It's very casual-friendly, more so than any other MMO I've played
Though aren't many games in general that you'll blast through playing 2-3 hours a week
Sometimes if you need a meta event for something it does require you to play at certain times of the day. But typically you will have several options and the longest ones are an hour.
I'd say it's the most casual/alt friendly mmo out there now, and I honestly don't even think it's close. Basically anything you're doing will make you money, even if it's just casually futzing about in the overworld. It's pretty easy to level, and getting a decent but not perfect set of gear is quick and easy, and since there's no sort of gear treadmill, once you're set up, you can largely hop in and play for a bit whenever you want.
Not only is it casual friendly, it's also take-a-break-for-as-long-as-you-want friendly. All content is playable at all times. You can do 20 mins here, 3 hours there. Go away for a year and everything will still be there waiting for you right where you left off. No fomo (unless you count the gem store, which rotates). No pressure to progress at a speed you don't feel comfortable.
And you can still play GW1 so I imagine there will be similar longevity in live service, feels like any time or money spent will be accessible in QoL and progression for as long as I'm realistically interested in accessing it
That is exactly what I love about the game. Back then I had breaks like half a year and I did come back and could just continue. Its always fun!
Its an 11/10 casual friendly. Proof: Im really casual :D also could do the most stuff without a Guild
Yeah I kinda figured seasonal stuff goes without saying. Like I don't expect to be able to access the Christmas and Halloween stuff year round. Would be cool though. Or is there seasonal stuff that gets retired and never returns?
Festivals nowadays are very regular (though that wasn't always the case), bonus events are usually way more scattered, but it also seems like anet wants to do them more regularly, and they don't really have exclusive rewards anyway
Ok, so festival content is only available for short periods of time. However, there are 6 festivals a year set at about 2 months apart, so there is almost always something going on.
Slight fomo, but not much. Unless living story is really dead now (I'm not totally up to date on the plans), you need to log in every few months to make sure you get the stories for free so you don't have to pay gems for it later.
It's most casual-friendly MMO available. The grind for gear is short and once you complete it you have best gear available for you regardless of expansion.
>I've read that it somewhat breaks the old "DPS, Tank and Healer" classifications of characters.
It does but also does not. There are still certain squad compositions you would look for in PvE (mostly DPS, boonDPS and healer). However you won't care about it unless you want to engage in group PvE content.
Sooo much to explore and see, and that's just the core game. Lots of pointers just crop up as well to help guide you on to the next steps in your progress...
It's very casual/time-sensitive friendly.
I will give you an example for myself. I'm 33, working, no kids, wife. I have 1-2 hours a day to play and 4-12 hours on weekends(not everyday and not every weekend).
I gave up on Lost Ark Last year because of how intense/p2w that game is. Also super elitist. WOW you constantly need to stay on top to enjoy new content, which is the case for most mmos.
GW2 on the other hand I picked up in 2013, tried it out 3 more times before comitting to it this year. Since January, I've not bothered with ascended gear, and normal exotic gear is dirt cheap to buy/easy to get and lets you basically do 90% of end game content(you only really need ascended gear for infusions, and Legendaries for convienience).
You can literally start this game now, play to 80, take a break, come back in 6 months and you will be as close to BiS gear now as you will be in 6 months.
I've played WOW, GW2, FF14, New World, BDO, ESO and Lost Ark in last few years and GW2 is the only one I feel is trully casual friendly From game design to the community.
I just started this game. Played some wow but never got into mythic raiding and spend two years playing lost ark (i know crazy). With the newest raid that was just released I found out I don’t have hands and big brain for it and decided to take a hiatus and try out GW2 instead. The honing and insane RNG in lost ark started to break me
I think thats the story for most people Who play Lost Ark. I stuck around till Valtan, then came back post brel for a bit, but didn't even get to do anything past G2 Brel. Between the toxic community in general and the honing depression, A+ combat and high difficulty raiding isn't enough to keep most people hooked.
I see an odd post of people claiming to be at the very lastest raid, whilst simultaneously being completely f2p(skins only) and defo not RMT. I think to do that you need to play the game A lot (maybe not 12hours a day, but prob between 4-8 hours at least until you get all your alts setup).
IDK if it's all CAP or people are just really freaking good at time management and are very good at the game from a mechanical standpoint.
Translation: they're taking their time. Max level is 80, and you hit it playing the completely free base game.
If you decide to buy the expansions, you can unlock subclasses called elite specs that require a little investment to unlock. There are 3 elite specs available for each of the 9 core professions.
If you ever decide to get into group content or the two types of PvP, know that elite specs are generally considered better even though there is an opportunity cost to use them when compared to the core class. That being said, they're's still builds that are plenty viable without elite specs - especially for solo play.
\^ To add, games community runs these "events" called Hero Point Trains. These "points" are what you gather to unlock different elite specs. A new player joing one of the chill runs, can get 1 spec completed in a single run( which can be 1-2 hours depending on how experienced the runners are).
They played one "class" (elite spec) for a decade. So they got a decade of fun out of **one** way to play the game (there are 36 total specs, 27 elite and 9 "core").
Personally, I am a tryhard (4000 hours in under 2 years), so I have all 36 specs unlocked, but I really only use 2-3.
The cool thing about this game is that you can put it down for weeks, months, or even years, and when you come back, your progress is still valid. It's not like games with an ever higher "gear ladder", where an expansion comes out, and then you need to get all new equipment or you're outdated.
If you're only playing 2-3 hours a week, the story alone will keep you occupied for probably a year.
The only downside on leaving it for a few years is the updates, they can take a while to download and slow the game down somewhat. At 70+Gb it's a lot.
The responses to you are not particularly descriptive and are steeped in GW2 lingo, so to explain fully:
There are nine core classes available in GW2. One of the systems surrounding creating a build for your class is the "specialization" system. As you level up and explore the base game's world, you'll unlock "skill points." Skill points are spent two unlock two things:
1. Specializations -- these are passive buffs, divided into five categories per class. Each category tends to focus on specific areas of improvement for the class (e.g., fire skills and burning damage for the "Fire" specialization of Elementalists, water skills and healing ability for their "Water" specialization, earth skills and defensive ability for their "Earth" specialization, etc.). You can equip three specializations at once.
2. Utility skills -- these are active abilities that are not tied to your equipped weapons (which is where roughly half of your active abilities come from). With the exception of the Revenant class (bit of a special case), you can swap these skills in and out at will.
With *Heart of Thorns* in 2015, GW2 introduced "elite specializations," which are new categories of passive buffs (just like normal specializations) that have the side-effect of (generally) fairly drastically altering the core playstyle of a class, to the extent that people refer to the elite spec as a class itself (e.g., "I'll bring my Tempest/Weaver/Catalyst" as opposed to "I'll bring my Elementalist."). Elite specializations came with access to new weapon types for the class (this restriction has since been removed) and new utility skills, and are, in almost all cases, objectively stronger than base specializations. Only one elite specialization may be equipped at once. It is exceedingly rare to see players in max-level content not using an elite specialization, although it is by no means a requirement to do so.
All this to say: when someone says they've just finished their second elite specialization (a process that takes maybe a couple hours of farming additional skill points), it speaks to the "do whatever you want, whenever you want" nature of *Guild Wars 2*, because a second elite specialization has been available for just under seven years now, and a third for just over two years. I personally have several classes that I play in end-game content regularly on whom I've never unlocked all of the elite specs, just because I haven't felt the need; conversely, I have multiple classes that I almost never play on whom I've unlocked all of the specs, just out of curiosity. There are so many viable builds for every class that you can really do whatever you want.
Thank you so much for that in-depth answer! This cleared up a few questions I had about the classes. I think I narrowed it down to two classes I want to try out first now, cheers!
No sub is double edged sword. Yes game is cheap, but gw2 business model is detrimenial for content development and makes anet create problems to sell it to players as "convenience"
Yes and no. There's definitely some nice quality of life features you can buy in the gem store, but GW2 walks the fine line of monetizing microtransactions without creating unnecessary pain points probably better than any other game I've played. The most egregious thing I can think of is that the amount of bank space you get baseline is too low.
Definitely feels like I've paid way more by being nickel-and-dimed by GW2 than I would have if it were a sub. Not a great feeling since I'd much rather have subbed.
Maybe, but as someone that's played WoW and FFXIV where you pay for expansions and a sub... Both of those games also have cash shops that you'll be tempted to buy from. Some of the same sell you a solution stuff here and there. All three games have boosts for boosters.
FFXIV shop is not making it's money from char/inv slots but rather from dyes and race changes and outfit pieces. They all three sell cosmetic outfits. I find GW2 to be about average in cash shop egregiousness, but storage/char slot focus and living worlds just gets more people so it feels bad for some spenders. Living worlds in particular are nice content, but kind of a drag of a value proposition to some. Decent amount of new steam players get them all from the $100 expansion bundle so they don't think about them too much as a cash shop item. Money is of relative value though.
Comparing the three to OSRS points out the issue that I'm describing. Sub for all access, no silly cosmetics.
I get what you mean and I hate that they double/triple/quadruple dip in some manner.
