2 newbie questions

Hi guys,

I bought GW about 6 months ago off their website (ie no rulebook), and kind of played it by ear for a few weeks before dropping it.

Last week i decided to reinstall it and have been playing alot. Im really starting to get into it, but with no rulebook or real friends or guild yet im kind of lost..

i have a ton of questions, but let me start with these 3.

1) Every once in a while i ID an item that tells me "ITEM UNLOCKED" and some piece of a weapon, like a special bowstring or whatever. Someone told me that to get that item, i should use an expert salvage kit on it. I have tried this numerous times, but every time i lose the item and get just some ingots or wood planks.. what am i doing wrong?

2) Now that i am level 13, where can i PVP? i havent found another arena beyond the ascalon one which i can no longer fight in.

3) I have been routinley buying ascalon keys so i can open chests i find. The keys cost me 50 gold each, and the purple items i have found never sell to the vendor for more than 20 gold or so. Should i be selling these to players? Should i be salvaging these instead? why am i losing money on this deal?

thanks in advance!

1. You are unlocking itmes for a pvp character. Try making one, and you'll see what I mean.

2. Try Yak's Bend Arena. Lvl 10 - 15.

3. Don't buy Ascalon keys. Only high end chests like the ones in the Southern Shiverpeaks(Droks) and the RoF Island Chain have chests worth anything. It's very rare to get a good drop anywhere else.

1) Just to make sure, as it happens from time to time, there is a difference between expert salvage kit and just salvage kit. Also, there is a failure rate for these kits, in which you will indeed get materials instead of the mod. And finally, this is a matter of opinion, but in my experience the failure rate is higher in 'low-level' areas, such as ascalon and north shiverpeaks, but gets better after kryta.

2) There are high lvl arenas (20) in the battle isles, which you can acces once you get to lions arch in kryta. I hardly used any of the mid lvl arenas, but I think they were removed. Maybe someone else can clarify on that point.

3) Again, a matter of opinion, but I would just sell the keys, use the ones that drop from kills to open a few chests for the unlock of the purple item. The only keys that I use are the ones where max dmg weapons start to show, which tends to be after south shiverpeaks.

I'm fairly sure that everything that's in the manual is also in the Guild Wars homepage. Might not answer your questions but could be a good thing to go read it a bit.

Now for some real information there's GuildWiki, but it also contains spoilers so you'd have to be a bit careful reading it if you want to avoid those.

The manuals are available online: http://www.guildwars.com/gameplay/manuals.php

but the most important part may be the little card that shows what all the keyboard keys do.

1. Unlocked items can be used for creating PvP characters. Expert salvage kits can give you the weapon's mod, but many times doesn't.

2. Yak's Bend has an arena for characters from 11 - 15.

3. Forget about buying keys for now, as the chest drops in the low areas have a 99% chance of giving you something that's not worth the cost of the key.

Just remember, worth is relative, what may not be worth anything to a seasoned (aka jaded) vet with 6 level 20 characters (heehee) may be worth quite a bit to a new player. Even if the cash value of an item is low, its not necessarily bad. However, there are more efficient ways to get better equipment (collectors and guildmates/friends). If you are just opening the chests for the cash Kook is right, don't bother buying the keys.

Oh dear. It just depresses me when people tell other people to refer to the manuals. If everyone did that the whole Q&A forum might as well be closed.

1. Any unlocked items for your PvP character, as explained in post #2, can be seen as "unlocked" when you go to the Priest of Balthazar at the Temple of Balthazar...

2. Never made a tyrian character....I don't PvP....

3. Low level keys from Ascalon and Shing Jea hardly every yield good stuff. I used to only open chests if I had a key drop off a monster but now I just sell them...even the keys for the high end chests. All I get are purples, every time, without fail, so the keys are worth more to sell back to the merchant. The game of chance is so not in my favour!

Since the OP mentioned several times how he lacked the manual, it seemed like a good idea to point to him that the manual is available online.

