Argh! This game is hard! - Page 2 - Guild Wars Forums

Wyndy · Jan 03, 2012, 02:33 PM // 14:33

No one has mentioned this here, but the place for a new person to start this game is not EOTN, Factions or Nightfall. All new players and that includes people that find this game counter inuitive, need to start in Prophecies. That is the tutorial.

**cosyfiep** · Jan 03, 2012, 02:36 PM // 14:36

prophecies had the best (easiest) learning curve and pre-searing was a great learning area... after that nightfall has a pretty good learning curve (minus the stupid sunspear points)...and some of the easier quest progressions to follow. Eye has the WORST progressions especially for a new person!

Skyy High · Jan 03, 2012, 02:50 PM // 14:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cravenmagic

Well somehow I did overlook the armor thing... I was focused on what to do in the fight, not before it.
Most guides I have been reading tell me to do EotN first, then NF>factions>Proph. But none of these guides mentioned more than a footnote about armor, they just said "go do teh quests!".

FWIW, there is max armor available in the first outpost in EotN, as well as in Kaineng Center, which you had to have gone to in order to get to EotN.

Quote:

I'll still say this game is seriously not intuitive.

Anyone else find it hilarious that traditional MMOs have brainwashed players into thinking that it's more "intuitive" for the heavy armored (but otherwise useless) tank character to be able to verbally abuse all non-sentient monsters into attacking him, than for said monsters to automatically try to attack the weakest members of your party first?

Quote:

I mean I will read the wiki, and have a bit, but I have not found the section (if there is one) that lays out the step by step progression to learning how to play this game. And again the game should seriously do this but so far it feels more like the game gives me some options as to what I do next but then doesn't explain them (like which armor set to get, there are apparently many? and the only difference is a name and the look but they are the same grade?"

"Hold my hand more, please"? C'mon mate, this wasn't rocket science; if you were dying constantly, your first thought should have been "Am I protected enough?". I can't see any logical way that you can blame the game for this.

Furthermore, you're trying to follow a guide, and you failed at it; you're not supposed to go to EotN first. More than likely, the guide you've been following has been a "How to get to 30/50 in your HoM ASAP" style guide that is meant for current players (or written by a current player who has lost touch with how new players learn the game). EotN's content is the hardest PvE content in the game. If you go there and you don't know what you're doing, you'll get your butt kicked (and if you think the minotaurs are hard, you're not going to make any progress in that campaign).

Go back to Kaineng, buy max armor, play through Factions (or Nightfall). Come back to EotN when you know more about the game so you don't get killed. Numbers aren't enough in this game; if you don't know what you're doing, how to build a good skillbar, and how to use it, you won't be able to succeed for very long.

PurpleFlamingo · Jan 03, 2012, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Let's see your skillbar and your heroes' skillbars

Kendil · Jan 03, 2012, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Since the armor thingy is out of the way, the next step should be your teambuild.

Koss, Dunkoro, Olias, Ogden Stonehealer, Vekk, Gwen, and MOX and a rit.

Melee AI is pretty dumb, so you can't expect koss and mox to do anything right.
Your necro should have something like jagged bones, animate bone minions and death nova + additional skills. You should have Dwaynas sorrow on someone as well, preferably on one of your monks.
Mesmers are solid, get these two in your teambuild asap and stuff should be easier.
If you split the support on several heroes then you don't really need a generic healer, but since you don't have much else then take 1 monk as a generic healer and the other as a smiter with RoJ. http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Mo/Me_UA_Healer_Hero and http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Mo/any_PvE_Smiter
As for your ele, you could run a prot http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:E/Mo_ER_Prot_Hero and dump your Mo healer for another RoJ smiter, or you could run several searing flames E/Mo with Aegis + Prot spirit/spirit bond on them for aditional support. There's 2 more ele heroes pretty early in the NF campaign, so I suggest you go get them and ditch koss and mox.

I explained in a not so newbie friendly way, if you need something explained please ask

Cravenmagic · Jan 03, 2012, 09:18 PM // 21:18

Right O then, back to Factions and then Nightfall.
And to clear up why I never upgraded armor much, and to make myself look less dumb on that point, after playing way too much WoW years ago I look at armor to see what +/- it will give me towards attributes. IE in GW attributes are not found on armor, so getting better armor does not allow me a bigger mana pool etc.

