I'm a World of Warcraft player. I enjoy WoW, but I think it's starting to get old for me(hell, I've played it for almost 2 years now). Now, I talked a lot with a friend about Guild Wars and it sounded kind of interesting. I'm not sure if I should buy Guild Wars with expansion or wait for Burning Crusade to come out. I'm just curious what the opinions of Guild Wars are in relation to WoW and if anyone can provide me with additional useful information. I guess it'd be helpful if I break down my views on both games:

WoW Likes: Very open-ended world, can level solo easily, PvP battlegrounds, lots of socializing, RPing

WoW Dislikes: End-game emphasis on gear over skill in PvP, extremely limited character models, after awhile PvP battlegrounds get old and there is not a lot of world PvP

Guild Wars Likes(that I think exist...): many class combos, can change classes, can go to some kind of special server to try out a maxed out character of your choice to see if you like it, seperate areas you can quest in, limited abilities you can take out into the world with you so you have to think strategically

Guild Wars Questions: Even though you have individual instances for areas for quests, does it feel like you're disconnected from the rest of the world? Is there much socializing with other characters? Is there any RPing? How much emphasis is put on gear in the end-game? Is it possible to level solo(can't you hire henchmen to help?) How easy is it to find a group? Are there any class sets that are obviously overpowered? What is PvP like? Any large battlefields people can fight in? How are factions determined and who gets which faction?

This question is for those that have played both: Compared to how long it takes to get to max level with a WoW character, how long does it take to max level with a Guild Wars character?

Thank you for any help.

GW, since it actually requires skill

and you won't lose your life over GW like WoW

Choose golf.

That's all I really have to say " ".

Stick with WoW, my brother plays guild wars and to me it's one of the most linear, boring games that try to be an MMO out there. Pretty much everything is instanced, and you get very little choice when it comes to fighting because of limited abilities.

Kieran, you can max a character in every class in GW in about a 5th or 6th the amount of time it takes to max a single one in WoW.

Except you have to pay for any more character slots than (I think) 3. That's silly.

Guild Wars is less likely to destroy your life and take all your money IIRC

If you can't pay for WoW, you probably aren't old enough to play. Simple as that.

Oh well, people have opinions.

= Glyde Bane?

Because South Park is the best source for information about anything.

The thing I like about WoW is that the kiddies of Bnet can't afford plagueing the game. However, with Guild Wars...


EDIT: If you're going to play the "Random insult because someone doesn't have the same opinion as me", then you're the lady catching my ****.

Somebody's gonna get a message edited...

First of all you get 4 character slots in Guild Wars, they just recently added the option to buy more, although I don't see why anyone would need more. PvP only characters are automatic level 20's so you only need one slot for ALL your PvP characters. You can make and delete them at any time without losing skills. 3 PvE characters is more than enough for me, but whatever.

Guild Wars has a story in it's campaign. One of the things you can do is the Missions. The missions are done with cutscenes and quests and stuff and they contribute to the story. I think this is where Glyde is getting the linear stuff from. If you don't want to, you don't have to do them (But you should do them. They rock so hard.)

You can also quest, explore, PvP, GvG, etc. The PvP is interesting. There is a place called the Hall of Heroes where each location (America, Europe, Asia, etc..) fights for the favor of the Gods in huge PvP matches. Only the best of the best make it. If you have the favor of the Gods you can join a party of 8 people and go to the Fissue of Woe or the Underworld. Here is where you get the awesome items and skills. It's all level 25+ monsters (Your level caps at 20, this is why teamwork and skill is important).

Also, Guild Wars is so awesome because you really do need to use teamwork and skill. You can only have 8 skills that you can use at a time, so choosing 8 out of the god knows how many hundred you have can be really tough. It takes items, fine tuning, and practice to perfect many classes.

Another pro is that Guild Wars is free. You can play as much or as little as you want and not have to worry about silly monthly fees. Even better is that you don't need to buy Guild Wars Prohpecies, You can buy Factions or Nightfall first if you want. They all can play as standalone games.

I've been playing Guild Wars since it came out and I've yet to be bored. There is always something to do! I don't even own Factions yet and I'm not bored. (Nightfall comes out this month too! I need to catch up!)

There is tons more that I am missing. It's hard to summerize such a cool game in a few short snippets. Althought I will say I have played WoW and yeah, it's really awesome. If you don't mind paying per month, it's great. I just never had time for it. I'm in college now so GW works perfect for me. WoW and GW are two totally different games. They will both keep you busy for different reasons, it's really what you like and dislike in the end.




