New Player Seeking Advice :)

Hello Everyone!

I was gifted all of the GW games a while back and never got around to trying it out, but here I am now!

I'm looking for any tips on starting out: Where to start, where to go, what to do, how to go about picking out skills, how to make money while playing etc.

I'm trying to decide between a Warrior and a Necromancer (both look like a lot of fun! ) so I can start in any campaign.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

I hope to become a competitor in the GW world and a part of the guru community!

~Dont Eat My Pie

Edit: Thanks so much for the responses!
Ive made my necro in prophecies and I'm having a lot of fun so far. I blew through Pre-Searing and I'm in Old Ascalon now, about to do the Fort Ranik Mission.

I chose Prophecies based on the amount of free skills given through quests (kudos on the list!) and because I thought I should start from the beginning.

One more question though. I took a look at that Money post and the live thread on money making, and I got some differentiation on what to do with white items. Some people say to salvage them, and some say to vendor them or identify them if they are worth more than 20g. Which will get me more money in the long run?

Thanks again!

money:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/h...t10438248.html

skills:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/c...-f17.html?f=17
http://www.gwpvx.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Starting:
This will vary alot depending on what type of player you are. Are you a purist? Then start in prophecies.
Do you want a fast learning curve? Factions
Want easy-ness and fast heros? Nightfall

What to do?
You'll sort of figure that out as you go along.

Where to go?
See "What to do."

Which proffession?
Make one of each and play each a bit...then go with the one you like more.

And welcome i guess?

Where to start-
For beginning players, usually others will say Prophecies. It is a long game compared to the others but good to help you pick up the ropes. If you have Eye of the North, play till you reach Lion's Arch and go do the simple quest that will bring you to Boreal Station in the North and get a few Heroes to bring back with you to help you along the rest of Tyria's missions. The heroes there are at level 20. No need to level them.

Factions is a really fast game. You may be level 20 by the time you get out of tutorial island. One thing good about this game is the fast leveling and the skills. Once you have got out of tutorial island, you can go straight to the Eye of the North to get the Heroes to bring back.

Nightfall, to me, is extremely fun but not as easy as the rest. But it has the most number of Heroes with a spread of professions to acquire. But I think Nightfall is better when you know what you are doing.

If I were giving advice, I would say try Factions first but that is just me. But what I did was to play all three games here and there until I am happy.

Where to go-
Guru home page has a list of all missions from all lands. Wiki has everything. Just type in the name of what you are looking for and all information on it come out. A comprehensive list of all missions and quests with maps are also there for you. I use it to look for skill trainers, storyline of Npcs, skills, missions, maps, quests... everything. Lots of players also put in how they beat missions on Youtube. I like LiquidSolenoid's gameplay because he takes you through fast. It can get boring for some people, watching the game play but it helps me get ready for what to expect.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LiquidSolenoid


what to do
Again, wiki and guru can help you greatly on that.

how to go about picking out skills
Skills can be bought from skills trainers or picked up as you play the quests. unlocking a skill will unlock for all Heroes of that class. Each campaign has their own specific skills so remember to check with trainers when you see one in a town post. Elite skills are captured but to get that skills you will need to fulfill a quest first.

how to make money while playing
Go out there and kill something. Farming builds are all over as well Just hunt for them.
I don't usually farm except keeping a character in pre-searing for dye farming which I don't usually use except on very boring days at work. I get lots just playing through Fractions and Nightfall. Prophecies cash drops are slower so you get the bigger drops only at the end of the game.

I'm trying to decide between a Warrior and a Necromancer (both look like a lot of fun! ) so I can start in any campaign.
Just start as many character as you want and see what suits you best. You may surprise yourself.

For starting out I usually suggest Prophecies because you have a seperate area of the game to learn. Pre-Searing is a good starter area compared to the other games that expect you to level much quicker.

You won't hit 20 in Prophecies until after LA maybe not even until after Crystal Desert(those are areas in the game. You will know what they are once you reach them) if you just do the missions. If you do a lot of side quests you can hit 20 earlier.

