GW Factions: Questions - Guild Wars Forums

EmpressMila · Feb 05, 2008, 05:55 PM // 17:55

My spouse and I both play GW, and we're looking at moving to Factions, particularly due to the fact that it's the campaign that offers the most in terms of new skills to really be able to customize your character's abilities.

However, we want to be sure that, as a game/campaign, it's truly worth getting for the plethora of skills it offers and for at least some of the campaign itself.

I'll tell you that we both absolutely cant stand Nightfall. It is the worst put-together and horribly annoying of all the GW titles, *in our opinions*. We like the Heros (to a degree) and some of the level design and a few of the missions and a bit of the environments, but for the most part, we've grown extremely annoyed with most of it's elements.

As long as Factions is not that akin to Nightfall in how things are laid-out or implemented, we'd like to know. We'd also like to be sure --though we've searched through, and it certainly seems so-- that the ton of new skills that are offered for every class are worth getting, and getting into, the Factions campaign.

We also soon plan on getting (finally) EoTN, because we far prefer both Nordic type environments as well as dungeons.

So, we're looking for some adult, in-depth and even objective opinions about Factions and it being worth it for all the skills it offers and the campaign itself.

Hoping for some good feedback, thanks

derc · Feb 05, 2008, 06:13 PM // 18:13

What is it about Nightfall that you don't like? Just curious as it may help me to better answer you question.

Darkobra · Feb 05, 2008, 06:23 PM // 18:23

Factions is definitely more of a fast-paced game. If you're looking to get Master ranks on missions, you're forced to do it as quick as possible under a time limit. I personally hated that.

Also, later on, you're forced to pick between one of two factions (however, the choice isn't permanent and you can play both sides of the coin) and get 10,000 faction for their alliance. Only then can you progress through the game.

From what I'm picking up from your frustrations, it was the whole area effects thing you hated. (Domain of Pain, etc.) Well, there is one mission like that. I forget the name, but I know it's a mandatory mission on the Kurzick side. Basically, the ruins fall around you and rocks hit your party randomly, SEVERELY messing up spell casting.

That's all I can really remember in those regards.

Stuna213 · Feb 05, 2008, 06:25 PM // 18:25

I have all three campaigns and EOTN, and I would say that factions is my least favorite. First of all, the setting is not really my thing... The first part of the game is in this huge city, and it gets very dull and boring quite fast. After you leave the city it gets better, but eventually you are forced to grind for Luxon/Kurzick faction points in order to continue. The factions story line didn't really appeal to me... I won't go into detail about the story though because I might spoil it. Factions isn't really that hard to complete, but I've only done it on one of my characters because of how much I don't like it. On all the factions characters I have made my main goal was just to get to level 20 then leave factions for another campaign.

As for the good things about factions... theres the skills, new professions, two character slots, and an extra storage tab... but thats about it. I do enjoy playing on my assassin and the skills are good, but my suggestion would be to buy EOTN first. EOTN is styled a lot like prophecies, and I had fun playing through it. I just wish EOTN had a longer story.

Minime The Shadow · Feb 05, 2008, 06:35 PM // 18:35

Personally i love factions,

The first island has some great scenery and for beginners is extrememly useful, fast levelling and a useful introduction to all professions, even if master togo can hinder your party by just generally being slow and useless.

Later on ill admit, the Kaineng city isnt the nicest area to look at, and the step up from the enemies on the first island to there is quite large.

Once your hard work has paid off you enter the lovely setting of the jade sea, and this to me is one of the nicest areas in guild wars.

I started playing Gw from factions, and then moved out, but still return to play it whenever a guildie asks for help in missions, because i love it.

Blasting through some "harder" missions in sub 13 minute times is awesome, and with the right set up this can be done on any mission.

The storyline i enjoyed, the rivalry between 2 warring factions is great, and adds a new dimension, the skills are awesome and personally i use mostly factions skills in my builds.

Plus factions introduces you to the Legend that is Shiro Tagachi, the greatest fighter around

anyway its all opinion, but i think for the cost, it is most deffinately worth it.
hope this has helped

Snograt · Feb 05, 2008, 06:38 PM // 18:38

Factions was great when it first arrived. It was the first new chapter in the Guild Wars saga and everything was fresh and new. Every boss had an associated green and there were assassins and ritualists to muck around with. The preview event was great - it was set in the Jade Sea and the Echovald Forest.

Sadly, when the actual game was released, it was somewhat different. Shing Jea was a nice little intro, but who could have foreseen the massive difficulty leap on arriving on the mainland? Who knew that the massive, sprawling city would become a place to loathe, a place that made finally emerging into the daylight such a wonderful thing. Then they sent us back in there for more quests and another mission or two.

At last! finished with the damn slums! But what's this - a grind for reputation points before you're allowed to continue with the game? Why could that be? Surely not because the game really wasn't big enough?

Hmph.

Not my favourite chapter.

Yes, there are some vital skills in there. It's cheaper than buying the skill unlock pack.

That's the worst thing I've ever said about the game I love

{edit conflict} heh

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minime The Shadow

Plus factions introduces you to the Legend that is Shiro Tagachi, the greatest fighter around

Fighter? Shiro doesn't fight. He CHEATS. The only reason people have had difficulty in beating him is because of his terrible, imbalanced passive skill.

Starting your GW experience with Factions puts a different perspective on it, I guess

EmpressMila · Feb 05, 2008, 06:46 PM // 18:46

First, thank you all for the great feedback.

Ok, onto the details...

If you're forced to grind for factions points and to join one side, I cant say we'd be too "keen" on that. Since we're not all that familiar with all of the details of the pro's/con's to belonging to a faction, it's not really something we've yet ventured into in all of our time playing.

The *main incentive* with Factions is all of the skills, many of which, actually, really seem to be a large "boon" to any GW character. With the exception of ele's, for which I don't see anything I/we'd use over what we do now for our current nuker chars.

