Brand new player

Heya. My aunt, for some obscure reason, bought me guild wars trilogy for christmas. I an not new to MMO's in general, but GW has a lot of systems that I've not really come across before.

Any advice for a newbie that has 0 GW experience but extensive experience with the MMORPG genre in general? So far it seems kind of lonely. I'm more used to maps being packed with players to have fun with rather than personally instanced maps for everyone

hello, welcome to the guild wars community.

if i were you, i would heavily use this site as a reference for guides: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page , you can start off by reading the game basics there.

prophecies is a really good campaign to start as a first timer to guild wars because they have a newbie friendly starter area. prophecies is a pretty huge map and takes a while to complete compared to the other campaigns.

on the other hand, starting a character in nightfall gives you access to heros. which are basically customizable npc allies. heros can be better than henchmen if they are skilled or geared properly and may help you better in some of your missions.

your best bet is to try to find a friendly guild to for help and to play with other players.

also, if you have any specific questions you come across in the game, you can use this section of the forum for questions and answers:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/q...swers-f14.html

as konshie said the best thing to do is to find a guild or some people in general that would like to play with you. the best part of mmo's is playing with other people after all

Do yourself a favor and go make a mesmer. Ele's are ok but they have problems in hmode. Necros are badazz too.

While mesmers are good, a lot of their skills require some knowledge of the game to play. Yeah, you can go straight damage, but then you're missing a lot of the mesmer's power. I personally wasn't comfortable playing a mesmer until I'd tried all the other professions to understand what I was countering with the mesmer.

Don't necessarily disregard the elementalist out of hand. Hard mode was recently tweaked and the elementalist had an overhaul.

Necros are good. No caveats, really, other than the fact that some people find certain necro builds boring to play (minion master, namely).

But with 8 character slots, you have room to try out all the professions (dumping 2 you discover you don't like). This can be a good idea anyway, since rolling through the tutorial areas of either Factions or Nightfall is relatively quick and doing so with each profession will unlock a lot of starter skills for your heroes.

Agreed with Star - Mesmer is not the best starting profession. Warrior or Ele are probably the top two of choice (since the OP is a noob, HM should not be a consideration at this point). A Dervish might also be a good choice as well.

Prophecies has the best learning curve of the three campaigns, but it will take some time before you can get the the meat of the campaigns. My advice would be to begin there and learn some of the basics in Pre-Searing with a starter character. At that point, You can create another character (preferably the same prof as the starter, except if you want Dervish), and begin in Nightfall which will give you more skills to start off with and you can begin gathering up Heroes. Unless, of course, you prefer to follow the storylines in order, then stick with Prophecies.

The tutorial island in Nightfall will move along much faster, and you will be able to unlock access to the other two campaigns quicker as a result. Once you have that done, I would take the Nightfall character back to Tyria in the Prophecies campaign and finish that one off first - with Heroes it will be a much easier experience and will allow you to prep yourself for the harder mainland areas of Cantha and Elona.

Hanok

At least cities tend to have a lot of people. However, there is a district menu in the top-left corner. Everyone is in America/English, make sure you set it to that.

Choose whatever class you think you might like. All classes are viable and can do all content, and you can do alts, of course. Ignore most of what people say about 'best' class etc.

Don't be overly concerned about your secondary class (yet). Unlike some MMOs, you're not locked in and you can change secondaries later.

The game is designed around the max party size, so, if no humans are available, fill the party with Henchmen and/or Heroes. Unfortunately, because of the current state of the game, you won't find many humans to party with in the early stages. If you tend to enjoy playing with others more than solo, find a Guild that has new players and/or people starting alts.

The storage pane will stay open, so you can view and access your storage while you talk to the merchant etc.

I'd advice you to create an alt of every profession there is and try out which one(s) you enjoy.
This is a useful resource, but just copypasting takes away the fun of buildcreation: http://www.gwpvx.com/PvX_wiki

Even though prophesis has the best learningcurve, and I think your first experience really should be pre-searing (the first area in prophesis), I also think that you really should start in nightfall once you've decided on a profession because it will give you heroes right of the bat. Heroes is basically what makes up your team since it's very dificult to find groups for regular storyplay these days.

Hey OP, I am buying this game as I type this. I would be willing to group up and knock out some stuff. I am a relatively hardcore player, have been gaming since early Ultima Online days.

I am still trying to comprehend even the basics of this game. Just SO MUCH to take in (I guess that's what years of a complex game being out does), and I think I am trying to learn things that are too advanced for what I will be doing.

Anyways, hit me up on here if you're interested.

It's good that you recognize a possible problem here. So many new players try too hard to swallow everything at one gulp. It is very easy for a new player to suffer information overload. This can become a nasty trap, leading a newbie to think he can't play properly unless he knows all this stuff.

Worse, the newbie may end up setting inappropriate goals for himself, based on trying to set a character up with certain equipment and skills appropriate to a veteran while still at a low level. This can quickly become an exercise in frustration, as the player tries to skip ahead on the learning curve and finds himself getting wiped routinely.

