Guild Wars
| Guild Wars | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | ArenaNet |
| Publisher(s) | NCsoft |
| Designer(s) | Mike O'Brien |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | April 28, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | CORPG and MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Guild Wars is a Competitive/Cooperative Online Role-Playing Game (CORPG) created by ArenaNet, a developer founded by individuals formerly from Blizzard Entertainment which is now wholly owned by NCsoft, a South Korean game publisher.
Overview
While Guild Wars is considered by many to be an MMORPG it differs in its approach compared to many of its contemporaries. In particular it provides a number of features which support casual online RPG gameplay; a low level cap, instanced game worlds outside of town areas, instant travel and subscription fee free play after purchase of the game. Guild Wars is carefully maintained by the developers to support competitive play in addition to providing an RPG environment and balancing skills and professions. To emphasize these core differences from most MMORPGs the developers have termed the game a Competitive/Cooperative Online Role-Playing Game (CORPG).
Conceptually, skills (the abilities the player has available to use in game) are very important through both the RPG and competitive parts of the game. A player selects a limited number of skills (up to a maximum of eight) prior to entering a battle and needs to be careful while using those skills during a battle. An adept competitive player needs knowledge of all the game's skills and how they interwork so as to be most effective. Guild Wars' emphasis on skill selection and implementation of skill use has similarities with many collectible card games.
Game mechanics
A player entering Guild Wars for the first time can choose to create a character for either of the two play styles which Guild Wars supports: Player versus player (PvP) or Player versus environment (PvE).
A Guild Wars character is composed of a primary and secondary profession. The primary profession determines the appearance, armour, lead skill set of the character and provides a specialized attribute line. The secondary profession allows access to skills and non-specialized attributes only and may be changed during the PvE storyline.
The player must select eight skills from their available pool of skills to use when they play the game. Skills are either standard or elite. Elite skills are skills which are considered to be better than average. The player may only equip one elite skill when they make their skill selection.
Initially the pool of skills available to a character and the player is limited and more skills are made available through game play. There are several different methods to acquire skills:
- Purchase from skill trainers using skill points and gold earned during PvE based play
- Capture from a monster using a Signet of Capture during PvE based play
- Quests can be obtained during PvE based play which give skills as a reward
- Trade in faction points earned during PvP combat to a Priest of Balthazar
When a skill is first acquired, through the methods described above, it is unlocked for the account of the player, making it available to all PvP characters made on the account.
The effectiveness of the skills used is based on the attribute line of the skill. To improve the effectiveness of skills the player distributes a limited number of attribute points to these attribute lines. There are at maximum 200 points available to distribute. PvP characters start with all 200, but PvE characters must gain them through leveling and quests. Attributes lines can be increased from 0 to 12, at the increasing cost of 1 to 20 attribute points. Runes are available which can be used to increase the attribute lines of the primary profession.
A particular combination of skills, attributes and sometimes armour and weapons is known as a build. Some builds are more effective at particular tasks than others, and so are more common than others.
All player characters have a maximum level of 20. This allows for balanced game play in the PvP part of the game.
As the name of the game suggests, guilds are a part of the game play. If a player forms a guild (a team of players), the guild can purchase and design capes for all the members. They may also invest in a Guild Hall, a private place where only guild members can enter. However, a player is not required to join a guild.
PvE specifics
A PvE character is created to play through the story-driven, PvE part of the Guild Wars game. A PvE character is level 1 when it is first created with no skills or secondary profession. Experience is required to level the character, and once the maximum level has been reached, to gain skill points for obtaining skills. Experience can be gained by:
- Performing NPC quests
- Completing the story-driven cooperative missions
- Killing monsters
As the maximum level is 20, the time it takes to get to that level is short relative to many contemporary online RPG games. Much of the game play is designed for level 20 players. Experience is still gained once the player reaches level 20, but skill points are awarded instead of levels.
