Tips For Newbie

Hey,

Just joined the forum but most of all just ordered Guildwars Nightfall which will be delivered to mine tomorrow morning. Cant believe I waited this long to start playing the game but owell.

Anyway, my question was since this is all new to me before I begin playing are there any tips or things I should do or any updates or downloads I should get before I start the campaign of the game.

Thanks alot,

Rowan

Run gw.exe with "-image" [like d:\GW\gw.exe -image] and sit back until everything's downloaded, unpacked. Makes level transitions/loading quite smooth.

Start it without the "-image" afterwards.

Ok so first thing to do, right click the shortcut icon, and change the target to "bla bla -image". Then run the game, let the updates run and download, then once its done delete the -image from the shortcut and start the game?

Is that correct?

Yes,

you can just keep that shortcut and keep it for future (major) updates and create a second one you use for normal play (without the image of course).

Ok, but what is the purpose/function for doing that? And does that mean I have 2 shortcuts, 1 for doing updates on and 1 for playing the game on?

Normaly, when you enter a new zone/area, that you have not been to before, you need to download and unpack files for that area, creating longer load times first time through. The -image loads and unpacks the game fully before you start playing, so you do not have to deal with it once you begin.

Also, be shure to check the traders for prices on runes/materials/dyes before you sell/buy them from other players.

Ok so,

-image makes the game load faster as it loads everything from the shortcut, should I not just use that all the time then?

and dont buy from players until you check the cpu traders first so you dont get scammed lol..

Thanks

Yes, it's not necessary of course since all it does is saving you the seconds you would need to edit your link.

Not the least complicated welcome in these forum but I am trying my best.

Lol, great job

Anyways thanks for the heads up, ill play the game with the -image" command just to be sure so it does save time lol.

Cant wait to play it.. figured even though I got it this late its still a very popular and well rated game Plus GW2 comes out next year so I better get practising :P

Btw, I got the Collectors edition over the basic.. whats the main differences.. it was only like £3 more.

-image is a good idea to get every bit of data in one go, fix some problem, make the lag a bit better, but it will take forever and a half before it finish. Since this is your first go at GW, I would suggest install the game from the disc as normal. Then the game will upload all the data it needs for now, update, bugs fixed etc.

Then play the game for a bit and when you enter a new area it will load the data for that area. This may or may not take long at all, depend on your connection speed.

Also this is your first time in Nightfall there is no need to get all the data form Ch1 & 2 yet. But then again it's your choice. Just remember to delete -image from the short cut when you done.

Oh yeah! welcome to GW

Thanks, should have told you I have 10meg Cable Broadband which is getting upgraded to 20meg next month for free..

Should that be fine?

It doesn't exactly save time, it simply loads and unpacks all the files when you first run Guild Wars, instead of during play time.

The advantages are that you will have quicker load times and less lag when you first start playing. The disadvantage is that you will spend your first hour or two downloading files instead of playing.

Well, the connection has to be stable and offer a good ping. That's more important for your bandwith is more than enough.

Ahhh, I see... well what ill do is install the game and play normal for a while, then when I finally need to take a break, ill change the shortcut, run the game, and let it load all the files.

Also, what is the difference in the collectors edition to basic?

Rowan, once you start playing, I'd suggest that as you start picking up more valuable items, that you always identify them before selling to the merchant. Always keep an ID kit handy for this. In the beginning, it doesn't net you anything, or very little, so I'd wait until you are off the island of Istan.

To see the impact, you can always look at the selling prices at the merchant. ID an item, and watch the item go up in value. It takes a tiny bit of effort, but it will increase your income from "drops" by 20-30%.

Most of the quests on Istan reward you with a Battle Commendation, which you can trade in for ID kits at the Sunspear Great Hall. Quite useful, and saves you some money...

- Grunntar

And when you have the time, do visit wiki:
http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page

to get all the basic need, information, skill etc for your GW adventure.

Experiment with one of the basic core classes first (Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist, Monk). Not necessary, just a tip for getting your feet wet with the skill system before moving on to try the other classes.

Get used to visiting GuildWiki. Lots of tips for new players there.

Pay attention to what skills your enemies are using.

On the -image thing, understand that it will delay your initial login by quite a while depending on your connection speed. If you want to login right when you get the game, go right ahead. The client will download stuff in the background while you go through character creation and the tutorial stuff at the very beginning. -image downloads and unpacks areas that you won't be seeing for a while, so I'd run it when you have something better to do.

