Character Progression and Skills

Hello,
I'm rather new to the game, have only played for a week, and was wondering about a couple things.

1. In the game there are Missions and Quests. I was under the impression that you needed to do the Quests in order to unlock the Missions, but clearly that isn't so.. Sooo is it even worth the time to run through these Quests or can I just focus on Missions?

2. I've been asking about builds for an Ele/Me. I want to do big damage to many foes at a time and someone pointed me in the directions of an "Echo Nuker" build. I looked it up and found that it uses Arcane Echo and Echo skills. But whats confusing me is that Echo effects skills and the build just utilizes spells. How does it work??

I know its a somewhat long post but responses are much appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

Welcome to Guild Wars =).

1. There are two basic types of quests: Primary Quests and non-Primary Quests (to be broad). The Primary Quests ARE REQUIRED to get to Missions (which are the primary storyline of the campaigns). It's easy to differentiate between them: Open your Quest Log (L). Primary Quests are listed at the top in their own category.

2. As you have noticed, there are different kinds of "skills." The broadest of these categories is the word "Skill," under which there are subcategories, Attack Skill, Chant, Shout, Weapon Spell, Spell, etc. So for the purposes of [Echo], a "Spell" IS A "Skill," but a "Skill" may not necessarily be a "Spell." It's a bit confusing at first, but you'll get used to it.

If you need further help, I suggest joining a guild in order to have immediate answers to these questions. Either way, good luck, and have fun!

Thank you!

Just one more quick question about the Quests. If I just keep doing only the primary quests will I be able to progress at a steady rate? Or will it get too difficult to do on my own?
I just want to finish Prophecies ASAP. I just ordered Factions and will be purchasing Nightfall soon. I already have EoTN but haven't ventured that far yet.

Hey pm me in game at warrior running and I'll help

Alright, I'll be logging in soon.

In prophecies you can do any mission without primary quest, but for other campaigns you do have to do primary quests =/
[echo] and [arcane echo] are used to "copy" skills that take a while to recharge so you can use them again.
Welcome to GW!

wrong-o. [echo] copies any skill that you use. [arcane echo] copies any skill that is classified as a spell.

[echo] will copy spells also.

A spell is a skill :/

different classifications

skills are at the top...
meaning anything u put on to ur skillbar is a skill

skills branch into spells, attack skills, stances, etc

spells branch into enchantment spells, weapon spells, hex spells, etc


edit: and regards to specifically how the echo nuker works
(im gonna use meteor shower for example)

1. cast [echo]
2. cast [meteor shower]
>>>> echo turns into meteor shower
3. cast [arcane echo]
4. cast the echo'd [meteor shower]
>>>> arcane echo turns into meteor shower
5. cast arcane echo'd [meteor shower]

so u've jus gotten off 3 meteor shower spells


ur skillbar should look sumptin like this when u pull off the chain:

1. [meteor shower][echo][arcane echo]

2. [meteor shower][meteor shower][arcane echo]

3. [meteor shower][meteor shower][meteor shower]

In Prophecies, many quests reward you with new skills. In Factions and Nightfall, you only get skills from quests are the VERY beginning, and only a handful. The rest of the skills you get you have to purchase from skill trainers. This makes acquiring skills in Prophecies cheaper (don't spend money and skill points for them) and also fills in the story with those quests. If you see a quest, look at what the reward for it is. If the reward offers a skill you want, then do that quest to get the skill.

Most builds will use skills from later in the game, or from other campaigns. So a skill like Echo you can't use until you get to where the boss who uses it is at. That is after you do 22/25 missions (if doing them all and in order). A large part of what I found fun in the game was finding new skills to make my builds better. After you have played a while, and have a lot of skills available, you get a lot more options for builds. For instance, as an Elementalist, I wanted to try out Earth Magic. However, the skills I got early in the game were all Fire Magic skills. It took me a long time to get skills that would allow me to make a good build based off another element.

Someone already answered your question, but I want to add: the campaigns treat them differently. Factions won't even let you into a mission outpost unless you've completed the primary quest. Therefore, until you finish the primary quest to get to Vizunah, you're not even going to get into that outpost. The only exception is running a non-Factions character through Shing Jea missions for titles.

In Nightfall, you can enter the mission outpost, but you can't start the mission proper until you've finished the primary quest.

Thanks very much for all the explanations. Your information helps me out alot. So far my build is coming together alright. I've aquired Arcane Echo, Meteor Shower and Fireball and have tried small volleys on some bosses. My only complaint is that it takes such a long time to get off one Shower.. By the time the second one is in queue the target has already moved out of the first shower... Are there other builds that allow me to get off quick and strong attacks?

I might be trying the wrong element all together though. I heard that Air magic is focused more on damaging 1 target at a time. Would that give me quicker attacks than the Fire magic builds? While still put out high enough damage to take them down quickly??

I'm not really familiar with E casting times and such but I looked over all skills at the wiki and there are many 1/2 second casts for both Air and Fire Magic. MS is just too powerful hence why they don't people spamming it. To speed up casting time, all I can think of is upgrades or focus items. I've seen scrolls that reduce casting time.

If you want to use MS but want it to cast quicker I suggest 'Glyph of Sacrifice' or 'Glyph of Essence'. I prefer 'Glyph of Sacrifice' over the other one cuz at least you keep your energy.