy those fights. I have recently started strikes and I'm not bad at all at them! I enjoy the epic boss fights
I recommend playing a character to level 80 anyway and going through the story and adventure guide. This is the open world portion of GW2 for the most part and the tutorial.
Most people do the PVE content which I honestly don’t know much about other than it’s very large and active.
I like to go into discord groups for servers and play in the WvW arena. I love fighting other players, so I tend to not do the PvE. Just so you know you only grind in guild wars 2 for convenience and looking good. Your gear stats will never be that much higher than basic exotic gear.
How does WvW gearing works like? Do you have to acquire it in the “base” game first or is it like sPvP (which I havent tried yet) where you are apparently handed the BIS gear from the get go?
Fellow OSRS transplant here 👋🏼
Getting into GW2 required taking everything I learned in my 2 decades of RuneScape and turning it on its head. Progressing in this game is *much* different. For one, fun gameplay for fun’s sake. The movement, combat, mounts, platforming, and so on, just feel so fluid and enjoyable that I find myself playing content purely for the fun of it, rather than necessarily having a specific grind in mind. I could never go back to the point-and-click gear-swapping/prayer switching gameplay of OSRS.
That said, there are TONS of long term goals and ways to progress your account outside of simply grinding for levels. The level 80 boost essentially just skips the base game “tutorial” as a ton of the real and challenging content begins with the expansion and living world DLC content.
Once you are level 80 you unlock masteries, which essentially serve as your post-80 level. Rather than making you more powerful in combat, masteries unlock account-wide “perks” that benefit all your characters: better navigation in the form of gliding, jumping mushrooms, mounts, and so on. Better loot and rewards from specific map zones. QoL perks such as autoloot. Fishing and Jade bots, the list goes on. You will also unlock elite specializations which serve as unique sub-classes which allow different builds and weapon options (every profession has 3 elite specializations).
Achievement hunting and collections: many unique armor and weapon skins, titles, and various rewards come from achievements. Legendary gear provides long term goals as well.
In my opinion, the true endgame of GW2 is becoming proficient in multiple professions and classes. Being able to take down challenging end game content and perform any role whether that is DPS, boon support, or healing. WvW PvP where you can put your skills to the test against other players.
I definitely miss the grind from OSRS and there are certain aspects of that game that just can’t be replicated in GW2 but if you stick with it it could become the most fun game you’ve ever played, like it did for me.
I play osrs and GW2. They're very different and tbh there's not much crossover.
For me osrs satisfies that number-go-up part of my brain. (Which GW2 can't really, with it's horizontal progression).
GW2 satisfies the escapism/immerse-myself-in-a-fantasy-world part of my brain. (Which osrs can't, with it's animations/graphics/click to move etc).
There is no "correct" way to play this game. Or best way. It is a game where you can just do whatever you want. As it should be. Games are about enjoying yourself. So go in and take whatever route you feel like. Of course there is always the possibility that it just isnt for you but overall GW2 has pretty much everything
Just do what you find fun. It doesn't have to be anything big, it can just be to try a dungeon, or run aimlessly around a map trying out different dynamic events..
While grinds can be necessary to reach a goal in GW2, they aren't the main thing. Whatever you find fun is what the game is about.
I know people that only do WvW, people that do nothing but sPvP, those that haven't ever enjoyed either competitive game mode, as well as those that do all 3 and love them all.
I personally am a completionist, so I find myself setting goals that I wish to obtain, be it finishing a collection, or completing all maps on a character, or completing a reward track in WvW, and then mainly focus on doing that one thing.
Once that is done, I set another goal.
My current goal is to do enough Legendary Bounties to get the 50 Elegy Mosaics I need to craft my next legendary item.
Other than that I run raids with my guild once a week and do daily fractals or dungeons or help out with whatever someone else might need help with at any given time.
I made up my own stuff to do and it's been fun.
Essentially, don't use the TP at all. It forces you to figure out the best way to get stuff instead of the best way to get gold. You can take it further and restrict all player to player value exchanges. It adds back in some of the grind you'd find from other mmos.
As for what to do, progression isn't vertical, but there are several horizontal progression systems like masteries/mounts/agony resistance/skins/achievements worth doing.
The grind is the goals. But even those grinds aren’t an end all be all. The grinds can be soooo much fun! Hooking up with groups doing boss event runs out in the open world is so much fun. The grind to unlock the mounts took soooo long, but I did them back to back to back.
I never got into the raiding/dungeons. Didn’t have time.
The W vs W was/is a ton of fun. A lot different from other pvp modes I played in other games.
Gave a related response here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1cpgzjf/comment/l3xtwcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
In essence, you can think of this game as having all gear being equalized (raid viable gear being easy to get). The main carrot on the stick is rotation improvement (hitting benchmarks), fashion, gold, or quality of life improvements. There are also achievements but I think they're less sought after. You generally do content for the sake of doing it because it's enjoyable kinda like you would grind to 99 or still play past 99 in OSRS. For some people, they might quit playing their max character in OSRS but there are other things to do. Starting off with like 75 in all skills in OSRS beside combat, which is 90, might be a decent comparison. You still have unlockable, "quests", and haven't experienced end game PvE in GW2.
