Moving to Guild Wars

Profession in Guild Wars defines your look and general style of play, but your role depends on the skills you take (this is called 'build' - not sure how experienced you are, so I'm trying to define everything ). Also, Guild Wars actively sabotages tank&nuke strategy, because melee characters do tonnes of damage (unless you try to tank, which will gimp their damage output) and because even in PvE, monsters run away from area damage (especially area damage over time - if you play elementalist, Firestorm is a LOT worse than it looks on paper). Besides, even a barely competent protection monk will buff -any- party member to the damage-absorbing ability of a large rock, in a much better way than just having a thick armor will. Read description of a [Spirit Bond] for an example.

With that in mind, front line is dealing high damage, midline primarily shuts down the monsters, but they can help with damage dealing, while backline takes care of the defence. The easiest way to tell: fronline targets monsters from close range for attacks and spells, midline targets monsters from long range, and backline targets party members.

That said, professions do tend toward certain positions.

Warrior, Dervish: normally frontline
Assassin: despite the fact that they are melee, they are correctly played as midliners. You teleport or run in, kill or shutdown the priority target, then run away
Rangers: Midline. Some gimmick builds use rangers as frontliners (with warrior or dervish secondaries), both in PvP and PvE.
Paragons: Midline. They're primarily defense, but they need to attack and gather adrenaline to power the shouts
Mesmers, Elementalists, Necros: Midline. Some gimmick builds use them as backliners (with Ritualist or Monk secondaries) due to the bonuses to spellcasting. There are also (rarely used) mesmer frontline builds with [Illusionary Weaponry] skill. Note that elementalists have best snaring and best anti-physical counters in the game - it's a shame to use them as pure nukers
Monks: Backliners or midliners. Monks that use Smiting Prayers play midline, and are becoming common in PvP lately.
Ritualists: Backline, midline, sometimes even frontline (using [Spirit's Strength]). They're meant to be jacks of all trades, but they have their very unique style of playing.

The only thing you can't change about your character is your primary profession. You can change secondaries, attributes and skills at will, and it's a good idea to experiment often and pay attention to what works. Also see http://pvxwiki.com for the common, established builds.

Yeah party size is a problem in GW but welcome guys!
Do you guys have all the campaigns? If so there are alot more choices in profession/skill combos you can make...plus the Eye of the North expansion gives access to even more skills...good luck!

As snaek said, though with weird english, melee beats the crap out of anything both in PvE and PvP. Midliners are there to boost this damage (I <3 [splinter weapon]), or to shutdown special targets, such as using [bha] on a enemy monk/ele.

Backline is kinda obvious: defense.

Melee isn't for tanking. Casters aren't pure damage dealers. Not in GW.

A setup for PvE could include:

• Imbagon (Paragon with [Save Yourselves!]). Will provide basically all the damage reduction you'll ever want.
• Orders guy (necro/dervish, the latter sometimes played as hero) (buffing damage from physicals through Order of Pain/Vampire) and providing support with skills like [foul feast] (note the description here is outdated) and [dark fury] (another Order spell).
• One or two monks (with an Imbagon in the team, probably only one needed). Good skills like [woh], [unyielding aura] (note also the description is outdated), [divert hexes], [protective spirit], [aegis], etc.
• 2-3 physicals. [moebius strike] + [death blossom] sins, [wounding strike] dervishes, [earth shaker]/[eviscerate]/[triple chop]/[dragon slash] warriors. Doing BIG DOMAGE and raping mobs, sometimes providing support like an extra copy of [SY!]. Physicals must-have: Deep Wound (awesomest condition evar).
• The rest: Midliners that fit whatever you want/need. Snares are gud in HM as the casters kite a lot (well, more than usual). Buffs to your melee like Splinter Weapon (notice the trend?), condition spreading like Daze, Weakness and Blind, and, of course, interrupts (like UBER skill [distracting shot]).

Someone mentioned that melee draws extra aggro. With an Imbagon that shouldn't be a problem. And even then, learn how to PULL.