You aren't expected to get to max level until halfwayish through the game unlike with the others you hit it within a couple missions into the game. They are much faster paced that Prophecies.

Factions for me has the best starting area because I feel it is the quickest. Nightfall is nice because you get heroes early on that allow the game to be much easier.

Really no matter which game you choose they all have pros and cons. However, if having never played this game or maybe no MMO over that I suggest Prophecies because it is the most forgiving early on because the starter area is completely seperated from the rest of the game. No chance of running into a level 26 monster at level 5 like the others lol.

That link to money has some good tips beyond ways to save money. For Example: If you are looking for weapons it is probably easier to get collector items then to buy some decent ones from players. The skins don't matter and they will come with decent mods on them already(You will still have to add a couple) and they will be able to be gotten free as opposed to from players who will charge you something.

I have both a necro and warrior. I have a perma pre(a char that stays in low level prophecies for ever) war(that I gave up on at like level 8). My main is an ele however having gotten GWAMM(a title) I now work with my necro. I love that char. His primary attribute is OP and you can mesh well with many hero team builds as well as high end speed clears.

When I am on and if I am free I can help you whether you just have a question or need some help doing something. Once you make a couple chars you like feel free to message me and I am sure I have some spare weapons that I could give you.

As a side note if you choose to start in prophecies and if others offer to help. They won't be able to get to you until you move to post searing unless they have a pre char like I do. This is because once you move from pre-searing the game doesn't allow you to go back to the starting area. This is different in the other games where the starter area is connected and you can travel back there as easily as map traveling.

My IGN is Melony Songbringer

I vote Prophecies. It is the campaign with the easiest learning curve and, most importantly, the most skill quests (you'll want to bookmark that so you don't miss any of 'em - especially since you'll eventually want to backtrack and do the profession-specific quests in Ascalon and Yak's Bend when you unlock more secondary professions). The skills you get from quest rewards will give you a fair bit to experiment with and will save you a lot of gold and skill points since a lot of those skills are staples and buying skills gets very expensive very quickly, especially if you're unsure about which to get.

Plenty of good replies to your question,

As you have said new so, try a char from each campaign and decide what type you prefer to play as frontline /midline or backline.

As each can crossover to another..Proph/Factions/Nighfall at various parts in each of the campaigns so nothing is lost really.

You cant go wrong with a Necro as so many various strings to its bow

Read up a little in the Campfire section and if you see a build you like ect then you can see were the skills are obtained.

Have fun and enjoy Guildwars

Not strictly true, crossing over to Prophecies from Factions and Nightfall means doing dozens of missions and quests designed for levels 10-15, when you're at level 20. It rather spoils the fun, when you can bulldoze over the game without paying attention to what's going on.

If you want to experience Prophecies and enjoy it, do so by starting a character in Prophecies. As everyone else has mentioned, it has the smoothest learning curve as well.

My only beef with sending someone to start in Prophecies is that some of the quests aren't very "newbie" friendly IMO. The quest, Nolani Academy especially is pretty awful (that's the one where Rurik runs off to suicide himself at the very end of the quest). Personally I was pretty close to quitting the game at that point when I started out due to this badly designed quest.

I know it's kind of sacrilegious to say, but I would advise starting in Nightfall. Like it or not, heroes are a pretty integral part of the game at this point and I think a new player might as well possess them right from the beginning, developing their skills and equipment. If you didn't already know, "heroes" are essentially henchmen that you "own" and can control their skill bars and equipment. As a new player you won't have access to many skills so their abilities will be limited but you will get lots of skills for both yourself and your heroes as you progress through the game. So, as was posted earlier, it depends on your preference. The beauty of the game is that you can play multiple characters right off the bat, so it might be worth your time to start characters in all 3 campaigns and get a feel for what you like the best.

That's what I've done by starting GW this year with the Trilogy and EotN. I have seven characters. When I sent two of my characters to Eye of the North, I looked at it as permanent (they were around level 20, one from Prophecies and one from Factions). I've since considered seeing if they can travel from EotN back to other lands, but it feels as if it would break the immersion, since each campaign is supposedly set a few years after the one before. I like the fact that my elementalist/necro met Gwen when she was a ten year old kid and has survived to see her become an adult. (Haven't finished the campaigns yet or gotten to the War in Kryta and everything that followed.)

