Join the brand new community discord! discord.com/invite/waydot We are essentially trying to make an all in one MMO hub. We're still quite small at the moment but we had over 100 members in the first 24 hours. If you want to come in and chat with me or others about MMOs, join us.
Space is the default key for auto attack or interact. Sometimes enemy isn't wrth using skills, or your skills aren't available (dissabled, on cod our out or rage/energy) and you need to mark the target quickly with Controll key( I think it works the same with Command key on macs).
you know the question " what game would you like to play again for the first time?" this. this game. This is the game why i was able to convince my dad to get us internet. this is the game which i was able to play whenever i wanted because it always had something fun to do. after nearly 20 years no other game was able to give me this much joy. thanks guild wars
@@johnhelton9624 Nope. Each expansion was buy to play - one flat buying price to play forever until the game shuts down. I think at one point they started bundling Prophecies (which is the base game) with Factions (which was the expansion after Prophecies). Then they released Nightfall, and then came GWEN (a tie into a secret that lasted for years with an NPC called Gwen).
I feel you, forever a part of my childhood. Now as a 33 year old I'm constantly playing GW2 on and off and I love the fact that it's so casual since now I have kids and all that. Not the same feeling I had in GW1 and that's okay.
Always and forever this game.... Followed very very closely by any Zelda Game.... Going back to this game from time to time is so much fun. And it has the Best class of any and every MMO (I know I know its not really an MMO) Dervish..... There is no better class... I am so disappointed that ANet have not included Dervish in GW's 2
The whole game trains you for group pvp combat. Picking off healers and supports before squishies and then finally frontliners. Also the memory of early heroes ascent where we all lived in fear of the korean players. Winning was the only way to open up the elite dungeons for each region. Or at least until they removed that because EU and NA were just getting murdered so badly.
@@phftheebonidiot637 When i started playing i was too young to really understand that whole highly skilled part of the pvp scene, and every time seeing the popup message in chat saying that X team had won the favor of the gods or something like that, i was always like "Man I wish i could be these guys one day" and that hyped me so much to get good at pvp, farmed the RA 4v4 for so long
@@jonast7605 Maybe you just like PVP in general, but it was the PVE aspect that has kept me returning to the game, and why I'm currently starting another GWAMM project.
My Son loved this game so much when he was finishing high school and starting college. Then he started playing GW2, so as a way to stay in touch with him, I bought and started playing GW2 a few months after he left for college. It was my first MMORPG, so I was always way behind him and never really caught up before he and his friends started playing something else, but I liked GW2 so much I kept playing to this day.
Man this brings me back. I legit loved this more than WoW back when it launched, but a lot of my friends didn't share the sentiment. The whole build diversity by having a limited amount of skills was super ingenious.
Same, when I was in college, everyone was playing WoW and I was trying to get people to play Guild Wars with me but the shiny new world of Warcraft had too strong of a pull on my friends lol
I was in a computer science class in high school beta testing for Guild Wars 1. I remember my classmates being fixated on whether they should try WoW or Everquest 2 before they released, I recommended WoW because of Blizzard. When I tried WoW on the day it launched, I was surprised to find I actually preferred the gameplay of GW1. When I shared that sentiment a week later when everyone was thoroughly hooked on WoW, some of my classmates became actively hostile toward me for a number of months for not liking WoW. lol
@@DaleKampI played WoW for 5 months since launch and I gave up. The game didn't have the immersion, realism, tweaking, balance of GW1. I didn't like in WoW how there was no collision detection (no clipping) for characters and projectiles. You can't body block someone, and once a fireball is cast you can't hide behind a wall or hill to avoid the fireball. The cartoony art style in WoW was also a turn off. PvP in GW1 was the best, most balanced, most fun in any ___RPG in my opinion.
I wish you could have been there to see the game full of thousands of players. There was a massive trading forum for crafting components and a dye system where everyone was farming for black dye. I also remember there being an ascension system that was crazy hard to do as a kid. Thanks for the nostalgia man really took me back!
