Previously: Prophecies (Part 1): Getting Started

Now that you've passed the tutorial section and learned the basic mechanics of Guild Wars, you'll be getting down to the serious gameplay. You'll quickly find that the game has become more difficult, and that you're no longer able to survive by yourself.

Here, almost all enemies will be aggressive toward you and will frequently fight you in groups. They may appear from out of the ground to surprise you, or ambush you with wide patrols. Playing carefully will be the best tactic for the rest of the game.

There will be many things that you can do now, including joining a player guild, accessing account storage, and upgrading your gear. If you're playing Guild Wars for the story, you will want to take the extra time to read the dialogue and quests as you explore the area. There are no "kill 10 rats" quests in Guild Wars, and each quest does actively contribute toward the overall story or to your own character development. The lands of Tyria are rich with lore, and curious players will constantly find thoughtful details in every corner.

If you're not interested and just want to move on through the game, that's certainly viable, too. The mission-based gameplay can quickly move you through most of the game content, leaving most quests entirely optional. When there are quests that you need to take, they will usually be given by NPCs right in front of you when you first enter an area. For the most part, these quests will show up as "Primary Quests" in your Quest Log (default key: "L"). After finding the first mission outpost, you can be through the entire area in a couple of hours if you're in a hurry.

No matter how you choose to play, it is imporant that you are in tune with the game's deliberately slow pace at this stage. You will find yourself penalized for rushing ahead, not picking up and selling your drops, or not managing a party effectively: penalties that only increase as you progress. You may not be able to afford new gear or tools, or may cause your whole party to wipe. Though the slower pace may be frustrating, it is intended also to be rewarding. You should never feel like you're grinding when playing Guild Wars.

As you gain experience and level up, don't forget to try new attribute allocations and always be on the lookout for new skills. You might not have access to too many now, but by the time you do you should be a master of what you've already got.

One word of caution with this leg of Prophecies: Ascalon City often houses veteran players recruiting for guilds and offering "runs" to various locations. If you decide to join a guild and introduce yourself as a new player, they will likely offer to run you to Tyria's capital, Lion's Arch. Though this may sound like a good idea, I strongly suggest you decline any such invitations to jump ahead to where the story will take you anyway. Instead, first take advantage of this time to learn how to play effectively while the stakes are low. It's nice to have an escape hatch, but the quickest way to learn to be successful at this game is learning not to be in a hurry.

Two years after the tutorial area, you find yourself again where you first started. This time, Ascalon has been destroyed by the Searing and the Ascalon Vanguard has struggled to maintain the safety of the surving Ascalonians in the war-torn region. They fight endlessly against the Charr, and the reigning Ascalonian King Adelbern stubbornly maintains a bitter civil war with Kryta, a rival nation.

Just ahead of you, Captain Osric stands where the Town Crier once welcomed you to Ascalon and offers you your first quest in the war against the Charr.



Your mission is to report back to Warmaster Tydus about the arrival of an ambassador from the nation of Kryta. Note that any quests held previously have been abandoned and a quick look at your map will reveal the devastation that has been done to the great nation of Ascalon.

You will head first to Ascalon City and find your way among the makeshift tents and survivors of the Searing. You will notice many residents have migrated to within the City's walls, offering their services and wares to the front forces. Among them are collectors, traders, and representatives of the Xunlai banking guild.

The latter NPCs should be of particular interest: Xunlai Agents offer access to account-wide storage via the Xunlai Chests beside them.



Paying 50 gold to a Xunlai Agent will grant your character permanent access to these chests, which can be used to store anything you've acquired and can be found in every town or outpost. For an additional 50 gold you can unlock even more storage specifically for crafting materials which is a wise investment to make early in the game.

There are many important things that you are now able to do, but you won't be able to do everything right away. Feel free to read this section and come back to it when you can afford to do more, as all of these things will be necessary to master before you move much further on.