I've loosened up enough with my playing style that some of my characters have travelled to other lands and back.
Does anyone else take the official timeline into consideration with their characters, or am I roleplaying too much? Anyway, it's a good series.

I'm such a total killjoy for saying this but I don't even watch the cut scenes. I don't follow the lore whatsoever... :run and hide:

Heh, I tried to enjoy the lore and atmosphere when I first started, but two factors have put me in Voodoo Rage's position: 1) The friend who got me into the game was well over all that stuff and dragged me through things pretty fast, putting me in the same habit (my first character, Prophecies-born, still has people with ! over their heads in Ascalon City. Ascalon City!); 2) Had I started 5 years ago, I might have insisted on taking the time, but with GW2 looming, I'm pretty much just grinding through titles and getting things done as efficiently as possible.

Makes me feel a little wistful, actually.

I would say, since there is probably still many months till release of GW2, play it slow and do most possible quests and missions. At least on one char. That will give you the most fun, unless you are 100% uninterested in lore and storylines.

As far as the money aspect in your edit, i would recommend doing both. if you find yourself short and looking to buy something then sell those white items. if not salvage them for the mats that you can get from them. I salvage all whites but sell the purples and golds. Or you can say...."I will sell all items if they are above X gold amount and salvage everything below that gold amount". Just an idea for you.

Neith

Phew, that's a tough one. See, some materials are expensive and some are negligible in worth, plus, the values vary. Also, amounts of materials salvaged will vary.

For example: a Golem runestone from EotN is a collectible drop, worth 30 gold to the merchant. However, if salvaged, you'll get around 7 granite slabs, 10 of which are usually worth over 300 gold to the trader. Of course this material is worth salvaging. But not all materials are worth that much.

For now, I'd suggest you sell the whites, until you learn what materials to expect from what type of item and until you and the enemies get to max. level where the differences in prices will be worth paying attention to. Once you do, you may consider salvaging the ones that offer more chance for valuable materials.

Mostly, I look out for stuff containing granite and feathers, those are usually in demand.

P.S. don't forget to factor in the cost of the salvage kit.

Keep an eye on what materials are valuable at the materials trader. Keep in mind at the common material trader that the prices are for a set of 10. Assume that he will buy for about 75% of the price he is selling for. With these factors in mind look at the items you have. If you have lets say a long sword you can guess it's gonna salavage into a few iron...Then think is the iron I would get from this worth salavaging it or should I just sell it. Again keep in mind the cost of a salvage which is:

8g per salvage with a expert salvage kit and
10g per salvage with a superior salvage kit


Theres also regualar salvage kits but most people ignore these as they can't salvage rare crafting materials or mods.

Also, theres perfect salvage kits. These should really only be used when you need to get a mod off of a weapon you don't want to accidentally destroy and for your purposes can be ignored.

Again using the trophies you get for finishing quests such as imperial comendations still have a "cost" even though they are free
A superior salvage kit you get from imperial comendations will sell to a merchant for 1k.
So when you think about it... each time you use it it's dropping down some of it's value at the merchant. However, it's one of the best options for a cheap salvage equating to 5g per salvage.

Another factor for salvaging is materials needed for armor. If you look at max armor (AC60 for a necro) and find one you like - and don't even think about the elites yet - then make note of the needed materials and start collecting them. The wiki will also list which items salvage into which materials.

I've been reading up a lot on the game recently, and God Waking Amongst Mere Mortals is a title I would love to get (everyone else too I'm guessing :P), but I'm starting fresh with no money or experience. Most titles are "go out and do this" type titles, but a few look like they will cost A LOT of money. I read somewhere that Drunkard costs upwards of 1,000 Platinum. I have 2 Platinum. Also, the hall of monuments, which can be filled with expensive weapons and armor. Is it realistic for me to have these goals with GW2 approaching? Will I obtain the money along the way, or will I have to farm for it?

Thanks Again!