I am a caster, so why would armor matter to me? I just stand behind a group and snipe and cast spirits to help out right?
Well apparently not...

-- Holding a wand or staff as opposed to martial weapons such as a sword, bow, or scythe creates additional aggro. Only applies to allies within the foe's aggro range.
-- Having lower armor and/or health than team mates. Accordingly, having higher health/armor will have the opposite effect. Only applies to allies within the foe's aggro range.

Well crap, alright then.
Though I leved a character in each campaign from 1-12 (all of which are lvl 20 now) and the game never explained this to me... Again I am a point A to point B person, so now I go get armor, time to google cheapest max armor for me and my heros (yeah they are in the wiki, but ot doesn't explain the differences between them much cost wise)

But point taken, I'll take my (lvl 20) Rit and go back to Factions to learn skills and upgrade stuff. And the friend who convinced me to pick this game up has since stopped playing it... so yeah I'd be interested in a new guild since the one I am attached to is bone dry of players.

MisterB · Jan 03, 2012, 09:46 PM // 21:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cravenmagic

Again I am a point A to point B person, so now I go get armor, time to google cheapest max armor for me and my heros (yeah they are in the wiki, but ot doesn't explain the differences between them much cost wise)

But point taken, I'll take my (lvl 20) Rit and go back to Factions to learn skills and upgrade stuff. And the friend who convinced me to pick this game up has since stopped playing it... so yeah I'd be interested in a new guild since the one I am attached to is bone dry of players.

Upgrading hero armor is unnecessary; hero armor upgrades only change the visual appearance and unlock reward points in the Hall of Monuments. The heroes automatically acquire armor rating when they level up.

Try looking through the guild recruitment section of Guru if you are interested in joining a new guild.

Kendil · Jan 03, 2012, 09:46 PM // 21:46

You don't need to upgrade your heroes armor, they upgrade it through level; you can just change their apperance.

The wiki do say pretty explit what each armor costs. Go here: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rit_armor and then you pick one of the non-prestige armors Shing jea - luxon (the one you like best, or all of them for that matter). And you should come to a page like this (luxon as an example): http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ritualist_Luxon_armor It says exactly what the armor costs. 5k, 200 Bolt(s) of Cloth, 32 Vial(s) of Ink, 24 Jadeite Shard(s) You just have to look up the costs at a trader/the current player market in game. These armorsets usually cost ~15k total.

You can in fact upgrade your armor with various runes and insignias.

I'd say you should do the nf story first because it will give you access to more heroes Norgu, Master of Whispers and Razah are pretty important.

BrettM · Jan 03, 2012, 09:56 PM // 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cravenmagic

Again I am a point A to point B person, so now I go get armor, time to google cheapest max armor for me and my heros (yeah they are in the wiki, but ot doesn't explain the differences between them much cost wise)

(On a side note: Feel free to ignore some of the harsher comments in this thread. IMHO, you don't deserve that sort of treatment just for being sent off on a wrong track by advice not meant for a player in your position.)

True, the information about the effects on aggro of holding a caster weapon vs. martial weapon and of armor/health relative to team-mates is not explained anywhere in game. For that matter, I don't believe there's any official ANet source outside the game, such as a manual, that explains this information. Players had to work this stuff out for themselves by long observation. OTOH, it isn't really essential to know for an average player working his way through his first campaign.

You won't have to worry about buying armor for your heroes. Hero armor levels with them, and will automatically have max rating for their profession when they reach level 20. The only thing you need to do to hero armor is to apply the desired runes and insignia.

For yourself, start with the Ritualist Armor on the wiki. Anything labeled "Elite" or "Prestige" is going to be very expensive, but has no statistical advantages over other max armor, so you can just cross these off your list for now. This leaves you a choice of seven sets. All seven sets cost the exact same amount in cash (5,000g for a full set), but differ in the required materials. Shing Jea, Canthan, Exotic, and Imperial require the cheapest materials and are available at max rating in the Kaineng City area. Max Canthan armor is also available in Boreal Station. That should make it easier for you to choose.

