some newbie questions, if you don't mind

New player here, and After playing the game for a week or so ( level 18.5 already) I am getting the hang of it, but I have some questions that I couldnt really find answers for. Also I would like to say I have only played the PvE side of the game so far, and the missions and quest system are really well done and interesting. I am on the Aurora Glade mission at the moment, have solo'd them all so far with henchmen. I am also playing a warrior/necro and having a blast. Forgive me, I did search for most of the answers, but sometimes, I didn't quite get what I was looking for.


1. I'm having trouble getting a handle on the economy. How do I know what is valuable and what isn't? Something are blatantly of obvious value- Found a Major Vigor rune that I sold for 4k, and obviously MAX damage is going to be worth mroe than not-max. However, I have found lots of other things that I dont have a clue as to the value of: Sundering bowstrings, vampiric sword hilts, staff wrappings, etc. What are the generally more desireable mods? I also have heard things with -HP offhand are desireable for monks, but this makes no sense to me.

2. As a warrior, how can I increase my aggro? In other words, how can I get the mobs to stop attacking the healer? I think I do pretty well at that, but sometimes it takes some work to get them to notice me. THere is no taunt ( yes, I am a WoW player, got a bit bored with that and am taking a break to check out GuildWars).

3. Similar to question 1, how do I know what is worth keeping to sell to players, and what should be vendored for the gold?

4. I looked through the manual, but I must have missed it, is there any way to see how much adrenaline you have?

5. If you cast a debuff ( like Mark of Pain) on something, is there anyway to see which mob has the debuff on them, other than a visual effect? Like an indicator on the interface of some sort?

6. Solo- I read about people solo farming all the time, but most places even below my level I need a nearly full group to take on- Is this a lack of gear or skill? or both?

thank you for your answers

1) Basically, anything max is worth something to someone, less than max I sell to merchant...unless, it has a perfect mod attached, you will find that almost every mod has buyers, but it must be max, in other words, vamp sword hilt has to be 3:1 to be of any real value, hang out in LA to get a feel for what people are looking for.

2) Difficult one here when traveling with henchies, the only thing I can say is try to have a lead on the henchies when you first agro...like sprint into the group, other than that, there is no real way to attract agro and yes, mobs will generally attack the healer first off...wouldn't you?

3) refer to answer #1

4) Notice how the adrenaline based skills begin to "light up" as adrenaline rises, this is the only indication.

5) If you have the mob targeted, the health bar at the top of the screen will show different indicators as well as change color depending on the current condition of the target...example---poison turns the health bar green color

6) This is a very huge and interesting topic, check the proffession threads for specifics on each type of build, this will also answer your question about monks liking the -health items, this is where 55 HP monks come in

Hope this helps, have fun

As far as values of items go, I'll point you at the sell forum here...

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6

Spend a bit of time perusing those forums and you'll get a good feeling for what's valuable and what's merchant fodder.

1. I'm having trouble getting a handle on the economy. How do I know what is valuable and what isn't? Something are blatantly of obvious value- Found a Major Vigor rune that I sold for 4k, and obviously MAX damage is going to be worth mroe than not-max. However, I have found lots of other things that I dont have a clue as to the value of: Sundering bowstrings, vampiric sword hilts, staff wrappings, etc. What are the generally more desireable mods? I also have heard things with -HP offhand are desireable for monks, but this makes no sense to me.

read up on this in the ventari sell pricecheck subforum --- there's a whole thread dedicated to weapon mods in that forum.
you could also hang out in la dist 1.

if you want answers on the monk thing, search for '55 monk'.
it's an ingenious build that some guy came up with that runs on only 55 hps, which is why they need items to lower their hps.



2. As a warrior, how can I increase my aggro? In other words, how can I get the mobs to stop attacking the healer? I think I do pretty well at that, but sometimes it takes some work to get them to notice me.


ahahahahahaha...that's a good one, dude.
good luck w/that.
I guess one thing you could do would be to dump alesia's body in the poison waters of the swamp next time out and befriend a player monk.


3. Similar to question 1, how do I know what is worth keeping to sell to players, and what should be vendored for the gold?

answer would be similar to answer 1.



4. I looked through the manual, but I must have missed it, is there any way to see how much adrenaline you have?


not that I know of numerically --- just watch the skills as they light up.


5. If you cast a debuff ( like Mark of Pain) on something, is there anyway to see which mob has the debuff on them, other than a visual effect? Like an indicator on the interface of some sort?


that would be a hex.
no way that I know of.




6. Solo- I read about people solo farming all the time, but most places even below my level I need a nearly full group to take on- Is this a lack of gear or skill? or both?



both.
those people who solo farm are lvl 20's w/specific farm builds and topshelf gear.
don't worry about farming at this point.



thank you for your answers


rock on, bro --- what type of necro are you?

WARNING! LOTS TO READ IF YOU SERIOUSLY WANT TO LEARN!

Hello. Glad to hear you are enjoying Guild Wars so far! Two quick things before i answer your questions... First, i commend you for not starting with the run-of-the-mill Warrior/Monk. Second, Since you are still fairly new to GW and perhaps this website, just a heads up, this site has a Search Feature. The link is located at the top of the webpage and right above the forum section along with other options. Now that you know its there, you will definitly want to use it in the future, not only to get great info fast, but so that you won't get hounded by the forum trolls (mean people). So after all that text to read here are some answers::

1) Value is usually placed in specific details of a weapon. The most basic starts with being max dmg (Axe = 6-28; Sword = 15-22; Hammer = 19-35; Staves = 11-22; Wands = 11-22; Bows = 15-28). Second, are the damage modifiers most sought after are: +dmg(15% max)% damage while health is over 50%. Third are the Preffix and Suffix modifiers such as a Sundering Stormbow of Fortitude (+10% Armor Penetration (10% Chance) and +30 Health). For more information of valuable weapons, modifiers and upgrades just visit the Auction page and look at all the currently high bid items for an idea of what else is worth a lot!!

