Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

GW First Timer - which one to try?

ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824

Hi,

Thinking of purchasing the game. Is it best to go for just the original? Are the addons stand alone?

Thanks for helping a GW newbie.

Comments



  • Originally posted by Scot

    Hi,

    Thinking of purchasing the game. Is it best to go for just the original? Are the addons stand alone?
    Thanks for helping a GW newbie.


    If I were you I would wait for Nightfall if you only want to buy one, because the Hero system is a significant change.   But for today you might as well get Factions as that opens two extra classes.

    Each Campaign is "standalone".  Baiscally you could download the GW client right now for free, what you pay for is access to a campaign.  GW stuff is not really expansions so much as content.  Any new features that will come out in nightfall that are part of the client will be seen by all players no matter what campaigns they own.

    I am assuming that Faction/Prophecies will have the henchman rallypoint flag feature on Oct 27 when the new client is released, but those campaigns just won't have any heroes in them so if you played factions only the other 3 rally point buttons will just be greyed out.

    So basically each campaign gives you more content and more versatility as you have access to more class feats, but you do not lose out on features.  For example in EQ/WoW/EQ2 type games an expansion raises the level cap but you may only acheive that level if you bought the expansion.

    In GW, the client is the client and the core game is always the core game.  The client is universal and the core game is meant to be complete and competitive.  You won't necessarily be able to play whatever Flavor of the month build is going around if you don't have Factions and only have prophecy and each new campaign has exclusive classes.  But you could certainly do some very effective builds anyway.

    I would check out Guild Wars Wiki, as really your decision is more based on whether you even want to play a Ritualsit or Assassin.  If you just want to make a Wa/Mo it doesn't really matter that much.

    If you have both campaigns you can travel between continents via "boat" once you reach Lion's Arch.  In this way a character can buy skills they normal might not have if they only owned a key for one campaign.  For example once you get to the mainland city of Kaineng as a Canthan you may travel by boat to Lion's arch and buy, for example, Vigorous Spirit (a monk spell) which is not in the Factions campaign.  And vice versa for Faction specific skills.  Since Vigorous Spirit is a nice spell you would have some incentive to maybe buy both campaigns, but its not like you are gimp without it.  You would pretty much be gimp without Protective Spirit (monk spell prevent any single attack form doing greater than 10% max health in damage), but that spell is in the Core so you never have to worry no matter what campaign you buy.

    I can't guarantee that the essential spells will be in the core but ArenaNet tries pretty hard to keep it that way and all in all Anet is pretty good at balancing things.  Considering the imperfect nature of such things they are, IMO, one of the best I have seen at that.  Note that Anet does allow for some pretty powerful tactics, such as 55hp monks, but those also have horrible weaknesses (enchantment removal kills you in a hearbeat etc).  Capabilites of builds and classes can be wildly varying, but they are usually kept fairly sane.
  • hadzhadz Member Posts: 712

    I'd recommend to wait for Nightfall as well. Prophecies is good too, but most of the players will likely be in Nightfall from now on (after its release of course).

    (Unfortunately, I see Factions taking a HUGE dive after NF is released, so if you want to see ALL the GW content, I'd buy Factions first, do that quickly before NF is released and then play NF & Proph. It depends on how much cashola you have available.)

  • VGJusticeVGJustice Member Posts: 640

    I dunno... it might not be such a good idea in this game to start with the latest and greatest, and certainly not Factions. Factions has a STEEP learning curve that turns off most new players. You'll be playing against the end game level monsters within a few days and that can really ruin your day if you're not prepared for it. Also, after having watched it happen with the release of Factions, the materials for Armor become astronomically expensive for about a month while eveyone buys new sets of armor. For the new player this can really hurt your chances early on if you don't plan things well. Also, while Nightfall looks pretty solid it still hasn't proven itself to me (I won't make the same mistaken asumptions I made about Factions).

    It's your call. Prophecies is still the most Newby friendly and the cheapest (depending on where you go), but most everyone will be over in Nightfall land come release.