But for Necro, Warriors and even what looks like Rangers and Monks, there are quite a few skills and elite skills that are tempting us to get the campaign simply for that reason, blow through it to obtain those skills, then move on if we're not happy with the campaign.

We're not looking to start new classes of chars from Factions, FYI.

As for why we don't like Nightfall, I did list a lot of reasons in my original post, but yes, some of the enemy spells and powers are a bit ludicrous and highly annoying. But that's really just on top of the fact that the storyline is done very poorly and the environments are generally terrible. We'd actually prefer the Asian theme to the bland and almost oppressive African theme, with all of it's horrible looking deserts etc. Also, as many others have experienced, the order of missions in Nightfall and how the game progresses is a ridiculous confusing mess.

We really tried hard to find some enjoyment in it, but beyond using it for Heros in the beginning and to lvl up quickly using the first quarter of the game, we simply just cant play it anymore.

EoTN is definitely more our "cup of tea", but again, there are so many extremely useful skills offered only in Factions, if we can get something out of actually playing it, we think it's worth it for that alone.

Of course, that's how they get ya... offer a ton of new skills exclusive to that campaign, then you have to buy it if you want to expand on your existing characters/character classes... which is a bit annoying.

Perhaps if someone can give me more of a "brief breakdown" of the benefits to having to join a faction, that makes it worth grinding for faction points, that could help our decision.

What do you mean you can "play both sides of the coin" with factions? In PvE, you mean? I thought that joining a faction was really has more of a PvP effect, for some reason.

We have checked Wiki for all the info we could find, as well as around here (still looking), but I cant say I totally understand what really makes it worth joining a particular faction.

*However, regardless of that, if the campaign itself is not horribly annoying either in it's missions or environment, that it would make it worth while just to obtain all the skills offered (that we'd like to have access to) in the campaign, then I feel it'd be worth it for us to get into.

Would it indeed be worth it in this case?

I suppose that's really our main focus, whether or not it's worth fighting through just to obtain the skills. As long as it's not horribly annoying or frustrating, and perhaps even some environments etc. we'd enjoy, then we'd like to snag many of those skills before finally moving on to EoTN which, as I stated and was just suggested, is *definitely* more our "thing".

Thanks again for the great feedback

.
Nice to find some great forums with great, helpful people for once

P.S.
Our main plan is to take lvl 20 chars into Factions to obtain the skills we want. Not to start chars in Factions. So, hopefully, that will make some things easier, heh.

Wirt · Feb 05, 2008, 07:22 PM // 19:22

Well, whether the Factions Campaign would be good for you is tough to say. I had an ok time in Factions and still occasionally go back and do missions. I have gone through the campaign with all 9 characters, but I'd have to say I have the most fun in Factions with Alliance Battles (when we're winning).

In regards to the big dirty slummy city environment and finally being able to get out, maybe thats the effect that the developers wanted, but I know what you mean.

When you get out of the city and need to get 10k faction to get past a certain point, Id have to say to get the 10k and get all your characters past that point so you only have to farm the faction once. Also if you're looking to unlock both sides of the map, do the opposing side first (if you're allied luxon, do the kurzick side) since you can always farm 10k in alliance battles in a few hours.

In regards to benefits of being allied, there is no obvious benefit other than which side you are on in alliance battles and the allied pve skills. You still have access to opposing side armors and merchants as long as you have more of that side faction points.

There is a good elementalist skill that I like in Factions - Ride the Lightning - It can be quite effective if you like air spiking.

Overall I had a good time in Factions, however I also thought Nightfall was fine too, haha. But my biggest advice is to try to get your multiple chars through the first missions at the same time so you only have to get 10k in opposing faction once, not for each character. Hope I didnt confuse you. Have fun.

Kattar · Feb 05, 2008, 07:26 PM // 19:26

Many of the Factions skills are available in Kaineng Center, one of the first cities that foreign characters are introduced to. So it doesn't take that long to get most of the skills. Just do the quest required in whatever land your characters are from and you're there.

Kook~NBK~ · Feb 05, 2008, 07:28 PM // 19:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by EmpressMila

If you're forced to grind for factions points and to join one side, I cant say we'd be too "keen" on that. Since we're not all that familiar with all of the details of the pro's/con's to belonging to a faction, it's not really something we've yet ventured into in all of our time playing.

The grind for faction is a pain, but it's neccessary to advance in the game. being aligned with either faction doesn't mean much - unless you're in an alliance that does a lot of faction farming and owns a town. The biggest down side of the whole faction thing is that if you have more kurzick faction while in a luxon town, the NPCs won't do business with you. It really sucks when the Merhcant tells you to get lost.

Quote:

The *main incentive* with Factions is all of the skills, many of which, actually, really seem to be a large "boon" to any GW character. With the exception of ele's, for which I don't see anything I/we'd use over what we do now for our current nuker chars.

But for Necro, Warriors and even what looks like Rangers and Monks, there are quite a few skills and elite skills that are tempting us to get the campaign simply for that reason, blow through it to obtain those skills, then move on if we're not happy with the campaign.

We're not looking to start new classes of chars from Factions, FYI.

Yeah, there are lots of very nice skills to get in factions.

Quote:

As for why we don't like Nightfall, I did list a lot of reasons in my original post, but yes, some of the enemy spells and powers are a bit ludicrous and highly annoying. But that's really just on top of the fact that the storyline is done very poorly and the environments are generally terrible. We'd actually prefer the Asian theme to the bland and almost oppressive African theme, with all of it's horrible looking deserts etc. Also, as many others have experienced, the order of missions in Nightfall and how the game progresses is a ridiculous confusing mess.

faction's story-line is much, much worse than Nightfall's. The voice acting in cut-scenes is "fingernails on chalkboard" bad in amny instances. "Noob Island" is a very nice environment, as is the Jade Sea area. kaineng city is horrid. It's cramped, crowded, and very laggy. I didn't like the fact that just when you think you're done with the place, you end up going back into the thing. On the plus side, Alliance Battles are quite fun and are a nice change of pace. It's PvP, but in a (generally) more relaxed atmosphere.