2) You are on the right track. Thinking as a warrior you want to be first in to try and take the most dmg from monsters. However, the game, like others, has Artificial Intelligence, which attempts to emulate human intelligence. This means they will often and almost always do things different (other then there patrol route, and other small things). The best way to maintain a pretty good aggro, is when you go to aggro monsters and get thim in your "aggro bubble" try to make sure that NO ONE else in your party is even close to your bubble. Make sure that their bubbles arent even TOUCHING yours because this acts as an aggro chain for the AI to see multiple targets with which it uses to prioritize targets. If your the only aggro bubble they see, then they will initially only attack you, but often a few will break off when your party comes in to help...

Another way to keep aggro off casters/healers, is for them to use AoE (Area of Effect) spells, like Symbol of Wrath, or Firestorm. After about 1 or 2 seconds this sends the monsters running, which they will then target new players.

3) Refer to answer #1 or the Auction page of GwG!

4) There is no obvious way to see your adrenaline build. There are no indicator bars to show you how much you have build up, however, if you equip adrenaline using skills and begin attacking a monster then you should notice that a "fog" on the skill icon seems to shrink down with each hit you strike with. Once you build enough adrenaline for that certain skill, you will see it fully light up/clear up meaning it is ready for use! I hope that makes sense. Just go equip some adren skills, go outside and bash on some monsters, while watching the skill icon. Then you will see what i mean...

5) Somewhat. You will not be able to see the Skill listed as affecting a certain monster/player, HOWEVER, if you notice when you target an enemy, that at the right side of their health bar are sometimes different colored arrows. They all mean something different. Pink down arrow means they are hex with something like "MArk of Pain". However, this means they have a hex or HEXES on them, so you will not know if your hex is still on them, or if it is another hex from some other source. Light brown down arrows means they suffer from a health degeneration condition, and Green arrow up, means they are under the influence of an enchantment.

6) For solo builds all you have to do is go to the Campfire (forum section) and you can find solo builds under the Monk section, Warrior section, Necro Section, Mesmer section, well really all the classes...

Hope that all helped! i know it was a lot to read, and im sure with this amount if time i took, some1 already gave a few hasty remarks. So i am hoping this is good and complete enough for you to have all the info you need! If worse comes to worse, i can refer you to the Search Feature again! LOL!! Enjoy!

EDIT:: WOW!! When i started writing this, NO ONE AT ALL, had posted yet.... As you can see, you have LOTS of people who like to help! This makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over!! LOLZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

1.max mods that are desirable:
vampiric axe/sword 3 health gain on hit, bow/hammer 5 health gain on hit
sundering 10% chance
furious 10% chance
of enchanting 20%
insightful +5
anything with +5 defence vs all damage (not the +7 vs physical or elemental)

2.cyclone axe? mainly just run wayyyy ahead

4. you gain 25 points of adrenaline per hit per skill (each skill has its own well you must fill) and ... well you can either wait for them to light up or you can read this http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Adrenaline

5. hex = purple lifebar and a down arrow, enchant = up arrow, bleeding causes a pink bar and a pale down arrow, poison/disease causes a green bar.

6. Yes to everything you said you were missing.

Answer to 6.

Soloing is either for athletic purposes or just for gold (Which is also called farming)

After you finish the game and you feel like getting some cash for a few good expensives upgrades, runes, weapons or armor, thats the time to look that up. In the meantime, just have fun proceeding through the game. The money you get along your adventures should be enough to get you the best armor avalable to where you've reached.

By seeing how lit-up the skills are.

It took me a while to figure this out after coming from WoW, but adrenaline doesn't work like rage. It's tracked separately for each skill, and once a skill is "full" (i.e, ready to use), there's no further gain for that skill.

For 2. I recently found out that mobs also "sense" character's Max HP. You can try lowering your Max HP (through using runes or acquiring Death Penalty) to generate aggro. A possibly risky method, but it does work.

Thanks alot for the help. I am enjoying the Axe warrior/Blood Necro quite a bit, and this helps out alot.

2. If you time the use of cyclone axe as you approach the mobs you will get the attention of most, if not all, of them.

Not true.You can start farming in Pre.As you gain experience and access to new skills the drops and lv of enemies you can solo becomes higher.With the right combination of skills any class combination can solo something.

yes, you CAN farm in pre, but it's a waste of time.

I pretty much doubt the threads he refers to are about farming pre.

1 black dye from farming pre can get you a new set of Armor and runes, right when you set foot in Post.Or can finance runs to Beacons/Forge or any locations that have skill trainers.So it's by no means a "waste of time"

I'll assume that was a joke post.

^ No actually it wasn't. Did you read or just assume, because if you don't know what I'am talking about then Log 1500 hrs and buy a second account.Learn from you're mistakes and start a new build with ubber confidence.

1] Black dye sells to trader for what, 6K

2] you get 30al from Ascalon armor compared to 7al from pre collectors armor.Ascalon armor [full set + runes] is around 3K maybe.

3] A run from Ascalon to Beacon's is maybe 1K

4] Forge run is 2-3K depending

5] you think "farmers" have "top shelf gear".As a farmer progress you use the "drops" that you get>Then you use cash flow for upgrades or green/rare , items that fit you're build.

6] I hope YOU understand this, if not Ill PM you some builds/places to make loads of cash while still being low/lv- freaking NewB