New Player : Crystal Desert

So, I'm new to guild wars. Started playing a few weeks ago, figuring I would try to learn about the history before playing GW2, and unlocking the hall of monuments stuff (at least what I could manage). So I started playing, and read about getting the monuments, so I decided to do the LDOA thing, which wasn't that bad with the new changes.

I felt odd about buying skill unlocks, so I decided to just create 3 chars to unlock them. A Wa/Mo, R/N, and El/Me. In Pre the ranger was awesome, the warrior was total balls, and the elem was decent. So anyway, I get out of pre, I start questing (the Ranger being my "main" as I liked it a lot then), so I crank through with all of them to Lion's Gate, then I turn them into Merc Heros, and start with my Ranger.

My theory was, I was trying to play through things in order, so I was staying in Tyria (less to digest that way also). So the first areas were pretty trivial (no surprise). A few things were annoying, but for the most part I was having a ton of fun.

Up until I hit the crystal desert. I made it through with the ranger, though it was really a horrible experience and I didn't have fun. Then I started with the warrior (which got a lot better out of pre) and it was also ok. Finally I got the Ele there, and it's just a nightmare. I regularly get 2-shot by hydra, even though I've geared for HP. I get swarmed by everything. I can't keep enchants up because every spawn has 3-5 jade scarabs casting chilblains simultaneously. All and all, probably the worst experience I've had in a game, ever.

So, that's fine. I'm not ripping on GW. It is what it is. My question is this, "Is the rest of the game like this desert?" Because if so, I'm just going to cut my losses and read a synopsis or something.

Again, not ranting against GW. I'm just looking for a someone who's played through the rest to comment on how the PvE experience stacks up in the future campaigns vs the encounters present in the Crystal Desert.

Thanks,

PM.

Edit: For clarification I guess, it's not that it's difficult, it's that it's tedious. Horribly, horribly tedious. Until you can unlock the map points, it's seriously like 2 hours to get from point A to point B. It's the same brown nothing fighting the same mobs who either do AE knockdown or AE purges; combined with every square foot of the map being trapped by some devourer, and any attempt at speeding that up results in death. So you have to set up a pull, and micromanage your guys so they don't run in circles, and it's like running an 40-man raid, except to do the most trivial of tasks. And at the end, you got no loot, because you had to bring a full party to be able to make it. It just ends up you have to kill 6x the monsters, for 1/6th the reward, and then you walk into town, the guy gives you a quest to go to the other side of the zone you just had to murder a few thousand creatures for, and they're all back.

Edit 2: It's not the missions either. I thought the missions were cool. I especially like the timed one where you have to beat the teams.

My first toon was an elementalist. She is my main and the only toon I actually play (the others are mules/for festival quests).

I also started in Prophecies like you, though I actually did buy the skill packs - and I can tell you with complete sincerity: the crystal desert nearly made me quit playing.

I had finally gotten over my shock & horror over what post-searing looked like... had had this nice jaunt through beautiful Kryta...and then *wham* I hit the desert. I HATE THAT PLACE TO THIS DAY!!!

I ended up taking the advice of several people here on Guru, hopping over to Nightfall & EotN to snag a set of heroes, and then I closed my eyes and pushed myself through the desert as fast as I possibly could.

Even now, a year+ later, with a toon I know how to play very well and a familiarity with my heroes that makes most areas fairly easy... I have been dragging my feet about vanquishing the desert areas for my HoM titles. It's no longer a matter of worrying I'll die (I won't, and I've finished Survivor anyway so it doesn't matter)... I just can't stand the scenery/atmosphere/appearance of the foes. It's boring. It's yuck. It's ugly. It's tedious. It's all those things and more.

I promise though - the rest of the world isn't like that. You have so many awesome "firsts" ahead of you... don't give up. Heck, if you need to, just find someone who can run you between the desert outposts and get your missions out of the way ASAP & move on. But don't give up... the game (and the environments you'll find along your journeys) is worth sticking around for.

Whew. Ok, Thanks for the reassurance!

I was really having a lot of fun, and the missions were great. But the desert was just killing me.

For what it's worth, you don't actually need three characters to unlock skills. You can change your secondary. So you might consider just picking the one you like best out of your warrior, ranger, and ele, and just going with that.