Quote:

Perhaps if someone can give me more of a "brief breakdown" of the benefits to having to join a faction, that makes it worth grinding for faction points, that could help our decision.

There isn't any benefit for being a luxon or kurzick. Which one you align with while going through the story line determines which path through it you take. As for aquiring faction, you can get some decent PvE only skills linked to the "Friend of the Luxon/Kurzick" title track. Again, it doesn't matter which side you're on, the skills are the same (aside from the icon on the skill bar)

Quote:

What do you mean you can "play both sides of the coin" with factions? In PvE, you mean? I thought that joining a faction was really has more of a PvP effect, for some reason.

The PvE story line splits -take either the luxon or kurzick route. Once you get through it, you can go back and do the other route (after getting 10,000 more faction for THAT side). Your guild's alignemt with the Kurzick/Luxons determines who you fight for in Alliance battles.

AshenX · Feb 05, 2008, 07:33 PM // 19:33

I started play in Prophecies and still think its the best campaign so far. That said I think that you will find skills from factions to be very valuable additions to your repetoire. My favorite builds are actually centered around factions elites.

As to the faction point grind...I dont think you will find it to be all that bad. In general the quest line (supplemented by monster slaying along the way) will fill your need to accumulate 10k faction.

The environment has alot to be said for it or against it depending on your preferences. The kaineng city area that alot of peopl dont like has a very hongkong action movie vibe to it. Essentially like an urban dungeon. Sure it is dark, and can seem oppressive at times but it sets an excellent mood for the portions of the story set there.

By the time you get out of the city you are ready to truly love both the kurzick (germanic black forest) and luxon (ocean frozen into a sea of jade) territories. Both are stunning and a joy to explore but I still enjoy forays into the shadowed depths of the city.

An aspect of factions that shoud not be overlooked is its ability to introduce you to something I call PVP-lite. Alliance battles are a very PVE-like form of pvp which is less dependent on your ability to bring a few specific Meta builds (as is often the case in HA). In general you bring an effective damage dealer (or sometimes a healer) load in and have fun. Like anything it does have a learning curve but I believe that you will find it to be easy to pick up and not too serious an effort. It is also a nice way for a casual player to pick up Balthazar faction for unlocking skills for other forms of PVP. With the addition of Zaishen keys it also has the potential to be lucrative.

On the negative side....

1) Factions missions are timed. If you didnt like that aspect in NF you may not like it here. On the other hand an experienced player, as you seem to be, shouldnt find them too difficult to get masters rewards on.

2) Once you get about halfway into the game you will probably have to hero/hench many of the missions/quests. I have been working on HM for those areas and have seen almost no HM groups and very few NM groups either. Not really a problem as the missions are not difficult to H/H but it is something to note.

3) Factions drops are not inscribable. Although it has some of the nicest weapon skins in the game (my opinion) it can be difficult to get them with "perfect" mods. Note that the elite missions (Urgoz's Warren and the Deep) do have the potential to generate inscribable versions.

In closing I think that factions has alot to offer including an array of truly excellent skills. It has a good storyline and a variety of playing environments. It is well woht the money I and time I have spent on it

Hope this helps

Ash

**cosyfiep** · Feb 05, 2008, 08:17 PM // 20:17

After playing all three campaigns I agree that nf has the most lackluster areas like the desert which you spend most of the game in only to move to more desert and then more of it only to be replaced with the 'torment' areas...yeah not much thought on that.

Factions starts on a beautiful island with green trees, cherry blossoms and even some snow. You then move to the city--the slums of the city of Kanieng (yeah I cant spell and dont feel like looking up the correct spelling right now)....Its big, its ugly and when I first played it it made me want to quit right then and there. But finally I made it out of the city and got to see the grass again. The luxon side of the faction is a nice green area with a jade colored sea....a nice contrast to the city. The kurzick side is very dark (had to up the setting on my computer to see it at first), but offers lots of trees and such. The final part takes place in the imperial palace which offers the asian theme you first saw on the starter island. Not too bad too look at.

Ok the particulars. There are only 13 missions in the whole chapter, at one point you pick a faction (luxon or kurzick) so you 'skip' one of the missions, 2 of the missions are starter missions that you get no credit for if you are not a factions character (and can be easily skipped). which leaves you doing only 10. However, unlike prophecies where you can run past some of the missions , its not possible to bypass any here--if you dont like the locked gates of nf or its you need x to be able to do this mission--welll this is where they started that whole thing. On the good point--its not too hard to get the 10k faction needed and its account based so you can do it with multiple characters if you wish.
As has been mentioned the first city you get to has a skill trainer where most of the faction skills can be gotten---so if all you wanted is the skills you can get most of them right off the bat. (if you bought factions at a cheap price this is all you would need to do and then forget the rest of the game).

Another thing that is offered here is a bunch of pretty easy quests with good xp rewards as well as cash and 'imperial commendations' which can be traded in for things like keys, id kits and salvage kits in Kanieng city.

While the story of factions was a little be more thought out than nf (they had a lot longer to work on it), its still pretty wimpy but at least it goes by quickly!

All in all, after playing all three chapters; I find factions to NOT be my least favorite, but not my favorite either----it has its good points and its not so good. I like the fact that I can bring a character from say nf here and get leveled up with the quests fast, they can get lost of cash from those and since there are only 10 missions required to finish the whole thing---getting to the end (and feeling satisfaction at finishing something) is quick. I like the different enemies offered in the jade sea and the kurzick forests, which are different from the ones found in the slums too. I find myself playing through factions more and more after I completed nf---not sure if its because I just cant seem to want to grind through nf or if its because factions is quicker.

And I know you dont plan on making a factions character, but my favorite class is only found here---the ritualist. Its one of the few that I have made more than one of and in both genders. I enjoy playing them for their versitility, and I just liked the character creation choices a lot more than the nf ones or the limited ones from prophecies. You can pick up ritualist as a secondary in factions if you dont want to make one!

