Guild Wars: Jumping is way overrated

[Ztalker]

Yep...if you buy armor, it will start with the standard 'grey' look. By buying Dyes you can change the appearance again.

 

And you will obtain new 'kaboom!' spells, don't worry. The first time you throw in your Meteor Shower, Searing Flames, Earthquake the game will be different. Same goes for when you accuire your first 'Elite' skill. These can only be captured by the 'Signets of Capture' near dead bosses sharing your profession.

 

Those Pirate grunts will think twice then

[stoffe]

Yep...if you buy armor, it will start with the standard 'grey' look. By buying Dyes you can change the appearance again.

 

From what Jae said it sounds like white paint is more expensive than saffron in the GW universe though, so I guess I won't be able to look the way I want for quite a while. How annoying.

 

And you will obtain new 'kaboom!' spells, don't worry. The first time you throw in your Meteor Shower, Searing Flames, Earthquake the game will be different. Same goes for when you accuire your first 'Elite' skill. These can only be captured by the 'Signets of Capture' near dead bosses sharing your profession.

 

I guess that's quite far off into the future though, my character is just level 3 and know a handful of spells that other NPCs taught me. There is one "death from above" fire spell, but it's blast radius is pitiful and so is the damage output compared to Flare, so it's not terribly useful beyond the flashiness (compared to the earlier spells) of it.

[Rogue Nine]

From what Jae said it sounds like white paint is more expensive than saffron in the GW universe though, so I guess I won't be able to look the way I want for quite a while. How annoying.

Once you get the max level armor you want, send me a PM in-game (or here!) and I'll hook you up with whatever dye you want.

 

 

 

I guess that's quite far off into the future though, my character is just level 3 and know a handful of spells that other NPCs taught me. There is one "death from above" fire spell, but it's blast radius is pitiful and so is the damage output compared to Flare, so it's not terribly useful beyond the flashiness (compared to the earlier spells) of it.

You won't get access to any of the really fun nuking spells until you're level 20 and off of the starter island. Don't worry about it though, you'll be there before you know it. For now, just continue to familiarize yourself with the game. :3

[stoffe]

Once you get the max level armor you want, send me a PM in-game (or here!) and I'll hook you up with whatever dye you want.

 

How far up do the armors go? My current one has +15 AC. I gather the better ones are only available on the mainland at any rate, right?

[Rogue Nine]

Max AL (Armor Level) for Elementalists is 60, since they're casters. Front-line warriors have the highest AL at 80, while most everyone else is either 70 (Rangers, Dervishes, Assassins) or 60.

 

Have a look at GuildWiki in the Armor section. It has pictures of all the different armors (as well as where to get them!), so see if you like any of them before committing to dying it, since you can't recover dye. :s

[Ztalker]

O yeah, the costs of armors varies as well, I might add:

 

There's the standard armor which costs 1 platinum per part. Some of the armors (if not all) have an end-game Elite variant with a more'unique' skin. These cost 15 platinum per part.

 

And then there's the 'Underworld' armor which will cost..millions...

[stoffe]

There's the standard armor which costs 1 platinum per part. Some of the armors (if not all) have an end-game Elite variant with a more'unique' skin. These cost 15 platinum per part.

 

And then there's the 'Underworld' armor which will cost..millions...

 

Is there any difference between standard issue armor and elite armor other than the appearance? Looks like they are charging a lot more for fashion than utility in this game. How real-world like.

[Rogue Nine]

They do charge a lot more for fashion than utility in GW, sadly. The standard max level armor costs one platinum (1000 gold) a piece, so essentially, that's really all you need to help you advance in the game. Some people (like me) however, are very picky about how their characters look, so they spring for the more expensive 'elite' armor. There is no functional difference between the (usually) 15k elite and the 1k standard armor; they're purely aesthetic. Elite armor tends to be more detailed and, for the most part, 'prettier' than the standard stuff (there are exceptions). So there really is no rush to get an elite set of armor when you're just starting out.

 

Oh, and in Nightfall you get access to an elite set of armor fairly early on, once you get to the Sunspear Sanctuary and do the requisite quests. In Factions and Prophecies, you had to wait until you were at least 3/4ths of the way done with the game before you gained access to elite armor.