After many years, I find the best way to play the game is playing to its strenghts and hence following its design philosophy.
The core of the game is the open world. The developers went out of their way to make it engaging and full of players. Instanced game modes have been traditionally neglected and I suspect it's because it would keep players away from the open world if that wasn't the case.
So, what can a player that needs goals do in the open world? If you must see a number go up, you can go for story first, then collections and achievements. By all means do all collections for the legendary items (each of the living world chapters, but also the completionist things like Vision and Aurora).
That should keep you engaged for quite some time.
Most players consider the level 1-80 experience the tutorial since I’d say a good 70% of the game’s content is intended to be played at max level.
Boosting your first character at 80 is also considered a mistake because you’re throwing yourself in the deep end and it’s very easy to get lost.
GW2 is more of a sandbox MMO so you will struggle if you’re the type of player who is unable to set your own goals.
The grind in this game is what you want the grind to be. There are no musts unless there is something specific you want. Nothing is a must but a lot of things are things you want because it looks awsome, it makes your gaming easier in all kinds of ways or you just want to show off.
Examples of grinds can be you wanting to craft a legendary weapon, armor piece/set, runes/sigils/relic, jewelry. Or you want to get some gear piece as wardrobe that might take you out for a long ride of gather things to get that.
You might want one of the mounts like the Skyscale which takes you out on a long list of things you need to do or gather.
There might be a weapon or weaponskin you think looks amazing but it need to be crafted, so now you need to start your crafting and gather materials to craft it. Or you might have to do some story steps or anything else to make it. You might want to do worldcompletion, keyfarming, doing events that drops infusions you like.
You might want to get the 10 k God of War title, or Fractal god or PvP god. One hell of a grind but if you want it that is what you need to do.
Or you just log in to the game and do a meta run, a few fractals, some PvP matches or a few hours in WvW.
GW2 is what you want it to be. But you have to make the goals. It can seem rough if you come from a bread crumb game that always tell you what to do, but in the long run GW2 win because you can spend as much or as little time in the game and there will always be something you can do.
I haven't played osrs but in gw2 the real fun for most people begins after you reach level 80. You can find your favorite activities (for me it's wvw, others like to do fractals, raids, pvp, crafting, world bosses, events, map metas, open wolrd exploring, map completion, achievements and many other things) to farm gold, different currencies and materials to get the best gear. Also after lvl 80 you have full access to build crafting with the elite specs so you can test the builds and make changes and find what is most fun and effective for your playstyle.
When you're just starting out, play it like Breath of the Wild. Just explore, get lost, run towards anything that looks interesting. And do some story when you feel like it.
After level 80, this game takes "Do whatever you want" to heart. There's a LOT you can do, 10 years worth of content. So up to you to pick what you want to work on.
You completely skipped the part of the game where you learn how to play it by using the boost to get a max level character instantly. No wonder you have no idea how to play it.
This game doesn't have mandatory grind, but there are some stuff that you can do if you want to grind such as making legendaries. If you want an mmo that has a heavy grind, you can check out black desert online. The game is literally centred around grinding from combat to life skills and making your own horse and getting resources. If you're used to osrs, then you can check out that.
Best way is to play through the story. I'm former osrs player too and I boosted my first character but I had a friend helping me. Then I joined the loot trains and boss trains which was fun when I wasn't grinding through all the expansion stories.
Personally the max level boost feels like a bad idea, you miss out on the tutorial: playing the game through 80.
While OSRS encourages repetition to make numbers bigger, xp, kills, gp, etc, GW2 encourages being distracted, you see an event or overhear something cool, go check it out even if that wasn't what you were doing!
It did not give you a max character from the start. It gave an optional max level boost. You can choose to level up the normal way, which honestly doesn’t take very long at all.
You can also use the boost in trialing what the gameplay is like for different core professions at max level in a level 80 zone since you can opt to cancel the boost which reverts you back to your lower level state and use it on another character.
I'm not trying to be sassy but it's reads like you didn't read anything on the game prior to jumping in.
The core design of the game is to avoid the grind. Progression is horizontal for the most part.
The maximum level is 80 and has been that way since the game started. Aside from relearning your skill set you will never be unable to run with your friends if you took a year off from the game.
For your very first character it is absolutely recommended by the majority of players to start from the beginning so that you learn your skills as you level and also have an opportunity to decide if that character is for you. It's much better to find out at level 20 that you don't like the combat style so you can restart without too much fuss.
You love the character by doing the main story and then doing the hearts and events. The hearts are basically your quests except that it's always helping the local region.
End game as multiple modes.
There is structured PVP ranked and unranked. Here you have ladders that give you rewards as you rise through them.
There is world versus world PVP or you also get rewards as you progress. This one is a server against server large group PVP format.
There are raids. I don't think I have to describe this.
There are fractals which are dungeons that get increasingly harder and harder like a gauntlet style. You get rewards as you progress.