Pulling is also teh awesomest thing evar. LIKE TYPING IN ALL CAPS. The team stays like 1-2 aggro bubbles away, somebody else goes ahead and uses a long range bow (longbow/flatbow) to grab the aggro of one group at a time, thus avoiding a wipe.

This all waffling I just wrote applies to HM and considers you have all campaigns. In NM you can aggro 30 monsters at once and kill them all with Fire magic nuking without physicals, and then you'll think you're good and you will be dead wrong. Different approaches should be taken if playing only with NPC's instead of real players, though.

As a final note: Tanking sucks. Welcome to GW.

QFT. Normal Mode is easy enough that this is true almost anywhere and by the time you get to harder areas and/or Hard Mode, you will have a much better idea of which of your Guild's characters work well together.

You will not be able to play with friends who created their characters in a different campaign until you reach a certain point.

So your group's first decision is where are we starting so that our team build will be viable. Having multiple characters you can start one in each campaign to keep things going at a good pace with different teams.

Mesmers rock! While they are the stars of PvP, even in PvE they are great fun. I have characters covering all profs except Paragon and Assassin. I will admit that playing a healer is not my thing, so my monk runs with a smiting skill bar and my rit doesn't carry much in the Restoration line.

Remember that if a guildmate finds they don't like the role of the character they have developed, the team roles are not set in stone.

Do you know when we reach that point in the game where we can play togetter?
is it early in the game, somewhere in the middle of the storyline or at the end??

Because I am about the only profession from a later sequel.. Maybe they can already start playing the game (they are waiting in the noobisland and leave when everybody is ready) if it takes a bit of time to reach that point. (Ive got some lvl 20 characters in my unable-to-play-nightfall-becauseIforgoteverythingaboutmyaccount) So I will be able to go to them as soon as those guys from Guild Wars give me that info back xD

Transfer spots are as follows:
Prophecies - Lion's Arch, fairly easy to get to, in Kryta, quarter way through (Proph. is long).
Factions - Kaineng Centre, five minute jog from the Market Place (where you go from starter Island to Mainland), quarter way.
Nightfall - Consulate Docks opened by Storyline, about level 15-ish depending on how much you speedway through Istan.

You can get a run to the docks as early as you want for about 500g.

I wouldn't suggest new players skip content though. Besides, Docks taxis can also become ferries to LA and Kaineng, which mean you can be level 2 Dervish in Kaineng if you really wanted to.

Well.. I am going to skip this.
Why? Because all my friends will be waiting for me in prophecies and Im going to be a Paragon :P
So 500g to get to the docks? that will be 50g each xD lol

is it easy to go from the docks in prophecies to the starting city in prophecies? (I never played prophecies before..) or do I need help to go to the starting city (ill be about lvl 1/2)

So.. Skipping content? NO WAY! I am going to complete ALL (main)content in ALL sequals ^^
Im not thát crazy :P lol


Wit~


Btw, I just bought Prophecies and Factions.. It's safe to install them right? Cuz I forgot my account at Nightfall (im recovering it at the helpdesk) I wanna merge them.. And I dont want to screw that >.>
Lol, isnt it annoying that I ask these stupid questions? XD

Getting from LA to Ascalon City (Post)? Fairly easy, if you know how to use Wiki maps to find routes. You can get a run from LA to Ascalon for a couple of plat, but I've never used those services. I suggest if you get to the docks, pick up your max armour while there, the entire thing costs 5 plat minues materials.

