A few clean cut questions before I purchase.

First of all, please don't flame me, I realise all these questions have more than likley been answered elsewhere. Yes I have been picking through the forums learning what I can, and also game reviews , you tube...ect.

I just want some solid clarification before I go ahead and begin.

That being said. Lets begin.
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1. Does PVP cross over from each chapter? If I'm playing nightfall and your playing factions will we ever PVP against eachother?

2. Do you lose the chance to be competitive if you don't purchase all chapters because of the skills and classes obtained in each? Thus making it worthless to by just one chapter?

3. How gear dependant is this game? If I'm a new player will I have anychance against someone who has been playing for years and accumulated the "l33t" gear?

-How long would it take to get a set of gear to be competative?

4. I hear theres a way to skip all PVE content and grind, be lvl 20, and gogoog PVP. What cost is this, and does it have any disadvantages? Would you be less powerfull then someone who did it the long way?

5. This games fairly old, and gw 2 is already announced, is it still worth starting?

6. Nightfall or Prophecies. Yes I read the entire thread stickied here on which to buy, but which is best knowing im here to PVP and not linger around PVE, not that I dont like PVE that at this point in my life I dont have time for it.

Thanks I hope to get a responce!

1. pve and pvp are seperate, meaning they don't take place in any specific campaign. any character from any campaign (prophecies, factions, nightfall) can travel to the battle isles to do pvp. however they must be level 20.

2. yes

3. very much just like any game. however unlike other games, they are 100x easier to obtain. so its more about "what gear do i use?" rather than "how can i obtain that gear?" if your dedicated and really in a rush, a weeks time max for a new player--otherwise about a month if your going at a casual pace. for an experienced player starting a new pve character, they can get them within a few days.

4. you can make pvp characters. the only disadvantage to this is that you can't do pve with that character. however, this is an unimportant disadvantage because you have multiple character slots--most pvp'rs have both pve and pvp characters.

5. yes. gw2 won't be here until 2010/2011.

6. get the trilogy set which comes wit all three games. however, if your interested in pvp only...i believe there is the pvp version of the game (i think thats still purchasable? or did they stop selling that?)

PVP is separate from PVE. So the only thing campaigns influence the PvP aspect in the look in the character creation.

Yes you'll be gimped if you don't have all 3 campaigns. EOTN (the expansion) is okay to pass up, but its up to you it's not that big of an influence.

GW's PvP isn't gear dependant, not like WoW at least. It makes a difference obviously and you should always get the the best possible gear if you can but this is a skill based game, not time.

As for the years played, you can unlock all the gear you'll ever need through pvp (that is balthazar faction gained that you can use to unlock it). But it's a lot faster if you just play pve and unlock it through there when identifying items. Can't give you an exact number, but through pvp it's a lot slower simply.

Create a PvP character, simple as that. And you'll be at even footing with everyone else, and you'll need it for everything I said above. You can't customize pve characters the same way you can the pvp one's.

GW2 is still way down the road and GW is still heavily populated.

Wich ever you prefer, there's no difference (again, for pvp characters). For pve they're 2 completely different continents and storylines, but you can jump between them when you reach lvl 10 and the major port city of that campaign.

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Thanks I hope to get a responce![/QUOTE]

Two things you should keep in mind.

1) you need factions if you want to get into Alliance Battles.
2) jumping right onto pvp when you're new to GW is a big mistake. You basically don't know the game, as such you'll be brutallized in pvp wherever you go. Get aquainted with the playstyle wich is very different from other mmo's, with the skills and the classes. Only then you should to get started on pvp.

wrong

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Thanks for the quick reply guys, alot of good info. It looks like a few places sell the trilogy and toss in the expanstion for free, probably my best bet.

Also I tried to see via you tube vids about game mechanics, it looks like this game might by click to move? Is it entirley click to move or is WASD an option?

actually i would have to agree with kupp, playing pvp right away leaves you with less skills to choose from, and less familiarity with the game and the controls.

to the op's second question you can use the arrows, wasd, or click to move. if you don't like those keys you can change them in the settings as well.

If you're just gonna say 'wrong' and nothing else to explain why it is, don't bother posting at all.

Everything said here, but to expand on question 2.

