FAQ Contents:
Guild Wars Guru FAQ
- I am new to Guild Wars, where should I go to find information about the game?
- What are the rules of this forum?
- Why was my post deleted?
- How do I do something on this forum?
Guild Wars General FAQ:
- What is Guild Wars?
- Is Guild Wars an MMORPG?
- Is Guild Wars always played online?
- When will Guild Wars be available?
- When is the next beta event?
- What will happen to my beta character at release?
- How much will Guild Wars cost?
- Will there be a subscription fee to play Guild Wars?
- Will my computer run Guild Wars?
GamePlay FAQ:
- How man characters will I be able to have on my Guild Wars account?
- How many races can I play?
- How many character professions are there?
- How many skills are there?
- How do I aquire skills?
- What is the level cap?
- What happens when you die?
- How many hit points will I have?
- How much energy will I have?
- What is regeneration?
- What weapons can my character use?
- What are attributes?
- How do I aquire new armor?
- What are the game controls?
- What are the different types of damage?
- Does Lightning damage have armor penetration?
- Does Holy damage ignore armor?
- What is Armor Penetration, Armor Ignoring, and how do they work?
Guild Wars Guru FAQ:
I am new to Guild Wars, where should I go to find information about the game?
A great place to start would be in our New Player Center found here , and by reading this FAQ and the forums. Our site also houses one of the largest amounts of content of any Guild Wars Fansite. You can find information on locales, professions, skills, bosses, builds, and various articles in our site. So take some time, read through the site and get to know Guild Wars. Once you've read about the game, feel free to jump into discussions on the forums to learn more.
What are the rules of this forum?
Please read these rules so you do not find yourself banned or your posts deleted. You can find them all here.
Why was my post deleted?
There are numerous reasons that could cause your post to be deleted. Violation of any of the rules posted just above here are probably the reason why. For a quick rundown:
- L33T [email protected]: Please take the time to use proper English and type your words out fully. If your post is worth reading, it is worth typing.
- Spam: Do not post useless two word posts such as I agree, or cool. Make sure your post adds something to the conversation or is related.
- Flaming: Act like civilized human beings and treat each other with common respect.
- Advertising: Do not come here just to post links to your great products or sites.
- Your signature was too big: Anything over 120pixels or 3 lines of text is too large. Signatures are limited to 50kb, and each line of text counts for 20 pixels, including blank lines.
- Obscene Material: Don't post links to pornography, warez, illegal material or offensive content. Also, please be mindful of your language.
If your post was deleted, please do not repost the same post or post a thread asking why it was deleted. If you must know, please PM a moderator or Administrator.
How do I do something on the forum? (Post an image, change my profile, etc...)
Be sure to check the Forum Faq here.
Guild Wars General FAQ:
What is Guild Wars?
Guild Wars is a global online roleplaying game. Players can engage in cooperative group combat, in single player adventures, or in large head-to-head guild battles. Guild Wars is a mission-based game set in a stunning 3D fantasy world that offers excellent support for guilds. Because the team that is developing Guild Wars has had experience creating successful online game series such as Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, the members are familiar with the complex issues surrounding online games, and are creating a game that is both easy to learn and compelling to play long term, and yet does not require players to spend hundreds of hours slogging through the preparation just to get to the fun bits.
Is Guild Wars an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)?
Guild Wars has some similarities to existing MMORPGs, but it also has some key differences. Like existing MMOs, Guild Wars is played entirely online in a secure hosted environment. Thousands of players inhabit the same virtual world. Players can meet new friends in gathering places like towns and outposts where they form parties and go questing with them. Unlike many MMOs, when players form a party and embark upon a quest in Guild Wars, they get their own private copy of the area where the quest takes place. This design eliminates some of the frustrating gameplay elements commonly associated with MMOs, such as spawn camping, kill stealing, and lines to complete a quest.
Guild Wars takes place in a large virtual world made up of many different zones, and players can walk from one end of the world to the other. In Guild Wars much of the tedium of traveling through the world has been eliminated. Players can instantly return to any safe area (town or outpost) that they have previously visited just by clicking on it in the world overview map.
Rather than labeling Guild Wars an MMORPG, we prefer to call it a CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game). Guild Wars was designed from the ground up to create the best possible competitive role-playing experience. Success in Guild Wars is always the result of player skill, not time spent playing or the size of one's guild. As characters progress, they acquire a diverse set of skills and items, enabling them to use new strategies in combat. Players can do battle in open arenas or compete in guild-vs-guild warfare or the international tournament. Engaging in combat is always the player's choice, however; there is no player-killing in cooperative areas of the world.
Finally, unlike existing MMOs, all characters in Guild Wars inhabit the same virtual world -- they are not divided onto different servers or shards -- so players can always team up with or compete against any other player in the world.
