Brand new scrub here saying hello

So got the trilogy pack few days ago and went trolling around to see if I could find any info in terms of community support and it's great to see so many people playing the game. Looking forward to getting deep into the game. I was wondering however if your character carries over to the other expacs? I'm starting in prophecies (as a ranger to get my feet wet) and figured I'd work my way from there on to get the PVE aspect of the game. Hopefully the lore will keep me engrossed. Any tips will be great. Hope to see you all around..

hey bans yep it carries over.. but depending on where you start- it's different leveling up

like if you start in prophecies.. there's a thing called ascension where you basically finish off your character and get the last attribute points out in the desert

you can take a boat from lions arch into cantha (factions) and from factions to elona (nightfall).. I would complete it one chapter at a time though myself.. probably the best advice is take your time and read the wikis- there's a lot to see outside the primary missions

Figured as much. Any tips for ranger builds? I'm coming from a WoW background so I was going to play him similarity to a hunter beast spec. Having him tank and I spank. Any good ideas for 2nd prof aside from a healing prof?

Tank and spank doesn't work very well in Guild Wars, since the AI will avoid your high heath/high armor tank and come straight for your monks.

If you have got the Trilogy, and want to start as a ranger, I'd make one in Cantha, and try out the R/Rt Splinter Barrage builds.

Wouldn't recommend starting a character in Cantha. Factions is designed to get you up to level 20 and in 8 man groups asap to get you to high end PvE and PvP. For a new player, this is often very overwhelming. Starting in Prophecies means you'll be able to play by yourself or in small groups with slower level progression. This means you'll have more time to get better at the game before you get thrown in the deep end. Also, a lot of the early Prophecies quests give skills as rewards, so you can tweak your build as you go along rather than have to buy most of them and hope you choose good ones.

While splinter barrage is pretty entertaining; I would try a Heal as One (Elite skill) build at least for a bit, its pretty gnarly (no pun intended).

Don't get too excited about traps and nature rituals, they are bad.

While Starrting in Cantha will get your toon leveled much faster but you have to buy all of your skills. For a new player (like yourself) I suggest starting in Prophecies and playing that campaign all the way through. Prophecies has a slower lvling speed and introduces new mechanics to you at a good pace so you can fully understand the game. Also skills can be earned through skill quests so when you decide to explore the other continents you will have a wealth of skills available before having to buy any.

Elona is the happy medium of these two. In elona you can get skills for your heroes from hero skill trainers(plus you get heroes from Elona) which in turn unlocks the skill for your use. I would suggest Prophcies for an initial play through (and arguably the best story of the three campaigns).

True

Heal as one is pretty spiffy now, I got a scythe/pet build that uses it , I only suggested barrage as there are 7 placed to cap it with the Trilogy (12 if you get EoTN)

Starting in Prophecies is great. Easily the best lore and the best to understand what really is Guild Wars.

The problem is that with a game so far into it's lifetime, you're going to find it a little bit difficult to group together a decent amount of players, especially in Prophecies since you won't have access to heroes. My suggestion is to try and find a helpful PvE guild that can help you and teach you along the way. I'd hate to mention these guys but KISS guilds love to recruit anyone and everyone simply because they want to create a huge community of guilds with the same cape and tag. My opinion on this is coated with hatred for denying the only choice a guild gets to make themselves unique. But that doesn't matter ^^

But also ask them not to bring heroes and run you through the whole thing... that's cheating And you won't learn that way.

Enjoy the game!

let's see early on ranger.. secondary profession- I take it your in pre-searing

it really doesn't matter.. you'll be using your ranger skills most of the time early- when you finish prophecies you have quests out in the desert that will get you the rest of the secondary professions- you can switch to them anytime after that in the skills menu..

when you have a little bit of money, try and collect ranger tomes by buying them off players in towns.. let you unlock skills for cheap.. you'll find the npc will up the price each time you buy until they're at 1k each- gets expensive

I'd avoid the drokars run since this is your first time through.. you'll see people running down there from beacons perch.. it kind of cuts the game in two and you'll end up skipping a lot of the content- not to mention the desert where all the good stuff's at (including your att points)

it does let you pick up max armor though.. it's nothing big really- outside santum cay you'll find some decent armor for cheap- you'll be 20 by ascension if you play the game normally.. go through dragons lair and come out at drokars

*edit actually now that I think about it.. I always used to go secondary mesmer on my characters (it's been like 5 years- but I remember still) cause early on the degen owns

You have the right idea for a first character starting in prophesies is perfect, Its slower paced that the others.

You will not get access to heroes or any more of the newer aspects of the game until you get to the main seaport.

