Looking To Join Guild Wars!

Hey everyone I am looking to jump into another MMORPG. I've been playing MMO's for some time now I spent a couple years with Runescape then I played about 1 year of World Of Warcraft. I've had a break from MMO's for about 8 months now and decided to get back into them. So i'm searching for the best one, I was thinking of just renewing my WoW account but I remember how boring it was when I was leveling up. So one of my clan mates told be about Guild Wars i've heard about it occasionally but never knew much about it. He also said there is no monthly few to play online? Just buy the game and you can play online with everyone for free?

So if someone would like to fill me in on all the good and bad things about this game i'd love to hear them. Is the leveling like WoW long and boring, are the graphics good? Is there anyway I can test this game or could someone post a high resolution video of PvP and raids if thats what they are called in this game. The requirements to run the game. Everything I should know about it.

Hoping to get some great replies that will show me if the game is worth it or not thanks!

I'll post a couple answers, partly because I don't want to type that much and because I want others to build on to my answer.

Leveling in Guild Wars is the complete opposite of leveling in WoW. The level cap in Guild Wars is 20. However, at level 20 is when the game really opens up. Depending on which game you buy, it could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to less than a day to hit level 20 (from longest to shortest time: prophecies aka "guild wars", nightfall, factions).

The game is completely 100% free of fees. Just buy the game in the store or online, enter the key, and start playing.

I think the graphics are much better than WoW's graphics. To me they seem more realistic compared to WoW's "cartoonish" graphics (not that there's anything wrong with that).

If you want to test out the game, you could go download the game client at www.guildwars.com. Once you do that, check out the stickied thread about getting a trial key. Enter that trial key to make an account. The trial keys get you 14 days or 10 hours of gameplay (whichever occurs first).

Overall I think that Guild Wars is a game worth getting. I've been playing it pretty consistently, taking two breaks over the span of more than 2 years now. It is a very different game from WoW that is more concerned with tactics and skill over level and time. One last thing I want to mention, which is crucial. The game only allows you to bring 8 skills in an area at once. You can't increase that number and the game is built around having 8 skills. This again is meant to promote skill and tactics in the skills you choose.

You can request for 14day/10hr trial keys at this thread, or ask any of your friends who have Guild Wars for one.

http://guildwarsguru.com/forum/showt...php?t=10067073

I doubt you'll find high resolution videos, just look for YouTube ones. Its 2 year old graphics, and better than WoW, imo.

The bad thing is that GW2 is announced, and there will not be any new campaigns or expansions made for GW1.

The good thing is that GW2 is about 2 years away, and now GW1 campaigns can be found quite cheap. I heard that you can get Prophesies for as low as $9.99 at some places. But you can get the campaigns for as low as $24.99 now. Eye of the North expansion is new, so it's still $39.99. Add to this that there is no monthly subscription.

There should be enough available content for you to enjoy for months, if not the full 2 years before GW2. I'd say that GW is a great bargain now.

I think the minus points for GW is that it has no auction house, so trading is quite cumbersome. Another thing is that its social system is not as fleshed out as contemporary MMO. Humans are the only player race.

The big pluses for GW is no subscription, fast to max a character, free re-specing of characters, "lower" grind.

In a few months, you can get up to speed (Equipment and Skills-wise) with people who have played for 2 years. You'll still have to compete with their skillz (not the same as Skills) and knowledge of the game.

Alright sounds good so could someone also fill me in on what game I buy I was at walmart and saw one that just said Guild Wars I think it was 20$ the other one looked like an expansion and was 40$.

Does this game have like raids dungeons PVP all that stuff. What do maxed out leveled characters do for fun.

There are a handful of elite dungeons that resemble WoW raids. But nothing as long as some of the higher end WoW dungeon.

GW's normal explorable environment is more challenging that WoW's outdoors, so you almost always need to be in a party. You can form parties with other people, or use customisable NPC Heroes (only with Nightfall and EotN) and uncustomisable NPC Henchmen (everywhere).

GW is wholly instanced. All the exporable areas outside of towns are instances. There are obviously good and bad points that come with this approach.

There's a variety of 5-6 types of PvP game types. From random 4v4, to organised guild 8v8 to 12v12 fragfest.

You can get any of the following "campaigns" to start the game: Prophesies, Factions or Nightfall. You need one of those before you can play Eye of the North "expansion".

For beginners, I would start with Prophecies (which is the original and probably the one you saw for $20). It takes the longest to get to level 20 but it's the most beginner friendly of the 3.

There are several "elite" areas in the game, spanning all 4 of the games (the 3 campaigns plus the expansion, Eye of the North). I'm gonna go ahead and quote myself in a different post that I made recently:

.

In Eye of the North, there are dungeons which are your more traditional WoW-type raids. There is also PvP. There is [wiki]Random Arenas[/wiki] (RA), [wiki]Team Arenas[/wiki] (TA), [wiki]Heroes Ascent[/wiki] (or Hall of Heroes; HoH or HA), [wiki]Guild versus Guild[/wiki] (GvG), [wiki]Hero Battles[/wiki] (HB), and [wiki]Alliance Battles[/wiki] (AB). You need Nightfall in order to do HB and Factions in order to do AB.

Alright i'm downloading the client now and posted a request for a trail code. So if I play and like it do I have to buy both the 20 dollar and 40 dollar one or just the main game then expansion later?

And there are 4 games are all 4 games active with people online or do they all combined into one? Does Guild Wars have realms/servers that hold like 2000 people each or what?