So if you want my recommendation, I would get factions (especially if you can find it for a good deal somewhere), and if you dont like it, just get the skills, if you do then play through it and then move on to eye. I have brought all of my other characters here, and have finished this chapter with more of them than the other 2 chapters combined! (I have yet to get a nf created character thru nf---though I finally have one in torment now)

Father of The Son of God · Feb 05, 2008, 09:04 PM // 21:04

I've got to say that I love the Factions campaign the most of all the chapters. I think the aspect of it that appeals the most to me is that missions are timed. I know that I am in the vast minority when I say that, but I guess the way I'd explain it is that it provides a measuring stick for your accomplishments. To me going for master's level for a mission in 20 minutes is akin to trying to beat the high score in Ms Pac-Man.

There are a lot of snags in Factions, and one that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is that there are a few missions (3 of the 13?) that you have to complete with an unknown team from the other side. What happens is that you'll enter the mission, then instead of the usual 3 second countdown to start, you might get a minute-long countdown. The game matches you up with another group that is also doing that mission at the same time. I personally love this, and it's probably not something you've really seen before in games. It provides a random component to the game--you might get paired with an awesome group, or you might get "a more memorable one". Either way, missions never play out the same way twice because of this. All I'll say about this is that you never know what you'll get.

It should be emphasized that you need to complete the missions to move to later areas in the game. You cannot run to any areas, as the gates to the
outpost will be locked.

The story behind Factions (race against time to save Cantha from Plague) is not up to the level of Prophecies. Personally I pay little attention to story/graphics. The thing I wanted was fun, and I got it out of Factions. It offers laughable voice acting (Shiro and Danika are standouts), and the unique take on grouping for a few missions that lets you play with strangers/enemies.

MagmaRed · Feb 05, 2008, 10:06 PM // 22:06

Use wiki. It sounds like you want skills a LOT, and Factions does have some very nice ones. However, it also has a lot of duplicates. A couple of examples:

[skill]Vampiric Touch[/skill][skill]Vampiric Bite[/skill]
[skill]Desperation Blow[/skill][skill]Drunken Blow[/skill]
[skill]Point Blank Shot[/skill][skill]Zojun's Shot[/skill]
[skill]Crystal Wave[/skill][skill]Teinai's Crystals[/skill]
[skill]Sympathetic Visage[/skill][skill]Ancestor's Visage[/skill]
[skill]Heal Other[/skill][skill]Jamei's Gaze[/skill]

Now, the game itself is good, in my opinion. It is, however, VERY different from Prophecies and Nightfall. As mentioned, the mission structure is the main difference. Instead of having specific goals to complete, the missions are timed, and you must complete them fast enough to get Master rank. There is only 2 exceptions to this, and those are the Kurzick and Luxon missions. In those, you have to keep a certain number of NPCs alive.

I would not base a decision to buy the game on skills. I would decide if I liked the idea of an Assassin and/or Ritualist, want more character slots, want more PvP options, and more places to explore.

AshenX · Feb 06, 2008, 12:47 AM // 00:47

Very good point about the skill duplication. I actually like being able to double up on some skills in my bar. The touch ranger gets little respect but can be effective if played right. Point blank shot+zojun's shot+glass arrows makes for a fun combo (since they all three feed off of expertise you can focus the majority of your attribute points there for +60 dmg on almost every bowshot @15 expertise)

EmpressMila · Feb 06, 2008, 01:24 AM // 01:24

Wow! Lots of very great, in-depth responses

Very much appreciated.

I suppose I just have a couple of questions in response to some of your responses:

1) When you say the missions are timed, does that mean only to get masters, such as in NF? Or are they timed "period", and you fail the mission all-together if you don't complete it in the allotted time?

NF missions are timed, but only if you want to get the Masters (which is the equivalent of the bonuses in Prophecies, essentially).

2) I'm/we're probably most interested in the actual elite skills offered in Factions, so how difficult are they to obtain?

Since you cannot just run around to different towns/outposts (which is pretty linear and not to attractive, in my opinion; what about exploration?) then I'm assuming that you can only get to the boss that has a particular elite skill once you've opened up that part of the game, then continually exit the town to where they're located until you can beat them and snag it...?

There are quite a few elites for each standard class in Factions that are mostly the attraction, but I'd hate to have to struggle through annoying situations just to snag 'em, like we've had to do with NF.

3) Lastly, I suppose I'm confused on the gaining faction points and how it applies to your account. So, do you need to really only do it once with one character --or once with multiple characters-- and then you're aligned, making it easier to get through Factions with another character?

Did that question make sense? LOL

One response seemed to hint at that, but I'm not totally clear.

As for a general response, yeah, I myself have been playing Prophecies since it's release, on-and-off the last year+ though. Only finally really ready to move on, which I/we did with NF.

The whole gaining faction situation doesn't sound too bad, especially considering that we don't PvP, so it really shouldn't make much of a difference which faction I/we earn points for. But it's nice to know we could change factions should we decided to in the future.

Thanks again for the really great responses!

Very helpful to have all of this type of information.

Musei Karasu · Feb 06, 2008, 03:47 AM // 03:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kook~NBK~

It's PvP, but in a (generally) more relaxed atmosphere.

relaxed and childish atmosphere you mean. Suxons and Kurdicks comes to mind every time I read the words Alliance Battles. At least when I step foot into HA I can expect my opponent to say gg after they lose or win.

Factions was my first experience in GW. I rather enjoy playing through Factions, and it happens to be my favorite of the three, despite my issues with AB. Infact, my main char is a sin. The most fun I have ever had playing GW in a week was capping all the elites in Factions. The story was ok, even though I didn't really pay much attention to it. The 10k faction requirement is really easy to meet as long as you do a few of the side quests, I didn't see any issue in doing so. Yes, it goes fast, and there are two missions that require a little luck getting a good team together from the other side(unwaking waters and visuh square), but overall, I enjoyed Factions more than any other.