Porkchop Sandwhiches · Jan 03, 2012, 10:23 PM // 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cravenmagic

-- Holding a wand or staff as opposed to martial weapons such as a sword, bow, or scythe creates additional aggro. Only applies to allies within the foe's aggro range.
-- Having lower armor and/or health than team mates. Accordingly, having higher health/armor will have the opposite effect. Only applies to allies within the foe's aggro range.

Yeah this isn't something very obvious when you first start out. But, after you upgrade your armor and runes you will be much better off and you won't really have to worry as much about what type of weapon you are wielding.

Once you get back into Factions just follow the main quest line for that campaign (the one that shows up in your journal as "Primary") to progress with the story line, it will give you a sense of direction. When you get to the end of the story line you also get some goodies (a free max weapon and new armor sets become available).

Glad you are sticking with it!

Cravenmagic · Jan 03, 2012, 10:54 PM // 22:54

Ah k, so I do not NEED to buy armor for heros, somewhere I read you were supposed to, must have been for the HoM stuff or something?

But good to know, and special thanks to BrettM and Kendil for the armor advise(I did see those pages but I somehow missed the table at the bottom comparing prices >.< )

OK I am set to go now, but I'll be back, just a little less whine next time, promise ^_-

Wenspire · Jan 03, 2012, 11:21 PM // 23:21

Just be careful with your selection of runes you decide to use on your characters as Superior and Major attribute runes have a negative impact on your HP and do not stack in terms of effect. For PvE, I would say no more than 1 Superior or Major attribute rune per character. People's opinions vary in this matter, so that's just my $0.02.

Star_Jewel · Jan 04, 2012, 12:41 AM // 00:41

To clarify a little bit about armor: All the various types used to make a difference -- the different styles inherently offered different armor bonuses. But I guess for the sake of aesthetics, they dumped that and introduced the insignia system so you could put whatever bonus you like on your favorite armor style.
That's why there are so many.

You can mix and match pieces from different styles to create whatever unique look you want.

Kaida the Heartless · Jan 04, 2012, 09:24 AM // 09:24

The basic (unmodified) Armor only adjusts Armor value, which is a percentage reduction on damage you take (all damage). The only exception are pants and leg pieces, which add +1 energy regeneration (per piece), and you will never find this stat anywhere else except skills (which can do + or -) or weapons/offhands (which will only ever do -). Warriors and Paragons will not have the +1 energy regeneration on their pieces, and Rangers will only have the +1 on their pants.

On the armor, you can add a Rune and an Insignia. These add things like +attributes, +hp, +armor, and +energy. These (both) are bought at Rune Traders.

Weapons can also have these stats and they are gained from three different parts per weapon. Wands have two parts, as do shields and offhands. Staves have 3 parts as well, and they come with inherent modifiers that you cannot change. I'd advise you to look this information up on the wiki, as I cannot put all of it here.

Now, there are several factors that determine aggro in Guild Wars. They are:
- Distance to monster/obstacles in the way
- Total Armor
- Current Health
- Enchantments/Buffs/Etc.
- Debuffs
- Total Health
- Initial Aggro

In just about that order, greatest to least.

The tricky part is getting a feel for when you'll gain/lose Aggro because all of these values are constantly being calculated and acted upon at once. You might have lower armor and health than an ally, but the aggro might stay on them because they are closer. Other times, something might tick the monster off and you will get attacked. It's part of what makes you stay on your toes. Think of it more as a method of increasing or lowering your chances, not a set of calculated numbers you can watch to make sure you never get attacked.

With this said, run a "Minion Master (Necro Class)" in your party. They are great for taking aggro. Also, run a skill called "Protective Spirit (Monk)". It's great for making those punches hurt less on a squishy ally when they do get attacked.

If you have any further questions, you can PM me ingame. Name is the same. Good luck!

Zebideedee · Jan 04, 2012, 09:47 AM // 09:47

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this as a lot of posts and haven't read them all. Be sure to use individual flags for each of your heroes (well the top three at least). If you have them all flagged in the same place means any aoe damage will decimate your party.

shillo · Jan 04, 2012, 01:22 PM // 13:22

Actually, there is a very intuitive way to understand the GW aggro system. It goes like this: The monsters are trying to kill you.

