Completely new to the game, several basic questions. - Guild Wars Forums

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 22, 2010, 09:08 PM // 21:08

So i bought it yesterday and now i've taken the time to really play it. I've bought the complete collection and at the moment i'm playing Factions, cause i'v been told thats the best way to level up quick.

I am used to plenty of RPGs, but most of them being singleplayer RPGs. At the time i played Gothic and Gothic II on PC. On the consoles i played Oblivion and Fallout 3, JRPGs and so on. But never really a MMORPG. Now i know that alotta people don't consider GW a MMORPG, but for now i'll just call it that, i wouldn't know what else to call it.

What are basics i must be aware of?

I've been playing for i think an hour now, i'm at the mission where i need to go after those crop thieves. I had forgotten to add A.I. henchmen to my party and it was quite noticeable cause i kept dying and dying. But where and when do i meet real players? I mean...the purpose of games like this are that you do missions together , right? As for equipment that i find while on my travels, basically thats the same as any other RPG? I have to check for the weapons that do most damage and the armor that protects the most? I am a warrior by the way.

I play plenty of console games next to this, but my intention is to also spend time on this game, and not just play a bit and then put it away. I'm not a big pc gamer, not at all...but i enjoyed the trial of GW alot, and thats why i decided to buy the GW collection.

xxfah · Aug 22, 2010, 10:21 PM // 22:21

You can hook up with real players in any town or outpost, but explorable areas and missions are completely instanced, so there won't be any other PC allies if you don't add them to your party. In towns and outposts, you can hit P to bring up the party search window--this is where people advertise to buy/sell things and group up for tougher missions, quests, etc.

Weapons can either be dropped by foes while out and about or obtained from collectors, quest rewards, or purchased from weaponsmiths. As a warrior, you'll probably be using either a sword or axe with a shield or a hammer. You're right, you'll want the one with most damage (check the GW Wiki for max damage stats). Armor generally comes from armorers that you find in town and the farther you get in the storyline, the stronger the armor available. In Factions, when you hit the Kaineng Center area, you can find max armor, which is 80 for Warriors. On top of that, you can upgrade with runes and insignia from rune traders in towns.

My advice: find a few cool people or a friendly guild to join. You can get lots of help that way.

Giro · Aug 22, 2010, 10:24 PM // 22:24

As far as basics, that is a bit of a general question.

Yes, the greater the weapon damage, the better the item will be. Each weapon has a particular max damage range, for example axes are 6-28. Max weapons usually require 9-13 on your attribute, or rarely 7-8. If you don't have that many points into the attribute, you won't deal the listed damage. Everything else, for example a Health +30 mod, will still affect you, though.

Armor works differently. It's not cumulative per piece. When you are hit by an attack or spell, there is a chance it will strike any given piece of armor. 25% for chest, etc. I forget the rest. So if you have 60 armor chest piece and 50 armor legs, you don't have a total 110 armor. Shields and skills that raise armor raise all of your armor pieces.

As far as missions go, yes you can do them with people, or you can use heroes/henchmen. A lot of missions, especially earlier on, don't have lots of people playing them anymore.

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Home

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

These two wikis contain information on anything you want to know, or just post more questions here.

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 22, 2010, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Thanks alot

A hour ago or so i got into this town, and someone started talking to me. It happened he was even Dutch too, like me...and invited me to the guild. Really cool. He had to go now too, but tomorrow he can give me a new sword, so that's great as well. For now i'll just do quests and level up. One question though...in total i can enable 8 skills? I just had my character learn Mesmer skills and now i have to remove a hex from someone on a bridge. However, that skill is not enabled. How can i replace one of the enabled skills for that one particular skill?

xxfah · Aug 22, 2010, 11:14 PM // 23:14

To change your skills, hit the closest town, and push K to bring up the skills and attributes window. You can swap out any equipped skill for any other skill that your character has learned. You can also put attribute points into whatever attribute you want, which will make skills from that category stronger.

Yes, you can only have 8 skills "on" at a time, but you can change them as often as you want in any town or outpost. Also, pay attention to some skills because they require you to have a certain weapon equipped. An example is Gash, which is a Sword Attack, so you must have a sword equipped to use it.

