noob factions player....lost...what is up

OK I have a ritualist.
I have 500 kurzick points and 1269 luxon points.
AGAIN I have NO idea what I am doing.

I was told to pick one side or the other. So the other side
is offlimits after I make this choice?
are all elites on both sides...I was looking for some and in Freaks
they are not listed on both sides. So I had to ask.

Is one side easier than the other to complete?
Why are there 2 sides?

I have run out of ideas on how to advance, I have gone to house Zu Heltzer on one side and it just seems to dead end, so I went to Jade Qaurry on the other. I learned later that is the reason I have more luxon points, I went to that side second.

WHAT do I do?

thanks for any info, help, pointers and flames

sparks

As far as I know, you can explore every inch of land on the map no matter which faction you're allied with.

with your current faction balance some of the kurzick NPC's may not interact with you. You can easily trade in luxon faction for Jadeite to be able to trade and interact with the Kurzicks.

Problem is, when you spend faction for one side, you lose faction for the other =/

Example - You have 10k faction for each. You spend 1000 Kurzick faction to get amber. You lose 1000 Luxon faction because you worked with the Kurzicks.

Boo

In PvE you don't really pick a side. Which side is determined by which faction points you have more of. If you want to switch sides all you need to do is get more faction points for that side, or cash in some of the points from the faction that you want to abandon.

The only time you pick a side for the long term is a a guild leader and that's for your entire guild. This will only determine which side you will fight for when you do alliance battles.

Exactly, the only differece is the interaction with the NPCs and alliance battles (if you're in a Kurzick or Luxon guild)

If your going through the story, then I would say that following the Kurzick mission path is easier.

To progress, once you get to HzH you should be able to get a quest called 'Befriending the Kurzicks' which involves getting 10k Kurzick faction before you can gain access to the next mission outpost (which I think is Eternal Grove, can't remember).

Same goes for the Luxon side, when you get to Cavalon you get the quest 'Befriending the Luxons' which you must do before you can gain access to the next mission outpost (Gyala Hatchery)

It would be best to go through one side, spend all your faction, and then do the other side. Once you have all the outposts on your map you can visit them anytime you want, regardless of faction. Although if you have more Kurzick faction the Luxon NPC's wont talk to you (and vice-versa). This doesnt stop you doing missions tho.

You have to pick a side to advance in the story-line of the game. Do one of the "Befriending" quests (which is simply farming 10,000 faction points for that side), and then you'll be able to progress along that side of the line. You can always go back later and do the other side. Since you have more Luxon Faction, I'd finish that side off and then go and do the Kurzick side later. As stated, when you spend faction on one side, you lose up to an equal amount on the other side.

There are several quests on each side you can do to gain the Faction needed for the befriending quest, many of them repeatable. Or you can do AB's to quickly gain the 10,000 faction needed.

Ok, Just to reiterate what everyone else has said:

After the Sunjiang District mission Togo tells you to choose a side? Ignore him - Togo knows nothing!

You Get Journey to House Zu Heltzer and Journey to Cavalon from Jamei in Maatu Keep after the Sunjiang Distrist, so you go speak to the guards in Altrumm Ruins and Zos Shivros Channel and they let you into both cities. Count Zu Heltzer in House Zu Heltzer gives you some quests, one of which is "Befrending the Kurzicks", Elder Rhea in Cavalon will give you "Befrending the Luxons", each requires 10,000 Faction with each 'tribe'.

You get the faction by doing the missions, or fighting in the Jade Quarry or Fort Aspenwood, which I am sure you have already worked out. It is best to work on one side at a time. As people have already pointed out, the Kurzick side is easier, I think because you get more quests - thus more easy faction... When you have 10,000 Kurzick faction - go to Count Zu Heltzer and 'Complete' the mission...then go spend your faction at the Faction Rewards guy in House Zu Heltzer...

