I do not understand Guild Wars at all! Please help! :P - Guild Wars Forums

sasmcpot · Jan 28, 2011, 09:32 AM // 09:32

Hey all,

Im an experienced MMO player, having played a good 75% of existing ones at the moment, but guild wars baffles the hell out of me! I purchased it on steam, so got all expansions except the most resent. And when I create a new character, I am creating them on different expansion packs, but unlike WoW for example, these expansions do not seem to link together at all (Or as far as I know).

What would you all recommend I play? What expansion has the highest playerbase so I know where to start? Do they all link together one way or another?

To me at the moment it seems like 4 seperate games and is really confusing!

*Edit* - And I did read the sticky already. It answered alot of questions I did have, but not really the ones I listed here.

Thanks for any help!

aspi · Jan 28, 2011, 09:42 AM // 09:42

Hi and welcome. The expansions do connect, but it takes a short while to get there(in some cases a long while).
I myself would start in prophecies so you can get into the game, but prepared for a slow advance. You will however learn about the story, the characters and also see the lovely pre-searing part of GW.

I can tell you much more, but I wouldnt want to spoil it for ya. You could start for instance with nightfall and get heroes faster but I would advice against it :

GL with playing the game.

rokocoko · Jan 28, 2011, 09:47 AM // 09:47

First of all, Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall are separate campaigns, the only expansion is Eye of the North.

Second, each campaign and the expansion comes with an access key to be added to your account. Most important thing is to add your keys to the same account, which will enable you to access any campaign with any created character.

For example, if you create a character in Prophecies, at some point in the game, you'll be able to access Factions/Nightfall campaign via a special quest.

Have fun!

Chocolate_Prayers · Jan 28, 2011, 10:39 AM // 10:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by sasmcpot

What would you all recommend I play? What expansion has the highest playerbase so I know where to start? Do they all link together one way or another?

Pretty much all of what was said above, however I personally would recommend starting in Prophecies. Since Pre-Searing acts like a Tutorial Level (I know the other campaigns have tutorials too, but I find Pre-Searing more immersive, as it doesn't feel like a tutorial), and the fact that the majority of the players who still hang out in Pre-Searing will gladly answer any questions you might have.

Zebideedee · Jan 28, 2011, 10:52 AM // 10:52

Once you get far enough in each campaign (as others have said) you get the chance to move to another and also to the Great Temple of Balthazar. Once your character has access to other campaigns you can press M to use the map, click it to zoom out and there will be a ship icon, you click on the ship then choose which 'continent' you want to go to...Kamadan for Nightfall, Kaineng Center for Factions and Lions Arch for Prophecies. All of which are the main towns that will also give you access to the quest to get to Eye of the North, hope that helps, welcome to GW's, gl & hf

Aeronwen · Jan 28, 2011, 11:17 AM // 11:17

Welcome to GW

In addition to what the others have said, do ask around in game, most people are very helpful and do join a giuld. It is hard to know what guild will suit you before you try but eventually you will find good friends in game and a guild that feels like home.

Oh and pressing F10 in game will take you to the wiki.

Kojima · Jan 28, 2011, 12:23 PM // 12:23

Yap. All has been said. I would also look into guru and wiki and also google a lot to get the best information as possible.

paddymew · Jan 28, 2011, 01:02 PM // 13:02

The easiest way to think about all this is that you choose what starting area and backstory your character will have. This includes your character's appearance and available professions (what's referred to as "classes" in other MMOs).

You aren't supposed to go visit the starting areas of other campaigns (and it's partially unavailable, too, in the case of the Prophecies starting area).

Highlander Of Alba · Jan 28, 2011, 01:06 PM // 13:06

Hi and welcome to GW,

just to reiterate what the others have said and as you played wow travel is somwhat similar,

ie a quest will take you to any of the other campaigns( the areas mensioned above) and when its done as said map pressing M a ship icon is shown and you select the relavant Continent.so you can go back and forth

When you create a char in a Campaign you have all the Core classes in them
and like wow certain ones have additional classes ie.Factions..Assasin,Ritulist.

