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[Proven]

I have an hour free but I'm still feeling unsure about popping down $100 for the beta. I want to try out the elite specializations, but not when I'm going to lose access to them for weeks at a time. I can help give feedback to make sure things are awesome for me in the future... but it'd also be less fun for me in the now.

Anyone playing any Stronghold?

 

[Quenk]

Posting this near the top of the page for Ike:

☆ THIS WEEK'S EVENT - SUNDAY AUGUST 9 ☆

Event #3 - Twilight Arbor
Story Path and Explorable Forward/Up Paths

Required Character Level: 55
Required Zone: Caledon Forest

All dungeon runs will take place after the completion of Sunday Guild Make-Up Missions (~4:30 PM EDT). Events should be expected to take no longer than two hours.

These events are intended to be rather casual, and they will be very new-player friendly. Players of every experience level are encouraged to participate, so please invite anyone who you think would like to join.

For each full party that completes a given week's dungeon run, five gold will be added to a raffle from which one participant's name will be drawn. So if five parties complete the event, you have a chance at winning an extra twenty-five gold! The more people who show up, the more money you can win!

This one?

Yup. That's the one.

 

[Retro]

Hey guys! I'm going to try and get back in, MIGHT make a new character, not sure, but I'm going to get back into GW2. ^_^

As for Heart of Thorns, the only thing I really know about it is that it's going to take place in Maguuma. Is there like a big trailer video or anything that might convince me to think about getting it?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOUk2y0K2m8

Features: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Heart_of_Thorns#Features

 

[LumpOfCole]

Mesmer additions are incredible. Chronomancer is going to be a PVP beast, even with the crazy cooldown on the new F5 shatter.

 

[Morokh]

Necro greatsword actually feels like using Warrior/Guardian hammer; but without all the utility that comes with it.

Chill overall, save for the elite shout seems to do very little to help overall even fully traited.

One interesting thing though, I'm using blood magic, and the amount of HP you can restore in a group using RS4 is actually quite nice, I'm up to 2500-3000 health healed for some people if I get every hit in.
(edit : yeah, make that 4k+ )

Running blood magic, I also had a 'moment' when I realized what you actually loose when speccing Reaper.
I was like 'Why don't i get 1 might when I hit with RS1 ?' ...... awww yeah, don't have that traitline anymore ....

The map reward system needs a bit of further tweaking, you don't get a reward after every event, so be it, but when you do it goes straight to your inventory, so you don't really see what you're earning.
They want to avoid the hassle of getting a chest everytime, I get that, but making it a little bit more ovious wouldn't hurt.

They also need to be careful about the selection of rewards if the purpose is to get more people back to those maps through some more reliable farming.
Too much low level/under used stuff right now (although those items could be used in HoT recipes, but we don't know that yet)
The junk items worth 30s are a nice touch though

 

[Elfstruck]

Wow, wings of glory looks amazing!

 

[Astral/H3X]

Alright, SOOOOOOO dipped my toes back in and... holy hell. There's a LOT I have to get used to. I've forgotten basically everything except the controls, so it's going to be a while before I get back up to speed. I've got two level 80 characters, and want to work through the story content I've missed, is there a good guide on where to start? I don't think I ever did much of any living story content.

 

[Dead]

On Reaper

Reaper Shroud is awesome. Holy crap. Especially when traited. Dhuumfire on Reaper Shroud 1 just melts dudes away.

However, Great Sword either needs to hit faster or hit harder. Preferably both. There's no way everyone who plays this will not agree.

 

[Shanlei91]

Teleporting, sword dual wielding, heavy armor wearing Revenant has managed to emulate my character on ESO. It's hard for me to decide if the damage isn't up to snuff because of the new enemies but the combat animations are a hoot to watch.

