Post searing...now what?

Okay, I just entered post searing yesterday and I feel pretty overwhelmed. I've got a couple of questions:

1. Since I'm lvl 7, I guess its better to do a couple of secondary quests and level up a bit? Or should I focus on primary quests?

2. Sell the dyes to dye traders or other players?

3. Armor and weapons merchants - should I use them? That would mean I would have to farm for the mats, right?

4. Are henchmen useful?

5. Sell off pre-searing mats? Or save them all up?

6. What items are salvageable?

Thanks

1. Do whatever. At this point, you're high enough level that, with henchmen, can do anything you like.

2. If you need the money now, sell to the dye traders. If you really want to sell it, and intend to make the most profit, sell to players. Otherwise, hang onto them.

3. Armor crafters should be used. There are two in Ascalon City; aim for the more expensive one. That means getting the money and materials now, but also means not having to upgrade for a long while. Weapon crafters tend to not be worth it, as you can get collector weapons cheaply.

4. You'll need henchmen if you don't have heroes and aren't partying with other players.

5. Save them if you think you're going to have need of them in future (check the wiki; hit F10 in game and search (this will open up your default browser to search the official wiki), or check out the unofficial wiki here

6. Pretty much everything. Check the wikis for what they can salvage into.

Abandon all presearing quests (cant ever do them now) and get rid of te quest items for them.
1. Lvl 7 is good, jsut find the main story and keep going whenever you feel like.
2. Keep or sell dyes to players (only white+black are valuable)
3. As you progress through the game, armor rating improves, so only get it when you need it (depends on class)
4. I wouldnt recommend crafting low level weapons, just use what you find or buy max damage weapons off players.
5. Save them (pay the 50g to the Xunlai agent for an extra tab)
6. Most items are salvageable, but that doesnt meant that you want to.

I guess my concern with primary and secondary quests is that once I finish the primary quest, I might end up leaving the city just like pre-searing and never be able to return to do the secondary quests. Am I right?

Now that you're in post-searing, there are no more time jumps so you can return and do quests any time you like. I did a quest last night that was sitting in my quest log for literally 2 years.

You'll be able to return to ascalon post searing any time you want even as you progress along the storyline. Pre searing to post searing is the only clean break.

Welcome to the dark-side
When I first entered the post-searing (three years ago) I remember it being pretty overwhelming as well.. I lingered in Pre-sear for nearly 4 straight days.. Gone in an instant was my ideal world of sunshine and lollipops, and for some time too

Don't worry though, once you get out of the dreary post-apocalypse that is Ascalon, things get interesting pretty quickly... Your first sojourn will be into the North Shiverpeaks (Near Yak's Bend), where things get suitably whiter, and eventually, you'll hit the beauty of Kryta -- white sands and beaches.. But I won't spoil it for you any more Lots to look forward to, and a massive world to explore! And you probably thought the world of Pre-Sear was big... :P

Enjoy man, Guild Wars Prophecies is a great game, even to this day.. Soak up the artwork, take your time... That's my advice

Thanks all for the tips and advice.

Not a good idea to just jump into the primary quests and only do those. There are plenty of secondary quests around that give skills and are therefore worth doing. There are skill quests until a bit past half way through the game (assuming you do the regions in storyline order and don't get runs).

You might want to look at...

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quests_(Prophecies)

...and print it out as a checklist (and do the same for the other campaigns and the expansion). Quests that give skills are, of course, marked as such.

Don't forget to visit the Xunlai agent in town to open your storage vault.

Always save materials. You can sell the ones you don't need later on and for armor crafting you save money if you don't need to buy all the materials.

For armor merchants, only way to buy new armor is to craft it. You can also use collectors, who will exchange various monster collectibles for armor parts. I usually craft the more expensive armor in Ascalon City and then use it for a good part of the game - you don't need to update your armor in every town simply because you can.

If you have Factions or Nightfall, once you reach Lion's Arch, there is a quest to take your character over to either of those 2 areas. You can then get max armor in KC (Factions) or in Kamadan (get a ferry to the docks). Then you can continue your missions/quests in prophesies with max armor. While in Kamadan if you have Nightfall, might want to do some quests to gain some hero help, they are better than the henchies as they are yours. You equip them with skills and weapons.

How do I tell what "max armor" is for a Monk?

It has 60 armor on all pieces.

Max just means that the defense rating is max.

80 for warriors, 70 for rangers and 60 for monks necros eles and mesmers.

when i came from pre almost 3 years ago for the 1st time and was lost.

In ascolon where warmaster tidus is go UP the stairs and turn left get the quests from simon the scribe the -50 health off hand, as a quest reward, sells for 5-8k. Then were you turned left this time head right (that would be straight) that will take you to the great northern wall mission the 1st coop mission in post. I didn't even know it was there untill after I was ascended lol. Also try out the ascolon arena its pvp but it only has level 1-10 in there and can be a good time/intro to pvp. If you are a warrior, DO NOT LEARN TO TANK FROM PRINCE RURIK, HE IS A NOOB. Do not be in a hurry to level up, once your at 20 your there forever, enjoy being a low level.

