Lycanthropy · May 03, 2009, 02:56 PM // 14:56

well I was a WoW player, for the first 1.5 years it was out, and I quit it just before the first expansion, simply because the game took way too much time, I don't like to play games without getting the High-End content, and to get that in WoW, you needed to invest 5 hours almost each night for the guild raids, as well as additional hours to improve your character by yourself, that game was lots of fun but it demanded way too much hours which I don't have anymore. A few friends of mine used to play guild wars, yet they don't do at the moment because of military service, so they let me try the game on theyr'e accounts for a small period so I can check if It's any good for me and if I should buy my own copy of the game, at first Iv'e understood that there aren't much hours to be spent, and after a few days of playing I was enjoying it alot, espicielly the PvP aspect of the game, as well as the PvE, and Iv'e read and learned alot about the game, and Iv'e understood that at later stages of the game, and for the high end PvE, there are areas which demand alot of time investment, which is a big prob for me since I don't have too much time, Iv'e searched the net and Iv'e seen that there are experienced players who play 15 hours a week and there are who play 40 hours a week, unfortunately I can't commit to play 40 hours a week, yet 10-15 might work out. so my question is, if I'll be playing more like 10-15 rather than 40 hours a week, will I miss on anything? since if I'd played 10-15 hours a week in WoW, I couldn't do the high end PvE and be in a constant raiding guild, for example. I'm really excited to get into Guild wars, I'm just afraid I'll be dissapointed because the game will have to draw too much of my time and require that commitment which I can't give. Thanks alot for the answers.

Mr. G · May 03, 2009, 03:03 PM // 15:03

I can't think of anything that could take 15 hours....I think people have got DoA down to 2 hours now.

The thing about Gw is that preperation for PvE is practically nill if you know what your doing, I never really spent much time on WoW but I assume a lot of the raid time was spent preparing or (like you said) improving a character so you can take part.

The commitment to GW is practically non existant, while ofc it would be rude to start something and quit half way through - nothing should take THAT long.

In other words no, you won't have to invest massive amounts of time to enjoy the high end content. While you might still spend time doing multiple things, theres nothing you couldnt do in under 2 hours.

(P.S: Paragraphs are your friends)

Lycanthropy · May 03, 2009, 03:08 PM // 15:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. G

I can't think of anything that could take 15 hours....I think people have got DoA down to 2 hours now.

The thing about Gw is that preperation for PvE is practically nill if you know what your doing, I never really spent much time on WoW but I assume a lot of the raid time was spent preparing or (like you said) improving a character so you can take part.

The commitment to GW is practically non existant, while ofc it would be rude to start something and quit half way through - nothing should take THAT long.

In other words no, you won't have to invest massive amounts of time to enjoy the high end content. While you might still spend time doing multiple things, theres nothing you couldnt do in under 2 hours.

(P.S: Paragraphs are your friends)

well thanks, what I meant about 15 hours is 15 hours spent on playing a week which is about 2 hours a day + more in the weekends. what I meant about commitment is that if in WoW you don't commit to spending 5 hours almost every night for some guilds, you can't be in that guild which means you don't have access to high end PvE raiding. don't guilds demand that sort of stuff in guild wars too? as if I'm going to play I will eventually want to enter a serious guild that often attempts high end content.

FengShuiDove · May 03, 2009, 03:13 PM // 15:13

In Guild Wars, your characters normal, non PvE only skills are as strong as they can be when you reach level 20, which can take as little as 2-3 days just playing casually. From there, character development takes place in the form of: 1. Capturing new skills, 2. Getting the strong PvE only skills and ranking up your rep for them, 3. Getting new equipment such as weapons and armor.

Again, playing normally, if you only play on one character, you'll be able to buy prestige (elite) armor in a few weeks of play time. Still, this armor is only elite because of the cost and the look, it's not statistically any stronger than the stuff you can buy earlier in the game for much much cheaper.