Monsters use the same AI as the henchmen and heroes (although their AI is deliberately weaker in normal mode, with fully tweaked AI in the hard mode). It will prioritize targets by value, scatter and kite on damage and use CC off-target when opportunity arises. The most easily exploitable weakness of this AI is that it will tend to give more priority to the summoned creatures than it should.

But in general, if you just treat monsters as you would treat PvP opponents, you will not be too wrong most of the time.

As for the gear, max AR armors and max damage weapons are trivial to get. However, runes, insignias and weapon mods do matter, and you need different ones with different builds; there is no rule for this, you will simply need to play the game enough to learn this stuff.

Finally, the game is not about filling up the Hall of Monuments, it's about completing the four storylines. In the course of doing that, the game does build an understanding for how it's supposed to be played. Even if you joined GW primarily to fill the Hall, you will -still- need to play through the game at least once in every continent, just to learn the game mechanics.

And yes, Zebideedee's advice is great - you need to learn flagging quickly. Bind the flag commands to keys, so you can disperse the heroes by tapping 4 keys and clicking on the ground in a quick succession.

KotCR · Jan 04, 2012, 03:16 PM // 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wenspire

JFor PvE, I would say no more than 1 Superior or Major attribute rune per character. People's opinions vary in this matter, so that's just my $0.02.

Yeah. If one Superior Rune is okay, then two Major Runes should be okay also. As one Superior is -75HP, two Majors are a total of -70HP (-35 each). Majors are actually alot more useful than people give them credit for at reaching skill breakpoints at minimal loss to health (whereas when people use Superior, it's generally not to reach skill breakpoints as much as just a case of trying to max out on damage or defense or healing).

Personally, what Runes you should use depends on class aswell. For example, classes that are reliant on only two attributes for effective builds from their profession are probably better off with one Superior Rune and minors for the rest.

For superior rune usage, examples would be Elementalist, who tend to run Energy Storage and only a single Elemental line (the Superior would be on the Elemental line, minor on anything else you use) - or Warrior, who tend to use Strength and only a single Weapon line (in which case you'd use the Superior on your weapon line).
N.B. Though to be fair Warriors are a bit special here and generally have little use of a Superior Rune here aswell as their skills don't tend to revolve around breakpoints for any significant increase in effectiveness, so infact the only other Superior Rune you'd use other than Vigor for unconditional +50HP (which everyone should have) is Superior Absorption, which also provides a strong bonus (-3 damage reduction) with no drawbacks (unlike other Superior Runes, it doesn't lower health).

Major Rune usage is more beneficial for classes that are reliant on three or more attributes lines for effective builds from their profession (generally due to a very high reliance on their primary attribute to be effective), or classes that have many skill breakpoints they need to reach in multiple attribute lines.

Examples would be Paragon who will always be running a weapon line (typically Spear), significant scores in Leadership and then another significant score in whatever support line they choose (either Motivation, or Command or something from a secondary profession), or Ranger who will similiarly always be running a weapon line (typically Bow), a significant score in Expertise and then another significant score in a support line (either Wilderness Survival, Beast Mastery, or something from a secondary profession). In these cases you'd have a Major Rune on your primary attribute (Leadership/Expertise), a major rune on either your weapon or support line (depending on the focus of the build), and minor for the rest...with a Superior Vigor again of course.

Most of the other professions could come under either category though, depending on build at the time, as they aren't reliant on high scores in more than two attributes to be effective (usually just their Primary Attribute plus one other line, though in some cases you might ignore your primary for the most part and still spec to a significant amount in only two lines - such as Mesmers using say, Domination and Inspiration only), but typically tend to run scores in at least three attribute lines in thier builds anyway (in the Mesmer example again, Fast Casting + Domination or Illusion + Inspiration, is an example of a common attribute distribution, though a good score in Fast Casting isn't as crucial as one in Leadership or Expertise for effectiveness).

Though if in doubt, just stick to Minors (or Vitae) with Superior Vigor. Especially when it comes to Runeing heroes that you desparetly need to keep safe from the enemy (typically Monks and Ritualists - your healers).