There are no specific servers which players join, outside of selecting their region at account creation. Instead the world is broken into a number of smaller instances which the players can move around in. Towns have a number of instances which can hold up to 100 player characters each. It is in the towns that players form parties to perform quests or missions. A party can be comprised of 1 to 12 members, depending on location, which can be other player characters or AI driven NPC henchmen. When the party leaves the town an instance of the game world is created for the party.
The game world is split into a number of different zones. Whenever the party travels between these zones, all enemies and NPCs respawn. There are a huge variety of different enemies. Most enemies use only skills available to the players, but some have specialized monster skills granting them abilities players cannot emulate. Enemies also do not have a maximum level cap, so are frequently seen with levels greater than 20. Boss monsters are named and surrounded by an aura indicating their class, for instance a boss using warrior skills has a yellow aura. Players can use Signets of Capture on boss monsters to acquire skills. This is the only way elite skills can be acquired by PvE characters.
PvP specifics
A PvP character is created at the maximum level with access to all of the skills, runes, and upgrades which have been unlocked on the account. If the player has no skills currently unlocked they may use a pre-built character to head straight into combat.
There are a number of different types of PvP available to players
Random Arena is fast paced 4v4 combat with randomly selected combatants on both teams. Team Arena is 4v4 like Random Arena, but teams may be built by the players prior to combat.
In Guild vs. Guild (GvG) combat guild teams, comprised of 8 players, battle each other for ranking on the world-wide Guild Wars ladder. This form of PvP combat offers the most strategic combat in the game, requiring good teamwork, communication and build planning. Ladder ranking is used to determine which guilds go to organized tournaments, and there are in-game or monetary rewards for the top ranked guilds in a ladder season.
Factions introduces Alliance Battles, where teams of 12 players fight for their side (either Luxon or Kurzick) in an attempt to gain "territory". The 12 player teams are made up of three 4 person teams, separately assembled. Winning these battles is based not only on killing opponents, but also on holding control points.
Finally Hero's Ascent implements a concept called World at War, in which teams from different regions fight through several PvP arenas up to the last area called the Hall of Heroes. The regions fight for "The Favor of the Gods" . Wins are displayed in the chat box to declare who has "Favor". Holding favor unlocks access to some high level PvE content and allows avatars of gods to be summoned in PvE instances which offer blessings for a small fee.
An observer mode is available which allows players to watch recent guild, Hero's Ascent, or tournament battles if one of the playing guilds is ranked from 1 to 100 on the ladder.
Character equipment
Character equipment can be divided into three broad categories, which are weapons, armor, and runes. Each of these categories is further differentiated by the character's professions. Characters gain the maximum capability with a weapon (or an off-hand item, such as a shield) when they have the required attribute points for it. Weapon modifiers (such as staff wrappings and bow strings) are available which, when added to a weapon, provide various benefits to the wielder. Armor selection is limited to the suits available only for a character's primary profession, with each profession having multiple armor styles. Each of these styles has its own enhancements. Unlike weapons, armor yields the maximum benefit allowed by each piece, no matter what the character's attributes are set to. Runes are armor modifiers, which serve to enhance the attributes of the user and are divided into the three tiers of minor, major, and superior. Major and superior runes produce the negative effect of less maximum health for the user, making the use of more than one of these runes generally undesirable. The exceptions to this rule are absorption runes (Warrior only) which have no health penalty and vigor runes (available to all classes), which give 30 health for a minor, 41 for a major, and 50 for a superior. Each piece of armor may contain only 1 rune.
Chapters
Unlike many contemporary online games, players in the United States and Europe regions get access to the Guild Wars servers without a monthly fee. The developers have instead opted for a chapter based structure which involves regular, approximately 2 every year, releases of new content in the form of stand-alone expansion packs which player can choose to purchase. At the current time the original game, now called Guild Wars: Prophecies, and a stand-alone chapter, Guild Wars: Factions, are available. Additional chapters are in development.
Core content
Core content is content available to all players regardless of which chapters they have purchased. Changes made to interfaces are made available to all chapters. Players who do not have a particular chapter can still interact with players who do. For instance players are unable to create a character with a profession from a chapter they do not own but they can interact with other players characters created for that chapter in areas common to all chapters.