Guild Wars (Prophecies) is the first campaign. Guild Wars: Factions is the second campaign. Guild Wars: Nightfall is the third. Each game is a stand alone game based on its own continent, though the three games can be linked to one another on your plaync account so that you can cross the three different continents with any single characters. Guild Wars: Eye of the North (GW:EN) is the first (and, likely, last) Guild Wars expansion. It basically expands on the continent of Tyria and story from the first game, though you can own any one of the three campaigns and still access the expansion content.

I recommend playing the campaigns in chronological order (by release) but you can play which ever one you like first (except GW:EN, which requires another campaign to play since it is, indeed, an expansion). Research the different campaigns and play which ever one appeals to you the most.

Guild Wars is extremely different from WoW in terms of content. First of all, the explorable world is instanced rather than persistent like in WoW. It is in towns and outposts where you will pick up other people to party with (or, if you feel like solo'ing, bring heroes or henchmen as necessary to fill your party). Explorable areas are where most questing takes place but Guild Wars also has Missions that support the story and lore, which make the storyline a much larger factor in progressing thru Guild Wars. The Eye of the North expansion does introduce dungeons. There are quite a few different PvP options in Guild Wars including a Guild vs. Guild system.

"Maxed out" characters get to play the majority of the game. When you reach the level 20 (lvl cap), or shortly prior to reaching it, is approximately when you will leave the starter area and begin to access the actual thick of the game content. RPGmaniac contrasts between WoW and GW leveling pretty directly in his first post.



In Guild Wars everyone is on the same server. Towns do have districts, though, and districts can fill up but you can switch districts at any time.

You don't have to buy all of the games in order to play, the $20 one alone is enough. The only thing is you must have purchased another game to get the content from Eye of the North.

All 4 of the games can be played as separate ones but they also combine into one game. There are no realms/servers like in WoW. However, there are language districts for American, Europe (and all the different languages within Europe) and an International District. This is a remnant of an old game mechanic. You can freely switch between districts, but explorable areas are all instanced. Only the towns are persistent. The [wiki]District[/wiki] article elaborates a bit more.

I'll recommend that you play all 3 campaigns first, before getting the Eye of the North expansion. EotN is all max level content.

You can travel between the campaigns after you reach certain towns in the game.

GW is essentially one "server". You can travel between the American and European servers, and there is an International district you can meet up with your overseas friends. If towns get crowded, a new District is created, explorable areas are instanced, so there's no overcrowding there.

Alright just awaiting someone to be kind and give me 14/10 Hour trail.

So there is 4 games each time you buy a new game do you make a new character or does your character transfer over?

You add another game (campaign) to your account and you can go to it's continent with old character.

You can take 1 character through all the games if you want. Also, the 3 campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall) all allow you to make new characters in them. Eye of the North (the expansion) is strictly level 20 content, so you can't start a new character there. You have to transfer an existing character over there.

Alright this sounds like a great game waiting for trail asking friend tomorrow if he has one.

I've been looking at screen shots and really just want to go out and buy it but I don't know if i'll regret it.

EDIT:
After looking at all the screenshots I am convinced that this game is awesome and I think i'm going to buy it after I get home. What I wanna know how big is the environment i'll be getting the basic $20 and the controls are they WASD for movement or click to move? Also the thing I hate about going into a new MMO is adapting to all the lingo and the termanoligy. And all the environment and whats good what isn't good ect.

GW prophecies is gigantic. if you play casually, it will take you at least a month or two to finish. personally, i finished the prophecies campaign a year and a half after i bought it. the other campaigns are shorter, factions being the shortest and nightfall being somewhere in between.

you can use both WASD and click to move in this game. you can also bind any function to any key on the keyboard, so you can customize the game the way you like it.

as a last and probably the most important advice: GW is not a mmorpg in the classical sense. if you approach it like WoW with better graphics, you'll be disappointed. however, GW offer things that WoW never will. you will enjoy this game immensely if you approach it with the right mindset.

Could you explain this to me?

Also you can beat the game? Like in WoW you can't really beat the game you can max your level but still have millions of things to do.

Are you saying once I finish a campaign or whatever that means lol, that I go buy another one and beat that then the others so on so on?

Like can you keep 1 game and have hours of enjoyment each time you log in or once your done your done? Little confusing sorry.

beating the game doesn't stop you from enjoying the game. It just means you have finished the storyline...there a 1000's of side quests to enjoy as well as numerous titles to seek....and pvp...by not being like wow i think they mean...you won't run into people other than those that are in your part out in the world...the only "mmo" you have is when you are in town...all exploration/missions/quests are instanced for you alone...so you don't have to worry about kill stealing etc...

By beating a game or the storyline...it opens up Hardmode for that chapter...which is a huge challenge.

Ok and are there certain races and classes? I've seen ranger ect. Which is the most powerful right now and easiest to function?

Me and my friend are probably going to start playing together are you saying we can't just meet in a town and follow each other around completing stuff and leveling up?

And you need people to help you with quests or campaign is there a system to find people or do you have to spend hour in a town mass messaging to see if people will go.

Yes you can both meet in town and journey together..but you must be in a group with one another. There is a party search feature...but most people just spam LFG (looking for group) or use NPC henchman to fill out the party, or play with friends etc.

There are numerous classes..and secondary(subclasses)

Core is
Warrior
Monk
Ranger
Elementalist
Mesmer
Necro

Factions adds
Assassin
Ritualist

Nightfall Adds
Dervirsh
Paragon.

Inorder to play an assassin you must own factions...etc...the core comes with any campaign.

I would suggest with starting with a warrior or elementalist until you get the hang of the game.

Be sure that you and your friend both have the same "campaign" or you will not see one another...

My suggestion would be to purchase.... Prophecies..then Nightfall...then Eye of the North..and last Factions...

If you want to be on equal ground in PVP you need to buy all 3 campaigns and or the skill unlock packs from the online store.