Yes, I gave GW another bash and since I wasn't engrossed with another game this time (was too addicted to WoW when I bought GW to give it a second glance to be honest - although I've never knocked or disliked the game) I got into this weekend after Luvian made me remember I actually have it [img]smile.gif[/img] .

It isn't as intuitive as most MMO's IMHO and by that I don't mean it's not simple or dumbed down, I mean intuitive...which isn't a bad thing eventually.

Anyways, I have some questions if anyone can help. I've been messing around with a Monk/Warrior but I've heard some tell of that being a gimped combo. People say War should be my main then Monk, because I won't be able to equip warrior armor. Are there any advantages to this combo or is it all downhill? I like the 'feel' of a Monk and don't really want to start off as a tank but would prefer it the way I have it. I'm only level 5 atm anyways so just looking for some insight.

What exactly is the deal on main class? What do you gain/lose as opposed to taking a class as secondary? For example, a Ranger/Monk or a Monk/Ranger..what is the difference?

Am I right in assuming weapons are found mostly in drops and armors mostly bought? As a thumb rule I mean.

Do dyes work on armor sets or only one piece of armor? Is the dye then lost when used?

Where do I buy my epic mount? j/k

[ 01-14-2006, 11:32 PM: Message edited by: SpiritWarrior ]

Warrior/Monk = Stronger attacks ( got strength ), More armour, weak heal ( no divine favour )
Monk/Warrior = Stronger heal ( because of divine favour ), weak attacks ( no strength ), weak armour

Ranger/Monk = Stronger range attack ( got exertise ), weak heal ( no divine favour )
Monk/Ranger = Stronger heal ( got divine favour ), weak range attack ( no expertise ).

Divine favour will make a character be able to heal more as they have heal bonus.

For example ,W/Mo when cast heal will be able to heal for 30hp, Mo/W when cast heal will be able to heal for 50hp. That's 20hp more.

From my experience, as long as you have the monk class as primary or secondary class. People will expect you to heal them and save them from dying. Some people will expect a R/Mo or Mo/R to just stand there and heal and will get pissed if you take out your bow and attack.

IIRC, Weapons can be found through drops, bought from npc or quest rewards, armours can be bought or exchange item from npcs

Eyup, one piece of armour only. The dye is lost when used.

I agree, when I first got into the game there was no instructions, I had to figure out how to interact with the game myself, but then again I didn't reed the book. Now I'm used to it and it feel as intuitive as WoW. My main is a Monk/Warrior and it's a very good combo. The warrior class has interesting stances to avoid attacks, and if you feel like messing around, you can always get an adrenaline attack or two, as they use no mana. But really, monk barely ever use their secondary class. There is just so many healing/support skills you'll want to take along. When I first started I had enough room on my bar for smithing skills as well as an attack or two, but now it's full of only fancy support stuff. You get your main class's armor as well as their special talent, that's all. What this mean is that if you go warrior you'll have more defense but less mana, as caster armor give bonus to both your mana pool and mana regen.

The main class specifit ckills are divine favor for monks, fast casting for mesmer...

So as a Monk/Warrior you get the defense and mana of a monk, but with access to the attacks and skills of a warrior. A a warrior/monk, you get the defense and mana of a warrior but have access to the monk skills. This mean you get to do some healing but you have less mana for it, but you're more resistant. Yes weapons are mostly found, some can be gotten from collectors. Armors are always crafted, either by the armor guys of collectors. Dye can be used on any armor parts, on weapons, and shield. The only exception seem to be the mage headgear. Once the dye is used it's lost.
They are only for rent and we call them runners.

[ 01-15-2006, 04:44 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

Each class has its own Primary attribute.

Warrior = Strength (Increases % of armour penitration)
Ranger = Expertise (reductes energy cost of skills)
Necromancer = Soul Reaping (gains energy from Corpses)
Monk = Devine Favor (greater healing powers)
Elementalist = energy storage (allows you in increase the amount of energy you have)

Now you can only put points in this attribute if you have the class as a primary.

Also you can only access the armour of your primary class. I.e A Monk can not wear a warriors armour.

I have a W/Mo & a Mo/W both for different tasks. My Mo/W is an effective farmer allowing him to solo high level areas.

