Hey Everyone,

I just started playing yesterday, having a lot of fun so far. If you could offer a new player some advice, like common sense stuff that you wish you had known when you first started playing, what would you say? Thanks in advance for your replies!

The easiest and cheapest way to get equipment while leveling is buying it from the Trading Post. Crafting it yourself is quite expensive, but gives lots of XP.

Running dungeons is the fastest way to get full Exotics.

You can type terms like /wiki Crafting and it will pull up the GW2 crafting Wiki entry for you.

You can put items up on the auction from anywhere in the world.

You can click the little settings button in your inventory and choose to send all of your crafting materials to the bank.

I wish i didn't buy GW2, not because I think its bad. But because I am growing out of games and I keep buying them from time to time hoping it would be a new experience. Alas I try it out and get shafted all kinds.

It is a good game, I wish they would give refunds though. To me its like i wasted 50$ for something I would never play again.

Or paying 50$ only to play it for a few days. I could have taken that 50$ and go get a happy ending somewhere instead.

Blah!

I would say any time is a good time to try the game's PVP.  WvW is very fun once you figure out the map and can read the flow of battle.  You can join WvW at any level and is a great way to earn exp and karma if you want a break from PVE'ing. 

Also someone said save your karma, probably in refering to buying higher level karma gear when you hit 80.  Those items can be very expensive but have nice stats and looks to them.  However, everytime you finish a heart, talk to the main "heart" person in that area and see what type of karma items they have to sell.  You will usually find some very nice items in weapons, armor and other gear from them that will also have nice stats and usually look different than the crafted or quest reward items.

When you are trying to figure out how to get to some of the areas on the map, think of the game sometimes as a platformer.  There sometimes is a lot of jumping involved.  Or you might have to swim into an underwater cave.

Originally posted by apb2011

I wish i didn't buy GW2, not because I think its bad. But because I am growing out of games and I keep buying them from time to time hoping it would be a new experience. Alas I try it out and get shafted all kinds.

It is a good game, I wish they would give refunds though. To me its like i wasted 50$ for something I would never play again.

Or paying 50$ only to play it for a few days. I could have taken that 50$ and go get a happy ending somewhere instead.

Blah!

Buyers remorse! we've all been there, just move on. It wasn't a free trial.

Originally posted by apb2011

I wish i didn't buy GW2, not because I think its bad. But because I am growing out of games and I keep buying them from time to time hoping it would be a new experience. Alas I try it out and get shafted all kinds.

It is a good game, I wish they would give refunds though. To me its like i wasted 50$ for something I would never play again.

Or paying 50$ only to play it for a few days. I could have taken that 50$ and go get a happy ending somewhere instead.

Blah!

they are giving out refunds :P

Originally posted by Scalpless

The easiest and cheapest way to get equipment while leveling is buying it from the Trading Post. Crafting it yourself is quite expensive, but gives lots of XP.

Running dungeons is the fastest way to get full Exotics.

Second character i left crafting until lvl 75 so it would take me from 75-80 instead of going through that pain in the bum zone again. Wish i'd done that with the first character as it skipped me through too many low levels meaning i left a friend behind and had to wait for him to catch up.

Originally posted by bloodaxes
That you will be almost forced to stay ranged all the time in dungeons.

Theres only a few bosses you need to stay ranged through-out the fight.

With the proper use of skills, enough toughness and vitality to not get one-shoted, Someone in the group with Regeneration, proper use of dodging the big moves and use of Omnomberry Bars or Mixed-Berry Pies (If you're cheap) and enough Crit to make those proc then you can melee msot encounters i nthe game where physics and abilities allow. 

I play a DPS Warrior with 1500 Tough, 23k Health, 73% critical strike, and 53% Critical Damage using Greatsword and Longbow and theres only like 3 bosses I can't melee, only because the encounter calls for no melee.  I do this in a PUG setting.  Except for the case of maybe Arah p2, CoE p3, and TA p3 then its not to bad.  I am also at Fractals level 23. 

Originally posted by korent1991

Originally posted by apb2011

I wish i didn't buy GW2, not because I think its bad. But because I am growing out of games and I keep buying them from time to time hoping it would be a new experience. Alas I try it out and get shafted all kinds.

It is a good game, I wish they would give refunds though. To me its like i wasted 50$ for something I would never play again.