Don't be afraid to take it slow, and to disregard advice from well-meaning veterans on ways to accelerate your progress. Enjoy the journey, and don't try to play your first character as if it were your twenty-first. Seek information that applies to your current position in the game and the problems you are encountering, and ignore the rest. Full understanding will come with time.

Hell, I am still trying to figure out how accessing Eye of the North works (I have 3 chapters unlocked at character login, I am presuming EotN appears in-game?).

Eye of the North is an expansion only, so you can't create a character in it like you can the others. Once you reach level 10, and arrive in one of the three port towns (Lion's Arch, Kaineng Center, or Kamadon) you will see a message telling you how to travel to Eye of the North.

Oh awesome, thanks. I was worried it didn't get applied to my game.

However, just because you can travel to EotN at level 10 doesn't mean that you should. Many new players fall into that trap, often by following the well-meant advice of an experienced player, and they wind up getting their tails handed to them repeatedly.

EotN is about the hardest regular PvE content in the game, and it is advisable to finish at least one campaign before attempting it. (Going to EotN to pick up the first three heroes is not terribly difficult, but that is about the most a new player should try.) The foes there are generally in better-balanced teams than in the three campaigns, and they use skills and professions from all campaigns. Non-boss foes range in level from 20 to 28, which is something you don't see in the campaigns until quite late in the campaign.

This may be about the most common of the traps I mentioned previously. Someone may tell you to go to EotN to level faster, or to get heroes (ritualist or third necro) that you really don't need to complete any of the campaigns. In my book, this is horrid advice to give a new player.

Here's a couple of tips I can give you:

1) Guild Wars is a team-based game (except for the tutorial area in prophecies). At any point in the game you will want to be in a party (again, except for the tutorial area in prophecies). In every town and outpost there will be henchmen available that you can add to your party before you go out and kill stuff (look for characters that have green names with [... Henchmen] in it). These henchmen are just computer controlled partymembers that will follow you around.

2) It is very important that at least 1 member of your party (this can be you, another player or a henchmen) is a healer, usually the monk class fills this role. For the later areas in the game, 2 healers is the norm. This is because Guild Wars does not have traditional health potions, and you are relying on skills to heal you. Having a dedicated healer henchmen or player is a must. If you don't take a healer with you, you will die. A lot.

3) Don't bother with heroes until you are more experienced. This is a common mistake new players make because they hear "heroes are better than henchmen". Although this is true, it does not apply to new players. Heroes are only better than henchmen if you can equip them with the right skills and equipment. This is something a new player can not do. They barely have enough skills to make their own build, let alone a hero build.

4) Read what your skills do. When you go out and kill stuff you want to have your best possible combination of skills equipped. You want to have your skills working together in a good way. For example, as an elementalist there is a skill that causes your foes to start burning. There is also a skill that gives you extra energy if it hits a burning foe. Obviously, using these skills together is a good thing.

5) If you ever find yourself stuck on what to do next or where to go, check out http://wiki.guildwars.com/. They have information about pretty much everything in the game (including storyline, quests and guides).

6) Find other (experienced) players or a nice guild. Other players can help you out a lot. Just make sure they don't run you through the entire game on their level 20 characters+heroes, because that would just be boring.

7) Just take things slow and enjoy the game. I can't emphasize this enough. There is no need for you to rush through the campaigns. Play at a pace you are comfortable with and have fun!

I'm pretty new myself, but I have found my Rngr/Elm has a nice combination of Toughness and Firepower, but I also find I all but Iggy the Ranger skills; she's basically a more heavily armored Elm. My W/Monk is good and tough, but the NPC elm does not add the fire power to the team a PC Elm would and its alot harder slog through any given mission and Quest with that Toon, Get one Toon to Yaks Bend as soon as possible, soon as you have a Lev 10+ Avatar; the Drops go way up and Farming is much more profitable.

Don't play ele it gets really boring lol... Do assasin they're fun as hell in PvE. I would first you suggest you dick around in the Random Areana and make a PvP character. That's what I did

Definitely read through the links already provided.

Otherwise a couple of general tidbits of advice (beyond finding the best builds, anyone can find those):

1. Game Mechanics/Behavior

There are basic game mechanics and general monster behavior that you need to grasp that will be critical to keep you interested (and alive) in this game as you advance into the later parts of each campaign.

Pulling

How to pull is one of the most basic things every player needs to know if you plan on not dieing over and over again. Pulling allows you to fight smaller, more maneagable groups of enemies. Use a flatbow to pull, it's high arc (and long distance) allows you more time to retreat before the mob you pulled comes into range.

I've played with a lot of folks who, at the first sign of a red dot on the map, charges. Doesn't matter if there's 1 red dot, 5 red dot or 30 red dots...they charge...and die.

Targeting

Who to focus attack on first is another basic thing that you should know.

