New GW Player =)

Hey =)

I recently got bored of my previous MMORPG of choice (RuneScape - after playing for 5 years I decided that the grind had gotten too much) and decided to try a new game. I'd heard about Guild Wars in the past (I remember the hype before the launch of Prophecies), but I'd never gotten around to trying it. So last week I downloaded the game and got a 10 hour trial account - I played through it and loved it, despite the severe limitations such as not being able to form a party or talk in the 'local' chat channels. Therefore, I placed an order for the 'Complete Collection' from Amazon, which has all 3 campaigns and Eye of the North, for £15, and it arrived today.

So far I am loving Guild Wars, but it's seemingly hard for me to find people to play with - sure, there's helpful level 20s who are more than willing to do missions/quests with lower levels, but I'd like some people around my own level who I can play through the game with, and that's partially why I registered here. One of the main positive aspects I found from RuneScape was it's vibrant fansite community - in the RuneScape community I've ran small fansites and large clans. The community is what makes the game enjoyable, and I'm sure this is the case for Guild Wars, leading me to register here, to hopefully make friends and perhaps find some people to play with ingame.

So yeah - any tips, advice, etc would be greatly appreciated =D. I'm currently a level 10 E/Mo and I've completed the first 2 main missions of the Prophecies campaign - and I am loving it so far (have I mentioned that before? )

Thanks =D=D,
Sean (Serojoal)

the game does not really start until you hit 20.

just an FYI. Also getting to level 20 is very, very fast. So don't worry about being low level.

I agree with Selket.

Also, lol elementalist.

Also, no one makes new characters anymore. Indeed, few people play the campaign storyline through. Sucks, I know, but the game is dead.

Heh, the GW community has gone way down hill in recent years. You'll be lucky to find a group for missions now since everyone does Hero/Henchmen.

Don't get me wrong, this a great game, but it is far from "newb friendly"

Well, welcome to the game. It's really been tons of fun for me--and maybe it was even once fun for all the people above.

Anyway, the way to get to play with other people now is going to be through guilds, or through PuGs (Pick-up Groups) doing missions on rotating days (the Zaishen missions). You may not have encountered them yet, since you're level 10, or you may have, if some came through the early Prophecies missions.

So to play with live peeps, I'd look in the "Guild Recruiting" section of these forums, and start watching the chat in Ascalon. When you get to the next major town-- Lion's Arch--look there, too. You might want to wait and read up on some guilds, instead of hopping from one to the next. Make your job easier.

Guilds are probably also the best place to find non-smart aleck answers to questions.

Good luck! Feel free to PM me in-game.

Find any guild that says recruiting new players. You'll find heeps of people to play with. I'm glad you picked up the game, I've been playing it since release and still loving it.

If you need help feel free to private message me, I haven't got any low level characters at the moment but I can help you with anything you don't understand or whatnot, so it's no trouble :).

Welcome!!

Use the buddy system, find someone in game that you can play through the game with and do the quests, works well as long as both of you stay the same pace.

I have to agree with this.
Try to get into a good newbie friendly guild, although that is extremely difficult, as most guild only want to do the later areas. Plenty of guilds would accept new players but whether they're actually helpful is another matter.

The best thing to do right now is try to learn how to use the AI to play the game all the way through. Go to the heroes section in this forum or PvXwiki.com and learn all the skills that are Heroes/henchmen friendly, then go to guildwiki and learn the locations of those skills and plan FAR AHEAD of time to get those skills so that you don't waste $$$.

Noob friendly guilds usually mean guilds run by noobs w/o Guildhalls (pretty much the main reason to be in a guild) with a roster populated by names that havn't been online in 1-2 months.

The reality is that most newbs will play the game for to or 3 weeks tops before going dormant. Also, as ppl pointed out, the low level content is only fun the first playthrough. The rest of the time it will simply be a waste of time, so even finding a more experienced guild you might have trouble finding ppl to help. If you're not already in a guild, don't even bother looking for one until you're have at least one campaign complete.

My advice would to be to stick to only one char and try to complete every campaign with him. That will leave you open for some of the higher level content and open up considerably more options for grouping.

Good to see new blood, although your experience may change.

First thing, PUGs are notorious for being both exclusionary and incompetent. Learn to use the AI (Hero/Hench) until you can get into a guild. If you can find a guild that does FFF (Fast Faction Farming in Factions) many of the game mechanics can be learned, such as splitting, tanking, aggro management, etc.

Being an Elementalist will relegate you to a support role in Hard Mode, as enemies ramp up their armor to the point where elemental spells have little effect. If you're not against re-rolling your character, something that does armor ignoring damage, such as Necros and Rits are great (and with minions survivable), or holy damage since there are very few +holy armor mods on mobs, so a Smiting monk or any physical with /Dervish.

You will level relatively fast, more so than in any other MMO I'm aware of, so once you hit 20 your character pretty much tops out in power. If thats an issue is up to you, it is however conducive to starting multiple base primary professions and playing them all for the different experience.

