New Husband-Wife duo with questions

Hi all,

My wife and I have been reading about GW2 and are very excited about it. We are total noobs to the GW world and decided to give GW1 a try. We bought the trilogy from Steam and have just created our accounts and downloading now.

To be honest, we're not very interested in henchmen, we like playing alone and are not big on pet management. Typically in MMO's my wife plays a tank and I heal. I realize that GW2 is doing away with the holy trinity and I'm excited about that, and not quite sure how GW1 works.

That said, what do you folks recommend as starting characters? We would like to be able to handle as much content as possible as a duo. My general leaning would be a Mesmer to my wife's Warrior, but I think she may also like a Ranger. I'm concerned that if I play a squishie and she plays a ranged DPS that we won't have enough tanking or healing to survive and will have to bring along henchmen. Is that true? What if she plays a Warrior and I play a Monk, would that materially change our ability to duo without henchmen? Or do we need to just get used to the idea of using henchmen to round out our efforts?

I've read a lot of threads and recommendations and have decided to start in Prophecies and I would look forward to any other recommendations from anyone.

Many thanks, and it's great to see such a vibrant and active community after all these years. I'm quite impressed.

You're pretty much going to have to travel with the maximum group size in any area, which will mean henchmen for now, and later on, heroes (basically henchmen whose skills and weapons you can customise). For the most part, you don't need to micromanage anything, just let them do their thing while you do yours. (Existing Guilds are also an option if you want other human company, but as you said you like to play just the two of you, I wont put too much blah blah into this. I totally understand the small group mindset!)

It doesn't really matter much what classes you play, as your team is rounded out with the henches (or heroes later on). So just play whatever you think sounds fun! Chances are, over the months / years you spend in GW, you'll play just about every class. They're all pretty awesome! So don't fret too much on character choice right now.

The game is balanced for the maximum team size in an area, you may be able to manage the two of you in the 4-man areas if you pull carefully, and put a bit of strategy into things, but once you hit the 6 man and 8 man areas, you're definitely going to want to max out your party and with a variety of classes and roles in those team lineups. You don't really need to worry about team builds at this stage. Just toss in a healer henchman, fill up the rest of your party and go blast monsters. It is definitely different from other MMOs out there, but GW's all about being unique

Hope you have fun in GW

Quite frankly, not filling out your team is foolish. GW is a team game and relies on synergy between characters and the skills they bring. All you're going to achieve by running as a duo will be making life much harder for yourself, slowing yourselves down, and inevitably becoming frustrated. At the beginning you're only meant to have small teams so you'll be fine but when you get to areas meant for 6-8 people you're not going to have much choice except henchmen (or other people, but that's not likely). That's not to say it's impossible, but for two people who know nothing about the game I'd predict a ton of trouble/restarting/etc.

That said, Warrior is a solid choice. They synergise with pretty much everything and you're going to need something with good armor to prevent you from getting killed really quickly. The other character will likely need to be some kind of support caster like a Monk (which is really your best option for healing/protection). If you don't want to be a Monk, you'll almost definitely need to have a Monk secondary for heals. As I said earlier, it's going to be tough. Why is it that you don't want to use henchies, anyway?

EDIT/PS: If you do plan to use henchies after all, the professions you pick won't really matter. You'll be able to succeed regardless of your choices. The above advice about Warrior synergy is still very true though, and I'd definitely recommend it if someone wants to play one.

Wow, another pair that wants to forgo heroes/henchmen.

As has been said, 90% of the game will be very frustrating with a limited party and no additional players or AI support.

I think a lot of people who come to GW from other MMOs don't quite grasp exactly how limiting 8 skills on a skillbar can be. If you think about your heroes as an extension of yourself, bringing extra skills that you, yourself, cannot, it makes a lot more sense to bring them. Working out the synergies can actually be kind of fun.

Another Husband/Wife combo here. I dragged my hubby here from wow.

ok, first off: Do away with your MMO mindset it will do you no good here.

Second: pick a character that sounds fun to you! or try out a few before picking. no matter what you pick your heros/Henchmen will fill out the rest.

Third: You will need heros/henchmen. As a general rule we get ourselves and 3 heros each and each of us takes a healer and a melee character and a whatever.

Fourth: Since your both new, thats about it for now! Have fun playing and you will learn all the other more complex parts of the game. Remember you can change your secondary class at will later in the game and leave your MMO thinking at the door!