 

[Retro]

I hope at some point they add a small minimap icon for mushrooms, even if it's just the Springy ones that boost you up. They're really easy to miss or forget where they are... of course, we were lost when the game first came out too so... maybe in time we'll just remember where they're at... /shrug

Alright, SOOOOOOO dipped my toes back in and... holy hell. There's a LOT I have to get used to. I've forgotten basically everything except the controls, so it's going to be a while before I get back up to speed. I've got two level 80 characters, and want to work through the story content I've missed, is there a good guide on where to start? I don't think I ever did much of any living story content.

There's an in-game cutscene called "Scarlet's War" in your story journal (In the hero panel) that will catch you up to Season 1's end. Season 2 can be replayed, either by tagging along with another player who's doing it or by buying it yourself (200 gems an episode, though I believe if you buy them all at once it's cheaper; since I logged in when each episode was active I got them for free and they don't show up for purchase anymore).

Your Story Journal will pretty much tell you everything from there. Alternatively, you can skip the story journal, read a summary, and just wait for HoT.

It's hard for me to decide if the damage isn't up to snuff because of the new enemies but the combat animations are a hoot to watch.

The critters in Maguuma are straight up tougher and some of them have really nasty tricks. We were discussing it in Mumble last night, I think the Zerker meta (at least initially) is going to take a back seat to survival until people get a handle on things. Almost all of the fights in this Beta feel like things that could fuck you up if you're not paying attention. Not much of that in old Tyria.

 

[Retro]

Guild Missions in 2 hours!

Also, here's a really good interview about the Mastery System: http://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/10127098?t=457m40s. They reference Zelda, Metroid and Pilotwings, so... Music to my ears. Lots of "We don't think expansions should be about more numbers"-type talk, the kinda stuff I love to hear.

One of drops they get is called a "((Vial of Rata Novus Golem Gunk))." New Asuran City? They also show some new areas in this stream and That_Shaman figured out that they're two entirely new maps, so... we now have four maps at least, not counting ones with multiple layers.

Also, the concept of a player-driven "Mentor" system is amazing.

Also, sorry for the double post.

Lot of alsos today.

 

[Vena]

Really enjoying Revenant.

 

[Ashodin]

Also hi from a wedding!

 

[Thorgal]

Gave my Warrior A slight makeover .

Also when Farmin SW i have this playing on loop :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajc5Xotrxj8

 

[spiritfox]

Tempest is... very support-y. I like the shouts and the auras, but it's not worth losing a traitline and good DPS over. WH is underwhelming and I haven't really played around with the overloads yet, but I'm not sure they're worth losing the element for such a long time. Unless HoT gives us a reason to go support I think Tempest will only do well in WvW, maybe sPvP.

 

[Astral/H3X]

I hope at some point they add a small minimap icon for mushrooms, even if it's just the Springy ones that boost you up. They're really easy to miss or forget where they are... of course, we were lost when the game first came out too so... maybe in time we'll just remember where they're at... /shrug



There's an in-game cutscene called "Scarlet's War" in your story journal (In the hero panel) that will catch you up to Season 1's end. Season 2 can be replayed, either by tagging along with another player who's doing it or by buying it yourself (200 gems an episode, though I believe if you buy them all at once it's cheaper; since I logged in when each episode was active I got them for free and they don't show up for purchase anymore).

Your Story Journal will pretty much tell you everything from there. Alternatively, you can skip the story journal, read a summary, and just wait for HoT.



The critters in Maguuma are straight up tougher and some of them have really nasty tricks. We were discussing it in Mumble last night, I think the Zerker meta (at least initially) is going to take a back seat to survival until people get a handle on things. Almost all of the fights in this Beta feel like things that could fuck you up if you're not paying attention. Not much of that in old Tyria.

Alright, sounds like a good start. I'll try and see if I can tag along.

I'll be able to go online at 7pm EST a lot more often starting tomorrow, would I be able to get someone that I could tag along with during PvE? I find myself to be quite lonely in GW2 since I usually don't have time to join in with the guild missions and such (so far).

