WOW, just got to Kaineng

holy crap have they made PvE harder in Cantha... Im not complaining or saying that they should lower it, but I am curious, what exactly are we supposed to do to get to high enough level to fight all these 20 enemies? Because Shing Jea seems like its to low level to get to a high enough one to combat them. But im also curious, is the entire Cantha area fulyl explorable? Because if so then most of game must take place after u get to 20.

Complete all the quests in Kaieng Center, and you should hit lv. 20 before Vizunah Square.

And yes, Chapter 2 includes much more level 20 content than Chapter 1, because of the number of level 20s transfering over.

Sadly in Factions Cantha is not fully explorable early game. It is all restricted by locked gates. To further add insult to injury the small map size is worsened by the fact that it is not even filled with content. Just download the map from somewhere and see for yourself the amount of area that's just *blank*

Looking at my Tyria Map and Cantha maps on my wall, I'd say there is more unused map space in Chapter 1 then Chapter 2.

I do agree with you that there is not as much mass that you do have access to in Cantha compared to Tyria but the content, quests, etc are far more dense so there is a far more to do in that compacted space.

Once you meet the requirments you can go through those locked gates and get full access. Also in reguards to the the elite missions, alternate access to the elite missions instead of faction control of the cities is in the works so there they will be (in some form not yet not implemented) a way to also access those elite missions with out having to fight for a town.

in short, do your quests/missions first then after finishing the game, only explore out..

Well, thank god for those locked gates, who needs "running to x, 2K" being spammed all day?

No, the awesome sight of a lv 6 player at Dunes of Despair, we cannot do without that in Cantha, closed gates are a brilliant idea imho.

no its not a brilliant idea, try dragging 3 or more characters through the same old tired and boring missions and then you'll see that locked gates after finishing the missions once are a supid idea.
locked gates= disguise that the game has hardly any content except new weapon skins

yep, i did that with my canthan monk and hit lv14 at kaineng.

Just do the kaineng/marketplace quests/areas and you should hit lv20 quick.

Dragged four characters through them and I still think it's a brilliant idea.

My monk is still on Shing Jae (only need to do the second 15 attrb q), just hit level 17. Did all the secondary quests before I choose my secondary (that's about 2 or 3 levels worth of XP).

hehe, now we get "LFG taxi/ferry" spammed all day in house zu heltzer and cavalon

I'm doing my 5th char around now and i dont see a problem with gates, i dont like runners, factions does get a bit boring but if you run thru all of it whats the point in buying the game, i'd rather have to grind a bit at the start than have the game full of noob wammos again spamming "LEET 100% DROK RUNZOR 5k!!".

Lewis and Clark were about to reach Misouri when they encountered a great gate before them. A sign on the great gate said," Stupid noobs. Quit running and spoiling it for everyone else." The expedition then decided to return from where it came, build a farm and wait until it was their time to see the rest of the continent.

You'll enjoy it doing the stuff (at least initially). The trick is once you've played through the game, get all of your other characters to Cavalon and House zu Helzter while you've still got 10k faction from your first character. This way all of them will be able to get immediate access to the Luxon and Kurzick areas if you don't want to do all of the quests. While you can run down into the valley at a point (as soon as you open the Skyway, you can't explore too much further until you do the missions for that character. The best you can do is go into Arborstone explorable from the top and die with more Luxon faction than Kurzick faction. The cable car will not work for you until you've done the quests/missions to that point, but because you can't rez at the Kurzick shrine, you will rez down in the larger portion of Aborstone, which you can then explore. You can also enter Altruim Ruins from there. That's about as far as you can 'explore' if you don't do the missions.

Sunjiang District would be kind of like Sanctum Cay except unlike Sanctum Cay you have to do all the missions prior to it before going to Cavalon/House zu Heltzer. Once you get down to Cavalon and/or House zu Heltzer, you pretty much have free reign. Think of Gyala Hatchery and Eternal Grove as THK, where you have to pass them to get to the final areas.

