I’ve played Guild Wars off and on since 2009 – not that long, I know. I own all of the expansions, and have never before made it past level 9 in prophecies. Something always held me back, and I never really gave the game a ‘proper’ chance. When Guild Wars 2 announced that trophies from your Guild Wars monument would carry over in some fashion to the new game, I instantly thought to myself “oh! I’ll need to work on that!” and then never did. Of course now the game is almost ready for release, and I’m just getting started. Not only that, but I’ve been completely in the dark about everything Guild Wars related, and didn’t have the faintest idea at all of what I was doing. So grabbing my trusty google search engine, I set forth to figure out what this whole ‘Hall of Monuments’ was about.
First, I discovered it’s in the expansion ‘Eye of the North’. Great, I owned that at least. First step down. Next I found this great FAQ which answered most of my basic questions. Most importantly, the NPC I needed to talk to to get started in this whole adventure. Since I was still in prophecies I was off to talk to Len Caldoron in Lion’s Arch. Good thing my friend brought me to Lion’s Arch a few years back, or else I would have no idea how to get there. As it was I was able to instantly port, and found myself in the Eye of the North. Continued on with the quest chain. I picked up henchmen and along the way earned my first two heroes. Heroes are like henchmen but better. You choose their skills, and you can give them gear. Other than that I haven’t figured it out yet.
When you do the main chain to access the Hall of Monuments, you’re given a tapestry. This tapestry is then used to unlock one of the monuments, either devotion, fellowship, resilience, and valor. Honor is already unlocked. Each one of these monuments holds a particular ‘thing’ from your character. For example, devotion is miniatures. I made a mistake and didn’t understand this whole concept, so I unlocked the monument for armor sets, which of course I have none of. Then I spent the rest of my weekend working to unlock another tapestry, so I could place my miniatures, which I do have a few of.
The quests were fun. Because I had so many heroes and henchmen working for me I barely got any loot but I didn’t mind because I was there for the story, not for neat items. The experience gain was crazy. Eye of the north basically sets your character at level 20 (but without any extra skills) so my level 11 character was level 15 before I knew it. I got involved in the story, helping the Norn become my allies, and loved the introduction to my heroes. All in all? Great weekend of gaming!
I have also started this process but I’ve been following another guide that starts you out in one of the 3 original campaigns first. I don’t actually own Eye of the North yet. I think the guide I’ve been following off the GW Reddit assumed you would know more and have played before. That FAQ was helpful.
Thanks for posting this, after playing GW2 this weekend I’ve decided to pick GW up again and give HoM a try to see what I can get for my character in GW2. Now I can get started even quicker. :)