New player - questions on movement, quests etc

Greetings,

I very recently bought GW:Platinum and have started playing in Prophesies.
Sofar I am through the Searing after doing quite alot of quests in Pre and have now done 3 missions and a couple of quests Post using henchmen.
My prior experience with similar games is from playing EQ for several years which I stopped a couple of years ago.

Movement.
I am sure this has been answered before so please bear with me for asking again. How come movement in GW is such an act of frustration as a new player? I cannot even jump over a small rock or down the smallest drop into a ravine? Sofar the main reason much quests/missions have taken more than 5 mins is because movement is so limited. Also, is there a way to actually look at the map and see where its possible to move through and where the map (artificially) blocks movement? Sometimes I can tell - but often I cannot tell a path from A to B by looking at the map.

Z-axis (or the lack of it)
Is the game entirely 2D? Sofar I have not seen anywhere in the game that offers a true Z-axis feeling. Sure, the map goes up and down - but nowhere have I seen a spot where you can actually be (directly) above another part of the map. Where are the towers, the ladders, jumping down a well and having to find a different way up, levitating down a huge drop (or dropping with levitation and smashing to your death) etc, etc?

Tactics in missions
Admittingly, I have only just started playing and using henchmen to boot - but sofar the ONLY hard part about any mission or quest has been due to the frustrating movement limitations mentioned above. Sure, I have died a few times due to rushing in rather than making sure only to fight manageble numbers of mobs but thats it and hardly counts as tactics. The fights thenselves have just been hack and slash with no need for any thought. Am I correct when I assume that this will indeed change as I progress - in particular in hard mode?

Another thing with tactics that I miss. Are there root, snare, mez, fear etc skills that allows your party to perform crowd control? This could be by snare kiting, root parking, fear kiting/mezzing or plain old mezzing.

Loot
Sofar - as a monk - I have not seen any loot that seemed interesing but maybe I am simply missing something here. I bought 2 bags + rune of Holding and a beltpouch but thats about it sofar. I also upgraded a couple of pieces of my starter armor with collector armor (pretty dull system if you ask me) and my main hand with a drop but whats next? Keep in mind - I am only 3 missions into the story.


I realise my questions may seem a bit negative. Please take that as an honest wish to understand how to enjoy this game. I know - playing in a guild and hence with real people is good - but not quite an option just now - so no need to focus overly on that.

There is no Z-axis in Guild Wars, there will be (probably) in Guild Wars 2. I think this is due to the original design for the game, and the engine it's based on.

Yes, the movement is annoying, but you get used to it after a time. There's always the option of clicking where you want to be, and finding put if your character get there themselves.

Drops are pretty much random, it's not unsual to not get something for your profession. There are collectors (a list of which is on the official wiki) that can/will provide your character with weapons. You've come across them I suspect.

There are also armour crafters, should you not like the feel of the Collector's/Krytan set. These can be found in Ascalon City and Yak's Bend, as well as others, but these are, I suspect, closet to you.

Enjoyment is entirely based on your own personality. Some people despise instanced environments, and the mechanics of this game. It's all about opinion and what you can find within to help. Seeing that you're in a guild, you'll probably have a better chance than those that have started out and aren't.

Welcome to the community

Movement and z axis

I see what your getting at and sadly the movement style doesnt change much you do get to explore caves and large buildings and there are gates in places.
But there are no ladders and nowhere you can jump or climb, I assume it was difficult to make the ai creatures use these features.
Many games with these features lead to tactics where the player can stand on a say a wall and kill the opposition who lack ranged weapons and cannot work out the path to the player.

Tactics
You have the right of it most battles where you have time to judge the approach are easy enough.
But there are some that are more difficult and not just in hard mode.
Once you meet groups with their own rangers healers and mages etc they can be tricky esp with just henchemen.

Heroes can be rooted to the spot while you initialise combat and draw the enemy out henchies rush in and die.
Some missions need you to split the party this is also difficult without at least 2 players.

Rangers have the ability to place traps ritualists have summoned spirits that attack and the likes of mages and necros have good area effect spells that do good service esp in tight areas.

Loot
This comes in the form of cash items and materials
Loot improves with level of opponents.
Cash gets greater, items more valuable and materials more rare.

Items start at White least valuable and then comes blue purple and Gold "green named items sometimes drop from bosses" some of these are considered more valuable than the rest.

I suggest a browse round the guildwiki website which is a great repository of all things GW

Thank you both for your answers. I will keep those in mind.

An additional questions if I may.

How do I know when I should use a normal salvage kit and when to use an expert one? Should I only use the latter if the item has some sort of effect on it?

Expert slavage kits salvage off runes and insignias, where the standard one will break them. Also, Experts have the chance to salvage rare materials, or more of the common one(s) from the salvageble item. Use Expert on ones with runes, standard on ones without.

In Nightfall and Factions, it's possible to get Expert and Superior salvage kits for free, using quest rewards, thereby making the whole process cheaper. I'd suggest this, should you have the two campaigns, as it provides better use of the items you're salvaging.

You can also salvage weapons, the kits having the same affect mentioned above.

forget that as it will only hurt you - GW is not a MMORPG.

z-axis only matters in a very few cases - mostly bows range/damage is affected by it. Other than that - nope. After a while you can mostly judge where you are not going to go, though it will almost never be apparent on the large map - just from what you see in the main screen. This is true both in movement and targeting.

