Noob being a Noob

Hello everyone, My wife and I recently purchased GW with virtually 0 prior knowledge about the game. There is a lot to learn in this game when coming over from WoW and WoW clones. I am attempting to read and learn as much as I can on my own in an attempt to avoid a bunch of http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page links. Sometimes however it is just more effective to ask a few questions.

Is there a way to command henchmen and heros to attack your target, for instance, Can I target a foe that I havent engaged yet and have my guardian henchman go in and pull instead pulling myself? I know about the hero/henchman flags that you can set out, and I also know how to mark which target i intend to attack (ctrl + Double click) any way to control them besides these?

How does armor work? I am pretty sure i need to upgrade my armor on both of my characters (because I havent at all yet...). If i go to an armor vendor and buy some armor is that armor going to have a different skin than the armor i am wearing, or is it going to be the same skin with different stats and I my armor skin doesnt change unless I obtain a different armor skin? If buying armor does change the skin is there a way to preview what the new armor will look like in game before I purchase it? I have noticed that currently I have a few different armors to chose from but they all have the same stats, so If they look different it would be nice to be able to see what they look like before I buy.

What is the best method for obtaining crafting mats? Should I go out and grind mobs and salvage for the mats or am I better off buying mats. Is there a way to obtain crafting mats besides salvageing?

My current main character is a level 11 necro in factions, I am still on the begining Island, Am i supposed to be further into the campaign at level 11 or am I going to reach level 20 really early in the campaign and play out the rest of the campaign at max level? Along with this, I can already tell that I am going to have a hard time finding direction at max level. Besides questing, what else should I start working on when I get to level 20? My main goals with the game is to work on HoM but i also just want to enjoy everyhting the game has to offer content wise aswell.

I have more questions but have run out of time. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer me. I will be posting more questions when i have more time.

Ctrl+space works better, usually - more convenient, harder to missclick.
Answering your question - nope, no way to make your henchman attack before you engage the group. You can make your hero use skill X on target Y, even when outside the aggro range, though. Just click that small gray number by your hero's health bar to get their skillbar up, target an enemy (shift+click makes you target without moving towards them) and then left click a skill on the hero's bar. The hero has to be quite close to the target, but should work outside the aggro range, too.

Though the best way to drag mobs is to get a longbow/flatbow, flag your heroes somewhere, use the bow to attack a monster from outside the aggro range and quickly run behind your heroes. You can change your weapon freely, any time, and you can set up to four weapon sets for quick access. Pulling is a very important part of the game, especially in the hard mode and the elite areas, and using a bow for it is usually prefered, so it's good to start doing so early on, learning how to pull correctly.

About the levels and 'what to do' question - it's possible to reach level 20 on the noob island in Factions, and it's completely fine to do so. To say more, there's a title for reaching lvl 20 before leaving the pre-searing in Prophecies, Legendary Defender of Ascalon (LDoA), which is even more of a tutorial area than the Factions' noob island. Actually, it's lvl 20 + all attributes (mind it, there are two quests that yield extra attribute points, check the wiki) when the real fun starts.
The game, PvE- and story-wise, revolves around missions. Quests are, usually, optional, besides some main quests that lead to the next mission. Every campaign has a number of missions, and once you have beaten a campaign, you can travel to another with your character (you can travel earlier, of course, but i find it more enjoyable to focus on one campaign at a time), and play through it. Then, after beating a particular campaign, every of your lvl 20 characters get access to the hard mode, or HM. That's a harder mode of missions you played, plus you can vanquish the explorable areas.
After playing through the story-mode in the normal mode, or NM, you should focus either on getting titles (for HoM, as well), or go to PvP. If you want to work on your HoM, then work on your titles after beating the story of the whole game. When it comes to getting the most out of HoM and making decisions as a new player, i've just written a post about it, so feel encouraged to take a look here.

Crafting mats - well, basically, i wouldn't bother about it right now. There's plenty of collector armour - NPCs will give you pieces of armour in exchange for some trophy items that drop from monsters from time to time. You might want/need to farm them a bit (keep in mind that taking less henchmen/heroes in your party makes it more possible to get a drop, in general, so either try to go solo and kill some mobs or go in a duo with your wife; level difference does NOT matter, as opposed to other MMOs).
If you really want/need to get some crafting mats, just purchase a normal salvage kit (the one with 25 uses) and salvage white items. It's not really worth it in the beginning, though, as the amount of mats you get from salvaging is directly related to the merching price of that item - so if you get a non-max, lowball shield from a starting area, that's worth 10g when selling to merchant (or, merching), you might get just two-three pieces of wood/iron from it.
Once you reach Kaineng Center (and it's best to run up there as soon as you get to the Marketplace), you can craft your first max armour there (armor rate 60 in case of necros). It's 1k + mats per piece, and it might be better to just buy the required mats from the material trader, also found in Kaineng.

