New Husband-Wife duo with questions

Tanking is not a viable strategy in GW, given the AI of the foes. So, no loss there.

Divine Favor only gives a health bonus to skills that target you or an ally. It does nothing when a skill targets a foe, and doesn't affect DPS in any case.
http://www.guildwiki.org/Divine_Favor

Elite Skills are skills you can capture from bosses that have them using a Signet of Capture (sold from skill trainers, starting from the Crystal Desert I believe). You can only have 1 on your bar at a time.

For example, if you are after Word of Healing, a monk elite, you need to find a monk boss that uses it in his build, and use a Signet of Capture on his corpse. From there, you can just pick it from the list that pops up. Elite skills have golden borders, hard to miss . Use the wiki to find out where the boss/skill you are after is located!

Ah, I'm going to have to figure out this mechanic, sounds like fun. Thanks!

Concerning Elite skills, in Proph, you will meet your firsts Elite skills (save for 2 or 3 sneak peek in pre-searing ;P) in the desert area. At that point, you will be around lvl 18. Not sure if you saw it in the other threads, but in GW, elite skills aren't like the elites of GW2 (or ultimate in MOBA). They are more like the crux of your build, the skill that makes it work. But are only just a bit more powerful than the rest of your bar (save some exception)
PS. if you heard about tomes, they are a way to gain skills you already unlocked on your account, but you probably couldn't use them right now.

Concerning your wife's monk side, she is better to use it either for self- condition/hex removal, a key skill in smiting or 1/2 skill in prot. But as you probably found out, she is better at killing while you protect her.

Just 1 thing I'd like to clear about that. In proph, it's not a big deal, but by the time you get to 8man areas, that might make a difference.
WIth jsut a bit of careful play and decent builds, most tasks can be done with at least 2 ppl bellow the max party size. I think in most 6-8man areas, it just gives the impression you are doing more to contribute. Things can die really fast when you outnmber them 2to1 or 3to1.

When you get to Lions arch there is a quest that has you testing out a new device that is where you learn about elite skills

Ok, thanks. We're working our way West now, questing, based out of the courthouse. I think we did most of the available quests in the East.

I bought my first skill, I think it was called "Restore Life", a much better rez. I was reluctant to spend skill points but I hadn't previously spent any and noticed I had 12, and it only cost 1, so I went with it. I'll have to check the wiki but I don't recall ever seeing that available as a quest reward. Are there some skills that are only available by purchase or are they all available from some quest, somewhere?

I keep hearing about Lion's Arch, but haven't seen it and assume it's way out West. I understand that it's a port city and will enable us to travel to the other campaign cities. Is this the final city in the campaign? Are we going to be L20's by the time we hit it?

I'm wondering if we could use our Factions characters to buy better armor and then stick it in storage? Will we even be able to wear it at this point (given attribute requirements on many of the items we've found)?

Thanks

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Ok, I've looked over the maps and I now see Lion's Arch. I'm wondering if we could plot a course from the Grendich Courthouse (where we're currently based) to Borlis Pass --> The Frost Gate --> Beacon's Perch --> Gates of Kryta --> Lion's Arch?

Given the circuitous routes often required to get from goal to destination is this world (the overland restrictions are frustrating, I hope GW2 is more open), I'm guessing the above won't be possible and suspect we will be going on a *lot* of side trips on our way to Lion's Arch.

I remember in EverQuest beta we ran all the way from Qeynos to Freeport as little level 10 guys. Scary as hell, several deaths along the way, but what a glorious adventure that was! Is that something we can try as in the above, or are we required to quest our way through?

Thanks again

Lion's Arch is about 1/3 through the Prophecies campaign. You reach it with about level 15, depending on the amount of questing you do on the way. If you skip most questing, you might reach LA even with level 10.

Getting better skills is vital. It's in fact the way you are getting stronger. Once you reach level 20, have the maximum armor and the max. damage weapon, it's the only way to get stronger. You reach level 20 about half way through Prophecies, if you strictly stay there. If you visit the other campaigns, it might get a bit faster.

An example how skills matter and the skills differ in strength: when I started as monk in Prophecies, which was my 4th character and I knew the game very well, I unlocked the elite skill "Word of Healing" with an elite skill tome as soon as I left the tutorial. Tomes are a way to get unavailable skills earlier.
This was wrong, because I realized the healing power of this skill alone was able to carry your party through half of the Prophecies campaign and more. I didn't learn much about playing the monk in critical situations - it was only necessary to spam this skill whenever needed.

