I don't know where to begin [returning player]

[To the mods, I did read the stickied threads and checked the FAQs and what not, but still couldn't find an adequate answer. As I don't know anyone who plays Guild Wars anymore, it seemed like an appropriate post. If there is a place that I can be forwarded to that would contain it, please send a private message and I'll gladly take that route instead.]

Hello! My name is Arminel, and I'm looking to start playing again after not having played in nearly four years when I was much younger and far less wise. Honestly, when I began playing, it was with a group of much more intelligent and more older players who I tagged along with and thus much of the lingo, lore, and terms are quite lost upon me. I've looked through the wikis, but nothing seems to click. Admittedly, I'm a World of Warcraft player (Hiss! I know.) and used to play Maple Story (Again, hiss!).

Anyways, I played two or three characters in Prophecies (not bragging, establishing my previous experience) to 20 and played no pvp except for the Pre-Searing battle and a few Winter Snowball fights and didn't even finish the game since those I played with didn't have time and I lacked the knowledge, expertise, and patience to find a group to do so. I remember doing some later group instances, like one with several dragons of varying elements that we barely made it through. Upon Factions coming out, I bought the expansion, suffered a month without internet and was completely out-of-sorts with the game which I abandoned for a game with a flat-line learning curve (Counterstrike) being the jittery teenager that I was.

So, as it stands, what would be the best way going about learning the game again, or rather, learning it completely for the first time? I don't wish to go about deleting the said leveled and geared characters (Warrior, Ranger, and Mesmer if my memory serves me correctly) but I thought perhaps re-leveling a character of the same type would serve me well. I realize that an MMO (or CORPG, as I remember GW likes being called) requires work and dedication and time, but if there's a way to simply re-orient myself with the game without having to grind through the questing again, I'd appreciate any push in the right direction.

Unfortunately, I found out that you can't rename your characters. I can only hope my teenage years were more mature in naming Guild Wars characters than I remember my maturity being.

try the campfire. thats where they talk about builds and questions about different professions.

You mentioned that you have Nightfall. Why don't you start your new character there. The learning curve is shorter than Prophecies, and will get you back in the game without repeating exactly what you did before. You will also gain heroes (customizable henchmen) to help you out.

The Official wiki is available in-game through F10 or Help on the Menu or by typing /wiki in the chat bar.

The dragon episode you remember is The Dragon's Lair mission which you do after ascension and which brings you to Droknar's Forge to begin the Southern Shiverpeak missions.

Feel free to come back when you have more specific questions. We love to help people.

NOTE: you can press "M" for map and you will be able to see which missions that character has completed - one sword is mission; two swords stands for mission/bonus.

Doh! I meant Factions! D:

Lusciious, I'm more in need of an overview before I get to class specifics.

Darcy, that's a good suggestion. I was never quite sold on the Assassin (cliche) or Ritualist (weird) concepts though, perhaps I'll start over with a Mesmer or Elementalist in Factions, I never quite geared him for 20. I'm quite strapped for cash, so picking up Nightfall isn't an option right now, though Paragon with the Greek flavor is very interesting.

The whole Factions campaign is very short - 13 missions. The beginner island is a good tutorial with pop up tips. The first mission is a step by step walkthru. Try an ele or a necro if you don't want to try the Factions-only professions. That way you won't be repeating yourself.

The assassins are fun as long as you think of them as in-and-out knife fighters and not some super ninja.

The ritualists have a variety of functions from attack to support healers.

Lusciious' suggestion was good. The stickied basic threads in each subforum on Campfire give a good overview of each professions uses.

there were a lot of changes to the skills in the game however very little about the actual core gameplay has changed, i would suggest either starting a new character in prophesy or continuing on your characters where ever you left them, i wouldn't suggest starting out on faction simple because the learning curve is a bit high and i definitely wouldn't recommend an assassin on your first play though simply because unless you know how to play them you will die often. if you have any specific questions please post them and well be happy to help

Hi There,

Just to add a little bit of info here.

You said you have 3 chars all level 20 from Proficies

Rather than roll them ,why dont you take them to Cantha(Factions)

You obtain the quest in Lions Arch.....Thus you still have the chars and can obtain skills and 3k XP per quest if there not level 20,by doing all the side quests around K/Center...

Check the Forums for each class you have as plenty of help is given if you need it.

This will give you an insight to the current play and skills that you may require

So by taking the ones accross you can obtain skills from Factions alsoto supplement your build

Factions will give you more rewards and quicker leveling,

Without Nightfall you will not have any Heros,.....unless you get Eye of the North
the Expansion

Hope this helps you in some small way and welcome back to Guildwars .feel free to pm in game if you need any help my IGN is shown<<<<

yeah do not delete them.. They should have Birthday Presents that can be worth quite a bit of Gold. Especially if they are going on 4 years old.

type /age to see how old they are. the defiantly would be worth playing if they are that old.

i'd love to post for you the pros / cons of every single profession but i don't have the time to do it now. give me some time and ill post it out. and this is based on what i think and i'm really picky so yeah. i only play classes which excels in 3 or more areas out of 4 catagories which i catagorized them under.

how good are they in general pve ?
how good are they in farming ?
how good are their looks ( weapons / armours / face / hair etc ) ?
how good are they in pvp ( ranging from low end pvp - Random arena to high end pvp - GvG ) ?

ill list them down when i get back from school tomorrow.