Duo Starting from Scratch (alts vs one main?)

A friend and I just bought the game (the box came with proph/faction/nf and eotn). We are complete and utter newbs. I've tried to do as much research as I could and so far we've decided to start in NF as a necro and paragon duo. This may not be optimal but we like the professions and it seems like there is at least some small amount of synergy between one or two of the paragon buffs and my necro minions (things like gfte i think). We decided on NF because as we level up we can also be leveling our heroes which seems like it would save some time, as opposed to having to level them after we hit 20 if we did Prophecy first. As far as I understand, we'll also be able to use the heroes we level in NF when we do the Prophecies/Factions storyline.

The question is, after we finish NF, are there any advantages to creating new characters and go through the other two stories, or should we just go to those places with our necro/paragon team? Knowing that we are new players with nothing unlocked, does it help us at all to level up new proffesions? Would it help us unlock a wider variety of skills or is it not worth it because I can gain all the same skills on our mains? If we do make new alt characters, can we use the heroes we leveled up on our mains? Or are those heroes tied to the original characters we leveled them with?

Any information I can get on what the advantages/disadvantages of making an alt over just playing the mains through the other stories would be appreciated. In fact, any general information at all that could be useful. I don't really know enough to know the right questions to ask, so if I've said something glaringly wrong up top, and its obvious I dont understand what I am talking about, please set me straight. Even if you can just write your opinion that if you were in our position, starting guildwards fresh with a friend, what your game plan would be for tackling the game, I'd love to hear what other people would do. Keeping in mind that while we have some minor interest in pvp, we're mostly interested in pve.

Thanks for any help you can give us, we've read a lot of great stuff about the game and we're excited to try and unlock some HoM rewards for GW2 which we've been following for a while.

Hmm, there are several questions. I'll take a stab at a few of them.


Heroes:
- They are tied to the characters. You can't use heroes from one character on another; you will have to re-recruit them and level them up from scratch each time. Characters that start in nightfall get lower level heroes than characters from prophecies or factions. This is because nightfall chars get heroes from the start and the levels of the heroes are tuned to around what your character is when you get them.

- Once you get a hero on a character, you can always use that hero. You take them with you wherever you go.


Skills:
- Each profession learns a few skills as the story progresses. In prophecies there are 'skill quests' from which you learn skills as rewards. However, the large majority of skills must be bought. Therefore, there is no real benefit of starting several chars for the purpose of getting skills. You can learn all skills on all chars.

- There is a difference between learning skills and unlocking skills. If you learn a skill on a char, you only learn it on that char and not on another. However, learning a skill is one way of unlocking a skill. An unlocked skill can be learned by any char by buying it from appropriate skill trainers or by using a proper skill tome.


I know most of this will sound pretty confusing to a brand new player. Don't worry. Just start a character with your friend and start playing. You will pick up things as you play.

A great resource is the wiki. It is accessible in-game by typing /wiki or with F10 (I think). If you want to know something about a particular term, you can type /wiki <term>, like: /wiki skill tome. The wiki has pretty much all information on everything in the game.

Good luck and have fun with the game!

Well I recently introduced my friend to Guild Wars and started in Prophecies with her on a new character. Prophecies mainly because there's kinda where the story started at, also because it's slower paced than Nightfall, and in my opinion a better and newb-friendlier tutorial. Nightfall brings Heroes, which are better than henchmen (unless you give 'em crappy skillbars and no armour upgrades), and will speed up your game, I'll admit that.

Personally I don't see much point in starting a new character, unless you just want to play something else or so. Also new characters can't use your other character's heroes.

Whatever you choose as your main chars, don't change it. Play with it through NF, then Factions (it's short and relatively hard for a rookie), then Prophecies - and you may hit some EotN in the meantime, to pick new heroes.
With one char it's easier to complete your Hall of Monuments and generally rolling one main PvE toon is what you want at least until you finish the storylines.

As for necro+para combo. There's no great synergy.
Paragon has only one viable build for high-end PvE - the imbagon, reducing incoming damage for the whole party (NOT the minions) for about 80%. But apart of that, every other role can be handled by another profession better. My secondary PvE toon is a paragon and while i do enjoy it, i wouldn't recommend it for a rookie.
Necro players are encouraged to use minions early in the game, but heroes prove better at being minion masters - they can target minions better, utilise minion-connected skills better, so on. It doesn't mean a necro is useless - they rather run builds around Spiteful Spirit or exploit their bonus from Soul Reaping to spam high-energy protective prayers from their secondary monk class.