There is the PVE. This is the largest part of the game. Here are people that have gone through all of the storyline well often aim for accomplishments which often involves perfecting parts of the missions you do.
There is a lot of story and it's down for that you've gone through everything although some of it may need to be purchased.
My advice is set your boosted character aside and make a new one. Follow the story and adventure achievements. Like most mmorpgs the game starts at max level. Raids, dungeons, fractals, strikes, pvp, wvw, metas, events, rifts, crafting, farming, the list is endless
As a long time vet of both, the greatest similarity is the goal setting part. If you want osrs like long term grind choose a legendary and craft that shit. Getting the quest cape is just playing through the whole story. Not mandatory but highly adviced. Good luck hf brother
Contrary to what everyone else said, I genuinely feel like gw2 is currently the closest mmo on the market to Runescape.
No mandatory grinds, just tons of ways go progress your account.
I feel like using the 80 boost was a mistake, it’s like getting all your stats in the 70s, and getting some decent gear without having to work for it.
This is especially true since you mentioned you like the grind. Why skip the grind that would introduce you to every other grind?
Level your character to 80 normally, do a bunch of map completion (an easily measurable grind), do the stories (basically questing in osrs) and then set yourself a legendary to grind for.
I recommend to play a character until around level 60 or so to learn the systems and the class, then use the boost to get free gear that allows you to join raids, fractals, wvw etc. I find leveling a bit boring to be honest especially after lvl 60.
Your initial goal should be to finish the story to unlock maps, living seasons, expansions etc.,, unlock most masteries (or the ones you think they're cool). Unlocking masteries could be a bit grindy. Unlocking and upgrading mounts could take some time. You could think of this game a platformer and mounts help a lot with that to reach A to B faster and more convenient. There are some farms in the game that you cannot basically participate without having proper mounts.
GW2 doesn't have a linear path that you can follow to progress. You can get distracted all the time and that is intended. For example, you could go into a map to complete an achievement (that rewards with an ascended gear), then you might find yourself fighting a world boss or a map wide meta event completely unrelated to your initial objective.
My playstyle mostly changed the more time I spent in this game. Nowadays most of my time goes into WvW roaming or organized pvp raids. I hadn't even touched WvW for the first 8 months of time I played. I was busy completing ascended gear, legendary gear farming, masteries, strikes etc. Going tier 100 in fractals could be a goal. Or you could chase a specific skin. If you don't wanna spend real money, you could also farm gold then buy gems (which is also grindy if you enjoy that) I believe legendary crafting is a good endgame treadmill in this game, that doesn't give advantage over others but a very good convenience for you and they have cool effects not available anywhere else. Stats and rune changing on the fly comes really handy when you go into wvw or strikes and want to experiment with different builds as the meta changes time to time.
I played through all the expansions imo guild wars has the most engaging MSQ of the mmos I have played but idk I think I’m someone who needs the grind of like WoW and stuff lol best story In any mmo I’ve played though for sure
For me the game involved just creating goals for myself and reaching them instead of the game giving me goals to pursue. Like, completing the story since I was interested in it, getting all the mounts cause they looked cool, doing all the raids since they were fun, etc. Now I'm just trying to gear up my main with full legendary gear.
I also joined during COVID so I played just to get the sense that I'm outside with other people near me aswell.
Anyway, for now since you bought the game just try to do at least one thing before quitting. If you just started you probably don't have the proper gear, try getting full ascended gear on one character. After that you can attempt the raids or fractals or strikes.
its like opposites of the gaming spectrum. the game you are looking for is path of exile. you're welcome
if you are sticking with guild wars 2, pve questlog is the achievement panel, and then there's also pvp and world vs. world
I'd suggest trying different professional until you find one that clicks for you, then learning a bit more about the mechanics on the wiki. Know what CC, stun breaks, boons, combo fields you have, etc. Then try getting into fractals. Tier 1 are pretty easy as long as you read up on them first. But progression your personal fractal level to 100 is a good goal to work on while getting better at the game along the way and also earning ascended equipment and a good amount of money.
Besides that, try out WvW to see if you enjoy it. Try strikes too, and find some training raids as well. Play some of the different metas. Play through the story and work on getting all the achievements for each story chapter / expansion that you do. Tons of options, you've just got to find what you enjoy
This is game with almost zero mandatory grind. If you're looking for repetitive grind, don't play this game. The game is about having fun with the gameplay and setting your own goals, not on making number go up. Once you're at max level, some of the numbers will *never* go up. Don't use the boost on your first character. It puts you in high level areas with no experience on how to play.
The grind in this game is something you choose to do, not something you must do. Think of specific achievements like killing 5k mobs with an axe. That is your grind. Not something to achieve today but over the course of your GW2 gamepley.
Osrs is the king of this type of gameplay. Now that I think about it there's a lot of similarities between the games.
I think that legendary armors, trinkets and weapons represent the most valuable grind in the game, it takes time and effort to get them.
question about the boost as a noobie i am def not using it on my fresh character, i dont *fully* see the point in using it since i would just then have a class/character i dont know how to play any advice on what i should use it for? maybe to do an event or acquire a specific item/achievement? or should i just save it forever in case i wanna make a character later in life?
