I do not understand Guild Wars at all! Please help! :P

Hey all,

Im an experienced MMO player, having played a good 75% of existing ones at the moment, but guild wars baffles the hell out of me! I purchased it on steam, so got all expansions except the most resent. And when I create a new character, I am creating them on different expansion packs, but unlike WoW for example, these expansions do not seem to link together at all (Or as far as I know).

What would you all recommend I play? What expansion has the highest playerbase so I know where to start? Do they all link together one way or another?

To me at the moment it seems like 4 seperate games and is really confusing!

*Edit* - And I did read the sticky already. It answered alot of questions I did have, but not really the ones I listed here.

Thanks for any help!

Hi and welcome. The expansions do connect, but it takes a short while to get there(in some cases a long while).
I myself would start in prophecies so you can get into the game, but prepared for a slow advance. You will however learn about the story, the characters and also see the lovely pre-searing part of GW.

I can tell you much more, but I wouldnt want to spoil it for ya. You could start for instance with nightfall and get heroes faster but I would advice against it :

GL with playing the game.

First of all, Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall are separate campaigns, the only expansion is Eye of the North.

Second, each campaign and the expansion comes with an access key to be added to your account. Most important thing is to add your keys to the same account, which will enable you to access any campaign with any created character.

For example, if you create a character in Prophecies, at some point in the game, you'll be able to access Factions/Nightfall campaign via a special quest.

Have fun!

Pretty much all of what was said above, however I personally would recommend starting in Prophecies. Since Pre-Searing acts like a Tutorial Level (I know the other campaigns have tutorials too, but I find Pre-Searing more immersive, as it doesn't feel like a tutorial), and the fact that the majority of the players who still hang out in Pre-Searing will gladly answer any questions you might have.

Once you get far enough in each campaign (as others have said) you get the chance to move to another and also to the Great Temple of Balthazar. Once your character has access to other campaigns you can press M to use the map, click it to zoom out and there will be a ship icon, you click on the ship then choose which 'continent' you want to go to...Kamadan for Nightfall, Kaineng Center for Factions and Lions Arch for Prophecies. All of which are the main towns that will also give you access to the quest to get to Eye of the North, hope that helps, welcome to GW's, gl & hf

Welcome to GW

In addition to what the others have said, do ask around in game, most people are very helpful and do join a giuld. It is hard to know what guild will suit you before you try but eventually you will find good friends in game and a guild that feels like home.

Oh and pressing F10 in game will take you to the wiki.

Yap. All has been said. I would also look into guru and wiki and also google a lot to get the best information as possible.

The easiest way to think about all this is that you choose what starting area and backstory your character will have. This includes your character's appearance and available professions (what's referred to as "classes" in other MMOs).

You aren't supposed to go visit the starting areas of other campaigns (and it's partially unavailable, too, in the case of the Prophecies starting area).

Hi and welcome to GW,

just to reiterate what the others have said and as you played wow travel is somwhat similar,

ie a quest will take you to any of the other campaigns( the areas mensioned above) and when its done as said map pressing M a ship icon is shown and you select the relavant Continent.so you can go back and forth

When you create a char in a Campaign you have all the Core classes in them
and like wow certain ones have additional classes ie.Factions..Assasin,Ritulist.

Nightfall...Devish..Paragon.. (plus all the Core classes)

Nomatter what campaign you have you will be able cross over and obtain heros to assist you.

So first of all read up the Campfire section..http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/campfire-f17.html this will give you an insight to what is involved

As Stated Eye of the North is the only expansion and as like the rest at a given point you take a quest to go there also.

There are many out there who also will assist you so no big worries there

Take your time and you will enjoy the game ,ones you see rushing are ones who have played the content and wish to get to a certain area more quickly

I would agree with most of what has been posted here. To get a good bearing on how the game works, Prophecies is a good place to start. It has a pretty easy learning curve and will give you some of the history on both the story and functions/controls of the game.

