Curse

Memeep · Mar 23, 2006, 03:06 PM // 15:06

A group of people, and some members of their families at my husbands work have all decided to play Guild Wars together. Some have played for a while, some are newish, and some have never played at all. Although we are for the most part new to this game, some of us have played MMO's for many years while others are new to MMO's in general, and even one that is new to gaming in general. We want this to be a good experience for everyone involved.

So far it looks like this is what people are currently playing:
Warrior/Ranger (wild line) (Very experienced mmo tank)
Monk (unsure of secondary, very experienced mmo healer)
Ranger/Elem
Necro/Mesmer (long term gamer, lots of experience offline on a LAN, new to online MMORPG's)
E/mo (I believe she is new to gaming in general)
Unknown Class- This is my daughter. She has a decent amount of experience in gaming in MMO's and offline. She can hold her own in any class she plays.

So I am writing for advice on what would compliment the team well. Both for the monk as a secondary skill and overall for my daughter, the Unknown. Just suggeations of classes that can help this group of people long term both PVE and later in PVP.
These boards have been a wonderful resource BTW.
Advice in general appreciated.

Cymboric Treewalker · Mar 23, 2006, 03:24 PM // 15:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Memeep

A group of people, and some members of their families at my husbands work have all decided to play Guild Wars together. Some have played for a while, some are newish, and some have never played at all. Although we are for the most part new to this game, some of us have played MMO's for many years while others are new to MMO's in general, and even one that is new to gaming in general. We want this to be a good experience for everyone involved.

Option One: Join a good experienced family/couples oriented guild. (Yes, like mine); Guru has a very good list of guilds that you can search as well. This will allow you all to get help when needed without people rushing you because they are uber l33t PvP players.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Memeep

So far it looks like this is what people are currently playing:
Warrior/Ranger (wild line) (Very experienced mmo tank)
Monk (unsure of secondary, very experienced mmo healer)
Ranger/Elem
Necro/Mesmer (long term gamer, lots of experience offline on a LAN, new to online MMORPG's)
E/mo (I believe she is new to gaming in general)
Unknown Class- This is my daughter. She has a decent amount of experience in gaming in MMO's and offline. She can hold her own in any class she plays.

So I am writing for advice on what would compliment the team well. Both for the monk as a secondary skill and overall for my daughter, the Unknown. Just suggeations of classes that can help this group of people long term both PVE and later in PVP.
These boards have been a wonderful resource BTW.
Advice in general appreciated.

For me the best monk secondary is mesmer for energy management. The Ele/Mo may want to be E/Me as well for extra energy management. Depending on your daughter's play style you may want a main Mesmer in your group as they can warp what the enemy can do or you may want another Monk as extra healing is always good.

Fungus Amongus · Mar 23, 2006, 03:25 PM // 15:25

It looks like you already have a diverse group, which works very well in this game. I think with you differing experience levels, you should all be able to help each other out pretty well. If you have questions peruse these boards as almost any question you may have has already been asked and answered here.

The best advice I can give is this:

Play together - you're going to have a blast!

SpeedyKQ · Mar 23, 2006, 04:56 PM // 16:56

The secondary for a monk is pretty unimportant. Most monks who are trying to keep the party alive are focused in their primary profession. Could go necro or mesmer for an energy management skill.

The group already has good balance, so whatever appeals to your daughter most should be fine. A second monk would probably be most useful to your group, if she truly doesn't have a preference.

eudas · Mar 23, 2006, 05:13 PM // 17:13

warriors and healers are the most important components. make sure you have plenty of both.

other than that, necros and mesmers can be excellent force multipliers.

some people like rangers, but i'm not that good with them so i can't say much about it.

elementalists are kind of on the weak end. they can be useful, but their damage output is somewhat... less than advertised.

eudas

Shikaru · Mar 23, 2006, 06:27 PM // 18:27

In the earlier stages of the game, just try to familiarize yourself with the skills you are obtaining. I don't know how many times I've seen people in FoW who have no idea what Spiteful Spirit does to them. The team looks pretty overall looks pretty balanced and could quite possibly reach the end of the game without any outside help. As for your proffessions please note.

In most cases, casters need energy management. You cannot depend on energy regen in battle because it just doesn't come back fast enough.

1. Your monk without a secondary should probably go mesmer and choose a few skills from the inspiration line to help him keep up the heals in battle.
2. Rangers are one of the most versatile primary classes because there's so many things a ranger can do with expertise. You can be anything from a condition spreader with apply poison to a trapper or to an interrupt spammer.
3. In PvE necros usually have 4 roles. They can either be orders spammer(boosts your parties overall physical damage), a battery (keeps energy up on other casters by increasing their enrgy regen by 3-6 pips), a MM(minion master who raises up an army and destroys anything that comes his way after he has enough) or a spiteful spirit necro(a hex that causes aoe damage whenever the target attacks or uses a skill). This is not to say that you can't make your own builds but these are the most common.
4. Your buddy picked a nice and straightforward class to start with. Elementalists in PvE are probably the easiest of the classes to play. Drop a few fire spells and watch everything die.
5. Depending on what your daughter likes she can choose from many different classes. The team setup so far has some pretty decent offense but almost no defense. A protection monk, or an earth elementalist with wards could be useful here.