Nightfall...Devish..Paragon.. (plus all the Core classes)

Nomatter what campaign you have you will be able cross over and obtain heros to assist you.

So first of all read up the Campfire section..http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/campfire-f17.html this will give you an insight to what is involved

As Stated Eye of the North is the only expansion and as like the rest at a given point you take a quest to go there also.

There are many out there who also will assist you so no big worries there

Take your time and you will enjoy the game ,ones you see rushing are ones who have played the content and wish to get to a certain area more quickly

Sketch_Says · Jan 28, 2011, 01:30 PM // 13:30

I would agree with most of what has been posted here. To get a good bearing on how the game works, Prophecies is a good place to start. It has a pretty easy learning curve and will give you some of the history on both the story and functions/controls of the game.

As others have mentioned, don't think of Factions and Nightfall as expansions. They're more like separate chapters of the same game. They connect in that you will eventually be able to travel between continents but each campaign has its own story, quests, skills, etc. The only real expansion that they have added to the game was Eye of the North and once you really get your practice in the main game you will be able to move on to Eye of the North to prepare for GW2. Welcome to the game and good luck

Spiritz · Jan 28, 2011, 02:13 PM // 14:13

In regards to other mmo`s gw has a diff approach to its campaigns.
You can say each campaign can be played seperate and doesnt rely on the player needing all of them ( exception is eye of the north which is an addon which is slightly linked to all 3 campaigns ).At a set point in each campaign you can have access to reach the other campaigns and eye of the north - this itself is quite good as it allows new players to experiance some of the game and get used to its mechanics before throwing them in the deep end.
As mentioned by others each campaign has a diff storyline and its easy for a player to switch between campaigns after they gain access and there isnt a real cost to doing it - the only thing thats different when crossing campaigns is the "starter areas" ( shing jea , pre sear prophecies and istan in nightfall ) have quests specific for a chr from that campaign but after a point any chr from a campaign gets the quests from that point upwards - ie nightfall and kormir with her rallying the troops speech.

Player base wise its hard to say as the 3 campaigns have 3 main towns for trade and often act as meeting points - lions arch in prophs , kaineng centre in factions and kamadan in nightfall tho main area for 2 specific elite areas is temple of ages which gives access to underworld and fissure of woe.

Lithril Ashwalker · Jan 28, 2011, 03:41 PM // 15:41

yerp, things i learned when i first started playing nearly 7 yrs ago...

to always run with a group until you understand the mechanics and "easy way outs" of the game. whether it be Henchman/heros/real players.

Buying Online Gold/power lvling is a scam and usually gets your account permanently banned(me dad got a temp ban while testing with me)

and when wiki was made (use it...) if you have a question of any kind that pertains to guild wars simply type in ANY chat type in guild wars. /wiki (insert keyword here without parenthesis)

experiment with builds, dont rely on this fan-dangled pvxwiki.com for every build. though it a great starting template for new comers/build creation ideas.

if starting in prophecies pre-searing is indeed a great place to learn and find tips to play and progress through the game as well as give an understanding point of view of: what the hell are Charr and why are they bad, who Rurik is, who Gwen is, as well as Nicholas The Traveler and Yakkington.

factions is a different story as all campaigns except eye of the north have a tutorial (prophecies is better) but you progress further in the game much faster. you learn about : Master Togo, Shiro Tagachi, Luxon+kurzick and why they get knickers in a knot to fight each other, The Plague, Assassins And Ritualists. Noob Island( Shing Jae Monestary Island) is a great place to start grouping with people as its always crowded(however they are all usually potty mouthed so dont get discouraged because they arent what you call (mature).