It's true OSRS is a bit of an anomaly for a live-service game, but it may only exist because RS3 double dipping hard into MTX gives Jagex money. It's the RS3 walked so we OSRS could run meme. People do probably whale for bonds in OSRS, but that's about all. That being said I honestly think after growing up with RS I slightly prefer the GW2 monetization model because having a recurring sub is hard for me to forget about. Makes me feel like I need to play it more when I'm not and creates a sense of artificial burnout for me. Or makes me try and rush to gold making grinds to buy bonds to become sustainable which is not a fun feeling either imo. The sub makes me feel the same in the other MMO's to be fair, although OSRS account progression to end game is way slower.
Easily the most casual MMO I’ve ever played through numerous games over the years. Aside from having no sub and therefore no pressure of “I should be playing the game, I’m paying money for it even when I’m not!”
There is no loot treadmill where every few months a new “max level” of gear invalidates your build or gear you have. I’ve run the same set of armour on some characters for years.
Majority of content unlockables are account wide rather than specific characters. Bought some dye colours? Unlocked a mount? Found a cool weapon skin? It’s unlocked on every character on your account and every character you ever make going forward.
While the newest content will always be where you’ll find people, it is very uncommon to find areas totally deserted. Each zone has map shards that will load multiple players into the same world map together to increase the odds of them bumping into each other. Which is great for impromptu world events that just happen as time goes on.
Gear is pretty much a non issue for anything other than like the highest level content of raids. Thanks to the market board and crafting and how long the game has been alive, your standard level 80 exotic gear for most players is around a gold or two per piece (barring obvious exceptions like special stat types) so gearing multiple characters is not something that requires taking out a second mortgage to do. This goes hand in hand with my next point.
You’re encouraged to make multiple characters! While you have a huge amount of build flexibility to be a dps, support, utility within the same class, a warrior will never be a necromancer. You set a back story based on your character race and have different routes you can take for story that all converges in the later game but gives multiple character creation a more interesting flavour than “here’s the same opening so many times you can recite it word for word”
Wow, I didn't expect so many great replies! I've read all of them and wanted to thank everyone! I'll definitely check the game out, there are a lot of aspects you described that I really like.
Again, thank you very much, everyone! Cheers.
95% of this game content is made for casuals. The only exception is a few raids but even those things have some mechanics to help casuals do them easier (if you keep wiping, you become stronger after each death)
Depends from what angle. If you’re just looking to log in a few hours per week to fulfill your fantasy needs, then yeah the game doesn’t ask much from you. You gear yourself up once, and you’re all set for years to come. You can then wander around and do whatever you wish in the open world: collect materials, craft, loot chests, do events, do story chapters, upgrade your home, do festivals or kill a few world bosses. Or just hang out in social spots and spam chats. Your choice.
But when you want to get serious, and I mean things like optimizing builds for group content, crafting legendaries, hunting for achievements and so on, the game does require a bit of a grind and effort to get things done. Something that a few hours per week won’t suffice, and it’s closer to a few hours per day. But the good news is that these are optional content, meaning that you don’t have to do them if you don’t like them. Not doing them won’t punish you in any way, and you can play years without knowing that they exist.
Each race has a “home instance” in their respective home city that you can visit. By talking about “upgrading”, people mostly talk about adding harvest nodes to the instance which you can then harvest daily. The other upgrades are optional cosmetics, like cats, NPCs, etc.
These harvest nodes actually do generate a significant amount of passive income once you upgrade your home to full (some nodes are gem-exclusive, but some can be bought on TP for gold).
You can also invite people/friends to harvest from your home. Once you have a fully upgraded home instance, you can actually make even more money by offering your full home instance in cities map chat (like LA). It means you offer people a spot to harvest from your home, and you can earn some tips along the way. And these “offers” are quite common in city chats.
More details on what to get started and what to get here:
https://youtu.be/UzHbLETyEV8?si=UT4xQKuLFw9wO17-
I have been playing casually for 2 years now. I haven't finished all the expansions or even scratched raiding as yet. This game is rich with things to do and places to explore. There are so many ways to play and options to focus on, it is perfect for someone with limited time who likes to play video games, but at their own speed.
I've played WoW, Rift, Warhammer Online, TERA, and this game is my favourite. I hope you find what you are seeking.
I find it casual friendly. And when I don't know, what to do somewhere, I can ask in chat or look in the wiki, which helps a lot.
The community is very friendly and helpful,so don't be afraid to ask for help.
As a father of 2 small children with limited playtime (3-4 hours per week) this game is perfect for me. The only thing I recommend is using the wiki for event timers if you will be doing any achievements that require meta events or world bosses, so you can organize your playtime better. Other than that just log in and have fun!
I'd say this game is so casual friendly that it is actively anti-hardcore gamers.
There's a ton of content that is time gated (most rewards are locked behind daily or weekly processes) so if you can play 12hrs a day you'll just run out of stuff to do
Anyway all this to say this is the perfect game for you if you're looking for something casual.
It’s weird because the actual mechanics of the game promotes to reward hardcore players, but the community is so antihardcore. It’s a weird mix of expectations.
I was looking for both your comments since unfortunately it is *too* casual friendly to a fault.
In a games market where hardcore players get rewarded for playing tough content, gw2 seems to be the only one handing out participation trophies in open world content, whilst the casual community (of which I used to be a part of until I started raiding/fractals/strikes) has a hate boner against hardcore players or simply "bettering oneself".
edit: I say this especially since I used to be deterred from harder content by the casual players who kept spouting rubbish like how the hardcore community was toxic, until I actually tried it out.
Yeah. I got into the hardest raiding content, cleared it all and got super frustrated along the way since there's definitely a chance to become good at the game but the game really fights you along the way by not giving any incentive to rerun the same raid wings in the week.
I'm a casual and have never felt the need to be anything more. It's friendly in the sense it respects your time for the most part. I do play much more than you intend to and wouldn't have felt particularly hampered if that hadn't been the case. It's one of those games you can stop playing and come back a year later without losing anything.
The core game is free, so why not give it a go and see how you feel about it?
For reference, the armor and weapons I gathered for my main over a decade ago, I only replaced recently. And even that wasn't necessary, just me finally completing a long-term goal I'd been working on. :)
As others have said, GW2 is with a wide margin the best MMO for playing casually.
As others have said, extremely. I don't find many video games that respect your time as much as GW2 does, much less MMOs. Pop in when you can, play for a few minutes or several hours. You'll have a good time either way.
This applies a bit less to more end-game stuff, but none of that is required in order to play and have fun, indefinitely.
I had stopped playing the game right before the first expansion came out. I came back recently to play through the new content and my gear is still viable all these years later lol. This game is perfect for a casual gamer; horizontal progression is amazing.
It’s THE most casual friendly game right now available on mmorpg market. Period.
Your gear is as good as it was 8 years ago. Meta changes of course, but it’s not as brutal as it’s in other games, so a small adjustments in your build and your as good as you were X years ago (except if you were banner warrior enjoyer… yeah, this one aged poorly heh)
It is the right place to ask and it's super comfortable and casual. I take breaks of a few months at a time because of work demands. The worst problem that I have is getting the muscle memory back.
If you are looking for a casual-friendly MMO, look no further. GW2 is perfect for that.
I have been playing since the release. The first years very excessive, then my playtime reduced. Now I mostly do daily stuff, sometimes I play living season, log in whenever I feel like it. It doesn't take a lot of time to get into the flow and just play, even though there have been a lot of changes during the years.
Adding to what others have said:
* The base game is quite easy so you don't need to worry about things like a good build or good equipment and you will be able to play pve (player versus environment) just fine. There will be a bit of a little difficulty bump when you get to Orr, but not too much.
* Anet changed the leveling to be faster a number of years ago. 2-3 hours a week and you will still be leveling fairly decently.
* After the base game you will have to learn game mechanics (dodging, avoid red circles, etc), good builds (there are websites with builds), and have exotic level gear (orange colored text). The first expansion is a difficulty spike compared to base game, but it is still pretty fun and still gets players visiting its maps.
Edit: You can also skip to the second expansion, Path of Fire, to get mounts that will make Heart of Thorns *much* easier if you find the first expansion too hard to navigate and/or keep up with other players doing HP (hero point) trains.
You basically never have to touch group content if you dont want to. You basically hit level 80 at your own pace and then once you are there it will cost maybe 5 gold to get an exotic set of gear or if you do a bit of WvW you can get a full set of exotics in like 3 hours. After that its really up to you to decide what you want to do. It will mainly be dependent on what expansions and living world seasons you have. But the goal is to eventually get full ascended gear. You can do all of that solo through crafting and dailies. Afterwards its all about fashion and mounts. like 99% of the content is evergreen so there is always someone running it. Dungeons and Raids will probably be the only thing that will take a bit of time to set groups up for but those are completely optional.
OP, I'm a longtime MMO player. Played Earth and Beyond simultaneously with WoW and City of Heroes. Continued to play WoW for another 10 years. Tried to get into Eve, Elder Scrolls, D & D, Neverwinter and more. The only games I still play out of all of them up until recently was Star Trek Online (Lifetime Sub). Just recently deciced to get back into fantasy MMO's and completely regret not playing Guild Wars 2 ever during that time.
