| Name | Getting Started In Guild Wars |
| Category | General |
Guild Wars is different from most MMORPGs, unlike other games you level up quickly to a low level cap, level 20, at which point the game really begins. This is more obvious in the later chapters, which had shorter leveling up periods. Each chapter has a different leveling up style. If you own multiple chapters, consider how you will progress when deciding where to start. All three chapters intersect early on, and all characters are identical once at maximum level.
Prophecies is the hardest campaign to level up in. It was designed with a very gradual character progression that gives you free skills for completing quests, but little XP. For a brand new player, Prophecies is easily the best campaign to start in, with lots of free equipment and skills to try out with little risk. For an experienced player, the early parts of Prophecies can be tedious. Fortunately, Tyria's map is very open, and large portions of the game can be skipped entirely - if you can find a runner to advance you to the next outpost.
When you create a new Tyrian character, you will begin in pre-Searing Ascalon, a tutorial area of the game. If you are a new player, this is a good place to get used to the game, the monsters do not automatically aggro on you if you get too close for the most part, and there are lots of quests for free XP and loot. If you want to get on with the game, however, there are only a few things that you need to do here. After doing the initial quest to get your first skills, you will need to choose a secondary profession, and get to level 3. To choose a second profession, you will need to talk to that profession's trainer. Get directions from Armin Saberlin. After reaching level 3 with your second profession, you can talk to Sir Tydus about the War Preparations quest, which will end your time in pre-Searing and transport you to the rest of the game. Note that after beginning War Preparations, you will never be able to go back to pre-Searing again.
Before you leave pre-Searing, there are a couple other things you should do. The first is getting all of your skills. Each profession has multiple skill trainers that will give you free skills for your primary or secondary professions. Talk to all of them and take their quest to recieve their skills - you do not have to finish their quest. A full list of pre-Searing skill trainers, with locations, can be found HERE. The other important quest is to finish Tithe for Ashford Abbey, an early quest in the first explorable area you enter. Completing the quest is worth a free skill point, which may come in handy if you want to try out several new skills. Once you have your skills and your skill point, talk to Sir Tydus and do War Preparations to move on to the real game.
You'll find yourself in seared Ascalon, just outside Ascalon City. From here, you have a couple of different choices about how to progress. The first option, recommended for new players, is to talk to Warmaster Tydus and follow the main quest line. The main quest is well paced, and will keep you pitted against foes of an appropriate level as you develop your character. If you choose to level organically like this, simply follow quests and missions until you reach Lion's Arch, after completing the 7th mission.
The other option is to rush through content to get to later missions and the other campaigns. This is done by hiring a runner to take you to outposts deeper in the game. You'll be able to skip several missions this way, though without getting any XP or gold, you will find yourself overmatched in more advanced areas. Popular early runs are:
* Ascalon City to Yak's Bend: allows you to skip the first four missions and start in the Northern Shivverpeaks. This can be a good run to get, as you will outlevel your foes in the early missions pretty quickly and should be able to handle harder mobs.
* Yak's Bend to Beacon's Perch: Beacon's Perch is the launching point for two of the most popular runs, so you might want to get there quickly.
* Beacon's Perch to Droknar's Forge: due to a shortcut in the map design, the Droknar's Forge run will take you to the last city in Prophecies, allowing you to craft endgame armor and weapons immediately! This was a hugely popular run before the other chapters made it unnecessary.
* Beacon's Perch to Lion's Arch: finishes the run to the second major town in Prophecies. Lion's Arch is the main hub on the continent, the center of trade and the launching point of quests that take you to the other chapters.
I would only recommend rushing a character through Prophecies if it is not your first character, and you only own Prophecies or just have to have that Tyrian face and hairstyle. Otherwise, starting in either of the other chapters will get you leveled up much more quickly and easily.
Once you are in Lion's Arch, you will have access to the other chapters through quests that start there. If you want to finish leveling and have Nightfall on your account, this opens up a fast and easy way to level up. Travel to Kamadan, and do a few quests until you are at the Consulate Docks mission. Repeating that mission is a great way to level up. Whenever you enter that mission, you are given hit points and armor as though you were a level 20 character, but you gain XP at your own level. That makes it a lot easier to survive and kill mobs that are much higher level that you are, and you'll get great XP rewards for it!
You can get max armor quickly from either of the other chapters as well. If you travel to Cantha (Factions), you can buy max armor immediately from the crafters in Kaineng Center. In Elona (Nightfall) you will have to complete a few quests before you can buy max armor. You might also find a player ferrying to Consulate Docks, if you want to buy your armor immediately. You will still need to go back and complete those quests before you can do the mission however.
