Simple question(s) before i get the game

For starters, this whole GW factions and normal GW confuses me. (is normal GW prophecies?) Also, which one should i buy first?

also, is this game casual player friendly? Like if i dont play 24/7 im gimped (WoW)

And last, is GW more skill based or time based?

GW is more skill based

You can get very good weapons without playing 24/7, but if you want that really nice looking or rare item you have to farm and play substantially more but those weapons are equally good as any weapon with the same "mods"

I like Factions more than Prophecies, but I use many Prophecies skill neverless so getting both is a recommendation but not a must.

Prophecies is the best to get first
Here you get the time to find out what everything is and how it works and in Factions you get rushed into it.

Prophecies is also better than Factions IMO

Get Prophecies first. It actually has a "tutorial" and you learn how things work.

/agreed

Factions is fun, but IMHO, Prophecies is far superior. I've finished Factions 3 times, but took all my chars back to Tyria. I've even taken my Canthan born chars to Tyria.

To the OP: Tyria is the continent where Prophecies is based. Cantha is where Factions takes place, but if you have both games linked, you can travel between continents.

Factions does a far better job of teaching you how to play on your first (and every subsequent) character. Prophecies puts you in an easy little tutorial area and has quests whose descriptions consist of 'Here's some skills, go do this for me'. Sure, it's easy and gets you into it slowly, but it doesn't teach you anything.

Factions will give you a tutorial at the start that teaches you all the basics of the game, and 'insignia tests' which show you how conditions, hexes, enchantments, etc work, as well as removing them and general playing tips. It's more PvP focussed, but you'll find that'll make you a better player overall. Instead of just giving you the skills and telling you to do something, it'll show you how they work. What they are used for. Experienced people probably thought this was boring and skipped it, and later forgot about it, but to a new player the tutorial of Factions is much more helpful than the tutorial in Prophecies.

There's also 'tablets' around the starting city with descriptions on things like quests, missions, and pretty much anything you can think of to let you know more about the game you are playing, all in easy reach. The most I got out of the tutorial in Prophecies was how to follow waypoints on a map and what quests to look out for to do first (like skill quests).

Cantha is more fun that Tyria imo, but when it comes to PvP, Prophecies skills are still the metagame.

Edit: ^ With Loki on this one. The learning curve is very high starting off in Cantha, hell, even after playing GW since e3 for everyone in 2004, starting off was a challange and made me go "omgwtf unbeleivably hard T_T"

Learning the ropes in PvP gives you a better understanding of the skills and how things work, making you a better player over all.

GW is skill based, so you don't need to spend 1000 hours just to be better than someone else.

Pointless getting Prophecies, all the events and new stuff is all at Factions..

Also, you get more features in Factions and lots more things to do.. Alliance battles is the most attractive thing, along with much larger parties for questing. In prohpecies the biggest team is 8, in factions some missions will see you questing with 16.

Also, there are 8 classes to chose from in Factions, prophecies only has the core 6.

the maps are indeed bigger in Prophecies, but its very linear and now with factions there doesnt seem to be nearly as many people there.

You probably dont know who she is, but, Gaile Gray never visits Prophecies anymore either.

Get prophecies later if you really enjoy Guildwars, but Im not sure if you will have time, or will even be botherd to do much there. But it is much cheaper now, so will be worth the investment.

Anyway, hope you join us, with no monthly fees even if you only play for a month or so, its well worth the money.

I have to disagree with ya Snowman. I find Factions much more linear. I know that Anet does not plan on adding any additional content to Prophecies, but as soon as Nightfall is out (October?), there won't be any for Factions either. In fact, have they added any content to Factions since it's release? We've had events, but I can't remember any new content like we had in Prophecies; for instance the Titan Quests, Sorrows and the new Tombs. Also, I haven't had any problems getting a party together. It seems that a lot of people are either staying or going back to Tyria.

If you're a skilled RPG/PVP player, you could probably just do with Factions, but, IMHO, the better elite skills to cap are in Prophecies...