From this point forward, all merchants you encounter in the game will sell specific things, some of which have not been available previously:

• Vial of Dye [Gray] (50g) - This is the default color of most armor and can be used to revert your dye job if you're unhappy with it.
  
• Salvage Kit† (100g) - These will be required to salvage items into crafting materials.
  
• Identification Kit† (100g) - Required to identify unidentified items or to increase the value of regular items.
  
• Belt Pouch† (100g) - Adds 5 slots of personal inventory space. Can equip 1.
  
• Bag† (100g) - Adds 5 slots of personal inventory space. Can equip 2.
  
• Rune of Holding† (500g) - Increases Bag size to 10 slots. Can be used once on each Bag.
  
• Small Equipment Pack (2,500g) - Can store an extra 5 weapons or armor pieces. Cannot store other items.
  
• [Region] Key (prices vary) - Key for the locked chests that can be found throughout the region.
  
• Lockpick (1,500g) - Can be used to open any chest in the game.

The items indicated with a dagger (†) should be purchased as soon as you can afford them. Buy an Identification Kit, a Belt Pouch (if you don't already have one), 2 Bags, a Salvage Kit, and finally two Runes of Holding when you can afford them.

Lockpicks, Keys, and Equipment Packs are convenience items that you probably won't need at this point in the game.

Armor in Guild Wars is unique in that it is never available as a drop or quest reward, and must be "crafted" by specific merchants or collectors in exhange for money and crafting materials, or random trophies (collectible drops) in the case of collectors. Armor can only be used by the character it was created for, and is considered "customized" (soul-bound) to the purchasing character upon receipt.

If you didn't stick around to get the upgraded armor before the Searing, you'll definitely want to buy some new armor as soon as possible. There are two NPCs in Ascalon City with "[Armor]" after their name (Banoit & Corwen). Corwen's armor is generally about twice as good as Banoit's armor, but also twice as expensive.



Unless you're playing a warrior, you will see different items available. Note the naming convention used for each piece of armor; in the example above, there are two varieties available: Charr & Ascalon. To buy a full, matching set, make sure you buy the items with the same prefix. You can also find details about the armor (like armor level and bonuses) by hovering over the name of each piece. The price for each piece of armor is listed to the far right, with the materials necessary to craft it listed to the left of the price. You can hover over the material icon to see the name of the material required (in this example, it is Iron Ingots). You can find the crafting material needed for your armor from random enemy drops, salvaging items, or purchasing them from a [Material Trader].

Armor from Corwen will usually feature many different headpieces with the same name, each providing a unique attribute bonus (such as "Strength +1"). This early in the game, it is usually best to buy the headpiece with a bonus in your primary attribute (Strength for warriors, Expertise for rangers, Divine Favor for monks, Soul Reaping for necromancers, Fast Casting for mesmers, and Energy Storage for elementalists).

Armor in Guild Wars is critically important, and maintaining an effective armor rating for your level strongly effects your survivability. Enemy AI often focuses on the lowest-armor targets, so if you constantly find yourself dying while your group stays upright, this is probably why.

For reference, the maximum armor ratings per class are as follows:


As you progress further in Guild Wars, higher-level armor becomes available to you. About 2/3 through the campaign you'll be able to buy max-level armor that will arguably never need to be replaced for the rest of the game.

Ascalon City is the first of many outposts where you can find a skill trainer. Sir Bertran [Skills] will have all skills available for your primary & secondary professions that you might have missed getting in Pre-Searing. Buying skills will require skill points (earned by levelling up and completing missions) and an amount of gold that increases with each skill that character purchases. The first skill costs 50 gold, and progresses slowly up to a maximum of 1,000 gold ("1 platinum") per skill.

In addition to skill trainers like Sir Bertran, Prophecies hosts many auxiliary side quests that reward the player with additional skills for one of their two professions. Always be on the lookout for NPCs or objects offering quests that may reward you with new skills, as free is certainly cheaper than the skill trainer would charge.

