Early post searing quests etc.

I'm a new player, just went post searing. How different is this!!!??

In a guide to pre searing it said to save up the 'get your xp' for quests as you'd average higher xp per kill by levelling up that way, then cash in the xp for quests later.

Does this matter so much post searing, I'm doing a load of quests and saving up some stuff, but really, now I'm using some level 3 henchmen to get anywhere, which suck up xp anyway, should I just complete the quests.

I'm not in a great rush incidentally, but while I want to experience all the quests there are and flesh out the story, I don't want to grind for low-ish xp.

Forgive me if this sounds stupid to anyone over level 9, as i've never played the post level 9 game

Are there any other tips for a post searing newbie, I've trawled this forum but not seen a collection of tips for players with little or no experience of post searing, with very little cash.

Obviously i've seen the skill seller guides and maps etc. , I'm more on about 'whatever you do don't sell dyes' advice that I was fortunate to get pre searing when i was about to sell a green dye for 1gp to a vendor, you know, practical minute by minute gameplay tips. One question I have is how I get the other belt pouch icons filled out, I've got the skale fin one, can I go to a collector or merchant and buy or swap stuff for a second merely because I'm post searing?

Incidentally, I've started a monk because I imagine it'll be easier to get pickup groups, what have been any monks experiences of pickup groups do's and dont's so I don't embarrass myself

Thanks

You don't have to save up exp from quests. just do them as they come.

Monk Tips for Groups? Don't Smite. Just do your healing at start. in the middle of the campaign you can start adding in some protection. In Ascalon Area (up to and including Nolani mission) monk is really easy as 90% of the time if you just keep "mending" on the attackers in the group - the enemies can never dmg them enough for you to need much other healing. After that just active heal - no maintained.

Incredibly different. Almost felt like a completely different game the first time I did it.

I would recommend you go ahead and get your rewards, as you're already level 9. It'll be a while before you start getting a decent amount of experience just from killing monsters.

You can only get one 'belt pouch'--however, you can carry two bags, which are generally the same thing, but can be expanded with runes of holding to make them hold twice as much.

550 of my 1100 hours have been as my monk, as she's simply the most fun to play out of any other characters I've tried. Monks, as you already see, have pretty much the easiest time getting into groups, along with Warriors. Very nearly every group you'll find in PvE needs a monk or two.

As for general tips--depending on what kind of monk you are (I'll assume healing, as that's the most prevalent, especially early game) just do your job, heal as needed, don't tank, don't rush in, etc. You will likely come across a number of jerks who will insult you when they die, whether it was your fault or (more commonly) theirs for being so reckless--this isn't to say that you shouldn't take criticism and suggestions, but, ah...rude threats tend to get nowhere with me, at least.

As a personal rule--and I don't know how many other monks follow this--pretty much if anyone ever says anything along the lines of "heal plz" I treat that as a plead to simply stop healing them.

Good luck!

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking in the above question, but I'll try to answer some of your other questions.

Playing your first character can be difficult. Never having enough gold to buy things, not knowing your way through the various missions and quests.

The other two personal storage slots (bags) can be purchased when you reach Yak's Bend, along with runes of holding to increase stoarge. For now, you can get a storage vault at the agent on the hill near the henchies in Ascalon. (always forget their names)

As a monk, if you use henchmen I would recommend using the smiting skills, but if you are teaming with real people they will ecpect you to be a healer. For this, it might be better to team up with people you know who may be a little more patient with you learning the game.

Take your time. Enjoy the view. Have fun.

Hope this helped

the other icons are bags which start out being 5 slots more then they are expanded to be 10 slots more. You can get bags in one of the outposts to the west. and the rune of holding in yaks bend in the mountains to the east... Since you got a lot of experience in pre... well its time to head out of ascalon area. the quickest way for you is just do the first 5 missions... Normally a higher level character can do those in a couple hours... A max level (20) can often do them solo...

At this point I recommend saving up for some better armor then you got from collectors in pre. and If you got any decent dyes sell them for some gold for any skills you missed in pre.

Also its lots cheaper and easier later if you do whatever quests in the area you can find that offer you free skills as a reward... The more you get for free the less you have to buy later.

If your real lucky you may find some people running to later areas of the game. Though I don't normally recommend this for a first timer... its a popular thing to do... Personally I feel you benefit from doing the quests and missions at least the first time you play the game to be ready for later events...

Also available to you if you are still under level 10 is the ascalon arena.. this is similar to the academy you went through to get here.

The biggest difference your gonna find is the shear size of Tyria available to you. your map is now about 4 to 5 times the size of your old one in presearing. so there is lots to explore. And With a new chapter coming out soon. you will get even more to explore on a whole new map...

