Previously: Prophecies (Part 2): Joining The Fight

With a few missions under your belt it's time to move on to the Shiverpeak Mountains. You'll be able to better customize your character's skills and learn how to manage larger and deadlier groups. The maximum party size here is 6, and you should really start to feel the things you've learned to this point pay off.

Coming from Ascalon, you should be at least level 8 when you start adventuring in this area. For the first time you'll be able to put significant emphasis on the way you want to play your character, expressing yourself through customization. Wider skill variety and at least 35 attribute points puts you in a great position to start tailoring your character to your playstyle.

Since you've already learned the basics, now is the time to hone your craft. As a result, this section of the Prophecies guide will focus more on finer mechanics and less on which NPCs to talk to. If you made it all the way to Yak's Bend and you're less than level 8 you are likely going to have a hard time. If you skipped any missions to get here, now might be a good time to go back and do them.

Though sometimes frustrating, the Shiverpeaks are a fantastic arena for you to really master some of the techniques discussed below. There are only two missions here, and a handful of primary quests to guide you through the mountains, which will give you plenty of opportunity to perfect your new skills. Take your time and try experimenting if you haven't been enjoying your profession very much to this point.

After completing Nolani Academy in Ascalon you'll end up in Yak's Bend, a makeshift refugee camp home to profession specialists, an armorer, and the PvP Shiverpeak Arena. Captain Osric is here to greet you and offer your next story quest, "The Way is Blocked." His additional quests "Shiverpeak Stragglers" and "The Road to Borlis Pass" can also be completed along the way.



The Shiverpeaks offer a rare downtempo in the Prophecies campaign to give you a break from the many missions of Ascalon. Here, you should be more focused on getting skills and settling into a comfortable rhythm with your class.

Finally it's time to get some serious skill upgrades. Captain Osric [Skills] will offer about 15 skills for each class, or about 30 between your dual professions. Beside the new skills, Osric will offer most of the skills that could have been earned to this point through secondary quests.

To reiterate a point from a previous guide, new players would do well to focus on their primary profession at this time. Osric will offer enough skills at this point to completely fill your skillbar with class skills. This is also an important time to experiment with specialization, as it will be your first real opportunity to focus primarily on one or two attribute lines; for example, an elementalist interested in earth magic will have access to at least 4 earth magic skills.

The further you get into the game, the more specialized your skill build should become. As you gain access to more and more skills, you will need some sense of priority to know which skills to unlock. Because the cost of skills increases with each skill you buy, you won't want to waste your hard-earned gold on skills you'll never use. Though you can still make changes to your skillbar and attribute distribution at any time, it is wise to try and find the types of skills that fit your playstyle early on.

In particular, be cautious about buying skills for your secondary profession's primary attribute as you will never be able to invest attribute points in it to improve its stats.

Until this point in the game, it's been easy to evenly distribute attribute points across your primary and secondary profession, but the cost of increasing your attributes to an effective level will reduce your practical options.

At level 8, you should generally have two attributes at rank 5 and one auxiliary attribute at rank 2. Remember to always invest in your primary attribute which are as follows:




"Specialization Attribute" in the image above refers to the way you want to play: it might be fire magic for an elementalist, or sword mastery for a warrior. The "Auxiliary Attribute" refers to a skill whose type you may have one or two of on your skill bar, such as a skill from your secondary profession.

At this point you simply cannot get by with two or three points in each attribute. If you're unsure what you want to specialize in, buy the skills that sound right for you and try to figure out how you want to play.

Unless you're a ranger, you will find a class specialist in Yak's Bend (monks will talk to Van the Warrior) that will offer a skill quest. The ranger skill quest is instead offered in the northwest part of Traveler's Vale from Artemis the Ranger.

Leaving the Charr and Grawl behind you in Ascalon, you will now find yourself up against the fierce Stone Summit Dwarves and the vigilant Shiverpeak Centaurs. You may even find the two fighting each other! You will encounter enemies in gradually increasing groups of 2-6 as you venture out into Traveler's Vale, and will need to be wary of wide patrols lest you become overwhelmed.