As far as elite content, the Underworld and Fissure of Woe become available about halfway through every campaign. Factions is the smallest so you'll get to it there first (as well as leveling faster in Factions than in Prophecies, and about the same speed as in Nightfall). Also, the Factions campaign leads you straight to both of the elite areas (Urgoz' Warren on the Kurzick side is accessed from House Zu Heltzer, which you must go to for the campaign, The Deep from the Luxon side accessed from Cavalon which you must also go through). In Nightfall, the Domain of Anguish is at the end of the game, and in Prophecies there are two "elite" areas - Sorrow's Furnace and Tombs of the Primeval Kings, both of which are around the middle.

Consider as well that in Eye of the North many of the dungeons are what you might think of as high-end play; chained instances with diverse objectives and mechanics that many times offer high-end rewards. All 18 (18? I think so) can be accessed from main towns that you get to by playing through GW:EN normally.

All of this to say: Grind exists in Guild Wars, but you can do a lot of things very early in the game if you know how to. The biggest thing anyone will tell you is to find a good guild (preferably one on here, not just one spamming in game) that can teach you what builds are good, etc., and take care of you in the elite areas while you're learning them.

Good luck. Hope you choose Guild Wars.

EDIT: To answer your next question: Yes, many high-end guilds will want you to play semi-consistently. I've never known of a guild that makes all their members play every day. Try to get involved in a weekly run. Keep in mind too that once you have the builds and have accessed the proper area, almost any area can be done in under 2 hours. If that's what you're playing nightly, then you might actually be able to do a high-end run every day. Even if you can't, once a week should be no problem based on how much you said you plan on playing, and no "nice" guild will make you do much more than that.

Mr. G · May 03, 2009, 03:18 PM // 15:18

Quote:

well thanks, what I meant about 15 hours is 15 hours spent on playing a week which is about 2 hours a day + more in the weekends. what I meant about commitment is that if in WoW you don't commit to spending 5 hours almost every night for some guilds, you can't be in that guild which means you don't have access to high end PvE raiding. don't guilds demand that sort of stuff in guild wars too? as if I'm going to play I will eventually want to enter a serious guild that often attempts high end content.

Oh sorry, on the subject of guilds - It depends on the guild.

Most guilds won't require you to play X hours from my experiance, but m ost require you to at least be active. This can range from logging on each day to (more common) once a week.

The biggest teams you'll find in GW are in the Factions elite areas - 12 people, these can often require full teams of people, but not always.

Apart from those and DoA I'd say the rest could be done with hench, or at least 2 people. What I'm trying to say (I realise most of this is waffle) is that you don;t need a lot of players for high end content. You and one of two friends can normally do pretty well for yourselves with heroes and hench.

Lycanthropy · May 03, 2009, 03:20 PM // 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by FengShuiDove

In Guild Wars, your characters normal, non PvE only skills are as strong as they can be when you reach level 20, which can take as little as 2-3 days just playing casually. From there, character development takes place in the form of: 1. Capturing new skills, 2. Getting the strong PvE only skills and ranking up your rep for them, 3. Getting new equipment such as weapons and armor.

Again, playing normally, if you only play on one character, you'll be able to buy prestige (elite) armor in a few weeks of play time. Still, this armor is only elite because of the cost and the look, it's not statistically any stronger than the stuff you can buy earlier in the game for much much cheaper.

As far as elite content, the Underworld and Fissure of Woe become available about halfway through every campaign. Factions is the smallest so you'll get to it there first (as well as leveling faster in Factions than in Prophecies, and about the same speed as in Nightfall). Also, the Factions campaign leads you straight to both of the elite areas (Urgoz' Warren on the Kurzick side is accessed from House Zu Heltzer, which you must go to for the campaign, The Deep from the Luxon side accessed from Cavalon which you must also go through). In Nightfall, the Domain of Anguish is at the end of the game, and in Prophecies there are two "elite" areas - Sorrow's Furnace and Tombs of the Primeval Kings, both of which are around the middle.

Consider as well that in Eye of the North many of the dungeons are what you might think of as high-end play; chained instances with diverse objectives and mechanics that many times offer high-end rewards. All 18 (18? I think so) can be accessed from main towns that you get to by playing through GW:EN normally.

All of this to say: Grind exists in Guild Wars, but you can do a lot of things very early in the game if you know how to. The biggest thing anyone will tell you is to find a good guild (preferably one on here, not just one spamming in game) that can teach you what builds are good, etc., and take care of you in the elite areas while you're learning them.

