Hi, I'm new here - Guild Wars Forums

Unkynd · Apr 07, 2009, 12:50 PM // 12:50

Hello - I have been playing the GW trial for the last 3-4 days and found a pretty good deal on the game + expansions ($49.99 for everything) and decided to go ahead and take the plunge. I'm liking the game alot so far. I know I'm about 4 years behind, but looking forward to giving it a go anyways. I've done a little bit of reading on this forum and the wiki, and decided to go with a Ranger/Monk for my first character. I really dig the henchmen because I don't always have time to sit around looking for a group.

Couple of questions though. Skip these if you want

With henchmen, is it possible to solo most of the content in the game? I see people offering to run missions for other people for a price, why would anyone pay for those services? Are some missions unable to be done without a specific build? I've also noticed on the wiki that the high end weapons don't seem all that different from the low end stuff... for instance, my level 8 ranger already has a bow that does 11-18 dmg, and the high end bows listed on the wiki do 15-28, is that accurate? Some of the trinkets I've found say they give +6 energy (while enchanted) and I turn on that enchantment that reflects 33% of damage, but my energy stays at 25, what am I missed there?

Too many questions, I know.

Ate of DK · Apr 07, 2009, 01:00 PM // 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unkynd

Hello - I have been playing the GW trial for the last 3-4 days and found a pretty good deal on the game + expansions ($49.99 for everything) and decided to go ahead and take the plunge. I'm liking the game alot so far. I know I'm about 4 years behind, but looking forward to giving it a go anyways. I've done a little bit of reading on this forum and the wiki, and decided to go with a Ranger/Monk for my first character. I really dig the henchmen because I don't always have time to sit around looking for a group.

Couple of questions though. Skip these if you want

With henchmen, is it possible to solo most of the content in the game?
Yes, you can play the whole game with heroes and henchman. You'll most likely won't find groups at all when you get out of the starting area's. Some missions will be a bit tougher than others.

I see people offering to run missions for other people for a price, why would anyone pay for those services?
Some people are lazy, others do the action for them.

Are some missions unable to be done without a specific build?
There are a lot of builds that work very well. But even with a very "stupid" build it's posible to do almost everything. In NM you won't have many problems, in HM you might consider using more effective builds. Either you look them up or try to figuer out something cool yourself.

I've also noticed on the wiki that the high end weapons don't seem all that different from the low end stuff... for instance, my level 8 ranger already has a bow that does 11-18 dmg, and the high end bows listed on the wiki do 15-28, is that accurate?
True, the only reason why the prices are high is because of their looks. A standard crafted bow with 15-28 is just as powerful as one that costs 100K on these forums. It's all about the looks.

Some of the trinkets I've found say they give +6 energy (while enchanted) and I turn on that enchantment that reflects 33% of damage, but my energy stays at 25, what am I missed there?
You might not reach the requirement. For the use of your bow you have a requirement, same for artifacts. Look at your artifact and it says that you require... (req. 7 in Energy Storage). Edit: A bow is allways 2 handed, but you can still equip something in your second hand but it just won't count. That might cause some confusion as well.

Too many questions, I know.

See bolded parts, hope that helps.

Ate.

imnotyourmother · Apr 07, 2009, 01:25 PM // 13:25

Well First of all welcome to the Game and the Guru. Ranger is a Very effective profession for interrupting and putting conditions on others and you can have a pet.

For your questions.
Can you solo the game with Henchmen..Yes and maybe if you have 20 years. Henchmen are stupid.

Here is some advice that I am going to give you.

You said that you have all the "games + expansion". Please start in Nightfall. Why because you get HERO's.

Then learn how to flag them and run them. And start doing the game with hero's and henchmen.

As for weapons max damage weapons are very nice to have since damage is the key element for all professions is a line that you might hear but that is not the case.

Please hear this.

