new player looking at GW

so I've been playing a F2P MMO for a while and recentlythe company has done some things (well has been quite a few things over the last year but its gotten way out of hand) that has just ruined it for anyone attempting to play for free.

I know this game has been out for a while but I am wondering is it still up to par with current games? basically I am asking for reasons I should go ahead and buy it.

is there still a steady stream of new players or is it alot of the same people just rerolling new builds?

any info would be much appreciated

Most of all, Guild wars is different from a standard MMORPG. If you want standard MMORPG elements, you won't like GW.

To describe GW:
-instanced nature - you only meet other people in outpost. No killstealing, PKing etc.
-low level cap means you level for only a short time and then "mature" at lvl 20, and play the rest of the game without further levelling
-your power comes not from items or level, but from good skill combinations
-items have minimum effect. You can get max stat items easily, and even then, their effects are tiny compared to skill importance. Rare items are so you LOOK good, not dominate everyone
-team oriented - you never solo, but usually play as a part of an 8 player team. If players are not available - AI NPCs are.

so how much progression on your character is there after you hit 20? are there still skills to get and things like that or is it mostly storyline type things?

I mean how different is it from the typical get the top lvl/gear = you win. or is it more having lots of content to unlock, instances to finish or more content etc. I guess what i'm asking is how long will a single character last as far as content (i'm gonna dl the demo but if i get it i'll probably just get the complete collection at walmart)

You have probably 10-20% of all skills at your disposal when you reach level 20. Your quest from then is to get the rest of the skills and further progress through the storyline. You don't get better by aquiring better gear but by getting better skills and be able to make builds with better skill synergy.

Without decent skills (=build) it is quite impossible to progress to the end of each story line.

My main has been lvl 20 for a long time and I still have lots of content to do. I've completed Prophecies and Factions campaigns and am one mission away from completing the Eye of the North expansion. I haven't done any Nightfall missions yet and then I can repeat all of them in the newly enabled Hard Mode. I can also then go into every explorable instance and vanquish it, which is really only rewarding if you want to achieve vanquisher titles or just to say you did it.

There's also the War in Kryta additional content, the Hearts of the North additional content, there are holiday quests (Halloween was fun this year!) and there should be new Factions content to complement the War in Kryta Prophecies content (part of GW:Beyond) that's all leading up to GW2.

There seem to be a lot of new people or old people returning to finish things in anticipation of GW2, which will be out some time late next year, I believe.

And if that's not enough, there's always new skills to cap or new combinations of skills (builds) to try even if on your own. One of my favorite things, actually, is to discover all of the pop culture references and whatnot embedded in the game. It's everywhere.

1)
As Iuris said, gear does not determine the winner of a fight, their skills do.

2)
How long the content lasts, depends on how fast you rush through it. And when you've completed a campain, you can use Hard Mode (higher level monsters). Ofcourse, when you've finished the content, there's still lots of other stuff you can do, like clearing elite areas. So you can pretty much go on for as long as you like.

Also, most people (well, about everyone) have multiple characters, so you can choose can try different professions.

Some basic tips:
- Stick to two attributes when you make your starting build, don't try to spread them
- Find a good guild to help you around and give you advice
- Try out all the classes a bit, then decide which one you like most

EDIT: Damn, Ninja's

more information u will find here http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page and for builds look here http://www.gwpvx.com/Main_Page

The main difference between guild wars and other mmo's: Guild wars doesn't end at max level. That's when the game really BEGINS.

"How long will a single character last?" -- if you're just talking about from start to finish of one individual campaign? That's going to be different, depending on the campaign you're playing. Assuming you begin your lvl 1 character and play through to the end of it's "home" campaign, then:

- Prophecies: The "newbie zone" in Prophecies can be completed VERY fast if you just pick your 2ndary profession and leave... or it can be very slow if you do/explore all of its quests. You will be around level 5 with neither of your "15 point attribute quests" completed when you leave the newbie zone in Prohpecies. There are 25 total storyline missions in Prophecies, and you'll be level 20 by the time you're done with about 18 of them.