As you progress through the game, each trainer will offer more and more skills. Each time you arrive in a new outpost, be on the lookout for somebody with [Skills] after their name to see which new skills might be available. Note that not all skill trainers will have the same skills. You can rearrange or reassign your skills or attribute points anytime while in a town, so don't be afraid to try new things if you don't like the skills you have now.

Unlike armor, weapons can drop from all creatures in the game or be offered as quest rewards. Your character can equip any weapon type, though should of course primarily use weapons that compliment their class. Casters generally should use staves or wands & focuses, rangers should use bows, and warriors should use sword/axe & shield or hammers. Certain advanced builds or playstyles will have you use different weapons, like a caster with a sword & shield or a ranger with a hammer, but for now you should stick to appropriate weaponry.

Once you've found a weapon you like, you may choose to "customize" (soul-bind) it. NPCs such as Sedgwick [Weapons] in Ascalon City will offer this service for a mere 10 gold. Customizing a weapon binds it to your character and adds a permanent +20% damage modification to your weapon's default (non-skill) attack.



When talking to an NPC who offers this service, just click the "Customize" button (highlighted above). Note that weapons which are already customized are indicated as such to the right. Customized weapons can still be sold to a merchant, but cannot otherwise be used by any other player, including other characters on your account. Note that "Starter" weapons have no value and may only be destroyed.

For reference, maximum values of weapons/off-hands are listed here:

After you've finished the business you can afford to in Ascalon City, you can choose to do a couple of different things. You can choose to progress the campaign, which is detailed in the next section, or to continue adventuring and completing quests you've picked up around the City. Either way, unless you're playing with three friends you'll need to learn about henchmen.

In Ascalon City, near the exit to Old Ascalon, is a line of four henchmen. Henchmen are NPC allies that are available in every town or outpost in Guild Wars who you can recruit by inviting them to your party. These computer-controlled allies will assist you in battle and missions, and are vitally important to surviving in absence of other human players or a balanced party.



In Ascalon City, there are four henchmen: Orion [Mage Henchman], Alesia [Healer Henchman], Reyna [Archer Henchman], and Stefan [Fighter Henchman]. If you wish, you can double-click on them to learn more about them. If you are not playing as a monk, you will need to bring Alesia. If you are not playing as an elementalist, you should probably bring Orion also. Then select either Reyna or Stefan; whichever you feel best compliments your party. If you're a warrior, you probably don't need another warrior, and if you're a ranger you likely don't need a second ranger. You can invite a henchman by clicking on them and then clicking the green plus sign () to the left of your party list to add them to your party.

Alternatively, you can also use the "Party Search" window (default key: "P") to quickly add any available henchmen by selecting their names and clicking "Add Henchman".



Note the "Players" tab at the top of this window which will list any players in the same city & district looking for a group. You can use the Party Search tool yourself to find a group if you wish.

Note also that here in Ascalon City all of the henchmen are level 3, which you will be able to see in your party window. This is a good indicator that you should be level 3 or higher for the content outside. Anytime you are unsure if content is too high-level for you, just check the level of the henchmen near the exit. Your NPC party can often carry you if need be, but if you continually find yourself outlevelled you may want to retreat to an earlier area to complete some quests before continuing.

Fortunately though, between primary quests and story missions you should be gaining enough experience to maintain an appropriate level for the content you're attempting. As for henchmen, if you frequently find your party getting overwhellmed and wiping, you may want to try bringing different henchmen (such as a warrior instead of a mage) to see if that works better for you.

While there is no immediate charge for bringing henchman with you, they invisibly take their share of loot from you, as well as an equal percentage of gold picked up. While adventuring with henchmen, you will quickly notice fewer drops. Though annoying, this is a small price to pay for their invaluable contribution to your party. If you find yourself at a substantially higher level than that area's henchmen, you can try adventuring with less of them which will proportionally increase your rewards at the cost of increased difficulty. You will, however, always want a full party during missions.

