confused about pvp/pve

hebrewhammer

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jan 2011

Hello,
Just to start off, I am no noob when it comes to mmo's. I know what pvp/pve is and have lots of experience with both over the past few years. I decided to give GW's a chance. Now my past gaming experience has always lead me to the more competitive side of whatever game I played. So I am sure that the PvP in GW's will intrigue me more than the PvE. But still since I am a noob to GW's I am confused about the starting at lv 1 in pve or starting at lv 20 for the pvp. Obviously being new to the game I should pick the level 1 pve and play through and get a feel for the game. But is there options I cannot get if I reach level 20 in pve as opposed to just playing pvp at the get go? Or once I get a feel to the game is it pointless to even continue leveling my character and should I just start over with an instant lvl 20 pvp toon? I guess I am just curious what are the advantages to starting out with the level 20 pvp side of the game besides being level 20 already? If I level a toon throughout pve will I have more gear and be better fit for pvp?

Iuris

Iuris

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Crazy ducks from the Forest

W/

Anything a PvP character can do, a PvE one can do too - he just needs to level up, buy equipment and so on. You can still enter the same arenas once you get to them etc. A PvP character can only ever do PvP - you can not ever take him anywhere else.

The only purpose of a PvP character is for people who do not want to play PvE at all.

caballo_oscuro

caballo_oscuro

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2008

Aura

Ok, if you start a PvE character, you start at level 1 and play through the story. Any of the weapons/mods/skills you unlock in pve will be available for your pvp-only characters and your heroes across your entire account.

If you make a pve character, it can move from pve areas to pvp areas, however, a pvp character will be unable to participate in any pve activities.

It is advisable to play through the campaigns to unlock skills and weapons/mods, however there are a number of other ways to do this. You can gain Balthazar reputation to allow pvp characters to unlock skills and weapons.

You can also buy pvp skill and weapons packs which will unlock skills from each of the campaigns for your pvp-only characters and your heroes, as well as letting your pve characters unlock skills using skill tomes as opposed to hunting the skills yourself.

So there's loads of ways to get the skills you need, a new pvp character starting out will not be very beneficial to you until you've unlocked some skills and weapons.

Grand Theft Ecto

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2007

Mo/

If the desired gear is unlocked (by finding the modifications in pve or at a priest of balthazar with faction), a pvp character can infinitely create and recreate free copies. For that character only, up to a max of ~25 items at a time.

There is no gear advantage by playing pve first. Equipment in Guild Wars is mostly a cosmetic issue. PVP Armor levels and weapon damage is all max right away, +dmg/+health/+armor modifications require gradual (+10>+20) unlocking. At first it may be faster to find/unlock modifications in pve, than by spending lots of balthazar faction.

Besides 2/3 of the prophecies campaign, most of the pve content is made for lvl 20 characters. You haven't finished it, or necessarily acquired max gear, upon reaching lvl 20.

kedde

kedde

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2007

Kaons Banned Fecal Super Team [Ban]

Mo/A

Lowreq items are definitely a gear advantage, albeit probably unintended.
It can easily be redeemed by buying it, but it still borderlines a conflict with accessability.