If you're like I was in Prophecies and explored all the way into the shiverpeaks before doing the missions, then according to the majority opinion here you appear to be wrong and 'not playing the game'.. Enjoy, its really a great game. and yeah, I have Canthan Grandmaster Cartographer (100%) :-)

Also, please don't do what I have seen and afk some of these missions (such as Vizunah) on your second+ characters in order to get a ride through if you don't want to do it again. People that are doing it for the first time probably find it quite frustrating.

To the Op, Blae, I leveled up four characters in GW, so I know what I'm doing sortof. But I started an assassin in Factions and also felt a bit of a shock when I hit the city at level 17. I felt like I had gone from being an adventurer to being turned into a rat in a maze filled with very hungry cats.

In my case, I simply went up to Center and went over to Tyria where I leveled up to 20 in comfort. Then came back and did all the quests in the city.

I think the jump in pve difficulty between the island and the city is too steep for some players, the city difficulty level really being designed for level 20players coming over from Tyria.

I cheer for this post. I too am an explorer first and could care less about missions in comparison

I like facitons but locked gates just suck.


I just want to wander around freely, its not as if the story is so compelling or complex I need to do it three times to figure it out and fully appreciate it.

I don't mind the runners trying to make a buck or two but, if that lvl 6 in Dunes thinks he's getting on my team to do the mission he/she is sadly mistaken.

The Canthan mainland drove me nuts with it's multi-tiered map but I stuck with it and did as many secondary quests as I could find and gradually worked my way out. My second toon only did primary quests to get to each of the mission sites and I am enjoying the game a lot more.

most the quests in the mainland has 1000+ exp each some offered 3000 exp. By finishing all the quests in Kaineng Center, you should reach level 20 before you reach the first mission area.

i agreed with cyril and cybernigma

i play rpg games for a very long time, and one of the first things that dragged me to guild wars was the world to explore vast and rewardin, but cantha was a turndown, since i pay the same for less content, at least in explorable and rewards. its sad.
id probably wait to see third chapter before thinkin of buyin it.

my personal opinion is that the gates are about the worst thing thats ever happened to GW. i am all for runners (im currently sitting in druids overlook looking for a jungle taxi with one of my new factions chars). that said, yes i played through the silly and boring kaineng/marketplace quests the first time with my warrior, and yes im playing through them on my mes, rit, sin, monk- havent started the ele yet. i definately agree you should do it yourself the first time through, but if i had the option to run the latter 5 characters through the entire map, id certainly take it and smile the whole way.

i feel pretty much the same way on canthan PvE. i like that its difficult and i wouldnt change anything about it (cept for the unreal damage some bosses do), but i really dont feel like having to go through those areas on 6 characters just to get to the armor i want. the missions i dont mind being a requirement, its grinding through the hordes of am fah, jade, afflicted, wardens, luxxons/kurzicks, etc, etc that get on my nerves so much.

yeah locked gates are annoying when your trying to help a friend out, but i suppose they've made it kinda fairer, it always annoyed me when i heard people owning others in low level arenas because of armor.

But what if they, 1 day into their journey, met an indian who offered them "running whole of america, 5k, 100% guaranteed arrival... 3k at Mt. Hood show money first plz" Would they still be "great explorers"?
(at which point Lewis turns to clark and says: "i'm gonna run of and die so i can watch ^^")

I think the correct term you were searching for was Fire Water... :-) I think in their case they would turn off trade and local chat, then proceed with their exploration...

Word. I totally agree with everything you have said and it is a pain in the arse; I have fallen in love with the Luxon 15k armor but it is apparently going to be a chore getting to the Pits. Thank goodness the character going there is a level 20 elementalist. It kind of sucks though for the new players who bought both Factions + Prophecies who are at Lion's Arch and cannot explore the rest of Cantha due to their level. ._.;

And I am all for runners. It is a great way of making money, methinks. (Although I have never had a warrior before myself, but it looks like they could rack in quite a bit of money for their new weapons, armors, and whatnot. =p)