Side note: When I first started I picked a meser as I loved her armor and almost 6 years later I still love her!

Ok, I hear you folks, loud and clear. ;-)

You're right, I still have the MMO mindset, it's hard to lose after playing virtually every MMO since UO beta. But at the core we are gamers. We are patient and we are adaptable, and if this game is designed to be played with henchmen, we'll learn how to use them. I'm encouraged by the comment about little micromanagement, that's nice to know. But I'm also intrigued by the discussions about skill synergies and working tactically with henchmen.

When I say we are noobs to GW, I mean it. I had no idea there was an 8 skill limit or even that there were skills. Everything is brand new to us, so we'll figure it all out and have a good time doing it. Thanks for the advice, and see you in the game. Download is complete!

The nice part about starting in Prophecies is that there are no henchmen available in the starter area, and party size is limited to 2 -- perfect for you and your wife to ease into the game mechanics, learn tactics & techniques, and enjoy the relative ease of the game the way you prefer, without having to worry about AI.

After that, when you reach the story shift and the real game begins, you'll want to learn how to use the henchmen that are available to you. By the time you hit Lion's Arch and can jump to other campaigns to recruit heroes, I'm sure you'll be quite sick of the henchies and will welcome the opportunity to learn how to outfit, skill, and command your heroes.

Welcome to GW. Hope you two have fun!

Luckily, you've got some character slots to play with also. I too play GW with my wife, and it's a really fun time.

First, it's much less about the professions you pick. Both of you should pick something that sounds fun to you. From what you're describing, it doesn't sound like there's a lot of overlap between your preferences. I'd say two of anything is bad, but no combination other than that is bad. Every profession brings something to the table. You seem like you're an investigative type, so check out the wiki and read up on professions.

Or just give it a try . As has been said, the game is designed around a full party, but the AI won't get in your way too much. Make sure you have a Monk in the 4 man areas of Prophecies (you'll find out how "great" Alesia is ), *maybe* both Monks when you get to the 6 man areas (players do far more DPS than AI, so you should almost always bring the damage/support/hybrids), and definitely a couple of support characters when you get into 8 man regions. But beyond that, play around and see what suits you! Good luck!

the good thing about this game is you get a bunch of character slots--so you can try different characters and figure out which you enjoy playing the most (my hubby got my hooked on this game as well--)
Prophecies starting area you wont have to worry about heroes/henchmen since the party size is only 2 (worked great for us--didnt want to leave), however; when you do venture into the real world (post searing)...you will appreciate the henchmen to round out your party (and fill in the areas you are lacking).

play around, if you dont like a character--make a different one, no one says you can only play one. (and by playing other characters you will learn how they work which is helpful when you come across them ingame).

welcome to guildwars--have fun playing!!

Henchmen, and henchwomen, are wonderful. I become very fond of them.

It would be pleasant to know what skills they use. You can look up hench names here. http://www.guildwiki.org/Main_Page Also this unofficial wiki has a good section for new players, Game Basics in the right hand column.

Pressing F10 while in game will link to a huge set of help files on almost everything! So there is no shortage of information.

If you run as a ranged character ranger, Paragon or similar and a spell caster "squishy" as you put it you could do worse than make the squishy a Necro or Ritualist.

Being overrun by a mob is a possibility if you play as a duo with no backup henchies or heroes.
A Necro can keep a small army of undead running they will tend to keep the bad guys occupied.
The Ritualist can summon offensive and defensive spirits again these provide a block on pursuing enemies and allows you to back out of range or just flee.

Part of the game now are summoning stones, you can obtain a fire imp as part of this game upgrade http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Igneous_Summoning_Stone
This gives you a fire imp that can be summoned as many times as you wish until you reach lvl 20 very helpful in the beginning, when you are getting used to the game.
Other summoning stones can be created in the game from crafters or at festivals http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Summoning_stone
These are single use stones so have to keep buying creating new ones after you reach lvl 20.
You can only use one per party but again they provide good backup when your against the odds.

Get stuck ask more questions its how we all learn.
Look forward to seeing you in the game and in GW2

The second sentence off-sets the first

But anyway, about the 8 skill thing, what separates GW from most MMOs is that GW limits your skill list a lot more than other games do (a lot don't really limit at all). You have to take time to unlock skills and then decide which fit best together. It wouldn't be good to load up a bar with 7 attack skills and then add a skill that when activated disables all attack skills.

