Newbie Questions

Hello, everyone. I've recently bought Prophecies and Factions, and am switching over from World of Warcraft. The game has been quite a pleasant suprise so far, since it actually has a story and is more centered around your build and skills than having top tier armor. (At least that's how it feels.) I'm currently working my way through Prophecies with a Mesmer/Elementalist, but I've got a few questions I didn't see answered in other threads, or the FAQ. (My apologies if I missed them.)

1) As I said, I've got Prophecies and Factions, and I plan on working through them in the order they were released. If I do this, is there any benefit to buying Nightfall now, or can I wait until I'm almost done with Factions? I don't plan on creating any new characters until I'm quite far along with my Mesmer.

2) I started my Mesmer in Prophecies, but I would like to continue using him through Factions as well. Is there an option to move your character back and forth through the expansions and, if so, can I do the story missions in the upcoming campaigns with a character created in a previous one?

3) Looking at the titles I've currently gained points for, I understand the exploration one, but I don't understand what the "Perfect" requirement for the Tyria story missions means. Does this simply require that you do the Bonus as well as the normal objectives, or is there more to it?

4) I've found several purple items through my adventures up to Nolani Academy (where I'm at now), but I'm unsure as to whether people will use them. From looking around in Ascalon City, it seems people are always selling better items than I've got. Is it worth it trying to sell these low end items to low level characters, or should I just try to salvage materials and such from them?

5) Though I'm admittedly far off from the 15k armor sets, I'd like to eventually get the 15k Kurzick armor for my Mesmer. I've looked around this site and searched Google, but I've been unable to find a list of materials for this armor set. If anyone could share a source that would give me this information, I'd greatly appreciate it.

6) Though I'm having fun working through the quests and story missions, I often find myself having to rely on the Henchmen, since noone seems to want to party. Has anyone else experienced this problem with the Prophecies campaign and, if so, is it simply due to the fact that it's been out so long that most people have moved on to Factions and Nightfall?

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer these for me.

Best site for questions and answers would be http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page. Its differant sections can answer most questions. If you want to work through them in order, You can wait to buy nightfall there would be no rush, just wia tuntil you finsish the first two campaigns. Once you have reached Lions Arch(have a little ways yet if you are Nolani Acadamy) you will be able to do a couple of missions that will take you to Cantha via ship. Once there and same for your Canthan chars when they reach Kaining City, you will be able to access most of both continents for quests and skill acquisition. Not all quests will be available some are exclusive to the chars born on that continent.

for 3) Titles can be explained in Guild Wiki more clearly but the perfect for prophecies is completing all 25 missions with bonus. For Factins its completing all 13 missions with a Masters (finishing under 2omins).

4) the purples are rarer than blues and whites, not as rare as a gold. The reqs and stats may or may not be better. some people like the them, you can keep them for other chars or sell them to others or NPC or salvage them. I usually sell or give them to other low levels to help them out if I cant use them myself.

5) check guildwiki for the cost and items needed to craft the 15k sets for you char and where you have to go to get the style you want.

6) Most people rely on henchies for a lot of quests and missions in the beginning. Towards the end of the game specially the last 3, some will say you can hench it, I found that the missions are a lot easier with guildies or PUGS if you have no other way over henchies, it runs a little smoother. The propblem you may be having now finding people is that a lot of the more seasoned players and new people are alll in Nightfall. In time though people will start coming back and you will be able to find groups again. Depending on what time you play check out the international dis for people as well.

1) I think you can access hero's, so if you can spare they money, go buy nightfall. You also gain more character slots.

2)Once you reach Lion's Arch in Prophecies, you can travel to Kaineng Center, and finish Factions with your mesmer. ( You will skip the newbie island )

3)A perfect mission has 2 swords crossing it, so primary + secondary ( bonus ) objective.

4) Purple is usually merchant, unless it has max damage, or a max upgrade.

5) If there is anything in GW, it's on this site: www.guildwiki.org. Remember it. Caress it. Use it. http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Mesmer_..._Kurzick_Armor

6) You're a Mesmer. Most PvE'ers are so dumb, they don't know what Mesmers are capable off. Ye olde comparison: Ele's shower meteor's on the enemies. Most mesmers only twirl around and make pink arrows and lifebars.

I'm fairly casual so can only tell you what I know :

1) Prophecies sucks for cash generation early on unless you plan on wheeling and dealing, not that there is a huge need for money early on but nightfall practically throws it at you, increased cash for quests and considerable more in the way of drops (or so I found). Also there could well be useful weapons and armor that you can transfer via storage but obviously things like salvaged Inscription (new nightfall mods) can only be applied to NF weapons that allow Inscriptions

2) See above for a better description than I mustered up

3) Completing the missions with the bonus will gain you the point for the title

4) NF Purples are more valuable than their earlier chapter counterparts due to the inscription you can salvage. Some low-mid level purples do have uses, you might come along one that's worth sticking in storage but as a general rule, even the newbies start screaming for max dmg golds and overlook the stepping stone upgrades of purples. Your mileage may vary but store or salvage IMO.