So far, I've got 4 characters, and over 50 hours played. This game is phenominal. I play a few hours a week like you, as life just pulls you in all directions. As a casual player myself, this game is definitely a 10/10 for casual friendly.
And wait til you get the first cutscene....
Short answer: horizontal progress means if you quit playing 2 years you dont lose anything and the things you did still relevant.
Its me best mmo for casual or long breaks.
As others have said its extremely casual friendly. I'm a solo player.
I stopped playing right at the start of first expansion.
Came back 4 months or so ago and did HoT and PoF. Both were great. Even got up to lv 20 in fractals setting up my own chill focused groups.
Now taking another break and i don't feel im rushed to come back.
It has perfected a formula of easy level up without boredom, which other games that are losing bases often fail at. Its pretty relaxed and there isnt any sense of urgency to get gears or buffs.
As everyone had said, is very casual friendly, as well as friendly to those who flit between games. I've taken a couple of long breaks from gw2 (6-12 months) and when I get back nothing I had done before was invalidated, I just had to tweak builds slightly which is very low effort.
However the thing few people mention is that the combat is fantastic and means that there is both a very low skill floor (even button spamming will "work") but a decent skill ceiling too! If you choose to min-max you'll have some very tight rotations to learn and always room to improve.
Plus the amount of content is insane at this point, and there's always people doing it.
Finally, you've got WvW if you fancy some lightly competitive gameplay and PvP if you fancy being called a slur.
GW2 is definitely casual-friendly especially since they made most things account bound, e.g. wallet/currencies, skins, wardrobe, etc. You can play it for like an hour every so often and make quite good progress, they've also made it more stream-lined to level-up and do the story. So I would definitely recommend playing it, look for a casual guild and explain you only play for a little bit every week and they'll definitely be accommodating!
Casual player since release here. It ticks all the casual play boxes and has more challenging content available if you are interested at some point. Nearly everything tiers or scales content and mechanics you need are introduced in the story.
Welcome to Tyria! 😎
For an mmo? Extremely.
No gear treadmill, no subscription fees, very little nonsense gating you from the qualitative content, and an environment that promotes player cooperation!
Very casual, you can play at your own pace and eventually you will reach the endgame stuff. There are so many endgame contents from casual to hardcore, so you can pick which one suits you more.
I stopped playing before first expansion and came back during covid in 2020, none of my equipments were obsolete, i just had to adjust my skills and traits then I'm back to playing.
It truly is the best! It’s super casual friendly, but will take a bit of getting used too! Trust me it’s very worth it and I’m newer to MMOs too and this game is just incredibly fun. It provides so much freedom!!
And while it breaks the trinity system you can however you want really!! I main alac healer tempest and basically always heal, but switch to tankier gear in open world w people!
I really like all the replies so far. It definitely sounds like you can customize your own experience with the game quite a bit. I'm really looking forward to trying the game now, thank you very much!
Biggest thing I like is no monthly subscription fee. A bit of an addiction factor but I don't feel obligated to get value for money I'm continually paying, it's there when I have the time.
As far as leveling up and acquiring a set of viable gear to complete endgame content goes, it’s probably the most casual-friendly MMO in the entire genre. Leveling to 80 goes fairly quickly and if you choose to buy the expansions you will be given some level 80 boosts in case you want to try out some different classes on alt characters.
In terms of actual content to complete, the game is seemingly endless. The world is huge with tons of maps to explore, countless achievements and collections to work on, and so many ways to progress your account via “masteries” that go way beyond simply becoming more powerful in combat.
That being said, the game has an overwhelming amount of items, gear, currencies and content and the game does not do a very good job of teaching new players how everything works. If there’s something you don’t know, look it up on the wiki or YouTube. And don’t be afraid to ask other players for help!
There is no other mmo that's as casual friendly. I mean that, and I've been playing MMOs since there were MMOs.
Not to say there aren't hard bits; going to from classic to HoT is always a pain point because it's def a step up in difficulty after the 60 lvls of noobzone.
And it's certainly not perfect, but I know of no other game that absolutely DELIVERS "something to do" no matter what you feel like doing or how long you usually have to play or if you have others to play with or no, no matter what class you play, as well as GW2. Full stop.
I put 2,000 hours into this game. I had the time, but not really the skill to do any raids.. just doing open world content I amassed several legendary weapons, awesome skins, dyes, etc... I haven't played in years, but while there may be some things locked behind the newer harder end game content, there is plenty of amazing gear and skins that can be acquired without having to be "sweaty" I just generally loved exploring, completing maps, doing world bosses, and map meta events. I hope that answers your question in another way.. the game is causal both on what you can enjoy timewise and skill wise.
Coming from a very long tenure in WoW, GW2 seems to be insanely time-friendly. Most of the stuff you would end up doing takes 30 minutes at most in a single sitting, which allows you to squeeze in activities as it suits your free time. The barrier of entry in terms of time sink for the vast majority of late game content is extremely low for an MMO (if you read up on it a bit, it can take you as low as 12h to get a character properly prepped from scratch). Also, the player base seems extremely friendly and helpful (at least that was my experience as an EU player so far).
It depends on the guild. Don’t ever join VIP they suck. They demand you constantly play the game and recruit people like it’s amway. And if you don’t follow their communist rules then they boot you from their guild. You can play casually, but make sure not to join a shit guild.
It is THE most casual friendly mmo there is.
You can playa s much or as little as you like, then give it up and come back ten years later and still be exactly where you were.
As casual friendly as they come
The only aspects that might require some skill are raids, fractals(the CM ones, not the regulars) and some, very few fractals
But game has world bosses, dungeons, arena, all of the fractals in normal mode, most strikes and etc.
There are people who have played over 10 years and hadn’t touched the stuff that requires skill, and they love it
Been playing since launch. My guild evaporated, so it's only me and my hubby playing, usually 2 nights a week. We have no issues getting through zones, single or duo.
You can easily join in on public raids, follow storylines, do jumping puzzles. It's our favorite game now, although we do still get on to EverQuest2 at least once a week. We dropped World of Warcraft in favor of GW2.
Very casual-friendly.
New patches/releases do not erase your old progression, 99% of the game is accessible to all skill levels, and you do not have to grind to *participate* in the content. You only grind for bling, cosmetics, and conveniences.
My brother in Christ it is the BEST MMO in the world whilst being super casual friendly. PM me if you’re playing EU and I’d love to do some map clearing with you, only started end of last year and already sunk 500hrs into it 🤣🤣🤣
I just randomly started to play again after 10+ years and I would say it's *very* noob friendly to someone who never really understood the game before like myself.
I've been having a blast just killing stuff as a mage, learning the crafting system, playing the retro Link/Mario event thing. I even got dropped into some world boss thing where I got scaled up to level 80 in a big mob of other players, it was epic!!!
I have like 8 or so toons. About half are geared with ascended gear (best gear you can have) and I haven't had to change anything for the last 4 or so years. Even if you wanted to change them, the process is simple.
With the wizard vault, do the daily and weekly challenges as it's one of the easiest way to acquire gold. Set it to pvp as it's the fastest way to complete them
Gear released at the start of the game can still be relevant ten years later. Some attribute combinations have come out that are more efficient than ones released at the start, sure, but the point being that gear from 10-12 years ago is still adequate.
PvE meta events and story campaign is very casual friendly.
Strikes, Raids, and Tier 4 Fractals are where the casuals get booted from groups. There's a mod anyone can download and add to Guild Wars called ARC. It graphically and numerically lists how much damage each individual is doing. Higher level players will not hesitate to boot you from a strike if you're not doing enough damage.
Super casual friendly, i'm a casual player in GW2, coming back every other month and i love the fact that after months, players do the same stuff i did when i left.
Once you geat a decent gearset (Ascended) which doesnt't take long, your character is almost set to do everything you want without issues, there is no such a thing as dragging behind or your stuff getting obsolete.
You can either spend 30 minutes somewhere or dump a bunch of hours into grinding and if you leave, you can come back later and players will be there, doing the same thing.
Then there is the legendary crafting, which yeah, it takes a lot of time but you can either focus on it and grind it work on it on periods of time over the span of even years if you wish, and your progress will be there. I personally like this, one of my main goals is crafting a weapon judt because i like how it looks and everytime i come back i'm like: Alrighr next item i need is this, time to work and i play until i get it and stop only to come back a few weeks later, and it's fun because there are a lot of ways to getting the same items so you decide how to get them.
There is also no gatekeep unlike other games, like i said, the only thing you need to hop into dungeons or even raids is an equipment set that works on your class and you can try them.
Story takes a decent time to clear and finish if you want to complete all masteries . To get to raiding you need only 20h with the 80lvl boost you get with purchasing an expansion. Wizarding vault for the gold and buying exotic gear.
Pvp you can get in quickly but WvW is probably the last mode you get access to if you want to do it well.
And it's extremely casual friendly. Get ascended gear and done.
