Newbie Help

[Morfiend]

I could really use some advice. I just picked this up, and I feel a bit overwhelmed. It doesnt help that ether 1) There are no official forums. or 2) Im a retard and cant find them.

I started a Necromancer, because imo they are the only class that doesnt look like a homoerotic pansy. I also like playing classes that have life drain abilities. I really couldnt figure out what I wanted for my second class, or how to do my attributes. I ended up taking Monk as my second, because I figured that with Life Drains and some minor heals, I would be really hard to kill. Im not sure how my offence will be though. I wouldnt mind rerolling is Monk is a bad choice, as I am only lvl3.

Any newbie advice would be very welcome. Or if anyone wants to contact me ingame, my name is "Lord Morvant". Thanks guys.

[Llava]

Nothing wrong with Monk secondary.

When you press H you'll notice your "Hero" screen opens.  Here you'll see your attributes, such as Blood Magic, Death Magic, etc.  Mousing over them will describe them.  You gain points to spend in these attributes when you level.  Don't spread yourself too thin here.  Pick 2 or 3 in which you want to specialize.

Equipment is deceptively simple.  You don't get armor drops from monsters, you buy armor from crafter NPCs.  Those crafters require that you pay them a fee and provide the materials they need.

Build your character however you want, because respeccing is really easy.  You'll notice in your hero screen you have Attribute Refunds (24 of them).  Each time you lower your score in a particular attribute, you will regain the points spent on it and lose one Attribute Refund.  You will regain an Attribute Refund point for every 250 experience you gain.  Even a lower levels, that means you'll earn them back pretty quick.  So experiment, try out different builds.  If you don't like them, switch back.

[Morfiend]

I was reading the Vault, yuk, and it looks like a Necro/Mesmer is mor elike what I was looking for. Like a life drain character, that can do decent damage. Maybe Ill reroll.

[Llava]

Necros do perfectly good damage on their own, you don't really need a secondary.

My Necromancer, for example, uses strictly Necromancer powers and can do some amazing things.

Suggestions:

Death and Blood. Pick up Dark Aura and use it on yourself along with some life sacrificing powers.  You will pump out tons of damage, but at some risk to yourself.  Dark Aura means that whenever you sacrifice health, you deal X damage to foes around you and sacrifice X additional health.  It basically doubles your damage output.  Toss on Aura of the Lich on top of it and you can use Life Siphon and Blood Renewal to keep yourself healthier.

Death and Curses. This is the strategy I use, and I'm the only person I've seen using it in PvP.  Maybe it's too complicated for most people, because you really have to be aware of each of your pets.  Use Animate Bone Minions (an animation spell like Animate Bone Horror, but it makes two lower level minions instead of one higher level).  Put Death Nova on both of them (if target ally dies in the next 30 seconds, Death Nova deals X (100 in my case) damage to all nearby foes and poisons for 15 seconds) and send them in.  Use Taste of Death (steal X health from an animated undead ally) to blow them up and keep yourself healed.  Toss on whatever spells you feel will make life easier on top of that.  I like Enfeeble to keep the Warriors in check.  I have done some really amazing stuff with this build, such as winning a 4v4 in which my entire team was dead and 3 of the other team was still alive, and I had no rez available.

I haven't done anything with just Blood and Curses, but it could work well.

Secondary classes are for wimps.

Oh, and Soul Reaping rules.

[Morfiend]

Is there a f13 guild, where I could make some friends?

[Xanthippe]

Very helpful site for pre-searing:
Compilation of Everything I know about Pre-Seering [sic] Ascalon
http://www.guild-hall.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-9255.html


My favorite source for information -
http://www.gwonline.net
the forums on this site are decent


Other possibly helpful sites:
http://www.knights-templar.com/


Elite skills listing with maps:
http://www.xennon.co.uk/eliteskills/

[Xanthippe]

Friend me (Sugarpie Honeybunch or Merri Maybe).  I play erratically (usually daytime Pacific) but will be happy to answer whatever questions you have.

Sugarpie is a 20 ele/mes

Merri's a 19 monk/necro (although right now just specced for healing monk).  Holler if you need help on something.  I was able to solo all missions up to ascension with henchies - far easier than with the ele/me.