Some noob questions (leveling gear etc.)

I'm new to the game (Prophecies only) and I am pretty clueless on what to do. I do the first few quests and end up in the destroyed version of the city (2years later) and by now I am about level 3 to 4.

Now I want to buy new gear but the only gear available to me from the "armor" vendors is gear with the exact same stats I have, except with more armor. Do I really care for that as an E/mo (lol Emo). And I don't even know how to obtain this, since they require bolts of cloth. I read on google I need to Salvage stuff for it so I got a salvaging kit but I haven't gotten a single bolt of cloth yet.

So I also find these Collectors that also offer gear, but only in the form of weapons, so still no real upgrade there. Could someone please tell me how I'm supposed to get some decent gear at lower levels?

I'm still used to WoW (but sick of it) just buying gear off the AH, enchanting it and go pewpew on mobs. What's Guild Wars' way to the world?

Also, I am very VERY excited about doing my first dungeon. At what level can I do it, which dungeon is it, where can I find it and do I need a real group or can it be done with henchman? If you guys can answer these questions for me you'd really be helping a n00b out! :d

While leveling at level 4, I came across these Charr Ash Walkers and other CHarr mobs that were level 5 to 6, which is fine, but then all of a sudden there's this level 10 guy that's extremely hard to kill. Is this intended or did I skip a few levels and enter this zone (The Breach) too fast? Also, I think I lost track of the main questline somehow because all I got left in my log are "Ascalon Quests".

Seriously guys, I'm cluesless here. Thanks alot in advance!

First of all you did miss a lot of the tutorial region zone. Those Ascalon quests are now unavailable and you might as well abandon them.

GW isn't really about gear, the weapon collector stuff is fine (I play ed nearly the entire game with colector stuff) but you will also get the gear you like as it drops. Make sure you get a expert salvage kit and you can salvage the modifiers off the weapon drops to create better gear. The Charr Ash Walkers drops generally salvage into cloth as do the grawl. You can also modify your armor from expert salvaging clothing type drops. Pay close attention as you add armor modifers some effects stack and other do not.

I suggest you slow down and explore a bit of old Ascalon first. The Campain you are in is set up to take your time. The breach area is really for level 10 players.

GW is more of a story driven game as such there aren't any dungeons per say in Proph. Eye of the North has them but you want to wait a bit before you play that one as it contains a lot of plot spoilers.

You can save some money if yoy are carefull with the armors you buy. The first one you want is in Old ascalon, then Bettletun or Bergen Hot Springs then The Crystal Desert then the final level at Droknars Forge, or save even more money and get your final level at Eye of The North or Factions. If you have the full game you can also go to Nightfall and get heroes that are customizable henchmen.

Don't worry to much about gear levels, the game is designed to take into account the level that you buy as you progress.

Hi and welcome to GW

Your right on track at the moment all is well so don't panic

The start of the game is called the presearing and you can stick there as long as you like but you end up getting no experience as the opposition is too low in level.
Now your in the main part of the game and its huge.

armour and weapons improve as you progress in the game and for your game the best armour is a long way off so don't bother paying for any armour yet "and never buy armour from another player as its customised and useless to any other player.

Do a web search esp a place called guildwiki and check out the armour collectors "warning you can spoil the surprises in the game if you read too much there.

Armour for Spellcasters monk necro etc maxes out at ar 60 rangers get better 70 and warriors 80
Paying money for anything else is wasted money so only to be done if you have money to burn.

Weapons have a skill use number if your skill equals or exceeds that then you can use it to full effect though you can still use it with no skill just not very well.

Gw tops out at level 20 and at that point the game starts to get interesting you progress by gaining more skills so you can have better combinations of skills and by changing your secondary class to be even more flexible.

If you really get stuck check the wiki you can find a list of all the missions that are part of the storyline and the quests that are just extras.

You should have noticed the marker above the heads of npcs that lead to more missions and quests.

Mostly you move from town to town doing all the missions in each and when you finish a mission it usually puts you in the next town in the chain.

If you find an area tough go back and do some more missions or just do random killing to get drops and increase money and xp.

