What is the big deal?

I've noticed in alot of past threads, probably from the time Factions was released or when Anet announced that they will come out with a new campaign every 6 months, that majority of the fanbase say something like "Oh man I have to get all my 5-8 chars through Factions before Nightfall comes out"
Same situation with the update thats coming this December 1st and same with Campaign 4. What is up with players so worried about getting all there characters throught a campaign? Why do you need to? What is the big deal?

These are the questions I ask not to offend anyone, but to find out why.

The way I look at this game is that the servers for the game are not going anywhere. You can play the game 20 years from now if you want. You have plenty of time to do things for your characters.

For me, If campaign 4 came out and I only beat nightfall with 2 chars, I move on to campaign 4 with any profession I'm in the mood of playing. I'll get back to the other chars eventually in my lifetime. So, why rush people? give me your anwers.

I would imagine they simply want to hurry up and be done with the existing campaigns so they can focus on the new ones?

When a new chapter comes out, the others are all changed as well - builds, economy, and so on. The best time to develop and profit is when a new chapter comes out, and you can get ahead of people with new skins/greens/skills/builds. Therefore alot of people feel driven to play through the new chapter when it arrives so not to be left behind.

yea but if you beat the campaign once than, than you are done with the campaign. You dont have to get all chars through. I mean I do try to get 4-5 chars through a campaign before the next one comes out, but if I don't accomplish that i dont dwell on it. Some players post on forums complaining that they haven't and I'm trying to find out what the big deal is.


this was my response to vahn

I have been play GW Scince Right after the Factions PvP Weekend.

I have 1 Of Each Profetion.

So far I have 2 Tyrian Born characters That have Finished Proph. 1 +30 Att. necro Which I will not finish the game with (maybe one day) but is there mostly for FoW UW, Tombs.

I Finished Factions only with my Ranger (Who is one of the 2 that finished Prophecies) Other wise, I get my Characters up to Urgoz, and Stop there (Maybe i just go threw a bit further, but really slowly)

I finished Nightfalls with my Dervish and I am inching my way thre NF with my Faithful Ranger.

Damn I love that Ranger.

I will wait untill DoA comes out and i will see just Which build are favoured and go threw the game with the favoured "Wanted" Builds.

Otherwise I will coast threw Each campaing Farming here and there doing random things, having fun.

I see no Rush in having to have to do everything right away right now, It takes away form the game, You don't enjoy it as much. Its the difference between Scarfing Down a fine meal, and eating it slowly, enjoying the flavour and the work the cook put into it.

Before NF, and being more inclined to pvp than pve, I would run them all because you had more armor/skin options than the pvp making. Now, I only rushed the characters I play the most and a character I can farm with so I can have some cash. I also had 1 of each class, but 6 of them will just stay as they are forever.

I think many people want to have as much area as possible opened up for each of their characters as possible. That way they have some flexibility when it comes to helping guildies / friends with missions and what-not. With factions and Nightfall, the only way to open up areas is by going through the story-line. There's also the "Protector of..." titles to consider.

As for me, I took 5 characters through Prophecies and am working on a sixth. I took one character through factions just to say I did it. Won't do anther one. So far, I've gotten one through Nightfall, and am working on a Paragon. I've got a Dervish rolled, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything with it beyond a mule.

to cap the new elites for my chars and unlock for pvp and heroes.

That's one of the top reasons I do it, so that if a guildie needs help I can say "What do you need/would like?" and have that profession there to help. Another is, which is heavily affecting Factions and Prophecies right now, is that when a new chapter comes out most of the established fanbase will be in the new area. That means less people in the previous chapters, making it harder to get pug groups if one is so inclined.

Hmmm, perhaps some players need a sense of 'completion'? Maybe not having gone through the entire game for all characters results in some recurring feeling that they left something undone (and making them feel uncomfortable) about it for some players. I've got some friends like that, when they play a console RPG, they make sure to unlock every secret in the game.

hmmm you really think there will still be a GW 20 years from now? I think we would be putting on virtual reality gear by then.

Well, there are various reasons.

First (and one I do not have) is lets assume you goal is end game areas. It is entirely possible that one wants to play pretty much every profession there. It could be because they want the flexibility to join no matter the group or want the experience (different for each profession) of playing at that level.

There is also the "help guildies" (something else I do not have as I am not in a guild). I can very much understand wanting pretty much any class to help anywhere.

Lastly (and one I like) is that you are a completenest. It sucks to have the time to complete 5 things per unit of time to solve but be given 7 things per unit of time to solve. You can never make it and you keep getting more and more you will never experience.

For instance, I hate capping skills just to cap them. If I'm going for a title or it is someone capping a skill they may use then it is fine. But I hate that my dervish is through Nightfall and will be some time before others are. I like some builds for my heroes that use unlocks (and since I hate PvP no love there either) so I just "wasted" gold and skill points. If I were interested in the title then it would be good, but I'm not. I know I am going to have to cap/learn a few skills multiple times when I should not. Given that I still have quite a few Factions skills to cap this is the case of being able to do 5 things a week but given 7 things a week to do.

Of course, there is some amount of impatience there. No one *says* I have to do this. I could still be 3/4 of the way through factions and be a long time away from Nightfall. But that is kinda like not understanding why someone gets frustrated with a banana split set in front of them but not able to taste it until they finish the very last bite of salad. Uh huh - better off just not having the banana split there to begin with.

Of course, I would rather have a profitable Anet and the game hang around, but if they can do it with a slightly slower release schedule I would be much happier.

Well I don't know if GW will still be around 20 years from now....... but I never understand why people say the campaigns are coming to fast either.

