Guild Wars

Sorry to be bothersome... - but I have a few questions.
I'm thinking about getting into Guild Wars, but the whole chapters thing is confusing me... should i buy Nightfall, Factions, or Prophecies?
I played WoW for awhile, so im not new to MMORPGs, and with WoW the classes are completely unbalanced atm... is it like that in Guild Wars? do some classes just completely destroy everything?
Thanks

The classes in Guild Wars are balanced, just some people are dumber than others and say they aren't.

If I were you I'd buy Chapters 1&3. Chapter 3 comes out on Friday, so defiantly pick that up.

You can be stupid in many ways too, nobody is perfect.

Hi, For the chapters they can be buy and play all separately or you can add them to the same account. If you have them all on the same account you can travel with your character between each continent.

For the one you should start with its more a question of taste but i found the learning curve of prophecies better to learn how to play. In factions the learning pace is more accelerated, you are more push toward the main game. Nightfall is not there yet but from what i have see he seem really cool New interresting features like the Heroes Henchies are added too, so a big Plus.

If you can afford 2, from my point of view I would buy Prophecies and Nightfall

For the Balance I think Anet is doing a great job, true that some classes shine more in PVP and some others in PVE, but I have play them all and if you play them right with a good build you can have a lots of fun and be usefull with all the classes

Hope it Helps and to see you in the Game

if you buy only 1, Nightfall should be a solid choice

(based on my limited experience with the preview event)

Nightfall will likely be ideal to new players to the Guild Wars saga, according to Jeff Strain. The ability to unlock any class' skill (available to you according to the chapters you own, I assume) for free via the hero skill trainers and the pacing of the leveling are beneficial to people new to Guild Wars.

A thing to remember is that chapters are NOT expansion packs per se. Basically, you can buy any chapter alone without needing to ever buy the other ones, though you can merge chapters if you own multiple ones to let your characters travel throughout the continents.

If you can only buy one, I would recommend Nightfall, which comes out this Friday.

If you are willing and able to buy two, I would recommend Nightfall and Prophecies.

Factions is not essentially a bad game at all; it has its flaws and weak points, but it's still a good game. Being standalone and by itself, its good game, but side by side the other two chapters many feel it's of lesser quality then the others.

Anyways, glad to hear your considering buying the game, I'm positive you'll love it.

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it. The reason I brought up classes is because thats the reason I cant stand to even start playing WoW... its really... really bad. The warlock class can pretty much never die, and deal out 1 shot K.Os on most classes.. which unfortunately has been on the bottom of the food chain for a really long time, due to the fact that it doesnt really have a place in the game.

I actually had another couple questions, just to try to get the feel of everything.
Whats the leveling pace like? is it different in each of the chapters?
Is it really tough to get higher level gear? In WoW, there was a lot of raids that can go on for like.. 8 hours... which didn't really work out...

Thanks again hehe

sure thing.


uhm, the leveling pace is quite different.

It takes quite a while to get to lvl 20 in the first game.

It goes very fast in factions.

In Nightfall it's a mix between the two. slower than factions but faster in the first.


As far as gear, no. There are no "high level gear". the game is based on skill so there are no uber gear or anything like that. There are very rare armors though. There are these 15K armors, where you have to get over 15.000 gold just to get one part. these have the same stats as other lvl 20 armors, but they look more cool.

there are also some very rare skinned weapons, and the perfect weapons are also incredible rare. but its not like you will need does. they will help, but are not required to win.

GW is designed in such a way that you can jump into the game for 5 minutes before dinner, have fun and then log out, or play for 10 hours straight and just keep going.

it's really created in such a way that you can have a social life while still being competitive at it. just be prepared for that the game is very deep and very complex and getting good at the pvp(because it requires so much skill, teamwork, and information) it will take a while before you learn the ropes.

yes. get nightfall. your timing is excellent.
My guild had lost quite a few people to WoW, so Im sure its doing something right; but honestly you should give guildwars a try. There are some major differences between guildwars and traditional mmos like wow, but if you enjoy endgame pvp play to go along with a good coop rpg than guild wars might be what youre looking for. My personal view on wow is that the amount of time the game takes is far too drawn out, and while I had played warcraft 3 for about 3 years and definately appreciate the Lore and graphics I dont think it gives as much bang for byte as guildwars does.

*Ill give you the heads up on Factions, theres plenty of info on the other two already and i cant really add much more.