By then you should understand your character enough to make a decision about crossing to the other games to build up some hero backup.

This will let you depend less on other players since you will have a small group of Ai partners to ease the path.

Prophesies wasn't intended for this but times change and abilities differ some use them others do not.

Anyway go slow and enjoy, you can always start a number of characters to try out to see which fits your ideal.

I would try out all the secondary classes before deciding which to use for the long term.
Secondary class isn't permanent but you will have to go much further into the game before you can change it.

Get stuck and cannot find the answer come back on this forum you will always get an opinion.

and remember when buying and selling to others, at the moment they know far more about the value of goods than you do.

Tomes are irrelevant for him. In order for tomes to work, you must have unlocked the skill already either through another PvE character or from PvP and purchasing the skills with 1000 Balthazar Faction.

So ignore tomes for now.

oh I didn't know that.. I bought all the skills before tomes were out- always looked at tomes and thought lucky bastards.. wish those were around when I was coming up xD

what about the pvp unlock pack.. remember most my money went into skills and 15k armor early on- ember light you should have all the chapter one skills available there

senji's corner for factions.. elona was up in the mouth of torment

Rangers suck in PvE, tbh. Make a mesmer, necro, monk, or warrior and employ the most OPd builds on PvX, or ask the most experienced players for their best build templates and work towards unlocking the skillsets required (if you can find them).

What you'll learn from this forum can be summed up as:

1. Knocking down and quickly killing foes before they can get up is good.
2. Knocking down and quickly killing foes before they can get up is bad.
3. Any and all armor ignoring damage is superior to armor sensitive damage, even when the armor ignoring damage is less, comes with requirements, has moments where it won't go off, etc.
4. You should only use necromancer or ritualist heroes for general PvE play.
5. 40/40 wand and focus sets are the best weapons to use when on a caster, even if you have fast casting, lack energy, or have a build that would benefit from something else.
6. Perception of what is good and bad is more important to than actual balance, with "rangers suck in PvE" in the above post as an example.
7. Only looking at how high they yellow numbers are on your screen can tell you how well your DPS (damage per second) is.

Dont listen to him. Play with whichever profession or playstyle you enjoy most and experiment with your own builds until you find which work best for yourself.

Have fun with guild wars

I'd say start in NF to get access to heroes, and get the full pvp unlock pack so you can take advantage of tomes.
Rangers aren't as O/P as some other classes, but they aren't worthless.

Go to our Campfire section and read the stickied basics thread in the Ranger sub forum. http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/b...t10261054.html
That will explain how the ranger works and even give you a good build to use until you get elites. The thread also discusses the secondaries and which are best.

You can look for a guild in the Guild Connections section. Just check out several pages of Guild Looking For and/or post your own Looking For Guild thread.

Lol - listen to this guy. He speaks the (sad) truth.

You'll find a lot of differing opinions about what you "should" or "shouldn't" do in Guild Wars, just like you would if you asked the same sort of question on a WoW forum. And, just like in WoW, most of it is over-blown and/or BS.

Note that GW, in Normal Mode PvE (which is what you start in) is not that difficult. Just hard enough that you need to spend some thought on using equipment and "builds", but nowhere near difficult enough to need anything specific. And, as has been said, don't sweat your secondary profession yet - you'll get the opportunity to change it later. For now, just concentrate on the Ranger part.

Ranger is a great class to start with and using a pet as a body blocker works very well. (Even though I started with a Ranger and have played for 5+ years, I've never actually done a "beastmaster" type build, and, when I played WoW, I only ever played a Mage, so I can't compare the two on that level.)

Edit - also note that GW, unlike much of WoW, is not meant to be played "solo", so fill your party with henchmen if you can't get any humans to join you.

Play the game your own way, get used to the feel of different builds, different skills, different tactics, etc Don't just rip off pre-set builds that are most 'efficient' as I think it ruins the enjoyment of progressing and finding out, for yourself, what works and what doesn't work. The trouble with a game like GW thats been around fo so long is its full of people who will do their utmost to package you into specific builds and tactics - which means you miss out on half the fun of finding out for yourself.

I'd go /ele for a Conjure build. Conjures are spells that add damage to your attacks, provided that those weapons deal the correct type of elemental damage. Conjure Flame, for example, adds bonus fire damage to your attacks if your weapon already deals fire damage.

Ranger is a great introductory class. Decent armor and excellent ability to pull when you're playing only with henchmen. You'll likely be doing a lot of soloing as you level up so Ranger self-sufficiency is nice. Also, you can stay at the rear and when things go poorly, you have a much better chance of making a run for it than if you're in the middle of the action. As Dr. Simon Tam would say, "It's OK to leave them to die".