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So I finally got Guild wars...
Neanderthal
Member RarePosts: 1,861
And I have to say I'm pleasantly suprised. I wasn't expecting much but really it ain't half bad. Ok, it's not my dream mmorpg, but nothing else is either.
Being a free to play game my expectations were very low. But hell, so far it seems just as good as anything else that's out there right now. I had heard that the community was terrible but I can't tell that it's any worse than any other games I've tried.
The instancing doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would, although I am still philosophically opposed to excessive use of instancing. But hey, I can deal with it. And to be honest the towns/community areas feel more alive than they did in WoW (although I haven't played WoW all that much).
The combat seems pretty standard. But I'm just starting to get a taste of the tactical decisions that will need to be made in deciding which skills to have on my bar. What works well together in various situations and so on. So far I'm liking the looks of this.
I've only been playing for a little over a week now but at this point I find myself wishing I had bought the game sooner. Anyway, I'm having fun with it for now so even if I burn out on it quickly I will have gotten my moneys worth out of it.
Of course my overall positive opinion might be partly because I haven't really dived into any game for some time and this is giving me the fix I've been missing. Also I'm playing it with a friend who also just got the game so that probably helps.
I only posted this because I do my share of bitching on the various forums here so it's only fair that I say something positive once in a while if it is deserved. If nothing else it deserves praise just for the fact that it's a free to play game that, as far as I can tell so far, ranks right up there with all the pay to play games. That alone deserves some recognition.
Comments
Actually, the recent reporting changes have shaped the community up quite nicely.
And welcome aboard, Neanderthal. Which campaign did you get? Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall?
P.S. At about 3:30 EDT this morning, Duncan Serling - my first character in GW (a Ranger) - created on July 05, 2005, finally got his 4th title: Legendary Spearmarshal. I now have one character with 4 achievements under "Honor" in the Hall of Monuments.
Tyrian cartographer title is probably next, but I'm going to take a break from the Ranger for awhile. Figure I'll play my Ele now. 
Good Job Neanderthal, if you need a hand with anything im IGN is same as one on here.
Take in the story line thats one thing I found done well throughout.
Actually, the recent reporting changes have shaped the community up quite nicely.
And welcome aboard, Neanderthal. Which campaign did you get? Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall?
I figured I might as well start with the original so I got Prophecies. My first character is a warrior/mezmer. Mezmer just because I was still figuring things out and I happened to run into the mezmer lady outside of town.
I've already been experimenting with other combinations just to get a taste of everything but so far I'm sticking with the war/mez as my main. He's only level 9 at the moment, I'm not in a big hurry to rush through it.
I'll take any usefull tidbits of advice anyone wants to offer. So far my most effective tactic seems to be using a sword to get a bleeding dot and then stacking my mezmer dot on top of it, then using the follow up sword attack for some extra damage and reduction of the hit-point pool of my enemy.
I don't know if that combo will remain usefull as I level up but it seems good for now.
Your doing it right...take your time. No need to hurry, 20 is not that hard to obtain and if you're diligent can be gained in a few days. Take all the quests and any time you get an offer to quest/skills cap with others take it, its a good learning experience. Like the others above, If you are looking for ingame help let me know, my recent IGN(ranger) is: Tiny Hades.
Few tips:
1. Find a guild. I'm not saying they are everything here in gw but they are, in most cases, very helpful to new players. You can ask for a guest invite and see what the guild/alliance is all about before you want to make that final decision to join.
2. Don't dwell too much on your second class choice now. You have many opportunities to change it later when its really going to matter.
3. Try www.guildwarsguru.com for a lot of good info and www.gw.gamewikis.org as well.
Theres a lot of other sites out there but these will get you started in the right direction. Good luck and welcome, its a great game and the pvp is a blast. See ya out there!
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I was also pleasantly surprised when I first logged on to GW.
My suggestions to you are to try out several different profession combinations. I must have played eight or nine characters before I finally got a combo that I felt comfortable with (mesmer/necro). Good luck to you and if you ever need any assistance on the game, look me up: Dauthix Shadowlord.