As others have mentioned, don't think of Factions and Nightfall as expansions. They're more like separate chapters of the same game. They connect in that you will eventually be able to travel between continents but each campaign has its own story, quests, skills, etc. The only real expansion that they have added to the game was Eye of the North and once you really get your practice in the main game you will be able to move on to Eye of the North to prepare for GW2. Welcome to the game and good luck

In regards to other mmo`s gw has a diff approach to its campaigns.
You can say each campaign can be played seperate and doesnt rely on the player needing all of them ( exception is eye of the north which is an addon which is slightly linked to all 3 campaigns ).At a set point in each campaign you can have access to reach the other campaigns and eye of the north - this itself is quite good as it allows new players to experiance some of the game and get used to its mechanics before throwing them in the deep end.
As mentioned by others each campaign has a diff storyline and its easy for a player to switch between campaigns after they gain access and there isnt a real cost to doing it - the only thing thats different when crossing campaigns is the "starter areas" ( shing jea , pre sear prophecies and istan in nightfall ) have quests specific for a chr from that campaign but after a point any chr from a campaign gets the quests from that point upwards - ie nightfall and kormir with her rallying the troops speech.

Player base wise its hard to say as the 3 campaigns have 3 main towns for trade and often act as meeting points - lions arch in prophs , kaineng centre in factions and kamadan in nightfall tho main area for 2 specific elite areas is temple of ages which gives access to underworld and fissure of woe.

yerp, things i learned when i first started playing nearly 7 yrs ago...

to always run with a group until you understand the mechanics and "easy way outs" of the game. whether it be Henchman/heros/real players.

Buying Online Gold/power lvling is a scam and usually gets your account permanently banned(me dad got a temp ban while testing with me)

and when wiki was made (use it...) if you have a question of any kind that pertains to guild wars simply type in ANY chat type in guild wars. /wiki (insert keyword here without parenthesis)

experiment with builds, dont rely on this fan-dangled pvxwiki.com for every build. though it a great starting template for new comers/build creation ideas.

if starting in prophecies pre-searing is indeed a great place to learn and find tips to play and progress through the game as well as give an understanding point of view of: what the hell are Charr and why are they bad, who Rurik is, who Gwen is, as well as Nicholas The Traveler and Yakkington.

factions is a different story as all campaigns except eye of the north have a tutorial (prophecies is better) but you progress further in the game much faster. you learn about : Master Togo, Shiro Tagachi, Luxon+kurzick and why they get knickers in a knot to fight each other, The Plague, Assassins And Ritualists. Noob Island( Shing Jae Monestary Island) is a great place to start grouping with people as its always crowded(however they are all usually potty mouthed so dont get discouraged because they arent what you call (mature).

Nightfall: now this campaign i personally found annoying, its got some pretty tough quests if your not prepared but as soon as you get off THIS noob island(Istan){not as potty mouthed} its fairly quick to ascend(means your able to do underworld,fissure of woe etc)but the missions are very challenging. youll learn about Varesh, Abaddon, Domain Of Anguish(if you beat the campaign) and my favorite purple kool-aid guys!!!(Margonites)

Eye of the north:the creme de la creme of all campaigns, in this campaign you can have access to fun mini missions as well as being the only campaign with Dungeons with end chests with a chance for a certain goody. you'll learn about the Norn(big azz mofos), the dwarves(lol shrimpy), the Asura(tiny lil vicious Gremlins of doom) and of course the feared Destroyers(giant fiery crawfish the hurt). you'll also get in depth on what the Charr were up to. without this campaign youll miss out on most of the guild wars fun

links that are helpful
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Campaign_travel
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Prophecies
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_%28Factions%29
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Story...28Nightfall%29
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Eye_of_the_North#Story
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Profession
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ascension

you have ANY questions pm me in game if im online

Lithril Ashwalker

if u cant usually the "n" key is default for bringing up friends list.

I wish somebody with mad graphic skills would draw a flowy mappy kind of thing showing how the campaigns inter-connect.

Like:

Prophecies->Presearing->Go Post->Mission/Quest-line->Lion's Arch-(four way arrow split, one continuing Prophecies storyline, one pointing to Kaineng Center, one to Istan, and one to Boreal Station)

Factions->You get the idea...

