Some questions involving the game

Hello.
I've been looking around for a mmo that wouldn't cost too much to play.

Here are the things I know about Guild Wars:

It is free and has no monthly fee or special items that need real world money.
It can be run on a Dial up connection which is great because I have a really sucky dial up.
It is spanned over 3 chapters and all that.
It has large scale guild battles.

Things I do not know about Guild Wars and I hope you can answer

Does this game have non combat skills like crafting and stuff? I come from a game like Runescape which had lots of skills that I liked because you could take a break from combat.

What is the point of the whole game if you can max out all of your levels to 20 and get good armor right away, doesn't that make the game pointless and shallow?

How often does the game update or get patches with new content between chapter release?

If I make a PVE character does that take up a slot when I want to make a PVP character? like am I limited to X amount of slots for both servers? or do I get X amount of slots per server?

Thanks

Things I do not know about Guild Wars and I hope you can answer

Does this game have non combat skills like crafting and stuff? I come from a game like Runescape which had lots of skills that I liked because you could take a break from combat.
--NO

What is the point of the whole game if you can max out all of your levels to 20 and get good armor right away, doesn't that make the game pointless and shallow?
--The point is to try out new builds and work through the storyline/move to pvp

How often does the game update or get patches with new content between chapter release?
--New content? Rarely.

If I make a PVE character does that take up a slot when I want to make a PVP character? like am I limited to X amount of slots for both servers? or do I get X amount of slots per server?
--There are not separate PvP and PvE servers, but you do have a limited number of slots. However, PvE characters can go to PvP, but not the other way around.


Hope that helps

Well answered, Parson.

Here's a few links to get you started.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=107306

http://gw.gamewikis.org

http://wiki.guildwars.com

No need for links, I really am not interested in a game thats 100% combat based.

PS: I don't get the whole "Builds" thing, if your maxed out stats at lvl 20 right away how can you configure it.

Hmm...since you're limited on a dialup connection, I don't know what games I can suggest to you other than Runescape.

Sorry.

*After U purchased the initial game (Serial Code), it is completely free. However, extra character slots, special PvP-packs do costs extra money. These however are NOT needed to play the game. (They merely make it "easier" for you)
*You CAN run it with Dial-Up, heck I even used a program to artificially create lagg, and I was able to play GW at a reasonable level with no more than 5KB/s... However, Big cities WILL lagg you out if you're on a constant Dial-Up.
*It is spanned over 3 chapters and 2 expansions. (GWEN and BMP)
*It HAS got large (8 man each side, so 16 total) Guild Battles. Only 2 Guilds can participate in one tough, and with your Dial-Up, it is unlikely you'll be competitive in PvP. (Don't take it personal, but in PvP, bad ping = loss)
*GW is 99.9% "fighting". This has been, for me anyways, a major downside ever since the beginning. However, because you have a personal skill bar of 8 (Only 8 skills at a time) as well as the fact there is over 2000 skills (I think), playing different bars/professions is VERY satisfying and makes up for alot of the "skills" (in runescape) you lack. I myself came from runescape aswell, and I would be lying if I said GW is the better game. It's a DIFFERENT game, but don't expect it to satisfy ALL your needs. (E.G. Runescape is grind wars, EVERY skill you have to grind hours, yet I miss that in GW... I enjoyed just click on a tree, and "auto"-chop it for a minute straight :'()
If you want to take a break from combat, there only is VERY few things you can, bare that in mind. So if you're not to keen about constantly "fighting" (Remember there is ALOT of different skills, making it VERY fun and versatile to do), then you might wanna concider another game, or sticking with runescape.
*The initial idea of giving everyone max armor and level 20 so fast (you can easily get it in a week through casual play) was that one didn't have to spend days grinding. (as in Runescape and WoW) This was, at first, a very bright idea, aswell as very "renewing" for the MMORPG scene. Then Anet made a big mistake by introducing "Titles". These are e-peen "titles", accomplished by grinding and paying alot of money (which you have to grind for) thus completely contradicting the intital idea of GW... Offcorse you won't need these titles (There is some you do tough), but then again, there only is so much you can do in GW, and in the end you'll find yourself farming for a title which you don't even want... (Which is what 99% of GW players do atm)
*No more updates, barely any patches, still douzans of glitches out there. I played runescape, and some other MMORPG's, and I can farely say that Anet is the "laziest" of them all. If you come from Runescape, where you are used to have new area's/skills added every week/month, get used to the fact that in GW, we get about 1 "good" update a year. Heck, there has only been 1 real "add-on' to the game every since the release (Sorrow's Furnace), so that's VERY little, compared to Runescape. "Skill Updates' where the main priority, because GW is pretty much based around the 8 skills you have on your bar. This means that an overpowered build (combination of 8 skills), would always get nerfed pretty fast. (And offcorse "buffing" of skills aswell)
But lately, the last year pretty much, we have to be satisfied with 1 major skill update every 6 months...
*It doesn't work in "servers". If you make a PvE character, eventually you can also PvP with it. A PvP character however is already fully set-up. (Level 20, max armor, alot more skills than a PvE one)
If you buy all 3 chapters, you will have 8 slots. This means you can have any combination of 8 characters (PvP or PvE).

