How many are like me?

Hey everyone. I've been playing Guild Wars for about 7 months or so and when I'm playing I either use henchies or solo 100% of the time. I have only been in a group once and that was to get a run to Piken Square by a friend of mine who doesn't play anymore.

As a result, I probably have about 10% of the knowledge of GW in general versus your typical regular player even though I have a level 15, 12, 11 and numerous other characters that I have played and deleted. I see people in towns with equipment that I have never seen before on a daily basis. People sell and talk about items that I didn't even know existed. I nearly soiled myself about a month ago when I saw a character covered from head to toe with tatoos for the first time. I mean, what the hell is an ecto? And Lion's Arch sure is neat, I just made it there last night

Naturally, when you play alone in your own little world you are completely oblivious to everything outside of your own experiences. But now I don't even want to join a group and end up being a liability to everyone else because I may do things completely outside of the norm or not know what something means like the guy that just got a character off ebay. It's fun playing alone and I like doing my own thing but I'm not sure I can see and do everything you are supposed to with just henchmen and it sure makes it harder to learn new things.

Anyway, I was just curious as to how many others out there are like me?

I have played the vast majority of GW either solo or with henchies - I just find it more enjoyable that way.

However, I also spend a fair bit of time on these boards...it's a great place to start learning about that missing 90%.

i play with henchies and there are some very rough spots which a good real live group is almost necessary.

having said that save up your gold and armor salvage materials for the Droknars Forge armor which will boost your life expectancy a lot.

second is to find a good runner (can recommend this one)

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=56099

then you are free to go back to places you missed or see what is around each of the spots on the map that you opened on the run

this way you can avoid (if you want) having to join a group to advance to see more

i dont want to *beat* the game i just want to be a tourist and explore

I spent about 60% of the time doing it with henches for all my PvE characters. I played with pugs when the game started when most of the people were new.

I'm with swehurn. I play with henchies or a couple of close friends almost all of the time. Reading forums or other game sites helps with learning all the ins and outs though.

I want to play with Swampgirl!

Buddy, I feel you're missing out on a LOT this game has to offer if:

a). you've never played with a PUG, and
b). you've only played it up to Lion's Arch.

In fact, as you proceed to the later stages of the game, you will probably start feeling the need for playing in PUGs. It is definitely *possible* to play the entire game using henchies, but it's bound to get a little hard towards the end, and no fun at all.

With the increase of henchie AI... the need for a PUG is becoming less and less.

I to am like you (but a lot further in the game) I solo, go with guildmates or henchie. I was running myself around the desert last night. kinda fun being just me vs THEM and I ended up somewhere with huge giants and LOTS of spiders and crap popping up from out of nowhere... I read up on this forum to remain up to date and I feel I do play well in PUG groups when I join them.

I used to quest with henchies since the first BWE but when the game came out i kept getting more and more frustrated by stupid and dumb henchmen and there weren't good groups around, as a result, i quit the game i had loved since beta, in my eyes it was no longer what it once wasn't (it still isn't, actually)I liked PvP, but how far can you get with a char which has only finished half of the game? Not far, i can tell you.
Recently a friend of mine started playing again and wanted me to try too, i had nothing to do at the time so i thought what the heck i'll just try it, at first i had the same old problem: boring and lame PvE, but i had gotten some more info on the later parts of the game(desert, etc) and how to get there quick, so i just kept playing until i had a fair amount of skills and a lvl 20 char, now i'm mostly TRYING to do PvP :P but i still need some practise though, it's been a long time, and tombs has changed a lot :P

This game won't be enjoyable at some parts when soloing(as i did) i suggest you either go to Sanctum Cay and skip past the Jungle(especially the Wilds and surroundings) or do them real quick(if you wanna know the story)

BTW: i had a hard time doing Elona's Reach with PUG's but with henchies i went through with no sweat and 7 mins left. 1-0 for henchmen! :P

Some of the best times that I've had on GW are playing missions with random PUG's, kicking @$$ on missions and going on to the next mission and doing the same thing. I've made a few good friends this way and it makes the game more interesting to be able to play with those friends/guild mates.

I find that I do quests with henchies and missions with PUG's. You will definitely need good PUG's when you get to later parts of the game. I totally agree with angshuman.

To add. You join a guild to get their help not to be a liability. A good guild is there to teach the in's and out's and looks for players like you. I know many guilds that look to recruit new players.

Like mine, TheFaithkeeper

Anyway I'm quite the opposite - I avoid using henchies as much I can. True, I meet a lot of jerks and crybabes thru PUGs but I've met some terrific and cool players. Yin and Yang sort of thing really.