Finally. To get some experienced help I suggest joining a guild... this will allow you to play with experienced players and have the opportunities to get some high level help in missions or quests when you just are having trouble with henchies... Guildies are great to have, and in the upcoming chapter, will have vast benefits by belonging to one that is allied with a controlling faction.. Don't worry your not suppose to know what that is yet... but you will be hearing a lot about that in the coming months...

Good luck.

Ingram of Haz

I believe he was referring to a method in which you first level up only by gaining xp from kills. Once the xp drops or you get zero xp from kills, you start completing the quests with xp rewards.

This method is long and quite a grind, but will achieve a higher level compared to someone who does all xp reward quests first.

It'll work in Pre-Searing, but Post is too large. I would say, do the quests when you can as you follow the story. Don't worry about xp. You'll encounter towns/outposts called mission areas and completing a mission will net 1000xp (and another 1000 if you do the bonus).

You could leave Pre-Searing at level 3 or you could leave it at level 8 and it would make no difference to your gameplay. So grinding levels in pre-searing is pointless.

It's better to do as many quests as you can early on for two reasons (even in Pre-searing)> 1 - Quests give XP for leveling up and these are the easiest areas to work in. XP in all areas is based on comparative skill levels & number of party members, so you'll be getting roughly the same amount of XP for killing something as a level 8 in Old ascalon as you would killing something as a level 20 in the latter stages ofthe game. and 2 - Gold & materials. You're going to want to upgrade your armor and the more questing you do, the more you'll make. You can sell crafting materials to other players for double or triple what the merchant will give you, which leads to the next piece of advice:

Learn the economy! See the prices that people are selling stuff for compared to what the merchants prices are and then look at what the merchant is buying stuff for. For example, A material trader will BUY cloth from you at 3g each, he'll sell it for around 15g each, but PLAYERS will sell it for 8 - 10g ea (depending on the current vendor's price)

As for Bags - You can buy them in Ascalon City. There are 2 merchants there, one sells them, the other doesn't. Later on in the game, you can buy runes of holding (think they're 500g each) - just check the merchants as you go along.

Watch for collectors as you go along, it's a cheap and easy way to get armor upgrades!

Well, I would argue that post-searing is a bit easier for a level 8 chracter than a level 3. Especially if it's your first character, learning to fight with henchies (as not many groups are looking for a level 3). I'd say that's a little bit of difference to your game play.

Welcome to post-searing.

Buy bags and Rune of Holding (when you have the cash) to increase your inventory space as others have suggested. Carry Identification kits and Salvage Kits with you. Pickup all drops and salvage useless/worthless drops into crafting material. Some items salvaged maybe useless to you but will be useful to someone else, to whom you can sell to. Avoid taking too many henchies with you as they'll take a share of gold/loot/drops.

If you plan on getting Ascetic's Armour (tattoo) for your monk, then start salvaging and hoarding wood planks early. Wood planks are very easy to come by from salvaging bows, staffs, etc. They can then be crafted into Roll of Parchment, which is the main material for the armour. If you don't want Ascetic's armour then salvage and hoard cloth. The amount of crafting material for armours increase as the armour gets better so it's better to stockpile early, and continue to do so.

Regarding salvaging, if you plan on salvaging a weapon modifier, or rune from an item then remember to use the Expert salvage kit rather than the normal one.

IMO i will disagree with you. My first character i left at lvl 4 and struggled a bit in post searin, especially w/ the missions.
My second character left at lvl 9 and I had a ton of fun totally clearing an area of bad guys (solo) and getting all the drops, when i got to Post-Searing I had over 3K which is a good starting amount for Ascalon City & the missions were easier.

I can't thank you all enough for your input, it's been great.

With regard to some of it, I have of course thought about joining a guild, but as a games developer myself, I'm sure the dev team will know how little time I get to myself, not to mention my wife and daughter hehe.

I've always been wary of guilds advertising themselves indiscriminately, I think you really have to get to know people, and get a personal invite to a guild if that guild is worth it's salt. Am I talking crap? Anyway, with that in mind, just how might I find a decent and above all tolerant guild out of the hordes out there, is there somewhere where guilds are rated? I'd hate to get into the infrastructure of one, find it sucks then leave and keep running into ex guildies with a problem.

I imagine I'll get a few invites once I'm a higher level monk, given how many random ones I've started getting now. I guess I'll keep asking for web addresses.

On the comment about the ascalon arena, man I didn't know what the hell was happening in the academy, I suddenly realised i wasn't just with henchmen, and didn't know if I was fighting real players or not. I got totally battered in about a minute without knowing what was going on. What's the arena all about, is that 4v4 pvp action? Is there a benefit to my character in doing it beyond honing pvp skills? I think pvp is great, but really didn't think I would be prepared for it given I imagine it's indulged by maxed out characters.

