Speed booking

Speed booking is the process of rapidly filling the minimum amount of pages in order to submit a storybook to the relevant non-player characters. This is a commonly-used method of promotion-farming, reputation-farming, or Survivor leveling. Players obtain several books at once and use teams designed to speed through certain Cooperative Missions repeatedly. After each mission, the respective books are cycled until all of them have the same page filled in. The team then adjusts builds (possibly heroes and henchmen) for the next mission and follows the same process, until the books can be turned in for reputation. While the minimum rewards for turning in a book are small, it can be faster to complete titles using this method.

Speedbooker

A speedbooker refers to any player that can run missions for other people; they are usually paid for their services.

Guild Wars Eye of the North

The most efficient use of speed booking is provided by Guild Wars Eye of the North. Any time a player receives a Hero's Handbooks, five pages are already filled in; to turn it in for rewards, only three more pages must be added. Typically, players add Against the Charr, Curse of the Nornbear, and A Time for Heroes, due to their short completion times. All three missions can be completed in around 10 minutes without the use of consumables. At 3,000 reputation per book, this yields around 18,000 reputation per hour.

Assault on the Stronghold and Genius Operated Living Enchanted Manifestation are optional missions that can be completed to increase the reputation gained per book. Doing both of these will double the rewards gained for each book, however, these two missions require more specialized builds and tactics to complete efficiently. As a result, doing them may not yield more points per hour.

Notes

• Following speedbookers can disrupt their runs if players enter areas they are not supposed to.
  • Speedbookers often expect players they are running to know where to stand and which spots to avoid.
  • Players should equip a Vampiric or Dual Vamp weapon if they wish to go afk.

Trivia

• Prior to the February 25, 2010 update, the Assassin profession could run the three shortest Guild Wars Eye of the North missions, using a Shadow Form-based build. The update made this less practical, decreasing the utility and popularity of speedbookers.

• The March 3, 2011 update allowed players to add 7 heroes to their party. This greatly reduced the popularity of speedbooking because vanquishing areas with teams containing numerous AoEs yields considerably more reputation per hour. For example: during the Northern Support Bonus portion of the Weekly bonuses rotation, a vanquish of Varajar Fells with the quests Haunted and The Path to Revelations active routinely yields 40,000 to 60,000 Norn reputation points in under 1 hour which is more than double the possible rewards of speedbooking.

• The Thursday, May 17, 2012 update reduced the rank requirements to maximize the effectiveness of pve skills, which served to further reduce the popularity of speedbooking.