New to Guild Wars. Few questions

Sorry if any of this has been covered before. I have spent quite a while reading on the wiki and guru so far but still wanted to ask these:

1. Is there a tool or resource (in game or out) to get a better idea of what to sell or buy items for? Like I found a purple staff, probably worthless... but I am too new to know for sure so I have it in bank. I see everyone shouting in town, is this the only way to buy/sell/trade in game?

2. I am 8 Necro/Mes. I like the idea of being Curse Master mostly. I know I will do Minon Master and other things later too, but for now I like Mesmer as secondary. As an 8 Necro, I have been using a sword mostly, and like it more than a staff. I know staff has more stat benefits for me, but can I use a sword whenever I want to until 20? or will they all have that "swordmaster" req. like I have started seeing now? Do not get me wrong, I am not new to MMOs, and when in a group, I will have a nice staff ready to go.

3. I been hoarding (a habit of mine) crafting materials, Dyes, etc. in the bank. I sell quest items and some other "junk". But mostly everything gets Salvaged. I am starting to think I should just sell all of this for now on my way to 20, then farm once I get a 20 char, either farm with my 20, or with an alt. What do you all recommend? Sell for now for more funds, or hoard and save for crafting nice stuff later?

1. Shouting is the only way, or posting to forums. Purple items are generally worthless. Sell it to merchant.

2. Yes, any decent staff will have Swordmanship requirement. And As a caster, you're weak to frontline.

3. Well... i would save all materials for later, it's always nice to have those when you really need some for armors.


I hope that helps

Generally it isn't worth it to salvage stuff unless you need it for crafting armor/weapons or if it says "highly salvageable." when you get to higher level places (enemies around or above 20) id your items as they gain a good bit of value and buy your materials when you need them. yes you can use a sword, but without being a /w you can't put points into swordsmanship and you will do no damage. As for selling stuff, if it isn't gold or green, the odds of it being worth selling to someone else is slim to none and slim is heading towards the door. And even a lot of golds and greens aren't worth that much anymore.

If you went warrior as secondary you could build up your swordsmanship attributes to use the sword, but you are still a weaker AL with lower health than a primary warrior, so that's something to keep in mind...

1.) Either shout for a PC (price check) in-game and get multiple opinions, or search the Ventari's Corner section of the forums to find out prices for items. In general, unless a weapon is req 9, gold, or has perfect mods/scripts, it's not worth salvaging; just unload it straight to a merchant. You'll learn the exceptions as you get more experience.

2.) Any decent sword is going to have a swordsmanship requirement. You're definitely gonna want to go with either a staff or a wand/offhand combo for a bunch of reasons:
* You're not even a warrior secondary, so you're (a) not gonna be able to use sword skills or (b) put points into swordsmanship to meet the req.
* As early in the game as you apparently are, I highly doubt you're gonna find decent caster swords/shields superior to staffs/wands/offhands.
* Caster = lower armor rating = higher damage from melee = you shouldn't be there. Stay back and do damage from a distance with wands/staffs which naturally have req's in the magic attributes of the spells you should be using instead of doing physical damage.

3.) A little of both. Do a little homework here and on the wikis to find out what you might want later (armor, dyes for it, etc.) then save whatever you do have to put towards those things and sell off the rest. If you sell off everything, it'll end up costing more to buy back the stuff you sold off when you could have just kept it.

on the subject of using a sword:

the requirment of an item doesnt effect you ability to equip it, you can equip req 15 daggers even if your a N/me. You just wont do any damage.

Alot of casters use martial weapons (the sort of weapons you attack with) but only of the one handed variety. These weapons tend to be "caster moddded" which for a sword means

+5 energy
+30 health
The other mod tends not to be that important, if your a necro somthing like bleeding or poison might be good

You use the other hand to equip a decent shield for defense, or a focus for extra caster abilities

If you need a sword you can use with a caster feel free to PM me in game, im sure I can find you one