Chp1 Players vs Chp2 Players

I thought this would be a good topic to bring up, as im wondering if its only my experience with players.

It seems to me, that players who own GWP versus GWF have more skill in playing the game. I own both games, when i first obtained factions (August), i found that players in PvP and PvE to be very 'nooby' or very unskilled at playing the game and using its basic features.

I think this is due to the fact that in factions, the player can hit level 20 within a fourth of the game (i did). In GWP it took alot more time to hit 20, and being 20 was somewhat a proof of skill, or atleast a filter for the really bad players. I've been on missions in GWF where my allies are acting like players in pre-searing would. I wanted to know if anyone else has found this, or if it just happens to be my amazingly long streak of bad luck?

Also, I hope this post has discouraged any buyers who were thinking of just getting Factions. If it is true (i think so) that you have less overall knowledge of the game, and skill in playing pvp/pve/making builds, then you would be wise to obtain GWP before GWF.


What do you think?

Most people from both games are idiots. I did Hell's Precipice a few times today and there was no shortage of Prophecies noobs.

Prophecies gives you a better undown of how the game mechanics work, but of course... NIGHTFALL ISN'T GONNA BE LIKE FACTIONS!!!

So people will be more skilled in nightfall, just wiat :}

i agree,
and proof is everyone in cantha thinks MM is best build ever!!

^If you're having trouble with Hell's Precipice just take hench.

Minion masters do tend to make PvE even more ridiculously easy than it already is, perhaps even moreso than any other single build.

In regards to the topic, both Prophecies and Factions have their equal share of utter idiots--that is, 90% of the population. How quickly you level up has nothing to do with it.

Factions gives 3000XP points for taking a message across an unguarded bridge. On the way you find a lottery ticket that has winning numbers for £5000. After cashing in that ticket you buy a Cola, only to find that there is a dead mouse in there! Another £5000 compensation. No actual experience needed and you have earned 3000 worth of XP points.

Prophicies gives 500XP points for safeguarding a hut made of straw from a band of notourious Bandit Rangers using Ignite Arrows.

A big difference in difficulty, leading to a big difference in skill levels.

nicely put - thanks for making me smile!

@Legolas: Thats the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Your taking one quest and basing the game on it? General combat in Factions tends to be considerably more difficult and requires more thought than in prophecies. Right from the time you hit the mainland you see mixed mobs with fairly aggressive routines and some very deadly skills. The majority of quests involve fighting through large amounts of these said mobs (which is a reason why people hate it I guess). Factions gives you more combat experience than prophecies ever will.

Yes, a Only its in the other direction :P

You dont have to be smart to play pve. get a build that works and use it. getting places and becoming high levels can be reached ridicuosly easy because of running and power leveling. even most areas can be henched.

funny stuff, sadly enough it's true

Didn't say I had trouble.

The biggest positive thing that came out of playing style in PvE in factions is that Mesmers have gained some acceptance into PUGs.

The biggest negative that came from factions in PvE is the extreme reliance on MMs to get through missions. (HOORAYYY FOR COOKIE CUTTER BUILDS! - NOT!)

imo you should change that to "every area can be henched"
Mr Longbow is your friend lol

Are you seriously complaining about cookie cutter builds? It's PvE for crying out loud. MM's are pretty efficient, they do ok in tanking damage, they do ok at at dishing it out. I do still prefer awaken the blood, echo ss, reckless haste, but people like MM's more for some reason. Neither chapter has great players. Whenever I do missions, I look for guilds that I've PvPed with, or if I ever get pugs, I make sure of several things

1. Their skillbar
2. Their familiarity with the mission
3. Their armor/HP level

You would be AMAZED, with how many people stick with shing jea armor until they get to Cavalon/HZH, it's crazy awesome. Wheee you just took 300 damage from a single attack, why? "Durr I am saving money until I can get 15k Kurzick" WOOOOO. For the same reason, they never buy vigor runes, not even minor/major. But they'll always use at least 1 sup rune for their attributes. So they'll be around 300ish hp with 30 armor rating. GG. Eles will bring firestorm, warriors will bring mending, necros bring life siphon. It's pretty horrific all around.

Or, you CAN be smart, and don't depend on an uber cookiecutter build to do it for you.

Don't forget the Mesmers with backfire on warriors, uber Monks with heal area, assassins with no teleport, ritualists who use channeling magic damage (utterly crap since no armor penetration), pet rangers with no pet skills... not to mention Frenzy healsig warriors...

Protective spirit is your friend as a monk in factions. I learned that when warriors in my team kept using shing jea armor.

There's also the idea that a piece of crap white ____ rare skin is better than a green or collector's weapon.

Not really. It's just a matter of how long they've been playing for, not which game they've been playing.

A Prophecies player is more likely to have been playing for a long time compared to a Factions one, and will be more experienced. We'll see more noobs when Nightfall comes out too, not because they're "Nightfall players", but because they've only played for 1 week.

