Variety of questions for a new player

well im not new yet, not sure if i will get the game yet. prob will tho.
here are my q's:
How ot update the game?
I read about the constant updating while u play crap, but i dont like that idea. cos if i need to reinstall windows which happens quite a bit, i will have to dl a heap of updates again. i want to keep the updtes. anyway of achieving this?

Proffesions?
From what i can make out, who eveer made GW doesnt know what professions are. Or maybe i havnt read write. In GW, are pro's like in WoW? where u can be a smith for eg and make armour? if not, what exactly are proffesions. Classes?

Best class for a noob?
i read in the prima guide that swordsmans a good class for a noob, but i read that necro's can summon stuff. Summoning is fun in any game, so is it probably that a noob might get a bit stuck if he used a necro first off?

What are the job/class things for a necromance (good/helpfull ones

thx

If you don't feel like updating the game everytime you reinstall Windows you should save your GW.dat file on an external hard drive or something so you can copy it back once you've reinstalled Windows.

You can only get better at combat, not at crafting armour or other non-combat things.
Professions in Prophecies are Warrior, Ranger, Monk, Elementalist, Mesmer and Necromancer.
Warriors fight with swords, axes or hammers.
Rangers have bow and arrow, can use pets and set traps.
Monks can heal, protect and smite.
Elementalists can use the four Elements; Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
Mesmer use illusion techniques to weaken the enemy.
Necromancers can cast curses or use corpses to create minions and let them fight.

Warrior is easy to start with because you have high armour bonus and don't die so fast. All professions are pretty easy to play with I think, and if you don't like the character you created you can just delete him and make another one.=P

Hardest would be Assassin.

gw is nothing like wow at all, wow is a real rpg, gw is more of an action adventer game. u cant craft anything, well u can bring some materials to a weapons crafter npc, and get a weapon, but u cant sell it an profit from it like wow. at least not profit enough to matter. but yea no proffesions liek in wow. youre best bet is to find someone with a buddy key so uy can try it out first. ask on the forums adn some one will be nice enough to give you one.

give me what??? :S

so necro's need bodies...hmmm i'll stay away a bit lol.

now, are warriors noob? cos in wow people call warriors noobs. (the bulky guys with swords xD)

also another question

What are the factions in GW?
also are they all at war with each other any allies etc.
and what are the pros and cons of each people.

What is nightfall?
is it a new guild wars, an compulsory expansion, non-compuslory expansion etc?

Buddy Key is a try-out. Allows you to play the game for 10 hours.

Warriors are no 'noobs', they're very useful.=D And cool.

With Factions you can unlock stuff for PvP I think.

Nightfall is the newest chapter of Guild Wars. But you don't need the other two chapters to play it.

W/Mo's are the guys without brains ( stereotype )

Most of your questions can be answered by checking out the following:

GuildWiki - complete game info - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page

Chapter info for deciding which to buy can be found as a sticky at the top of this Q&A forum (New player on a budget).

You get 4 character slots with the game so you can easily tryout different professions without needing to delete an existing one.

I play both classes Warrior and Necromancer (along with a couple others). My suggestion is to first ask you how do you want to play the game? This question needs to be asked because some players like to be in the forfront of the battle and others like to be in teh background helping out. The Warrior class is the "tank" of any MMORPG. So it is best suited for a player who loves to be in the thick of battle. A Necromancer although has good frontline skills is a little more suited (depending on skills used) for the background. The other classes are pretty much the same. It all boils down to how you intend on playing the game.
One other thing that decides how you can use the character that you make is your choice of secondary professions.
As far as which chapter to get my personal favorite is Profecies, I find it easier to start in there so you can actualy get a feel for how the skills work and it doesn't put you in the thick of high lvl battles almost immediately, plus it doesn't make you rush.
Those are my views and I am sticking to them. Hope this helps out and hope to see you in-game.

Mega Mouse

some more queries...
ive just read some more bout GW, cant quite work something out

When you start GW, is it all online and u can do what ever you want, or do u have to play a story mode sort of thing first, then og off and do what ever, can some1 explain that sort of aspect of GW for me?

also, are there opposing factions, where u can openly attack each other and eahc others cities etc?

