Just started need guidance

[Applejuicebox.3890]

Just bought the game and all expansions. $20 for everything was a good deal.

Im playing Mesmer and love it even though not sure what im doing. Not new to MMO as ive played everything since Ultima Online and just came over from FF14 and WoW.

Only level 9 human. Im using like a sword and i think maybe 2 swords. Im trying to do crafting but idk where to begin.

My question is what should i be doing for weapon and skill wise also just anything in general for mesmer starting off. I am not using my free boost since this is my first play through.

Love the game so far just confused with what to do and start with Mesmer in this world.

[whoeverxwins.1279]

Sword/sword and greatsword are good for core mesmer. Use your illusions and phantasms heavily. You can have 3 up at a time, and not only do they serve as a distraction, but you'll kill stuff faster, especially once you get your shatter skills. Enjoy, mesmer is a fun class!

[Mouse.7382]

Ahhhh, the joys of being new again in the game--where everything is fresh.

GW2 is large...you will have much to do in your adventures. Enjoy!

P.S. I love my mesmer as well

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

1. Make sure you are always running some type of food - most of them have some sort of XP boost for kills, and those apply to killing ambient mobs - the white and yellow ones, not just the hostile ones in the open world. If you have a guild, make sure you are using the guild XP boost from the bartender in the guild hall.
2. Crafting is good experience and leveling your crafting also gives you XP, run the guild crafting booster when leveling your crafting. I strongly recommend a crafting guide like gw2crafts.net.
3. Everything grants you experience - exploring/completing maps, hearts, events, personal story, even harvesting plant/tree/ore nodes.
4. Map completing the main big cities is worth probably 10-15 levels of experience (Divinity's Reach, Hoelbrek, Lion's Arch, Black Citadel, The Grove, and Rata Sum).
5. Core Tyria Hero Challenges grant you 1 hero point, those help you to train skills and traits faster, however just leveling to level 80 will give you enough hero points to train all of your core skill and trait lines. The elites - Chronomancer and Mirage - require substantially more points than the core, but the hero challenges in HoT and PoF are worth 10 points each, so leveling them won't be too arduous once you get to level 80.
6. Once you hit level 80, you may want to go do the first story instance of Path of Fire before anything else since that gets you your first mount. The first story instance of Heart of Thorns unlocks gliding.
7. The level 80 booster can be used in a 'trial' mode. Basically you can create a character, use the level 80 booster and it will take to you the Silverwastes, a popular and lucrative level 80 map, where you can run around with that profession's core skills and traits unlocked and play the core profession. You can then cancel the upgrade and revert the character back to lower level. This lets you try out the core specs on all the professions basically for free, so you can get a good idea of whether you want to create a new character in one of the other professions or not.

Good luck and, and if you're on the North American servers, feel free to hit me up in game if you have any questions.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

And a couple more things I forgot to mention:

1. Typing /wiki [something] in chat will open a web browser to the gw2 wiki for that [something]. So '/wiki et' will open the wiki to the event timer page. It also works with shift-clicking on items, so if I had the exotic focus Adam in my inventory, typing /wiki and then shift-click on Adam in my inventory would put the item link into the chat window, and when I hit enter, open the web browser to the wiki page for the exotic focus Adam.
2. GW2 has a very friendly community. If you're having problems with something, ask in map chat. Someone will normally answer your question or even pop over to help you out. And if nobody answers the first time, ask again in a couple minutes, they might not have been watching map chat all that closely. :)

[thepenmonster.3621]

S'cuse me. Gonna piggyback on a comment

@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:The level 80 booster can be used in a 'trial' mode.

I would like to bring up something to the OP that vets always forget because they're flush with gold: Mesmers are expensive to fully kit out at level 80 for pretty much every recommended build. You might want to run some sort of sturdy alt for the Lvl 80 boost because the free gear you get with the boost will be fine for the job of farming the events in SW. If you can get a good flow and the RNG gods are kind with the loot in Silverwastes you can earn the gold needed for your mesmer main.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

Starting crafting: If you go to a crafting area (they are mostly in major cities, you will see a bunch of odd icons clustered together) you go to one of the master craftsmen to ask them to teach you their craft. The master jeweler has a gem icon over their head, the master huntsman an arrowhead, etc. Without any kinds of expanders, a character can have two crafting disciplines at a time. (If you quit one to take a new one, you can switch back for a fee.)

A mesmer uses light armor, so if you want to make yourself armor, choose Tailor. All armorers also can make backpacks and inventory bags. (Armorsmith for heavy, Leatherworker for medium)Mesmers use various types of weapons: if you want to make your own ordinary weapons (swords, etc) choose Weaponsmith. If you would rather make magical weapons (scepters, focii, tridents, staves) choose Artificer. Artificers also make potions and a few odd things. (Huntsman for shooty weapons, torches and horns.)

Go to the crafting station for the discipline you've chosen and activate it .(F) There are panels that let you access your bank and materials from here. The crafting panel is the main one. It will list all the items you already know the recipes for...you get the most XP for things in gold letters, then yellow, then green, then blue, then bold white. (No XP for light white.) Refinement is the sub-heading one to start with--you turn your gathered ore and logs into ingots and planks, and use those to make the parts you need for an item.As you go up in level, new recipes will appear at gold level, old recipes will gradually fade to xp-less white. (So don't over prepare to make a thousand Bronze Daggers, you will reach a point where making them doesn't help.)How to craft and discover recipes:Most recipes need to be 'discovered.' First you make the parts. So, you would start with making (for example) a bronze axe head, a green small haft, and a sigil from the same crafting level. (Insignia, if it's armor)Go to the Discovery panel. It lists an icon for everything you have that you can build something out of. Choose the weapon parts and sigil, and if you have all the ingredients you need, it will say it's ready to craft, and you hit the button to craft it. Once you have 'discovered a recipe, the parts can no longer be combined this way, but will appear as a recipe in your crafting panel recipe list.You get more XP from discovering an item than making more: plus, discovering an item unlocks that skin in your wardrobe, so you may want to start leveling by making at least one of every available item at your current level. (You may not care about the skins for themselves, but later, if you get a Wardrobe Unlock which can randomly unlock very cool stuff, you will feel totally cheated if you just get a basic Steel Hammer or something.)

Hope that helps!