Some creatures are Bosses denoted by a coloured aura these are tougher and higher in level.

Have fun

Thank you both for your replies, the info you gave has really helped. So I am to understand there are no dungeons until level 10? I don't care about lore so that won't be an issue. And can I do dungeons with henchmen or do I need real players?

Also, I don't really get what people are supposed to do at level 20 with skills maxed out.. I mean, do people do alot of dungeons for better gear then or what's the idea?

The whole game starts @ lvl 20 doing dungeons before lvl 20 isn't very effective as all foe's will be lvl 20+ and if trying to do the dungeon when you are lvl 10 you will not help your party at all. Most people complete the campaigns storyline and then move on to other things like elite area's.

You don't grind dungeons for better gear in guild wars you can buy the best gear pretty soon on the game in prophecies i believe the first outpost with max armor is droknar's forge. Basicly all the casters have armor which maxes out @ 60 armor the ranger / dervish / assassin have 70 armor and the warrior / paragon have 80 armor. Max armor can be bought for some cash and trading materials in the right outpost. When having you'r max armor you can go to a rune trader and upgrade you'r armor with runes etc

The idea behind a fixed level of 20 rather than 50 100 or unlimited s the reality of such systems.
If you have a fixed level quickly attainable then more of the game world can be given over to that level.

You have a basic starting area, then 80% of the game can still provide a challenge when you are lvl 20.
After completing the game you can play it again in hard mode where all the creatures are much tougher.

All you gain having a higher level are areas of the map that are impossible until you get to 50 100 etc and the other parts of the map are too easy.
A lvl 20 character with 500 hits doing 50 damage vs a similar opponent isn't that different from a lvl 100 character with 2500 hits doing 250 against similar opposition.

In guild wars you show progress by skills and being able to use them.
Then you may try your hand against other players in pvp games, that is far harder you could well be up against some very talented players.

Then there are titles to be gained.

If you have nightfall or eye of the north you can gain heroes that you can arm with any weapons and skills you like.

There are elite armours that while providing no better protection do look more stylish and weapons with great looking skins.

In eye there is a hall of monuments that may give some benefit in the forthcoming Guild wars 2 probably just a cosmetic benefit not money or a combat advantage but we really don't know as yet.

Nearly forgot you can collect all the animal companions "ranger primary or secondary is needed" and have your own menegrie.

Its a 5 year old game still going strong so it must have something going for it.

Don't forget the festivals we get Halloween and even Wintersday are not that far off.
Oh and you get a present on your characters birthday each year, you may have noticed some players being followed by a miniature creature.

To get cloth, you use a salvage kit on any monster armor drop that looks like a piece of cloth (usually drops from magic users). If you get armor or weapon drops with blue, purple or gold text, then these are worth using an Identification Kit on to see if they contain useful mods or runes (IDing also increases the sale price to the merchant). If you find something you want then you must use an Expert Salvage Kit to remove the "magic" part of the item.

Here is a link to the wiki which can also be accessed in-game through F10, Help on the menu or typing /wiki in the chat bar. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

You might want to check out other areas of guru:
1. Guild Connections - check several pages of Guild Looking For and/or post your own Looking For Guild thread.
2. Campfire - elementalist sub forum has a stickied basics thread that will give you a lot of information about your profession.

I think that with what you know about the game now, if you ask us what you should do next and can do next, you're going to be overwhelmed by your options. I'd suggest you leave the forum for another few days and keep exploring on your own, getting an understanding of more of the game at your own pace.

you can pm me in game if you need help with quests/missions or anything my in game name is A R K A D E N

Since you asked about dungeons, just some notes

Firstly, to do the dungeons you have to have the Eye of the North Expansion added to your game account.