Next (if you want to) go to Cavalon and do the Luxon Quests, when you have your 10,000 Luxon Faction, you can go and 'Complete' "Befrending the Luxons" with Elder Rhea. Now, the reason we spend the Kurzick Faction before going to do the Luxon missions is, now you can go to Faction Rewards on the Luxon side...if you still had Kurzick Faction, even though you're spending Luxon Faction on the Jadeite, the Kurzicks "know" you're redeeming faction with them and so your 10,000 Kurzick faction would go down as well...soooo, since we spent that faction before - problem eliminated!

Now, on activiating "Befrending the Kurzicks" Count Zu Heltzer gives you "Defenders of the Forest", where you have to go to The Eternal Grove, the next Kurzick Mission Town. on completing "Befrending the Luxons" Elder Rhea gives you "Stolen Eggs", where you have to go to the Gyala Hatchery, the next Luxon Mission town... Faction doesn't matter too much any more...not for objective activation purposes anyway.

Of course, there's nothing to stop you from working your way down one side completely and going straight to Raisu Palace - that's what I do, then I go back and work my way down the other side... Just keep an eye on your faction, and when you get to 10,000 - spend it, or transfer it (if you're in a guild).

I hope this has helped...sorry it's so long...

Most Elite skills can be found on both sides but there are a number which can not, one which springs to mind is Energy Boon, for Elementalists, which can be found in Ferndale in the Kurzick side, but not on the Luxon side to my knowledge...

I find this to be a good site for finding elite skills - esp eince it has map locations on it...
http://www.xennon.co.uk/eliteskills/

This is incorrect unless a VERY recent update has changed it. If you have 10k faction for each side and spend 1000 Kur faction for amber, you lose ALL (10k) Luxon faction.

As a Ritu ur probably gonna wanna head over and do "Befriending the Kurzick" its the only way to get down and get Ritualist Lord, an amazing elite which i odnt think occurs on the Luxon side of town.

If your playing the spirit spammer prot build this skill is a must.

I have a question that I can't get answered and I can't post for some reason so...here it goes I just got a new comp my old comp was crap and was definitly not able to game so. i got new comp and it's a gamming comp and I was told this game was great do I need to play the first gw in order to play the second am I missing something from the story if I do so?!?!?!?!?

Really? Because that has never happened to me. I never actually had 10k for both sides at the same time, but I've had times where it has been 8k Kurzick and 3k Luxon. I spend 1k Kurzick, and my Luxon drops to 2k. Weird.

No, if you buy Factions you can play it on its own. It's a stand alone game and an expansion at the same time. If you only have one game or the other your skills may be limited, for instance, if you're an Elementalist and you only have Factions, you can't get Chain Lightening since that is a Prophecies-only skill. Unless you really want skills/weapons etc. from both games you can only buy one. If you buy Factions first and buy Prophecies at a later date (like me), you just add Prophecies to your Guild Wars Account and you can either start a new character there, or take your Factions character across...

Technically not true... Ritual Lord is available on the Luxon Side, it is available from an Irukandji in Silent Surf called Whispering Ritual Lord, however, this boss does not appear if you have 'The Dragon Hunter' quest active.

ritual lord is in luxon territory only, moebius strike is kurzick only[assassin offhand]
neither are on the oposing force's area[there's one or two elites for the factions only classses that are only found on one side]

Sorry, hate to have to disagree with people but Ritual Lord is available on the Kurzick side as well as the Luxon side. On the Kurzick side it can be obtained from Spiritroot Mossbeard, an Undergrowth Boss in the Eternal Grove Explorable Area.

I have gone to house Zu Heltzer.

THIS IS NOT TRUE. I am at Altrumn ruins and I was trying to get to
house Zu Heltzer, my type sorry about that. The only thing here is a
quest to get the most amber before the time runs out.

What do I have to do to get to the useful elite skills that most good
builds seem to require?

most seem to be beyond the next stop.

ps I just switched to rit/necro and this is fun, once a corpse drops.

thanks for any help

JUST ME BITCHING LOL

It seems to me the way these stupid quest are laid out
is to take 5 feet of road and make you run 10 miles on it trying to convince
you that this little ass map is more fun once you go thru it 20 times.
Yea this is more a little $20 expansion they tried to fake into a $50 game.


sparks

you can switch sides whenever you want - which i have done for many times