The Crystal Desert has been a sticking point for a lot of people. Many quit there. And if you're playing for lore, you're kind of supposed to go through hell on earth there -- the bleached bones scattered around talk about 'never should have come here, turn back if you're wise'.

Gizzy is right, though -- heroes make it all a lot easier. And if you take a look at the map of the desert on the wiki, you can unlock convenient outposts while you're in the area, so you can reach any quests that send you back that way easier.

I afked and got a guildy to run me through all the desert bits.

Laziness pays.

But yeah, it does suck, the rest of the game(s) isn't so bad though.

if you need help (i needed plenty back then, even in NM.... normal mode) just look at the forums at the section where you can ask for help, and do so

thing is, heroes became needed, because lots of people have done most or even all stuff there is in GW, so you cant ask much help ingame
which leaves you with either forums (i only use guru and GW online/incgamer forums) to ask help from, or heroes (and the fact that you need good/decent builds)

for when you get heroes, if you like more help, go to pvxwiki to get player made builds for heroes, as most will work even if you dont use the recommended player builds (so use your own builds)

i cant say much about the desert, as i always needed help due to some handicaps, but i heard that most people do vanquishes just fine, but have lots of troubles with the desert... troubles or just requires lots of time

so the desert is, especially for new people, a nightmare at some/most points
its not just you, i heard from many people they had most troubles there

and as i said: the community is smaller compared to the prophecies days, so heroes can do much better, so everyone uses em nowadays

sigh.... good old times where i did need help alot, but still we worked together.... *dreambubble bursts*
anyway, good luck

also: i may not be able to help with everything, but i know the basics of both the game and heroes, so if you wanna ask about Normal Mode, you can do so.... Hard Mode is different, lol

but i think there's a section on the forums which allows you to ask for strategies (not for builds, so dont ask on the forums)

and of course: read the rules, as all forums are different

EDIT for important thing: welcome to the community and the game

The Desert is actually not that bad. The problem is actually in the difficulty change between Kryta and the Desert. You could complete the Krytan and Maguuman missions with nearly anything, and the monsters in explorables weren't that much of a pain, maybe except for the Wind Riders and, of course, Verata. As long as you took Alesia and didn't aggro more than a group at once, everything worked there.

It's not really true for the Desert.
It's the time you have to learn the tricks and the team's composition, sometimes the hard way.

First off, equipment.
Be sure to always have the top available armor rating. The skin doesn't matter, and the armor doesn't have to be elite. Since you have EotN, you can travel from LA to EotN and get max armor at the Boreal Station.
Unless you get some breakpoints, or you need to maximise your farming potential, or you're running a minion master, never use runes adding +3 to attributes; the -75hp is too much for new players. Use two, max three +1 runes to the attributes you use in your build. As a rule of thumb, all other rune and insignium slots should be taken by survivor & vitae add-ons; some people prefer going +armor, especially for paragons and warriors, but that's really more noticeable in the hard mode.
For caster characters, staves are the easiest to use. Go for one with +10 energy, 20% chance for halving skill recharge of spells (so-called HSR, or global HSR, because all modern staves work for all spells, despite the staff's attribute!), +5 energy from inscription, +30hp from the head and +30hp from the wrapping. It's the most newbie-friendly option, as well as fully working one later on. It's also quite cheap to get a staff like that (the hp mods don't have to be perfect, even +28hp would be fine, and it'd be much cheaper) and it doesn't have to be of any used attribute (spawning power staff like that is totally fine for an E/Mo), because only the auto-attack damage is affected when not meeting the staff's attribute - and, as a caster, you won't really be auto-attacking at all.
For physicals, be sure to use max items and meet their attribute requirements. The mostly wanted mods are +15% while over 50% hp (so-called 15^50), +hp and armor penetration. Less wanted skins and higher req weapons are also dirt cheap to get from other players.
Be sure to equip your heroes, too - their armors can be boosted with runes and insignia as well.

Then your build may be a problem, and that which you run on your heroes.
GW1 has a hell lots of skills, what makes it impossible to have them properly balanced - or, even, balanced at all. It means that there are skills that are shitty crap, even if the description looks promising, and there are those that are used most often, and form up cookie-cutter builds. Of course, the number of working builds, aka those that will let you complete content (including not only the Desert, but even hard mode) is vast, much greater than the most commonly used builds (so-called 'meta'), but newcomers are usually advised to use some of the most powerful, already tested and community-approved builds, so that the learning of the game's mechanics is not so painful.
That said, visit this site for builds, including full team builds for heroes later on, or at least for some inspiration and general outlook on what actually works in this game. Even if you decide not to run a popular build, for whatever reason, knowing them might be highly beneficial for you.
General note: running a Warrior/Monk with Healing Hands or Word of Healing won't work in this game.

