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If you find yourself being annoyed by the 'go get me 5 rat pelt' type misisons, press forward with the main story (listed in the journal as main missions). the missions in guildwars are some of my favorate things in mmo's. they're like doing an instance except much more mobile and fast paced. instead of going into a cave to kill mobs room to room, you may storm a keep, or guard an area from incoming waves.

My favorate mission from prophesies (thunder head keep) involves fighting to a keep (while avoiding the mursaat badasses), then guarding the king for a while. the keep has two entrances and 2 balista overlooking the gates. so you tend to have your ranged folks up on the walls hitting those when they're ready. The missions is designed in such a way that you tend to slowly fall back to just before the king, fighting off waves of mobs. it's like a scripted raid, only fun because it's single group content