{IceFire} · Feb 06, 2008, 04:00 AM // 04:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Musei Karasu

. At least when I step foot into HA I can expect my opponent to say gg after they win.

fixed that for you

knives · Feb 06, 2008, 06:04 AM // 06:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by EmpressMila

1) When you say the missions are timed, does that mean only to get masters, such as in NF? Or are they timed "period", and you fail the mission all-together if you don't complete it in the allotted time?

2) I'm/we're probably most interested in the actual elite skills offered in Factions, so how difficult are they to obtain?

3) Lastly, I suppose I'm confused on the gaining faction points and how it applies to your account. So, do you need to really only do it once with one character --or once with multiple characters-- and then you're aligned, making it easier to get through Factions with another character?

1) Timed to get masters, it won't fail you if you don't do it in a certain time limit.

2) Its extremely easy to get the elite skills as A LOT of the bosses usually spawn right next to an outpost and have static spawns, unlike prophecies. Not many elites require you to go out really far anywhere to cap (unlike NF). Though most of the useful elites won't appear until close to the mid/end of game.

3) Theres a primary quest that requires you to get 10k luxon or kurz faction. Faction can be obtained by doing quests and Alliance Battles (big maps w/ a 4-4-4 vs 4-4-4 team format...meaning 3 teams of four people trying to cap points). Once you hit that 10k faction it will let you proceed w/ the rest of the storyline. Once you pass that quest, you can choose to turn in faction to raise your reputation (title) get amber, or get scrolls to urgoz (end of game elite mission, sort of like DoA). If you want to get another char through factions again, you must again accumulate 10k faction. You don't have to turn in the initial 10k you earned, but you will find its extremely easy to hit hte 10k mark and want to turn in your faction for amber(crafting material, required for certain armors) or rep pts.

Personally, I bought Factions for Aesthetic purposes. The scenery is extremely beautiful as well as the asian style character creation and some of the most aesthetically appealing armors in GW.

free_fall · Feb 06, 2008, 07:39 AM // 07:39

Faction is account-based, not character-based - once you've gotten the 10k for either side it stays on your account (unless you spend it), so when you take another character through you don't have to collect it again.

One of the things you can spend faction on is to buy amber or jade which is used in crafting Kurzick and Luzon armor, respectively. When Factions first came out, these were pretty expensive at the rare mats trader so it made sense to trade faction for them. Nowadays, they're relatively cheap and it only takes 24 pieces of either for a standard set of 1k armor, ~5k gold.

People go on about what a PITA it is to get the initial 10k but it usually only takes a few days. There are quests that give faction rewards (some greater amounts than others), there's repeatable quests specifically to gain faction and you can get blessings from priests at res shrines in Kurz and Lux areas that gain you 5 faction points for every kill (125 for bosses) while on that map (in addition to giving you +3H regen and +25H).

I suppose Factions must be my favorite campaign because I spend most of my time there. One thing I feel is an advantage over the other campaigns (much as I like them, too), is that Factions is short, direct and to the point.

As for skills, um, if you say so. All my Proph chars still use pretty much the same skill bars they've always had (well, there are some nice ele skills in Factions, and Flesh Golem). I'm sort of the opposite viewpoint - I've had to take several Factions chars to Tyria to get specific skills for them.

Feb 05, 2008, 05:55 PM // 17:55	#1
EmpressMila Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2008	GW Factions: Questions My spouse and I both play GW, and we're looking at moving to Factions, particularly due to the fact that it's the campaign that offers the most in terms of new skills to really be able to customize your character's abilities. However, we want to be sure that, as a game/campaign, it's truly worth getting for the plethora of skills it offers and for at least some of the campaign itself. I'll tell you that we both absolutely cant stand Nightfall. It is the worst put-together and horribly annoying of all the GW titles, in our opinions. We like the Heros (to a degree) and some of the level design and a few of the missions and a bit of the environments, but for the most part, we've grown extremely annoyed with most of it's elements. As long as Factions is not that akin to Nightfall in how things are laid-out or implemented, we'd like to know. We'd also like to be sure --though we've searched through, and it certainly seems so-- that the ton of new skills that are offered for every class are worth getting, and getting into, the Factions campaign. We also soon plan on getting (finally) EoTN, because we far prefer both Nordic type environments as well as dungeons. So, we're looking for some adult, in-depth and even objective opinions about Factions and it being worth it for all the skills it offers and the campaign itself. Hoping for some good feedback, thanks

Feb 05, 2008, 06:46 PM // 18:46	#7
EmpressMila Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2008	First, thank you all for the great feedback. Ok, onto the details... If you're forced to grind for factions points and to join one side, I cant say we'd be too "keen" on that. Since we're not all that familiar with all of the details of the pro's/con's to belonging to a faction, it's not really something we've yet ventured into in all of our time playing. The main incentive with Factions is all of the skills, many of which, actually, really seem to be a large "boon" to any GW character. With the exception of ele's, for which I don't see anything I/we'd use over what we do now for our current nuker chars. But for Necro, Warriors and even what looks like Rangers and Monks, there are quite a few skills and elite skills that are tempting us to get the campaign simply for that reason, blow through it to obtain those skills, then move on if we're not happy with the campaign. We're not looking to start new classes of chars from Factions, FYI. As for why we don't like Nightfall, I did list a lot of reasons in my original post, but yes, some of the enemy spells and powers are a bit ludicrous and highly annoying. But that's really just on top of the fact that the storyline is done very poorly and the environments are generally terrible. We'd actually prefer the Asian theme to the bland and almost oppressive African theme, with all of it's horrible looking deserts etc. Also, as many others have experienced, the order of missions in Nightfall and how the game progresses is a ridiculous confusing mess. We really tried hard to find some enjoyment in it, but beyond using it for Heros in the beginning and to lvl up quickly using the first quarter of the game, we simply just cant play it anymore. EoTN is definitely more our "cup of tea", but again, there are so many extremely useful skills offered only in Factions, if we can get something out of actually playing it, we think it's worth it for that alone. Of course, that's how they get ya... offer a ton of new skills exclusive to that campaign, then you have to buy it if you want to expand on your existing characters/character classes... which is a bit annoying. Perhaps if someone can give me more of a "brief breakdown" of the benefits to having to join a faction, that makes it worth grinding for faction points, that could help our decision. What do you mean you can "play both sides of the coin" with factions? In PvE, you mean? I thought that joining a faction was really has more of a PvP effect, for some reason. We have checked Wiki for all the info we could find, as well as around here (still looking), but I cant say I totally understand what really makes it worth joining a particular faction. However, regardless of that, if the campaign itself is not horribly annoying either in it's missions or environment, that it would make it worth while just to obtain all the skills offered (that we'd like to have access to) in the campaign, then I feel it'd be worth it for us to get into. Would it indeed be worth it in this case? I suppose that's really our main focus, whether or not it's worth fighting through just to obtain the skills. As long as it's not horribly annoying or frustrating, and perhaps even some environments etc. we'd enjoy, then we'd like to snag many of those skills before finally moving on to EoTN which, as I stated and was just suggested, is definitely* more our "thing". Thanks again for the great feedback . Nice to find some great forums with great, helpful people for once P.S. Our main plan is to take lvl 20 chars into Factions to obtain the skills we want. Not to start chars in Factions. So, hopefully, that will make some things easier, heh. Last edited by EmpressMila; Feb 05, 2008 at 06:50 PM // 18:50..