From a PvE perspective...

"For starters, this whole GW factions and normal GW confuses me. (is normal GW prophecies?) Also, which one should i buy first?"

GW:Prophecies, GW:Factions and soon GW:Nightfall are basically expansions(general flavour, Story Mode etc.) AND the core game(engine, Battle Isles, game mechanics etc.) in one. It's one of those 'the glass is half-full/half-empy' things.

The stories are loosely interconnected. If you play a character through Tyria (GW:Prophecies), for example, you're able to travel to Cantha (GW:Factions).

GW:Prophecies doesn't have access the two new professions (Assassin and Ritualist), I personally don't think you'll be missing much.

GW:Prophecies' Story Mode is longer than GW:Factions', almost twice as long... BUT GW:Factions has more content balanced for level 20 characters as GW:Factions characters practically start at level 20.
Note: GW:Factions is generally considered 'harder', but IMO that's like saying jelly is 'harder' than water.

Both GW:Prophecies and GW:Factions share the problem of static PvE. If you've played Diablo II, you'll know exactly what I mean. The game's structure is very similar, except that what are 'chat channels' in Diablo II are 'towns' in Guildwars.

"also, is this game casual player friendly? Like if i dont play 24/7 im gimped (WoW)"

Your characters 'max out' very quickly, based on the chapter you're playing. In GW:Prophecies, you're still leveling up until... well, I don't want to spoil it for you so let's just say 50% of the way through the game. GW:Factions, on the other hand, treats leveling from 1-20 as 'training'. By the time you leave the Shing Jae Monastery(sp?) you're level 20 - assuming you didn't skip quests.

It's fairly easy to attain the 'best' equipment. There are numerous collectors scattered around the chapters that trade you un-modded items with perfect base stats in exchange for some scabs you decided to scrape off of those corpses awhile back. You'll still need to get ahold of 'mods' to put into your items, though (think of runes/sockets if you've played Diablo ii).

'Green' items are basically a type of item that drop from specific bosses with perfect stats AND mods. You can search user-compiled lists, looking for an item you need, and then go hunt the boss until you get the drop.
Note: Drop rates are quite high in GW.

"And last, is GW more skill based or time based?"

I'm sure I'll get looks of mean looks for this, but in PvE... it's generally not hard enough to require 'skill'. Since your characters plateau rather quickly, it's not time-based, either. Success is generally based on what skills you brought along... and how many Leeroy Jenkins snuck into the group.


From a PvP perspective...

"For starters, this whole GW factions and normal GW confuses me. (is normal GW prophecies?) Also, which one should i buy first?"

Generally, you're going to feel handicapped by only having one chapter. Although they both have the 'core' skills, GW:Prophecies has the majority of key skills.

"also, is this game casual player friendly? Like if i dont play 24/7 im gimped (WoW)"

While you aren't going to technically be 'gimped', the better teams do practice 3-4 hours every day. Again, this is one of those 'the glass is half-empty/half-full' things. You can either see this as a sign that there's a genuine skill difference between good and bad teams or you can whine and call PvP rock-paper-scissors and go back to farming AI in PvE.

*dodges pitch-forks*

"And last, is GW more skill based or time based?"

Dispite what ANet like to say, there is a rather obscenely long grind to get UAX (fully unlocked). When you first start trying to PvP, you aren't even going to have equal stats because you'll not have unlocked all the Runes and Weapon Mods. Luckily, the new pre-mades were based off of cookie-cutter builds. This means you can use them, giving you access to some great skills without having to unlock them, while you focus on unlocking those important Runes and Weapon Mods.

The 'instant action' type PvP is quite go... isn't that ba... well, it's... well... Okay, it's bad. I'd strongly advise playing through PvE at least once, if only so you have a character to unlock Skills with as it's a lot faster to go can capture an Elite Skill from a PvE boss than it is to grind for 3,000 Balthazar Faction in RA. Hopefully, you'll meet up with some like-minded players and get yourself into a guild. Any Skills, Runes or Weapon Mods your character gains through PvE will automatically be 'unlocked' for your PvP characters*.