Good luck. Hope you choose Guild Wars.

EDIT: To answer your next question: Yes, many high-end guilds will want you to play semi-consistently. I've never known of a guild that makes all their members play every day. Try to get involved in a weekly run. Keep in mind too that once you have the builds and have accessed the proper area, almost any area can be done in under 2 hours. If that's what you're playing nightly, then you might actually be able to do a high-end run every day. Even if you can't, once a week should be no problem based on how much you said you plan on playing, and no "nice" guild will make you do much more than that.

yeah I plan to play at the minimum 2 hours on average per day, sometimes i'll have much more time, some days I might not be able to play at all, but I just want to be sure that 2 hours a day is enough to not limit myself to any content in the game, and thanks alot for the detailed answer, very appreciated. I might even be able to buy the game tomorrow. =)

Mr. G · May 03, 2009, 03:21 PM // 15:21

I'm sure you'll enjoy it mate - if you eve rhave any questions or need any help feel free to PM me in game

IGN is under my avatar

FengShuiDove · May 03, 2009, 03:25 PM // 15:25

Aye. Hope you enjoy it. Also, check out the PvE Guilds Recruitment section on these forums. Pick one that seems interesting and PM them saying you're new but have some RPG experience and would like to learn the game. Good luck!

Lycanthropy · May 03, 2009, 03:26 PM // 15:26

thanks alot guys! very very appreciated, seems like this forum is great. =)

Mr. G · May 03, 2009, 03:29 PM // 15:29

Hehe it's fine if you learn to ignore the QQ'ers

Don't listen to people who will tell you that the game is dead, or this class is overpowers, or this is rigged and so on

Generally these are people who have played the game for so long their bored of it.

GW isnt dead, its a full florishing game to a new player.

Commander Ryker · May 03, 2009, 03:34 PM // 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. G

I think people have got DoA down to 2 hours now.

Actually [ICU] had done it in around 30 minutes or so and [scar], does it on an average of an hour.

Mr. G · May 03, 2009, 03:45 PM // 15:45

Wow really? thats shocking, Been ages since I've been myself though.

Verene · May 03, 2009, 05:24 PM // 17:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. G

GW isnt dead, its a full florishing game to a new player.

Everyone else has pretty much answered everything already for you, so basically I just want to touch on this.

I'm still a fairly new GW player, having played for about 6 months now (I have about 330 hours in total, ~150-ish of which are on my main who is three months old).

And saying that it's a full flourishing game to a new player is very, very true. There's so much stuff you can do. And with the recent fourth anniversary update, there's tons and tons of people on.

Icy The Mage · May 03, 2009, 08:15 PM // 20:15

Yeah, there is also hard mode in the game once you get all the way through a campaign's storyline, which you can turn on and off at your will. Hard mode yields higher rewards at the cost of harder-to-kill enemies and environment effects, etc...

Some of the dungeons in Eye of the North take quite a while but the most is usually 45 mins - 1 hour (in hard mode that is).

*Darcy* · May 03, 2009, 08:57 PM // 20:57

Well, welcome to guildwars and guru. You will love the game, it's guru that takes some getting used to (joke).

This game is designed for the casual player and most guilds are aware that people have real world lives that take priority. The only guilds that require a lot of game time are the ones that want to own towns in the Factions campaign. That requires a lot of faction-farming. Possibly, ranked GvG guilds might want scheduled practice times and a time commitment for the tournaments.

So if you choose a guild that requires more time than you have available, just leave the guild and look for another.

refer · May 03, 2009, 11:05 PM // 23:05

I don't think anything takes that long in Guild Wars. You can go through all 4 games in like a a couple months or LESS just to start with. Plus getting nice equipment isn't that tough either.

ogre_jd · May 03, 2009, 11:54 PM // 23:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by refer

I don't think anything takes that long in Guild Wars. You can go through all 4 games in like a a couple months or LESS just to start with. Plus getting nice equipment isn't that tough either.

