Starting GuildWars

Hey how do i start GuildWars? What Packs do i have to buy to play it?? Because there are so many different ones Guild Wars Prophesies 06, Guild Wars: Nightfall, Guild Wars 2: Factions (Campaign 2), Guild Wars: Special Edition, Guild Wars: Nightfall Collectors EditionGuild Wars 2: Factions Collectors Edition (Campaign 2). So which one should i buy or do i have to buy all of them?? Please Help me!

Simply put, any of them. They are all freestanding full games in their own right.

But if you want the "whole game," buy Guild Wars: Prophecies, Guild Wars: Factions, and Guild Wars: Nightfall. That will give you access to all the content in the game short of a few free weapons and special dances that come with the collector's editions.

Personally, if you were just buying one, I'd say go for Nightfall. It is the most recent one, there are more people in Nightfall than the other two areas, and it seems to have the most interesting storyline so far. Plus, you get access to a whole new game mechanic: heroes. Completely customizable NPC's that you can take with you to fight with you in missions and explorable areas.

Ok thx, but what do you mean if you buy all 3 of them you get the whole game?? Does that mean there are servers just for the people who have all 3 games??

If you get all three you'll have access to more features and missions, but not really more items. Say you only have Prophecies. You'll still be able to buy items from those who have the others if they visit a city in Prophecies to sell their goods.


There's only one server, period.

OK kool thank you very much!

I'd get Proph personally.

I'll try not to spoiler anything for you, though if you read around the forums a bit, you'll find plenty of spoilers one way or another.

Proph. Came first, and is probably the best way to learn the game, due to the slower pace and relatively long tutorial area (usually called "pre"). Factions was considered by many to be somewhat substandard. The tutorial area (or, "noob island") is short, and levels you up really fast. If you played through prophecies, you could probably pug through Factions PvE in a week. (Two days, if you're actually trying). Nightfall is the most recent campaign, and the pace sits somewhere between Proph. and Factions. I find nightfall endgame a bit harder than the other two so far.

Now, here's how they work: Once you have one, you have access to that "chapter". You can get the skills in that chapter, adventure in that chapter, etc. You can PvP with anyone, though you'll only have access to your chapters skills. (Plus a set of skills common to all chapters - "core skills") When/if you get another chapter, you can choose between using the key to create a seperate, second account, or you can add the key to the account you have. I reccomend adding the key, some people prefer otherwise.

Each chapter is a full game by itself, can be played standalone, no need for any others. But, if you get the other chapters, and you link them, you can take characters from one chapter to another.

The collectors editions are the same as the regular game, with a couple snazzy toys - your hands glow when you /dance, you get a /dancenew or something, and a couple of special edition items. I dunno, I never bothered with CE.

I spent a whole two minutes drawing this up in MS Paint to visually show the Connection between the 3 current GW titles. It should be self explanatory. Hope this helps.

I would suggest starting with Prophecies to see if the game is really right for you. It's not like other RPGs on the market, and you'll either love it or hate it. Prophecies has a nice easy pace and is perfect for an introduction to what the game's all about. Prophecies is also the cheapest chapter at the moment (I picked my copy up from a game store bargain bin for £10). Then, if you like the game you can add the other chapters. If you link chapters together on the same account you get access to the continent and all the chapter-specific skills and professions.

For example, I have Prophecies and Factions linked together on my game account. I can make my Prophecies characters cross over to Factions, and vice versa. My Mesmer character in Prophecies can go to the Factions continent and can take part in the Factions campaign. Meanwhile, my Assassin character (a profession that can only be created to start in the Factions campaign) is able to cross over to the Prophecies campaign. While you don't need to buy more than one chapter to enjoy the game, linking chapters together allows you to take your favourite characters a lot further and lets you customise them more with broader selections of skills and different styles of armor.

And finally, let us know which campaign you start playing first. There are a lot of experienced players here who would be happy to join you in-game and help you learn how the game works.

in my opinion factions is probably the easiest game prophecies most rewarding and nightfall is obviously the game that everyone is playing atm

Although i really like Prophecies i suggest to buy the last chapter (nightfall) first... atm there are not so many players in Prophecies right now (even Droknar starts to look like a ghosttown).