 

Here's an example of elite armor:

This is my monk in Elite Kurzick Armor. If you look on GuildWiki, they should have screenshots of the regular Kurzick armor. My stuff, for the most part, is more detailed and 'prettier-looking' than the standard (which is why I got it. :3)

[stoffe]

They do charge a lot more for fashion than utility in GW, sadly. The standard max level armor costs one platinum (1000 gold) a piece, so essentially, that's really all you need to help you advance in the game. Some people (like me) however, are very picky about how their characters look, so they spring for the more expensive 'elite' armor.

 

Is there any way to in-game preview how a piece of clothing looks before you buy it, or do I have to look that up in the Wiki to avoid buying blindly?

 

Some people (like me) however, are very picky about how their characters look, so they spring for the more expensive 'elite' armor.

 

Me too, I tend to mod most games I play to make the protagonist look like I want. No chance for that in an online game though, so I guess I'll have to endure the grayness until I get more cash and better attire. If you color clothing/armor once, can you apply another color after that if you change your mind and want it to look differently later?

 

 

There is no functional difference between the (usually) 15k elite and the 1k standard armor; they're purely aesthetic.

 

So, works mostly like in the real world then, extravagant expensive clothing as a way of showing off wealth.

 

 

Here's an example of elite armor:

Screenshot

This is my monk in Elite Kurzick Armor.

 

Looks nice. I just have the first upgrade to the standard attire you start with so far. But there doesn't seem to be any Elite version of that, judging by the wiki:

 

 

By the way, is the Energy Storage skill the only way to get more Energy points? If so, do the other caster classes have something similar? I noticed the Energy pool didn't increase in size when leveling up...

[Rogue Nine]

Is there any way to in-game preview how a piece of clothing looks before you buy it, or do I have to look that up in the Wiki to avoid buying blindly?

No, sadly there is no in-game way of previewing armor before you buy it, so you need to look it up on the wiki. It has fully body shots of most of the armor sets as well as back and partial shots, so it works fairly well.

 

Me too, I tend to mod most games I play to make the protagonist look like I want. No chance for that in an online game though, so I guess I'll have to endure the grayness until I get more cash and better attire. If you color clothing/armor once, can you apply another color after that if you change your mind and want it to look differently later?

Yes, you can! And thankfully, you can preview the effects of the dye before you actually dye the armor. You can also combine different colors to come up with different hues and whatnot.

 

So, works mostly like in the real world then, extravagant expensive clothing as a way of showing off wealth.

Personally, I could care less about showing off to other people. For me, it's all about looking good. If I'm going to be staring at an avatar for many hours at a time, it better well damn look good to me.

 

 

Looks nice. I just have the first upgrade to the standard attire you start with so far. But there doesn't seem to be any Elite version of that, judging by the wiki:

Screenshot

Thanks! And yeah, Istani armor doesn't have an elite counterpart. Sunspear armor does, however. I have it on my elementalist character and I would show it to you if I wasn't posting from work. :S

 

By the way, is the Energy Storage skill the only way to get more Energy points? If so, do the other caster classes have something similar? I noticed the Energy pool didn't increase in size when leveling up...

Energy Storage is the Elementalist class Primary Attribute, meaning only Elementalists have access to it. As you level up, make sure you distrubute your attribute points accordingly (K key). The more points you have in Energy Storage, the bigger your energy pool will be. Most elementalists put a ton into Energy storage and a ton into whatever element they specialize in (predominantly fire, with a fair few earth eles).

[stoffe]

Energy Storage is the Elementalist class Primary Attribute, meaning only Elementalists have access to it.

 

So the other caster classes (Necro, Mesmer etc?) have to make do with a much smaller energy pool? Or do their spells not require as much energy to cast to compensate?

 

As you level up, make sure you distrubute your attribute points accordingly (K key). The more points you have in Energy Storage, the bigger your energy pool will be. Most elementalists put a ton into Energy storage and a ton into whatever element they specialize in (predominantly fire, with a fair few earth eles).

 

I've put most of my attribute points in Energy storage, Fire magic and Earth Magic so far. The Air and Water spells I've seen so far both did pitiful damage compared to the Fire/Earth spells. Though monsters with lightning spells seem to do a fair amount of damage, so perhaps they grow in potency more quickly than fire magic if you invest in those instead.