If you're a big PvEer, you will come to either hate or love the grind. And there is a LOT of it. Most of the titles in game are grind of one sort or another, and can take hundreds of hours to do. But more than that, the game is extremely repetitive at its core, and most would agree that the PvE and PvP in GW is just not as well designed as WoW or similar subscription MMOs.

Of course, ALL MMOs have grind, its just that because of the relative shortness of the campaigns and the lvl 20 cap, GW's massive amount is much more apparent.

But all the problems and issues with the game aside, it IS fun, and worth the 15 quid you dropped on it. How MUCH enjoyment you get is up to you, and depends on your preferred game style. Seeing as how you stuck with Runescape for 5 years, you should have no problems lol.

Hi, and Welcome to Guild Wars.

Take your time and dont worry about fast leveling ect,

Decide what way you wish to go by that I maen create a char in Nightfall try this out as heros level up with you as you do also.

Factions is more of a steeper curve, level faster, better rewards as your leveling ect.

Nomatter where you make one they can all go to each campaign.i.e to pick up heros/missions ect.

Have a look around the Forums here on each Profession to give a better insight to what is required of them and in many cases it will give you food for thought.

Your secondary profesion can be changed later if you pick a wrong one so dont worry to much on that end

The main thing is have fun and you will nomatter what some guys say.

So just spend a little time on the forums and elsewhere to give you an insight on whats ahead of you.

Better to make an elementalist for PVE than another class as their solo ability isnt being hit by the nerf bat just yet at least.

Plus, they can easilly become the best support class / healers in the game once you know how, not that any nubby PVE groups will accept elly healers, but I have done many HM missions and vanqs using my elly as a healer.

Better than dealing rubbish damage in HM =D.

As for PVE, the game is long dead, most people who do play the campaigns mostly do so solo with H/H unfortunately. The best thing to do is just get a few of the top elites unlocked for each class, and then just H/H everything. All you need is:

Elly - Searing Flames, Mind Blast, Unsteady Ground, Ether Prism, Ether Renewal

Necro - Spiteful Spirit, Spoil Victor, Flesh Golem, Jagged Bones.

Monk - Word of Healing, Life Sheath, Unyielding Aura, Healers Boon.

Mesmer - Lyssas Aura, Tease, Ineptitude, Visions of Regret.

Warrior - Hundred Blades, Earthshaker.

Ranger - Heal as One, Barrage, Burning Arrow, Broad Head Arrow.

Paragon - Incoming, Defensive Anthem.

Cant really remember whats needed on the remaining classes, but thats all I ever make use of on my Elly's heroes and can get through anything that the game could. throw at me.

Also, the state of the game can be a bit wonky and doesn't always make sense.

For example, Warriors and Assassins make better use of most weapons than the classes they were designed for. Example: Scythesins and Scythewars, these are builds that use the Dervish Scythe as their primary weapon. They are more effective than Dervishes because their primary attributes, Strength and Critical Strikes, do more for causing damage than Mysticism, the Dervish Primary.

While this doesn't make the Dervish unplayable (I enjoy mine very much), it will make you less attractive to groups.

The current metagame is dominated by Assassins and Necromancers, the prior for an "invincibuild" that lends itself well to farming and tanking, and the latter for e-management, minions and hero builds.

Before you get too far into the game, I would check the profession forums on this site, they will give you some idea about each (especially the "basic guides" that are stickied), and what their relative strengths and weakness are. Also, ANet is possibly coming out with a skill update patch soon, and may buff or nerf several skills, notably "farming" builds being nerfed.

In the end, if you want to guarantee playtime with people and groups, I would recommend you start a Monk or Warrior. These two are pretty much the backbone of most regular groups, and even if the "metagame" builds are faster or better, that's usually a flavor of the month kind of thing. The Warrior and Monk have always been, and likely always be good.

Plus, if you like casting and doing damage, a Smiting Monk does Holy Damage, which is nowhere near as resistable as Elementalist damage. Check out the "Ray of Judgement" builds and you'll see what I mean.

I've played Guild Wars since it first released, and at one time I enjoyed the hell out of it. Don't get me wrong, I still love this game, I made a lot of friends over the years. People are right when they say that it's hard to find people to play with, especially if you're looking for someone to go through leveling with.

Several others mentioned learning to use the henchies and heroes... this is a great way to learn the game and it's mechanics, but don't forget to peruse all of the resources the internet has to offer. There are a ton of sites that pretty much walk you through the best way to complete every mission and quest in this game. Note, though, that some of these walkthroughs MIGHT be outdated, as sometimes with some updates to the game, things get "nerfed" (certain character and group builds or skills change in a way that make the original idea of the build or skill not quite as usable, or worse, completely worthless).

And stick with Prophecies as your first experience of this game, it is the easiest to pick up. It's a great stepping stone to the other two. Factions will be the most challenging of these, and will require some grouping at some points. Nightfall is just about in the middle as far as difficulty. It also has the best storyline (in my opinion).