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 22, 2010, 11:42 PM // 23:42

I think i definitely need more players with me, cause right now i'm at this part where i am fighting against level 14 enemies, while i am level 6. I need to look for Lo Sha in Kinya province, but its full of high level characters. Pretty obvious that i can't do this without real players i guess. Damn.

trekfan92 · Aug 23, 2010, 12:13 AM // 00:13

Oh another new player I'm new too. I bought this game about 2 yrs ago and got to lvl 16. I only got the original GW game of the year edition. I haven't bought any expansions yet. I will soon.

So let me get this straight, you can start the game on any of the expansions? I thought the original game was the beginning or something so I only bought this one. I guess I'll have to buy Factions then. Right now I also play WoW, I really like it except paying for it every month and the damn endless grind to the stuff you want. Eventually I'll permanently switch to GW.

When I bought this game the box didn't have a manual in it, so I had a very hard time learning to play. Combat is very tough in this game, I wipe easily and my henchmen are all 4 lvls lower than me. I guess that means I am too high for the area I'm in. So does anyone know if there is a game strategy guide to buy somewhere I can use?

To the O.P. on the GW website there is a link to skills and attributes. It talks about which class you are and where you should put your newly earned skill points depending on if you're a Warrior, Ranger, Monk etc.

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 23, 2010, 12:26 AM // 00:26

Ok thanks i will check that out. A very good friend of mine also kept stressing to me how good WoW is, and i tried it, and i really wasn't so impressed at all. And then to pay monthly for it, no way...simply not nessecary. He told me he had tried GW as well, but after awhile it simply became boring to him and he thinks i will say exactly the same after a few hours. But i doubt that.

Nijntjuh · Aug 23, 2010, 12:43 AM // 00:43

Just a suggestion its true that in factions you will level up the fastest out of the other campaigns BUT considering you are a new player I'd suggest you start off in prophecies as factions learning curve is higher then the one in proph which I find lowest so you have enough time to learn all the basics in the beginning of prophecies also you get to enjoy the storyline in chronological order :P note this is just a suggestion dont flame me :P

trekfan92 · Aug 23, 2010, 01:10 AM // 01:10

So does anyone know if there is a GW strategy guide to buy somewhere?

I guess one of the major things I need help with is combat in pve. I wish you could recruit more than one healer from the henchmen. It seems in battle every group has their healer and you have to kill it first. It's hard for me to tell which one is the healer. It doesn't say which one and all the creatures look the same. My character right now is in Bloodstone Fen on the far west side of the map. That jungle has a lot of those scarab looking things and all they do is heal each other.

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 23, 2010, 01:29 AM // 01:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nijntjuh

Just a suggestion its true that in factions you will level up the fastest out of the other campaigns BUT considering you are a new player I'd suggest you start off in prophecies as factions learning curve is higher then the one in proph which I find lowest so you have enough time to learn all the basics in the beginning of prophecies also you get to enjoy the storyline in chronological order :P note this is just a suggestion dont flame me :P

But can i start with Prophecies with my existing character or do i need to start over? And yeah you are right,..for the storyline i should start with just GW.

Grav · Aug 23, 2010, 03:02 AM // 03:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moonwalker1982

But can i start with Prophecies with my existing character or do i need to start over? And yeah you are right,..for the storyline i should start with just GW.

Once you reach a certain town for the first time in each campaign, you can complete a quest that will grant you the freedom to take your character to another campaign and play most of its content from there if you wish. From there you can hop between unlocked campaigns at will.

For you being in Factions, that town would be Kaineng Center. You're not up to that point yet, though.

Grav · Aug 23, 2010, 03:17 AM // 03:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by trekfan92

So let me get this straight, you can start the game on any of the expansions? I thought the original game was the beginning or something so I only bought this one. I guess I'll have to buy Factions then.

The original game (Prophecies) is where the timeline begins, yes. Each of the campaigns has their own storyline independent of the others, but there are occasional cross-over references between them that are easier to understand if the campaigns are played in a certain order. That order being Prophecies, then Factions, then Nightfall, then EoTN. But it's certainly no gamebreaker to start wherever you want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by trekfan92

When I bought this game the box didn't have a manual in it, so I had a very hard time learning to play. Combat is very tough in this game, I wipe easily and my henchmen are all 4 lvls lower than me. I guess that means I am too high for the area I'm in. So does anyone know if there is a game strategy guide to buy somewhere I can use?

Have a look around the two Guild Wars wikis below:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

The latter one is unofficial, but tends to go into more detail regarding specific strategies than the official one does. Both are certainly worth exploring though.

Another option for learning about the game would be to find and join a decent guild whose interests match your own. These forums may be able to help you with that, just have a look around the appropriate sections.