...as long as you go by the equipments' merits (ie, stats and appearance) instead of falling into the trap of 'rare and hard to get = good and must have' that so many seem to. (for example, I find that the plain old Templar armor for male Warriors that you can get at Droknar's looks far better than any of the other sets they can get - including the Elite version of the same armor. Well, except for the helmet (which I tend not to display, anyways, on the vast majority of my characters)).

xron · May 04, 2009, 08:28 PM // 20:28

My experience is:

That you can play the game for many many hours during the week. 100 if you had it, as there are so many things, especially when you're just starting, that you can do.

I've been playing just over a year and still have enough to do to play that much.

BUT

You can literally play for half an hour a day if that's all you had. It is really however much time you have to invest.

Like it's been said before, the maximum time you'll need to do the high end things is a couple of hours, so that's the longest u'd have to stay on at any one time.

Other than that it's what ever you're free

the_jos · May 06, 2009, 12:01 PM // 12:01

Lycanthropy,

First of all welcome.
I think most of your question is already answered.
I'd like to add something.
When you are looking for a guild which does PvE elite areas regular you should be able to play consistent, it's not about making hours but to be able to learn and perform on about the same level. When people know you are new they can anticipate on that.
Tell you what to do and what not to do, what skills to use and where, that kind of stuff.

However, you should expect some upfront investment in the game.
What is important is that 'common' builds could be made up of skills shattered around 3 campaigns, so collecting all of them might take some time. This is more true for the 'elite' skills. Specially when you want to play several professions. There is a way around this (play PvP, unlock the skill and use a tome to get it on a PvE character), but if you intend to mainly play high-end PvE in a short while I would surgest you make as many hours as possible on the PvE side since those elite areas are mainly accessible after you finished the game.

If you just want to have fun I would look for a decent mixed PvE/PvP guild with activity.
Having some teambased PvP knowledge does help to become a better team player.

One thing to remind you about is that most elite areas are played by guild/alliance or farming teams. It's not easy to enter with random groups, though it's not impossible.
Many farming teams require specific builds, just ask around to get them.

My impression is that if you are able to play roughly daily for an hour or so this would be sufficient to prove your value if you have a decent guild. That's much better than being able to play 14 hours during the weekend.
You don't need to spend ages in the game (except to buff some PvE-only skills) to get your stuff together. It's only for the elite areas themself that you need sufficient time, but the most demanding I can think of is DoA (Nightfall) and that one can be done in smaller quests, you will just get less reward that way. For most elite areas roughly two hours would be sufficient, though my last trip to Underworld (normal mode) lasted 3.5 hours. But my team made a few huge mistakes there that cost a lot of time to clean up the mess and we took a couple of breaks because it was taking that long. So make sure you have some spare time if you intend to finish.... :P

May 03, 2009, 02:56 PM // 14:56	#1
Lycanthropy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: May 2009	Need an assessment on how much time is needed to be spent on GW. well I was a WoW player, for the first 1.5 years it was out, and I quit it just before the first expansion, simply because the game took way too much time, I don't like to play games without getting the High-End content, and to get that in WoW, you needed to invest 5 hours almost each night for the guild raids, as well as additional hours to improve your character by yourself, that game was lots of fun but it demanded way too much hours which I don't have anymore. A few friends of mine used to play guild wars, yet they don't do at the moment because of military service, so they let me try the game on theyr'e accounts for a small period so I can check if It's any good for me and if I should buy my own copy of the game, at first Iv'e understood that there aren't much hours to be spent, and after a few days of playing I was enjoying it alot, espicielly the PvP aspect of the game, as well as the PvE, and Iv'e read and learned alot about the game, and Iv'e understood that at later stages of the game, and for the high end PvE, there are areas which demand alot of time investment, which is a big prob for me since I don't have too much time, Iv'e searched the net and Iv'e seen that there are experienced players who play 15 hours a week and there are who play 40 hours a week, unfortunately I can't commit to play 40 hours a week, yet 10-15 might work out. so my question is, if I'll be playing more like 10-15 rather than 40 hours a week, will I miss on anything? since if I'd played 10-15 hours a week in WoW, I couldn't do the high end PvE and be in a constant raiding guild, for example. I'm really excited to get into Guild wars, I'm just afraid I'll be dissapointed because the game will have to draw too much of my time and require that commitment which I can't give. Thanks alot for the answers.

