newbie questions - Guild Wars Forums

guitarxe · Jul 05, 2007, 09:38 PM // 21:38

well, im not entirely new to the game, i've played it a bit when it first launched but i didn't like how you always have to follow a fixed path and that at any given time your only playing with a few people in your party and the rest are playing in another instance.. it just didn't feel like an mmo to me.

in any case i've reinstalled my GW, made a new character (warrior), and i was hoping somebody here could shed some light on a few questions that have been tugging on me.

1. Is there any fundamental difference between swords, axes and hammers? say for example, swords do slashing damage and are thus better against lightly armoured enemies and hammers do bashing damage and are better against heavily armoured enemies, etc. anything like that?

2. How do shields work? I've been using a shield and i haven't yet seen a "block" occur. do they simply reduce the overall damage i take?
Also, what about critical hits? do they exist in this game and what influences them?

3. Is there some kind of combat log where it will tell me things like "you hit for XX damage", yada yada?

4. I also need some advice on what secondary profession to choose. I know it's dependant on one's personal play style, but obviously there are some combinations that simply won't work (say a warrior taking an elementalist prof).
I've seen a lot of warriors choose monk as their secondary profession but from what i've tried i didn't like it that much. I have enjoyed necromancer skills though. The skill that leeches life from an enemy is very handy imo, and the deathly swarm helped me out a lot when i was fighting many enemies at once.
What kind of skills do monks and necromancers get later on? which one is more suited for a warrior?

5. Equipment. I understand that being a warrior equipment is very important (on the other hand an elementalist can rely mostly on their spells). I've seen a weapon seller in town, and i also picked up a few good ones from enemies, but what is the primary way to obtain good equipment? is it from quests or is it from random chance drops like in most other MMOs? is there a drop table on some website where i can look it up and then go and farm for some good equipment or how else do i get good gear? (armour too).

6. Before i made this warrior i played on my old toon a bit, and he's lvl 14 and i went on a mission and got many unidentified drops, and when i used the kit on them i got some message saying "you have discovered sword hilt" and "bow string" and things like that... what do those mean? are they like recipes i can use later to craft them or what?

7. on my lvl 14 toon i've seen a few of the new classes in town while in the prophecies chapter. i was wondering can a player without the expansion pack play with them? and is it the same for pvp? are the older classes at some kind of disadvantage to the newer ones?

sorry the list is kinda big, but i'm really confused by these questions

**Marty Silverblade** · Jul 05, 2007, 10:12 PM // 22:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by guitarxe

1. Is there any fundamental difference between swords, axes and hammers? say for example, swords do slashing damage and are thus better against lightly armoured enemies and hammers do bashing damage and are better against heavily armoured enemies, etc. anything like that?

Swords do fast, consistent damage, axes do fast unconsistent damage, and hammers do high consistent damage. Hammers are also the only ones to require both hands.

Quote:

2. How do shields work? I've been using a shield and i haven't yet seen a "block" occur. do they simply reduce the overall damage i take?
Also, what about critical hits? do they exist in this game and what influences them?

They add to your armor level, and apply any bonuses to you that the shield has. Blocking happens due to specific skills being used, such as [skill=text]Shield Stance[/skill].

Quote:

3. Is there some kind of combat log where it will tell me things like "you hit for XX damage", yada yada?

No, but you can see the numbers as you hit the monsters. Yellow numbers mean damage to the enemy, red means damage to you, blue means healing, and purple indicates a change to energy (either gained or lost).

Quote:

4. I also need some advice on what secondary profession to choose. I know it's dependant on one's personal play style, but obviously there are some combinations that simply won't work (say a warrior taking an elementalist prof).
I've seen a lot of warriors choose monk as their secondary profession but from what i've tried i didn't like it that much. I have enjoyed necromancer skills though. The skill that leeches life from an enemy is very handy imo, and the deathly swarm helped me out a lot when i was fighting many enemies at once.
What kind of skills do monks and necromancers get later on? which one is more suited for a warrior?

No. 1 rule to choosing secondary professions: Your primary is primary and your secondary is secondary. Primary is there to be the core of whatever you do, secondary is to support it. Common sense applies to GW, as we see from rule 1.
No. 2 rule to choosing secondary professions: Whatever other classes can do, you can do better using your primary. Things you CAN'T do, are made up for by the secondary. Example - Elementalists are designed to do large amounts of damage. A W/E will do more damage by focusing on his choice of weapon, rather than the Elementalists damage spells. Warriors, however, cannot remove conditions from themselves and as such /Mo can be taken for [skill=text]Mending Touch[/skill].
Your play style should be in style of your primary profession, not your secondary. Warriors who try to heal everyone in the party are very ineffective. Warriors are there to hack things in half, and your job is to do that regardless of what secondary you have. Necormancer skills such as [skill=text]Life Siphon[/skill] are ineffective because you can do better damage with your weapon, and heal better with [skill=text]Healing Signet[/skill]. [skill=text]Deathly Swarm[/skill] is also ineffective, due to your weapon doing more damage. If you want AoE attacks, take a look at [skill=text]Whirlwind Attack[/skill], [skill=text]Cyclone Axe[/skill], [skill=text]Triple Chop[/skill], [skill=text]Crude Swing[/skill], [skill=text]Hundred Blades[/skill].