Nightfall: now this campaign i personally found annoying, its got some pretty tough quests if your not prepared but as soon as you get off THIS noob island(Istan){not as potty mouthed} its fairly quick to ascend(means your able to do underworld,fissure of woe etc)but the missions are very challenging. youll learn about Varesh, Abaddon, Domain Of Anguish(if you beat the campaign) and my favorite purple kool-aid guys!!!(Margonites)

Eye of the north:the creme de la creme of all campaigns, in this campaign you can have access to fun mini missions as well as being the only campaign with Dungeons with end chests with a chance for a certain goody. you'll learn about the Norn(big azz mofos), the dwarves(lol shrimpy), the Asura(tiny lil vicious Gremlins of doom) and of course the feared Destroyers(giant fiery crawfish the hurt). you'll also get in depth on what the Charr were up to. without this campaign youll miss out on most of the guild wars fun

links that are helpful
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Campaign_travel
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Prophecies
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_%28Factions%29
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Story...28Nightfall%29
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Eye_of_the_North#Story
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Profession
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ascension

you have ANY questions pm me in game if im online

Lithril Ashwalker

if u cant usually the "n" key is default for bringing up friends list.

Roen · Jan 28, 2011, 03:54 PM // 15:54

I wish somebody with mad graphic skills would draw a flowy mappy kind of thing showing how the campaigns inter-connect.

Like:

Prophecies->Presearing->Go Post->Mission/Quest-line->Lion's Arch-(four way arrow split, one continuing Prophecies storyline, one pointing to Kaineng Center, one to Istan, and one to Boreal Station)

Factions->You get the idea...

mappam · Jan 28, 2011, 03:55 PM // 15:55

From a returning player that is still lost - so take this from someone that is almost in the same boat as you......

Try different characters. Try different areas. Try different combo's.

We all have to remember the basic fact - this is a game and meant to be FUN. It isn't about how fast you can get from point A to point X - but to enjoy the journey along the way.

I have to remind myself of this all the time. I get frustrated because I don't understand about ALL of the game - so many things to learn! Upgrades, areas, builds, henchmen, hero........and the list goes on and on.

If you try a character and do not like it....try another one. If you start in one area and not finding it FUN - try another character in another area......

We are lucky that we have enough character slots to try different things to see what is FUN...

Just my 2 cents..

chessyang · Jan 28, 2011, 04:10 PM // 16:10

Hello and welcome.

what i have done in my past for is just start as a warrior and do the "story" of the game. get an idea of what i'm doing. Love to just hack and slash. After that or "beating the game" i'll see what's cool or like to play. In D2 i loved to play as an amazon but in GW i hate playing as a ranger. It's just me but i love the assassin in GW but hated the assassin in D2.

the "the highest playerbase" hum... GW is pretty well rounded on what your trying to do. NOT including farming or PVP any class is fun in PvE. have some people in my guild that love to Rit everything and picked up this guy how loves to play as a Mesmer. And a friend who love to play as a ranger on everything we do.

Quaker · Jan 28, 2011, 04:27 PM // 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by sasmcpot

.. when I create a new character, I am creating them on different expansion packs, but unlike WoW for example, these expansions do not seem to link together at all (Or as far as I know).

As has been said, they do link together. When you get to a certain point in a campaign you can then do a simple quest to unlock travel to the other campaigns and the expansion. Specifically, you need to get to Lion's Arch (Prophecies), Kaineng Centre (Factions), and/or The Consulate Docks (Nightfall). Once unlocked, travel can be done by using the boat on the map(s).

Quote:

What would you all recommend I play? What expansion has the highest playerbase so I know where to start?

I usually recommend starting in Nightfall to get into the current state of the game fastest (Heroes, etc.). But most of the player base these days is in Eye of the North, or doing War in Kryta stuff in Prophecies/EotN.

Verene · Jan 28, 2011, 04:34 PM // 16:34

Also, while starting in Nightfall gets you heroes, if you're just starting out the game they won't have any skills and henchmen are actually more useful.

Silmar Alech · Jan 28, 2011, 04:49 PM // 16:49

Each of the 3 campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall) and the expansion (Eye of the North) has a distinct story line you can play through.
In each of the 3 campaigns you reach an early point in the story line, where you can travel to all of the other campaigns including Eye of the North. It's when you reach the main city of the corresponding campaign: Lion's Arch for Prophecies, Kaineng Center for Factions, Kamadan in Nightfall. Nightfall is a special case: you must have played the mission Consulate Docks to be able to travel to other campaigns.

If you travel to a foreign campaign, you play the same story line as a native character, minus the first few missions that are considered the tutorial in that campaign.

