How to solo Guild Wars 1?

[TITLEplayer]

Hey, I'm currently waiting for a discount on this game. I was wondering how soloable is this game and how? I heard you have to buy the trilogy and Eye of the North to solo the game. Something about starting on Nightfall to get henchman and then rush to EotN to get Heroes?

[c0Zm1c]

Technically you don't 'need' the trilogy and Eye of the North to solo the game - as in, say, you could buy just Prophecies and attempt to do it with just henchmen with no heroes, though some missions might be near impossible to finish - but the heroes you get from owning all campaigns and the expansion can help greatly, particularly those from the latter when you're just starting out with a new character; when you start Eye of the North (which is available from level 10) you get three max level heroes very early on which can make playing through the rest of the game far easier

To my knowledge, everywhere in PvE can be done solo with heroes. In fact, it's pretty much the only way I play PvE now.

[EthanT]

You can beat any campaign with just the npc henchmen. Heroes (from Nightfall) are nice, and customisable, but you can do it without them.

[TITLEplayer]

All right. So I'm thinking that I start on Prophecies. I read that I'm supposed to get to Lion's Arch, so am I supposed to quest until it leads me to Lion's Arch? After that, supposedly I would "go to Nightfall and EotN to get Heroes, then go back and finish Prophecies," according to a redditor. So I'm guessing it will be a long hike. Is there a guide on this? And it sounds like this is a long hike, but I want to optimize my run, although I'll probably be missing a few quests, and play the campaigns in chronological order.

[c0Zm1c]

The absolute optimal way of getting to Lion's Arch would be to do the minimal amount of quests in the starting region - you only really need to acquire a secondary profession here, then you are free to leave: bear in mind you can't return to this region once you leave because it's separate from the main game (you're not missing anything essential by leaving early but there is one achievement that can only be had in this region) - then, once you arrive back in the city, get another player to run you to Lion's Arch.

But if strictly playing solo is important, you're best to just follow the main quests and missions. For a guide of sorts, you could follow the primary quest line on the Guild Wars wikipedia:

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/List_of_Prophecies_missions_and_primary_quests

Edit: if your intention is to start Eye of the North as soon as you arrive in Lion's Arch then it would be a good idea to work through some quests/mission anyway since you'll need to level up (to level 10) before you can start EotN.

[TheKido]

Originally posted by TITLEplayer:

Hey, I'm currently waiting for a discount on this game.

Half-Life 3 will be released before a discount for this game

[TITLEplayer]

Originally posted by TheKido:

Originally posted by TITLEplayer:

Hey, I'm currently waiting for a discount on this game.

Half-Life 3 will be released before a discount for this game :beatmeat:

Haha true dat, but I just need Eye of the North; currently waiting for GW2 customer service to restore my GW1 account.

[Deathsway]

just giving my opinion here i seen someone said just pick the second profession then rush out of starting area and head to lion arch... imo aweful idea. to me the begining of prophecies was some of the best content in guild wars i loved making new charecters and playing through thos first 8 or 9 levels(some people even hit max level in the beggining area) if your going to buy guild wars dont just rush the game its not a game that was meant to be played that way hence the reason the level cap is only 20. just enjoy your time here GW is one of my personal favorites and as long as its online ill come back time and time again if you want to rush to endgame and compete with other people a million other mmos offer that.

[TITLEplayer]

Originally posted by Deathsway:

just giving my opinion here i seen someone said just pick the second profession then rush out of starting area and head to lion arch... imo aweful idea. to me the begining of prophecies was some of the best content in guild wars i loved making new charecters and playing through thos first 8 or 9 levels(some people even hit max level in the beggining area) if your going to buy guild wars dont just rush the game its not a game that was meant to be played that way hence the reason the level cap is only 20. just enjoy your time here GW is one of my personal favorites and as long as its online ill come back time and time again if you want to rush to endgame and compete with other people a million other mmos offer that.

Haha thanks. I'm just considering these options because I heard Prophecies is very hard.

[c0Zm1c]

Originally posted by Deathsway:

i seen someone said just pick the second profession then rush out of starting area and head to lion arch... imo aweful idea.

I guess you're referring to me but the OP did say "I want to optimize my run", and what I said is literally the most optimal. But for a new player, yes, it is arguably best to start slow (which I also hinted at).

[Ragnarök]

If you start with Prophecies you should at minimum grab the free skills that you get for your primary and secondary class by doing those select sidequests that give them in Pre-Searing Ascalon. It may save you thousands of gold in the long run.

[Phen]

I soloed all the way through GW1. Only some hard-mode dungeons require players.
Game is hard. Very hard. But it's 100% possible with right character and party.

[Slapped_Chimp]

Elementalist cheese

[TITLEplayer]

Originally posted by Phenomen:

I soloed all the way through GW1. Only some hard-mode dungeons require players.
Game is hard. Very hard. But it's 100% possible with right character and party.

Hard mode dungeons: do you mean the "end-game" content at the end of the main game and each expansion? Or are there hard mode dungeons during questing, and are they heavy in story?

[c0Zm1c]

Originally posted by TITLEplayer:

Originally posted by Phenomen:

I soloed all the way through GW1. Only some hard-mode dungeons require players.
Game is hard. Very hard. But it's 100% possible with right character and party.

Hard mode dungeons: do you mean the "end-game" content at the end of the main game and each expansion? Or are there hard mode dungeons during questing, and are they heavy in story?

Hard mode is simply a higher difficulty mode that unlocks for a campaign/expansion when you complete its main story content. You can then enter any explorable area or dungeon, or replay any mission or certain quests associated with that campaign/expansion in hard mode.

So hard mode is essentially the same content, but it increases the levels of most enemies, and in some cases the quantity of them, and buffs them to move, attack and cast spells much faster. They are a lot tougher than in normal mode. Loot is generally better in hard mode too.

Edit: Hard mode is only available to level 20 characters, something you'll reach long before finishing a campaign anyway, but if you have already completed a campaign/expansion on one character, hard mode then becomes available to any other level 20 characters on your account whether you have completed the campaign/expansion with them or not.

[Forgettable]

You can solo the whole game, and prophecies without the heroes. If you want to play GW for the fun game it is, which I highly suggest if it's your first time playing, start on Proph, build your character and use the henchmen.

If you never played the game it won't be fun just rushing through everything the first time. Take it slow, pay attention to the story, don't make the game a chore.