 

[Forerunner]

This lag though, I blame the beta. Friday was fine, however come the weekend my ping has been averaging around 200 and it always spikes to 500. Never had a problem before, most of the time I'm at 50. It ruined my whole experience so far. Oh well, I bet by Monday it'll be normal again.

 

[Wallach]

Gravedigger doesn't cause more damage to low health targets, it just refreshes faster. I had to look at that too since I was wondering why it wasn't hitting harder on nearly dead enemies.

Nah I know, I was just saying that even when you can spam the ability on a target it does less DPS than dagger 1 spam. When you aren't hitting low health targets and are forced onto GS 1 it's even worse.

 

[Retro]

Alright, sounds like a good start. I'll try and see if I can tag along.

I'll be able to go online at 7pm EST a lot more often starting tomorrow, would I be able to get someone that I could tag along with during PvE? I find myself to be quite lonely in GW2 since I usually don't have time to join in with the guild missions and such (so far).

That's right about Prime time for most players. Make sure you post your account name (name.####) so we can get you into the guild (if we haven't already).

This lag though, I blame the beta. Friday was fine, however come the weekend my ping has been averaging around 200 and it always spikes to 500. Never had a problem before, most of the time I'm at 50. It ruined my whole experience so far. Oh well, I bet by Monday it'll be normal again.

Is it just GW2? I haven't heard anyone else mention any lag (beyond the normal bit at world events and such, of course).

Nah I know, I was just saying that even when you can spam the ability on a target it does less DPS than dagger 1 spam. When you aren't hitting low health targets and are forced onto GS 1 it's even worse.

Ah, just wanted to make sure. I had to do a double take to make sure I was reading it right. The reduced cooldown is pretty cool, but the skill takes so long to wind up...

 

[Ashodin]

I feel for the Reaper, especially with no gap closer besides pulls, they should make its damage REALLY strong. You should be scared when the Reaper gets near you. I guess they shunted all that damage into the shroud though.

 

[Forerunner]

Is it just GW2? I haven't heard anyone else mention any lag (beyond the normal bit at world events and such, of course).

Yeah it's just GW2 and it just started Saturday too. I'm not really worried about it, sure it'll blow over.

 

[Ashodin]

ryuuu I best be seein' you in league with me!

 

[Jira]

Tempest is... very support-y. I like the shouts and the auras, but it's not worth losing a traitline and good DPS over. WH is underwhelming and I haven't really played around with the overloads yet, but I'm not sure they're worth losing the element for such a long time. Unless HoT gives us a reason to go support I think Tempest will only do well in WvW, maybe sPvP.

I mean have you seen how hard the mobs hit in Verdant Brink? The tactics they use? They've been dropping people front, left, and center. Support is VERY needed just roaming around. I was playing a support Tempest earlier with Retro and it saved our asses many times and we've already spent what 15+ hours or more just in this small area. We know what the mobs do but they can hand you your ass in a heartbeat with those skills. HoT mobs feel more like GW1 mobs did. Not to mention Colin said stuff gets even harder the further you go into the jungle and then you have the challenging group content.

I just took a zerker warrior into VB and got absolute destroyed by a group of smokescales and I know how to fight them.

 

[Ashodin]

Yeah I really feel they specifically designed mobs to be super fast and hard to react to with zerker gear on. I had to switch partial gear to cavalier (power toughness ferocity) just to not explode

 

[spiritfox]

That's good. I haven't been to the new zone cause I rather wait till the release to play it.

 

[Morokh]

Yeah I really feel they specifically designed mobs to be super fast and hard to react to with zerker gear on. I had to switch partial gear to cavalier (power toughness ferocity) just to not explode

Did exactly the same with my Dragonhunter cause i remembered how squishy I was in Orr with my Guardian

I'm doing well with Berserker on Reaper thanks to Reaper Shroud, but Valkyrie stats are an option with the crit traits. (But I'm out of transmutes on my beta account already ..... )
Life-force generation in RS is very bad though.