I recommend that you first play through your starting campaign up to the final mission. I recommend Nightfall as starting campaign because of the heroes, decent paced storyline (Prophecies is way too slow, Factions is way too fast) and it has the most players at the moment.

If your starting campaign was not Nightfall, take a short break and enter the first outposts in the Eye of the North expansion up the the Hall of Monuments, so you get a few handy heroes you can use instead of the pre-made henchmen. Then continue with your starting campaign.

If you completed it, take the quests to the other campaigns. As next campaign, play through Nightfall to get more heroes if that was not your starting campaign.
As next campaign, play through Prophecies. As next campaign, play through Factions. Then play through Eye of the North.

All with the same character if you like the gameplay. If you don't like the gameplay, abandon that character early and start a different class you think that is better. You have 8 character slots - use abandoned characters as mules for storage.

In the end, as soon as you played through all 3 campaigns and eotn with your character, your character is exactly the same as every other character in Guild Wars regardless of the starting campaign. Same skills available, same health, armor, energy, attribute points, access to EVERY outpost int the whole game. Only the tutorial was a bit different.

Rites · Jan 28, 2011, 06:54 PM // 18:54

if you are going for story- start at prophecies

if you are the type that just jumpe into the game and want to see results as fast as possible - start nightfall. you get heroes, can be "ferried" to area with max armor right away, and can easily be "ferried" to the other campaigns BUT if you go this route you will need to have a little gold built up (3k just for the ferrying services)

sasmcpot · Jan 28, 2011, 10:48 PM // 22:48

Oh wow.

All of these replies are very helpful. And greatly appreciated indeed! Its good to know they do link one way or another later, and I am able to play all 3 Campaigns in any order.

Currently im on Nightfall I beleive, playing Necro/Ele with heroes and the like, and im not struggling at all yet. Only level 8 or 9 though so things may get a little harder later on!

Many thanks for all the replies, I didn't expect half as much information as I just received. This game may confuse the hell out of me for now, but its nice to see it has a good friendly playerbase at least!

Jan 28, 2011, 09:32 AM // 09:32	#1
sasmcpot Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: England Profession: N/E	I do not understand Guild Wars at all! Please help! :P Hey all, Im an experienced MMO player, having played a good 75% of existing ones at the moment, but guild wars baffles the hell out of me! I purchased it on steam, so got all expansions except the most resent. And when I create a new character, I am creating them on different expansion packs, but unlike WoW for example, these expansions do not seem to link together at all (Or as far as I know). What would you all recommend I play? What expansion has the highest playerbase so I know where to start? Do they all link together one way or another? To me at the moment it seems like 4 seperate games and is really confusing! Edit - And I did read the sticky already. It answered alot of questions I did have, but not really the ones I listed here. Thanks for any help! Last edited by sasmcpot; Jan 28, 2011 at 09:41 AM // 09:41..

Jan 28, 2011, 10:52 AM // 10:52	#5
Zebideedee Jungle Guide Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: 55?? 57' 0" N / 3?? 12' 0" W Profession: N/Me	Once you get far enough in each campaign (as others have said) you get the chance to move to another and also to the Great Temple of Balthazar. Once your character has access to other campaigns you can press M to use the map, click it to zoom out and there will be a ship icon, you click on the ship then choose which 'continent' you want to go to...Kamadan for Nightfall, Kaineng Center for Factions and Lions Arch for Prophecies. All of which are the main towns that will also give you access to the quest to get to Eye of the North, hope that helps, welcome to GW's, gl & hf Last edited by Zebideedee; Jan 28, 2011 at 10:59 AM // 10:59..