If you just want the PVP side of things, you can buy one campaign and then buy the skill pack which unlocks all the skills on your account, and when creating a pvp character, you'l have access to all your classes skills and a secondary class with all their skills unlocked for you.

But i advise getting all 3 campaigns just to get a feel for the game, its cheap nowadays and is worth it.

1. Yes

2. Kind of, if you want to play "serious" PvP then you will need all / most of the chapters.

3. Not really, getting maxed out weapons / armour isn't hard to get, it's just that the better looking ones tend to be more expensive.

4.There is no cost, you just make a lvl20 charcater, but s/he can only travel within the PvP isle.

5. I would suggect waiting for GW2, if you do play GW you will hardly find anyone to play with in PvE, since everyone just use heroes + henchmen.

6. Erm, that's a tough one. With NF you can do hero battles ( a type of PvP) but some may say that Proph has better skills, in my opinion NF has better skills if you are planning on buying just one chapter. Also, the NF story if considerably faster to go through than the Proph one if you do deicde on making a PvE character.

you can do either. click to move is preferred by many competitive players because it is slightly more effective in gw's game engine.


this is a reason why people don't do pvp at all, not just why they don't start in pvp; they can't handle the competitive aspect and the pvp playstyle is different from pve playstyle.

you can learn pvp much faster if you do pvp. op sounds like a competitive player, and if true, will benefit from a competitive learning environment. even if you learn 'pve playstyle' first, you will still have to learn the 'pvp playstyle' when you transition to pvp.


pvp unlock packs do not work that way unfortunately. they only unlock skills for the campaigns you own, i.e. if you buy a factions skill unlock pack but do not own factions, you will not be able to use them.

I wasn't talking about 'pve or pvp playstyle', I'm talking about the very basics of GW. You're certainly not gonna learn in there how adrenaline works, how to call targets, what hexes are, hell I don't know... But if the OP has never played GW then he sure as hell isn't gonna start in pvp, or you think having someone on your team scratching his head as to what happened to his enchants when there's the ocasional mesmer/necro on the opposing team is a good thing for him and everyone else? He should feel aquainted with the game itself before attempting pvp. You're not gonna tell someone who's still learning to walk to run the marathon are you.

theres no reason one cannot learn gw mechanics through pvp.

walking analogy is misguided. i will tell someone to train in 100m race if thats what they're interested in, and not the 1600m race.

Well I disagree.

different people work different ways.
the op's post is heavily pvp-based, so i can more easily recommend him to start in pvp. he mentions competitive many times, i take that he is going to be very dedicated and willing to learn. learning in pvp will reward that dedication.
if the op was more casual based, new to games, of course i won't recommend him to start in pvp.

i take "start in pve" as the easy answer. its generally good advice, as its kind of "fits all sizes" type of answer. but thats what faq stickies are for. i'm merely trying to cater to the specific op's needs. of course, one can only read so much information from a post...so i could be wrong. however, theres no reason that starting out in pvp is -always- wrong.

you can get straight into pvp if you want. however, it would be a very difficult way to learn the game.

trying to improve yourself so you play at "pvp standard" right off the bat is quite hard, simply because that standard is a moving target. unlike in pve, where everything is relatively static, the pvp community is constantly trying to one-up each other in terms of personal skill. except for maybe at the very top levels, the average skill level of the average player is almost constantly rising, and has been ever since the release of the game.

if you want to focus on pvp, i'd suggest you start in pve, learn the basics, then give pvp a try. start in lower end arenas like random arena and alliance battle. take your time and learn the ropes first. otherwise, you'll just get brutally cut to pieces by the first competent team you face.

1. yes

2. yes

3. it isn't gear dependent. expensive gear is only expensive for looks. PvP character's come with the max dmg gear, etc. mods can be easily unlocked. etc.

4. u can make characters soley designed for pvp that come max lvl with max gear that cannot go into pve areas. problem with going straight pvp, it has a fairly steep learning curve and u will be slightly disadvantaged until ur able to unlock more items and mods. Playing through the games will help u to unlock mods, runes, insignias, and skills that can be used in pvp. so u can just go pvp, but i would suggest u at least start off in pve to become familiar with game mechanics and to acquire easy item/skill unlocks.