I have a war and I do 0 damage with my sword. Just as you have wilderness Survival as one of your attributes I have swordsmanship for one of mine. I have it set to 0 so my sword that needs 9 is not met. I maxed out the strength and my secondary which is fire cause I am war/ele. Mark of rodgort does 3 seconds of burning if hit with a "fiery weapon". My "skills" do a set amount of damage no matter what the attributes are so I can do way more damage by knocking them down with "headbutt" (57 damage ALL the time) and lighting them on fire for 21 seconds straight EVEN WHEN BLINDED and BLOCKED!!!

So for your Bow if you have "ignite arrows" and your wilderness survival is at 13 and you use this preparation you will do way more damage with the bow you have than with 9 in wilderness survival and 9 in marksmanship and a 30,000 gold bow. Synergy is what you are after when killing something.

The object of killing something will not be through "damage" by smashing on them but by "degenerating - degen" on them. So poison them, interrupt them and knock them down.

You should have Bane Signet..this will knock a foe down while attacking. These types of strategies will make you super human in the game. Its kinda hard to get killed if the foe is knocked down every 5 seconds.

If things get to hard for you in a certain area you might consider paying someone for their help. Maybe you do not have a Minion Master Hero yet and there are way to many foes 5 or more lvl's above you that you need to kill. Paying someone that can raise an army for a meat shield might be worth the 2,000 gold just for the fun of it.

As for the energy that you have it says that it is "enchanted" so if you are in a town and decide to equip it to see how much energy you would have it will not work. You need to go outside of the town or outpost and then use healing breeze or some sort of enchantment on yourself to see your energy go up by 6.

Always remember,

There are never stupid questions just stupid answers.

Jecht Scye · Apr 07, 2009, 01:28 PM // 13:28

Ate of DK explained it all well.

Welcome to the game, I think you'll find that the $50.00 was well spent!

Aussie Boy · Apr 07, 2009, 01:34 PM // 13:34

Welcome to the game.
All above explained it for you so not adding anything here except your not really 4 years behind in anything
except "playing time" really as GW you can play for a while and drop it for months and come back the story stays the same.
Have fun.

TheodenKing · Apr 07, 2009, 02:23 PM // 14:23

Welcome to Guild Wars! For your ranger... yes, max bow damage is 15-28. Weapons in the game have a base damage, and can have up to 3 modifiers... In the case of bows, those mods would be a string, a grip, and an inscription. The string affects the prefix in the bow's name, the grip affects the suffix. The inscription is not reflected in the bow's name. You have to look at the bow's stats to see if it has an inscription and what effect it has.

The requirement of the bow is important in that if your ranger doesn't have enough attribute points in marksmanship, then he/she won't be able to get the most damage out of the bow. So, you don't need a low req bow, but you do need one that has a low enough req for you to get max damage. You can, of course, adjust your attribute points to suit your needs.

Good luck!

Unkynd · Apr 07, 2009, 02:43 PM // 14:43

Thanks for all the answers. I just bought the game yesterday, but it won't be delivered until later this week. So, for now, I'm stuck in prophecies on the free trial.

imnotyourmother · Apr 07, 2009, 03:26 PM // 15:26

one more thing. You might think about joining a guild or starting your own.

Onion Guy · Apr 07, 2009, 03:31 PM // 15:31

Proph is good for learning i say, but slow for leveling up. Also the main part of the game is after you reach level 20, not grinding to it like many other mmos. If you can find a good guild you can get help from them and do fun things like GvG, AB or DoA. (Guild vs Guild, Alience battles or The Domain of Anguish).

lv42daze · Apr 07, 2009, 03:40 PM // 15:40

Well, don't worry I'm sure you won't finish Prophecies by next week anyways. Welcome to GW, if you need any assistance I'm glad to help; IGN: Quintas Flaccus

Martin Firestorm · Apr 07, 2009, 04:54 PM // 16:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by imnotyourmother

Always remember,

There are never stupid questions just stupid answers.

That is so true.

Lasai · Apr 07, 2009, 05:04 PM // 17:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by imnotyourmother

As for weapons max damage weapons are very nice to have since damage is the key element for all professions is a line that you might hear but that is not the case.

Please hear this.