You obviously won't get max damage items from low level areas.

HOWEVER if you get a gold they will often have decent modifiers that you can salvage - I've had several max mods from lower levels so it's not completely pointless, BUT lower level area chests seems to drop golds less often than higher levels (that's my experience anyway).

thanks so much guys for ALL the replies...

1)i finally understand how this item unlocked stuff works thanks to this thread. I have now tried about 6 times with an expert kit on items, but have yet to get anything from it, but at least now i know that if i ever decide to create a pvp char, the items will be there for me, and i DO have a chance to get the item here as well.

2)I have heard about Yaks, but havent found it yet. I keep seeing people charging for runs there, but for me that kind of takes the fun away from it, and i'd like to be able to find it on my own.

now that i have found this forum, i have a TON of other questions... i'll probably be bothering you guys more thoughout the day...

thanks again.

Keep following the primary quest or missions and you get to Yaks naturally. In case you don't know, a mission outpost will have a button in the party dialog for the team leader to "Enter Mission". The first one is Great Northern Wall.

Slyde .. if you do have little probs you can also ask in tows .... a fair few ppl will help you , so long as you ask niceley... most Gw players are cool , but 1 word of advice If you ever use a runner DONT PAY UPFRONT... ppl that say pay them upfront MAY try to rip you off... also if you TRY to savage a component from a blue item , it wint work (even with a superior salvage kit) purple and golds are the only ones that salvage Properly... I hope that helps you

yup, i learned about the primary missions by chance over the weekend. I have done the first 4, plus bonuses. I didnt realize that i would get to yaks tho.. that will be a big help. How many missions in is yaks?

most of the time i do the missions with 3 henchmen, but a few times i have gotten an all human party? should i be prefering one over the other?

yup, thanks for the advice.. for the most part people in towns have been very helpfull.

i havent even SEEN a superior kit yet, just experts, but i didnt know that i cant salvage anything from a blue (although im pretty sure the 5 times ive tried so far have all been from purples)... thanks for the info...

While im at it, here is ANOTHER newbie question...

right now i only have prophecies... what was added in Factions that would make me want to buy it?

2 new char classes ... the assasin and the Ritulist... A whole new map with new enemys and new armor ..... also new spells , also you can choose to side with 2 different "clans" the luxons orthe Kursiks .. and it is 1 hell of a good game.... also nnumber 3 is comming soon 8)..

as 4 the superior salvage kits , they are at dronks. the kits go from normal salvage , that gives you basic materials only >> expert , which can give you rare materials or Upgrade components (1/2 the time) >> Superior , best chance of getting upgrade components and a better chance of getting rare materials from the salvage... Hope this helps...

O btw , if your in a guild with a guild hall and the merchant upgrade , you can get the superior salvage from them ... It cost 2k and has 100 uses...

There is no difference between the Expert and the Superior salvage kits, the Superior just cost more and have more charges than the Expert but are still desirable if you can afford them as you can just take one and save inventory room. They both do the same thing, extract runes, upgrades and perhaps rare materials from items.

I'm not sure where this thought that "blue items cannot be salvaged for upgrades" came from, that is nonsense. Quest rewards and collector items cannot be salvaged at all, but a loot drop item with a rune or upgrade in it can certainly be expert salvaged for the rune or upgrade. As always there is a chance of getting materials, that doesn't go away.

Oh and from Yaks you will get teams of 6 and there are 2 missions to get you to the Gates of Kryta which leads you to Lions Arch.

As far as Factions goes, it is worth adding to your account but if you will be busy with Prophecies for a while then you might want to see if you want to skip it and add Nightfall instead. You can always add Factions in later.

ok.....fair enouf... but Ive been playing for about a year now... ant with expert and supirior I (personaly) have NEVER succesfuly salvaged a Blue item... ,Gotten steel , yes , But Never a upgrade from 1 of them..., so take that for what it's worth.... Unlus i"m just unlucky 8(