5. for pvp only, i'm not so sure. it is a steep learning curve and it will be hard for u to progress quickly when u first start off. The PvE aspect off it would definitely be worth it though. it is quite exciting and interesting the 1st go-around. but ur not interested in PvE ;-) PvP though takes a little more time dedication than PvE if ur looking to become an earnest competitor. PvE u can just do sections and then pick up where u left off at a later time. play at ur own pace

6. i would suggest having both if ur looking to pvp in earnest. without campaigns, teams won't take u without certain skills for the bars being run. u'll also lack edge over opponents in other aspects of pvp. without NF or EotN, u can't even participate in Hero Battles.

This isn't entirely accurate. If you buy the PvP Access Kit along with the Skill unlock packs you'll be able to use the skills -- even for campaigns that you don't have -- for PvP only. If you start a PvE character the skills will be unlocked on your account, but unless you own the campaign you won't be able to use them in PvE.

You can also buy a PvP item unlock pack that will make all of the runes, insignias and mods available for your equipment. That makes it so that you never have to step foot into PvE to be fully equipped with everything that can be acquired playing the game. Except experience. Prepare to be brutalized while you're learning the mechanics, but you will be on equal footing in every other way if you buy all of the unlock packs that are available.

Yes, it's worth the money. GW has great PvP -- not perfectly balanced, no, but it's fun, and there is no other game that lets you walk in and be competitive with the people that have been playing for years.

One last bit of advice: Find a guild that is PvP focused. They'll be able to offer great advice with skill bar builds and even what equipment mods are best to use -- either that or make wiki your best friend.

If you are 100% only interested in PvP and will never want to play PvE then I would advise buying the PvP access kit. This will let you create characters using any of the 10 professions and (eventually) allow access to all skills and items from the game.

You >could< buy the skill unlock packs (5 of those - core/prophecies/factions/nightfall/GW:EN) and the item unlock pack, but then you will have spent more money than picking up the trilogy pack from these discount places.

The difference between a PvE character and a PvP (apart from access to the PvE part of the game) is that a PvE character starts at level 1 with no skills and equipment and finds those skills and items playing through the PvE world. A PvP character is started at level 20, can use any 'unlocked' skills and you can create any 'unlocked' item (weapons/armour and bonuses for those).

So what are these 'unlocked' thingies? Everything starts 'locked' meaning you can't create it for a PvP character. There are 2 ways to unlock things, the first is when you first find something in PvE it becomes unlocked for your whole account, i.e. all your characters (and heros too for skills...). The second way is by just playing PvP you get 'faction' aka points. Once you get enough of these points you can trade them in to unlock stuff.

The PvP-only route is >potentially< by far and away the fastest way to get to full-on PvP. If you want to unlock >everything< then it will take a long time (probably longer than with PvE), but if you do a bit of research and 'target' what you want to unlock then just the 'free' unlocks with the PvP pack will get you rolling. For example if you look up some 'cookie-cutter' build you will be able to create that within a couple of minutes of installing the PvP access kit - don't think you could get to that stage in a few minutes with PvE!

Think of a PvE character as the 'real' thing, it can go everywhere including all PvP locations (and fight with PvP only characters). A PvP character is a little subset of a PvE character, stuck in the PvP land, BUT it has the major advantage of being able to create any weapons/armour/bonuses at will for free, and use any skill - once they are unlocked.

Having said all that, the trilogy is dirt cheap now and you can create PvP only characters with that, so cost aside there are no disadvantages to that rather than the PvP access kit. I think I've typed way too much now..... *slinks away*

I'd like to clarify what you mean by "being competitive" in PvP.

You won't be competitive in high end organized PvP because nobody will group with you if you don't have certain skills, due to the team nature of high end PvP.

However, that doesn't mean that you can't be effective in more casual forms of PvP that have random teams if you only have some of the games. You will never be 1-hit killed by another player because of your lack of a game. You will always be able to compete.

I'd suggest joining an active PvP guild, preferably one with people that want to teach a newcomer the first steps. Can't tell you which guilds to pick though, maybe someone else does.

PvP Guild recruitment.

My $.02

I would suggest buying the trilogy (maybe EotN as well), and playing some PvE at first, just to get a feel for the controls. I would suggest either Prophecies (to unlock some skills) or Nightfall (to unlock some heroes). You can spend a couple of weeks and get yourself a nice baseline of weapons, armor, and skills to work with while becoming familiar with the controls of the game.

