Just to add to DevilStick's comments, you can approach class selection as "hey, this class is really neat, I think I'll play it, and hey, this other class is pretty cool, I think I'll take it as a secondary," but as you get deeper into the game you'll move away from that mentality. Instead you'll think, "I want to play this class, which has all these weaknesses that can be mitigated by taking this other class as a secondary," or even, "I want to play this class and this other class has lots of skills that work very nicely with the first class." Like with a collectable card game, you really only start to get this feeling once you're familiar enough with all classes as to understand what each is capable of and how skills interact with one another. Eventually you'll start a character and know which two classes you want for that character, and you'll make a conscious decision on which to make your primary based on the subtle advantages that grants.

For instance, a Ranger/Warrior might sound like a cool Legolas-type character, but you'll find that the two don't mesh very well since rangers use mostly bow and pet attacks while warriors are all about using melee weapons. If you focus on the former your warrior skills won't help you much and if you focus on the latter you'll suffer for the Ranger's lower maximum armor class.

However, Rangers also have a number of skills that summon things called "spirits." Ritualists are all about summoning and manipulating spirits, so you'll find that a Ritualist/Ranger or Ranger/Ritualist will have some interesting combinations.

Check out this wiki for lots of info.

Just to add even more to both comments, GW is VERY solo friendly. I finished all 3 campaigns by myself and just needed some help on a couple hard missions that my heroes/henchmen were not smart enough to get through it. And like DevilStick said, get Nightfall as soon as you can if you really like GW. It will give you access to Heroes that are a lot more helpful than the regular henchmen that you find in other campaigns, because you can customize their armor, skills, weapons and attributes.

GW is all about messing with different skill builds for specific challenges you are about to face. And you are not penalized by redoing all your character's (or your heroes) attribute points or skills used. Whenever you are in a town, you can rearrange the whole thing anytime, without any cost to it. I love that aspect of the game!

I'm also in SBD guild with DS and Lobster, but I'm on a hiatus and planning to get back to it in a couple weeks, when my work hours get back to normal.

Thanks for the help guys, that does clear up a lot. I wasn't aware of being able to redo attribute points and skills for free!

I would like to get back into the PvE parts of GW. I mostly play in the Random Arena. If anybody wants to group to play through Nightfall or Eye of the North let me know. I realize I could probably finish it with heroes but I like the idea of grouping with people although I seem to hate most people in online games.

Hi all,

I'm a GWJ noob, but have been playing GW for a couple of years. Holler at me in-game if you need a partner for a mission, a 4th for an alliance battle (Luxon), etc. dhelor, if you want a guide at any point, holler!

More than any other toon, I play as a monk: "Slurm Babe". For the next week or so, I'm more likely to be online as "Slurms Mackenzie".

Okay, now my brother-in-law has his copy, I've gotten back into the game. My character is Dhelor Aqari (Ranger/Necromancer), his is Kissa Isranon (Necromancer/Mesmer). I'm at level 7, he's level 5.

Big question - where's all the holiday stuff? Is that only available "Post-Searing" (whatever that means)?

absurddoctor is correct. I usually took my Prophecies characters through the Academy at around L6, so you're probably going to start running out of quests soon. (Note that you can't go back to pre-Searing once you go through.)

In any event, the process of going through the Searing to the "real" game takes about 30-45 minutes. You'll end up in post-Searing Ascalon. Post-Searing Ascalon will be decorated and you'll be able to turn in special holiday drops for holidays gifts, like DP reducing candy canes.

Just a note - the holiday hats are given out on Jan 1 in Lion's Arch at a special New Year's day event with fireworks, gifts, etc. (There's also an event in the Nightfall town of Kamadan.) To get there by Jan 1 you'll probably need someone to run you. The run takes about 45 minutes. If you don't care about hats then don't worry about it. I don't think the run is expensive.

Due to holiday/New Year's stuff I won't be online much before then, but maybe someone on the forums can give you a run.

Maybe we could connect online for a few minutes and I can hook you up with some gear and a little money to pay for the run though. PM me.

Ugh, yeah. I think I am going to need some help getting to Lion's Arch. I've gotten as far as Yak's Bend, but not without a good deal of dying and respawning. If not for my henchmen, I might not have gotten anywhere. Didn't help that I got turned around and spent almost an hour trying to go through Dragon's Gullet before checking the map I downloaded and finding out, whoops! That area's a dead-end. Grr.

So, if someone wants to meet me in Yak's Bend tomorrow to help me out, I'd be greatly appreciative.

EDIT: Good news! I managed to make it to Lion's Arch on my own. Well, with a little help from my henchmen, but that hardly counts, does it? Built myself up to level 11 in the process as well.

Oh, and this Wintersday guide at GW Guru has a lot of helpful information. Including maps as to where things are.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10235371

The GW Guru forums are a nice complement to Guildwiki.

Hardcore, my man.

EleMonk is a nice combination. FWIW, the necro skills feel weak early on but get more powerful in the mid to late game.

Obviously, play what you enjoy. You'll find that in most cases it works best to mostly use skills from your primary class, supplementing with maybe a skill or two from your secondary.

Remember that it's best to put your attribute points in one or two attributes, and focus on skills from those lines. So, for your necro skills to be effective, you'll want to have devoted some points to the corresponding attribute.

Maybe you've figured that out already, but in my early GW days I was evenly distributing my attribute points, which doesn't work as well.

I just started playing this, and I plan to drag my wife and Logan in as well.

Guild Wars is great! It's everything WoW wasn't for me. It's nice to be able to log on for an hour and get somewhere, instead of wasting all of my time just walking from one place to another. No insipid "collect X thingamabobers" quests yet. I don't understand how anyone can play WoW and not be bored to stone cold death.

That's what I ask myself sometimes... I hated those "collect 10 Boar Hearts" kind of quests. You have to kill 100 Boars to get 10 hearts. WTF! Questing in GW and traveling around is so damn fast that I can't go back to WoW and other similar games. I have a bunch of old time friends back to WoW and I really tried to get back, but the excessive walk around and all the time spent on "Collect Quests" are just too much for me.

I second that I was actually surprised at the plot depth in Guild Wars. I expected the PvE game to simply be a primer for PvP and it isn't at all. Still busy with other games, but I'll be back to GW eventually.

Oh, and I'd love a guild invite. I've been solo 'til now mostly because no one I knew actually played GW, and I didn't feel like just joining a random guild. Main char's name is Sera Dane.