To late to start GW?

There was one thing I forgot to mention before, that was the population in Prophecies. I played through it with a new char there about a month ago, and came to the conclution that the current population can be divided roughly evenly in two parts; the new players and the skilled players.

New players is self-explanatory. The skilled players seem to be the ones who are tired of Factions and look back to the old land for entertainment. The PvE play is much longer, the storyline is better and, well, the game is better.

Either way, you're far more likely to end up with players who know what they're doing now then you were a year ago. The new 'generation' (to call them that...) of players seemed to listen to the more experienced ones, while the more experienced ones don't shout out insults to anyone who can't do things perfectly their way. All in all I was very pleasantly surprised with my visit to Tyria.

Oh, and one last thing. If you should decide to follow Spikes advice and get it, don't let the starting areas fool you. The people in local chat have always, and will always, be equipped with negative IQ. Those kinda people don't appear in the game except for the starting areas and pvp areas, so don't let them ruin your experience

Buy Guild Wars, it's a great game. And Swinging Fists has the best advise so far. Guild Wars Prophecies is the best one to start the game. It has an easy learning curve and if you complete the missions (a month max for most players I imagine) you will have a great grasp on how to play the game and it's different characters and what they can do.

I advise joining a guild after you leave the beginners part of the game (but don't let them "carry" you through the missions). The social aspect of playing with guildies is one of the things that makes this game great. You'll make some good friends.

But if you're a loner don't worry about joining a guild. You'll still enjoy the game.

If I were you- Id go to the store today and get Prophecies - OR if you have a debit card, simply download the client and purchase it through the online store- You could start playing TODAY and not even have to leave your house (for the next 6 months of your life )

The thing is- Nightfall is going to be the most glorious game ever, and if you want to play guild wars, you will want to play nightfall.


Personally I really enjoy factions- however as a stand alone, it wont give you the epic feel that Guildwars truly is about. I mean, some features of Factions are totally awesome... but if you are a first timer it might give you a sour taste in your mouth.

reasons to get Factions -
1 playing assassin or ritualist. my ritualist was easily worth the purchase of the game. playing assassin in pvp is good too, but pve is impossible to get respect from other players. Mostly due to explode-on-death enemies that makes the assassin die a LOT, which gives most of their bad rap.
2 Alliance battles. People can say what they want about it, but its just plain FUN imo.
3 its not THAT bad - just not up to par with the original as far as storyline and the ability to truly explore the map in any way that you want... half the game takes place in the city - and the city is full of locked gates that you must earn the right to pass through...
4 easier to aquire max-level equipment and bonus attribute points
5 its geared toward pvp fans (even in the pve) which I personally dont mind at all. Im a balanced player.

Reasons to get Prophecies-
1 The searing is a great way to start guild wars (and I dont want to give too much away- but its chp1)
2 people are nicer, more helpful, more innocent.
3 the game simply takes more time to complete. if you play 4-6 hours a day youd be lucky to finish half of it before nightfall is out...
4 you have better opportunity to really LEARN your characters, and their skills.
5 prophecies gives you Skills as rewards for quests instead of just endless amounts of experience like in factions.




I still have a low level character in each continent and I see tons of fresh newbs (not noobs!) asking questions about simple functions of the game... so honestly, I would go so far as to say its not even too late to start your OWN guild even a couple months from now when you get the game down.

If you think you are more into pvp, get factions... otherwise get chapter 1 or chapter 3, then get factions when you get around to it- its not going anywhere. Factions was tailored to players that are experienced in the game, even tho it technically IS stand-alone

I don't think it is too late to either and Prophecies would be the best place to start, nice easy learning curve and far more content than factions. Nightfall does show some promise though, I'm just sceptical after factions so :P

You will get a mixed bag of people, some will be the halfwit type that scream "n00b" at everything and everybody, the type that just spout garbage on local chat, and then you will meet the helpful more useful types that give help and advice.

Some guilds will gladly accept new players and will help out with missions, I will say this though, if you do start playing Try to avoid doing the early missions with high lvl players (e.g. lvl 20 warrior against lvl 3 monsters) it kinda defeats the purpose and will lessen the enjoyment. If everything is dead by the time you have finished casting 1 spell there isn't much point really. I loved playing through the early missions with a few mates at the same level as me and figuring them out.