Maybe in Factions (I haven't played it but I hear it's easier to level in). I remember Gonk got to level 42 or so in the free ONE WEEK WoW beta. It all depends on how often you play. It took me a few months or so playing on and off to get one of my characters to level 20. It really doesn't happen that fast. I mean, I'm sure you could get to level 20 in a few days if you really wanted to, but most normal people don't play 24/7. You might go as far to say you could get one level 20 in 1/2 or 1/3rd the time it takes to get a level 60 in WoW, but not 1/5th the time to level EVERY class to level 20. Thats impossible.

Sajn speaks the truth. The hall of heroes is something that even Wow's PVP can't compete against.

WoW has been boring every time I've played it or watched anyone play it.


Guild wars I'd like to try. But I really wish they'd do one of these in a sci-fi setting. Only have it not suck like Anarchy Online or the starwars one...

Why not just buy Guild Wars and try it out?

[QUOTE=Glyde Bane]If you can't pay for WoW, you probably aren't old enough to play. Simple as that.[/QUOTE]

I just wanted to bring attention to how horribly stupid this argument is. $15 per month, while nothing overwhelmingly huge, is still an amount of money one has to find justification.

"Will I get $15 worth of gameplay out of this?"

The thing I hate about guild wars is that you can only have 5 skills at a time. I understand the idea behind limiting that, but it annoys the hell out of me.

Why does it bother you? It makes for a more in depth game. You need to prepare yourself the best you can by picking the 8 best skills that will help your party. It requires skill and strategy.

It also makes enemy guilds less predictable, as the exact same group isn't always formed. Just because they have a monk-warrior doesn't mean they're going to be healing alone. They might take a few battle skills along with them and micromanage healing WHILE pounding the hell out of you. Couple each Guild member's skills to the others, and then pit them against you: The game comes down to skill instead of reading a walkthrough and building the "perfect instance group." And how do you react to a team that has a really flawless skill combo? You find the weakness. It FORCES groups to be smart with their skill choices, and plan for multiple enemy strategies.

I've only been playing guild wars 2 weeks now. I'm loving it. It's the annoying "need to complete this..." WoW without the monthly fees and end-game focus.

I can also attest to the awesomeness that is Guild Wars. I haven't been active in quite a while, but it's comforting to know that regardless of the fact that I haven't paid, I can start up at any given moment. I may actually because there's a Geek Squad Guild that is apparently starting.

The gameplay starts out slow if you want to get anywhere, but once you're past the academy, it goes quickly, and as SAJN and Kirbs have said, the hall of heroes is something to behold. It's nuts.

It's actually 8 skills. Though I guess if you bring one self-heal and a rez, that leaves 6 to play around with.

To answer your questions:



I played a little bit of WoW, and the one thing I missed in GW was seeing people all over the place and teaming up for just a few minutes to go explore a new place, etc. In GW, you need to meet and greet in the outposts and then go questing with that group. In early missions, when you can take just four people, you can feel a bit disconnected. Especially in the first area, where most people just grab henchmen and rush through it. The best part though is not character quests, but the missions. Nearly everyone does missions in a pick up group and it can be a lot of fun. Again, in the early missions most everyone has done them before, so there's not a whole lot of socializing. It's pretty much doing the mission to get through it. However, later on, it becomes a lot of fun when you need to work as a team to accomplish the mission. It can suck when you're trying to get 8 people together, and just before the hardest part of the mission a couple of them drop, but it's not really that big of a problem. I haven't encountered very much RP'ing, but that doesn't mean that it isn't there.



Everybody seems to want the Fissure of Woe armor. It's incredibly expensive, but neat looking and you can also dye it any color to make it nicer. However, you don't need it. The cheaper armor you can obtain in Droknar's Forge has exactly the same stats. It just doesn't look as cool. For my ranger, I personally prefer the 15K Druid's Armor to the FoW armor, but that's just me.

There is a lot of questing for weapons in the end. There are a set of green "legendary" weapons for each character that is obtainable at the Hall of Heroes entrance to the Underworld. You can also find quite a number of people selling it. Even more so however, is the quest for the perfect "phantom" or "storm" gold weapons. The phantom weapons are transparent and the perfect gold weapons have the best possible modifications with the lowest required level to use them. I've yet to get one, but they don't matter as much to me. There are also visually appealing swords etc. that aren't "phantom" weapons.



