New to Guild Wars

Hi iam looking for a new game to start playing and have always wondered if guild wars is any good i have played alot of mmos (WoW,Lotro,FF11,WAR & more) but have gotten bored with the ones i still play at the moment iam downloading the trial as i type but really wanted to know other peoples opinion on the game like what makes it good and what doesnt etc

PS. sorry if this is in the wrong section

Well you came to a GW forum so you'll be getting some good opinions.

GW is different than all those games. Grind is practically non-existant, the game doesn't keep you in that level up mentality. The level cap is relatively low compared to other games, 20, below that everything you'll do can be considered a tutorial, when you reach level 20 that's when the game will really begin.

My opinion: yes it's a great game. I like MMO's but I never could really keep playing one for more than a month, it ALWAYS got boring. I've been playing GW for 2 years so you can see for yourself.

It generally won't get boring. There's a ton of stuff to do, all sort of elite missions and dungeons, and everything is playable through Normal Mode and Hard Mode (with increased rewards and other bonuses of course). So you can be kept in PvE a long, long time and with 3 campaigns and one expansion pack, trust me there's a lot to do. Even I haven't done everything.

PvP is nothing compared like other games, this is 'real' PvP. Not gear dependent, not level dependet, time>skill doesn't exist, in fact, it's the other way around. If you like it, you have the option from the get-go to create a level 20 toon with maxed stats and equipment strictly for PvP so you can jump right on it, you'll start off with the very basic stuff though. You can unlock those from both sides of the game however.

The combat system is very different as well, you'll notice that as soon as you get ingame. You only have 8 skills in your bar at any moment, but that is so you can strategize and create very different builds. Sinergy between skills and your party setup is key in GW and you'll find it out pretty quickly. It's more action focused as well. Also the dual profession system allows you to combine very different stuff to create unique builds and cover so much, I really don't know how to explain this to you.

That's all I can think off. Welcome to Guild Wars btw.

Also, just a small point I want to add to kupp's excellent description is that this is a team oriented game. Don't expect to solo the entire game or any part (except for a few farming locations, quests, and one mission). Even if you are the only human, you will have AI henchmen or heroes (customizable henchmen) with you to fill out your group. You will have to think about how your skills work together and how your entire team will work together. Each profession is good at a certain thing and the other professions help to fill in missing roles such as tank, healer, aoe damage, etc.

Hope that helps.

Pretty sure everyone on this forum has good opinions of Gw, not sure though...if not....creepy lol

sounds alot different to other games which is really what iam after
no high level grinding sounds good and the A.I henchman/heros sound very good and have me intrigued would it be worth it to buy the guild wars complete collection or would i be better off buying them one at a time ?

Get the collection, it has everything for 50$, seperatelly would cost twice as much.

Get them all in the collection, then get eotn cheap. Be sure to connect the codes not make a new account. Also, a good guild will keep you happy the whole time.

i looked around and the collection really is alot cheaper like you said thanks
what is eotn ?

eotn = Eye of the North its an expansion to the other games so you need to already own one or more of the three games to use it.

Its the newest addition to the gw world.

ooh thanks it says collection comes with propheices,Factions,NightFall & Eye of the north am i missing any or is that all of them ?

Hi welcome to Guru and Guild Wars, yes thats all you need unless in the near future if you so decide you can purchase from the NCSoft/GW Store the Bonus Mission Pack (Missions that have you be the characters from the lore/story of Guild Wars such as gwen with pretty good rewards).

if ever you decide to play the game my IGN: Revenant Grail

o i have been playing GW since October 2005 and believe me i tried and still am trying new upcoming mmo's and so far this game is the only one that i keep coming back to.

Just to confirm, different countries seem to have different packages availible.
One package is the Trilogy, which has Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall. (All except EOTN)
The other is the Complete Collection, which contains all 4 of the games.

technically that is all of the games but there is also a bonus mission pack, which is as it says, a couple more missions you can do for different skinned weapons.

would it be worth getting the bonus mission when i start playing or would i be better waiting ?
also i have been reading up &trying the classes with the free trial and iam leaning towards the mesmer & elementalist classes and was wondering which sub class would be better suited for each AND i was also wondering at what level or time i can start useing henchman & where to find them

I would wait. They are only bonus missions and recreate historic events that you probably have no idea about now. Mesmer and Elementalist go together pretty easily, or you can change it later. Choose it based on which skills you use more... primary attribute determines primary attribute, ability to go over 12 attribute level, as well as runes. I go Necro with Mesmer but I never play Elementalist so I'm not sure.

Heroes are available in Nightfall and Eye of the North. If you create a character in Prophecies or Factions, you will have to wait until you reach a port city (Lion's Arch or Kaineng Center) to travel to Nightfall or EotN.

You can check the requirements and quests for travel between campaigns on the wiki (in-game help on menu or F10 or type /wiki in chat bar) at http://www.wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Campaign_Travel

This is a great game and very addictive. But it is great for both full-time and casual game play. There are no penalties for respecing or deaths. There is no boss camping, loot stealing, uber weapons, uber armor, etc. There is just learning to use your skills and synergize your team build better than your opponents.

My personal view for someone who has never played the game before would be start in prophesies.
Its got the lowest learning curve and one of the best story lines.

You can cross over to the other games later on when you reach the first major port city.
The other 2 games have a much quicker character development time as they are somewhat condensed.

