Guild Wars, questions...

[lord_spaceman]

Started a PvP character this morning. Still in training and going to see how it goes. Damn I love this game !
PS: Thanks for reading my blog guys !

 

[Vexx007]

That trailer is takeing FOREVER to download. Cant wait to see it.

 

[zenhost]

Its worth it, this game owns! I have been playing for a while, and have played WoW for a while too, and this is definatley the better of the two!

 

[gkm]

I promised Twiga and Spaceman last night I would post something on the infamous 55 monks, aka invincible monks aka iMonks aka solo monk.

There are three main ways that I can think off to make lots of gold in the game. They are running, hunting for green items or farming with an iMonk. (Running is taking people for money to places they would not be able to get too themselves because their level is too low to survive. Green items are unique fixed attribute items that drop in some of the later areas of the game.)

The other way is farming with the iMonk. This is a monk build where the monk basically cannot die, no matter how many monsters attack him/her. This monk does not even fight back. He just uses spells that hurt monsters when they attack him. The invincible bit is made possible by a spell called protective spirit, which means that a target ally (the monk himself in this case) cannot take more than 10% max health damage from a single attack or spell. The monk then artificially reduce his health to 55 (using superior runes and items), so that the maximum damage he gets is 5 (even if the monster would have done 400 per hit), which can easily be compensated for using healing breeze or mending. The monk then uses the Shield of Judgement spell or similar to hurt all monsters attacking him. They die and him picks up the gold and drops.

The monk has to maintain all the spells involved just right, or he is dead instantly. Also, in some areas there are monsters or effects that strip the enchantments, so the iMonk cannot survive in these places. It takes a lot of practice to do and it has to be done in the right areas. I have never done it myself. I do not have the patience.

See this link for more details:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content/comprehensive-guide-to-the-solo-monk-id1626.php

 

[lord_spaceman]

Interesting that, the IMonk. But I was thinking more in the lines of somehow investing your gold in something (almost like the Guild Wars stock exhange) or putting your gold into a bank that generates interest. Is there something like that in the game at all? Something that I would also like to know is, when you reach level 20 (the apparent max.), what is there to look forward to if you can't level up ? How do you get new skill points or stronger in the game after that ? Thanks gkm, you been a major help with this game!

 

[twiga]

Okay,

So if I understand you correctly, if your not supermonk, you need to either run or get green thingies. I assume you would need to be a high level to run, wouldn't be nice if you let you clients die now would it. Green thingies are late game as I understand? So in the early/mid game (level 10-14), how would you make money to buy better armor, weapons etc.

- twiga

 

[lord_spaceman]

Eish...I see money is kinda tight for twiga as it is for me...tough times, tough times...

 

[Vexx007]

lord_spaceman:
- There is no such thing in GW where you invest your gold. You farm items and
then sell them in towns.
- The lvl 20 cap is only for your attributes (So you gave 170 attribute points +
the 2 quests wich give an addisional 15 attribute points each). You still
continue leveling and so gain skill points to buy skills.


twiga:
- Runners take players to place where they would not usually be able to get
with their character level. They do this to buy better skills and armor. If
you ask me it is actually cheating/exploiting.
- Runners mostly consist of Warrior/Monks with the "Sprint" skill and they
literally just run from one town to the next without fighting, ignoring the
enemies. And they almost never fail.
- Green Items are late game, but they are most definitely not the be all end all.
- You get money just by doing quests and picking up EVERYTHING that
drops for you. You will eventually have enough money to buy the best
armor.

 

[lord_spaceman]

Thanks Vexx for clearing up some stuff for us n00bs. Great help.

 

[gkm]

- Runners mostly consist of Warrior/Monks with the "Sprint" skill and they
literally just run from one town to the next without fighting, ignoring the
enemies. And they almost never fail.

@ Vexx: Clearly, you have not been on a Droknars run recently. Some of the runners fail like 10 times in a row.

@ Twiga and Spaceman: Yes, the is no "making money while you sleep" feature. I noticed you two were not that careful last night about picking up the junk stuff dropped by monsters. It might be 5 gold here and 7 gold there, but it does add up quickly. I know you probably just did not want to slow us down, but it is your stuff, so you should pick it up, (except if you are in a real hurry) and sell it to the merchant in town. That way you always have enough money for the stuff you actually need. You should only need or bother to farm if you want extra gold for decorative stuff that you do not really need, like 15K armor.

In your case, early game you can make some money hunting charr etc. outside Piken and Ascelon or something like that. Just make sure you move around and not do the same area repeatedly.