After that, you can go strictly PVP if you like. Play RA, do the Zaishen Challenges and whatnot, and work your way up from there. If you join a guild, you can do Alliance Battles, which allow you to gain faction, and are a bit more forgiving.

Once you start gaining faction, you can research builds and play styles, and unlock the specific skills and equipment you need for those. Whenever you reach your faction cap, just go unlock more stuff, even if you don't need it right away. As long as you have a good repertoire or skills to choose from, you will be ok.

starting, no. playing, yes.

only reason i make new toons is bc i can get thru the pve content really fast.

As everyone says, you can start a pvp character who will be max level (20) with the maximum armor level for its class and start out with maximum damage weapons. However, very few skills will be unlocked for your use, and very few weapon/armor modifiers (runes, insignias, inscriptions, etc) So you will be really crippled. You can unlock these things by playing pve, or by strictly pvping to unlock them (using faction you get for pvp kills to unlock them) This will take a REALLY long time to get a sizable amount, not to mention that as a new player you're not going to know the mechanics of gw (adrenaline, hexes, conditions etc) and be really confused. So while not impossible to just start doing pvp, it might help to just do a little pve so you know how the game works and get a head start on unlocking things. As far as not buying all chapters, and what 1 to buy, if you buy only prophecies you will only be able to play the 6 core classes, and will not be able to do hero battles (which is a type of pvp) Nightfall will allow you to do hero battles, and let you play the 6 core types plus dervish and paragon. Factions will not let you do hero battles, and will let you play the 6 core types plus ritualist and dervish, plus you can do alliance battles (another type of pvp) So eventually if you want to have the most skills and play the most types of pvp, you'll want at least those 3. eye of the north offers a lot for pve, but is probably skippable for pvp if you don't want to spend the cash.

Of course. They throw everybody together, regardless of what you have unlocked.

Absolutely. More skills = more possibilities.

If you're a PvP character than gear will be less important since it can be unlocked at max level and created infinitely on command, though what you wear it with will be more important (if everybody can have the best it becomes less a question of who has it and more of how are they using it). Also when starting out you'll have very little unlocked but that's pretty normal. Read either wiki (wiki.guildwars.com or guildwars.wikia.com) so you can get a good combination of stuff you should unlock first.

This I have no idea about. I don't even play PvP all that much since I suck at it but somehow have near 10,000 faction at least. I know that's not a lot to most but I didn't do a lot of work for that and at like 1,000faction for skills and gear, that's 10 pieces already, not too bad.

Yes, by becoming a PvP character. There is no cost except you can't do anything PvE related, no there isn't any disadvantages besides that. Well, if you're into more exotic and fancy looking weapons (they actually call them this in game... "fancy" and "exotic" level armor/weapons) getting them in PvE will be much easier since you can farm for them unless you play a lot of PvP. The only problem with armor is that you can't transfer that over to your PvP character. So if you want nice weapons faster than you should play PvE for them. And the nicer looking armor or weapons have no effect on anything either, they're just for looks. Note that they aren't unlocked though, you can't unlock better skins I believe.

I guess so. The amazon deal is pretty cheap and you do get 4 games.

Amazon.com Triology + EoTN deal, don't buy one game with that going on. And while you could just get the PvP access kit, this I really suggest against. If you EVER want to try PvE, even for a second, the amount you'll spend after buying the PvP Access Kit and the games would have been more if you just bought the regular game in the first place and you could do the same with the full game (PvE and PvP). Also while you think you may not have a lot of time, this isn't WoW. PvE isn't long at all really! Most quests or missions are pretty short but as a rule missions are usually longer. You can always check the wiki to see the length of them too. On the flip side, PvP could be long if you did 8v8. Plus while playing through PvE you get the chance to unlock anything for PvP characters. I started in Nightfall and I would recommend that one to start in too if you ever PvE. You get heros quickly, access to insignia slots quickly, plus I liked the game overall. The end parts of the game can be pretty tough however. I recently played Prophecies and thought I didn't' start from Ascalon, I didn't like it as much as Nightfall (though I think if I did start from Ascalon that would be much more fun). I'm in Factions now and I don't think this game is clicking with me even as much as Prophecies did, so I would just recommend to start in Nightfall if you ever try PvE.