I did see the game in that era.. the problem is i was 8 years old at the time and didn't fully comprehend it and now hardly remember that experience D:
@@littlebadassgaming There was the Black Widow in the Underworld (end game 'elite' area), so it was captured more to just show off. Having a Dire stat one was considered the best
Guild wars was the MMO alternative (not an MMO) for those of us who either didn't want to pay a subscription fee, or in the case of kids, couldn't pay a fee to play an MMO. It provided a very good option during a time when World of Warcraft, EQ, lineage 2, and FFXI ruled the MMO landscape. Another thing that really stood out for me back in the day about guild wars 1, it was very different in that you could solo (with henchmen) just about everything in the game. This was definitely not the case for most MMOs and MMO like games at the times.
definitely, at that time paying a monthly fee for a game? no thanks. but after those long years nothing changed ^^ i refuse to pay a monthly fee for a game to this day.
Very true, however, it is worth mentioning that during it's prime, (Prophecies + Factions) Guild Wars 1 was essentially played as any other MMOrpg, you'd do the whole PvE content with your guildies or other players looking to run the cooperative missions (dungeons). Henchmen were mainly used for subbing any leavers or doing some chill sidequests or farm :)
As someone who still plays GW1, in addition to GW2, I applaud your endeavor to bring light to this treasure. You did a wonderful job of summarizing the nature of the game and drawing attention to the fact this is a very strategic game. The are many additional features yet to lock as well. One of the challenges I took was to complete each mission from all the campaigns in hard mode using heros, which I loved! Some people have taken that a step further by doing the same challenge solo! I truly wish the hero mechanism was available in GW2 to add a more strategic element to that game. Regarding your choice of Prophecies over Nightfall, I think you made a very good choice, as it allowed you to experience the game series as it was made available to the public. It also allowed you to experience pre-searing, which would not be available if you had started with a different campaign. I hope you continue your GW1 journey to experience the depth this game has to offer!
Guildwars 1 was that "Oh I wish there was an mmo with 1,000 skills" before people watched sao and the like. It's a game tactical rpg players adore. It's really well crafted and it has lots of love poured into it.
Fun Fact, not only is getting to lvl 20 in Pre Searing a challenge that players do for themselves, it was also imposed by the devs. Upon reaching lvl 20 you get a what is called a Title for it, basically an in game achievement that can be displayed on your character for all other players to see. Title Hunting is one of the end game things to do that also happens to start at lvl 1. Getting 30 titles maxed out on one character grants you the title God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals, the most prestigious title in the game. I love this game and have play since '06, I still play to this day and currently have 7,500hrs in the game. If you wanted to learn more and play with me I'd be glad to teach you some more about the game.
Many of these same titles transferred over to gw2 with you as well. The hall of monuments also unlocked skins for the sequel. The classic fiery dragon sword that Ridlock uses for example.
@@nonono9194 It was my childhood as well, it’s so good. I don’t play super frequently these days like I used to but I still get on probably one night a week and play to this day though.
Hey I started with gw2 back in the day but wana play gw1 now to better understand the lore and experience the gameplay, I could use a guide if you’re down :)
tbf getting to level 20 in pre is pretty easy nowadays with the new quests, /bonus weapons and fire imp. Its a no brainer doing it as one of the easier titles to grind for GWAMM. Back in the day you had to death level Charr and the grind was real, the title earnt actual respect, now LDoA is nothing special.
guild wars remains to this day as my favorite MMO, I think that by limiting skills to just the 8 on the bar and having the primary/secondary professions it encourages a LOT of build diversity. And its still very playable even when solo, thanks to the hero system and that they share the full breadth of creativity that players have.
I just subscribed because of this video. So many memories were unlocked watching this. Bravo to you sir! This game came out when I was 19 years old and I put thousands of hours into it for several years. I remember following each expansion release like it was Christmas. My personal favorite expansion was Factions and I remember I would sit in Kaineng City for hours trading different items with people and making new friends. I spent HOURS meticulously working on builds, especially for my Monk (who remembers the 55 monk?!). I also spent plenty of hours in PvP, especially doing AB, Alliance Battles. I can also remember some super tense Guild v Guild battles and using Team Speak (Damn this takes me back). There was just SO MUCH you could do in this game. ArenaNet also created some of my favorite holiday events. Especially the event for Halloween. Hanging out in Lions Arch, or any main city hub and hanging out with people emote dance synching... Asking for runs (Drok runs!!), even creating builds to do a run yourself, making massive gold. In my opinion this game helped create the boon of online PC gaming and went on from there. World of Warcraft was great, but for me there was something very special about this game. I remember this game getting a lot of flack for not doing things that World of Warcraft did, but ArenaNet stuck to their guns and did their own thing and I applaud them for that. This is definitely a game I would go back in time with a wiped memory for.