- Factions: The "newbie island" in Factions will get you onto the mainland very quickly. You will be around level 15 with both of your "15 point attribute quests" completed when you leave the newbie zone in Factions. There are (roughly) 12 total missions in Factions, and you'll be level 20 by the time you're done with about 4 of them.

- Nightfall: The "newbie island" in Nightfall is longer than the one in Factions. It's technically the longest newbie zone of the three campaigns. You'll be around level 15 with both of your "15 point attribute quests" completed when you leave the newbie zone in Nightfall. There are 17 total missions in Nightfall, and you'll be level 20 by the time you're done with about 5 of them.


Basically, here's how you play guild wars:
1. Roll a new toon and get to max level, with max weapons and armor fast.
- Super fast (unless you play thru prophecies, which takes a bit longer).
- So fast that it doesn't feel like an accomplishment, because it isn't. It's the base level of gameplay.

2. Play that toon through each campaign (Prophecies, Nightfall, Factions) and the expansion (Eye of the North)
- Capture elite skills and PVE-Only skills
- Collect heroes -- Like pokemon, but not as super cute!
- Finish each campaign's storyline and get a green (unique) weapon reward from the end!
- Maybe get some prestige armor if you want (same stats as your regular armor, but cooler looking)

3. Once you've beat the campaigns and EotN, you can do other stuff:
- Play the new bonus content (War in Kryta, Hearts of the North) to keep up on the storyline between GW1 and GW2 (still in progress!)
- Play/farm the elite missions for riches and elite weapons (tormented, destroyer, etc)
- Collect titles such as Vanquisher, Guardian, Cartographer
- Grind up reputations to make your PvE-only skills max-strength

And of course, getting to 20 fast and having max armor/weapons available fast makes PvP a snap: You're statistically as good as everyone else, you just have to out-think and out-play them to win.

Sorry for the long post, it's a slow day at work. Cheers, mate.

Long story short: A single character can play for YEARS in this game and still have things to do.

no need to be sry for the long post that was the info I was looking for .....and yea i understand the slow day at work thing (where you think i am)

the whole you will be basically the same as far as stats go but not necessarily skills is very attractive (like i said i am on a f2p game and theres its who has the deepest pockets is the best) and then basically everything else coes from actually having played the game.

and yea one of the reasons i looked at this game is because i've been keeping up with gw2 and it looks really good.

Like you, I've also been burned by some "F2P"s where the free part really only constituted a "demo" and in order to have any real fun with the game, you had to drop RL cash in their store. Not cool.

Guild Wars has been around for a long time, and though they do have a store, all the things you can buy there are cosmetic -- name changes, makeover packs, costumes, and skill unlocks for the lazy (though there is a bonus mission pack, but it has no effect on anything and the only reward is a couple of unique weapon skins [cosmetic]). All the content and gear -- things that define the gaming experience -- are freely obtainable in the game you initially pay to acquire. No hidden gotchas; no roadblocks that say "You have to pay $$$ to access this." So definitely give the trial a go, if you like it, the trilogy is pretty cheap these days. Totally worth it.

ETA: The only things in the game store that would probably have an impact on gameplay are the character slots -- having all three games only gives you 8 gratis slots while there are 10 professions to play; a completist might want an additional 2 -- and storage panels -- unless you're a packrat, you'll probably have plenty of free storage space.

Definitely agree.

Many (most) of those "f2p" games are also free to download and install. The only place that they can make money is in their store, and so that's why you can't do any good stuff without paying extra for DLC or "tokens" or whatever.

Since GW is a retail box purchase instead of a free download, the expectations are different. It's like Modern Warfare on the PS3. You bought the game, you can play the whole thing without being required to buy any DLC. PSN saves your achievements and doesn't charge you a fee to login, becaues they're just cool like that. (*cough* XBL *cough*)

As well as the level playing field you can get four games worth of content for £15 which is a good enough reason to buy it rigbht away

Another way to put it:

If you like games like World of Warcraft, you may or may not like Guild Wars. Guild Wars is set up to be very different from WoW, in that items don't make you uber and are generally inferior to the skill and finesse you bring to the table. If you like single player, non-online RPGs there's a good chance you'll like Guild Wars. Also, if you like the collectible card games like Magic there's a good chance you'll like GW. You'll have to build a skill bar from literally thousands of skills in such a way as to deal with the foes in the area.

