Template

This article is about in game templates. For Guild Wars Wiki templates, see Guild Wars Wiki:Templates.

A template is a Skills/Attributes combination or an Armor/Weapon Equipment set. One can save your character's current set, restore previously saved sets, and manage the sets stored on your computer. All Guild Wars accounts and characters using that computer share the templates. Templates are encoded as long strings of alpha-numeric numbers (e.g. "OQCiUyo8AkVwR4KMMGAAAEAA") which can be displayed, copied, and pasted into the chat window for sharing with other players.

Basic template management (renames and deletes) can be performed in-game. More detailed template management (creating folders, moving, and direct editing of the codes) can be done out-game using Windows Explorer. See Manual Template Management below.

Templates can be very useful for those that like to share builds and are a quick way to prepare your character for exploring or battle, without having to remember the details and get them correct each time

Skills and attribute templates

Skill and Attribute combinations Templates can be used for both PvE and PvP characters via the "Templates" button near the upper-left corner of the "Skills and Attributes" (key [K]) panel.

• A Template is grayed out for loading when it is illegal for the current character.
  • A character cannot load a template designed for a different primary profession.
  • A character cannot load a template that is designed with a secondary profession that the character cannot switch to (all PvE pre-Ascended characters). A template is "designed" for a secondary profession when it contains any skill points or skills for that profession.
• A character's secondary profession can change when loading a template.
• When the Template contains a skill the current character doesn't have, that skill slot is emptied.
• A high level character loading a template saved by a lower level character will result in unspent attribute points.
• A low level character loading a template saved by a higher level character will have attribute points reduced proportionately.

Equipment templates

Only PvP characters can use Equipment Templates, via the Templates button near the upper left corner of the "Inventory" (key [I]) panel. PvE characters cannot use Equipment Templates.

• The currently wielded weapon set is saved and loaded; not the other weapon sets.
• A Template is grayed out when it is designed for a different primary profession than the current character.
• A set will load incompletely if the current account hasn't got all the upgrades unlocked as defined in the template.

Manual template management

Each template is saved as a separate *.txt files on the local computer, containing the coding string for the template. The default locations are:

• Windows XP: C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Templates
• Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 10: C:\Users\<YourUserName>\Documents\Guild Wars\Templates

There are sub-folders for "Skills" and "Equipment".

Dealing with the template code is easiest done in-game. However, if you get a code that your character cannot load or from some non-in-game method (e.g. Guild's web site), you can create a *.txt file (such as with Notepad) in the stored directory and enter the code (and only the code, not a trailing EOL) into the file and saving it.

Tips

Sorting your templates by creating sub-folders (perhaps one for each profession) and clever naming conventions can greatly ease the management of large numbers of templates. To create folders in game, merely include the folder name when saving a template (for instance Warrior\template). Or, using Windows explorer, go to your Guild Wars install directory and find the Templates\Skills folder and create sub-folders there.

Bug.It appears that you can't copy/paste the template string into your hero's bar.

If you use the Ctrl+C (for copy) and Ctrl+V (for paste) keystrokes you can paste them in

If you are using Vista/Windows 7 and want the Windows XP template folder location you can set GW.exe to Windows XP compatibility mode.

Notes

• Equipment Templates can be saved by displaying a PvP character's Inventory (I) and clicking on the Disk Button and managing templates like a Skill Template.
• Equipment templates saved from a hero do not contain armor codes, so saving a hero's equipment template will only save the weapons that hero is using.
• Programmers working on Guild Wars related tools might be interested in the format of the template string.
• Load from Template UI function has some limitations:
  • While it is possible to save templates with temporary skill bars, such as while using Ursan Blessing, such templates cannot be loaded back.
  • This also applies to skill bars that include skills from a secondary profession, when the character has not yet committed to an initial secondary profession.
  • Templates that include the skills not yet learned by a character (or unlocked for a hero), may be loaded only partially: the slots with unavailable skills will be empty.
  • The same happens if you attempt to load for a hero a template which includes PvE-only skills like Sunspear Rebirth Signet.
  • Preview of a selected template does not take into account any attribute-specific runes in character's armor, it shows the skill effects for the attributes stored in the template.
  • Template names cannot include certain characters, including a dot(.) or any of the forbidden characters for windows filenames (<>:"/\|?).
    • Saving a template with a name that includes forbidden characters will remove those characters from the name before saving it.
    • Trying to rename a template to include forbidden characters will fail.
    • Templates with forbidden characters will not appear in the list of templates even if they are a valid system filename.
• You can save a maximum of 550 templates, however, this can be circumvented by using sub-folders.

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