Just started this with my daughter, any helpful starter tips?
The best way to play is to explore. I recommend exploring all the races starting zones. Even though your level gets "scaled down" you still get xp and loot and money for the real level you are.
You can access the main city by clicking on the PvP icon in the top of the screen and go to the PvP Lobby (heart of the mists) - When you get there, there is a portal that takes you to Lions Arch the biggest central city. that city has portals to all the other races cities and their beginning zones.
It's all about exploring and doing cool events that pop up. So its different from other MMOs in that you can walk around and it seems like nothing is going on. If you see a Heart Quest, you can do that. When its done, talk to the NPC and use the Karma currency you collect in the game (for doing various things) to buy armor, accessories, and weapons. Don't save your Karma for lvl 80. You get lots at Karma at lvl 80, so its not worth saving.
Go to a NPC merchant (on the map they are marked as 3 gold coins) and buy 4 bags that can hold 5 items. When you have enough money, visit the trading post and buy 4 bags that can hold 8-10 items.
When you go to the NPC merchant buy some Basic Salvage Kits. Always have 3-4 of these in your inventory. Basically you should Salvage the low level items(grey, white,blue) that you cant use. They give you crafting materials As well as something called Luck. You consume Luck which improves your Magic Find %, and Magic Find is what increases your chance to get more rare items from monster drops.
When your inventory is full click in the top left corner (deposit to bank storage) and all the crafting materials magically transfer to your bank so you dont have to physically visit it. Some items won't though.
Green and Yellow (rare) items are often worth either using yourself or selling at the trading post.
When you salvage or equip an item or a dye, it unlocks for your entire account. One of the way they monotize in the game is that you can get these transmutation charges. they allow you to change your armor/weapon appearance to that of another item. You will get them throughout playing the game, the living story, doing dailies, exploring areas 100% (you get rewards for doing that). Don't worry about the cool gear until your lvl 80. You change gear so quickly and level so quickly you better wait with that. But its fun to collect dyes and gear as you level.
There are a lot of really really cheap dyes you can buy at trading posts, and its always free to dye your armor in many different colors in individual layers. That is a lot of fun and great to collect!
Always buy harvesting tools from Merchant - Axe, Pick and Loging tools. Every time you run around the world and cut trees and mine ore, you get as much xp as you get for killing. they yield materials, xp and minerals and sometimes they are required for daily rewards, so mine, harvest and cut everything you find.
you can fast travel around the world to the places you have discovered by pressing M and going to that place!
if you want to play with your daughter in your personal storyline (every race has a different story) you need to go to your options menus and allow each other to play in other peoples personal stories. you also need to be grouped.
It's a good idea to add each other to your friends list. the game runs on a unified mega server, and its easier for the game to remember you should always be in the same version of the game when you are on your friends list. You can equip that by pressing Y.
Jumping Puzzles are a lot of fun! Try them if you find them! Many are well hidden! Dungeons unlock at around lvl 35, you can press B to enter massive World vs World warfare. you get scaled to lvl 80, but your armor and weapons are not really comparable to the others running around so you might want to wait.
The PvP lobby adds some really fun game modes as well if you are interested in PvP.
Should you see another player being offensive cursing, in the chat, just right click and report. its quite effective. same goes if you get a message or mail from a gold seller. right click and report.
All your money, karma, unlocked equipment, crafting materials all share the same wallet. so if you get 2 gold on character A, your other characters can access that money. That makes it easy to play several different characters because you are working towards unlocking across the entire account. that is really nice. Feel free to try many characters.
If you want to test how a character plays at higher level, do the intro tutorial, and then go to the PvP lobby, where all your skills, and traits are unlocked. then you can test all the weapons, how they function.
If you make a character you like but want to change the way they look you can buy hair style kits or total make over kits so you can change the character. Anything but race or class can be changed! there are also new faces and hairstyles only in these kits.
You will find Black Lion Boxes in the world which can just opened with black lion keys. these contain various items, and you need to purchase keys with real money - Don't do it! Just ignore them. they are not worth it. you will find a few keys while playing the game though. Just don't bother with the black lion keys. they contain various fluff items and sometimes a rare piece for a weapon skin.
Good luck
