Helpful Starter Tips for New Players~

[LadySilverHand.6841]

@Invisible Pete.7290 and @onevstheworld.2419 those are excellent tips, thank you!

[Ojimaru.8970]

While venturing out in Tyria, slow down when you hear an NPC conversing with your player character, or another NPC. Sometimes these conversations will lead into exciting Dynamic Events! Then after the event ends, whether is failure or success, stay around a little because, again, some events chain into another straight afterwards!

Should you find yourself caught in an event you can't handle yourself, don't be afraid to broadcast the event and its location in Map Chat.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Broadcast Event to Get Help

The best way to broadcast an event is to link the nearest Way Point (WP), or failing that, the nearest Point of Interest (PoI), plus a quick note of which direction to go in, and what the event is called/the name of the bad guy being fought.

Example: [Waypoint] NW Smash The Bandits!

To do this, cntrl+click or shift+click on the WP or PoI from the Map. That will put a link to them in the chat box. :)

[Buddy.7563]

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, so i'll be the one to say it. DO THE DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS. By completing 3 of the dailies in any combination of the PvE, PvP, or WvW dailies available you get 2 gold per day. For new accounts this is not an insignificant amount. You can find what to do by pressing "H" to access the Hero's panel and click the Achievements tab on the left side. From there click on Daily and browse the available options :)

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Even for old accounts like mine, this is adds up! Some days I can only play for half an hour, and getting the Dailys done lets me feel accomplished and richer~2 gold per day x 365 days = 730 gold ;)Great tip!

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

A few things about certain maps in particular:

• Queensdale: When you are in the Godlost Swamp area, head to the Godlost Waypoint and then north-east uphill. You will find a sitting NPC named Tirzie the Painter. If you share the awesome view with her and /sit next to her, you receive a 5 minute lasting regeneration buff.
• Dredgehaunt Cliffs: When exploring this map, you come across several shrines of animal-spirits. If you /kneel infront of them, you also receive helpful boons which last 5 minutes. The boons are different from shrine to shrine, but stack. Careful with the bear shrine, it tests your strength first.
• Lonar's Pass: In the center of the map (vertical), east in the mountains is a Point of Interest and a Hero Challenge, both named Grenth's Door. If you /kneel infront of Grenth's statue, you also receive a boon that lasts 5 minutes.

And a few side-quests which are easy to start, and can be completed over time. Those usually take an extended period of time to complete, if started early you complete them automatically during your adventure:

• Queensdale: In the center of the map, a bit to the east near the Krytan Waypoint you will find the Eldvin Monastry. Most people know this place, as the heart is a bit boring to complete. Inside the Monastry is an NPC named Masterbrewer Desch. He looks like a mix between an Engineer and an Elementalist. He does sell a "Eldvin Monastery Brew of the Month Membership." This thing costs 10 gold, which is a lot for new players. However once this item is purchased and consumed, the quest starts. To progress, you have to play the game and enter a city-map once a month. If you play normal, that happens automatically. Every month he sends you a special brew via mail. Drink it and the quest goes on. When you have done it 12 months = 1 year, you finish the quest. You receive a special title, unique back-pack skin and Aachievement Points.
• Lion's Arch: When exploring the map, you may come across a Charr with a gigantic spoon on his back, named Legendary Collector Rednax Youngblood. He is located in the Commodore's Quarter and sells an item called "Collectible Spoon Box" for 10 silver. Whenever you complete a heart-quest or come across an NPC vendor, check the goods they sell. If you find a spoon, buy it (both green and blue). It is one of the more tedious quests to complete, but if you start it early, you save yourself a lot of trouble. In the end you receive a Tyrian Mastery Point, which is very useful once you hit level 80, and some AP.
• Any bar: Whenever you come across a bar in Tyria, the bartender offers a good variety of drinks. Usually they do not have much of a use, aside from blurring your vision. But some of the NPCs sell an item called "Observational Zymology Manual" for 50 silver. Once this is consumed, drinking becomes rewarding. Try out every drink you find in the game in order to complete that quest. It also requires one exotic weapon, which looks like a drink. But you either get it as a drop, craft it or buy it in the end.
• Rata Sum: Newbies tend to be a little confused in this map, due to its symmetrical architecture. In the lower area of the city, the Auxillary Study Rooms. You may find an NPC named Gastronom Plikk. He sells you "Vintner's Guide" for 1 gold. This is also a drinking-quest, but for vine. Same as with the other, drink as many different drinks as possible. It also has a weapon, which looks like a drink, at the end. But you either get it as a drop, during your adventure, craft it or buy it at the end.

[Yubria.5671]

Last night a friend asked how to get into Fashion Wars/crafting, so I thought I'd share here.

