Experienced Players please give me your thoughts!

So I have become really bored of WoW... so Im deciding to come back to this game for a little break. the thing is, i only have the original GW. none of the expansions. I used to pvp pretty frequently before, but now i am afraid that i will be sort of handicapped compared to other people with the expansions. can anyone tell me if i would be fine without them? do people want something more than the original skills/classes/whateverisnew in their groups? some input and friendly comments would be appreciated. thanks!

It would probably be hard to become competitive but you could create some makeshift builds for casual PvP

If you honestly want to get back into PvP you are most likely going to need both Factions and Nightfall. Eotn has some nice skills but isn't nearly as important as Factions/NF.

ah how much are they these days? i was hoping to not have to buy

Some Ebay hunting is good for getting the campaigns for cheap. I got Factions for $20 on Ebay, and that was last year. If you can't get them online due to whatever, in-store, Factions is $20-30 and Nightfall is $25-40 depending. If you can do online buying, you might also want to look into the PvP skill unlock packs if you are only into PvP, as they are only $15(?) each.
EDIT: Believe the seller was something like NCSoftTrader or something like that. Good service, and they can send the account key via email without jacking it for their own purpose for instant playing.

I suggest you go to HA or where ever you want to PvP, check out the situation before buying anything, you might get disappointed when you see

FORMING GROUP R10(EXAMPLE) ONLY NEED APPLY.


ps: and you probably also need all campaign as some players would want you to run certain build with them and if you can't ping that you are out.

If you are on a budget, NF has more "important" skills for PvP then Factions or GW:EN, especially for Eles and Monks (and maybe warrior if you run that steady stance build, but without factions duplicate skill that isn't that effective).

You want experienced PvP help and input... therefore, I'm of no help for you because I don't PvP.

All I can say is be prepared for getting asked to "prove" you're good with cute little titles under your character name.

Exactly.

Just buy those multi-game packages they have- EOTN is pretty cheap in someplaces- $9.99 at Target.

Id say to be competitive you would need to get factions and nightfall, but for casual PvP you could probably do fine

Prophecies alone is basicly only for shock axe warriors. Almost every other type of build requires skills from other campaigns.

You can also get the PvP Access Kit through the online store for $20, which lets you use skills from any campaign on PvP-only characters. You'll still have to grind faction, or else pay $10 per campaign, to unlock though.

A fun trick there is to find a trial account code and add it to your PvP account, then bum rush some unlocks via PvE. For example, you can run the factions starter area in an hour, and unlock 25 non-elites from the entire campaign. Just running the first 5 minutes of nightfall over and over should give you 50 skills or so.

If you're serious about PvP, you almost certainly need to buy all the expansions. However, there are a small number of builds you can run with prophecies only - shock axe comes to mind.

there have been 3 more expansions, countless of skill updates, and tons of PVP updates, im recommending you need all 4 games for pvp.

However, you can just buy the pvp versions from the online store.. much cheaper i think

If you want to do PvP outside RA/AB, you need all the expansions.

[eviscerate][executioners strike][disrupting chop][shock][bulls strike][frenzy][rush][resurrection signet]

[word of healing][mend ailment][RoF][guardian][holy veil][dwayna's kiss][protective spirit][optional]

[crippling shot][distracting shot][savage shot][troll unguent][purge signet][apply poison][whirling defense][resurrection signet]

Just a few suggestions, but you're better of buying all the expansions if you want to PvP on a serious level (and want to spend the money on it).

You will be completely handicapped. Also because you have no network in the game (assumption).

Buy a new game. With the amount of money you have to put into GW just to play some subpar PvP, it isn't worth it.

$40~50 just to play a little HA...worth it?

Meh i think its hard to play PvP Proper but you can PvE fine still. i love my other acc with only props. used PvP with it too old times But yeah you can enjoy playing with only Prophs but you will get boored..

Subpar?

What makes you think it's a 'little HA'?

You're being a depressing presumptionist.

