noob game mechanic question about skills

Hi all,
have only just stumbled across this game, I would have loved to play years ago but for some reason thought it was pay-to-play like most mmorpg's..
so, i've looked around the guildwars official site, these forums and the wiki, so forgive me if this is obvious:

a skill description states damage duration etc over a range e.g 15...60
what modifier is effecting this? do you choose the skill multiple times to increase it or is that what the attribute affects?

i suspect the latter, and have already discovered you are free to rearrange how you've spent attribute points (thank you thank you thank you!)

are you able to "unlearn" a skill and regain the skill point? would you even want to or do people tend to have far more skill points than they need?
are you limited by gold as much as or more than skill points?

thanks in advance


EDIT: many apologies, have since spent some more time in the wiki...
think i've anwered my question

but to add, do people tend to max their primary attribute always and then spend the rest on 2 more attributes? or are they more spread over 6 or even 7 attributes?

1. Correct. Attribute levels affect the damage and/or duration of skills used.

2. No. You will find that you end up with more skill points than you will use. Some quests reward skill points and every time you fill your xp bar you gain a skill point.

Glad to welcome a new player to the game.

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3. You spread your attribute points to suit the build (set of skills) you are using at the moment. Most players max out the attribute that increases their chosen main skill line, almost max their second important skill line and put 8-10 in the main attribute.

Unless you are going for the skill hunter title and then you just can't earn the points fast enough.

but to add, do people tend to max their primary attribute always and then spend the rest on 2 more attributes? or are they more spread over 6 or even 7 attributes?

Not sure what class you are playing but I as a warrior usually run max in my primary weapon attribute then close to max on one other warrior attribute...then dump some into whatever secondary skills i may be using or dump it in my strength...

for the primary attribute IE strength for warriors.... it usually helps to have a high attribute in those lines...not necessarily max attributes but high...although in warriors strength pretty much sucks..

The only people who end up running out of skill points are people who try to get the Skill Hunter title (which means they get every elite skill in the game for every profession on one character). Generally speaking, you'll never run out of skill points in Phrophecies. The skills you earn for free from quests don't cost skill points. In the other two expansions, you get EXP much faster and can earn 3 skill points per story mission instead of just 2. Furthermore, you can replay missions again in hard mode after beating the game and get even more skill points. At the moment, my main character has over a hundred skills and around 200 unspent skill points. As you play the game, you'll find you accumulate them quickly.

As for how to spread your attributes around, at the start of the game you'll find that you won't have enough skills to invest in only 2 or 3 attributes. At levels 14 and lower, its generally quite okay to experiment and use some wierd combinations. After a while though, you'll find that doing so will stop being effective as monsters become higher and higher in level and in larger groups. When you get to level 17 and higher, you should really start speciallizing in 3 attributes. You'll probablly have a few left that you can either not use or dump into something with minimal benefit like strength for armor penetration or protection prayers so rebirth is slightly more effective.

ty all, very helpful information there.
enjoying a few hours on the wiki while i wait for prophesies to arrive...

is there much new blood to this game thesedays? i.e will i find some level 0 parties?
not that i mind solo'ing much.

also can you take pve's into pvp later? or do just the unlocked skills carry over?

There doesn't seem to be a lack of lower-level characters around when I visit those areas. Of course, they are spread out over three chapters, so forming parties is as problematic as always. Pre-searing (Prophecies training area) does not really require forming a party (except for one quest to get the rez signet).

Once again we have forgotten to mention the initial download. Visit this thread http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10153881 and look for Lonesamurai's post on downloading (page 2, I think). It is best to do this initial download overnight.

Hey blueskin, welcome to the game. Hope you have fun.

Party size at the beginning is only 2, but increases to 8 by halfway through the storyline. Unless you have made a build specifically to solo, you will never be soloing after the tutorial. If you cannot find human parties, there are npc henchmen to use to fill out the party.

You can most certainly take pve chars into pvp. In fact, ONLY pve characters can enter the first two pvp arenas you will encounter (in post-searing Ascalon City and Yak's Bend), due to level caps. Pvp chars are automatically lvl 20 which is too high for those arenas.

I used to pvp all the time with my lvl 20 pve chars, until the advent of purchasable character slots. Now I have two open slots specifically for pvp creation. It's great because with pvp characters, you have access to ALL the skills/items/runes your various pve chars have unlocked as an account, as opposed to being limited to only the skills/items/runes you've got on the particular pve char.

There's nothing wrong with pvp'ing with your pve char, just try to make sure you're as well-equipped as you can be.

Have fun!