New GW1 Player Help

[Halfabrain]

Hey everyone,

Well just a quick intro i've gotten completely bored of WoW and after SWtoR being a mega-fail I thought i'd try Guild Wars 1 (primarily for the HoM function, which im sure many people have started playing it for). However, i've read-up on alot of stuff concerning quick ways of doing HoM and since i'm a new player I read it would be best me playing the game through in the order it was released? Do Prophecies first etc?

So I've already started playing from Prophecies and picked R/Mo currently level 8 and just about to start the mission in Borilis Pass. Anyway, basically I'm just asking for a few tips for maybe fast leveling and maybe if there is a better way than I currently am doing! (doing the Guild Wars chapters in chronological order) and things that I MUST e.g. like I hear about these dailys but have no clue what/where they are and when to start them!

Thankyou.

[Centaur]

Hi Halfabrain, welcome to these forums. Story-wise (lore wise) it's definitely best to play through the game in the order Prophecies-Factions-Nightfall-Eye of the North, but if you're just doing it for the HoM, then I would have recommended a different order (Nightfall first, to unlock some heroes for your party and because it has the better tutorial, possibly a short branch into Eye of the North to unlock a few more heroes, then on to Prophecies and Factions, and finally complete Eye of the North).

Anyway, from Borlis Pass, I'd recommend first trying to raise your levels a bit (level 8 for that region is extremely low). It may mean grinding monsters and doing sidequests for a while, but that will definitely help you progress through the missions much faster. See the official wiki (wiki.guildwars.com) for details on quests available in that region (or any other information, for that matter). Also (though as a WoW convert, I probably don't have to tell you this) make sure to try to upgrade your armor and weapons regularly to the max available in that region, and either find a group of players to play with (some higher level ones really helps) or pick a good and balanced npc party. And once you reach Lion's Arch, I highly recommend taking a few quick trips over to Nightfall and Eye of the North to still get some heroes for your party before continuing (just the first batch of heroes on either one will already help you a lot, you don't actually have to play them very far for that). Then you can go back to LA and continue Prophecies from there.

You could also join a GW2 guild that is still active in GW1... some of the guilds still have groups of members running GW1 missions for the HoM, and that could really speed up your progress.

As for the dailies... at almost all mission outposts you can talk to a Zaishen Scout who will take you to a place called 'Embark Beach' (if you accidentally end up there, talk to the Tyrian Travel npc to get back). There you can take daily zaishen missions for extra xp and gold... but that is mainly useful lateron, once you have unlocked a lot more of the areas. For now, this will mostly offer missions in areas you don't have access to yet.

[ComplexNuber]

Hi there,

I'll add some things in to what Centaur said as well as perhaps disagree with a few things. First, there is some crossover between storylines of the campaigns but it's pretty minor. My only recommendation is that you leave Factions and Eye of the North for last. Both of these, especially Factions, are not very newbie friendly. Prophecies has a gentle learning curve, Nightfall has a less gentle but still reasonable learning curve, and Factions has something of a learning cliff. As for choosing between Prophecies and Nightfall, it's up to you but my personal preference would be Prophecies. The story, setting and learning curve are all really nice.

Don't shoot straight for HoM, it might get too intimidating at first. Try finish a campaign first, after that you should be able to make some better judgment. Personally, I would completely forget about HoM until you've completed a campaign. You probably won't be racking up many points so early on with your account anyway.

like I hear about these dailys but have no clue what/where they are and when to start them!

Don't worry about this, there aren't really any dailies. If a quest is repeatable you can do it infinitely per day. Otherwise, it's once per character. Doing quests is generally not important in the game, however Prophecies quests will often award skills, so it's a great idea to do those. The only "daily"-like thing is weekly; Nicholas The Traveler. For someone new to the game, you can safely ignore him. It'll be rare for you to even be able to complete the his tasks. If it helps you forget about him, his current task is many many hours into the game from where you are. Reading Centaur's post, I completely forgot about Zaishen bounties. You can look at those but chances are most of the bounties won't be things you'll have access to.

Don't worry about levelling. If you're stuck on a mission you can try level up one or two levels, but chances are you'd benefit much more from reading the un/official wikis for that particular mission, and make sure you're not trying to complete in a way that is more difficult than it needs to be. The maximum level is 20 and you reach it very early on in the game. GW is not about leveling, it's much more about creating good builds with your 8 skills. This is a pretty daunting task in itself since there are litterally hundreds of skills per profession, two professions per character, AND PvE-only skills. Feel free to ask if you're not sure about a build/skills.

As a random tip, once you get to Lions Arch in Prophecies (the game will not let you miss it) you can accept quests there that will take you to all the other campaigns with your character. Like Centaur said, you might want to consider traveling to Nightfall or EotN to unlock "heroes". Heroes are identical to Henchman (The NPCs you invite to your party instead of other players), but you can customise the builds and armor of Heroes. This is amazing by the end of the game, where you will have unlocked many skills and discovered amazing builds, but a new person has done neither of these things so heroes aren't really top priority in your position, in my opinion.