So my advice: don't rush, take your time, and upgrade your skills whenever new ones become available to you. In many new outposts are new skill merchants. Check them. Buy skills that look interesting to you and try them. Most of the skills are situational or not very good, and you will never use them again, but you know this only after you tried them.

Edit: You get to Lion's Arch best if you play through the Prophecies story line by doing the primary quests and missions. It is one of the tasks of the primary quests to get you there. The way leads in fact through the outposts you mentioned. Let the primary quests be your guide.

Most skills are only available from Skill Trainers. So, don't be afraid to use skill points - that's what they are for (until much, much later in the game (EotN) when you can use them to help buy consumables).

No. there is a whole lot of Prophecies to go after L.A. If I recall, you could be level 20 by the time you reach there, but if you just follow the normal quest/mission chain you'd more likely be around 16-18.

No. Armour is automatically customized to the purchaser. The fastest way for your Prophecies character to get max armor would be to travel to Kaineng Center from L.A., once you get to L.A. (it just requires doing a small quest to unlock travel to Factions.)

Yes. If you follow the primary quest/mission path you will go to Yak's Bend -> Borlis Pass -> etc.
If I recall, you can skip Borlis Pass and Frost Gate by travelling through the more northerly regions to get to Beacon's Perch.
Btw, at Beacon's Perch it is possible to go due south to get to Droknar's Forge where you can get max armor, but you would need a runner. There's no way you could do that on your own at your current level.

Overall, I would suggest you just follow the normal quest/mission train to get to L.A.

One other nice thing about getting to Lion's Arch is that it's where you access Eye of the North... if you have it... where you can craft max armor right then and there. Incidentally, you'd also pick up two heroes, but nothing says you'd have to use them or go any further in EotN if you didn't want to. Just map back to Lion's Arch with your spankie new armor and carry on.


P.S. Still trying to make it back into the game to say hello! Hope you're both having a grand ol' time!

About purchasing skills from Skill Trainers: Yes they only cost 1 skill point each but they also cost gold and the price is rising each time you purchase a skill. The furst skill costs only 50g, but after some time you will be paying 1000g per skill, thats where the price tops.
So if you are on a narrow budget dont just buy everything available, spend some time to determine if each skill is really useful for you.

qft
I agree the good thing is as costs rise so does the value of your mission rewards and dropped gold and salvage.
Skill points are no problem you will be gaining them faster than you spend them.

On a point about better armour you had the idea of buying armour with your prophesies characters.
Be aware that armour is specific to the character it is crafted for and can never be worn by any other.

Max protection armour in prophesies comes quite a way past Lions arch.
You can cross from Lions Arch to the Factions map and get it faster, the style will be different but the protection as good as you can get.
There are a great many styles of armour in the game and you can mix and match with boots from one and legs from another also dye it any colour you like.

There are a lot of miscellaneous quests in Ascalon (the burnt, extra-crispy area you're likely in now). You do not need to complete all of them, in case that was unclear. However, you're certainly welcome to complete them if you just want to learn a little more.

Generally a good idea to bring a reusable rez, especially as a new player. You'll find some that disagree, but that's my opinion. Be careful with Restore Life, tho, as it forces your character to run right up to the dead char to rez them; this can be bad in the thick of battle.

The main attraction of Lion's Arch (LA) is that it offers paths to the other campaigns. It is, however, as others have mentioned, not the final city; it's not even close. However, once you get to LA, you'll get a lot more options on where to go, such as continuing in Prophecies campaign (the one you're in), or going to Factions, Nightfall, or Eye of the North. You will likely not be Lvl 20 at LA, but you may see a few other lvl 20s from other campaigns.

Definitely not. Armor is automatically customized to a unique hidden "character ID", so you can never use another character's armor. Even if you were to create a character, buy some armor, then delete the char and remake it with exactly the same name/appearance, you still would not be able to use it. You can, however, use your factions characters to get armor material, such as cloth, iron, etc., to make it easier for your prophecies characters to get better armor.