Guildwars is Great fun

It's not too late.
If you wait a couple of nights, Nightfall will be released.
It will feature all Prophecies professions + 2 extra. Those extra are new for everyone exept who played in the preview events.
That's a lot of low level people to play with (though experienced with general gameplay).

In Prophecies, new characters are still created and most of the time there are enough people to form a party. In the beginning (so called 'pre sear') you don't have to team up, except for 2 quests afaik. The maximum teamsize will be 2 in that region.

In Prophecies (part 1), you will learn to play your character and it's skills the easiest.
You can get loads of skills from quests. Leveling up is somewhat slow compared to the other parts.

In Factions (part 2), you can level up to 20 in a couple of hours, though I never did it that fast (about 2 days for me).
Most of the map is designed for lvl 20. The map is smaller than Prophecies.

I've played the PvE Nightfall event and if they keep it the same as then, it will be a mix of Factions and Prophecies.
I managed to get to level 17 and finished 3 missions. This in about 1 day playing.
Learning curve was not as steep as Factions, but you have to buy most skills, instead of questing them (as in Prophecies).

My advice from what I have seen of Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall:
If you can wait, buy Nightfall. Especially if you have some previous experience with other online Coop RPG games.
I think it will be very busy when the game hits the shelves, so you can join groups/guilds without a problem. And since all are new to a large part of the missions, you will learn the most.
If you like that Nightfall, you can always buy Prophecies.

Otherwise, buy Prophecies now and start playing. You will have enough experience when Nightfall comes out to progress quite fast.

Weapons and equipment should not be any problem. You will find enough weapons/collectable items to get the weapons/armor you need to finish the game. Prices are also not that high for most equipment. I have sold plenty of weapons to the merchant that would have fit perfect on a character that just wants to finish the game. And merchant prices are seldom over 300 gold.

It may seem intimidating to new players to see gold/purple/green items selling for incredibly high prices, but just remember that you can get items that are just as good and often better from collectors. Often the only difference is only cosmetic.

ive been playing since last June and the high prices still intimidate me but dont worry, you will always find people willing to help, and once you get a good guild and/or a good group of friends they should help you with anything you need

Just make sure you come up for clever come backs to Cynn's insults, she's quite the sarcastic bitch. But they're more fun to play with, they don't make missions stressful or annoying in the least bit.

But I do believe it's too late. Find a different game that hasn't been released yet and try to learn about it. That way you can become one of the best and not some newbie like in guild wars. The learning curve for Guild Wars is getting steeper with every chapter since there are more and more skills. If you don't know what a lot of skills do or classes, or if you don't start now, I wouldn't start after nightfall for sure.

everyone is limited to using only 8 skills

2 years from now,
someone buying Chapter 7 for their 1st GW experience will do fine

every GW chapter has a "starting area", to get familiar with the game, where players start with level 1 characters

I'd say to start with Prophecies as well. Prophecies rocks and represents the basic 'core' game and concepts.

There's really nothing to catch up to... everyone I know starts new characters at some point, to try out new professions and do something different, so there's nothing to really be 'behind' of. I've been playing for over a year and have completed both campains with more than one character and I just started a brand new one. It doesn't mean my new character is 'behind' at all. It just means I have another character to play

Bleh I'd be here to help you out if you need help starting and whatnot.. just message me here or something.

Oh.. and like the other guys said.. starting with prophecies would be your best bet. Most people perfer it over Factions and once you get the hang of it, you could possibly get Nightfall which seems like a great game.. so far. That's what I would do anyhow..

It is not too late because...

a) the ability to buy extra character slots has tempted long time players into creating new characters, so they too may be in the same area.
b) the game does not rely so much on hard to get weapons. Armor levels are also restricted.
c) maximum character level cap evens out everybody once they hit this point
d) henchman in towns allow you to form a party if nobody else is around or won't join you
e) you can join a friendly guild where there are people in a similar position to you, or other guild members may help you out when required.
f) in Prophecies there are always people "running" to places, although IMO this takes the fun out of the game, this will allow you to buy high level armor early on.
g) most of the guides/concepts/common builds/hints/maps/scams to avoid/everything else are on here and other guildwars forums or sites.
h) you don't pay by the month and therefore don't have to pay for time you use/don't use
i) if you have a friend with the Nightfall pre-order pack they may give you access to the trial key which will allow you 10 hours of gametime in prophecies/factions before you even buy anything!


