Noob professions advice for solo player - Guild Wars Forums

splash · Jun 08, 2007, 09:23 PM // 21:23

I've been playing World of Warcraft for the last 6 months or so but I'm tired of paying the monthly fee so I'm quiting. My brother has a copy of Guild Wars that he doesn't play anymore so I'm thinking of starting up a character.

I'm basically looking for any general advice for a newbie and some suggestions on what professions combo to pick. I played a shaman in WoW but I enjoyed playing almost all the classes. The only ones I did not like were rogues and hunters. I would also like to choose a class that I can solo effectively with. I would prefer to minimize my dependency on grouping with other players because I'm not always available to play to long stretches of time and I feel bad when I have to leave a group in the middle of something. So is there a profession combo that is more well suited for playing on my own? Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks.

Kook~NBK~ · Jun 08, 2007, 10:10 PM // 22:10

A couple of good professions to start out with would be Warrior or Elementalist with a Monk secondary. Monks are also pretty good for starting out.

In Prophecies, the party size in the beginning area is 2, but most of it you can do alone. Later on, the party size goes up to 4, then 6, then 8. However, when that happens, you can fill out your party with AI henchmen.
As for needing to be on for long stretches, there are very few things that take longer than an hour to do, with most things taking 30 - 45 minutes.

In Nightfall and factions, you can fill out your party with henchmen (and Heros in Nightfall) right from the start. Quests and missions in these two campaigns ususally run 20 - 30 minutes, so partying up with real people is even less of a problem when it comes to time constraints.

tijo · Jun 08, 2007, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Elementalist and Monk are good solo professions as NBK mentioned. Also, GW was designed more for casual players so you don't have to spend hours on a quest or mission to go through the storyline. The Henchmen are good enough too if you don't want to depend on other people.

Toutatis · Jun 08, 2007, 10:31 PM // 22:31

As Kook stated, the Warrior and Elementalist are two professions that are relatively easy to pick up and start playing the game with. As far as secondary professions go, Monk is one of the more popular secondaries due to the monk's hex/condition removal and healing skills.

Though if you want something completely different and a challenging crash course in GW game mechanics, try a Mesmer (though don't expect it to be easy)

I Might Avenge U · Jun 08, 2007, 11:21 PM // 23:21

Ranger is also a good start.

For a few good Reasons:

1) You get to stay towards the back of the party and do ranged attacks. Which means that you not only are going to die less, but you also get to be the "hero" when everyone in your party dies. You can Runaway with your 1337 PwNZwOrZ Running SkiLL3Z, then comeback and rez the party up again

. Not to mention that they have some of the best survival skills, and are a VERY Versatile class.

[skill]Troll Unguent[/skill] FTW!!!

2)They Have good damage output while maintaining excellent survival skill. Which means you can still do good damage with a ranger, and have a good chance of staying alive a good chunk of the time.

3) They are a pretty acceptable class for damage output, and you will find it easier to get into a PUG (Pick up Group) with the ranger/whatever. You'll certainly get into more groups than say a W/Mo... J/K tanks are always useful

Nukers are also needed quite often, so it really is your personal choice as to what you want to play as...

October Jade · Jun 09, 2007, 03:06 AM // 03:06

A word of advice: don't be overly preoccupied with playing alone. GW has a (usually) great system of NPCs that you can recruit to form groups. Solo play, while present in this game, is not the same as soloing in WoW. The difference is that most solo builds in GW are gimmicks meant to farm a small cross-section of the game over and over to accumulate gold. For everyday, ordinary gameplay they just don't cut it...you need more balance than they can provide. I suggest you check out the link for general pve builds on the right side of the PvXwiki page, which can be found here.

JDRyder · Jun 09, 2007, 09:25 AM // 09:25

dont go noob go War/ele if u like hitting s*** Monk/mesmer if u like healing s***
ele/mesmer if ur a p***y caster JK *covers his head*

Yanman.be · Jun 09, 2007, 03:03 PM // 15:03

JDRyder, I cannot read what you just posted.

He doesn't like Rogue/Hunter, the GW equivalents would be Assassin/Ranger. So don't pick those, I guess.

Coloneh · Jun 09, 2007, 07:13 PM // 19:13

dont think your going to be playing solo though, GW is a team game. soloing is possible in most areas, but to slow to make the game any fun.

Traveller · Jun 09, 2007, 07:46 PM // 19:46

Let's define a few terms here: you can play solo in GW, but generally you can't do it other than beginner areas. There are exceptions, like many farming builds where you go solo, but for general gaming there's usually a party of 2,4,6 or 8, depending on the area.

Now, if you think you might have to stop playing in the middle of the mission and don't want to be a bother to human players, fill your party with henchmen (prophecies & factions) or heroes & henchmen (nightfall), who are computer-controlled players and don't mind you AFK'ing or quitting.

I have no experience in WoW, but an elementalist is usually a good choice for a beginner, or a warrior, if you like melee fighting.

Francis Crawford · Jun 10, 2007, 06:01 AM // 06:01

There is no reason to play with other human beings if you don't want to. That's because Guild Wars has henchmen, aka "henchies". Indeed, in many cases you won't have much choice, as there may not be other new players to partner with exactly when and where you want.

