When To Buy the Expansions

[rive1573]

Im a new player currently level 20 and wanted to ask when was a good time to buy any of the expansions. Should I get them after completing the story or are there advantages to buying early.

[amarrminer]

i suggest that you wait until you are finished with the core game.
the expansions are totally different from core, specially hot.
if i had known where they would take it, then i would never had started playing.
i have a dozen toons at max level, and i would have to do a ton of grinding to continue.
not gonna bother, im gonna play something else.

[RotherHans]

on sale
best sale time coming right up

[Q]

You can buy the expansions whenever you want, the sooner the better and makes no difference for your "vanilla" experience, that being central tyria maps and the initial personal story.
BUT you should wait for a special sale, Halloween sale is coming (26 October 2023 — 2 November 2023) or the Autumn sale (21 November 2023 — 28 November 2023) and get the cheapest bundle the "hot & pof" expansions for $15 bucks, but if you have money for all the expansions and dlc well up to you but the hot & pof bundle is more than enough for many months and years.

[𝒞𝒶𝓉𝓎𝒶♡]

Ooh, so a sale is coming quite soon :O

I am considering buying expansions to another friend as sort of early xmas gift so i get her also to play with me. :D You know, like a drug dealer giving free samples at start.. then soon i abuse her as a personal Stability/Heal spammer in WvW. :P

Edit: to OP, i'd get expansions ASAP, to not have the free account limitations (chat, some trade post/purchase limitations, also gets more character slots etc and free lvl 80 tickets, that if you use on 1 character, even if leveled your main as the normal way, opens up Wizard's Vault dailies, even if just ticked the login part, you get Acclaim that can use for Laurels, Gold etc, that for sure has use as a new player), BUT if Sale in 6 days, i'd wait for that, so play until then and then buy what planned to buy, the full gigachad package with everything in it is damn good value when in Sale IMHO)

[Nico]

The only real advantages of buyin gthe expansion searly would be to get rid of the free2play restrictions. But most of them are pretty neglible. Gameplay wise the probably most annoying part is the less bag slots. And another big thing might be the no mounts part ..... but since the base game was designed without mounts in mind they're really not that important.

Other than that you really have full access to the base game, so you might as well play through it first before deciding to pay money for it. And like others already said, there probably is a sale during the Steam autumn sale.

[Joker]

Core can be played just fine without a raptor

But a raptor won't break the original experience too much
Unless you find it painful to do (meaning not fun), I would not go and do the easy unlock of springer in later expansions to use in core
Springer compeltely makes the old vista's a cakewalk
It's a lot of fun content to figure out how to compelte some of the vista's
But it's up to you if you care about that

Bag slot limit sounds like a pain though

[Elvish Presley]

If you would get any expansion get path of fire for the mounts. Without mounts the game is depressingly slow. You get a "free" 80 boost with every expansion as well and 1 more character slot. The problem with Path of fire though is that getting through it is a chore for noobs cause of the mob density and aggro range and the absurd amounts of damage done to you. It's a big spike from core in difficulty cause core maps are way too easy, spamroll your face over keyboard and get through anything doesn't work that well in the expansions.

[Simply Booba]

Originally posted by Joker:

Core can be played just fine without a raptor

But a raptor won't break the original experience too much
Unless you find it painful to do (meaning not fun), I would not go and do the easy unlock of springer in later expansions to use in core
Springer compeltely makes the old vista's a cakewalk
It's a lot of fun content to figure out how to compelte some of the vista's
But it's up to you if you care about that

Bag slot limit sounds like a pain though

This, pretty much. One of the first things I bought was Heart of Thorns+Path of Fire bundle mainly because I really liked how the raptor felt and it did indeed make things a bit more smooth to navigate in the core game. It's hardly mandatory since core was designed before mounts were a thing, but the raptor was suuuper nice to have.

Expac content is a bit different than core in that it's a bit more structured with a certain flow (initially) of mastery unlocks you'll need to get around effectively. Well that and mob aggression and density. But it's something to adjust to if you really care to play it. Just be prepared to learn and adjust your behaviours since enemies may not be such a joke.

So, OP, if you're new and thinking on buying I'd say getting Heart of Thorns+Path of fire bundle at this point couldn't hurt. I can't speak to your financial situation (obviously), but if you want to save money, maybe wait till later this month? Or was it next month..I hear a potential sale is coming up. I'm fairly sure here on steam you can wishlist DLC--so maybe do that? It'll warn you when a sale occurs.

