Just Joined Guild Wars

Hello everyone! (Sorry for the long post btw)

I started playing Guild Wars for the first time ever a few days ago after playing World of Warcraft for over a year (yuck). I love the game so far (I have the Nightfall campaign), but I have no clue as to what I'm doing. At all.

I've been looking through several websites that people have given me and it's helped a bit, but I'm still confused for the most part. I guess it's because I'm still used to the WoW type of game play and mechanics.

I've tried Ranger (till level 8 but then it got to the point where I couldn't quest because I was dying so much), Elementalist (level 5), Necromancer (level 3), and I just made a Mesmer today.

I'm really just trying out the professions to see which one I'd most likely want to play, Elementalist is my favorite so far. (but I read the the damage is basically crap for Elementalist) and I had a few questions..

1. Are any of the professions better than the others for new players to choose?

2. How exactly do you know when you should get new armor? (like what level should I be out of the starter armor?)

3. Should I try and find a guild (I heard it might help) or is it okay to try and level on my lonesome?

4. How can you tell which secondary profession goes better with the primary one?

Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head right now, but I bet later on I'll have more.

Any kind of advice/suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Ele damage is fine in the early part of the game, but in the high end stuff/Hard Mode the foes have high armor levels which reduces your damage to crap. If you want to focus on dealing damage later on in the game, you'll need something that deals primarily in armor ignoring damage, like the melee professions, Mesmer, and Necromancer.

Warrior is pretty easy. Just pick up a weapon, a few attack skills, and start swinging.

If you've reached an outpost that has an armor crafter with better stuff than you've got, it's generally an indication that it's time to upgrade. Feel free to skip a crafter if you don't feel you need it though.

It's ok to not be in a guild, but it's nice to have people who can answer questions and talk to. Try to find a guild that's friendly to beginners. The guild section on Guru should provide a good starting point.

Try the stickies in the profession specific forums. Generally speaking, you won't use your secondary for a lot (remember it's a secondary, not a second main profession), just a skill or two to round off what you were doing with your primary. So if you were a Monk, don't pick Ele and expect to run around throwing fireballs. You're still a Monk, so do what you're meant to do. A good example of Mo/E though, is using Glyph of Lesser Energy (an Ele skill) to lower the energy costs of expensive Monk protection spells. Some professions like Warrior often don't use any skills from their secondary.

You'll be able to swap secondaries as much as you like once you get past a certain point in the game, so don't feel pressured into making the 'right' decision. There's actually very little that you can't change in GW, so feel free to mess around with things as you like.

Ah! Thanks for replying to my post.

So I should just go Necromancer instead of leveling my Elementalist? I know you said Warrior is easy, but I just really like caster classes/professions.

Yeah, that's fine. No profession is hard to play, it's just that Warrior's are easy to understand the basics of.

As a (former) WoW player, you may want to check out this WoW player’s guide to Guild Wars on Massively. As well, this old post on Guru from someone asking similar questions as yourself. And I'm pretty sure if you use the search feature on guru you will find other similar posts.

All character professions in the Guild Wars universe have their strengths and weaknesses. You’ll definitely find certain professions (like Warrior, Monk, and Elementalist) easier to play than others. However, as others have suggested -- try every possible profession you have access to -- then decide for yourself.

Do keep in mind that certain professions may have more of an advantage in certain areas of the game then others professions, but all professions are equally capable of "finishing" all areas of the game.

I started playing GW on my warrior (clocking in 8886+ in-game hours), and have played all other professions. However, these days I find myself playing my Rit more than any other characters.

The official wiki has Profession guides, which include possible good choices for secondary professions.

To answer some of your questions:

Pick any profession you have more fun playing. Personally, I feel it should not be down to a choice. Create a bunch of characters of different professions--play them. Gradually after a while, you will gravitate to playing one or two characters more often than your other characters. A side benefit to having have multiple characters (such as birthday presents) you may find yourself tailoring certain characters for different areas of the game (e.g. PvP, farming, running, mules, etc.).

Upgrade your armor as soon as it becomes available to your character. Your goal over-all is to get max armor.

Joining a guild has many benefits as well as drawbacks. Find a guild that has members willing to help newcomers with quests, missions, farming, etc. You can always leave if the atmosphere and personality of the guild and its members are not to your likely. Do not feel obliged that you need to "stick it out" with any one guild. (You can join and leave any guild at any time.)

