Newbie questions

Hey guys, I searched around and have come up a little empty handed so I decided to ask the experts.

I have just started playing GW after trying it when it was released. I am really enjoying it but it has been very intimidating figuring all this out and read all this info available for the game. So my question is in parts.

1. I made a Prophecies toon and plan on doing all the missions with him. After I am done where should I go next lore wise? I have seen people say EOTN but I thought that that was the finale?

2. I want to work on the HOM while doing this, is there a beginners guide to understand this better? (I mean really beginner :P I have absorbed so much info in the last week that my head is spinning)

3. Is getting the required 30 points for the GW2 perks feasible to do for a brand new account and a n00b behind the wheel?

Thanks for any help guys. I will keep on searching as well.

Factions is pretty much independent from Prophecies.
Nightfall ties in with Prophecies and Factions towards the end.
EotN branches the events from GW1 into GW2 so chronologically it should come after the others (or at least Prophecies).

So I'd recommend doing them in that order, but you're not going to run into issues if you don't.

There are plenty of HoM guides around. One of them is stickied here. Keep in mind though that the HoM is for rewarding established players and thus HoM guides are NOT beginner guides. They'll generally assume you've gotten heroes, all the equipment and skills you need, have beaten a campaign or two, etc. Trying to follow a HoM guide straight off is like trying to run before you can walk. Forget about the HoM for a while and learn how to play. You won't miss anything and you won't confuse yourself.

Depends on a few things: how long you play each day, how well you pick up RPG's/MMO's, etc. If you put in enough effort you should be able to do it. Also keep in mind that GW1 isn't going down when GW2 is released so if you really care about those items you can keep unlocking stuff potentially years from now.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking the same thing about pushing HOM to the side. I am really enjoying the story so far so I am not going to worry about it. I am most interested in the Heroes aspect actually. Sounds like you are playing to not only outfit yourself but also your team.

Yes!
Not to far ahead of you myself; I took a side trip to NF at about level 16 to pick up hero's and I think it was worth the trip; a little later after hitting level 20 I replaced the whole crew with Merc's which I personally prefer; mind you I still have access to all the Hero's I unlocked should I ever really need one.
but I would say yes the Focus is on Hero's and on Your team, not your toon per se. Hope U enjoy the game, CU in Tyria. BB.

All you really need to understand for now is that by playing the campaigns, you ARE working on the HoM, even if you don't yet have physical access to it. The purpose of the HoM is to memorialize the things that you have done while playing the rest of the game, so go out and play the game to earn the honors that will fill it. Once you finally reach the HoM, you will be able to record all the accomplishments that you have accumulated before getting there, so there is nothing urgent about recording them as you go.

By the time you get to the HoM, you will understand the HoM. Worrying about it now just adds to the confusion of a new player, and a beginner has much more important things to figure out about the game. So you can relax and deal with the HoM later.

So if I understand correctly, I can go into a future campaign and get heroes for use now? Can I use the heroes in Prochecies? I want to stick to the timeline but I keep seeing conflicting answers. So far I am working on doing the missions in Prochecies. I gave started avoiding side quests as I feel I get distracted from the greater goal.

Another question, when I get into the next campaigns do I start another toon or do I continue with my current toon? I was also told by someone of a book that "records" you're adventure. Its an item that you have yo have in your inventory as you complete the missions. Is this correct?

When you reach your campaign's port city (in your case, that would be Lion's Arch, which you'll reach after you cross the mountains), you can pick up a quest to travel to the other campaigns. You get a few heroes right off the bat just by sticking your head into Night Fall and EotN. You can then map back and continue on with Prophecies. It's worth doing so you can level your heroes up with you and start getting them outfitted. But hero skills suck at first, and you won't want to rely on them in tough areas until you can unlock some skills and stuff for them.

You can continue on with the bulk of the storylines of the other campaigns with your main character. The only thing you miss is the tutorial quests. But you can do the newbie missions to complete your Protector/Guardian tracks just by walking to them.

Yes, and they're worth using. You can pick up storybooks in Lion's Arch (Prophecies book), Kaineng Center (Factions book), and Sunspear Great Hall (Night Fall book). You can also get the North mission and dungeon books in the capital outposts of each race (Eye, Gunnar's Hold, Rata Sum, etc.). Additionally, each of those scribes will offer you a Young Heroes book, which will be useful when you unlock hard mode and work on your Guardian title.

If I continue using my toon in the other campaigns what will I be gaining since my XP will be maxed out? Are there any benefits of having multiple characters?

Another question, since I'm only focusing on the Missions in Prophecies, will I be missing any integral skills from quests?

As we say -- the true game begins at level 20! You continue to gain experience even after you've reached level cap (when fighting foes within 5 levels of you and up). This is helpful for working towards Legendary Survivor and attaining skill points, which you use to buy skills and consumables. In the other campaigns, you will also earn Kurzick/Luxon faction (Factions), Sunspear/Lightbringer points (Nightfall), and Asuran/Deldrimor/Ebon Vanguard/Norn reputation (North). These are useful for title tracks (for your Hall) and boosting the effectiveness of their associated PvE skills. Also deeper into the other campaigns are more skills and heroes to acquire.