*Guildwars gives you the option to create a PvP character that starts out at level 20 with a selection of perfect, albeit bland, items to choose from. It also has access to EVERYTHING you've unlocked. Very useful.

So, while it is skill-based, you'll be rather limited in what roles you can play until you've unlocked a majority of the skills.
Note: By keeping tabs on what people are currently using, you can unlock the more important and useful skills first. This allows you to be able to play a lot more roles earlier than if you had just been unlocking them alphabetically or something silly.

Conclusion...

I'd recommend getting GW:Prophecies first. 'First' as in 'you're going to want to get both eventually anyway'. Sadly, I say this mainly for the skills. GW:Factions didn't bring all that many useful skills to the table and ANet seem to be too busy working on chapters 3 and 4 to be bothered to give the ~50% of skills, which are practically useless, the overhaul they deserve. Instead, they're busy creating more useless skills and 5-10 must-haves for GW:Nightfall.

Snowman makes a fair point. ANet seem to have taken a strange stance with GW:Prophecies...
Basically, they've ditched it. They'll probably ditch GW:Factions in a few months, once GW:Nightfall is released, too. I suppose they're trying to encourage people to buy the latest chapter, but I didn't think they'd have to stoop to actually leaving previous chapters without basic innovative updates such as improved storage or the any-stats-any-look armours.

Eww, what an obscenely long post. Sorry, my bad.

Get them both. Do most characters in Factions and make gold with them and send that gold to your Tyria characters. You can get from Ascalon +50 armors to Warrior with 150 gold each where in Cantha you about pay 1,5K from equal good armors.

First off you will enjoy either game they are both great but Prophecys takes a lot longer to get your character to level 20 than Factions does. The way they did the training area for factions is also a little better i believe. But something i think you need to consider is that you only have about two months before Nightfall comes out, if you get factions you will have a better chance to get fully emersed in the game and know how everything works by the time Nightfall comes out because you will want to get the next chapter it is supposed to have some major game changes. Good luck with your decision and if you need any help in game just put Dawn Black Hand on your friends list and any questions you may have i will try to help you out as best i can. By looking at your friends list you will know if i am playing and you can whisper me a message. Again good luck with GW and have fun.

And you don't necessarily have to grind in order to get nice stuff. I also like Prophecies is a lot better, since Factions would kinda rush you.

well if I were you I would get factions

imo factions is FAR superior to prophecies, I finishd 6 characters with prophecies and factions and I got to say that those 3 last characters who started in factions and after I finished them in prophecies and sry to say but prophecies was SOOOO boring...

prophecies is more running then actually playing.

1 advice, if you descide to buy prophecies first, DON'T let the runners ruin your gaming experience, YES you can finish prophecies in 10 hours even faster if you get run everywhere.

Factions has so much more that prophecies doesn't have. I don't get why ppl find prophecies better, oh well maybe it's good we don't feel all the same

Also factions is alot more populated because it's newer, first get factions and later buy prophecies if you want to be competitive in PvP.

Prophcies is better for a first time player because the leveling is more gradual.
Factions is better if all you want to do is reach max level.

Hmmmm... still havent made my final decision... Is the tutorial in prophecies showing you how mmo's work? (errr what ever type of game this is) Or does it show you how GW differs from other mmmo's? I have good experiance w/ mmo's (goin on three years) so that part is no problem.

Pros and cons im seeing w/ these games are:

GW: Prophecies
Pros: smoother tutorial, longer time to get to 20 (how long on avrage?), I wont be rushed in to 20 and not know a lot about the game.

Cons: Not a lot of people, lacks the 2 xtra classes (not that i plan on playin them), harder to make money.

GW: Factions
Pros: Better pvp game, (ill be focused on pvp endgame) more people, 2 more classes.

