Guild Wars 1

[Black]

Is GDW for your pet?

 

[Average Manatee]

Yes. Knockdown spam is great, ensures that he can take down monks in seconds and they can't do shit.

 

[Black]

Knockdown spam is great

Yeah, that's why I often think about going with 3 hero mesmers with Psychic Instability instead of the usual Esurge/Ineptitude.

 

[Average Manatee]

Nice idea but I'd just use Panic for a few reasons:

- Doesn't need to interrupt so it can't miss/hero get distracted
- Has a wider AoE since it will hit nearby enemies and then those enemies interrupt in a nearby radius
- 100% uptime with a single mesmer, if something somehow lives through the first.
- Still going to completely neuter anything you cast it on if you hit 3-4 enemies.

 

[Cromwell]

In a moment of weakness I bought the trilogy and started in prophecies with a messmer. I never played this and have no idea what to do so i went and started doing quests. From what I understood timeline wise prophecies is the stzarting point but sadly I cant make all professions in it even if I have the other packs. we will see how it goes

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

In a moment of weakness I bought the trilogy and started in prophecies with a messmer. I never played this and have no idea what to do so i went and started doing quests. From what I understood timeline wise prophecies is the stzarting point but sadly I cant make all professions in it even if I have the other packs. we will see how it goes

If you start in Prophecies then it will be a very, very long time before you reach the point where you can travel to other expansions and acquire their classes. It is recommended that you travel to Nightfall or the Eye of the North expansion to obtain heroes ASAP so you can replace your henchmen with heroes, who are straight up better party members.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

sadly I cant make all professions in it even if I have the other packs.

Working as intended. Ritualists, Assassins, Dervishes and Paragons are locked to their specific campaign until you manually travel with them to the other continents they're not native to.

 

[Cromwell]

In a moment of weakness I bought the trilogy and started in prophecies with a messmer. I never played this and have no idea what to do so i went and started doing quests. From what I understood timeline wise prophecies is the stzarting point but sadly I cant make all professions in it even if I have the other packs. we will see how it goes

If you start in Prophecies then it will be a very, very long time before you reach the point where you can travel to other expansions and acquire their classes. It is recommended that you travel to Nightfall or the Eye of the North expansion to obtain heroes ASAP so you can replace your henchmen with heroes, who are straight up better party members.

yes I read that but I have no comparision so I will just play it as I would have if I had started it when it was fresh Prophecies > rest.

 

[Average Manatee]

Nothing wrong with henchmen, everything pre-nightfall is designed to be completed with them as long as you are on normal mode.

Heroes are limited based on what skills you have unlocked on your account so it can be a good idea to start with a new class and go through the tutorial areas (in factions and nightfall its like 10x/5x quicker) to get some basics. Can also unlock skills at Hero Skill Trainers (which also unlock the skill for the character weirdly enough) and with PvP faction (since both PvP and heroes can use any skill unlocked by the account).

 

[Cromwell]

Nothing wrong with henchmen, everything pre-nightfall is designed to be completed with them as long as you are on normal mode.

Heroes are limited based on what skills you have unlocked on your account so it can be a good idea to start with a new class and go through the tutorial areas (in factions and nightfall its like 10x/5x quicker) to get some basics. Can also unlock skills at Hero Skill Trainers (which also unlock the skill for the character weirdly enough) and with PvP faction (since both PvP and heroes can use any skill unlocked by the account).

Since I got offered monk as second profession for my mesmer now (I didnt take it) and probably get offered necor next, is it viable to stay one class or is dualing strictly better? I have no idea about how all these classes work in detail and the monk said I cant change it later so waited until I understand more about the game and the skills.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

you can change your dual-class while in the starting area, take them all to get the abilities before deciding which one you like the most

do all the starting zone content, it's pretty good but otherwise rather easy to skip

 

[what am i doing]

Nothing wrong with henchmen, everything pre-nightfall is designed to be completed with them as long as you are on normal mode.

Heroes are limited based on what skills you have unlocked on your account so it can be a good idea to start with a new class and go through the tutorial areas (in factions and nightfall its like 10x/5x quicker) to get some basics. Can also unlock skills at Hero Skill Trainers (which also unlock the skill for the character weirdly enough) and with PvP faction (since both PvP and heroes can use any skill unlocked by the account).

Since I got offered monk as second profession for my mesmer now (I didnt take it) and probably get offered necor next, is it viable to stay one class or is dualing strictly better? I have no idea about how all these classes work in detail and the monk said I cant change it later so waited until I understand more about the game and the skills.

For the most part multi-profession builds are inferior to primary-focused builds. Your attributes will be lower due to lack of runes for that profession. However, there are many cases where your secondary profession offers one or two really handy skills that complete your build (such as Elementalist's Glyph of Lesser Energy, or the use of Warrior improved attack speed skills like Flurry by Assassin primaries). And there are some cases where you run all- or mostly-secondary builds due to your primary attribute synergizing well with them, such as Necromancer/Ritualist using Soul Reaping's energy to fuel Ritualist healing spells.

Now, you will have to pick a secondary to progress through the main quest, you aren't allowed to stay literally solo. But as Mesmer, your secondary largely doesn't matter, and Monk is a good choice because it means you can take a hard resurrection skill (hard = recharges on its own, as opposed to Resurrection Signet, which is a "soft" res skill because it only recharges when you get a morale boost), which only Monk and Ritualist offer. This is handy for cases where all your party wipes except you and you want to resurrect and save the mission rather than restart.