Feb 05, 2008, 06:13 PM // 18:13	#2
derc Academy Page Join Date: Nov 2007 Guild: Hand of the Divine [HOLY] Profession: W/A	What is it about Nightfall that you don't like? Just curious as it may help me to better answer you question.

Feb 05, 2008, 06:23 PM // 18:23	#3
Darkobra Forge Runner Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Scotland Guild: Type like an idiot, I'll treat you like an idiot Profession: E/Me	Factions is definitely more of a fast-paced game. If you're looking to get Master ranks on missions, you're forced to do it as quick as possible under a time limit. I personally hated that. Also, later on, you're forced to pick between one of two factions (however, the choice isn't permanent and you can play both sides of the coin) and get 10,000 faction for their alliance. Only then can you progress through the game. From what I'm picking up from your frustrations, it was the whole area effects thing you hated. (Domain of Pain, etc.) Well, there is one mission like that. I forget the name, but I know it's a mandatory mission on the Kurzick side. Basically, the ruins fall around you and rocks hit your party randomly, SEVERELY messing up spell casting. That's all I can really remember in those regards.

Feb 05, 2008, 06:25 PM // 18:25	#4
Stuna213 Pre-Searing Cadet Join Date: Nov 2006	I have all three campaigns and EOTN, and I would say that factions is my least favorite. First of all, the setting is not really my thing... The first part of the game is in this huge city, and it gets very dull and boring quite fast. After you leave the city it gets better, but eventually you are forced to grind for Luxon/Kurzick faction points in order to continue. The factions story line didn't really appeal to me... I won't go into detail about the story though because I might spoil it. Factions isn't really that hard to complete, but I've only done it on one of my characters because of how much I don't like it. On all the factions characters I have made my main goal was just to get to level 20 then leave factions for another campaign. As for the good things about factions... theres the skills, new professions, two character slots, and an extra storage tab... but thats about it. I do enjoy playing on my assassin and the skills are good, but my suggestion would be to buy EOTN first. EOTN is styled a lot like prophecies, and I had fun playing through it. I just wish EOTN had a longer story.

Feb 05, 2008, 06:35 PM // 18:35	#5
Minime The Shadow Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: England (south) Guild: Order Of Universal Spirit Profession: R/	Personally i love factions, The first island has some great scenery and for beginners is extrememly useful, fast levelling and a useful introduction to all professions, even if master togo can hinder your party by just generally being slow and useless. Later on ill admit, the Kaineng city isnt the nicest area to look at, and the step up from the enemies on the first island to there is quite large. Once your hard work has paid off you enter the lovely setting of the jade sea, and this to me is one of the nicest areas in guild wars. I started playing Gw from factions, and then moved out, but still return to play it whenever a guildie asks for help in missions, because i love it. Blasting through some "harder" missions in sub 13 minute times is awesome, and with the right set up this can be done on any mission. The storyline i enjoyed, the rivalry between 2 warring factions is great, and adds a new dimension, the skills are awesome and personally i use mostly factions skills in my builds. Plus factions introduces you to the Legend that is Shiro Tagachi, the greatest fighter around anyway its all opinion, but i think for the cost, it is most deffinately worth it. hope this has helped

Feb 05, 2008, 07:22 PM // 19:22	#8
Wirt Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Nov 2007 Guild: Conscripts of Ascalon Profession: W/	Well, whether the Factions Campaign would be good for you is tough to say. I had an ok time in Factions and still occasionally go back and do missions. I have gone through the campaign with all 9 characters, but I'd have to say I have the most fun in Factions with Alliance Battles (when we're winning). In regards to the big dirty slummy city environment and finally being able to get out, maybe thats the effect that the developers wanted, but I know what you mean. When you get out of the city and need to get 10k faction to get past a certain point, Id have to say to get the 10k and get all your characters past that point so you only have to farm the faction once. Also if you're looking to unlock both sides of the map, do the opposing side first (if you're allied luxon, do the kurzick side) since you can always farm 10k in alliance battles in a few hours. In regards to benefits of being allied, there is no obvious benefit other than which side you are on in alliance battles and the allied pve skills. You still have access to opposing side armors and merchants as long as you have more of that side faction points. There is a good elementalist skill that I like in Factions - Ride the Lightning - It can be quite effective if you like air spiking. Overall I had a good time in Factions, however I also thought Nightfall was fine too, haha. But my biggest advice is to try to get your multiple chars through the first missions at the same time so you only have to get 10k in opposing faction once, not for each character. Hope I didnt confuse you. Have fun.