I have a war and I do 0 damage with my sword. Just as you have wilderness Survival as one of your attributes I have swordsmanship for one of mine. I have it set to 0 so my sword that needs 9 is not met. I maxed out the strength and my secondary which is fire cause I am war/ele. Mark of rodgort does 3 seconds of burning if hit with a "fiery weapon". My "skills" do a set amount of damage no matter what the attributes are so I can do way more damage by knocking them down with "headbutt" (57 damage ALL the time) and lighting them on fire for 21 seconds straight EVEN WHEN BLINDED and BLOCKED!!!

So for your Bow if you have "ignite arrows" and your wilderness survival is at 13 and you use this preparation you will do way more damage with the bow you have than with 9 in wilderness survival and 9 in marksmanship and a 30,000 gold bow. Synergy is what you are after when killing something.

snipped quote.

Thats a bit simplistic, as with 0 sword skills you have also rendered every skill tied to Swordsmanship as useless. There are a lot of decent swords skills, its not all about just meeting a weapons req. When deciding what attributes to maximize a player has to look at the skills tied to that attribute as well.

The statement about skills doing a "set" amount is hardly correct, as skills tied to attributes do more damage or have more duration based on the attribute number. Your "headbutt" works because of your maxed str, Headbutt is tied to that attribute. The list of "no attribute" skills is very short.

There are pros and cons to every style and every build, nothing is gospel, and a player should experiment to find a build that works and suits their playstyle.

Tom Swift · Apr 07, 2009, 05:24 PM // 17:24

Just one quick comment. You asked about people running missions.

All storyline missions can be done with yourself, heroes and henchies.

The reason people pay others to run certain missions is that when you get all the games you wind up with nine characters and it gets a little dull doing every mission on every single character so many people pay others who have certain builds to do the mission more quickly.

However, your first time through, I would suggested not taking any runs, paid or otherwise. If at all possible, group with others as that is half the fun. but try to get people about your same level. If you happen to partner for a mission or quest with someone at max level, at least try to participate and contribute to the effort. You will enjoy the game more and learn more if you do the work yourself first rather than relying on others to play the game for you.

Lasai · Apr 07, 2009, 05:38 PM // 17:38

Oh, one other thing about paying for mission help.. sometimes its worth it to see exactly how a tricky part can be done.

I was having trouble getting the masters reward killing Varesh.. could not beat the time limit. I hired a helper to run it HM, saw exactly where to position my char to hold her but not aggro the patrols, and then did it myself in NM and finished my Protector of Elona. It was worth 2k, to me, for the knowledge on how to beat the mission.

imnotyourmother · Apr 07, 2009, 05:46 PM // 17:46

Right I will agree with the people above me. My style of play is based on the AA (Ascalon Arena skills builds - the headbutt cause that's PvE only) and I do find that this works really really well for me.

As you work through the game you will figure out what works for you.

Archress Shayleigh · Apr 07, 2009, 05:53 PM // 17:53

Ate of DK is where to look. Explained exactly everything! BTW I'm also a ranger, and it's a very balanced profession. You made the right choice for making a ranger for your first character. Btw, if you need ANYTHING, from bows to runes, PM me ingame as Archress Shayleigh

Eddie Frenzy Spam · Apr 07, 2009, 06:00 PM // 18:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by imnotyourmother

Well First of all welcome to the Game and the Guru. Ranger is a Very effective profession for interrupting and putting conditions on others and you can have a pet.

For your questions.
Can you solo the game with Henchmen..Yes and maybe if you have 20 years. Henchmen are stupid.

Here is some advice that I am going to give you.

You said that you have all the "games + expansion". Please start in Nightfall. Why because you get HERO's.

Then learn how to flag them and run them. And start doing the game with hero's and henchmen.

As for weapons max damage weapons are very nice to have since damage is the key element for all professions is a line that you might hear but that is not the case.

Please hear this.

