Skill points, dye, and expansions....

Hi and please bear with me through my ignorance...

I just picked up Prophecies (game of the year edition) and started goofing around. I have done some reading through the wikis and the forums and figured out which quests to do to get my primary and secondary skills, etc. I have looked ahead to the post-searing quests to know which skills I will be able to pick up 'for free'. What I can't figure out is how to determine how many skill points I have.

I have checked the tab with the skills and attributes and have played around with attribute points, but I just don't see an area for skill points. I know I have done at least one quest which has rewarded me with a skill point and I assume that I have gained some skill points through leveling, but I just don't see them listed anywhere so I know how many I can spend when I get to post-searing. Am I just totally blind and missing it?

About dyes... what's the big deal with black and white dye? Is it strictly a vanity thing like minipets? I don't plan to stick around and be a permanent pre-searing charachter as this is my first time trying the game and I want to check out all the content. I have collected a few dyes, including a black dye. Should I sell it before I leave pre-searing? Should I sell it in post-searing? Should I hold onto it (assuming I don't care about dying my armor black)? My first character just hit level 8 and I have done every quest I can find, so I just intended to move on out to see the rest of the content.

Would you advise me to just run through the rest of Prophecies before picking up anything else? I don't plan to PvP at all. Am I missing out on content - cool armor/weapons/areas - by not having Eye of the North or Nightfall? What would you suggest?

Thanks for the help!

Skill Points: Hit H.
Dyes: Vanity and are rarer so they cost more.
Expansions: Buy them all.
PvP: You really should at least try it once you get to level 20 and have max stuff and a somewhat decent build. PvP has its fair share of nice people, and...a lot of vocal people. Just ignore the later. ;-)

Hello and welcome to the game.

I have a toon that is permapre.

First the skills are collapsable. IE: there might be a small - and says skills. It is like a menu that you can make big and small. I know that when I started the only time that I was bale to get to place my attribute points was when I lvl'd up and the tab on the screen said - "Spend Attribute points". How this helps. If not look me up this weekend in pre. ImNotYourMother is the name.

As for Black Dye it is a RARE drop. It drops less often than the other colors. This makes it more valuable. I would keep it.

In particular with regard to Skill Points:

Once you leave Pre-Searing, you'll be able to purchase new skills for your character for a varying amount of gold (that caps at 1000g) and a skill point. So, if you have, say, 20 skill points, that means you have the potential to buy 20 new skills for your character, either for their primary or secondary professions.

Black dye is rare and you could probably sell it to perma pre toons for big bucks. www.presearing.com has pre sear prices for dyes on their front page.

Thanks for the input guys. It seems odd that they would place it on the Hero tab... I would think that listing available skill points on the 'K', Skills and Attributes tab would be more intuitive.

-imnotyourmother: Do you recommend holding on to the dye to sell it in post-searing or just to hold on to it indefinately? Is the thinking that maybe one day I will be sorry I sold it because I really want a black chest piece or that the value will go up? I was thinking of selling it so that I can afford to get some decent armor from the NPC armor crafters in post-searing. Or do you think I can get gold quickly enough through the first few quests and some grinding?

-DarkNecrid: Try PvP? WoW is really burning me out on PvP. Maybe once I get a character up in level and am comfortable playing it I will try it, but WoW PvP has been leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe I just suck at PvP in general heh.

Hmm that site shows the pre value for black at 5.5k and the post at 8.5k. If my goal was simply to get some gold to buy decent armor, wouldn't selling it in post be better? Or is it that the post value on that site is not accurate or that it is harder to find buyers in post? Color (dye) me confused.

Thanks again for the insight.

How about the question on expansions and such? Will I be missing out by not picking up Eye of the North or Nightfall while leveling up?

Heh I think this is going to be a waste of a day at work.

Press H to see how many skill points you have, how much XP you've gained, and progress on titles, among other things.

Black Dye is worth somewhere around 7,000g, so if you don't plan on saving it to use on your armor, you can sell it to other players to pay for the next set of armor that you can get in post-searing Ascalon City. When you get there, see the dye trader for current buy/sell price and then sell it to another player for a bit more than the trader's buy price.

As for the other chapters, there are a lot of very useful skills in Nightfall and factions. I would recommend playing through Prophecies first, then getting Nightfall, EotN, then factions. Nightfall & EotN both provide your characters with Heroes, who are so much better than henchmen when set up well, and both have some very powerful PvE only skills, such as Ursan Blessing in EotN (Yeah, I said it.) Both Heroes and PvE only skills make PvE game play extremely easy, especially in Normal mode.

As for PvP, don't rule it out completely, you may find that you like the challenge. I don't PvP much at all, but I do enjoy the occasional Alliance Battle (available with factions), which is a less intense form of PvP.

Edit: Leveling up in Nightfall is faster than in Prophecies but slower than in factions. But I'd suggest you take your time leveling up with your first character, because it really doesn't take all that long to hit level 20 any way.

Thanks Kook... I think I'll be doing a lot of Wiki reading this afternoon

I would suggest also going for you LDoA title while in pre. Its a good way to get started on your KoaBD title. Theres a great guide here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10230740
If you need help leveling you can PM my perma pre.
Good Luck!