Also, in case you're in the mindset of "I need epic gear to be good" that some MMOs put you in, I'll end that mindset now. There is a max stat for each weapon type (sword, axe, bow, etc.) and armor, and getting an item with max stats is very easy. GW is not about who has the best gear, its about who has the best skills. Sure, in PvP there are some weapon mods or armor upgrades that can make a slight difference that turns into a slightly bigger difference as the match goes on, but a lot of times those effects are there to either enhance their skills or slightly decrease the effectiveness of yours (such as a weapon mod that reduces deep wound duration by 33% and you have a skill that inflicts deep wound for 10 seconds, now its only 7). Being prepared for such situations will make them play out a lot easier.

I might would amend this slightly. GW is also about how well you use the skills you have. You could load up your bar with 8 of the "best" meta skills out there and still have your lunch handed to you (pardon the mix up of aphorisms).

Learning how skills work together... this "synergy" of which we speak... takes time, but it's fun getting there.

We started last night and got through most of the initial learning curve, we're having a blast. She is playing a ranger. I started with a mesmer and then created a monk, I think that's where we'll wind up.

I just want to add one observation: I am absolutely blown away at the community here. This game is how old? 6, 7 years? And the starting area is crowded with new players. I post one message and get 12 replies almost instantly. What a breath of fresh air!

I am beginning to see why there is so much interest in GW2 and why this game has sustained so much popularity in a crowded genre.

Thanks everyone, and see you in game!

Regnor & Kesha Vex

You will of course get to pick a secondary class and I wanted to say try them all out before picking on to use for the long term.

Later in the game you can change secondary class and should you later change back any skills you learned will be available for use again.

The GW developers intended you to be able to change your secondary class almost at will.

Anyway sounds like your having fun which is great.

Finding a guild is a great thing to do as well (: General pve guild

They made a good choice making the game buy-to-play and free forever thereafter. There's no subscription to uphold and thus people can come and go as they please. Fosters people wanting to stay.

We have seen a surge in new and returning players getting ready for GW2 thanks to the Hall of Monuments and its calculator.

The Prophecies starter area has always had a decent population because 1.) people are always starting new characters, 2.) a lot of people like the environment and the socialization in that exclusive community, and 3.) you can earn a unique title by reaching level 20 in that starter area.

It's especially busy these days because they recently added quests there which make it easier to accomplish that goal.

After rolling and re-rolling 3 or 4 times we finally settled on a pair of characters that we like. It might sound like a crazy and redundant combination of skills, but we went with what we actually found enjoyable. She is playing a Warrior/Monk (Summer Wrath) and I'm playing a Monk/Elementalist (Winter Omen).

Questions, questions:

1) After just coming out of Age of Conan where we had tiger mounts (fastest mounts in the game), we are finding the movement speed excruciatingly slow. We are patient people and enjoy smelling the roses, but given how much overland traversal of the same ground occurs over and over again, let's be honest, it gets old. I haven't seen any evidence of mounts or Spirit of the Wolf type buffs, are those things we can expect to see later in the game?

2) The game seems heavy on multiple mob pulls and active pathers with large aggro radius. I had this idea that Mesmer would be a shorthand way of saying "mesmerize", which is the prototypical CC skill from the earliest MMO's (i.e., "mezzing"). But looking over Mesmer's skills, they seem more like a focus on debuffs and interrupts. Did I just overlook something in their skill list or is there some other profession that gets classic CC skills?

3) How do we acquire better gear in this game? I can see that managing the available skills is what this game is about and it may be less loot-centric than others, but does that mean that gear is irrelevant and that the main incentive for play is further story development? I know this is a tired old question from a deeply instilled MMO mindset, sorry ;-), but what is the "endgame" like once everyone hits level cap?

Thanks!

Winter Omen & Summer Wrath

1) No mounts, although there is mount-like mechanics in some areas of EoTN and Nightfall. All classes except Monks and Ritualists get personal speed buffs (you can get it from secondary class for your Mo/E). Group-wide speed buff is available to Warrior (as elite, NOT recommended), and Paragon ("Fall Back!"). You can get "Fall Back!" on a secondary Paragon, both player or hero, and you can change your secondary class later in the game.