From this point further, caution will be your strongest weapon. As you progress into the Shiverpeaks past Traveler's Vale, onto missions or other explorable areas, you'll notice that combat becomes significantly more challenging and enemies grow more saturated. Groups with the woeful Dolyak Riders will be particularly difficult. Dispatch them quickly, or be defeated.



These indomitable opponents are often joined by their hulking cousin the Summit Beastmaster, who can quickly obliterate an unprepared party with their Giant Stomp. Fortunately, both of these foes' size reflects their power, deliberately making them easy to distinguish from their dwarven brethren. When taking on a group with one or more of these monsters, you should give them immediate priority. Which one you focus on first is a matter of your own strategy.

These two enemies in particular are intended to help you learn about enemy priority, and to help you get an understanding for the immediate benefits of executing your foes in the right order. Take out the healer and shorten the fight, or take out the knockdown threat and fight through the heals. Which strategy works best for your group?

In this area, enemy identification should be fairly obvious. As you fight, you should begin paying attention to the skills used by your enemies to learn which class they are and thus what to expect them to do. For example, all Stone Summit Scouts are rangers and all Shiverpeak Protectors are monks. Monks will heal themselves and their parties, warriors will act like tanks, necromancers will hex you, and mesmers will wreak havoc with your skills and enchantments.

If you want to learn more about a particular skill an enemy uses, you can hover over it to see a skill description as shown in the image above. The numbers in green will generally reflect how many points an enemy has in a given attribute. In that example, the Domination Magic skill Empathy, the skill could inflict up to 46 critical damage whenever a hexed ally attacks.

You can usually tell which class an enemy is by the skills it uses and the color of the skill icon. Purple skill icons like the one shown above belong to the mesmer. You can then infer that all Stone Summit Sages are mesmers. As you play, you will eventually want to learn to identify enemies which are likely to cause you the most trouble. Below is a brief table that shows generally what you can expect from each class.


As you play, try and learn to identify which enemies are which so that you can prioritize targets and defeat enemies more efficiently.

You can track which skills are being used against you with the damage indicator on the left of the screen.



Any skills used against you that cause direct damage will be listed here, and you can hover over them to see their specific effects. In this example, I can tell that my character is being attacked by rangers, and I can hover over the skill icon to see how I may have received the damage if not by a direct attack. For example, some of these icons may be the result of hexes or other punishment skills. You can view active effects on you, both positive and negative, on the top left of your screen.

For example, you might see the two conditions shown here which are Disease and Cripple. Other effects, buffs, hexes, or morale boosts will also be shown here, as well as their remaining durations. As you become more skillful at playing Guild Wars, you will be able to pay closer attention to this additional stream of information. Some conditions, like Cripple, may be obvious to you because it will affect your movement speed. Others, like Disease, may be less noticeable, but generally do have a visible indicator.

But why should I care if my character is Diseased? Because it means you will immediately infect nearby party members, which you can tell by reading the skill description!

Knowing which classes are dealing you damage can also be helpful to identify which foes are giving you particular trouble. If you are defeated in battle, any damage you were suffering when you went down will remain listed on the left side of your screen, giving you an opportunity to learn exactly what killed you.

As you learn to identify the biggest threats in a group, you can put that information to immediate use and call your target's priority by selecting it, holding down the Ctrl key, and pressing the spacebar. Calling the target will announce it to your party, and request that they focus on it immediately. Only human players can call targets, and you can quickly switch to another player's target by pressing "T." All henchmen will attack the party leader's called target automatically.



Calling targets is a quick way to unleash your entire party's damage onto a single target. Even monk henchmen will wand the target between heals, and the collective damage can decimate your enemies.