Ok, the game is ALL played online, however, you can play solo (with heroes and henchman) but its always played online, there is no offline version

As for Kurzick and Luxon, that is for Factions only and the only Faction battles are PvP zones called Alliance battles

remember, this isn't an MMO, it runs through instances, so you never get random encounters with other players like you do In WoW or Lineage

oh thx for telling me that i thought it was an mmo. but it sitll sounds worth it... i dont mind wow to much, but im not paying monthly fees for any game

Agreed

One thing, many believe it is an MMO and I agree its sold as one, but as long aas you start playing it like an online Action Adventure, you'll enjoy it more

And Competitive Missions, which are also optional.

so can you explain this instance stuff to me a bit better?

are they like servers? so say i was in Town B, if i traveled int othe forrest, the forrest is server C, and the town next is server A??

i dont think i understand

*edit*
or is it like diablo2, where theres a lobby where 1 player makes a "channel" or "room" where people join and play together?

When you go out of town you get a private area for you and your team. WoW also has instances btw.

Also, if you want to go from town to town you just press M and click the town where you want to go instead of walk for 30 minutes. Which is much better imo

So much better, in fact, its one of my main selling points of the game, although my WoW playing friends say its one of the things they don't like, to which I laugh, because, as i mentioned, people consider GW an MMO... oh dear

I think to clear things up just a tad..

Almost all of the interaction with other people in Guild Wars is done in the various outposts,towns, mission sites, or your very own Guild Hall. You can easily see hundreds of people in towns. Since the game is played on one server that is shared by everyone, ArenaNet introduces districts for towns, outposts, and missions. It helps cut down on the bandwidth. People are always moving between districts (its the same town, same looks, just a different set of people) so if you have a friends in Lions Arch District 1 and you are in Lions Arch District 2, you can meet up with him by switching to his district.

As soon as you leave a town and enter an explorable area or into a mission, the only ones in that zone is YOU, whatever party you have brought to fight along side of you, and the foes. This makes the game more personally enjoyable.

As far as the whole Faction thing goes. There are two types of Faction. There are Balthazar Faction and there are Luxon/Kurzick Faction. Balthazar Faction are essentially "points" you earn alongside experience for doing PvP type of gameplay. When you earn enough of these "points" (which are earned a various number of ways), you are able to unlock more skills/inscriptions/heroes to use in PvP play. The more skills and things you have unlocked, the more options you have. Kurzick/Luxon Faction on the other hand are a little different. To gain these "points", requires you to have Guild Wars: Factions. Not to give anything away, but the one of the main features in Factions is the struggle between two huge alliances: The Kurzicks and The Luxons. The guild you are in is usually sided with one of the two and there is an "every-going" struggle for Canthan territory. Alliance Battles, which is a toned down "PvP" type of gameplay, pits 12 people from each alliance into battle. Ownership of territories and towns in the game are shifted depending on which side has the majority of the wins when the game checks the records.

As far the classes, there are 6 core classes (Warrior, Elementalist, Monk, Ranger, Mesmer, and Necromancer). If you get factions, you can add the Assassin and the Ritualist to that group or in Nightfall you have the Dervish and Paragon. Each class offers unique skills and requires a different type of gameplay. Some things you may find similar to other games, while a lot is different. When you start the game, you are given 4 character slots to start off with, so you can choose a couple and see how they are. Trust me..........what you read on any forums, manual, or any review, each class is a lot of fun to play. A lot of times you have to think. This goes for both PvE and PvP. A lot of failure and success is based on people's judgment (or lack of).

If you'd really like to get an idea on what guild wars is really like, definitely get a Buddy Key. Its basically a Free Trial which allows you to play for 14 days or 10 hours (whichever comes first)....and trust me...the 10 hours always comes first. There are plenty of sites and Forum topics that OP have listed that are helpeful on answering a lot of newer people questions or to find out what the game is all about. You should definitely take a few minutes and check them out and see if Guild Wars is definitely the game for you. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

- Aldoros of Faydark

(whew.....my novel is complete)

Guys he is from WoW , when he talks about factions he means kinda like what they have in WoW , hordes,elves,dwarfs or whatever they are called.

There are only 2 factions in Guildwars thats Luxon and Kurzick, in Guildwars Factions ( chapter 2) the Luxons and Kurzicks are at war with eachother, they are sword enemies of each other since that event a few hundred years ago.
We as players can choose to be on one of these sides , whichever side your guild is is the side you belong too, If you have factions you can also go to war against the opposing side,this is called alliance battles where human players from the kurzick and luxon fight 12 V 12 on 5 different maps against eachother.

no in wow there are 2 factions
Horde:
the cool people
Alliance:
Humans, Night Queers, RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOs, and garden gnomes

Also, in GW, do all items look different? cos RO really pisses me off cos i go to buy a helm, but its just a lil but of metal on ur head.

in gw are there differennt species or just humans?