I have a war and I do 0 damage with my sword. Just as you have wilderness Survival as one of your attributes I have swordsmanship for one of mine. I have it set to 0 so my sword that needs 9 is not met. I maxed out the strength and my secondary which is fire cause I am war/ele. Mark of rodgort does 3 seconds of burning if hit with a "fiery weapon". My "skills" do a set amount of damage no matter what the attributes are so I can do way more damage by knocking them down with "headbutt" (57 damage ALL the time) and lighting them on fire for 21 seconds straight EVEN WHEN BLINDED and BLOCKED!!!

So for your Bow if you have "ignite arrows" and your wilderness survival is at 13 and you use this preparation you will do way more damage with the bow you have than with 9 in wilderness survival and 9 in marksmanship and a 30,000 gold bow. Synergy is what you are after when killing something.

The object of killing something will not be through "damage" by smashing on them but by "degenerating - degen" on them. So poison them, interrupt them and knock them down.

You should have Bane Signet..this will knock a foe down while attacking. These types of strategies will make you super human in the game. Its kinda hard to get killed if the foe is knocked down every 5 seconds.

If things get to hard for you in a certain area you might consider paying someone for their help. Maybe you do not have a Minion Master Hero yet and there are way to many foes 5 or more lvl's above you that you need to kill. Paying someone that can raise an army for a meat shield might be worth the 2,000 gold just for the fun of it.

As for the energy that you have it says that it is "enchanted" so if you are in a town and decide to equip it to see how much energy you would have it will not work. You need to go outside of the town or outpost and then use healing breeze or some sort of enchantment on yourself to see your energy go up by 6.

Always remember,

There are never stupid questions just stupid answers.

And this is one of those stupid answers. No offense but a lot of what you said in your post is just plain wrong, as well as being badly written and hard to follow.

One thing I agree with is, yes, you should start out in Nightfall and get the heroes there, the fact that you can give them their own skills and equipment is absolutely wonderful and with them you really can do most of the game by yourself if you so wish.

However ignore everything else the guy I quoted said. Do not run bane signet on a R/Mo, infact don't run any sort of KD on a R/Mo, do not play a Warrior with fire magic skills and certainly do not take 0 in your bow attribute.

Generally people will only play a R/Mo for 1 or 2 skills from the monk line, the most popular option being [Mending Touch], Rangers already have a lot of very good skills and are quite versatile so don't really need to borrow many skills from their secondary.

If you need anymore help I will certainly be willing, my IGN (In Game Name) is below my picture to the left.

Zodiac Meteor · Apr 07, 2009, 07:24 PM // 19:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddie the reaper

Generally people will only play a R/Mo for 1 or 2 skills from the monk line, the most popular option being [Mending Touch], Rangers already have a lot of very good skills and are quite versatile so don't really need to borrow many skills from their secondary.

If you need anymore help I will certainly be willing, my IGN (In Game Name) is below my picture to the left.

That's mostly PvP, a good monk won't require you to bring self heals. ([[troll [email protected]]) Also, rangers secondary are your best friend.

Expertise. Learn it, love it. Actually, you don't have to learn it.

Also, grab an elite skill as soon as they come available.
Elite Skills = Goku's Super Saiyan
Without it, your just Goku

Private Message me (Whisper) Zodiac Ele, I'll be happy to help out with any problems you face.

Eddie Frenzy Spam · Apr 07, 2009, 07:34 PM // 19:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zodiac Meteor

That's mostly PvP, a good monk won't require you to bring self heals. ([[troll [email protected]]) Also, rangers secondary are your best friend.

Expertise. Learn it, love it. Actually, you don't have to learn it.

Also, grab an elite skill as soon as they come available.
Elite Skills = Goku's Super Saiyan
Without it, your just Goku

Private Message me (Whisper) Zodiac Ele, I'll be happy to help out with any problems you face.

Yes I realise it's mainly PvP, however I would have thought it would still be relevant to PvE. Of course yeah, if you're trusting enough in your monk to remove blind etc off you fast enough then by all means drop it for something else.