One of the nice/horrible (depending on your viewpoint) things about prophecies is that a sufficiently skilled character can be run through most of the game without having to "quest your way through". For a new player, I'd recommend against this though, as it will force you to skip most of the easier learning areas. I would suggest completing the missions in prophecies, starting with Great Northern Wall.

Also, I noticed no one has yet mentioned Map Travel. I don't want to assume you know about this! If you press the 'M' key, you will see a world map with places you've been indicated on it (Ascalon City, Grenditch Courthouse, etc.). To go to a particular marked place, just double-click that town on the 'M' map. Be aware it'll separate you if you're in a party with someone, but it's a lot faster than walking everywhere.


Lastly, I want to issue a word of warning about the Warrior/monk profession combination. Many new players choose this combination because they assume that it will make them an archetypal "paladin", with immense protective and restorative powers. This is a bad misconception. The Warrior's primary attribute (think of it as his "special ability") offers absolutely no direct synergy with the monk; it's not energy management. In addition, the warrior's 2 pips of energy regeneration, as compared to many other characters' 4 pips, means that you'll run out of energy after just a few spells. Because of this, many w/mo characters (dubbed "wammos" in bad contexts) are viewed as mismatches. This is NOT to say that W/Mo is inherently a bad combination, and it shouldn't matter if you and your significant other are playing alone. However, be warned that certain players are unusually prejudiced against w/mo characters.

As far as W/Mo goes... the only non-res thing you can really use is Mending Touch for areas with blind (although W/R with Antidote signet is better.. plus you can swap to bow to use Distracting Shot on long casts if you are so inclined). Purge Signet (use with an adrenaline bar; Zealous Weapon to regain back energy)/ Smite Hex (lame damage without Smiting investment though)/Holy Veil are maybes depending on if the area is hex heavy and the hexes actually are scary. Those skills in particular don't require attribute investment for their main effect(s).

Most PvE monks bring Cure Hex/Deny Hexes but fewer bring Dismiss Condition/Mend Ailment/Draw Conditions and Restore Conditions is overkill. Necromancers seldom bring Foul Feast. Most of the time conditions won't matter except for Blind (90% miss chance is horrible for melee)/Weakness (reduces 66% of your base damage but not the + damage from attack skills)/Cripple (50% slower movement).

Unless you're running "tank-and-spank" team setups, Balthazar's Spirit won't do much as far as adrenaline goes. I've seen W/Mo farming builds with Live Vicariously+Vigorous Spirit a long time ago before Hard mode. I've seen W/Mo with Empathic Removal and Axe-based skillbars in the past but that's in PvP.

Just keep in mind almost all non-stance skills have 0.75 second "aftercast" which means you can't move or do anything for 0.75 seconds after you use a monk skill: so no "Paladins".

In short, with prophecies before LA your best W/Mo options:
W/Mo
Max axe + 1 axe headgear + minor axe rune = maximum axe+1+1 = up to 14 axemastery
maximum strength after maxing axe

1 Dismember (Eviscerate once you get it) --> http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Army_Life
2 Executioner's strike --> http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Vineyard_Problem big +damage after dismember to trigger deep wound HP loss
3 Cyclone axe --> http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Vineyard_Problem ; used to build up more adrenaline from hitting bunched up mobs ... not for the pitiful +damage
4 For Great Justice --> http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Helpi...ple_of_Ascalon
5 Sprint --> http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Military_Matters
6 Power Attack --> http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Military_Matters ; can also put Wild Blow (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gargoyle_Trouble) as a stance-breaker if it's Rangers with Lightning Reflexes/Whirling Defense or Warriors with shield stance ; pretty big +damage if your strength is high enough
7 Frenzy --> http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Warrior_Test or Burst of Aggression capped from http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Tomb_Guardian, Tiger Stance from http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Michiko , or Berserker Stance from http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Michiko
8 Resurrection Signet

Frenzy/Flail would normally be in there but I don't know if the Frenzy/sprint stance cancel is a good idea for a beginner. Only stance is active so once under attack, the warrior can swap from Frenzy to sprint. When using flail and switching targets, sprint (or enraging charge, which is really far into Nightfall) can be used.

