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Guild Wars => Guild Wars General => Topic started by: 420 on May 17, 2005, 05:48:48 PM

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: 420 on May 17, 2005, 05:48:48 PM

Here is some helpful information for players just starting out in Guild Wars!

Starting Out
First, create a role playing character, this is required to unlock skills and item upgrades for PvP only characters. Whenever any of your role playing characters learns a new skill or identifies an item with an upgrade that skill or upgrade is unlocked for all your PvP only characters. You will choose only your primary profession and your gender/look in the beginning.
NOTE: Mesmer is considered an "advanced profession".

Ascalon
You start the game in pre-searing* Ascalon, it is a relatively small tutorial world designed to get you aquanted with the different professions and skills as well as introduce you to the storyline and terrain. Make sure you explore the towns/rest stops thoroughly and talk to every NPC with a green "!" above their head. Return and check NPCs after completing quests or gaining a level to see if new quests are available.

Resurrection Signet
One of the first quests you may want to do is get a Resurrection Signet from the monk just outside Ascalon City. You must be teamed up with another player in order to get this unique skill.

Choosing a Secondary Professions
Depending on what you chose as your primary profession you will be able to try each of the other professions out as a secondary by doing quests. Make sure to try all 5 of the other professions before accepting one as your permanent secondary or you won't be able to get the experience and unlock the skills by trying out the others.

Skills
Even though your characters can learn/unlock EVERY skill for both their primary and secondary professions you may only choose 8 skills to use on quests and missions. These eight skills can be assigned in any town/rest stop but not in any wilderness/mission area.

Storage
You can get 5 extra inventory slots by getting a belt pouch. A belt pouch can be gotten from the collector just outside Ascalon City, he will trade you 3 scale fins for it which can be found from the scale fin creatures just south of him. You can also trade 3 worn belts (found on bandits) for a belt pouch from a collector in Ashford (just outside the Abby).

In post-searing you can get 2 bags that each hold 5 items and can be expanded to 10 items later. You can also buy a "storage locker" that you can access from any town/rest stop and is shared by all characters on your account.

Joining the Academy
Once you choose your secondary profession you can join the Academy. Make sure you are finished with any open quests before you go, if you have done all the quests your character will be between 7th and 8th level. Once you join the Academy you can't go back to pre-searing Ascalon.

Expert Salvage Kits
Once you are in post-searing you will be able to purchase an Expert Salvage Kit. This is the only way to salvage rare crafting materials, runes and weapon upgrades from weapons, armor and generic salvage items. Even if the Expert Salvage Kit only recovers common crafting materials it will usually get much more of that material than a normal salvage kit.

*Make sure you watch the movie at the end of the Academy to find out all about "The Searing".

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Celestial1 on May 17, 2005, 09:39:28 PM

Awesome job. Can't really think of anything more to say.

~Celestial

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: 420 on May 31, 2005, 01:29:16 PM

OK, I was helping a couple people do their quests last night and I noticed that they could use some survival tips.

Exploring and Combat

The Target Caller
When your party is exploring or doing a mission pick one person to be the "target caller" or "caller". This person will use Ctrl+click or Ctrl+space to call out the target that everyone should attack. Once the target has been called you should see a message that says something like "Four Two Zero is attacking Charr Chaot". When you see one of these messages you can hit t to target the same creature then space to attack or you can click a skill to use on that target. It is always best for the entire party to concentrate on a single target at a time.

NOTE: Ctrl+click and Ctrl+space can be used to order your computer controlled henchmen to attack a specific target.

Creature Patrols vs. Guards
There are 2 types of groups of creatures in the game, patrols and guards. Patrols wander along specific paths usually moving from one group of guards to another. Guards tend to wander a bit, but never very far from their post and they will often run back to their post when they wander too far from it.

Use the inner circle in your compass map (upper right) to determine how close you can get to creatures without them seeing you. The little circle represents a creatures perception range and creatures can only see you if they are within that circle. If one creature in a group sees you the entire group will see you. If you are careful you can often lead one group of guards away from another that spawned close by so you only have to take on a single group of 3-4 at a time. (Best to choose a single party member to get a group of creatures to chase them to where your party is waiting.)