You will learn more about henchmen as we get further into the game.

By this point in the game you've had some experience with combat from the tutorial and should have a good idea how to use your main skills. As things begin to get more challening, one thing that you'll want to start paying particular attention to is the game Compass.



Of particular note is the Compass' "danger zone" (aggro bubble) which is in the center of the compass. This circular area indicates how close you can get to an enemy NPC before it becomes aggressive to you. Entire groups of enemies are often chained together, and letting a single enemy inside this area can make its entire group hostile to you and your party.

This bubble can also be used to estimate the range of bow, wand, and staff attacks, and is approximately the size of the area that the skill term "earshot" describes.

The other elements of the compass should already be familiar to you except for "Party Flags." Party flags are used by the party leader to command any henchmen in the party to move to a specific location. At this point in the game you shouldn't need to use flags beyond simply knowing that this feature is available.

As you adventure, you will eventually encounter powerful enemies with various glowing, colored auras:



These enemies are bosses, and the color of their aura reflects their class.

Defeating any boss will reward a +2% morale boost to your entire party. You can earn up to a maximum of +10% morale, which increases your health and energy by that percentage, by defeating multiple bosses. Conversely, each time you die you will suffer a -15% death penalty, up to -60%, that reduces your morale by that percentage. Your total, positive or negative, morale rating is listed at the top-left of your screen anytime it is non-neutral:



If your morale is negative (red icon), it can be slowly restored by defeating enemies. For every 75 experience earned, 1% of death penalty will be removed.

Players and henchmen are both affected by morale in PvE.

After completing your initial primary quest and Warmaster Tydus' follow-up quest "The King's Message," Tydus will offer the quest "Defend the Wall." This quest will guide you to The Great Northern Wall outpost which can be reached directly from inside Ascalon City.

Mission outposts are identified on the world map by their icons.



Two crossed swords over the icon mean that the mission has been fully completed. A single sword means the mission has been completed, but that the bonus reward has not been earned. A blank icon means that no part of the mission has been completed yet.

Before beginning the mission, you should understand the difference between missions and quests. Missions are scripted, repeatable, story sequences and are the main way that the game's primary plot is unveiled. Completing a mission will reward each player with a once-per-character reward of 1,000 experience and a skill point, and will frequently teleport the player to the next mission outpost upon completion. With few exceptions, it is possible, though less lucrative, to beat the entire campaign by only completing missions.

Like regular explorable areas, missions take place in a separate, instanced area private to your party. Missions, however, which will automatically grant a "quest" citing mission objectives, do not necessarily display any indications on the Compass for where to go. Instead, players must view their current objectives in the Quest Log (default key: "L") and do their best to figure out how to accomplish the objectives listed.

Also unlike explorable areas, there are no resurrection shrines inside the mission instance and party death will result in mission failure, with the player party being kicked back to the starting outpost.

Players can also unlock bonus objectives during missions, which will reward an extra 1,000 experience the first time you complete it, by thoroughly exploring the mission area and finding an NPC that will offer an additional objective which may optionally be completed. In Prophecies, players will usually get credit for completed bonuses even if they fail the mission.

There are 25 total missions in Prophecies, and completing the final mission will render the campaign "complete." In Ascalon, there are 4 missions that must be completed which will automatically advance you to the next area.

When you are ready to begin your first mission, click the "Enter Mission" button in the Party window to begin.

Though this is not a walkthrough, I will spend a little time talking in more detail about the first mission. The Great Northern Wall is a critical point as it will often make or break new players.

The content here is designed to be forgiving, but also to punish poor decisions before they turn into bad habits. Most of the enemies you will be up against will be level 3 or 4, but most groups of Grawl will have a healer in them that can prolong what would otherwise be a straightforward fight. Though it isn't critical at this time to learn every enemy, one particular foe you should pay attention to is that healer, the Grawl Ulodyte.