That's my $2 on Runes. As was said, it comes down to personal preference

.

Kendil · Jan 04, 2012, 05:28 PM // 17:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cravenmagic

Ah k, so I do not NEED to buy armor for heros, somewhere I read you were supposed to, must have been for the HoM stuff or something?

Yes, that is needed for the monument of fellowship, but hero armor isn't used for anything else besides being cosmetic.

Azure Aesthetics · Jan 05, 2012, 02:08 AM // 02:08

Also very useful for me, a newbie of Ritualist. Especially the aggro system I really confused before

Ok Dont Panic · Jan 05, 2012, 06:28 AM // 06:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cravenmagic

Ah k, so I do not NEED to buy armor for heros, somewhere I read you were supposed to, must have been for the HoM stuff or something?

But good to know, and special thanks to BrettM and Kendil for the armor advise(I did see those pages but I somehow missed the table at the bottom comparing prices >.< )

OK I am set to go now, but I'll be back, just a little less whine next time, promise ^_-

This is basically going to be a sum up and my 2 cents from the whole area.

You are new to the game and have, unlike many others read up on the game and tried to give youself the best advantage that you possibly could into getting started and playing.

My advice and pro tip guide would be this:

(I haven't read every detail of every post [i'm lazy]) but I'm assuming you own all campaigns.....)

Ok, firstly complete Tyria, Factions and then Nightfall.
You have heros so this should NOT be that difficult, you are already using the GuildWars Wiki and that will help you when you get lost. PRO TIP, don't use it for everything right away. Try it yourself first and then use wiki when you get stuck. Learning for yourself is better.

THEN Step into Eye of the North. Eye of the North was created as a kinda "elite" expansion to the game. The game play was expected to be a lot HARDER and CHALLENGING!

You've been reading into your Hall of Monuments. This is good however without a proper grip on the game mechanics and basic understanding I advise you to STEER CLEAR from Hall of Monuments for now.

You do NOT have to buy armor for heros, HOWEVER you can equip them with runes and Insignea's to make them more durable during more difficult fights. THAT BEING SAID it is perfectly possible to complete all 3 campaigns and EoTN without Runing any heros and using mainly henchmen.

MAX ARMOR Is a MUST when you are in EoTN and MAINLAND Nightfall and Cantha, Tyria doesn't matter SO MUCH until LATER in the game.

www.gwpvx.com is VERY helpful for builds. Don't use these builds as your holy grail BUT they are a good starting point.

Don't try and think of general pve as TANK AND SPANK. It rarely is anymore and is only used really in speedclears.

Guild Wars has a unique SHUT DOWN profession Mesmer that will protect you from a lot of damage either psyical or caster wise with the RIGHT builds!

Jan 03, 2012, 02:36 PM // 14:36	#22
cosyfiep are we there yet? Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: in a land far far away Guild: guild? I am supposed to have a guild? Profession: Rt/	prophecies had the best (easiest) learning curve and pre-searing was a great learning area... after that nightfall has a pretty good learning curve (minus the stupid sunspear points)...and some of the easier quest progressions to follow. Eye has the WORST progressions especially for a new person! __________________ where is the 'all you can eat' cookie bar?

Jan 03, 2012, 09:46 PM // 21:46	#28
Kendil Krytan Explorer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Sweden	You don't need to upgrade your heroes armor, they upgrade it through level; you can just change their apperance. The wiki do say pretty explit what each armor costs. Go here: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Rit_armor and then you pick one of the non-prestige armors Shing jea - luxon (the one you like best, or all of them for that matter). And you should come to a page like this (luxon as an example): http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ritualist_Luxon_armor It says exactly what the armor costs. 5k, 200 Bolt(s) of Cloth, 32 Vial(s) of Ink, 24 Jadeite Shard(s) You just have to look up the costs at a trader/the current player market in game. These armorsets usually cost ~15k total. You can in fact upgrade your armor with various runes and insignias. I'd say you should do the nf story first because it will give you access to more heroes Norgu, Master of Whispers and Razah are pretty important. Last edited by Kendil; Jan 03, 2012 at 09:51 PM // 21:51..

