New to Guildwars!

Firstly I would like to say hello to everyone, I am new to guildwars and have recently purchased Guildwars and the expansions and I am just wondering how new player friendly the game is and does the game have alot of people still hanging round the newbie areas to do quests and so.

Secondly the class I am going to go is Ranger with monk as a possible second profession. Thats all for now, Thanks

Hi. Welcome to Guild Wars.

*As far as difficulty goes, it depends which campaign you start in. If you're not confident with MMO's or games in general, start in Prophecies as it has the slowest learning curve. Factions is the fastest to level 20 (thus the fastest learning curve). Nightfall is somewhere in between. Unless you're impatient or one of those people that want to level up very quickly (if the latter, GW probably isn't your type of game anyway) I'd recommend starting in Prophecies. You get lots of skills from quests and have lots of time to play around with things and figure out what to do and what not to do.
*Generally speaking, the playerbase is centered around the higher end stuff as they're focusing on getting stuff in the Hall of Monuments for GW2. Most people have done the starter areas many times and don't want to spend long there. However, there are lots of people coming back as well as a lot of completely new players so there should be some people around when you need them. Joining a beginner friendly guild would be a good thing to do aswell.

Hello and welcome to the game!!!

At the moment, you'd probably find the most friendly community in Pre-Searing Ascalon (the beginning of Prophecies). The community in-game overall is quite friendly until you reach major cities/high-end PvE/PvP generally, but by then you will probably know enough about how to get along with those players anyway.

Ranger (my first character too!) is awesome, but a very difficult class in grasping its full potential.

There are plenty of people who hang out in the "newb" areas; but like mentioned previously, Pre-Searing is probably the best place to make these early friends.

Here's a tip for you,
if you have a chance to get a "run", then don't. "Getting a run" means you're skipping ahead in the story, which is all fine for older players who done the beginning areas endless of times, but as a new player you should take your time and enjoy it

Welcome to Guild Wars and welcome to Guild Wars Guru. (The other sites aren't as in depth so you picked the best.)

A new Ranger would have difficulty in today's meta in hard mode, but any class should be able to do normal mode.

A key thing to remember as a Ranger is that d-shot (distracting shot, in expertise) should more or less be stapled to your skillbar.

R/Mo would probably be viable only for mending touch with a maximum of 3 specced in protection prayers. You want to pump expertise and marksmanship.

Touch skills like Vampiric Touch, Mending touch, and Blackout are reduced by Expertise. They are of limited use in PvE (i.e. anything not Player versus Player).

Key Ranger tips:
Use a recurve bow unless you are running Barrage, which is when you want to run a Flatbow
Recurve has lowest flight time, which means it has the shortest time for the arrow to hit
Sloth Hunter's Shot does damage, but that's about the only skill that does high damage (50ish + base damage from bow) compared to other classes. Rangers are designed to be survivable.
+damage from attack skills is armor ignoring. This is why power shot is lame, since you only do the listed damage, never more.
Pets have terrible AI when it comes to aggro
Don't use an elemental damage weapon (fiery, icy, shocking, ebon) when partied with a Necromancer. They might be half decent and run Barbs.
Traps aren't worth bringing unless you devote bar to them (i.e. Trapper's Focus). Even then, they are bad.
Barrage is adjacent range. It doesn't work with preparations also.
Don't use your secondary as your primary (especially spellcaster stuff like elementalist spells).
Don't use /Mo as a secondary for the point of healing people. It's a bad idea. You have 3 energy regeneration and no Divine Favor.


EDIT: Check http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide...ng_as_a_ranger

and http://www.gwpvx.com/Guide:Ranger

Welcome to GuildWarsGuru! My only advice at this point is to take your time and experiment with a couple different professions, and if you find after a few days you really aren't liking something, feel free to try a different one out. If you have played MMOs before you may have a pretty good idea of what you want to do already, but if you are new to the genre, take it slow and smell the roses for a few days. Oh, and have fun!

To cover all the bases for ranger information here is a link to the Ranger basics thread in guru's Campfire section where there are sub forums for all professions.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/b...t10261054.html

And welcome to the game and to guru. Feel free to return with any questions that arise.

Welcome to the game Kezzie

I adore my ranger and they can do everything in game h/h if needed.

Lots of good info above, I would just add, find a good guild and you will have lots of fun along the way.

Try out a few classes early on and play them for a short while, maybe ranger will be great for you maybe not, my view of a ranger from fiction wasn't quite the same as a gw ranger.

You have a number of character slots try out a few classes and see what appeals.
You do get to choose a secondary class and this can be changed later in the game.

We have some pretty friendly people here so drop back if you want to ask anything I recon whatever the question someone here will have the answer.

Have Fun