Quote:

5. Equipment. I understand that being a warrior equipment is very important (on the other hand an elementalist can rely mostly on their spells). I've seen a weapon seller in town, and i also picked up a few good ones from enemies, but what is the primary way to obtain good equipment? is it from quests or is it from random chance drops like in most other MMOs? is there a drop table on some website where i can look it up and then go and farm for some good equipment or how else do i get good gear? (armour too).

Warrior equipment is important in PvP. In PvE, you can get away with doing pretty much anything, so much so that you can use a white non max weapon through the entire game and beat it easily. People looking to by 20/20 15^50 +30 inscribable Fellblades are rich buggers who need the OMGPWNDLEETZORZ stuff. If you don't have much cash, use weapons that drop. I'd save up for a cheap green, such as Sskai's sword. Alternatively, you could use collector weapons, which are often underestimated. Many of them have good bonuses.

Armor you will have to craft in certain cities (Ascalon City, Piken Square, Yak's Bend, etc). You can't buy it from other players, as it is customised and cannot be used by anyone else. Once again, collectors are a decent option.

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6. Before i made this warrior i played on my old toon a bit, and he's lvl 14 and i went on a mission and got many unidentified drops, and when i used the kit on them i got some message saying "you have discovered sword hilt" and "bow string" and things like that... what do those mean? are they like recipes i can use later to craft them or what?

Unlocking weapon parts is for PvP only characters. They start at level 2O, and can use any equipment you have unlocked for no cost, but can only PvP. You can go to Ascalon Arena if you want a taste of PvP (must be lvl 10 or under though). You will probably suck at first, but it depends on who is in your team and how experienced you are.

Quote:

7. on my lvl 14 toon i've seen a few of the new classes in town while in the prophecies chapter. i was wondering can a player without the expansion pack play with them? and is it the same for pvp? are the older classes at some kind of disadvantage to the newer ones?

No. The core classes (E, Me, Mo, N, R, W) are able to be played in any chapter, as they are common knowledge. Assassins and Ritualists are unique Canthan tradition, and as such it makes no sense to be able to make one in other campaigns. You can take them as a seconday if you want (requires you to own the appropriate campaign and travel over to it), but if you want primary you must start them in their respective campaigns. Same thing applies to Paragons and Dervishes. All classes are designes to be balanced.

Valshia · Jul 05, 2007, 10:15 PM // 22:15

1. There's the difference in damage range and attack speed, but there's no difference between high or low armor. It's all considered physical. Now some monster types have resistance/weakness to some of the different types of physical damage (skeletons weak to blunt, resistant to piercing; plants weak to slashing), but nothing global.

2. Shields add armor, which reduces the damage you take in this game. Only the use of skills allow you to "block", and you don't see your own blocks. You will only see when an enemy blocks you. Critical hits do happen and do the max damage x1.4 of your weapon. The chance to critical is influenced my your weapon mastery attribute (and critical strikes if you're an assassin).

3. nope

4. W/N is a good choice. The most common necro skill used by warriors is plague touch to rid yourself of conditions like blind and weakness.

5. There are many ways to get good weapons. The best way to get a decent cheap weapon is from collectors. There are also people trading green and max gold weapons in town. There are also weaponsmiths too, though you seem to be running only prophecies and they aren't as good there than the other campaigns.

6. a. These are upgrades that can be salvaged off with an expert salvage kit and put on another weapon of the same type. b. The message means the upgrade is unlocked for use with PvP only characters on your account. You can craft a PvP weapon with that upgrade, but not a PvE weapon.

7. You need the appropriate chapter to play those classes. The core classes are still pretty solid so don't worry about it.

guitarxe · Jul 05, 2007, 10:48 PM // 22:48

thanks for your replies, it has helped me a lot to understand this game, but i'm still unfamiliar with all the different kinds of equipment. is there a web page that shows a list of 'uncommon' equipment?

lennymon · Jul 05, 2007, 11:15 PM // 23:15

gw.gamewikis.org has *all* guild wars info, is well organized and is usually overly exact

guitarxe · Jul 06, 2007, 01:47 AM // 01:47

Quote:

Whatever other classes can do, you can do better using your primary.

in other words, i shouldn't spend any attribute points for my secondary profession?

Toutatis · Jul 06, 2007, 02:18 AM // 02:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by guitarxe

in other words, i shouldn't spend any attribute points for my secondary profession?