Professions
There are six core character classes:
- Elementalist - Classic high damage dealer that uses fire, air, earth or water magic, and who is often used for battlefield support.
- Mesmer - A caster who manipulates opponents' actions against them and causes damage and confusion through illusions.
- Monk - A support character which heals and protects their allies and also smites their opponents with holy damage.
- Necromancer - Exploits the dead, their own health, and the health of the opposition to deal damage.
- Ranger - Usually a ranged attacker utilizing bow, pets and traps.
- Warrior - High defense, medium damage tank designed for the front line.
There are two none core character classes:
- Assassin - Relies on fast 'hit and run' combinations to disrupt and kill enemies.
- Ritualist - Calls on the spirits of the dead to aid their cause
Each of these classes has a core set of skills available to them in each of the guild wars chapters. It has been stated that two extra professions will be available in each new chapter to those that buy that chapter.
Core Areas
Battle Isle - A map area where the majority of Guild Wars PvP content exists. This includes the random and team arenas, Hero's Ascent, and the Guild Hall. There is also a training area here where you can test your builds against dummies and NPC teams. It is open to PvP characters and PvE characters which have reached particular locations in the PvE campaigns.
'Fissure of Woe' and 'Underworld' - elite PvE areas which are available to players if their region has 'Favour of the Gods' and their character has completed their campaigns "right of passage" missions. 'Favour of the Gods' is granted to the region that wins the highest-ranking PvP tournament in the game.
Prophecies
As Prophecies was the first chapter much of its content and game concepts are now considered core content. For instance, it only has the core professions available for play, but each of these professions has a number of prophecies specific skills available to them.
Areas and content
The game content specific to the prophecies campaign is PvE based.
Pre-searing Ascalon is a PvE training area separated from the rest of the campaign by an event called 'The Searing'.
The main campaign has the player fulfilling "The Flameseeker Prophecies" through a number of different map regions; Ascalon, The Shiverpeaks, Kryta, Maguuma Jungle, The Crystal Desert and the Fire Island Chain.
Sorrows Furnace is an area in the Southern Shiverpeaks introduced as additional content after release. Players venture into the Furnace to assist the Deldrimor Dwarves.
Factions
Factions is a stand-alone chapter in the Guild Wars universe. It provides a full length PvE campaign and new game play modes. In contrast to the Prophecies campaign, most of the content has been designed for level 20 characters and new characters reach maximum level much faster than in the original game. Like Prophecies, most PvE areas still require parties of eight, however Factions introduced 'elite missions' for teams of twelve, and some co-operative missions require two teams of eight to co-operate to meet the mission objectives.
Professions
Factions provides two new professions
- Assassin - relies on fast 'hit and run' combinations to disrupt and kill enemies
- Ritualist - calls on the spirits of the dead to aid their cause
A number of Factions specific skills are also available for the core professions.
Areas and content
In the main PvE campaign the player assists Master Togo and Mhenlo to stop Shiro's return. The campaign takes the player through the areas of Shing Jea Island, Kaineng City, the Petrified Forest and the Jade Sea.
Co-operative missions are a key and compulsory part of completing the PvE storyline for the Factions chapter. The structure of these missions is changed from the Prophecies chapter. There are no longer additional 'bonus' objectives to be met. Instead, three levels of rewards are given for completing each mission within specific time objectives.
Factions and alliances are key concepts for the Factions chapter. A Faction is one of two different groups, the Kurzicks and the Luxons, who are in a long term struggle with each other. PvE players are asked to decide what faction they wish to play for during the campaign. A guild may also align itself with one of these factions. An alliance is up to ten guilds aligned with the same faction agreeing to work together under one guild's name. Standing may be earned by the alliance and this is used to allow the alliance to gain control of towns owned by their faction.
Alliance battles are PvP battles where three teams of 4 players from a faction fight against teams from the opposite faction. The first faction to reach 500 points wins the match. Points are granted for player kills and holding control points on the map.