Although prophecies and nightfall are the best for starting out, Factions is designed more toward veteran players- it takes less than a week to get a lvl 20 character and the max armor (armor is key) and max damage weapon crafters show up fairly early in the story. The story is linear, though it does feel like a 'chapter' whereas the gw1 and gwNF stories are definately more elaborate. The pvp in factions is good. assassins are fun to play and are nowhere near as annoying as wow's rogues. Ritualists id imagine work similar to a shaman due to summoning static ward/turrets and using combinations of elemental and healing magic. If you do like guildwars, then getting factions isnt bad at all- but if you buy it first you may not like guildwars, if that makes sense.


edit:

gw.gamewikis.org

go here if you want to look at the mechanics of combat. things like max damage and weapon speed vs available mods and where you can craft or find. as you find these during pve play you can unlock them for making pvp-only characters. All pvp characters start play with your choice of 'perfect' weapons, shields, focus items, staves and wands. The problem is, that pvp-toons are easy to pick out because their limited amount of armor styles

The leveling pace is different with each chapter.

In Prophecies, you reach the maximum level 20 in about two weeks of what I consider casual play.
In Factions, it'll take you about 3 hours.
In Nightfall, about three to four days is what I'm expecting, judging from the preview event.

High-level gear is readily and easily-available. Armor crafters in Droknar's Forge (Prophecies), Kaineng Center (Factions), and some other city in Nightfall will give the highest-level armor you can get.

Weapons are also easy to get via weaponsmiths around these same areas, or from "collector" NPCs who will give you weapons and items in return for some other items.

In other words, everyone can get a basic weapon with the best stats fairly easily. Vanity is the only reason weapons can get expensive. And as for armor, it cannot be worn except by the person it was made for, so you don't have to worry about that.

The leveling pace varies from chapter to chapter. In Prophecies you can do it relatively quickly if you powerlevel, but playing through the game it'll take you up to a month with casual playing. A skilled player will easily make it in a few days (no powerlevelling or Canthan quests involved). A Factions character will easily make lv 20 in two days of casual playing, while a skilled player can manage in 5 hours. Nightfall will be somewhere inbetween.

Gear is cheap and easy attainable for the most part. Green items (uniques) are generally very cheap if you buy them from other players, and with Nightfall it looks like Gold items (rare ones) will be easier to get with inscription salvage.

There is no "Godly Plate of the Whale" or "Breath of the Dying" in GW. Gear is easily obtainable and relatively inexpensive for "standard" skins. Should you develop a rash of vanity, you can get the nicest skins for a princely sum of gold. But they have the same functional stats as the standard skinned items.

I would recommend Nightfall only because that’s where the majority of the player base is going to be. And you can grow at the same pace are everyone else. The City/town/Out posts in Prophecies & Factions are going to be some what ghost towns making it harder to find a group if you need help. But every one will migrate back to the other two chapters taking their new toons to do old mission/quest.

This is sounding really cool. My favorite part of the MMORPGs was PvP, and i felt that WoW was really gear dependant, and it was too hard to get the gear.
I really loved my rogue, and that's why I was curious about factions. I think I would start out on Nightfall though from what most are saying.
I'm guessing the fact that you can reach 20 so easily (at least in Factions) will let you try out the characters pretty well, so that's good.

Thanks again

Yeah. To be honest, levels dont matter at all in Guild Wars, it's only really used to keep track of your progress, but it's nothing like WoW with constant, constant grind. As mentioned too, there is no such thing as a dominant class, all classes are carefully balanced; and if they aren't at first, Anet always gets right on the job and adjust the skill some more until they are.

Also, there are two different types of characters you can make if you didn't know. PvP, and PvE.

PvE is self explanitory, it's the character type that you take through the story.

PvP character creation lets you create a lvl 20 character instantly that can only travel to PvP missions and arenas. You get to equip the PvP characters with the equiptment and skills you want.

The way you unlock skills is through faction points, specifically Balthazaar faction points. The way you obtain these is through all types of PvP, when you or your teammates kill an enemy. With these faction points, you can purchase unlockable skills and items for any of your current or future PvP only characters you make, so you can create the build you desire.

Also, like mentioned above, there is no godly armor at all.

You can get the best armor for your class possible for 1.5k gold a peice + the materials required to make them, and your set. Additionally though, there are many different sets of 15k gold armor, which is 15k a peice, however the stats are exactly the same as the 1.5k armor, just better looking.

Hope that all of us helped you make your decision, and we'll all see you in Nightfall in another day!

If there's anything else you want to know, go to:
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page

You can find literally ANYTHING you ever need to know and more about Guild Wars. If you do have trouble finding a proper answer though, we're always happy to help!