New player with questions

Greetings everyone, Im thinking of buying the GW trilogy set and I have a couple of questions to ask:

-What is the player base like? Is the game dying or is it still going strong (I ask this because I would like to join a guild and do a lot of group play)

-Is there a lot of end game content? When I beat the game will I still have a lot of other things to do to for fun?

-Is pvping fun for newbs, or is it full of nothing but power gamers.

-And lastly, if I were to buy the game, what class would you recommend me to start off with. I want to play a class that is very versatile and is good at making money. I would try out anything but healers.

Thanks for reading this and hopefully ill see you on the battle field

The game is 5 years old. The player base certainly is not what it used to be. To be honest, you'll most likely play the less populous areas of the game with AI controlled henchmen.

GW is a bit different in power scaling. You get to max level (and maximum power of the character) at acout 25% of the single player campaign, and all the rest of the game is balanced for max level players. The endgame takes two forms: elite areas (total 4) and PvP.

Is it even theoretically possible to play PvP and not be called a noob at some point? Couldn't say, I don't play PvP much. Still, everyone was new once, and since GW is not level and gear focused, if you learn, you can catch up.

Any profession will do, I'll just say that you may want to keep mesmers and monks for later (they're a bit more complex and require a bit of experience). I'd suggest you start with a Warrior. It's a bit tougher than usual.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions

Hello there, buy the game, you will enjoy it. Also, you might want to know that Guild Wars 2 is in development.

Iuris has covered most of your questions, but I will expand on two of them.

PvP - there are two "types" of PvP, low end and high end. The low end consists mainly of randomly selected teams of players and is "newbie" friendly. The high end is 8-man teams formed prior to the match. To be chosen for a team requires that you have prior experience (rank) or a guild that does that type of PvP. Here is a link to the wiki page.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/PvP

Profession - You will have eight character slots with the Trilogy and will be able to try out all the professions to find those that suit your play style. There is no "one" profession that is more powerful and "gold" making abilities vary as the game changes. Most "farming" requires skills you won't have until later in the game, so don't choose a profession with getting rich in mind. Choose something you will enjoy.

you should be able to find an active guild to play with and group with. the game isn't what it once was in the early days, but it is definitely still alive.

When you beat the game, you will have plenty to do. Farming, pvp, elite areas, dungeons, vanquishing, titles, etc.

I suggets warrior because it is quite fun to play in PvE and im a warrior, but it isn't exactly a moneymaker. of course, nothing really is anymore these days ;-) most solo farming builds are fairly meh anymore ;-)

There are actually seven elite areas. Not including dungeons. They tend to rotate in and out of popularity though.

On the subject of the community, being so old the community has shrunk sure - But there's still plenty of us left. These days though it tends to fall into the hands of the new player to integrate themselves - If you don't make the effort to ask if you can join guilds/teams the game will seem very barren and empty.

On the subject of making money...I've got to ask - why would a player who doesn't own the game yet already be focused on grinding cash?

Playing the game normally through a campaign can easily score you a enough or a decent set of elite armour. Especially since the price drop on them.

Just speculating, but maybe it's because a lot of MMOs require you to have "leet gear" in order to be viable.

If that is the OP's reasoning, Guild Wars offers weapons and armor with max stats very early in most of the campaigns (Prophecies takes things a lot slower, but there are shortcuts to be had if one wants them) for pretty cheap. Usually just playing the quests and missions through as intended will garner you enough cash to buy them when you get there. You may not have the money for a +50 health rune, but the +41 would suffice, and you could probably also readily afford all the other runes/insignias necessary to be totally protected. Max weapons with particular mods can even be traded from certain NPCs in exchange for particular common monster drops.

The only expensive things that you'd have to grind money for are purely cosmetic. They have the same protection and damage stats as the "normal" stuff. They just look "cool."

But as G. said, if you play the game normally, by the time you reach the areas where you can buy the elite armor, you'll probably have earned the required cash anyway. Especially if you follow our how to make money guide.

The player base is probably not as large as it used to be, but there's still lots of activity. A lot of the current activity though is centered around the Zaishen Quests and the War In Kryta stuff, which is aimed toward more experienced players.
As has been said, unless you join an active guild with other new players, you may find that you will play a lot of the beginning stages of the game with just AI henchmen (not that that's a bad thing). There does seem to be a constant influx of new players recently and I do see lots of Guilds advertising for new players.

"Beating" the game is only a small part of the content actually. You can go through the main story and complete the final missions without doing 75% of the content. Unlike a typical console game, "beating" the game is not the object.

Is PvP fun for anyone?

Warrior, Ranger, Elementalist, or Necro.

Mr. Negative above. If you can get into a guild that is helpful, friendly, and willing to take a new player under their wing then you shouldn't do all of the less populous areas with just henchmen. You'll do some don't get me wrong, because everyone has something they log on to do. But post in the looking for guild what you are looking for and i'm sure you'll get pm'd by many guilds. Test them out if they don't work for you or don't stick to what they promised you then you can leave and find another one.

The most powerful/easy profession in the game is the ritualist/ranger...Start with that and the money will flow in. Because it is a farming machine....... I love my rit and factions is the easy/fastest starting expansion. and it is fun too.
Guild wars but you need to get Eye of the north expansion is still a great value and they are so much to do even with guild wars 2 coming u will have time to finish all campaigns and be ready for guildwars2 when it comes out!