New Player Help

I've just started to play the 1st prophicies campaign, and I'm a Ele/Monk (post searing).

I've just got a few questions:

1) Should I learn as many skills as possible before I start doing the missions or should I learn tem as I do the missions in between?

2) Should I do as much exploration as I can before I start doing the missions revealing the map or do the missions help me do that?

3) I haven't got a clue where all the skill trainers are do I encounter them as I do the missions?

4) Which element has the best spells fire, ice, wind, earth or lightning?

5) I haven't got a clue as an Ele/Monl how to spend my attribute points I have 35 at the moment and I haven't spent a single one?

Many thanks.

1. Yes, make sure you have a good skillbar, but the first few missions are so easy you can go in a a Flare spam ele and still win. BTW once you get out of northern shiverpeaks (the area right after where you are), never use flare or fire storm ever again.
2. You don't have to, but if that's what you'd like do that. It's best to take a lot of side quests, too to help you level and get stuff.
3. SKill Trainers are always in towns. You won't need them much though in Prophecies because quests give you most of the skills you need.
4. For PvE go Fire or Earth, but that's just what I reccommend. Other people might say differently, and other might just say, "Go fire, duh, its teh roxxorz."
5. Attribute points can always be changed and realigned to other attributes whenever you're in a town, so just experiment with what works best. Also, another tip is stay away from monk healing to heal yourself after you get out of Ascalon. Healing is the monks job and you want your attributes in the element of your choice and energy storage. I say until after Ascalon because its just way to easy there.

1) In prophecies, there quite a few skill quests that you can get as you advance through the storyline so no need to go through extensive skill purchasing or do all the quests before taking on the storyline since it was designed to be started with just a few skills.
Just one thing you should know, when you get to kryta, talk to captain greywind in the ascalon settlement and get the skill meteor shower from him, that way you can get it very early in the game.

2)Just going through the storyline makes you explore a good part of the maps and it's easier to explore what you need for the cartographer title at level20.

3)Skill trainers are located in some town and outposts, there is one in ascalon city. Note there are a few skill trainers that are not in towns like captain greywind

4)Each spells have their advantage, if you are looking for raw damage, fire is your thing.

5)Basically, just try different combinations, since you can reallocate your attribute points in any town.

6)The wiki is your friend www.guildwiki.org, you'll find ery useful information there.

Here is the link for our wiki http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page
which contains almost all the game info you need.

1. Yes. You don't mention what level you are but doing the quests will help you increase your level and certain quests will give you free skills. When you run out of quests in an area, do the mission and it will take you to the next area.

2. Missions in Prophecies zip you through the map to the next source of a primary quest.

3. skill trainers locations can be found on the wiki.

4. while fire is the most popular, check out the skills available for the other elements and decide how you want to play your ele.

5. You put the attribute points in the attribute controlling the skills you are using. That will increase the damage/healing you get from a skill.

Thanks you guys have clarified a fair bit for me, sorry for not mentioning but I'm half way to lvl 9.

Just another quick brace

1) can attribute points be changed without penalty or is there one?

2) Is there a place which indexes clearly all of the exact locations (map snapshots preferably) where all of the additional skill traniers who cannot be found in the towns are?

1) in an outpost, you can adjust them to your hearts content, out in an explorable area, you're limited to just increasing from any pool of left overs you already have

2) www.guildwiki.org

Here's a more exact link: http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Trainer_locations

1)No penalty at all

2)there are lists and maps of the few that are out of town on wiki as mentioned above, also if you are looking for a particular skill, the wiki will tell you which trainer has it and where to find him.

Fire is the most popular because it does the most damage. The other elements have a lot of skills for defense. If you're using fire skills you want the attribute points in fire and energy. I have an emo and the only monk skill I have is a rez. If you do that, you can put what ever left over attribute points you have in to prot, because that's what the rez skills are (I think).

In Prophecies I highly recommend doing the skill quests before hitting the skill trainer in an area. These quests will give you skills for free, and you can save your few skill points for skills that you can't get through quests.

In Ascalon, if you're an E/Mo, you should see Elementalist Azure who is near Ambassabor Zain, and Grazden who is in the ruins of Ashford Village to get you started. Also, after completing the 2nd mission, you should go to Serentiy Temple to the south for more.

I just have a few more questions if I may, I must say thank you for the speedy responses.

1) Is storage generally so small or can you get additional slots.

2) Weapons drops I find are coloured I'm getting a lot of blue items, is there a rough guide to how much these beginner items are worth, also is there an auction house?

3) I have a equipped an air staff but it won't let me equip those little additional trinkets which give like +5 energy.

4) How do you get a pet or are they specific to classes such as the Ranger?

Storage is very small, but if you have factions or nightfall you can get storage upgrades for crafting materials only. Otherwise you should make a mule.

Any weapon drop you get early on is either useful to you, or vendor/salvage trash. Anything less than max or near max items and item upgrades generally can't sell to players.

Not sure what you mean about trinkets, if you mean offhand focus(which won't give +20 energy), a staff is two handed and you should equip a one handed wand or sword or something to use it.

The minipets you see in towns anyone can get through various methods. The larger pets that actually can be used in combat can only be tamed by rangers, but you can switch your secondary class to ranger later to get one.