*I'd say it's obtainable depending on how much effort you put in and how long we have until GW2. If there's still a year to go (somewhat likely) then that should be enough time.
*You are going to have to grind money and/or titles unless you happen to get absurdly lucky during campaign completion. Note that you don't need to fill out everything in the HoM. If you don't think a set of Obsidian armor is worth it (it costs over 1000k and is ugly as hell) then don't bother. Item rewards finish at 30/50. Past that is just titles.
*For 50/50 HoM completion, you need a PvP title. Getting into PvP is hard, so unless you want to farm 1000k for Zaishen Keys (the Zaishen title counts as PvP for some strange reason) you'll need to get going. See some other threads for tips about getting into PvP (or, again, don't bother with it if you don't care).

Here is a link to the wiki page on maxing titles. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Maxed..._maxing_titles You will notice there is a section on GWAMM. Whether or not you can complete it before the release of GW2 is dependent on how much time you spend in the game and how far away the release date is (which is unknown).

But don't turn the game into a job. Remember it is supposed to be fun.

This is mostly correct except i'd like to edit that obsidian armor is only usually ugly...it looks pretty good on male paragons.


Honestly, GWAMM and 30/50 should not be an issue esspecially if you set out with the idea of completeing it. I mean yeah it may require alot of time but we still have no clue when gw2 is comming out. 50/50 on the other hand will be harder to comeplete in time...


<---just hit forge runner

edit: ok that seems totally half assed I started my thought and suddenly had to run and do something...
On to my GWAMM and 30/50 advice.

Since your just starting a character and all as you go through missions make sure you get the bonus the first time. It will save you alot of time later if you don't have to go back and do the bonus objectives later. In prophicies these bonuses will be do this or that in addition to the mission. In factions they are mostly time based involving finishing in less then x minutes (with a few exceptions namely Eternal grove and Gayla Hatchery)

Also, in areas where there are elite skills always bring a cap sig. First off it's always helpful to have one cause you never know when you'll come accross that omg must have elite skill (or at least no way of knowing outside of wiki or doing the areas a couple times xD ) and it will save time later when you have to do the skill hunter title.

Next, my weak point...don't spend to much on pointless pretties...Keep your goals in mind...yeah it's great to spend some money on yourself but keep in mind that money will be very useful later when your working on skill hunter and the cash titles.

Elite armor...if your just looking for the basics for 30/50 I highly reccomend the eotn elite armors (note that I tihnk it's deldrimor that dosen't count) they tend to be cheaper, and since for gwamm you'll pretty much have to max those reputation titles it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm sure theres more but im supposed to be watching kids so this was all kinda rushed.

Of course it's possible to achieve all these. Anet have clarified that the GW1 servers will stay up even after GW2 launches and that you will be able to gain HoM points even after GW2 launches.

However, you must realize that this means a LOT of work. A LOOOOT. Really, it will. It's primarily meant to apply to the players who have already done everything in the game.

Try this: how fast do you earn money? Measure yourself over a few days if you have to. Now, calculate how long it will take you to get:
-elite armor at 75k + 400 base materials + 40 rare materials + optional materials
-sweet tooth title 10000 points * 100+ gold per point

Etc. etc. etc. It's possible, but it's a matter of years, likely.

Also, 30/50 is much much easier to get to than GWAMM, especially since it also recognizes non-max titles.

Once you get to know the game better, you'll find more efficient ways of making money. There are easy ways of making more than 30 platinum an hour and you can make a lot more with certain methods. Still, it will take very long since to buy all the things you need a lot of money. If I were to make a bit of a guess, I'd say you need more than 10000 platinum if you want to get 50/50. Getting GWAMM is easier: You will probably make all the money you need doing tasks that add to the title. Still, it's quite a gargatuan task which will take around 500-1000 (rough guess) hours to complete, depending on your efficiency and the titles you choose to max. Still, it's a lot of fun to go for. I'm also doing it and I'm still enjoying myself

Thanks again for all of the responses!