The best weapons come from drops however there are some weapon crafters that can craft you weapons in exchange for gold & materials. But you will probably be able to buy a better weapon from a player or find one as a cheast/monster drop.

Yes the dye is only for one piece of the armour and is lost when used (expensive to dye all your armour black [img]smile.gif[/img] )You can also mix dye to get better colours.

EDIT: I am one of those mounts :) . About the only place I can't run yet is the Droknars forge run but I'm still practicing.

[ 01-15-2006, 04:50 AM: Message edited by: T-D-C ]

Firstoff, whoever told you a Mo/W sucked and that you should switch to W/Mo is a person who's advice you should not heed. The W/Mo combination is the most laughed at because it's regarded as the "noob" class. The vast majority of characters you'll see frolicking around will be of the /Mo variety of the Warrior, and the very vast majority of those will act as proof against Darwin's theory of evolution.
The Warrior class will surprise with it's complexity, if you ever learn to do it well. I myself, after completing a Necro and a Mesmer, thought a Warrior's job was easy, so I started one to try it out. It is easy to just ram the mobs head first and then spam attack skills like mad, but then again, that approach hardly ever yields any mentionable results. In PvE, the Warrior's job is to primarily take damage and protect the squishy(caster armor) targets either by blocking the way, attracting attention or slowing the enemy down. However, unless you are running, NEVER equip Mending. I can't stress how important this is. The running joke right now is the Fiery Dragon Sword Mending Warrior/Monk with Strength of Honor. If such a character appears in your group, expect disaster.
The Monk, on the other hand, is a wholly different subject. If you choose to go smiting, always advise the group that you are smiting, so that they can tell you to change to healing or protection. On the rare occasion the group gets a monk, they don't want him to smite around. If you go along the way of the Healer, you'll find yourself looking at red(if you're lucky), green(a bit less lucky) and pink(much unlucky) health bars of your allies, and make sure that the dark red area is the smallest possible. This can be tedious and boring. The Protector, on the other hand, has to look over the battlefield, and take note of who is attacked by who, and act with that in mind. No matter which way you go, expect to be praised, cussed at, lifted in towards the heavens and stomped in the mud by most groups, depending of you doing a good job and them knowing it, or you doing a good job but them sucking it regardlessly.
Now, a bit about primaries and secondaries. The primary you choose you can NEVER change(unless you make a new character), whereas you can change your secondary later(final 20% of the storyline), and change it back any time you want. You miss out on your secondaries primary attribute(Strength, Fast Casting, Divine Favor, Energy Storage, Expertise and Soul Reaping) and you can only apply runes to the matching class armor, and you can only wear your primary class' armor. There will be people who will tell you that some classes are not meant to be primaries, but secondaries. These classes often include Mesmers, Necromancers and Rangers. Ignore these people to the best of your ability.
@ T-D-C: Where do you get stopped in a Droknar run? I can make it all the way once I get throug Lornar's, but the Golems always stop me very close to the exit.

I personally actually found the interface very intuitive. I have a bow, I shoot at bad guys. They shoot at me, I dodge them. I'm low on health, I heal myself. I = inventory, P = party, 1-8 are for skills and U = minimap.

Okay thanks guys, I get it now. Basically, I'd be more support with my main being Monk and any other melee class as secondary would simply be backup to that supporting class. What happend was I expected Monk to be a melee fighter with magical/spiritual skills much like the D&D monk. I didn't really want to be a primary caster-class but more so a hybrid, so I went with the so called 'noob' build lol, and rolled a War/Mo. It may be common but I like it. So far it feels powerful..everything the paladin should be in WoW but sadly is not.

Yeah, the interface is very nice, sorta modernized and streamlined. I love that you can totally customize it - that was a godsend. All I meant was the overall mechanics and learning-curve took a little longer to get used to than most, which is fine [img]smile.gif[/img] .

I've only just started running Droks after perfecting my Ascalon to the Desert run.

I can almost make it but have problems with the ice imps and golums and their slowing spells.

I'm trying a solution of using Holy Veil & the Hex reducing helm to see how that goes.

Once through Lornars the rest of the run is a cake walk

Biggest downside to this game is it is FILLED with punks. Even asking directions gets you a smart answer or none at all. I get tired of logging in to a stream of obscene language as it kinda ruins the feel and there seems to be virtually no policing of the servers whatsoever. What I do when it really annoys me is change districts to a less populated one so it's all good for a free game I guess.