From a returning player that is still lost - so take this from someone that is almost in the same boat as you......

Try different characters. Try different areas. Try different combo's.

We all have to remember the basic fact - this is a game and meant to be FUN. It isn't about how fast you can get from point A to point X - but to enjoy the journey along the way.

I have to remind myself of this all the time. I get frustrated because I don't understand about ALL of the game - so many things to learn! Upgrades, areas, builds, henchmen, hero........and the list goes on and on.

If you try a character and do not like it....try another one. If you start in one area and not finding it FUN - try another character in another area......

We are lucky that we have enough character slots to try different things to see what is FUN...

Just my 2 cents..

Hello and welcome.

what i have done in my past for is just start as a warrior and do the "story" of the game. get an idea of what i'm doing. Love to just hack and slash. After that or "beating the game" i'll see what's cool or like to play. In D2 i loved to play as an amazon but in GW i hate playing as a ranger. It's just me but i love the assassin in GW but hated the assassin in D2.

the "the highest playerbase" hum... GW is pretty well rounded on what your trying to do. NOT including farming or PVP any class is fun in PvE. have some people in my guild that love to Rit everything and picked up this guy how loves to play as a Mesmer. And a friend who love to play as a ranger on everything we do.

As has been said, they do link together. When you get to a certain point in a campaign you can then do a simple quest to unlock travel to the other campaigns and the expansion. Specifically, you need to get to Lion's Arch (Prophecies), Kaineng Centre (Factions), and/or The Consulate Docks (Nightfall). Once unlocked, travel can be done by using the boat on the map(s).

I usually recommend starting in Nightfall to get into the current state of the game fastest (Heroes, etc.). But most of the player base these days is in Eye of the North, or doing War in Kryta stuff in Prophecies/EotN.

Also, while starting in Nightfall gets you heroes, if you're just starting out the game they won't have any skills and henchmen are actually more useful.

Each of the 3 campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall) and the expansion (Eye of the North) has a distinct story line you can play through.
In each of the 3 campaigns you reach an early point in the story line, where you can travel to all of the other campaigns including Eye of the North. It's when you reach the main city of the corresponding campaign: Lion's Arch for Prophecies, Kaineng Center for Factions, Kamadan in Nightfall. Nightfall is a special case: you must have played the mission Consulate Docks to be able to travel to other campaigns.

If you travel to a foreign campaign, you play the same story line as a native character, minus the first few missions that are considered the tutorial in that campaign.

I recommend that you first play through your starting campaign up to the final mission. I recommend Nightfall as starting campaign because of the heroes, decent paced storyline (Prophecies is way too slow, Factions is way too fast) and it has the most players at the moment.

If your starting campaign was not Nightfall, take a short break and enter the first outposts in the Eye of the North expansion up the the Hall of Monuments, so you get a few handy heroes you can use instead of the pre-made henchmen. Then continue with your starting campaign.

If you completed it, take the quests to the other campaigns. As next campaign, play through Nightfall to get more heroes if that was not your starting campaign.
As next campaign, play through Prophecies. As next campaign, play through Factions. Then play through Eye of the North.

All with the same character if you like the gameplay. If you don't like the gameplay, abandon that character early and start a different class you think that is better. You have 8 character slots - use abandoned characters as mules for storage.

In the end, as soon as you played through all 3 campaigns and eotn with your character, your character is exactly the same as every other character in Guild Wars regardless of the starting campaign. Same skills available, same health, armor, energy, attribute points, access to EVERY outpost int the whole game. Only the tutorial was a bit different.

if you are going for story- start at prophecies

if you are the type that just jumpe into the game and want to see results as fast as possible - start nightfall. you get heroes, can be "ferried" to area with max armor right away, and can easily be "ferried" to the other campaigns BUT if you go this route you will need to have a little gold built up (3k just for the ferrying services)

Oh wow.

All of these replies are very helpful. And greatly appreciated indeed! Its good to know they do link one way or another later, and I am able to play all 3 Campaigns in any order.

Currently im on Nightfall I beleive, playing Necro/Ele with heroes and the like, and im not struggling at all yet. Only level 8 or 9 though so things may get a little harder later on!