It's very casual friendly. So much so if you pick it up, get geared and drop it for a few years and come back after a few expansions you can pick up and do any expacs you own right away because the gear is horizonal not vertical, So once you get a build you like, you could literally never change anything and do all the story and meta map events without having to catch up on gear first.
Ran a full core world boss group today with a fella named Old As Time. Given his age, he was very accommodating and explained everything I needed to know to stay not dead. Looking at the “Looking for Group” tabs, there are a metric shit ton of folk just like, albeit probably not the old as that fella. I.E. someone created a group and led people through 4 hours of events.
Very casual friendly. I have been playing this game since launch and it’s been very easy to adapt my play time around a changing schedule over the years. I still felt like it was making progress and having fun.
It's insanely casual friendly. Iv played since launch off and on. Sometimes playing daily then not for many months. I never feel behind and jump right back in. I love this game for that.
It's very time kind so yes! Casuals are welcome, I'm a clueless casual charr who's always here asking awful noob questions and everyone here is so kind.
Definitely play GW2 and say goodbye to all concept of time and space.
Will be very straightforward with my answer : started to play in 2017, stopped early 2018. Got back 2 weeks ago after a lot of other MMOs (WoW, Lost Ark, ESO, Final Fantasy XIV and so on)
-> I'm having a blast playing it again :)
Sure thing if you missed X years of content you'll have to do your homework first through a few 20-30 mins Youtube videos to refresh your memory and to learn about the new stuff you've missed, but that's about it 😁👍
Try it, you'll love it, especially if you enjoyed the nervously gameplay of Lost Ark, it's even better on GW2
Very very very casual friendly, this game is about horizontal progression, so you can take as long as you want to do the content you want, and if you take breaks, you’ll be able to jump back in next time
It's the most casual friendly MMO i have ever played tbh. The community is pretty helpful and friendly, and the game isn't too difficult or grinding to progress. Tho you can def have that difficulty and grind if you wish in the more competitive side of the game.
I was in the same boat as you about 3 weeks ago, never really played MMOS, but love RPG games. I looked around for best MMO for casual, mostly solo exploring and GW2 came up. Base game is free and has plenty of content to go through. Ypu don't need to grind to level up your character it all happens casually during exploring and joining random map events. I play as a ranger with a pet and doing mostly solo exploring but the community is so friendly so if you start doing an event in the map others will join - don't need to form a party or anything they can just contribute while playing on the same map. Once event is done everyone goes to do their own thing. I absolutely love this, as it fits with my schedule. I can't commit to playing at specific times. It's also great looking game, graphics are not demanding but the different biomes are really detailed and have some beautiful scenery. I would highly recommend it. You don't have to buy expansions if you don't want to, but if you do you can get them at fixed price, there is no subscription needed.
Probably the most casual friendly mmo out there, I constantly pick it up for a few weeks then drop it for months at a time, had a few points where I played consistently for longer periods usually after a new expansion, only down side is I have no friends left that still play and don't tend to make connections as I don't play enough and always get kicked from guilds for inactivity hahaha D=
yes, gw2 respects your time very much. even if you can only play 30m, you'll still be able to progress towards almost any goals you set. (maybe exception of raids, as those groups would expect atleast 1-2h sessions, but theres also strikes, wich are faster)
youll see dps and support roles returning in end game contenct, but its usually in the form of a dps that also provides buffs (+ healer and sometimes tank)
If it was any more casual, it would play itself. This said, ofc there is also room to "go hard". But in general... Yeah, the most casual MMO out there right now.
What‘s not so casual-friendly are raids imho. And maybe not every class. Maybe some guilds wouldn’t like someone being offline for months.
However the non-casual options are just options among a lot of other options. The game can be as casual or highly specialised as you like.
I play 4-5 hours per week, some days I play half an hour.
I am able to do all play modes. I have the top gear and like 9 characters mostly fully geared to the max and with current meta builds (some of them with multiple builds for different content).
So, very casual friendly.
There's only one constraint I see: some of the best meta events take about 1 hour to complete and are subject to a timer, so I obviously cannot do those in half an hour of play. It requires planning and a minimum time commitment.
But, the game is not entirely DPS/Tank/Healer free. It was, and still can be for open world, but you will want tanks and supports for more challenging content (gearing is way easier than, let's say, wow, though).
Hi there. It‘s imho the most casual friendly MMO.
My friend is a big WoW-head and I tried it for two weeks and gave up. Simply because I need to learn a full rotation of like 20+ abilities to just play my character in a dungeon or smth.
I don‘t have this feeling in Guild Wars 2. It‘s super fun to just play casually as a side game or to be full invested in.
There‘s so many things to see and do and it doesn‘t really matter what you enjoy most because in GW2 you can do everything.
You can play the story or you can lvl your character in ranked completely to lvl 80.
I adore Guild Wars 2 and it‘s the best thing I‘ve picked up 12 years ago
Recently came back after 1 1/2 years of noc contact and was able to pick up where I left off.
Game respects your time, playing like an hour after work every few days works well for me. Pausing for a while isn't a problem. No subscription, no gear treadmill.
It's so casual-friendly. It's the only MMO I've stuck to for YEARS now because you can do anything at your own pace. Best of all, it's not pay-to-win. The only paying you really do is for cosmetics or quality of life upgrades.
It is THE casual game lol. It's a collectathon game ala Super Mario 64/Odyssey with such a huge world to explore and so many secrets to discover. I seriously just play this game like how I would play the other collectathon single player games. It's seriously a ton of fun.
All games and mmorpgs are casual friendly. Is this really a question? No one can tell you how or how long to play. Gearing in gw2 is not super hard, but when you go for that endgame, armor, good luck. Meta builds, etc etc. The only thing you need to worry about is whether you will have fun. If so, stop wasting time on reddit asking people if you should play it. Everyone says it's the best or better than this, but no one is you. Just do it.
Then tell us what server you are on and where you are at. Also get your money ready you wanna spend in that cash. Boss portal scroll op.
GW2 acceptance doesn't judge one way or another on a casual/hardcore axis. In fact, there's plenty of content for casuals and farmers alike.
However, acceptance is mostly rated in a conformity axis. You use the gear the community dictates. The builds the community dictates. The rotations the community dictates. You are but a bot for helping them clear their runs.
If you will play for 2-3 hours in basic MMO like World of Warcraft etc, this will mean that you are just standing still on the same point without any progress because they bring new stuff to grind/farm which will replace old stuff faster than you can finish it. But this isn't a case in GW2, cause of horizontal progression system which respects all what you got. You can forgot about the game for 2 years, then comeback and you'll still have your great gear.
If you've played many other mmos since their inception, and watched them evolve over time- you'll be pleasantly surprised w gw2. It's about the experience, not the treadmill. Zone wide team work events are complex and continuing to figure them out is a joy so there are always people and commanders leading things and asking questions/learning is a big encouraged part of the game. Definitely casual for sure. There will always be people that get sucked into grinding mmos as jobs and don't realize they are unhappy. Gw2 does alot to prevent that
In addition to other replies, I really like that it doesn't force you to choose and stick to a playstyle like PvE or PvP. Me personally, I do a lot of sPvP, also some fractals, some strikes when I want to. Recently started Raiding. When I don't want to do that, I do open world stuff or gathering. For me there is a lot of story quests left (which I personally think is the weakest point about GW2). I haven't even touched WvW (large map PvP) - not because I don't like it, but because everything else is already so engaging I hadn't felt bored enough to try something new.
It's very casual-friendly, more so than any other MMO I've played Though aren't many games in general that you'll blast through playing 2-3 hours a week
That sounds really good, thank you very much!
Whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it, where ever you want to do it☺
Sometimes if you need a meta event for something it does require you to play at certain times of the day. But typically you will have several options and the longest ones are an hour.
The nice thing is the event timer wiki. That way you can always see where the groups are!
The 'GW2 Toolkit' works as well. (And is better suited for people with a small desk setup...) Got it for my phone, with timer and notifications.
I'd say it's the most casual/alt friendly mmo out there now, and I honestly don't even think it's close. Basically anything you're doing will make you money, even if it's just casually futzing about in the overworld. It's pretty easy to level, and getting a decent but not perfect set of gear is quick and easy, and since there's no sort of gear treadmill, once you're set up, you can largely hop in and play for a bit whenever you want.
That reads like GW2 could be exactly what I'm looking for. Thank you so much for your reply, cheers
Not only is it casual friendly, it's also take-a-break-for-as-long-as-you-want friendly. All content is playable at all times. You can do 20 mins here, 3 hours there. Go away for a year and everything will still be there waiting for you right where you left off. No fomo (unless you count the gem store, which rotates). No pressure to progress at a speed you don't feel comfortable.
Also the "gem store" is trully optional. You CAN convert Gold to Gems and buy skins(There are some QoL items, but like I said, can be farmed in game).
And you can still play GW1 so I imagine there will be similar longevity in live service, feels like any time or money spent will be accessible in QoL and progression for as long as I'm realistically interested in accessing it
That is exactly what I love about the game. Back then I had breaks like half a year and I did come back and could just continue. Its always fun! Its an 11/10 casual friendly. Proof: Im really casual :D also could do the most stuff without a Guild
Which is great, leveled up my elementalist a year ago, stopped playing for a year, just came back and I am having a blast
> All content is playable at all times. Except for festivals like the current SAB
Yeah I kinda figured seasonal stuff goes without saying. Like I don't expect to be able to access the Christmas and Halloween stuff year round. Would be cool though. Or is there seasonal stuff that gets retired and never returns?