Apr 07, 2009, 12:50 PM // 12:50	#1
Unkynd Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Apr 2009	Hi, I'm new here Hello - I have been playing the GW trial for the last 3-4 days and found a pretty good deal on the game + expansions ($49.99 for everything) and decided to go ahead and take the plunge. I'm liking the game alot so far. I know I'm about 4 years behind, but looking forward to giving it a go anyways. I've done a little bit of reading on this forum and the wiki, and decided to go with a Ranger/Monk for my first character. I really dig the henchmen because I don't always have time to sit around looking for a group. Couple of questions though. Skip these if you want With henchmen, is it possible to solo most of the content in the game? I see people offering to run missions for other people for a price, why would anyone pay for those services? Are some missions unable to be done without a specific build? I've also noticed on the wiki that the high end weapons don't seem all that different from the low end stuff... for instance, my level 8 ranger already has a bow that does 11-18 dmg, and the high end bows listed on the wiki do 15-28, is that accurate? Some of the trinkets I've found say they give +6 energy (while enchanted) and I turn on that enchantment that reflects 33% of damage, but my energy stays at 25, what am I missed there? Too many questions, I know.

Apr 07, 2009, 02:43 PM // 14:43	#7
Unkynd Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Apr 2009	Thanks Thanks for all the answers. I just bought the game yesterday, but it won't be delivered until later this week. So, for now, I'm stuck in prophecies on the free trial.

Apr 07, 2009, 01:25 PM // 13:25	#3
imnotyourmother Desert Nomad Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: in a house Guild: The Knitters Guild Profession: W/R	Well First of all welcome to the Game and the Guru. Ranger is a Very effective profession for interrupting and putting conditions on others and you can have a pet. For your questions. Can you solo the game with Henchmen..Yes and maybe if you have 20 years. Henchmen are stupid. Here is some advice that I am going to give you. You said that you have all the "games + expansion". Please start in Nightfall. Why because you get HERO's. Then learn how to flag them and run them. And start doing the game with hero's and henchmen. As for weapons max damage weapons are very nice to have since damage is the key element for all professions is a line that you might hear but that is not the case. Please hear this. I have a war and I do 0 damage with my sword. Just as you have wilderness Survival as one of your attributes I have swordsmanship for one of mine. I have it set to 0 so my sword that needs 9 is not met. I maxed out the strength and my secondary which is fire cause I am war/ele. Mark of rodgort does 3 seconds of burning if hit with a "fiery weapon". My "skills" do a set amount of damage no matter what the attributes are so I can do way more damage by knocking them down with "headbutt" (57 damage ALL the time) and lighting them on fire for 21 seconds straight EVEN WHEN BLINDED and BLOCKED!!! So for your Bow if you have "ignite arrows" and your wilderness survival is at 13 and you use this preparation you will do way more damage with the bow you have than with 9 in wilderness survival and 9 in marksmanship and a 30,000 gold bow. Synergy is what you are after when killing something. The object of killing something will not be through "damage" by smashing on them but by "degenerating - degen" on them. So poison them, interrupt them and knock them down. You should have Bane Signet..this will knock a foe down while attacking. These types of strategies will make you super human in the game. Its kinda hard to get killed if the foe is knocked down every 5 seconds. If things get to hard for you in a certain area you might consider paying someone for their help. Maybe you do not have a Minion Master Hero yet and there are way to many foes 5 or more lvl's above you that you need to kill. Paying someone that can raise an army for a meat shield might be worth the 2,000 gold just for the fun of it. As for the energy that you have it says that it is "enchanted" so if you are in a town and decide to equip it to see how much energy you would have it will not work. You need to go outside of the town or outpost and then use healing breeze or some sort of enchantment on yourself to see your energy go up by 6. Always remember, There are never stupid questions just stupid answers.

Apr 07, 2009, 01:28 PM // 13:28	#4
Jecht Scye Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Dec 2005 Guild: Lucky Crickets[Luck] Profession: N/Me	Ate of DK explained it all well. Welcome to the game, I think you'll find that the $50.00 was well spent!