Now, once you sorted out your equipment and your own skillbar, you must keep in mind that GW1 is a team game. It doesn't really matter if you team up with other players or use henchmen and/or heroes. Going out solo is good only for farming (henchmen not stealing drops) and nothing else. Always fill your party full.
Keep in mind that your own build is only 1/4, 1/6 or 1/8 of the whole team. You won't be able to do most stuff solo (note to veterans: please keep the context of my post in mind before nitpicking on that), but on the other hand, you only contribute to your team's overall performance. It's best to perceive the whole team as one build that consists of 32, 48 or 56 skills, although from time to time some of those skills might be inaccessible due to running out of energy or dying.
Getting the proper team build is much more akin to getting up a deck in Magic: the Gathering than to other MMOs. Still, there are some easy things to keep in mind:
* always use two Monks - one healing Monk and one protective or prot/heal hybrid Monk; this can, and should, be later changed to suit your playstyle and team (and using a N/Rt healer is much more desired than a Monk one, but don't bother about it right now); so, in the Desert, always use Alesia and Lina;
* do not use melee henchmen/heroes; the melee AI sucks terribly;
* Ranger henchmen/heroes are generally inferior to casters unless used for a very specific build, or running with full physical teams buffed by three Paragon heroes; as it's too soon to think about such complex builds, i advise against using physical henchmen/heroes at all;
* be sure to take Mesmer henchmen/heroes, as well as Elementalists - they often offer a healthy mix of control and damage;
* as soon as you get a Necromancer hero, set them up as a minion master - all details on the pvx wiki.

You might ask how to get new skills, and it's actually a valid question.
The easiest way is to create a PvP character, most preferably a Monk, and - if you have Factions - get to Jade Quarry via Luxon or Kurzick diplomats at the Battle Isles. The first few matches will feel awkward and you won't really contribute much to the team, but you will accumulate Balthazar Faction. With it, you can unlock skills on your account, which may be used by all your PvP characters and all your heroes, across all characters.
Now, in order to get those skills available for your PvE characters, buy skill tomes from other players and you're ready to go.
Other ways of getting Balth include playing some Random Arenas (if you don't have Factions) or using a PvP Ranger in the Zaishen Challenge and Zaishen Elite; you can get up to 6k Balth a day via ZE, and it's really easy. This way, you can accumulate enough Balth to unlock the desired builds really soon.



So, equipment, skills and builds covered...
But that's not all

First of all, always, be sure to check the wiki about the location/mission you are about to enter. If you don't want to read up on the story or quests, don't - but be sure to check the foes you're going to encounter. Do you really need that much hex removal? Maybe monsters won't cast that much nasty hexes and you can free a slot on your monk hero. Wouldn't more condition removal to get rid of blind become useful in this mission? Will there be more physical monsters or casters, rendering skills like Aegis and Guardian at least questionable?
Knowing is half the battle and adapting is one of the greatest virtues to learn here.

Learn pulling. GW1 is not like some other MMOs i've played, where one character can take a whole group of twenty monsters and blow them up using several skills. You will often find killing a group of five monsters pretty difficult with a group of eight.
That's why you shouldn't ever engage more than one group of monsters a time. You'll know that those specific monsters are of one group because after you attack one of them, all the other will come after you, as well.
The best way to pull is flagging henchmen a bit behind, and attacking a monster using longbow or flatbow. It doesn't matter what stats this bow has; the range is what is important - bigger than the aggro bubble, so that you can hit the monster with an arrow before being engaged by it. Then simply withdraw behind your henchmen and, after a while, release the flag. Be sure to only pull monsters back into a previously cleansed location.

Read a bit about the aggro mechanics. Quite often it's much more beneficial to run away and 'break aggro', then go back to resurrect your fallen team members, than rush into monsters only to completely wipe.
Read a bit about traps if that's what annoys you in the Desert. Most of them are quite visible before getting into them, if you know what to look for, and you can simply send the most durable of your henchmen to set them off.