WoW PvP sucks really really badly, and is a complete class based RPS fest. Warlocks beat everyone but Rogues. Rogues beat everyone except Hunters with that 41 point beastmaster talent. etc It blows, and don't let that sour taste ruin something far better. Guild Wars has the best PvP on the market right now, simply because it does a lot of things right that a lot of other games don't.

What's your IGN? I can add you to my flist and talk to you about it, answer questions, etc, in-game.

Yeah there never seems to be a shortage of rocks to break my scissors in WoW

I'll shoot ya a PM.

Just my opinion, but yes, you are missing out if you don't get Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North...Well, not so much Eye of the North, if you want to get more, I personally would get it last.It's focused more for people already level 20 with a very good handle on things anyway, as far as I can tell.Though it's not hard at all.

I do reccomend though, that you finish one campaign at a time.Go through Prophecies at least once, and then get Factions or Nightfall, go through it, get the next, etc.I got Prophecies and Factions at the same time.I found Prophecies painfully boring, and I tried Factions before really getting through Proph.Loved Factions, moved on to Nightfall when it came out.I am just now to the point I went back and finished Prophecies, and though it was painfully easy to me, it was great.So I recommend finishing one before getting the next, but definately get the next campaigns as well.They add a lot in terms of armor, classes, skills, weapons, heroes, content all around etc. And are great fun in their own right.

On the Black Dye: Keep it if you think you find an armor that goes well with it and eventually will buy it. But if you need the cash, then sell it in POST, as Pre has low prices for it. Yes, they're for vanity, I personally don't understand who people are mourning for dressed all in black, as I doubt it's for the good looks (and if so, eww).

Skill Points: Pretty much said already, you also need those to capture elite skills and to buy consumables (in Eye Of The North). Hit H on the keyboard and you'll also see the experience you have achieved (by killing stuff and doing quests), and other fuzzy stuff.

On the expansions note: I had only Prophecies for about 4 months. Granted, I couldn't enter high end zones, couldn't farm, had a very hard time doing it all with henchmen and PuG's, and my old guild mocked me, BUT, I learned to play the game as a ranger (my ranger Prophecies only build had the typical setup, even though I never searched here or PvXwikied it), I learned how to pull, and had lots of fun dying constantly. So they're not really needed, as fun can be extracted even from a wood stick. But if you don't want to feel so excluded, then at least buy Nightfall + Factions. Nightfall, for the heros, Factions for the skills.

I'd say stick to Prophecies, have the most fun out of it without buying anything else, then when you have learned the ropes, buy the other two I just said. If you need any further help, PM me in game: Rustle Of The Trees or the one in my profile <----<.

PvP: Some people have natural talent to pwn in bits, some other don't. Do as you suit, but you'll need at least 3 campaigns to PvP decently with most classes.

EotN is just crap and will make you a terribaed, noob elitist player.

On a side note: Weapon skins are also for vanity, any max weapon and any max armor will have the same stats as any other max armor/weapon. All max bows do 15-28 damage, all max hammers do 19-35 damage, all max ranger armor is 70 and any max monk armor has 60, just giving examples.

Games don't make people elitist, sorry. The people who are elitist do it because they are dumb. (ie: people who think mesmers genuinely suck in PvE, people who use Ursan because everything else sucks (it doesn't, it's just a bit slower at times)) And they are elitist because that is their behavior...they were elitist before EotN too, EotN just made it a bit easier on them to be more prevalent.

EDIT:
On the whole though, get Proph, Factions, Nightfall first, beat all 3, and then buy EotN. EotN is a good PvE buy, but it is not a must get. The only thing it really brings to PvP atm is [Patient Spirit] & [Body Blow] & [Spotless Mind] & [Spotless Soul] & [Foul Feast]

I'll contribute to this, I like to help. My best advice is to talk to anybody with a green exclamation point over their head and do the side quests as well as the main story line. One point that is often overlooked is that prophecies has a great story to tell. Doing the side quests will give you a good idea of the backstory to the chapter, and of course, racking up XP, gold and skills. Don't be tempted to rush through just for the sake of getting it over with so you can start farming. Each of the areas are balanced to keep up with your character's level, just enough to be tough on you, but not enough to be overly frustrating. Expect it to be a challenge, and enjoy the lush diversity of scenery, locale's and foes. Press the "N" button and add me in game to your friends list, Shiishii Momo, I am generally on after 1700 hrs Central, and I would be happy to help you with questions, concerns or even in doing some questing. I would not mind going back to kick the crap out of http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galrath.

Read carefully, I said noob elitist, and I intended that two words phrase to be one same concept. So wether if you're elitist or not, EotN makes people noob. Like, you buy it, and as soon you get [ursan blessing], you have five less braincells.

No it doesn't?

I have Ursan Blessing, but I'm also not an idiot, so I don't use it, because I know using skills in the game works just as good.

Even then I don't blame people for using it, they're just playing by the current rules of the game. I don't think they're noob either (that would be elitist), just interested in beating something a lot faster & easier.

I'd keep the black dye, someday you might end up broke and you can sell it. Or you might make some friends who are really looking for some and you can help them out. Or you might end up getting into the vanity part of the game.

Like others said, play one campaign, then go buy the next one. That's what I'm doing. You aren't missing much content because the content opens up as you progress through a campaign.

I'm not into PvP either but sometimes its fun to do to kill a few minutes when you're sick of questing. Doesn't hurt