Or paying 50$ only to play it for a few days. I could have taken that 50$ and go get a happy ending somewhere instead.

Blah!

they are giving out refunds :P

WOW thanx for the info, I just submitted my refund request now. Waiting....

THANKS for all the great replies! I'm having a lot of fun, still learning (I need to google Karma now).

Any advice on what to look for in a guild? I'm a casual player, play maybe 5-10 hours a week.

Anyhow, thank you again to everyone who responded.

Gather EVERYTHING, its good XP and you can sell it all on the trade post to make sure you are never out of money. If you do this even without even going far out of your way to gather items while you play, you should have more than enough to keep up with your needs.

Open your inventory and press the cogwheel at the top and select Deposit all collevtibles...this will place all of your crafting materials into your collectable bank, this opens inventory space while you are out adventuring.

Press hide/show bags to make your inventory into one big bag instead of seperate bags if you like it like that.

Your #1 ability is an auto-attack so you dont need to keep spamming it.

You can redye your armor on your Hero page...for free...as many times as you want.

Are you out adventuring and need to get a city and want to save money? Go into any WvW map and take the portal to Lion's Arch...its free

On the 100% map completion, if you aren't Order of Whispers there is an Order of Whispers zone with a single point of interest in Bloodtide Coast inside a cave.  Since this isn't shown on the map anywhere this is almost always the last PoI someone needs.

The fastest way to gear up in full exotics is to run AC EXP or CoF EXP for quick ~20 minute runs each time.  Do not speed clear, do full boss clears as the extra gold earned from the bosses will net you gear faster than the tokens.  Between both the tokens and gold you should be able to gear up in full exotics within 10 hours.

Crafting nets you the fastest EXP in the game.  You can level all crafts cheaply (~40g I think it was?) and quickly (within 3 hours).  This will bring a character to level 80 if you don't want to replay the game on your alts.

Use karma to buy your gear as you level up.  You won't earn a lot at low levels to save, and there generally isn't anything worth spending karma on at higher levels with the exception of the legendary at which point you'll likely won't have to worry about karma earned because you'll earn the 1.2 mil karma faster than the 1k+gold.

Running explorable mode dungeons is a fast and very profitable way to level up.  Use http://gw2lfg.com/ to quickly find a group.  Be warned though that dungeons are a notable difficulty increase from the open world content.

Also threat is mainly based on armor rating.  The person with higher armor gets the most threat.  Some bosses like Giganticus have a bit of a unique aggro table and proximity is also a factor, but armor rating effects threat the most.  Anything above 3000 armor you start getting diminishing returns, so your tank should sit at 3k armor while any other person in your group should be below that.  Yes, there isn't really as much of a  trinity in this game, but you can still have tanks (and healers) and form groups around them.

Originally posted by azzamasin

Originally posted by bloodaxes
That you will be almost forced to stay ranged all the time in dungeons.

Theres only a few bosses you need to stay ranged through-out the fight.

 

With the proper use of skills, enough toughness and vitality to not get one-shoted, Someone in the group with Regeneration, proper use of dodging the big moves and use of Omnomberry Bars or Mixed-Berry Pies (If you're cheap) and enough Crit to make those proc then you can melee msot encounters i nthe game where physics and abilities allow. 

 

I play a DPS Warrior with 1500 Tough, 23k Health, 73% critical strike, and 53% Critical Damage using Greatsword and Longbow and theres only like 3 bosses I can't melee, only because the encounter calls for no melee.  I do this in a PUG setting.  Except for the case of maybe Arah p2, CoE p3, and TA p3 then its not to bad.  I am also at Fractals level 23. 

You can melee all bosses in the game.  Not sure which ones you are refering to here that you can't specifically melee.  Even Giganticus Lupicus can be meleed (he's in all Arah paths, not just 2), and he's probably the most melee unfriendly.  CoE Path 3, are you refering to the Destroyer, because you can melee him and I think he was intended to be meleed and the fact you can ranged him at 1200 ranged is probably a bit of a bug. Maybe you are refering to the boss where you have to damage him with the diversion guns?  In which case you can't really ranged him either.

Ranged damage is typically bad compared to melee (exceptions being Mesmers and Engineers) so the more ranged you use the longer a dungeon is going to take.  In most dungeons we are pretty much all melee, including several level 30+ Fractals, though at higher level difficulty only the tank can melee.