Rating: 
Summary: Great if you are a new MMORPG player.
Review: This strategy guide doesn't give any more information than the instruction manual to the game. But it is ordered effectively and has helpful charts on weapons, professions, etc. When I started playing this game, it was my first MMORPG and I had no idea what I was doing. The instruction booklet to the game didn't help me figure it out. This strategy guide did, beginning with character creation and taking me through professions. And it offers extremely helpful tips on etiquette and how to communicate with other players online. If you are a veteran MMORPGer, then this book won't tell you anything you don't know. But if you are a rookie like me, it will get you on the fast track to success.
Rating:
Summary: Great if you are a new MMORPG player.
Review: This strategy guide doesn't give any more information than the instruction manual to the game. But it is ordered effectively and has helpful charts on weapons, professions, etc. When I started playing this game, it was my first MMORPG and I had no idea what I was doing. The instruction booklet to the game didn't help me figure it out. This strategy guide did, beginning with character creation and taking me through professions. And it offers extremely helpful tips on etiquette and how to communicate with other players online. If you are a veteran MMORPGer, then this book won't tell you anything you don't know. But if you are a rookie like me, it will get you on the fast track to success.
Rating: 
Summary: Good For Beginners, But Some Wrong Info
Review: This strategy guide has many useful things in it. If you're new to MMORPGs it might be especially helpful for you to get, but seasoned players might enjoy it as well. I found the sections on the Economy and City Life very helpful. The section on the professions is also helpful as a reference for stats and such. There are two appendices that list weapons and creatures, as well as tables for combat and locations of the NPC trainers. Unfortunately, the book has MANY mistakes and errors, which will only get worse as time goes by and more patches and changes are made to the game. The worst errors are in the professions section- for example, the book is wrong about which professions lead to many of the hybrid professions, such as Bounty Hunter. The book also alludes to many things in the book that don't exist- like the Crafting Schematics Appendix, which is missing from the book although mentioned in the Crafting section. The book also could have included more tables and reference guides, such as for socials/emotes and armor. Most, if not all, of the information in the guide can be found on the internet, so it might not be worth the cost with all these errors. I got the book mainly to have some of the information at my fingertips (you don't want to go searching the net for weapon stats while playing)- however, I wouldn't rely on much of the info without doublechecking it on the internet. Also of note: the book features some character sketches as well as a poster, if you're into that stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money...
Review: This was a pretty worthless book for me. All it did is regurgitate the docs that are all contained in the game or in the games manual. Having it all in printed form is nice, but not really that helpful since things are easily accessible from the game. This book did not contain any useful strategies or suggestions for being successful at the game. I wonder if those that wrote it have actually even played the game? I found FAR more valuable strategies and tips for free on-line. Many experienced and successful players have written articles about how to get started, how to use the rules to your advantage, real pros/cons of choices, and how to advance your character the fastest. These are the things I expect a strategy guide to do, and at that, this book failed miserably. For example, this book provides little information to help you choose a starting profession. All they do is dump out all the various charts and expect you to digest them all and make some sense of them. It had no firm opinions on anything. This is a huge and complex game, with a massive amount of options and choices. I read the entire book, and it helped me little in making the proper decisions. After reading a few on-line articles (that were free) from experienced players, I scraped my existing character and started over. By following the advice of people that actually played the game, I was able to advance my character much more quickly, and I had a lot more fun doing it.
| 
