End Game content

I have been a long time WoW player and i am finally looking into purchasing Guild Wars. I was wondering what sorts of end game content is availible to me at level 20 (assuming that is the level cap still). Can I PvP at end game? what is its benifits what is it like? Can I do PvE at end game such as raids? What would i gain? What am I trying to gain at end game. Better gear better skills? what are the best ways to obtain these? And my last question, about how many people play Guild wars? I know there is alot of questions here but i am really looking for a new game and this one seems like i could really enjoy it.

Content availability is not based on level (aside from 'Eye of the North' expansion, of which you must be level 10 minimum), but purely on whether you have the area unlocked, or the money/materials required to purchace wanted items. Level 20 is still the cap, yes...and it won't change for GW1, but will for GW2.

PvP is available whenever you want to play it (some areas you will need to
unlock, but not hard to do)

We don't have 'raids' in GW's.

At end-game you will recieve a green end-game item, to obtain a weapon of your choosing (or you may sell the end-game item to a player...up to you), and optional armors according to the campaign, and whether you have the needed cash/materials. Once you finish a campaign, you will be given the option to play in 'Hard Mode', which opens a whole new experience of the game.

Aside from your main questions, there is just far too much information to give you on this forum, so I will leave you with a couple of links that will clear everything up for you:

The Official Guild Wars Site: http://www.guildwars.com/
Guild Wars Wiki: http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

If you are a long time WoW player and want some endgame content that is even closely related to it, don't come to GW.

As for what to do at lvl 20, depending on which game you buy, most of the game is played at lvl 20. The game is more based of of what skills you have than what lvl you are.

Level 20 isn't endgame in GW. It's where the game starts. GW isn't about gaining levels (thank god).

So his game is not based on gear as much as skills? How do you obtain the skills i know you can buy some and quest for others. Are their rare skills that only some characters have because of the difficulty needed to aquire the skills? and im am also very happy the level cap is 20. I never raided very much in WoW so thats not much of a factor. but are there dungeons or something of the like?

Also if I plan on buying Guild wars I will buy all of the expansions and such.

I think if you really enjoyed WoW and are going to come into Guild Wars expecting a similar PvE experience, you'll be rather disappointed. Traveling is rather lacking if you loved trekking to the next area. Rewards from chests and monster drops aren't too rewarding, as prestigious armor is bought bought from NPC armor crafters with the in-game currency. There are some elite dungeons you can do in Eye of the North (requires level 10 character from one of the three other chapters) as well as the Underworld and Fissure of Woe that can be a bit challenging.

It would be best to wipe your slate clean, keep an open mind and enjoy the game.

In the first chapter, Prophecies, you can quest for a lot of the skills. In Factions and Nightfall you have to buy almost all of your skills from the trainers. There are also elite skills which you have to capture from bosses.

You're right, this game has little to nothing to do with gear. Sure, you'll want max damage weapons and the highest armor level, but once you get that max level stuff you can customize it however you want. It's not like there's always something better you could get, like in WoW.

There are dungeons in Eye of the North, the expansion.

So to sum it up this game has small bits of WoW here and their but other than that it is a compleatly different game? sounds good to me . Why Quit WoW just to start up the exact same style of game.

Most of it is PVP.

Not really.
Its either you pick a PvP only char or not.
PvE is simply pve although you can go in the battle isle and pvp with it.

I came here from WoW about 18 months ago and never looked back

It's nice to see the right attitude. If you go into GW not comparing every little thing to WoW, you'll more than likely like it. A lot of people go into it comparing it to something else and get disappointed when it isn't that way. GW is its own thing.

I have never played WoW, but know many people that do. I personally think it's unfair to compare the two games - there are diehard fans of both and it's senseless to sit and split hairs. In regards to your questions, here are some aspects of Guild Wars that I guess you could say differ from WoW:

- A great point was made about reaching level 20 and it being where the game begins. This is not very hard to do in the first place - everyone is meant to reach level 20 relatively quickly.

- As others have said, there's really not much for "end game content". Beating a campaign really only means you're ready to move on to more challenging aspects of the game now that you have most of the areas unlocked. Yes, you can get a green/unique end-game item, but these skins are not rare thus not very popular or highly sought after.

- There aren't "raids", but Guild Wars certainly isn't without its share of challenging activities. There are elite missions, dungeons, and a Hard Mode option for those players who wish to go through any area with some added challenge (and greater reward).

