Where does a newb start ?

Hi all

I have played RPGs and MMOs over the past several years, so I have a decent knowledge of stats and attributes, however each game is different

I have recently decided to give Guild Wars a try out but I feel a bit overwhelmed by the game mechanics.. most ppl have played it for over 2 years and its a bit hard to find some basic knowledge for the new guy

Could anyone point me to somewhere I can start reading the very basics about the game, combat, skill distribution, level ups, item stats, etc ? I know there are wikis but these are usually too vast for a new player to know where to look.. some summarised version would be very much appreciated

cheers !!

Welcome to GW and the Guru.

Check out this thread

Also refer to Guild Wiki

Good luck.

Don't be overwhelmed with it, the game is far easier to understand then you might think.

It is extremely forgiving, as nothing you do has much of any permanence.

What chapter did you purchase, Prophicies, Factions, NIghtfall?

Prophecies has the most in depth tutorial. It's also not too bad getting the hang of things on starter islands in the other campaigns. When in doubt, hitting f10 in game will take you to the integrated wiki search and allow you to immediately search anything you're unsure about.

Welcome to the game, it's great to have you.

Ah yes, that little instruction booklet with very little info. Great advice.

Joining a friendly helpful pve guild will help

look here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/f...play.php?f=267

There is helpful info on the official site also
http://www.guildwars.com/gameplay/default.php

asking a question in general chat will usually get helpful answers in game too - it's a very nice community on GW.

thanks all, I bought GW Prophecies about a year and a half ago but never played it as I was too into WoW.. now I went back to my untouched account but I dont have the booklet that came with the game as I live in another country now :P

I'll make sure to use the F10 thingy whenever I want to know more about something and check these forums if I need more detail

looks good so far!

Prophicies has a very decent learning curve.

Just complete any and every quest you come accross and you will learn a great deal.

It's very quick and easy to reach the maximum level of 20 in GW, so do not be afraid to delete your char if you really think you screwed something up and start over. Though as I said before not much you do can't be reversed at some point in the game so you can just keep on pluggin along with little concern for the odd mistake in judgment.

starting out with prophecies is best... lets you focus on the core professions... and some of the best/most popular skills. Personally I really enjoyed prophecies... however I did most of my prophecy gaming during the first 6 months of the game being out... when you could not buy extra character slots.

Gw:En is awesome... I think it brought over a lot of old WoW players with its focus on pve content.

Nightfall, imo, has the best story, the best virtual environments, good end game content (torment), and my favorite character class (paragon!)

yeah on the F10 thing- I actually did not know about that.... I only type:

/wiki (insert search term here)

same deal tho.

The only other thing I can think of is to tell you to try and join a big guild. Not only will you be able to get help in basic questions and stuff, but it will afford you an excellent oppurtunity to absorb information on the game simply by watching conversations in Ally Chat. It might take you a while to find the right guild for your tastes... but trying to start a new guild 2 years into the series would be more trouble than its worth.

Finding the right guild for you could be a whole adventure in itself! Dont hesitate to bow out politely if you feel its time to move on to a new one!

The manuels(not the thin little ones) that came with the game are a good place to start. If you don't have your copy, you can download the pdfs here.

I say just play the game. The basic controls (moving, interacting etc..) are easy to learn(and usually pretty straightforward) and the rest you learn with experience.

Dont rely solely on the manual since there have been many updates since when the manual was published. Maybe the online version is updated. But if you have prophecies, play around with the skills you have. Do all the quests and just get a feel for the game and dont leave the beginner area too fast. My first character left presearing at lvl 11, it was scary to leave that comfortable spot, hahaha.

Also advice for the rest of the game, dont get "run" places with the first character, the game will be more enjoyable to play it through.

In regards to no manual, I kinda like just being thrown in and figure out stuff for yourself, instead of knowing exactly what to expect. Just know targeting and movement and basic mechanics are you are in a good spot.

Also advice for the future, you reach the max level of 20 fairly fast. Keep in mind that is where the game really starts and gets challanging. So when you reach lvl 20 dont think "thats it??!!" Thats about the time when you are able to start capturing elite skills.

If you have questions, feel free to message me ingame. My ign is Mr. Wirt.

^^/agree

I have a lvl 20 warrior with about 500 hours on him. I screwed up more times than i can imagine with him, whether skill selection, secondary class, weapon selection, armor upgrades, etc, etc. thankfully, though, gw's system is set up that you can make those mistakes, and live through them. that, and the ever present PUG's (Pick Up Groups) make sure that no matter what you do, you can pretty much recover from it. it might just take a little while longer

thanks for all the help

I have a few questions, tried searching but didn't find the exact clear answers I was looking for

1) I understand that you can change the secondary profession once you choose it at like level 2 - do you just get one other chance? Or can you change this continuously once you hit level 20?

2) Re: skills, is there any chance I might miss some important skill and not get it later on? I mean, will I be able to train all the skills except high lvl ones from the same trainer or do I need to visit different trainsers and do diff low lvl quests to get all my skills?

3) If I get some skills on a character, and I start off with another character - the game told me that all skills should be unlocked on all characters - wot does this mean exactly? Will I have all the necromancer skills I found/trained if I start a new necromancer?

Excuse my ignorance, and thanks for all the help

1) Anytime you want (but only after you get into the game, at first you will be stuck with it)
2)Any character can eventually get any skill(refer to #1, there are tomes you can buy to learn skills, you can buy skills from trainers, and in prophecies you get skills by completeing quests)
3)No, any unlocked skill on a character belongs to that character UNLESS it is a pvp character. Anything unlocked on your ACCOUNT is unlocked for pvp characters. Pve starts from square 1 every time.

1) In prophecies, you choose your 2ary profession in presearing, but you cant change your 2ary anymore until you get ascended when you reach the desert (about 3/4 way through the game). Once you reach that point you can change the 2ary as much as you want and without penalty, as long as you did the short quest to unlock that 2ary profession. You will be stuck with your choice of 2ary until then. Also you retain all skills that you got in the 2ary professions that you have had already.

2)You can always buy skills later. Its cheaper to get skills by doing skill quests though.

3) Once you unlock a skill on your account, its unlocked on all characters. However it will only be "unlocked" on future chars, but not usable unless you buy it or do a skill quest for it. For example, If you are W/Mo and you unlock Rebirth at Lions Arch, it will be unlocked so its available on any trainer on future chars.

2)There will be a skill trainer at a late point in the game(on Prophecies) that will have all non-elite skills available for you to purchase. All other skill trainers vary in what skills they list for you to buy. And the majority of non-elite skills can be obtained via quests, but not all. The elite skills will have to be individually capped from bosses(there's a quest that explains it).

3)Unlocked means they will be instantly available for use by any of your pvp characters. They will also show up earlier then they should on all pve skill trainers.

ah cool thanks for the answers

I haven't played GW for ages, and I'm just getting back into it. So my question about the above statement is have they changed the skills system? I remember that originally if you put some skill points in the wrong place, you got fewer back when you took them off. Are skill points (like Smiting for Monks) an exception to the statement? Have they changed that system? Would old characters have had some adjustments made?

Is a healing Monk still the most popular guy in looking-for-group requests? Are folks open to healers from other classes? What's a good 2ry profession for healing Monk (like Mesmer or Warrior), or does pure Monk have advantages for healing?