2) CC is balanced for PvP, it's short-duration, short-recharge and conditional (i.e. no way to completely prevent enemy from doing anything; KD is closest but knocked-down foes can still use stances, and it only lasts for 3 seconds). Typical options for AoE CC are mass-cripple and blind with Ranger traps, AoE knockdown from Warrior, AoE hex-based slowdown from Water elementalist, AoE interrupt over VERY large area from Mesmers and AoE Daze+mass condition spread using Fevered Dreams. Necros and Mesmers also have good skills for spreading already applied conditions to groups of enemies. Also lots of single-target shutdown skills available to just about any class.

3) Max level and armour are readily available. However, most of the game's storyline takes place in level-20 areas, so obtaining a max character still leaves you very far from finding out the resolution of the game's plot. Also, monsters keep getting harder, they're level 28 in end-game areas (in normal mode). Getting through the storyline unlocks Hard Mode, with tougher everything. There is also PvP, which you can try anytime. Progression is, as you've noticed, centred on acquiring skills. It takes about 1,000,000 gold to unlock all skills on the account. Basically the game is geared toward overcoming challenge and difficulty curve, not so much toward direct rewards.

Excellent reply, thank you shillo. Great info.

1) I'm in need of more bag space, but not crazy about spending 100g on vendor bags. Any quests available for bags (post searing)?

2) What does it mean when we enter towns and players have little blue icons over their heads with +4, etc.?

3) We have the whole trilogy and EoTN. Should we just continue on in a linear fashion with Prophecies or is it possible to weave in and out of the other campaigns, or other areas besides Old Ascalon, how does that work? It would be nice to have a little variety of scenery and mobs.

4) I've seen in other threads the comment that the game really begins at 20, and that this can be done in a few hours. Are they kidding? I understand that Prophecies is somewhat slower than Nightfall or Factions, but ... That much?


Thanks,

1) I don't think there are, but 100g for a bag is a small thing in the long run, also the 500g for a rune of holding to increase your bags inventory space from 5 to 10 is a small thing in the long run. Also, if you don't have one you should get a belt pouch to have 5 more inventory space.

2) I don't know what they mean either so I can't help you there.

3) You can get quests to get access to the other campaigns once you get to lions arch in prophecies, kaimag center in factions, and the consulate docks in night fall. As you continue doing missions and quests you will eventually be moved out of old ascalon and into the northen shiverpeaksand then into kyrata.

4) Prophecies was designed so you'd get to level 20 right around the time you get the ability to change your second professions, nightfall and faction will have you close to level 20 by the time you leave the tutorial places.

I'll try to answer these as best I can:

1. No quests as far as I know, but there are a few collectors if you want to dodge the fee. But I think you'll eventually get enough cash for the bags and the runes of holding easily.

2. This is the current party size, it appears above the party leader's head.

3. You're stuck in Prophecies (continent = Tyria) until at least Lion's Arch (port city). Once there, you may choose to go to Factions (continent = Cantha), Nightfall (continent = Elona), or Eye of the North (Tyria). If you choose to stay in Tyria but go North, you will get a buff while there that makes you level 20. Personally, I'd recommend you stick to Prophecies and head west. It's a fun experience and since you're a pair henchmen aren't that big a disadvantage imo. If you must get heroes, go to Elona. I dont recommend Cantha at all since it has Afflicted and these just suck since they explode on death and can really be a pain.

4. Yes, levelling is much faster in Factions and Nightfall. Factions is the fastest. Basically, you leave the equivalent of presearing at 17-18 (of course, each of them have a 2-3 missions but still).

Edit: Just wanted to add some reasoning, they get you to 20 so fast so that the majority of the content designed in these 2 chapters is available to veterans of previous chapters.

If you have already been through the games a few times you will have the skills and resources to develop a character pretty quickly know where to go who to talk to etc.
So it is possible to just do the basic missions with no side quests and do all that quickly.
This is why some claim to finish the game in a couple of days.

Storage limitations, I assume you have discovered the xunlai storage which is shared between all characters on your game account.
There is extra storage slots available from the gw online store to give your xunlai chest plenty of spaces for the average player.

Other than that each character has a backpack a pouch and two bags

You can also get equipment packs in various sizes the small ones can be bought from traders the larger ones you have to do zaishen quests till you can afford them.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Equipment_Pack

The maximum storage space on each character is
backpack 20
belt pouch 5
2 Bags 10 each
Heavy Equipment pack 20

I just wanted to supplement some of the answers already provided.

