Allow me. This is my impression of the extra classes, having used them all:Broomstick wrote:Could you possibly briefly run down the other 3 of those additional professions? The Prophecies ones are pretty straightforward (at least to me - they might confuse those new to this type of gaming). Assassins... well I assume that's pretty much what it sounds like, but what are the Ritualists? You've already got Elementalists, Mesmers, and Necromancer, and they threw in another magic user type? I sort of had an impression of "Paragons" as the GW equivalent of "Paladins", but I could be totally wrong on that.
The Assassin is - in my opinion, mind you - a glass cannon. It relies on close combat featuring chained attack skills which flow one after another, dealing heavy damage and effects. This is balanced by low armour class and generally poor survivability that's supposed to be offset by significant evasion skills (warping out of harm's way, predominantly).
The Ritualist is a turret summoner. Unlike the Necromancer, which can create a mobile army, the Ritualist summons chained turret 'spirits' which sit where summoned and attack. They can also summon parcels which they carry around, not unlike attack/defense auras which must be carried (thus erasing the ability to wield weapons). I assume the tradeoff is the more powerful effects of their abilities versus their general slow-to-rise, slow-to-move nature.
The Dervish is a middle-eastern style holy warrior which combines aura-like effects (enchantments) with combat skills which complement enchantment use. Strictly close-range combat classes, they specialize in crowd control, with the ability to target and injure multiple nearby enemies simultaneously (as opposed the the Assassin and Warrior's one-at-a-time approach).
The Paragon is a command class. It is designed entirely around sitting in the back row, throwing spears from range, and buffing the entire team via battle cries and inspirational hymns. I've always felt the class to be on the weak side, but they will appeal to people who like to manage and protect a group.
Yes and no. Factions was designed around speed levelling; it's a smaller expansion overall which levels you to 'hero' size right away so you can go about saving the world. Nightfall was an attempt at balance; they still have a rapid-pace initial levelling but the pace of the PLOT is slower - you'll find that levelling and plot progression are rather disconnected by Nightfall, where they were tied together strongly in Prophecies, where you are supposed to reached max level as part of a plot issue later in the game.But weren't Factions and Nightfall designed to level up fast?
Running is only an issue in Prophecies; many people choose to run past the 'entry' areas, fight big monsters, level up fast and buy nice armour and skills, and THEN march back to the start of the game and do the plot one piece at a time as a stronger character.If Prophecies was designed for slower leveling then by running through it faster than intended you are likely to miss stuff. Won't know until I get there, of course, but that line of reasoning makes me inclined to gut it out at least the first time. And really, when you're just starting out a slower progression isn't a bad way to get into the game.
Well chosen. Some titles are actually interesting to earn; for example, in later expansions titles are tied in directly with the strength and effectiveness of some skills. In other cases, primarily Prophecies, titles are more for show and reflect dedication to grind and non-plot challenges. You'll notice that Prophecies really is the parent of the later expansions, since it lacks many of the conventions of the later ones, or has had itself back-edited to include them. I've always considered Eye of the North (a truly excellent Prophecies expansion) to be their attempt at introducing all of the concepts to Prophecies that they wish they'd added at the start.As for bragging rights - I think I'd go for some titles, but not all. The "Defender of Ascalon" one with the "death leveling", for example, is not something I'd be interested in.
The Guild Wars economy is tough to navigate; there's a limited number of things to buy and a low cap on the effectiveness of any items, so the 'best' items spiral upwards in cost quickly and absolutely everything else attains a value of zero. So you never quite have enough gold to sport the shiniest bling, but always enough gold to be as effective in the game as the next guy.And yet I hear about people maxing out their gold/platinum... that's a LOT of grinding! Either that, or they're wicked good traders. But there's no auction house, is there? It's all open-outcry trading in towns, right?
No, you cannot. But since as you know you can choose which skills to bring with you at any one time, you can effectively choose to utterly ignore your secondary class. Pure class builds are entirely workable in the context of PVE, and in some cases just as good as or better than hybrid builds.Also - could you have a character without a secondary?
Holy shit, talk about beginners luck. I was only ever able to find one and I sold it for 8k.