* You can get Remove Hex from http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Helping_the_Dwarves in the Northern Shiverpeaks, which is less useful than Holy Veil , Smite Hex, or Cure Hex because it doesn't do anything other than remove a hex. There's not very many hexes worth removing in the beginning of prophecies other than Empathy , Faintheartedness, Ice Spikes, and Imagined Burden so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Axe is the strongest template without elites, because you get reliable deep wound for cheap (5 adrenaline) and the knockdown from hammers isn't that great in the beginning due to lack of elites (so you might as well use Shock, but you can't because you're W/Mo). In the same time, you would've spent 4 adrenaline to sever artery , 1 to use it = 5 adrenaline. Gash takes 6 adrenaline so it's 7 effectively after spending 1 strike on Sever artery. Under FGJ (For Great Justice) it's about 4 seconds of attacking to get 5 adrenaline; if on Frenzy : only 3 seconds.

Axe also has Disrupting Chop which can be bought from http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Taltosh. Sword doesn't get any interrupts until http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Royal_Papers, or LA if you go to http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Michiko.

If you search the wiki for "[profession] skills," you get a list of all that profession's skills, their properties, associated campaigns, and a little "!" symbol if they can be acquired via a quest. No "!" means you just buy it.

Elite skills can only be captured from the bosses who use them. You must travel to the boss with a Signet of Capture on your skill bar, defeat the boss, use the signet, and select the skill. CapSigs can be obtained at skill trainers once you get far enough into the game. In each campaign, there's also a quest line that gives you one or two.

Once again, in Prophecies, the first elite skills are in the Crystal Desert (and for both Warrior and Monk, they're some of the best to have ).

Some of the elites can be pretty far off the beaten path. I don't recall if you're in exploration mode and thus avoiding the wiki, but it's a great place to look when you really get into making builds (for which you'll want to find just the right elite).

However, for Prophecies, the Monk's Word of Healing will take you through the whole game, and Warrior's Endurance will be a good staple for certain builds all throughout the game. Of course, Warriors also get a couple other good ones like Earth Shaker (for hammer) and Hundred Blades (for sword) veeeeery late in the game.

Oh, last thing: in general, elite skills are what drive your build. Sometimes they're very unique and powerful, sometimes they're just a much stronger version of a basic skill, but once you start getting to where you have elites available, you will always want one on your bar. In fact, many builds are characterized by their elite skill: a "Barrage Ranger", a "Hundred Blades Warrior", and so on.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to look at page 3 before responding. Hope this isn't a waste of your time >_<.

Awesome info, folks. Many thanks, we're learning a lot in the process. We're busy professionals IRL so we only get a couple of hours a night to play and we're slow going (just hit L11 tonight). We feel like we're finally able to tackle the biggest challenges thrown at us, but it takes everything we've got, which we both like a lot. The game seems to be one where tactical decisions make a difference (i.e., it's not just button mashing in place).

Lots of great info here, I will follow up on the links and research some of these questions.

I noticed the difference with Restore Life the first time I used it and got pulled to the corpse. Yikes. Tradeoffs everywhere.

As I stated earlier, we are patient but we are also ambitious. We have spent an awful long time in this area and would like to see some more variety in mobs and scenery (if I ever see another scorpion emerge from out of the earth it will be too soon), so we're considering moving on to Factions or Nightfall after we hit Lion's Arch. We also bought EoTN, but I'm not sure how that plays into any of this just yet.

Summer is going to want to change her secondary, too. Honestly, I'm not even using mine anymore, I have all my points in Healing Spirits and Smiting, with leftovers in Divine Favor. I do use the glyph I got with my Elementalist secondar, it's nice to be able to hit it and then do two Heal Parties. But other than that, I wouldn't know I was an Elementalist at all.

It looks like we have a *long* way to go in this game before burning out, I'm amazed at how much content appears ahead and how fun the combat is. I can see why the game has endured for so long. We originally bought it after seeing a video about GW2 and thought it would be fun to give it a try. I have resisted asking the obviously unanswerable question of when GW2 is coming out, but I get the feeling it's long enough away that we will be plenty busy playing this through until that comes out. Fun stuff.

Winter Omen & Summer Wrath

If you guys were last at Grenditch Courthouse, you'll soon be getting a scenery change. And then Lion's Arch area will provide yet another scenery change.