In regard to armour...
First of all, a particular piece of armour protects a particular part of the body. There's a higher chance of getting hit in the torso, whilst getting hit in the head is relatively less likely (specific probabilities are somewhere on the wiki). So when monster X hits you, the game calculates where you get hit first. If it's torso, then the game checks what kind of armour you have there (or - what rating it has, 60 being max for caster classes).
That said, there are lots of armour 'types' for a given profession in the game, but really the only thing that matters is the rating.
Take a look here. Shing Jea, Canthan, Tyrian - whatever you choose, it's just the looks, as long as you craft the max rated one. You can mix the armours, eg. get the top part from Shing Jea, the bottom part from Tyrian, the gloves from Canthan, etc. Armour has NO stats, as in other games, besides the armour rating, which is also reflected by the cost (max normal armour is always 1k + mats per piece).
Now, there is something as normal and prestigious armour. Again, there's NO difference in their funcionality (prestigious armour comes ONLY with max rating, whilst normal can usually be crafted early on, not max). The prestigious - or elite - armour se can be added to your HoM for points (you DON'T need a headpiece to add any set to HoM).


If you have any questions, even detailed or silly, feel always free to PM me over Guru, and if you happen to catch me in game (Dimir Acolyte - hit N, add me there and take a look one in a while), i'll be happy to help you if you encounter any trouble in-game.

spamming ctrl+space usually works for me, its like holding your fingers for luck or something

add me (Holy Sirona) in-game and i will answer any questions you might have during the game & help ya a bit

oh and Welcome!

Plenty of good answers above to guide you along the way.

Just to add my 2 cents...if its a proph char you will not have a bag ful of cash to buy as it has the lowest in drops and gold as you go through it but.

Once you get to the desert go for the collectors as its maximum armour may I point out that there is no such thing as best armour e.g an armour peice costing 100k is the same as a max armour peice costing 2k a peice ...its purely cosmetic . So once you have max armour then save up for the one you like as the stats are the same on both peices.

if your in factions and at Kiang center look at above post for collectors also then just farm the peices around there and also up past the Bazzar as you will have quests that take you to the top end of there.

AS with any island that is a learning curve for you once you reach the Mainland the game will open up and your party goes up to 8
Level 20 is the cap so dont be put of by that as..the level of gameplay gets harder as you progress through the game.its just the begining being level 20
As your a wow player its not all about gear its about synergy with your team
so your skills are the important factor to contribute to completing a mission with the party you are in.

You will notice this once you are on the mainland so for the moment learing the team composition /skills ect will help you once you cross over to mainland

Besides CTRL-double-click, there is also CTRL-space and CTRL-skill to target a foe. But, as far as targeting a hero to a specific foe is concerned, I think that can only be done with pets.

In the early stages of the game there are progressive levels of armor until you reach the max for your class. There are several styles of this progressive armor and you can either keep the same style or change style whenever you upgrade. I recommend you upgrade your armor whenever you can until you get max level - after that it's just cosmetic. You can get max level armor in Kaineng Center, when you get there.
There are also many sets of 'elite' armor you can get later, which are all max level.
There is no in-game way to see what the armor will look like, but the wikis have lots of pictures.
For example: http://www.guildwiki.org/Elementalist_armor
which is a sub-page of: http://www.guildwiki.org/Armor_types
(Note that there are 2 wikis available)

I'd say it's a combination of salvaging and buying. Salvage the items you pick up for the mats you need (you can look up what an item salvage into on the wikis and look up what mats are needed for the armor you want), but don't grind for them. There are [material trader] NPCs where you can buy the mats you need (common and rare).


No, not really. If you follow the main quest/mission chain, you will soon get off the starter island. If I recall, you should be around level 17 when you get to the mainland.