1. Materials (wood, iron, etc.) storage purchase no longer requires owning Factions. You just give the Xunlai Representative [Storage Upgrades] another 50g. (NOTE: a mule is a character created to just use for storage.)

2. Colored weapon drops are modified to give additional damage or benefits. Once identified using an Identification Kit, they are worth more when sold to the merchant.

3. Staffs and hammers are two-handed weapons and do not allow the use of focus items or shields.

By the way, when you complete the Cities of Ascalon quest, you will receive a -50hp cesta. DO NOT sell to the merchant. Other players will pay 6-8k for it as it is a requirement for the 55hp farming builds.

Ah, this takes me back. With my first ever character (an E/R) I got to about level 5 or so before I thought to myself "what on earth are these attribute points all about?". And then when I found out what they did I still had no clue where to put them so I just evenly distributed them.

Its good that a newcomer to the game can come here, ask basic questions and get helpful replies. I wish I'd known about guildwarsguru back in the day, then maybe I wouldn't have been trying to complete the Frostgate mission with my Elementalist wielding a bow, spamming flare and with a pet by my side. A bit embarrassing....looking back (it WAS 18 months ago).

I have 2 further questions if I may:

1) Where is the Xunlai Representative [Storage Upgrades] I need the upgrade to store materials(I have prophicies only).

2) What are 'max items', and how much are they worth?

3) I need to sell a few weapons: How much are the following worth?

Longbow of Charrslaying - Piercing Damage 11-18, Dmg +15%, Halves skill recharge of spells +10%.

Longbow of fortitude - Piercing Damage 11-18, Health +20, Dmg +15%.

You are still in the tutorial area of Prophecies, known as "pre-sear". The Xunlai agent and many of the other things that people have been talking about come after you go through the Academy and move to "post-sear". I won't describe the searing event to you, the story will reveal itself when you advance.

It will be a really long time until you start getting max items that are worthy of selling to other players so just sell anything you don't wish to use to the merchant. In post-sear there will be traders for materials, dyes, etc that may offer more.

Save all your dyes, they are worth up to 8000 gold (or something like that, haven't checked price of black dye in a really long time).

Besides the pack, you can add a belt pouch to add another row of storage. There is a special bag available in pre-sear that drops from charr, some people may be selling them but I haven't been in pre-sear for a while so wouldn't know about prices or anything. Normally you get 2 bags in post-sear then doubel their size with a rune of holding.

1. Lion's Arch--a town you will not get to for a while, unfortunately.

2. Max items, just means maximum damage for the weapon type.

Hammer (19-35)
Axe (6-28)
Sword (15-22)
Bow (15-28)
Staff/Wand (11-22)
Dagger (7-17)
Scythe (9-41)
Spear (14-27)

Worth ranges from like 35 gold to millions. It depends on the rarity, skin (looks), requirement, sometimes inherent mods.

3. Unfortunately, your items should just be kept and used by you (or a future ranger you'll make) or sold to the merchant. They are not worth much.

This kind of thing drives me crazy, because it doesn't say, WHY".

My level 20 Elementalist/Assassin still uses Flare and Firestorm, I find it effective for 90% of the situations thus far up to the Sunspear Sanctuary at least. Granted mobs get more advanced and the AI tougher, but that's why you have to stock your skill bar accordingly.

I think the best advice would be: USE the skills you want to use until you discover they are ineffective..

Flare is cheap and fast, I can spam it. Fires Storm is a great way to disperse clumped mobs while dealing damage around me or my healers...additionally, my Fire Storm tends to kill the weaker mobs fast allowing my whole party to concentrate on the tougher ones.

Not everything is a freaking expedition into the Realm of Impossible Mobs, in fact in 80% of the game it is probably just fine to use these "noob" skills.

About Fire Storm...I had a W/E in a party a few days ago who used Fire Storm...yes, go ahead and laugh, but he actually did allright. He mainly just used it to scatter stuff that was gang-banging a squishie. Was the uh, Bastion mission or somesuch, in Nightfall. Where everyone was all spread out. XD

Heck, it's a nice cheap way to set off Mark of Rodgort in an area, or just deny an area (like making a safe haven)...And I use flare occasionally when I'm expected to help with damage in every fight, but I'm using a heavy-artillary style build (like MS chain).

The most important thing to remember in this game: The game lets you experiment freely with no consequence (Death is only a temporary setback, no loss of XP or levels or items), so you should take full advantadge of that, and find what works best for -you-.

Lastly, don't be afraid to try something different. Worst thing that could happen would be that it doesn't work well, and then you can just try something else. It's not as easy as just plucking builds off of the internet, but you'll learn the game alot faster that way, and learn how the various skills work.

P.S. Don't forget it's just a game; Have fun!

Welcome to Guild Wars and GuildWars Guru!

About skills, use what works untill you get to the end of the game and really want to start re working your build. I experimented with every elenent at least once untill i found what works for me. i currently run a E/Mo Hydromancer and it works great. However that doesn't mean it will work for you. My advice is to salvage as much stuff as you can, and sell things that arent essential, like weapons that you will never use. Attribute points are a great bonus and put them towards fire and energy storage at this point in the game. Guildwiki is the best site out there for the kind of things that you need. If you need help, you can whisper me in-game at Illithen Firebringer. You seem to be making a good start in the game. Never be afraid to try new things.

best of luck,
Illithen