May 03, 2009, 03:13 PM // 15:13	#4
FengShuiDove Forge Runner Join Date: Sep 2007 Guild: Trinity of the Ascended [ToA] Profession: A/	In Guild Wars, your characters normal, non PvE only skills are as strong as they can be when you reach level 20, which can take as little as 2-3 days just playing casually. From there, character development takes place in the form of: 1. Capturing new skills, 2. Getting the strong PvE only skills and ranking up your rep for them, 3. Getting new equipment such as weapons and armor. Again, playing normally, if you only play on one character, you'll be able to buy prestige (elite) armor in a few weeks of play time. Still, this armor is only elite because of the cost and the look, it's not statistically any stronger than the stuff you can buy earlier in the game for much much cheaper. As far as elite content, the Underworld and Fissure of Woe become available about halfway through every campaign. Factions is the smallest so you'll get to it there first (as well as leveling faster in Factions than in Prophecies, and about the same speed as in Nightfall). Also, the Factions campaign leads you straight to both of the elite areas (Urgoz' Warren on the Kurzick side is accessed from House Zu Heltzer, which you must go to for the campaign, The Deep from the Luxon side accessed from Cavalon which you must also go through). In Nightfall, the Domain of Anguish is at the end of the game, and in Prophecies there are two "elite" areas - Sorrow's Furnace and Tombs of the Primeval Kings, both of which are around the middle. Consider as well that in Eye of the North many of the dungeons are what you might think of as high-end play; chained instances with diverse objectives and mechanics that many times offer high-end rewards. All 18 (18? I think so) can be accessed from main towns that you get to by playing through GW:EN normally. All of this to say: Grind exists in Guild Wars, but you can do a lot of things very early in the game if you know how to. The biggest thing anyone will tell you is to find a good guild (preferably one on here, not just one spamming in game) that can teach you what builds are good, etc., and take care of you in the elite areas while you're learning them. Good luck. Hope you choose Guild Wars. EDIT: To answer your next question: Yes, many high-end guilds will want you to play semi-consistently. I've never known of a guild that makes all their members play every day. Try to get involved in a weekly run. Keep in mind too that once you have the builds and have accessed the proper area, almost any area can be done in under 2 hours. If that's what you're playing nightly, then you might actually be able to do a high-end run every day. Even if you can't, once a week should be no problem based on how much you said you plan on playing, and no "nice" guild will make you do much more than that. Last edited by FengShuiDove; May 03, 2009 at 03:16 PM // 15:16..

May 03, 2009, 08:57 PM // 20:57	#15
Darcy Never Too Old Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rhode Island where there are no GW contests Guild: Order of First Profession: W/R	Well, welcome to guildwars and guru. You will love the game, it's guru that takes some getting used to (joke). This game is designed for the casual player and most guilds are aware that people have real world lives that take priority. The only guilds that require a lot of game time are the ones that want to own towns in the Factions campaign. That requires a lot of faction-farming. Possibly, ranked GvG guilds might want scheduled practice times and a time commitment for the tournaments. So if you choose a guild that requires more time than you have available, just leave the guild and look for another. __________________ That's me, the old stick-in-the-mud non-fun moderator. (and non-understanding, also)

May 03, 2009, 03:03 PM // 15:03	#2
Mr. G Desert Nomad Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: S. Wales Profession: Mo/Me	I can't think of anything that could take 15 hours....I think people have got DoA down to 2 hours now. The thing about Gw is that preperation for PvE is practically nill if you know what your doing, I never really spent much time on WoW but I assume a lot of the raid time was spent preparing or (like you said) improving a character so you can take part. The commitment to GW is practically non existant, while ofc it would be rude to start something and quit half way through - nothing should take THAT long. In other words no, you won't have to invest massive amounts of time to enjoy the high end content. While you might still spend time doing multiple things, theres nothing you couldnt do in under 2 hours. (P.S: Paragraphs are your friends)

May 03, 2009, 03:21 PM // 15:21	#7
Mr. G Desert Nomad Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: S. Wales Profession: Mo/Me	I'm sure you'll enjoy it mate - if you eve rhave any questions or need any help feel free to PM me in game IGN is under my avatar

May 03, 2009, 03:25 PM // 15:25	#8
FengShuiDove Forge Runner Join Date: Sep 2007 Guild: Trinity of the Ascended [ToA] Profession: A/	Aye. Hope you enjoy it. Also, check out the PvE Guilds Recruitment section on these forums. Pick one that seems interesting and PM them saying you're new but have some RPG experience and would like to learn the game. Good luck!

