Make note of the following:

a. skills that go into places (slots) 7-0 are bought using skill points which in turn are earned by completing skill challenges, available to us since level 1 already. Acquisition of the Elite skills is naturally more expensive. For this reason you should plan ahead the skill or skills you intend to acquire: either use some build calculator (like this one here), or enter the Mists and experiment free of cost.

b. weapon swap is relevant to those professions only that can equip 2 weapon sets simultaneously. This excludes the Elementalist and the Engineer. Do not confuse, however, the weapon swapping you can perform (‘~’) while you are in-combat with the change of the equipped weapon that can only be done while not in-combat.

c. there is a total of 3 tiers for the Traits. Unlocking each of them requires, in addition to the level requirement (11, 40, 60) described above, the purchase of the corresponding ‘manual’.

Due to the structure of the Traits system, as it stands at present, every 10 points spent on a trait line unlock 1 Major trait (slot). Taking also into consideration that the 70 trait points one will accumulate in total upon reaching level (cap) 80 enable one to max-out 2 full trait lines and place the remaining 10 points anywhere else, we can easily see that the following level marks are significant as well:

e. explore and thou shall be rewarded: there are hidden areas which offer a lot more than the mere satisfaction of discovery. They hold their own skill challenges, special loot, mini-games, etc. You can get an indication about having missed one of them by looking at the world map (‘M’). At its top left corner you will see 3 statistics, of which two are of importance here: how many skill challenges you have completed in the given area and how many of the available POI’s (points of interest = areas with their own place name) you have discovered. If your map shows like it’s fully explored and still those stats don’t display 100% then something has slipped! Look for it and you will be rewarded.

f. make friends and explore together: not only is it more fun this way, it is more rewarding as well! Loot (gold, XP, items) may be the same – due to the scaling employed by ArenaNet- but the experience is more intense and on top of this everyone benefits from exchanging items. Tip: even before you unlock weapon swap (at level 7) make sure you unlock all your weapon skills, if possible! How can you do this? By acquiring as many weapons suitable to your profession as possible. Buy them from merchant NPCs or trade them with friends! Trading is outrageously easy and smart: you just right-click on the item and you select ‘send to’. A pigeon flies off from your location and heads for the arranged recipient! No mail cost, no standing in queue at the post office, no hussle.

Have fun! See you all in Lion’s Arch (Kodash).