The fact that you're at the Courthouse makes me think you've taken some quest detours -- which is fine and part of the fun -- but if you're looking to move it along, you really only have to follow the "Primary Quests" in your log and hit the "Enter Mission" button on your party panel when in Mission Outposts -- those will progress you through the story at a decent clip without having to worry about actually moving through zones and slogging your way across the land.

That said, there are lots of benefits to taking a break and visiting other campaigns, so feel free to explore. The NPCs warn you to "finish up your important business" before switching campaigns, but you can come back and resume any time.

While North was released last, it takes place on the same continent that Prophecies does, so the storylines tie in to one another rather well. The only downside to heading to North too soon is that the content can be a little overwhelming to newbies and if you're under level 20, your attribute points will be a little wonky while there.

As for GW2, you guys have yet to even touch this, but we are going through an expansion cycle called "Beyond" right now. The Prophecies "Beyond" content, called "War in Kryta," was released last year. This year, we're in the middle of the Factions stuff called "Winds of Change." Logic indicates that there will be a Nightfall "Beyond" installment to lead into the release of GW2. Considering the rate of progression here, I personally can't foresee a release before next summer at the earliest. You've got plenty of time, IMO.

P.S.: I know what you mean about the Devourers. I started in Prophecies, too, and quickly got absolutely sick of them.

Just a few random points (forgive me if already mentioned).....

In terms of utility, max items e.g. armour/weapons are the same whether found, given by a collector or bought from an NPC. Max Obsidian armour does exactly the same as any other set. It just looks different My advice would to go for utility over appearance.

Certain towns are trade hubs where players buy and sell stuff. The current favourite is Kamadan (often referred to as Spamadan) which you do not currently have acces to and probably won't for a long time. However, Lion's Arch also attracts a reasonable amount of trading.

There are some very helpful people here and in game. The only thing I would caution against is taking too much assistance from higher-level players in game. You seem to be doing fine on your own and learning as you go. However, if you really get frustrated with a mission or quest, rather than giving up, ask for help

There's a mission later on called Thunderhead Keep that used to have a fearsome reputation. If you get stuck there, give me a call........

This is not at all unusual. Many people stress out over the choice of secondary, but it is not and should not be that important for regular play. It is meant to provide a utility skill or two that complements the main profession, as you found out with monks and Glyph of Lesser Energy. Except for specialized farming builds and such, you will almost never rely on your secondary for more than that, and there are good builds for every profession that don't use the secondary at all.

Later, when you can switch secondaries at will, you will both end up with a selection of builds using different secondaries that are useful in different situations. You will also need to be able to switch secondaries to capture elite skills for your heroes of different professions or to buy any non-elite skills that you want them to have. For example, you will have to go Mo/Me when buying or capturing skills for your mesmer heroes.

As others have said, you are on the verge of some major changes of scenery. The Shiverpeaks, where you will go next, is snowy, and other areas range from semi-tropical to deep jungle to sandy desert. I can promise you won't meet any more popup devourers for a good while, at least. Sadly, you will meet other types of popups that you will find equally annoying, or more so.

One problem though - the majority(all, I think?) of collector armors don't have insignia slots, which provide a secondary major bonus as well if you have the money.

Actually, all collector armors except for the ones that have max armor rateing have insignia slots.

Hmm, so it's a tradeoff between getting max armor or getting insignia slots? And of course the answer to "which is more important" is: "depends".

Any armor includeing max armor rateing armor made by the armor crafters will have insignia slots, it's only the max armor rateing armor gotten from collectors that don't have insignia slots.

They are only talking about "collector" armor, the armour you get from "armor crafters" (the NPCs with [armor] after their name) always has a slot for a Rune and an Insignia.
Another note about "max" armor - once you get to L.A., you can directly travel to Kaineng Center (Factions) or Boreal Station (EotN) to get max armor, or you can go to Nightfall and get max armor at Consulate Docks, after a few small quests.
Once you have max level armor, you can get many different looking armors throughout the game, but they all have the same stats.

Another thing to note. Progress through the game is done by doing "primary quests" and Missions. Any quests you have that are not listed in you quest log (L) under Primary Quests, are optional and don't progress you through the game. If you don't have a primary quest, then you probably need to do a mission.

Another note - the scenery changes many times throughout the game. The next area you will get to will be snowy and mountainous, then comes the green scenery in Kryta (L.A., etc), then more jungle-like (Maguuma), then a desert, more mountains, and then the fire islands.