Competitive missions allow PvE players to compete against each other. Random teams of eight from each faction face each other in time based siege and resource point capture missions for faction rewards.
Challenge missions are available for PvE players. There are specific scoring objectives, such as killing the most enemies or holding out against successive waves of enemies for the longest time. The best teams' scores are displayed ingame. Teams receive gold, experience or faction depending on the map and score obtained.
Plot of Prophecies Campaign
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The story follows Devona, Aidan, Cynn and Mhenlo albeit quite loosely. Devona is a female Warrior, Aidan is a male Ranger, Cynn is a female Elementalist and Mhenlo a male Monk. There has been some speculation as to why the group does not involve a Mesmer or Necromancer although some claim that Eve, a female necromancer, is part of the group. As you make your own character, you are actually the main hero.
'Pre-searing' Ascalon
Guild Wars starts in a place called Ascalon, a sunny, grassy woodland area. Ascalon at the moment is engaged in a small war, fighting large beastlike creatures called Charr that have invaded the kingdom of Ascalon from the North. Though the fight is not going well, the Ascalon people are aided by the gigantic Great Northern Wall (A reference to the real-life Great Wall of China) that is situated on their Northern border. However, the Charr have somehow found a way past the wall, and have become increasingly courageous in their attacks. With this backstory in place, the player is given a basic walkthrough of game mechanics in small quests that also award "experience points" (XP) that increase the player's level. After completing the main profession and story quests, the player is sent to a battle area where (s)he and a group of players or NPCs face off against another group. Victory or loss doesn't affect the story line, and the player is subsequently inducted into the Ascalon Academy. After a short speech by Prince Rurik, the player characters track and eliminate the Charr leader in the area. However, in an event that would come to be known as the Searing, the Charr found a way to destroy the great wall. Using a ritual of incredible power, they brought fire and crystal meteors from the sky, destroying the Great Northern Wall and turning Ascalon into a barren wasteland.
'Post-searing' Ascalon
2 years later, in 'post-Searing' Ascalon, the ragtag remainders of the once-grand military and heroes of Ascalon patrol the tattered remnants of their once thriving country, fighting off the invading force of Charr. Prince Rurik and the aging King Adelbern are constantly forced to fall back further and further, as every battle won equals ten battles lost. However, a gigantic regiment of Charr soon arrives to reinforce their brethren. As the heroes fight through the wasteland, they fall upon the legendary horn Stormcaller, which is said to hold immense power against any invaders of Ascalon. Stormcaller weakens the invading force of Charr and the heroes successfully push them out of the capital. Prince Rurik and his father, King Adelbern, dispute over the next move in their campaign against the Charr in the now crumbling city of Rin. Adelbern wants to dig in and fight off the Charr while Rurik, after seeing the devastation wrought upon the capital city of Rin, says the people of Ascalon should flee and make their way to Kryta. The king exiles his son from Ascalon, and thus the heroes and those who chose to follow Rurik are forced to retreat to the kingdom of Kryta by way of the dangerous Shiverpeak Mountains.
North Shiverpeaks
The heroes start at Yaks Bend and head for Borlis Pass, where the Deldrimor dwarves give them a place to rest for the night. The Stone Summit (the main enemy here) are a band of rebellious and extremely racist dwarves who fight to stop the heroes. Ballista block the path for Rurik and the survivors, so it is up to the group to destroy them. After fighting their way to the Frost Gate, Rurik holds off the Stone Summit while the heroes open the gigantic door. However, this is where the brave prince would meet his end after being partially buried under an avalanche and then executed on the spot by the Stone Summit leader, Dagnar Stonepate. After the Frost Gate, the heroes faced a short but challenging task as they head from Beacon's Perch to the Gates of Kryta, making the passage secure for the refugees aside from the ocassional Ettin.