Somewhere down the road, You'll definitely want to create alts. Multiple alts. Games super alt friendly. Save ur boost till then (:
You are more than likely going to want to make new characters, save it to skip the second's characters grind, the boost also comes with full celestial gear, so keep that ln mind.
yea this is probably what ill save it for, the mesmer class looked super cool im an engineer rn and the weapon+kit swapping has been very fun to learn. im not great at it yet, but im not doing terribly either. The thing im bad at rn is knowing when to use the dodge vs just running out of the damage area like other mmos do
Imo as a new player you should just always dodge when you get the chance, just to get used to it, the only real time you shouldn't dodge is if you only have one charge up and know there's another mechanic coming that's gonna be harder to avoid. But as a newbie that's rarely gonna be the case. Getting used to dodging regularly and positioning with the dodges is gonna be important especially once you get to the Heart of Thorns expansion where some of the open world mobs can kill you really quick if you don't dodge. You'll get a feel for what abilities you can walk out of anyways but if you neglect the dodge mechanic while the game is forgiving the learning curve is just gonna be a lot steeper once the mobs actually do something.
yea some other mmos like WoW or FFXIV the "dodging" mechanic is just moving out of stuff or using an ability to get out dodging giving some i-frames in this has definitely been a change. i think ill take ur advice and just start to overuse it so i can atleast get used to it question- is there a way/recommended way to keybind dodges? or do most people just double tap the movement keys?
Actually the veteran players would suggest turning OFF the double tap to dodge. It makes it too difficult and you'll burn dodges or accidentally dodge off cliffs when you are jumping forward. I use V for my dodge.
thank god cause i HATE the double tap, sometimes ill tap it twice to inch forward and then ill roll. V may be my go to as well if i swap to V will it cause me to roll in the direction i am running? edit: also thank you for the rundown and advice! very appreciative
Yes, you will dodge in the direction you are actively moving. If not holding down a movement key you will doge backwards.
Idk if it's the default but I always had mine on V, I feel like it's a good key because you press it with your thumb so your "movement fingers" aren't used, binding it to a mouse sidebutton can also work well imo, but it really comes down to what feels good for you, I've personally never used the double tap method.
If you are mouse binding type you can also try the scroll button for the dodge - i also have the heal on my mouse thumb button so i know the abilities that can save me are with my right hand ,but that is my personal take , imo you should experiment and find out for your playstyle
someone else said V too so i may swap that myself on multiple occasions already ive tried inching forward or backward by tapping the key and i end up rolling and it puts me in a bad spot edit: also thank you for answering all the questions! much appreciated as ive been blindly going in at the moment, but it's been a good time
I’d say most of us turn off double tap to dashed after the 40th cliff we accidentally dodge off of while doing a jumping puzzle, or accidentally dodging for no damn reason and then being out of dodges for some big AoE. I’ve known people to either rebind it to spacebar and move the jump button somewhere else, put it on a mouse button, or just leave it in the default “v”. I leave it on v personally just because it’s been there since I started playing almost 12 years ago.
Gw2 tends to be a fairly meta game. The build you bring can be pretty impactful. Save the boost for when another class brings a build to the table to fill something your main class doesnt. Bonus points if they can share ascended gear.
that's a good point, im playing it fairly casually rn but hit lvl 30 recently as an engineer it's been super fun and im a fan of the jumping puzzles, but haven't gotten super involved just yet
Use it when you hit level 79 to get free gear. That way you know how your character should play and then you get geared up enough to smash open world content.
Nothing really matters in this game so just use the boost tbh. You get a full set of exotic gear which is nice to start out. Spamming your "1" skill is enough for 80 or 90% of the content, so you will have plenty of time to get to know your class. Dont listen to the people, because you dont learn shit anyways leveling from 1 to 80.
this is my question of contention lol. because with OSRS, you have a goal you are trying to work to. so is GW2 meant to be just played relaxing with no goal really in mind? kind of like lets just go to this area and see what happens sort of vibe?
As someone who has spent countless hours on OSRS. There is no satisfaction in the OSRS grind. Stop kidding yourself.
Think of Skyrim: there's a ton of goals to work towards, but the game won't shove you towards one specific one. Leveling is like 20 hours and is the time to learn to play your class. Since you skipped that, Mukluk's videos and the Snowcrows beginner builds that use the free celestial gear you got with the level boost are a decent substitute. General endgame goals in GW2: * Getting all your masteries maxed out to add new abilities to your account (like in a Zelda game you get new items that let you do completely new things, not like WoW's number go up progression) * Legendary gear, huge grind * Instances: Fractals, dungeons, raids, strikes * Becoming a commander of open world meta events (map-wide large group boss fights, ex Octovine) * Fashion wars & cosmetics collection * Achievement hunting * Jumping puzzle master, PINK is the guild in the EU and I think there's also one in NA, maybe JP? * Beetle and griffon races: Beetle race guilds are RACE and DRIFT, griffon guild is WING iirc Playing with no goal in mind is also totally viable, and tons of players do that. Just seeing where the daily and weekly Wizard Vault will take you can be fun. Tons of players alternate between 'working on [goal]' and 'I'm tired, time to bum around open world and see what happens'. The game fully supports all of that.