On the comment about the economy, I indulged in a littel of this myself pre searing with the unnatural seeds in Fort Ranik. I found it quite time consuming to make any money. Is the economy for even standard craftables worth standing around shouting out my prices for? I appreciate this is a mature game now with lots of high level characters, so didn't think I could make much by standing there selling craft materials. Would I need loads of patience or just some I'm in a position where for the sake of £6 I could buy 100 platinum. I think I'll probably focus on a higher level economy in terms of buying and selling if I'm going to need lots of patience, rather than try that patience to make a few gold on farming and selling common craftables.

Now I know a bit about getting to level 9, it strikes me that I could level a second character to about 5 or 6 and take a wander into post searing ascalon land for the mobs there and earn some cool xp quicker. Does that sound sensible?

Finally, I should have been clearer, I'm going to play a monk mesmer build that I saw on the roundtable discussion, linked to off this site, using inspiration mesmer skills to recharge and signets etc. Heh, all that is a bit gobbledigook at the mo, but it would be good to know whether a healing monk with inspiration mesmer is going to be a good choice for demanding high level damage dealers

Again, thanks for your input

I think that's a pretty sensible way to go. The nice thing about GW, though, is that you don't have to decide which build you're going to play and stick with it. Feel free to experiment with different builds. You'll find what works best for different circumstances, and will be able to change around to adapt to new challenges.

stay away from guilds that advertise themselves in towns and outpost imo. the best way to pick a guild is just play the game when you do missions or quests with other players watch how they act what they say. Are they friendly courteous willing to help, offer you drops they dont want or need. Or do they complain alot, talk in caps (YELL), expect you to keep them alive when they take on everything in sight and get mad with they die or almost die. Do they go away from the computer in a mission and leave you shorthanded just so they can get credit for the mission but dont help with it. the first would obviously be the better player. So put the first on your friends list do acouple quests or missions with them. If their demeanor stays constant. ask them if they are in a guild and if you can join theres. Cuz chances are this player is a good reflection of what type of people are in that guild.
I say this cuz every member is a reflection of their guild. And in most cases, a good guild wouldnt keep around someone that isnt a good representative of the guild. Also remember if you do join a guild and for one reason or another you dont 'mesh' with that guild or its members leaving it is as simple as clicking the icon by your name in the guild roster and select leave guild.
as far as monking, I love playing my monk. If you have any questions or need help my IGN is Jay the Jake. Just put me in your friends list and give me a whisper if you need any help.

Another regular monk here.

I don't *quite* have that rule - but they do become lower on my priority list

My personal rule is never accept blind invites.

Almost everytime my monk wanders into a town a bunch of invites appear on my party window - no whisper, no checking I actually want to do what they're doing, nada. I never accept them.

On the rare occassions Im *looking* for a monk - I specifically whisper monks and ask if they'd like to join - quite a few others have said to me that like my monk, they never accept blind invites either.

As a monk, you may meet battery necros - in the early stages when you're playing a healing monk - battery necros are your best friends!
Basically if you *ping* that you are low on energy they will refresh your energy for you(to *ping* click on your energy bar while holding ctlr I think)

As you get more monk skills and more experience you are less likely to need the battery (my bond monk, and my boon monk tend to manage their energy fine) - though I still like co-operative necro types - they often do a number of useful things that benefit the whole group. Necros with Minions often have some healing along with them, other Necros often have Wells that regen health and or energy.

It can be a good idea at the end of a battle to ping your energy if you are waiting to recharge even when there is NOT a battery - to get the others to slow down.

Don't cry wolf, don't be pinging it all the time or people won't know why you're doing it

If you see a necro advertising - whisper them, ask if they are taking blood ritual or BIP (elite that early necros may not have). Other really helpful Necro spells (helpful to Monks in particular) are Wells.

Spicecat

As someone who plays both monk and battery necro (from anything to a casual blood ritual to a dedicated battery who can keep BiP on six members 80% plus of the time) one thing about this is both of the skills to battery require a necro to sacrifice health. If they are running a dedicated battery they will almost certainly be very specialised to do it and won't need a heal out of it. However if they are running as a general utility necro then heal them out of it. In the case of BiP they have just given a third of their health to keep you running, the least you could chuck their way is an orison.

You can usually tell what they are running - a dedicated battery can look incredibly reckless and will occasionally die from pure bad luck (a spike after a double BiP is awful) but will usually have a powerful set of self heals (as much as a monk secondary can) whereas a non dedicated will be struggling to get it back.