Secondly, once you have added the Eye of the North, you can access that expansion from Lion's Arch when you get there if you are level 10 (I believe you talk to Len Calderon)

Thirdly, even though you can get there at level 10, Eye of the North is really built for level 20 players. So it will automatically boost your attributes to equal a level 20 player. Unfortunate you will not be able to adjust those attributes while in an eye of the north area until you actually reach level 20. Because you will not have gotten a lot of skills yet at level 10 and because you can not adjust attributes, you will not be as effective as you could be so I would suggest playing through prophecies until you are at least level 20 and then go to the eye of the North. (the exception would be that you can get highest level armor at the very first outpost in eotn so you might want to visit long enough to do that rather than waiting all the way until droknar's in prophecies.)

Welcome to GW - GW is not WoW, or even WoW-like, so you need to stop approaching things from a WoW perspective. In GW you don't get armor with different specs like you do in WoW (+3 Agility, etc.). All armor is essentially the same - what changes is the armor level (AL) and the cosmetics (look).
As you progress in the early stages you'll want to get armor with a higher AL (such as the armor you can now get from the armorsmith), until you get to "max" armor.
All armor can be "spec'd" by adding Runes and Insignias, but no armor has built-in non-replaceable features.
Particular items will salvage into particular materials. To get cloth you mostly would salvage certain types or armor drops, but some armor will salvage into Tanned Hides and some into Iron as well. Cloth can also be bought from a [materials] NPC.

Again, not WoW. The weapons you get in the game will go up in stats as you progress through the game until you get to "max", and after that it's just cosmetic. All weapons (within a type) can be spec'd the same way using Weapon Mods and Inscriptions. There are, for example, no Elementalist staffs with special inherent bonuses like +4 Wisdom.

Sorry - no Auction House in GW. No enchanting either, but pewpew works.

You won't get any "dungeons" unless you buy Eye of the North, but GW is all "instanced" anyway, so most of it plays like a WoW dungeon. (Although, Sorrow's Furnace could be thought of as a dungeon)

It's a combo of two things. You left "Pre-searing" a little early - most people are level 8 or 9 before they leave pre for the first time. Also, that area/quest is one of the harder ones at that level/area of the game, so you may want to level up a bit before tackling it again.
If you have any quests left over from pre-searing, you may as well abandon them. But, I think that quests you get in and around Ascalon City (town) and Old Ascalon (area) may be listed under "Ascalon Quests".
The main story line consists of both Quests and Missions, and it's most likely that there is a mission you need to do at this point (The Great Northern Wall?)

As has been said, check the wikis for more info:
http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

They are much better than the WoW wikis (if I recall correctly).

Welcome to Guild Wars!

The Prophecies story-line follows Primary Quests and Missions. For the most part, one will lead to the other. The first mission you'll get to is the Great Northern Wall. If your in the GNW outpost, you'll see an "enter mission" button in your party window.

Be sure to do as many quests as you can - especially ones that give skills as quest rewards - to get your level up a bit (Level 4 is low for a newbie leaving pre-searing).

^This. Honestly this cannot be stressed enough.

Welcome to Guild Wars.

In GW "gear" is NOT as important as your SKILLS. SKILLS. SKILLS. SKILLS. SKILLS.!!! I can go out there in my underwear, with no weapon, and kill a ton stuff, IF I have the right set of skills (AKA build) on my skill bar . It's all about the Skills. They keep you alive, kill stuff, determine your roll in the party, etc. Skills rule this game not gear.

But of course, I am not saying that you should go out there in your underwear and take on the world . In fact, that would be the worst idea ever. Honestly, the only thing that ever change on a new armor is it's looks and armor level (AL). Which actually caps at a certain point: For spellcasters it's AL 60, Rangers it's AL 70, Warrior it's AL 80. So does that mean you're at a disadvantage by playing as a spellcaster instead of a warrior? Absolutely not!! I would like to do this again: SKILLS. SKILLS. SKILLS. SKILLS. SKILLS.!!!

I am sorry but I going to have to disappoint you. There are no dungeons in GW Prophecies. They are only in the expansion Eye of the North. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD GO OUT THERE AND BUY THE EXPANSION. You can if you want, but they are going to be really difficult, unless you have an understanding of the game. But you can buy the Expansion for the heroes, which are YOUR VERY OWN henchmen that you can customize with the skill you want them to have.

