Thinking of Trying Guild Wars: WoW Player

Now, I know the basics of Guild Wars. However, I still
have many questions before I give this game a shot.

1. I love playing a spellcaster who can wear heavy armor.
A battlemage. Can I do that in this game?

2. Exactly how much free roam is there in this game? The
reviews made it sound like you are forced down a path.

3. I love crafting. Are there a lot of crafting options?
Are they useful? In most MMORPG's crafting is useless
because you can always get better drops then what you can
craft.

4. I rarely do PvP. Is PvP the best part of the game? Or
is PvE pretty good too?

5. Are there a ton of quests like in WoW?

6. How huge is the world? As big as Wow? Lots of dungens?

7. Whats max level? How long in hours does it take
typically to max a character?

8. Is there an email system to email money and items to
your alt?

9. Is there enough content for a solo gamer here? Or is
grouping almost always necessary?

10. How is the community?

11. Is the game FUN? Thats the point of playing.

Thanks in advance

You do not know the basics, dont kid yourself. Its obvious from your questions.

I wouldnt recommend using a warrior to cast spells.

the reviews said wow was fun, and i think they lied. Factions is more linear, the original is quite open ended

you can craft an identical item to anything you will find in the game. armor is ONLY crafted, not found.

argueable by anyone. I love the pvp and the pve both.

yes.

not as big as wow.

not long

as in alternate account? why buy two accounts?

you solo the endgame of wow, huh? I dont think you should play any mmos at all. Nightfall will be able to be solod the whole game if you are good enough.

more mature than wow players

More fun than WoW, in the opinion of practically anyone on these forums.

But if I were you, I wouldnt bother with Guild Wars- go buy another time card and have fun in wow- bye.

I tried wow and I think its boring as hell and quite pointless at the endgame... whats the point of 60 levels anyways. leaves more and more room for unbalanced pvp. but you dont care about pvp, or even playing with other people in general as you said.

Guild Wars is a super-charged diablo in single player mode, thats all you really need to know if thats all you want it for.

You're too close to comparing GW to WoW, the comparison of fools. No offence, by the way.

GW is nothing like WoW. It's not an MMORPG, and all explorable areas are instanced (Your party gets its own copy of the map) and you have to form teams in the safety of towns and outposts. You also have a set story to follow. Think Diablo 2 and you're close.

You may favour the Warrior/Elementalist profession combo. This gives the benefit of high armour with some painful spells, but you'll miss out on the Energy Storage attribute, which gives an Elementalist/Whatever an insane pool of energy to play with.

Crafting is restricted to NPCs at the moment. Take the necessary materials and gold to a crafter NPC and choose the weapon you want. There are also collectors dotted around the world, who will take trophies from slain foes for weapons too.

PvP is fun, but I will admit, it's not without idiots. People leaving Random Arena matches because there's no Monk in the team annoys me the most.

Quests, that depends on your definition of "a ton"

The world isn't as big as what WoW's seems to be. But don't let that put you off. New campaigns will be released every 6 months. Faster than Burning Crusade is taking, I beleive.
Max Level is 20, for the sake of Balance. You won't have to grind as long as you try to do all the quest you come across up to that level. But L20 is not enough. There is Ascension and 2 quests, each rewarding an additional 15 Attribute Points each.

There are "Xunlai Agents" in every town and outpost. Farce-free (The Material Storage is restricted to Factions owners though).

For Missions, grouping is a must, but most quests can be done with the Henchmen, AI-controlled characters ready to help. They're a bit thick, though.

Community? Sadly, there are a lot of immature imbeciles, and a bit of Proffession discrimination (Mesmers will suffer this... a lot)

The game is fun. Don't let the idiots ruin it for you.

Um.. Horseman of War you hate WoW don't you.
I think it's invalid to assume he wants an no monthly fee version of wow.

Here is a good video review (a bit out of date but basics accurate about what gw is and how it works).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...ld+wars+review

GW is mix of Magic the Gathering, Diablo II, and "elements" of mmorph. It offers a mix of pve and pvp (different styles).

You can be whatever you want to be. Moreso than in WoW. There are no set classes like Paladin, Shaman, Hunter (etc...). You can be a fiery sword wielding warrior who throws fireballs at people and can still charge into battle and slice some faces. Or, you can be an Axe wielding spellcaster who uses his melee weapon as his last line of defense. Be whatever you want to be. That's what makes Guild Wars so much fun.