Nightfall has a good tutorial and there are many players so it is less of a problem to find players to do quests and missions with you. There is also the hero-system (customizable henchmen (henchmen are computer controlled players)) which can be very handy at times (it even eases up playing Prophecies or Factions when there arent enough players around)...

hey man ill lay it down for you-

1.guildwars rophecies/ '06 game of year/collectors edi(if you can find one) are all the same game. What you should do is get the 06goty edition because it will give you some nice (unique!) weapons that you cant get anywhere else- perfect for every nightfall Hero! Also i believe it gives you 'free unlocks' for a small amount of skills and weapons but Im not sure the specifics. The collectors edition is cool, and it gives you glowing emotes in-game along with a few other goodies (guildwars/logicte gaming headset, maps, art book, etc) but honestly, the GOTY edition will help you out more-- much more.

guildwars: factions/ factions CE/ in-game-store PVP edition- I personally love the PvP expansions that factions brought. Factions should never be a new players' first pick IMO because the low levels are rushed. basically after prophecies everyone wanted 'high-end' material, e.g. more 'endgame' type monsters/quests/missions. Playing an assassin in Cantha sucks too, because half the enemies always explode HOWEVER playing an assassin in Elona is SO FUN and it gives old assassin players a little more respect in general from the rest of the community- if that makes sense (anyone argue this point?? its my own observation..) I love my Ritualist btw, ritualist alone makes Factions worth it, but again Factions should be your second or third, not your first. It is still very very easy to get the 'Factions Pre-Order' CD (try amazon or something) and again- this will give you two unique weapons that you cannot get anywhere else (poisonous daggers and insightful spiritbinder staff) and like the GOTY items, you can spawn them over and over giving them to all your heros or characters.

Nightfall- Nightfall is amazing. The graphics are a little better than the earlier chapters (and the sys req is higher too so check that) and the storyline and map are so well done its rediculous. Like the above posters already said- the majority of the player base is playing nightfall, which for a new player means a much easier time of finding some good people to play with. There is also a bonus weapon pack (another pre-order cd like Factions) which will give you an Icy Scythe and a Fiery Spear, which really helped me out when I made a paragon and dervish.

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so question- do you have experience in other similar games? (and i use the term similar loosely) Do you have an interest in PVP? The storylines of all 3 games are very good, but seriously my favorite part about guildwars is that when I get bored doing some hard quest, I can easily jump into an arena battle with my rpg character. I have set aside an extra 'pvp-only' character slot that I use exclusively for testing skills and builds etc and I use that to help plan the next direction I take my rpg character. Im pretty balanced between pvp and pve, but there are many people who play only one or the other exclusively and I promise you they are having just as much fun either way.

anyways, I hope you like guildwars- its the only game that has been able to keep my attention for (well, a year and a half) haha.

peace-

hi all..
i jus play Guild wars today, and its a good game..i bought GOTY Edition..and i suppose to get an exclusive weapon rite..

the problem is...how do i get 1..i start a char, but i get a starter weapon...is that the exclusive weapon?

haha if that starter weapon was the exclusive weapon Id let you punch me in the stomach.


type /bonus to get your items. it should have a message in-game that tells you each item you get for typing it.

gl hf.

Personally speaking I would go with the nightfall game, the reason being as stated above it has the heroes, and sometimes it can be difficult to find other people that are either willing to party with you or that you want to party with and having the heroes really makes the game much more easy to get through the areas where you require more than just one character.

I have prophecies and I have nightfall but I didn't bother to buy factions, so I can't comment on factions but I can say that I enjoyed nightfall far greater than I ever did with prophecies.

Of course if you can afford all three and want them all then go for it.

You forgot what happens if you link all 3 of them...

Ok so if i get a lvl 20 character on prohices when i buy like fractions do i still have a lvl 20 character??

I figured it was self implied but maybe a little confusing to some. If you just follow the lines from node to node, it makes sense.

For example. Say you have Prophecies only. That is what the box is (just the stand alone game). When you say buy Nightfall and Factions and want to link all 3 to your account.....start at the Prophecies node and follow it to the Factions node. THEN you'd also start back at the Prophecies node and follow it to the Nightfall Node (I'm using Prophecies as the base point, but whatever game he gets first can be used as the base point). I guess if you use Logic it makes more sense. If you follow Prophecies-Faction line AND follow Prophecies-Nightfall line, it yields Prophecies-Factions-Nightfall. Sorry for the confusion.