When a target is called, a "T" icon will show up beside the calling character's name in the party window to indicate that a target has been called. You can click the icon or press the "T" key to focus on that target. If you are the party leader, switching targets will not affect the status of the called target unless that target is defeated or a different target is called. Party leaders will also need to repeat target calls from other human players to get any henchmen to obey.

Did you know you can dodge projectiles? Surprise! Arrows and wand attacks that are visible in the air can be avoided by moving out of the way, or by moving behind a rock or other environmental obstruction. Casters can still use skills against you so it isn't perfect defense, but being able to dodge incoming fire can certainly impact your survivability.

Now that you're getting better at paying attention to enemy types and formations, it's time to learn how to fight them where you want to. Pulling refers to deliberately aggroing an enemy group and luring them to a place of your choosing, perhaps to avoid fighting in an inconvenient location or to dodge nearby patrols. Kiting refers to the technique of maintaining both range and aggro as you move, as if the enemy were a kite on a string. Trying not to get overwhelmed in a fight is always a strong tactic for survival, and effective pulling & kiting can become necessary skills to master.

The first thing you'll need for a good pull is the proper weapon. For this task, I recommend a longbow, regardless of your profession. Longbows can fire well beyond aggro range, and the natural arc from the arrows allows them to fly even further from higher elevations.



Flatbows have the same range as longbows, but as can be seen in the diagram above, a flatbow's higher arc costs greatly in accuracy. Flatbows are preferable when certain conditions are met, but longbows are more reliable when learning this technique.

Keep an eye out for a longbow or flatbow as a drop which will be a valuable tool for you throughout the game. Its stats don't matter, so any you come across will do fine.

You'll want to equip your longbow as an alternate weapon set. If you haven't used this feature yet, your active weapon sets are shown in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. You can easily switch between weapons by pressing the F-key (F1-F4) indicated under the set you want to switch to: in the screenshot at right, you could switch to the bow by pressing F2. After a successful pull, you could switch back to your main weapon by pressing F1.

To assign a new weapon set, simply switch to the set you want by clicking the icon or pressing the appropriate F-key, and then equip the weapons you want associated with that set. Weapons assigned to a set are indicated with a gold cross in the lower right-hand corner so you can easily identify them in your inventory.

You can choose to hide or display the weapon set icons on your screen by clicking the "Weapon Sets" button in your inventory. Any checked sets will be visible.

If you haven't used it already, the flag () icon underneath your Compass will allow the human party leader to flag any henchmen they control to a specific location. Click the flag icon and then click a point on the ground to tell your henchmen to move there.



Be careful when flagging, as henchmen will not execute any action until they reach the flagged destination. If you flag in an obstructed location, such as on a steep hill or in the middle of a boulder, your henchmen may become confused and not execute any actions until the flag is moved or released by clicking the red "X" under your Compass.

Additionally, as the party leader, you can flag your henchmen using the Compass or minimap. Again, be careful about flagging them too far as their pathfinding may have issues and they will be indefensible while moving to the new location.

You may already know to cycle through targeted enemies with the Tab key. What you likely don't know is that you can additionally use the "C" key to target the enemy closest to you. This is especially useful to stay as far away as possible during a dangerous pull, or to find the nearest enemy while kiting a group to maintain maximum distance between yourself and your foes.

Use the Aggro Bubble on your compass (the circle in the middle) to determine how close you can get to the enemies before they notice you. The bow range diagram above will give you an idea for how proportionally far your target can be from the outside edge of the Aggro Bubble on a level surface.

The best way to get a feel for your weapon's range is to attack an enemy from outside of your weapon's range and watch as your character runs automatically to firing range. Your actual maximum firing range will be slightly more than this indicates, meaning you could back a little further away if you wish, but this should give a good idea.

As you get a better feel for positioning, you should start to take elevation into account as it can make your arrows fly further or shorter depending on whether you are higher or lower than your target.

If you have a pet, you will want to change your pet's stance to "Heel" before attempting to pull. You can do this by clicking the "1" box next to your pet's name in the party window, and then selecting the "Heel" icon, a picture of a dove.