 

[Nemesis121]

Ran around Brink with full zerker didn't die, I have suicide a few times to see the bottom of the map since i don't have glider, but no enemy has put me in a down state, this is on my Rev only class i played in the new zone..

 

[Levyne]

Make up missions in 2 hours, TA dungeons (non-aetherpath) after.

I encourage elite specs/ beta characters if you dont need comms or TA path credit

 

[Retro]

I encourage elite specs/ beta characters if you dont need comms or TA path credit

Just make sure you're in mumble or a party that doesn't mind linking waypoints, since guild chat is disabled.

Also, semi-related; I'll be able to make it to TA after all.

 

[Wanderer5]

Think I be able to join in this time on the dungeon runs, and will probably try rev on one run, and Dragonhunter on another.

 

[Morokh]

Since I'm done with being able to play the Beta, here are some shots of my characters.
Reaper - Revenant - Dragonhunter.

Mostly played Reaper, barely touched the other two, really not feeling Revenant so far from what little I played of it.
Didn't touch Chronomancer or Tempest cause i barely know anything about Mesmer / Ele.

If it wasn't obvious, the Itzel village at night is just my favorite place of this section of the map !

 

[Taco_Human]

Probably won't be buying GW2 after all. Arena net says I broke the EULA by combining my two accounts because it was my older brothers account back in the day. It's his name for the first and my name for the second. They said they couldn't help me because of that alone.

Oh well, guess I'm not gonna miss out on much.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Probably won't be buying GW2 after all. Arena net says I broke the EULA by combining my two accounts because it was my older brothers account back in the day. It's his name for the first and my name for the second. They said they couldn't help me because of that alone.

Oh well, guess I'm not gonna miss out on much.

Ohh that sucks!


Best of luck to you, whatever you decide to do! ^_^

 

[Shanlei91]

Chronomancer is a beast. Ran CoF with guys who weren't in beta and their heads were spinning.

I might need to run Mesmer as my main again since Tempest is kind of awful. Of all the characters I tried, my vanilla Ele build with all zerker seems to be the only one who doesn't die to the new enemies. Makes sense for the Elite spec to not be awesome for a class that already handles itself well. Makes me wonder what's in store for Warrior.

 

[Levyne]

Tried dragon hunter in a couple dungeons. Wasn't really feeling it. Bow doesn't seem like an upgrade over GS or Mace/Sword+Focus/Torch. I feel like I'm losing more than I gain swapping to the DH traitline too. Not used to Virtues having a both a cast time or target requirements. Gotta get used to stuff like channeled skills being canceled and not instant application of cleanse or stability or blind. I don't want to write it off just yet but its very different in that sense. Having a bow in silverwaste/open world is kinda cool though, and the effects are neat.

 

[Levyne]

Pictures from today's TA event.

Always liked the starting room.

 

[Wanderer5]

Tried dragon hunter in a couple dungeons. Wasn't really feeling it. Bow doesn't seem like an upgrade over GS or Mace/Sword+Focus/Torch. I feel like I'm losing more than I gain swapping to the DH traitline too. Not used to Virtues having a both a cast time or target requirements. Gotta get used to stuff like channeled skills being canceled and not instant application of cleanse or stability or blind. I don't want to write it off just yet but its very different in that sense. Having a bow in silverwaste/open world is kinda cool though, and the effects are neat.

I kind of liked it, but yeah the traitline seems pretty bleh in that regards. Some cool effects through and I like the additional virtues. Plus in some cases it nice to have a good range weapon now. Through I not sure how useful it be with WvW raids which my guard pretty just mostly does that.

And good dungeon runs today, and it been a nice beta. I pretty much done with the new map, Rev, and DH for this time, and overall I impress, despite some bleh with DH and the new map being really buggy in the day events. I give chronomancer a closer look tonight most likely. Also Gliding, WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!XD

 

[Nemesis121]

Probably won't be buying GW2 after all. Arena net says I broke the EULA by combining my two accounts because it was my older brothers account back in the day. It's his name for the first and my name for the second. They said they couldn't help me because of that alone.