 

[Average Manatee]

You have to choose a 2nd class to leave the tutorial, you'll be able to unlock freely changing your secondary much later in the game (around 3/4ths of the way through for prophecies, for other campaigns its like 1/4th).

And yeah do all the starting areas and swap to try out other secondaries before finalizing on one. When you get to buying skills directly the cost increases with each one bought up to 1 platinum so any skill you don't have to buy will save that much. Especially in prophecies there's a lot of https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_skill_acquisition_quests

 

[Cromwell]

From what I saw in the wiki I can micromanage my team (if I get one later) but that only extends to choosing their available skills (for heroes) and a combat mode but I cant use keyboard shortcuts to activate these skills? So I only control my own character and givebasic directons to the rest?

 

[Average Manatee]

They automatically use their skills according to AI logic (which is generally pretty good considering the ridiculous number of skills in the game) but you can force them to use it (on your target if its a targetted skill) or ban them from automatically using it. And you can keyboard shortcut any of their skills, see my previous post for ideas on how to use that:

Spoiler

After finishing winds of change decided to change from my main (ranger) to Assasassassassin to play around a bit. Came up with a nice scythe build.

Spoiler

My controls are QWER/ASDF for my skills, 1/2/3/4/5/T/G to activate skill 1 on heroes 1/2/3/4/5/6/7. I have Z bound to target me, so I do Z45TG to get all the buffs on me before targetting an enemy, hitting 123 to queue up the hero offense and teleporting in. Works pretty well. Kind of sucks having a 20s cooldown on the teleport, wish it would be 10s. Might even be worth dropping critical eye for Dark Prison just to get to enemies faster. It's kind of hilarious that thanks to Shadow Theft buffing Scythe Mastery my assassin has 18 in the attribute after it's used twice (more than a Dervish can get).

Was using a fairly similar team build on the ranger to clear WoC where I was memeing around with a pet build (w/ Enraged Lunge, Scavenger Strike, Great Dwarf Weapon and Ebon Battle Standard of honor) and dropped the rit for another E/Me nuker.

 

[Cromwell]

Fuck me, now I wish I could use ctr/alt/shift+x. either I am doing something wrong when binding keys or guild wars doesnt accept modifier keys

 

[Average Manatee]

Unfortunately that is the case.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

If you're just doing Normal Mode content, you won't need to micro the party A.I. that much. They're capable of handling their own skillbars 99% of the time.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

worst part of playing gw1 is that it will make you wish there were other games with heroes like gw1 and there just fucking aren't

 

[Cromwell]

I grew bored with casting stuff relatively quickly and wanted to try a Warrior (since I cant be an assassin starting in prophecies) is there anything I cant do with that profession and henchmen? It doesnt have to be optimal just not "you locked yourself out of doing that 100 hours ago by choosing the wrong profession"

Its a curse, I can never really decide on a clas sin these games

 

[Average Manatee]

Having henchmen rather than heroes just makes the game harder. You probably don't want to do Hard Mode or late Nightfall/EotN content which was originally designed with the assumption that you'd have 3 heroes.

Profession-wise everything works pretty well. The game is remarkably well balanced. Only one I'd recommend against is monk because smiting prayers kind of suck (someone provide a build if I'm wrong, probably some kind of Ray of Judgment spammer is possible) and playing a defensive/healing character kind of takes away from your ability to direct your heroes' offensive ability well. If you want a melee profession in a group it tends to be better as a player since the AI can be a bit derpy in getting stuck on things or switching targets at poor times.

 

[Cromwell]

Having henchmen rather than heroes just makes the game harder. You probably don't want to do Hard Mode or late Nightfall/EotN content which was originally designed with the assumption that you'd have 3 heroes.

So the heroes I get when I make a nightfall character? Or is it enough to cross over with the one started in prophecies?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

prophecies was designed around henchies, not heroes, heroes probably make it too easy

 

[Average Manatee]

Having henchmen rather than heroes just makes the game harder. You probably don't want to do Hard Mode or late Nightfall/EotN content which was originally designed with the assumption that you'd have 3 heroes.

So the heroes I get when I make a nightfall character? Or is it enough to cross over with the one started in prophecies?

90% of heroes are in Nightfall or EotN. Entering Nightfall with a prophecies character will start you about 1/4th of the way in and get you a starting complement of heroes with more unlockable through progressing EotN or Nightfall. You can get 1 hero in Factions and Prophecies from a quest when you get to the change-over city and there's a few more rewarded for post-game content for those campaigns.

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hero

Be aware that there are a few heroes that are mutually exclusive in Nightfall until you finish the campaign so choose between them wisely.

prophecies was designed around henchies, not heroes, heroes probably make it too easy

Considering he doesn't have many skills (especially elite skills) it's probably not going to affect balance that much to pick up a few starter heroes in Nightfall. Plus it gives extra incentive to explore.

If you want to play more "legit" you can limit yourself to 3 heroes which was the original intention. That lets you play with a few of the henchmen and see their personalities/quotes.

 

[_V_]

Offensive monk can work PVP, IIRC. Very meh in (later) PVE.
Heroes are only as good as the skills (and synergy) you equip them with.
So for your first char in Prophesies just go along with henchies like the rest of us