Jan 28, 2011, 03:41 PM // 15:41	#12
Lithril Ashwalker Jungle Guide Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Alabama Profession: A/	yerp, things i learned when i first started playing nearly 7 yrs ago... to always run with a group until you understand the mechanics and "easy way outs" of the game. whether it be Henchman/heros/real players. Buying Online Gold/power lvling is a scam and usually gets your account permanently banned(me dad got a temp ban while testing with me) and when wiki was made (use it...) if you have a question of any kind that pertains to guild wars simply type in ANY chat type in guild wars. /wiki (insert keyword here without parenthesis) experiment with builds, dont rely on this fan-dangled pvxwiki.com for every build. though it a great starting template for new comers/build creation ideas. if starting in prophecies pre-searing is indeed a great place to learn and find tips to play and progress through the game as well as give an understanding point of view of: what the hell are Charr and why are they bad, who Rurik is, who Gwen is, as well as Nicholas The Traveler and Yakkington. factions is a different story as all campaigns except eye of the north have a tutorial (prophecies is better) but you progress further in the game much faster. you learn about : Master Togo, Shiro Tagachi, Luxon+kurzick and why they get knickers in a knot to fight each other, The Plague, Assassins And Ritualists. Noob Island( Shing Jae Monestary Island) is a great place to start grouping with people as its always crowded(however they are all usually potty mouthed so dont get discouraged because they arent what you call (mature). Nightfall: now this campaign i personally found annoying, its got some pretty tough quests if your not prepared but as soon as you get off THIS noob island(Istan){not as potty mouthed} its fairly quick to ascend(means your able to do underworld,fissure of woe etc)but the missions are very challenging. youll learn about Varesh, Abaddon, Domain Of Anguish(if you beat the campaign) and my favorite purple kool-aid guys!!!(Margonites) Eye of the north:the creme de la creme of all campaigns, in this campaign you can have access to fun mini missions as well as being the only campaign with Dungeons with end chests with a chance for a certain goody. you'll learn about the Norn(big azz mofos), the dwarves(lol shrimpy), the Asura(tiny lil vicious Gremlins of doom) and of course the feared Destroyers(giant fiery crawfish the hurt). you'll also get in depth on what the Charr were up to. without this campaign youll miss out on most of the guild wars fun links that are helpful http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Campaign_travel http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_of_Prophecies http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Storyline_%28Factions%29 http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Story...28Nightfall%29 http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Eye_of_the_North#Story http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Profession http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ascension you have ANY questions pm me in game if im online Lithril Ashwalker if u cant usually the "n" key is default for bringing up friends list. Last edited by Lithril Ashwalker; Jan 28, 2011 at 03:58 PM // 15:58.. Reason: accidently clicked submit

Jan 28, 2011, 04:10 PM // 16:10	#15
chessyang Not far from Elite Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Florida Profession: W/	Hello and welcome. what i have done in my past for is just start as a warrior and do the "story" of the game. get an idea of what i'm doing. Love to just hack and slash. After that or "beating the game" i'll see what's cool or like to play. In D2 i loved to play as an amazon but in GW i hate playing as a ranger. It's just me but i love the assassin in GW but hated the assassin in D2. the "the highest playerbase" hum... GW is pretty well rounded on what your trying to do. NOT including farming or PVP any class is fun in PvE. have some people in my guild that love to Rit everything and picked up this guy how loves to play as a Mesmer. And a friend who love to play as a ranger on everything we do. __________________ Let's use our Voices! The Chapter Selection Screen GW Wiki or Guru Thank You

Jan 28, 2011, 04:49 PM // 16:49	#18
Silmar Alech Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Europe Guild: Tom Son [TS] Profession: E/	Each of the 3 campaigns (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall) and the expansion (Eye of the North) has a distinct story line you can play through. In each of the 3 campaigns you reach an early point in the story line, where you can travel to all of the other campaigns including Eye of the North. It's when you reach the main city of the corresponding campaign: Lion's Arch for Prophecies, Kaineng Center for Factions, Kamadan in Nightfall. Nightfall is a special case: you must have played the mission Consulate Docks to be able to travel to other campaigns. If you travel to a foreign campaign, you play the same story line as a native character, minus the first few missions that are considered the tutorial in that campaign. I recommend that you first play through your starting campaign up to the final mission. I recommend Nightfall as starting campaign because of the heroes, decent paced storyline (Prophecies is way too slow, Factions is way too fast) and it has the most players at the moment. If your starting campaign was not Nightfall, take a short break and enter the first outposts in the Eye of the North expansion up the the Hall of Monuments, so you get a few handy heroes you can use instead of the pre-made henchmen. Then continue with your starting campaign. If you completed it, take the quests to the other campaigns. As next campaign, play through Nightfall to get more heroes if that was not your starting campaign. As next campaign, play through Prophecies. As next campaign, play through Factions. Then play through Eye of the North. All with the same character if you like the gameplay. If you don't like the gameplay, abandon that character early and start a different class you think that is better. You have 8 character slots - use abandoned characters as mules for storage. In the end, as soon as you played through all 3 campaigns and eotn with your character, your character is exactly the same as every other character in Guild Wars regardless of the starting campaign. Same skills available, same health, armor, energy, attribute points, access to EVERY outpost int the whole game. Only the tutorial was a bit different. Last edited by Silmar Alech; Jan 28, 2011 at 04:52 PM // 16:52..