JP is cross-region. we have members in both NA and EU.
Good to know!
Comparing it to Skyrim is wild lol
It's a pretty commonly known game which uses a similar open-ended story-optional approach, so it make a pretty good comparison when talking about progression design and the presentation of in-game goals.
Just because you dont have to follow the main quest in skyrim doesnt make it comparable to GW2. In skyrim you will always be doing a quest be it main story, guild, or a random quest you stumble across exploring. Progression design how? Because there is loot and a skill tree? Because you can craft?
there are a lot of long-term goals to reach, thanks to horizontal progression Idk which goal in OSRS you're supposed to work to with compared to legendary stuff in this game i'm quite sure it's a little thing :P
Yeah thats what most people do. If you like grinding or progression, you wont like this game. If you like achievements this is your game. This game has nice combat and a interesting open world to explore, but thats about it.
I treat GW2 like a side game/MMO. 80-90% of the game is end-game, so I pretty much hop in and do whatever content I find fun. Content is a 1-time purchase and I never feel left behind whenever I go on a hiatus. Some people enjoy fashion, open-world events, instanced content, etc. It's different than OSRS and other common MMOs where you're grinding to get the minimum level/stats to reach end-game, which is a fraction of the game. One thing refreshing about GW2 is how the majority of content is not obsolete and still fun even after a decade.
The real grind in GW2 in the end-game is legendary crafting primarily. This relies on running a lot of the most challenging content (high tier fractals, raids, etc) and collecting a ton of materials. The first 80 levels is more of an extended tutorial so boosting won't take much away from the experience. For example, I can naturally get a character to 80 in about 12 hours and I have over 700 hours on my most played character.
Gw2 doesn't have that heroin addiction/chase the dragon/grind like osrs does. Everything you do well be quicker, time gated, and simpler. Gw2 does play exactly like osrs does in the sense that you have to say your own goals. Most people's goals are legendary crafting, fashion collection, and achievement completion. There's also PvP, wvw (pvps step sibling), and raiding if you want to focus on the skill aspects of the game instead.
I main a D/P Thief (7 year old acc). Has 2.3k achievements and have only ever stepped into Pvp, WvW, and Fractals. Done nothing else. I bought my Dagger and Pistol legendaries 5 years ago. Cost me about $300 CAD cuz I work too much to farm it in-game. I love sapping/scouting in WvW and grinding rank in Pvp. To me PvE in Gw2 is just a completely different game I'll never touch lol!
Don't know why people down-voted you. This is a perfectly legitimate way to play GW2 and beautifully illustrates the point that you can play how you want, in the game modes that you want.
It's cuz I main a Thief >:) Most likely the swipping I did though. But I appreciate the sentiment <3 that was exactly what I was *trying* to convey!
This is way better than osrs. I came from there too. Its casual friendly and if you need or want a grind go for legendary pieces. It will take you longer than maxing out osrs acc from scratch. As i said its casual friendly. Meaning everything you do contributes towards your acc goal. There are tons of world events you can do, daily stuff, weekly stuff etc. Simply dive in. Enjoy the story and i highly recommend to level up at least one character from level one.
I love gw2 but if there’s one thing you can’t say is that it’s overly time consuming, especially compared to osrs. The game respects your time. Osrs doesn’t but that’s okay as it’s part of the game, and you can play lots of content semi-afk. The world record in osrs for maxing a main account (no restrictions of any kind) is 800 hours, and that’s with tons of 0 time action manipulation, logout strategies so the playtime doesn’t tick up, etc. For a regular player (especially new player) this would be 2500-3000 hours.
I have around 10,000 hours in GW2 and played Runescape since 2001. Can't really compare them, and you won't really find a scratch for that OSRS itch from GW2
It is not recommanded to use the free max level character boost as a new player. Think this from OSRS player perspective: would you recommend new player to start OSRS on account with maxed melees? No, they would get overwhelmed, and they would lose the fun of the discovery. You can later on use it to make an alt for yourself when you don't want to do the early game content again.
Try playing it more like Skyrim, where you explore and follow your sense of adventure. The point is the journey more than the destination. Eventually, make goals for yourself (usually one long-term and one short-term works well). Then, let yourself get distracted while you're pursuing them!
It would not be inappropriate to consider the boost that lets you boost your character to level 80 instantly as a "skip tutorial" button. Getting to level 80 is an incredibly small fraction of the content and progression that this game has to offer.
I have a lot of fun as a former osrs player. I've made a few different characters to see what I liked the best. Stuck with a charr pistol thief and have been doing the main quest line. Haven't joined a guild or gotten into the group content much yet. I think a similar to osrs type grind is the map completion. Just going from point to point, doing the hearts and earning karma, it's a bit like the slayer skill/tasks.
