Guild Wars Reforged, or: Why Small Numbers are Good

[GenDenelith]

Just realized I haven't made a thread on what is probably my favourite MMO of all time: Guild Wars.  I played this way back in closed beta, open beta, and all through the release window up until some time after the release of Eye of the North.  That put me at roughly 1000 hours of gameplay across a few years, all while going to college.  That's a hell of a game... and maybe a testament to the fact that I should have put more effort into college.

And now, after more than a decade of being in 'maintenance mode', the game is back and getting actual real updates again with Guild Wars Reforged.  The rebrand is more a statement that work is being done as the original release of the Reforged update added controller support, steamdeck compatibility, and a few post-processing effects I don't think I ever noticed.  But the game is cheap now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/29720/Guild_Wars_Reforged/

The reasons I like the game are many, like the setting and art design being so solid, but the core of it comes down to gameplay.  Levels only go up to 20, and in the Factions & Nightfall campaigns you will hit this level basically during or right after the initial part of the game.  There is no "grind" here at all.  Stats only go up to 12, and can be adjusted at any time in an outpost/town/etc.  There are ways to increase these stats, but generally only up to +4... and that requires expensive runes that also lower your max HP.  Speaking of which, all classes have a max HP of 480, so those superior runes are an actual noticeable tradeoff.

This makes for a game where getting +1 to a stat, or doing 10 more damage is actually significant.  There are over 200 skills per class, and you can have a secondary class, so you have a pool of like 400 skills at any time.  But you can only take 8 with you at once, so the entire game is about experimenting with builds and being good at A THING.  NPC henchmen/heroes are available everywhere, so you always have a full party.

So overall you have a very customizable character, with numbers low enough that its easy to intuit changes in performance, and you can play through the entire game solo if you want while still having the game function like you're playing multiplayer.

It's just the best.

[GenDenelith]

I have a few of my thoughts for new players as well.  When starting a new character, you can start in the Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall campaign.  These are the three 'releases' of the game, and Prophecies is the first one.  Timeline-wise, I believe Prophecies is the first one, then the other two happen, then Eye of the North (a separate expansion pack) happens a bit of time after those.

A character in one campaign can move to any of the others once they hit a certain point, usually the 'main' city for each campaign.  This is Lions Arch for Prophecies, Kaineng City for Factions, and Kamadan for Nightfall (also the starting city, but some plot progression is needed).  The main difference is where you start for each:

• Prophecies - This starts you off in the comfiest zone, and one you absolutely can never go back to, nor visit on other characters.  Definitely worth starting a character here at least once.  This campaign as a whole is also the slowest pace, but with the largest variety of areas you get to see in the campaign.  It's the original release, so kinda scuffed at times, and not much of a tutorial.
• Factions - This campaign has a really solid tutorial, though a few real huge difficulty spikes in the campaign.  I think it also has some weirdness near the end of the campaign where at least one mission requires two parties of players, but it's been 20 years so I forget.
• Nightfall - The final campaign released, and the one that introduces Heroes.  As this has the best tutorial, and gives immediate access to Heroes (customizable NPC party members), this is the campaign I always suggest starting with for new players.  Has a bit of a rep grind at two spots, but if you do sidequests you should be fine.

Unless you intend on playing solely with other players, you'll want to set up a team of Heroes as they are way better than henchmen are due to customizations.  Here's a good guide for a very powerful hero team, intended to be usable from a fresh account starting in Nightfall all the way up to post-game content:

https://gwpvx.fandom.com/wiki/Build:Team_-_7_Hero_Beginner_Team

It'll carry you through all the campaigns, and maybe some actual endgame content.  You'll want teams like this when you see the horrid stuff the end of the campaigns throw at you.  Also the official wiki is super useful, so refer to it for... anything, really:

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page