While there are benefits to having more than one character (taking advantage of good Zaishen Quests, farming, etc.), it's a good idea to have a main character to focus on for completing all missions, vanquishing, and skill caps for your Hall or in case you want to try for God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals.

While you don't have to do every side quest, skill quests can be very beneficial. There are a ton of such quests in Prophecies. Keep your eye out for the ones on that linked list and consider doing them.

What Star Said,
More Seriously, the advantage of running Multiple Toons is you get a feel for the Professions; you might find you like being on the tip of the spear with a Warrior, or standing back with your Ele, or just Ripping an instant Army out of the corpses of your enemies with your Minion Master. (Aura of the Litch is a very cool skill.) But a Brief survey of the Titles will reveal that most are Charater based http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Title not account based. So having a main Charactor You actually like to play is very important if your going to pursue titles. You dont want the Grinding aspect of Title hunting to be tooo literal.

I'm Pursuing the 90% Carting Title. It wont Qualitfy for the Hall, but it's what I want because it matches well with my love of exploring. Kicking down the door and just seeing whats on the other side. Best of Luck. BB.

How much do I have to do to get some heroes from NF? I just went to EOTN to grab the first ones once you get to the HOM.

----------

^ I just figured it out. Didn't know I would get them so easily lol.

Heroes are fine but the task isnt finding them...its getting the right skills for them to make them more potent than plain old henchmen. Out of the box, heroes have less potent/useful skills than henchmen. So your immediate task would be to "equip" your heroes with the right runes, insignias, weps and skills. You can search pvx for popular team/hero builds or through trial and error. One easy way to overcome the skill searching/capping burden is to purchase the skill packs from anet. It costs real world money but if you have roughly $40 laying around would recommend it. As far as runes and insignias go...some can be a bit expensive for a newbie without a lot of disposable in game gold but well worth it. Best source for weps are green weapons or cheap blue collector weapons most of which can be purchased from other players or from right here on guru for cheap.

Now you've got your Hero's I would take Drak's advise, take one or two, and slowly build them up in terms of Runes, Skills et al. Add one or two Hero's to your regular team once a week or two; till your where you want to be with the whole crew. In the mean time fill out your team with Henchies. As Drak's says, and is often pointed out in this forum; Henchies often out perform Hero's till those Hero's are built up in terms of Runes and Elite Skills.

You'll need campaign specific heros later, but if your using Hero's in Prophecies, that will not be an issue till you complete that campaign; and while skills, runes and Weapons can all cost money. I've got about 30Plat in my warchest tonight, after recently upgrading my Hero's with fairly expensive Runes of Major Vigor; 3 months ago that would have seemed like an impossible amount of Gold.

I believe you'll find, you do not have to excessively farm for what you need just now Normal drops will be enough to finance your needs till you complete the campaign at least.

So which skill packs should I get? I can't get them all right now as that would be the same price as buying a new game. I just spent $50 to get the trilogy and EOTN.

Now, after I do that I will continue getting through Prophecies and using my heroes while doing it. Will I be able to outfit them in this campaign? I am a little overwhelmed on who I should be using and focusing on as there is a lot to choose from already.

----------

Ok, so I said screw it an bought all the skill packs. If I'm going to do the damn thing, do it right :P Now, how the heck do I get the elite skills? All the builds I see have elite skills that they are based around. Thanks in advance.

Elite skills: http://www.guildwiki.org/Elite_Skill

Heroes can use all skills you've got unlocked (i.e, all of them in your case) so they'll already have them available.

If I may suggest,
Slow down a little take a little time to actually enjoy the game; it seems to me your making a bit much of a job out of something that should be fun.

I tend to start by cloning the skill bars of available henchmen; I think Henchies are a good touchstone as to what a Good, if not great build should look like; then tweaking from there with skills I want to test, or replacing obvious weaknesses, like giving my monk a Ranged, vs touch Rez; I also gave her some Mesmer skills so she was not utterly helpless in a fight. You can always check the PvX Wiki for builds; even if you cant reproduce them exactly it’s a good source of Ideas.

My Monk today: OwUTE0mC3BMqRuIrAmgNplETAA

While you can't use skills the other toons on your account have unlocked your Hero's can, so if say your Monk is Wanting; you might run up a XXX/Monk through a few levels just to unlock some skills for the tool box. I ran a Wammo up to 20 and Necro/Mes to 16 (in Factions) for this purpose.

Weapons and Runes cost money, but never so much that completing the Quests wont cover your costs for arms and Armor appropriate to the content; when you start pursuing Prestige Armor, well thats expensive, but you'll have completed a campaign by then and be dealing with a whole other level of economy.

If you could in your next reply remind us what chapter of the game your in, North Shiver Peaks, Kryta, the Jungle, the Desert; it might help fine tune any guidance we can offer. That Said, let me return to my original point, Neither Rome nor Beowulf was built in a day, slow down a little and enjoy the game, it is just a game after all. : ) BB.

If you're getting 90%, you may as well get LGMC, since you'll do most of the work anyway. Just load up texmod and it's easy-ish. Time consuming, but easy.