One thing that attracted me to GW in the first place (besides being free to play) is that you can choose to play the game on your own for just about all of it. OR, you can choose to play with friends/random people in the world. There are still surprisingly many players in a game where the last expansion was released more than three years ago. The game itself is going on 6 years old, and yet you'll still see plenty of players.

That being said, its a 6 year old game. Many players have moved on, but I find that most seem to come and go... returning every so often to play again. Since its completely free to play after purchase, you can easily play for a while, get bored and then come back later if you want. I'd say you'll definitely get your money's worth for that reason alone, especially now that the trilogy is quite reasonable in terms of price. Good hunting.

I have 8,935 hours over 57 months on my Guild Wars account. Almost half of that is with my main character and the rest is with my other 9 active characters. Every day I log in , there is a myriad of choices on what to do. It can be difficult to find people with whom to group unless you belong to an active guild (check out Guild Connections here on guru) as the population is spread across three campaigns and the expansion. But the available NPC henchmen (near the exit of each outpost) can be enough help as long as you are cautious in your playstyle.

I left a F2P to play GW and have not even looked back. In two months of playing about 2 hrs a day I have gone through each of the 3 main story lines on one character. I feel like I am just scratching the surface! Getting the skills and the elites, for each profession is quite fun, as is trying out new builds.
Dont be shy about joining a guild or asking for help, there are very few snobs our there, most are willing and ready to help. Be sure to ask a lot of questions, again most people are willing to answer. Also the wiki is one of the best of any game I've played.
Hope You enjoy!

Well, I have played GW and WoW since both went live. Stuck with GW eventually. ANet is good people. In about 5.5 years, I have spent a grand total of $27 in the company store for three additional character slots. The store is truly optional. No monthly fee. Games do cost money, you must buy them, but there is never a monthly fee of any kind.

Do whatever you sweet please, but my two cents. Just checking at random, Amazon has the GoTY edition with Nightfall, Factions, and Prophecies for $20. Add Eye of the North expansion for $9. And that is all you ever need spend.

Roll a Ranger or Warrior in Nightfall and play to the end. You will then have a full set of heroes and a whole bunch of skills! Then play through EoTN and get yet lots more very useful skills. EoTN will also give you access to the Hall of Monuments where you can log points for special items to be available in Guild Wars 2 that will be out next year, sometime. These will be vet ID special armor, weapons, items and etc. Nice titles. Nothing that affects game play in GW 2.

The GW series has a future! GW 1 will still be around when GW 2 goes live, so you are losing nothing by playing now. Go to youtube and look up "guild wars 2 manifesto" if you have not watched it already. There is a guildwars2guru also.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page the official wiki.

I like GW best, but played WoW a very lot also. No WoW hater here! WoW Cataclysm is coming out December 7 just four days from now. For sure have a look at that too. Of course, there is a monthly fee with WoW; either it is worth it to you or it is not.

I will also recommend this game. This was my first mmo and I love it. And don't worry about getting in to late, I bought it 6 months ago, and took a 3 month break for summer. It is a great game and in my opinion still has a good number of people playing. I cannot stres this fact enought though: GET A GOOD GUILD. It will make all the difference in your experience.

so is there any drawback of buying a digital copy rather than a box copy other than just not having the disc?

There will be difference at all.

Having the disk can be useful to load the game faster if you have a slow download speed but other than that you will have the same features on your account as someone who bought the game from a retail shop.

When you buy the game, either as a digital copy or retail in the store, what you're really buying is the account, and the serial key is what counts.

That said, there may be a time when you might have to prove ownership of your account (hackings can happen, some users suggest NOT linking your account to an NCsoft master account to mitigate this risk; other disputes have been known to arise). Some users have had to supply scans/photos of game boxes and key cards to prove their validity. If you purchase digitally from a reputable dealer, it should suffice; but it's imperative that you maintain any and all proofs of purchase -- receipts, credit card statements, confirmation emails, etc.

Hopefully you'll never need to deal with support in this way, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Other than that, the only thing the discs do is remove the hassle of downloading. But you can run a one-time -image command and let it download overnight.