Finding Fashion

When you go to your bank, there will be three tabs on the lefthand side, top one for your bank, middle one for materials storage, and bottom one for your wardrobe. The wardrobe option will show you just about every skin in the game, whether or not you have it unlocked. Click on a skin and it will show up on your character in a preview window (for weapons the preview window will give you an option to view the weapon by itself). You can preview multiple armor skins + 1 weapon skin at the same time and basically design an entire look here. You can even preview specific dyes on them by finding dyes in the Trading Post, right clicking, and selecting preview.

Alternatively, you can find someone pretty running around the game and ask them what they're using. If you click on a player, their name and stuff will show up at the top of your screen. Right click that and you'll find an option to whisper them. Most people will be happy to tell you what skins/dyes they're using, because who doesn't like being complemented on how cool they look?

And if you don't want to go through all that effort, you can always just jump on https://gw2style.com and browse until you find something you like.

Getting Fashion

Once you find a skin you like, search for the it on the wiki to find out how to get it. Be sure to look through the whole wiki page, since some things can be obtained multiple ways- like you can get dungeon armor from dungeon vendors, but you can also get them from PvP and WvW reward tracks. Some skins will drop from specific containers, and clicking on those containers will take you to a page that shows what drops those containers, etc. If it's craftable, there's a box in the upper right hand of the page that shows which disciplines can craft it and what level is required, and what the current Trading Post price for it is (if you can buy it on the TP). The crafting ingredients are listed a little further down the page. Seriously, the wiki is your best friend.

If you need to level up your crafting, your best bet is a site like http://gw2crafts.net that will show you how to level up cheaply and efficiently, since things like leather can be very expensive to buy. Somewhat related: if you're at all interested in crafting, gather everything you see and save it. It will help you out a lot to have a bunch of materials already in storage. Except for Dragonite Ore, Bloodstone Dust, and Empyreal Fragments. That stuff drops from everything when you hit level 80 and you don't need it for much, so you can safely get rid of that if it starts taking up too much room.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

So much excellent, detailed advice! Thank you all~ <3

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Screenshot tip

The folder where all your screenshots go only holds 999 pics. Then it's "full" and will not take any more pictures. You'll get an in-game message about this when you try to take more.If you don't have time to scrabble and clear out some of your pictures, don't worry! Simply make a New Folder (name it however you like) within your screenshot folder, drag and drop all your current pictures into it, and go back to taking pics. The picture count will start over, and all of your images will be safe and ready for you to sort through when you have free time. You can do this as many times as you like (computer memory space permitting, of course).

You can find your screenshot folder here>C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Guild Wars 2\Screens

I recommend creating a shortcut to it on your Desktop. ;)

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Improve Computer Performance Easily

If you are having trouble with lag, frame rates, etc. there are a couple of settings you can change to make life better. :3

• Character Model Limit — Controls the total number of character models that may be displayed. Nameplates still appear for all characters. Drop-down options include "Lowest", "Low", "Medium", "High", and "Highest".
• Character Model Quality — Controls the number of of high-quality character models that may be displayed. Drop-down options include "Lowest", "Low", "Medium", "High", and "Highest".

Reducing either or both of these will greatly improve performance, without detracting from the game and environment.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Past Episodes and Story - Catching Up

If you don't have the means to purchase the story chapters that are available (seasons 2 + 3 only so far), there are videos on youtube that summarize the events to help players refresh and/or get caught up and start playing the current content.

Guild Wars 2 - The Complete Season 1 Movie

Guild Wars 2 Living World Recap: Gates of Maguuma

These are fan made, but a lot of work has gone into them by a large community of dedicated players.I also cannot recommend enough getting familiar with the official wiki. It's everyone's best gw2 friend. :) https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page

[Chadramar.8156]

Thought of another one: It may be helpful -- especially for inexperienced, casual, shy and/or unguilded people -- to find a player-run community and join their organized events. That way you can not only experience world bosses or the big HoT map meta events in experienced company, but also get a feel for what the people and guilds affiliated with the community are like, in case you find yourself looking for a guild. These communities do not require membership, website registration or actively participating in voicechat, though downloading TeamSpeak is pretty much a must for coordination purposes.

For example, there's OpenCommunity and GW2Community for the European server region, probably others as well including at least one German-speaking community. I've no clue about North America, though.

[maddoctor.2738]

When you want to take a picture, press CTRL+SHIFT+H to hide the user interface!If you get stuck inside the terrain, type /stuck to get out of it, your character must remain still for it to work thoughYou can find all the chat commands on the wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chat_command

[DebraKadabra.5278]

Using a waypoint within a regular map will cost you some amount of coin related to the distance you're traveling. However, if you're traveling from one waypoint to another in one of the capital cities or Lion's Arch, travel will be free.