Assuming you're talking about the original Guild Wars, aka "Prophecies", I'd recommend any of Warrior, Elementalist, or Necromancer over Ranger, and ranger over Monk or Mesmer. The reason is that if you play which henchies you're likely to have the most powerful character by far, so you're best off with somebody who does a lot of damage. E.g., the only characters I enjoyed playing at low levels in Prophecies were my Elementalist (Fire Magic), aka "nuker", and Necromancer (Death Magic), aka "MM".

Necro also has the advantage that if you buy or are given the service of being "run" to Drok's Landing so as to buy max armor, you also will be able to capture the elite skill Spiteful Spirit, which is extremely powerful. This is much earlier in the game than you can capture something nearly as good for other professions.

October Jade · Jun 10, 2007, 06:21 PM // 18:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Francis Crawford

Necro also has the advantage that if you buy or are given the service of being "run" to Drok's Landing so as to buy max armor, you also will be able to capture the elite skill Spiteful Spirit, which is extremely powerful. This is much earlier in the game than you can capture something nearly as good for other professions.

Okay, I can somewhat respect the content of the first two paragraphs of your post. This, however, is totally ridiculous. You're encouraging someone who is totally new to the game to buy a Droknar's run. Being his first character, in all likelihood he won't have enough platinum to pay for both the run and the armor. Even if he does, he'll be sitting in the southern Shiverpeaks unable to do anything because he's level 13. What's next? Telling him to hire a power leveler?

If you're thinking, "Well, he could get the armor and then go back to Kryta," then...no. Just no. There's no reason anyone needs to have maximum armor that early in the game. The only thing it will accomplish is to form sloppy gameplay habits because he's nearly invincible in those stages of the storyline.

I Might Avenge U · Jun 10, 2007, 06:53 PM // 18:53

^^ I agree, you really need to "play" through the whole game on your first char at least...

*Darcy* · Jun 10, 2007, 09:56 PM // 21:56

For descriptions of the various professions you can visit either or both of the wikis.
Original wiki - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page
New wiki - http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

NOTE: We have two because ArenaNet is providing servers for the new one; the older one couldn't take up the offer due to licensing problems. The original is more complete.

You can try out different professions and see what appeals to you. There is no penalty for deleting a character and starting over again. I started with a warrior/ranger combo, which gave me high armor and DPS, and the benefit of the Ranger Pet and Troll Unguent.

My Darcy Sa Renn still spends most of her time as a W/R, although I seldom use the pet anymore.

Jun 08, 2007, 09:23 PM // 21:23	#1
splash Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jun 2007	Noob professions advice for solo player I've been playing World of Warcraft for the last 6 months or so but I'm tired of paying the monthly fee so I'm quiting. My brother has a copy of Guild Wars that he doesn't play anymore so I'm thinking of starting up a character. I'm basically looking for any general advice for a newbie and some suggestions on what professions combo to pick. I played a shaman in WoW but I enjoyed playing almost all the classes. The only ones I did not like were rogues and hunters. I would also like to choose a class that I can solo effectively with. I would prefer to minimize my dependency on grouping with other players because I'm not always available to play to long stretches of time and I feel bad when I have to leave a group in the middle of something. So is there a profession combo that is more well suited for playing on my own? Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks.

Jun 10, 2007, 09:56 PM // 21:56	#14
Darcy Never Too Old Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Rhode Island where there are no GW contests Guild: Order of First Profession: W/R	For descriptions of the various professions you can visit either or both of the wikis. Original wiki - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page New wiki - http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page NOTE: We have two because ArenaNet is providing servers for the new one; the older one couldn't take up the offer due to licensing problems. The original is more complete. You can try out different professions and see what appeals to you. There is no penalty for deleting a character and starting over again. I started with a warrior/ranger combo, which gave me high armor and DPS, and the benefit of the Ranger Pet and Troll Unguent. My Darcy Sa Renn still spends most of her time as a W/R, although I seldom use the pet anymore. __________________ That's me, the old stick-in-the-mud non-fun moderator. (and non-understanding, also)

Jun 08, 2007, 10:10 PM // 22:10	#2
Kook~NBK~ Grotto Attendant Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: A little chalet outside Drok's Guild: Natural Born Killaz	A couple of good professions to start out with would be Warrior or Elementalist with a Monk secondary. Monks are also pretty good for starting out. In Prophecies, the party size in the beginning area is 2, but most of it you can do alone. Later on, the party size goes up to 4, then 6, then 8. However, when that happens, you can fill out your party with AI henchmen. As for needing to be on for long stretches, there are very few things that take longer than an hour to do, with most things taking 30 - 45 minutes. In Nightfall and factions, you can fill out your party with henchmen (and Heros in Nightfall) right from the start. Quests and missions in these two campaigns ususally run 20 - 30 minutes, so partying up with real people is even less of a problem when it comes to time constraints.