Insignia slots give you more flexibility for changing armour stats, as do runes. Here is a place to start researching http://www.guildwiki.org/Armor_types

Also, I forgot to mention green items (the vast majority of which have max stats and are req 9 in a particular attribute) which can be obtained fron certain bosses. As opposed to some games where boss drops are the most sought after, in GW, a lot of green items can be picked up for virtually nothing via trading

I generally find collector armor to be more trouble than it's worth, except for the set in Pre-Searing. It can take a very long time to get all the pieces, and the most important piece generally requires trophies with a very low drop rate given to a collector in an out-of-the-way, dangerous location. This leaves you facing areas like the Diessa Lowlands wearing sub-par chest armor until you can manage to kill enough hydras to get four leathery claws. That ain't easy when your character is at a low level, in sub-par armor, working with a team of loot-grabbing henchies!

Furthermore, collector armor is usually no better than the crafter armor available in an area, and may be inferior. Corwen in Ascalon City will craft armor with ratings of 50/40/30 (heavy, medium, light), which is the same rating as armor crafted in Yak's Bend and LA. Collector armor in Ascalon has ratings of 41/31/21, so you will need to start collecting all over again in the Northern Shiverpeaks to get armor rated 47/37/27, which is still inferior to what Corwen crafts. A crafted set from Corwen is a pretty good investment, since you won't outlevel it until you're nearly to the Maguuma Jungle.

For characters made in other campaigns, you will normally want to get out of the starter armor as soon as possible (buy a set in Shing Jea or Kamadan), and then maybe buy one intermediate set (Seitung Harbor or Black Tide Den) before reaching an area where max armor is available.

saw you in game today @ yak's bend (Portable Healy Unit). Think you were AFK or had local off. Q.Q o well....

Hope everything's going well!

Hi! Yes we made it to Yak's bend after doing the mission at Nolani Academy. We updated our armor, picked up some quests and promptly went AFK. Sorry we missed you, off to bed now; will see you tomorrow

Here is my simple tips for you.
Buy a few skill caps from skill trainers. Before exploring a new area or do a mission, check on wiki to see if any bosses use an elite skill are in the area/mission your about to do. I would say just get all elite skill anyway.
If you have all campains (Nightfall, factions, Eye off the North) travel to Lions Arch and do the quest to access them. Heros will help you out a lot in this game so travel to EoN and pick 2 off them up. Also there is a quest in L.A that is for Ollias Necro hero. Once you have him, make him a Minion Master build. Can find builds for all heros on pvx.http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page.
Fastest way to get Max armour is to buy it from Kiang Centre, Factions campaign. You can buy better looking armour later in the game if so please. Also buy your self a 50+hp rune from other players for your armour. 20K is expensive for a newbie but you only need to buy it once. (best place 50hp rune on hands)
Once you have done all off the above you can continue on your main campaign with ease.

My simple follow-up tips would be:
1. Never use a wiki with the word "Wikia" in it -- those were abandoned long ago and are vulnerable to vandalism. The new PvX is www.gwpvx.com
2. If you're new, 20k for a Superior Vigor (50 HP) rune is ridiculous. Major Vigor (41 HP) for ~5k will do you fine -- you'll hardly miss the extra 9 hitpoints. If you get into farming with specialized builds and speedclears where every HP makes a difference, by then you'll be able to afford the expensive rune.
Alternatively, a poor newbie could just create a temp character in Nightfall and do a couple of quests to get a free Minor Vigor.

If you (the original poster and his wife) are going to do the campaigns in order, then just keep in mind that you won't see signets of capture (which have no attribute and will be at the bottom of a skill trainer's list of available skills) until you get to Lion's Arch (which is 2 missions and a few quests away from Yaks). Also, while you can use them to cap normal skills from a boss, the real reason to use them is for elite skills and the bosses in Prophecies won't start sporting elite skills until you get to the dessert (which is about 8 or so missions away from where you are), so I wouldn't waste limited funds on them just yet.
Heroes really are great but they are a bit limited until you can unlock some skills for them through regular play, skill quests, hero skill trainers or simply buying them.
And as noted, you want to go to the current version of PVX's site: http://www.gwpvx.com/PvX_wiki
If you keep following the story line, I wouldn't worry about vigor runes unless you take Star Jewel's advice. Superior/major vigors are overkill for the foes you're fighting, and the greater peril will help point out weaknesses in your skill bars/tactics more quickly helping you to learn the game better. Save the shortcuts for the next character you create, or if you start to get bored with the pace of the first game (which can feel a bit slow).

