Long Absent Player Returning

I played Guild Was a long long time ago at launch, and recently got the Trilogy cheap on Steam in a recent sell. Having finally grown sick of World of Warcraft, I've been looking around for something to play, when I realized I had this sitting on my hard drive, completely forgotten.

I've been reading up on Guild Wars 2, and it looks epic. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how best to come back and enjoy the original as I wait for the game to come out. I've been doing some lurking and as near as I can tell, I haven't seen much in the way of New Player advice.

So here I am, wondering what I should do. I'm thinking of staring with a Warrior. I've seen details on the Legendary Defender of Ascalon title and wondering if I should go for it, or just play the game for enjoyment and not titles and stuff (that behavior is what got me sick of WoW).

Heck, I'm not even sure which expansion to start in. I'm kind of mucking about in Prophecies, if for no other reason than because it came first. Anyone have any sage wisdom for someone so long removed from the game they might as well have never played before?

This might be the single most important, or dumbest, idea to tell you:

- Play the game the way you want to play it. Don't ask for our opinions and don't look to other sites for what is in and what isn't. Pick a class, try it out, see how far you go and if you got a winner, do everything in your power to complete titles, earn special items/weapons and, again, everything you possibly can do.

Once you've done everything you possibly can, then ask others for new ideas on builds, skill combination, elite areas and the gritty crazy stuff. After all, if you're not having fun, what the hell are you doing then?

Concise Description: Don't ask how to play the game, decide yourself how you want to play.

If you're so far removed.. Maybe just start and experience it from the beginning? Create a new character and play through the campaigns. Once you've done that, hit HM and start seeing what all you can do. By that point you should have a lot more experience anyways.

In the meantime, browsing the wiki and guru can give you a rather good education on the game.

I think the others have the principal of what we offer in advice.
You have multiple character slots--create a bunch of character, from different chapters, just play dont worry about titles or anything until you get the hang of it and decide which characters you want to play (I have one of each).
You can always delete characters and try new ones--there is no wrong way to play....just have fun and worry about builds etc much later

oh yeah--and welcome back.

To be honest, just go through and complete the campaigns first. Get your character to max level (pick a profession that you enjoy playing, so this may require a few runs through to level 20, try using a PVP character on Isle of The Nameless to do this) and then go do a few different things and find something you enjoy, for example, I enjoy FoW, FA and JQ.

Basically get your character to the best it can be for whatever you think is fun to do in the game and do that.


Welcome back

So basically, stop worrying and just do it?

Alright, will do.

Somewhere throughout the years people have forgotten what video games are about, obscured by overwhelming competitiveness by players who need to prove their better than other people through a miniscule part of reality. There's no rat race in this game other than the one people create themselves in their own mind. Take your time, have fun, don't drain yourself of all will to play this game by grinding titles for days upon days. Just have fun.

Well said, sir. Well said.

The nice thing about a lot of the Guild Wars title tracks is that they progress naturally by just playing the game. If you're essentially starting from scratch, I think Legendary Defender of Ascalon would be really boring for you -- you'd be stuck in the tutorial area for a long time, and a good portion of the rest of the campaign will be of little challenge because you'll be accessing stuff meant for lowbies at level 20. Now, while it can be nice to breeze through that content quickly at level 20, that's really something better suited to one who's done it all before and just wants to blow through.

Take your time and enjoy it.

Your titles contribute to your Hall of Monuments across all characters. So you don't have to feel obligated to accomplish everything on just one (though there are some multi-track statues, they are few) to accumulate your GW2 rewards.

I love this little paragraph so much that I just had to quote it.

It seems all too often that many people approach a game like they would a second job. They do little other than monotonous farming day after day, or grind day after day seeking a title that actually does very little. (It is true that some titles give you buffs in certain areas and perhaps those titles are worth it, but the others are really just bragging rights.) For the farmers, success is nothing short of stacks of ectos or armbraces.

But in the big scheme of things, these are meaningless and putting such extreme effort into the real world would net better profits.

Anyway, I want to echo that GW is a really awesome game. Fun to play, the community is usually pretty nice. Just remember to chuckle at the morons, but you can probably do that from your years playing WoW. I took a break and played Rift for 6 months only to come back to GW because, despite its age, it's a better game.

Good luck and enjoy yourself. I actually miss being new and being wowed by the entire GW experience.