[TSP]

Originally posted by amarrminer:

i suggest that you wait until you are finished with the core game.
the expansions are totally different from core, specially hot.
if i had known where they would take it, then i would never had started playing.
i have a dozen toons at max level, and i would have to do a ton of grinding to continue.
not gonna bother, im gonna play something else.

Cool story bro.

[Stelly]

One thing to note are shared slots. A problem is that HOT and POF are bundled in their shop and because of this you only get 1 shared slot from them. Or the EOD collection is HOT+POF+EOD but only gives 2 shared slots.
The exp packs are maybe still for sale in the gem store ingame? If they're separate in there the total price will be higher but they will be listed with each giving an extra slot.

Also ignore the boomers talking how mounts will ruin older maps and what not. "In my day we had to walk 10 miles barefoot through snow to get a vista point." Get lost grandpa.
Get max level and go unlock those mounts asap. Once you have the mounts and with blish HUD you can quickly do map explorations. They'll also make HOT maps a bearable experience. Unlike core, the enemies suddenly have giant aggro range and spam 7 different conditions on you in 2 seconds and they last 30 seconds. You don't want to walk through that if you don't have to. And flying mounts are about a downright requirement to do EOD and SOTO which is just a horrible design for new players but Anet is pretty big against catchup mechanics.

[Teratus]

I would advise playing the game a little while first before buying anything.
The game is free2play these days after all and you do get a few character slots to play around with.
Take advantage of that and try multiple professions.

If you decide you really like the game and want to commit to it, then buy the expansions.
Doesn't matter at what point you buy them, only matters if you really like Gw2 and you really want them.

[Sovery_Simple]

Originally posted by rive1573:

Im a new player currently level 20 and wanted to ask when was a good time to buy any of the expansions. Should I get them after completing the story or are there advantages to buying early.

Core story stuff turns into a bit of a mess by the end, but you'll get Elite Specs (especs) unlocked to play with when you hit 80. That's a distance away from you now, ofc, but the sale is coming up in a little under 2 weeks. You can decide by then if you want to nab some xpacs or not. Personally going for the triple pack, as I picked up SotO already and hopped into it after finish Core. Wasn't too terribly jarring, and the writing means you aren't really spoiled much on previous stuff because most of what you hear is either detached from your knowledge pool or predictable.

[vann974]

Prepare to spent more then 150e betwenn expansions mounts warehouse slots and something else i spent 90 e for now and already get bored by the ingame limits ....gw2 become a new era mmorgs, pay to be more playable. it's ever more hard find a good and honest mmorg those days maybe 6-7 whitout in game pay for quality contents. why i have to pay for a decent amount of slots in warehouse ??? cmon ...hate those stuffs .

[Gh0st.exe]

Originally posted by vann974:

Prepare to spent more then 150e betwenn expansions mounts warehouse slots and something else i spent 90 e for now and already get bored by the ingame limits ....gw2 become a new era mmorgs, pay to be more playable. it's ever more hard find a good and honest mmorg those days maybe 6-7 whitout in game pay for quality contents. why i have to pay for a decent amount of slots in warehouse ??? cmon ...hate those stuffs .

Sorry, but what you are saying isnt really true:

- Buying expansions isnt anything GW2 exclusive, its in fact pretty common, even standard, for MMOs. But most of the "well known" MMOs even charge you the subscription fee on top of it, so not only do you have to buy expansions, you have to keep paying to use them.

- Mounts are unlocked via gameplay after you bought the relevant expansion, there isnt even a way to unlock them via "extra payment" besides that. So i have no idea why you list them under "you have to pay extra".

- Warehouse slots (i assume you mean the bank) are a bit limited, yes, but at the same time there arent many items you want / need to store there anyway. And the material storage is more then sufficient as long as you dont intend to farm mats 24/7 withour break over several days, same goes for inventory slots once you get bigger bags. At the most basic level you just need to apply proper inventory-hygene, same as in every other game.

You can pay for convinience, yes, but nothing in the shop is required to make the game "playable". I would really like to know what "ingame limits" you are refering to when you said you "get bored by the ingame limits".

[~T~D~]

I would buy them once ur sure u like the game enough. - And try get them all on sale.

- Remember to take ur low lvl toon to PVP and see if u like to play him or her for 500 hours or more before expanding inventory and so on. - There he will be lvl 80 and you can check out skills.