Question about where to start and some other stuff

Hi there. So, I've had Guild Wars for quite some time, but never really got into it. The Guild Wars 2 hype plus the whole Hall of Monuments business has gotten me interested in giving it another go. I've got everything but Eye of the North (holding off until I get a bit more into it).

As of now, I've got a level 12 Dervish that I completely forget how to play, so I'm holding off on him for now. I've heard a few people say that the game is best when the campaigns are played in order, so I thought I'd start a prophecies character. I thought I'd make a ranger since they seem cool, pretty good at soloing (which I'll be mostly doing), and I think someone somewhere said something about their pets being something for the hall of monuments....I dunno. But, anyway, I was looking through builds and Ranger/Ritualist seems pretty cool, buuuut I guess I can't choose Ritualist as my secondary in Prophecies.

So, a couple questions...

1. It appears as if I have to pick a secondary to progress the story. How annoying will it be/how long is it going to take for me to switch my secondary to ritualist if I start in prophecies? Also, what would be a good secondary to pick to help streamline the process of getting to the point where I can switch it?

2. Is it really worth going through prophecies first? Storywise, it seems...well, the least annoying so far...but heroes and whatnot from Nightfall seems pretty cool. Also, someone said that Nightfall is actually more difficult to solo than the other two--even with heroes--because it gets way more difficult towards the end. Is this true?

3. Any general tips for a new player? Specifically one who is trying to get Hall of Monuments points as efficiently as possible?

Thanks in advance for you help! If I think of any more questions (which I almost certainly will), I'll post them here.

It is extremely easy to change secondary professions these days basically it requires getting ascended and going to gtob and paying 500g. Or the oldschool way that has a short quest. And it's really not until then that your secondary will matter.


Ok some people will give me shit for this but in my mind do it in whichever order you feel like. You can always start in proph and switch over to nf once you get to LA and pick up heros. Some people are purists though and will say you should go in order.

it does get harder near the end. Although you should have no problem H/Hing it. However, if your in a good guild and having issues you can ask for help.

do what you do. Get into a decent active guild. And you should be fine. 30/50 isn't to hard just playing through.

I'm with End. If you're trying to accomplish as much as you can, title wise, as quickly and efficiently as possible, sticking to one campaign at a time probably isn't the way to go. If story and atmosphere and "honoring the playstyle of all the veterans that have gone before" are hugely important to you, then, yeah, go Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, North. (Or maybe North after Prophecies, since both are tied together.) Otherwise, you'll likely want to jump around. Taken at its natural pace, Prophecies goes slowly. If you need time to relearn the game, sure, start in Prophecies. But bear in mind that, unless you take shortcuts or buy runs, you won't get to change your secondary and get all your attribute points until you get to the last third of the campaign.

However, the flipside is that you can take shortcuts in Prophecies. Factions and Nightfall are more structured. So, ultimately, it really doesn't matter where you start a character. Once you reach a port city, you can jump around to get heroes, armor, skills, etc. Just pick whichever campaign has the character you like looking at best. Because if you're going for titles and filling the hall, you're going to be playing that character a lot and you really don't want to be sitting there going, "Man, I'm sick of looking at my face."

Play the game as you wish. I started playing when GW was nine months old and the other campaigns weren't available, but people were already taking shortcuts to the end, such as runs from Beacon's Perch to Droknar's Forge for max armor and skipping the whole Maguuma Jungle area. There is no "right" way to complete the game.

In Prophecies you have to reach the Crystal Desert and complete the missions there to ascend (fight your Doppelganger) and get the quests to change your secondary professon. If you want heroes early, you can go to EotN as soon as you reach Lion's Arch and level 10 to quickly add monk, ele and mesmer heroes. But keep in mind that heroes are only as good as their skills and armor mods.

If you want heroes then I suggest you play Nightfall first as it is designed to be played with heroes and therefore you get he opportunity to gain skills to equip your heroes with.

Otherwise you will gain heroes and have no skills to give them which will make them worse than the henchmen. Getting heroes from Eye of the North is designed for players that have completed other campaigns and therefore have a good selection of skills for use on the heroes.

Thanks for all of your help! I'm really bad at making unimportant decisions, so I still haven't gotten a character past level 4. I'm trying out a new character now...he's a Mesmer that I hope to make Mesmer/Assassin because that just seems cool. I made him in Nightfall because night fall Mesmers look sooooo sweet. I'm really diggin' the whole baroque vibe.

So another question for clarification...at exactly what point in each campaign will I be able to switch campaigns/get secondary classes/change my secondary class in other campaigns? Around what level will I be? It would also be nice to know the names of places where I need to go and how to get there. Everyone's throwing out these acronyms that I don't understand.

I'm assuming I won't be able to get the assassin secondary in Nightfall, but I liked the look of the Nightfall Mesmer so much more than the Factions one that I had to choose Nightfall.

Thanks again! Sorry for being so ignorant.

Once you get to Consulate Docks you can go to the other port towns. Level 10 opens up travel to Eye of the North. Level varies, but approaching 20. Follow the primary quests and missions and you will get there naturally.

In NF, once you build the sunspear base you can change professions. Then you can to to the Great Temple on the PvP islands and pay 500g for Assassin. This all comes after the Consulate Docks, so just keep doing primaries and missions and you'll get there.

By the way, there are a couple of wikis available to look up such things, but beware of spoiling the story if that is of concern. While in game, F10 brings up help with the option to search the wiki.