You aren't forced down any paths. There are zones for each area. In that zone, you can explore the entire surface of it. Once you're finished with it, you can move on. Yes, there are REALISTIC surface restrictions (like not being able to wall climb) but they add more to the game than take from it. Example: In PvE or PvP you can use terrain to your advantage for spellcasting to block melee classes from getting to you as easily.

No, not really. I mean, you can collect materials and create armor / weapons but they have absolutely nothing to do with how skilled your character is at creating them. They're bought from merchants.

It's a mixed bag, really. You can enjoy both freely without either ever interfering with your main playstyle. Such is not the case in WoW. You won't get ganked in Guild Wars, for example as there is no free world roaming PvP. But, you can go to an Alliance Battle or many other PvP options and mess around in there for a little while if you feel the urge, then go right back to stabbing monsters.

PvE in this game is awesome. Henchmen make up for failed party attempts (granted, they aren't as good as some players can be, but other times they're a little better). Some people don't like the PvE, but personally,I really enjoy it. I don't pay attention to story lines and I have never been bored pushing through the PvE aspect.

There are a LOT of quests. A LOT.

It's pretty freakin' big. If you explore from the beginning of Prophecies to the end of Nightfall (coming out at the end of this month) you'll realize that games can be massive and not un-inviting in terms of travel (zepplins, hearthstones, mounts...barf).

Max level is 20. It can take anywhere from 5 hours to weeks to finish your character, depending in your playstyle and if you're starting in Prophecies or Factions. Factions is MUCH more forgiving on leveling than Prophecies is...but Prophecies is where the bulk of the Elite skills are located and where most of the action happens (FoW, UW, Tombs, etc)

We have an in-game Storage system, like the Bank system in WoW. The only difference is, your Storage is linked throughout your entire account. So, whatever character A puts in the bank, Character's B,C,D,E... can all access it.

You never have to group with real people if you really don't want to. Especially if you're a Monk primary. Being the main healer yourself really eases the energy management issues the AI can experience with henchmen...but everything is doable as any class.

Terrible. It's like WoW, in the sense that a lot of people are jerks for absolutely no reason, call everyone noobs, and constantly demean others for their skill levels. Yes, you will probably meet some decent people in GW, just like in WoW. Unfortunately, for the most part, these people are moms, dads, or anyone over the age of 20. Sorry, but it's true. Anyone disagreeing is lucky to have talked to someone in the game who was under 20 and didn't end up stealing / lying / guild-quitting for no reason other than they wanted to own a town in a bigger alliance / scam / or anything else immature players get themselves into (can anyone say "trying to hit on people over general in Lion's Arch"?)

This game is a blast. If you get over the fact that you'll run into your fair share of douche bags, and realize that there is so much to do, you'll no doubt have a lot of fun.

1. yes, but you use spells to boost your armor
2. pretty free, you dont have to follow any path, but to progress, yes you must follow a certain path
3. crafting can be done, and you are capable of crafting max weapons and armor
4. depends on play style, most casual players enjoy PvE...and there are some hardcore PvE only people out there
5. i wouldn't know what tons of quests are, but there are plenty to keep you busy for quite some time
6. not knowing WoW...i think the world is pretty huge
7. 20 is max, and can be acheived quickly...or slowly...dependant on what campaign you start on...Factions (chap 2) 20 is quickly reached within a few days if not hours. I believe i hit level 20 on average 11-12 hours of play time. This is not the focus of the game...its more or less what skills you have and how you put them together.
8. you have a storage chest, where you can put items and gold into...log on with your alt character and access the same storage to pull items and gold out of.
9. grouping helps on certain missions, but many have solo'ed a great majority of the game/if not the whole game.
10. the community is dependant on the eyes of the beholder...i think its fair to say there are helpful people and jerks...but that is true of all games.
11. its fun enough for some people to make all the characters and beat the same game objectives over with each of these characters.

Pretty rude response here. I guess you answered #10.

All I did was ask some questions..

guild wars also has elitists like me who think all other games suck.

yeah i guess that was kind of rude... but the questions asked were common to many poeple who are griefers and gw-haters. The guy will probably ragequit when he finds out there is not any kind of Mounts anyways..

Despite bad 1st impression, the community is not like him.

There been issues "tradational" mmorph player div in to guildwars then complain how gw should become there favorite mmorph.

Casters typically have lower armor than say a warrior. However, some armors give bonuses to physical or all damage or extra health etc.

Factions is very linear. Prophecies was much more open to going where you want without being forced to follow the missions

There is virtually no crafting in GW. You basically take your materials to an NPC and they give you the item. It is pretty easy to get max weapons and armor pretty quickly. This may seem very strange after WoW.

