New to GW...

Hey there,

Anyway, I finally decided to dive into GW and well...I'm your typical lost and confused noob. I do have a strong MMO background though...spanning both P2P and F2P (RO being the oldest). What would be the best way for me to start learning the ins and outs of the game, aside from the obvious answer of actually playing it? Any help is much appreciated.

Just some general answers (limited time)

- Read the manuals
- Read the forums. Yes there will be lots of stuff you don't understand but it can all help.
- Familiarize yourself with both the official wiki and unofficial wiki. they contain a lot of info.
- Read through a page or 2 of Q&A - this is the place where all sorts of question's come up, both for beginner's as well as more advanced
- Read through the class forums, just realize that most of whats posted there is going to be aimed at advanced/experienced players/characters.. but it can still help.
- Don't be afraid to post and ask question's.. try and keep em all in one thread if you have a lot to ask at the same time

- What campaign / game did you buy? Prophecies? Faction's? Nightfall? GOTY Edition?

- If you have all 3, I'd start a character in all 3 campaigns initially. Why? Because they have different startup tutorial's and prompts. I find that running through all 3 can really help understand the game basics better.. as the wording and way they manage things is different.

Hope that helps

Yup yup, reading through some of the wikis now. ^_^ I snagged the trilogy off Steam, so I can start in any of the three, though I think for the sake of being new I'll do Prophecies first. Also, I've always been fond of healing in MMOs...though in some of the games I've played leveling a healer is much more of a challenge and moneysink. Is this true for GW? If so, what would you suggest to be a noob-friendly profession?

My 2 cents:

- Off course: play the game. While you're at it, play the campaigns in order, pick the profession you seem to like the most then...
- Don't rush: enjoy the game, the sidequests, the landscape, the lore...
- When you meet a challenge, try first, then try again, then if you still can't do it...
- Don't be afraid of asking for suggestions, explainations or even just for help...
- If you still need infos, this might prove useful.
- Couple with someone if you like: try to be nice and do your best to find a playmate that enjoys playing along with you and giving you advices to improve your game experience.

Welcome aboard!

EDIT:

Playing a Monk effectively can be challenging (and quite demanding) for a newcomer. Then again, if you enjoy playing support roles in games like this, you'll probably have the right mindset to do it right so, up to you.

As a "noob-friendly" profession, since you mentioned starting with the Prophecies campaign, I'd pick:

- The Elementalist: quite a welcoming and easy to play profession to start with, it might become frustrating at higher levels (expecially in Hard Mode) as their effectiveness as pure damage-dealers decreases.

- The Warrior: easy to get into and quite forgiving at first, but - despite the common thinking - it's a profession with a quite steep learning curve. Anyone can weild a sword and weave it like feather duster, killing something in the process, but there's more to it. Being a Warrior is easy, being a good one, not so much.

- The Necromancer: probably the best and more versatile profession of the entire game. Quite easy to get into, many good and effective options available for you to play, from support to damage dealing.

gw is almost entirely party and team based. you wont have any issues leveling or getting groups - people always want healers. monk can be a difficult job but youll get the hang of it.

if you want to be a monk read this page. 10 times.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide...ying_as_a_monk

Awesome, thanks for all the help. Glad to see the forum community being helpful.

The Campfire section has sub forums for each profession. Each of them has a stickied Basics thread which gives you good information on the profession including which secondary professions work best with that primary.

Don't rush through "pre-searing" which is the beginning of Prophecies. Do all the secondary profession quests you can before choosing your secondary as this will give unlock skills for characters in other campaigns. (Unlocked skills for your account can be "learned" by any PvE character by using a skill tome. For PvP-only characters they are instantly available.) Try to be level 8+ before entering the Academy. In Prophecies, once you leave pre-searing, the time-lapse prevents you from ever returning.

As you have more specific questions, come back and we will help where we can.

I would start off in Prophesies and begin a number of characters play each one for a time to get the feel of what you might like to play long term.
Do all the side or sub quests they give skills and to a certain extent show how they work together.

The pre searing of prophesies is a good grounding for the game well the pve part of it and as a beginner going straight into pvp and taking on other players is probably a bad idea till you are more familiar with the game.

Use the collectors and the weapons you find as there is no point in spending cash on anything but the maximum protection armour and you don't find that for sale till later.
You will find yourself ok for cash in this game unless your the spend spend spend type.

Most of all have fun

And if u still need any help in-game, feel free to PM me

IGN = Special Destiny

Thanks for all the awesome advice and info. I ultimately decided on N/Me for my first character. I have to admit, I'm really sad I'm 5 years late into the game because it is very enjoyable... x.x

Secondary Professions aren't set in stone, later on in the game you can be N/X, so you can change your build to whatever you want.
I also retract my original link and replace it with this. (read this one 10x too :P)
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide..._a_necromancer

Don't worry about being late to the game. It's still going strong and probably will even after GW2 release. There will always be people who still enjoy it. After all, most of us are playing more than one game now. The casual nature of GW allows it to remain a favorite alternate when you get bored with the newer ones or just need a change.

Necro primary is a pretty strong all round class.
You can just raise an army of minions and overwhelm many of the mobs in the game.

You can also spread conditions fairly well and hurt your enemies with disease poison or just health drains, or you can increase the damage they receive when they are hit.

Every death in range feeds your energy so you seldom have to worry about energy for spells and those same corpses can either be raised to form an army or used to create circles of power that aid your friends or harm your enemies that venture within.

Its my main character class and I have loved every minute of play.