Choosing a secondary profession does not really matter that much. Once your character has reached a certain level and area in the game, all secondary professions (that your account has access to) becomes available to your character.

It is mostly about finding the right build for your character. For general PvE you will likely be running one type of build while running a completely different build for something else. However, once your character has reached the higher, elite areas of the game, you may be expected to run a certain builds. PvX has builds you can try out on your character.

Whenever in doubt and you need a friend, /wiki is there for you.

I've tried Ranger (till level 8 but then it got to the point where I couldn't quest because I was dying so much)

Usually in nightfall, you shouldn't be dying so much at such low level. A couple of thing could be happening here. 1) Did you take up some Master Difficulty Quests? 2)Have you gone too far? 3)Did you make sure to get your ranking for sunspear higher first (You can get skills using the ranking points) 4)How are your heroes built? Are they still using default skills? 5) what about your own skills? have you played around a bit with them?

1. Are any of the professions better than the others for new players to choose?

Try Dervish for dmg. You can also use an elementalist. But basically they have a long recharge time. That is why people feel that it is crappy. Elementalists are actually quite fun to play and you may want to change fire into things like water or air or earth later. I like water and air because I feel the aoe is much better. And air works on almost 98% of the foes.

2. How exactly do you know when you should get new armor? (like what level should I be out of the starter armor?)

Get new armor when you get to an outpost with armorer in it. After you get armors of say about 45, save for the max armors instead.

3. Should I try and find a guild (I heard it might help) or is it okay to try and level on my lonesome?

Finding a guild is always a good thing. There will be people to help you with the harder quests and missions, although it may not be needed. I played through all the games on my own and love it. Never asked my guildies for help except when I needed to get the cartographer title for Factions and needed to get banished, but couldn't until I am with another player. So it all depends on you. if you do not mind playing alone and looking for help on wiki, guru and youtube (for mission run throughs), you can also do that.


4. How can you tell which secondary profession goes better with the primary one?

Most secondaries go well with each other. Although most people will not choose a melee profession for a caster as a secondary. When you get higher up, you will be able to change you secondaries at will anyway, once you unlock them.

Hi Calyxx and welcome to Guild wars.

While some classes have an edge over others in one type of play or another they are all viable for play right through the game.
Some players have a god in gw and that's Damage per Second dps if that is the only reason for choosing a character then yes they are right some classes shine in this area.

Ranger very survivable class has been left behind in the dps stakes but is excellent in other areas condition spreading interrupting etc works very well with paragon as a secondary class imo.

Elementalist huge damage potential and when the enemies get tougher armour I generally swap from using fire to Earth or water and continue to role over them.
Slow enemies or those knocked down are easy meat for the rest of my party.

Necromancer very useful loads of armour ignoring damage plus minion armies poison disease exploding corpses enough to keep anyone happy.

Mesmer very powerful class and with the right build can be invaluable I always have one in my party.

Don't forget your secondary class which can be changed as you progress through the game.
Nothing wrong in swapping a few points over to a secondary skill for added punch in a tough area.

Armour, I usually exchange armour with that from collectors I meet in the game and then buy new armour when I reach an armourer selling max protection armour for my class.

A good guild is a godsend I have been in one guild right through the game I was lucky in that a friend got me into the one he was in and all worked out great.

A good way to choose might be to see if any of the other players you meet up with seem like reasonable human beings and if you get on ask about joining their guild.

Playing style, you will eventually settle on what works best for you but there are a few points that might help.
If this game is about anything its how combinations of skills and classes can really make a mission a walk in the park.

Break the enemy formations by pulling small numbers with a bow, draw them into a few elementalist wards let your mesmer panic them dump in some minions and begin blowing them up and so on.

Elementalist damage is fine, you just have to take cracked armour, which isnt exactly hard to apply

Elementalist is not at all a bad choice. It is capable of completing all PvE content in normal and hard modes. Because of the large energy pool, it is a very versatile profession, capable of using many secondary professions well, which makes eles great for farming or for use in elite areas. Don't be afraid to go with an ele.