PvE is really good. You can still do a lot without ever touching PvP. I almost never PvP with over 1500 hours into the game.

I'm not sure if there are quite as many as WoW, but there are a lot.
Here is the quest list for Prophecies.
Here is the quest list for Factions.
That should help you compare.

1 chapter alone is not as big as WoW, but once you start adding multiple chapters together it gets quite large. There are several high level areas with repeatable quests.

max level is 20. How long it takes depends on how hard you play and which chapter you get. Prophecies levels you much slower, it could take a week or two or longer (depending on how much you play). Factions will get you there in a day or two easily. Nightfall appears to be somewhere in between. GW isn't about leveling. It is about being max level and playing from there. Many say the game doesn't really start untill you reach level 20.

no email system. but your account has a shared storage that can be used to transfer money and items between yout characters.

for going through the story (quests/missions) you will almost always need a group. However, if you want to play alone, you can hire NPC henchmen to fight with you instead of other people. Most missions can easily be done with Hench if you so choose.

That one is hard to answer. This forum seems pretty nice and civil most of the time. some areas in the game seem to attract the bottom of the barrel. I highly suggest finding a good guild, it will make the experience quite different.

I have a lot of fun playing it. Since there is not monthly fee, you should easily be able to get your money's worth. The various chapters, (Prophecies, Factions and the up comming Nightfall) are all very different. I'd say to start with Prophecies (the origional Guild Wars, it doesn't say Prophecies on the box). It has much more land to explore, is open to moving around the world as you see fit, and has the slower, more traditional leveling speed.

Factions is fun, but comming from WoW it will be quite a shock. (extremely fast leveling, must finish missions before you can move to the next area, very small land mass, Max armor and weapons available after the 2nd mission, etc) Nightfall is just a couple weeks away and from the preview it seems to be very good.

Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]

Your welcome.

Horseman!

donjn, I would suggest you get hold of a "Play Now" key. This will give you 14 Days/10 hour play (Whichever comes 1st). Pop into any games store and ask for the Nightfall Pre-release pack. There's a code in there. 10 hours should be enough to learn the ropes of GW

Pm me donjin, I would gladly give you a trial key. Also see how many response's that are not like horseman you are getting. Getting the pre-release kit may be hard to find now.

yeah hindsight says to me the same thing.



Original Poster- I have a few Play-Now keys... Ill send one to you myself within the hour.

I just really hate when people complain about certain things in GW and it seemed like you were one of those.

Confused about Prophecies, Factions, etc.

Are they different worlds? I know they are different purchases. But can I have them both installed? Can my character go from Prophecies to Factions back and forth? Do I have to create a new character when I try the other one?

Or are they treated like completely seperate servers??

Prophecies and Factions can be played on their own, but they can also be added to the same account to allow Travel between the 2 continents of Tyria and Cantha. You do not need one to play the other, but you get some benefits of having both.
Also, Nightfall is on its way, adding the continent of Elona and more options

Prophecies is the basic fantasy setting, it eases you into the game better than Factions.
Factions is based around Asian stylings, throwing in some German and (possibly) Native American stlyings further on. It kind of throws you in at the deep end. You level faster via the quests, but you don't get skills as rewards, like Prophecies. It also features 2 new professions unique to Cantha.
Nightfall is based around North Africa and the Middle East. I'm not entirely sure how this will play out in terms of player ease, but again, 2 unique professions.

No problem man its all good. I should also not be so bloody sensitve on message boards. Text come sout differently sometimes.

Send me what keys you got. Much appreciated!!

Actually the opposite of griefing GW is true. I am looking for an excuse to not play WoW anymore. Dont like monthly fees.

I dont care for the Diablo comparison though. Diablo was surely more mindless right? Although I did enjoy Fable which was an action RPG so who knows?

I am confused about the dyanmic that one continent levels faster than the other. What happens when you bring over a lvl 20 from one to another? Would quests then be too easy?

in my opinion the community is pretty good. but you will run across the average 4th grade pervert, the scammer, account seller, and the so called "elitists" that think that they know everything about the game and find great plesure on going into the newbie area and flaming on everybody just because they are a lvl 5

Not too big a problem, since you can return to almost any area with a higer level character. In the case of Prophecies, once you leave the Tutorial Area (Pre-Searing Ascalon), you can't return there, as time will have advanced 2 years by way of the story and you will be in the Ascalon that has been brought to ruin. The quests are only optional, you can skip as many as you want at your own peril, and there is a quest in the kingdom of Kryta that should only be bothered with using a team of L20s. By the time you reach Kryta with a Tyrian, you should be at least Level 10, I think. Do all the quests on the way, and that minimum should be about L15.

as promised, your trial key has been sent. check pm's.