Whether you use your secondary profession's skills and attributes is entirely up to you. Sometimes, investing in your secondary can pay off very well - for example, a Monk primary with a Mesmer secondary can invest in Inspiration Magic to have better options for energy management than the Monk's native skills can supply. Be creative and see what combinations you can come up with

scrinner · Jul 06, 2007, 02:32 AM // 02:32

W/e Is a smart combo btw. Its not as stupid as you think. With an ele secondary you can get enchantments to boost your DPS (Damage per second)

Jul 05, 2007, 09:38 PM // 21:38	#1
guitarxe Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jul 2007	newbie questions well, im not entirely new to the game, i've played it a bit when it first launched but i didn't like how you always have to follow a fixed path and that at any given time your only playing with a few people in your party and the rest are playing in another instance.. it just didn't feel like an mmo to me. in any case i've reinstalled my GW, made a new character (warrior), and i was hoping somebody here could shed some light on a few questions that have been tugging on me. 1. Is there any fundamental difference between swords, axes and hammers? say for example, swords do slashing damage and are thus better against lightly armoured enemies and hammers do bashing damage and are better against heavily armoured enemies, etc. anything like that? 2. How do shields work? I've been using a shield and i haven't yet seen a "block" occur. do they simply reduce the overall damage i take? Also, what about critical hits? do they exist in this game and what influences them? 3. Is there some kind of combat log where it will tell me things like "you hit for XX damage", yada yada? 4. I also need some advice on what secondary profession to choose. I know it's dependant on one's personal play style, but obviously there are some combinations that simply won't work (say a warrior taking an elementalist prof). I've seen a lot of warriors choose monk as their secondary profession but from what i've tried i didn't like it that much. I have enjoyed necromancer skills though. The skill that leeches life from an enemy is very handy imo, and the deathly swarm helped me out a lot when i was fighting many enemies at once. What kind of skills do monks and necromancers get later on? which one is more suited for a warrior? 5. Equipment. I understand that being a warrior equipment is very important (on the other hand an elementalist can rely mostly on their spells). I've seen a weapon seller in town, and i also picked up a few good ones from enemies, but what is the primary way to obtain good equipment? is it from quests or is it from random chance drops like in most other MMOs? is there a drop table on some website where i can look it up and then go and farm for some good equipment or how else do i get good gear? (armour too). 6. Before i made this warrior i played on my old toon a bit, and he's lvl 14 and i went on a mission and got many unidentified drops, and when i used the kit on them i got some message saying "you have discovered sword hilt" and "bow string" and things like that... what do those mean? are they like recipes i can use later to craft them or what? 7. on my lvl 14 toon i've seen a few of the new classes in town while in the prophecies chapter. i was wondering can a player without the expansion pack play with them? and is it the same for pvp? are the older classes at some kind of disadvantage to the newer ones? sorry the list is kinda big, but i'm really confused by these questions

Jul 05, 2007, 10:15 PM // 22:15	#3
Valshia Academy Page Join Date: Jan 2007 Profession: R/Rt	1. There's the difference in damage range and attack speed, but there's no difference between high or low armor. It's all considered physical. Now some monster types have resistance/weakness to some of the different types of physical damage (skeletons weak to blunt, resistant to piercing; plants weak to slashing), but nothing global. 2. Shields add armor, which reduces the damage you take in this game. Only the use of skills allow you to "block", and you don't see your own blocks. You will only see when an enemy blocks you. Critical hits do happen and do the max damage x1.4 of your weapon. The chance to critical is influenced my your weapon mastery attribute (and critical strikes if you're an assassin). 3. nope 4. W/N is a good choice. The most common necro skill used by warriors is plague touch to rid yourself of conditions like blind and weakness. 5. There are many ways to get good weapons. The best way to get a decent cheap weapon is from collectors. There are also people trading green and max gold weapons in town. There are also weaponsmiths too, though you seem to be running only prophecies and they aren't as good there than the other campaigns. 6. a. These are upgrades that can be salvaged off with an expert salvage kit and put on another weapon of the same type. b. The message means the upgrade is unlocked for use with PvP only characters on your account. You can craft a PvP weapon with that upgrade, but not a PvE weapon. 7. You need the appropriate chapter to play those classes. The core classes are still pretty solid so don't worry about it.

Jul 05, 2007, 10:48 PM // 22:48	#4
guitarxe Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Jul 2007	thanks for your replies, it has helped me a lot to understand this game, but i'm still unfamiliar with all the different kinds of equipment. is there a web page that shows a list of 'uncommon' equipment?

Jul 05, 2007, 11:15 PM // 23:15	#5
lennymon Forge Runner Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Seattle Guild: Odin's Hammer [OH] - Servant's of Fortuna [SoF] Profession: R/	gw.gamewikis.org has all guild wars info, is well organized and is usually overly exact

Jul 06, 2007, 02:32 AM // 02:32	#8
scrinner Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jan 2006	W/e Is a smart combo btw. Its not as stupid as you think. With an ele secondary you can get enchantments to boost your DPS (Damage per second)