omg, the Fear Not this Night at the end ... ugh, I love it. My heart. I adore both games, both GW1 and GW2. It's been such an important part of my childhood and adulthood and I absolutely 100% encourage people to try both games. GW1 is definitely harder, but it's still so fun and holds up so well even now.
Seen so many "Guild Wars 1 reviews" where they just play Pre-Searing and base their decision off of that alone... Thank you for actually diving deeper. Been playing this game on and off since my childhood and have since accumulated 2000 hours in it, of which 500 was probably spent in pre-searing on my lvl 20 who's working through wards the Legendary Survivor title in that part of the game. One thing of note in regard to pre (and the other major player hub "Kamadan" (in the NightFall campaign) is that "US District 1" is usually where everybody hangs out. You can change your district in the top left corner of your screen. If you had done so in Pre-Searing you would've actually seen double to triple the amount of players in Ascalon lol. There's a lot of people who enjoy pre-searing and decide to make a character to stay there and lvl up titles (especially the Legendary Defender Of Ascalon title). Anyway, great video. Thank you for giving this beautiful gem of a (20-something year old) game some exposure :)
All time favorite game not for the PvE/story, but for the PvP, specifically Guild vs. Guild battles. Had me playing daily for 7 years. To date the best PvP i ever played in any MMO.
Codex Arena was crazy fun too.. the variety of gameplay you got there was insane. Faction vs. faction was very fun too as there wasn't any strict meta.
man me a 12 year old boy and my best friend were too stuipid to understand pvp. We always died in this pvp arena challenges when for example the trap rangers came.. still fun times, i laughed so much
Hey, about Lion's Arch - it looked different at the start of GW2. Larger, but closer in design to GW1. Then during Season 1 it was destroyed and rebuilt to what we have now.
The first time going over the wall and fighting charr, that was fun. I also remembered trying to reach level 20 without dying once during the factions expansion as an assassin for a title but literally died every time right before reaching 20.
Spent 5 years on this lovely game, I wish I could spend them again for the first time. I enjoyed it way more than any other online RPG I've ever played. Played with great people, even role-played on it, was perfect. Yes, it's worth playing in 2024, but also yes you need to accept that it will not be the same intuitiveness than other classic RPGs today. Achievements are harder to get, you don't farm for higher level gear to have that +1 point you want (at some point during the end-game you will have your "close to final" gear), contrary to other "tier-based" gears in other RPGs. I sincerely wish more people would accept playing older games instead of succombing to the hype of newer games that are filled with micro-transactions, hype-based contents, that are way more dull and consensual than playing with friends a role-playing game that was intended to be appreciated in all its parts, not just the hype.
I still fondly remember two of my high school buddies getting this for my birthday - they brought their computers over and we spent all night playing Guild Wars.
Heroes were introduced in the Nightfall expansion, completely changed the game. Originally there was no cap on number on minions you could summon at a time minionmancy necro could have a literal army and you could destroy Visunah Square, they were good times
oohh the memories, i wish to be able to play it "first time" again. Simple fact of having double profesion (which second can changed later on) is SOOOO FUN, doesnt matter if its strong or not, its just cool to try out different combinations. Music, sound effects, atmosphere...everything just was fine, spend so many hours on each session while being on vacation :D
I remember 14 year old me in 2006 having no clue whatsoever and suggesting to my friend to "just run south from Ascalon. There is this desert place". Little did I know that getting there would require running all across the map to the west first and completing tons of missions first. Needless to say I died horribly at my attempt. To me there is something magical about those years. People were not as omniscient as today and there was still so many challenges to overcome in a game.
