Hi, I'm debating about getting guild wars as I now have a working internet connection and free time. so can somebody fill me in on whether it is any good and possibly which version to buy/avoid.

Guildwars is awesome

not as an MMO mind you as the intelligence threshold to play the game isn't high enough to require players to be smart enough to have a credit/debit card

However, if you're looking for a standard RPG with easy co-op options to play with friends its pretty good

Marty and I are playing the Nightfall expansion atm

According to thier websit they are bringing out guild wars platinum which has the origianl game plus the newest expansion set; however surly you need the two in the middle for the latter expansion to make sense; am I right and this is a maketing gimmic or am I wrong?

There are currently 3 campeigns out

Prophecies (Original Guildwars)
Factions
Nightfall

Each is fully stand alone (no you don't need the original game), and set on its own continent so you don't need any of the others to make sense of whats going on, and there is little-to-nothing taken over from 1 campeign to another

All of them have the 6 core classes (Fighter, Ranger, Elementalist, Necromancer, Mesmer, Monk) and Factions and Nightfall also have 2 aditional classes only playable in their campeigns (Assassin and Ritualist for Factions, Dervish and Paragon for Nightfall)

To clarify:

If you own Factions, you will still not be able to play an Assassin or Ritualist in the Nightfall or Prophecies campeign, same with Nightfall to others, the bonus classes are very tied in to the lore of the continents the expansions are set on, they don't work in other settings, howver the 6 core classes work in any of the expansions, weather you own the original game or not

To further clarify:

You own the original Guildwars for the Prophecies Campeign, Bonus Items that come with it, and Sound Track CD that comes with it, you don't get any extra classes for having it, you can play all the classes in it without it, you don't need it for the expansions to work properly, they are fully stand alone

As for Eye of the North:

This is the 3rd expansion (or 4th if you consider the Original to be an expansion, which you should do (I mean, how often is it that the original game retails for less than any of its expansions, and adds less content to the game than any of them)), to my knowledge it is still only available for pre-order

I suspect it will do what the other expansions have, which is include its own campeign on its own continent, unrelated to the others with 2 bonus classes

Well I've done some of my own research and from what I understand about the latest expansion is that it caters for only characters at level 20 and uses what you have from the previous games.

Also from what you say (twice no less) you can move core characers from expansion to expasion but not the unique characters? thats majotly annoying if you have one really good expansion character that you like using!

out of interset any recommendations as to which is the best block? (on amaxon all have similar prices for basic packages, but nightfall collectors is the same as nightfall (20) while factions is at 40

There is no moving of characters, if you create a rollplay character thats it, he plays through the campeign you create him/her on, and then I think you might be able to go to the PVP area if you want

oh and you can visit the areas for other expansions, but taking an existing character and playing through another campeign with him/her is impossible as far as I know

You can also create PVP only characters, which arent in any campeign, I beleive can combine Factions and Nightfall classes, and start at level 20 in the PvP continent

As for reccomending one, Marty and I are playing through Nightfall atm, I havnt touched any content only in Factions or Original yet, so I wouldnt know, but you could just buy Nightfall and catch up with us very quickly, you'd be able to keep playing with us all the way till the end using all the content we are atm

Just one request if you do though, both Marty and I have Dervish as our primary class, so make something that isn't a Dervish

Sounds like a good plan - bank account prepare to feel the pain ! (its free to play but I build up largeish orders before ordering - much more fund to recive)

just out of interest which one of you designed the clearly super dervish build that you two are probably using ( :lol: )

They're different Dervish builds

Dervish is a melee class that gets better the more enemies its fighting, they use Scythes which have a chance to hit multiple enemies at once, and use enchantments and attacks that deal damage radialy, steal life (synergising with the scythe-multi-attack) or deal more damage to an enemy the more other enemies are around him
Their primary ability is Mystacism, which gives them back life and energy whenever an echantment on them ends

I'm using a Dervish/Necromancer to maximise my damage output by having undead minions attack with me, they also take hits for me, thus increasing my longevity in battle

Marty was using a Dervish/Monk, using the monk simply to give him more enchantments to abuse with Mystecism, however last I was on he had swapped to a Dervish/Mesmer, mumbling something about making a walking bomb, I don't quite get how

well its on order from amazon

better stay far away from the bomb when it goes off!

Well its arrived - actuall it came yesterday but there were DVDs which required attention first; my recent addiction to Bebop. So who are you and where are you - it will probably take me time to catch up though!

I am Mordax Praetorian

Marty is Marty the Swift

We're on the Nightfall Campeign

and We'll hopefuly be playing again when Virgin get their lazy selves around to putting us a decent connection in

people who are not part of my guild and want to be, post here for an invite to join the fun. this means you Alex (Overmind)

hmmm....are u noobs still playing that if so i may have to get it in order to fill some time between my wow-fixs well at least ill only have one monthly payment still

ok downloaded the origanal one started an elementalist so eh well see whats happening

wow, i have the original, i dont have the expansions, nor have i gone far in the game, maybe we can team up...

the others are all lvl20 ect. i suck with a 11E / Me and a 5D

i think i disapointed them when i didnt give up wow lol

If people would like to join my guild please give me you character name and ill invite you in.