On the subject of screenshots, I recommend a temporary change to your usual graphic settings and sliding the "Field of View" slider to the left to get a better zoom in angle of your character.

On days where we have Event Completer dailies--while it's courteous to call out events to help other players in map chat, it's not required. There is a way to locate events built into the game's options. In General Options, choosing either "Disable Personal Story" or "Events and Personal Story" where the drop-down menu reads "Content Guide" should point you in the direction of a current event if you're in close proximity to one.

World boss timers are never for the boss itself - they're for the boss's pre-event(s). Pre-event spawn is always easier to track than the time the boss will spawn.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

As far as joining Teamspeak, a large portion of the community prefers Discord, and there's still plenty of us that don't use either one. I'm a near deaf player, myself, so voice chat doesn't work for me.My point being that you shouldn't feel locked into doing things one way. ;)

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Helpful Resource

Another resource, for players new and old, is Dulfy. http://dulfy.net/category/gw2/They create really great guides and walkthroughs, really swiftly I might add, and became so popular that they got their own character in the game! =)https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Siegemaster_Dulfy

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Anet Logo

A question I often see in game is "what's that red symbol thing next to a player's name?".That, dear player, is the Anet logo, and it shows that the person sporting it is a game developer!That's right, the devs play, too. :)

When you see one in Tyria, be sure to take a moment to /wave @ them, and say thanks for the awesome game. Then go on about your business, because just like you, they are there to play. Save the queries and feedback for the forums, unless they ask first. ;)

Visual Example: https://imgur.com/RlhDvsp

[LadySilverHand.6841]

GW2 Abbreviations

It can be confusing seeing all those vets talking in chat using abbreviations, can't it?Here's a handy list of the abbreviations commonly used by the GW2 community.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Abbreviations

Never feel lost again!

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Defiance Bar and Crowd Control

Let's elaborate further on a particular abbreviation: CCYou'll see this come up in chat during group events a whole lot.Make sure you know what it is, what to do, and how to do it. ;)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Defiance_Bar

[Myrdreth.6829]

Who really helped me a lot was Ayin with all her great GW2 videos on youtube:https://www.youtube.com/user/AyinMaiden/playlists

Everytime I need to complete a jumping puzzle, find my way to a hidden place or want to complete an achievement and don't know how I should do it I just google it. And almost everytime Ayin already made a helpful video about it and her videos are shown on googles first page. I love that girl for all of her videos, she's awesome :) I would be lost without her! :D

And Dulfy of course, but others already mentioned Dulfy :)

[LadySilverHand.6841]

@Myrdreth.6829 said:Who really helped me a lot was Ayin with all her great GW2 videos on youtube:https://www.youtube.com/user/AyinMaiden/playlists

Everytime I need to complete a jumping puzzle, find my way to a hidden place or want to complete an achievement and don't know how I should do it I just google it. And almost everytime Ayin already made a helpful video about it and her videos are shown on googles first page. I love that girl for all of her videos, she's awesome :) I would be lost without her! :D

And Dulfy of course, but others already mentioned Dulfy :)

Excellent resource! Thank you!

[windbliss.3158]

Combine 4 Sigils or Runes of the same Tier to get a rune/sigil of the same Tier (80% chance) or next higher Tier (20%).The same can be done for gemstones/marks. The recipe does not work on superior quality rune/sigils and sixth-tier gemstones (Orbs) and marks (Crests).

Some norn shrines you can /kneel at for buffs. And statues you can /salute as well.

ALT+drag a stacked item to split stacks! Useful if you want to use a certain amount for something (selling or mystic forge).

Plan your specialization trees for the early game. However, if you make a mistake, don't worry! At level 80, you'll have enough hero points to unlock all your main skills and traits.

You unlock your first trait line at 21, your second at 45, and your third at 71.You unlock your utility skills at 11, 15 and 19; your 'elite' utility skill can be purchased with Hero Points at 31.

Rares and exotics will start having a chance to generate ectoplasm on salvage once their required level is at or above 68.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

Hero Points

@altermaven.7385 said:At level 80, you'll have enough hero points to unlock all your main skills and traits.

You unlock your first trait line at 21, your second at 45, and your third at 71.You unlock your utility skills at 11, 15 and 19; your 'elite' utility skill can be purchased with Hero Points at 31.

By level 80 and from leveling alone, you have enough to unlock all of your main stuff, without collecting more from the map.AND you can continue collecting more, which you will want to do to unlock the elite specialization classes (prestige classes). But even once you have those maxed out, you can continue to collect the points. Many very old characters have hundreds saved up, even after maxing out their traits. ;)So there's no need to stress about which spots to ultimately place your precious points. There are plenty of points.

[Despair.7865]

This post has helped me loads - I thank you kind people for writing this!

[LadySilverHand.6841]

So glad to assist!Thank you for letting us know it has. <3