Guild Wars

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Ok, I did it yesterday. Finally I installed Guild Wars. According to my desire to play a caster (since I play a tank in EQ2) and your recommendations I started an Elementalist/Mesmer. I played for about two hours, it took a while to figure all out and got her to level 3.

Overall it is a nice game. It looks a bit easy, though, but this may be because of my level, which is still low. I don't have many spells (only 5 at the moment), but they work well, and two of them even heal me when I am beaten up.

The possible weapon choices disappointed me a bit. I mean, I am a pure caster even with my second class. I expected to be able to wield a wand and perhaps a dagger. But why in the hell can I wield a longsword, a great hammer and even a ****ing longbow? Which by the way does a nice damage over time, almost as much as my spells, however without using energy and not even needing arrows. It makes combat too easy IMO. But this may be subjective and due to my low level only.

So far I solo, and my hunting approach is almost always the same: Slow the target with a spell, soften it up with my bow while it crawls near me, then pummel it with my sword and chime in a few DDs and DoTs.

After the first two hours of experience I can say for sure, that I will play it again. Maybe I can raise my level to your heights one day and go adventuring with one of you.

Lower levels are absurdly easy. In Pre-Searing, I never had to 'party' except for that Adventuring With An Ally and Across the Wall quests. I have a Ranger and a Necromancer and I soloed all newbie quests except for two listed above. As a Ranger I died about 10 times in Pre-Searing seeing that it was my new character. As a Necromancer, I died only once and it was because I overestimated myself against a group of grawls.

As you progress farther into the game, harder it gets and the need to party is higher. Trust me you won't be disappointed.

As for weapons, yeah, snoopy369 and Kassiopeia pretty much answered your concern. Really, as a caster you do not want to worry too much about your wielded weapon - focus on your casting. You are not a warrior .

[Barinthus]

Oh, by the way, Sir Ralph, two of my characters are low level and one is in Pre-Searing still. I also plan to make a new character soon. So if you'd like, do feel free to hollar.

Sarak Layghlin
Okja Zutaagon
Kor Skarn

[Kassiopeia]

Oh for the love of god.

The first day in weeks I take a night off from GW, and what happens? The trader prices are reset and the first lucky ones get their Runes of Sup Vigor for SIX GRAND. Now the prices are probably back somewhere in the 40k-80k region. FFS, just my luck.

[DrSpike]

100g actually.

I got a couple for a decent yet not amazing 30K.

Prices/stocks should be more stable now though - looks like they've rolled back whatever they screwed up about a week ago, and added 2 major improvements. Firstly buy/sell spreads aren't so stupid, and stocks are shared across servers.

I can stop playing second guess the guild wars market now I hope, which to be frank is a rather annoying game as there were no rules at all.

[Kassiopeia]

100 g? That isn't making me feel any better you know.

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I can stop playing second guess the guild wars market now I hope, which to be frank is a rather annoying game as there were no rules at all.

Second guessing?!!!
All those years studying economics, and that is the best you can do?

[DrSpike]

Economics doesn't help when the whims of ArenaNet are the main explanatory variable.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Barinthus
Oh, by the way, Sir Ralph, two of my characters are low level and one is in Pre-Searing still. I also plan to make a new character soon. So if you'd like, do feel free to hollar.

Sarak Layghlin
Okja Zutaagon
Kor Skarn

What is a Searing? Sorry, bloody n00b here. Swearing I know .

Got my caster wench to level 5 and rolled a ranger to level 3. What is a good second class for a ranger? I want him to be a jack of all trades, master of none type. Now I have my two main characters from EQ1 "transferred" to Guild Wars.

Mytilma Elrad the E/Me (was mage in EQ1 -main- and enchanter alt in EQ2, abandonned)
Harovan Elrad the R/? (was secondary in EQ1)

Yes, I am a pervert and play cross-gender. No, I don't care.

Storage becomes difficult, I have my backpack and sort of a quested belt poach, but that's it. Collector items take a lot. I can't even make it half through the Catacombs without running out of space. Is there a central vault in this game, like a bank? Found none so far. And how does one buy/sell from others?

I heard dyes are valued, especially some. So far I found a green (used on myself - Mytilma has always been the green mage) and a purple. Now I am aware, that I will hardly find valuables in a n00b area, but perhaps I can make a few gold out of it.

Btw, I am a bit disappointed about the average audience. Very WOWish, I miss the much more mature EQ2 community. It's a deterrent to group, to be honest. I avoid cities and outposts, but in the wilderness I am having a blast.

[Kassiopeia]

What is a Searing? Sorry, bloody n00b here. Swearing I know.

You'll know what it is when it happens

Hmm, are there Xunlai agents in Ascalon? I think not. You'll get a vault to deposit stuff later, though, so hang in there. There are also runes you can apply to your belt pouches to make them double in storage. My lvl 20 monk hasn't run out of space for a good while.

[Snotty]

Its more chilled later on. Ascalon is one of the big hubs for people, and the idiots always gravitate, you know.

to trade with other players, click on them and the click the trade button at the top ofthe screen next to their health bar

dye is worth quite a lot, especially silver and black. I sold a silver for 900 to the merchent yesterday, black would be even more. blue and red sell for 700 at the merchent, so they are probably worth a bit as well.

Most of the stuff you get early on is junk, so salvage it, you will want the materials for armour later anyway. Save the highly salvagable stuff until you get a high salvage kit

[Kassiopeia]

Last night was an interesting run in Fissure. We carefully set up a party, with me (Mo/Me) actually building it and my friend (with his tank W/Mo) organising strategy (like who is tanking, etc.)