Another few (random) minor points:

Also check the wiki for better weapons for your toons. Depending on whether you and you wife bought just Factions, or the Trilogy/Complete Collection, you might have access to the some not-too-bad weapons (type /bonus in your chat box and look in your toon's backpack). If you didn't purchase the trilogy/complete collection, similar to the armor collectors there are weapons collectors who will exchange loot drops for weapons. Here is a nice general list linking to profession specific collectors for both armor and weapons. As you progress through the game, the max stats of the weapons and armor available to you will go up.

Keep an ID kit and cheap 10/25 use salvage kit on you at all times. ID all drops once the mobs hit about level 7-8, even the whites (tho there are some who may disagree if this is a good point to start :P). IDing increases the sell price a bit or a lot when selling loot to the merchant. Blue/purple and the rare gold drops should always be ID'ed since they can have hidden mods that you can salvage off (with an expert or superior salvage kit). Salvaged runes/insignias/mods from armor and weapon drops can be put onto your own armor/weapons.

You have likely already learned about attribute points. Keep an eye out since while still on Shing Jea, there are two side-quests available to you which reward you with add'l attribute points. The add'l attribute points will help later when putting together skill bars for your toon

This might be something you've also discovered, but don't turn down the opportunity to get access to that nifty Xunlai Box. There is a pane in it specifically for crafting materials, which gives you a handy spot to dump them so they don't take up room in your bags. Also handy to save them in case you need them for flashier armor later on.

As others have said, reaching level 20 is really just the beginning in GW. But getting there is also very fun

EDIT: Whups, BrettM is absolutely right regarding the collector armor. Didn't realize until just now looking back at my post. Since you are starting in Factions, you have armor crafters right in Shing Jea and surrounding outposts who can craft you armor without the limitations of the collector stuff. There are also material traders who can sell you the very small amounts of materials needed for that armor.

EIDT #2: Also, when you are ready to level up that armor, you will need a perfect salvage kit if you wish to save any runes/insignia you may have put on it. Just like loot drops, there is a __ % chance you will break/destroy the armor when salvaging with an expert or sup kit. However, until you reach the mainland, it's entirely possible to go around un-runed, which saves the trouble of salvaging mods. Once you reach Kaineng Center however, you WILL want to get that max armor.

You can lock a hero to a specific foe with the 'crosshair' button on their mini skill bar, left of their skills.

Regarding armor, I'm going to go contrary to some of the advice above and recommend that you do NOT bother with collector armor (except maybe for the first set for a character in Pre-Searing).

Why? Two reasons.

1. It can take forever for a new player working in a party to get the trophies that the armor collectors will want. This is especially true for the most important piece (chest), which means you are in less-effective armor while taking on the tougher foes in the area to get their trophies, and the collector is in an out-of-the-way location making it a tough fight to get to him. It just isn't worth the effort.

For a Factions character, I get out of the starter armor ASAP using the crafter in the Monastery. I get upgraded armor in Seitung Harbor, then max armor when I get to Kaineng City.

In Nightfall, get your first upgrade in Kamadan, the second in Blacktide Den, and the final when you reach Consulate Docks.

In Prophecies, get a set from Corwen (not Benoit) in Ascalon City, which will last you all the way to Lion's Arch. Corwen's armor is the same level you can get from the crafter in Yak's Bend, and better than what the collectors can provide. At LA you can travel to another campaign to get maximum armor before continuing.

2. Max collector armor does not have insignia slots, meaning that you can't upgrade it. A set of max non-elite armor is a better choice and is not that expensive. Believe me, unless you are a maniac for spending money, you will easily have the cash and materials for it by the time you get to a location where you can have a set crafted.

Don't even worry much about the skin at that point, unless you have a choice between crafters. Just get in max armor and then worry about collecting the cash and materials for the set you really LIKE.

Awesome, thanks for all the help with the armor guys, That pretty much answered all of my questions in that regard, now the wife and I just need to execute and get us some armor.

one question, Is anything bound to characters or accounts in this game, Can i buy gear for my other characters and give it them through my xunlai box? for isntance my wife and I do have the bonus items from the complete collection but she only got a hammer for her warior, she isnt to keen on her hammer skills at this point, she would like to have a sword or axe instead, but nothing very good has dropped yet, can I use my factions currency to buy an axe or sword on my necro and get it to my monk though my xunlai box and then trade it to her warrior?

It depends... if the item is customized then you cant do this as the receiver will not be able to use it. Crafted armor and bonus weapons are always customized!