Try not to ball up, aka don't stay in a big group with your henchmen/heroes. Try to be spread a bit, so that one Meteor spike from Hydras won't kill the whole group. You can use flagging, or you can aggro the monsters yourself, so that you are the target of their first spell, and then slide away from your team, taking the first hit only on you, getting healed much faster and easier.

Learn about covering your hexes and enchantments. If you're going into a location with some enchantment stripping, you might want to grab another enchantment and cast it on top of the most important ones, so you lose this crappy, but cheap and quick-recharge enchantment rather than something vital. If you're going into a location with a lot of AoE enchantment stripping, you might simply avoid using them at all, and rely on other ways of getting energy or protection.

Learn about and practice corner-blocking, when possible. The general idea is to make groups of monsters ball up in one spot, which is behind a wall so that their projectiles won't hurt you, by using a corner. To some extent, it may be used in full henchmen/hero teams with little to no effort. Simply be mindful of your surroundings and try to use them to your advantage, blocking enemy arrows, flares and fireballs with rocks and walls.
Be aware of AoE scatter of mobs caught in AoE-over-time kind of damage.

Finally, don't give up - adapt. If your builds are completely fine, try a different approach, but don't be afraid to experiment with skills. We all were in your place once, struggling with a particularly nasty mission or location, or even a specific encounter, but we made it through - and so can you

I'll echo what some other people said. The Desert is, IMO, the toughest, nastiest part of Tyria. We nearly left the game because of the desert until we started to get the hang of it. It's really your entrance to "adulthood" in the sense that you should be at or near level 20 and it's now time to figure out how to actually play the game.

I love the Crystal Desert now. It's my favorite place to vanquish because it reminds me of my struggle just to survive in it.

I Run and R/E myself,
so maybe I can help a little; As you get deeper into the Game interupts,
and Self Heals become much more important, I've only just finshed Prophs for most
of the Game I ran some varition of this build.


Kryta
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Your Ele Definatley wants Aura of Restoration if your not running it;
Aleshia is useless, You need to focus on healing yourself and consider her back up at best.

For the Final chapter I Pretty well ran this build.

Anti-Mursaat Build
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Which as you can see is all about interuptting and slowing down the bad guys so the rest of your team
has an edge. Dont worry about energy, marksmen's wager lets you spam pretty high energy skills. Just keep a short bow handy to max your rate of fire, and let your H/H do the real wet work.

I kept reading Winter is useful in the final Chapter so I went with this build for that chapter.

Hells Prec.
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None of these Builds are PvX approved, but they got the job done.

You might enjoy these Video's
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...5&feature=plcp

Lytha uses a Henchie only team and makes it look Easy; but she has a slightly off and sardonic sense of humor; and her vids are really just fun to watch. : ) Hope this helps BB.

Thank you all for your hints and suggestions.

I didn't realize I could change my char's secondary. Apparently the quests only unlock after you finish your ascension. I had already done all the secondary quests I had found thus-far, and was so giddy to be out of the desert (proper) that it didn't occur to me to go back.

Crystal Dessert is the most atmospheric places. You see lost civilizations, you hear great music, and the hopelessness of the endless sand. It is a place that's meant to break you, because if you don't survive it, how can you face the enemy? It's all lore, and developers were able to reproduce it with game mechanics: hydra nuking you down with high bursts of damage, traps to blind/snare you, scarabs to overrun you. Sure, it may not be fun to play, but it forces you to think outside of the box. Interrupt hydra when possible, avoid traps, counter minions of scarabs with your own, and never over extend. Crystal Desert will make you a man out of a boy, a woman out of girl, a dog out of a puppy, a cat out of a kitten, a guild wars player out of a world of warcraft player.

I might have overdone this a bit :P

No, I think you got that one just right Rad. : )
Definatly got a chuckle out of me. BB.
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Oh BTW,

Now that you've Ascended, you don't need to do the desert Quests to change secondary profession; you can have that done by the profession changer at the Baltazaar's Temple (sp) Anyhow it costs 1 plat I believe. I did 3 or 4 at one go so I could then buy skills for my hero's.

Dont buy skills just because they seem cool; you'll find you need specific skills for specific builds soon enough, I suggest you save the skill points for that purpose; unlike Plat skill points really are a limited resource.