A few questions from a Newbie

Well I've always heard of the game Guild Wars when ever I go search up for a MMORPG and I've finally decided to try it. I plan to get the game within this week, but before I actually get it I decided to do some research and know more about the game. Well first of all I would like to ask is it possible just to get Nightfall and get access to all the professions/classes or do I have to get all the expansions (Prophecies, Fractions and Nightfalls)?

I have been around the forums and now know pretty much about the essentials of ever class and how they work. But however I have a few questions about the game itself I would like to ask:

What are Heros?

When can I get my 2nd profession and what are they requirements?

Can you have the same 2nd profession ad your first one? For example: Warrior/Warrior?

Finally, I need some advise on profession because since I have not personally tried the classes so Im not sure what they are capable of. I personally favor spellcasters or ranged classes for a start. I like a control style of play. To basically disable the opponent and kill them after you have full control of the battle. I also like to fully nuke with high sustainable damage which is good for solo too.

Thank you,

Regards,
Kenusa

1) heroes are supped up henchmen. they are both AI controlled, except you can directly control the skills and equipment they use. you can only bring 3 heroes per player.

2) second professions are professions that you can choose. they really do not have any requirements. the only difference is that you do not receive the second profession's primary attribute. for example, if you go W/N, you will receive the warrior primary attribute (strength) but not the necromancer primary attribute (soul reaping).

3) no, you cannot go W/W, Mo/Mo, etc.

What are Heros?
--AI-controlled party members. The game also supplies "henchmen" to round out your party if you choose to play alone or with fewer than the maximum number of human players. The difference is that you can set the skills for your heroes. You mostly earn heroes in the Nightfall and Eye of the North expansions.

When can I get my 2nd profession and what are they requirements?
--You get your secondary early on in any chapter of the game. The requirements are no more than a simple quest chain.

Can you have the same 2nd profession ad your first one? For example: Warrior/Warrior?
--No, and there would be no benefit to that. The benefit of a secondary is to use skills from that profession to make up for the things your primary lacks... or to make your primary skills better.

Finally, I need some advise on profession because since I have not personally tried the classes so Im not sure what they are capable of. I personally favor spellcasters or ranged classes for a start. I like a control style of play. To basically disable the opponent and kill them after you have full control of the battle. I also like to fully nuke with high sustainable damage which is good for solo too.
--You sound like an elementalist or mesmer, my friend. Might I suggest an ele primary and Mez secondary. (also, you can change your secondary at will about halfway through the game, but your primary stays forever)

Have Fun

Thank you for the replies. I greatly appreciate it.

elementalists- water ele's have snares to slow everyone down, air can go anti melee with some good damage, fire is stright aoe damage, earth is defensive buffs and damge

mesmers- singe target shutdown with domination is what you'll use in pve the most

necromancers- curses sounds what you are looking for. [spiteful spirit] turns enemy attacks into damage for them (aoe, so lots of damage). there is a plethora of debuff's in the form of hexes in this line, giving you control of the battle easier

I have played all these classes that i described, although i delted the mesmer along time ago.


edit- in guild wars you wont be useing the same build for solo farming as you do for the normal game, but all the proffesion I listed that met your criteria can solo farm (with mesmers being the weakest at it)

ele's can use earth to farm with [sliver armour][stoneflesh aura][armour of earth][obsideon flesh] there are a few water builds that use [mist form] and sopme fire nuker builds with earth to stay alive

mesmers- www.pvxwiki.com i'm not farmiliar with mesmer farming

necromancer- 55 with [spiteful spirit] or 55 with [spoil victor] and [vampric gaze] or [necrosis]

Its very hard to get a real feel for the professions in GW without actually playing them. Some play similar to other games but for the most part they are all very unique to GW.

GW is based upon team play, even the PvE is all team based save for a very rare few instances.

For example if you buy Nightfall you can start a Paragon, they are very strong armored spear throwing chars that use Shouts to enhance themselves and the entire party. They gain energy back depending on how many people are effected by thier shouts.

Alone they tend to be weak, in a party they can massivly increase the overall parties damage and defence.

Elementalists are fun if you like the ranged attack.

One other thing you asked about were the Classes I beleive that in NightFall the Only characters you CANT be are a Ritualist and an Assassin you will need Factions to have access to those classes. You can add campaings as you see fit. You can get any of the other guild wars games and just add them to your account and you will be able to cross over into those other areas from nightfall and such. If you later decided that you would like to try out an Assassin or Ritualist you could purchase Factions and link it to your account so your Assassin or Rit could cross over into nightfall and complete the nightfall story line as well as the factions storyline. Of course your NF character could cross over into Factions and Finish that storyline.

Welcome to Guild Wars!!

There are 6 "core" classes available in all campaigns - Warrior, Ranger, Monk, Elementalist, Necromancer, and Mesmer. Nightfall has 2 more classes - Dervish and Paragon. Factions has Assassin and Ritualist.
If you only have Nightfall, you will be able to access all 6 core classes and the 2 Nightfall classes, but not the Factions classes.

Heroes are customizable NPCs that you can take with you to help you. There are also non-customizable "henchmen" which you can add to your party. Heroes and henchmen are useful if you don't have a full party of human players. (Often, heroes are better than some human players, but never as much fun. )

You can get a secondary profession quite early on. There are no specific requirements for it.

Yes and No. You can't actually have a W/W for example, but you don't need to actually put any attribute points or use any skills from your secondary profession, so you can be essentially just a Warrior/nothing(anything). Many people take Monk as a secondary just for the "hard" rez (Rebirth, Resurrect, instead of a rez signet) without putting any points in any monk attribute.

You probably would want to start with either a Ranger or an Elementalist. A Necromancer is also a good choice with a variety of 'builds'.

I think everyone has said it before me, but you sound like an elementalist or a mesmer. Personally, I think an elementalist is easier to start out and get a feel of the game with, rather than jumping straight in with a mesmer.

I agree. My first character was a Mesmer, and I found that they are much harder to be good at as the attributes are incredibly different, but effective if used together.

Ele is a great class for someone just starting out, but I also recommend Necromancer for a bit of versatility.

Thank you for the comments and suggestions, you guys really gave a me a kick to the game.
I have finally bought my Guild Wars today. I was originally looking for the Night Falls expansion but they were sold out in my area so I went for the most original Prophecies.

EDIT: I'm now stuck between a PvP build or a PvE, since PvE is used for leveling and PvP is for end game battles. Are there stat resets in GW?

PvP builds are used for PvP battles - the "end game" battles are still PvE. A PvE build can be used in PvP.

If you are interested in PvP, you could make a PvP only character. But even then, you may want to do some PvE to unlock skills, etc.

Stat reset = delete character and start over.

Stat reset = reallocate skill points. You don't have to delete to do a full reset.

Thank you for the replies!

Bump!

How do I level my henchmans? and how come my henchman went from lv6 down to lv3?

Edited: self faceplam. he was talking about henchmen not heroes.

You don't level henchmen. Henchmen are set at a certain level depending upon the outpost. My guess: you went from someplace like Fort Ranik to Ascalon City.