I reached level 20 and noticed I achieved a survivor title, so I figured that would be a good place to start if I could. I researched a little bit and discovered Killroys Boxing, so I got to Eye of The North (almost died on the way D and started doing that. An old friend who doesn't play much any more told me I would get more experience in Hard Mode so he helped me through all of the EoTN missions to unlock it. Long story short, Late last night I got my Legendary Survivor Title and accrued some money and items along the way

A couple more questions (I'm full of them lol):

Is a purple q9 inscribable item worth any less than a gold q9 inscribable item? They seem to be identical to me (they are both max damage)

Are items priced solely on the skin? For example: I found a q9 gold Bronze Crusher which just looks beautiful and a q9 gold Break Hammer with looks a little bland

Should i use a perfect salvage kit to get crappy mods off of good items before selling them?

Thanks again

~Dont Eat My Pie

Congrats on the title, that is awesome.

The reality is that 99% of the items that drop in the normal PvE areas aren't really worth the time to try to sell (most players just merch them). Nowadays most of the stuff worth more than 5k is going to come from dungeon chests or elite areas of the game (Underworld, Fissure of Woe, etc...). If you have a question about a skin (whether it is valuable or not), you can just pop onto this site and do a quick search in the Ventari's Corner forum and see if it is valuable (if you see nothing but threads that say things like "Low End Storage Clearout" or stuff like that, you can assume it isn't very rare). You DO want to identify them first and keep an eye out for valuable mods worth saving (most mods are not worth saving). Yes, the gold items are considered more valuable than purple. Ultimately it's what your time is worth, just about any max damage gold item CAN be sold for 1-3k at least if you want to spend the time trying to find a buy but personally I'd rather be doing other stuff. The only time you really need a perfect kit is if you need to pull a perfect mod off of a nice weapon you can't afford to lose (or pulling runes off of your own armor).

Depending on your available storage, you usually want to just start a collection of various weapons and mods which are always useful to have. Remember, unused heroes can hold weapons for you. Also, when you get to Nightfall, you will be FORCED to play certain heroes so you want to make sure you have weapons for all professions (although it really doesn't matter too much).

Except for rare skins, purples are basically vendor trash/Hero weapons. It's mostly a status thing that is completely and utterly meaningless because no one will EVER see the purple/gold/blue status of your weapon unless you open a trade dialogue with someone to show them.

The rarity of the skin combined with whether or not its permanent stats (damage, armor, energy, and blue powers if it's non-inscribable) are maxed or not. If they're not maxed, you can pretty much vend all but the rarest of rare items.

Not sure, since I don't pay attention to the economy much, but I think pretty much the only sellable ones are skins that ONLY drop in dungeon chests or from the elite areas (The Deep/Urgoz's Warren, Domain of Anguish, the Underworld, the Fissure of Woe, and maybe the Tomb of Primeval Kings, if that's got any exclusives). If it's something that can drop off of trash mobs in the normal areas of the games, odds are that it'll be worthless to most players.

Nah. If the mods're crappy, people'll just overwrite them with their own mods, so just leave them in. Not worth wasting a perfect kit on since they shouldn't be worth less than a clean version if any of the replacable mods on it aren't perfect. Obviously, though, a clean weapon or one with imperfect mods (or the less desirable types, like +45 Health while Hexed) will be worth less than ones with perfect desirable mods (+15% damage while Health is over 50% is awesome, but +14% damage while Health is over 50% is complete and utter garbage while trying to sell).

Although they are functionally the same, the market is so saturated by now, that only the very rarest purple items have any worth at all. Practically no purple item with q9 is worth anything.

Skin, requirements and whether it's inscribable or not is all that matters. Note that very very few items with req. over 9 are possible to sell. So, you start with the baseline of req9 inscribable - and from there on, it's all just the skin.

Certainly not. You might want to spend a perfect salvage kit for perfect mods that could be worth some money, but there's practically no market for non-perfect mods any more.

I just wanted to thank everyone that responded one more time

All of this information helped me a lot, I seem to have a handle on the game for now, and I'm ripping through the campaigns. The only questions I seem to have now are price checks, so an admin or moderator can close this thread.

Thanks again
~ Dont Eat My Pie