I just had to start a new account as I lost access to my original. Pm me in game sometime! "Forsaken the second" pretty much from scratch as I didn't buy merchandise pack or skill pack for this account
Having the henchmen / heroes is what makes me love this games. They were supposed to have a sidekick in GW2 as a callback but eventually dropped it. To this day I still believe GW1 is a vastly more fun game to play than its successor is in terms of storyline, characters, the numerous factions and a lot of gameplay elements and theory crafting involved in such. Basically have 100 combinations, thousands of skills and being able to fully customize 8 characters at once with those skills and class combinations (via heroes). Though something that turned my friend off from the game was him thinking it was an MMO when it turned out to be a lobby game that allows a max of 8 players in the overworld (though dozens in towns). Nobody will ever be in your instance unless you invite them from town. I remember them making fun of the thought by saying Call of Duty is more of a MMO because of it, and that the devs themselves stated that GW1 wasn't an MMO and made a big deal of how the second one actually is. In pre-searing there is actually a very large map to discover with several additional towns that the story doesn't send you to by itself. So exploring it will yield access to more resources and skills, as well as a nice sight seeing trip. In addition, you are able to "enchant" each piece of armor with +1-3 attributes of any skill from the start to min/max builds. But it is at the cost of max HP. In addition, you are able to buy Mercenary Heroes in the shop and have give them the name and appearance of the characters of your account. So if you have multiple characters, you will be fighting alongside them in game.
the hubsystem in gw1 is the best part, i never understod the hype of an open world everything is just zerged down it completly destroys the challange. in openworld mmos especialy gw2 you just run in a big group and bang your head on the keybord and everything dies, no fun at all.
GuildWars 1 is the best co-rpg game and it was made 20 years ago, its unique and quality, this game has the best combat/skill system i played (i tested the majority of all mmos and GuildWars 1 have the best combat), you enjoy activating skills in this game. I started GuildWars again in december, with new account (after 15 years retired) and i love the game, im impressed how good was made.
Interesting to know about Lion's Arch: it's been flooded! So the remains of the city you see in GW1 are still somewhat noticable when you take a dive into the lake at Lion's Arch
Setting heros' second professions to ranger, and having them all tame pets and questing with a crew and a literal zoo, was quite the feeling of power back in the day! I adore these games and think they are under rated, so happy to see this video pop up on my feed :)
Logged into my account yesterday for the first time in years - the nostalgia is real haha. Absolutely love seeing someone take a new look at an old favorite, thanks for the video ^___^
great game been playing since nightfall released and it just aged like wine. The fact that u can pick this up 19 years later and have an absolute blast playing solo or with 1 or 2 friends says it all.
20:35 Fun Fact, this also happened alot at launch. It was designed so that the team covering Togo was faction characters, and the other team being seasoned prophecies players. 8 faction players connecting with the 8 original campaign sticklers to combine arms and beat the level. Because faction players needed to progress through an island to level up, and most prophecies players were ready to go, it led to the teams covering Togo being made up of AI henchmen covering him. At the time Henchmen were programmed to follow the nearest human players at all times in a certain distance, and the team full of humans were part of those parameters. Before you know it, the team shielding Togo abandon him in favor of connecting with the other group as you watch Togo's life bar get spiked. One of the improvisational tactics was to get a guy with a decent sprint, like a warrior to run to the second group when there was a clear break to force the AI to stay and defend. It was risky and could lead to Togo's death anyway, but it saved everyone's time whether it succeeded or not. They kinda fixed it later, but it wasnt until nightfall came out, with its main selling point being an overhaul of the AI helpers plus customizable hero henchmen that really helped fix this problem for good. As an added tidbit, M.O.X was introduced well after the launch of the last expansion Eye of the North, which definitely helped bandaid the big difficulty spikes that Factions was known for.
Ive been playing Guild Wars since day 1 of the release, I still play it multiple times per week. I think the biggest issue with these kind of videos, and Im not saying its bad I thoroughly enjoyed it, is that you dont get to see that, despite being 18 years old, the community is still alive and healthy. I can login on a random Wednesday night and get full human player groups for jsut about any content I want in no more than a few minutes. PVP has no queue time because so many people still participate, both Hall of Heroes and Guild vs Guild. The game is old old, but it has a more active community than 90% of MMOs on the market today.