By reading these forums and sites like guildwiki you may learn more than actually playing the game.

I personally like both Prophecies and Factions. You may want to jump on at Nightfall and if you like it, consider getting Prophecies and Factions latter.

You will be able to take your character(s) from any campaign to any other campaign.

Once you get through any one of the pve campaign(s) you will find your 2nd time through goes twice as fast for the sheer fact of knowing the correct "path(s)" to get to the end or learning where anet put the built in short cuts (on purpose). This is espically true with Factions more so with than Prophecies.

First time through, go slow, smell the flowers, take it all in. With your fourth character go at your own pace.

If you find you don't like a job you started with, try one of the others. Each job has it's own unique play style and find the one that fits your taste.

GW us really about skill vs time/grind. It does not take long compared to any other online game to get a top of the line character and what makes you better is your ability to play. You can within a month or two be just as good as a "veteran" player.

Getting max "stat" equipment is easy and if you wish to "grind" for uber cool *looking* stuff you can (or spend tons of gold on them) but it's not better (combat wise) then the easy to get stuff (Collector's, Greens, Weapon Smiths).

A word on the "official" stragety guides. For info on quests, and missions it's great... all other section will contain error(s) or just plain be changed over time. Use www.guildwiki.org for any refrence lookup.

Too late? Nope, not at all. It seems like at least once or twice a week someone posts on here a similar "Thinking about buying GW" thread, so you won't be alone in being brand new to the game. There's even more who show up in the game.

Prophecies was the first Chapter of the game, and has a pretty good story line, good learning curve, and has tons of places to explore. factions is the second chapter and is more geared towards hi-level game play with a steep learning curve. They just finished a Nightfall preview, and it looks like it's going to be at least as good as Propecies and tons better than factions. There are lots of new players in both, but most long-timers reccommend Prophecies over factions for new players.

I didn't read the other posts.

Fact: You posted a GW related question on a forum related to GW.
Fact: You know this place exists
Therefore...
Fact: you're already ahead of 99.99% of the GW population

it's never too late to start playing guild wars! i have just made a new mesmer who is only level 5 because i want to solo the UW. while i was in pre-searing, i saw many people playing. not as many as when i started with my first character but there are still people in pre-searing starting their characters to play guild wars.
and, if you are playing factions, it's not too late to start playing in there either, it's just going to be a little hard since a lot of people have finished factions and are not doing many of the missions.
i know for a fact, though, that many guilds will accept you no matter what the level or experience and no other requirements.

I recommend getting GW Prophecies even if you are getting Nightfall. There are plenty of people playing, new players, lots of people leveling up through the game.

This is a quick pick up game. Within the first 2 days you can already have max gear and a decent build only to find out that theres SOOOO MUCH MORE TO DO... beware this damn game will steal you soul. Easy to pick up, hard as hell to put down. It's a blackhole for your life.

Also all the expansions are retroactive, meaning your dervish can come to ascalon city and raise hell on the char.... (:

As the phrase goes: "Its never too late too start"- It may however be a bit harder, and not as fun.

I got the original Guild Wars several months after it came out. I was a loner (and still today), so I played the entire game with PUGS. This was quite easy at the time, not to mention fun. I simply log on and play the game with a random group of people. Most players were interested at playing the game, and not rushing through- infact most of them were new. I even the 2 hardest missions (Thunderhead keep and Hells Percipice) on my second try- and this was with PUGS. Also, the majority of the team did not skip the cutscenes, and those that did had no complaints against the others.
About 2 months ago I made a new char, and the experience was not the same.
Everyone was just interested in rushing the missions, and completing them has become a lot harder because everyone kept trying to rush the game. So I turned to the henchmen- they work better than todays PUG, but not nearly as well as the older days. Not to mention that playing an online game alone is not as fun. And the harder mission- Thunderhead Keep took several weeks to complete, as it is not doable with henchmen (since the party needs to split up). As for the cutscenes, while I skip them now that I have already watched them, anyone who dares not skip them gets yelled at by the rest of them team.

My conclusion: Its never to late to start, its just not going to be as fun or easy.
My reccomandation: Wait until Nightfall.

too fast imo, but nightfall looks far more progressional than factions was, me hopes anyway