After a good break from MMOs and getting reaquianted with more traditional PC game types (after years of playing the MMO genre exclusively), I've been getting the itch.  Not the "I want to fork out money every month for my game" itch, but more the "I wish I was playing this on a server full of people" kind.  Not to say I won't pay a monthly sub for a worthy game, I just don't know of any.  I held out hope that SW:TOR would become that worthy game, but as I'm sure you well know, not for long.  I was never the kind of kid to see how long I could hold my breath until I passed out.  Apparently I'm not that kind of adult, either.

So after reading forums (the BEST way to get an informed and unbiased opinion, right?!  RIGHT?!) and watching and reading a ton of reviews (which historically speaking are always above rating HUGE releases unfairly high to retain advertising revenues) I made my decision.  At worst, I don't like it and I'm out the standard amount for a game to enjoy (or not) as long as I please.  Just like any of the other ventures I've been risking during my MMO hiatus.  Skyrim paid off huge (and still is).  Civ V and XCOM have been keeping my desires for strategy well quenched.  Maybe GW2 will so the same for my "socialization" needs.

So here I am, I went for it.  Here asking for any tips folks who have been playing for a while have.  How does the lack of the tried and true (sometimes tired) trinity play out?  Was this for the better or worse?  That's the first thing that jumps to mind since my first character is almost always a healer class. 

Anyway, any tips/advice or thoughts you'd wish you heard before you logged in for the first time?

stuff i wish i knew..   may add more later, but here are a few things to help

typing "/wiki" in chat will bring up the GW2 wiki site. can even type in things like "/wiki necro" to bring up the necro page instead of having to search for it.

in your invintory there is a lil gear in the top right. it'll have something called deposit all in it. this will send all mats you have to the bank. use this often. you bank will hold all crafting mats and collections.

play as many classes as you can. each class feels very different.

get in with a decent pop guild, and try a few of em out. you are capped at 4 guilds right now, but can only represent one at a time.

get gathering tools ASAP!  pick, axe, sickle. copper is where you'll start, and don't have to upgrade till you hit a higher zone.

crafiing in this game is killer xp. gw2guru has a lot of nice guides to move it along fairly fast.

buy the cheapest salvage kit and salvage all the cheap gear you don't use. like 25c or less. the mats you get from them are worth more then the gear vendors for.

edit: tryin to add some more..

you can port to any of the starting cities for free. press H, go to the PvP tab, enter heart of the mists, take the port to lions arch, then take the port to whatever starting city you want.

a fast way to get some skills points is hitting up all the starter zones. the skill challenges are fairly fast and easy while costing nothing in travel fees.

i mentioned craftin, but make sure to hit up artificer up to 200 using the gw2guru guide. it's like 50s to level skill up to 200.

also as far as crafting goes, just pick what you want. you can have all 8 crafting proffesions on one toon if you want. it's not a big deal if you change your mind. can only have 2 active at a time, but you never lose the skills ups or recipies you learned.

the Trade Post (or AH) is shared across all servers. don't undercut people like you would in other games. a stack of 200 of something will go really fast. even if it's sold at the same price people are selling others for.

the trade post takes the listing fee, and a tax when you sell. do NOT sell crap for 1c more then the vendor price. you will be losing money.

if a server says full, just refresh it. or go back and check server status again. it checks it by how many people are online at the time. full now does not mean full in 10 minutes or whatever. also, no clue what the server status is, but get on a server with a high pop.

Originally posted by Daddydazzle
added a few more to the post.

Thanks Dazzle, that is an impressive list of things to keep in mind.  I appreciate that.  ESPECIALLY the wiki feature.  That's something a person like myself could play a game a year and stupidly never realize it existed!

Anyway, thanks again for all the tips!

Originally posted by rodingo
Man I'm really cringing for you by admiting you liked the idea enough behind GW2 here on MMORPG.com to buy it.  Hopefully you won't have to deal with the usual snide remarks from the usual suspects.  Anyways, for healer type maybe a Guardian, though it's more along the lines of self heals out the wazzoo with some mixed group/aoe heals from what I understand?  In reality though, you are better off for any real discussion about gameplay tips and class mechanics on the official forums instead of here, unfortunately.  It's fashionable and trendy to really bash on GW2 lately, so take what you read here (even including what I'm writing) with a grain of salt.

Heh, I been around MMORPG.com for about 9 years.  Saying it's fashionable and trendy to bash on *insert highly hyped and newly released game here* is like saying it's trendy for fish to need water to breath or that the sun rising in the East is "in".  I know what I'm in for, but there's always a few helpful folks playing said games who don't let meaningless walls of text on the forum get to them. :)

I appreciate your thoughts on the Guardian, though.  I will probably roll that one first go around, since it's got some heals to it.  Still finding it hard to wrap my head around an MMO without the trinity, but I doubt I will without experiencing it first hand.