Thanks for the tip

Don't join a guild just because it asks you for it or spams you with invites. Ignore people who believe you should play as they want to. GW has become a game where veteran players are so specialized that anything non-regular offends their limited mindset. Experiment as advised here, have patience with quests/missions, game elements which might frustrate you as a beginner (should not happen though).

As you progress through the island of Istan, especially down towards Mehteni Keys, explore thoroughly and keep your eyes open for Treasure Chests or Hidden Treaures. Free money and purple items! Once you cross onto the mainland, the Hidden treasures usually produce gold items or even jewels (I've had two rubies) and of course the money goes up the further you go in the game.

Note these are different from the normal chests and don't require keys.

You'll find the GuildWiki an invaluable source of information although there is a new, official Wiki starting up as well.

One more thing. The very first thing you should do is create a PVP only character, set it up any random way you like, and get yourself to the Random Arenas a soon as possible. Get your butt kicked repeatedly, get yelled at by your teammates and lauged at by your opponents, and learn to not take it too seriously in the process.

At least, that would be my advice if you didn't have to go through the Zaishen Challenges to unlock RA. But the part about not taking it too seriously still holds.

Thanks again, cant wait to get this game now... Looking forward to it.

If you need any help, or have any further questions, whisper me in game at ischuros almsbane. You can add me to your friends list by pressing 'n' and using the boxes accordingly.

Another tip is to join a uild. don't join any of those ones advertising in Kamadan, but go to the guild recruitment section of this forum, and an officer/leader will sned you a pm or invite. Guilds will help you through the game, while good ones will do so, while helping you learn about it.

Enjoy!

Edit:
I can spell my name

Even without running -image, expect a delay when you first run the client, for downloading updates/patch's (required for play).

gw.gamewikis.org is probably currently the single best sorce for information on the game, including basic info, guides, skill locations, ect.

wiki.guildwars.com is my prefered source of information, and is an official wiki. All the information you will need should be located here as well, however, as it recently started, it is lacking of some more detailed guides and boss locations that the other wiki has.

Also, if I happen to be logged on and available when you start playing the game, I can show you the basics of the game. My primary character is Aekara Nightwing - add the name to your friends list, and it will show if I am online, and which character I am currently playing.


-Edit
Once you get the hang of the game, and decide if you like it, I would strongly recomend picking up Prophecies and Factions to add to your account. This can be done easily through the online store (link on the upper right of character selection screen). Buying them from there, you will NOT recieve a box and manual, ect, but it will be added immediatly to your account.

Prophecies was the original, and most I think would agree that it is the best of the three, but is somewhat drawn out, and has many holes in the story line.

Factions is recomended for the skill's it allows you to access, and the ritualist and assassin class. It is very brief, and the vast majority of people think the PvE play is severely lacking (and they are right).

Nightfall (the one you are getting now, if I understand correctly), is somewhere between the other two (more twards Prophecies). It has a prety good story line, and good gameplay elements, as well as the only chapter currently supporting the insignia system.

If you intend on competitive PvP play, having all three chapters available on your account is a necessity, for the class and skill selections. If you do not own all 3, you will likely find it difficult to run many of the builds currently used, and will be left out of a lot of advanced groups. Random arena's still work fine though - team's can't kick you because you don't have the right skills there, and team arena's I do not believe are as picky as heroes' ascent.

Thanks for that, and I will add you to Friends list m8.

The main problem with the 'active' download is that you will make people wait when you join parties.

To prevent that, simple join with henchmen, enter that area and then go back to the outpost. That way, when you join with people, you'll have it loaded already and you will only load some armor and weapon skins they were wearing and you have not downloaded yet.

I'll leave de -image for when there are some mayor updates, or when you are not going to touch the PC for a while.

