Curse

Ranis Harlequin · Mar 26, 2005, 12:52 AM // 00:52

By some strange default, I'm always attracted to spell-heavy characters in games. Naturally, during the March BWE I played as an el/me and enjoyed blasting away with my large energy pool (I love how it regenerates!)

My problem is, what do you look for when choosing a primary? I've pre-ordered from EB Games, so I'll be getting the "Ithas Bow" as well as the "Divine Aura" which is awesome...but the Ithas Bow is a bow none the less, and should be used with a Ranger-similar character. Knowing this, I tried out the Ranger profession and played until I was about lvl 4. It was quite enjoyable, but did I have more fun than with the elementalist? Somehow a lowly arrow just doesn't cut it against a hail of meteors and eruptions...but I should be a ranger or I won't be able to use my Ithas Bow to it's full potential...

And what about the mesmer? I love the concept. It's one that many other games have only touched upon, but Guild Wars excels at. It's cool to be a character that counters everything, and having seemingly great mind-based powers, which is always cool in RPG's. It's an advanced character though....and when I chose it as my secondary to my Elementalist, I found it to fail until much later in the game when specific skills could be acquired. It's no fun to have useless skills hanging about, so should I choose the Mesmer just because it's a cool concept? Or should I go with the Ranger because I can power him up with my Ithas Bow and he is fun to play...or should I stick with my elementalist so I can have a massive amount of energy to constantly cast my magical mal intent upon my foes?

And then there is the thought of 'which one is better' and 'what am I better at' and the like. I know it comes down to personal preference because they are all equal (to an extent) but what preference should I listen to? My love of magic? Cool bow shooting? Mind-based countering abilities? And what about the ressurect spell of the monk...it's always needed.......ack! So much to think about!

I know I'm not the only one with such a dilema. Please post some character-choosing pointers, other than 'whatever you like' !

Tuon · Mar 26, 2005, 01:05 AM // 01:05

necros and monks are extremely versatile. Eles are very rigid - choosing your elite pretty much determines 3-5 other skills. Necro/els can do energy a lot better than el/nec in many cases. Play a monk if you like the attention.

Ranis Harlequin · Mar 26, 2005, 02:16 AM // 02:16

Although I aim to play PvP, I plan to get there through PvE.

I think one of the biggest problems is planning out a build and then having it fail when trying to play up to that build because the skills you want aren't available until later. Sure giving yourself a goal of a completed character to work towards is all good, but I want to play the game first, and have a character that is able from beginning to end. An in-game example is that a mesmer secondary is difficult to play and improves very slowly as you progress. Compare that with a monk secondary that is great from day one but may slow your character down once you get to that lvl20 and get into PvP. Hopefully when they implement the ability to switch your secondary (and they are) then most of these problems will go away.

Davion · Mar 27, 2005, 07:04 PM // 19:04

Yeah the ithas bow is a bonus for me too..but I wanted it.

One other aspect to explore behind your ranger is the nature rituals. They give very interesting benefits and enhancements to your shooting abilities. (not to mention traps and healing ability)

Expertise - I may not have the energy pool you have as an elementalist or other caster, but I can sure manage my skill costs more effectively for my class by having points here. Making a 10 energy skill suddenly cost 5 points opens up more freedom in my skill choice. Although this attribute only reduces the cost of skills,trap,rituals,shouts,stances,... reducing those costs gives me more left over energy for say whatever spells my secondary grants access to.
If I start adding spells in,.... (25 energy pool).....throw in two 10enrgy skills (that nowcost 5 each because of expertise mastery).....leaves me 15 left over for spells.

without any expertise I'd only have 5 left over....denuding me of much of a chance to pull off surprises with a secondary profession spell.

I don't get direct bonuses but the indirect dividend sure helps me out. It makes it seem like my energy pool is more around 45 rather than the actual 25 it is.

Scaphism · Mar 28, 2005, 10:59 AM // 10:59

Don't give another thought to your Ithas Bow.

No details have been given out on the stats of the preorder items, but there is no reason to believe that they will be uber items. In fact, if they are, it would be horribly unbalancing, because only a small percentage of the overall playing crowd would have them, and once the game releases, you wont be able to get them anymore. For now, my best guess is they will be a nice trophy, hopefully they will have a unique graphic that says "I preordered, I've been here a while."