Originally posted by nolf

Originally posted by rodingo
Man I'm really cringing for you by admiting you liked the idea enough behind GW2 here on MMORPG.com to buy it.  Hopefully you won't have to deal with the usual snide remarks from the usual suspects.  Anyways, for healer type maybe a Guardian, though it's more along the lines of self heals out the wazzoo with some mixed group/aoe heals from what I understand?  In reality though, you are better off for any real discussion about gameplay tips and class mechanics on the official forums instead of here, unfortunately.  It's fashionable and trendy to really bash on GW2 lately, so take what you read here (even including what I'm writing) with a grain of salt.

Heh, I been around MMORPG.com for about 9 years.  Saying it's fashionable and trendy to bash on *insert highly hyped and newly released game here* is like saying it's trendy for fish to need water to breath or that the sun rising in the East is "in".  I know what I'm in for, but there's always a few helpful folks playing said games who don't let meaningless walls of text on the forum get to them. :)

 

I appreciate your thoughts on the Guardian, though.  I will probably roll that one first go around, since it's got some heals to it.  Still finding it hard to wrap my head around an MMO without the trinity, but I doubt I will without experiencing it first hand.

The lack of a trinity has it's pros and cons.  And go warrior, they are more fun. ;)

All I suggst is focusing on your pve in the early lvls. Sure the spvp and wvw are fun but this game is a little different for sure and learning it through the pve is all i suggest. My brother recently joined me in GW2. It is his first mmorpg ever. He is super hooked on wvw but i finally got him to go pve more and he says its helping him in wvw a lot. Of course we all arent that fresh to mmos. Have fun and I hope you enjoy gw2 as much as i do. That's probably not possible though. I was a gw2 hater before it released. I am now at 400+ hours on 1 character and have so much to do and having a blast doing it!

Edit: My main is also a warrior. Pretty amazing class. Though I have recently picked up necro and find the staff circles to the be mroe fun in WvW due to sheer ease of play. Warrior is more of a challenge though so it will remain my main.

Originally posted by nolf

Originally posted by Daddydazzle
added a few more to the post.

Thanks Dazzle, that is an impressive list of things to keep in mind.  I appreciate that.  ESPECIALLY the wiki feature.  That's something a person like myself could play a game a year and stupidly never realize it existed!

 

Anyway, thanks again for all the tips!

yeah, it's np. i'll try and think if there are other things to add.

the /wiki thing is pretty slick. speeds up the "what does X do.." process. a few others that are slick are /age and /deaths. give you a total time in game/time on toon, and then deaths is how bad we suck. lol

anyways, have fun brother. it's the best 60 bones i've spent on a game, console or PC. just my 2c.

I just bought the game myself as well actually, made a ranger and im level 4 or 5 i think. I've been pretty busy the last couple of days so i haven't had the oppertunity to play as much as i'd like to. So far nothing has impressed me yet, but at level 4 or 5 in any game are you really impressed? I will definately give this game it's due as far as combar goes so far it's decently impressive, probably not as good as tera's but that was the thing tera was kind of known for.

Anyways I'd really like to ask some questions and seek advice on the game from some more experienced individuals, none of my friends are currently playing this, and as we all know playing an mmo alone isn't all that fun.

anyone have any tips on playing a ranger please let me know.

Originally posted by nolf

....How does the lack of the tried and true (sometimes tired) trinity play out?  Was this for the better or worse?  That's the first thing that jumps to mind since my first character is almost always a healer class. 

PvE-wise, I don't find the GW2 model superior to a trinity model. However, my reference really only applies to dungeons or organized pve parties. Out in the open, it generally doesn't matter what spec you are to be quite honest (dynamic events, hearts). The way PvE is setup, a straight healer wouldn't even be desireable, even if it was obtainable.

With that said, I don't miss the trinity at all in PvP. In fact, the numerous ways you can spec a class makes battles interesting at times. For example, even a ranger could place greater emphasis on healing. Potential-wise, two other good classes for that would be ele or guardian (as stated before). I play a ranger and guardian (lvl 80 and 71, respectively), and both are fun, with possible "healing" builds.

Originally posted by nolf

So here I am, I went for it.  Here asking for any tips folks who have been playing for a while have.  How does the lack of the tried and true (sometimes tired) trinity play out?  Was this for the better or worse?  That's the first thing that jumps to mind since my first character is almost always a healer class.

I think its biggest advantage is that you don't have to look for a healer when forming a group. Having a specific group setup is nice, but in the end, you can do high-end PvE content with any mixture of classes, as long as they've got varied enough builds.

For a healer-like class, your another option is Elementalist. There's a pretty big difference between it and Guardian, because Ele is pretty much GW2: Hard Mode in the early levels, but most light armor classes get better as you level up and get decent defensive skills. Still, Elementalists are the game's best combo field providers and can support the party decently.

Most classes have decent support skills, if you spec for it. For example, Warriors can make it so all of their banner skills grant regeneration, giving decent AoE heal over times or spec to heal whenever they use a shout-type skill.

Originally posted by Daddydazzle
added a few more to the post.

Great post, thank you.