- There are a lot of armor choices for each profession, including "elite" armor sets that you can aspire to. These cost more money and use rare crafting materials, so it's a goal that people tend to work on as they progress through the game. Armor is purely a visual aspect of the game, as players can easily access max armor fairly quickly. You can modify your armor with runes and insignias, but no one max armor is "better" than the other per se.

- quick edit: as far as things to aspire to, other than armor, there are a lot of rare weapons in the game that people either save up to buy, or do an area over and over to earn one themselves. Again, everyone has access to max weapons and any mods they want to put on them. Guild Wars is a visual game as I have said and your weapon choices rely more on what you find visually appealing or what's the most rare if that floats your boat.

- I guess another difference is that you'd notice GW is not as much of a grindfest as WoW seems to be (no offense, just what I hear). There are many interesting titles to aspire towards (and we now know they will help us somehow when GW2 comes out), but completing and grinding for titles is completely optional. One can still progress through the campaigns without feeling they need to grind out a title.

If you're still curious, you might try to look into purchasing a trial code and trying GW out for a few days. Also as others have said, check out guildwars.com. Good luck and I hope this helps clarify things a little!

Thank you all for the kind responses. Something I would not find on the WoW forums, So far I already like the community . From everything you guys/gals have told me I have chosen to try out Guild Wars. You guys said all the right things to convince me to try this game out. and I guess I did kind of make it seem like I was trying to compare it to WoW and in away I was its the only MMORPG I have ever really played so I was trying to compare what the differences would be. And i like how there are many MANY differences I guess I will see you guys on my assassin tommorow. If anyone wants to play with me or roll a new character just pst me with server info and your character name I am always looking for new friends when I join a new game and it would definatly help to have some form of guide through out my early stages of the game. cant wait to see you guys online.

Once again thanks for all the kind/quick responses.

Thats the best part of GW, there is no server info. You can play with everyone at any time no matter what.

Wait, Wait, Wait. there is only 1 server that the entire player base is on the whole time or can you switch between server clusters. Basicly your on the same server but can go to different sub divisions of it. I hope you understand what I am trying to get across.

it's one main central server, connected to different servers based on regions, that you can switch across at any time.

basically if you live in idk america, you will play on the American server, but at any time you can switch to the European one, International, Korean, etc servers to play with other people.

I like how that works. thanks for the quick reply. cant wait to try this game out. would you be able to tell me roughly how many people would be on the american server around peek hours for instance?

I don't think I could even begin to give a rough estimate, but there are more than enough people playing (though there are quite a few ghost towns). You should have no problem getting people to play with, and if it should become problematic, you can always contact some of the friendlier players on the forum.

And don't forget about Henchman and Heroes.

They recently added a feature that allows players not just to jump between districts(servers) but between regions as well. So you can play on the American servers or Europe or Asia or International. Each region will have a set number of districts and some are also broken down in to languages, ie you can go to English Europe or French or Spanish or German, ect...

Each District in a town will hold a max of 100 people, towns vary in the number of districts. Some will be outposts that players just pass through and spend very little time in while others have a standard crowd always there for trading or chatting.

We just finished a special weekend event that brought many players to one city, the number of districts in that city(american server) was over 150+.

If you have any questions feel free to pm me in game.

Crom The Pale

P.S. you can place a players name in your friends list then you can see if they are online nomatter what character they are playing.

or the best alternative hench/hero your way along :P

heroes beat 90%(think thats the correct %) of players!

enjoy the game / welcome and glad you've finally given up WoW ^^ enjoy a real game now :P

Hey, dont insult WoW it was quite fun while it lasted.

In a few hours I will be buying my copy of GW so I don't really have anymore questions. Ill just test everything myself in game. When I get it I will make a new thread or post in this one to see if anyone wants to joinme in making a new character. God only knows how long it is going to take to install.

Its not a long install. You can start playing very quickly, what will happen is that maps will download as you enter them.

You can do a full install with the -image comand in the dos prompt. This does take quite some time, I would recomend doing this while you slept one night to give you the entire game, fully update, in just one night.

You should take into account that this game is almost entirely instance-based which is why there's a single server for the entire US. Whenever you leave a town or enter a mission/dungeon your party will be the only other players you will encounter in that area. When you are in a town you will be able to interact with other players in that town, but aside from that there really isn't the same social environment in wow. In fact, in pve it seems the majority of people play through the game with AI. At least that has been my experience as a new player without a large base of guildmates/friends to group with.