Advice For Guild Wars Pilgrims

September 27, 2010 at 3:29 am | Posted in Guild Wars, mmorpg | 12 Comments
Tags: Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, MMO

I could list a bunch of reasons to come to or stay away from Guild Wars. If you’re a Pilgrim though you’ve already made your decision and you might need some advice on where to start.

Buying In

Let’s begin with price. If you’re patient and look thoroughly enough you’ll likely find various campaigns at big discount prices. The most common deal you should be able to find these days is the trilogy (Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall) for around $40. It doesn’t include the expansion, Eye of the North, but it’s easy to find.

Gandara, Capital of Kourna

Starting Out

Once you’ve got everything installed, there is the question of which campaign to start in. While I’d like to argue on the behalf of Prophecies, or tout the underdog Factions, someone completely new to Guild Wars is much better off starting in Nightfall for a variety of reasons.

Nightfall is the slickest production of the three. Learning to play is a refined blend of the previous two campaigns. While it can get a little bogged down before you move on to the Consulate Docks mission, it offers plenty of time to get used to Guild Wars mechanics before thrusting you into the world.

Other benefits to starting in Nightfall include how quickly you arrive at Kamadan, a major city and one of the most active cities in the game. It’s a trade hub and you can purchase virtually anything of worth here.

You’re also given quick access to Hero NPCs you can equip with “Hero Skills” and equipment you pick up along the way. At first Henchmen may be more useful but Heroes show their worth quickly. For beginners you’ll only be able to find Heroes here.

The only drawback might be plot, as some developments towards the end of Nightfall, particularly when you enter The Torment, are heavily spoilerish.

Finding A Profession

Find the profession that’s meant for you. The highest single target dps in the game is the warrior. The most powerful build is the necromancer minion master. The elementalist lights things on fire. Each profession has their own individual feel and apparently its a bit of a task to settle into one.

It doesn’t help that each profession can play different roles. A mesmer can interrupt and shut down, do degen and hexes, or even straight up damage.

Over the past year its the #1 complaint I’ve noticed about Guild Wars. People can’t find the right fit.

Part of this in my opinion has to do with skills. You have a limited selection at first, and part of the fun of Guild Wars is playing with the vast number of possibilities.

In the end which profession is right for you is not something I can truly help you with. Just keep in mind that if you play long enough you’ll have one of each profession eventually anyway.

Guilding Up

Now that you know where to start, the best way to enjoy yourself is usually by getting a good guild.

Good luck with that.

5 years after the games release and 3 years after they stopped making campaigns, most guilds are quite dead. I wish I could say that I could hook you up with an active guild, but I can’t. I’ve had some pretty terrible luck with guilds over the years.

The unfortunate fact is though, its an instanced game and you’re not going to have a whole lot of fun playing by yourself. Your best bet is to do research, look for guilds, guild hop, or join that whole Relics Of Orr guild. It’s dead too, but at least you’ll have a guild for Guild Wars 2?

Guild Wars 2 skill icons.

Get Skills

Like I said before, half the fun of Guild Wars is playing with skills. If you don’t have many, that could be a problem.

A lot of content in the game is suggestive of types of skills to bring. Are you in an area with a lot of mesmers? Don’t bring spells that take a long time to cast. Going up against spellcasters? Bring interrupts. It’s not mandatory but you will be rewarded.

Buy all the skills you can. It gets expensive and you won’t always have the skill points (try buying a Star of Transference) but even it looks like you won’t need it, just playing around to see what works and what doesn’t can be kind of fun.

Make Money

Pick everything up.

If you’re not big on picking things up that’s cool, I can understand that. Just don’t complain when you don’t have enough money to buy those skills, upgrade that armour, or purchase those items you want.

Gear levels out pretty quickly, so with collector items or by picking stuff up, it shouldn’t be long before you get decent stuff.

If you need money, just go out and play.

Stop And Smell The Red Iris Flowers

I’m pretty sure that somewhere along the line some head honcho at Arenanet mandated at least one or two pretty spots in each instance. Take the time to stop and check them out. It’s not like things are going to respawn.

Titles

If you’re definitely interested in playing Guild Wars then completing titles for Guild Wars 2 might be an incentive. We don’t know what the rewards are yet but even Stumme says he’s started working on his.

I think players are going to be excited when they see the rewards from the Hall of Monuments. It’s enough that I’ve started working on mine for serious – speaking of, does anyone have any Cloth of the Brotherhood they’d like the spare?

Stumme get your own Cloth. Lazy bum.

If you’re still on the fence about being a pilgrim, I wouldn’t make any decisions on buying Guild Wars based on titles. Even the faster ones take quite a bit of effort to complete. Perhaps we could get suggestions as to the easiest titles in the comments, but I think the easiest is probably Canthan Protector, a title that requires the 13 missions in Factions to be completed with Masters bonus. Mostly based on time limits.

You can’t pass them on unless you have Eye of the North anyway.

Awwww man. The Jade Sea's got crabs!

Things To Avoid

Don’t collect collectors items. If you want the armour from the collectors, by all means, go for it, but make sure you know what you need. If you’re collecting random items that won’t help you, you’re wasting your own time. Do the research at the wiki.

Prophecies is really long. Be prepared for that. The starting area is excellent and the story is good, but you don’t reach max level for a long time.

Don’t buy a lot of keys, at least not at first. Or the superior salvage or ID kits. Not worth it.

Make sure you get all those attribute points. You should have 200 at level 20.

I’d honestly avoid PvP at first. Attitudes were bad enough when the game was bumping.

Kaineng City in factions is huge and ugly. It has beauty in the starting area, the Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea, but be prepared for lots of sewers in the city.

Get over invisible walls, no jumping, instancing, max level 20, and gear being maxed early now. Or just don’t even bother.

Conclusion

I’m sure there’s a lot of helpful things I’m not mentioning. It’s a big game with a lot of content, so there is no way I could cover everything. I’m just hoping this is helpful to people unfamiliar with the game and considering jumping into Tyria.