Oh well, guess I'm not gonna miss out on much.

Damn Anet hates money, a game that runs on buy to play, that is a dumb rule but hey whatever, i wish you the best in your next game...

 

[Proven]

Dammit Dammit Dammit! I drove back 100 miles and then ended up sleeping through the guild event. Dammit.

 

[usea]

I picked this game back up after playing at launch. I've been back about a month, still trying to catch up on things. I have three 80s. Working on getting ascended gear. So far I've just been crafting the time-restricted (daily) refinement things whenever I can. I have plenty of ectoplasm and raw ascended mats (bloodstone dust, etc).

I don't have any living story stuff unlocked. It seems like I miss out on quite a bit by not having it (Mawdrey, ascended amulet, stuff for my personal instance). How much is it going to suck never having that? Should I buy the episode(s) with gems? The most gold I've had at once is like 120g, from running silverwastes a lot. Just as an example, I'll have to spend 20 laurels on an ascended amulet for one character at least, for the AR.

What would be the best use of my time in preparing for the expansion? I'd rather not waste it on something that is going to become easier or cheaper or whatever.

Also hi. This game is a lot of fun.

 

[Retro]

Damn Anet hates money, a game that runs on buy to play, that is a dumb rule but hey whatever, i wish you the best in your next game...

It's pretty standard though, I've never played an MMO where you can merge accounts, even if the names are the same. I imagine the best you can do is just pick which account you want to be the main and try to salvage whatever you can from the other, or just have two accounts (good for mules at the very least).

I don't have any living story stuff unlocked. It seems like I miss out on quite a bit by not having it (Mawdrey, ascended amulet, stuff for my personal instance). How much is it going to suck never having that? Should I buy the episode(s) with gems? The most gold I've had at once is like 120g, from running silverwastes a lot. Just as an example, I'll have to spend 20 laurels on an ascended amulet for one character at least, for the AR.

Welcome back.

For the Living Story stuff, you'll only be missing out on Mawdrey, a few Ascended items from achievement rewards and the Luminescent set (which is a glow-in-the-dark version of the Carapace armor you can buy in the Silverwastes). I think that's really about it.

If you want to buy it, I would suggest getting the Complete Pack since it ends up 20% off buying each episode individually. It's 1600 gems, or about $18 USD.

If you think you'll be playing the expansion, you can pick up the Ultimate edition of Heart of Thorns and get 4000 gems for the price of 2000. It's $50 bucks more than the basic edition, but you'd have some discount gems to play with.

What would be the best use of my time in preparing for the expansion? I'd rather not waste it on something that is going to become easier or cheaper or whatever.

You're fine gear wise, since there won't be a level cap increase or new tier of gear added. If you're in Exotics you're more than good to go.

I can't think of anything that's going to be substantially easier in the expansion, so I'm not sure what you can do to prepare for it other than get any classes you want to play up to 80, stockpile Tomes of Knowledge if you'd like to power-level a Revenant... maybe grab exotic weapons for your characters' future elite specs (Ele warhorn, Mesmer shield, Guardian longbow and Necro greatsword are all we have confirmed at the moment).

Correction: Fractals will be much easier in HoT as they will no longer be run in a randomized set of three + Boss but will instead be done one fractal at a time. Sorry about that, knew I was forgetting something.

 

[Zeroth]

I picked this game back up after playing at launch. I've been back about a month, still trying to catch up on things. I have three 80s. Working on getting ascended gear. So far I've just been crafting the time-restricted (daily) refinement things whenever I can. I have plenty of ectoplasm and raw ascended mats (bloodstone dust, etc).