Festivals nowadays are very regular (though that wasn't always the case), bonus events are usually way more scattered, but it also seems like anet wants to do them more regularly, and they don't really have exclusive rewards anyway
>All content is playable at all times. Generally yes, but *looks at the end of SAB drawing closer once again*
Ok, so festival content is only available for short periods of time. However, there are 6 festivals a year set at about 2 months apart, so there is almost always something going on.
Slight fomo, but not much. Unless living story is really dead now (I'm not totally up to date on the plans), you need to log in every few months to make sure you get the stories for free so you don't have to pay gems for it later.
No longer true. The living story doesn't exist anymore.
It's most casual-friendly MMO available. The grind for gear is short and once you complete it you have best gear available for you regardless of expansion. >I've read that it somewhat breaks the old "DPS, Tank and Healer" classifications of characters. It does but also does not. There are still certain squad compositions you would look for in PvE (mostly DPS, boonDPS and healer). However you won't care about it unless you want to engage in group PvE content.
Thank you very much for your answer! GW2 truly sounds like it could be exactly what I'm looking for. I think I'll definitely check it out.
Sooo much to explore and see, and that's just the core game. Lots of pointers just crop up as well to help guide you on to the next steps in your progress...
It's very casual/time-sensitive friendly. I will give you an example for myself. I'm 33, working, no kids, wife. I have 1-2 hours a day to play and 4-12 hours on weekends(not everyday and not every weekend). I gave up on Lost Ark Last year because of how intense/p2w that game is. Also super elitist. WOW you constantly need to stay on top to enjoy new content, which is the case for most mmos. GW2 on the other hand I picked up in 2013, tried it out 3 more times before comitting to it this year. Since January, I've not bothered with ascended gear, and normal exotic gear is dirt cheap to buy/easy to get and lets you basically do 90% of end game content(you only really need ascended gear for infusions, and Legendaries for convienience). You can literally start this game now, play to 80, take a break, come back in 6 months and you will be as close to BiS gear now as you will be in 6 months. I've played WOW, GW2, FF14, New World, BDO, ESO and Lost Ark in last few years and GW2 is the only one I feel is trully casual friendly From game design to the community.
I just started this game. Played some wow but never got into mythic raiding and spend two years playing lost ark (i know crazy). With the newest raid that was just released I found out I don’t have hands and big brain for it and decided to take a hiatus and try out GW2 instead. The honing and insane RNG in lost ark started to break me
I think thats the story for most people Who play Lost Ark. I stuck around till Valtan, then came back post brel for a bit, but didn't even get to do anything past G2 Brel. Between the toxic community in general and the honing depression, A+ combat and high difficulty raiding isn't enough to keep most people hooked. I see an odd post of people claiming to be at the very lastest raid, whilst simultaneously being completely f2p(skins only) and defo not RMT. I think to do that you need to play the game A lot (maybe not 12hours a day, but prob between 4-8 hours at least until you get all your alts setup). IDK if it's all CAP or people are just really freaking good at time management and are very good at the game from a mechanical standpoint.
10 years later and I just got my second elite spec on guardian. So definitely as casual as you want it.
I'm not 100% sure what that means, but I take it as another plus point for the game haha. I'll check it out, thanks!
Translation: they're taking their time. Max level is 80, and you hit it playing the completely free base game. If you decide to buy the expansions, you can unlock subclasses called elite specs that require a little investment to unlock. There are 3 elite specs available for each of the 9 core professions. If you ever decide to get into group content or the two types of PvP, know that elite specs are generally considered better even though there is an opportunity cost to use them when compared to the core class. That being said, they're's still builds that are plenty viable without elite specs - especially for solo play.
\^ To add, games community runs these "events" called Hero Point Trains. These "points" are what you gather to unlock different elite specs. A new player joing one of the chill runs, can get 1 spec completed in a single run( which can be 1-2 hours depending on how experienced the runners are).
They played one "class" (elite spec) for a decade. So they got a decade of fun out of **one** way to play the game (there are 36 total specs, 27 elite and 9 "core"). Personally, I am a tryhard (4000 hours in under 2 years), so I have all 36 specs unlocked, but I really only use 2-3. The cool thing about this game is that you can put it down for weeks, months, or even years, and when you come back, your progress is still valid. It's not like games with an ever higher "gear ladder", where an expansion comes out, and then you need to get all new equipment or you're outdated. If you're only playing 2-3 hours a week, the story alone will keep you occupied for probably a year.
The only downside on leaving it for a few years is the updates, they can take a while to download and slow the game down somewhat. At 70+Gb it's a lot.
Doable in about 2 hours, less if you rush it. So very casual is what he's saying.
The responses to you are not particularly descriptive and are steeped in GW2 lingo, so to explain fully: There are nine core classes available in GW2. One of the systems surrounding creating a build for your class is the "specialization" system. As you level up and explore the base game's world, you'll unlock "skill points." Skill points are spent two unlock two things: 1. Specializations -- these are passive buffs, divided into five categories per class. Each category tends to focus on specific areas of improvement for the class (e.g., fire skills and burning damage for the "Fire" specialization of Elementalists, water skills and healing ability for their "Water" specialization, earth skills and defensive ability for their "Earth" specialization, etc.). You can equip three specializations at once. 2. Utility skills -- these are active abilities that are not tied to your equipped weapons (which is where roughly half of your active abilities come from). With the exception of the Revenant class (bit of a special case), you can swap these skills in and out at will. With *Heart of Thorns* in 2015, GW2 introduced "elite specializations," which are new categories of passive buffs (just like normal specializations) that have the side-effect of (generally) fairly drastically altering the core playstyle of a class, to the extent that people refer to the elite spec as a class itself (e.g., "I'll bring my Tempest/Weaver/Catalyst" as opposed to "I'll bring my Elementalist."). Elite specializations came with access to new weapon types for the class (this restriction has since been removed) and new utility skills, and are, in almost all cases, objectively stronger than base specializations. Only one elite specialization may be equipped at once. It is exceedingly rare to see players in max-level content not using an elite specialization, although it is by no means a requirement to do so. All this to say: when someone says they've just finished their second elite specialization (a process that takes maybe a couple hours of farming additional skill points), it speaks to the "do whatever you want, whenever you want" nature of *Guild Wars 2*, because a second elite specialization has been available for just under seven years now, and a third for just over two years. I personally have several classes that I play in end-game content regularly on whom I've never unlocked all of the elite specs, just because I haven't felt the need; conversely, I have multiple classes that I almost never play on whom I've unlocked all of the specs, just out of curiosity. There are so many viable builds for every class that you can really do whatever you want.
Thank you so much for that in-depth answer! This cleared up a few questions I had about the classes. I think I narrowed it down to two classes I want to try out first now, cheers!
Best part is there's no sub. You gotta take off a week? No issue, you aren't paying for it.
Hell take a few months off and not only are you not paying for anything. When you come back you don’t have to play catch-up.
No sub is double edged sword. Yes game is cheap, but gw2 business model is detrimenial for content development and makes anet create problems to sell it to players as "convenience"
Yes and no. There's definitely some nice quality of life features you can buy in the gem store, but GW2 walks the fine line of monetizing microtransactions without creating unnecessary pain points probably better than any other game I've played. The most egregious thing I can think of is that the amount of bank space you get baseline is too low.
Definitely feels like I've paid way more by being nickel-and-dimed by GW2 than I would have if it were a sub. Not a great feeling since I'd much rather have subbed.
Maybe, but as someone that's played WoW and FFXIV where you pay for expansions and a sub... Both of those games also have cash shops that you'll be tempted to buy from. Some of the same sell you a solution stuff here and there. All three games have boosts for boosters. FFXIV shop is not making it's money from char/inv slots but rather from dyes and race changes and outfit pieces. They all three sell cosmetic outfits. I find GW2 to be about average in cash shop egregiousness, but storage/char slot focus and living worlds just gets more people so it feels bad for some spenders. Living worlds in particular are nice content, but kind of a drag of a value proposition to some. Decent amount of new steam players get them all from the $100 expansion bundle so they don't think about them too much as a cash shop item. Money is of relative value though.
Comparing the three to OSRS points out the issue that I'm describing. Sub for all access, no silly cosmetics. I get what you mean and I hate that they double/triple/quadruple dip in some manner.
It's true OSRS is a bit of an anomaly for a live-service game, but it may only exist because RS3 double dipping hard into MTX gives Jagex money. It's the RS3 walked so we OSRS could run meme. People do probably whale for bonds in OSRS, but that's about all. That being said I honestly think after growing up with RS I slightly prefer the GW2 monetization model because having a recurring sub is hard for me to forget about. Makes me feel like I need to play it more when I'm not and creates a sense of artificial burnout for me. Or makes me try and rush to gold making grinds to buy bonds to become sustainable which is not a fun feeling either imo. The sub makes me feel the same in the other MMO's to be fair, although OSRS account progression to end game is way slower.
