End game question . . .

Afternoon, Quick background. Long time MMORPG player. Downloaded free trial. Used up my 10 hours very quickly. Hooked. Purchased GW:Trilogy.

I am playing a E/ME (Random, had no insight). I am level 9. I did not leave the starting area till level 8 and I attempted to do all the quests.(Prophecies). I am in no hurry to get to 20. I am really enjoying the quests. Tho I do find it amusing that I am questing in a zone where most creatures are level 3-5 and I am level 9. Reason for my post is this. I am attempting to persuade friends to try the trial but they all ask the same question and I cannot seem to find a good answer.

Once one finishes lets say one of the games GWP/Factions/Nightfall and obtain 20, what does one do then. Do they complete one of the other chapters with their level 20 character? Do they have to start a new chracter to truly enjoy them? Meaning they would have 3 characters when it is all said and done. What does one do outside of the PvP aspect of the game once you hit 20?

Any insight would be helpfull. Thanks

Ezrath

levels in GW actually means nothing. anet could've given everyone level 20 characters at the start of the game, and it will make no difference. think of the time you spend before reaching level 20 as a tutorial. the real game BEGINS once you hit level 20.

i'd say like close to 80% of content is done at lvl 20.
too much content to list really...but hard mode is a big chunk of it...dungeons and elite missions are generally the most popular end-game areas.

you can use the same character to complete all the campaigns, or you can create new ones. it's totally up to you.

Elite areas like UW (Underworld) FoW (Fissure Of Woe) Urgoz Warren, and The Deep. You could complete other campaigns, Farm/earn some money to buy elite armour. You could earn money to buy, or farm that leet Weapon you always wanted. There are various titles you can attempt to achieve. When you beat a game you unlock hard mode. You could try the game with a different profession.

Thanks for the quick replies... guess I just need to get the whole level progression concept out of my head, heh. Let me ask this tho. After level 20 can I still get abilities from quests and am I able to get any additional attribute points?

Welcome to GW! It sounds like your enjoying yourself. A E/Me combo is actually pretty good, so no worries there.

You'll find yourself at level 20 well before completing the story-line, but getting to 20 only the beginning of the game. After that, it's about geting the most out of your skills, weapons & armor.

After you've completed the story-line in one chapter, you can go back and do it all over in hard mode! Also, in Prophecies, there are quests available in Lion's Arch that you can do.

Then there's the elite areas! The most popular ones are Fissure of Woe & The Underworld.

And if you've linked all 3 chapters to the same account, you can take you characters to the other continents and do those story-lines via quests you can get in the port cities (Lion's Arch in Prophecies, Kamadan in Nightfall, and Kaineng Center in factions.)

Another thing you'll want to do with all your characters is get Heroes for them. You can only get heroes in Nightfall and the Eye of the North expansion, but Prophecies & factions characters can get them one tehy get to the Nightfall part of the world.

No one has mentioned PvP, guild wars has a great PvP system that truly takes skill to surpass others.

Thanks again..good info. I'll try not to ask too many questions since learning the game is really half the fun.

Ezrath

I don't think anyone answered these...but yeah, you still get skills after level 20. The skill quests just depend on what quests you've done already, but in, say, Factions and Eye of the North, there are PvE skills that you won't get until level 20 (just because of where they are) and in EOTN they are skill quests.

Attribute points...there's 200 points available, and you get 170 by getting to level 20. The last thirty are only available by doing two quests. In Prophecies, chances are you won't get to that point until you're level 20 or very close.

You will certainly continue to get skill points to buy skills with, though! Every time you level up you gain a skill point, and even once you hit level 20 your experience bar will continue to fill up, and every time it fills (every 15,000xp points if I remember correctly), you gain another skill point to use.

what he said, dont worry about skill points though, i personally have never run out of them, and if you do, there are skill books (tomes) you can buy that will teach you a skill of your choosing that you've unlocked in PvP, as you progress through the game, and buy more skills, tomes are actually cheaper than buying the skills from the trainer.

This. And after i purchesed the game, completed all chapters and the like, i stopped playing. But for some reason i had an urge to come back and play, and ever since im addicted, i love playing on different proffessions, completing the game in different ways, like in factions one going through the kurz side and another time through the lux area. And mostly ive never been into titles but for some reason im addicted to adding to my titles now :s and i actually enjoy vanquishing, i find it fun annhilating every mob in an area, although i am dreading doing prophecies =\.

Player vs Player, Quests that you can only do after you beat the game, In game events, more from each game. I have played since the beta and I only have prophecies and eye of the north I have no problem trying to beat stuff still and make my guy better.

After getting to lvl 20, you can do so many dungeons and try to get titles. You can farm money to buy things for your guy or do PvP. There is HA(hard to find groups if ure unranked) that gives you nice emotes. So many things to do once you reach level 20.

All of the above suggestions are great,

Regarding the PvP aspect. Avoid it for right now, it's an entirely different world. When you think your ready, try it.
As said before, the best thing about Guild Wars is Skill > Time, level 20 means nothing and I don't know why it's there however, the farther you get in the game the more you will learn whats good/bad etc. Enemies will require more strategy, joining a great guild and overall have fun.

If you need any help with hard missions, whisper Zodiac Ele, I'll be happy to help. Keep in mind I haven't been to Ascalon or Northern Shiverpecks.