If you are patient you will rarely have to fight groups larger than 3-4 creatures, though fairly large guard groups (6-8) are stationed outside of every map transition. Also, later in the game patrols follow longer, more complicated paths and at different speeds.

Attack the Healers First!
When taking on a group of creatures always concentrate on the healers first. Often you will have to run around the warrior creatures to avoid getting stuck on them. Once the healer is down go after any necromacers since they will start raising bone horrors from the corpses. After that hit creatures that can dish out a lot of damage but can't take much, Elementalists, Rangers and Mesmers. Last, take out the high defense creatures. Often this strategy leaves your healers open to the creature warriors so make sure to throw some healing and protection at your monk during battles.

If an area looks too hard, it probably is.
If you are exploring, the shortest route and the quest arrow aren't always the best direction to go in (in fact, they rarely are). There is always a fairly easy way to get from one map note to another that may be much longer than any of the other routes. If you run into a little village of creatures it is almost certain that you can skirt the village or just avoid it entirely and take a less populated but much longer path.

Helpful Keyboard Commands

Ctrl+space/Ctrl+click/Ctrl+skill - Use this to inform your party of your current actions. Also used to command computer henchmen.

space - Used to attack, much more efficient than trying to click a specific creature in the heat of battle.

c - Target closest creature.

t - Target the callers target. (After the caller uses a Ctrl+ command)

tab - Cycle through all creatures on the compass map starting with the closest.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Meclar on April 16, 2007, 12:45:48 PM

Where do I find an Expert Salvage Kit?  And I'm currently looking for a raw material tree.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Razor Blade on April 16, 2007, 01:09:55 PM

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Where do I find an Expert Salvage Kit?  And I'm currently looking for a raw material tree.

[snapback]34886[/snapback]

expert salvage kit can be found later in the game if you play GW Prophecies you can buy it (if i'm not mistaken) at nek's bend.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Meclar on April 16, 2007, 03:19:29 PM

Y there's a couple of merhcants around that well them but I can't seem to find him now... I spent all my money again anyway.  A SACK ONLY HOLDS % SLOTS>?!@@#

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 16, 2007, 06:37:05 PM

Dude, trust me, drops don't come every monster...more like once or twice each mob...not even some times. I sometimes don't even get past my first bag in a mission. Plus, we have storage...a LOT of storage...well, those of us with more chapters have more storage at least. ^_^

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expert salvage kit can be found later in the game if you play GW Prophecies you can buy it (if i'm not mistaken) at nek's bend.

[snapback]34887[/snapback]

try yak's bend.


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Anheg on April 17, 2007, 03:40:52 PM

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raw material tree.

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Whats a material tree?

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Meclar on April 17, 2007, 05:35:30 PM

Something like this but in a tree format.  It shows to what extent an item can be broken down and what can be used from a particle item.

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/wiki/index....es_Weaponsmiths (http://guildwars.incgamers.com/wiki/index.php/Prophecies_Weaponsmiths)

I heard steel can be made from charcoal and iron ingots but how to I get raw steel?

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: 420 on April 17, 2007, 05:57:25 PM

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I heard steel can be made from charcoal and iron ingots but how to I get raw steel?

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When using an Expert Salvage Kit on metal items (armor/weapons) you have a chance to get a steel ingot instead of iron. Check out the details on Expert Salvage Kits in the first post.

-420

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 17, 2007, 06:38:16 PM

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Something like this but in a tree format.  It shows to what extent an item can be broken down and what can be used from a particle item.

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/wiki/index....es_Weaponsmiths (http://guildwars.incgamers.com/wiki/index.php/Prophecies_Weaponsmiths)

I heard steel can be made from charcoal and iron ingots but how to I get raw steel?

[snapback]34908[/snapback]

Rare crafting materials aren't very easy to salvage, especially since you can't choose what materials you get. It's really just luck of the draw, you'll get them eventually. In the mean time you'll either have to find a crafter or buy them probably....


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Meclar on April 18, 2007, 11:11:08 AM

Found a vail of white dye! Sold it for 5,000gp!  But there's nothing worth buying...!