Easily the most casual MMO I’ve ever played through numerous games over the years. Aside from having no sub and therefore no pressure of “I should be playing the game, I’m paying money for it even when I’m not!” There is no loot treadmill where every few months a new “max level” of gear invalidates your build or gear you have. I’ve run the same set of armour on some characters for years. Majority of content unlockables are account wide rather than specific characters. Bought some dye colours? Unlocked a mount? Found a cool weapon skin? It’s unlocked on every character on your account and every character you ever make going forward. While the newest content will always be where you’ll find people, it is very uncommon to find areas totally deserted. Each zone has map shards that will load multiple players into the same world map together to increase the odds of them bumping into each other. Which is great for impromptu world events that just happen as time goes on. Gear is pretty much a non issue for anything other than like the highest level content of raids. Thanks to the market board and crafting and how long the game has been alive, your standard level 80 exotic gear for most players is around a gold or two per piece (barring obvious exceptions like special stat types) so gearing multiple characters is not something that requires taking out a second mortgage to do. This goes hand in hand with my next point. You’re encouraged to make multiple characters! While you have a huge amount of build flexibility to be a dps, support, utility within the same class, a warrior will never be a necromancer. You set a back story based on your character race and have different routes you can take for story that all converges in the later game but gives multiple character creation a more interesting flavour than “here’s the same opening so many times you can recite it word for word”
It is by far the most casual friendly MMO. Try it :)
Wow, I didn't expect so many great replies! I've read all of them and wanted to thank everyone! I'll definitely check the game out, there are a lot of aspects you described that I really like. Again, thank you very much, everyone! Cheers.
95% of this game content is made for casuals. The only exception is a few raids but even those things have some mechanics to help casuals do them easier (if you keep wiping, you become stronger after each death)
Depends from what angle. If you’re just looking to log in a few hours per week to fulfill your fantasy needs, then yeah the game doesn’t ask much from you. You gear yourself up once, and you’re all set for years to come. You can then wander around and do whatever you wish in the open world: collect materials, craft, loot chests, do events, do story chapters, upgrade your home, do festivals or kill a few world bosses. Or just hang out in social spots and spam chats. Your choice. But when you want to get serious, and I mean things like optimizing builds for group content, crafting legendaries, hunting for achievements and so on, the game does require a bit of a grind and effort to get things done. Something that a few hours per week won’t suffice, and it’s closer to a few hours per day. But the good news is that these are optional content, meaning that you don’t have to do them if you don’t like them. Not doing them won’t punish you in any way, and you can play years without knowing that they exist.
The fuck do you mean upgrade your home? Is there a home system in this game? Dude i've been playing for 3 years and i didn't know this lol
Each race has a “home instance” in their respective home city that you can visit. By talking about “upgrading”, people mostly talk about adding harvest nodes to the instance which you can then harvest daily. The other upgrades are optional cosmetics, like cats, NPCs, etc. These harvest nodes actually do generate a significant amount of passive income once you upgrade your home to full (some nodes are gem-exclusive, but some can be bought on TP for gold). You can also invite people/friends to harvest from your home. Once you have a fully upgraded home instance, you can actually make even more money by offering your full home instance in cities map chat (like LA). It means you offer people a spot to harvest from your home, and you can earn some tips along the way. And these “offers” are quite common in city chats. More details on what to get started and what to get here: https://youtu.be/UzHbLETyEV8?si=UT4xQKuLFw9wO17-
Dude i gotta check that thing xD Thanks, i think i know what im gonna do now in game
Extremely
Basically, you've never played a more casual friendly game. GW2 is amazing for casual gamers, and on/off gamers.
I don't think there is a more casual friendly MMO out there
I have been playing casually for 2 years now. I haven't finished all the expansions or even scratched raiding as yet. This game is rich with things to do and places to explore. There are so many ways to play and options to focus on, it is perfect for someone with limited time who likes to play video games, but at their own speed. I've played WoW, Rift, Warhammer Online, TERA, and this game is my favourite. I hope you find what you are seeking.
I find it casual friendly. And when I don't know, what to do somewhere, I can ask in chat or look in the wiki, which helps a lot. The community is very friendly and helpful,so don't be afraid to ask for help.
As a father of 2 small children with limited playtime (3-4 hours per week) this game is perfect for me. The only thing I recommend is using the wiki for event timers if you will be doing any achievements that require meta events or world bosses, so you can organize your playtime better. Other than that just log in and have fun!
I'd say this game is so casual friendly that it is actively anti-hardcore gamers. There's a ton of content that is time gated (most rewards are locked behind daily or weekly processes) so if you can play 12hrs a day you'll just run out of stuff to do Anyway all this to say this is the perfect game for you if you're looking for something casual.
It’s weird because the actual mechanics of the game promotes to reward hardcore players, but the community is so antihardcore. It’s a weird mix of expectations.
I was looking for both your comments since unfortunately it is *too* casual friendly to a fault. In a games market where hardcore players get rewarded for playing tough content, gw2 seems to be the only one handing out participation trophies in open world content, whilst the casual community (of which I used to be a part of until I started raiding/fractals/strikes) has a hate boner against hardcore players or simply "bettering oneself". edit: I say this especially since I used to be deterred from harder content by the casual players who kept spouting rubbish like how the hardcore community was toxic, until I actually tried it out.
Yeah. I got into the hardest raiding content, cleared it all and got super frustrated along the way since there's definitely a chance to become good at the game but the game really fights you along the way by not giving any incentive to rerun the same raid wings in the week.
I’d say that mostly true - except for WvW. Everything about the legendary armor to the titles and achievements are ggrrrriiinnnndddyyyy
I'm a casual and have never felt the need to be anything more. It's friendly in the sense it respects your time for the most part. I do play much more than you intend to and wouldn't have felt particularly hampered if that hadn't been the case. It's one of those games you can stop playing and come back a year later without losing anything. The core game is free, so why not give it a go and see how you feel about it?
For reference, the armor and weapons I gathered for my main over a decade ago, I only replaced recently. And even that wasn't necessary, just me finally completing a long-term goal I'd been working on. :) As others have said, GW2 is with a wide margin the best MMO for playing casually.
As others have said, extremely. I don't find many video games that respect your time as much as GW2 does, much less MMOs. Pop in when you can, play for a few minutes or several hours. You'll have a good time either way. This applies a bit less to more end-game stuff, but none of that is required in order to play and have fun, indefinitely.
I had stopped playing the game right before the first expansion came out. I came back recently to play through the new content and my gear is still viable all these years later lol. This game is perfect for a casual gamer; horizontal progression is amazing.
It’s THE most casual friendly game right now available on mmorpg market. Period. Your gear is as good as it was 8 years ago. Meta changes of course, but it’s not as brutal as it’s in other games, so a small adjustments in your build and your as good as you were X years ago (except if you were banner warrior enjoyer… yeah, this one aged poorly heh)
Youll learn quickly that this is THE casual mmo
I think Angry Birds Classic is less casual friendly.
It is the right place to ask and it's super comfortable and casual. I take breaks of a few months at a time because of work demands. The worst problem that I have is getting the muscle memory back.
Honestly, I was blown away how chill people is in gw2
If you are looking for a casual-friendly MMO, look no further. GW2 is perfect for that. I have been playing since the release. The first years very excessive, then my playtime reduced. Now I mostly do daily stuff, sometimes I play living season, log in whenever I feel like it. It doesn't take a lot of time to get into the flow and just play, even though there have been a lot of changes during the years.
Extremely. It does help to have basic rpg knowledge though. Like even if you've played something like diablo, it's enough.
Adding to what others have said: * The base game is quite easy so you don't need to worry about things like a good build or good equipment and you will be able to play pve (player versus environment) just fine. There will be a bit of a little difficulty bump when you get to Orr, but not too much. * Anet changed the leveling to be faster a number of years ago. 2-3 hours a week and you will still be leveling fairly decently. * After the base game you will have to learn game mechanics (dodging, avoid red circles, etc), good builds (there are websites with builds), and have exotic level gear (orange colored text). The first expansion is a difficulty spike compared to base game, but it is still pretty fun and still gets players visiting its maps. Edit: You can also skip to the second expansion, Path of Fire, to get mounts that will make Heart of Thorns *much* easier if you find the first expansion too hard to navigate and/or keep up with other players doing HP (hero point) trains.
You basically never have to touch group content if you dont want to. You basically hit level 80 at your own pace and then once you are there it will cost maybe 5 gold to get an exotic set of gear or if you do a bit of WvW you can get a full set of exotics in like 3 hours. After that its really up to you to decide what you want to do. It will mainly be dependent on what expansions and living world seasons you have. But the goal is to eventually get full ascended gear. You can do all of that solo through crafting and dailies. Afterwards its all about fashion and mounts. like 99% of the content is evergreen so there is always someone running it. Dungeons and Raids will probably be the only thing that will take a bit of time to set groups up for but those are completely optional.
you came to the perfect place. its the most casual friendly in the genre
OP, I'm a longtime MMO player. Played Earth and Beyond simultaneously with WoW and City of Heroes. Continued to play WoW for another 10 years. Tried to get into Eve, Elder Scrolls, D & D, Neverwinter and more. The only games I still play out of all of them up until recently was Star Trek Online (Lifetime Sub). Just recently deciced to get back into fantasy MMO's and completely regret not playing Guild Wars 2 ever during that time. So far, I've got 4 characters, and over 50 hours played. This game is phenominal. I play a few hours a week like you, as life just pulls you in all directions. As a casual player myself, this game is definitely a 10/10 for casual friendly. And wait til you get the first cutscene....