    --~~--
    Play Guild Wars? Go here - http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Main_Page
    And go here for the new official Guild Wars Wiki! http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

  • DookzDookz Member UncommonPosts: 562
    To add the the reasons people have posted above me, Nightfall should have plenty of players to group with during non-prime times if you like playing with people.

    Playing now: Cities: Skyline / Ori and the Blind Forest / Banished

  • JelloB2000JelloB2000 Member CommonPosts: 1,848


    Originally posted by Scot
    Hi,Thinking of purchasing the game. Is it best to go for just the original? Are the addons stand alone?
    Thanks for helping a GW newbie.

    I gotta agree with the rest: wait & buy Nightfall, when Nightfall hits you will find a TON of people to team with; for good & worse.
    Until then you can read up on what the different classes focus on & choose your favorite(s). (Or you can try to find a real cheap first chapter aka Prophecies then Nightfall).
  • BentBent Member CommonPosts: 581
    I would go buy the Nightfall bonus pack for $10.  This will give you a trial to Prophecies/Factions (the first two GW games).  I would play the heck out of the trial.  IF you find you like the game I would then either buy Prophocies and play that until NightFall comes out or wait until Nightfall releases and get that. 

    Why this way.  Well if you like Guild Wars, the bonus pack will give you a free char slot... which is worth $10 so you lose no "extra money" for trying it out.

    If you find out you hate the game your only out $10 instead of $50.

    If you refuse to do the trial deal, wait for Nightfall to release and hope you like it enough for it to be worth 50 bucks to you.  Nightfall is shaping up to be a good game.  I plan to buy it myself.  But Guild Wars in general is different enough from every other game out there I don't expect everyone to enjoy it.  Thus I strongly encourage people to try before they buy.


  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824

    You have made things a lot clearer.

    Can I play Prophecy and then transfer my character to Nightfall when it comes out??

  • BentBent Member CommonPosts: 581
    Yes, you will be able to take your prophecy chars to the Nightfall lands.  You have to reach a certain point in the game to be able to do this though and you often will miss out on the "starter" stuff in the new land.  You will be able to move back as forht as much as you want.

    But NO your prophecy chars won't go to waste.  They will be able to complete all the NightFall missions, but prehaps not every quest.

    You would also be able to bring a faction char over...

    Short answer is... As long as you have a "CD KEY" for that game.  All of your chars will be able to go to that area.  So you will be able to take your NightFall chars back to Prophecies if you want to.  Or buy factions later and beat factions with a NF fall char or prophecies char.

    If you buy just one game you only have access to the areas in that one game.  If you buy 2 you get access to the areas in both, if you buy all three games you'll be able to go everywhere and do anything in game.






  • coooki3coooki3 Member Posts: 21

    i think for a newbie prophecies is the best.

    factions is pretty freaky . everything filled whit china stuff.

    i dont like it . but umm better that then nothing

    nightfall looked very promising too so

    nightfall on prophecies i suggest...

    (\_/)
    (O.o)
    (> <) This is Bunny. Copy Bunny into your signature to help him on his way to world domination!

  • BentBent Member CommonPosts: 581
    I suggest prophecies because it seems truer to what GWs PvE really is than Factions.  Downside is not as many people are playing in that area anymore.



  • Originally posted by Scot

    You have made things a lot clearer.

    Can I play Prophecy and then transfer my character to Nightfall when it comes out??


    Few points on "transfer".  Each campaign is essentially a new map.  Once you make it to a port city (Lion's Arch for prohecies or Kaineng in Factions) you can can accesss to a "boat" on your fast travel map.  Clicking on this boat will then fast travel to to your selection (Cantha(factions), Elona(nightfall), Battle Isles (PvP) ).  So there is no "transfer" its really all just what is accessible via fast travel.

    Where you start a character does have implications.  Some quests are for only for characters that started as that campiagn type.  Or in other words some of the starter quests don't work the same depending on yoru characters "home".