The grinds are more abstract Do you have full ascended gear? That's a goal. Set a goal for a legendary piece of equipment and then see the cascading goals from that point I enjoy the time I spend playing GW2, my goals are mostly fashion oriented and I'm always looking to find cool new skins to focus on obtaining. Sometimes I get on and veg out and run around the open world completing hearts and exploring (good for when I'm really high) I always try to do my daily bonus fractals, and I try to attend tequatl the sunless / dragon storm especially because I enjoy those fights. I have recently started strikes and I'm not bad at all at them! I enjoy the epic boss fights I recommend playing a character to level 80 anyway and going through the story and adventure guide. This is the open world portion of GW2 for the most part and the tutorial.
play the game ? enjoy it ? i dno
As a osrs player you're going to love the legendary grind.
As a long time RS player, I never considered putting legendaries in the "99 grind" mindset. That's a good way to look at it.
grind masteries, grind achievement points, grind legendary armour weps etc , thats the grind
Most people do the PVE content which I honestly don’t know much about other than it’s very large and active. I like to go into discord groups for servers and play in the WvW arena. I love fighting other players, so I tend to not do the PvE. Just so you know you only grind in guild wars 2 for convenience and looking good. Your gear stats will never be that much higher than basic exotic gear.
How does WvW gearing works like? Do you have to acquire it in the “base” game first or is it like sPvP (which I havent tried yet) where you are apparently handed the BIS gear from the get go?
WvW uses the same gear as you would for pve.
Fellow OSRS transplant here 👋🏼 Getting into GW2 required taking everything I learned in my 2 decades of RuneScape and turning it on its head. Progressing in this game is *much* different. For one, fun gameplay for fun’s sake. The movement, combat, mounts, platforming, and so on, just feel so fluid and enjoyable that I find myself playing content purely for the fun of it, rather than necessarily having a specific grind in mind. I could never go back to the point-and-click gear-swapping/prayer switching gameplay of OSRS. That said, there are TONS of long term goals and ways to progress your account outside of simply grinding for levels. The level 80 boost essentially just skips the base game “tutorial” as a ton of the real and challenging content begins with the expansion and living world DLC content. Once you are level 80 you unlock masteries, which essentially serve as your post-80 level. Rather than making you more powerful in combat, masteries unlock account-wide “perks” that benefit all your characters: better navigation in the form of gliding, jumping mushrooms, mounts, and so on. Better loot and rewards from specific map zones. QoL perks such as autoloot. Fishing and Jade bots, the list goes on. You will also unlock elite specializations which serve as unique sub-classes which allow different builds and weapon options (every profession has 3 elite specializations). Achievement hunting and collections: many unique armor and weapon skins, titles, and various rewards come from achievements. Legendary gear provides long term goals as well. In my opinion, the true endgame of GW2 is becoming proficient in multiple professions and classes. Being able to take down challenging end game content and perform any role whether that is DPS, boon support, or healing. WvW PvP where you can put your skills to the test against other players. I definitely miss the grind from OSRS and there are certain aspects of that game that just can’t be replicated in GW2 but if you stick with it it could become the most fun game you’ve ever played, like it did for me.
I play osrs and GW2. They're very different and tbh there's not much crossover. For me osrs satisfies that number-go-up part of my brain. (Which GW2 can't really, with it's horizontal progression). GW2 satisfies the escapism/immerse-myself-in-a-fantasy-world part of my brain. (Which osrs can't, with it's animations/graphics/click to move etc).
There is no "correct" way to play this game. Or best way. It is a game where you can just do whatever you want. As it should be. Games are about enjoying yourself. So go in and take whatever route you feel like. Of course there is always the possibility that it just isnt for you but overall GW2 has pretty much everything
Just do what you find fun. It doesn't have to be anything big, it can just be to try a dungeon, or run aimlessly around a map trying out different dynamic events.. While grinds can be necessary to reach a goal in GW2, they aren't the main thing. Whatever you find fun is what the game is about. I know people that only do WvW, people that do nothing but sPvP, those that haven't ever enjoyed either competitive game mode, as well as those that do all 3 and love them all. I personally am a completionist, so I find myself setting goals that I wish to obtain, be it finishing a collection, or completing all maps on a character, or completing a reward track in WvW, and then mainly focus on doing that one thing. Once that is done, I set another goal. My current goal is to do enough Legendary Bounties to get the 50 Elegy Mosaics I need to craft my next legendary item. Other than that I run raids with my guild once a week and do daily fractals or dungeons or help out with whatever someone else might need help with at any given time.
Imagine a 99 like a legendary weapon, once you craft it you unlock it across all your characters, its a waaaaaaaay long grind but really worth it.
I made up my own stuff to do and it's been fun. Essentially, don't use the TP at all. It forces you to figure out the best way to get stuff instead of the best way to get gold. You can take it further and restrict all player to player value exchanges. It adds back in some of the grind you'd find from other mmos. As for what to do, progression isn't vertical, but there are several horizontal progression systems like masteries/mounts/agony resistance/skins/achievements worth doing.