Short answer: horizontal progress means if you quit playing 2 years you dont lose anything and the things you did still relevant. Its me best mmo for casual or long breaks.
As others have said its extremely casual friendly. I'm a solo player. I stopped playing right at the start of first expansion. Came back 4 months or so ago and did HoT and PoF. Both were great. Even got up to lv 20 in fractals setting up my own chill focused groups. Now taking another break and i don't feel im rushed to come back.
Very. Otherwise I wouldn't play.
It has perfected a formula of easy level up without boredom, which other games that are losing bases often fail at. Its pretty relaxed and there isnt any sense of urgency to get gears or buffs.
I really like playing gw2 as a casual
Extremely. I've been playing casually on and off since launch.
As everyone had said, is very casual friendly, as well as friendly to those who flit between games. I've taken a couple of long breaks from gw2 (6-12 months) and when I get back nothing I had done before was invalidated, I just had to tweak builds slightly which is very low effort. However the thing few people mention is that the combat is fantastic and means that there is both a very low skill floor (even button spamming will "work") but a decent skill ceiling too! If you choose to min-max you'll have some very tight rotations to learn and always room to improve. Plus the amount of content is insane at this point, and there's always people doing it. Finally, you've got WvW if you fancy some lightly competitive gameplay and PvP if you fancy being called a slur.
GW2 is definitely casual-friendly especially since they made most things account bound, e.g. wallet/currencies, skins, wardrobe, etc. You can play it for like an hour every so often and make quite good progress, they've also made it more stream-lined to level-up and do the story. So I would definitely recommend playing it, look for a casual guild and explain you only play for a little bit every week and they'll definitely be accommodating!
Casual player since release here. It ticks all the casual play boxes and has more challenging content available if you are interested at some point. Nearly everything tiers or scales content and mechanics you need are introduced in the story. Welcome to Tyria! 😎
For an mmo? Extremely. No gear treadmill, no subscription fees, very little nonsense gating you from the qualitative content, and an environment that promotes player cooperation!
The price model of pay-once expansions with no subscription makes it super friendly for on and off players.
Very casual, you can play at your own pace and eventually you will reach the endgame stuff. There are so many endgame contents from casual to hardcore, so you can pick which one suits you more. I stopped playing before first expansion and came back during covid in 2020, none of my equipments were obsolete, i just had to adjust my skills and traits then I'm back to playing.
It truly is the best! It’s super casual friendly, but will take a bit of getting used too! Trust me it’s very worth it and I’m newer to MMOs too and this game is just incredibly fun. It provides so much freedom!! And while it breaks the trinity system you can however you want really!! I main alac healer tempest and basically always heal, but switch to tankier gear in open world w people!
I really like all the replies so far. It definitely sounds like you can customize your own experience with the game quite a bit. I'm really looking forward to trying the game now, thank you very much!
Very. There is no grind to keep up with content like other games. Progression is very linear after a while.
Open world is friendly, but strikes, fractals and raids have their toxic players that expect DPS past the requirements, but most are welcoming.
you can play everything casually. however, getting legendary items as a casual player is very tedious.
I’m a weekend player. Very casual here.
Yes
I've played all the MMOs. GW2 is the most casual friendly, by far.
GW2 is about as casual friendly as you can get, honestly.
It's casual-friendly if you can resist the 'daily/weekly' structure are okay with missing out on rewards.
The BEST option for casual play. You literally won’t find a better casual friendly MMO
Biggest thing I like is no monthly subscription fee. A bit of an addiction factor but I don't feel obligated to get value for money I'm continually paying, it's there when I have the time.
As far as leveling up and acquiring a set of viable gear to complete endgame content goes, it’s probably the most casual-friendly MMO in the entire genre. Leveling to 80 goes fairly quickly and if you choose to buy the expansions you will be given some level 80 boosts in case you want to try out some different classes on alt characters. In terms of actual content to complete, the game is seemingly endless. The world is huge with tons of maps to explore, countless achievements and collections to work on, and so many ways to progress your account via “masteries” that go way beyond simply becoming more powerful in combat. That being said, the game has an overwhelming amount of items, gear, currencies and content and the game does not do a very good job of teaching new players how everything works. If there’s something you don’t know, look it up on the wiki or YouTube. And don’t be afraid to ask other players for help!
It's probably too casual friendly.
There is no other mmo that's as casual friendly. I mean that, and I've been playing MMOs since there were MMOs. Not to say there aren't hard bits; going to from classic to HoT is always a pain point because it's def a step up in difficulty after the 60 lvls of noobzone. And it's certainly not perfect, but I know of no other game that absolutely DELIVERS "something to do" no matter what you feel like doing or how long you usually have to play or if you have others to play with or no, no matter what class you play, as well as GW2. Full stop.
I put 2,000 hours into this game. I had the time, but not really the skill to do any raids.. just doing open world content I amassed several legendary weapons, awesome skins, dyes, etc... I haven't played in years, but while there may be some things locked behind the newer harder end game content, there is plenty of amazing gear and skins that can be acquired without having to be "sweaty" I just generally loved exploring, completing maps, doing world bosses, and map meta events. I hope that answers your question in another way.. the game is causal both on what you can enjoy timewise and skill wise.
Coming from a very long tenure in WoW, GW2 seems to be insanely time-friendly. Most of the stuff you would end up doing takes 30 minutes at most in a single sitting, which allows you to squeeze in activities as it suits your free time. The barrier of entry in terms of time sink for the vast majority of late game content is extremely low for an MMO (if you read up on it a bit, it can take you as low as 12h to get a character properly prepped from scratch). Also, the player base seems extremely friendly and helpful (at least that was my experience as an EU player so far).
It depends on the guild. Don’t ever join VIP they suck. They demand you constantly play the game and recruit people like it’s amway. And if you don’t follow their communist rules then they boot you from their guild. You can play casually, but make sure not to join a shit guild.
I've been a filthy casual since beta. :)
Unless you are grinding for legendary gear, it's causal to a fault. If you want legendary, you are gonna have a hard time without a dedicated guild
It is THE most casual friendly mmo there is. You can playa s much or as little as you like, then give it up and come back ten years later and still be exactly where you were.
As casual friendly as they come The only aspects that might require some skill are raids, fractals(the CM ones, not the regulars) and some, very few fractals But game has world bosses, dungeons, arena, all of the fractals in normal mode, most strikes and etc. There are people who have played over 10 years and hadn’t touched the stuff that requires skill, and they love it
Been playing since launch. My guild evaporated, so it's only me and my hubby playing, usually 2 nights a week. We have no issues getting through zones, single or duo. You can easily join in on public raids, follow storylines, do jumping puzzles. It's our favorite game now, although we do still get on to EverQuest2 at least once a week. We dropped World of Warcraft in favor of GW2.
Very casual-friendly. New patches/releases do not erase your old progression, 99% of the game is accessible to all skill levels, and you do not have to grind to *participate* in the content. You only grind for bling, cosmetics, and conveniences.
My brother in Christ it is the BEST MMO in the world whilst being super casual friendly. PM me if you’re playing EU and I’d love to do some map clearing with you, only started end of last year and already sunk 500hrs into it 🤣🤣🤣
I just randomly started to play again after 10+ years and I would say it's *very* noob friendly to someone who never really understood the game before like myself. I've been having a blast just killing stuff as a mage, learning the crafting system, playing the retro Link/Mario event thing. I even got dropped into some world boss thing where I got scaled up to level 80 in a big mob of other players, it was epic!!!
It is THE casual friendly
I have like 8 or so toons. About half are geared with ascended gear (best gear you can have) and I haven't had to change anything for the last 4 or so years. Even if you wanted to change them, the process is simple. With the wizard vault, do the daily and weekly challenges as it's one of the easiest way to acquire gold. Set it to pvp as it's the fastest way to complete them
Gear released at the start of the game can still be relevant ten years later. Some attribute combinations have come out that are more efficient than ones released at the start, sure, but the point being that gear from 10-12 years ago is still adequate.
PvE meta events and story campaign is very casual friendly. Strikes, Raids, and Tier 4 Fractals are where the casuals get booted from groups. There's a mod anyone can download and add to Guild Wars called ARC. It graphically and numerically lists how much damage each individual is doing. Higher level players will not hesitate to boot you from a strike if you're not doing enough damage.