I'm not sure I would have gone with an Elementalist/Monk for your first character. But honestly, this is a matter of personal preference. And someone else frowned on this, but if you learn to use the right build (skill bar, armor set, etc...) you CAN finish Prophecies with an E/M. I would have chosen a Warrior/Monk as your first character if I were you. Warriors can take more damage, and a newcomer really needs that extra protection. Not to mention, warriors have running skills... they can help you get through some areas or out of tight spots.

Gold/Platinum - I guess by now you've figured out that 1000 gold = 1 plat. Save your gold Sean, don't waste it on dyes and crap until you've got a nice amount saved and an armor set you're happy with. I'm surprised I'll be the first to mention this, but armor in this game get's expensive. And some dyes are ridiculous because so many people buy them (i.e.. black dye is popular, so the price goes up). Buy yourself a salvage kit, identification kit, and collect materials. You can make a lot of gold collecting and selling something as simple as wood. This is assuming you never try to sell anything to other players and just rely purely on your own collecting and selling to merchants. Making enough gold and collecting enough materials to also buy your next set of armor can be a pain.. thats why I say save your gold and not waste it on dyes and junk until you've gotten far enough along.

Runners - you will inevitably run across people announcing something like "running to Piken Square, 500 gold" (or something like that). Most of these runs are legit, but stay away from the ones who ask for full payment up front. The usual way is to pay "half now, the rest at the destination". But let me make a suggestion... don't "run" anywhere. Be patient and play the game. Most creatures you fight along the way don't respawn once you've killed them (there are a few that do, mostly boss-types). So you can clear an area a little at a time by using the respawn points throughout the map (those places your character respawns after you get killed).

Most players have become very bored with GW Sean. And, to get a laugh or a rise out of someone, they will team up with new players, get them part way through a quest, then bail or just aggro as much as possible. You can't avoid this, just know that it does happen, take it in stride. There just isn't much you can do about it but find someone else or make a henchie group and try again.

It's a shame you didn't decide to try Guild Wars back when Prophecies first came out. It used to be so much fun joining a guild, teaming up with your new friends and doing quests and missions all night. I spent a many a night laughing my ass off in front of this screen. And we've all replied to this post and pretty much talked down the idea of teaming with others. Fact is, there really aren't many lower levels in the game who legitimately WANT to play through it, but they are out there. Like someone else said, check the guild recruiting forums here.

Finally, learn to walk first. Stick with PVE for now. Get very used to using skills, moving your character, etc... because, PVP is quite difficult if you don't know what you're doing. In PVP, moving your character is just as important as knowing what skills to bring, how to use them, when to use them, and where you're supposed to be.

PM me for my in-game character name... if we're on at the same time, I'll hook up with ya and help out. I do have a few low level characters, I think I have a level 11 in Prophecies actually. If you make a warrior, I may even have some very nice weapons to give you. Good luck, and sorry this is so long!

if u want to fight things fight animals to start to gain levels

MAKE A PROPHECIES CHARACTER.

Factions and Nightfall characters can not do the intro-area for prophecies.

Welcome. I’m relatively new as well (+2 months or so).

My recommendation.
Get into the game slowly and learn the mechanics first. Try a few classes to see what you like / don’t like. Think about what you would like to achieve and what you enjoy: Titles, armors, skills, wealth, PvE/PvP, heroes or real ppl etc … there is just too much, can’t do it all in the beginning. After you have a plan, start working on it step by step ;-)

In case you have not seen it, read here: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

I start my chars in Prophecies, simply bc I like the looks of these best. I played till Lion Arch (LA) via the normal missions. Most of the times there are other players +/- 2 lv looking for groups, but it might depend on your time zone. From LA I moved to Nightfall to unlock heros.

Currently there is Wintersday on. A good chance to make some cash for new players and buy some gear (check the sell forum here). I geared up my toon plus 3 heros with runes & items, rdy 2go now ;-)) Most likely I will continue with the Nightfall campaign, seems to be the most interesting so far … but thats just me.

In the beginning, use the friends list (press N) instead of a guild. In guilds everybody is 20 and working on high end content. For later, find one with nice ppl and active players in you time zone.

The game is definitely not dead. I can see the points in the critic posts, but I think this game is good value for money.

Have fun.

Welcome to the game!

I remember I used to play Runescape for a bit (because of my brother) before he downloaded a 10 hour trial of GW. I never went back to Runescape again.

We don't know that their farming abilities aren't being nerfed. The only thing we know for sure is that SF is getting nerfed somehow, eventually, and that there will probably be other builds nerfed as well.

Would you kindly tell your fellow elementalists to stop running around with builds full of fire spells and start running ER infuser? None of them DO run support or healing, it's always a shitty bar that they think deals great damage.

unfortunatley there isn't much help for low lvl chars from other characters of the same level but everyone else is right the game mainly starts at level 20 and since your in prophecies, the southern shiverpeaks are the main place for elite skill capping.
also don't feel down after failing something with henchmen most likely its not because of you its the dodgey AI
anywho, welcome to the game, make sure you get to Lion's arch in time for wintersday the holidays in Guild wars are the most memorable

Welcome to the game. I am new too so if you want to hang out char Sir Lovele in-game but my full copy will arrive just the next week so I'm just on the trial so far