Cons: rushed into endgame w/ no experiance of the game,and extreamly fast to get lvl 20.

OK, one more idea popped up, how long does it take to get the lvl cap (as a casual gamer) in prophecies? and factions?

Depending on that, i may just get phrophecies, work twords cap, once i get it, buy factions.

Get Prophecies first, then buy factions if you like it.
Prophecies is what we call GuilWWars 1 and factions is both expansion( if you already have Prophecies) and a stand-alone game (if you dont have propecies). GuildWars is skill-based, and its (very)player friendly.

I agree, Propheices is much better in term of depth and gameplay style.

I didn't realize it unti I just read that, but I always do the '2nd Profession' Quests (Hooray easy XP!), but never actually use the skills I'm supposed to be learning (Boo lame skillz!). I guess from a role-playing standpoint that completely invalidates the point of doing them... hm.

To the OP: my suggestion is to get the Nightfall Pre-Order (-Release, Bonus Pack, whatever it's called this week). This'll give you the best bang for your buck, as you get 14 hours to play to your hearts content, and you're only out ten bucks if you decide you don't like it. But if you do end up liking it (and you will)... get everything.

i am PVE only and i do not like Factions that much.

prophecies to level 20 is only a couple weeks at an hour or so a day playing very easy.

Factions i got to level 20 in 3 days at a couple hours per day which is a big difference.

Factions is much more PVP which you said was your interest but remember some of the better skills are chapter 1 only.

i create a Factions character and the first thing i do is go back to chapter 1 to get my favorites which are not available in Factions

Been a while since I started, if I remember, it took a couple of weeks to max out in prophesies, and a couple of days to max out in factions. Either game is tremendous. I'm now starting to get more heavily into player vs player, pvp, so knowing what I now know, I'd recommend Prophesies. Takes longer to play, and a lot of it is running, a lot of running.

Ok right now this game sounds awsome! One thing i do want to know before hand are what are the downfalls of GW, i know there are, every game has
them. Go pecemist crazy!

It is awesome! In fact it's more than that, it's friggin' Epic!!

Downfalls? I don't know, only rpg type game I've ever played, it's all good here.

Get Prophecies first, take your time and enjoy the game. One thing Prophecies does give you that Factions won't is free skills from the quests. Take advantage! GG!

In prophecies you were at least half way through the game before you needed to be lvl20.
In Factions you were about 20% before you needed to be lvl20.
I think in Nightfall you will start at lvl20.

GW is a lot of fun, in either Chapter. But I prefer Prophecies.

As for downfalls, most of them are player caused - bad language, scammers, excessive use of the word "noob," that kind of thing.

The storyline in both games is a bit weak, but in Factions it's down-right horrendous! Some of the voices sound like fingernails on a chalkboard (more noticable in Factions) - and the acting is very corny.

In Prophecies, you can get run from place to place. If you do that, you'll miss out on a whole bunch of content. You can't get run in Factions because you can't access the next town/outpost without having the specific quest or mission that takes you there.

In Factions, you have the city. I personally hate the city. It's too confusing and repetitive. While in the city, you have Vizunah Square mission to do. Success in this mission depends not only on the party you're with, but a second party joins you about half way through and however bad that party's composition is (could be all henchies!), you're stuck with it.

Each chapter has a "bonus" system. In Factions, most bonuses are awarded based on how fast you do the mission. In Prophecies, they are mostly little story-line related side-quests that you do while in a mission.

On the plus side, map travel is fantastic - you don't need to run between towns you've aready been to. In Factions, you have access to Alliance Battles. They're alot of fun when you get into a decent grouping, but can really suck when you get Freeloaders and leavers who hang you out to dry when the battle begins (or if it looks like you might lose). Another negative about ABs is that you often end up waiting for 5 (or more) minutes before actually being able to get into a battle.

Ok now im realy hyped. Gunna get the game today (if all goes well, lol) mes/nec build, maybe not easiest for beginners, but ill grow into it. Thanks guys!