But you can do this with everything else (if it is not customized)

There are some items which are bound to your character in one way or another, and that's called customized items. Normally you can still trade these items but you can't use them.
Customized items can't be used by other characters on the same account. There used to be accountbased items as well (zaishen coins), I can't think of one that's still in the game though. So to answer your question: Yes it is very possible if the weapon isn't customized by default.

You can buy weapons but not armor for your alts.

Collector weapons and weapons created by weaponsmiths are not automatically customized, so yes you can have your necro pick up a sword or axe for your wife and trade it to her. If both your necro and her warrior have access to the same towns in the same campaign, it's not necessary to put it in storage to have your monk trade with her. Otherwise, also yes, you can put it in the xbox and have a diff toon pick it up for trade.

You didn't mention what campaign/level your wife's warrior is, but unless she is much farther behind than your toon(s), chances are she can get to weapon crafters/collectors herself to get a sword/hammer as well.

And one note regarding customized weapons -- weapons that are customized to a specific toon can't be used by other toons on your account, but they CAN be used by that toon's heroes. If your necro gets a warrior hero, you can use the /bonus weapons to equip him/her.

Hope this helps!

11 necro (factions) and 5 monk (prophecies) for me a 5 warrior (prophecies) for my wife so far... we are truly just getting started.

Edit: names are gras hopa mnky bzns and julie beast we always accept small in game donations to help us get started

Edit: also we are getting to the point where we are going to start looking for a guild. We like to play in the evenings usually 7-10(or 11) central US time. We were accomplished raiders in WoW (not because of our gear but because of our study habits in learning our class and the raid encounters), obviously we are a bit behind the curve here but we will get this game figured out in no time and hope to be able to contribute asap. We are very laid back and like to joke around, I myself have a very subtle sense of humor that sometimes gets mistaken for seriousness... but once you get to know me im hilariouse hehe. I think our main thing though is that we are looking for a guild that intends to move on to GW2 upon release. (not necessarily leaving GW1 but has plans to establish in GW2). If anyone of you know of any good guilds let me know :-D

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I saw that I had a ton of skills to acquire at the skill trainer on my necro, can a lot of those be obtained through quests somewhere that maybe i missed or am i going to have to buy them all? I know I got most of my monk skills so far through quests.

I know where to find skills on GW wiki i can probably look there to figure out if any of the skills at the trainer are available though other means.

If your heroes are on guard, or you have henchmen, just get your agro bubble as close to the target as possible and hit CTRL+SHIFT+spacebar. That will call the target without you doing anything and your heros/henchmen will start attacking if you are close enough to the enemy.

Prophecies has quite a number of quests that have skill rewards. Factions and Nightfall do not, but instead give higher XP and other rewards (cash and trade tokens, such as Monastery Credits). So you will end up buying more skills than you would in Prophecies, but will have extra cash and skill points to help you do so. Nightfall and EotN also offer hero skill points that can be used to obtain free skills that both you and your heroes will be able to use.

Looking up the skill on the wiki is the way to go. Then you can find out if you must buy or if there are alternatives for that particular skill.

There's an entire section dedicated to it: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/c...ions-f263.html

I personally play very casually these days so I just have my private guild to prevent guildrecruitment spam.

Prophesis gives you a lot of skills through quests, the other campaigns don't. It might be a good idea to unlock skills using balthazarfactions so you get access to skills at pve skilltrainers if you like some type of pvp/farm zaishen elite every day. Read more: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Unlock & http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Team_-_Ba...aishen_Trapper

1. Armor is bound to the character it's made for.

2. If you customize weapons, they are thereafter bound to that character (plus that character's heroes). As a general rule of thumb, you probably should be customizing martial weapons, since the 15% damage bonus matters for those. Staves and wands, not so much.

3. Pre-order items that can be created with the /bonus command are pre-customized. See #2 above. However, you can create an infinite number of these on every character on your account, so it's not much of a problem.

4. Bonus Mission Pack (BMP) reward items are pre-customized for the character who gets them. See #2 above. However, you may do the BMP missions an infinite number of times using any character on your account.

5. Storybook items are bound to the character who they are created for. However, you can create infinite storybook items for every character.

6. Minipets can be "dedicated" at the hall of monuments. Once dedicated, they are sort-of bound to your account: You still trade it to someone else, but that minipet can never be dedicated by someone else.