Another random tip, once you get to the desert (I won't spoil anything) you'll be able to change secondary professions, and do two special quests that award attribute points. You're still at least a few hours away from this but it's worth keeping in mind. Monk is a pretty sketchy choice for a Ranger's secondary, but don't worry it's a very common decision for new players to choose Monk as secondary. As you play through the game try observe skills for other professions and consider if they'd be useful to you. Necromancer and Ritualist (Factions only profession, you'll have access if you start playing Factions) are common Ranger secondaries, but you shouldn't feel limited to that by any means.

Random tip 3, do NOT use superior runes at this stage in the game, and avoid major runes. The static loss in health is not worth it, you will die repeatedly, your monk will constantly rez you with really long cast time spells (meaning no healing during this time), and the rest of the party will wipe while you constantly get rezzed with increasing frequency as you rack up death penalty. Minor runes are good if you can afford them, but it's much more important to buy better armor. In order of importance: Armor > Skills you want > Weapon > Runes > Insignia. You can re use runes by extracting them with expert salvage kits, but the armor will break half the time you extract.

Nothing else is coming to mind, though do ask if there's something else.

Edit: Oh wow, length post

[Ruse]

Well, there are the daily Zaishen mission/vanquish/PVP etc., but until you've completed at least one campaign you're not going to have unlocked any of the areas you need to go anyways. I agree with the suggestion to just pick a campaign and stick with it.

Something you can do as you go is try to get the bonus objectives for every mission...doing all of those will reward you another statue for your HoM. the wiki has already been linked, it offers walkthroughs of how to do that if you're not averse to spoilers.

One last thing, leveling isn't the main point of any of the GW campaigns. You'll be max level long before you're near completing a campaign, so just let that bit come to you naturally.

[Halfabrain]

Thanks for the help I much appreciate it! I've decided to just carry on my Ranger on Prophecies for now as it seems the best option and will refer to this topic again as I venture on and ask any more questions if needed.

[Halfabrain]

Hello again (sorry for the double post).

I'm just about to do the last mission of prophecies and I am enjoying the game although Thunderhead Keep was probably one of the most annoying experiences ever! I just wanted to ask a few more questions as i've progressed and understand the game a little more I could probably use wiki but I'd prefer your personal opinions as you all seem to be familiar with the game.

Firstly, If i'm essentially going to be farming HoM with Ranger as my primary what would any of you recommend I change my secondary profession to? and any skills/attributes would be greatly appreciated! Also any heroes that I should be aiming for to make my life easier?

Money. I've read a few points for HoM require some money after nearly finishing prophecies I have around 15k, and i think ill need alot more than that is just doing quests and Zaishen the best way to earn money, just a slow process? Lastly, whats the best way to get some of the best gear on the game? Maybe not the absolute best but making the game easier?

Like I said I could just research most of this on wiki but i'll appreciate any replys, Thankyou again!

[ComplexNuber]

That was really fast, I remember taking ages to get through my first campaign because I'd always get stuck and rage quit

Ranger was my least used profession so I'm not certain what the absolute best builds are, but I definetly like this incendiary build and of course the classic barrage build. Barrage is my favourite, if you decide to go down that path you can either have a Ritualist in your team, or choose Ritualist for your secondary profession. The reason for this is a skill called Splinter Weapon. Splinter weapon adds an armor ignoring aoe to every single attack you do for the next 4 or so hits, and Barrage hits enemies in an AoE as well. However, each hit with Barrage is considered an attack, so Splinter Weapon Uses all 4 of it's charges in an instant, resulting in a crazy amount of hits in one attack. If barrage does 20 damage and SW does 40, and you barrage a group of 4 enemies next to each other, that should be 340 damage total from one attack, which also happens to be spammable (Barrage = 1sec recharge, Splinter Weapon 5 second recharge).

Anyway, there's many things you can do with heroes. My favourite right now is getting as many Mesmer heroes as possible and shutting everything down to the point of uselessness while getting huge armor ignoring DPS. Looking at the pvx wiki there aren't really any builds that copy mine, but this one probably comes closest.
Obviously you're going to want a monk hero. Some people say 2 monks is overkill and I'd tend to agree unless it's a very difficult area of the game. The second monk means you have one less hero for DPS and shutdown which can even make it harder on your monks in some cases. Anyway, the hero build I recommend is Unyeilding Aura - drop Seed of Life (heroes can't use) for some condition removal.
A Necromancer minion master is found in almost every general PvE build, for good reason. You get to zerg enemies with up to 11 minions, which act as meat shields and even as some pretty good damage dealers. I strongly reccomend the Minion bomber - but consider dropping the elite skill Aura of The Liche and get Jagged Bones. Either of them work fine, though, so use whichever is easier to unlock.