North Kryta Province
Upon reaching Kryta, the heroes meet the White Mantle, the religious group leading the kingdom which had stopped their own Charr invasion. Before the heroes and the refugees they escort can gain safe entrance through the Gates of Kryta, they are tasked with helping Justicar Hablion clear the nearby swamp of undead. After the battle, the heroes are granted access to Lions Arch, the capital of Kryta. As friends of the White Mantle, they are asked to go to D'Alessio Seaboard in order to protect Confessor Dorian from an undead assault. For their bravery in completing this deed, they are inducted as members of the White Mantle. The White Mantle then asks the heroes to administer a Mantle ritual, the Test of the Chosen. They are to use the Eye of Janthir to locate people with great magical potential, referred to as "Chosen." The heroes are instructed to escort the chosen to Loamhurst, so that the White Mantle can presumably instruct the chosen and enhance their magical abilities.
Maguuma Jungle
The White Mantle are leading the chosen into the Maguuma Jungle when they are ambushed by a group called the Shining Blade, led by a woman named Saidra. The heroes follow as the Shining Blade take the kidnapped chosen deep into the jungle. In the wilds of the jungle, the heroes find the chosen trapped by spiders and agree to work with the Shining Blade to save them. In a conversation with Evennia, the leader of the Shining Blade, the heroes are told that the White Mantle are actually sacrificing the chosen on the Bloodstone so they can never be brought back to life and the Shining Blade is working to liberate them. To uncover the truth for themselves, the heroes travel to Bloodstone Fen and look on as Justiciar Hablion executes the chosen. The heroes are given no choice but to battle with the White Mantle. After striking Hablion down, Confessor Dorian sends out a legion of White Mantle soldiers to exact revenge on the traitorous heroes. The heroes are asked to travel to Aurora Glade and attune the Henge Portal to reach the Henge of Denravi, the capital city of the jungle.
South Kryta
With a good base of operations, the Shining Blade get more aggressive, and send the players into South Kryta. First, in Riverside Province, they steal the Scepter of Orr from the White Mantle. In Sanctum Cay, they take the scepter to Vizier Khilbron, who is a powerful magic user, and has agreed to help the Shining Blade in return for the Scepter. When the players reach the Vizier, however they are told they have been betrayed by someone called Markis, one of the highest-ranking leaders of the Shining Blade. The Mantle have captured Evennia, and try to capture the players, but the Vizier summons a ship to take them to the Crystal Desert. There, the players are supposed to ascend, and afterwards they will be powerful enough to beat the White Mantle and their Unseen Gods.
Crystal Desert
In the Crystal Desert, the players meet several ghosts of a people once called the Elonians who, before the game's time, had tried to ascend and failed. Their ruins are spread throughout the desert. A ghostly hero called Turai Ossa, in particular, helps the players through three tests needed to be allowed to try and ascend. These tests were failed in one way or another by the ghosts who previously tried ascending, but the players succeed in doing them. The players ascend, and are than sent to talk to a dragon called Glint. Glint explains to them that they are in the "Flameseeker Prophecies" that she predicted a long time ago. She also explains that the White Mantle gods are creatures called Mursaat, and that most of the Shining Blade have been captured or killed. She sends players to the Southern Shiverpeaks to rejoin the fight against the White Mantle.
Southern Shiverpeaks
In the Shiverpeaks, players first go to the southern Shiverpeaks to try and rescue Evennia and Saidra. They get Evennia out, but Saidra gets killed while distracting their captors. The players also meet the Mursaat for the first time.
The Mursaat are the 'false gods' worshipped by the White Mantle. They have a skill called Spectral Agony that quickly kills those whom it used on, unless the player's armor has been 'infused'; infused armor gives the player the ability to withstand the Mursaat's Spectral Agony attack. The players then travel to the Iron Mines of Moladune, where they must find someone called The Seer to 'infuse' their armor. With this protection, the players go on to kill the traitor Markis. At this time, the Stone Summit capture the dwarven capital of Thunderhead Keep. Players go to this city, recapture it from the Stone Summit, and kill the Stone Summit leader in the process. They then defend the city from a Mursaat/White Mantle attack, at the end killing the White Mantle leader, Confessor Dorian. After this battle, Vizier Khilbron creates a portal to the Ring of Fire islands, where he says he can find something powerful enough to beat the Mursaat.
