1:) Start off with general description of Guild Wars/Arenanet
2:) Discuss a quick perk or two about the series
3:) Move onto analysis of each game/expansion, listing the various pros and cons of each.
4:) Quick description of how each profession plays
5:) Summary
*get a few screenshots to go along with this review.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guild Wars Review
Guild Wars is a franchise of online rpgs created by ArenaNet and it plays much like a MMORPG in many respects, but with some key differences.
The first noticable one being that it is infact lacking in the monthly fees that come standard with most MMORPGs. Secondly once you begin to play, you're likely
to find that the game is heavily instanced as opposed to one persistance world. This can and does lead to both good and bad points for the series. To date the
Guild Wars franchise consists of 3 games and 1 expansion pack, each able to combine on a single account for expanded enjoyment of the series. It all started
with Guild Wars (later known as Guild Wars: Prophecies), a year later we were given Guild Wars: Factions, and 6 months after this, Guild Wars: Nightfall.
Guild Wars: Eye of The North is the only non-standalone product in the series, and serves as an expansion pack for the other 3 games. I'll go into details on each in order now:
Guild Wars: Prophecies
Widely considered by the fanbase as the overall best game of the series, though this might have more to do with it being the original and the fans being nostalgic.
Set in the continent of Tyria, you begin your virtual life in a land known as Ascalon, one of the two surviving human kingdoms on this continent. You start off mostly
in a tutorial, guided around a bit to do simple quests in a beautiful landscape, which was concieved by Arenanet in a great move in my opinion, so you would
become attached to the sheer beauty of the region, only to feel a deep sense of loss when it's reduced to ashes during an event known as The Searing, caused by
a race known as the Charr, whom are at war with the humans to take over the land. Now without getting too much into the storyline, which I feel is best enjoyed
by actually playing it, Prophecies sets up a storyline that is fairly epic in nature, and will have some continuation in the other titles. Not everything is as grand as
it seems however, Prophecies does have it's faults. It's actually rather hard to make money in Tyria compared to the other games, and the leveling is slower in
comparison.
Guild Wars: Factions
Ahh, Factions.....you're like the bastard child of the Guild Wars series that most people want nothing to do with. Set on the continent of Cantha, this asian
inspired chapter of the Guild Wars saga adds 2 new professions (but more on that later) and of course a new land to explore, as well as a new and fairly seperate
storyline from the rest of the series. In Factions, you start out at an island monastary, training in your chosen profession until all hell breaks loose in the form of
a mysterious plague. Since you're the hero (or one of thousands anyways) you must investigate the source of this and put a stop to it. The title Factions actually
refers to two opposing factions in the land of Cantha: the Kurzicks and the Luxons. Kurzicks are nature loving goths to be blunt, and Luxons are nomadic sea-faring
pirates. In the end you can ally yourself with one side over the other but it's more just a choice on which you think seems cooler I suppose. Factions has it's pros
and cons like anything else, Cantha is a reletively small land, which has its advantages and disadvantages, and the asian theme really appeals to alot of players.
Leveling and money making are much faster in Factions than Prophecies, but there is a steep difficulty curve in the PvE side of things, partly due to the types of
mobs you'll be facing (did you enjoy Act 3 in Diablo 2? Yeah neither did I) and there are only 13 missions compared to 25 in Prophecies. Two things to note about
Factions however is the introduction of Alliance Battles and the ability to form guild alliances. Each alliance can hold up to 10 guilds aligned to the same faction
and each guild can have upwards of 100 members, so it adds up nicely for finding friends to play with. Alliance Battles are 12v12 team deathmatches where you
must capture 7 different points on the map and hold them to gain higher scores, with the first team to 500 points winning the battle and every kill counting as 1 point,
though you may also win by holding all 7 capture points for so long.