Jan 04, 2012, 01:22 PM // 13:22	#36
shillo Academy Page Join Date: Sep 2006	Actually, there is a very intuitive way to understand the GW aggro system. It goes like this: The monsters are trying to kill you. Monsters use the same AI as the henchmen and heroes (although their AI is deliberately weaker in normal mode, with fully tweaked AI in the hard mode). It will prioritize targets by value, scatter and kite on damage and use CC off-target when opportunity arises. The most easily exploitable weakness of this AI is that it will tend to give more priority to the summoned creatures than it should. But in general, if you just treat monsters as you would treat PvP opponents, you will not be too wrong most of the time. As for the gear, max AR armors and max damage weapons are trivial to get. However, runes, insignias and weapon mods do matter, and you need different ones with different builds; there is no rule for this, you will simply need to play the game enough to learn this stuff. Finally, the game is not about filling up the Hall of Monuments, it's about completing the four storylines. In the course of doing that, the game does build an understanding for how it's supposed to be played. Even if you joined GW primarily to fill the Hall, you will -still- need to play through the game at least once in every continent, just to learn the game mechanics. And yes, Zebideedee's advice is great - you need to learn flagging quickly. Bind the flag commands to keys, so you can disperse the heroes by tapping 4 keys and clicking on the ground in a quick succession. Last edited by shillo; Jan 04, 2012 at 01:24 PM // 13:24..

Jan 03, 2012, 02:33 PM // 14:33	#21
Wyndy Krytan Explorer Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: in the know Guild: Chronic Chaos Profession: N/Me	No one has mentioned this here, but the place for a new person to start this game is not EOTN, Factions or Nightfall. All new players and that includes people that find this game counter inuitive, need to start in Prophecies. That is the tutorial.

Jan 03, 2012, 06:02 PM // 18:02	#24
PurpleFlamingo Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Feb 2010 Guild: Hopped Off The Plane At [LAX] Profession: R/	Let's see your skillbar and your heroes' skillbars

Jan 03, 2012, 06:15 PM // 18:15	#25
Kendil Krytan Explorer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Sweden	Since the armor thingy is out of the way, the next step should be your teambuild. Koss, Dunkoro, Olias, Ogden Stonehealer, Vekk, Gwen, and MOX and a rit. Melee AI is pretty dumb, so you can't expect koss and mox to do anything right. Your necro should have something like jagged bones, animate bone minions and death nova + additional skills. You should have Dwaynas sorrow on someone as well, preferably on one of your monks. Mesmers are solid, get these two in your teambuild asap and stuff should be easier. If you split the support on several heroes then you don't really need a generic healer, but since you don't have much else then take 1 monk as a generic healer and the other as a smiter with RoJ. http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Mo/Me_UA_Healer_Hero and http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Mo/any_PvE_Smiter As for your ele, you could run a prot http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:E/Mo_ER_Prot_Hero and dump your Mo healer for another RoJ smiter, or you could run several searing flames E/Mo with Aegis + Prot spirit/spirit bond on them for aditional support. There's 2 more ele heroes pretty early in the NF campaign, so I suggest you go get them and ditch koss and mox. I explained in a not so newbie friendly way, if you need something explained please ask

Jan 03, 2012, 09:18 PM // 21:18	#26
Cravenmagic Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Dec 2011 Profession: R/N	Right O then, back to Factions and then Nightfall. And to clear up why I never upgraded armor much, and to make myself look less dumb on that point, after playing way too much WoW years ago I look at armor to see what +/- it will give me towards attributes. IE in GW attributes are not found on armor, so getting better armor does not allow me a bigger mana pool etc. I am a caster, so why would armor matter to me? I just stand behind a group and snipe and cast spirits to help out right? Well apparently not... -- Holding a wand or staff as opposed to martial weapons such as a sword, bow, or scythe creates additional aggro. Only applies to allies within the foe's aggro range. -- Having lower armor and/or health than team mates. Accordingly, having higher health/armor will have the opposite effect. Only applies to allies within the foe's aggro range. Well crap, alright then. Though I leved a character in each campaign from 1-12 (all of which are lvl 20 now) and the game never explained this to me... Again I am a point A to point B person, so now I go get armor, time to google cheapest max armor for me and my heros (yeah they are in the wiki, but ot doesn't explain the differences between them much cost wise) But point taken, I'll take my (lvl 20) Rit and go back to Factions to learn skills and upgrade stuff. And the friend who convinced me to pick this game up has since stopped playing it... so yeah I'd be interested in a new guild since the one I am attached to is bone dry of players.