The Ring of Fire Island Chain
The Ring of Fire Island Chain is made up of a string of volcanoes and there are no permanent human settlements there, however the Mursaat have a very large fortress. In the first two missions on the islands, players break into this fortress, taking the Vizier to the door of Komalie, which, if opened, will release the powerful things the Vizier Khilbron said could defeat the Mursaat. Upon the breaking of the seal which locked the Door of Komalie, however, Vizier Khilbron revealed his true intentions. He was in fact the Lich who attacked Kryta with his army of undead soldiers. He had simply used the players up to this point to gain access to the Titans, a powerful race of beings who bow to no power except for the Scepter of Orr. He planned to use these Titans to conquer all of Tyria, crushing the Mursaat and anyone else who stood in his way. In the last mission, players fight these Titans, destroy portals that had been planned to take the titans to Ascalon, Kryta, and Deldrimor, and kill the Lich. To prevent this, the Lich sets upon the reanimated corpse of Rurik to defeat the heroes, however, he is defeated and is killed at his own request, finally bringing him peace. The Lich had to be killed upon the Bloodstone in the volcano, however. Doing so not only killed the Lich permanently, but also used his soul to power the seal which closed the Door of Komalie once more.
The Vision of Glint (Epilogue)
After completing the game, players arrive once again in Droknar's Forge. There they can now kneel in front of Glint's statue and a vision of her will appear. She will reveal to the player that the Armageddon Lords, the leaders of the Titans, are doing far more damage than she ever anticipated. First, the player must go to Mineral Springs to defeat the first of the Titans so that Droknar's Forge will be safe. After defeating him the player can do the next three missions in any order they want. The player can choose to go aid Ascalon's king, Adelbern, who even in his old age is fighting the Titans. After defeating them, the player can head to North Kryta once more to protect the Ascalon settlers. After they are safe from the Titan threat, the player must go to the Henge of Denravi which has been overrun with Titans. After helping Evennia defeat them, Glint gives the player one last mission, which is to defeat the three Titan Lords who are now being worshipped by the evil Charr. After succeeding in this mission the players find that Tyria is now free from the Titan menace. [Italic text]
Sub-plotline of Prophecies Campaign
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The Temple of the Ages: The Underworld and Fissure of Woe
The Temple of the Ages is a difficult place to reach in North Kryta Province. It is the location of statues of each of the five gods in Guild Wars lore (Balthazar, Dwayna, Grenth, Lyssa, and Melandru). If a player's home region has the 'Favor of the Gods,' he may kneel at the statues in order to make the corresponding god's avatar appear. The player can interact with two of these avatars, the Voice of Grenth and the Champion of Balthazar. The Voice of Grenth can take players to the Underworld, the realm of the dead. Balthazar's Champion will take players to the Fissure of Woe, where a "never-ending war" rages between Balthazar's Eternals and the Shadow Army. Both of these areas present parties with challenging quests. However, players must be ascended in order to access these two places, which consists of completing three trials in the crystal desert and winning a battle against your doppelganger. You then must pay an offering of 1000g to the respective god, which can be quite a lot if your party dies inside and you get resurrected outside the statue.
Sorrow's Furnace
Sorrow's Furnace is a stronghold for the Stone Summit dwarves. A great monstrosity, the Iron Forgeman, resides in the center. He is incredibly strong and is difficult to defeat. In Sorrow's Furnace the Stone Summit have imprisoned many species to mine for them as slaves, such as the Dredge. You return to the Southern Shiverpeaks to finish your pledge with the Deldrimor Dwarves, and to lay a final siege to the last stronghold of the Stone Summit and also partly to defend Droknar's Forge from the titan army. Many players 'farm' this area for the rare green items the Stone Summit generals, such as Tanzit Razorstone and Korvald Willcrusher, drop.