Im probably one of the worst trolls here on the forums, again, my apologies. I can see now that your questions and stuff werent just flame-bait but honest questions. I assumed; made an ass out of myself, as usual.


edit- Im glad i got it sent before the mods read this and slap the ban on me again.

The starting point in the new world for characters that come over from the other is at a place that most people would be at level 20 anyways. So if you start in Prophecies, and take your level 20 to Factions, the area you will start in (Kaineng Center) is mostly comprised of other level 20 players. You can then procede normally as the difficulty will be for level 20 players, or you may back track to the easier areas.

Yes but you are my kind of troll

donjn said:
Well, I've played Diablo, WoW, and GW (alot!), and I wouldn't call GW mindless at all. The interactions of professions/skills and teammates (whether henchmen or human) vs. your enemies is far more interesting than Diablo ever was. It's quite abit more involved than WoW, too. The PvE game likes to create missions/quests where knowledge of the enemies you will face has a huge impact on your strategy: i.e., the selection of your skills and the selection of your teammate's/professions. It is by no means a massive click-fest, like Diablo was. However, if you are more likely to define 'skill' as Doom/Quake style aiming, eye/hand coordination, and twitch speed, then GW will somewhat disappoint. Auto-aim 'n point n click are the basic targeting mechanisms, but terrain does play a role as does positioning and movement: you can dodge a missile attack, at times. But even that depends on what missile/spell you are being attacked with. So, the game definitely has some depth.

You may know some things about it, but don't assume - it's nothing like WoW, from what people tell me.
You can, but Warriors have the heavy armor, and they don't have the energy needed for being effective as Elemenalists. But, you could make an elementalist with a Warrior secondary and use certian stance skills to boost your armor protection.
Mission areas tend to guide you down the path, Explorable areas are pretty wide open.
There aren't many crafting options in GW. You can salvage drops to get crafting material for you Armor, and there are a few weapons crafters out there. A more common thing to find around are collectors - they'll trade you armor, weapons, etc. for a certain amount (normally 3-5) of specific dropped items.
I love the PvE of Prophecies. factions has more of a PvP bent to it. But both the PvPers and PvEers are pretty happy with the aspects of the game they're playing.
Yes.
It's big enough to keep you busy for a long time. Prophecies is bigger than factions. The closest thing to a dungeon in GW is the Catacombs in the beginning area of Prophecies.
Max level in GW is 20. In Prophecies, it can take a while to get up to 20. In factions, you can do it in a couple of days. BUT!! Hitting level 20 is only the beginning! There's tons of high-end areas to play around in. The key to GW isn't in seeing how high you can go, it's about how good you can get!
There's a storage system in place that all of your characters on the same account can access to swith things around.
Most of the game requires a team of some sort to get through. But if you don't want to group up with people, there are henchmen AIs that you can add to your party to go questing with. There are many places that can be solo farmed with the right build.
As with anything, you'll find decent people and jerks. The nice thing is that if someone is acting too mcuh of a jerk, you can report them to A-net and they'll take away their playing priveledges for a bit.
Yep, I'm having a blast playing the game. Even better when running around with guildies!

I am curious,did you play a shaman?Cause I just got through with a year+ stint in wow and I dont remember a "battlemage"I played a hunter mostly,but shammy is the only class that sounds like a battlemage cause of the mail armor and overpowered spells(frostshawk!!) :P Anyway,I hope you will enjoy gw enough to purchase it,it really is a great game,this coming from someone who started gw a week after the release,then went to wow and I still come back to gw and have a blast,pm me ingame if you need help with anything,my ign is Calrisian Nantos,I'll be glad to point you in the right direction or answer questions about the game

I disagree. I've met alot more people who are helpful and friendly than people who yell and scream at me for doing something wrong or not being a high enough level. I think the community is pretty good but yes there are alot of people that are disrespectful. I've also been scammed a good amount but sometimes have got my money back .

Guess i'm the opposite i started with GW and then to WoW and let me say that you will be fairly disappointed in most areas and impressed in some.

1. I love playing a spellcaster who can wear heavy armor.
A battlemage. Can I do that in this game?
there are no mages that can wear heavy armor. if u go casters u will be a squishie. ur AoE spells will make monsters run away thus nobody uses them and those who do get flamed. prepare urself to go warrior as it is the easiest and fun way to go.

2. Exactly how much free roam is there in this game? The
reviews made it sound like you are forced down a path.
yes u follow a linear path. Do this mission and it will lead u to the next. you also cannot jump or walk of a cliff.

