08 Mar 2005 at 03:02 - 16
Getting weapons is a matter of either buying them from another human player who found it (and he'll rip you off if he can like in any other MMO) or finding it yourself by killing things. There is no way to buy or craft your weapons from NPC traders.
To get armours, you simply take the right crafting materials and a bit of gold to the crafter and he will make you the type of armour you select. You can only make armour that is specific to your class and as soon as you get it, it is customized to you (it's like a money sink - so you can't give your old stuff to newbs). Armour crafters in different locations make different armours or different leveled armours. For instance, if I buy my armour from Lion's Arch, it will be level 15, but if I get it from Ascalon, it will all be level 5 armour, and from Ventari's Dell, it will be level 20 (there will probably be lots of level 20 armour traders... and the level on your armour doesn't matter at all... Any level can wear level 20 armour but you must have gotten to the crafter to get it - that's why customizing is important - no newbs wearing level 20 armour).
The unit of currency is the Gold coin, however playing in Guild Wars seem to like to barter a lot more than in other games because crafting materials are always a hot item. You can make your own armour out of them or you can jack up the price and sell it to someone else if it's not for your class (warriors use iron ingots a lot, rangers use hides a lot, etc.)
You probably don't know about upgrade components so i'll get to that real quick... Upgrade components are things that you can put on your weapon or armour to make them better. Armour upgrade components are generally just runes - which will boost an attribute a little bit (at the cost of HP). Weapon upgrades are things like Bow Grips and Bow Strings, Hammer Hafts and Grips, Sword Pummels and Hilts, and so on. Upgrade components can do anything from changing your damage from physical to an elemental type to giving you energy every time you hit someone to giving you a tiny boost in defence.
Salvaging items is another big thing in Guild Wars. If you find a drop and you don't want it (or you can't use it without salvaging it), then you need to salvage it. You can buy a Salvage kit from the outfitters which are scattered around town for about 10 gold. Using a Normal Salvage kit (as opposed to an expert one) will give you back some of the raw materials used in the item. This is how people collect all their hides or iron ingots to make armour. Salvaging items with an Expert Salvage kit can sometimes give you much better things such as upgrade components for your weapons, or even runes for your armour which can greatly increase your effectiveness ... but they cost 40 gp each (and both of them only have 25 uses). There are also Identification Kits but I myself am not exactly sure what these are for... It's something to do with uncovering hidden attributes on weapons but I don't know the finer points - i never use the things (40 gp for 5 uses is a bit steep)