Nightfall doesn't make it difficult to get max armor. It should be sufficient to get a set in Kamadan (AR 15), an intermediate set in Blacktide Den (AR 45), and a max set (AR 60) when you reach Consulate Docks.

Welcome to Guild Wars! And in particular, welcome to Elona, Land of the Golden Sun!

Here's my take on your questions...

The basics of any class aren't too complicated to pick up after several of the missions, with the exception of Mesmer (in my humble opinion), which requires a little more practice with your own skills, and a certain knowledge of skills outside of the Mesmer profession. This is because of the timing involved with interrupts, as well as understanding which monsters carry which skills that are worth interrupting. Although, there are other aspects to playing a Mesmer besides interrupting that are fun as well. Necromancer is also a fine choice, if you're focusing on a caster class. Both the Curses and Death attributes have a lot of fun skills to play with, and it's especially fun to have a gang of minions (my own subjective opinion).

I'll give you my opinion on your 4th question second, since it relates to your first question. Since it looks like you made a Necromancer, an Elementalist, and a Mesmer, I think you might enjoy using the Elementalist profession as a secondary to either your Necromancer or your Mesmer. With Necromancer, you can take advantage of their Soul Reaping primary attribute, unique to Necromancers. This will help you IMMENSELY with regard to your energy management as you gain in level. Using Mesmer as a primary with regard to an Elementalist secondary, you'll find the Mesmer's Fast-Casting attribute helpful in casting those fun Elementalist spells that have a long casting time.

Just my opinion again, but I generally get out of starting armor immediately, since new armor is immediately available in Kamadan that's very inexpensive and easy to obtain. After that, you can find collectors that will trade things for armor pieces, or you can just save up and buy some from crafters as you progress.

Socially, it might be nice to be in a guild (depending on the guild, of course), although it's possible to complete all of the missions (PvE) on your own (with heroes).

My own general advice to new players is to enjoy the game as you go along, especially the missions. Leveling happens organically, and there's a low level cap (relative to WoW) anyway. Also, even though you mentioned a preference for a casting class, I'd be remiss if I didn't put a plug in for my own personal favorite, the Dervish profession, which a melee class that is able to cast spells that synergize well with her own attacks. And if you'd like, I'm willing to model several of the more attractive armors, by way of inspiring a new dervish recruit!

Cheers, and welcome to Guild Wars!
Luf

Thanks for all of the replies everyone!

They've been a ton of help. I made a Elementalist since it's the profession I really want to play and I ended up joining a guild, but I just had another question.

Once you hit level 20 what exactly happens or what should I do once I hit level 20? I know in WoW you gear up for endgame content and gear.

Once you hit level 20 you should probably have already had max armor.
So really once you are level 20 it is time to progress in the storyline in the game, and after you beat it, you may move on to another campaign, or move on to high-end areas such as FoW, DoA, UW, ect.

Yeah, GW is basically the opposite of WoW in that aspect. GW focuses on getting people statistically similar so that they're differentiated by how skilled they are, so basically levels 1-19 are just tutorial levels. The game picks up once you hit 20. Focus on getting more skills, better skills, and knowing how to use those skills primarily, and when you get enough money it's a good idea to have some extra equipment that's suited to different situations.

Ah okay. Thanks once again!

The real power of the character comes from the range of skills they can deploy and the overall skill of the player in selecting and using them.
So most of that comes after lvl 20.

There are also pve skills you can gain from AI traders in game I mean the Luxon/Kurzic skills from Factions the Sunspear skills from Nightfall and the Norn Asura Vangard and Deldrimore skills from Eye of the North

Many of these are used in the latest builds and some are very powerful.

Then there are the Summoning stones and Consumables which can add extra punch and recovery from failure should the worst happen.

Lots happens after LVL 20

Elementalist isn't a bad profession.

As far as that "gearing up for elite content" thing, in guild wars, there are no absolutely statistically unique items in the game. Everything can be replicated easily. Your gear in pve mostly doesn't make a difference in your performance unless that +1 rune gets you to another breakpoint in say, splinter weapon, for another attack. You really shouldn't worry about your gear. its mostly point of preference.

Hero teams are probably the most complicated thing to construct, but when you're going through that process, you quickly get a vast understanding of the other professions and how they work. Building hero teams is where you are really going to start getting strategical experience and much wider understanding of the game.