 

I multiclassed into a Monk as suggested for he healing, though the healing spells I got in the boot camp didn't seem terribly useful, restoring very little health, and I'll probably spread my points too thin to be decent at anything if I put a load of attribute points in the Healing attr. as well. Probably best to bring a healer minion along for now instead?

 

 

Speaking of skills, what do the "Hero skills" merchants in the towns do? I'd guess you could use them to make your Hero (only got one so far) learn more skills? But then there was a bunch of skills in that merchant that said they could only be used by the player and not heroes, so it didn't make much sense.

[Rogue Nine]

So the other caster classes (Necro, Mesmer etc?) have to make do with a much smaller energy pool? Or do their spells not require as much energy to cast to compensate?

Well, by and large the elementalist has the largest energy pool in the game. I think the other casters start out with 30-40 base energy and yes, their spells usually do not carry as high a cost as some elementalist spells.

 

All classes have the opportunity to increase both their HP and energy pools through the use of runes and insignias, which you can attach to each piece of your armor. Runes of Vigor and Vitae and Survivor insignia all add health, while Runes of Attunement and Radiant insignias add energy. They're not so vital when you're starting out, but once you've got max level armor, you should think about investing in some.

 

I've put most of my attribute points in Energy storage, Fire magic and Earth Magic so far. The Air and Water spells I've seen so far both did pitiful damage compared to the Fire/Earth spells. Though monsters with lightning spells seem to do a fair amount of damage, so perhaps they grow in potency more quickly than fire magic if you invest in those instead.

Fire has the highest damage output of all the elements, bar none. Earth can hit pretty hard too, but can't match fire skill for skill with raw lethality. Water elementalists are rare, as their skills are more passive in nature, slowing the enemy down and relying on health degen and conditions rather that outright damage. Air is suited for spiking, that is, taking down a single target with focused attacks, thus the inherent 25% armor penetration effect in most spells. If you'll notice, there are no AoE spells in the Air line, only ones that focus on a single foe. Thus, they tend to be specialized and effective in very select situations.

 

Oh, and while your PCs are limited to level 20, there is no such limitation for monsters. They can, and often are, higher level than you, meaning that they have more attribute points to play around with and as such, can hit harder with their skills than you can. But don't be discouraged, they're still just computer AI and are usually handled easily with proper tactics.

 

I multiclassed into a Monk as suggested for he healing, though the healing spells I got in the boot camp didn't seem terribly useful, restoring very little health, and I'll probably spread my points too thin to be decent at anything if I put a load of attribute points in the Healing attr. as well. Probably best to bring a healer minion along for now instead?

Multiclassing isn't so vital at this point in time while you're just starting out, since you can get by with your primary class's spells for the most part. It becomes more important a little later on in the game when it's handy to have another skill or two from a different class. Most people suggest the Monk or the Mesmer class as a secondary for the Elementalist, since the Monk offers rechargable resurrection spells (as opposed to the one-use Resurrection Signet) and the Mesmer offers the opportunity for energy management, as well as the spell Arcane Echo, which allows you to copy one of the spells on your skillbar, effectively giving you two chances to cast that spell in succession.

 

As for self-healing, you'll learn as a non-Monk that it is your focus to put the hurt on the opposing forces as much as you can and leave the healing to your heroes/henchies/friends who are Monks. The Monk is the only character class primarily designed around mitigating conditions and damage and restoring health, so you should leave the monks to do their jobs while you focus on killing the enemies so they don't get to your monk. Sure, you can help the monks out by casting Aura of Restoration, but beyond that, leave the healing to Dunkoro/Tahlkora.

 

 

Speaking of skills, what do the "Hero skills" merchants in the towns do? I'd guess you could use them to make your Hero (only got one so far) learn more skills? But then there was a bunch of skills in that merchant that said they could only be used by the player and not heroes, so it didn't make much sense.

Yeah, Sunspear skills should be on the skill merchant, but I think because you purchase them via hero skill points (which you acquire by gaining new levels in Sunspear rank), they're on the hero skill trainer. Sunspear skills are PvE only skills that only your character may equip, meaning your heroes are unable to use them. Your heroes can use any skills your character knows and you have the opportunity to have them learn more through the hero skill trainer.

[stoffe]

Fire has the highest damage output of all the elements, bar none. Earth can hit pretty hard too, but can't match fire skill for skill with raw lethality. Water elementalists are rare, as their skills are more passive in nature, slowing the enemy down and relying on health degen and conditions rather that outright damage.

