To start GW!!

i was thinking of playing GW and was wondering if i should start with prophecies or can i go straight to factions and play on..??

why not nightfall ? it comes next week

I would recommend Prophesies, since you´ll have an easier time to learn how to play the game, using and combining your skills in different ways. Factions is harder to play for a newcomer, since the game advances much faster than Prophesies. And you´ll need a buffert of cash when you start playing Factions because you´ll need to buy new armor a couple of times in the beginning of the game, and to buy new skills since you don´t get much skills when completing quest, which you get completing quests in Prophesies.

And I think that Prophesies is more fun to play

Just my two cents...

You can start playing any chapter you want.

Prophecies: More PVE, better story, slower level progress = less steap learning curve, and really good alround skill set if you would like to PVP too. 6 core professions.

Factions: More PVP oriented, story is a bit shallow, fast level progress = very steap learning curve, skill set not that good but combined with Prophecies it is wicked. 6 core professions + 2 faction only professions

Nightfall: Said to be more PVE again. Seems very promising. 6 core professions + 2 nightfall professions.


These are my humble personal feeling about the chapters. I got both Prophecies and Factions and will get Nightfall next week when it is released. I personaly had the most fun in Prophecies, but enjoyed factions afterall too. For Nightfall I can't wait to start playing it.

I recommend buying Nightfall because it is new and there is lots of people playing it. All professions are accepted to the groups. If you want to make assassin or ritualist then you have to buy Factions too because you can't create them anywhere else.

what r the things that i'll be missing if i go str8 to buying NF??

Play Prophecies first, because it is the first in the series, provides a good introduction, makes it easy to learn, is not encouraging the need to farm (like in factions where you have to farm like hell to get skills), and I find there are usually some nice dudes out there.

If you get NF, you will not be able to get any Prophecies or Factions skills, play an Assassin or Ritualist, or be able to travel to Tyria or Cantha. Anet designs each GW chapter to be a stand-alone game, so you can join in at any chapter you want without suffering a disadvantage to people with the other chapters.

i wont be missing anythin if i start prophecies 1st??

Prophecies: The excellent tutorial area and gradual progression give players a chance to practice using different skills as they earn them from doing various quests along the way. Most skills can be gotten through quests. The story line is pretty good and there's plenty of stuffto do to occupy a person for quite a while. Core professions (Monk, Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist, Necromancer, and Mesmer) can be played with Prophecies. Many of the more popular, useful skills here can't be gotten in factions. It's going to be lacking players for at least a little while when Nightfall comes out.

factions: You start out in the frying pan and are soon dumped into the fire. Very steep learning curve, not a good thing for new players. Not geared to the PvE player at all. The "story-line" is terrible. Personally, I despised the city area (a good chunck of the game) and there's a grind-fest waiting for players not long after getting out of it. You only get a few skills from doing quests, just enough to get by on. The rest you have to purchase. Assassin and Ritualist are 2 additional professions offered in factions, but nobody wants Assassins on their team on the PvE side of things. Three things good about factions: 1. Expanded storage for materials. 2. Alliance Battles. 3. You can travel to Cantha (factions) from Tyria (Prophecies) and get max armor way before it's avaliable in Tyria. It will be a ghost town after the release of Nightfall for a long time.

Nightfall: 9 days until release! The preview weekend let us explore the beginning area of the game and it was a lot of fun! The learning curve isn't as steep as factions, maybe a bit steeper than Prophecies. If the rest of the chapter is as good as what we've already seen, it'll be as good as Prophecies - possibly better. In addition to the core professions, you can create a Paragon or a Dervish (which there will be a huge oversupply of for a while).

If you don't have...

Prophencies

You can't access to Tyria but most of it are for below 20 level characters. This is probably the easiest chapter to play so far. You will also miss some skills because they can be found only in Tyria.

Factions

You will miss Assassin and Ritualist professions and don't have access to Cantha. Therefore you don't have access to Alliance Battles. Some skills are not available because they can be found only in Cantha.

Nightfall

Dervish and Paragon professions are unavailable. Elona is out of reach which means that you can't have some skills because they are located only in Elona. You can't have own heroes. Henchmans are computer players which have certain skills they use to help you in your party if you don't find enough human players. Heroes are similar to henchmans but you can set own skills to them and also have some control how they move, attack and use skills. No one really knows what other things Nightfall will contain because it has not released yet.



All chapters

Some armors sets can't be used due to the fact that crafters are only in Tyria/Cantha/Elona. This is just appearance thing because the maximum armor stats are same in every chapter. Character faces and hairstyles are also somewhat unique in every chapter if they are created in specific chapter.

ok i guess i'll start with prophecies and make my way up...but will i loose anythin or any disadvantages by me doing this??

Well, you already missed 1.5 year of GW, im sure u wont miss much more if you dont buy Nightfall yet.