Hi all! I'm not even a noob yet because I haven't even bought the game. But thanks to this thread and all the good info, I've decided to get the Prophecy chapter so I can take my time getting started and comfortable and learning game play.

I'm still scouring this message board's FAQs so I don't ask too many noob questions that will get me flamed and I'm noticing that there isn't a lot of noob stuff to help people get started. I've looked through the build sections and I'm getting an idea of what to build and I don't mind wasting alot of time on questionable builds. I've played NC Soft games before (Lin I for 5 years, Lin II for a little) and I"m guessing it's important to carefully study out each aspect of character growth so as not to get screwed..as is the case in Lineage. Anyone care to comment on this, or is it safe to go haphazzardly about adding attributes, selecting skills, gears, etc? ie., is it cheap to go through trial and error, or expensive?

And on the topic of "expensive" is it, dare I say, "ethical" to buy gold outside of the game (ebay, private gold hackers, etc)? Or is it easy enough to get started and comfortable? From what i've read so far, this game follows other NC Soft games that nerf and nerf in order to keep you poor limiting the high end stuff to a select, rich handful of players/hackers?

And on the topic of hackers...is this game "hacked" to pieces like many other popular games, or is it a pretty fair playing field?

Thanks in advance for replies, and I hope this isn't too much of a hijack!

Errmmm... buying gold from eBay or other sources is against the EULA you agree to and when Anet get wind of it they will ban you. And it's pretty unethical as well :P

Getting enough of your own gold to buy decent weapons really doesn't take that long...

There are a lot of sites out there that can be very helpful to new players as well as veteran players.

GuildWiki - One of your Best Friends
Guru has a lot of very useful stuff as well as a lot of other GW Fan sites. I recommend to just take some time with a Google search.

You can easily progress through the game with the skills that become available to you. Purchasing skills at the beginning is cheap and the max you'll ever spend is 1k...which isnt all that bad unless you go on a skill-buying rampage. You'll gain attribute points as you level up in the game. Level 20 is the max level and at any time (when in a town or outpost) you can change your attribute points around in your characters profession categories any way you like so that it compliments your build.

Buying EBay gold or using 3rd party programs is against the user agreement and can get you permanently banned from GW. I would hate to see you buy GW and get banned Day 1 (then you are out of a game). Getting a good size stash of gold can be a lengthy process but can be very easy as well. Everyone has to start somewhere, and when you are low level just start picking up all the drops you come across and selling it. Once you get to later parts in the game, you'll get more gold, have access to better drops (which you can sell for a lot of gold depending on what it is), and just overall have more options to get money. Getting gold is easy and is the least of the concerns...not spending it is one of the hardest things! ;-) Don't buy EBay gold...never...ever!

When things get nerfed its to balance gameplay. Some people may jump for joy and others may burn their ricecakes, but things change in GW constantly and if things didnt change, the game would be more corrupted than WaterGate. The nerfs don't directly affect or limit you in any way on anything. It will however make you think more!

GW has its share of bots, scammers, etc...like any other MMO which ANet is cracking down on big time. Hacking is very rare and many of the accounts that have been hacked is because the user ends up giving important information out to someone else (user name, password, etc.). Be smart about it and I would say 99% are safe. Just have some common sense and if you are unsure about something, always ask multiple people's opinion before coming to a conclusion. As far as a level playing field....yes. That is why they have the nerfs, updates, the Level 20 cap, and other things. The game isn't about being the highest level with the weapon that does the most damage. Everyone is on equal terms and to be successful....you'll have to do some thinking.

I hope this helps a little

^ aside from being 'unethical' and definately a BIG no-no in the EULA--- buying gold is kind of silly... Id be too afraid of my account being hacked by the chinese gold farmers... let alone stolen credit card number etc... its just NOT WORTH IT.

-As far as 'hacking' goes- Anet can tell if you use a 3rd party program (usually a bot program, to aquire large amounts of Gold and Ectoplasm) and they will ban you very fast.