5) As always, the Wiki is your friend
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Mesmer_armor

6) Earlier campaigns do suffer from "ghost town syndrome" on occasion. I have partied infrequently and used henchies more than I would have like but I don't feel it hindered my progress or enjoyment of the PvE. Nightfall raised the bar with customisable hero's, essentially allowing you to create henchies builds along with issuing specific commands to them. Don't worry too much about hanging around outposts shouting for people, if there is a group asking then cool, if not, take your AI buddies. For the record, I started a new Prophecies character very recently and the population doesn't seem all that bad to me.

1 - Unless you plan to make a PvP only character just wait until the end of Factions to buy NF.

2 - Yes, all chapters are set in roughly the same time and you can travel between continents via (free) boats from Lion's Arch (Prophecies), Bejunkan Pier (Factions - the pier is just outside of Kaineng Centre) and I think Kamadan is Nightfall's but I'm unsure.

3 - Perfect completion is gaining both bonus and mission rewards from a mission, in Factions it is for meeting a time requirement (not always 20 mins) Just hover over a title progress bar to find out mroe about each title.

4 - Unless it has a valuable mod on it (identify it to find out) either salvage or merchant it, not many players are interested in the lower end purples and for the time to profit investment trying to sell them it isn't worth it.

5 - Guild wiki is down for me atm (probably bust its bandwidth, again... But once it works just search Kurzick Armor and then click on the mesmer armour link in there.

6 - At the moment this will be due to alot of people playing Nightfall since it has only been released a week ago, soon enough the balance will come back and prophs will be packed again.

I'll only answer your last question, since the rest has been covered mostly.

I have henched about every quest (not mission) there is.
It's somewhat hard to find a party for a particular quest, the only ones that people are sometimes looking for are the Primary Quests (on top in your quest log). All quests are easy with hench, once you know how they react and which ones are the best in certain situations.
Missions can be henched, but some are easier with real players.
So you might have to wait about 15 minutes or longer before someone shows up.

For a mesmer, it's hard to find a group that wants you.
There are two reasons. The first is that many people don't know the power of mesmers. The mesmer henchman in Prophecies are not the best, so why should anyone take a real mesmer (that's probably much better).
Second, mesmers are mostly about disable or dealing damage to a single enemy. Since Guildwars relies on groups of enemies, spells that do damage to more then one enemy are regarded better.
But, you can always start your own group

I think that within the next weeks you will see more people in Prophecies again. Many people have merged accounts and want to play with their Elona characters in Tyria. At least, that's what I am planning and I think I am not the only one. So when they have finished Nightfall they will get back to Tyria.
I'm not sure about Cantha (Factions). Some missions seemed abandoned long before Nightfall came out.
But perhaps that's here in Europe and only the English districts.
A couple of months ago I found out that the German district was more populated and .... the secret hideout of many great monks

When you really want to play with humans, consider joining a (large) guild.
You can always ask around if someone wants to join you on a mission/quest.

Just to add a bit, first I have a Mesmer and they can be quite powerful if done right. Mine is a Mesmer/Ranger, I will not knock your choice of secondary professions, but most players do not like the Me/E due to the high energy cost of some of the Elementalist's best skills. You will have to chose which Ele skills that you use very carefuly to keep from hitting the "Exhaustion Wall" that more than a few of the Ele's skills cause. I have seen some very good Me/E builds and they can work with the proper energgy management.
On titles: you dont have to go after them unless you want to, but be proud of those that you get.
Best advice I can give is "Have fun playing and welcome to the world of Guild Wars".

Mega Mouse

Thanks for all the answers, guys. I'm now up to Borlis Pass, and it seems there are a LOT more people around in towns now. Whereas Piken and Fort Ranik were practically deserted, Yak's Bend is so full I can barely click on NPCs. I did find some good groups today, so I'm quite happy.

I know you can do quests and such with the Henchman, and they're pretty decent replacements in most respects (though Orion has an unrivaled ability to get himself killed in the first 3 seconds on battle), but I bought this game to play it with other people, which is why I was wondering if the rest of the game is deserted as the earlier towns. It's nice to hear it's not.

MegaMouse, I definently know about that exhaustion wall, and I'm working on trying to gain control of my energy levels. The only Elementalist spells I use currently are Firestorm (for an AoE), Glyph of Lesser Energy (2 energy free spellcasts) and the one that heals you for a percentage of the mana cost of a spell you cast (can't remember the name). Most of my energy problems stem from tab targetting and spamming the crap out of Empathy (on melee mobs) and Conjure Phantasm. When I need to cast Backfire or Firestorm on a large group, I try to use the Glyph of Lesser Energy to make it more energy efficient.

EDIT: Oh, and thanks for the Wiki page. It does seem to be down at the moment, but from the sound of it, it should prove to be a good reference.

your welcome to add me to your friends and I will do some quests/missions with you

elwe fingolfin - lev 20 ranger/ele
Turin of Gondolin - lev 18 w/n
luthien beren - lev 11 me/w

Firestorm...yuckie! It's AoE, and it'll scatter your foes. Use 1 shot spells, wich do more damage. ( rodgort's invocation, phoenix e.g. )