The issue is that Ranger main class does not have the energy pool to handle the Necromancer skills. You can get away with a few but you cannot lean heavy on the Nec side. In other words, a Nec secondary for a Ranger is a bad choice. And more broadly, very very few specific builds and classes manage to take full advantage of the secondary. Most play just the primary. But you can change your secondary later in the game. Also I encourage you to try the other classes.
This game had the best PvP I have ever played as well. If you made a PvP character, it was automatically level 20 and could use PvP specific gear... so there was no PvE grind to get into PvP and the PvP was also very balanced because of that.. no broken PvE items in PvP. There was also a mode called "Codex Arenas" Where only a random selection of skills was available and this rotated every week. So it was a mode where you HAD to do theorycrafting for your build... you could change your subclass on PvP characters whenever you wanted, so this was really an incredibly fun part of the game and a great creative outlet. I had some really great builds come out of it that I even ended up using in regular PvP.
some helpful additions Firstly the Secondary Proffesions aren't permanent in any way, once you get to certain point in the storyline you will be able to unlock the others and freely switch between them in town at ease. secondly Drop your FOMO for pre searing ascalon its great for prestige titles and gofing off, you aren't missing anything by leaving early, the only thing you are skipping are skills that can be gotten later for gold (this was a great way to help keep the in game economy stable, that and NPC's sell based on supply and demand) I would take it one step further and advise new players not to start in prophecies, it's the longest and most boring campaign although for veterans most of it is skippable , the other campaigns are much faster paced and have other advantages such as the Incredible Abilities of the Assassin (best secondary for every class) the Ritualist (best Solo farmer for novice players and best at keeping parties alive for experts) and Dervish in NF (best solo farmer for experts and best at everything else also for experts but easy to learn for Novices my reccomendation is for Factions, but NF is a good alternative My final Tip is Koss, Triple Mesmer or Triple Necro with Ritualist supports are the meta but he is underrated because he is a warrior Hero, Warriors make for the 3rd worst Hero's for AI they just don't have any PvE only skills needed for Warriors to be great all the core skills are tough to make into a decent build BUT I figured out the solution Give Koss the /bonus Hammer to equip and put 9-10 into Hammer Mastery, then make his Secondary an Elementalist and give him 19 in Fire magic the Fire storm skill and the Elite Elementalist skill from Factions Mission Nahpui Quarter Star Burst I prefer him over Dervishes often because he never dies, does amazing damage, and doesnt have enchants to strip people will tell you that Firestorm is a bad skill because it makes enemies scatter, but if they are in your face, then fine let them scatter www.gw-memorial.net/templateDecoder/ OQYVkQ1Gl5WnJOKY3bdFV3RsYIAA
Great video mate, very nostalgic for me. Though in 24:40 you say that you can still earn attribute points after lvl 20. That is wrong, you don't earn any attribute points after lvl 20. But you can do 2 quests in the chapter you created the character in for an additional 2x15 attribute points. They are called attribute quests. Don't miss them!
As someone who has played both games for a long time and has made hundreds of videos on both, it's cool to see a new player experience these for the first time. It's interesting to see how everything is so natural for us veterans. The way combat works, the story progression, the dual classing system. But to a new player, these can be so confusing. I'm also usually focused on story and lore most of the time when I play and make videos, so it's interesting to see that a lot of details that I think are just so simple to realize, don't click at all for new people. Thank you for making this video. It was a lot of fun watching!
I enjoyed your GW2 video a lot and commented on it that I have 15k hours in GW1. So I was very excited to watch this video :) It's fun, stressful and hilarious to watch you go through all the wonder, learning, challenges and outright mishaps we all went through learning this game over the years. It's a game with a long history and a devoted playerbase even still. Yeah it's a smaller community than it used to be, the team meta is "solved" (Mesmers. So many Mesmers) and the game shows its age in many spots but we all love it for more than just nostalgia and imo its unique aspects still hold up to modern MMOs All in all, thank you for this video. It was extra special for me.
I was hoping we would get a GW1 video eventually. GW2 may be a good game, but i will never forgive it for not being more like GW1. I genuinely find the old game and skill systems so much more enjoyable. Thanks for the video WayDot.