3. I love crafting. Are there a lot of crafting options?
Are they useful? In most MMORPG's crafting is useless
because you can always get better drops then what you can
craft.
To obtain better armor the only way is to craft it. Nobody crafts weapons as everybody prefers gold weapons.

4. I rarely do PvP. Is PvP the best part of the game? Or
is PvE pretty good too?
PVP is the best part of this game. PVE is substandard for Factions.

5. Are there a ton of quests like in WoW?
hehe... quests in Factions are very boring.

6. How huge is the world? As big as Wow? Lots of dungens?
small world in comparison with WoW.

7. Whats max level? How long in hours does it take
typically to max a character?
lvl 20 max u will get to lvl 20 in 5 hours.

8. Is there an email system to email money and items to
your alt?
Nope.

9. Is there enough content for a solo gamer here? Or is
grouping almost always necessary?
Grouping is always necessary except when u farm.

10. How is the community?
On the forums ppl are nice but in-game... shudder

11. Is the game FUN? Thats the point of playing.
After all that i've said, i still feel the game is fun but it could be better.

Bart, lots of people still play with AoE attacks...Meteor Shower works just fine, since it does KD as well.

I also disagre with you on free roam ability. Following the storyline will take you through about 50-60% of the Prphecies map, which leaves 40-50% of free roam space. As a self-declared PvPer I don't expect you to aprpeciate that, but the OP expressed his preference for PvE so I think he ought to know that.

PvP and PvE are both very well done, and it's a matter of personal opinion which is better.


Everything that I didn't comment on I agree with, except for 11.

I'm the same as Bart - I started WoW after I started Guild Wars. I, much-like other people used to say WoW was rubbish without actually bothering to try it out. I was very impressed when I got it however, and when I compare the two, WoW wins hands down.. GW is highly addictive though, being the reason I still play.

1. I love playing a spellcaster who can wear heavy armor.
You cannot play a Spellcaster with high armour level, if this was the case it would unbalance GW PvP, making them overpowered etc.

2. Exactly how much free roam is there in this game? The
reviews made it sound like you are forced down a path.
Unlike WoW where you can walk anywhere, jump off mountains, swim through lakes GW is very minimal - You cannot reach 90% of the places you see on the maps. Also unlike WoW, GW has Zoned areas - You leave from an outpost, enter your zone and you are the only person in the zone, until you decide to finish with it. No one unlike WoW can come and kill the Mobs you need for Quests, or kill your boss etc. Your the only one there, so quests are fairly easy to complete. Personally I hate it when someone is doing another Quest in WoW which envolves killing the things you need for the quest your doing, highly irritating. Also you wont get Jerks you come along and kill you like in WoW, in contested areas I hate it when someone 5 levels higher than me comes along and kills me right when I'm doing a quest. ¬_¬

3. I love crafting. Are there a lot of crafting options?
You cant have secondary professions like Tailoring/Alchemy etc, so you cannot make your own individual armours and potions etc. Armour is craftable from NPC's, but literally everyone in towns look the same because they have the same armour.

4. I rarely do PvP. Is PvP the best part of the game? Or
is PvE pretty good too?
The best part of the game - PvP. In one area of PvP you gain rank which isn't removed, this encourages elitist players who think they are better than others, in turn the beginners cannot find groups because they don't have the rank to get into the groups. If your a PvP beginner the only groups you can find are ''Gimmick'' groups playing ''Gimmick'' builds, which is not very fun at all... [iway, vimway, blood spike anyone?]
The GvG part of PvP however isn't dogged by such elitism, as you are forced to play well, improve, show your better than others, otherwize your guilds rating/rank will suffer. This is muchlike WoW and is very good. Currently the GvG scene is filled with ''Spike'' guilds, clans running pathetic ''Spike'' builds in PvP which doesn't require as much skill, but which has the rewards - this is annoying, and Arena-net say the PvP is balanced? I find that funny.

5. Are there a ton of quests like in WoW?
I can probably count the number of quest in GW on my hand. WoW has about 1000 time's more. However unlike WoW, the quests aren't the same. I mean in WoW all the quests are: Collect 5 of those(and they have a 0.1% drop-rate), Kill 20 of these(and they have a 0.2% spawn-rate) etc. In GW the thing you require for the quest is 100% there, no pissing around killing 5000 enemys waiting for your thing to drop - which is far better than WoW in my opinion.