So, hopefully this answers your question- Im trying to imply that the people who DO do this stuff are not going to be around long- and if PvP is your concern, there is no such thing as an PvP bot that I have ever heard of... so in deciding on purchasing this game, rest assured that you will be entering an even playing field free from Hackers etc. ArenaNet is usually pretty good about finding exploits and fixing them quickly when they do pop up (such as the afk Tormented Land 'lightbringer point' farm- that was fun lol)

I guess my ethics question should have been cleared up. I don't buy gold because it's quite lame to cheat yourself of the experience gained getting it. I am playing this game because I've been at a FPS game (BF2) for the last year or so and I need to slow things down again...so I thought about doing this free game where I can spend countless hours grinding away being bored. For some reason, this game stands out as one of those hardcore boring grinding games, so I'm all set! Yeah, I know, wierd..but to each his own.

I had asked about the ethics of it because GW gold is rampant on ebay and other sites as are the other main games played. I've quit a couple good games because their economies were destabilized by the chinese gold sellers/gold hackers and the game quickly went to the dogs economically..inflation soars, anything decent is out of reach for normal "ethical" players, etc. So if A-net actually does a minimal amount of governing this and actually does ban people who suddenly gain a ton of gold, then I'm in good shape. But as with other NC Soft games i've played, they don't do jack...with the exception of LIneage I having ebay delist Adena sellers for several months.

My thoughts are that most of the sellers of the gold in many games are not because of farmers. There are inside people (secretly or openly) making money because they know how to replicate/hack gold. This is why a single person can run a site and offer enldess millions of game currency for 16 games and get rich. If GW players commonly buy this gold and if Arena net is flakey about stopping it...this game will be a waste of money for me.

So my better question should have been...is this game a sell out to cheaters who buy gold/items/accounts? And is there any enforcement of it?

And thanks so much for the replies. Especially about the early character building process risks!!

BTW..been reading the math coding for this game (damage) and this is exactly what I want to know! If you haven't yet, go check this out! http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...nics-id674.php Outstanding work by that author! In Lineage I, we had every ounce of damage, defense, elemental damage/defense, etc all worked out mathematically! It's been a while since I've played a game that is so well defined!

For those of you new who decide to buy Prophesies, please try to get the Game Of The Year edition. Typically the exact same price as regular, you have access to 7 bonus items, max weapons or offhands, for every character you create.

I just thought I'd throw a link at you that you may want to check out. The link you have is really good and detailed on the damage, but of course there are other things as well.

Guild Wiki - Game Mechanics
This link has a lot of useful information, including damage, drop rates, armor, experiencing, etc. Some of the links on the page are useful and some are common sense.

Thanks for that site cras!

Ok, just went to target and they had regular guild wars, factions, and nightfall. I'm assuming that regular one is prophecies since I saw nothing saying prophecies elsewhere.

Just created an elemental dude named Dr Ironchef (i didn't dig the two or more names thing, or the alpha-only naming convention...but what can you do?) and now I'm updating and taking forever.

So here's to good luck! *clank*

Buy any of the campaigns, install them, execute the application, and click a tab called "add key" to generate character slots. You'll know where to go from there.

Buy any of the campaigns, install them, execute the application, and click a tab called "add key" to generate character slots. You'll know where to go from there.

One piece of advice for all new players - READ the EULA.

The legal agreement you approve in order to play Guild Wars lists all the actions that will get your account banned. ANet does not fool around.

Just offering to buy/sell accounts, keys, or gold for in-game or real life money will cause a permanent ban of all your accounts ANet can trace. There is no appeal. Saying it was a joke or you didn't know, will not restore your account.

Any player can report a EULA violation through the PlayNC support site "ask a question" function - with screenshots and time/place info. If enough people file reports for lesser violations against the same player, ANet will "temp" ban the accused while they check the chat logs.

ANet also employs an "anti-farming" program that flags an account that is doing excessive farming. As they like to find the root of the tree if it's a company, action is periodic and usually results in "screams" from players caught up in the sweep. This ban can be appealed.

@IRONCHEF - Yes, there are items that have stratospheric prices being sold in the game. They go for 100k +xxx Ectos. They are not statistically better than other weapons you can purchase or find, they just have a rare skin. As in real life - vanity is expensive.