Edition3
Gamer's Mantra The April Beta Weekend was spectacular. I had a feeling the devs would unleash something really cool on us at the end, but I had no way to know it would entail a full 30 minutes of mad-cap fun. Fortunately, I was there in Lion's Arch to enjoy all the oinks, exploding gnomes, raining gold, fireworks and infernal wurms. What impressed me the most about this was the dedication the devs showed us. They clearly know how to put on a good game as well as a good show. I'm definitely looking forward to any future special events they decide to host. Of course, I'm also looking forward to that little thing just around the corner, something known simply as "release". This is the date we've all been waiting for since we first learned of this game. An on-line game like this with no monthly fee once seemed just a fairy tale, but in less than a week, it becomes reality. I hope we all have copies reserved, because I fully expect this game to be a huge seller, and stores will quickly run out if they have underestimated the demand. If you've preordered Guild Wars, you should have a copy reserved for you, but strange things can happen, so I would suggest going to your store as early as possibly on the 28th to ensure that you get your copy. Preordering has at least one other advantage; it will also lets us begin playing a full day early (12:01 PST April 27th). We'll then have until 12:00 PST on April 28th to enter our official game key to completely activate our accounts. Before then, I expect most of us will decide upon a main character to play, choose a main profession and a name, and whether this character will be starting off as PvP-only or opting to make a fresh 1st level character to go adventuring with. I suspect most of us will opt for making a 1st level character, likely sending us into the Kingdom of Ascalon in all it's glory. I say likely, because they could certainly change things in the game before final release. However, given the amount of work they've put into this new starting area, I expect much of this region will remain intact for the final product. Regardless of whether you're going to try to level up quickly or planning to go more slowly to explore all there is to find, there are some basic things you'll want to do, and some strategies that may help you get off to a good start. Here are my seven mantras for success in the Kingdom of Ascalon: #1 - Seek Green Exclamation ! Whether you are in town, or out in the explorable region south of Ascalon, it's worth taking a moment to talk to every citizen of Ascalon that you find. This is especially true for the quest givers. These characters should have a green exclamation floating above them, which is the game's way of indicating they have something important to tell you. If you talk to them and accept their quest, the details will show up in your Quest Log. If you have that quest highlighted, a green arrow on your compass map should show up and will help direct you toward completing your objective. There are also some quests that only become available after completing other quests, so it is useful to pass by the inhabitants more than once during your time here to see if any new exclamations have appeared. The quests will usually provide you with 250 to 500 experience. For a new character, the experience from just a few quests can help raise your levels very quickly. #2 - Get Belt Pouch Other citizens you find may be collectors. Each of them will offer you a range of equipment or gold in return for bringing them 5 of a certain type of item. These items are randomly dropped by the monsters you defeat. Some collectors may offer you better pieces of amor or a new weapon. If you don't like the items they are offering, you can instead sell those collected items for gold at an outfitter or salvage them for crafting materials. Among all the collectors you'll find in this region, one of the most important items that some offer is a belt pouch. It is strongly recommended that you get a belt pouch before joining the Academy. After just a short time, you'll likely be wishing for more inventory space, and a belt pouch will provide you with 5 precious extra inventory slots. #3 - Team Up Briefly At some point, the healer near the Ascalon gate should offer you a quest. To complete it, all you need to do is party up with another character. The reward is the Resurrection Signet and some experience. Among the quests you'll find, this is one of the easiest ones to do. #4 - Try Going Solo You can have a party size of 2 characters in this area, but you'll likely earn experience much faster by going solo. Most of the encounters and quests in the Kingdom of Ascalon are balanced for a single character. Though two players will be able to defeat monsters faster, your rate of movement between foes or during quests will not increase. Thus, while a pair a characters might be able to defeat enemies faster, you still end up spending the same amounts of time travelling between battles. As a result, you won't be able to reach encounters fast enough to make up for the divided experience. In a few experiments with and without teammates in this area, we found that going solo led a much faster rate of experience gain for us. Another factor that encourages solo play in this region is the fact that you and your teammate are likely to have different quests to perform. This is especially true for the class-specific quests. A teammate could help, but unless they have that same class and quest, they won't get the quest reward. Thus, while you're doing one of your class quests, your potential partner will likely be better off going and doing their own class quest instead. Finally, you will find more loot by going solo. Every item and all gold the monsters drop will be yours. Thus, playing solo will earn you both experience and wealth at a faster rate. #5 - Find Class Trainers In the Kingdom of Ascalon, you will find multiple trainers for your class. They will offer quests for you, and if you accept and complete these tasks, you will receive a few skills as rewards. It is recommended that you seek out each of your class trainers and do these quests. In addition, some of the trainers will provide you with secondary class options and skills. You can experiment with each secondary class before making a final decision. If you don't choose a secondary class before joining the academy and leaving the area, you will find trainers in the next stage of the game than will allow you to make the choice then. #6 - Salvage Key Materials Nearly every item the monsters drop is worth something. Your simplest method to building wealth is to pick these items up and sell them at an outfitter. However, selling everything may not be in your best interest. You can also attempt to salvage items with a salvage kit. The downside is that the kit costs 100 gold and only has 25 uses. However, this can be worthwhile for salvaging key crafting materials that you are going to use later. In the betas, there has not been an option to craft armor in the Kingdom of Ascalon, but that shouldn't stop you from beginning to build up your crafting supplies for the upcoming stages in the game. Nearly every crafting component is available here in the Kingdom of Ascalon, often in abundance if you know where to look. I don't recommend salvaging everything you find, since you'll wind up losing money in the process. Rather, just salvage those items that will yield the materials you need for your intended crafting later on. Each class tends to have at least 1 or 2 primary crafting components they need for crafting their armor, and you can bank up quite a few the type that you need before moving out of this area. This is by no means a complete list, but it may be helpful to some of you:
#7 - Keep Your Dye I strongly recommend that you hang on to your dye since it is very valuable. In just a few hours, you can easily find a half-dozen or more of these in the Kingdom of Ascalon. The armor you have is likely to get replaced soon as well, so don't bother dying this starter equipment. It's best to save your dye until you reach Lion's Arch where you'll be likely able to sell them for hundreds of gold each. The downside is that they will consume precious space in your inventory. When you gain access to your vault, you can stash them in there. It's a nice feeling to have a 6 to 10 dyes banked up, knowing those are worth 3 to 4 thousand gold once you reach Lion's Arch. In the meantime, be patient, and don't be tempted to sell them for 1 lousy gold at an outfitter. Players may offer trades or attempt to buy them in this starting area. Unless they are offering you hundreds of gold, it's probably not worth it. If they are trading dye for dye, you should know that black, silver, blue and red dye have tended to be the most highly sought and thus most expensive, while the remaining colors tend to be worth less, especially orange. I'd be very cautious about making trades. However, if someone is willing to give you a blue or silver dye in trade for your orange dye, I'd jump at that trade in a heartbeat. By following these steps, I've rapidly gotten characters up to level 7 or 8 with just a few quick hours of play before joining the academy and moving on. In addition, I had hundreds of gold, a large stash of class-related crafting materials, and a sizeable nest egg of dyes. Hopefully, these seven mantras will lead to great success for you as well. |