I have never farmed, except for about three days of Ettin farming for some runes, and despite that I have 15K armor for two of my characters and more than 100K in storage. The game is well balanced to give money at about the right rate that one needs it.

In short, do not worry too much about money. Rather have fun.

On leveling: The game is not about leveling. Leveling is kind of a side effect, just so that one does not get everything the first minute, but rather get it over time, so that you can learn how to use it. One tend to be level 20 by about the middle of the story in the game. Defeating hard monsters is not about level, but rather about skill. One is still happy to level up, but is not such a major event as in some other MORPG's.

 

[lord_spaceman]

gkm, I wasn't picking up everything 'cause I thought you or twiga were gonna pick it up. -- I later on realised / learnt that each item that an enemy 'drops' is assigned to a certain player - I didn't want to make out like I was being greedy and grabbing everything I could, but I turns out that I can as no one else can pick that item up!

 

[gkm]

lol, that is very funny. Thanks for being so nice. Yes, the system tries to be fair by assigning stuff randomly. If you do not pick it up for something like 5 minutes, then others can pick it up. GW tries very hard to prevent griefing of all sorts, and assigning drops to prevent drop stealing is one of the ways.

Gold picked up is split evenly between people in the party, including hench.

The randomness sometimes mean one person can have great luck with a couple of nice drops in a row, while others get nothing. Then you must hear the people moan.

 

[Vexx007]

gkm, I wasn't picking up everything 'cause I thought you or twiga were gonna pick it up. -- I later on realised / learnt that each item that an enemy 'drops' is assigned to a certain player - I didn't want to make out like I was being greedy and grabbing everything I could, but I turns out that I can as no one else can pick that item up!

LOL! Now that is funny!

@gkm
- Actually did Droks run last night (allthough I DESPISE it), because a buddy of
mine wanted to see the droks armor. Our W/Mo took us through without any
problems (cant say the same about us). I can see it is difficult, but a W/Mo
seems to me to have less trouble with this.

 

[gkm]

Yes, I have only seen W/Mo's make the Droks run recently. In the old days, before they made it harder, Mo/W and sometimes rangers could also do it. The Droks run is actually the only one that does not bother me (maybe because it is the only one I have ever used). I like to get myself killed right at the start of the run, so that I can watch the runner, since this run takes real skill.

In most other places the runners and people looking for runners just irritate me. The worst for me is when people stand in Frontier Gate and look for a runner to Ruins of Surmia. Walking there takes about two minutes, while finding a runner must take forever.

One more thing that gives me a pain is people that were ran to Droks, then try to continue the game from that point, instead of carrying on normally with the story after they have bought the armor. I was doing the "Ice Caves of Sorrow" mission the other day. With a bad group, this mission usually ends in sorrow, so I think it has the right name. In this case we had a level 14 monk in the group, which is only possible to be at that point for a runnee. I decided to stay and see how it goes. The monk was killed twice by the first group of monsters and the team as a whole did not make it very far.

I also heard there was a level 2 or something guy trying to get into groups at Thunderhead Keep (the hardest mission in the game in my opinion) the other day, telling everybody he is very good/skilled, then he got real upset when nobody wanted to take him.

 

[twiga]

The reason I don't pick all the stuff is because I never have free slots in my inventory. I have all these items that add +5 energy, +1 fire damage, etc, etc, but have no idea how to use them. The weapons I pick up that are not associated with my class, I sell, but those upgrade thingies I have no idea what to do with. My storage container is also full of the stuff.

- twiga

 

[gkm]

Yes, I was also overflowing with all the salvaged upgrades at one stage. My storage was full. My inventory was full. My character's bags were full. It drove me nuts (well, even more nuts). Then I had a fire sale. Except one or two of the best ones, I sold everything to the merchant. A while later I sold the remaining ones as well, when I discovered I did not need them also. For my ele I just use a wand I got from a collector in the desert and a focus I got from another collector. None of the weapons on any of my three characters use an upgrade. I am still a bit of a pack rat for armor crafting materials, but I try to cut down on those as well.

 

[useless]

just a quick question since i have been away from the game for 6 months... is black ink still a very expensive and sought after item? or has that changed?

 

[Vexx007]

Black Ink goes for roundabout 6,5k these days. It is definitely comming down considering that when I started playing the game it was about 8k.

 

[useless]

good, i still have 2 black ink bottles with my old character... could start up a new one with some good gear this time around!

 

[-FX-]

Yeah and give the extra black ink that you have spare to one of your buddies and he would love you long time