Movement Speed: There are a lot of speed boost skills. Naturally, they require a skill slot, and many party-wide run skills are best put on heroes. Conversely, we have consumables, some of which also provide a speed boost. Some personal, others party-wide. But these can be very expensive. A hero or two with "Incoming!"/"Fall Back!" will usually suffice. But you guys are a ways off from that. By the time you can recruit heroes and obtain those skills, you'll probably be used to the speed and better at finding your way from A to B.

Crowd Control: Shillo's answers are correct about skill-based shut-down. But a lot of players in PvE mitigate damage with distraction: Namely, meatshields. A common tactic is to bring a minion master necromancer hero, or ritualist heroes with spirits. Such disposable allies are often targeted by the AI first, taking the heat off your team to do its job.

Armor: You'll find armor crafters with increased rating armor as you progress through Prophecies. Unfortunately, this happens very slowly (Prophecies is a slow-going game -- the only way people get through it in a few hours is by skipping content). Once you reach Lion's Arch (after you pass through the snowy part of the game), you can hop over to a different campaign where you can get max-level armor almost immediately (Kaineng Center in Factions, Consulate Docks in Nightfall, Boreal Station in North).
Once you have the armor, to be fully geared up you'll have to buy runes/insignias or find and salvage them from loot drops with an ID kit and an expert salvage kit.
On that note, bear in mind that weapon drops are going to be crappy. Collector Weapons, which you can obtain by turning in the appropriate monster drops, will do you just fine until you can scrounge up some money and source some mods.

Cheap Bags: If you don't want to pay the fee for a bag and you want it right now, your only alternative as a Prophecies character is to seek out collectors or create some new (temporary?) characters in Factions or Nightfall. Both of those campaigns have newbie quests that reward a belt pouch and commendations that can be traded for bags and runes of holding. IMO, Factions is the quickest way to do this. You can also unlock some skills for free/cheap for your future heroes if you do this.

3) It's up to how you want to play it. My wife and i played prophecies until we hit the desert and got majorly stuck there. We got unstuck by figuring out how to travel to other campaigns to pick up some new skills and armor. Once that light "clicked" with us, the game became much more about character development than progressing the plot. We ultimately did return and finish Prophecies but we had a really good time exploring the other campaigns, too.

4) There's no need to rush. GW will be around for a while, plenty of time for you to do the things you'll find yourself wanting to do. Enjoy learning the game, enjoy the struggle to get through certain parts of the game. You started in Prophecies, so I'd say just play through at your own pace for a while. Your first couple characters shouldn't be a mad dash to level 20, they should be an exploration of different aspects of the game.

If while you are questing, you pick up all the gold and drops and sell what you don't need to the merchant, you'll find that 100g is easy to accumulate.
As has been said, you'll also want to use Rune of Holdings on the bags, and get a belt pouch. Also, at some point in the game you will be able to get an Equipment pack, but I'm not sure exactly where - but certainly, when you get to Lion's Arch. (though you may need to go to Great Temple of Balthazar.)

That would be the number of people in that person's group.

Other than starting new characters in the other campaigns (Factions and Nightfall), you have to continue Prophecies until you get to Lion's Arch. Once there, you can get small quests to unlock travel to Factions, Nightfall, and EotN. If you're not overly concerned with lore and/or playing in a linear fashion, I would recommend that you travel to Nightfall at that point. There, after a few small intro quests, you can get some Heroes (customizable henchmen), max armor (at Consulate Docks), and you can level up much faster.
Once travel to the other area is unlocked, you can freely travel back and forth using the boat that appears in the ocean (or directly to EotN using map travel) (or Embark Beach)
Btw, once you get to L.A. you can pick up the MOX hero just outside, if you want a big ugly hero to stomp around with you. And since you have the Trilogy, you can also get quests to acquire Olias (necro Hero) and Zenmai (Assassin).

I wouldn't say that the game 'begins' at level 20, but getting to level 20 is far (far) from the end. As far as the speed of levelling up goes, it depends somewhat upon how you play the game and how experienced you are. For your first characters, since you won't have much gold or equipment, it takes a bit longer to get through the early levels. But, as I stated above, you can travel to Nightfall or Factions to level up much faster than you would by sticking to Prophecies. You can also travel to EotN at that point, but I personally don't like the way your character's attributes are modified if you go to EotN at less than level 20.

Thank you all for the detailed responses, very helpful.