Prophecies is actually a pretty easy vanquish, as long as you remember to look out for patrols. I'd say it's the easiest to vanquish out of all 3 campaigns - even with Rotscale thrown into the bargain.

@OP: Like everyone else has said, 20 is just the beginning. And honestly, playing with another class gives you different insights into gameplay. Creating another character with a different class - and playing through the game with that class - is actually a pretty different experience.

Yes, there is no gear/level progression ala Everquest et al. There is however, skill progression, this is a skill based game.

The most valuable item Boss mobs drop is skills. You will learn about Skill capping, it is the "progression" for this game. You will find certain missions become very dependant on skill set, capture of elite skills as you get further into the game. This is particularly important if you use Henchmen/Heroes.

Proph campaign you will get quests for a total of 30 more attribute points after you "ascend", which is a series of missions in the desert. At that time you will also be able to unlock the ability to change your secondary profession.

There is no "uber" gear in game. Max is max, period, and high end drops/armor are fluff only. 5 plat max armor properly modded is just as effective as FOW Obsidian. Same with weapons, a perfect collector weapon with the right mods is just as effective as an endgame Deldramor reward.

For me the challenge lies not in acquiring the gearset to succeed, but in tailoring my characters skillset and secondary to face the unique challenges of each mission. Right now I have progressed to HM Vanquishing, which is a different game totally.

Im enjoying this. No sub, no endless cycle of running x dungeon for a must have drop, no dependence on 23 other people to progress my char. I have 4 level 80s on Nektulos/EQ2, and no plans atm to get back there, don't miss the gear hampster wheel at all.

I would also like to point out that is is the most intrinsic game I have ever played, YOU set the bar for yourself, the game doesn't. You can buy missions, buy runs, buy titles, cheese through most of the game, or not. It is the players choice in a lot of situations, and honestly, titles and endgame armors are pretty meaningless in and of themselves. It is all about setting your own goals and achieving them in the manner that means something to you.

Have fun!

Wow, thanks for the warm welcome to the forum and many responses. I belive you guys answered my questions very well. Since this post I have found a few more levels, and discovered missions. So far things have been quite intresting.

Thanks.... Ezrath

I'm a she, not a he, but yeah :P

And I'm going to agree that running out of skill points is something you'll likely never need to worry about. I have at least one character that is level 20, and it still only costs me like 500g for one skill. And even if you buy skills a lot, you'll likely still get plenty more points than you need.

Agreed - I think the only time you'll feel short of skill points is at the start of the game. Play your character long enough, and even Legendary Skill Hunter will completely fail to make any dent in your skill points. In your pocket, yes - your skill points, no.

Leveling in GuildWars is not like 'getting the highest level is the main achievement' like in other games. I remember myself cancelling my WoW-Account because of all the leveling. In GuildWars, your level is mainly how you want to play the storyline. If you want to play it with a bit more difficulty you can try it with a lower level, or vice versa. Once you reach level 20, everything will start. The high end areas become interesting, and so on. After you've beaten a game, Hard Mode will be unlocked for your whole account, so you can do the storylines and areas again with more difficulty. The nice thing about GuildWars is: you'll be playing, not leveling. That's why I like GuildWars.

You'll actually hit level 20 before finishing any one of the campaigns. It's fairly easy to get top-tier weapons and armor in guild wars as well, when compared with other online rpgs, so getting a character to their maximum possible amount of power isn't very hard.

What you do after that depends on what you personally enjoy.

All of the things you mentioned in your post are fine. I would recommend giving pvp a shot, as Guild Wars' is pretty good imo, but if that's not your thing, there are special challenge areas in pve like the underworld that you can try to complete. Playing through a game with different classes gives it good replay value, as they fill very different, unique roles.

There are a lot of skills in the game your character can learn, and getting all of them is a large undertaking if you want your character to be as versatile as possible. There are also elite skills that you'll be able to capture from defeated bosses later in the game. You can only have one of these on your skill bar at a time, but they're generally more powerful or useful than regular skills.

Just clearing the campaign doesn't show you even close to all of that campaign's content. You can explore the optional areas and do all the side quests if you like.

If you like collecting gear, there are a lot of rare items and expensive sets of elite armor in the game you can pursue. These are not actually more effective than what you can get elsewhere (the reasoning being is that the game designers wanted players to be able to fully enjoy the game without grinding for very long), but they look nice and they're considered presitigious.

You can go after things called "titles," which I guess I would describe as being sort of like achievements on steam games or the xbox. Basically after you fill certain requirements you can display the title for them under your character's name. Some of these give the player benefits in pve, and if you get the Eye of the North expansion, there's a place called the Hall of Monuments where you have monuments erected for your titles. ArenaNet has said that these will provide the player with some benefit in Guild Wars 2 when it comes out, although what that benefit will be is not yet announced.

An intersting thing that I noticed when I went back over missions that I did on my first time through was that even with the same mission and difficulty, it was a lot easier, not only because of the different (and most probably better) skill-set that I was using, but also because I had learned what mobs were the greatest threat, and WHY that was. GW is really a skill-based game in that sense. Player knowledge is critical in success (or failure).

Also, I would recommend that you join a guild or make a guild with your friends. Playing GW with others really makes it more enjoyable. Also, you can ask others for advise on builds and tactics, or just random chatter.

If you want to run a mission together or get some (very possibly nubbish) advise, feel free to pm me in game.