Longtime MMO Player coming to GW2, new xpac. Questions on Boost.

Longtime player of WOW, since '07. Had many toons, too many days played., lol. I have reached the point where I'm looking for more casual play, but the ability to LFG some raids, and meet some new players.

About 5-6 months ago, I purchased GW2 HoT with a character boost. I selected a Warrior, and clicked the 80 boost. Poor decision, as I honestly had no clue how to correctly play the toon, how to quest, where to raid, how to pvp. Without much direction, I returned to the "other" game.

Fast forward to this week. I have been doing a ton of research on the forums, and YouTube. Have found a bunch of videos that have put me in the right direction. So, now I have purchased the new xpac. Again, it came with the 80 boost. I wanted to play a Thief this time (from my research), and created the toon. I decided AGAINST using the boost right away. My thoughts were to learn the character, and better understand how to level the toon, professions, and builds. Obviously much different grind from wow, but in a great way, imo. I will also add that I am finding the visuals stunning, character mechanics excellent, so on.

Up to level 15 now, and moving forward quickly.

BUT, I am having this urge to use the Boost to 80, and then return to complete map areas and start to gear.

Can other's provide thoughts on this??

1) There's the option to try lv80 in Silverwastes coming from the level 80 boost itself, you can try how the class plays, and if you don't like it, you can just switch the lv80 boost to some other char (as per https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Level-80_Boost )2) You can try PvP (where you'll be basically leveled with others,) getting instant level up scrolls in the process, and lv 80 exotics possibly.3) You can try WvW (same story, but you'll be outclassed by others, because of gear).

If you have never leveled a character from 1 to 80 via game play I would suggest doing that first. You will learn a lot about the game during the journey. If you have never leveled naturally to 80 and use the boost even with down leveling you will cake walk through the lower level maps. However, once you get to the more challenging L80 maps (Silver Wastes, HoT and PoF) you may find yourself frustrated. Leveling naturally won't teach you how to play every profession but it will give you a better understanding of the game as a whole and will be of benefit once you reach those higher level maps should you use the L80 boost later for a different profession.

Personally, I would have never learned how to play my Elementalist when I just boosted it to 80. But fortunately, I never had the choice because I played from the first day. But it continues to be a very personal decision. How good are you when you're out of your comfort zone? I'm quite bad in that case so I need to adjust gradually to a new concept. If you are the opposite, you'll probably do fine with the booster.

Something else: If you're an achievement hunter, you will end up doing all skipped content anyways, so then there is not much gain by boosting to 80.

If you have not played atleast 1 toon the old fashion way id advised against using the boost... Going through the grind will give you a good understanding on how everything works and once you get to 80 that way you will know what you will want to do better and improve on and so on.

Got to agree with resisting the urge to use the boost before you've gotten used to how Thief works in GW2.