Jun 08, 2007, 10:25 PM // 22:25	#3
tijo Jungle Guide Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Montreal Guild: [CDDR] Profession: R/	Elementalist and Monk are good solo professions as NBK mentioned. Also, GW was designed more for casual players so you don't have to spend hours on a quest or mission to go through the storyline. The Henchmen are good enough too if you don't want to depend on other people.

Jun 08, 2007, 10:31 PM // 22:31	#4
Toutatis Walking Wiki Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Isle of Medication Guild: Visitors from Aranna [VFA] Profession: Me/E	As Kook stated, the Warrior and Elementalist are two professions that are relatively easy to pick up and start playing the game with. As far as secondary professions go, Monk is one of the more popular secondaries due to the monk's hex/condition removal and healing skills. Though if you want something completely different and a challenging crash course in GW game mechanics, try a Mesmer (though don't expect it to be easy)

Jun 08, 2007, 11:21 PM // 23:21	#5
I Might Avenge U Jungle Guide Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: California Profession: R/	Ranger is also a good start. For a few good Reasons: 1) You get to stay towards the back of the party and do ranged attacks. Which means that you not only are going to die less, but you also get to be the "hero" when everyone in your party dies. You can Runaway with your 1337 PwNZwOrZ Running SkiLL3Z, then comeback and rez the party up again . Not to mention that they have some of the best survival skills, and are a VERY Versatile class. [skill]Troll Unguent[/skill] FTW!!! 2)They Have good damage output while maintaining excellent survival skill. Which means you can still do good damage with a ranger, and have a good chance of staying alive a good chunk of the time. 3) They are a pretty acceptable class for damage output, and you will find it easier to get into a PUG (Pick up Group) with the ranger/whatever. You'll certainly get into more groups than say a W/Mo... J/K tanks are always useful Nukers are also needed quite often, so it really is your personal choice as to what you want to play as...

Jun 09, 2007, 03:06 AM // 03:06	#6
October Jade Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: drifting between Indiana and NorCal	A word of advice: don't be overly preoccupied with playing alone. GW has a (usually) great system of NPCs that you can recruit to form groups. Solo play, while present in this game, is not the same as soloing in WoW. The difference is that most solo builds in GW are gimmicks meant to farm a small cross-section of the game over and over to accumulate gold. For everyday, ordinary gameplay they just don't cut it...you need more balance than they can provide. I suggest you check out the link for general pve builds on the right side of the PvXwiki page, which can be found here.

Jun 09, 2007, 09:25 AM // 09:25	#7
JDRyder Jungle Guide Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Great temple of Balthazar Profession: Mo/Me	dont go noob go War/ele if u like hitting s* Monk/mesmer if u like healing s* ele/mesmer if ur a p**y caster JK covers his head*

Jun 09, 2007, 03:03 PM // 15:03	#8
Yanman.be Banned Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Belgium Guild: [ROSE] Profession: A/	JDRyder, I cannot read what you just posted. He doesn't like Rogue/Hunter, the GW equivalents would be Assassin/Ranger. So don't pick those, I guess.

Jun 09, 2007, 07:13 PM // 19:13	#9
Coloneh Furnace Stoker Join Date: Nov 2006 Profession: D/W	dont think your going to be playing solo though, GW is a team game. soloing is possible in most areas, but to slow to make the game any fun.

Jun 09, 2007, 07:46 PM // 19:46	#10
Traveller Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Finland Guild: League of Extraordinary Explorers [LOST] (my one man guild) Profession: Me/	Let's define a few terms here: you can play solo in GW, but generally you can't do it other than beginner areas. There are exceptions, like many farming builds where you go solo, but for general gaming there's usually a party of 2,4,6 or 8, depending on the area. Now, if you think you might have to stop playing in the middle of the mission and don't want to be a bother to human players, fill your party with henchmen (prophecies & factions) or heroes & henchmen (nightfall), who are computer-controlled players and don't mind you AFK'ing or quitting. I have no experience in WoW, but an elementalist is usually a good choice for a beginner, or a warrior, if you like melee fighting.

Jun 10, 2007, 06:01 AM // 06:01	#11
Francis Crawford Forge Runner Join Date: Dec 2005	There is no reason to play with other human beings if you don't want to. That's because Guild Wars has henchmen, aka "henchies". Indeed, in many cases you won't have much choice, as there may not be other new players to partner with exactly when and where you want. Assuming you're talking about the original Guild Wars, aka "Prophecies", I'd recommend any of Warrior, Elementalist, or Necromancer over Ranger, and ranger over Monk or Mesmer. The reason is that if you play which henchies you're likely to have the most powerful character by far, so you're best off with somebody who does a lot of damage. E.g., the only characters I enjoyed playing at low levels in Prophecies were my Elementalist (Fire Magic), aka "nuker", and Necromancer (Death Magic), aka "MM". Necro also has the advantage that if you buy or are given the service of being "run" to Drok's Landing so as to buy max armor, you also will be able to capture the elite skill Spiteful Spirit, which is extremely powerful. This is much earlier in the game than you can capture something nearly as good for other professions.

Jun 10, 2007, 06:53 PM // 18:53	#13
I Might Avenge U Jungle Guide Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: California Profession: R/	^^ I agree, you really need to "play" through the whole game on your first char at least...