Coming back, help me out!

Hey everyone, i played GW back during release for about a year and am thinking about returning. I unfortunatly dont have my original account so i will be starting fresh and have a few questions.

I plan on buying all of the expansions. I know would have to buy the trilogies pack. Is that all or is there one more?

When i start a new char is it possible to start any of the campaigns at level one or will i have to start at the start?

How is the population? Will i be able to find people to do missions and such?

How is pvp in its current state? I am buying this game to pvp for the most part and dont want to spend money on the game if it is suffering.

What are some of the most common builds atm? I want to start building my skills asap so i can get into pvp.

And finially, would you say it was worth it to buy everything right now to hold me off till GW2?

Thanks!

The Trilogy does not include the Expansion, Eye of the North. You can choose to buy that as well.

Each campaign has its own starter area. After purchasing the trilogy, you can choose which campaign you would like to start in. Core classes are available in all campaigns. Assassin and Ritualist are available only in Factions, and Paragon and Dervish are only available in Nightfall.

Guild Wars is a dying game, but it's likely that there are still plenty of people around for you to play with for what you want to do.

I am not a PvPer, so it may be best to get a second opinion. PvP is stale and infrequent updates do not help. There is plenty of PvP to be satisfied with as a new experience, but I would imagine that it can get old within a few months of continuous play.

Everything you care to know about popular builds can be found here.

Are you intending to buy GW2? Are you interested in the system of reaping rewards in GW2 based on certain achievements in GW? Buy the expansion and start filling your Hall of Monuments. It would seem that GW2 is going to be released some time next year, so you have plenty of time to play the game for itself, or to build up certain monuments.

If you have any other questions, try consulting the official wiki or unofficial wikia beforehand, as well as the aforementioned PvX link.

With PvP it depends what you want to do and what region you are from. You can always do RA, FA, JQ, and AB. Those formats are easy to play and don't really require an organized groub. AB you can have an organized team, but random way doesn't stop you from playing and still being effective.

HA and GvG are a bit different. They are basically dead in American times and still thriving just enough in European times. It probably wouldn't be too hard to find a starter guild in American times, but it would be hard to find a good starter guild. And by good I don't mean win a lot. I mean one that will play frequently and will learn and grow together as a guild and continue improving.

If all you want to do is meet some cool guys, joke around and play for fun without caring about wins and losses, I would say give it a shot. If you have dreams of becoming the next big guild wars player, it won't happen. The game isn't in a state right now to help newcomers grow that far. And it most likely never will be again.

As far as what the person above said about GW not being friendly to newcomers right now, that's true. For example: HA. Unless you have friends and guildies that you can HA with, you'll be very hardpressed to find a group. Before ppl used to ask for r3+ in their groups, now the majority are asking for like r6+. Same goes for serious pvp guilds. They will have requirements such as gladiator rank or hero rank. Team Arena is gone, so you can't use that to farm your glad title. Hero Battle is also gone, so you can't farm that title to say you have some pvp experience and help you out a little if you don't fully meet a guild's requirements. Codex arena replaced TA and HB and has it's own title, but again most ppl ask for a certain rank (and from what I hear it's dead now anyways).

Yup, GvG is pretty close to dead during American hours. It will help if you have friends who you can play with and get a grasp of the GvG current meta. It'll be hard to start GvG if you don't have some introduction to the GvG "clique." It's honestly getting so small that most of the GvGers know each other or have at least heard of each other.

If you can somehow work your way into the GvG scene, I'm sure you'll have yourself a bit of fun for a little while. I'd say buying Guildwars again won't be a waste of money and you'll get some reward out of it, but just don't expect to be at all as active as it was 2 to 3 years ago.