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 23, 2010, 03:53 AM // 03:53

I've been playing Prophecies for awhile now and i'm level 3 at the moment. I chose a Archer and as second profession a Necromancer :P. I have no idea if its the ideal combination but i really wanted to do this. Right now i'm at the part where i listen to a briefing from Lord Tydus and after that i have to journey somewhere. The strange thing is though, it doesn't show me on the map where to go to at all. This is for the first time thats happening.

trekfan92 · Aug 23, 2010, 04:29 AM // 04:29

Thanks Grav

I choose a Ranger/Warrior for my main. Although I still haven't really used the Warrior class yet for anything. My ranger spec is all I use. I was thinking I should have picked monk or something else useful for the secondary one.

*Darcy* · Aug 23, 2010, 11:16 AM // 11:16

@Moonwalker1982 - The area you are in is called pre-searing and is the beginner area. Once you talk to Tydus you will enter the Academy and, after a short period of fighting, end up in Ascalon two years later. There is no going back. It is best to be at least level 8 before moving on.

To both of you - areas are meant to be challenging but not impossible for beginners. If you are too low level for the area, you might want to back off and raise your levels slightly.

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 23, 2010, 12:25 PM // 12:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darcy

@Moonwalker1982 - The area you are in is called pre-searing and is the beginner area. Once you talk to Tydus you will enter the Academy and, after a short period of fighting, end up in Ascalon two years later. There is no going back. It is best to be at least level 8 before moving on.

To both of you - areas are meant to be challenging but not impossible for beginners. If you are too low level for the area, you might want to back off and raise your levels slightly.

Thanks, but i can't go back anymore. Its too late for that, and i'm only level 3

. Before this briefing from Tydus, i had to fight against other people, it was blue vs red or something. But i can't go back, so hopefully i'll survive this,lol.

Aeronwen · Aug 23, 2010, 06:09 PM // 18:09

moonwalker, level 3 is a bit low to leave pre. I suspect you didnt do the qiests there and missed out on a few free skills. If I was you I would kill stuff arouns ascalon to level up a bit and do the easy quests there before I attempted to move on with primary quests and missions.

Hope you arte enjoying the game. If you have any questions while in town try asking people - it is a very friendly, helpful community in GW.

Ichorspring · Aug 23, 2010, 08:47 PM // 20:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aeronwen

moonwalker, level 3 is a bit low to leave pre. I suspect you didnt do the qiests there and missed out on a few free skills. If I was you I would kill stuff arouns ascalon to level up a bit and do the easy quests there before I attempted to move on with primary quests and missions.

Ditto that. Pre-searing is just a starter area, but it's a pretty large and nicely fleshed out starter area. There's enough to see there to keep a new player occupied for quite a while, in terms of just quests and exploring. Having left at level three, you've certainly missed quite a lot.

It might be in your best interest to go back, start a new character, then *really* take a look around. There's a bunch of free skills for you to get too, which will only make things easier when you finally move on.

Moonwalker1982 · Aug 24, 2010, 12:23 AM // 00:23

Pre-searing is the area that you begin Prophecies with? I've did some side-quests there, but after reading somewhere (either a forum or website) that i shouldn't bother too much with sidequests cause the primare story quests are much better, i decided to move on.

Don't know if this is a spoiler..but...[spoiler]
Now i'm at the part with Old Ascalon , its changed into a pretty dark place.[/spoiler]

Aug 22, 2010, 09:08 PM // 21:08	#1
Moonwalker1982 Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2010	Completely new to the game, several basic questions. So i bought it yesterday and now i've taken the time to really play it. I've bought the complete collection and at the moment i'm playing Factions, cause i'v been told thats the best way to level up quick. I am used to plenty of RPGs, but most of them being singleplayer RPGs. At the time i played Gothic and Gothic II on PC. On the consoles i played Oblivion and Fallout 3, JRPGs and so on. But never really a MMORPG. Now i know that alotta people don't consider GW a MMORPG, but for now i'll just call it that, i wouldn't know what else to call it. What are basics i must be aware of? I've been playing for i think an hour now, i'm at the mission where i need to go after those crop thieves. I had forgotten to add A.I. henchmen to my party and it was quite noticeable cause i kept dying and dying. But where and when do i meet real players? I mean...the purpose of games like this are that you do missions together , right? As for equipment that i find while on my travels, basically thats the same as any other RPG? I have to check for the weapons that do most damage and the armor that protects the most? I am a warrior by the way. I play plenty of console games next to this, but my intention is to also spend time on this game, and not just play a bit and then put it away. I'm not a big pc gamer, not at all...but i enjoyed the trial of GW alot, and thats why i decided to buy the GW collection.