The above posts are good also.

try joining a good guild, they can help with most of your questions in game.

They are automaticly abandoned.

Easier said then done. Between local spam where every guilds sounds exactly the same besides a small variation in thier "active member" number, the random invites I get whenever I am in a town/outpost from people who have not spoken a word to me, and forum recruitment threads where I need to have all 3 chapters unlocked for hard mode and have a bunch of other requirements which I don't even understand, I am having a difficult time finding a large sized North American timezone English speaking active yet adult casual guild to join.

Welcome to post-searing. I was lucky when I first crossed over, since I had a friend who'd been playing for a year, and so could help with all these types of questions. It can overwhelm when first you hit 'M' and you realise just how small your world has been so far.

Some good advice here so far. To add to the responses previously:
Level 7 is a good point at which to leave pre-searing. It'll stand you in good stead as you set out from this point on. Don't feel you have to rush through the primary quests though, since there's some useful skills hannded out as quest rewards to many of the early secondary quests. A reasonable guide of where your level should be is to look at the level of the henchmen in the towns you are in. Of course higher levels makes things easier where-ever you are

Depends how much you're after those extra few gold. Whites and Blacks can be profitable traded to players. Personally I hord my dyes, MAkes it easier for dying armor later on. It's up to you how you play it though

Armor merchants, definitely, although as has been said above don't feel you have to get armor in every town where the stats are higher than before. Certainly get the more expensive kit in Ascalon city if you can afford it, and that can see you a fair way into the game

Weapons crafters... I don't know that I've ever used one. I've managed quite well with drops from monsters, collector weapons, and further down the line items bought from other players

Yes, unless you're in a full team of real people. The areas you're visiting are designed for the party sizes you're allowed to form in each city, so fleshing your party out with henchmen helps. Be warned that they're often stupid, and do silly things to get themselves killed, however.

Depends what they are. If you haven't found it already, if you speak to the Xunlai representitive in Ascalon city, you can sort out storage for your gear, including a crafting material storage, where you can hold up to 250 of each crafting material.

Pretty much everything...whether it's worth it is another matter.

The Official (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page) and unofficial (http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) wiki's are you freind, as is pressing F10 when in game

Id focus on the Skill Quests in the area, and work on primaries. Save charr hides (they stack in inventory), charr carvings, decayed orr emblems, and stone summit badges (for use on holiday candy/items). Just take your time and try not to rush anything.... its a long way to the end no matter how you go about it. Id advice against getting your characters 'run through' to towns and missions your first time out.

Do whichever you feel like. Eventually you'll have to do the primaries to move the plot along and reach new areas, but you can hurry or dawdle as you like.

I tend to save them. If you want to sell them, the trader gives a slightly-below-market price for them, while some players give you a fair price and others try to scam you (especially in Ascalon where they know there're newbies to prey on). If you're going to sell to players, always check the average of trader's buy and sell prices so you know the market value and don't get scammed.

Armor, yes. Weapons, no.
If you play through the game "properly" without getting a "run" to a town with max armor, you'll want to upgrade your armor at every opportunity, or at least every other opportunity. Note that Ascalon has two different grades of armor for sale. You may want to think about skipping over the cheap set and saving for the more expensive set if you're not having problems surviving right now.
Just playing the game you should find weapons at least as good as what the weapon crafters in Ascalon offer. Only near the very end (Desert and Southern Shiverpeaks) do the crafters offer weapons better than stuff you can routinely find off of monsters. And, even then, the collectors offer weapons with the same stats essentially for free.

Yes. Probably moreso than most of the live players looking for parties in Ascalon.

Save. Pay 50g for the "materials" ab in your xunlai box.

Darn near everything can be salvaged. The question is whether it's more profitable to salvage than to sell the item directly to the merchant. That depends on what a given item salvages into, and what the material is worth at the trader.

Well, unfortunately you picked the hardest campaign. ill tell you the easy way to do it. The answer is simple:

Get a run to Lions Arch from Ascalon. Yes, you will be skipping quite a bit of a story line, but once you run to lions arch you will have two entire continents, i assume you have factions or nightfall. The quests there, especially in factions, are easy and can be done in a chain, you can get up to level 20 in no time, go back to Ascalon and EASILY finish the missions. The only problem for you might be armor, which you should save up for. Get the Grim Cesta and sell it for cash then when you are at yak's bend, get the armor, assuming you have more then 5k, i think the charge is 2k for a run?

Anyways, Guild Wars Prophecies is the hardest campaign and was a challenge until things like running and Factions came out, its easy now since the XP gained from KC quests are ludicrous and the time to get to level 20 is only a couple of hours. Weapons can be bought, which are cheap if you use greens or collectors items. Have FUN!