We are learning the limits of our characters and really getting pummeled in some places. And I was naive enough at one point to think we might do this without henchmen? LOL!

Part of my aversion to pets is the generally weak AI in most games and the heavy need for micromanagement. GW really shines on both scores. If I cast a PBAoE the mobs will run from it, and the henchmen have been doing their duty with zero management, it's an excellent system.

Because of the missing primary attribute, our secondaries are noticeably weaker than their primary counterparts. My wife claims that her W/Mo turns out to be a fairly weak healer. We need to figure out how to change her secondary. I'm hoping it's just a matter of visiting a trainer? We aren't that far into the Ascalon environs. Do any of the secondaries make a better pairing with her Warrior in light of my Mo/E? I chose Elementalist with the idea that I would focus on Water magic to get some AoE slows/debuffs to help manage crowds.

It appears that attribute points are always re-settable in town, will that always be the case? It's great, it allows for a lot of experimentation without any of the gimp-paranoia that comes with irrevocable allocations (omg, in AoC not only are AA points irrevocable, there is no confirmation dialog!)

We quested for the 5-slot pouches on new Faction characters so we have those now, thanks for that tip. Where do we find runes of holding?

Thanks again, folks.

Winter Omen & Summer Wrath

Don't worry about your 2nd profession too much. Yes, you can change it but it won't be for a while. Also, your secondary profession should be very secondary, especially for a warrior as the class is easily flexible enough to stand on its own.

That being said, she might want to look deeper into the Smiting Prayers. I run a W/Mo, myself, and that character is built around the skill "Strength of Honor", which you can get in the Ascalon area (find a place called Serenity Temple and there's an NPC with a skill quest). It changes the way you play your character, but in a good way. She'll get more familiar with the adrenaline/energy balance that all warriors need to grapple with.

The warrior role in Guild Wars is a little different than it may be in other games. You're not so much a tank as you are a damage dealer. At some point, she'll want to give Marty Silverblade's warrior overview a read through. A lot of it is in the future for her, but the future probably isn't all that far off.

Unfortunately, no. You have to either Ascend in Prophecies or become Weh No Su in Factions. The former is rather far along the game's plot, while you can become Weh No Su by reaching Lion's Arch and doing 2 missions (a lot quicker, but still not that close for you).

However, warriors are quite capable on their own, without skills from the secondary, so you don't need to reroll or rush for that reason alone. W/Mo works fine for hard rez availability.

Always remember that you only have 8 skills on your bar, so you generally get to do 1 thing well and (maybe) get space for 1-2 extra utility skills.

Mo/E is a good combination for energy management side of ele (i.e. Glyph of Lesser Energy). Remember that you will mainly be targeting party members, not enemy mobs. Actually if you did all the pre-searing quests, you should already have that skill.

As for the warrior, the most common builds don't actually use secondary class, as I mentioned above. So W/Mo is just fine. Once you get to switch secondaries, things to try are W/E (for Conjure spells) and W/D and W/A (to play with scythe/daggers).

Yes, both attributes and skills can be reset in town, always. And yes, that's meant to encourage experimentation. After ascension, each secondary class class needs to be unlocked (this is pretty cheap); once unlocked, you can also switch them in town without any further cost or restriction.

I'm curious how you vets allocate your attribute points: focus on one, two or three attributes? I'm assuming I get 5 every level so that's what, 100 total? Given the growing and varying cost, I have no idea how many total ranks that works out to be but I think it depends on the distribution across attributes. I'm guessing it's highly situational given the mission challenge, so I'm probably answering my own question here. Let me know if I'm off base here or if there are certain conventions I should be aware of.

What a great system, I continue to see why this game is so popular.

You get 200 points at lvl 20, 170 just for getting to the level then there are 2 special quests that give you 15 pts each.

Spreading of the points varies from character to character and it will become clear at some point that skills have break points ie adding a point may not improve the skill it may take 2 3 or more points before it changes.
Some skills work even with no points in them and are still useful.

I usually concentrate points into 2 or maybe 3 skill lines but it very much depends on the class and wether I am using my secondary class skills.
There are runes and inscriptions that can be added to weapons and armour which add points.
eg a +1 rune of healing added to your armour adds 1 point to that skill list.
Headpieces get a free point so adding it there actually gives you 2 points read up if confused by my explanation.
The more powerful runes often are a tradeoff they increase a skill line but cost you in health, again you really need to read up when you start getting these things.