The Mists and The Rift
The Mists touch all things, they bind the universe together, and in the center of The Mists lies The Rift, which is in the center of all things. Many months ago the entrance to the Hall of Heroes was the Tomb of Primeval Kings, and was gaurded by Rift Wardens and other foul creatures. To gain morale you had to defeat the Rift Wardens, of which there were 5.
The Hall of Heroes
The Hall of Heroes is a place where people who were heroes in life go when they die. It is a great honor to go there. This is the same area that is the final stage of PvP battle in Heroes' Ascent, this battle consits of a either a 1v1 or more alter match, there is no priest but a resurection shrine resurects your party every two minutes, including your Ghostly Hero. If you have control of the alter when the timer reaches zero, your party wins the battle, giving not only a (usualy) large amount of fame and the ticket to the next battle, but the name of your party leader or Guild is posted in everyone's chat. Once you have won the battle, a chest appears on the alter, giving items which include golds and celestrial sigils that can be traded for guild halls. These sigils used to be highly valueble, worth at one point 100k, but HoH has almost been farmed by pvpers to get money, so now the going price is about 12k. Winning here helps to sway the 'Favor of the Gods' to the party's home region.
The Heroes' Ascent
A man named Lord Odran wished to enter the Hall of Heroes deep in The Rift. He studied magic and eventually found the secret to enter there whilst still alive. He created a portal in the Crystal Desert and made it so that only he could reach it. The spirits were furious with him but could not harm a living being at the time. One day they became powerful enough to kill Lord Odran. When they did, nobody could disturb the portal, as no one knew of it. Since then other heroes have discovered the portal, but are pitted against one another by the spirits to prove themselves worthy enough to enter. Recently a dark portal has been opened, a rift to the Underworld. Three beings known as The Darknesses and their creatures of chaos have begun wrecking havoc there. They have drawn the attention of the Zaishen, who seek to employ the player's heroic abilities in cleansing the place of these new terrors.
The PvP Battle Isles
The Battle Isles are used for most player versus player combat. They have multiple locations for different types of combat.
Criticism
Acquisition of skills
Considerable time needs to be devoted for a player to unlock all of the skills available in the Prophecies chapter (500+ Hours). This has caused a great deal of discussions mostly between PvP players that believe that all skills are required for them to be able to play at high levels of competition. Its also believed that by allowing the use of those skills instantly, the game could expand its market.
Strong linking of PvE and PvP play
ArenaNet in designing the game have attempted to form strong links between PvE and PvP based play. This has met with some resistance as not all players like to play both PvP and PvE and they begrudge being required to play the type they dislike. However, in updates half a year after release this problem was solved by introducing a PvP-reward called faction, allowing each player to focus on his/her favorite form of play.
Forming Parties
There is no interface provided to ease the process of team building, a core game requirement. Players use local chat to put together teams. The only interface is the Party menu, which allows you to leave and eject members from your party.
Trading interfaces limited
If players wish to trade items with other players the interface is limited. Players are able to use a trade chat but as there is no persistence it can be difficult and time consuming to buy and sell items. Also trade chat is often turned off by many players and forgotten about, mostly due to the fact that people will also advertise a sale in the local chat. Arenanet has stated they would look into player-shop trading.
Appearance choice limited
There is limited choice for character customization, for instance there is a single body shape for each sex of a primary profession. It isn't until later in the game characters start to look particularly different from each other as different armours become available.
Broken Networking
The guild wars client will use port 80 for game data. As this port is reserved for HTTP, users behind HTTP proxies cannot play the game. Also, ISPs who implement QoS often set HTTP as low priority, resulting in very laggy game play. ArenaNet is aware of this problem, but currently is unable to fix it.
When a class or build becomes too powerful and dominates areas such as the Hall of Heroes, ArenaNet will reduce its power to improve game balance. This can have unwanted effects on people who use that build. Though the 'nerf' can also have the opposite effect, arenanet can sometimes make a mistake in a 'nerf' and make something super powefull that will dominate hall of heroes for a long amount of time until it is nerfed again. There have been many mistakes where builds haven't been nerfed and these builds have been farmed, even though they require no skill which is what happened to the infamous 'IWAY' that has almost ruined the rank system as unskilled players can now easily get better ranks then people that are skilled in making builds and that have been playing properly for months.