Jan 28, 2011, 09:42 AM // 09:42	#2
aspi Desert Nomad Join Date: Jan 2010 Guild: eeew Profession: N/Rt	Hi and welcome. The expansions do connect, but it takes a short while to get there(in some cases a long while). I myself would start in prophecies so you can get into the game, but prepared for a slow advance. You will however learn about the story, the characters and also see the lovely pre-searing part of GW. I can tell you much more, but I wouldnt want to spoil it for ya. You could start for instance with nightfall and get heroes faster but I would advice against it : GL with playing the game.

Jan 28, 2011, 09:47 AM // 09:47	#3
rokocoko Academy Page Join Date: Aug 2008 Profession: E/	First of all, Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall are separate campaigns, the only expansion is Eye of the North. Second, each campaign and the expansion comes with an access key to be added to your account. Most important thing is to add your keys to the same account, which will enable you to access any campaign with any created character. For example, if you create a character in Prophecies, at some point in the game, you'll be able to access Factions/Nightfall campaign via a special quest. Have fun!

Jan 28, 2011, 11:17 AM // 11:17	#6
Aeronwen not so much fell as..... Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: UK Guild: bone Profession: R/	Welcome to GW In addition to what the others have said, do ask around in game, most people are very helpful and do join a giuld. It is hard to know what guild will suit you before you try but eventually you will find good friends in game and a guild that feels like home. Oh and pressing F10 in game will take you to the wiki.

Jan 28, 2011, 12:23 PM // 12:23	#7
Kojima Krytan Explorer Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Home Guild: En Caligne Veritas [DARK] Profession: R/Rt	Yap. All has been said. I would also look into guru and wiki and also google a lot to get the best information as possible.

Jan 28, 2011, 01:02 PM // 13:02	#8
paddymew Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jul 2008 Profession: D/	The easiest way to think about all this is that you choose what starting area and backstory your character will have. This includes your character's appearance and available professions (what's referred to as "classes" in other MMOs). You aren't supposed to go visit the starting areas of other campaigns (and it's partially unavailable, too, in the case of the Prophecies starting area).

Jan 28, 2011, 01:06 PM // 13:06	#9
Highlander Of Alba Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jan 2007 Guild: Real Rogue Clan Profession: Rt/Mo	Hi and welcome to GW, just to reiterate what the others have said and as you played wow travel is somwhat similar, ie a quest will take you to any of the other campaigns( the areas mensioned above) and when its done as said map pressing M a ship icon is shown and you select the relavant Continent.so you can go back and forth When you create a char in a Campaign you have all the Core classes in them and like wow certain ones have additional classes ie.Factions..Assasin,Ritulist. Nightfall...Devish..Paragon.. (plus all the Core classes) Nomatter what campaign you have you will be able cross over and obtain heros to assist you. So first of all read up the Campfire section..http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/campfire-f17.html this will give you an insight to what is involved As Stated Eye of the North is the only expansion and as like the rest at a given point you take a quest to go there also. There are many out there who also will assist you so no big worries there Take your time and you will enjoy the game ,ones you see rushing are ones who have played the content and wish to get to a certain area more quickly

