Long time MMO player new to Guild Wars (INORITE?)

So I'm a long time player of old-school and current WoW, Warhammer, and Age of Conan and for some reason or another I just realized I never really even looked at Guild Wars until now . I'm currently messing around with Warhammer some, but I really want to try out something new (to me at least, heh).

My questions are pretty simple:

1. How is the population after all these years of GW being out?

2. How is the pvp?

3. How is class balance?

4. How do guilds work in this game? Can I basically just log in and get recruited like in most mmos? If this is correct, are any pvp-oriented guilds recruiting with a high player base?

5. Is it FUN? (Most important question ofc )

I'm reading over aspects of the game as I'm doing this, but honestly I've found the player's opinions of what they're playing outweighs all the information and/or videos I could watch.

Thanks for your time guys n' gals

Welcome to Guru!

1) Slowly dying out, but still somewhat populated for much of the game. Don't expect finding random groups for non-storyline activities in-game, but that is where your friends list and Guild come in! PvP is very active, although the Codex Arena often has wait times in-between matches except during peak hours.

2) Guild Wars has the best PvP of any MMO around, hands down. There is everything from the casual Competitive Missions and Random Arenas to more hardcore Guild versus Guild and Heroes' Ascent.

3) Guild Wars is balanced by the rock-paper-scissors concept, meaning some roles are geared towards winning versus other roles. All classes are played extensively in PvE, although in high-end PvP the current meta leaves Dervishes out in general.

4) To get into a Guild, you must be invited by a Guild Officer or Leader. There are plenty of PvP Guilds around, but most will expect you to have a good handle on the game, seeing as it has been out for 5 years. You're best off spending a while in PvE before going to PvP and joining a PvP Guild.

5) Get the free trial at www.guildwars.com and you'll get a very basic feel for the game. You won't get very far in PvE, and will probably get utterly dominated at PvP, but you'll get the gist.

Let me know via PM here if you get the trial and would like to chat in-game!

Pretty much what Ariena said. This game used to be a lot more active but has died down, partly in anticipation of GW2.

Ariena nailed it, but question 3 deserves a little more extension.

The biggest difference you'll note coming from other MMOs is not the instance-based gameplay (as many people from other MMOs often mention) but both PvE and PvP are based around "builds" of skills. Guild Wars has three main wikis (although Guru itself also has valuable information, obviously): Guildwiki, Guild Wars Wiki, and PvXwiki. The first two are fairly similar clones of one another, but the last one is exclusively devoted to builds.

Because of GW's build-system and because Arenanet is open to players' demands for balance, Guild Wars ends up having a fairly good balance between professions compared to other MMOs (I've played L2, some AoC and WoW, and SoTNW). Just a few days ago, for example, Anet tweaked a significant number of PvP skills to rebalance the meta.

Visit PvXwiki to get an idea of what you're in for. As a new player the wiki won't be of much use for you until you can get elite skills, but it will definitely help you learn the game language.

ahh the propaganda for newcomers...
there are skills/builds/classes that need to be nerfed as they are, right now, doing everything possible in pve, able to solo lots of hard things and/or run them very fast. on the other hand, there are loads of skills and some classes that used to be nerfed and are neglected in pve, considered inferior to others and played less. monks, sins, necros are played 'extensively', while mesmers, paras and dervishes are generally 'in retreat'.

The problem with your post is that your knowledge of high-end PvE is n/a to new players. If you're just playing the campaigns, you'll run into all classes.

1) Still very large.
2) Still the best in the mmo universe. Pay no attention to occasional whiners who may say otherwise.
3) Excellent
4) There are lots of PVE and PVP oriented guilds. Recruiting is a piece of cake.
5) Oh yes I somewhat envy you y`know.. for those feelings i had for gw when i started playing that are now gone. But, after playing a game for this much time, lots of it`s appeal is gone, and there is no miracle that a developer can pull to bring back those first moments and impressions that we are all actually yearning for..

