So let me get this straight..

Ok.. so you acquire new skills and stuff by doing quests? and max level is 20.. so lets say a person is lvl 20 and stops playing the game for 3 months and comes back.. will he still be able to put up a challenge with veteran level 20's that have better weapons and what not..? if anyone has played freedom force vs the third reich online with 6k balance.. is this simliar to that?

Yes he will still be able to compete after a long time of being away. Another level 20 with better items won't make much of a difference in difficulty.
Anet did a good job at handling "Uber" items.. They really aren't too much better than things you can craft. Most of the uber items are aesthetic, not really meant to make you better. Look better yes, Be better no(Most of the time.)

so umm whats the point of playing the game everyday or whenever your free? when you can just play once a month and still be the same as anyone that plays everyday.. weird system they designed..

I suppose the point of playing every day would be because you enjoy doing so, not just for the sake of being better than someone else.

Spooky beat me to saying it

Oh, there can be a multitude of reasons. To make your character look better(Dye it, Mix/match sets, etc), Customize some equipment, Do the latest quests, Hang out with your friends, Go own some people in the Arenas, Get with your guild and do some GvG and up your guild's position on the ladder, You know... Just stuff.

Once you play, if you find youself wanting to play every day, the answer will surely be before you.

I have no choice but to get this game cuz I cant afford wow with there stupid system of paying everymonth.. thats pretty lame.. i hope this game lives up to the hype

Kinda like an FPS or RTS.

While we often put these games under the heading of "Role Playing Game", they're really character advancement games. If that's what you enjoy, then perhaps Guild Wars will not give you the experience you're looking for.

After perhaps 40 hours, you can have a level 20 character. Your equipment should be pretty good, but obviously not "the best". You will not be able to get level 21, no matter how long you play.

So why do we do it then? Character advancement, for the player of Guild Wars, should be a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. If it is, the well will soon run dry.

We play because we enjoy the gameplay itself. There is no grind. There is no camping. There is no pointless wandering and waiting for groups just to "get some xp" which might easily be lost again.

There are missions. There are freeform zones to wander and explore. There is a storyline, and you can feel like you're part of it.

This isn't to say that there is no progress to be made after level 20. All of the content in the expansions will be geared towards level 20 characters. The gameplay dynamic is what's important here, not character advancement. What you will be able to do, however, as you continue to play is add more skills, play around with the skills and attributes that you already have, and recraft your character to your heart's content. If your group already has a healer, and you're a healer, you can leverage your other abilities, or change your skill-set entirely to more effectively use the different skills you've decided to pack. So you're not buying yourself "power", but flexability so you can synergystically leverage your enlarging set of skills.

IIRC, you should be able to change your secondary class once you've attained level 20 as well (though I'm not sure how this works).

In the end, it's important to "Know Thyself".

Well said Spooky, well said indeed. And that just makes me want to play it more.

Some people will try and collect every skill in the game which will be a time consuming undertaking since skills get more costly to obtain as you get more of them. So This will definatly eat up some time.

p.s. once you unlock a skill its available to you forever you can use it on any pvp characters you make that are of that class.

I can tell you how PvE is. During the BWE I rushed everything. 3 Days and I was in Lions Arc. I went through quite alot, but skipped so very much. Wednesday morning im going to stay in Pre-Searing Ascalon, and I am not going leave Pre-Searing until every mission is done, and Gwen is spoiled to the most you can spoil her.

This could take 2 days. The game has plenty of missions to keep you going, also there is other things to do like seek upgrades.

And then you can just go PvP untill you are a high ranked rooster that fits in with the other great birds.

Also there is dancing around and flirting with the chicks and finding out they are guys (Ewww!) you know the usual.


Its not about being able to beat people, its about having fun.

What are the groups like. Are they some group you find walking around or they your clan or guild?

Between each mission is a meeting area. There are tons of people standing around in there waiting to do the mission.

In the early betas, it was easy to get a team. During the last few, however, the stuck-upness(tm) started to creep in and I started having trouble finding teams when my friends weren't on.

If you don't have a guild or friends you plan on playing with you might want to either try getting into a large guild or playing a Monk or Warrior primary. Especially Monks have no problem finding pickup teams.

This is what I want to know. When you reach level 20 is there always going to be some really good person walking by. Like in WoW I was level 27 but I always saw lvl 60's going by. Is it going to be like this?

No, L20 is max. However, don't ever expect good random pickup teams in these games. The mere fact that they are randomly picking up people to play with (unless they are desperate for a monk) means that the group will probably wipe.

Just either play a monk or get into a large guild; then you'll not have problems finding groups. Being good yourself is always a given e.g. don't play a Mesmer Primary DPS build or something that will get you a bad rep.

What I mean is, if I were to reach level 20 would I become not the top but the same as everyone else, (just as good with the exception of proffesion differences)?

Is it the quests that keep getting harder and harder but not you? Not the tireless treadmile of leveling that makes you so utterly tired?

You'd be the same power as everyone else as long as you had the top armor and a decent weapon/focus which isn't all that hard to do... few more levels after 20 if you saved-up should do it.

Now, skill is another matter. If you suck, you'll get booted most likely since this game is not easy higher up. This goes for being in a guild or just trying to go for a pickup group.