How do I leave a guild?

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 18, 2007, 11:50:10 AM

click on your name in the guild roster then select "leave guild"


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Anheg on April 18, 2007, 05:20:38 PM

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Found a vail of white dye! Sold it for 5,000gp!  But there's nothing worth buying...!

How do I leave a guild?

[snapback]34920[/snapback]

White dyes are down to 5k? I know Blacks are going for 9.5

I dunno whats going on with underword but my friend Abrasive and I were dualmonking it and in 3 runs (never even getting to smites) got 5 ectos.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Mo on April 18, 2007, 06:13:21 PM

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White dyes are down to 5k? I know Blacks are going for 9.5

I dunno whats going on with underword but my friend Abrasive and I were dualmonking it and in 3 runs (never even getting to smites) got 5 ectos.

[snapback]34925[/snapback]

wow.

Who wants to go??

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: 420 on April 18, 2007, 07:06:04 PM

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wow.

Who wants to go??

[snapback]34928[/snapback]

I'm in, when is the best time for the US to get access to UW?

-420

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 18, 2007, 09:03:14 PM

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I'm in, when is the best time for the US to get access to UW?

-420

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crack a dawn EST ;) dunno...anywhere between 9:00-10:30 pm my time we get favor


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Anheg on April 19, 2007, 03:46:20 PM

Im back in Error Seven Operators [Call], so ill go if im not gvging

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Meclar on April 20, 2007, 01:02:12 AM

I have know idea what you're all talking.

I'm in Yaks Bend and it sucks.  It's way to hard out there to fight threw with the henchies.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Anheg on April 20, 2007, 02:19:15 AM

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I have no idea what you're all talking about.

I'm in Yaks Bend and it sucks.  It's way to hard out there to fight threw with the henchies.

[snapback]34941[/snapback]

The most platinum you can put in a trade is 100plat. For items worth more than that people use Globs of Ectoplasm and Obsidian Shards, which have become something of a second currency.

Ecto and Shard prices fultuate so Ectos can be worth 6-10k and Shards 2-4k at any given time. Because of their value, people farm ectos and shards. They are as good as cash and have high liquidity but are rare drops so having 5 ectos drop in 3 short farming runs in Underworld is a very high rate, hence everyone wanting to go now.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Meclar on April 20, 2007, 03:42:43 AM

Ah I see well I just got a black dye...
Is it worth buying runes and upgrades when I'm at lvl 14?  Or will I find some platemail soon.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 20, 2007, 09:44:46 AM

you can if you want, just make sure you salvage the runes when you get better armor. Just stick to minor runes for now, major and superior runes can be too dangerous if you aren't careful


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 20, 2007, 01:07:51 PM

my char is lvl 16 assasin monk with like 100 gold lol and still most armor parts from the first armor you can buy in shing jea i never find any money or anything worth selling >_< that was one of the reasons i stopped playing, no money = no better equipment = 50% death penalty everytime i go outside town lol, and i still have like 20 skills i can learn but no money, it has lvl 10 skills still i think lol

i reinstalled it and played few times but i always leave after like 10-15 minutes when i have 50% death penalty >_<

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 20, 2007, 02:33:33 PM

you just made very little sense.
Death Penalty goes away - if you can't scrape up the money to buy better armor then you're worse than me! Factions is a hard one to get into, you really have to be an experienced player to do okay with it. It was a much more PvP based chapter than Nightfall is.

There aren't any "level 10 skills" all skills have their strengths based on their attribute's level

-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Meclar on April 20, 2007, 03:16:53 PM

Even though I have 15k in the bank I pick up everything.  I never pay for runs and join up with people to save money.  Once you get a good stock pile of materials sell those too.  I think by playing with higher level people I was able to find the dyes which gave me 3/4 of the money I have.
I'm trying to get into Drocks now but I guess from this hard mode update all the runners are off doing that.
Is it true Drocks has the best armor in the game? And how long should it take for a run there?

