Becoming interested in GW

Recently for whatever reason my interest in GW has really peaked. I have a few questions about the game though. How big is the player base nowadays? How do skills work, can you just roll your face across the keyboard or is there a small amount of tact to it? PvE or PvP based? Little bit of both? How does one compare to the other?

1.the player base is smaller but w/ the upcomming 5th anaversery alot of vet. players might return open their presents then return to their caves.
2.w/ SF+600/smite nerfed(SF was kinda nerfed) you need a bit of skill but w/ discord you can roll ur face around anywhere you want.
3. I'd say more pve but i only hang around in pve(along w/ my guild) so I cant say(tho i do hear GvG/HA is dead and codex apprently sucks so not alot of pvp going on i think).
4. I'd say pve is VASTLEY superior to pvp now. PvP I thinks gotten a little "l33t"(aka noobs are ordering u around like their boss). So I'd go PvE if u want to have any kinda fun(my diagnosis tho ^^)

Player base has shrunken down, which is normal considering it's a 5 year old game. Major cities are still packed, and for the upcoming anniversary event, you'll see them even more packed. The only effect a small community has on the game is that finding a pick-up-group can be hard, but using Heroes instead mostly fixes that.

The difficulty curve is fair, but if you feel like getting an edge, there are some resources like www.PvXwiki.com for player skillbar builds, or even pressing F10 in-game for the official wiki for tons of other information.

Mostly PvE based. Random Arenas is fun if you know what you're doing, but Heroes Ascent and GvG are impenetrable without a full skill unlock, great knowledge of the game, and a good guild. A few hundred hours investment.

Also, you can get the Trilogy for $20 from D2D for this week only:
http://www.direct2drive.com/promos/spring-sale/

It's tons of game for a great price.

The playerbase is smaller, but still sufficiently large. And by large, I mean large. Also, if you're having trouble finding PUG's and you don't yet have heroes, whisper me in-game and I'll come help.

Skills require a bit more tact. Usually. There are some face-roll builds out there,... But the fun of it all is experimenting on your own .

The game started out PvP based, and I think it's quite evenly balanced out between the two atm. A lot of people are saying that 'PvP is dead', but there'll always be doomsayers. In fact I think PvE died just a little more since Eye of the North, or actually, since Heroes. But the game is still tons of fun . More fun than World of Warcraft imho, either way.

You can download the client and get a trial key at www.guildwars.com

This is one of the few MMOs that leans very heavily on player skill. Who you have in your party can mean alot more than the build they're running, although that's mostly the case with the terribad players.

PvE based is really the only approachable meta here. PvP is strong(ish) but there's alot of elitism, and you pretty much need to be established to get into it. However, there is random arena, and competitive PvP missions in Factions, which aren't as prestigious but still fun.

[QUOTE=Hereticus;5117611 can you just roll your face across the keyboard [/QUOTE]

OMG how did you know thats exactly how i play dungeons lol

Well there is some thought into using skills. Sure you could go brute force as an Elementalist or Warrior and just pummel your enemies to death but if you wanna try GW with a bit of thinking and real skill try out some of the more complicated classes like - Mesmer. A lot of important thought goes into using most Mesmer skills like intrruption and knowing what hex is appropraite for your foe like anti melee or anti spellcaster hexes. There are still some thoughts and tactics for the more straight up damage classes but nothing outthinks he Mesmer.

What skills you use is important while you are learning the game. You are only allowed eight skills at a time and cannot swap them out once you leave an outpost until you return to an outpost. Figuring out which skills work best in any area is a large part of the game. Equally important is team build. You can form a party made up of 4-8 players/henchmen/heroes. How your builds compliment each other can be very important.

By the time you have beaten three campaigns and collected most of the skills, you will have general PvE-only skills that make the rest of your build less important.

If you really mean is the game FUN, then the answer is yes. I'm still playing daily after more than 4 years.

Really been looking for a good online game to play. Not big on mmo's really warhammer online left a bad taste in my mouth. Although from what I hear gw's cities are just glorified chat rooms and everything else is instanced. I tend to lean for a more PvE game than PvP. Probably will get all 4 games once I get my comp up and running again. I like tanking with buff/debuff skills. What set up would you guys recommend?

It's true that all non-city areas are instanced, but I wouldn't say that cities/outposts/etc are just glorified chat rooms. Sure, people chat, but since you don't have that option in the instanced areas (you could use guild chat and alliance chat though, or whisper people if you know specifically who you want to talk to), it's not really an issue. I haven't played any other MMO's, but I find the amount of chat in towns completely reasonable. If you don't like it, you can always use the lesser populated districts.

Don't tank in GW. I don't know what experiences you've had with other games, but throw all those preconceptions out the window. Warriors are damage machines. For the most part, tanking is just slow and wasteful. There are heaps of buff/debuff types of characters though. The main one would probably be Necromancer. They're pretty flexible, and they get heaps of energy so they can play in a lot of different styles. My tip: don't worry about builds yet. Get to know your professions (pick a main, or play a few), get to know the game mechanics, and play around with what you think is good. Optimise your build when you've gotten a fair way into the game. Play at your own pace.

Guild Wars is unlike any other on-line RPG-style game. The focus is not on levels or uber equipment. The focus is on skills and skill usage. Download the trial version off the website and it will give you a sample. Before you try it, read the stickied profession basics threads in guru's Campfire section. There is a sub forum for each profession. That should give you an idea of what each is like and what is the most useful secondary professions for each.

It's true that everything else is instanced, but the chat room bit is not entirely true. There are some larger centers where the kiddies will sit around saying "poop" and giggling, but in most other towns there's not enough people to have a chat going.
Each of the chat channels - Local, Guild, Team, Alliance, Trade, Whisper (PM) - can be enabled/disabled as you prefer, and with just a simple click/unclick, so excess chat is not a problem.

One thing that is different about GW than other RPGs (WoW for example), is that there is essentially no PvP during PvE. The PvP and PvE games are basically separate and you don't run into other players you need to fight during PvE. (There are no "servers" in the WoW sense either, so you don't need to choose between PvP and PvE servers.)

Tanking in GW is not as useful as it is in some other games (for example, WoW, again). Also, many (if not all) classes can "tank" although Warrior would be the class that most people usually think of as a Tank.
Unlike WoW and clones, there is no concern about spec'ing your character toward a particular goal. In GW you can set yourself up as a tank and save the build as a Template. Then any time you want to tank you just load in the Template (and switch armor and weapons if needed) and you're good to go - no cost, no re-spec'ing, no waiting.

Cool cool, thanks for the info guys, hopefully I can my computer running within the next week or so then it's gonna GW all day

also another tip, if you begin play this weekend, do expect alot of lag as it is the 5th year anniversary event. its usually not nearly as bad as it can be during an event but its something to keep in mind. also has been stated earlier but its probably a good weekend to get into it and find an active guild since more people will be on and you can get kind of a better feel for the community in and of itself.