The feeling of roaming around Old Ascalon after rolling out of that Searing cutscene as a 10 year old has never been felt since. Finding all the bits from the destroyed Ascalon zones was heartbreaking. Cheers for the nostalgie trip!
aw man.. i started my gw journey thru factions as a kid. Started an assassin and damn it was the most fun I had. Mechanics of this game are so unique; finding special skills and trecking around to capture it to enhance your skill build.. PvP was insanely cool man. Playing Interrupt-Ranger, making it my mission to interrupt all of the elementalists nukes priority #1. God, Take me back
I played a TON of GW1 in 2022 and 2023. Played it kinda like a solo party-based rpg but the community was always happy to group up and help me out if i needed. But you can play the whole game solo and its a great rpg experience. Still gotta go back and work through the expansion content
Lot of mention of the graphics early in the video. It did at some point a few years back actually get some graphical upgrades. Maybe a year or so after GW2 came out. So it didn't look quite as good on release. It definitely still has its charm, and some amazing views you can find.
Good review. Been playing GW1 since the day it came out. My biggest tip to new starters is ensure you upgrade your armour at least every 5 levels, so at level 5, craft level 5 armour; at level 10, craft level 10 armour, 15->15, 20->20(max). This will help limit the enemies wiping your entire health bar from one hit.
Pre-searing Ascalon was so charming that I decided to get the "Legendary Defender of Ascalon" title when I made my second character... I leveled all the way to 20 there and was sad when I finally left.
this game brings found memorys , played it when it just got out, joined a top 10 pvp/pve guild, won the halls of heroes many times with sweaty builds, with frozen soil and pvp korean god players till late nite, HoH is an pvp achievemt when you win all layers of pvp rounds
I have really fond memories of my daughter and I playing this game when it came out, and playing the first two expansions. I like to go back now and then for the nostalgia feels, but I have so many other MMOs and other types of games to play, I just cannot put the time it requires to play more than a few weeks.
As a little kid, I loved Hero's ascent. LFGs Emote checks, EoE bombs, ranger spikes and IWAY builds. Enjoyed the evolution of PVP. Watching the top teams duke it out on their in-game streams.
Found your channel awhile back and I must say you make GREAT content , It has been very useful to me finding some games to play and some videos I watch just to be entertained!
Fantastic video! This was my most played game growing up and every so often I come back to play it. Even to this day there’s a decent population and the game feels alive. Especially around the holiday events!
With the lull in new content in GW2 (as a solo player) I'm trying Prophecies myself right now, pottering around with the different classes to see which one I'll like once I hit post Searing. I found that by doing every pre-searing quest, collecting 50 red iris flowers (probably totally unnecessary but I wanted that 5th bag) you'll be around level 8 by the time the Searing happens. Having watched some GW2 lore videos I'm just blown away how much lore, locations etc. are lost on GW2 players like myself who have never played the original. Anyway having lots of fun playing.
The Lions Arch you visit in GW1, is basically underwater in GW2, Zhaitan drowned it, and before Scarlet destroyed first version of LA, you could see some familiar buildings under the water
E3 for everyone. I still remember playing during that time and thinking the game had everything I wanted. And no subscription fee. Still no fee and the game is still available. It's been almost 20 years. Taking into consideration that each game is a standalone campaign with only one expansion pack, the whole experience was quite modular. Prophecies felt slow paced with huge maps to explore, although they were a bit empty. Factions was blazingly fast when it came to level up your character to level 20. Nightfall was the sweet spot between the two. And then you had eye of the north, which was super challenging. Honestly, GW1 is a one of a kind game.
Love the video and content! I always enjoy seeing a first time impression of GW1 which never fails to flood me with nostalgia. The video is thorough and detailed, great job!
As a big pvp Player back in the day it was such a cool concept of a mmo. Loved the PvP ranking and the prestige it came with. Also Guild wars 1 is around 30€ for its complete collection and can be played totally solo with a ton of Content.
One thing worth noting is perhaps that as far as i know there are still achievements you can hunt in gw1 that will give you cosmetic benefits in gw2 via the hall of monuments. If you see anyone in gw2 rocking the god walking amongst mere mortals title they maxed out 50/50 in the legacy gw1 achievements. I think there are even still people that get together to farm those in gw1 which i think is cool. I'm a little sad ninja, ritualist, paragon and dervish didn't quite carry over as classes to gw2 rather getting remixed into revenant and elite specs gw1 is hugely nostalgic for me as the second mmo i had ever played and fell in love with after vanilla wow.
