Guild Wars 2

I’m very interested on learning the lore of the game, and though I’ve read and gotten a lot of information from several sources, nothing is like playing the game itself. So my question is, if i were to play from Prophecies to Eye of the North, how long would it take me? Considering I could play perhaps 5 hours per day. Also, is there any known information is servers will be shutdown some day? And considering I’d pretty much be playing solo, would it be hard in some aspects of the game to do so (dungeons maybe)?

Soloing is not too bad. Henchmen can be a bit brain dead but there has been a bunch of improvements and you can control them to some degree now. Getting EotN makes things a bit easier since you can get heroes but you’ll need to unlock the skills to make them useful. This can take a while since leveling is slower in GW1 and it cost gold to buy skills. Then you have to outfit those heroes with runes and insignias.

You can get by with just the henchmen. Reading up on the missions on the wiki can speed things up quite a bit.

a: I don’t recomend to follow the original order of the game. The leveling arch in the first game is rather steep compared with the other campaigns, and even though they are placed behind eachother in time, they are stand alone campaigns and story’s.

B: As Kisanth said having access to the right skills is important.
This is what I would do (without spoiling) to get the maximum understanding of the lore without making it too complicated for yourself.

1: Make a character in prophecy’s. Press m and you see a small section of the world map. After a very interesting cinematic, when you press m you see the full world map (wich is very simular to that of gw2).

2: Start a new character in factions and start playing the game. When you come to an outpost called the marketplace run your character to kaineng center. just outside you find your first hero. In the town you can get henchman and your first hero to get a quest to get to EoTN and get 3 more heroes. Leave this story alone for now and return to factions.

3: Play through factions the regular way. After a mission you can change your secondary profession giving you the abillity to get proper skills for your heroes and capture elite skills for you and them.

4: After finishing factions you can go to Nightfall (with the same character). Here you will unlock more heroes and you should have more then enough resources to give them proper builds (set of skills and attributes).

5: Now go to prophecy’s. On arrival I advise to go back to the starting town (the one you left your first character) It takes bout 60 minutes to run/fight your way there. You can also hire a professional runner who can take you there in less then 30 minutes. Use the wiki to play through the first missions in the original sequence. After Lion’s arch the story-quest will take it overand you can follow that again.

6: After prophecy’s it is time to finish Eye of the north so fo that.

7: Now there are some smaller parts wich you can play in the following sequence: War in Kryta, Hearts of the North and Winds of change.

8: Last of all you could play through the elite area’s. Sorrow’s Furnace might interest you, and is actually easy.

Thank you both for your answers, that’ll prove to be very helpful! Any idea of how long would it take to finish it all by playing 5 hours or so per day? Considering I’m just gonna focus on learning lore and not grind gear or anything that isn’t necessary for the purpose. Also, are dungeons soloable? Is there any content (lorewise important and of course no PvP) where you actually need to party up with other players?

Eluveitie.1290:

Thank you both for your answers, that’ll prove to be very helpful! Any idea of how long would it take to finish it all by playing 5 hours or so per day? Considering I’m just gonna focus on learning lore and not grind gear or anything that isn’t necessary for the purpose. Also, are dungeons soloable? Is there any content (lorewise important and of course no PvP) where you actually need to party up with other players?

Well …. in theory everything is soloable. Since you only care about the lore that would mean no need for hard mode therefore practice will be pretty close to theory. That being said, it has been a while since I played GW1 and even longer since I had to rely on henchmen. GW1 is significantly easier with heroes than with henchmen if you have the skills unlocked.

With the introduction of heroes and the ability to control hero and henchmen positions one of the biggest disadvantages of using them was removed. In many of the encounters the biggest of danger is having everyone clumped up which tended to happen with henchmen. Heroes also make it possible so you can always have a character with interrupts. If you have Factions then Broad Head Arrow can be obtained fairly early which makes fighting any spell casting bosses very easy(this is probably one of the reasons Defiant/Unshakable was added to GW2).

http://gwpvx.gamepedia.com/PvX_wiki has many different builds for various purposes including ones for heroes(the AI is better at using some skills than others) if you don’t want to deal with that aspect of the game

Not very long at all… if you’re really going to play 5 hours per day I bet you’ll be done in a couple weeks. One month at the most.

If you just want to see the lore and don’t mind having boring combat, make a ritualist and bring offensive spirits. It’s very boring, but gets the job done.

Unlock the paragon skill Fall Back! and put it on 2 or 3 heroes. You’ll rush through content fast.

Yes, you can solo dungeons with heroes.