I know it was a long post, but because you're about to spend 150$ I think it's worth reading through it, because 150$ is alot of money

Peace

I can play almost any MMO out there, only games I can't play online are 3rd person/1st person online, MMO's have good connection management.

I do think you're best off sticking with Runescape. GW is comming near it's end, and you said yourself you don't like constantly fighting.

It's not that I'm completely anti-GW or something, but I think it's only fair to give my opinion when someone is about to spend 150$ on something he might (not) like...

If I was a complete stranger to GW, and I could give myself advice (with the knowledge I have now), I would persuade myself NOT to buy GW. I would rather look for a MMORPG that still is supported by the creators, and that stil have a very active player-base...

Gl

Thanks very much for that post Killed you, you hit almost everything I wanted to know.
Problem is they ruined runescape (no pun) and I really played it too much to be healthy.
Jagex made it where you had to pay a price for something without haggling and killed the PVP as it was.
Was required to stop all the botting and real world trading sadly.

Well if you do want to try out GW, you can find GW:Prophecies for under $20, you dont have to spend $150 and get all chapters and expansion. The 8 skill thing and lvl 20 max is kind of hard to understand when reading from an outside perspective. But Ive been playing GW with all chapters for about 3 years now, and if i spent $150 on all the games, and with the amount of time that I played, its the most bang for the buck that I have ever received from any game in my life.

Eh, if you dont like the full combat stuff, you are out $20, not too much of a biggie.

BTW, when you reach lvl 20, dont feel too bad if you are getting killed by other lvl 20 guys that have more experience. The game isnt about having a higher level or better stuff = winning. Its your experience and skill in playing and which skills to use that gets you to win -- usually.

Not really. There are "power traders" but they are mostly parasitic, and the trade system is rudimentary enough that dealing with it for a prolonged period would drive any sane person bonkers. There's also crafting, but it's mostly crafting something you want for your character, nothing exciting.

Depends how you look at it.

To put it in context, some history helps: GW was made by a lot of the same people who made D2, and the level cap and item system reflect attempts to solve two problems D2 had. (1) Serious players out to make a "good" character would leech xp from lvl 1 to lvl 85, then twink over high-end gear from a mule and sink 85 levels' worth of attribute and skill points at once, and only then would they start to really play the game. Depending on your amount of free time, you were looking at 1-3 weeks of boring leeching just to be ready to actually play. (2) In a lot of cases, gear made the build. Either you had the uber-rare, gold-text helm of leetness, and your build worked, or you didn't have it, and your (same) build didn't work. So you'd have to kill poor Mephisto (or Pindleskin) thousands of times until you got that uber item, or another item uber enough to trade for it.

GW "solves" these problems by giving you a full-powered character after a couple of days and making rare gear superior in graphics only. Is that an improvement? Well, if you are the kind of person who leeched xp to lvl 85 and resented having to do MF runs just to find "necessary" gear in D2, then GW is a huge step i nthe right direction. On the other hand, if you actually played from lvl 1 to lvl 85 on all of your D2 characters, and enjoyed doing endless MF runs, then maybe GW is not for you.

Patches are pretty frequent, new content is not. Patches usually include bugfixes and skill "balances," which usually make things worse instead of better.

I should also add that there are no more new chapters in the works. They've decided to make GW2 instead.

Yes, you are limited to 4 slots, plus 2 slots per additional chapter. You can buy extra slots for $10ish if you like. PvE and PvP characters use slots from the same pool.