Congrats on discovering a great game. GW1 is about skill choices tailored for each area that synergize with your team and tactics. Would have been better if you had lingered longer in pre to at least get all of the available skills and the xp that comes with getting them. Purists should likely play the campaigns in order, but those that want to get the most heroes the quickest should start in Nightfall and then run to the Eye of the North at lvl 10.
returned to GW like 2 years ago and spent another 300hrs into making a perfect 8 man team hero setup: the BiP Healer, SoS Resto, ESurge/Panic Mesmers, ST Prot and so on... collecting all the necessary Skills, looking for the perfect wands & staffs, buying the best runes, equip my heroes with the most beautiful armor and fitting weapons, all that stuff took me quite some time but i don't regret one single second of it. when i had my perfect lineup and went through the most challenging missions and most difficult areas in hard mode just to barely succeed, it was quite an experience and i felt so proud of myself. the game demands a lot of you, but the result is so satisfying, I can't really compare it with another game really...
The thing with the pre-searing challenge is that you had to work for it through a LOT of deaths. Enemies in this game gain experience in exactly the same way you do, so you would have to die to mobs a ton of times to level them up so they could keep giving you experience. It was brutal, but Ascalon’s atmosphere made the struggle worth staying lol.
I wish more solo farming options was implemented in Guild Wars 2. The first game had plenty of them and they were a blast. Icy dragon sword farming, ecto farming in the underworld. Part of the fun was learning to navigate through the environment to achieve those drops.
This game up to this day is my only real videogame love. I remember coming home from school, starting my computer and playing this game for hours, chatting with my friends and guild members, slowly but steadily working towards my GWAMM title... my personal golden age of gaming. Good, no, better times those were. I really wish to experience this game again for the first time, like it was 2007 again. Still return to this gem of a game every couple of months.
You didn't even get to the absolute top tier part of GW1! PVP (hall of heroes, where Hugh Janus DOMINATED) is absolutely a blast. Love it. Arenas are insanely fun and you can play them randomly matched with other players. But the skill cap is extremely high.
GW1 brings back some happy memories. I mean, the pvp system was so much fun. I remember holding the Hall of Heroes all night. And don't forget the /rank :)
I miss my guilds the Deldrimor Arena Dogs [DAD] and being eventually invited to Zealots of Shiverpeak [ZoS]. A guild run by Arenanet staff, when I became a member I was given a unique link to the game to allow faster patching direct from Anet. I have such fond memories of the game. My warrior fully decked out in the end game gear with a dragon sword and my Invincimonk solo farming the hardest content. This formed such a core part of my teen years and it will always hold a special place for me.
This brings me back so many memories, I used to play this with my daughter, I miss her so much, the infamous builds for PvP like the bullet proof monk, touch ranger, iway and many others. We loved the game art and style, not so much the GW2...
Been reading through the comments, and wanted mention a few things new players won't get right away. Primary profession determines the character's armor class, rune selection (armor and attribute bonus) and primary attribute (for ranger, Expertise). For picking the character profession, consider how the primary attribute will synergize with your secondary profession. In case of R/N, Expertise lowers the cost of touch-range "skills," attack skill and rituals. Necromancers have touch-range spells like Vampiric Touch, Vampiric Bite, which would cost 5 energy instead of 15 at 12+1+3 expertise. Blood Ritual is also a strong support spell affected by expertise. Ranger is versatile, since expertise affects many skills for all secondary professions (exception being mesmer, where the only real synergies are Echo and Blackout. Elementalist secondary is not bad for Lightning Touch or conjures for extra bow damage). They are also tanky as hell with access to long-lasting block stances and a base 100 armor vs elemental damage. The only 2 primary professions that have little synergy with secondary professions are Monk (Divine Favor) and Dervish (Mysticism), which only affects their own professions skills (though Blessed Aura on monk could have potential with many enchantment-based secondaries... Dervish has some mysticism elites that can turn them into a caster). You can change your secondary profession after "ascension" points in each campaign. Each campaign also has special side quests to get attribute points for characters created