Good luck and have fun.

Ritchiebaxter, why the hands? I put mine on chest pieces mostly, but that's just personal preference. Except for the head piece runes I don't really think it matters where you put runes unless you will be switching armor a lot while playing, and even then it's more about personal preference and consistency for simplicities sake as far as I know.

Congrats on getting to Yaks Bend.

I would suggest at this point that you not take Multiple quests here, take a quest do it then take another.

5 years ago I came unstuck just here as I thought I would be clever and take every quest before moving on.
It wasn't pretty

I would say it's a good idea to develop a consistent pattern that allows for armor switching if you ever find a need for it. In that case, the hands are a poor choice for the vigor rune, because gloves are one of the cheapest pieces to swap. Most of my characters never need to swap anything but the headpiece with the setup I use, but some end up with spare gloves with different minor attribute runes. (Following a pattern makes it easier to keep track as you rune up different heroes, as well, since a new player can rarely afford full sets of insignia and runes at once when acquiring a new hero.)

My own pattern, for whatever it may be worth:

[Insignia] headpiece [Minor/Major/Superior attribute]
[Insignia] chest [Minor professional attribute]
[Insignia/Alt] gloves [Minor alt attribute/other]
[Insignia] pants [Best affordable Vigor]
[Insignia] boots [Vitae/attunement/other]

[Insignia] is your insignia of choice, and I won't get into the endless debate here of Survivor vs. Radiant vs. armor-enhancing. If the character is a warrior with a knockdown skill, use a Stonefist insignia on the gloves. If the character is a necromancer using corpse exploitation skills, use a Bloodstained insignia on the gloves. You only need one such insignia on a set of armor, and the gloves are the least likely place to take a hit in combat.

All characters should have a minor rune of their professional attribute [Divine Favor, Energy Storage, Fast Casting, Strength, etc.] somewhere on their armor. I usually place this on the chest. If you sometimes use a headset of this attribute, having the extra minor won't hurt anything.

Many professions have a third attribute that it is useful to boost. For example, a Domination or Illusion mesmer will always use some Inspiration Magic skills for energy management. A Marksmanship ranger will often use a Wilderness Survival skill or two. It is worth having a minor rune of this attribute somewhere, which I like to put on the gloves. If there is no third attribute you want to boost, go with a Vitae or Attunement. Or, in the case of a warrior, perhaps a Superior Absorption.

Boots are usually Vitae or Attunement. For a martial profession, a Rune of Clarity is a good alternative here, reducing the duration of Blindness.

That leaves the pants, and it just tickles me to cover my butt with a Vigor rune.

Just one man's humble opinion.

You dont use Survivor Insgnie and Radiant Insignia on your legs or chest???
Your not taking advantage off the bonus 3 energy or 15 Hp from these runes then.
Survivor Insgnie are 15 hp on chest 10 hp on legs or 5 hp anywhere else. So place them where you get the most from the rune. Thats why I have the 50hp on my chaos gloves. Survivor on legs and chest for my warrior.
My advice is good, you baddies :P

Sorry for giving wrong pvx link, its been a while ive not been to pvx.

I think you're confusing runes and insignias, here (you can have one of each on each armor piece).

Yes, for Survivor and Radiant Insignias, it matters which pieces you put them on (but it could be argued that since you get hit on your chest a lot, you might want to put a +Armor insignia there instead; that's what BrettM didn't want to get into -- I don't either).

But there is no bonus to runes, based on armor piece. The only time it matters is on heroes, whose headpiece automatically inherits +1 from the attribute rune put there. And it just makes sense for a player to put matching attribute runes on headpieces for easy switching. Other than that, the actual effects aren't impacted in any way. An attunement will give you +2 energy, no matter where. No matter where you put them, Vitae will give you +10 HP, Minor Vigor will give you +30, Major Vigor will give you +41, Superior Vigor will give you +50.