EDIT: for the dyes, most of the dyes don't sell for much more and generally everything that is under 100g selll to the trader because its not worth the hassle, Black and White dyes you SHOULD NOT sell to the trader, well, maybe the white, sometimes its not worth the extra 100-300g gained.

This is probably the worst possible advice to give to a new player. "Skip a big part of the storyline and effectively ruin the game for yourself." A huge part of the first time experience is to generally work your way through the game and new areas while constantly experiencing something new and not speed through the game in record time. Yes, I do know that most veterans go the LA / Kaineng route, but for a new player to the series, it's the worst thing you can do.

If I were to recomend things for you to do they are: take your time and play at your own pace, dont get ran anywhere (i find it to be funner especially your first time going by yourself), watch all the cut scenes.

My first time playing like three years ago it was quit agravating iw as a real noob (didnt know what to do or anything) but eventually it alls comes to you. I found that it was my greatest joy actually going through the whole game with just henchmen (i never wanted to ask for help sinc ei felt like a noob)

but really just have fun and play

I have to agree that getting a "run" is not a good idea for a new player.

First, it deprives you of the opportunity to learn how to play the game well be meeting escalating challenges with equivalently escalating character capabilities. Instead it dumps you into mid-level challenges with high-level character capabilities; things are going to go great until the challenges catch up to your overpowered gear and skill selection, and then it's all going to fall apart because you still don't know what you're doing. And, what's worse, you can't go back and learn how to play in the early missions because you can't see what you're doing wrong because your overpowered character won't die when you do something stupid.

Second, it deprives you of the ability to enjoy the first half of Prophecies. Playing a mission with so much armor that the monsters can't even damage you is fun for about 5 minutes, then it becomes boring. Without challenge, there's no fun. Now, if you're on your fifth character or something, most of the early missions are going to be a chore no matter what simply because you know them so well. But a new player has an opportunity to really enjoy them. And should!

Technically he is just doing quests in KC, the story line is not finished... Im just saying go get to Level 20 to have an easier time and not have to buy armor for that duration since the extra health will help. Also, i don't think you read the rest of my post since it appears you read through the first couple of lines and posted. I did things the old fashioned way my first time and it was boring to level up. Now leveling up can be fun but its way too much grind, Factions makes leveling up a joke and lets you go on with the storyline. The XP gained from quests are pitiful and take a lot of time. Im not forcing him to take my advice, but its to put another option on the board so that if he feels like saving some cash on armor he can take it or maybe if hes at a point where the enemies are too powerful for him...

You can go back to the missions afterwards and you can also have access to a major trade city (he can sell his grim cesta here) and dyes.

EDIT: Although I do agree with some of the things against what i said, I still do believe even for a new player, its ok to skip a bit, you are only going to see one new place...thats it, not too bad and I would have preferred it three years ago. As for Chthon's point, there will be lessened damage, but no one ever said he had to get to level 20 (im not suggesting he get max armor just yet). And if you can't die in a mission, then go ahead and just /resign...not hard. And you actually can go back and play other missions. Its not like once you reach LA the previous missions become locked. Plus being level 20 makes it easier to take your time and get bonuses, since i remember rushing since either my hench were dumb or the enemies were too much.

Thanks for the great advice. I must that I am much better at the game compared to yesterday. Doing quests and gaining xp in this game is so much better compared to games like WoW. Its not a grindfest and works better on my nerves. I think I'm ready to start a mission but only concern is getting a party together - the northern wall outpost is quite empty. Maybe, better luck today. Thanks again, all

And this gets worse the earlier you do it. There are quite a large number of people who quit either in the Desert or the Southern Shiverpeaks because they assume that you learned each of the old individual lessons so time to throw them all together.

My general rule of thumb is to never get a run to a place you have not already visited. That is if you made it to Cantha with a warrior then don't worry about getting your necromancer (or other character) run there. If you made it there once you have most likely learned what they intended you to do, at the very least the stuff you miss the second time through is minor (for instance as a warrior you may learn that Soothing Images *really* sucks and never even notice that you have backfire on you - as a necro the exact opposite will be true) and you already have the tools needed to figure out how to react to the new threat.

You can always do it with the henchmen stationed there.

I noticed that you posted at 2:09am Eastern. That, of course, is why you can't find enough people for a group. Not that you need a group of humans - even Mesmers and Monks can do it easily with henchmen.

Being the first mission in the game, it's quite easy, as is the followup. Any class can do it as long as you're slightly careful on the way out (in most spots the mobs are spread out enough that you don't need to worry about anyone interfering in your fights - but keep an eye out before you move into aggro rane). At the end, don't try to turn around and backtrack - keep heading down the path and don't stop for the distraction.

Once you get to Northern Shiverpeaks people will start talkinga bout running to Droks. i would take the run because you can buy max armor in Droks and have it very early on which helps alot for all the mission from there.