The Grawl Ulodyte only has healing skills and can frustrate you when they restore nearly full health to the enemy you almost killed. For this reason, you may want to take them out first. You may also encounter another Grawl healer, the boss Makani Ookook, who you can identify by his glowing blue aura. This level 6 boss, encountered randomly, will block progress of unbalanced parties who, at best, will find themselves in a stalemate against his powerful healing spells.

On that note, unbalanced parties will likely have other trouble with this first mission, and will be frustrated when their defeat makes them start all over again. Running ahead and separating from your group, drawing aggro from too many enemies, and not providing enough defense for your healer are main causes for defeat both during this mission and outside of it.



One thing to remember is that all henchmen except Alesia (and possibly yourself if you completed "Adventure with an Ally" before the Searing or bought Resurrection Signet in Ascalon) will have what is essentially a single-use resurrection skill. This means that if each member of your party uses up their skill and your healer dies, nobody will be able to resurrect her. Alesia, on the other hand, has what is known as a hard resurrection skill (Restore Life) that can be used unlimited times. Resurrection Signet can be recharged by killing a boss, but without a healer you'll be unlikely to pull that off.

Talking to Captain Calhaan at the start of the mission will open the gate past the wall and show dialogue above his head regarding your current objectives. Again, refer to the Quest Log (default key: "L") to view your current mission goals, which will initially be:

• Search north of the Wall to find the Charr army.
  
• Report your findings to Captain Calhaan.

Though no quest arrows appear on your Compass, your path should be pretty linear. As you progress, additional objectives may be added (including bonuses) or existing ones may be marked completed.

Toward the north eastern side of this mission is an NPC named Kilnn Testibrie. Talking to Kilnn will offer you an optional bonus objective, to retrieve different parts of his armor from wreckage strewn about the area. There are four pieces total which must be returned to him to complete the bonus. If there are multiple human players in your party, only one of them should pick up the items. Turning in all four items will complete the bonus objective for each player and give a once-per-character reward of 1,000 EXP.

For this mission, after you locate the Charr army and watch a cutscene, you will need to RUN LIKE HELL opposite where you've come from. Your first few steps should lead you south across a bridge; if you end up heading further north or west at any time you are going the wrong way.

During this sequence, you will not have time to fight and must follow this new path back to the beginning of the mission. You can consult your map to see where you've come from and thus where your ultimate destination will be, but this alternate route will be even more linear and will lead mostly south-east. Find Captain Calhaan where you left him and talk to him again to complete the mission where you will earn a once-per-character reward of 1,000 EXP and 1 skill point.

There are four separate missions in Ascalon, including The Great Northern Wall. Though there are plenty of quests to do in this area, many players find that they do not have enough skills to be effective, or otherwise find post-Searing Ascalon depressing and are eager to move on. For reference, the following primary quests and missions should have been completed by the time you leave:

• The Krytan Ambassador
  
• Defend the Wall
  
• The Great Northern Wall (mission)
  
• Fort Ranik (mission)
  
• Ruins of Surmia
  
• Ruins of Surmia (mission)
  
• Nolani Academy (mission)

Completing the last of the four missions, Nolani Academy, will finally move you on to the next game area.

It should be understood, however, that the further you progress in the campaign, the steeper the difficulty and learning curves are. Groups of 3-4 enemies will become groups of 5-6. Though you will be able to form larger parties of six instead of four, you will soon need to pay closer attention to enemy group formations and classes, and the defined roles of your own party members. Ascalon is your opportunity to learn effective party balance and is, comparatively, one of the most sparsely populated areas of the game.

If you can complete the missions here with only passing difficulty, you'll be in good shape for the content ahead. If not, consider reserving your eagerness to move forward until you feel competent enough in your own role in a party to proceed, as you will soon need to master new tactics and skills.

The map below will show all outposts, missions, and explorable areas in Ascalon. You should be at least level 8 and have purchased at least one armor set in Ascalon City before moving onward.

Next Up: Prophecies (Part 3): The Shiverpeaks

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