[ 01-15-2006, 05:54 PM: Message edited by: SpiritWarrior ]

if you want some well mannered people to play with best bet is to find people who are nice to you and joiin their guild.

I have a bunch of great guys in my guild and such never play with Pick Up Groups.

My other option is just to turn off local chat when in cities like Ascalon or Lions Arch.

There are alot of people who just failed their 53rd attempt at beating Thunderhead Keep(when you get there, call on us, ok?) so they go off all angry and riled up. IF you ask them have they beaten the game yet, prepare for a barrage of swears and curses and mentions of your family 4 generations before you.
Lately, I've been hanging in the International Districts. Especially in LA, as part of The Boat Crew :D You should try it some times.

LOL Becha you were there for the Tormentor 15K update protest as well hehehehehehe.

We have a pretty sweet group of guildies and have never had a problem with Thunderhead keep. easyiest setup for victory that I have found is the following

2 warriors
2 rangers
2 monks
2 necros/ele/mes

Basically when you get to the keep itself you split in 3.

1 warrior/1 ranger/1 monk @ each door. Ranger trapps the hell out of each door. Warior beats on anything taht comes near the door. monks heal them.

The ele/necro/mes stay in the middle and support each door with nukes/ minons etc.

Keep the king up on the stairs as he is not infused and will die pretty quick with Mursatt around.

Also Pray that the monk mursatt boss doesnt turn up. :D

Yeah, I spent 5 hours at Thunderhead Keep before getting it right.

What was the most frustrtating is that people keep giving up. I think it took 4 tries before we managed to get to the keep without anyone leaving. We managed to get to the last boss with only 4 members once.

About the Warrior/Monk combo. I disagree, it's a pretty nice build if played right. The problem is that there are tons of newbie picking it up without knowing how to play, they just cast mending, charge off like idiots and get killed. A good warrior/monk can really help your group.

Yeah my W/Mo only uses mending for running. When fighting I use either Balth Spirt to help charge my Adrenalin skills or Strength of Honor to Boost my damamge.

The reason I keep my enchants up is because I have a Max +45 heath -2 dmg received while enchanted sheild.

Yep, was there, stomping atop the frog doing male necro dance and all. Then I got my 15k and was happy. [img]smile.gif[/img]
And I never said anything to suggest W/Mos are a bad build. I myself have a Warrior, most frequently a /Mo, /N or /E, and I know how effective they can be. It's just that I've seen far too many bad ones to not have any predjudice. I will accept a W/Mo in my group if I need someone to tank, but before heading out he will almost always be subject to a thorough questioning. If at any point he uses "!11!!", "1337" or anything similar without the connotations of a humorous remark, he is insta-kicked.

LOL similar screening process here as well. BTW we finally go our own vent server for the Shadowsworn Guild IM SO HAPPY!

How rare are purple items in this game? Just saying cuz I found one at level 6 and was hard pressed to believe they could be that rare since I found one so low. It's a stave I can't use so I have no idea what to sell it for. vendor says 20g : /.

[ 01-17-2006, 04:34 AM: Message edited by: SpiritWarrior ]

White is extremly common
Blue is common or crafter/quest weapons
Purple is uncommon
Golds are rare
Greens are Boss items

Depending on the mods that are on that purple staff you will either sell it to merchant OR salvage the mods with an expert salvage kit.

[ 01-17-2006, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: T-D-C ]

You will see your first gold just before the Gates of Kryta mission. It will not be max damage, not even near it, but that is where most players pick up thier first(all 4 of my chars managed to get their first there). You can be extremely lucky with purples, I found a +5 Insightful on a purple staff in the jungle, and that was one very lucky drop.
So, to get things straight:
White and blue: from the start of the game
Purple: I got my first at Nolani. Purples will always have a mod.
Gold: Kryta onwards. Golds will always have two mods.
Max Damage: From Droknar's Forge and all the later areas.
Green: In Grenth's Footprint and Sorrow's Furnance, drops from bosses. They are max damage, max bonus mod and with two perfect mods. They are unmoddable and uncolorable.
If you don't know where something is, don't ask cause you'll get there eventually and you'll only want to cheat and run yourself there.