I don't have any living story stuff unlocked. It seems like I miss out on quite a bit by not having it (Mawdrey, ascended amulet, stuff for my personal instance). How much is it going to suck never having that? Should I buy the episode(s) with gems? The most gold I've had at once is like 120g, from running silverwastes a lot. Just as an example, I'll have to spend 20 laurels on an ascended amulet for one character at least, for the AR.

What would be the best use of my time in preparing for the expansion? I'd rather not waste it on something that is going to become easier or cheaper or whatever.

Also hi. This game is a lot of fun.

The living story season 2 is by no means necessary in terms of rewards it gives. Maybe if you want to get a full ascended sinister set, but outside of that the rewards are inconsequential and won't stop you from enjoying future content.

Since you are working on ascended gear, there's this very helpful guide on how to achieve full AR for scale 50 without crafting any armor. I don't recommend following it entirely (the note about ascended backpiece is not something I would work before armor for example) but it gives you some ideas on how to get there. I recommend against buying rings with any sort of currency since they come a lot on fractal runs and that's what you'll run if you have ascended gear.

This is a nice goal that can keep you busy for the expansion. There are many ways to get money in the game but I would prioritize doing whatever you have fun with and have small goals like ascended gear to push you.

And, of course, joining the GAF guild is also a great way to enhance your GW2 experience if you are not in one already.

 

[Spyware]

Thanks for showing me TA! <3 Really needed this after a bad week and a really bad day.

A pic, as usual:

and more here. Not many tho. Wasn't really in the mood.

Since I'm done with being able to play the Beta, here are some shots of my characters.
Reaper - Revenant - Dragonhunter.

Argfh. So pretty <3 Love that Rev.

 

[UltimateIke]

Here's my party!

Thank you again to everyone who showed up this week!


From Spyware's Tumblr:

Twilight Arbor this week (normal paths) and it was very pretty but quite&#8230; normal. Mostly just &#8220;kill everything as usual&#8221;, a bit of a letdown after last week with CM&#8217;s interesting mechanics.

Next week will be Aetherpath, so we'll be back to the interesting stuff again soon. It has some of the most involved fights and mechanics in the game!

 

[Spyware]

Next week will be Aetherpath, so we'll be back to the interesting stuff again soon. It has some of the most involved fights and mechanics in the game!

Yeah I'm really looking forward to that

 

[Proven]

Can anyone who's been playing in the beta comment on the map reward system for older Pact Tyria maps?

 

[Retro]

Can anyone who's been playing in the beta comment on the map reward system for older Pact Tyria maps?

Jira and I played with it a bit but it was kind of...off. Here's the notes I jotted down for it, I dunno if Jira had anything to add;

Map Rewards

• The list of rewards that appears on the map is too short; some of the items overlap if the list is too long.
• There is no indicator when Map Rewards rotate; some type of clock on the map or on the reward list that indicates how long is remaining?
• Map rewards were not awarded consistently; sometimes we seemed to receive them for several events in a row, sometimes it skipped one event, etc.
• It was difficult to tell when map rewards had been awarded because they are placed directly into the inventory. Perhaps having the item&#8217;s icon appear over the Event Completion Medal would help, as players must click this UI element to close it?
• At several point we wished there was some kind of UI indicator on-screen to show us which reward was next. We thought it would be neat if the map reward list (just icons) would &#8216;slide out&#8217; from &#8216;under&#8217; the minimap whenever the cursor is placed over it. Players could then move the cursor onto the list to show the item names.

Overall it just felt like it's working (though buggy, or we just don't know what awards them or not), but the UI isn't done yet. I really like the idea though, it's just... not done.

 

[Ludovico]

So I've been in (on and off...) since the game's launch, and as of right now I've got about 530 hours invested and what's soon to be my 5th level 80. Obviously, I'm a pretty casual player.

For the majority of my playtime, I've stuck to low to mid level area completion, world bosses, and holiday events.

Does anyone have any advice for someone that doesn't have a guaranteed two to three hours per night to get on, but would like to start exploring higher level content such as drytop, SW, cursed shore, dungeons, fractals, etc?