*edit*
with all the "chapters" are they expansions? cos im looking to buy guild wars, but mostly just finding "night fall". do i need the older chapters first, same with ch2, do i need ch1 for ch2? cos i really cant find the other chapters :S

*edit again* just re-read up the top, so i can get just nightfall. do i still get all the content from other chapters?

Since I do not play WoW I can not compare it. Others have also answered your questions.

However, I would say this (especially true with Nightfall). It costs the same as a normal single player RPG and is quite decent in that respect. If you never touch the multi-player aspects you *should* have a fairly decent game (at the least, many think so) at the normal price of a single player game. If you like the MMO aspects then you get a plus. With no monthly fee the worst case scenario is that you get a decent single player game (assuming you join no guilds and hench everything) that you get to take your old character to the next single player game in the series. Best case is that you spend a few thousand hours playing the game Most will find something in between.

There are three separate games - you do not get the other three with "Nightfall". While they work together and there is a definite advantage to having all three, it is not required and each are beatable by their selfs. Low to mid range PvP is quite doable with only one. If you like one of them you will like them all and eventually get them, if you do not like one then you will like none of them. Even though their "quality" varies they are all still GuildWars.

OK, et me take some time:

Race: In GW, all players are humans. They are also generally all on one side. The only division is taking sides in the Kurzick versus Luxon war in Cantha, but that is more of a temporary question (you can switch sides).

Characters: Each character has two professions, the primary profession and a secondary profession. Compared to WoW, a profession is what you'd call a class. There are no "civilian" elements to the professions, like mining or crafting stuff for yourself. (P.S. profession is actually more accurate - what you do for a living. Imagine being asked what class you were on the street )

How it plays: You play by using skills (like: Strong-but-slow attack, Fast-but-weak attack, Heal self - a skill is a specific action you can perform). You can have up to 8 skills equipped at a time, and can change them freely in town. Your character has several attributes that determine how effective the skills are (like: at attribute of only 1, the Strong-but-slow attack does +1 bonus damage, and at attribute of 10, the Strong-but-slow attack does +20 bonus damage). More skills essentially means more flexibility, not more damage.

Professions: Your character is most determined by its primary profession. Each profession is essentially a set of attributes into which you can invest your attribute points. One of these attributes is called the primary attribute and is only available if you have the corresponding primary profession.

Your primary profession is fixed for the character. Your secondary profession can eventually be changed freely (about one third of the way through any of the campaigns). You can also "reclaim" and "re-spend" attribute points freely.

Items: Guild wars maintains a careful balance in functionality. This means that all items are limited to a maximum of efficiency (for example, an axe will do at most 6-28 damage per swing, and no axe with 7-29 damage is possible). However, what the axe looks like is a completely different question. It can be a bog standard axe off the weapon maker, or it can be an ultra rare Torment axe, available only to the very elite. Or rich. But both can do exactly the same amount of damage. Same goes for armor.

The chapters: Each chapter is sold separately and can be played as a stand alone game. However, it does not contain the content of other chapters. In practice, you can buy Nightfall, and play Nightfall campaign on the continent of Elona. You cannot, however, go to Cantha and play the Factions campaign. There is also a small "Core" part, however, that's where PvP goes on.

Recommended starter class: I would go with Warrior. The heavy armor helps you survive your early mistakes. Of course, it does place you right on the front. Perhaps a Ranger? It's a ranged class, and the armour is good against most ranged threats, plus you can have a pet to take some of the beating for you. And, you get a nice healing skill.

oh good, so i just miss out on lvls... so if i got nightfall, can i later get factions and play that campagin with my stuff from nightfall?

Yes. You'll get the option of adding the key of your new game to the existing account. You will get two extra character slots and all your characters will be able to play the new campaign.

Side note: you'll have to perform a quest in-game to travel for the first time (not much of a problem), and note that you won't be able to get ALL of the quests from the campaign with a character that wasn't created in the campaign. However, that's mostly the tutorial quests and the "duplicate" quests. You miss out on a bit, but not much.

ok that seems pretty good.

here in aus u cant seem to get the first 2 chapters very easily, so does the nightfall disc install the others? so then all i need to do is buy the key from *GW creators name here* ?

yes, theres a link for the 'guild wars store' on your log in screen when you get the game all installed, you can buy keys to install the other games right there. there are two options:

you can buy the full game pve and pvp content.

or

you can buy the 'pvp' unlock, which is just all the skills from that campaign, not the pve campaign or corresponding explorable areas.

in your case i would go with the first, as you havent done any guild wars pvping at this point ;p