New player looking to get most out of the game

I first bought this game when it came out, went through the missions
for prophecies and leveled a 20 warrior. Shortly after this I left the
game.

I have recently reinstalled the game, I cannot remember much at all an
I found myself with a level 20 warrior and no idea what to do. I
didn:t know if my gear was any good or if I would be able to compete
playing pvp with him. So I decided to level a new character this time
a monk as this would get me back into the game mechanics and the
basics.

What I actually want out of this game is to able to play pvp to a
casual level and I don:t know what I need to do this. I know there is
a wealth of knowledge out there on the wikis and forums which I have
looked at in detail, but the problem is there is just too much
information an I don:t know what I should be looking for.

Basically what I want to know is how to get a half decent character in
pvp. Should I buy any of the skill/item unlocks from the guildwars
store. What are the minimum requirements should I be leveling a
character in roleplay to use or just making a pvp character straight
off the bat?

I am more used to MMORPGS where you have to work towards pvp and it is
the final part of the game, where you have spent all the time grinding
your way to the final level an then you need to again spend countless
horus getting your gear and skills sorted by going on raids or quests.

This was one of the main reasons I came back to guildwars as I was
under the impression that I could bypass some of this as I really
don:t have the time for it an don:t want to have to do it all again
for another game.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I just don:t want to go out
and get steamrolled because my gear isn:t good enough, I have no
qualms with getting steamrolled because I am in experienced and not
very skilled.
Also any guilds looking for a new member ?

If you have no idea where to start I recommend joining a PvP based guild that us happy to teach new players. Getting into PvP will be incredibly difficult if you don't have players that will tell you what you're doing wrong and how to fix it rather than just 'gtfo you're a shit warrior you fail'.

You can buy the skill/item unlock packs if you like, they'll ensure you have everything unlocked on your PvP characters so you won't need to bother unlocking them all manually. I don't think it's worth it, especially since you really should go through the campaigns first to fully understand your profession and the game mechanics, and by that time you should have all the important stuff unlocked.

GW isn't gear oriented. Proper gear does make a difference but you can make max gear for free with the PvP menu. If you plan to PvP with a PvE character (generally only acceptable for the low level PvP) you'll have enough cash for the equipment you need after completing the campaigns. Once again, join a PvP oriented guild and they should teach you the things you need to know.

Guru has a Guild Recruitment forum. I advise you look there.

Most currently used PvP builds include skills from all three campaigns. If you don't wish to purchase the other campaigns and take a character through for skill and mod unlocks, then the PvP packs would be the way to go.

The only casual PvP that isn't tied to the Factions campaign is Random Arena and Codex Arena. Random is 4v4 with random teams http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Random_Arena and Codex is 4x4 with random skills http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Codex_Arena
Both take a good knowledge of not only your profession and skills but what your opponents might present.

I would definitely suggest getting into a PvP guild. Also, look into this new help for PvPers http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/g...t10455697.html

If you don't mind spending the money then buying the PvP packs is v handy for a newcomer, as it cuts out the time spent playing with minimal skills and equipment while you work on the unlocking. If you're short of cash or you don't mind being a bit restricted while you learn the ropes, you can stick with whatever you've managed to unlock via PvE so far to start with, and get your unlocks a bit at a time as you play. It can take some time to get absolutely everything unlocked for PvP, but there's only a very small proportion of skills and weapon/armour upgrades which are actually worthwhile, so in practice it really doesn't take you long at all to be fully prepared for PvP even without the unlock packs.

To get the ball rolling with PvP, I'd suggest you pick one of the classes which is least dependent on player skill so that you're not going to mess things up too much for the team or attract instant rage from your teammates while you're learning, pick a place to PvP in, then pick a straightforward build for that class in that place. Stick with the same class and build in the same place while you get some balthazar faction under your belt to start unlocking a bigger variety of skills and any weapon/armour upgrades you need. Once you've got the stuff you need to play other builds and other classes, and you've played enough matches to know roughly where to go and what to do and how a team works, start experimenting.

My personal preference for which class to learn any new form of PvP is midline caster, eg ele or necro. They tend to be classes where you follow someone else's calls, where you're not the primary target for the opposition, where your positioning doesn't matter as much as it does for front or backline, and where using the skillbar to good effect doesn't hinge on your knowledge of the opposition's skills and strategies. Here's a link to a very straightforward bar: http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:E/an...t_Elementalist.

If you have a strong preference for melee or healer or crowd control roles then by all means try warrior or monk or ranger/mesmer right from the start and ignore what I said above.

this is all great, you have all given me focus on what I need to do. I expect i will buy the PVP package as I have the money for it an it doesn't cost much so won't hurt. I'll continue through to the end of the missions with my PVE char and look out for a friendly PVP guild willing to show me the ropes.

Since you're new to PvP you'll probably have to play ele, atleast for HA and GvG. I would also suggest that you play some Random Arenas just to learn, and if you wanna play a harder class such as war, mes or monk I would suggest u stick to that class and practice in Random Arenas untill you know that class perfectly.

Though if you wanna play a class like ele you won't need much practice and can probably get in to a casual guild, but to get into a good guild u need ranks. Either champion or hero, sometimes glad. To get into a decent guild you will probably need r3 hero for a HA guild or champ1 for a GvG guild. The champ points are impossible to gain without a guild that hasn't enough rating.

R3 hero can easly be gained during zaishenquests in HA. So I suggest that u play HA while the quest is there.