Feb 05, 2008, 07:26 PM // 19:26	#9
Kattar EXCESSIVE FLUTTERCUSSING Join Date: Mar 2007 Guild: SMS (lolgw2placeholder) Profession: Me/	Many of the Factions skills are available in Kaineng Center, one of the first cities that foreign characters are introduced to. So it doesn't take that long to get most of the skills. Just do the quest required in whatever land your characters are from and you're there.

Feb 05, 2008, 07:33 PM // 19:33	#11
AshenX Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Orange County, CA. Guild: Black Flag Profession: R/	I started play in Prophecies and still think its the best campaign so far. That said I think that you will find skills from factions to be very valuable additions to your repetoire. My favorite builds are actually centered around factions elites. As to the faction point grind...I dont think you will find it to be all that bad. In general the quest line (supplemented by monster slaying along the way) will fill your need to accumulate 10k faction. The environment has alot to be said for it or against it depending on your preferences. The kaineng city area that alot of peopl dont like has a very hongkong action movie vibe to it. Essentially like an urban dungeon. Sure it is dark, and can seem oppressive at times but it sets an excellent mood for the portions of the story set there. By the time you get out of the city you are ready to truly love both the kurzick (germanic black forest) and luxon (ocean frozen into a sea of jade) territories. Both are stunning and a joy to explore but I still enjoy forays into the shadowed depths of the city. An aspect of factions that shoud not be overlooked is its ability to introduce you to something I call PVP-lite. Alliance battles are a very PVE-like form of pvp which is less dependent on your ability to bring a few specific Meta builds (as is often the case in HA). In general you bring an effective damage dealer (or sometimes a healer) load in and have fun. Like anything it does have a learning curve but I believe that you will find it to be easy to pick up and not too serious an effort. It is also a nice way for a casual player to pick up Balthazar faction for unlocking skills for other forms of PVP. With the addition of Zaishen keys it also has the potential to be lucrative. On the negative side.... 1) Factions missions are timed. If you didnt like that aspect in NF you may not like it here. On the other hand an experienced player, as you seem to be, shouldnt find them too difficult to get masters rewards on. 2) Once you get about halfway into the game you will probably have to hero/hench many of the missions/quests. I have been working on HM for those areas and have seen almost no HM groups and very few NM groups either. Not really a problem as the missions are not difficult to H/H but it is something to note. 3) Factions drops are not inscribable. Although it has some of the nicest weapon skins in the game (my opinion) it can be difficult to get them with "perfect" mods. Note that the elite missions (Urgoz's Warren and the Deep) do have the potential to generate inscribable versions. In closing I think that factions has alot to offer including an array of truly excellent skills. It has a good storyline and a variety of playing environments. It is well woht the money I and time I have spent on it Hope this helps Ash

Feb 05, 2008, 08:17 PM // 20:17	#12
cosyfiep are we there yet? Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: in a land far far away Guild: guild? I am supposed to have a guild? Profession: Rt/	After playing all three campaigns I agree that nf has the most lackluster areas like the desert which you spend most of the game in only to move to more desert and then more of it only to be replaced with the 'torment' areas...yeah not much thought on that. Factions starts on a beautiful island with green trees, cherry blossoms and even some snow. You then move to the city--the slums of the city of Kanieng (yeah I cant spell and dont feel like looking up the correct spelling right now)....Its big, its ugly and when I first played it it made me want to quit right then and there. But finally I made it out of the city and got to see the grass again. The luxon side of the faction is a nice green area with a jade colored sea....a nice contrast to the city. The kurzick side is very dark (had to up the setting on my computer to see it at first), but offers lots of trees and such. The final part takes place in the imperial palace which offers the asian theme you first saw on the starter island. Not too bad too look at. Ok the particulars. There are only 13 missions in the whole chapter, at one point you pick a faction (luxon or kurzick) so you 'skip' one of the missions, 2 of the missions are starter missions that you get no credit for if you are not a factions character (and can be easily skipped). which leaves you doing only 10. However, unlike prophecies where you can run past some of the missions , its not possible to bypass any here--if you dont like the locked gates of nf or its you need x to be able to do this mission--welll this is where they started that whole thing. On the good point--its not too hard to get the 10k faction needed and its account based so you can do it with multiple characters if you wish. As has been mentioned the first city you get to has a skill trainer where most of the faction skills can be gotten---so if all you wanted is the skills you can get most of them right off the bat. (if you bought factions at a cheap price this is all you would need to do and then forget the rest of the game). Another thing that is offered here is a bunch of pretty easy quests with good xp rewards as well as cash and 'imperial commendations' which can be traded in for things like keys, id kits and salvage kits in Kanieng city. While the story of factions was a little be more thought out than nf (they had a lot longer to work on it), its still pretty wimpy but at least it goes by quickly! All in all, after playing all three chapters; I find factions to NOT be my least favorite, but not my favorite either----it has its good points and its not so good. I like the fact that I can bring a character from say nf here and get leveled up with the quests fast, they can get lost of cash from those and since there are only 10 missions required to finish the whole thing---getting to the end (and feeling satisfaction at finishing something) is quick. I like the different enemies offered in the jade sea and the kurzick forests, which are different from the ones found in the slums too. I find myself playing through factions more and more after I completed nf---not sure if its because I just cant seem to want to grind through nf or if its because factions is quicker. And I know you dont plan on making a factions character, but my favorite class is only found here---the ritualist. Its one of the few that I have made more than one of and in both genders. I enjoy playing them for their versitility, and I just liked the character creation choices a lot more than the nf ones or the limited ones from prophecies. You can pick up ritualist as a secondary in factions if you dont want to make one! So if you want my recommendation, I would get factions (especially if you can find it for a good deal somewhere), and if you dont like it, just get the skills, if you do then play through it and then move on to eye. I have brought all of my other characters here, and have finished this chapter with more of them than the other 2 chapters combined! (I have yet to get a nf created character thru nf---though I finally have one in torment now)