Jan 28, 2011, 01:30 PM // 13:30	#10
Sketch_Says Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Florida Guild: The Hellmouth Saints Profession: R/E	I would agree with most of what has been posted here. To get a good bearing on how the game works, Prophecies is a good place to start. It has a pretty easy learning curve and will give you some of the history on both the story and functions/controls of the game. As others have mentioned, don't think of Factions and Nightfall as expansions. They're more like separate chapters of the same game. They connect in that you will eventually be able to travel between continents but each campaign has its own story, quests, skills, etc. The only real expansion that they have added to the game was Eye of the North and once you really get your practice in the main game you will be able to move on to Eye of the North to prepare for GW2. Welcome to the game and good luck

Jan 28, 2011, 02:13 PM // 14:13	#11
Spiritz Forge Runner Join Date: Apr 2007 Guild: DMFC	In regards to other mmo`s gw has a diff approach to its campaigns. You can say each campaign can be played seperate and doesnt rely on the player needing all of them ( exception is eye of the north which is an addon which is slightly linked to all 3 campaigns ).At a set point in each campaign you can have access to reach the other campaigns and eye of the north - this itself is quite good as it allows new players to experiance some of the game and get used to its mechanics before throwing them in the deep end. As mentioned by others each campaign has a diff storyline and its easy for a player to switch between campaigns after they gain access and there isnt a real cost to doing it - the only thing thats different when crossing campaigns is the "starter areas" ( shing jea , pre sear prophecies and istan in nightfall ) have quests specific for a chr from that campaign but after a point any chr from a campaign gets the quests from that point upwards - ie nightfall and kormir with her rallying the troops speech. Player base wise its hard to say as the 3 campaigns have 3 main towns for trade and often act as meeting points - lions arch in prophs , kaineng centre in factions and kamadan in nightfall tho main area for 2 specific elite areas is temple of ages which gives access to underworld and fissure of woe.

Jan 28, 2011, 03:54 PM // 15:54	#13
Roen Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: GMT-5 Guild: [Nite] Profession: R/	I wish somebody with mad graphic skills would draw a flowy mappy kind of thing showing how the campaigns inter-connect. Like: Prophecies->Presearing->Go Post->Mission/Quest-line->Lion's Arch-(four way arrow split, one continuing Prophecies storyline, one pointing to Kaineng Center, one to Istan, and one to Boreal Station) Factions->You get the idea...

Jan 28, 2011, 03:55 PM // 15:55	#14
mappam Academy Page Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Central Florida USA	From a returning player that is still lost - so take this from someone that is almost in the same boat as you...... Try different characters. Try different areas. Try different combo's. We all have to remember the basic fact - this is a game and meant to be FUN. It isn't about how fast you can get from point A to point X - but to enjoy the journey along the way. I have to remind myself of this all the time. I get frustrated because I don't understand about ALL of the game - so many things to learn! Upgrades, areas, builds, henchmen, hero........and the list goes on and on. If you try a character and do not like it....try another one. If you start in one area and not finding it FUN - try another character in another area...... We are lucky that we have enough character slots to try different things to see what is FUN... Just my 2 cents..

Jan 28, 2011, 04:34 PM // 16:34	#17
Verene Furnace Stoker Join Date: Jan 2009 Guild: [SOTA] Profession: D/	Also, while starting in Nightfall gets you heroes, if you're just starting out the game they won't have any skills and henchmen are actually more useful.

Jan 28, 2011, 06:54 PM // 18:54	#19
Rites Krytan Explorer Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Deep in the belly of Texas Profession: R/	if you are going for story- start at prophecies if you are the type that just jumpe into the game and want to see results as fast as possible - start nightfall. you get heroes, can be "ferried" to area with max armor right away, and can easily be "ferried" to the other campaigns BUT if you go this route you will need to have a little gold built up (3k just for the ferrying services)

Jan 28, 2011, 10:48 PM // 22:48	#20
sasmcpot Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: England Profession: N/E	Oh wow. All of these replies are very helpful. And greatly appreciated indeed! Its good to know they do link one way or another later, and I am able to play all 3 Campaigns in any order. Currently im on Nightfall I beleive, playing Necro/Ele with heroes and the like, and im not struggling at all yet. Only level 8 or 9 though so things may get a little harder later on! Many thanks for all the replies, I didn't expect half as much information as I just received. This game may confuse the hell out of me for now, but its nice to see it has a good friendly playerbase at least!