Many thanks for all the replies, I didn't expect half as much information as I just received. This game may confuse the hell out of me for now, but its nice to see it has a good friendly playerbase at least!

I really enjoyed Nightfall... I started in Prophecies and then once I could, I did the quests to get into Nightfall & Factions - and into Eye of the North as well. I think of the three core campaigns, Nightfall was my favorite... and I played through it with a toon I originally created in Prophecies. So as others have said, there's definitely no trouble with moving from one to another.

Just in case it wasn't clear - and because it was something I didn't understand initially *grins* - once you do the quest that allows you to go to Factions, Prophecies & EotN, you never have to do it again. You can easily move freely between the campaigns/expansion a hundred times a day if you like. I rarely stay in one campaign for more than a few hours... I'm usually bouncing over to do something in Factions, popping into Prophecies to do something else, hopping over to Nightfall to buy/sell something from/to other players, and ducking into EotN to have something crafted.

So if you're in Nightfall and have already done Consulate Docks, my thought would be that it would be worthwhile to take a few minutes to do the quests that let you into the other campaigns & EotN (if you have that, too).

These links will help you figure out how to proceed once you arrive in each campaign. You'll notice they tell you where "non-native" toons join the storyline. Just a note - you CAN go "backwards" from where you enter the storyline and do the earlier missions if you want... and in fact, down the road, you will find some advantages to getting those missions done.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...ecies_missions
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Missions_%28Factions%29
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_...primary_quests

And I'm going to include Nightfall since you have already done part of it, and it will help put things in context a bit in understanding how a non-native toon joins the storyline you're already familiar with:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Missions_%28Nightfall%29

Good luck, and enjoy your time in-game!!

Technically the four games are set several years apart from each other at the least. Here's the timeline (warning, spoilers possible): http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Timeline

At first I tried to follow the timeline somewhat; when I sent characters to the Eye of the North, I planned to keep them there. Over the 5-6 months I've been playing, I've loosened up about the timeline and now have characters travelling to all the continents. I haven't finished a campaign yet but will try to finish the Prophecies campaign first. I don't think you can travel to the Eye of the North until you're at least level 10, and I don't recommend it until you're at least level 14 or above. Eye of the North is intended for level 20s to begin with.

Have fun and good luck.

If you are under level 20, you get a buff in EOTN that raises your attributes to that of a level 20 character.

I've been playing the game (on and off though) for about 5-6 years now.. almost since it came out. And it's just been recently that i really understand how the game works.

My best tip for you would be to -take things slowly-. Don't ever try to rush past things, you'll get tired of the game very quickly.

Really try to find your favorite profession and stick by it. When it comes to second profession, try to choose something that synergizes with your main profession.

Don't spend too much time reading about the whole of game mechanisms, just enjoy the game as much as possible - otherwise you'll be old before getting anywhere. Search on wiki before missions, it will save you time. Some of the missions are pretty cryptic. Spending 5 minutes running to one place just to find it's the wrong place is very .. demoralizing.

Also, don't hesitate to throw yourself into a pvp fight. Gives a whole new perspective on the game.

I would recommend starting in prophecies cause there are alot of quest for free skills, that your heroes can use, then when you get lions arch go to factions and nightfall. Your heroes in nightfall will start at a higher level and will be of more use

That's true. The "Don't Stop Believing" buff tells you that

"As you journey to the North, what you lack in experience will be made up for by your courage. While in Eye of the North, you'll be treated as a level 20 character; however, you will be unable to modify your attribute levels."

(Good pun on the name Journey.

You should also keep an eye on the wiki for the Zaishen Mission of the day. If it's a mission that you can access, it could be a lot of fun to do it on that day, as American districts will be packed with players to group with. It can be instructive to replay a mission you've already done with a group.


Good advice. Tips:

You can create instant level 20 characters and spawn gear for them. These characters will only be able to go to PvP outposts, but you will be able to experiment with builds and tweaks to your heart's content.

Also, press B in a town for Observe mode window. You can watch the recorded top guild matches, tournament matches and HA matches.