Feb 05, 2008, 09:04 PM // 21:04	#13
Father of The Son of God Academy Page Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: B(r, sun) where r > 0	I've got to say that I love the Factions campaign the most of all the chapters. I think the aspect of it that appeals the most to me is that missions are timed. I know that I am in the vast minority when I say that, but I guess the way I'd explain it is that it provides a measuring stick for your accomplishments. To me going for master's level for a mission in 20 minutes is akin to trying to beat the high score in Ms Pac-Man. There are a lot of snags in Factions, and one that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is that there are a few missions (3 of the 13?) that you have to complete with an unknown team from the other side. What happens is that you'll enter the mission, then instead of the usual 3 second countdown to start, you might get a minute-long countdown. The game matches you up with another group that is also doing that mission at the same time. I personally love this, and it's probably not something you've really seen before in games. It provides a random component to the game--you might get paired with an awesome group, or you might get "a more memorable one". Either way, missions never play out the same way twice because of this. All I'll say about this is that you never know what you'll get. It should be emphasized that you need to complete the missions to move to later areas in the game. You cannot run to any areas, as the gates to the outpost will be locked. The story behind Factions (race against time to save Cantha from Plague) is not up to the level of Prophecies. Personally I pay little attention to story/graphics. The thing I wanted was fun, and I got it out of Factions. It offers laughable voice acting (Shiro and Danika are standouts), and the unique take on grouping for a few missions that lets you play with strangers/enemies.

Feb 05, 2008, 10:06 PM // 22:06	#14
MagmaRed Furnace Stoker Join Date: Mar 2007 Guild: Our Crabs Know True [LOVE] Profession: R/	Use wiki. It sounds like you want skills a LOT, and Factions does have some very nice ones. However, it also has a lot of duplicates. A couple of examples: [skill]Vampiric Touch[/skill][skill]Vampiric Bite[/skill] [skill]Desperation Blow[/skill][skill]Drunken Blow[/skill] [skill]Point Blank Shot[/skill][skill]Zojun's Shot[/skill] [skill]Crystal Wave[/skill][skill]Teinai's Crystals[/skill] [skill]Sympathetic Visage[/skill][skill]Ancestor's Visage[/skill] [skill]Heal Other[/skill][skill]Jamei's Gaze[/skill] Now, the game itself is good, in my opinion. It is, however, VERY different from Prophecies and Nightfall. As mentioned, the mission structure is the main difference. Instead of having specific goals to complete, the missions are timed, and you must complete them fast enough to get Master rank. There is only 2 exceptions to this, and those are the Kurzick and Luxon missions. In those, you have to keep a certain number of NPCs alive. I would not base a decision to buy the game on skills. I would decide if I liked the idea of an Assassin and/or Ritualist, want more character slots, want more PvP options, and more places to explore.

Feb 06, 2008, 12:47 AM // 00:47	#15
AshenX Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Orange County, CA. Guild: Black Flag Profession: R/	Very good point about the skill duplication. I actually like being able to double up on some skills in my bar. The touch ranger gets little respect but can be effective if played right. Point blank shot+zojun's shot+glass arrows makes for a fun combo (since they all three feed off of expertise you can focus the majority of your attribute points there for +60 dmg on almost every bowshot @15 expertise)

Feb 06, 2008, 01:24 AM // 01:24	#16
EmpressMila Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jan 2008	Wow! Lots of very great, in-depth responses Very much appreciated. I suppose I just have a couple of questions in response to some of your responses: 1) When you say the missions are timed, does that mean only to get masters, such as in NF? Or are they timed "period", and you fail the mission all-together if you don't complete it in the allotted time? NF missions are timed, but only if you want to get the Masters (which is the equivalent of the bonuses in Prophecies, essentially). 2) I'm/we're probably most interested in the actual elite skills offered in Factions, so how difficult are they to obtain? Since you cannot just run around to different towns/outposts (which is pretty linear and not to attractive, in my opinion; what about exploration?) then I'm assuming that you can only get to the boss that has a particular elite skill once you've opened up that part of the game, then continually exit the town to where they're located until you can beat them and snag it...? There are quite a few elites for each standard class in Factions that are mostly the attraction, but I'd hate to have to struggle through annoying situations just to snag 'em, like we've had to do with NF. 3) Lastly, I suppose I'm confused on the gaining faction points and how it applies to your account. So, do you need to really only do it once with one character --or once with multiple characters-- and then you're aligned, making it easier to get through Factions with another character? Did that question make sense? LOL One response seemed to hint at that, but I'm not totally clear. As for a general response, yeah, I myself have been playing Prophecies since it's release, on-and-off the last year+ though. Only finally really ready to move on, which I/we did with NF. The whole gaining faction situation doesn't sound too bad, especially considering that we don't PvP, so it really shouldn't make much of a difference which faction I/we earn points for. But it's nice to know we could change factions should we decided to in the future. Thanks again for the really great responses! Very helpful to have all of this type of information.

Feb 06, 2008, 07:39 AM // 07:39	#20
free_fall Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Oct 2005	Faction is account-based, not character-based - once you've gotten the 10k for either side it stays on your account (unless you spend it), so when you take another character through you don't have to collect it again. One of the things you can spend faction on is to buy amber or jade which is used in crafting Kurzick and Luzon armor, respectively. When Factions first came out, these were pretty expensive at the rare mats trader so it made sense to trade faction for them. Nowadays, they're relatively cheap and it only takes 24 pieces of either for a standard set of 1k armor, ~5k gold. People go on about what a PITA it is to get the initial 10k but it usually only takes a few days. There are quests that give faction rewards (some greater amounts than others), there's repeatable quests specifically to gain faction and you can get blessings from priests at res shrines in Kurz and Lux areas that gain you 5 faction points for every kill (125 for bosses) while on that map (in addition to giving you +3H regen and +25H). I suppose Factions must be my favorite campaign because I spend most of my time there. One thing I feel is an advantage over the other campaigns (much as I like them, too), is that Factions is short, direct and to the point. As for skills, um, if you say so. All my Proph chars still use pretty much the same skill bars they've always had (well, there are some nice ele skills in Factions, and Flesh Golem). I'm sort of the opposite viewpoint - I've had to take several Factions chars to Tyria to get specific skills for them.