If you're looking for a synergy, warrior + necro or monk will work much better. Warrior can tank, and dish out great DPS with Mark of Pain from necromancer or bonds from monk.
Avoid mesmer - although it got buffed in PvE recently, it's still demanding class and may turn out boring for someone who can't really compel it - and elementalist - while it can dish out huge damage in normal mode, it becomes a supporter in hard mode what's very hard for someone who got used to fire build.

Sorry for derailing this a bit, but what is a good solo type character than best help me get to 30/50 for the Guild Wars 2 HoM content?

Thanks a lot for all the fast replies, I know it was a lot of questions at once!

One more question, is there a good time to head over to EOTN? I hear that I can get level 20 heroes there, it might be worth getting them before digging into prophecies/factions, or will they not make too big of a difference?

Also, when should I start looking into War in Kryta? I am assuming that would be the last thing that people do after they have beaten the earlier content?

Thanks again!

Once again, there is no best profession. As the road to 30/50 or GWAMM or whatever you are after will be long, and at times tedious, you need to try out professions until you find one you enjoy playing. That character will be with you for a long time and if it doesn't fit your play style, you will stop playing the game.

@OP - WiK content is available after you have finished Prophecies and/or EotN. You also need to have gotten M.O.X. and visited his creator. As for EotN, it is available at level 10 and buffs you to level 20 while you are in the EotN area. The only heroes you get immediately in EotN are a monk, an ele, and a mesmer. All the others require completing quests. You already have two monks and a warrior in NF, and, if you select Acolyte Sousuke, can obtain an ele fairly soon. Remember that the more heroes you have, the more gold you will need to buff armor and buy spells.

Also read these "basics" threads on your chosen professions that are located in the Campfire section sub forums.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/d...t10241271.html
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/h...t10313323.html

No no, I don't want the "best" class, I know the answer to that is highly subjective and situational. I'm completely new, so I just want to know which professions are easy to pick up and able to solo effectively.

If it helps the determine the answer, I used to like lots of types of characters in WoW. I enjoyed playing DPS (melee, caster and ranged physical) and I also liked tanking. Healing is not something I'd be interested in and a healer profession probably wouldn't be a good solo-er either I assume.

I'm gonna check out the threads you linked, thanks.

Zimbu: Rit > War > Sin. IMO.

@Zimbu - as drkn said so briefly, a ritualist is the profession that is able to solo most farming areas. If you are looking for the best profession to H/H the whole game, I would say warrior. My main (a warrior) has no trouble completing any mission or dungeon and has 38/50 at the moment. But this is my opinion. Others will have different opinions depending on the profession they prefer to use.

As for the links I provided to the OP, every sub forum in Campfire has a stickied basics thread. Reading them can give you an excellent idea of how each profession can be used.

Back to the original topic:

As far as heroes and skills, pick a secondary that will help unlock skills, like monk. You can then buy skills and capture elites to build a bar. Soon enough in Nightfall you will be able to change secondary professions and can build a better bar for another hero profession.

Another way to unlock skills is to do a little PvP or pseudo-pvp. When you can go to the battle isles (Consolate Docks) you can do the zaishen challenge and earn 2000 balthazar faction per 24 hours. 1000 B-faction will unlock a normal skill and 3000 B-faction will unlock an elite skill. You can do this to unlock skills for heroes or for using a tome to learn them for yourself.

Also once you get to Consolate Docks, you can take the quests to Prophecies (Lions Arch), Factions (Kaineng), and EOTN, where there will be skill trainers to start buying skills for those chapters.

I've added some additional accounts and know what it is like to have nothing unlocked. Kinda weird, really, after 5+ years of playing.

Imo just play through NF if you want to start there and see how it goes. If you like the professions you chose, then carry them over to another campaign; if not, try something else on a new character. Heroes make things easier, but they aren't necessary.
As mentioned, secondary professions and unlocks can give you access to skills no matter what you do.
In regards to EotN: if you've already completed NF, the additional heroes you can gain won't make much of a difference unless you need more heroes of the same profession. If you make another character in one of the other campaigns though and want access to heroes EotN is certainly a good way to get some quickly.

At level 10 in NF, you two can cross over to EotN. You can get M.O.X, Ogen, Vekk and Gwen pretty early there and they are already level 20, so you don't really need to worry about leveling heroes and playing NF for them.

For factions, the moment you leave tutorial island you can access EotN but in Prophecies you get there only when you reach Lion's Arch.

What I did with my new characters is that I play them till I can cross over and go to EotN to get the heroes, come back and continue the story with the help of the level 20 heroes.