Elite dungeons are a completely different thing (optional content), but you’ll probably want a organized group. You’d probably want to do the Underworld, Fissure of Woe, and Domain of Anguish, but to be honest I haven’t done those many times and don’t remember how much lore they add.

Also, after you finish Prophecies(Tyria), you’re teleported to a town and you can speak with a “vision” to get more quests.

>_< I think I’m going to go play now :-D

Mercury gave a pretty good guide. When your character goes from Cantha (factions) to Elona (nightfall), you’ll be in an island. The quests there are meant as a beginner area/tutorial area. It’s where you’ll get a lot of your heroes. When you do Consulate Docks to leave the island, it’s when you should go back to the first campaign, back to Ascalon, to actually start the story/lore the proper way.

Check the wiki for the list of missions per campgaign so you can see what order they come in. Then each day before you play, check the wiki for today’s zaishen quest (dailies). If the quest/monster is one that you’re going to be doing soon, pick it up. You’ll get a lot of experience so you don’t have to grind.
(Zaishen Mission and Zaishen Bounty)

If you can spare the money I would also recommend to buy “Bonus mission pack” for extra lore when you’re done playing (not essential, but it’s nice).
And “Core skill pack”, “Nightfall Skill pack”, “EotN skill pack” will unlock all the skills for your heroes so you don’t have to spend time unlocking them (and they’ll be available for your character to buy at skill traders earlier than they would otherwise).

Always put Hex and Condition removal skills on your monk heroes.

If you play it in the sequence I said:

Character through first part of prophecy’s: 5 hours max! (so 1 day)
Character through factions the first time: 5 days (including two days of factions farming, I highly recommend reading the wiki for mission guidance and choosing luxon. It’s a lot easier to solo.
Nightfall: 7 days
Prophecy’s: 9 days
Eye of the North: 5 days
GW Beyond content (like e.g. war in Kryta): 10 days (winds of change is rather challenging, as well as parts of war in kryta.

So all in all it should be doable in a little over 1 month.

Also I’d recommend asking in your guild chat if anyone has GW1. You may be surprised how much help you’ll be offered. Having another human with you who already has the map opened can greatly speed your exploration and it doesn’t hurt if they offer a free gold level weapon or two.

Thank you everyone, all your inputs are very helpful and I’ll put them to use!

With servers now being automated, I know I’ll have time before anything happens to them. Hopefully I’ll be able to get all the games.

Eluveitie.1290:

I’m very interested on learning the lore of the game, and though I’ve read and gotten a lot of information from several sources, nothing is like playing the game itself. So my question is, if i were to play from Prophecies to Eye of the North, how long would it take me? Considering I could play perhaps 5 hours per day. Also, is there any known information is servers will be shutdown some day? And considering I’d pretty much be playing solo, would it be hard in some aspects of the game to do so (dungeons maybe)?

Lets not rush, here have a look at this before you pull a Leeroy Jenkins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxmkAoLC6_4

Yes, I’ve seen it and learned of Kormir before, and prepared for the inevitable hate I’ll feel for her. At least Trahearne is a talking plant, that makes it kind of funny, but her…

I hope there’s some statues of Kormir around GW2 so I can proceed to buy Candy Corn and puke all over it.

Eluveitie.1290:

I’m very interested on learning the lore of the game, and though I’ve read and gotten a lot of information from several sources, nothing is like playing the game itself. So my question is, if i were to play from Prophecies to Eye of the North, how long would it take me? Considering I could play perhaps 5 hours per day. Also, is there any known information is servers will be shutdown some day? And considering I’d pretty much be playing solo, would it be hard in some aspects of the game to do so (dungeons maybe)?

To finish all 4 campaigns i would say it will take about 3 weeks or less if you’re only doing the story missions and not going for titles and what not. The game is entirely soloable and the AI can be smart especially since you can micro manage what they do and when they do it. The addition of a full 7 heros in your party made the game sooo much easier for hard mode, all the hard mode dungeons, vanquishing, and masters missions can be done with you and heros provided you know your stuff or study the wiki like a rulebook, I know that EVERYTHING is soloable because i have personally done it. There are sites out there for good team builds if ones you make don’t work out, Sabway (3 necro heros) was a personal choice of mine. I’m a 7 year vet of GW1 and it is to this day by far one of my favorite games of all time GW2 being a close 2nd of course but its still young XD.

3 weeks or less.
Does that include learning everything?!
A completely new player has to learn alot i would guess.

I have to agree,

3 weeks is doable on a 2th or 3th character with all skills unlocked. but in this case the person has to develop hero-builds, player build, unlock skills, and get funding for equipement.