If you want to get to level 20 as fast as possible, Factions is the chapter to start in. It features the fastest leveling of any chapter, and only two missions before you're at endgame, level 20 content with max weapons and armor.
Unlike Prophecies, Factions has a rigid quest progression. You can't run past missions to get further in the game, there are locked gates that will not open until you finish a necessary quest or mission. So if you want to progress through the game quickly, you just need to follow the primary quest in your quest log.
The big benefit of starting in Factions is that you can get a big head start on leveling up from doing all of the secondary profession quests. Shortly after starting a new character, you will be directed to talk to Master Togo and begin a quest chain to learn a secondary profession. Instead of choosing a profession and beginning the quest chain, talk to Togo again and take all of the "Speak with" quests. For each profession, these lead to "Locate" quests, then "Seek Out" quests. Most of these quests are in the same area, and all can be done in quick succession. Doing all of them instead of just one will net you an extra 19,500 XP, which is enough for an extra 5-6 levels! That quick boost will make it easy to breeze through the rest of the early quests and missions.
There is no trick to leveling up quickly in Factions after that. If you stick to the primary quest and missions and don't waste time, you will find yourself on the mainland 2-3 hours into the game, ready to experience end-game content! Once you arrive at the docks, you will want to work your way north to Kaineng Center. It's a short walk through a zone with few mobs, and once there you can craft max armor, travel to the other continents, and have access to the main trade hub of Cantha.
Nightfall has the most balanced, and best, approach to leveling. It takes longer to get to level 20 in Elona than in Cantha, and you will have to do more sidequests in order to progress because you will need to raise your Sunspear rank in addition to completing quests to advance. Like Cantha, you will again be on a rigid primary quest path that you need to follow to advance through the game - no running ahead like in Tyria. However, unlike Tyria you will receive numerous quests with XP rewards and skill points. This lets you level up quickly while moving through the early parts of the game. Leveling also accelerates quickly as you approach 20, instead of lingering as it does in Prophecies. While the main quest is more rigid, you will be given more skill points and gold for completing quests, allowing your character's advancement to be more open. If you're looking for the best overall gameplay, begin a character here.
Progressing through the early stages of the game is simple, just follow your primary quest marker. The only thing you should know in addition to that is to talk to the scout at the nearby shrine whenever you enter a new area. They will give you a bounty on a monster species, granting you extra XP plus Sunspear Promotion points whenever you slay a foe. Taking bounties as you complete the primary quest will give you more than enough Sunspear points and XP to never have those be a stumbling block.
Another advantage of starting in Elona is that the first city you come to, Kamadan, is also the central trade hub - not just of Elona, but the entire game. Hence you can start buying all of the most popular gear immediately, if you have the gold for it. If you have some starting money, consider looking for a ferry to Consulate Docks. You will not be able to enter the mission until you complete the quest chain that leads to it, but you will still be able to craft max armor from the crafter there. With max armor, completing the beginning Kamadan quests should be a breeze.
No matter which campaign you started in, you're not quite done advancing your character when you hit 20. In addition to the attribute points from leveling up, each character can get an additional 30 attribute points from completing two quests on their home continent. Finishing both of those quests is vital for filling out your character with his full allotment of 200 attribute points.
Tyrian characters have the hardest and longest path to getting the rest of their attribute points. Their first quest, Forgotten Wisdom, comes in the Crystal Desert, and the second, The Hero's Challenge, doesn't come until you are almost finished with the game. These are nasty quests that take you through rough territory. But, you only took a Tyrian character because you wanted a rough ride, right?
Canthan characters, on the other hand, get their attribute quests early on. The first is Lost Treasure, which you can take as soon as you finish the first mission, Miniser Cho's Estate. In addition to the Attribute Points, it is worth a large chunk of XP, so be sure to do it before you finish leveling up. The second quest comes after the second mission, Zen Daijun, and is called An Unwelcome Guest. Like Lost Treasure, this is worth a lot of XP in addition to the APs, so do it before you finish leveling. Both Canthan quests, while available early, are fairly involved. If you rushed to the mainland by following the main quest, you may want to travel to Keinang Center first, purchase your max armor, then come back to Shing Jea Island to finish your quests.
Unlike the other two chapters, gaining your attribute points is easy in Elona. All you need to do is gain Sunspear Ranks two and four, respectively, and then talk to Runduk is the Sunspear Great Hall. You will need to gain those ranks anyway to advance the story, so your attribute points are essentially free bonuses in Nightfall. With the difficulty of getting your attributes in the other chapters, this makes Nightfall even more desirable as a starting point for your new character.
Once you reach level 20, have all 200 attribute points, and have access to your continent's starting hub, you have access to the beginning of the main, high level story of each chapter. Congratulations on finishing the necessary leveling, and good luck completing the rest of Guild Wars!
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