Oooh, I never answered the questions!
1) Large enough, but spread out amongst the districts. Luckily, you can change districts in town. Be prepared to do some district-hopping to form good PUGs.
2) Very good and diverse - but the constructed 8v8 formats are quite hard to get into.
3) Good in PvP, shaky in PvE - funnily enough, mostly because of builds that wouldn't be possible in PvP. In theory, this could be solved with a single patch.
4) Still tons of active guilds around, recruiting mostly happens in starting towns and capitals (Old Ascalon, Lion's Arch; Shing Jea Monastery, Kaineng Center; Kamadan). It's very hard to get into any of those towns and not run into a few recruiters.
5) Yes. It's the only game that gives me the gaming experience I'd been looking for for a long time: I get to patiently build my character to perfection in PvE, and then play PvP with it - and be competitive without endless grinding and farming.

Hey Jarryd Welcome to Guru!

If you have been playing wowhammer and AoC it sounds like you are looking for a good PvP game.
Guild Wars PvP system is what those clowns wish they could come with, an actuall skill based combat system, no zergs, no laggy sieges, no completely broken classes {like a demo spellweaving on the rocks in kesh wiping entire zergs hahaha } It's smaller scale PvP but worth a look for everyone who craves PvP IMO.

The discontented will still be on the forums QQing about this skill or that skill is OPed but as a whole this combat system and the concepts behind it are head and shoulders better and completely different from what every other game tries to do and after seeing how many/most other companies deal with game balance and other problems ANET wins by 99 yards in a 100 yard dash.
{yes trolls I know they aren't as active or as fast to fix things as they once were but you should see how bad things are in games that charge you to play!! }

It's 5 years old now and doesn't get the TLC that it use to but still has pretty decent populations and is cheap enough to buy with $0 a month to play that you should check it out and decide for yourself if GWs2 will be something you want to check out when they get it finished up.


Peace

Thanks for the replies guys

I downloaded the trial and am playing a necro as we speak. Interesting how you can be 2 "classes" in this game with builds. Almost enough to be intimidating even for me. I'm pretty interested in either an assassin or necro for high end pvp down the line. Any suggestions on a good combo class build for either of these?

At one point in the campaign (Ascension for Prophecies, Weh No Su for Factions, or finishing the "Hunted!" quest for Nightfall) you'll be able to switch your secondary class to anything you want while at an outpost/city, after you've bought the class from a profession changer for a fairly cheap 500g.

Unless you've already picked your secondary, I recommend a Monk one for Necro. I did the first half of prophecies recently with an N/Mo and it definitely helped to have some holy damage and healing for specific missions before I "ascended" (I also chose Mo because it allowed me to powerlevel myself up to 20 using a "Spiteful Spirit" 55 build, but that's something I wouldn't recommend to new players). But frankly the necromancer's own skills are powerful enough to do the trick.

If PvP really is your thing then don't worry too much about 'getting a handle on the game', just get a bot. If you don't fancy cheating then just remember that you'll be fighting against people who do. It's the current scourge of the game. Apart from that... what they said ^

GW is balanced for team fights (especially 8on8s), not for 1on1s. Don't expect that 1on1s are fair.

As others already have mentioned you can change your secondary class freely later on, so it's best to choose a secondary that's useful with nearly no attribute points invested (because you won't have many at lower levels).
For every caster class elementalist is a good choice because you have access to Glyph of lesser Energy, which is a very good energy-managment skill.
For a assassin warrior is a good choice because of Wild Blow and Distracting Blow.

Let me just explain some things before you run off and think you're epic running big AoE fire spells on a Monk. You don't choose 2 professions. You choose a primary and a secondary. Your secondary is there to support your primary. For example, a Warrior's job is to bash things into the ground. A secondary profession should then be used to add some damage buffs and help keep damage consistent; NOT to pick up a completely different playstyle and pretend you're something your not.

Note: By all means play around with whatever you like, it is a game after all, but when you play with other people they expect you to take things more seriously.

Lol it seems Marty has seen his fair share of atrocious PUG groups where the sins play spirit spammers.