I agree with above poster, start with the start... Prophesies. Best tutorial for the starting player. Biggest part of factions is for the more expierenced player (lvl 20 doesnt say enough) and the rest is boring. Best Nightfall offers is heroes, from my point of view. But these are again will work best for the expierienced player, that knows his skill sets, weaknesses and strenghts. Though I havent played NF extensively, I would recommend, Prophesies then Nightfall then Factions...

is some of the quest gonna be hard when there will be no one to assist or team up with once NF is out??

In the beginning of Prophesies all quests and missions can be done with henchmen only. Later on in the game the main-missions get harder and you need human players to assist you, atleast the first time you do the mission and you don´t know what to do. When Nightfall is released the population in Tyria (Prophesies) and Cantha (Factions) will decrease for a period of time, as it did in Tyria when Factions was released, but they will come back eventually. I have played for over a year now, and at the moment I play just as much in Tyria as I do in Cantha.

I was thiking of buying GW but I was wondering if I should buy Prophecies and Then ask for Nightfall for my birthday (2 weeks or so)? I will get Prophecies almost for free due to some cupon's i got..
Would this be clever or just screw Prophecies and get only Nightfall?

Get Nightfall, prophecies and factions will probably be ghost towns, and even if it isnt there will be much more people in Nightfall

The Prophecies story line might be good, but it's not good if you are playing the game alone. Most Tyrian (Prophecies World = Tyria) outposts are dead, not one person insight. The only people I come across in the Maguuma Jungle are new players that don't know how to skip to the Crystal Desert and people uncovering the map. About half the missions are dead too. You might have a slower rising learning curve but with no one to help you learn you might as well try for a degree in English Literature without knowing the English language.

Go for Nightfall. There will be lots of people playing it. Lots of new players learning the game like yourself and lots of veteran players helping along the way. The Nightfall Preview Event (about a Month ago) was a blast, everyone loved it. When I get Nightfall I will be playing it with a new character (have reserved a name for my new Ranger). I might bring my Tyrian characters over but I doubt it, since my NF Ranger will be my new #1.

Edits:
You wont miss out on anything really. The only 2 things you'll miss out on is the Assassin and the Ritualist. Personally I like playing the Assassin in PVP (Player VS Player) but not in PVE (Player VS Elements). The Ritualist, well let's just say I've never seen such a boring profession ever in any game. Going into Nightfall will be your best bet, since Anet (GuildWars makers) will be focusing there full attention on it.

There might be fewer people, but a ghost town???? I dont think so... Have you put foot in pre ascalon lately??? its still buzzing man.

And if you really are worried about that buy prophecies and NF.

http://eu.plaync.com/eu/games/buynow

It will be cheaper than WoW anyway! (pffffft WoW lamo)

The opportunity to get both with very little cost? Take it! When it comes to "which one first?" either one would be good choices, but having both would be a very good thing. When you link chapters together, you can take your characters back and forth from one to the other, and you won't run out of things to see and do for a long, long time!

I'd say Prophecies + Nightfall would be a nice combo. If you can get to Lion's Arch or even Droknar's Forge before Nightfall loads you'll be ready to go.

Wherever that is.. =P

Btw.. Is it true you can't jump? =p

there's a /jump emote but you can't jump over objects.

Technically you can... but it's not like jumping in WoW :P

Oww.. That sucks =P

I totally disagree, 2 weeks before nightfall preview, I bought two characters slots, 1 assasin in Cantha start, 1 ranger in Tyria start. Now, both have completed Factions first and after that I did Prophesies. Its not hard to get players, though it might be harder for a new player. Anyway, the new hero you get for completing Tyria and Canthan campaigns will encourage people to continue questing there...

PvE = player vs elements? haha
Ritualist was a great backup instead of a protection monk, at least before the nerf. And assasins are killer, but just hard to play like mesmer. Many people sadly dont understand.
And you talk about skipping the Crystal Desert as a good thing? Well that explains why so many people are running around with 170 attribute points in stead of the full 200....

Anyway, you will only need 1 player in your team that brings 3 heroes for you, so it doesnt matter that the outpost are not that crowded (which is totally untrue between 15:00 and 21:00 GMT, there are plenty ppl that time).

if i buy NF will i miss out on the items,skill etc...??

Items: Yes

The green weapons (weapons that bosses drop) in Tyria can not be found in Cantha or in the Nightfall realm (Elona??) The same goes for some rare-skin weapons that only drop in Tyria or Cantha. But there will be green weapons and rare-skin weapons that are just as good if not better, but with another skin.

Skills: No

All skills that are available in Tyria can be obtained in Cantha, and probably in Nightfall as well. The difference between Tyria and Cantha is that in Tyria you got new skills when completing a quest, in Cantha you had to buy most of the skills.

Elite-skills: You might miss a few

Most of the elilte-skills in Tyria can be obtained in Cantha and Probably in Nightfall as well, BUT, there are a few elite-skills in Tyria that are not available in Cantha, and the other way around. For instance I still haven´t found Spiteful Spirit in Cantha.