New to GW... too late?

I started the trial version today. Although I haven't made up my mind on whether or not I like it, I do have some questions to help decide.

1. Am I too late? I read today about GW2 coming out. Is it pointless for me to start with the first chapter of GW1 at this stage?

2. Is there a way to customize the GUI at all?

3. I am not impressed at all with the graphics. I have everything on max...and tbh, it is pretty bad. Do the newer chapters take advantage of newer techonology?

4. I had no clue you can actually learn two professions on one character. I find this pretty intriguing to say the least. I imagine every possible combination has been tried. In the past, I have played necro, healer, rangers, sins. I was thinking of a Necro/Monk or Necro/Mesmer (still not sure what exactly this is). Do any of these professions "synergize" any others?

5. How's the world population? This free trial there seems to be a few people around, but not many. This still going strong?

Thanks for any and all answers.

-Z

1. In my opinion, no, but you must decide that for yourself.
2. Yes. Hit F11. If you want more customization, texmod is permitted (but not supported).
3. Yes.
4. Playing GW well is entirely about synergy.
5. End-game and "elite" areas still have a decent population. Starter areas and even most of the main plotline areas are mostly empty because most people have already completed them a dozen times (then gone back and completed them in Hard Mode). Fortunately, the AI heroes and henchmen are always at hand. And you could join a guild and beg help from more experienced players.

these links should help answer most questions

http://www.guildwars.com/

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

1. It's never too late to start the game! There is only an official announcement for closed tests this year for GW2 (source-http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/game-faq/#two), so it more than likely means that GW2 will probably be released sometime next year. You might as well start now, and work solely on Hall of Monument points, provided you want GW2.

2. Yes. You can move around, turn on/off, enlarge/decrease all of the things on your UI screen. In addition, Texmod allows you to maximize the customization of the UI by adding new skins altogether.

3. No. Not impressed? Well the graphics are 4-5 years outdated. Not to mention, it makes it much more compatible with low-end graphics cards. If you want better graphics, i suggest you buy yourself a better graphics card

4. All professions synergize with each other in someway or another.

5. Rough estimate of at least 1mil. players, capping at most 2 mil.. A lot of incoming/leaving people all the time. The game is going very well as of now, especially with all the new updates.

Most grouping with other players have been killed except for speedclears and other things but other than that you will mostly be playing with heroes now

1. As said, never too late. The game is fun; I've been playing for over five years now.

2. already said by others

3. I find the graphics in the beginning Prophecies area good but not great. They do improve as you move through the campaigns. ArenaNet upgraded them somewhat to accommodate newer graphics cards and the, hopefully, phasing out of older pcs.

4. check out the Campfire section's subforums for each profession. Each subforum has a stickied basics thread that will give you an overview of the profession and most of them discuss the secondaries pros and cons.

5. The largest population in the beginner area is actually older accounts starting new characters to gain titles that were made slightly easier with this month's update. How crowded any town becomes also depends on the time of day and which area is the start point for the daily quest given to level 10+ by Lieutenant Langmar in Ascalon City.

Dont beg for help that will not make you alot of friends

That wasn't one of my questions. Thanks for the advice though.



Thanks evreyone else for their responses too. I will most likely just get the first chapter and go from there. I'll check out the sites and forums suggested.

By synergies, I meant if having one skill of one profession will give skills of the other more damage/healing type of things.

_Aphotic_: My graphics card far exceeds the requirements of this game, and most new games to date. I think the other user answered it for me. The later chapters take advantage of newer technology vs. the first one.



Thanks again all.

-Z

How I personally feel:

Trial: Boring and it'll probably make you hate the game. Nobody likes post-searing Ascalon. It's so boring, ugly and depressing that it gives me a headache playing through it.

First chapter: Long, boring, painful story to play through
Second chapter: Quickest story to play through
Third chapter: Average length story to play through, boring landscape
Expansion: Fun

1) Nah, it's not too late. However GW1 and GW2 are rather different games and there's no real need to play GW1 unless a) you want to play through the story, or b) you're looking for HoM rewards.

a) If you're looking to play through the story, well that's fine and up to you. I finished all 3 stories + the expansion in about 3 weeks of casual playing. I didn't particularly enjoy it though, but that's just me and many people would disagree.

b) If you're looking for HoM points, it's definitely not too late. I hit 30/50 HoM points in 35 days, and 45/50 HoM points in 75 days of casual playing. So yup, definitely not too late.

