considering this

[Brotherfury]

ok my wife and i are both HUGE fans of WOW and she saw something on GW and was interested. Now my question is... she is not a big fan of grouping... so is it possible to solo (with or without henchmen)?

[TriSwords]

ok my wife and i are both HUGE fans of WOW and she saw something on GW and was interested. Now my question is... she is not a big fan of grouping... so is it possible to solo (with or without henchmen)?

I use henchies all the time. It is really hard to do by yourself as a healing monk it seems. I dont always like grouping with 10 year old, elementalists who like to run into combat. I use healer, mage, warrior heniches when i only have 4 henchie choices. It is pretty easy I think. Henchies are free but take xp and items from kill. But yes, it is fairly easy in my opinion to solo the game if you bring some hencies along.

[Urgdor]

you can "solo" with henchmen(computer mercs) but the later on missions are basically impossible to do alone :/

[TriSwords]

I use henchies all the time. It is really hard to do by yourself as a healing monk it seems. I dont always like grouping with 10 year old, elementalists who like to run into combat. I use healer, mage, warrior heniches when i only have 4 henchie choices. It is pretty easy I think. Henchies are free but take xp and items from kill. But yes, it is fairly easy in my opinion to solo the game if you bring some hencies along.


Im level 12 right now by the way and just did Brolis Pass (is that the right name) with some henchies no problem. I know alot of level 20's in my guild who run with group, and if they do use henches they sometimes get it done but the henchies seem to do stupid stuff.

[Asia Skyly]

I think you will love GW. You can DEFINITELY go at it solo. The player vs. Environment is very good. It also gives you peace of mind that no idiot is going to run in and kill you, steal your kill, etc.

If you find yourself in town, and locate someone with an intelligent name (ex. someone not named Z Dez Nuts, Skrtch MyAzz, etc.) you might try to chat to them and see if they make for good partners.

I started solo, but I enjoy a few intelligent, mature, role playing players. So it is like the best of both worlds!

Come join us, there are no monthly fees!! I just NEVER get tired of saying that! :)

[Brotherfury]

I think you will love GW. You can DEFINITELY go at it solo. The player vs. Environment is very good. It also gives you peace of mind that no idiot is going to run in and kill you, steal your kill, etc.

If you find yourself in town, and locate someone with an intelligent name (ex. someone not named Z Dez Nuts, Skrtch MyAzz, etc.) you might try to chat to them and see if they make for good partners.

I started solo, but I enjoy a few intelligent, mature, role playing players. So it is like the best of both worlds!

Come join us, there are no monthly fees!! I just NEVER get tired of saying that! :)


how can u say noone will steal my kill (which does happen occasionally on wow) when there r hundreds of people running around in the same area?

Brotherfury

[Vexion]

how can u say noone will steal my kill (which does happen occasionally on wow) when there r hundreds of people running around in the same area?

Brotherfury

I've heard WoW has some instances, Guild Wars is entirely based off this concept. Every time you enter an instance, simliar to how you would in WoW, the only people whom are present is yourself and your group members (you can choose to go alone). So there will never be a random person walking up and stealing your kill.

[Corrodias]

yes, all areas with enemies (that is, anything but a city or outpost) is instanced. in fact, cities are also split up into districts, but that's just to control population in a single area, and is not really instancing in the same respect.

that is, when you and your group go out into the world (or into a mission), you get your own, fresh copy of the world, just as if you entered a "game" in diablo 2. there will be no other players, and no one can join you until you return to a town. if someone goes through an area transition, everyone is taken through and resurrected if dead (so if your party is dying, but there's an area transition nearby, you can make a dash for it to keep from getting the death penalty (a temporary reduction in max HP and energy)).

this game is well designed, and item drops also take into account the "stealing" aspect. when an item drops, it is (randomly?) assigned to a member of the party. if that member is a henchman it just disappears. only the person to whom the item is assigned can pick it up. if someone drops an item after picking it up, anyone can pick it up. if the party leaves the immediate area (not the "area" but like.. if you go to the other side of the area) and comes back later, the item is unassigned and anyone can pick it up.

now, about getting through the game solo:

i too like to solo to some extent. i don't want to miss anything. now, in the noob area (pre-searing ascalon), you can do ALMOST everything totally solo, and get a feel for the game at your own pace. in the middle parts of the game, you can usually do things with henchmen, because pure numbers are enough to defeat the enemies. keep in mind, though, that henchmen are also assigned item drops, and your XP is divided among all party members (who were deemed to be "in combat"), so you don't want to take more than you have to. in later parts of the game, though, you need strategy to defeat enemies, and henchmen simply have no concept of strategy. they usually work better than stupid players, because though they all rush into battle like stupid players, they all attack YOUR target. however, that's still not good enough for some missions (search the forum for "Elona" and you'll see people discussing stupid players), and there will be times when you need to get together a group of skilled human players to defeat a mission.

so in the end, you probably cannot do everything solo. however, it may be much cooler than you might expect, what with assigned drops and instanced areas. i, too, expected to want to solo most of the time (and i still like to try things solo the FIRST time, so i can go at my own pace and get used to the area), but i am eager to group with people (who understand aggro management, that is, how to draw a few enemies and/or NOT draw 20 enemies at once) if it doesn't work out solo the first time. in fact, my monk/ranger started out with a damage focus, but lately i've been focusing totally on healing the rest of the group as they dish it out.

EDIT: i really shouldn't say "stupid players"... well, okay, they are stupid players. i might be a stupid player myself. but some of them (of us?) can't really help it, as we just don't have as much of a mind for tactics. but you can help alleviate the problem by NOT being the front-lines guy, if you are a stupid player. try support roles like healing, or just follow someone else's lead and attack what he attacks. do your best to learn what it takes to be a smart player, and stay out of the way. and, for the love of sanity, do not screw around with the compass map. don't draw pictures or write words. that is so confusing.

[REI ONRYOU]

The only people that may steal your kill are party members or the occaisional NPC that is with you.

Find yourself a good Guild to play with, and you'll find the fun of partying with other good players. The GWO community has it's own Guild, and it's all friendly and very nice/

[Asia Skyly]

Actually I forgot to explain this clearly. There are hundreds of people in TOWN. Once you go into an area, there is no other PC in the area, other than you, and your teammates! This means you will never run into another human being that you did NOT invite in your adventuring work. At first, I thought this was super lame. After playing for about a week, I adore it!! It is the best of all worlds!

You want to PK, go to the PvP. You want to adventure in peace, play the PvE with a good party. Want to experience PvE with no one else? Go on your own with henchmen. It is a clever concept.

I am not saying this will work for every player, but I think is a very clever and innovative idea. They just took the best of every concept and put it together!