Order of Skill Acquisitions?

I get the impression that skills are not directly tied to level requirements the way they are in WoW, LOTRO or CoH (although I haven't been able to find a clear confirmation of that fact in forums or wiki sources). Nevertheless, I was hoping that someone could point me to some resource that gives a vague idea of which skills tend to be more attainable at which levels for various classes. When I look at the wiki skills page for any particular profession, I see a dauntingly lengthy list of skills, presented in alphabetical order. To me, part of the fun of a game with levels is looking forward to the acquisition of new skills. Is there any sort of guide that can give me even a vague, approximate idea of when various skills will be attainable for any given profession, as I progress through one campaign or another?

Thanks in advance for any advice, and apologies if this is a common question (although I did do a search and check for previous FAQ entries on the subject).

Skills are not tied to level. You can attain a skill by any method regardless of what level you are, what equipment you have, etc. There is no order in which you need to get them either.

How and when you get skills is highly dependant on which campaign you're playing. In Prophecies, there are a lot of quests that have skills as a reward, and these quests can be found right through to the end of the game. However, not all skills are available from quests. In Factions and Nightfall, there are still some skill quests, but you are expected to buy a majority of them. You don't need them all though, just the ones you intend to use.

Other than quests and purchasing, skills can be obtained from tomes: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Tome

Thanks. It's hard to get my head around this approach to skills. I guess a guide to the profession I'm playing would be very helpful in deciding which skills to pursue.

On a related note, if I were to move an Assassin character over to Prophecies, would I still be able to acquire Assassin skills in that campaign?

The biggest restriction on acquiring skills is WHERE, not when. For example, a fairly popular Elementalist spell, Meteor Shower, is not available from a quest. This means you have to buy it from a skill trainer. However, not just any skill trainer will sell it to you. You have to reach the skill trainer in the Ascalon Settlement, which is after roughly 7-8 missions depending on how much exploring you do. But if you get it once, on any character, any other character can purchase that skill from ANY skill trainer in Prophecies. Also, if you get Balthazar Faction from playing PvP and unlock a skill, it can be obtained by purchasing it from a skill trainer in the appropriate campaign.

The skill trainer in Embler Light Camp (at the end of Prophecies) sells all core and Prophecies skills. The skill trainer in Harvest Temple (end of Factions) sells all core and Factions skills. The skill trainer in Mouth of Torment (end of Nightfall) sells all core and Nightfall skills.

No Assassin skills are available in Prophecies. You can only obtain Assassin and Ritualist skills in Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North. Dervish and Paragon skills are only available in Nightfall and Eye of the North (plus the Kurzick and Luxon skills).

As for the skills you'll need, all you have to do is look through PvXWiki, see what skills are commonly used in the good builds, and focus on getting those.

http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

You could also look through the profession guides in the Campfire section of the Guru forums. Some of them are a bit outdated but the core information is still up to date.

Campaigns only have skills for the professions that existed when they were made. So Assassins and Ritualists do not have any skills for them in the Prophecies campaign, and Dervishes and Paragons do not have any skills from the Factions or Prophecies campaigns*. You can get skills from your secondary profession though.

PS: Don't know if this is what you were referring to, but you are able to use any skills you have in any area in any campaign you want. Excluding PvE-only skills in PvP, obviously.

The only exception are the Luxon/Kurzick skills.

There are some helpful guides right here on the forums:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/campfire-f17.html

Take a look at theese pages, I think this is what you have been looking for:
http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quests_(Prophecies)
http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quests_(Factions)
http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Quests_(Nightfall)

Just pick the campaign you're playing and look through the list lower down on the page.

Thanks very much for all the replies.

Bristlebane, I'm afraid that all three of those links take me to error pages that say "GuildWiki does not have an article with this exact name."

skills become available as you progress through the towns and find new skill trainers. everytime you enter a new town, look to see if there is a new skill trainer sitting around somewhere. you can walk up to that skill trainer to view the skills he has for your profession or wiki that skill trainer's name to find out what every skill he has.

There was a small problem with Guru, it didn't include the end paranthesis in the URLs. I fixed it now so please try the links again:

Thanks! Those look like great resources.