Jan 03, 2012, 10:54 PM // 22:54	#31
Cravenmagic Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Dec 2011 Profession: R/N	Ah k, so I do not NEED to buy armor for heros, somewhere I read you were supposed to, must have been for the HoM stuff or something? But good to know, and special thanks to BrettM and Kendil for the armor advise(I did see those pages but I somehow missed the table at the bottom comparing prices >.< ) OK I am set to go now, but I'll be back, just a little less whine next time, promise ^_-

Jan 03, 2012, 11:21 PM // 23:21	#32
Wenspire Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: USA - W.Coast Guild: HiME Profession: Mo/	Just be careful with your selection of runes you decide to use on your characters as Superior and Major attribute runes have a negative impact on your HP and do not stack in terms of effect. For PvE, I would say no more than 1 Superior or Major attribute rune per character. People's opinions vary in this matter, so that's just my $0.02.

Jan 04, 2012, 12:41 AM // 00:41	#33
Star_Jewel Jungle Guide Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Denizen of Tyria since Feb. 2009	To clarify a little bit about armor: All the various types used to make a difference -- the different styles inherently offered different armor bonuses. But I guess for the sake of aesthetics, they dumped that and introduced the insignia system so you could put whatever bonus you like on your favorite armor style. That's why there are so many. You can mix and match pieces from different styles to create whatever unique look you want.

Jan 04, 2012, 09:24 AM // 09:24	#34
Kaida the Heartless Desert Nomad Join Date: May 2006 Profession: N/	The basic (unmodified) Armor only adjusts Armor value, which is a percentage reduction on damage you take (all damage). The only exception are pants and leg pieces, which add +1 energy regeneration (per piece), and you will never find this stat anywhere else except skills (which can do + or -) or weapons/offhands (which will only ever do -). Warriors and Paragons will not have the +1 energy regeneration on their pieces, and Rangers will only have the +1 on their pants. On the armor, you can add a Rune and an Insignia. These add things like +attributes, +hp, +armor, and +energy. These (both) are bought at Rune Traders. Weapons can also have these stats and they are gained from three different parts per weapon. Wands have two parts, as do shields and offhands. Staves have 3 parts as well, and they come with inherent modifiers that you cannot change. I'd advise you to look this information up on the wiki, as I cannot put all of it here. Now, there are several factors that determine aggro in Guild Wars. They are: - Distance to monster/obstacles in the way - Total Armor - Current Health - Enchantments/Buffs/Etc. - Debuffs - Total Health - Initial Aggro In just about that order, greatest to least. The tricky part is getting a feel for when you'll gain/lose Aggro because all of these values are constantly being calculated and acted upon at once. You might have lower armor and health than an ally, but the aggro might stay on them because they are closer. Other times, something might tick the monster off and you will get attacked. It's part of what makes you stay on your toes. Think of it more as a method of increasing or lowering your chances, not a set of calculated numbers you can watch to make sure you never get attacked. With this said, run a "Minion Master (Necro Class)" in your party. They are great for taking aggro. Also, run a skill called "Protective Spirit (Monk)". It's great for making those punches hurt less on a squishy ally when they do get attacked. If you have any further questions, you can PM me ingame. Name is the same. Good luck!

Jan 04, 2012, 09:47 AM // 09:47	#35
Zebideedee Jungle Guide Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: 55?? 57' 0" N / 3?? 12' 0" W Profession: N/Me	Not sure if anyone has mentioned this as a lot of posts and haven't read them all. Be sure to use individual flags for each of your heroes (well the top three at least). If you have them all flagged in the same place means any aoe damage will decimate your party.

Jan 05, 2012, 02:08 AM // 02:08	#39
Azure Aesthetics Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: China Guild: Dragon Soul Profession: Rt/	Also very useful for me, a newbie of Ritualist. Especially the aggro system I really confused before