Etiquette in pre-Searing towards GM requests?

I'm a new GW player, bought everything a week ago. I have since been playing in pre-Searing to get the LDoA title. Has to be done at some point anyway.

I've been making a few trips into the Northlands and I was wondering just how I really should go about asking around for a gate opener / monkey. I've offered to open the gate for free (walking up and down does not seem like a big deal to me) many times, which usually seems to really surprises people. Since I do want the gate opened for myself from time to time as well, I thought I maybe need to take a more.. commercial approach towards level 20.

What I would like to know boils down to three things.

1. Should I even have to pay to get the gate opened for me?
2. If it is a generally accepted thing, what sort of payment is considered proper?
3. What is the nicest way to ask for it inside world chat?

You cannot go far wrong with the age old phrase of "LFGM 50g, please" it has served many people well since pre-searing began. Some add the caveat of "self invite" to save time responding to several whispers, not sure how active this service is these days as i do not usually venture into the Northlands alone anymore. I myself will run people for free as like you say it's a minute of time at most so not really a hassle, but the standard fee was always 50g.

agreed. 50g is a more than fair compensation for having someone open the gate for you, though it has grown fairly common to see people offering up the service for 100g as of late (especially since the vanguard quests were added).

depending on how much you offer, you might not find a GM. What I do is offer to open the gate for 50-100g, then head back to town and ask for a GM, offering double. For example, if I do GM for 50g, I get back to town and offer 100g. Or if I get 100g for GM service, then I offer 200g for a GM, and almost instantly get multiple replies. Sometimes people just don't want to be bothered, even though it only takes a second to open the gate, and get greedy when it comes to gold.

Have a couple of characters in pre-searing doing much the same as you trying for ldoa and hopefully not dying so I can get survivor the old fashioned way.

Have seen gm being done for free for tips dye etc and for gold 100 is becoming more common I think this is because people want a fast turnaround to farm the northlands.
50 is fair but some people just don't want to waste time.

One of the most rare and expensive items you can get in pre is a charr salvage kit.
These often go for 10k and though I have run 2 characters to lvl 20 and am on a third have never had one drop for me.

Oh and its reasonable to pay after the first gate has closed behind you then open a trade window and hand it over you can then wait for them to leave the party before moving forward.

Personally I pay before leaving ascalon because 100g is no big deal and I tend to trust everyone once.

The presearing.com community used a slogan 'PSCGO' or PreSearing Community Gate Opener so that fellow members could get a run for free, with the expectation that you would answer calls from other members. You might try using that.

and why not look at presearing.com, plenty of useful info over there. Many of us still open the gate for free when we are around.

Like Scarlet said 'LFGM 50g' should get a response.

Good Luck

I will check out presearing.com, thanks.

Thanks everyone. I had a gut feeling those 200g requests were a bit over the top. I will pay for them, but I will also keep offering it myself for free. Maybe it will shift some kind of karmic balance.

I am around just now, you can hit me up to open the gate. I may be a little slow to respond (doing housework)

The question re GM raises a point from myself it really is not required as only last week I took another through ldoa without the use of a GM.

The only time I went into the Northlands was for a Daily.(pug)

I raised my level by simply repeating any daily that was outside the Northlands by that I mean

Fobles Fair all I did was 3 groups and mapped back to fobles and repeat

Fort ranik the same for bandits 3 groups then mapped back

WUPWUP ...THE SAME finished quest abandon and repeat

Catacomes went behind the necro at shrine and killed 3 groups rinse and repeat

Ldoa was obtained in 10days playing casual.....So the GM is not really a problem.

So look at the Daily thats on e.g then continue to rinse and repeat and if the northlands is the following day just dont take it just continue on the quest where you dont need a GM hence no need to even pay for one.

Then when it is another one outside northlands claim the one you were doing for 1k xp then obtain the other that is outside that zone

And while my Summoning Sickness is wearing off, I want to thank Aeronwen for letting me in and giving me a Charr Bag on top of that. That was very sweet. I'll be sure pay it forward the next time I run into a newbie.

i just say LFGM 100g and usually get a response instantly. it's really not worth the trouble trying to save 50g even if it does stack so it ends being much more than 50g, if you are so desperate to save 5k or smth then do gm runs for 100g as well...

thats exactly what I do: run as gm for 100g, then pay for gm 100g and that way it doesnt cost you a thing and it only takes an extra minute.

Spent a fair amount of time in Pre in the last few months so here's my opinion.

* 100g will get you a monkey fairly fast. I disagree as to the standard rate being 50, it seems to me 100 has been pretty standard for a while now. You can get a monkey for less, or for dye etc. but you'll get it faster for 100g.
* The usual call is "LFGM 100g" in local chat ("looking for gate monkey") or "GM for hire 100g".
* Stand by the gate when you do that, it helps people who point and click to add you to party (esp. if you have a complicated nick).
* Stop between the gates, right under the monkey, to pay them, then wait for them to map out.
* It doesn't hurt to say 'hi' on the way. Also, an exchange of "gl" and "ty" is nice before parting ways.

Some other things I may add:

* As a monkey I always let the client have the Iris. He's paying for the trip, after all.
* Sometimes people have bad ping or need to download a zone update and it may take a while (even 30s once) for them to zone in after the main city gate. Be patient, wait for them.
* If you don't want the money simply map out once they're past the gate.
* I've had airheaded clients who forgot to change their bar or attributes before they left town and asked me to return. Be understanding. Plus, they're likely to tip extra in such a case.
* Some clients don't know the gate trick so they zone into Northlands and do the transaction after. You can explain to them how it works so they know (ie. the second gate is "transparent" and you can zone through it, only the 1st gate matters). It saves time.
* You can trade or drop the money as soon as you get out of the city, but most people don't expect that so there will be some confused running around. You're unlikely to save time this way.

As for whether it's "right" to pay for this: I'd rather pay a small sum to someone who knows what they're doing and gets me inside Northlands fast. It's a service, it takes some skill and knowledge, and that has a value.