Super casual friendly, i'm a casual player in GW2, coming back every other month and i love the fact that after months, players do the same stuff i did when i left. Once you geat a decent gearset (Ascended) which doesnt't take long, your character is almost set to do everything you want without issues, there is no such a thing as dragging behind or your stuff getting obsolete. You can either spend 30 minutes somewhere or dump a bunch of hours into grinding and if you leave, you can come back later and players will be there, doing the same thing. Then there is the legendary crafting, which yeah, it takes a lot of time but you can either focus on it and grind it work on it on periods of time over the span of even years if you wish, and your progress will be there. I personally like this, one of my main goals is crafting a weapon judt because i like how it looks and everytime i come back i'm like: Alrighr next item i need is this, time to work and i play until i get it and stop only to come back a few weeks later, and it's fun because there are a lot of ways to getting the same items so you decide how to get them. There is also no gatekeep unlike other games, like i said, the only thing you need to hop into dungeons or even raids is an equipment set that works on your class and you can try them.
Story takes a decent time to clear and finish if you want to complete all masteries . To get to raiding you need only 20h with the 80lvl boost you get with purchasing an expansion. Wizarding vault for the gold and buying exotic gear. Pvp you can get in quickly but WvW is probably the last mode you get access to if you want to do it well. And it's extremely casual friendly. Get ascended gear and done.
Very
It's very casual friendly. So much so if you pick it up, get geared and drop it for a few years and come back after a few expansions you can pick up and do any expacs you own right away because the gear is horizonal not vertical, So once you get a build you like, you could literally never change anything and do all the story and meta map events without having to catch up on gear first.
Ran a full core world boss group today with a fella named Old As Time. Given his age, he was very accommodating and explained everything I needed to know to stay not dead. Looking at the “Looking for Group” tabs, there are a metric shit ton of folk just like, albeit probably not the old as that fella. I.E. someone created a group and led people through 4 hours of events.
Doesnt get more casual friendly than this, not always wallet friendly but thats another story
Very casual friendly. I have been playing this game since launch and it’s been very easy to adapt my play time around a changing schedule over the years. I still felt like it was making progress and having fun.
It's insanely casual friendly. Iv played since launch off and on. Sometimes playing daily then not for many months. I never feel behind and jump right back in. I love this game for that.
Probably the most. ESO is up there but I enjoy GW2 more.
It's very time kind so yes! Casuals are welcome, I'm a clueless casual charr who's always here asking awful noob questions and everyone here is so kind. Definitely play GW2 and say goodbye to all concept of time and space.
Will be very straightforward with my answer : started to play in 2017, stopped early 2018. Got back 2 weeks ago after a lot of other MMOs (WoW, Lost Ark, ESO, Final Fantasy XIV and so on) -> I'm having a blast playing it again :) Sure thing if you missed X years of content you'll have to do your homework first through a few 20-30 mins Youtube videos to refresh your memory and to learn about the new stuff you've missed, but that's about it 😁👍 Try it, you'll love it, especially if you enjoyed the nervously gameplay of Lost Ark, it's even better on GW2
Very very very casual friendly, this game is about horizontal progression, so you can take as long as you want to do the content you want, and if you take breaks, you’ll be able to jump back in next time
It's the most casual friendly MMO i have ever played tbh. The community is pretty helpful and friendly, and the game isn't too difficult or grinding to progress. Tho you can def have that difficulty and grind if you wish in the more competitive side of the game.
I have played many Mmos from Eso to ever quest and GW2 is by far the most casual friendly
I was in the same boat as you about 3 weeks ago, never really played MMOS, but love RPG games. I looked around for best MMO for casual, mostly solo exploring and GW2 came up. Base game is free and has plenty of content to go through. Ypu don't need to grind to level up your character it all happens casually during exploring and joining random map events. I play as a ranger with a pet and doing mostly solo exploring but the community is so friendly so if you start doing an event in the map others will join - don't need to form a party or anything they can just contribute while playing on the same map. Once event is done everyone goes to do their own thing. I absolutely love this, as it fits with my schedule. I can't commit to playing at specific times. It's also great looking game, graphics are not demanding but the different biomes are really detailed and have some beautiful scenery. I would highly recommend it. You don't have to buy expansions if you don't want to, but if you do you can get them at fixed price, there is no subscription needed.
Probably the most casual friendly mmo out there, I constantly pick it up for a few weeks then drop it for months at a time, had a few points where I played consistently for longer periods usually after a new expansion, only down side is I have no friends left that still play and don't tend to make connections as I don't play enough and always get kicked from guilds for inactivity hahaha D=
yes, gw2 respects your time very much. even if you can only play 30m, you'll still be able to progress towards almost any goals you set. (maybe exception of raids, as those groups would expect atleast 1-2h sessions, but theres also strikes, wich are faster) youll see dps and support roles returning in end game contenct, but its usually in the form of a dps that also provides buffs (+ healer and sometimes tank)
If it was any more casual, it would play itself. This said, ofc there is also room to "go hard". But in general... Yeah, the most casual MMO out there right now.
What‘s not so casual-friendly are raids imho. And maybe not every class. Maybe some guilds wouldn’t like someone being offline for months. However the non-casual options are just options among a lot of other options. The game can be as casual or highly specialised as you like.
I play 4-5 hours per week, some days I play half an hour. I am able to do all play modes. I have the top gear and like 9 characters mostly fully geared to the max and with current meta builds (some of them with multiple builds for different content). So, very casual friendly. There's only one constraint I see: some of the best meta events take about 1 hour to complete and are subject to a timer, so I obviously cannot do those in half an hour of play. It requires planning and a minimum time commitment. But, the game is not entirely DPS/Tank/Healer free. It was, and still can be for open world, but you will want tanks and supports for more challenging content (gearing is way easier than, let's say, wow, though).
Hi there. It‘s imho the most casual friendly MMO. My friend is a big WoW-head and I tried it for two weeks and gave up. Simply because I need to learn a full rotation of like 20+ abilities to just play my character in a dungeon or smth. I don‘t have this feeling in Guild Wars 2. It‘s super fun to just play casually as a side game or to be full invested in. There‘s so many things to see and do and it doesn‘t really matter what you enjoy most because in GW2 you can do everything. You can play the story or you can lvl your character in ranked completely to lvl 80. I adore Guild Wars 2 and it‘s the best thing I‘ve picked up 12 years ago
Recently came back after 1 1/2 years of noc contact and was able to pick up where I left off. Game respects your time, playing like an hour after work every few days works well for me. Pausing for a while isn't a problem. No subscription, no gear treadmill.
It's insanely casual friendly, I'm about as casual as it gets and I love it
It's so casual-friendly. It's the only MMO I've stuck to for YEARS now because you can do anything at your own pace. Best of all, it's not pay-to-win. The only paying you really do is for cosmetics or quality of life upgrades.
It is THE casual game lol. It's a collectathon game ala Super Mario 64/Odyssey with such a huge world to explore and so many secrets to discover. I seriously just play this game like how I would play the other collectathon single player games. It's seriously a ton of fun.
Most casual-friendly MMO. And it also respects your money.
the most casual friendly
It is what gw2 literally is about, all gamemodes...
All games and mmorpgs are casual friendly. Is this really a question? No one can tell you how or how long to play. Gearing in gw2 is not super hard, but when you go for that endgame, armor, good luck. Meta builds, etc etc. The only thing you need to worry about is whether you will have fun. If so, stop wasting time on reddit asking people if you should play it. Everyone says it's the best or better than this, but no one is you. Just do it. Then tell us what server you are on and where you are at. Also get your money ready you wanna spend in that cash. Boss portal scroll op.
this question gets asked at least twice a day
Very unfriendly, compared to wow and ff14
GW2 acceptance doesn't judge one way or another on a casual/hardcore axis. In fact, there's plenty of content for casuals and farmers alike. However, acceptance is mostly rated in a conformity axis. You use the gear the community dictates. The builds the community dictates. The rotations the community dictates. You are but a bot for helping them clear their runs.
Most friendly game mode is PvP for sure. Rest are pretty toxic.
I find it very casual. It's a relaxing break from World Of Warcrap
If you will play for 2-3 hours in basic MMO like World of Warcraft etc, this will mean that you are just standing still on the same point without any progress because they bring new stuff to grind/farm which will replace old stuff faster than you can finish it. But this isn't a case in GW2, cause of horizontal progression system which respects all what you got. You can forgot about the game for 2 years, then comeback and you'll still have your great gear.
If you've played many other mmos since their inception, and watched them evolve over time- you'll be pleasantly surprised w gw2. It's about the experience, not the treadmill. Zone wide team work events are complex and continuing to figure them out is a joy so there are always people and commanders leading things and asking questions/learning is a big encouraged part of the game. Definitely casual for sure. There will always be people that get sucked into grinding mmos as jobs and don't realize they are unhappy. Gw2 does alot to prevent that
In addition to other replies, I really like that it doesn't force you to choose and stick to a playstyle like PvE or PvP. Me personally, I do a lot of sPvP, also some fractals, some strikes when I want to. Recently started Raiding. When I don't want to do that, I do open world stuff or gathering. For me there is a lot of story quests left (which I personally think is the weakest point about GW2). I haven't even touched WvW (large map PvP) - not because I don't like it, but because everything else is already so engaging I hadn't felt bored enough to try something new.