I've played a few MMOs but never got around to trying out any of the GW games. Any tips for a beginner to the series?
1. Roll the class you think looks interesting and fun, not which you think will be most useful. If one doesn't click with you, try another. Whatever choice you make, you won't be penalized further down the road (i.e. you can get into a group no matter what class you pick now). Every class can contribute, even breaking MMO-tropes; Guardians (the Paladin-like class) have a couple ranged attacks, Rangers are good in melee, etc.
- That said, most people say the Guardian, Warrior and Ranger are good classes to start with, while Mesmers, Elementalists and Engineers have a bit of a learning curve. Seriously though, try what sounds cool to you, as all of the professions are pretty approachable and you can always ask for help here or in-game.
2. Race has no statistical advantage; it will only give you a few race-specific utility and elite skills (none of which stand out over the others). Otherwise it is entirely cosmetic. Be aware that the "Tauren Effect" is in play here; the two large races, Norn and Charr, feel like they move slower than the others even though run speed is normalized. Likewise, Asura feel like they're flying. Some people (myself included) find it detracts from the game, YMMV.
- For what it's worth, Norn look insanely cool in full armor (especially plate) and Charr have an awesome four-legged run animation, so there's silver lining everywhere.
3. Buy a copper Mining Pick, Harvesting Sickle and Logging axe as soon as you have the money; there's no gathering professions, everyone can gather everything so long as they have the tools. Resource nodes show up on your mini-map (Grey rock, green leaves, brown log pile) and are instanced for everyone; don't rush to mine a Copper node just because someone is running towards it, you will have your own copy waiting just for you.
4. Likewise, buy a basic Salvage Kit. This is similar to Disenchanting in WoW, but you actually get resources like cloth, leather and metal rather than dusts/essences. This is the primary method for getting cloth and leather, actually. You will get items from enemies that serve no purpose other than to be salvaged, and will be labelled as such.
5. You don't need to be at a waypoint to travel; you can open your map and travel to any waypoint you've previously visited at any time.
6. If you want bags, take up any of the armor crafting professions (Armorsmith, Leatherworker, Tailor) as all three can produce bags right away. You may also want to check the Trading Post (shortcut: o) because the prices there are pretty low.
7. You get weapon swapping at level 7 (unless you're an Elementalist or Engineer), and unlock utility slots at 5, 10 and 20. Elite skills unlock at level 30.
8. For a quick level or two, explore your race's starting city. When you open your map there will be a checklist of the waypoints (Diamonds), Points of Interest (Small squares), and Vistas (Two Red Triangles), all of which give you XP just for visiting them. It also nets you some money and goodies for fully completing the map.
9. Learn to dodge early, it will save you forever. Most enemies have a 'wind up' animation just before they deliver a large attack. The default dodge key is V.
- Red Circles on the ground are enemy AOE attacks; dodge out of those too.
10. When your health reaches zero, you aren't automatically killed; instead you enter a 'downed' state where you can defeat an enemy (or heal yourself if none are around) to rally back at half health. Keep an eye open for a blue "V" symbol over other players, or on your mini-map; this indicates another played who has been downed, and you can revive them (default key: f) and get some experience.
11. Wander around and do stuff. One of the biggest complaints people new to the game have is that there isn't any direction it shoos you towards. There are traditional quests (marked with hearts on your map), but the real meat of GW2 are events which can happen anywhere at any time. Pay attention to your surroundings; people will often run up to you and ask for help, or you'll see signs that something is amiss (people are sick and the well water is green? Follow the pipes to investigate the water supply.)
12. Whisper any of the officers for an invite to GAF guild where your questions will be answered. Ferny, Ashodin Venteal, Hawkian The Blade, Gojira, Nephenee Reginleif, Professor Retro, Wallach or Arken Elric. You can be part of GAF Guild regardless of which server you are on (We play on Stormbluff Isle, but it is often full), and you can join multiple guilds as well (so if you have friends already playing, you can switch between them as you like).
13. We use Mumble, and have a GAF server just for our guild; talking is optional but being able to listen helps, especially in dungeons. We also tend to hang out and get overly excited about new features. The address/port information for Mumble can be found by quoting the OT; it will appear at the top inside the e-mail tags. Please use your GAF Name as your username to avoid confusion.
14. You can also register at GAFGuild.com, we post all sorts of events and discuss things a little more indepth than we do here, just to keep this thread open for general discussion without getting bogged down in theorycrafting, event notices and such.
AWESOME TIPS (i.e. "Why don't other MMOs have that?!")
- There are no mailboxes anywhere, because you can send and receive mail anywhere via messenger pigeons.
- Likewise, you can buy and sell on the trading post from anywhere. However, any items you buy, or any money you make from selling, can only be picked up at a Trader NPC (marked as a golden scale icon on your map).
- You can click the small gear in the upper right corner of your inventory and select "Deposit all Collectables" to automatically send any crafting materials to your bank. These items appear on the "Collectables" tab at your bank, a special space that holds all of that stuff for you instead of forcing you to hoard it in your regular storage space.
- Your bank space is shared between all of your characters, and there is a space on the lower right to deposit money.
- There is no mob tagging in the traditional sense; as long as you do above a certain threshold of damage, you will get credit and looting rights regardless of who attacked first.