Aug 22, 2010, 10:21 PM // 22:21	#2
xxfah Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: in my kitchen, making cookies. and lurking the forumz. Guild: Scions of Arion Profession: Me/	You can hook up with real players in any town or outpost, but explorable areas and missions are completely instanced, so there won't be any other PC allies if you don't add them to your party. In towns and outposts, you can hit P to bring up the party search window--this is where people advertise to buy/sell things and group up for tougher missions, quests, etc. Weapons can either be dropped by foes while out and about or obtained from collectors, quest rewards, or purchased from weaponsmiths. As a warrior, you'll probably be using either a sword or axe with a shield or a hammer. You're right, you'll want the one with most damage (check the GW Wiki for max damage stats). Armor generally comes from armorers that you find in town and the farther you get in the storyline, the stronger the armor available. In Factions, when you hit the Kaineng Center area, you can find max armor, which is 80 for Warriors. On top of that, you can upgrade with runes and insignia from rune traders in towns. My advice: find a few cool people or a friendly guild to join. You can get lots of help that way. Last edited by xxfah; Aug 22, 2010 at 10:22 PM // 22:22.. Reason: clarity is an elusive beast

Aug 23, 2010, 11:16 AM // 11:16	#16
Darcy Never Too Old Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rhode Island where there are no GW contests Guild: Order of First Profession: W/R	@Moonwalker1982 - The area you are in is called pre-searing and is the beginner area. Once you talk to Tydus you will enter the Academy and, after a short period of fighting, end up in Ascalon two years later. There is no going back. It is best to be at least level 8 before moving on. To both of you - areas are meant to be challenging but not impossible for beginners. If you are too low level for the area, you might want to back off and raise your levels slightly. __________________ That's me, the old stick-in-the-mud non-fun moderator. (and non-understanding, also)

Aug 22, 2010, 10:24 PM // 22:24	#3
Giro Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Sorrow's Furnace Guild: Twilight Knight Brigade [HACK] Profession: W/	As far as basics, that is a bit of a general question. Yes, the greater the weapon damage, the better the item will be. Each weapon has a particular max damage range, for example axes are 6-28. Max weapons usually require 9-13 on your attribute, or rarely 7-8. If you don't have that many points into the attribute, you won't deal the listed damage. Everything else, for example a Health +30 mod, will still affect you, though. Armor works differently. It's not cumulative per piece. When you are hit by an attack or spell, there is a chance it will strike any given piece of armor. 25% for chest, etc. I forget the rest. So if you have 60 armor chest piece and 50 armor legs, you don't have a total 110 armor. Shields and skills that raise armor raise all of your armor pieces. As far as missions go, yes you can do them with people, or you can use heroes/henchmen. A lot of missions, especially earlier on, don't have lots of people playing them anymore. http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Home http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page These two wikis contain information on anything you want to know, or just post more questions here.

Aug 22, 2010, 10:25 PM // 22:25	#4
Moonwalker1982 Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2010	Thanks alot A hour ago or so i got into this town, and someone started talking to me. It happened he was even Dutch too, like me...and invited me to the guild. Really cool. He had to go now too, but tomorrow he can give me a new sword, so that's great as well. For now i'll just do quests and level up. One question though...in total i can enable 8 skills? I just had my character learn Mesmer skills and now i have to remove a hex from someone on a bridge. However, that skill is not enabled. How can i replace one of the enabled skills for that one particular skill?

Aug 22, 2010, 11:14 PM // 23:14	#5
xxfah Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: in my kitchen, making cookies. and lurking the forumz. Guild: Scions of Arion Profession: Me/	To change your skills, hit the closest town, and push K to bring up the skills and attributes window. You can swap out any equipped skill for any other skill that your character has learned. You can also put attribute points into whatever attribute you want, which will make skills from that category stronger. Yes, you can only have 8 skills "on" at a time, but you can change them as often as you want in any town or outpost. Also, pay attention to some skills because they require you to have a certain weapon equipped. An example is Gash, which is a Sword Attack, so you must have a sword equipped to use it.