As ingame tips:
- Once you have a stile of playing you like (PvE, PvP, Faction gathering, whatever you like most) find a guild that fits your style.
- In PvE, the 'easiest' professions to use are Warrior, Elementalist and Necromancer, the 'hardest' are paragon, assasin and and mesmer. With hard and easy I mean easy to learn and easy to be helped by other with.
- Identify everything. You can identify even you backpacks. Once you get used to identify everything, you'll notice you'll get more income from merchants.
- Look enemy skills. Get used to look at the enemy skills while they activate, if you get used to do that, you'll get to know their skillsbars and act accordingly.
- Do not fear to ask. No ones is born learned. There is always someone that will quickly ask you.
- For a while, do not discard enemu trophies (items with low value that are dropped already identified) there are collector NPCs that will gie you items in exchange for them. For starters, they are a good way to get some starting equipment.
- Read texts and talk to NPCs. Most of the questions people ask are there.

Even if Warrior, elementalist and necromancer are easiest you will share the same class as too many others. If you want to feel special be a monk, but then if things go wrong they will auto-blame you. Paragon, assassin and mesmers are anti-pve classes, they are either support or single target offensive casters/melee which pve do not like.

have fun.

If you wish for any help at all, I have characters in Istan. Both a level 8 and 3 lv 20's. Just give me a whisper if you catch me on, and I can help.

Thanks man, got your PM and replied

Looking forward to this game now, cant wait.

Just a question also, how many characters can you have with one game purchase? And also lol.. what is the difference from Nightfall and Nightfall Collectors Edition?

The collector edition comes with more stuff in the package....also comes with some cool weapons, a mini pet, and a unique dance emote in game... Check out the wiki site i think it breaks it down for you.

Good Luck in your adventures......my only tip for you is to not buy every single armor you can.....up grade once or maybe twice until you can get to max armor which is in the consulate docks mission. Money is and always will be hard to come by for a new player....tis why guilds are indispensable(spelling) i know I and several other players in my guild have totally equipped and armored numerous other players...

Keep all those sentient roots and mandragor carpaces (in Nightfall) you gather as you plod through the newbie island, even if they seem fairly useless at the time. They stack so they don't take much room.

Come Halloween / Wintersday there will most likely be collectors that trade them for holiday items. Even if you don't care for alcohol / useless fun stuff like ghost-inna-box, it's a quick bit of gold to sell them to other players during the event.

Don't merch your piles of them and kick yourself when those events come around.

That's my tip for a newbie. What I wished I'd known before I merched my 400-or so charr carvings. (the proph equivalent)

Thanks alot, you all have been great.

I was looking at peoples characters screenshots and noticed some have pets. I just have 2 questions:

1) Can you get a Wolf as a pet?

2) What does the pet do? Fight? Nothing? Waste of human space?

Yes. But as a PvE pet it is available in prophesies only. There are no wolves to charm in Elonia (Nightfall)

It fights, but does not count as a party member.
They are the 'weapon' in beastmaster builds.

Yes, you can get wolves. As geekling pointed out, you can only tame PvE wolves to be your pet in Prophecies. However, I believe that if PvP characters want pets they get wolves. Nightfall PvE has a few unique animals that you can tame as well, like flamingos and crocodiles.

Your pet will normally attack the same target that you're attacking. A few pet controls were added to the game more recently too, so you have a bit more control over what targets you want your pet to attack. There are also skills that you can learn that will make your pet perform special attacks in combat.

One thing to note though: if you want the ability to tame a pet your character will have to be either a primary or secondary ranger with access to the Charm Animal skill (which is usually among the first few skills that rangers learn)

Just a heads up, be glad you can't charm a wolf in Night Fall I had a wolf on my ranger for half the game. It howled like there was no tomorrow. Even during cut scenes. Glad I have my spider nowadays
Also standard don't sell dye's or rare material to the merchant, but to rare materials trader or dye trader or even players. Black dye to merchant 10 gold.
Black dye to Dye trader 9K, or so
Be sure to do all the quests everywhere, because a: you get exp from them. B you get items and gold from them

Thanks for your help

So theres no chance of getting a wolf in Nightfall

How about a nice lion instead?
(Or lioness?)

Lol, prefered a wolf, but I supose ill just have to take what I can get lol.

Anyways, what animals do I have the choice from, I noticed a bear lol.. sorry ill rephrase that, a big ass bear!

Alas! The bear is prophesies only, prophesies have almost all of the 'northen european' animals.

In nightfall you can charm:
Crocodile
Flamingo
Hyena
Jahai Rat
Lion / Lioness
Warthog

Can't get a bear, or wolf, in NF. You can get a warthog, a moa (or flamingo), lions, and some others i'm sure. Check wiki, under pets, for some reason.