3) Pre-searing Ascalon graphics are beautiful. They're not cutting-edge, especially since it's from 2005, but it still is very beautiful for an MMO even today. Areas from Eye of the North are also extremely breathtaking.

Pre-searing Ascalon (2005)
Eye of the North (2007)

5) Most major towns are still very populated as long as you're in the American district. Smaller towns and mission outposts are usually quite deserted though, sadly. It's hard to find a group for most missions these days.

the game is hitting 6 years, and there is actually quite a bit of replayability

graphics are a little dated, but that is of minor consequence really

yeah there are more people doing the end game stuff, but if you happen to fall into a good guild, they are usually very good at helping newer players through

you don't seem like the type that really cares for story, so i suggest you play factions or nightfall instead of prophecies, the storylines in those two are faster paced

No. GW is a deal-and-a-half when it comes to the amount of content you get for the price of entry, all on its own. The fact that GW2 is coming out (sometime next year, probably) doesn't change that.

Look under your options tab. You can customize every UI element's position and size.

What MMO are you comparing it to, exactly? Aion? The game's six years old...anyway, yes, newer chapters look distinctly better, but if you really think Prophecies' graphics are "bad"....

There's lots of synergies, but note that (save for some gimmicky builds), your secondary will most likely be used for a few utility-style skills, nothing more. Don't get your hopes up for a ranger/ele that shoots arrows and slings fireballs, it doesn't work that well. You can do it, it'll just get a few funny looks (or worse) from your teammates.

Strong enough. Plenty of people doing daily quests and dungeons, not so many people doing leveling content. The game is called Guild Wars; your experience will be improved 100-fold if you find a decent, large guild that does things together.

K. Well my 10 hours of trial are up...already. I am planning on purchasing the game. However, I noticed the trilogy has 3 of the games for only 10 dollars more than I was planning on spending.

Looking through these forums, basically on the advantages of playing all of the games titles, I came up with this:

1. Hall of monument points....does something for when GW2 comes out. But you only need Eye of the North to earn the points.

2. Trying to make sense out of the best way to approach this "path" is quite confusing.

3. It almost seems the game has reached a point to where new people are so far behind, it may be better to wait for GW2, since the only relation is these Hall of monument points. However, that isn't a deterrent more than an observation.

So, if I am reading the store correctly, 29.99 gives you all of the titles except Eye of the North, which is the only one to obtain the Hall of monument points.

Eye of the North (EotN) gives you access to the Hall of Monuments, but you'll still need the other campaigns if you want to get a number of the achievements required to get all the bonus items for use in GW2. Most of the items obtainable from the HoM for GW2 are cosmetic but still, there's a bit of bragging rights there.

Mostly just an incentive for old players and bonus for new players to play GW before diving into GW2. I'd call it, flavour text almost. Haha.

BTW, for graphics, sometimes it seems that everyone else's armour looks terrible in outposts. That's to reduce the amount of rendering the system needs for the game apparently. There's a mod around here somewhere that lets you force the game to display the armour of everyone else in full render which might let you feel the game's prettier if you've got a power gaming rig.

1. You need EotN to have a Hall of Monuments, but you need the three campaigns to gain the titles, armor, weapons, and heroes to record in your HoM. EotN is not a campaign and does not allow character creation. It is an expansion which requires owning at least one of the three campaigns.

OK. Sounds good. All I need for now is the trilogy I guess. When I complete that go for the expansion, if I understand you correctly.

Thanks.


/edit: Do you recommend purchasing from NcSoft or Steam? Same price, just not sure of the d/l speeds of both. I figure three will take quite some time. I wonder if they will download and let me play the first one from the trial I have.

Guild Wars does a lot of background downloading, meaning that every new bit you come to will only be downloaded then, so you don't need to wait for a huge file to be downloaded to get into the game. But if you can let your computer download stuff overnight, you can update the game to its full size with a shortcut option.

I'm fine with that. I was hoping to download all 3 over night. The install from the trial did not only fail to move an icon on the desktop, it didn't even put it in the program list. Although, it allowed me to continue on my expired trial.