May 03, 2009, 03:26 PM // 15:26	#9
Lycanthropy Ascalonian Squire Join Date: May 2009	thanks alot guys! very very appreciated, seems like this forum is great. =)

May 03, 2009, 03:29 PM // 15:29	#10
Mr. G Desert Nomad Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: S. Wales Profession: Mo/Me	Hehe it's fine if you learn to ignore the QQ'ers Don't listen to people who will tell you that the game is dead, or this class is overpowers, or this is rigged and so on Generally these are people who have played the game for so long their bored of it. GW isnt dead, its a full florishing game to a new player.

May 03, 2009, 03:45 PM // 15:45	#12
Mr. G Desert Nomad Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: S. Wales Profession: Mo/Me	Wow really? thats shocking, Been ages since I've been myself though.

May 03, 2009, 08:15 PM // 20:15	#14
Icy The Mage Forge Runner Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Canada Profession: E/	Yeah, there is also hard mode in the game once you get all the way through a campaign's storyline, which you can turn on and off at your will. Hard mode yields higher rewards at the cost of harder-to-kill enemies and environment effects, etc... Some of the dungeons in Eye of the North take quite a while but the most is usually 45 mins - 1 hour (in hard mode that is).

May 03, 2009, 11:05 PM // 23:05	#16
refer Jungle Guide Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: US	I don't think anything takes that long in Guild Wars. You can go through all 4 games in like a a couple months or LESS just to start with. Plus getting nice equipment isn't that tough either.

May 04, 2009, 08:28 PM // 20:28	#18
xron Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Denbigh, Wales Guild: Zero Zero Profession: R/	My experience is: That you can play the game for many many hours during the week. 100 if you had it, as there are so many things, especially when you're just starting, that you can do. I've been playing just over a year and still have enough to do to play that much. BUT You can literally play for half an hour a day if that's all you had. It is really however much time you have to invest. Like it's been said before, the maximum time you'll need to do the high end things is a couple of hours, so that's the longest u'd have to stay on at any one time. Other than that it's what ever you're free

May 06, 2009, 12:01 PM // 12:01	#19
the_jos Forge Runner Join Date: Jun 2006 Guild: Hard Mode Legion [HML] Profession: N/	Lycanthropy, First of all welcome. I think most of your question is already answered. I'd like to add something. When you are looking for a guild which does PvE elite areas regular you should be able to play consistent, it's not about making hours but to be able to learn and perform on about the same level. When people know you are new they can anticipate on that. Tell you what to do and what not to do, what skills to use and where, that kind of stuff. However, you should expect some upfront investment in the game. What is important is that 'common' builds could be made up of skills shattered around 3 campaigns, so collecting all of them might take some time. This is more true for the 'elite' skills. Specially when you want to play several professions. There is a way around this (play PvP, unlock the skill and use a tome to get it on a PvE character), but if you intend to mainly play high-end PvE in a short while I would surgest you make as many hours as possible on the PvE side since those elite areas are mainly accessible after you finished the game. If you just want to have fun I would look for a decent mixed PvE/PvP guild with activity. Having some teambased PvP knowledge does help to become a better team player. One thing to remind you about is that most elite areas are played by guild/alliance or farming teams. It's not easy to enter with random groups, though it's not impossible. Many farming teams require specific builds, just ask around to get them. My impression is that if you are able to play roughly daily for an hour or so this would be sufficient to prove your value if you have a decent guild. That's much better than being able to play 14 hours during the weekend. You don't need to spend ages in the game (except to buff some PvE-only skills) to get your stuff together. It's only for the elite areas themself that you need sufficient time, but the most demanding I can think of is DoA (Nightfall) and that one can be done in smaller quests, you will just get less reward that way. For most elite areas roughly two hours would be sufficient, though my last trip to Underworld (normal mode) lasted 3.5 hours. But my team made a few huge mistakes there that cost a lot of time to clean up the mess and we took a couple of breaks because it was taking that long. So make sure you have some spare time if you intend to finish.... :P