This will instruct your pet not to run in and attack your target, which could interfere with the pull and potentially aggro unwanted groups. Don't forget to change your pet's stance back to "Guard" (the shield icon) after you've pulled back to your group.

You will need to begin by flagging any henchmen you control to the place you'll ultimately want to fight. Consider this scenario:



You find yourself in a narrow mountain passage. Up ahead you see several enemy groups. Running in to fight might be too dangerous, so you decide to try and pull the groups to you, one-by-one.

First, flag your group to a safe place and observe the enemies you're facing while staying out of aggro range. Do you see any patrols? Let's assume the group on the left slowly patrols around the area. Unless you observe minor movement patterns over time you usually won't be able to tell which enemy belongs to which group. You will, however, be able to make an educated guess as to how many groups there are. Let's assume you divide the battleground as follows.



That could be 3 groups of 4 or 2 groups of 6, but judging by the patrol size you assume it's the former. While staying out of aggro range, switch to your longbow and try to move to the highest, unobstructed point you can reach relative to your enemies while maintaining a direct route back to your party. Even standing on a mound of snow can give you advantageous elevation which can make pulls much easier. If you're on flat ground or a lower elevation you can still do it thanks to the longbow's range, it will just take some practice.

When you feel you're at your weapon's maximum range, set your pet to Heel and press "C" to target the closest enemy to you. When you're ready, tap the spacebar to execute your attack. As soon as your weapon fires, run backward a little and try to observe which mobs were aggroed by the pull. If the group size is what you expected, stop, fire another arrow, turn around and then run toward your group a little more. Repeat the process as needed until you reach your group, switch back to your primary weapon and set your pet back to Guard if you need to.

While you're learning to do this, you may notice that some enemies will drop aggro from you quickly if you don't continue to attack them consistently enough. You'll need to let some enemies get closer to you as a result so you can hit them a few extra times. Conversely, when pulling from maximum range, you may also want to adjust your target as you kite. Frequently tap the "C" key to make sure the closest enemy is targeted at a given time so that you can maintain the best range.

You should be coming up on level 10 as you finish up the last leg of the region and finally guide your tired band of refugees to the safety of Kryta. For reference, the following primary quests and missions should have been completed by this point:

• The Way is Blocked
  
• Borlis Pass (mission)
  
• The Frost Gate (mission)
  
• To Kryta: Refugees
  
• To Kryta: The Ice Cave

Do not forget to take the last primary quest, "To Kryta: Journey's End" from Aidan in Griffon's Mouth before leaving. You can find Aidan just before the exit to Scoundrel's Rise at the end of the ice cave. Note that you do not need to pick up the "Mark of Aidan" items on the way; they are only there to help guide you through the cave and any you may have picked up can be safely discarded.

Also before you leave the mountains, you'll want to be relatively confident that you've had at least some experience with the various topics discussed here. Knowing how to class your enemies and call targets will be critical to your party's success as you move forward. Learning to effectively separate groups through proper pulling can help you avoid immense frustration from over-aggro. Managing your attributes well can radically affect your survivability in battle.

Where enemies in the Shiverpeaks like the Dolyak Riders may have been significantly larger than their peers to help you learn to pick them out in a crowd, similar dangerous foes you find in Kryta will not be so quick to distinguish themselves. Moving forward you will need to learn to adapt to new skills and challenges. So don't hesitate to take advantage of this time to hone your skills if you need to. On that note, a few new skills may be picked up in the Ice Tooth Cave outpost in the northwestern section of Anvil Rock.

If you're feeling particularly masochistic, you might even test your mettle in Lornar's Pass where enemies range from level 9 to 28! Needless to say, I don't recommend it. Let me repeat: stay out of Lornar's Pass.

When you're ready to leave, say good-bye to the Shiverpeaks and hello to Kryta. It will be a long time before you'll see mountains like these again...

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