A few general things to note...
1. As a warrior in PvE agro management is very important. If your warriors runs too far ahead he could agro another group of monsters which could mean death for your entire party. In higher levels of the game warriors are meant to be tanks not and not as much of a source of DPS. This means evasive stances are good while Frenzy is bad. However a warrior is not the only memeber of the party who needs to watch agro. The casters also have an obligation to manage agro so that the warrior catches most or all of it.

2. Casters are not tanks. (unless you're an earth ele or some other sort of build that purposely makes you a tank). Learn to kite away from enemies instead of sitting there taking damage and draining your monks of energy.

3. I'm sure you have probably read the many threads of PvP vs. PvE on the forum. My suggestion is to play what you like. However if you stick to one element of the game you will be missing out on a lot of what the game has to offer. The RPG aspect of Guild Wars is short at best. After going through the game a few times you WILL get bored of playing the storyline. There are a few high level areas in the game that are repeateable such as Underworld, Sorrows Furnace and Fissure of Woe. From my experience I tend to enjoy the PvP aspect of the game because I enjoy the competition. My guild does do a few PvE things when we want to just chill. In other words, (in my eyes anyways) PvP=intense action and competition, PvE=relaxed and having fun

As a final warning to you...
There are many idiots who play this game. Do not let them ruin your experience. There will be many players who are jerks and will try to wreck your party. My suggestion to you is to join a guild like someone suggested above who supports a family of gamers or build a strong friends list of nice people you meet along the way.

Ok I'm at school and really bored. I can't believe I just typed all of that. My IGN is Shik Aru or Serra Ravensong (2 seperate accounts) whisper if you want any help.

Count to Potato · Mar 23, 2006, 06:41 PM // 18:41

Let the more experienced people lead while you follow, like most games it takes time, soon enough you will be giving others advice

Count to Potato · Mar 23, 2006, 06:44 PM // 18:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by eudas

elementalists are kind of on the weak end. they can be useful, but their damage output is somewhat... less than advertised.

eudas

You have to be kidding? 127 from rodgorts, 116 from obsidian flame, i think your discriminating, anyway at lower lvls eles are weak, with 16 attribute or something there are extremely useful, if u o the builds...

wiz12268 · Mar 23, 2006, 07:05 PM // 19:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Count to Potato

You have to be kidding? 127 from rodgorts, 116 from obsidian flame, i think your discriminating, anyway at lower lvls eles are weak, with 16 attribute or something there are extremely useful, if u o the builds...

Those are spikes on a single opponent (except for some slight fire damage if they are mobbed). Most classes primary attack can do half that damage and be spammed over and over again. A mesmer can spam Wastrels and do 64 (with a 3 second delay) continuously. I haven't run the numbers but I think Wastrels being spammed will do more accumulated damage than either of those spells.

But back to the OP.

I would stick together, farm the mid level areas together and gain experience, not points but game playing, and FOLLOW the STORYLINE. That will help you out a lot, even if eventually you want to GvG or PvP. In a month or less (by the time the new release hits) you should have more than enough accumulated as a group to buy a Guild Hall, and then be "official".

Then depending on the new areas and new drops, start taking on the higher end maps in this edition or graduate to the other edition and get even more gameplay experience along with everyone else. So in the Factions edition you won't really be behind the curve, since other than beta guys or people that are playing in all the pre-release function, you will know as much as the next guy as to what is going on, and what to expect.

With a couple hardcore guys in the group that is more than enough to get you started on the right track. It just depends on what you are really looking for. The hardcore guys might want alitle more than the casual guys. So as long as that doesn't become a contentious point you should be fine.

Cherno · Mar 23, 2006, 07:22 PM // 19:22

If your daughter can hold her own regardless of class, I would suggest she try mesmer primary. They are very fun to play and can be exemplary in the hands of a seasoned player who can do more than just point and shoot.

Ken Dei · Mar 23, 2006, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Some good combos:

PvE:
W/Mo: Soloist/Tanker, good for getting that little extra money if you're not all on yet. Use a Sword or Axe most of the time.
E/Me: Defensive Spiker, Shut down your target and then scortch them from exsistance with lightning spells or obsidian flame.
Me/N or Me/E: Fast Cast degen or terrain controler, Me/N can drop Wells almost instantly at about 9+ fast cast, these can give you health, energy, cause damage, etc. Or you can mix Me and N degen spells to drain health till death. A Me/E can drop wards for team protection and quick spike for more regulated damage per second.

Not much experience with Rangers.

Basically, ALL class combos are decent for some situations, and in the right hands. It's all about what you enjoy.

studentochaos · Mar 23, 2006, 08:54 PM // 20:54

Your daugther should play whatever class she likes the look of the best. If you have a wild card, enjoy it.

Don't worry about secondaries too much. Every class combination has worthwhile interactions and can be fun to play something different. Also, later in the game you can easily switch classes. At that point the only advantage of your starting secondary is that you quested in a lot of the powers so you don't have to buy nearly as many. There are class combinations that have strong synergy, but if you don't enjoy the style of their play you are reducing your enjoyment of the gaming experience. Sure Mesmer/Ranger doesn't have a clear benifit, but why can't an illusion mesmer enjoy having a pet as much as anyone?

Good luck, have fun.