I've meandered through the Ruins of Orr when it's tied to the daily achievements, but constantly getting crippled/slowed makes it seem like soloing it is impossible.

 

[Retro]

So I've been in (on and off...) since the game's launch, and as of right now I've got about 530 hours invested and what's soon to be my 5th level 80. Obviously, I'm a pretty casual player.

For the majority of my playtime, I've stuck to low to mid level area completion, world bosses, and holiday events.

Does anyone have any advice for someone that doesn't have a guaranteed two to three hours per night to get on, but would like to start exploring higher level content such as drytop, SW, cursed shore, dungeons, fractals, etc?

I've meandered through the Ruins of Orr when it's tied to the daily achievements, but constantly getting crippled/slowed makes it seem like soloing it is impossible.

Drytop's cycle is only an hour long (40 minutes clear, 20 minutes Sandstorm), Silverwastes feels like it's usually a half hour to 45 minutes max from start to finish (and you can always use LFG to find one near completed).

Most dungeons are an hour max, though AC 1/3, COF 1/2 and SE1 are usually much shorter (25 minutes seems like a good upper limit with a group that knows what it's doing, give or take 5-10 mins).

Fractals are going to be easier to do (Shit, I KNEW there was something that was going to get easier in HoT, sorry Usea!) since you'll only run one island at a time. Right now though I wouldn't do a fractal without a solid hour and a half free.

Orr isn't quite so bad as it used to be but it's still pretty nasty. Bring condition removal and try not to skip anything (trying to slip between mobs usually just ends up with two of them after you). It's not a friendly place but if you're prepared and avoid the really nasty stuff (champs and elites) you'll get the hang of it.

Honestly, quick GAF dungeons would probably be the best use of your time; people have fun, they rarely use cheese (and if they do, you can at least ask for the strategy and know they won't act like snobs and kick you) and there's always people on. Good money, good dungeon tokens, good times.

 

[Proven]

So I've been in (on and off...) since the game's launch, and as of right now I've got about 530 hours invested and what's soon to be my 5th level 80. Obviously, I'm a pretty casual player.

For the majority of my playtime, I've stuck to low to mid level area completion, world bosses, and holiday events.

Does anyone have any advice for someone that doesn't have a guaranteed two to three hours per night to get on, but would like to start exploring higher level content such as drytop, SW, cursed shore, dungeons, fractals, etc?

I've meandered through the Ruins of Orr when it's tied to the daily achievements, but constantly getting crippled/slowed makes it seem like soloing it is impossible.

As someone that currently doesn't get much play time in per week, here's my point of view:

For dungeons, call on GAF. Lots of GAF are willing to do a dungeon run if you ask nicely in chat and there are enough people on. Same sentiment goes for Fractals. If you can get on GAF GW2 Mumble you can even get quick explanations before each encounter, although there will be members willing to explain it through chat if you ask.

Every map of Orr (Straits, Leap, Shore) is just another world map area. It's nowhere near as hard as it was at launch, people will be running around often to complete any major events if they are up, and there are a number of people often in Cursed Shore just running events. You have zero worry about going here at this point. If it helps, progress through your Personal Story to give you some direction.

For Silverwastes, just jump in. There's a little bit of in-game explanation of it (new area found connected to Brisban, Vinewrath area, several phases) but I mostly just did Living Story episodes while exploring it bit by bit and got the hang of it. If you get the feeling there aren't a lot of people on your map, just leave and reenter to roll for another shard or use LFG. If you use LGF, avoid any descriptions that include the words "chest farm". You'll understand what they're for after you get some time in.

Dry Top is a simpler Silverwastes, and has the issue of less people frequenting it these days. If you can be on at primetime, you'll have a lot of people buzzing around as you explore. Living Story Season 2 helps a ton when it comes learning the area and giving you direction to all the major spots. As Retro said above, Dry Top has a strict hourly schedule, so once you get the hang of it you can easily drop in and out for what you want there.