6. How huge is the world? As big as Wow? Lots of dungens?
Each version of Guild Wars equates to about a 10'th of the size of WoW..
If you include Fissure Of Woe & Underworld, then there is 2 Dungeons.. I cannot consider anything else in GW big and difficult enough to be a Dungeon.

7. Whats max level? How long in hours does it take
typically to max a character?
Max level is 20, and unlike WoW it can be achieved various ways, and very quickly. If you play through the game without ''Power-leveling'' it will take about 100 hours, since you've never done it before. However those that have played the game before usually just get their Chars power leveled and ran to all the outpost, knocking about 90 hours of the time taken. You can et your character at lvl 1 to the place with the best armour, and use the armour - this is sad.

8. Is there an email system to email money and items to
your alt?
All your character's are connected through ''Storage'' so you can just transfer things in game without all the hassle of emailing etc. However if you have a 2nd account, then you have a problem :P

9. Is there enough content for a solo gamer here? Or is
grouping almost always necessary?
You cannot solo anything unlike WoW. You will almost always need a group to complete quests, whether the group be Henchman or real players. NPC's hang around in groups in GW, making it impossible to solo, if you try to agro one, you will agro about 10 instead - unlike WoW where you can kill 1 by 1 most of the time. This actually makes the game more fun, since you are encouraged to play with other people, and playing with other people is better than playing on our own :P unless their complete jerks ¬_¬ . Since its a free game you get all the 10year olds flaming, swearing etc. Unlike WoW where 10year olds cannot afford to play, so you get only 18+ ''usually'', server I'm on in WoW I have yet to see a childish person, everyone very kind and helpful etc

10. How is the community?
Most of the time people aren't idiots. This is probably bias though, since I only really ever play with my clan. Don't pay attention to what other people say etc.

11. Is the game FUN? Thats the point of playing.
It's fun at start, and its quite an achievement completing the game for the first time etc. However when you go to make another character, and you have to go through all the same old stuff, all the quests you've done already, all the same towns, it gets very repetative. However its highly addictive ~

1. I love playing a spellcaster who can wear heavy armor.
Spellcaster or any other forms of casters in guildwars means you have the lowest max armor. Casters = 60armor. Rangers and assasins = 70armor. Warrior = 80armor and above. However, u're not limited by what you wear or what you equip urself with, you got ur skills to "buff" yourself up. Or your mates.

2. Exactly how much free roam is there in this game? The
reviews made it sound like you are forced down a path.
There are no mounts, you travel from towns to towns or outposts by "mapping".. means you click on a certain key to bring your world map up, click on that particular town or outpost, poof* you're there. Outside towns (where everyone gathers) are instances.. where u're alone with ur team or just you. You can move anywhere you want, jumping around is not an option though. Terrains are easy to move about but not as free as WOW. If u mean paths as in storyline, i would say they are linear. But Prophecies storyline has some twists to it. Intriguing when u experience it for the 1st time, be it prophecies of factions. Linear, easy but not entirely fed.

3. I love crafting. Are there a lot of crafting options?
Crafting.. in guildwars, you're entitled to weapons and armor crafting. Weapon crafting in guildwars isnt popular because players prefer weapons that are dropped. Still, they are a cheaper alternative to newer players. And yes, between this 2 grps of weapons, there is no obvious advantage. Armor crafting, yes, armor doesnt drop from creeps or mobs that u killed. You gather or buy certain materials for recipe that will be needed to craft a certain armor from the NPC crafter.

4. I rarely do PvP. Is PvP the best part of the game? Or
is PvE pretty good too?
Guild wars is named guild wars for a very good reason, it is what it excels in. I will not bother explaining this to players who hasnt done high end Guild vs guild battles. Anyway, mid-end experience of gvg is enough to blow your minds out. PvP comes in many forms of choices, so you're not forced to do only 1 kind. PvP doesnt bores u out easily - I can say this easily for ranked GvG. There are random arenas 4v4, team arenas 4v4, zaishen islands 4v4, Heroes ascent 6v6
and GvG 8v8. There are of course other alternatives like Alliance battles 12v12 and aspenwood and quarry which are 8v8. These alternatives are pve missions that has added pvp elements.

PvE is pretty good too. But after the 1st or 2nd run, you will find things repetitive. But this is everpresent in every mmorpg or mmo. Still, experiences vary. Prophecies has 6 classes for u to play, and each profession can have their 2nd professions made out of 5 of these classes. Factions have the original 6 classes, + 2 new ones, namely assasin and ritualist. Nightfall will have another 2 classes to play. You will have 10 primary classes to choose from and many others following behind for your 2nd profession. You're not gonna stick to one 2nd profession and be stuck forever, u can change and mix around. Thats why, guildwars is versatile and free, be it pve or pvp.

