Getting Started

I've had GW on my shelf for a long time now, playing a little here and there. I haven't played in over two years since I became addicted to WoW. I am thinking of starting GW again since I'm on a lesser budget as a college student. I got a few questions if people could help me out. Most things I can figure out on my own.

What is the deal with the expansions?
Are they required to play?
Do they go in any specific order?
What is the advantages of having one or all of them?
How much can I experience without buying any expansions?
Does each expansion have its own set of End-Game stuff or do they build off one another??
Is there one expansion that is better for starting out or is it fine with no expansions?
If someone could give a very brief description of each expansion and what it offers that would help alot.

Any idea when GW2 will come out? Is it worth starting GW now or waiting till GW2 comes out??

I'm a pretty hardcore PvE'er on WoW, can someone explain the system of raids/dungeons/instances for End Game stuff?


I know these are alot of questions but it would help alot if people could answer some or all of my questions. Thanks in Advance.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

use search there for what you need

Eye of the North is the only expansion. The other 3 are stand alone games, u can play any of them without having the others. If you do have multiple ones u can go to the other lands though. Like if you have Prophecies and Nightfall(as i do) you can travel from Tyria to Elona.

Welcome back to the game.

First things first, if you're used to WoW, you'll find a lot of GW to be quite different. Some of your questions don't quite make sense from a GW perspective, so I've done my best to give you answers without flooding you with too many details. Still a lot of words to get through though.

You reach max level v quickly, and once you reach max level everyone has the same (class-dependent) armour and weapon stats. When you buy prestige armour or rare weapons, all you are paying for is the looks. The end game of GW PvE is mainly about getting enough money to afford the vanity item(s) of your choice. Some high-end PvE guilds are focussed on doing things faster than anyone else (partly so they get money faster, partly for the recognition). You won't be doing stuff to get weapons or armour with better stats as you do in WoW. What you're aiming for in GW is learning how to choose the best combination of skills to take with you when you go into any given area, to achieve whatever goal you've set for that area, whether that be killing every enemy on the map as part of a team, or getting to a particular boss as quickly as possible to kill it on your own, or running through the area to take people to the next town without them having to fight their way through it, or reaching a particular group of foes so you can kill them repeatedly for their drops (aka farming).

There are three campaigns and one expansion - in order, Prophecies (the original game), Factions and Nightfall, and Eye of the North - see the post above mine. If you buy more than one of the campaigns you can link them all to the same account so that a character from one campaign can travel to the other campaign and learn skills and get armour skins from there. The advantage of having more than one campaign is that you have access to the new things that were added in the later ones - more and better skills, more classes, new armour and weapon skins, heroes. However, if you're just trying the game out to see how much you like it, you don't need to buy the other campaigns in order to finish the one(s) you've already got, they are completely stand-alone (except Eye of the North, which is an expansion and therefore requires one of the three campaigns to be linked to it before it can be played).

There is a storyline which (sort of) progresses through the campaigns. Factions is the most independent of the three; Prophecies and Eye of the North are the most closely linked story-wise. Nightfall makes reference to events and bad guys from Prophecies and Factions, so if you care about spoilers it'd be best to complete them in order.

Each campaign and the expansion has its own end-game area and its own selling points.
Prophecies offers the best introduction to a completely new player in that it gives you plenty of time to get used to your skills (which you learn for free along the way by doing quests). It is, however, the slowest of the three.
Factions gives you very fast levelling and a lot of money for quest rewards, but you have to pay for all of your skills and it has a very steep learning curve for a newcomer. Two new classes are assassin, which is almost a pre-requisite class in end-game areas and for farming at the moment, and ritualist. Some powerful PvE skills come from the luxon and kurzick title tracks, which are part of this campaign.
Nightfall gives you heroes, the paragon and dervish classes, and more PvE skills linked to the sunspear title track from this campaign.
Eye of the North gives you more heroes and even more powerful PvE skills, as well as access to dungeons.

You've already bought at least one of the GW games, so as it's free to play once you've bought it it's not going to cost you anything except a bit of time to try it and see what you think. GW2 won't be out til 2010 at the earliest - no news available on that front whatsoever I'm afraid.

It's nothing like WoW. There's no raids, and everything in the game outside of towns/outposts is instanced. Max party size for most end-game areas is 8 people, although there's a couple of places in Factions (Urgoz and The Deep) which are 12-man areas. End game stuff tends to be DoA in Nightfall, or Eye of the North dungeons, because those are the harder areas of the game and the rarer + more expensive skins drop there.

No worries, hope it helps.

that is so helpful

back on topic though

Different ones let you play different areas, PvP, professions, skills, etc.
Only one is required to play (must not be EOTN).
Yes. Prophecies = Factions / Nightfall / EOTN
Acess to all types of play.
Probably not that much. There are a lot of skills added and you will miss out on other professions if you ever want to try them.
Own.
IMO Nightfall, but that is IMO. No dealing with stupid chaos rifts when traveling, heros and inscriptions quickly. Plus I liked the story the most.
They aren't really expansions and there isnt' much I can say.
Prophecies - First game, no extra professions. Takes place in Tyria. Medieval themed.
Factions - Second game, can play Ritualist and Assassin. Adds Fort Aspenwood, Jade Quarry, Alliance Battles PvP. Takes place in Cantha. Asian themed.
Nightfall - Third game, can play Dervish and Paragon. Adds Hero Battles, inscriptions. Takes place in Elona. African themed.
1. you wont' be doing it with real people. the AI has taken over and people are asocial.
2. most can be easily cleared due to sharing builds
3. does 8 people count as a raid? that's' usually the limit for parties.