Questions from a Noob

Krya

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Dec 2006

E/

Hi all, I'm new to Guild Wars and have a few questions. First, a little about me, I used to play both WoW and Star Wars Galaxies, but got irritated by the monthly costs so I know generic MMO terminology and am not completely clueless. From what I have gathered I am still "Pre- Searing" in the Prophecies campaign, which is all that I have (i.e. no expansions.) I am a level 6 Elementalist/Mesmer. On to the questions.

1.) How important are side quests? I am interested in exploring the game fully but I am also concerned that they may make me level up too quickly, spoiling the main storyline.

2.) How important is itemisation? By this I mean gear, from my experieces in WoW (and SWG to an extent) I found that the right items were crucial in creating a character that wouldn't collapse under the mighty weight of a blade of grass.

3.) Aside from joining a guild, how difficult is it to team up with other players. For the moment I am mainly interested in the story side of things, and learning the game through PvE encounters and quests. However, I find this slightly lonely with the instanced system, and wondered if it is regularly hard to find players to join with outside of a guild?

I can't think of any more just this moment, so thanks for any feedback given on these.

Krya

Anryla

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2006

Alt Control Delete

W/

1. Side quests arent important but in my oppinion doing them won't get you leveled up too high for the next area you are heading towards.

2. Items are not important at all. Some care about how a weapon looks like but it may not better than what a new player has. There are mods/upgrades you can apply to weapons making them better than their "clean" state

3. In prophecies I dont know how hard it is to find a group, try local chat or the new party search function.

Milennin

Milennin

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Sep 2006

Europe

W/

1. Side quests won't level you up too much.
2. Items are important but they're easy and cheap to get, unless you want rare skin weapons with expensive mods.
3. It can be hard to get a full group for some missions sometimes, but you can just take henchmen if you don't have enough players for a full party.=p

S_Serpent

S_Serpent

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2006

When not at Aziure's Wizard Tower you can find my in Belgium

Knigths of the Keyboard Order - KkO

For propheces I would like too add you can attain alot of skill for you primary and secondary by doing quests, instead off having to buy them. Make sure you have done all off those before leaving pre.

in post you'll find even more skill that way.

also items helps you builds, for example you could use swords for casters with certains mod - so they are not only legit for the warrior class for who they where made for in the first place.

But every weapon / offhand can be obtained easily (collectors, bleu), but if you want vanity skins with the same stats (rare, gold ones) you'll have to pay more off course.

Alya

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

European servers

RTFM

If you want to explore the game as fully as possible, I would advise to complete all quests in the Pre-searing: you won't be able to get back and complete them later.

It is not really necessary to join any guild, but being in an active PvE guild helps.

ale_jrb

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2006

London, UK

E/Me

Having just played through the Prophecies campaign from start to finish again, I can kinda relate .

1. In Prophecies, don't worry about levelling up to fast - rather, as a new player, you might want to level up faster :P. If you like exploring the game, do the side quests and don't worry about the experience. Even at level 20, when you get a little way through, you get piled and die. Level doesn't matter too much - so enjoy the game!

2. Items aren't as useful in GW as they are in other games, IMO, but make sure you have the best armour you can get from the NPC crafters. If you want to look good etc. you'll have to get non-crafter armour from other players, but for standard play the best you can craft is all you'll need. For your weapon, it's a personal choice, and as a caster (like me! great profession choice, btw!) your weapon won't be used that much anyway!

3. In Pre-Searing, you don't use teams at all really (you can, but there's really no point). After that, it depends on where you are in the game as to whether you'll get a party or not. At the moment for Prophecies, IMO the hardest place to get a party is the Crystal Desert (closely followed by the Ring of Fire), and the easiest is Kryta. Post-Searing Ascalon is quite average as it goes; or at least it was when i was there.

Good luck, and enjoy the game!

blood4blood

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2005

1) Use side quests in Prophecies to get free skills, and/or items (most of the quest reward items aren't that great, but some are worth keeping). Don't worry about reaching a high level too quickly -- max level is only 20 and GW is designed for you to reach it relatively quickly compared to other RPG's.

2) Items are largely irrelevant except as needed for specific builds (such as the -50 health offhand for a 55hp build). For just playing through the game with a group of real players or henchmen, items don't make a lot of difference in terms of effectiveness. There really are no "uber" or "best" items in GW.

3) Personally I think grouping with real people in PvE Prophecies is highly overrated and entirely unnecessary, unless you just want the social contact. For the social contact, I'd recommend just chatting in the various towns and outposts. For actually getting things done in-game, I recommended henchies and heroes.