Is Guild Wars always played online?
Yes. Guild Wars is designed from the ground up to be an online game. This allows maximum security to prevent cheating by other players, so your gaming experience will not be diminished by others. Perhaps most importantly, our online network allows us to stream content to your computer, so you will always have the most current version of the game, and will play in a world that can change on a continuous basis.
When will Guild Wars be available?
Guild Wars will be available in North America and Europe on April 28, 2005. Dates for release in other parts of the world will be forthcoming. Pre-Order customers will be able to play one day earlier on April 27.
When is the next Beta Event
The next event will be April 15-17 and again will be available only to those who have pre-ordered.
What will happen to my beta character at release?
Your character will be wiped of everything except for his/her name which will allow you to create a new lvl 1 character but save your character name.
How much will Guild Wars cost? How much will additional chapters cost?
Guild Wars will be priced at a comparable cost to other first-tier PC games. The subsequent chapters of Guild Wars will also be comparably priced in relation to other games.
Will there be a subscription fee for Guild Wars? Are there any other fees, such as for patches or updates?
There will not be a subscription fee of any kind, anywhere in the world and there are no hidden fees. You will not have to pay for the streaming updates that will take place on a regular basis, nor for additional content that will be provided between the chapters of Guild Wars.
Will my computer run Guild Wars?
The (current) minimum requirements are:
* Windows® XP/2000/ME/98
* Intel Pentium® III 800 Mhz or equivalent
* 256 MB RAM
* CD-ROM Drive
* 500 MB Available HDD Space
* ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 or 4 MX Series Video Card with 32MB of VRAM
* 16-bit Sound Card
* Internet connection
* Keyboard and mouse
Gameplay FAQ
How many characters will I be able to have on my Guild Wars account?
The final number of characters per account has not been determined. At present, alpha and beta test accounts allow four characters and we estimate that the number of characters per account will be about four upon release.
How many races will I have access to?
Humans are the only playable class in the first chapter. Future expansions may bring more races and professions to choose from.
How many character professions are there?
The first chapter of Guild Wars will feature six character professions: The Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, and Warrior. You can learn a little bit more about each of the Guild Wars professions here. When you create a character, you will select a primary profession, and you will be given an opportunity to acquire a secondary profession in the starting region of the game.
How many skills are there?
Each class has approximately 75 skills allowing each character access to approximately 150 skills, That's 450 skills total with more to come in future chapters.
How do I aquire skills?
Skills can be earned several ways. They can be purchased from skill trainers with skill points, they can be earned by quests, and they can be captured during boss fights by using a Signet of Capture.
What is the level cap of the game?
The level cap is at level 20 and there are no current plans to raise it. The level cap is intended to be reached quickly so that all characters may be competitive based on their skill in the game and not time played.
What happens when you die? Do I lose experience, loot my corpse, etc...?
Death isn't nearly the inconvenience it is in other games. You do not lose any loot, you do not lose any xp, and it is never permenant.
If you're in a mission and your entire party dies the mission is over and you have to restart it. Your party is respawned in the outpost, however any xp or loot you had aquired is still in your posession. If you die in a mission, explorable area, pvp match and someone is able to rez you, you are rezzed with a death penalty (dp).
The death penalty is 15% and I can go as high as 60% upon subsequent deaths. This death penalty lowers your overall health and energy making you less powerful. You can work the dp off by killing enemies. Keep in mind that the death penalty is only for that mission, so if you exit the mission and restart you start with no death penalty.
How many hit points will my character have?
Every character has the same base hit points. Each will start with 100 health at level 1 and gain 20 points per level until they have 480 health at level 20. Certain items can increase or decrease this amount, including the Runes of Vigor but every character has access to those items, too.
How much energy will my character have?
Every character begins with a base of 20 energy. There are many items in the game which will increase that base, though, most importantly the armor your character wears. Armor can only be worn by a member of that primary profession and each profession's armor has a more or less set bonus to energy. Warriors recieve no such bonus. Rangers receive 5 bonus energy points for a total of 25. And every other profession receives 10 bonus energy for a total of 30. There are also items known as foci which, when held, increase energy and the best of such foci will add another 12 energy to your character.
What is regeneration?
There are two kinds of regeneration: energy and health. Both are measures of just how quickly your character will recover lost points of those resources. They are represented as arrows on your health and energy bars and are commonly referred to as "pips".