Quest Lists
There is no list of previously completed quests available to a player. This can make it hard to keep track of the quests that the player has completed. Therefore it is advisable to take every quest that you see offered and not abandon any quests as they may be hard to come back to at a late time.
Editions
As well as the standard edition, there are many other editions of Guild Wars available on the market. All of them contain the basic Account Creation Code and Manuscript Book, as well as other added features listed below.
Prophecies Pre-order Edition
This was the very first edition of Guild Wars available. It only contained 1 disc, with a CD-key key which one could use to access the Guild Wars Beta. This was not the full version of the game. After the beta was finished, players had to buy the full retail version to be able to continue playing with their accounts.
Players who took part in the pre-sale and beta testing events also received a special unique item added to each of their characters (as well as any characters they created in the future). The special item they got depended on where they got their pre-sale disc from. According to PlayNC.com, there are 6 different ones:
- Electronics Boutique (EB Games) preorder
- CompUSA preorder
- Best Buy preorder
- GameStop preorder
- "Generic" preorder (this would refer to a preorder key from a retailer other than the four listed above)
- European preorder
It is still possible to find the generic pre-sale disc on certain websites (such as Amazon), however, most of the others have long since sold-out..
Prophecies Collector's Edition
The Collector's Edition was available (in limited numbers) during the game's official release date (along with the standard edition). It offers the owner the use of Divine Aura. When a character uses any of the emotes in the game (ie: Dance, jump, etc.), depending on their class, a colored light will surround the character's hands. Collector's Edition Keys can also be added to standard accounts to add the extra Divine Aura feature to it. Once added to an account, all existing characters (as well as any characters created in the future) will have the Divine Aura.
The Collector's Edition also comes with a Guild Wars branded Logitec headset, a free 3-month trial for Teamspeak's "SpeakEasy" service, the soundtrack by Jeremy Soule on an audio CD and The Art of Guild Wars Book 1.
Prophecies Special Edition
The Special Edition is available now. It contains a Skill Pack code which allows you to unlock 7 regular skills, 1 elite skill, and 2 runes from the Priest of Balthazar. After adding the Skill Pack code to your account, a "PvP Unlock Coupon" will appear in your Manage Access Keys menu, and you will be able to redeem it anytime from Balthazar.
Additionally, the Special Edition also contains a code to download a free Mini-Pak from DirectSong (however the code no longer works because the Mini-Pak has been made available free to download), and The Art of Guild Wars Book 2.
Factions Pre-order Edition
According to GuildWars.com, the Factions pre-sale disc will ship on the 28th of February, 2006 and will be available in-store around the 7th-10th of March.
Like the previous one, the Factions pre-sale disc will grant users the chance to beta test the upcoming Guild Wars Factions game. However, all current Guild Wars account owners will already be able to beta test Factions, whether or not they buy the pre-sale disc. ArenaNet will include 2 unique items, one for each of the new professions, when buyers pre-order. When you pre-order the game, you may type in "/preorder" to get your unique items.
Factions Collector's Edition
ArenaNet is once again offering a Collector's Edition for players to buy as an alternative to the standard edition. The two new professions, Assassin and Ritualist, will receive a unique dance emote in-game for those who buy this version of the game. Because not enough were produced to meet the original demand, a free in-game item (a dragon mini pet) can be redeemed with each Collector's Edition account.
The Factions Collector's Edition will again come with a soundtrack CD and an art book. In addition, the North American version will include a sticker set, mouse pad, desk calendar, a double-sided poster with the Factions poster on one side and a map of Cantha on the other, and a special dance emote for the assassin and ritualist by using the command " /dancenew" where you get ghostly backup dancers and different dances you do with them (You also get a sun-like spotlight above you). The European version includes the same items, as well as a cloth picture, and a unique code which allows you to download a free Factions Mini-Pak from DirectSong.