Tactics is different in this game - there is no real "crowd control", though after a while you can game the AI to do something similar. The game is more based on you personal build and you ability at playing it (I've seen the game called "build wars" in both the sense of good and bad). There is good and bad about this: some hate it, some love it, some like me mostly find it simply different. I will, however, state that I fall on the "like it" side if I had to choose - I never found the taunting systems in MMORPGs to be remotely realistic and GW's to be much more so. experienced players can still tank, but it takes as much knowledge of managing aggro amongst the back line as it does from the actual tank.

Hmm, hard to say - early game is VERY different from late game, builds that dominate early game may very well die in mid to late game. For a large portion of PvE (including hard mode) a good team build will pretty much wipe anything - for myself careful pulling and making sure I am doing so from a good position is about all I need, but then I've been playing for quite some time and have lots of unlocks and decent builds stored. If your team build isn't good, well, then what you ask will make a BIG difference. If you have a good team build then you will mostly roll everything out there (PvE wise - PvP is a whole other matter). And you will eventually see snares, though the rest isn't here (and really, once you get used to it, doesn't make much sense in the GW universe). Given what you have posted I suspect that later game will prove much harder.

Well, here is where the biggest adjustment is going to come - max loot is easily obtainable. In fact, max loot is cheap to purchase any time you want from traders. Every noob that has played only a few hours and has had others run them through the game will have access to the *exact* same stat items you will if you have played for 5000 hours. Anything more than that is simply rarity in skins (and even then there are fairly few really rare ones). This game is not loot or level based - it is MUCH more similar to PnP RPG's where the focus is on putting together the correct skill set and then playing the game - not getting more levels or better gear.

*shrug* the game isn't for everyone - there is something to be said for being able to grind gear and levels (especially if you have the time to do so). Just remember this isn't a typical MMORPG and don't try and treat it as such. For those of us that like it there is little else out there that compares - of course for those that like the status quo it is so different that they do not like it (and nothing wrong with that - no game will be liked by everyone).

Parts of the game have a pseudo-Z-axis: where you can be above or below other playable areas.

There's no question that it gets harder. How hard it will get depends on how good you are.

'Crowd control' doesn't exist like it does in other games (I can speak for WoW but have no experience with EQ). It's more about damage prevention on-the-fly. Not sure what mezzing is. Snaring exists but it is much more useful in PvP than PvE.
I hope you know that items and armour mean nothing in this game...

With the exception of keeping you alive, of course.

The only thing different between a max damage Machete, and a max damage Crystalline Sword is the price people are willing to pay. This is due to rarity and appearance. The same goes for armour. There is no difference between the 1k Drok's sets and the 15k Obisdian sets, except for rarity, price and appearance. This is of course makes the game very interesting in comparison to others, as it's not about your equipment, but your skill and knowledge.

You haven't asked about the above yet, but it's here in case you need to know

Hi guys, ive recently bought gulid wars and i am a ranger and a warrior as my 2nd profession im am curently at level 6 and struggling completeing 'the dukes daughter' quest, im just wondering if anyone could give me any tips on the best armour and weapons for the ranger, i love the game and have become hoooked on it in a matter of days.

The Dukes Daughter quest is rather hard for a level 6, so people usually wait until they're a higher level until trying it (the following one, Althea's Ashes, is quite hard).

As a ranger you should be using a bow. Longbows are good for luring, but a lot of people prefer Flatbows (with a skill to decrease arrow flight time) or Recurves, for damage. Armour, the best level armour, that you can get is at Ascalon City from Corwin, I think. There is no 'best' anymore, other than the AL. It's all about appearances.

Need anymore help, you can PM in game if you want. I think my Necro still needs to cart' some of the Ascalon areas.

Yea, Dukes Daughter at level 6 would be quite hard. My first character left pre-searing at lvl 11, others at lvl 8. Maybe do other side quests from ascalon, instead of out of piken and get the level up.

In regards to the OP, loot gets better as you go to harder areas, and dont worry you will be dying more in the future. Id recommend only using the expert salvage kit for runed armor drops or purple items, since expert salvaging a low level item for materials wont benefit you too much (you wont get much). Id recommend just selling the early drops for the $ and not salvaging them unless you are looking for a particular salv material, as early drops may only give you 1 iron ingot. Salvage the stuff as you get to harder areas which may lead to 13 iron ingots. Also only use the expert salv kit on stuff that is "Highly Salvagable" as its more likely to give you more stuff or rare materials.

In regards to snares, rangers have traps that snare or cripple attacks, as well as warriors. Mesmers do have slow down spells as well as water elementalists. As a monk you pretty much wont be doing any snaring. Monks do have some smite skills that cause knockdowns. But have fun and id recommend not getting any "runs" your first time through the game. Do the quests in the order that they come as it will help you understand the game better and use other skills other than standard builds.

thanks for the tips tatile and wirt both been a great help and i really appreciate it as it is my first time on any online gaming, just one more question how do i search if people are online?

There's not really any 'search' function for players. You just need to either take a guess or covertly add them to your friends list and wait. At least, I don't think there's a search function, I've never found one

If you know the name of the character, push "N" and it will bring up the friends list. Type the person's name exactly how its spelled and it will say if any character on that account is online. For example, my character is "Mr. Wirt" If you put me as a friend and I am playing my monk "Wirt the Scabpicker" you will see me online with (Mr. Wirt) in parentheses. If you are in a guild, push "G" so see the guild roster and see who is online.

So if you want, put me as a friend and if you catch me online, message me if you have questions. Have fun.