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 20, 2007, 04:53:04 PM

not necessarily the best armors...just max armor which is 60 for mes, ele, monk and necro..70 for rangers and 80 for warriors
they probably are all in hard mode, but if i were you, i'd really just play through the game, it's better that way imo


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 20, 2007, 06:43:39 PM

whatever i just meant there are like 20 skills i couldnt learn cause i have no money lol
 and playing alone is no better, maybe making an assasin first was a bad idea, besides the time i bough it i couldnt play with anyone here cos i cant play in the america servers , anheg and kristie helped me once on the international server tho.

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 20, 2007, 07:10:15 PM

oh yeah materials! i completely forgot about the bank, i had that materials tab with lots of things, i sold everything on the assasin besides the 3 armor parts or so i bought in the lvl 20 place, i got 3k after selling everything now gonna make a new char, for soloing (well with the henchmen) what class is better for ranger?, or any other better class build for playing with the henchmen.

elessar, so you mean nightfall its much more new player friendly campaign? maybe i could buy nightfall just to have an extra game, im playing vanguard: saga of heroes which is even harder but easier to find a group, Either nightfall or WoW for a few months to play with some rl friends that have the game (i think thats the only mmorpg few ppl have around here) they didnt even knew what neverwinter or guild wars was >_<.

btw you can buy then download nightfall? cos obviously its not in the shops here, i bought vanguard that way. and is that new class with scythe any good? cause i like scythes :P

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 20, 2007, 10:12:44 PM

well really prophecies is the new player friendliest, but after that ya, nightfall is a fairly new player friendly...but there's still a learning curve. anyway, what i meant is that Factions was designed to have an rp campaign, but to be more geared to PvP players.

Nightfall is better geared to both RP and PvP, like the original, prophecies. You can add a Nightfall CD-Key to your account through the store available on the character selection panel


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 21, 2007, 01:37:29 PM

I bought nightfall yesterday, i didnt you could play it right away lol, but at least i had fun again since its a lot easier than factions to get started, i made a necro b4 getting nightfall and was kinda fun aswell, i played for like 5 hours instead 10 min lol, i pmed you elessar but guess you were afk or just ignored me :P, btw dervish look cool :)

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 21, 2007, 01:48:39 PM

I doubt I was afk...I was probably in the middle of an alliance battle and didn't notice it or something like that.

BTW: If you need any help in Nightfall, let me know.

-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 21, 2007, 05:20:04 PM

ye surely when i get to lvl 10+ since like you said its way easier than factions at start, i killed a group of 3 lvl 10s at lvl 3 just with the hero and the healer while in factions even a group of lvl 1s could kill my group of 4 lvl 3-4 ppl if i didnt pay too much attention lol

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 22, 2007, 05:01:45 AM

any advice on the subclass for dervish? i dont know which one to add :o

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Elessar Telrunya on April 22, 2007, 08:12:38 AM

Dunno, monk?

Quote

Be glad at least i can write proper english even if i dont use much punctuation.

[snapback]34982[/snapback]

That's a stretch.


-Elessar

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 22, 2007, 01:13:42 PM

ye but monk its like what everyone uses for most classes, i want another that can be good aswell besides monk.. like paragon or mesmer maybe?

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Sonicle on April 22, 2007, 02:42:03 PM

depends on what you are going for ...

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Build:Main_Page (http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Build:Main_Page)

hurry cus on may the first its going to be wiped...

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Sonicle on April 22, 2007, 03:26:58 PM

Viscount Sonicle , Archduchess Sonicle , C A P S F T W , Blame It On Me (Monk  :rolleyes: ) , Scarlet Blackwood ,  Theurgy Blackwood , and some other name i cant remember

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Tyrael on April 22, 2007, 03:29:26 PM

only needed one tho, it always changes itself on the friends list :P

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Soul Sojourner on April 22, 2007, 09:24:02 PM

I sent the off-topic side discussion of Tyraels English skills to RR.

http://lucidmagic.net:8080/forum/index.php?showtopic=2718 (http://lucidmagic.net:8080/forum/index.php?showtopic=2718)

Title: Beginner's Guide to Guild Wars
Post by: Sonicle on April 23, 2007, 12:33:16 PM

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only needed one tho, it always changes itself on the friends list :P

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i no ... ive let you choose youre fav one ^^