 

Speaking of which, when/where can you find some new useful Fire spells? I still use the ones I got for free during the tutorial, haven't found anything new since then (Flare, Firestorm).

 

And are there any decent defensive spells, and of what type? I got one Earth spell that should give 50% block chance for allies (is the caster herself included in "allies" or does that only help your minion?), but nothing much else.

 

Oh, and while your PCs are limited to level 20, there is no such limitation for monsters. They can, and often are, higher level than you, meaning that they have more attribute points to play around with and as such, can hit harder with their skills than you can.

 

There's nothing quite making you feel like an epic hero than everyone you meet being more powerful than yourself individually, and then heavily outnumbering you in addition to that.

 

Kind of makes you wonder why the bad-guys just spend their time randomly wandering around the countryside instead of taking over the world or something.

 

Multiclassing isn't so vital at this point in time while you're just starting out, since you can get by with your primary class's spells for the most part. It becomes more important a little later on in the game when it's handy to have another skill or two from a different class.

 

My biggest problem at the moment is that there aren't enough Skill slots to bring along all the spells I want, and filling out with spells from another class as well will hardly make that any easier. The only Monk spell I've had use for so far is the Resurrect one.

 

I'm just missing some form of quick key or keyboard shortcut to order my minions to heal me. Sometimes they're a bit slow and I have to run away from enemies before they get the message.

 

By the way, what does the blue icon and number that float above some (but not all) player characters in towns and outposts mean? Haven't been able to figure that out. The one the red arrow points at, which is shown instead of their classes and level:

 

 

(And why does Kamadan look like it's been dragged into a theme park located in Oblivion all of a sudden, with gloomy lighting, blood red sky, weird monsters and cardboard cutouts everywhere? )

[swphreak]

I actually have Guild Wars, but I haven't played in ages. So I'm not sure if my account has been purged or something. Checked my master acount, still there. I distinctly remember why I quit: those mother****ing Dwarves. They pissed me off so much.

 

Until I got to the Dwarflands I remember having fun going on quests with people. We formed a guild and had our own capes too.

 

What exactly is in the new expansions? Do you have to install Guild Wars and then each expansions to play?

[Jae Onasi]

SWP--I have Nightfall but not the original GW, and I'll probably pick up GW:EN soon. I didn't need to have the original GW to play Nightfall. I have not seen any dwarves in Nightfall, but I still have quite a bit to play through. Come play with us.

 

stoffe--they're having a Halloween 'party' in Kamadan, that's why it looks so odd. I just bought some squash serum from Horseman Jaysin in Champion's Dawn and Horseman Kronar in Kodlanu Hamlet to turn into a pumpkin head on Halloween. I finally found a use for those silver bullions and copper shillings Here's some Halloween event info for you if you'd like.

[swphreak]

How about someone hooking me up with a buddy key for whatever expansion you're playing, and I'll give it a try.

[Rogue Nine]

Speaking of which, when/where can you find some new useful Fire spells? I still use the ones I got for free during the tutorial, haven't found anything new since then (Flare, Firestorm).

 

And are there any decent defensive spells, and of what type? I got one Earth spell that should give 50% block chance for allies (is the caster herself included in "allies" or does that only help your minion?), but nothing much else.

They're all on the mainland, so be patient.

 

There's nothing quite making you feel like an epic hero than everyone you meet being more powerful than yourself individually, and then heavily outnumbering you in addition to that.

But there's something infinitely satisfying in laying the beatdown on those foes through good teamwork and tactics. :3

 

Kind of makes you wonder why the bad-guys just spend their time randomly wandering around the countryside instead of taking over the world or something.

Well, why do you think we're around. xD

 

My biggest problem at the moment is that there aren't enough Skill slots to bring along all the spells I want, and filling out with spells from another class as well will hardly make that any easier. The only Monk spell I've had use for so far is the Resurrect one.

As I said before, part of the game is picking which skillset to use for a situation. You're just starting out now, but as you progress through the game (with my help and Jae's and anyone else's from here ), you'll become more proficient at choosing your spells.

 

I'm just missing some form of quick key or keyboard shortcut to order my minions to heal me. Sometimes they're a bit slow and I have to run away from enemies before they get the message.

If you click on the little numbers next to their name in the party list, you can actually bring up their skill bars and tell them which skills to use.