So I need to pay? >.>
What do I exactly need?
and is 5 plat much? (I really cant remember a thing.. I didnt play GW for over a year)
how much gold is 5 plat? or.....

frontline (dmg):

war
reliable dps - make sure their blade is always hitting a foe
some of the best ias (increased attack speed) and ims (increased movement speed) skills, to make sure that this -always- happens
other highlights: good knockdown options, deepwound, high armor

derv
their strength is their weapon - the scythe can hit up to 3 adjacent foes
i highly recommend [wounding strike] for spammable deepwound
other highlights: can offer support/healing to teamates as well

sin
while they're auto-attack isnt as good
they make up for this with their attack skills
spammable [death blossom] ftw
the downside is that their attack skills may not always be rdy, and u get screwed if they're blocked, missed, or disabled
other highlights: dual strikes and [moebius strike] can be used to exploit various pve skills (adrenaline and energy based)

midline (support):

ranger
interupts, interupts, and moar interupts
can also spread poison, but....interupts!
attacks from range, and switches targets instantly, not necessarily meant for single-target dps (unless spiking as a group)
other highlights: also some decent aoe attacks in teh form of [barrage] or [incendiary arrows]

paragon
["save yourselves"]
has party-wide support shouts (buffs) and decent single-target dps
very good energy management and adrenaline gain abilities
tho very few -good- energy/adren skills to fully take advantage of this
other highlights: they have ummm...purrty angel wing animations 0__o


too lazy to do teh rest
but will, if requested

One platinum (or 'K', this should give you an idea of monetary value) is One Thousand gold.

This techincally isn't a lot to some older players (or those who know how to get a foothold in the economy early or whatever), but it can seem daunting to those starting out. Doing a fair amount of side quests (love side quests!) and picking/selling all drops is a good way of racking up gold, but in earlier areas this can be a bit harder, especially if you have hench as they take shares of gold (and drops I think).

To give you an idea, basic armour is 1k per piece. Prestige is (usually) 15k per piece (to craft). You can buy weapons from other players for anything from 1k to over 100k, but that's all about skins and mods.

@snaek
Whoa! Ima use that
Im still curious about some, in parcicular the Necromancer and Elementalist (and Monk lol)
Elementalist as damage dealer? should we even take one?
necromancer aka minion spammer ftw or bloodpool?
Monk healing only? or attacking/buff? (we are always in a party.. So he wont be an outsider when healing only xD)

@tatile
ah ok, i get the picture..
My friends are currently collecting items in the noob island (they are waiting for me in there LOL and they will get out when I get to the starting city in prophecies)
So you think they have 5plat after a few days? they are with 3 in there I think.. maybe more xD

And now I remember I was collecting all those plats for my paragon prestige armor :P I screwed like 40 plat because I bought the first armor >.>


Wit~

Minion master works, but I feel Curses work better. I'm spoilt by physical damage coupled with Barbs and occasionally Mark of Pain though

Monks are usually heal/prot hybrid, meaning they heal damage, but can also negate it and remove coniditions.

Elementalists are fine, but some of their skills have monster scattering from where you want them.

I wish I had that many friends playing with me at one point lol

@Tatile
"elements are -fine-" does this mean we should switch it for a different profession? Would that be better for the party?
and do you suggest us to take 1/2 monks and 1/2 necros?

@random guitarist
well.. this is my first time im actually going to play with a whole bunch of friends.
We first played a different game and met eachother there, but the makers of that game just screwed up the game >.>
so we were mainly talking on the forum (in stead of playing the game >.<) and decided to stay togetter and play another game.. which is....... Guild Wars!
Im so excited ^^

Oh no, don't swtich, it's just in some areas they can trouble, and that some of their skills can be deterimental to careful planning and such (Fire Storm, a core Ele skill you get very early causes mobs to scatter and go after squishies than minions).

Your team makeup can depend on your area. Monks are very useful, but pure healing bars doesn't always work that well. I'd say, given you've got just about one of every profession, you have a Healing and Protection Prayers Monk and a Ritulaist with Restoration/Channeling for support and healing.

For Necromancers, go with whatever they feel best with. Minion mastering is great and all, but I feel heroes can excel at it better (Death Nova requires you to target minions, which is hard), but Spiteful Spirit bars are usually better run by humans as they know how to prioritize.

Take flick into the Campfire and also just play the game, you'll find out then what you feel is best.

Awesome! Well message me in game some time (Y)