You can get to lvl 20 much quicker and get all your character attribute points faster in Factions and Nightfall.
Still I feel Prophesies is the best to go with for a first character unless you really want to run one of the Factions or Nightfall classes that can only be started in those areas.

Whatever you do don't rush your first experience take your time and enjoy the ride.

i always like to take my time with mmo's even more so if the story is good you cant beat a good story i intead to start with prophecies no matter how much that paragon shouts pick me at class selection =/ but at what lvl/area do henchman become available in prophecies also what is a better sub class for mesmer out of monk & elementalist ?

Prophecies starts you off in a starter area, known as pre-, where you can have a maximum of 2 party members. There are no henchmen here, and most the area can be done solo
Once you're out of pre, you're in an area where the max party size is 4 team members, and the option of running with real people and/or henchmen.

As the game progresses the party size increases, to 6 and then to 8 members, and the level of the henchmen increases relative to the level of monstors in the area. Every town and outpost has henchmen you can add to your party.

Most the Level 20 content is done in 8-man party areas. There's a couple of areas which require 12 players in Factions

Playing in Nightfall and Eye of the North also gives you access to heroes, who are customisable henchmen. You aquire these by completing key quests, and once aquired
that particular hero will be available to add to your party. Heroes level up the same way as you, by earning XP, so if you don't play a particular hero for a while they can get left behind levelwise


Second professions for mesmers....
Monk's always a useful secondary for any character, since this gives you a hard res. Mesmer, Monk and Elementalist are all casters, so really it's down to play style
Monks are more a support class, whilst the ele is more offensive. It doesn't make too much difference, as at a certain point in the game you'll aquire the ability to swap secondary professions.

Heya, welcome to GW and Guru

Starting in Prophecies is a good idea, as it gives you the best learning curve - assuming you want to play one of the six core classes. Many people have mentioned that NF and EotN have heroes, and I thought I'd mention this: heroes have access to skills that you unlock. There are two ways you can unlock skills without actually buying various unlock packs - you buy the skill ingame, or you pay Balthazar Faction (earned via PvP) to 'unlock' the skill. Since you're just starting out, I don't think there's any point going to NF for heroes quickly as you won't have the skills to kit them out properly yet - which kind of defeats the purpose.

Henchmen are available at every outpost once you hit post-searing, and their levels will depend on the difficulty of the area. Early-game henchmen will have lower levels, and end-game henchmen will be max level.

thanks for the replies/info i have been trying out the classes up to level's 4-6 i have tried most so far i havent tried assassin & dervish and my favorite's so far are the paragon & ritulist more so the paragon is there any way i could play those classes in prophecies

You can get them to Tyria (Prophecies) once they reach the port in their own campaign (The Consulate Docks in Nightfall and Kaineng Center in Factions), but you can't start out in Prophecies with those classes unfortunately.

By the fact you like Rit and Para the best, im guessing you want to play a support role, damage buffs, heals, damage, protective abilities, etc.

If you want to start in prophecies, some classes to look at would be an elementalist, with monk for a secondary, or maybe a necromancer with a monk secondary.

As an Ele/Monk, you can put out damage, blind your enemies, snare your enemies and use wards to protect your allies. And from the monk secondary you can use protection spells to aid your allies, use smiting skills to buff your teams melee classes, heal allies, and remove hexes and conditions from your allies.

No, you cannot, but I think that's a GOOD thing. Factions is faster than Prophecies and I personally didn't like Prophecies a lot. Nighfall is by far my favorite game (ISTAN FOR ONE), plus heros and inscriptions fast, no battling stuff when traveling, etc.

To add on to this: if you port them over to other campaigns, you'll arrive at the port cities of that campaign. So you'll end up in Lion's Arch in Prophecies, skipping quite a few of the initial missions. But you can always go backwards and do the missions you missed out. However, whereas a Prophecies character can access Shing Jea and Istan, a Factions or NF character can't access Presear Ascalon since it's a time rather than a place. (No missions there, though.)

I kept seeing Gw's mentioned on sites like Mmorpg etc. but never paid it much attention, guess I was a cheapskate at the time (while playing Flyff, lol, I wasted a lot of cash on that game, f'ing Penya lol).

Once I bought Gw's it has kept me interested a lot longer than the free rpg's I played and you can trust me, I tried a lot.

Ugh, that game was such a colossal grindfest. I played it for a couple of weeks at most, got pissed off when killing an enemie wich took 30-40 seconds of repeated button mashing would only give me like 0.1% XP towards the next level and dumped it. Gotta love Guild Wars for that, I can play the game without having to spend massive amounts of time getting to level x so I can play the real content.

Thanks for the helpfull replies people i have started as a ele/monk as suggested by subarucar level 4 atm but iam not sure what i should be putting my attribute points into also are there any skills that are a must have ?

At first you will be very limited in the choice of skills you will have, you can move points around when your in a town so experimenting isn't a problem.

You would aim to have points in whatever element or elements your using and some points to increase your energy pool.

Press K and check through your available skills and you will see what effect adding points into an area does to the skills.

For attributes, focus on putting them mainly into your main element at the moment (probably fire), as you gain more attribute points, you should probably invest in healing prayers. Although you may wish to go more towards the protection prayers side of things, or put some points in another element.

Just remember for spells like healing breaze (one of the first healing skills you get), only put in enough points to meet the breakpoint, e.g if with 5 attribute points, you get +6 health regen, and with 4 attribute points you also get +6 regen, it would be better to only put 4 points into it, as you get the same amount of regen, and more points to spend on something else.