An energy pip is equal to gaining 1 energy every 3 seconds or 1/3rd of an energy over a second. Such regeneration is a constant process - your energy will be constantly filling itself in small increments no matter the situation or time frame. Each character has a base of 2 pips of energy regeneration or 2 energy every 3 seconds, although each profession's armor may have a bonus to that regeneration. Warriors receive no such bonus and are left at 2 regeneration. Rangers receive 1 bonus pip and have 3 regeneration or 1 energy every second. And every other profession receives 2 bonus pips and has 4 regeneration or 4 energy every 3 seconds.
Health regeneration is the same for all characters. It's equal to gaining 2 health every second. Unlike energy regeneration it's not constantly occuring, it only appears when your character is not in active combat. Once a fight is over pips of regeneration will swiftly start to appear on your health bar up to the maximum of 10 or 20 health per second, restoring your health in rapid order.
Health and energy regeneration can also be added through skills. It can also be taken away or turned into negative regeneration or degeneration where your character will steadily lose health or energy over time. Either positive or negative or health or energy, regeneration is limited to a maximum of 10 pips.
What weapons can my character use?
Any character can wield any weapon. Shields, foci, staves, wands, axes, bows, hammers, and swords, there's no requirement or obstacle to equiping anything you find. Not every character can wield every weapon well, though. The best weapons are linked to a character's attributes. Only a character with the appropriate amount in that attribute will be able to get the most out of that equipment. When such requirements are not met, the item will still function it will just function at drastically reduced effectiveness.
What are attributes, how do I use them?
Attributes are the individual disciplines that each profession can train in. Most skills are tied to an attribute level and attributes can be raised every level, so choosing skills that are tied to your chosen attributes is very beneficial. For a thorough discussion on attributes, read this article.
How do I aquire new armor or equipment
Some armor or equipment can be found as drops off of enemies or purchased from outfitters, however most of the higher level armor or weapons will either need to be quested for or crafted. Read this article for information related to crafting.
What are the game controls?
You may find information about game controls here.
What are the different types of damage?
There are 3 categories of damage, with different subdivisions.
Physical: Slashing (swords and axes), Blunt (hammers), Piercing (bows)
Elemental: Fire, Lightning, Cold, Earth
Other: Chaos, Shadow(Dark), Holy(Light)
Does Lightning damage have armor penetration?
No. Lightning damage is just a type of damage, like any other, it has no inherent armor penetration. However, some Air Magic skills do have 25% Armor Penetration. Generally it is listed in the skill's description.
Does Holy damage ignore armor?
No. Holy damage is a damage type. It does not have any inherent armor-ignoring property. However, most undead enemies, and some necromancer armors (necrotic) will take double damage from holy damage. In addition, most smiting prayers spells that do holy damage will ignore armor. This is not listed in the description.
What is Armor Penetration, Armor Ignoring, and how do they work?
Armor penetration and armor ignorance are both ways of reducing the protection a target normally enjoys by wearing armor. While similar there are some differences.
Armor penetration causes your damage to act as if your target was wearing armor of a lesser rating or AL, the amount that armor is reduced is how much penetration your attack has done. When armor is reduced as a percentage, as with Strength or Penetrating Attack, then you reduce that armor by that percentage which will raise your damage. Just how much depends on the armor your target is wearing. If you use an attack skill with a Strength of 10, which will give you 10% armor penetration, against a Warrior you'll be matched up against their 80AL+20AL against physical damage. That's a total of 100AL but your penetration is 10% so you'll inflict damage as if they were wearing 90AL armor. That drop of 10AL means you'll inflict about 12.5% more damage. However, against a caster you'll be hitting 60AL armor. The reduction there is still 10% but that's a difference not of 10AL but 6Al as you'll strike as if they were wearing 54AL armor and you'll raise your damage correspondingly less. The more armor your target has the more you'll increase your damage with percentile armor penetration. However, you'll never do more damage to that more heavily armored target than to the weaker one, you'll just do more compared to what you would have without armor penetration.
If, on the other hand, you use a skill which reduces damage by a set amount, such as Weaken Armor, the armor of your target is wearing isn't a factor. Lowering that Warrior by 20AL with Weaken Armor means you'll hit 80AL armor. Agaisnt a caster you'll hit not 60AL but 40AL. Either way you'll increase the damage you've done by roughly 25%. With non-percentile armor penetration the armor of your target doesn't matter.
Damage that ignores armor doesn't act as though the your target has 0AL or as 100% armor penetration. Instead it acts as if your target had 60AL. An armor rating of 60 is the point at which the listed damage from a weapon or a skill's description will be the damage that you'll actually inflict. Ignoring armor, as with Obsidian Flame, means that if your attack says you'll do 40 points of damage you'll do 40 points of damage regardless of the armor of your target. If ignoring armor meant your target had 0AL then you'd do far more damage than your skill actually says it would because as you raise or lower armor from that 60AL point you raise or lower the percentage of listed damage you'll inflict.