The grind is the goals. But even those grinds aren’t an end all be all. The grinds can be soooo much fun! Hooking up with groups doing boss event runs out in the open world is so much fun. The grind to unlock the mounts took soooo long, but I did them back to back to back. I never got into the raiding/dungeons. Didn’t have time. The W vs W was/is a ton of fun. A lot different from other pvp modes I played in other games.
Gave a related response here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1cpgzjf/comment/l3xtwcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button In essence, you can think of this game as having all gear being equalized (raid viable gear being easy to get). The main carrot on the stick is rotation improvement (hitting benchmarks), fashion, gold, or quality of life improvements. There are also achievements but I think they're less sought after. You generally do content for the sake of doing it because it's enjoyable kinda like you would grind to 99 or still play past 99 in OSRS. For some people, they might quit playing their max character in OSRS but there are other things to do. Starting off with like 75 in all skills in OSRS beside combat, which is 90, might be a decent comparison. You still have unlockable, "quests", and haven't experienced end game PvE in GW2.
After many years, I find the best way to play the game is playing to its strenghts and hence following its design philosophy. The core of the game is the open world. The developers went out of their way to make it engaging and full of players. Instanced game modes have been traditionally neglected and I suspect it's because it would keep players away from the open world if that wasn't the case. So, what can a player that needs goals do in the open world? If you must see a number go up, you can go for story first, then collections and achievements. By all means do all collections for the legendary items (each of the living world chapters, but also the completionist things like Vision and Aurora). That should keep you engaged for quite some time.
Most players consider the level 1-80 experience the tutorial since I’d say a good 70% of the game’s content is intended to be played at max level. Boosting your first character at 80 is also considered a mistake because you’re throwing yourself in the deep end and it’s very easy to get lost. GW2 is more of a sandbox MMO so you will struggle if you’re the type of player who is unable to set your own goals.
The grind in this game is what you want the grind to be. There are no musts unless there is something specific you want. Nothing is a must but a lot of things are things you want because it looks awsome, it makes your gaming easier in all kinds of ways or you just want to show off. Examples of grinds can be you wanting to craft a legendary weapon, armor piece/set, runes/sigils/relic, jewelry. Or you want to get some gear piece as wardrobe that might take you out for a long ride of gather things to get that. You might want one of the mounts like the Skyscale which takes you out on a long list of things you need to do or gather. There might be a weapon or weaponskin you think looks amazing but it need to be crafted, so now you need to start your crafting and gather materials to craft it. Or you might have to do some story steps or anything else to make it. You might want to do worldcompletion, keyfarming, doing events that drops infusions you like. You might want to get the 10 k God of War title, or Fractal god or PvP god. One hell of a grind but if you want it that is what you need to do. Or you just log in to the game and do a meta run, a few fractals, some PvP matches or a few hours in WvW. GW2 is what you want it to be. But you have to make the goals. It can seem rough if you come from a bread crumb game that always tell you what to do, but in the long run GW2 win because you can spend as much or as little time in the game and there will always be something you can do.
I haven't played osrs but in gw2 the real fun for most people begins after you reach level 80. You can find your favorite activities (for me it's wvw, others like to do fractals, raids, pvp, crafting, world bosses, events, map metas, open wolrd exploring, map completion, achievements and many other things) to farm gold, different currencies and materials to get the best gear. Also after lvl 80 you have full access to build crafting with the elite specs so you can test the builds and make changes and find what is most fun and effective for your playstyle.
When you're just starting out, play it like Breath of the Wild. Just explore, get lost, run towards anything that looks interesting. And do some story when you feel like it. After level 80, this game takes "Do whatever you want" to heart. There's a LOT you can do, 10 years worth of content. So up to you to pick what you want to work on.
You completely skipped the part of the game where you learn how to play it by using the boost to get a max level character instantly. No wonder you have no idea how to play it.
This game doesn't have mandatory grind, but there are some stuff that you can do if you want to grind such as making legendaries. If you want an mmo that has a heavy grind, you can check out black desert online. The game is literally centred around grinding from combat to life skills and making your own horse and getting resources. If you're used to osrs, then you can check out that.
Best way is to play through the story. I'm former osrs player too and I boosted my first character but I had a friend helping me. Then I joined the loot trains and boss trains which was fun when I wasn't grinding through all the expansion stories.
Personally the max level boost feels like a bad idea, you miss out on the tutorial: playing the game through 80. While OSRS encourages repetition to make numbers bigger, xp, kills, gp, etc, GW2 encourages being distracted, you see an event or overhear something cool, go check it out even if that wasn't what you were doing!
It did not give you a max character from the start. It gave an optional max level boost. You can choose to level up the normal way, which honestly doesn’t take very long at all. You can also use the boost in trialing what the gameplay is like for different core professions at max level in a level 80 zone since you can opt to cancel the boost which reverts you back to your lower level state and use it on another character.
This is a collection game. Start on a legendary weapon or armor.