Consider a second necro (Olias and Master of Whispers are both necro heroes) using a Spiteful spirit necro. A third necro (Livia) is also possible if you like, there are some decent Blood Magic builds but you're probably a bit too far away from getting all 3 necros.
The rest of the team? My take on it is that you should avoid the melee professions, and probably don't take more than one ranger. Firstly, minions tend to be much better meat shields (it can actually benefit your team when they die, as opposed to mess up your monks), and secondly melee classes have horrible DPS in end game PvE. I wish it wasn't that way, but that's how it is. Don't over do elementalists either, they have the same problem. Their damage is amazing in early-mid PvE but once you start facing level 24-30 mobs with ridiculously high armor ratings, elementalist damage is laughable when you look at armor ignoring damage of Necros, Mesmers and Ritualists. Even a smiting monk can do better with Ray of Judgment.

That said, consider a smiting monk with RoJ and Arcane Echo. The rest of the build can vary a lot, if you have only one support monk you might want to give the smiting monk smite condition and smite hex, which are fantastic skills. (Edit: Looking back at this post, don't use Arcane Echo, heroes won't use it properly. Just RoJ.)

If you still have room in your party after all that, I think a Ritualist with this build would be fantastic for you. Signet of Spirits, even with the recent nerfing it got, still has unbelievable DPS and there is room for Splinter Weapon on the build, so you don't have to use up attribute points or energy on a spell.

Edit: Damn it got long again, I forgot your second question as well

Lastly, whats the best way to get some of the best gear on the game? Maybe not the absolute best but making the game easier?

As a ranger, once you get armor with 70 AR there really is nothing stronger to get, it's all just runes and insignias after that. You'll eventually want some elite armor for HoM points, but keep in mind elite armor has the exact same stats, it just looks much cooler.

As for making money, things should pick up after prophecies. Prophecies is an old campaign and the cash rewards are pretty lame compared to what the newer campaigns offer. I think Eye of the North has the best potential for picking up some cash. Other than that, you should get familiar with the GW1 material market. Go to an NPC in a town for (*not* rare) materials and check out the prices. Things like feathers and iron ingots are always selling for good cash. The reason I say that is you should start salvaging junk drops. Buy a normal or superior salvage kit and start salvaging things. If you notice an item gives you valuable materials salvage it each time you see it. If it gives you a junky-material like bones just ignore it. Perhaps even more important is when those junk drops (things like "White knight armor" or "Etin Hide", I can't remember the exact name of any) are coloured. If you haven't worked it out at this point, blue/purple/gold armor and junk drops have insignias or runes attached to them. An expert salvage kit (*not* normal/superior) lets you extract these at the risk of destroying the original item. Some runes and insignias are much more expensive than others. As a general rule, minor runes tend to be more expensive than the rest, major runes are never worth anything and superior runes are worth something every now and then. Runes and Insignias that increase health or energy tend to be very expensive. Again, check with the rune vendor NPC to see what is expensive and what is junk.

Oh, and consider keeping some runes for your heroes. If you sell the rune now and buy it later you'll lose some money by doing that, the NPC charges higher for buyers.

[Centaur]

ComplexNuber is right... the Barrage Ranger/Ritualist combo is one of the best builds for a ranger. My main has been a ranger for 7 years now, and that one works really well. My Hero team usually consists of 3 necro's (using Discord; something similar to this setup), 2 mesmers (builds similar to the ones mentioned here) and 2 ritualists (builds similar to these). Note that you will probably have to play through Nightfall and Eye of the North quite far to unlock all of these heroes (especially the ritualists only become available quite late)... as long as you don't have them, just stick to the ones you do have and fill them up with whatever else you have available (a Searing Flames elementalist hero works really well too).
In areas where I only have a 4 or 6 person team, I usually stick to the 3 necros, possibly with the 2 mesmers, and then I take on the Spirit Spammer role on the Ranger/Ritualist myself... though unfortunately, the Signet of Spirits elite skill only becomes available halfway through Factions, so that won't help you much at this stage.

For now, make sure you catch plenty of elite skills from the bosses in Prophecies (or all of them, for a title point), jump over to Nightfall, Eye of the North and Factions to unlock more skills for your heroes (switch your secondary profession to whatever profession you're trying to acquire the skills for, so they will become available to you as well), then play whatever campaign you prefer to do next.

[Edit] oh, a few more things for your ranger... first, make sure to always bring a (multi-)rez skill in case your heroes go down (and make sure several of them have rez skills, things like Resurrect (monk) or Flesh of my Flesh (ritualist) work great). Second, once you have unlocked the PvE skill Pain Inverter in EotN, bring it... it can easily help you to let tough monsters that do a lot of AoE damage kill themselves very fast. And last, if you don't have the ritualist secondary yet, then hop on over to the Great Temple of Balthazar (you should have access to that via the ship icon by now) and talk to a profession changer there.

[emingard]

So what can you tell me about junk removal whitby? Do you have any idea when it comes on this matter?