If I may offer a couple of pieces of advice I give all newcomers.
1/ do not bother buying armour till you reach the part of the game where you can buy the maximum protection version for your class.
Doing otherwise wastes money as there are collectors that will equip you in trade for items they are looking for.
2/ Pick up everything that drops from dead monsters and use sell or salvage and sell everything.
That way by the time you get to the point of buying armour you will have the cash.

It's never a good idea to try to be a healer as a Warrior. Warriors have too small an energy pool and too slow energy regen and are designed to be Adrenaline based. Her best bet at this point would be to basically ignore the /Mo and just concentrate on the Warrior aspect - just use the /Mo for a better rez (than the signet she would otherwise use.)
You won't be able to change your secondary until after you are "Ascended", which in Prophecies, happens in the Crystal Desert.
At this early stage of the game, it's best for her to concentrate on her primary, anyway. Later, after you can change secondaries, there are a number of options for a warrior.
Similarly to your wife, you should mostly concentrate on your primary at this stage. You could either go with healing and/or protection to act as the medic in the group, or you could concentrate on smiting and leave the healing to a Monk henchman (if available). You have too few attribute points and too few skills available, but of course, fell free to experiment.

You buy them from a merchant. If I recall, not all merchants have them in the early stages.

It depends on the class and build. Generally speaking, except for some specialized builds, I don't normally use any more than 3 attributes (and only one of those is ever from my secondary). My Warrior, for example, has all it's points in 2 lines - Swordmanship and Strength.
You will have 200 points once you are level 20 and have done the attribute quests. (check wiki for details)

You can also get runes of holding from the Monastery Quartermaster to the right of the one who gives you the bags using the monastery credits.

And about the attribute points, I agree with Gremlin and Quaker, try to focus on 2 or 3. Also, some professions are really flexible and you can perfectly play without using anything from your secondary. I usually just put skills from the secondary profession to add some fun to the skill bar

Aside from your primary profession, practically everything can be changed in GW. It's very hard to make a mistake you'll regret forever in this game.

When you were running around Shing Jea Island (the newbie area of Factions), did you do any other quests that awarded you with pink Monastery Credits? If you talk to the Monastery Quartermasters in Shing Jea Monastery, they will trade you a bag and a rune of holding for a total of 4 credits (so you'd need 8 credits per character to get your max allowance of bags).

Prophecies is kind of mean to newbies by initially giving you skills in every attribute without telling you "Actually using skills from every attribute is stupid." This is a little bit where you have to consider the types of roles your profession can play (we have stickies at the top of each profession in our Campfire Section; you can also search the wiki for your profession where they outline the attributes and provide guides for playing) and figure out the synergies of the skills you have available. In the beginning, where the game isn't very hard and you have few skills, you can somewhat mix and match, but as you get deeper in, you'll want to specialize.

For a warrior this choice is kind of easy, because you can only wield one weapon type at a time, so it's a no-brainer to decide between Axe/Swordsmanship/Hammer as the weapon attribute to spec in. For the rest, you choose between Strength, which is the Primary Attribute and has its own inherent benefits, and Tactics, which provides some utility. You can put points into both, but depending on the skills you're using, you'll usually end up favoring one over the other.

As a monk, you choose between being a damager (Smite) or a party helper (Healing/Protection). If helping your party, you need to decide whether you want more power in buffing your party to keep them from harm (Protection) or pushing red bars up after the fact (Healing). Then you definitely want to put points into your Primary Attribute of Divine Favor for its inherent bonus (extra healing).

And that's just allocation of your main attributes. It doesn't really leave a lot of room for secondary attributes, which are mainly there to supplement or provide a little extra utility to your main goal (like using the elementalist Glyph of Lesser Energy to help you manage your energy as a monk). There are some gimmick builds out there that allow some professions to run mainly as their secondary, but those are the exceptions to the rule.

Some builds rely on a specific allocation of points to work (these mainly revolve around keeping protective enchantments up 100% of the time); otherwise, it just comes down to what works for your build at the given time. It's ultimately up to you to decide which skills you want to use, how powerful you want each of them to be, or how long you want a skill's effect to last.
It usually helps to look up a skill on the wiki to see how it performs at different attribute ranks.

