Understanding Chapters

So I just bought the Trilogy Pack and started playing this game. Played a few MMOs like DAoC and WoW and figured id try Guild Wars. So far the dynamics of the game seem completely different but look good enough to give a try. Im just confused about a few things though, Ive tried looking around but havent really seen answers to most of my questions.

Ok first the whole Role Playing and PvP thing. As far as I understand it now you go through the whole game in Role Playing. Now PvP is still available, but you go through the quests and missions and stuff to get skills and level. PvP you just create a level 20, basically select what armor you want? and can only PvP? From what I understand now with PvP you just make a character and you can only use what you have unlocked in Role Playing. Theres no PvE or anything, but how do you get armor and stuff? Can you only use armor youve recieved in role playing? So if I go through the game as a warrior, and i want to PvP as an Elementalist, I would need to go through role playing to get the elementalist skills?

The other main question I have is in regards to the different chapters. Lets say I play though the first chapter. If i start in Factions i start at level 1 with a completely new character right? And the skills dont build do they? Like if I just start on Nightfall i wont have the first two chapters skills? I mainly ask this question because since I have the trilogy i dont know where to start. Ive read up on the differences such as learning curve and length and stuff like that but Im still a bit confused on how they play into eachother. Im a bit confused on where to start and what id be missing if I were to jump straight to Factions or something. I got this game mainly to PvP so from the sound of it you should basically play through the chapters to have the most abilities. Or does it not matter because in PvP you only play with a similiar chapter. Like if i create a PvP character on Nightfall, i only play with other people on nightfall. Noone would have skills from Factions or anything like that.

Well that was a bit long. Thanks in advance for any help. Im just a bit confused on how this game is laid out.

First of all, you pretty much have the right idea about how things work. (More so than I did when I had just started out) =P

PvP characters have a few set choices for armour skins, based on which campaigns you own.
(There are other armours available for PvP characters, obtained differently but I'll leave that out for now to avoid confusion.)

Things like runes, mods and inscriptions which you add to your weapons/armour are generally unlocked by playing through PvE and identifying them from items you find.
However, you can also unlock these things with Balthazar Faction ...a kind of currency earned through various forms of PvP.

The same thing pretty much applies to skills. You can unlock them by playing through PvE and learning them via quests or skill trainers.
You can also buy them with Balthazar Faction.

So, you do not really need to play PvE at all.
It is recommended that you do though, as it will help you become more familiar with the game whilst allowing you to unlock some skills and items along the way.


As for how the campaigns are linked...

If you start a character in the 1st chapter (Prophecies), there will be a point in which you can travel to the other two campaigns with that character, and play through those campaigns too.

If you start a character in the 3rd (Nightfall) or 2nd (Factions) campaigns they will also reach a point where they can freely travel to other campaigns.

I would recommend starting in the 1st campaign, as there's plenty of skill quests for free skill unlocks as you're playing through it.
I also enjoyed the speed at which it progressed when I first started out.

The other campaigns tend to be a little faster (especially Factions).

I agree with the above poster. Start a core class in Prophecies and play through it. When you are finished with Proph, then take your character back to Lion's Arch and connect over to Factions or Nightfall.

Also, to answer your skills question. A certain set of skill are "Core Skills" and area available to learn in any campaign. Most skills are campaign-specific skills and can only be learned in their native campaign. However, once you have "unlocked" a skill to your account by either

1. buying it from a skill trainer (PvE),
2. learning it as a quest reward (PvE), or
3. unlocking it with Balthazar faction (PvP),

that unlocked skill is now available for you to buy from any skill trainer in the skill's native campaign (some skills can only be learned in later parts of a campaign) and can be used by all of your PvP toons. Unlocking is an account-wide thing and once a skill is unlocked by one character, it does not need to be unlocked on any other characters.

Hope that helps

Thanks everyone for the help. I think I got a much better understanding of things now.

Another option, if you are mainly just interested in the PvP, is to start a character in each campaign (you have 8 character slots with the Trilogy, don't forget to get your free anniversary storage pane before the end of May, BTW). Generally I'd agree with the above posters to do Prophecies, then Factions and lastly Nightfall. But if you mainly want to just unlock skills as quickly as possible playing 3 PvE characters, one in each campaign, would probably be the quickest way to get a wide variety of skills.

Also, each campaign has PvP arenas available for your PvE characters:

Prophecies - Ascalon Arena (levels 1 to 10) and Shiverpeak Arena (levels 1 to 15)

Factions - Shing Jea Arena (levels 1 to 10)

Nightfall - Sunspear Arena (levels 1 to 10)

plus level 20 arenas later on in all campaigns

Those will give you experience along the way as you get skills from playing the PvE portions of the game. But you might have to wait a bit to find someone to play against as they often are either empty or only have a few people, at least when I've checked. This is where friends and your fellow guild members can help out.

Joining a guild (check the section here on Guru for those recruiting and see which might appeal to you) and if you find a good group of people to play with they can be invaluable with playing tips and skill builds to try. I learn something new every time I play with more experienced players.

Oh, and welcome to GW!