As for deciding what character to play...there's hardly a better determining factor than primary attributes. I strongly recommend you read the vast and informative literature on this site, but to get you started, here's some useful beginner info:

Attributes

Professions

New Player Center

Once you've gotten through all those, you will probably want to start designing your own characters, or get an idea of what other people have been doing when they devise their builds.
There are two incredible resources from builds on this site. First is the
Builds Directory. Here you'll find all sorts of different kinds of builds, it takes a little navigating to get where you're going, but it's worth looking into.

Next are Sausaletus Rex's Build Reviews. I'd give you a link, but there are currently 4, and they can be found on the front page of the site, just scroll down the news announcements or search for build reviews. Rex is an encyclopoedia of Guild Wars knowledge, and his reviews will enlighten you in many aspects of the game that a simple attribute and skill layout will never cover. He explains fundamental and advanced game concepts, metagame strategies, and build optimization in every article. Unsurprisingly, they are long reads.

There is more than enough information to get you started right there, more than you should attempt to digest in a single day. Start reading, take some of it in, breathe, remember it's just a game, and that we're the gurus. Come back with your questions- we all learn from good questions. They can be the perfect opportunity to explain a concept to many people who have never considered it before.

Good luck, and welcome to the site.

Taranis · Mar 28, 2005, 04:52 PM // 16:52

You shouldn' rely your whole character on the unique item you get from pre-ordering...like ANet said, this items won't be end-game items...you'll always find better ones, they're just there to give ya an easier beginning...would suck if all europeans used spellcaster only because we got this Prism-thingy..just choose whatever you think will fit to ya, not what the unique items say.

Zrave · Mar 28, 2005, 06:35 PM // 18:35

Actually some of the preorder items ARE special.

For example, there are no smiting foci other than the Censor's Icon.

And that Prism thing, I wonder what it does? A melee ranger/warrior would probably want it, since dipping into tactics only for the shield is bleh.

Ranis Harlequin · Mar 29, 2005, 06:42 AM // 06:42

I definitely agree that the pre-order item shouldn't be a starting point to forming a character...I guess I'll just have to get my mind away from that. I've read through some (if not most) of what was posted there, but I'll go back and read more. My best guess would be to try out a bunch of characters come the April BWE and see what works. I tried that in March, but I only played two characters, which really isn't a large enough sample size to form an opinion.

While playing in march, I noticed that 90% of the time people focused on their primary character, and their secondary only showed (if ever) when there were no monsters about and all you could do was heal yourself, revive others, summon minions, or buff your self up again. Again, I'm sure this will change as you progress (I only got as far as the lighting the beacons mission, and was just under lvl 10). Does your secondary really shine only later in the game, or was I just using mine wrong? What were some of your experiences with secondaries that were helpful from the beginning? (other than the monk, which is way too easy to choose as a secondary, if only for 'Ressurection').

Scaphism · Mar 29, 2005, 07:31 AM // 07:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranis Harlequin

While playing in march, I noticed that 90% of the time people focused on their primary character, and their secondary only showed (if ever) when there were no monsters about and all you could do was heal yourself, revive others, summon minions, or buff your self up again.

Early on it'd hard to build up more than 2 attributes at once. It changes from level to level- sometimes you can spend all your points on 2 attributes, sometimes you have just a few points left over so you start investing in a third line. In any case, early on your attribute lines are dictated more by the skills that are available at that stage in the game, rather than what you've seen on skill lists on a fansite.

Standard build-making convention- as much convention we can have pre-retail- favors 3 attribute builds. Generally that works out to 2 attributes from your primary profession and one from your secondary, but as I said, that's just convention. That might explain why you see most builds focusing on their primary more than their secondary.

Additionally, if you've spent a lot of time looking through skill lists, you've probably identified a few specific skills you want to use from your secondary. For example, in the case of necromancer secondaries, it's popular to want the skill Rend Enchantments from the Curses line. Rend Enchantments just isn't available early in the game, and you may not find any curses that are worthwhile, so you don't invest any points in the line til you find a Curse skill you like.

As for trying out 2 characters per BWE- that's what I did the first couple weekends. Just keep trying a few at a time, and within a month you'll have as long as you want to try out as many characters as you like. Good deal, huh?