Just to answer your specific question, I very often find myself doing 12-9-9 (remember I've done the +15 attribute points quests). 12 is for the main school of magic (it could be Healing Prayers for example), 9 is for the Primary attribute (Divine Favor), and the last 9 is for e-management (think Mesmer's Inspiration line) or some other alternate school (like protection prayers in this example). Consider picking up a minor rune for your primary attribute.

If you are absolutely focusing on one school of magic, then do 12-12, 12 in main school and 12 in primary attribute.

These are not counting the bonuses you get from headgear (+1) or runes.

by the way, if you wanted to use Water Magic and NOT heal or prot, consider rerolling to an Elementalist. Your wife may also want to join you as a Monk if she wanted to heal, because imo, both are very unfeasible since Warriors have naturally low energy and energy regen and monks lack the Energy pool to handle most ele spells.

My wife is going to focus on being a warrior (which is quite different from her usual tanking role, but she likes to mix it up and enjoys the survivability of the Warrior class). I think she is going to continue to rely on me to do the healing, which is exactly how we've always played together.

I'm not seeing much effect from my water magic debuffs so I'm moving toward an exclusive Smiting/Healing Prayers set up. My question now is the relationship between Healing Prayers and Divine Favor. I would imagine that Healing Prayers will have a larger impact on healing, but then I would also imagine that Divine Favors is going to distribute its bonuses across both Healing Prayers and Smiting Prayers, no? That would seem to be good during leveling to give that extra DPS bump.

But I'm fuzzy on how these two scenarios compare.

Thanks again,

Winter Omen & Summer Wrath

Yes. Any ally-targeted or self-targeted monk spell of any attribute is going to give a Divine Favor bonus, including healing, protection, and smiting spells. Untargeted monk spells, such as Symbol of Wrath, will give a Divine Favor bonus to the caster.

You should never dump points into Divine Favor (which gives 3.2HP/rank and has breakpoints of 8 and 13 because of that) unless the gain is more than from Healing Prayers, or you are using Protection prayers mainly (such as Shield of Absorption, Shielding Hands, Reversal of Fortune). Also Divine Favor is better for cheap 5 energy skills since it's more economical, which is why Heal Other is rather bad (and most other 10 energy skills besides Protective Spirit and Aegis).

For example, http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dwayna%27s_Kiss gives you +2 HP for going from rank 11 to 12 but the bonus also gives +2HP per from rank 11 to 12 so it's one of the skills that benefits from Healing Prayers rank more. Orison of Healing is probably the worst healing skill possible but it's what you start off with. For rank 11 to 12 you get +3 HP, so you're better off with Divine Favor there. The higher the rank, the more expensive the attributes so that's why it's better to dump points in Divine Favor to raise it up than to go from 11 to 12 Healing.

If you only have access to prophecies so far even if you have all the campaigns, a better option than going Healing Prayers is to run Divine Boon with Reversal of Fortune , Shielding Hands, mend ailment, and Guardian. Only Word of Healing (an elite) and Dwayna's Kiss are decent in Prophecies from the Healing prayers line, which is why back then people ran Divine Boon protection prayers. Recently, the elite skill Unyielding Aura also got changed so you could use that since you have all the campaigns (use with Dwayna's Kiss + Patient spirit + Divine Healing + Heaven's Delight or Gift of health + Dismiss condition + Divine Healing + Heaven's Delight ). Also, prophecies bosses are unlike the other campaigns because they take less damage and have shorter hex and condition durations but don't do 2x damage.

Also I skimmed this thread, but it seems you had a problem with movement? Keep in mind there are outposts that you can teleport to once you reach them. This is called "map travel" (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Map_travel). I feel it's better explained in Nightfall campaign for beginners. In prophecies, they don't really do a good job of explaining it but it is a quest there (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Unsettling_Rumors).

Also I noticed you read about hitting 20 in a few hours. It's very possible in Factions and to a lesser extent, Nightfall. Prophecies is slower. On a clean account with no unlocks I got through Nightfall in about a day. Nightfall in my opinion is the best campaign to start in if you don't care for story because they refined the new player experience. They even give you minor vigor runes, bags, and a dye for your armor.

When you and your wife enter the desert campaigns it will be a good thing for your wife to get one of the most important elites imo for a warrior, Warriors endurance.

More good tips, thanks folks.

I hear references to elite skills. How do we get elite skills, is that what we purchase from vendors with our skill points? So far all we've doen to acquire skills is quest for them, and I haven't see anything indicating elites. How can you tell if it's an elite skill?

Thanks,