While it's not true in all cases, general rule is you knock out your enemies healers first (obviously because they will keep everyone else you are trying to kill alive), then the elementatlists (since they can do large amounts of damage to multiple targets), then the necros (especially if they can summon minions), then mesmers, then the melee combatants (fighters, dervs, rangers, etc). Natural instinct (not to mention immediate alt-tabbing) is to attack those that attack you (i.e. opposing fighters). Need to break that instinct or you'll find that you are constantly dieing.

You'll also notice that general tendency is for your enemy to attack your healers first as well, followed by spell casters, then melee. Same principle as who you should attack first.

Flagging/Spacing

Where to be and not be is another one of the most basic basics that way too many people ignore. Especially if you are playing with just heroes and henchmen knowing how to flag your party will be critical. Natural instincts/behavior is to bunch together and, that's exactly what your heroes and henchies will do by default. What that does is allow opposing spell casters to get at multiple members of your party and, even if you have great healers, put an extreme amount of pressure for them to heal everyone (while trying to keep themselvse alive...see previous section about opponent target preference). What you'll also start noticing is that enemies will be less prone to cast heavy damage area of effect spells against you if your party is spaced apart...which in turn minimizes one of the bigger advantages they have over you.

Moving

As far as yourself goes, DO NOT stand around and take damage if you can move. This is especially so for backend spell casters who can't absorb a lot of damage. Don't know how many times I've played with folks (casters) who stand inside a firestorm taking damage even when it's obvious that it's falling right on you (flames and bright lights and red numbers with minus signs popping up are indicators) when all it takes is for you to move your character out of it. Even warriors and dervs whose jobs are to wade into battle and try to absorb damage/block melee enemies from getting to your casters can move to avoid damage (harder since your primary job is still to prevent opposing melee-ers from passing easily...but it's a skill that can be learned).

2. You the Player

As mentioned, new players should definitely try out all the classes and figure out which one you think you'd really like to play. Once you decide, your next immediate task is to really, really figure out how to play the class you chose.

So if you're a ranger, for example, know what the benefits and drawbacks of each of the different types of bows are (they are different and do matter), how to "pull like a pro", how to set traps (timing, position, etc) and where your tactical advantages are. Obviously along with that is learning your skills and which ones make sense and doesn't make sense with what you want to do and each other (as well as with the makeup of your party).

Some classes require more skill to play than others but in the end, whatever you choose, learn it and be it.

One thing that new players seem to like to do that is generally not a good idea and really more reserved to very specific advanced builds and/or experienced players (who still would mostly avoid it) is to try to play something other than what they are. By that I mean, folks that come from the fantasy world, or from another game where such things are prevalent envisioning that they're going to be "Warrior Mages", "Illusionist Assassins", or some other sort of all encompassing "do all" player. That...well...doesn't work in this game...well you'd be allowed to do it, but you'll find yourself lagging behind in productivity and usefulness to others who are actually focusing on doing what's best for the class they choose.

Secondary classes really are exactly that...secondary. For the most part it's to allow you access to maybe one or two skills that might be needed situationally but in the end your skill bar should be loaded with skills for your primary class. You'll see some campaign skills that are class independent (like the EOTN racial skills, Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support is a good example) that a lot of people use regularly but other than that stick to skills that belong to your primary class.

If you're a fighter, you should be doing that...fighting...not spell casting, not shooting bows, not trying to do cutsey things. If you're an elementalist then you're job is to blow things up, not to wade into battle hoping that while you're hacking opponents to peices you're also calling down the wrath of god upon your enemies. Doesn't mean you can't have a spell or two if you're a melee type, but rather if you are a melee type you shouldn't be mostly casting spells.

I don't know how many times I've tried to help strangers (new players) out and see them using weapons that they shouldn't be using and not doing things that they should be doing. The most memorable is an elementalist I was helping who was weilding an axe (he didn't even have a shield mind you). When I pointed it out to him/her and even offered them a staff, he said "no, I'm good". And what do you think happened at the first combat? Yep, he charged in and, before he can really do anything with any spell, the enemy killed him.

Funny yes, but again, highlights the reality of this game. Focus on what your chosen class does best. Learn it. Be it. If you like wading into battle, then you are a fighter (so pick one of the fighter classes..Warrior, Dervish)...not an elementalist (or mesmer or rit, etc). If you hate invading peoples personal space then you are not a fighter, you're something else. If you're the helpful type then maybe a monk or a para is best for you. For anyone that wants to play with others in a group instead of doing it on your own, this bit of advice is even more crucial, people will not want to play with folks that are obviously not going to help them.

Otherwise, take your time, don't get too fancy, learn everything you can and have fun.

PS: It's a real good idea to find a guild that has folks that are patient and willing to work with you and train you. Not all guilds are like that. In fact with all the little emo, self grandizing, underagers that are found in packs in most guilds finding a guild that is mature and have folks that have the patience to help is not an easy task. If you want, feel free to whisp me in game if you need help or if you need a guild. Mine isn't a big one but the folks are all down to earth and helpful.