Since you have the character slots I dont see why you would not want to try out the other professions....also if you unlock a skill any hero with that class will be able to use that skill (say you unlock a monk skill---then any hero with mo/xx or xx/mo will be able to use that skill).
For playing thru the whole 3 chapters, doing it with one profession first is ok, however, you still might want to try the other professions to see how they feel and learn some of the skills that those types use (also will help you decide what skills to give your heroes and what the enemy is using).

Eye of the north is more for level 20 characters, so all of the mobs you will face will be higher level (than say the starter island of NF or even some of the elona areas of NF), you can travel there once you reach level 10, however; your heroes (if you are bringing them) will not get a buff the way you do. (see journey to the north on the wiki for more on this).

You might also want to look thru the official wiki for more information on skills, missions, armor, heroes and just about anything else about gw.

Hey Zimbu, glad to see that you are now playing, but contrary to other peoples Opinions I would say go for an assassin for the 30/50 in HoM, as the assassin is the premier solo/sc farmer in the game and so has the most opportunity to "cash in" so to speak, it also has some great general pve builds including the crit scythe.

I do agree that a rit is good also, and probably easier to play with if you are new, in a SC/Farm situation, as all that is required is one elite in most situations (Signet of Spirits).

They are both primarily DPS characters, however both can often act as tank/meat shield characters, with a Sin being able to tank with it's elite "shadow form" + monk bonds and the rit using his/her spirits to block enemy mobs from the main party and then using "Armor of the Unfeeling" to boost their durability, both are very versatile classes, as rits can become support/utility classes also.

At the end of the day its all up to you, but these 2 I would recommend.
If you need any help pm me ingame!

One last thing about the unlocking of skills. I didn't see anyone else post this, but any skills you unlock your heroes can use across all characters. So if your Necro Main(an excellent choice ) unlocks skills, you next characters heroes can use them also.
-People mostly start new characters because they get a bit tired or running the same type of skills through the campaigns, so they start another class

If you have any more questions, PM me in game: Corpus Vitalis

Well I'm gonna say this. You should probably wait on making alt characters till you either beat one campaign or your main is level 20. When I first bought the game six months ago I thought the only character I would ever play was my assassin. Well then I decided to roll a necro and found out I really liked that. Then I rolled an ele. Don't do that. Aand finally my newest character is a rit. I have to say that out of all my character my sin and rit are my favorites.

I would play with the characters you have for a day or two and then maybe try a few others out, you have a number of character slots and you have nothing to lose by seeing just what plays best and fits your style.

You can use the other characters as extra storage space so nothing is ever lost.

Once your really happy then start to play through the missions together, if you want to keep together through the game, then if one of you wants to play and the other isn't available play one of your secondary characters.

That way you can learn more about game play find items, gain cash and unlock skills you can use on heroes later on.

Optimal smoptimal - there may be some combos that fit together better, but there is no combo that is particularly bad. As you say, what you like is the most important thing.

Yes. EotN too. By the time you finish NF and EotN, you'll have more Heroes than you'll ever need. Btw, you should take the time and expense to properly outfit your Heroes with Runes/Insignias, weapons, and skills. But, you really only need to do this for 3 or 4 Heroes that you use regularly - no need to outfit them all.

There aren't any particular advantages to starting a new character. But it is fun to try new things. I have one of each class of character and I can say they are all fun (and viable) in their own way. Do whatever floats yer boat.

No, because you "can gain all the same skills on (y)our mains?"
Each character has their own Heroes which must be leveled and outfitted separately.

There are no advantages or disadvantages. It's just a matter of playing a different class for your own enjoyment.
There is no particular time that is any better than any other. It's another "whatever floats yer boat" thing.

Thanks again, we were pretty blown away with the quality of responses from everyone. We started last night and we're level 7 necro and paragon. So far we've been having an absolute blast. Customizing my hero in addition to my own character adds a lot of depth and I can't wait to get more heroes to really start working on a complete team.

I am not exactly sure the best way of outfitting them with the gear/runes that people mention, are these things just sold off vendors?

Also, if any guilds are recruiting, I realise this isnt the best place for it but we're in the market for a newb-friendly group of people to play with.

As soon as you get past the absolute newb areas and fight enemies lvl10 and up you will see some of them drop blue (and later on purple and gold) colored armor pieces. Buy an ID kit, these pieces will always have a minor rune or an insignia that you can take off with a superior or expert salvage kit and add to your own or a hero´s armor, provided they are the right class. Start testing the effect of runes and insignia with these free pieces, until you know what you want and can afford to buy.

Heroes use the same Runes/insignias and weapons that you do, so the components are gotten in the same way yours are.