It ended up to be our best Fissure run ever. We cleared the initial location with ease for the 5k xp, then we made it to the Wailing Lord by dodging mobs and whatnot.

Then the awful happened: one of our Eles had to go AFK. And while he was AFK, our pther Monk had to go AFK. We waited for the Ele for a moment, he got back, the Monk did not. Waited another five to ten mins, Europe lost favour at this point. We said "screw this" and tried the banshees ourselves.

We are nearly wiped out, but with only the banshees alive, the mobs cleared. And now our missing Monk appeared! He waltzed in and rebirthed us. "Good timing", I'd say.

We killed the banshees in due order, but then the monk went and, against all odds and commands screamed on the team chan, talked to the Wailing Lord and triggered the Griffon quest.

Oh well. "I'll heal the party, you focus on the Griffons". We survived a few mobs, dodged a few. We made it back to the initial area. DP was stacking high since we were barely winning encounters since we were focused on keeping the Griffons alive, lest we get thrown back to the Temple sans favour.

It worked out fine...

but then a mob of Shadow Monks and Mesmers got the Griffons. It was so close! If we hadn't taken that damn quest, we would have gotten the fat exp off the second Rastigan quest AND gotten rid of our huge 20-60% DPs.

Checklist for parties venturing into Fissure:
- Keep Rastigan alive
- Don't talk to him until the tower and its surroundings are clear
- Always kill Shadow eles first
- Always try to lure first (my friend is getting good at this with his W/Mo)
- DON'T RUSH
- Dodge mobs when possible, but always watch your back
- If you're a monk, don't try to rez someone if it's going to draw a mob at you (our other monk did this once and gave most of us a good 15% chunk of more DP)
- Don't talk to people and take quests unless you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN and know what it is you're doing
- Don't say you're AFK for 5 mins and be AFK for 10. "The only good reason for being AFK is if the house is on fire."

All in all, I blame the other Monk for our failure

[Barinthus]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph


What is a Searing? Sorry, bloody n00b here. Swearing I know .

Right now you are in a newbie world so to speak. Keep continuing and you will eventually find out what Searing is

Got my caster wench to level 5 and rolled a ranger to level 3. What is a good second class for a ranger? I want him to be a jack of all trades, master of none type. Now I have my two main characters from EQ1 "transferred" to Guild Wars.

Mytilma Elrad the E/Me (was mage in EQ1 -main- and enchanter alt in EQ2, abandonned)
Harovan Elrad the R/? (was secondary in EQ1)

Ideally, there is no wrong class combination - it depends on your playing style and preference. From what I've heard, E/Me is rather nice. I plan to make an E/N myself.

I have W/Mo (wanted to see what's the hype's all about), N/Mo, and R/Me. I really enjoy playing R/Me a lot. I think it's a verstile combination as long you're willing to give up having a beast. I'm not sure if you're willing to give up the bow, R/W can be a vicious warrior type if you have high Expertise R/Mo I suppose would be alright as long you know to not expect to be a primary healer. I'm not sure about R/N and R/E due to low energy capacity but if you do not mind occasional group spell here or there, R/E might be a good choice unless you like N's blood magic.

Yes, I am a pervert and play cross-gender. No, I don't care.

Me either. I have two males and one female. Fourth will be a female.

Storage becomes difficult, I have my backpack and sort of a quested belt poach, but that's it. Collector items take a lot. I can't even make it half through the Catacombs without running out of space. Is there a central vault in this game, like a bank? Found none so far. And how does one buy/sell from others?

Sorry, no storage in newbieland. As for items, I pretty much identify anything that's labelled unidentified. Those labelled precious I sell, the rest I salvage then sell. You will have plenty opportunities to pick up same items after you've 'entered' the real game world.

Btw, I am a bit disappointed about the average audience. Very WOWish, I miss the much more mature EQ2 community. It's a deterrent to group, to be honest. I avoid cities and outposts, but in the wilderness I am having a blast.

Yeah well, you're in the newbieland so idiots are everywhere. As you progress deeper into the game, it'll get better. As for grouping in newbieland, don't worry too much about it - I soloed everything except for two quests - Adventuring with an Ally and Across the Wall - and it's only because those two quests required a group.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Checklist for parties venturing into Fissure:
- Keep Rastigan alive
- Don't talk to him until the tower and its surroundings are clear
- Always kill Shadow eles first
- Always try to lure first (my friend is getting good at this with his W/Mo)
- DON'T RUSH
- Dodge mobs when possible, but always watch your back
- If you're a monk, don't try to rez someone if it's going to draw a mob at you (our other monk did this once and gave most of us a good 15% chunk of more DP)
- Don't talk to people and take quests unless you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN and know what it is you're doing
- Don't say you're AFK for 5 mins and be AFK for 10. "The only good reason for being AFK is if the house is on fire."

All in all, I blame the other Monk for our failure

You forgot the most important one - don't go in with pick up groups unless you are much more patient than DrSpike.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph

Mytilma Elrad the E/Me (was mage in EQ1 -main- and enchanter alt in EQ2, abandonned)
Harovan Elrad the R/? (was secondary in EQ1)

E/Me is fine, though if you care about making your character most effective straight ele is best. The ele role is ueber dmg dealer, and sometimes warding, and you don't need any help from other classes to do this.

As for your ranger, well, (starts running) they are the joint weakest PvE class with Mesmers. Your relatively best option is to make him R/N (expertise/marks/blood or curses) for degen and conditions or R/Me (with domination) for all around support. Expertise doesn't look great but I only ever take rangers with it as there is a neat skill (small aoe blind) called throw dirt you should pick up asap.

[Kassiopeia]

I am the epitome of patience. *nods fervently*