I can help you out more if you can contact me in-game : pharaoh of ur doom
PS: I am not on 24/7, so it is possible that you might never meet me. but let's hope that we can meet

If you want to go into "dungeons", you probably mean you want to go into non story-related high-level endgame content filled with "fat loot". In Prophecies, the closest thing to that is Sorrow's Furnace (most dungeon-like, reachable from Deldrimor War Camp in the Southern Shiverpeaks, after 3/4 of the Prophecies storyline), "Underworld 2" (reachable from Tombs of the Primeval Kings, after 2/3 of the Prophecies storyline), The Fissure of Woe (reachable from Temple of Ages, after 2/3 of the Prophecies storyline), The Underworld (reachable from Temple of Ages, after 2/3 of the Prophecies storyline).

All this content is designed for level 20 characters with max. armor, max. weapons and somehow optimized builds.

Difficulty: (0=trivial, 1=easy, 10=difficult)
Sorrow's Furnace: 5
Underworld 2: 7
Fissure of Woe: 7
The Underworld: 10

In comparison to the area you are currently in (Ascalon): This area is difficulty 0. The difficulty when you are halfway through Prophecies and you get to level 20 is about 3, and the difficulty of the final Prophecies missions is about 5.

More dungeons that are really called "dungeons" can be found in the Eye of the North expansion. They are of difficulty 4-8 in my personal scale. You can start playing the expansion as soon as you reach Lion's Arch and are at least level 10, but it is recommended that you only get the heroes right at the start of the expansion but continue with the main Prophecies story line until you get to level 20 and "ascend". With Ascending, you get the ability to change your secondary class freely, which is very important when it is necessary to adapt your build to the next challenge.

At the moment, you are at the very beginning of the game. That's where someone usually has the most fun, as he still explores everything, even the game mechanics! Enjoy it.

Again, thank you all for your reply's, it really helps xD

Just a quick question though, as an E/mo that's leveling, how should I distribute my stat points? At the moment I just throw them all in Fire since that's the type of spells I'm using and I can see the damage increasing, but I do run out of energy alot. Any tips?

EDIT: Also, some collectors have these items with the stat "+6 Energy (Requires 5 Soul Reaping)" what's that mean?

The nice thing about GW is that you can experiment with how you distribute your attibute points. For now, though, I'd concentrate on Fire magic and Energy storage. Your energy pool increases as your Energy storage goes up. Also, keep an eye out for skills that lessen the cost of skills, (like glyph of lesser energy). Here's a pretty good read about energy management that should help: http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ener...nt_guide_(PvE)

For that particular item, equipping it would give you 6 more energy
with your Soul Reaping attribute (it's the primary attribute of Necromancers) is above 5. For weapons, there's usually a requirement for the damage range. If you've got your attribute set at or above the requirement, you'll get the full range of that weapon.

1. Try including energy management skills like Fire Attunement, Aura of Restoration, Glyph of Lesser Energy, etc. You may need to adjust your build if you are including multiple high energy skills and/or skills that cause exhaustion.

2. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Requirement
You won't be able to benefit fully from items if you do not have the required attribute level. Requirement only affects the effect that precedes them. A Soul Reaping focus is not useful for an elementalist.

Unfortunately, you won't get most of the attunement skills until Kryta which is a shame since those skills really come in handy. Glyph of lesser energy can be obtained in pre-searing ascalon from a quest. Hopefully you have acquired it. At the point where you are, that skill should be enough energy management.

You should also be aware that enemies will scatter when you use AoE damage skills like firestorm. In normal mode, they still aren't too smart and will still take a good bit of damage despite the fact that they try to avoid AoE spells.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Glyph_of_Lesser_Energy

You should also be putting points into Energy Storage, which increases the size of an Ele's energy pool. Don't be overly concerned about where you put your attributes, you can re-distribute them any way you want (while in a town/outpost).

That weapon would be designed for use by a Necromancer - Soul Reaping is a Necro attribute. For an Ele, you should be looking for weapons that have a Elementalist requirement such as Energy Storage or Fire Magic, etc.
As you get more experience with the game you will get a better understanding of what requirements you want and how important or not the requirement is.