Guild Wars: Nightfall
The last in the trilogy, Nightfall is set in the land of Elona, which has an African theme going for it. The story here is that a fallen god has been
prophecised to be released from his bonds and back into our world in an event known as Nightfall, and the current leader of a nation has decided to speed along
the process so it's up to you to stop her. Personally I find Nightfall to be my favorite of the series in terms of storyline and setting, but maybe that's just me. Nightfall
introduced a new addition to the game, Heroes: customizable henchmen that once unlocked would be able to use whatever skillbars and equipment you give them and
could be commanded individually to wait, attack, fall back, and so on. Heroes are actually a bit of a mixed bag, they're great for people who enjoy playing by themselves,
but in turn they've lead to more of this style of play and less playing with pick-up groups, or PUGs, which is part of the thrill of Guild Wars. It's not quite the same
when you cannot play with real players, even if they're bad, there is a human interaction there you cannot replicate with Heroes. Nightfall adds 2 more professions to the mix,
which i'll describe later, and generally is easier than Prophecies, but harder than Factions in terms of leveling speed, and is probably the 2nd best place to make cash, next to
our next product...
Guild Wars: Eye of The North
This expansion was actually created in a twist of fate that saw the canning of a 4th Guild Wars title in favor of making an expansion for end-game, max level content
and Guild Wars 2 (a story for another time). This expansion is set in various areas of Tyria and in underground caverns and dungeons, the story this time being that a beast
known as the Great Destroyer is on the loose and it's up to you and your fellow heroes to put an end to it. This I feel is a must-own for anyone who enjoys PvE in the Guild
Wars series, though it is a little short for my tastes. It does fill up several little plot holes from the other titles, and leads a bit into the future of Guild Wars. No new
professions were added with this one, but new skills and armor were added for all 10 existing professions. Nothing really new in the way of PvP was added which is really
only a drawback for the PvP crowd, not so much the PvE players. There are a few minigames added to the mix; Dwarven Boxing, which I find to be the most fun and profitable;
Norn Fighting Tournament, which is pretty much what you'd expect; and Polymock, which is sorta the Guild Wars version of Pokemon meets Chess. Being as it's cheaper
than one of the full games, I would recommend picking this sucker up if you're into PvE, but I cannot recommend it for anyone who mostly plays PvP.
The Professions
As I noted earlier, there are 10 professions to choose from, 6 are considered "core" professions and are included in every title, 4 are exclusive to their respective
titles, with 2 in each of the latter titles, and in Guild Wars you have the ability to pick a primary and secondary profession, with your armor choices and 1 primary attribute being
decided based on which you choose for your primary profession. I'll now list each profession and a little bit of info about each:
Warrior - Not much to say here, this is your standard hack and slash melee character, and what you'll want if you enjoy leading a group or being a tank. They
make use of shields, 1 hand swords, 1 hand axes, and two handed hammers. The primary attribute for this class is Strength, which gives armor penetration equal to your
rank in it, not such a great primary.
Monk - This is the standard healer class, not the asskicking kinda monk. They specialize in healing and protection mostly, but do have some ability to smite enemies.
Their primary attribute is Divine Favor, which passively causes all their spells to heal a little bit of health based on rank, not too bad as this causes ANY monk spell to have
some healing ability and boosts the healing ability of your normal healing spells.
Ranger - This is the class you'll want if you enjoy pets, ranged combat, traps, or any combination of those. The only profession able to tame an animal companion
and the best in terms of ranged damage, they can really put the hurt on enemies and survive quite well in most situations. The Ranger's primary attribute is Expertise, which
reduces the energy cost of certain skills by a % for each rank, which is useful with some builds and not so useful with others.
Elementalist - This is your mage right here, if you're into casting spells of various elements and causing massive damage, this one's for you. They specialize in 4
elemental groups; Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Their primary attribute is Energy Storage, which rocks as it gives you +3 maximum energy per rank, exactly what you need.
Necromancer - Ahhh my personal favorite, the Necromancer is for those who love to really help their team and turn things around in a pinch, they could very well
be the difference between success and failure in your group. Necromancers can curse enemies for various effects or use blood spells that sacrifice their own health to
damage the enemy or buff your team, and of course my favorite, Death Magic. Death magic is where you get to have fun with corpses by exploiting them for damage, health,
buffs for your team, debuffs for the enemy, and best of all.....minions! The Necromancer's primary attribute is Soul Reaping, which effectively gives you energy equal to the rank
of the attribute whenever anyone in range of you dies, friend or foe, a very lovely attribute to have.