5. Are there a ton of quests like in WoW?
Guildwars has alot of quests, though most players will play through the storyline first before coming back to finish some of them. Some quests are easy, or should i say most? Some proved challenging to some players. Particularly in factions, the quests are rewarding.

6. How huge is the world? As big as Wow? Lots of dungens?
Consider the world of guildwars to be like a world map. Prophecies equals one big continent. Factions will equal another slightly smaller continent and Nightfall will be a continent almost as big as prophecies i think. Each continent equals an individual standalone game. If you have more than 1 of them, u can travel between the continents easily, to and fro. Character from A can move to B and start playing, or u can choose to start a new character on B. About the size, as i havent played the full WOW, i cannot compare to correctly answer your question. I would say, guildwars is huge. If you do it the right way, it will take sometime to get everything done. There's gonna be distractions on the way most of the time to pull u down. As for dungeons, guildwars has instances, not dungeons. Unlike WOW, u dont go outside the gate of a town and run to a nearby cave of dungeon. I would say, an instance in guildwars would be a dungeon equivalent size in WOW. You would get everything from a WOW dungeon in a guildwars instanced map

7. Whats max level? How long in hours does it take
typically to max a character?
Max level is 20 and its gonna remain that way. You can choose to play it quickly, and its gonna take u 4-5hours minimum. If you do it the normal way, for the 1st time, it will take awhile. Subsequently, the time taken will be reduced but still considerable. Powerleveling, is also present in guildwars, like WOW.

8. Is there an email system to email money and items to
your alt?
Your storage is opened across all the characters in your account. Storage involves game currency and items.

9. Is there enough content for a solo gamer here? Or is
grouping almost always necessary?
High end PvP will require you to be in a team, but guilds will easily solve this problems, or rather, if u have friends. In PvE, you can always solo. Like i said, you got alot of freedom. There's henchmen or NPC controlled players to fill up the slots in ur team. You can also do solo farming, or teamed. The content in guildwars doesnt shut out a solo gamer at all. But there are times, although rarely, you will need to get a team up for PvE.

10. How is the community?
Idiots or whatever u call them, are present in all gaming community. Wow is not an exception. But imo, a small grp of bad players doesnt end guildwars for me and many others i know. You can choose who u wana play with, hang around, and totally shut out those u dont want to.. although the ignore list is very limited atm lol.

11. Is the game FUN? Thats the point of playing.
You gotta enjoy your first experience, you will Because subsequently, things will get easier when you're on your 2nd character already because you know the things around you. You will find joy in doing many things. Be it a casual gamer, or a hardcore one, you arent limited to choices or forced to play a long time to get your money's worth. Guildwars is free2play, which means u dont need to worry about clocking too little playtime. As for competitiveness, you will not lose out to someone who has already reached endgame like ages ago. Guildwars equals freedom, fun and enjoyment if u do things right.. but sometimes u need to meet the right people as well imo.

I've been a long time player of WoW, but started playing GW recently. I have to say that they are different enough for me to keep playing both. I'll keep playing WoW for a few reasons - I want to see all the end game content, I have a great guild full of friends and I enjoy the style of teamwork and coordination needed when learning new encounters.

GW can be easy to play - but it is a game that rewards experience a lot more than WoW. You can pick up and play GW but I get the feeling it will take me a long time to reach my potential. Whereas in WoW you have your skills, and as long as you can fit them on a toolbar you can use them; in GW you only have 8 slots on the skills bar so thinking about what skills compliment each other is very important (there are people that spend more time theorycrafting builds than playing I am sure) and this only gets enhanced with team builds... 8/12 players, 2 professions each, 8 slots each - here you start thinking about builds that compliment other players skills. For example one player may have a skill to knock over a bunch of enemies, while his teammate has a skill that does a lot more damage if the oponents are currently knocked down. There are so many talents, and so many methods of countering each build that no class or class combination really becomes overpowered. Unlike WoW Warlocks... erm... sorry I couldn't resist there.

To sum up - I enjoy both games for different reasons, if I was to choose one for PvP I'd have to say go for Guild Wars, but for PvE content I'm still making up my mind. One final thing - if there's a problem/bug it'll get sorted in GW a lot quicker... the dev/player communication is much much better here than in WoW.

I'm suprised noone is mentioning to him the 2 elementalist skills armour of earth and kinetic armour. With these skills your armour is double that of a warrior and therefore yes you have your battlemage.

