Mind helping a newbie?

Mkay, so, I just got Guild Wars: Nightfall about 3 days ago. I have this tendency to over-prepare myself for any game I'm about to play, so I headed over to PvX a while before I got the game and began to look at skills and decide what class I want to be. A few things didn't make sense to me, but I assumed I'd figure them out once I started playing the game. Unfortunatly, those things still remain confusing to me. These two things have been class switching and the confusing wording for weapon sets used on PvX.

Firstly, how does class switching work. I know you can only change your secondary class, but when can you change it and how do it you that. Secondly, what do things like "A wand and offhand with 20/20 HCT/HSR" or "Survivor armor" mean.

Any help would be appreciated.

You can change your secoundary later in the game. 20/20 refers to a Wand/Foucs the half casting and recharge of spells by 20% respectivly. Always good for a build but not needed. Survivor is an insignea(spelling?) that increases your maximum health and it put onto armor. Don't worry about haveing a good build right now, if you are just starting play for fun.

And also if you are just starting, and need help with quests or missions or anything, feel free to pm me in game =)

My dervish is still on Istan and I need some motivation to get her though, so if you need some help just PM me!

IGN: Reality Syphon

hm, will try to answer as completely as I can

I am assuming that you have not played any of the guildwars chapters.

primary/secondary profession:
you must pick a primary to start with---your character will have a unique look that only your class will have and you will only be able to buy armor for your primary profession...eg dervishes look different from say monks. You will ONLY be able to buy dervish armor.....when you get armor it will be basic--you can modify it with insignias and runes. Insignias can give you extra health, energy, more armor etc and they will attach to the armor piece by piece (you can have only 1 insignia per piece of armor), runes are similar in that the attach to armor and you can have only one per piece, however some runes will give you extra points toward an attribute (eg dervish again --can have an earth prayers rune to give them an extra 1 to 3 points in that attribute)....while others are similar to insignias.
Insignias are a prefix on the armor, runes are a suffix...so if you have istani armor with a survivor insignia (survivor gives extra health) and a minor earth prayers rune the armor will say survivor istani armor of minor earth prayers.

you can buy insignias and runes from a rune merchant, however, they might not always have all of them available at one time (they are merchants!).

When you get to a certain level you will be asked to pick a secondary profession....which you will get a few skills for and can use (but you wont get the primary attribute for that one---you can only have one primary!)....after a few missions you will be able to talk to a skill/profession changer and change your secondary profession...again you will get only a few skills in that new one...BUT you will be able to change back to the old one anytime you are in an outpost/town (go to the K screen and where it says your profession there will be a drop down menu...select the one you want)...you can take all of the secondaries available in your chapter along with the 6 core professions (to get say assassin and ritualist you would need to have that chapter).
You can also buy skills from a skills npc for both your primary and secondary professions. They can be found in most LARGE outposts or towns (not all).

HCT halves casting time usually with a percentage up to 20
HSR halves skill recharge same as above.
they both give you a percentage of the time to either have your skills recharge faster or cast them quicker.

as you play the game you will see other options ....swords, scythes spears....shields etc...with other options. And as you play you will get a better understanding of the workings and such....but for now just play--just worry about learning your character/getting used to the game, the rest will come with time.

good luck and welcome to guild wars.

Thanks for the help. I'm beginning to get the hang of things. I have one more question. I know that when you make PvP characters, you get to use any skills you've unlocked before. Is the same true for Insignias and Runes? I see that whenever I get a new rune, it says "Item Unlocked: [Insert Rune Here]" so I assume it works the same way.

yes, exactly the same. Any pvp charachter has access to all unlocked items on the account.

Whatever you do don't rush it, esp with a first character.

Try out the game for a while then do each of the secondary missions that way you can try out all the secondary classes with your primary.
Not happy with your primary ok try out another class and compare them you have four character slots.

Its better to spend a little time before selecting the secondary class your going with, you can change later but it will be with you for days maybe weeks before you get to that point.

Everything you find is worth something so pick everything up and store or sell them for ready cash.
Believe me when you get to the point where you need mony for something important you will be better prepared.

Most of all Enjoy

Since you have NF, you'll be able to change your secondary profession once you have finished the quest "Hunted!" You'll have to pay the profession changer a one time cost of 500g for each additional secondary you want.

And the runes/insignias/inscriptions/weapons mods you have unlocked can be accessed by your PvP char using the equipment menu(default "J").

I also don't mind helping out. Just send me a whisper if you ever need help =)
My in-game name is Shiroken Hexreaper.