    Prophecies and Factions advancement has some real differences.  In prophecies you get a very large portion of skill via indivdual quests.  In factions you usually get skill points instead and just buy whatever skills you want.  The 30 bonus attribute poitns are much easier and earlier in Factions.  The level progreesion of Prophecies is a bit slower and more gradual.  Factions bumps you up to fairly high say lvl 15 by the time you leave the first section (Shin Jea).

    Both campaigns have a very large amount of post lvl 20 content.  But Prophecies has more pre lvl 20, and so may be better for beginners.  At one point Prhophecies had less content then it does now.  A free update was added after initial release and greatly expanded on the content after the desert.  As a consequence esily half of Prophecies is post lvl 20 elite skill hunting.  But initially the lower levels consisted of a greater portion of the Prophecies campaign.   Faction follows this later pattern of even more lvl 20+ elite skill hunting.  I think this is because you really can get to lvl 20 very fast and many many people just power level to 20 anyway.  Fortunately the guild wars class system is extremely rich and is about far far more than just levels.  I do not know how Nightfall will approach this, but I expecting them to also have easily half the campaign be lvl 20+ stuff.

    I personally like the skill buy system of the Factions campaign, but more epxlorer minded types probably enjoy the skill quest system of prophecies more.

    Don't let the apparent simplness of the game fool you, there are many many sublties and many counters to counters to counters.  Because of this playing Prophecies may be a good idea as its a more gradual ramp up.  However it is also possible for someone who does a bit of reaserch to pick up on a standard build and get lotsa stuff fast no matter what.  A standard W/Mo build can take you pretty far even as a complete newb (although its not my favorite playstyle, nor the most powerful IMO).  A good gamer who has some persistence can become a good runner pretty quick really.
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824

    Well I got Prophecies and all seems well.

    I got the special edition though, and am having some problems adding my Skill Pack Code. I log in, click on “Edit Account” then select “Manage Access Keys”.

    Then my instructions say “Follow instructions on screen”. But all I can see is a screen:

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “Your account is authorised to play the following releases.”

    Guild Wars Prophesies

    “You have been authorised to use the following extra features on your account.”

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    There is nowhere to input the key here. On the Nsoft site it tells me not to use my account to enter the key. So how do I do it?

  • PibblePibble Member Posts: 285
    I wanna buy GW too, should I also wait for Nightfall, and if I buy Nightfall, is it a kinda' expansions, I mean, can I also visit the lands from the normal GW.

    image

  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824

    Even I know the answer to that now. No, you need Prophecies and Factions to enter their areas. If you have any other questions can you start a new thread as I am trying to get a answer to this:

    Well I got Prophecies and all seems well.

    I got the special edition though, and am having some problems adding my Skill Pack Code. I log in, click on “Edit Account” then select “Manage Access Keys”.

    Then my instructions say “Follow instructions on screen”. But all I can see is a screen:

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    “Your account is authorised to play the following releases.”

    Guild Wars Prophesies

    “You have been authorised to use the following extra features on your account.”

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    There is nowhere to input the key here. On the Nsoft site it tells me not to use my account to enter the key. So how do I do it?

  • JelloB2000JelloB2000 Member CommonPosts: 1,848


    Originally posted by Scot
    (...)
    There is nowhere to input the key here. On the Nsoft site it tells me not to use my account to enter the key. So how do I do it?


    In the login screen just below where you enter your password there is a "create account or add access key" click that part.
    Then check "add access key to an existing account", then enter details below that. (Then enter 24 digit key).
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824

    Thanks JelloB2000, that did the trick!. The bit that is confusing is the instructions tell you to log in first.



  • Originally posted by Scot

    Thanks JelloB2000, that did the trick!. The bit that is confusing is the instructions tell you to log in first.


    Yeah its confused me even after I figured it out the first time.  You would think you could do it after logging in.
Sign In or Register to comment.