Yes, but it's not easy if you're soloing in the area you're supposed to be in. It becomes much easier with henchmen. There are also several good farming spots that you can (and should) solo, in addition to Sorrow's Furnace farming, which is typically done in groups of five.



As I mentioned earlier, for general character questing it can be kind of a pain to find a group. Your best bet is soloing the quests (a couple of exceptions, including the Villiany of Gilrath). For the missions, they are all pretty much done in pick up groups. You don't necessarily need to in the beginning, but towards the middle and end game, you really can't do a lot of the missions with just henchmen.



I don't know how it is in Factions, or how it will be in Nightfall, but in Prophecies it is not. You have classes that complement each other well, and a lot of established and popular builds, but I've come across some strange combinations that do surprisingly well.



I don't really enjoy PvP, so I couldn't tell you. I've gone through a bit of Hall of Heroes with pick up groups, but not enough to really say one way or the other. I suppose if you find a good guild that builds parties with characters that complement each other and that are well orgranized with Vent or Teamspeak, PvP could be quite enjoyable. One annoying thing about PvP is that you need to unlock special runes and weapon modifications in PvE before you can apply them in PvP, and getting certain runes (Warrior Rune of Superior Absorption comes to mind), or perfect weapon mods can be time and GP consuming.



Something to do with questing for different Factions and getting points for Balthazar Faction in PvP. I've not bothered with it, so I couldn't tell you, except that Balthazar Faction points you earn for doing well in PvP, then you can go to the Balthazar priest and unlock runes and mods for PvP play, thus making the whole "searching" bit in PvE less annoying.



Not that long. It took me a while to max my character because I didn't play much. But if you do all of the side and character quests, you should be maxed by the time you get about halfway through the Crystal Desert. Doing just missions, I'd say about the time you reach Southern Shiverpeaks. This depends on whether or not you do the bonuses in the quests, and also how much of the game you hire a runner to get you through. Again, if you just do PvP, then you start with a max level character.

To be completely honest, I haven't played since before Factions came out, though last time I played I played almost constantly to get my 15k armor for my main character. I've kind of gotten bored questing with my secondary characters, and PvP with pick up groups doesn't appeal to me much, and I've yet to find a decent guild. Doing the same Prophecies quests with different characters got boring, as did farming. I suppose if I pick up Factions and Nightfall I'll get addicted and start playing like crazy again.

Guild Wars pvp is kinda lamed by the simple fact that you can autofollow your enemies forever. That really sucks.
WoW pvp takes a lot more skill (not just because of the follow thing) and WoW in general sucked up a hell of a lot more of my time then Guild Wars did.

I haven't played Guild Wars in many many months now. I was never able to get into a good guild, so anytime the guild I was in actually had enough people online to do GvG, we got our asses handed to us because we never played together often enough.

I've played EQ2 a lot lately though (but its slowed down to 1 or 2 times a week since school started). It took me about 3 months to get to level 65 in that game, which is where I'm at now. I've yet to get into any of the really cool t7 raids though, because I'm not 70 yet...

Yes, you will get your 15$ worth. If not, stop playing. It's not hard :p

I have both Guild Wars and World Of Warcraft. I haven't played either in months, but I believe that World Of Warcraft is a more well-rounded game. The inability to explore and jump in Guild Wars turned me off from day one. If I wanted to play a game where I can't jump or drop off ledges, I'll just bust out the N64 and play some Goldeneye.

Only good negative points so far.

World of Warcraft is a very smooth and rounded out game, but that's because Blizzard is really damn rich and has as much time as it needs, so the game is perfected. Movement in WoW is really satisfying, but the game is still incredibly boring.

I'll agree with the other people that Guild Wars is worth your time. I have been playing since May 2005 and will probably get Nightfall when it comes out. Judging by your description, it seems like you would enjoy the PvP aspect alot. I can't really say anything else that other Massassians have already said about the game, but I can also add a bit more to what Ric Olie said about the socializing aspect.
These days it seems harder for players who haven't finished the game to find good people to play with on missions and quests. It seems that ever since the release of Factions there are more people who would subjugate themselves to only their guilds and their alliances. Sometimes in the middle of missions people would leave because their "alliance or guild needs them." When Nightfall is released at the end of this month, we will only see more of this due to the new heroes system (customizable henchies that can be ordered). There is also this weird mentallity among players that I noticed. If you don't have a guild, apparently you'll be lonely and will never have people to play with/socialize. I guess people don't really know what the friend's list is for or something. Anyhow if you ever decide to get the game, give me a message (Cloudrift Lonesky) and I'll might help you out on something.