I'll worry about it tomorrow.

Adding this:

The trail is definitely not the best choice made by Anet. I find the graphics good actually compared to many of the MMOs I have tried. But what makes it worth my time is the storyline and the no grind. The missions and quests are better then the ones in other MMOs.

It all depends on you if you think it is too late to try a game you think has low graphics. If you think it is worth it, try it. If not, wait for the new one to come out and get that. I doubt you will have to worry about missing out on the history before GW2. It will be easy to catch up.

actually since you already have the trial, there is nothing to download. just insert the keys you get and you will have access to all 3 campaigns (if that is still your goal)

after playing, i would do the -image thing to finish downloadins all areas though so that your playing experience won't be filled with the load screen

The -image thing mentioned by Rites is this
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/-image#-image on the Command Lines wiki page
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Command_Line

That allows you to download the whole game overnight (3-4GB) instead of waiting at loading screens when you enter a new area.

The whole game is about 4GB, not 40GB.

Well firstly rather than duplicate previous posters may I add a few things

This game is about fun firstly and you will get a lot of fun out of it,Myself with 6 yrs of play I have puchased various accounts and slots only recently I took another slot and playing the game without using any cash from my storage. This way it earns in its own right .

I will say one thing though the cash from proph is not a great thing but you can cross campaign at certain points in the game e.g a proph can cross at Lions Arch, ones from others have a similar cross point.

Reason I am saying this is at various stages you will need cash to upgrade your armour ...max armour is 1K each piece plus materials, The expensive ones cost a lot more but Max armour is Max armour..its cosmetic only the more expensive ones they offer no game play advantage as all have the same stats.

So you have enough time to save up for the more expensive ones at a later date.

The guys you see rushing around are mostly ones who have played the content and want there char at a certain area. I have seen quite a few new players and joining a guild will def help you understand the game a little quicker.

So learn the game and what the skills do by synergy as when you go into bigger parties e.g. an 8 man you are part of a team , we all started out not knowing what did what so,when in game if help needed for a certain skill press F10 enter the skill in question and it will explain it in more detail


Edit just saw Complete Collection that includes Eye of north for £18.94 @Play.com

Zatria, last year I bought the Trilogy edition and the Eye of the North. The prices have dropped over the years enough that you might as well buy all four also. Your character can travel to the Eye of the North after level 10, though I recommend waiting a few levels higher, since EotN is intended for level 20. An in-game prompt tells you "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." You can continue levelling your character while in the EotN until you reach 20, though.

I've been running 8 characters through the four parts of the game simultaneously, though technically there is a timeline of events, with EotN taking place about nine years after "Prophecies". When your characters reach level 10 and certain locations in the game, they can take a ship to the other lands. However, I would still start at least one character in each of the three games (you travel to EotN instead of starting a character there.) I haven't played PvP or joined a guild, and can't advise you there. Have fun.

Yes, it does, but not much. The "rewards" in GW2 are only cosmetic and not important. It will be perfectly fine just to play GW2 without having played GW1. So, if you are playing GW1 solely because of rewards in GW2, you are wasting your time.
I'd suggest playing GW1 for the fun of playing GW1 without worrying about GW2 at all.
I'm not sure what you mean here, but as I said above, you'll get the most out of GW1 by ignoring GW2 (at least for now). Some people on here get all anal about the HoM and GW2, but it's really not anything to get worked up about.
So, my recommended approach to the "path" is to take your own path through GW1 and enjoy GW1 for GW1. (Btw, GW1 will still be going after GW2 is released, so there's no rush.)

In some ways this is true. Like many other games that have been around for a long time, many of the items that were once so sought after, are now given away for free (by players), and long time players have all the skills and equipment and toss around all sorts of acronyms like UWSC to confuse you.
But, given the structure of GW, with Henchmen and Heroes, you can play the game without needing to get involved with veteran players at all.

Yes, but EotN is also cheap to add.

Not really. It's pretty easy to get to 30/50, and downright trivial to get 10 or 15 points. You still have plenty of time (and you can go back and get more points later after GW2's release, too).

Put your character name in here to see how many points you need to acquire (and how to acquire those points) to get certain rewards. Remember though: everything there is cosmetic only.