Aug 22, 2010, 11:42 PM // 23:42	#6
Moonwalker1982 Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2010	I think i definitely need more players with me, cause right now i'm at this part where i am fighting against level 14 enemies, while i am level 6. I need to look for Lo Sha in Kinya province, but its full of high level characters. Pretty obvious that i can't do this without real players i guess. Damn.

Aug 23, 2010, 12:13 AM // 00:13	#7
trekfan92 Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Aug 2010 Profession: R/W	Oh another new player I'm new too. I bought this game about 2 yrs ago and got to lvl 16. I only got the original GW game of the year edition. I haven't bought any expansions yet. I will soon. So let me get this straight, you can start the game on any of the expansions? I thought the original game was the beginning or something so I only bought this one. I guess I'll have to buy Factions then. Right now I also play WoW, I really like it except paying for it every month and the damn endless grind to the stuff you want. Eventually I'll permanently switch to GW. When I bought this game the box didn't have a manual in it, so I had a very hard time learning to play. Combat is very tough in this game, I wipe easily and my henchmen are all 4 lvls lower than me. I guess that means I am too high for the area I'm in. So does anyone know if there is a game strategy guide to buy somewhere I can use? To the O.P. on the GW website there is a link to skills and attributes. It talks about which class you are and where you should put your newly earned skill points depending on if you're a Warrior, Ranger, Monk etc.

Aug 23, 2010, 12:26 AM // 00:26	#8
Moonwalker1982 Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2010	Ok thanks i will check that out. A very good friend of mine also kept stressing to me how good WoW is, and i tried it, and i really wasn't so impressed at all. And then to pay monthly for it, no way...simply not nessecary. He told me he had tried GW as well, but after awhile it simply became boring to him and he thinks i will say exactly the same after a few hours. But i doubt that.

Aug 23, 2010, 12:43 AM // 00:43	#9
Nijntjuh Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: mcdonalds @ kaineng Guild: Mirror Of Reason [SNOW] Profession: D/	Just a suggestion its true that in factions you will level up the fastest out of the other campaigns BUT considering you are a new player I'd suggest you start off in prophecies as factions learning curve is higher then the one in proph which I find lowest so you have enough time to learn all the basics in the beginning of prophecies also you get to enjoy the storyline in chronological order :P note this is just a suggestion dont flame me :P

Aug 23, 2010, 01:10 AM // 01:10	#10
trekfan92 Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Aug 2010 Profession: R/W	So does anyone know if there is a GW strategy guide to buy somewhere? I guess one of the major things I need help with is combat in pve. I wish you could recruit more than one healer from the henchmen. It seems in battle every group has their healer and you have to kill it first. It's hard for me to tell which one is the healer. It doesn't say which one and all the creatures look the same. My character right now is in Bloodstone Fen on the far west side of the map. That jungle has a lot of those scarab looking things and all they do is heal each other.

Aug 23, 2010, 03:53 AM // 03:53	#14
Moonwalker1982 Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2010	I've been playing Prophecies for awhile now and i'm level 3 at the moment. I chose a Archer and as second profession a Necromancer :P. I have no idea if its the ideal combination but i really wanted to do this. Right now i'm at the part where i listen to a briefing from Lord Tydus and after that i have to journey somewhere. The strange thing is though, it doesn't show me on the map where to go to at all. This is for the first time thats happening.

Aug 23, 2010, 04:29 AM // 04:29	#15
trekfan92 Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Aug 2010 Profession: R/W	Thanks Grav I choose a Ranger/Warrior for my main. Although I still haven't really used the Warrior class yet for anything. My ranger spec is all I use. I was thinking I should have picked monk or something else useful for the secondary one.

Aug 23, 2010, 06:09 PM // 18:09	#18
Aeronwen not so much fell as..... Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: UK Guild: bone Profession: R/	moonwalker, level 3 is a bit low to leave pre. I suspect you didnt do the qiests there and missed out on a few free skills. If I was you I would kill stuff arouns ascalon to level up a bit and do the easy quests there before I attempted to move on with primary quests and missions. Hope you arte enjoying the game. If you have any questions while in town try asking people - it is a very friendly, helpful community in GW.

Aug 24, 2010, 12:23 AM // 00:23	#20
Moonwalker1982 Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Aug 2010	Pre-searing is the area that you begin Prophecies with? I've did some side-quests there, but after reading somewhere (either a forum or website) that i shouldn't bother too much with sidequests cause the primare story quests are much better, i decided to move on. Don't know if this is a spoiler..but...[spoiler] Now i'm at the part with Old Ascalon , its changed into a pretty dark place.[/spoiler]