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My current Guild Wars character:
Dauthix The Avenger (Paragon/Ranger)
There is no wrong profession combination. With mesmer as your secondary you will have a slight edge when it comes to e.g. manipulating enchantments and hexes.
It will all clear up as you get more skills from quests.
__________
Ever wondered what a hardcore WoW raider looked like?
R.I.P. Laura "Taera" Genender
Question: If I wanted to try Guild Wars do I have to buy all of the expansions? If not which on should I play to get to the last expansion because I understand it's not stand alone like the other 3. If I only have to choose one starting expansion, which is best to go with Eye of the North?
Also, If I create a toon and want to PvE and PvP can that be done, or do I have to make a toon for a PvE server and a PvP server?
Thanks for any help.
2) I would suggest getting the original campaign to go with GW:EN because it is pretty much a direct extension (and is connect to the same world map). They should be bundled together in the "Platinum Edition"
3) One major advantage I find to Guild Wars is it's flexibility with characters. You can roll a PvE character which I would suggest to help gather new skills and see how they work in combo with eachother, then take that character into PvP. You never are going to be character seperated by servers. You can make a PvP character straight out, but you will be gimped by the overall lack of skills you start with and would need to unlock them through faction. When you purchase GW you will get 4 character slots and then with the either 2 chapters you get 2 slots per (again not including GW:EN because it is only an expansion).
I definately suggest spending a decent amount of time in PvE before jumping to PvP. Jumping into RA (Random Arena) without first experiencing the "nicer" parts of the game could leave you with a sour taste in your mouth. RA is where most people get their start and for the people who don't like the game and don't get past this section, this is what gives them their proof that GW PvP sucks when anyone who knows the game doesn't really consider RA anything other than killing time and practicing builds.
4) Have fun and give it a little bit of time because from your verbage you sound to be a WoW player, so this will be totally different.
"It is easier to be cruel than wise. The road to wisdom is long and difficult... so most people just turn out to be assholes" Feng (Christopher Walken)
guild wars is an awesome game!
i am really excited about the news on guild wars 2 i recently read on www.plaync.com
8hammer8-
Thanks for the response. You where very helpful and I will take your advice. I'm not a WoW player. Never played it a second, but I did play EQ 1 for 4 years pretty competitively. Looking for a game with a little less time sink, but still get immersed in the game. I guess I play for the competition, along with experiencing the new graphical technologies.
It's my understanding that GW2 is still quite a way off, so you should just still get plenty of enjoyment from GW.
................................
My current Guild Wars character:
Dauthix The Avenger (Paragon/Ranger)
I'm glad the lot of you guys like this game, I have bought it quite a while ago, but stopped playing do to order of importance in my life, I'm thinking about getting back in the game.
Help a fellow gamer!
And in all honesty, we're going to have the betas for GW2 this time next year for an early to mid year 2009 release, so its not that far away really
PVE toons can PVP too (there are no seperate servers for pvp and pve)
EQ2 fan sites
At one time, Nightfall and Prophecies were running neck and neck as to which was best for newcomers. Now, IMHO, I must agree: get Prophecies with Eye of the North packaged with it. If someone gets Nightfall first, then EoTN, they're going to have a hard time outfitting all those heroes with any meaningful equipment (25 heroes available between Nightfall & EoTN, 10 heroes available in EoTN alone, which is plenty).
Plus, while Nightfall once had the best PvE content of the three, that accolade now goes to Prophecies + EoTN, since the lore is so closely linked between the two.
If you want more PvP after getting Prophecies + EoTN, add Factions. If you're a PvE junkie and still want more after Prophecies + EoTN, get Nightfall. In any event, all three games + the expansion are great! (Can't wait to play the mission packs coming out in November).
So i take it this game is actually worth buying?
Worth buying? Well, I think so.
I actually started playing GW using one of their occasional free-to-play for 14 days demos for Factions.
I got SOOO hooked SOOO fast it wasn't even funny.
Just checking this thread again.
Well, I haven't burned out yet. Still enjoying it. Although I'm having some minor burnout repeating some of the quests because I've been leveling three characters up. The only reason I'm doing that is because while my friend will play Guild wars with me on the weekends he hasn't been playing it at all during the week because he's still hooked on WoW. I don't want to get too far ahead of him so I've been switching between characters.