I'm sure if there were two twins, and one bought Prophecies and one bought Factions on the same day, and they both played the same amount every day, then the Factions one would in fact grow up faster. At one point in time he could be fighting the likes of Shiroken while the most challenging thing his brother is fighting would be Jungle Trolls in The Wilds.

It's also possible that the Prophecies brother joins a guild and gets a guildy to run him to Droknar's Forge, where he tries to battle the Mursaat without first facing the lessons of the desert. Thankfully his Factions brother is blocked, and has to play the game. If he sucks so much that he can't get past Vizunah Square, there's a good chance he'll stay there.

It all depends on the char. and Profession as well I would say Prophecy Monks are better trained then Faction ones as an eg.The learning curve is slower and not to mention the collectors in Tyria are better than Cantha.

I'd say using uber cookie-cutter builds is *being* smart. Why put in more work than you have to? If you wanted a real challenge you'd be PvPing. PvE is just something casual to do in the meantime.

I don't think there's a difference in skill between Factions players and Prophecies players. The only reason it seems like Factions players are worse is because the campaign is shorter, so you see newbie players further along in the game (relative to the length of the campaign). For instance, it takes a while for someone to get from the beginning of Pre-searing, through ascalon, kryta, maguma, and the desert to get to Droknar's (where the lvl20 stuff really starts). Most experienced players never visit the areas prior to Droknar's, or else I guarantee you'd find just as many newbie players as there are in Factions.

One other factor is the number of people buying Factions vs. the number of people buying Prophecies. I don't actually have the numbers, so this is purely conjecture, but I'm guessing that more new players are buying Factions than Prophecies, so the Factions population would naturally have more newbie players.

No thanks, I still play this game. and I have more fun with a creative build than with a cookie cutter build, and so do more people on this forum

One might point out that MM with golem simply tilts the numbers in favor of the players, and not the PC...and adds another tank. It does make the game "easy," but hey, some people think work is for, well, work!

In general, I agree with the person who clarified the meaning of this argument: that a lvl 20 who has just made it to lvl 20, and reached Kaineng, where he/she will face the lvl 20+ enemies, may lack the wealth of experience that a prophecies newly lvl 20 has--because, relative to the length of the game, those factions players are reaching 20 faster.

Lvl 20s in the missions in Kaineng certainly do exhibit behaviors that, as a healer, I find rather confounding. I had to stop a group mid-mission to explain some basic healing ideas to them... such as watching me ping energy, watching the mini-map, and moving in range of my spirits (I'm a rit healer) to help stay alive. One dude refused to listen, so I let him lay dead for quite a while as a lesson.
In general, lvl 20s in the desert and Southern Peaks did not exhibit such behaviors...they seemed to understand the ideas behind pacing and so on.

totally off-topic--but is it possible that these behaviors are a result of the timed mission system? hmmmmm

Channeling magic doesn't suck, just needs to be used properly. If you're doing channeling without any spirits, then yes, it does suck.


And frenzy+heal sig warriors have been around since pre-searing; they'll never go away.

As a mater of fact you are pretty close....
I started GW this past June with Factions only. I pretty much did the whole storyline with henchies by August. In August I joined a guild and bought Prophecies.
It has been a whole new game. Most of the guild has been together since the Prophecies preview event. When we would do missions in Factions they would think I was the greatest thing ever. But, when we would go to do a mission in Prophecies they would get mad at me, and expalain there was no time limit. And, I could actually wait for heals and everyone to get their energy back before having to take on the next group.
If all you have played is Factions you have a completely different mentality about things because you are used to the real enemy being the clock, not the NPC's. No time to worry about picking up drops, exploring, etc. Just beat the clock... Which ment coming up with builds that had self heals and could deal lots of damage. I couldn't depend on someone else to cover that AND still beat the clock.
Prophecies has given me a whole new perspective to GW. I plyed Prophecies the same way till I hit Thunderhead Keep. That's when I first had to play Prophecies with a guild team, cause I couldn't light both torches and keep the king alive with henchies. After the first round heading for the keep is when they took the time to explain to me how Prophecies was played. That, I actually have time to explore the game and not just the "metagame".
As far as which are better??? I let you know when I have played GW for a year and a half like most of my guildmates....

But I <3 MMing.... *runs into a corner and cries*

QFT. This is 100% true.

Players in the latter stages of Factions show considerably more skill than their Prophecies cousins - when it comes to the kind of player who joins PuGs, anyway.

General play in Factions is a lot harder than in the original campaign, plus you don't have an abundance of idiots who were run for 3/4 of it and haven't got around to learning what that little aggro bubble thingy does.

...Seriously, I went back to finish the Ring of Fire chain with my Factions characters, and I was horrified by the overall level of incompetence.

plenty of people wearing max armor of Shing Jea (from Kaining Center) too

the tutorial system in nightfall i think was the best explanation of guild wars ever