I do like to explore and its difficult to find people who are willing to help me 'mapping' an area (clearing up fogged spaces as much as I can) so I often wind up using henchies for those. I got the entire game mapped up to Ettin's Back (is that the right name? the one with Ventari's Refuge stop). Right now my most advanced character is at Ring of Fire so I plan to finish all of those missions then go back and map the rest of the 'world'.

I tend to use Henchies most of the time. They don't care if you took a wrong turn or get them all killed. If you do a quest and don't want to walk to the next outpost, they don't mind if you leave them. They're very self sufficient.

Also part of the reason you haven't encountered a lot of the things you've heard about is because you have a long way to go to get to the best parts of the game. Keep on slugging!

Hi,

It kinda sounds like you are playing guildwars in *Single Player* mode, which is perfectly ok but I'm not sure how you ended up doing this? Did you ever try to join a party?

Having played the game from start to finish as part of a random PUG I can certainly understand why one would choose to only play with henchies lol

But aside from the many idiots and rude personsin general, there are some great players out there who u may never meet because u don't party, and after all GW *is* a multiplayer game so why not give it a shot?

It's nice to meet cool people, and u can add them to your friends list, and at some point you could join/create a guild. .

Nothing wrong with what your doing, but I don't see why you don't mix it up a bit and through yourself in there, don't worry about lack of knowledge, you will soon pick it up. .

to the person who started the thread, although pug i believe pug is a part of important experience in this game. but if u get annoyed or frustrated easily, pug will definately piss u off ^_^

Well... im kinda like you, i play with henchies till about south silverpeaks and then i play with them about 75.33% of the time...

I know basic knowledge about things but i no longer feel the need to keep uptodate with whats big on the market and i have no clue what people are talking about in the trade channal " SB 30 < 50%, 10/10, yada, yada, yada"... um what? Strong Bad is 30 but less than 50% with a 10% chance of seeing the yada,yada,yada seinfeld episode?... as you can see im totaly clueless to the trading world...

Definately join PuGs if you've only gotten to Lion's Arch after 7 months of play. The fun begins later. To give you idea of what you've played, and what there is left - Lion's Arch is about 20% of the game.

Like some of the people above, I must say that some of the greatest experiences I have had in the game come from playing with PuGs. It doesn't matter that you've never partied with a group before. You'll learn the ups and downs of groups soon enough, and enjoy the game much more for it.

C selects your closets target. You probably know that. Its much easier than trying to click. You can TAB through the other mobs.

You might not know that you can call your target by holding CTRL and hitting SPACE. You can also call lots of other things by holding CTRL and clicking on them. Health, energy, what weapon you're holding, what hex, condition or enchantment you have on you, CTRL+1 to call your first skill, CTRL click what the monster is using.

The most underused feature is the T button. This handy item will select the monster that your teamate just targeted and called with CTRL+C. Unlike henchies, PUG groups tend to attack random targets. T is your friend.

Also, learn how to use the minimap effectively. Circle a patrol, draw a line from them along their path, draw a perpendicular line to where you want the party to engage. A few straight lines over the same area denote to stay behind that line.

Those are a few off the top of my head that will get you up to speed on your local friendly PUG.

I think the very first post I made on this forum was asking how in the world do you find a good party to do a quest or mission with. I was so frustrated at that time because all the PUGs that I joined were terrible. At that time I started playing my first character, a mesmer, mostly with henchies.

Today, I still play a lot with henchies only when I feel like trying out new builds or doing a bit of SF farming at my own pace. But the reason why I still am playing this game after finishing it with 4 characters is because of the human interaction, which I find extremely entertaining. I try to play with good team spirit, in a nice and humorous manner; instead of just performing missions and farm tours, I try to make the tour as much fun for everyone as possible. Because of this my playing partner and I have accumulated a good list of "friends" who we often party with. But each time we go out, we usually wind up taking some new people to fill out the party, and if they also are nice and fun, we add each other to our friends list. In short, it is this "multiplayer" aspect of GW that I now find extremely enjoyable, and without it I wouldn't be still playing this game.

It is even a lot of fun to get into a bad PUG once in a while. A PUG that is bad either because of one or two bad apples in the group, or because the entire group is just hopeless at playing like a team. I wouldn't want to do this all the time, but it is very amusing and entertaining to get into such groups once in a while. I just laugh, do my best, and move on afterwards.

i try to play with real peeps were its possible. so if i have a quest my first shout is: "Someone wants to do quest xyz?"

If none replies after a few shouts, i do quest with henchies.