A lot of good specific data here but it's all a bit overwhelming to me and i'm having trouble getting my head around the whole conceptual framework for armor and weapon crafting. I'll probably just continue to experiment with identification, salvaging, crafting pieces of armor and, after getting some experience with the system in practice, come back here and read this thread again and I'm sure it will make sense then.

Last night after I got to Yak's End I found some armor pieces on the vendor that were an improvement over the starter junk I've been wearing. I'd accumulated a ton of salvaging materials and crafting materials, so I just started identifying things, salvaging for iron ingots and bolts of cloth (what seemed to be needed most for our two profession armors). Then I found items that, after identification, had prefixes and/or suffixes, and used my expert kit on those. I wound up with some sword hilts and pommells, and some other oddities. Not sure what to do with those now.

If I understand correctly, I'm only to use my expert salvaging kit on items that have been id'd to have prefixes or suffixes, and just use the regular salvage kit on other items, including epic purples?

How can you tell if a given piece of armor has "slots" for insignias or runes? Don't think I saw anythiing that made that obvious on the vendor items.

Also, I notice several different sets of armor for my Monk, all having the same stats and I assume these are the variations discussed that just look different. Given how much these cost, I'm hesitant to just spend and compare, I assume there's a link somewhere in the wikis for armor types so I can decided in advance. I got the standard "Monk" armor set and, frankly, don't like it. But hell if I'm going to re-buy the whole set now, I'll wait till I can get the max armor later.

Ok I have add you in my friends list and will PM you to see what help you need. Will PM you next time your on-line. Would be a refreshing change to take my head out of pvp for a change. Even after 5 yrs playing this game I am still learning little things now and again. You have a lot to learn and it may seem overwhelming at first but in time you will understand most things.

mix and dye U armor parts as U like.

Your taking the best path as in muddling through and learning by doing and inevitably making mistakes hopefully not expensive ones.

You use an Identification kit to see what the item has to offer then decide on sell, salvage, or use an expert salvage kit to get useful runes and inscriptions.

Some low level items have nothing you can extract and even an expert salvage kit will just give you materials.

When you get to the point of crafting armour or weapons they always need materials as well as cash.
If you don't consider it a spoiler you could look up what armours you could be buying and start putting the materials on one side now.

Salvage if you want to. Bear in mind merchant NPCs will buy all your loot drops (as long as it's not a quest item). They'll pay more if it's been ID'd.
Once you ID something, and you notice it has a prefix and/or a suffix, determine if you have a need for it. If your wife uses a sword, a sword pommel and hilt could be useful to her. It might be worth using an expert kit to get those off. If they're not better than what she already has on her sword, you can either sell the looted sword direct to a merchant or salvage it for materials.

You can put new upgrades right on top of existing ones to replace them.

Don't feel obligated to extract everything. With weapons, you have to determine, "Can I use this?"
With armor drops, if you see the word "Survivor," "Radiant," "Vitae," "Attunement," or "Vigor" you definitely want to expert kit those -- they're valuable for your own use and valuable when sold to a rune trader NPC.
Also pay attention to blue armor drops that have the words of the attributes you're using -- "Healing Prayers," etc.

As a general rule, if the NPC you're getting armor from has [armor] after his name and he wants cash and crafting materials for the armor, it will have slots for insignias and runes. If the NPC has [collector] after his name and he wants a number of trophy items for the armor, that armor might not have an insignia slot (it matters if it's max-level armor or not; for where you are right now, it's not max-level and thus will take both insignias and runes).

However, my advice is to only use minimal armor upgrades or none at all until you get max-level armor. If you put both an insignia and rune on non-max armor, you will probably want to pull them off and re-use them on your newer armor. There's a very good chance your armor would break while removing the first upgrade, thus destroying the second upgrade before you could get it. (Unless you got your hands on a perfect salvage kit.)
The same applies for double weapon upgrades when moving those to new weapons.

The different names of the armors just indicate different styles (and as CE Devilman demonstrated, you can mix and match styles). Different styles can also often use different materials for crafting (which you'll notice when you get into max armor); some might use cloth and linen, others might use cloth and silk, for example. Some styles are known as "elite" armor and use the more expensive materials and have a higher crafting cost.
They all act the same. It's just a matter of aesthetics. And in the case of elite armor, those can be added to one's Hall of Monuments.

A lot of people prefer the unofficial wiki for its armor galleries.