Which isn't so bad because it clues me in to what the different classes can do.
Ok..question: With my War/Mez I got a skill, dang it I forgot exactly what it's called, "infection" or something like that. It says that when used it will spread all negative conditions from my current target to all adjacent targets. Sounded great. But I've been experimenting with it and so far the only thing it will spread to other critters is the sword bleeding dot.
It won't spread my mezmer illusion based dot or empathy. So, you know, I'm kind of wondering about that. Does it only spread non-magical effects?
It's still nice for PvE even if the only thing it will spread is my bleeding dot. I haven't had any experience with the PvP in this game yet but I doubt if it would be worth having on the skill bar in PvP. Doesn't seem very likely that I could get a whole group of enemy players all nicely clumped together so I could zap 'em with it.
Be careful about playing a game you like on someone elses time schedule. I am not a big fan of power leveling, but if you want to play the game and your friend doesn't, then level up your character and then when he actually gets on you can assist him with the quests / missions. I mean you are already doing them again anyways with new characters, and your friend would/should thank you for the assistance with them.
I believe the mesmer skill you are refering to is "Epidemic" and yes, it only transfers conditions (bleeding / burning / poison / blindness / deep wound / weakness...etc) to other characters. So a sword warrior could use Sever Artery / Gash (which apply bleeding and deep wound) then hit Epidemic in the mob and do some damage to everyone. The mesmer skill Fragility might be a good lead in to that chain as well as it causes X damage whenever your target gets or loses a condition.
As you realized it will not spread Conjure Phantasm or Etheral Burden, stuff like that as they are hexs and not conditions.
PvP and as for people not clumping, that is not always true, especially for teams that use different wards, but at that point, it is more about your ability to pressure the monks versus their ability to condition/hex remove. I don't think that many GvG type builds see a War/Mes in them, but you could be the one to change that, so keep having fun with your character.
"It is easier to be cruel than wise. The road to wisdom is long and difficult... so most people just turn out to be assholes" Feng (Christopher Walken)
And in all honesty, we're going to have the betas for GW2 this time next year for an early to mid year 2009 release, so its not that far away really
I guess it depends on how you look at it. In the gaming world, a year (just for the beta) can seem like a long time.
................................
My current Guild Wars character:
Dauthix The Avenger (Paragon/Ranger)
Be careful about playing a game you like on someone elses time schedule. I am not a big fan of power leveling, but if you want to play the game and your friend doesn't, then level up your character and then when he actually gets on you can assist him with the quests / missions. I mean you are already doing them again anyways with new characters, and your friend would/should thank you for the assistance with them.
I believe the mesmer skill you are refering to is "Epidemic" and yes, it only transfers conditions (bleeding / burning / poison / blindness / deep wound / weakness...etc) to other characters. So a sword warrior could use Sever Artery / Gash (which apply bleeding and deep wound) then hit Epidemic in the mob and do some damage to everyone. The mesmer skill Fragility might be a good lead in to that chain as well as it causes X damage whenever your target gets or loses a condition.
As you realized it will not spread Conjure Phantasm or Etheral Burden, stuff like that as they are hexs and not conditions.
PvP and as for people not clumping, that is not always true, especially for teams that use different wards, but at that point, it is more about your ability to pressure the monks versus their ability to condition/hex remove. I don't think that many GvG type builds see a War/Mes in them, but you could be the one to change that, so keep having fun with your character.
Also, remember that epidemic only transfers the remaining time from the original condition, too. This can make effecting usage of that skill seriously dependent on quick timing.
................................
My current Guild Wars character:
Dauthix The Avenger (Paragon/Ranger)
Thanks for the info and advice guys.
As for the thing with my friend; I think what I'll end up doing is keeping one of my characters close to his level to play on the weekends and going on ahead with one of my others. I wouldn't game with him with a character that is too high level for the stuff we are doing because that would completely ruin the fun of it.
It kinda sucks to go ahead without him because half the fun is discovering new things together. But a few hours of playing on the weekends just isn't enough to satisfy me.