From a PvP point of view, they are coming too fast because they are adding another 2 classes and ~400 skills before the previous games classes and skills have a chance to get balanced properly.

on the other hand,
look at a game like Diablo2

Diablo2 didnt add new skills but yet over the years many patches balanced skills (to many players dismay)

balanced "properly" is in the eye of beholder

adding *new* skills can help the balance

Um... You argued that many skills can balance a game by using an example of a game that didnt add new skills but balanced the original ones only?

no

my Diablo2 example is that NOT adding skills doesnt mean skills will be balanced to your liking

I was responding to this comment of yours
I didnt mean to imply that adding skills is a better way to balance, it just an alternative


Balance never happens for everyone regardless of same skills or new skills

That is the problem. The idea of a balanced game is most, if not all, options are viable. The problem is, when an expansion is released, the skills aren't balanced. They had playtesting, but only by a small group of people. It's the masses that find the exploits. But Arenanet drag their feet balancing skills, so by the time a new expansion rolls around in 6 months, the broken skills of the older game aren't fixed, and more broken skills are added. These skills get abused because they are clearly more powerful than previous options. That is not balance. That is the problem is PvP and adding expansions so quickly.

Yea, it's kinda like adding on things and not solving the underlying problems entirely. Balancing a game isn't easy and is gonna be harder when the game expands.

Actually, I don't really think adding more skills can be considered as a balancing alternative if we look at the fact that GW is released in chapters and there may be a big number of players who may not own all the chapters.

Me personally im an explorer. I like to have 100% on all the continents. I like to have protector too so I know the missions in and out.

So thats my reason for wanting to do every campaign.

As for this idea of "I must get through factions before nightfall is released".

I admit to doing that. But purely because I dont want to be trying to complete two campaigns at once.

I like to be able to focus on one at a time, so I try to complete the latest one.

That and nightfall took me only about 2 months to finish. Which is alot shorted a time then factions or tyria.

So im pretty safe for chaptor 4 :P I can jump right in there.

2 months? is my sense of time that far out?

Ok maybe 1 month. Ive seen sat a room for weeks on end, ive lost track of time.

I'm with Freeked. However, I'm probably a slower gamer than he. I'm only halfway through NightFall, and I've only been focusing on my warrior. Not to mention that I only use the computer two hours each night, due to school. I PvP occassionally with my new guild, so that also prevents me from continueing the campaign, which is fine. So far, I'm just mapping out as much as I can before I continue any missions -- I like that most areas are open, unlike Factions (that was sooo dreadful).

So yeah, I'm just taking my time. I don't really care about how far other people are, and with Heros I'll be able to play fully alone (Sorry, Puggies!) However, I am looking forward to this new elite mission area...I guess I'll just be playing it in a few weeks from now.

In Prophecies, I beat the game with my original 4 characters. In Factions, I beat the game with 5 of 6 characters, leaving my poor sin at Eternal Grove. Now, across 2 accounts and multiples characters, I don't know who to use. I'd like to beat Nightfall with at least half of my characters, but I'm in no rush to do so. If several of them get left behind, oh well.

First and foremost, I love the feeling of completion, as someone mentioned. Even having finished Factions through Kurzick side with every char, I felt like I had to go back and befriend the Luxons for the Gyala Hatchery and exploring the Jade Sea.

I'm with those who like to have all profs available to help guildies at every mish; to be able to join a group in an elite mission or whatever, no matter what is needed to fill out the group.

Also, to cap all the elites (not for title, but just because they're "there" and they might come in useful one day).

I'm not feeling pressure about getting my NF ranger, paragon, or dervish through Factions or Prophecies. With heroes, Factions can be done in around a day, easily, with masters on almost every mission. Ascension missions in the desert are a breeze now as well. I imagine even THK is a yawner with heroes at your side.

As I'm into the titles thingy, carto and stuff, I want to do things step by step. I don't want to 'work' on ten things at the same time. So I finish chapter by chapter and preferably before a new one comes out because I'm curious to get the new skills etc.

I think it's because we all want to be versatile. I've gotten my monk through NF just like i did with factions, then go back and help guildies catch up for awhile, then bring the rest through. Right now I'm *kinda* in a rush to get my necro through, just to be a little more versatile in the new area. I also like to cap as much of a complete set of proffession skills for each char, again to be more useful in different builds (PVE and PVP). There's also the challange of the end-game content and not being limited to one particular profession. I have 6 chars, only 3 or 4 of which will get through nf most likely.

Ive been sending my chars through (5 of 13 have finished NF so far)


Prophecies, my 8 chars finished (2 accts) because there wasnt much else to do

Factions I didnt really care about finishing the game, only 3 chars finished
- my remaining chars finished the 10k faction quest and not much more


why completing NF is different for me is because being given access to all heroes is a sufficient "carrot" to lead me to finish the game

I enjoy being able to use heroes in all 3 chapters

1. To get the Book of Secrets for endgame greens which are all pretty good. If you wait until the next chapter, there will be better greens (kinda like how Factions endgame greens don't appear as spectacular any longer).

2. To unlock skills and cap elites for your heroes' builds and for casual pvp. Right now I'm capping elites and unlocking skills that I need (for builds or pvp) with my Paragon cuz he's the only one with access to all NF bosses. However, it's a little bit of a waste since I'll be unlocking most of these skills and capping most of these elites again on my other characters.

3. To have the right character/build for the upcoming elite mission. If B/P is the build that works well, then I'm a few days to a week behind other players who already have their rangers there.

In general, the sooner you get stuff the more you can sell it for.