 

By the way, what does the blue icon and number that float above some (but not all) player characters in towns and outposts mean? Haven't been able to figure that out. The one the red arrow points at, which is shown instead of their classes and level:

Screenshot

That indicates how many people are in that person's party. Usually you'll see 4 as the number since people on the starter island tend to run around with their heroes, making the party size 4.

 

(And why does Kamadan look like it's been dragged into a theme park located in Oblivion all of a sudden, with gloomy lighting, blood red sky, weird monsters and cardboard cutouts everywhere? )

Halloween!

 

How about someone hooking me up with a buddy key for whatever expansion you're playing, and I'll give it a try.

I gave mine away already, but I'm pretty sure Jae wouldn't mind giving you hers.

[Jae Onasi]

How do you determine what something's really worth? I found a furious hooked scythe of enchanting, but have no clue what it would go for. I have a bunch of scythes already. Apparently the game still thinks I'm a dervish.

[Ztalker]

There's a site called Guild Wars Guru where players can auction their items. It's the most...reliable factor, since there's no in-game indication for the worth of items.

 

And any random drop can fall down. Elementalist runes from Warrior bosses, Daggers whilst you are an Mesmer, etc.

 

Anyways, the Furious upgrade is pretty rare. If it's the 'maximum' version, (most percent change of succes) it might be worth a lot.

 

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/

[Rogue Nine]

Too bad GWGuru's auction site is usually piss-slow. :S

 

And Jae, you can usually just ask in the Alliance chat if you'd like something appraised. Draco's a really good judge, since he can sell pretty much anything. He'll let you know if it's something worth trying to pawn or if you should just salvage/sell it to the merchant.

[Jae Onasi]

Well, I've managed to make it to Nightfall, and Varesh Ossa's change in appearance has been very interesting, as is my new Hero.

 

That mission at the Grand Court of Sebelkah is really tough to do in the Master's 6 minutes or less. Aoife, stoffe, and I got through it yesterday and got to expert, but when we retried for master's, we got nailed by some unkillable Margonites and died horribly. Those pumpkin cookies I got from Pumpkin-head Lord on Halloween are very convenient for getting rid of death penalties, btw.

[stoffe]

That mission at the Grand Court of Sebelkah is really tough to do in the Master's 6 minutes or less. Aoife, stoffe, and I got through it yesterday and got to expert, but when we retried for master's, we got nailed by some unkillable Margonites and died horribly.

 

Indeed. It's like a game of King of the Hill, only that the other team outnumber you 20 to 1, are all higher level than you, and when you are doing too well they send in some Invincible Scythe Reaper of Doom to slaughter you.

 

Running out of energy a minute into the fight certainly doesn't help either. Spellcasters aren't very good in prolonged endurance fights in this game (or it's just me who don't know how to play them properly )

 

 

On an unrelated note, I've come to the conclusion that at least one of the Nightfall game designers is a sadist. The way some of the quests are designed... ugh... annoying isn't a word strong enough to describe them.

[Jae Onasi]

Heh, at least the 'clean up the leaves off the ground and take the bags up the stairs' quest didn't involve killing ruby djinni or Margonites. Easiest quest I've done by far, except maybe for the map travel one early in the game.

[stoffe]

Heh, at least the 'clean up the leaves off the ground and take the bags up the stairs' quest didn't involve killing ruby djinni or Margonites. Easiest quest I've done by far, except maybe for the map travel one early in the game.

 

Easy perhaps, but rather tedious. Pick up a bag, run aaaaaall the way up the 10 mile long staircase, dump bag, run back down the 10 mile long staircase, pick up next bag, repeat. They probably decided to test your endurance rather than combat prowess in that particular quest. That, or reward those who play with other humans, since you can't tell your heroes to grab a bag and follow.

[Rogue Nine]

That mission at the Grand Court of Sebelkah is really tough to do in the Master's 6 minutes or less. Aoife, stoffe, and I got through it yesterday and got to expert, but when we retried for master's, we got nailed by some unkillable Margonites and died horribly. Those pumpkin cookies I got from Pumpkin-head Lord on Halloween are very convenient for getting rid of death penalties, btw.

Don't worry Jae, I will bring the thunder tonight and we'll rock that mission. ;D

 

And poor stoffeekins, still annoyed with all the tedious quests and stuff. You should just do what I do and just not do them!