Mesmer - Now this class is probably the single hardest to play, but could very well be the most rewarding too. They use illusions and hexes to damage and debuff
the enemies and speed along your team's killing abilities. The hard part comes in that they have extremely potent, but situational spells, which often require near perfect
timing. The Mesmer's primary attribute is another nice one, Fast Casting, and it's pretty self explainitory. It reduces the cast time of all your spells by a % per rank.
Assassin - The Assassin is a specialty melee class made for getting in and out of fights to take out key targets quickly. They specialize in something called Shadow
Stepping, which is basically a fancy way of saying they can teleport, more akin to a ninja using smoke bombs really. Assassins are a little squishy in terms of armor but make
up for this in raw damage as they're able to link together attack skills to form combo attacks on an enemy, as well as naturally having a chance to double strike with daggers.
The primary attribute of the Assassin is Critical Strikes, which increases your critical hit rate based on your rank.
Ritualist - Well the best way to describe this would be it's the GW version of a WoW Shaman I guess. They are pretty much pure support and can heal, deal damage,
and summon ghostly spirits that affect the area and help out your team, as well as being the only class that has the ability to carry the ashes of fallen heroes to gain various
effects and drop them for even more effects, as well as Weapon Spells which infuse an ally's weapon with various buffs. Ritualists have Spawning Power as their primary attribute,
which increases the hp of summoned spirits/minions and increases the length that your weapon spells last by 2% per rank.
Paragon - A natural leader type, this class uses spears for great ranged damage, combined with strong armor for survivability. If you enjoy paladins, this might be
the class for you, as the Paragon is able to lead your team, as well as heal and buff their comrades while doing so with aura-like Chants, Shouts, and Echos. Leadership is the primary
attribute for this class, and it gives the paragon 1 energy per 2 ranks for every ally affected by any of it's shouts or chants.
Dervish - Ever wanted to go apeshit with a giant scythe? Well now's your chance, the Dervish is a melee powerhouse that tends to have more health than other melee
professions, but does not have as much armor as a warrior. They tend to use alot of enchantments and spells to compliment their killing abilities, and the Scythe has a special
ability of hitting your target and up to 2 other enemies around you per strike. A Dervish can look forward to Mysticism as their primary attribute, which gives the dervish 1 health
for each rank and 1 energy per 3 ranks whenever an enchantment ends on them.
Summary
To recap it all, I'll list the pros and cons of each title quickly and then list some universal complaints.
Prophecies - Pros: A solid title to start out with
Good pacing
Plot driven
Biggest of the titles
Cons: Slowest exp and money-wise
Alot of reused enemies
Some enemies "pop up" out of nowhere
Factions - Pros: Alliance Battles
Alliances
Two new professions
Easy and fast leveling; faster money making than prophecies
Cons: Steep difficulty curve
Massive mobs of very annoying enemies
Smallest of the trilogy, not much to do
Nightfall - Pros: Very story driven with splitting paths
Heroes
Massive landscape to explore
Again, two new professions
Cons: Heroes have lead to a decline in PUGs
The setting does not appeal to everyone
Introduction of gimmicky Titles
GW:EN - Pros: Great addition to any PvE player
New skills and armors for all professions
Best place for casual players to make money
New dungeon system leads to more enjoyable teamplay
Cons: Pretty much no new PvP content
Rather short
No new professions
Due to patches and game mechanics, there are a number of complaints universally with the series. One of the game mechanics is how the skill system works; it's
set up so that if a skill is abused in pvp, it must be nerfed universally which leads to anger among the PvE fans, though the same holds true the other way around. Titles were
introduced to the game to allow players to show personal progress in various areas of the game, much like City of Heroes/Villains, however this has lead to controversy due
to various titles actually awarding players with advantages over others, yet requiring massive amounts of grind in a game that was made to be as grind free as possible.