Its been a long time since I saw a build that relied only on GWP skills. RA, TA, HA and GvG are the only options you have for PvP with only GWP. RA is about as casual as you can get, and you can cobble a decent TA build together for some of the professions (but not all). HA and GvG? Randomway will take you, but they take anyone (Hence why they're called randomway) but that isn't what I would consider a fun PvP experience. You'll be kicked from any team worth a darn after the first time someone asks you to swap in a GWF or GWNF or EoTN skill...which will happen frequently in even unranked teams.

To get the most out of PvP you need the unlock packs now or to have been UAX from the start. But I don't recommend Guild Wars for anyone interested in casual PvP. A really good PvP experience...doesn't exist in GW anymore, casual or otherwise. RA is fun for one decent group (which is usually 1 in 100); TA is empty most of the time or infested with gimmick halfbuilds that you can't get into without the unlock pack. HA is GvG bootcamp and a dead arena because of it (its not for casual play anymore, and the result is a broken arena that only a few diehards still play regularly, or fanatics farm for their HoM tiger) and GvG has been murdered by a useless ladder dominated by guilds that play once a month (or haven't played in several) after ATs turned that into a farce.

Save yourself some hassle, buy Crysis or reinstall TF or Halo PC; its still fun if you can get a server with a dedicated admin to kick the aimbots. You'll have more fun and a richer PvP experience if you play a PvP game.

I would have agreed with you were it February or March. Things are looking up for GvG now though, what with the rawr cups and now the Guru/kiSu tournament. I remain optimistic that these will bring some decent fresh blood into PvP, esp. as the good PvE players are sick and tired of the mind numbing chore that PvE has become.

By the way, GW should always have had tiered tournaments. It would have stemmed a lot of the hyper-elitism and atrophy in the PvP community.

Wishful thinking, IMO. Apart from the game being too old for any sizable resurgence or sudden burst in popularity to occur, its now more and more being marketed and discussed as a MMORPG PvE game.

But that’s not what really killed GWPvP in my mind. The core crush of Guild Wars PvP community is Heroes Ascent and ATs.

Every PvP game that boasts a solid player base has varying levels of serious play. GW was no exception, and was in fact unique in its makeup that the tiers were so well defined. You had the goof off arena, the novice arena, an intermediate arena and finally the black diamond and double black diamond that is GvG.

HA is not an intermediate friendly arena now. The learning curve is too steep for casual players, becoming less a hurdle to play for rewards while improving yourself and more a wall you are expected to have scaled if you want to be taken even marginally seriously.

It was the 24/7 capture the flag play version for GW. Players of dynamic levels of skill could go in and either sorta goof off or get serious, dependant on their desire when they logged in and the group they got.

GvG, pre-AT, was equally flexible for a clan or guild. Got 8 on? Then lets get our rank up and maybe snatch a few champ points in the process.

HA becomes less of a hurdle new players are asked to jump if they wish to improve and more a wall they seem expected to scale. Without the play on demand quality an open ladder offers, GvG becomes rigid as well. People may cater to their guildies timezones, but most do not appreciate having all rewards relegated to a competition between themselves and top 50 players...whenever they want to go for a rewarding game.

This creates a vacuum in the game's tiered structure. There is no intermediate arena to grow from newb to experienced. It’s either play in one of the multitude of kiddie pools AB, RA, TA and HB offers or try to not die too quickly struggling against people who take this game way too seriously sometimes.

So...no. Not only a poorly implemented series of designs; these revamps and changes to both the intermediate and expert arena tiers were a stupid premise from the get go.

For these reasons, I cannot and do not recommend Guild Wars for anyone seeking to enter a PvP environment. OP; you're better off looking at other games. This is not the GW you remember. Save your money or buy something new.

GGs

You forgot to mention AoC.

To the OP, you can buy skillpacks from the online store.

Why did you even post in this thread? If you can't help him, dont post.

Cute little titles haha, jealous because you're too shit at the game to get rank? Because srs pve titles mean you're good at the game, right?

on topic: if you want to play HA or GvG seriously, you're gonna need all the expansions.