in that campaign. Hardest ones to get to are for Prophecies characters. Even though there are the henchmen and heroes catering to a solo experience, even in 2024 there is a strong community presence and pretty much all of them in main hubs are willing to discuss things about the game and answer questions. Some are even willing to drop everything to join on a random adventure or test a build. Guilds in an alliance are excellent hubs for social interaction, PvP, and random delves into dungeons and elite zones. For skill unlocking, there's a few tricks to it. In Isle of the Nameless from the Great Temple of Balthazar (accessible from a port town from any campaign), there is an NPC at the entrance called Master of Paths. Talking to him unlocks a PvP training arena, that eventually leads to the Zaishen Elite zone. It's a quick thing to do daily to get a ton of Balthazar faction (up to a 7k or 8k limit) for unlocking skills at a Priest of Balthazar. Also helps teach about old school PvP team comps in arenas. This is a great way to unlock skills you can buy, use tomes to acquire, or just have on your heroes. Making a lot of gold early on is easy once you beat a campaign. This unlocks hard mode, and you can participate in HM dailies like Zaishen Missions and Zaishen Bounties with other players for great rewards. Alternatively, there are a lot of rich and lazy players. Research "Nick Sets." These are sets of collectable items from monster drops that can be exchanged from an NPC for high end consumables. You can sell your consumables, or sell the collectables for them in Kamadan. Best way to farm this is completely solo, no heroes or hench, since heroes and hench take their own slice of the loot dropped. Might have to get creative with a solo farm build doing that, however, depending on what it is and where. On note of collectables, a lot of "max" stat weapons can be farmed from collectables to gear up your heroes. A 20/20 domination offhand could be farmed in ~ 30 minutes from Jade Brotherhood, for example. Salvage and identify everything. Basic crafting materials can be sold to a Crafting Material Trader for big money. Some collectables can be salvaged for expensive ones like plant fibers. Wood and cloth aren't as valuable since they're most common, and sell for merchant vendor price. Lastly, don't feel bad about watching a cutscene. The lore's solid and some cutscenes tell you where to go next. Not everything is guided by a main quest, or even a side quest. Even with another player in the party, they'll understand. And, Vizunah Square can be a wall in Factions for some players since it's actually a 16-man mission. There's 2 entry points: local and foreign, for 2 teams. Ask for assistance in a main town or guild's alliance if you get stuck there.
Seriously out of all the “first impressions” I’ve watched on YT yours is pretty damn on point…. Lazy Peon was kinda rushed(but what he does) DJ Dragon was more worried about girls and being better than Lazy Peon… Josh Strife pretty much nailed it but I’d love to watch him go further! And same with you! Your narration is as good as Josh Strife Hayes but without an accent. I really love this “checking out MMOs”!!!! A good money maker would be to take a 3 hour play through on one of these games live streamed and posted to YT with ads. Id love it to be GW1 but I would watch any mmo you pick and it appeals to the people who use YT to fall a sleep! Also longer videos (ie live streams or minimal edits of 2-3hr+) will net you more cash and more subs. You deserve wayyyyyyy more than you have rn. Quality is there, actual research and common sense! “Plus a wife and a baby! 😊” Please listen to this advice, doesn’t matter what game you pick for some long form content but y’all deserve some good as compensation. GG mate and good luck! @Waydot #Waydot
I was 17 when GW released. Then around 2007 my best friend and I bought copies for $10 at walmart and played for hundreds of hours after work. Was really my first MMO and i still have some great memories of doing runs for new players. Also helped that it was one of the few games that would run on my 1GB of RAM Vista laptop with no graphics 😂
Ive played it all from gw1 to aion wow conan exiles, rust, tarkov, age of empires, starcraft, lol, dota, rimworld, stardew, Dead by daylight, l4d, you name it. Ive played it. Guild wars 1 is the top 1 game ive played in the last 25 years. The buils you can make are insane. The GVG pvp in its golden era was insane. If they made an expansion for GW1 i would be all over it
I have to commend you, doing this solo must have been daunting. I have played since the launch and at first the going was vey slow, but then I was adopted by a Guild. As it was my first MMORPG they carried me for a long time. I chose necro/mes. I still play once a month. Now I play in Hard mode trying to complete each mission with just heroes. I would recommend this game to anyone. It seems to be timeless.