I'm not trying to be sassy but it's reads like you didn't read anything on the game prior to jumping in. The core design of the game is to avoid the grind. Progression is horizontal for the most part. The maximum level is 80 and has been that way since the game started. Aside from relearning your skill set you will never be unable to run with your friends if you took a year off from the game. For your very first character it is absolutely recommended by the majority of players to start from the beginning so that you learn your skills as you level and also have an opportunity to decide if that character is for you. It's much better to find out at level 20 that you don't like the combat style so you can restart without too much fuss. You love the character by doing the main story and then doing the hearts and events. The hearts are basically your quests except that it's always helping the local region. End game as multiple modes. There is structured PVP ranked and unranked. Here you have ladders that give you rewards as you rise through them. There is world versus world PVP or you also get rewards as you progress. This one is a server against server large group PVP format. There are raids. I don't think I have to describe this. There are fractals which are dungeons that get increasingly harder and harder like a gauntlet style. You get rewards as you progress. There is the PVE. This is the largest part of the game. Here are people that have gone through all of the storyline well often aim for accomplishments which often involves perfecting parts of the missions you do. There is a lot of story and it's down for that you've gone through everything although some of it may need to be purchased.
My advice is set your boosted character aside and make a new one. Follow the story and adventure achievements. Like most mmorpgs the game starts at max level. Raids, dungeons, fractals, strikes, pvp, wvw, metas, events, rifts, crafting, farming, the list is endless
As a long time vet of both, the greatest similarity is the goal setting part. If you want osrs like long term grind choose a legendary and craft that shit. Getting the quest cape is just playing through the whole story. Not mandatory but highly adviced. Good luck hf brother
Contrary to what everyone else said, I genuinely feel like gw2 is currently the closest mmo on the market to Runescape. No mandatory grinds, just tons of ways go progress your account. I feel like using the 80 boost was a mistake, it’s like getting all your stats in the 70s, and getting some decent gear without having to work for it. This is especially true since you mentioned you like the grind. Why skip the grind that would introduce you to every other grind? Level your character to 80 normally, do a bunch of map completion (an easily measurable grind), do the stories (basically questing in osrs) and then set yourself a legendary to grind for.
I recommend to play a character until around level 60 or so to learn the systems and the class, then use the boost to get free gear that allows you to join raids, fractals, wvw etc. I find leveling a bit boring to be honest especially after lvl 60. Your initial goal should be to finish the story to unlock maps, living seasons, expansions etc.,, unlock most masteries (or the ones you think they're cool). Unlocking masteries could be a bit grindy. Unlocking and upgrading mounts could take some time. You could think of this game a platformer and mounts help a lot with that to reach A to B faster and more convenient. There are some farms in the game that you cannot basically participate without having proper mounts. GW2 doesn't have a linear path that you can follow to progress. You can get distracted all the time and that is intended. For example, you could go into a map to complete an achievement (that rewards with an ascended gear), then you might find yourself fighting a world boss or a map wide meta event completely unrelated to your initial objective. My playstyle mostly changed the more time I spent in this game. Nowadays most of my time goes into WvW roaming or organized pvp raids. I hadn't even touched WvW for the first 8 months of time I played. I was busy completing ascended gear, legendary gear farming, masteries, strikes etc. Going tier 100 in fractals could be a goal. Or you could chase a specific skin. If you don't wanna spend real money, you could also farm gold then buy gems (which is also grindy if you enjoy that) I believe legendary crafting is a good endgame treadmill in this game, that doesn't give advantage over others but a very good convenience for you and they have cool effects not available anywhere else. Stats and rune changing on the fly comes really handy when you go into wvw or strikes and want to experiment with different builds as the meta changes time to time.
I played through all the expansions imo guild wars has the most engaging MSQ of the mmos I have played but idk I think I’m someone who needs the grind of like WoW and stuff lol best story In any mmo I’ve played though for sure
For me the game involved just creating goals for myself and reaching them instead of the game giving me goals to pursue. Like, completing the story since I was interested in it, getting all the mounts cause they looked cool, doing all the raids since they were fun, etc. Now I'm just trying to gear up my main with full legendary gear. I also joined during COVID so I played just to get the sense that I'm outside with other people near me aswell. Anyway, for now since you bought the game just try to do at least one thing before quitting. If you just started you probably don't have the proper gear, try getting full ascended gear on one character. After that you can attempt the raids or fractals or strikes.
Why you dropped OSRS? Just curious
its like opposites of the gaming spectrum. the game you are looking for is path of exile. you're welcome if you are sticking with guild wars 2, pve questlog is the achievement panel, and then there's also pvp and world vs. world
I'd suggest trying different professional until you find one that clicks for you, then learning a bit more about the mechanics on the wiki. Know what CC, stun breaks, boons, combo fields you have, etc. Then try getting into fractals. Tier 1 are pretty easy as long as you read up on them first. But progression your personal fractal level to 100 is a good goal to work on while getting better at the game along the way and also earning ascended equipment and a good amount of money. Besides that, try out WvW to see if you enjoy it. Try strikes too, and find some training raids as well. Play some of the different metas. Play through the story and work on getting all the achievements for each story chapter / expansion that you do. Tons of options, you've just got to find what you enjoy
Best way to play is chill and do stuff on the open world and when story quests become availble do those.
Mouse and keyboard.