The one thing I must also point out is how everyone keeps saying how there's no monthly fee's for GW but that technically isn't true. You may not HAVE to spend money each month, but if you get really into the game and want to keep up with all the expansions your looking at $25-30/month.

I base that on if I buy nightfall at $58, along with the other 2 expansions, that's roughly $174 I've spent so far in 6 months. $29/month. That number will go down and down the more I play untill the next expansion comes out and puts it back up to that very high monthly fee again. It might get down to as low as $14/month if they don't come out with another game before 6 months but when they do it's back up to $20/month.

And that's not collector's edition which alot of people end up getting. So no monthly fee's my ass, I've never spent so much money on a game. And don't forget if you want to actually try all of the characters, that's $20 more for 2 character slots.

So untill they stop making expansion gw is a money sink, and if they did stop making expansions, there wouldn't be enough content to bother playing.

to be honest, comparing guild wars and world of warcraft, is like trying to compere apples and oranges,
i played wow and Gw and i prefer Guild wars and have been playing for over a year now, it is as simple as, no one can really tell you if you like it,
but as a genreal rule of thumb, Guild wars is more pvp based than wow, hence the lvl 20 level cap, and you never know you might enjoy pvp when you fighting people who are 20 levels below/above you :P
what i suggest is you take the key you got given by our friendly neighbourhood troll:P, and play.
if you like it go buy the orignal game and even after a month or 2 of playing it you like it, i suggest you go buy factions and/or nightfall.

It depends a lot from the stores, how cheap or expensive GW chapters are. The 58 dollars price sounds pretty expensive from standard version. The cheapest place probably is play.com which offers standard editions from each chapter with 27 euros price tag and shipping included.

They give you a choice if you want to buy all chapters and more character slots. The fact remains that there is not forced monthly fee. You can play one hour per month and it costs nothing. No one really buy all chapters at once anyway. It takes time to complete stuff before it is even reasonable to access other chapter(s) areas if you are a newbie.

I wouldn't call Guild Wars mindless. That is actually pure irony. WoW is 1000 times more mindless when looking some skills like mind control. How to hell you can defend yourself against it? Some n00b use it and there is nothing you can do. One skill total shut down is ridiculous. Good characters are so dependent from the gear that it makes me vomit. It has rather good PvE but PvP is just pure crap.

Well I tried Guild Wars last night. My feelings are mixed.

First of all the graphics are amazing and very optimized. I had no trouble maxing out settings but I have a high powered system anyway. The art style looks a lot like what Neverwinter Nights 2 will look like which is a good thing. It was tough at first but the interface is very good.

The main problem I have is that something feels "missing" from the game. I cant put a finger on it. I will a lot more this weekend to get a real feel for it.

If you ever find out what's 'missing', let us know...maybe we can help you find it.

i think you're feeling very isolated. the community in guildwars can be pretty quiet at times with ppl doing their own thing, nice ppl talking to their own guildies and so on. then when u get to Kaineng its all business with everybody trying to sell stuff. get in a nice guild via the guild recruitment in this forum and talk with them. i think u might find that "thing" that you are missing.

To Kep, "aye i hear you brother!"

did you start in Prophesies or in Factions? In Prophesies you can only team up with one other person in the starter part (called 'pre-searing') and most people prefer not to, since the critters are easy to kill and you get more XP and loot on your own. Running around in pre feels more like a single player rPG then a MMORPG.
In Factions you start on an island where higher levelled players can go back to, so if you know anybody, you can always ask them to team up with you. Besides that you can have 4 people in your party, and you can take henchies right away.

In both campaigns, once you get away from the starter bit it will be easier to find people to team up with though

gw is better than wow in two ways.....
1. its free
2.the characters look better

Please dont make comments like that, you put other guildwars player under a bad light.

And in response to someone earlier who said he/she has spent alot of money on guildwars and no monthly fees ur ass, please.. Take a look at another angle. Yes, players still gotta fork out considerable amounts of money to enjoy guildwars and its expansion. But, its totally optional. If you dont wish to follow the expansion, don't, your account will not be closed or unable to access. You are able to continue playing. Yes, the amounts of money u pay for the original gw and its expansions almost amounts to a monthly fees for games like WOW. But, in WOW, whatever method you used to pay to play, you have to play to get your money's worth, unless u're rich and don't mind paying for nothing. In guildwars, u pay upfront for the game, and play forever until guildwars is down in the distant future. Whether you wana login for 3mins and log off for the rest of the month, you won't be bothered about spending for nothing. This is freedom.. or should i say, less restriction since freedom is a very difficult to define word because it means almost differently to different people. Anyway, other elements found in guildwars also promotes freedom.