Apr 07, 2009, 01:34 PM // 13:34	#5
Aussie Boy Alcoholic Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Australia Profession: W/	Welcome to the game. All above explained it for you so not adding anything here except your not really 4 years behind in anything except "playing time" really as GW you can play for a while and drop it for months and come back the story stays the same. Have fun.

Apr 07, 2009, 02:23 PM // 14:23	#6
TheodenKing Jungle Guide Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: DoA Guild: Dark Order of Retarded Knights (doRk) Profession: N/Me	Welcome to Guild Wars! For your ranger... yes, max bow damage is 15-28. Weapons in the game have a base damage, and can have up to 3 modifiers... In the case of bows, those mods would be a string, a grip, and an inscription. The string affects the prefix in the bow's name, the grip affects the suffix. The inscription is not reflected in the bow's name. You have to look at the bow's stats to see if it has an inscription and what effect it has. The requirement of the bow is important in that if your ranger doesn't have enough attribute points in marksmanship, then he/she won't be able to get the most damage out of the bow. So, you don't need a low req bow, but you do need one that has a low enough req for you to get max damage. You can, of course, adjust your attribute points to suit your needs. Good luck!

Apr 07, 2009, 03:26 PM // 15:26	#8
imnotyourmother Desert Nomad Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: in a house Guild: The Knitters Guild Profession: W/R	one more thing. You might think about joining a guild or starting your own.

Apr 07, 2009, 03:31 PM // 15:31	#9
Onion Guy Academy Page Join Date: May 2008 Location: Co Guild: The Mentalists [THPK] Profession: N/Me	Proph is good for learning i say, but slow for leveling up. Also the main part of the game is after you reach level 20, not grinding to it like many other mmos. If you can find a good guild you can get help from them and do fun things like GvG, AB or DoA. (Guild vs Guild, Alience battles or The Domain of Anguish).

Apr 07, 2009, 03:40 PM // 15:40	#10
lv42daze Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2009 Guild: ROCK Profession: E/Me	Well, don't worry I'm sure you won't finish Prophecies by next week anyways. Welcome to GW, if you need any assistance I'm glad to help; IGN: Quintas Flaccus

Apr 07, 2009, 05:24 PM // 17:24	#13
Tom Swift Jungle Guide Join Date: Aug 2007	Just one quick comment. You asked about people running missions. All storyline missions can be done with yourself, heroes and henchies. The reason people pay others to run certain missions is that when you get all the games you wind up with nine characters and it gets a little dull doing every mission on every single character so many people pay others who have certain builds to do the mission more quickly. However, your first time through, I would suggested not taking any runs, paid or otherwise. If at all possible, group with others as that is half the fun. but try to get people about your same level. If you happen to partner for a mission or quest with someone at max level, at least try to participate and contribute to the effort. You will enjoy the game more and learn more if you do the work yourself first rather than relying on others to play the game for you.

Apr 07, 2009, 05:38 PM // 17:38	#14
Lasai Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Apr 2009 Profession: R/	Oh, one other thing about paying for mission help.. sometimes its worth it to see exactly how a tricky part can be done. I was having trouble getting the masters reward killing Varesh.. could not beat the time limit. I hired a helper to run it HM, saw exactly where to position my char to hold her but not aggro the patrols, and then did it myself in NM and finished my Protector of Elona. It was worth 2k, to me, for the knowledge on how to beat the mission.

Apr 07, 2009, 05:46 PM // 17:46	#15
imnotyourmother Desert Nomad Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: in a house Guild: The Knitters Guild Profession: W/R	Right I will agree with the people above me. My style of play is based on the AA (Ascalon Arena skills builds - the headbutt cause that's PvE only) and I do find that this works really really well for me. As you work through the game you will figure out what works for you.

Apr 07, 2009, 05:53 PM // 17:53	#16
Archress Shayleigh Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Guild Hall Profession: R/	Ate of DK is where to look. Explained exactly everything! BTW I'm also a ranger, and it's a very balanced profession. You made the right choice for making a ranger for your first character. Btw, if you need ANYTHING, from bows to runes, PM me ingame as Archress Shayleigh