Guild Wars: Questions and thoughts?

Alright, I got some important questions and some thoughts on Guild Wars. I
know you guys have precious time so I'll make this easy. I'll divide this on
Questions and Thoughts - that way you won't have to listen to one side or
the other if you don't want to. =)

Now before I get into this, I just want to say a few things:

* I respect your time, and I like feedback. But please be nice.
* I have done my research on GW, I just feel that players have
real pearls of wisdom from experiences. (things I can't always
trust on a wiki.)
* Thanks for reading! Or not reading? ...Whatever makes you
more comfortable. =)
* You don't have to answer any questions if you don't want.
* Thank you?

Questions
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I want to ask about issues with Guild Wars and how the game progresses.

1: Once I hit level 20, are enemies push-arounds? (I am NOT talking about hard mode)

2: What about hard mode? Can I solo it? ( Now I am =D )

3: How short is a campaign? Is it possible to finish the storyline in a few days?
(this does not include expansions)

Thoughts
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BEFORE YOU READ:
I mean this, you don't have to read this part if you don't want to.
This is just my personal experience and thoughts on GW as a
growing player in the game.

I got GW way back when it first came out. I played it for a while, and then I
was sapped into other MMOs through friends ( FFXI and WoW ). I recently
bought Factions to give it another go and I was happy to play it again.

Now, I don't pvp often, that's why I chose the story. My favorite part about
GW is that you can spec your character for free, on the spot, INSTANTLY.
Also, the world itself is very big, colorful, and surprisingly simple. Next was
the class concepts (mesmer blew me away).

However, one thing bugged me, and I know I'm not the first to say it, but
the level cap really hurt my impression. Aside from that, the battles were
very cut-short.
( You know like when you pick up DOA for the first time and crank the
difficulty up to max and hand your controller to your six-year old nephew
and expect him to win a match. )

That kind of quick. A battle is over and half the time it ended with me on
the ground waiting of a rez.

Aside I'm not throwing any ideas out. I still think Guild Wars is very fun
because it is very based on skill rather than just numbers.

If any of you guys want to share your experiences, answer my questions,
read, or just ignore me- then feel free!

Thanks again, see you on the battlefield! =D

1. Being level 20 does not make other monsters pushovers. I like the level 20 cap, because it means that there is not that big of a separation between a long-time player and a new player. In other games, the new players don't have much chance of catching up, but I like how it isn't like that in Guild Wars.

2. You will never be able to solo everything in HM. There are just some parts that can be soloed, but most of the time the balance of the monsters makes it impossible.

3. Prophecies is easily the longest, Nightfall the second longest, and factions the shortest. I guess Prophecies can be finished quickly since only four missions are actually needed to beat the game. But if you're following the story, it will take a while. I guess if you dedicate enough time to a game, you can do anything in a few days, but it generally took my several weeks to finish a campaign.

1) No. simply because enemies can go beyond level 20 and it's not because you are lvl 20 that every other monsters are crap.

2)Do you mean solo or with Heroes and Henchman ? I don't think you can solo something in HM (except farming), but you can do it with H?H.

3)You can do everything in a few days (if you play 24/24 xD).

Personally I prefer quick battles (less than 10 minutes) than long ones. But if you find 3 grawl monk in HM in Old Ascalon...that's going to be more than 20 minutes (unless you have a anti-grawl-monk build xD).

BTW : I think this should belong in Q&A.

Good replies, and thank you.

Side Note: I never could place a post in the correct forum slot... curse?
Or blessing... =)

Also, feel free to share you experiences or ideas if you want.

1: no enemies progress in difficulty further in the game you get, with elite missions usually having the hardest.

2: if you mean solo with h/h then its easy to get masters in all missions in normal mode. Hard mode theres a few missions where you want at least one other person, but mostly its not very hard using just h/h. If you mean solo with no h/h or players then not much use for this except for farming in hard mode.

3: if you play a lot you can probably finish all 3 campaigns and eotn in 2-3 weeks, but that skipping side quests. Eotn is shortet and Prophecies the longest.

Hitting level 20 pretty much a "warm up" for things to come. Although many of the areas towards the end of the storyline aren't difficult for experienced players, they'll still present a challenge for any novice. And in the Elite areas, there are no push-overs.

You can Hero/hench your way through a lot of it, but it'll be slow going and a lot of work

If you skipped all the fluff, you could finish Prophecies in a few days. But you'd short-change yourself out of quite a bit of side quest type stuff, namely XP and skills. Taking your time, I'd say it would take 2-3 weeks. When I made each of my characters, I spend a couple of days in the tutorial area leveling up & stuff.

1)Many areas will become easy, some will keep you honest. You still may find certain missions a challenge. It depends.

2) HM should force you to rely on another human at some point.

3) It depends on how hard you go at it. Some campaigns can be done in a few days with little sleep. I prefer not to rush...a campaign can take weeks if you let it.

GL.

1.Depends on where you're at. Are you outside Ascalon postsearing, or in the domain of Anguish?
2.See #1
3.Each campaign requires no more than a day at most to beat.

I can answer every question with a question for you, Rogkun:

How patient of a player are you?

1) Being Level 20 makes lower level monsters push arounds, but generaly most areas have monsters well tempored for 20th level (Factions and Nightfall mainlands are build for 20th levels pretty much exclusively, and post Crystal Desert in Prophecies is too, though you'll see some odd people there due to runs).

2) With a well built team of heroes and henchies, patience and experience, you can solo HM. However, HM is certaintly easier with more live players (who know what they're doing).

3) I'm going to list this in play-hours, since how much you play in a day may vary.

Prochecies is long if you do all the missions, but it's pretty easy to skip some (Players commonly skip the Jungle missions, but it can go as far as players skipping all but the last 4 missions, though you miss out on ascending). Many of the missions are long as well (30-60 minutes), so as far as pure time, it can add up to quite a bit. Straight though, all missions, character made in the campaign, probably a good 30-40 hours the first time though, less once you know what you're doing. For a character from another area? Less than 20, probably closer to 10-15, less if you're pushing. Don't need to build up the character, and you skip 7 missions, and you're likely more familiar with the general play concepts of the game.

Factions is fairly short, with 13 missions, only 12 of which you need to finish. Assuming you don't do all 13, starting from factions... 15-20 hours. Starting from elsewhere, 9-14. The only slowdown is the faction grind, though some of the missions you'll likely have to do more than once due to poor design.

Nightfall is closer in length to Prophecies, but is a good compromise. I haven't finished it myself, but since you don't have to do all 20 missions to finish, based on where I'm at, I'd guess maybe 20-25 hours for a NF made character, and 15-20 for a foreign character.

Eye of the North expansion? 12+ core "quests" that double as missions of some kind, but you're generaly already L20 when you play, so 8-12 hours the first time (lots of walking around), and 2-8 for each time after that, depending on how fast you're pushing.

These are just my guestimates, and don't take into account much beyond moving between mission sites, maybe a few side quests, and mostly purposefully looking to finish the game. If you're rushing solely to finish, it might be faster, while if you do a lot of mapping, finish all the side quests, and take your time, it may be longer. These are also assuming it's your first run though. Second, third, etc runs will go quicker as you know what to do and how to do it faster usually.

Excellent responses. Thank you everyone, I just wanted your takes.

As for the 'patience' reply: not everything is definitive on time (such as
difficulty). Long fights don't register as 'harder', nor do shorter fights.
A powerful element that I've experienced is an enemy's ability to use
interrupts, hexes, and tactics to outwit me.

The fact that it happens slowly or quickly is mere coincidence. n_~

Who knows? I could just be a crappy player. =)


Good job on answering those questions guys!