• Options menu: 'F11' (default) or icon on top-left corner of screen. Lots of goodies there; a prerequisite for all that follows ;)

• Sometimes you just want to play alone. There’s an option on the login screen and the friends list (default: 'Y') to go Invisible, just like your favorite instant messaging client. You’ll appear offline to everyone else, but be warned that you can still run into your pesky friends in the game world.

• Contacts etc: You can add people from other servers; just enter their name and all their toons will be added. You can even form parties with friends from other servers, but you can’t play with them unless you transfer to their server, or use the guest mode.

• Guilds can be created the second you are out of the opening cinematic. Hit 'G' (default) to create a guild or to represent/stand down from a guild. Note: your guild leader-to-be will need a one-time fee (1 silver) to create it, so she/he may ask future members to contribute just to get things running early. Contributions are sent via mail, only.

• You can have emblem on your chest/back if your guild buys 'Guild Armorer Contract', it’s the 4th one on the list.

• Are you in a group and you can't see your friends’ portraits or, worse even, you're standing next to them and they're just not there? Then you are either on different worlds (i.e. servers) or one of you is on an overflow server! You can check both easily: (a) open your friends list (default: 'Y') or guilds list (default: 'G') and check the world you're in. (b) Press 'N': if it shows your WvW status then you are NOT on an overflow server. Note: ArenaNet added a cool option to combat party dispersion: each party member can right click on the portrait of the one who's on the overflow server and select to "join in the overflow server"!

• Join a friend in PvP:  Right click their name (Party list, guild list, etc.) and select, "Join Friend in PvP". You can also go to the PvP Channel NPC by the LA Portal, any channel which contains a Friend will have an icon beside it.

• To view name tags at will (i.e. without enabling permanent display in the game's 'Options'), keep pressed: ALT key to show NPCs’ names, CTRL+ALT for nearby player characters' names, CTRL to show monster names, gathering nodes, and anything 'attackable' in general.

• MINI-MAP interaction (bottom-right corner of UI): You can draw and ping on the mini-map.  Hold mouse down and move mouse to draw, click on the mini-map to ping and everyone in your party can see it.  I also believe that if you ping the mini-map, your party can see the ping on the world map as well.  ???

• MAP interaction (default: 'M'): You can add your own markers (waypoints) to the map, by using ALT+click (LMB) // (dulfy): With your map open, you can draw on it using CTRL+LMB drag so other members of your party can see which waypoints, areas, etc. you are talking about.//[video] SHIFT+LMB move to draw??? SHIFT+LMB will ping the Map. CTRL+LMB links locations in the chat window. ALT+LMB places personal waypoints on the Map.???

• Note that the map of Tyria is a layered one: press 'M' (default) and look at the bottom-right corner. Up until I reached The Grove (Sylvari homelands) I thought there were 3 layers in the Map: Upper Level, Surface, and Underground. Well, The Grove has a fourth one! Exercise navigation between them, as more often than not you are going to need it to locate that missing PoI or waypoint or Vista or whatnot.

• Note: initial selection of colors (i.e. during character creation) auto-dyes looted armor parts as you equip them, so there's no worries about ending up looking like a clown :)

• On your Hero window (default: 'H') there's a little dye-dropper icon above your gear slots. You can click this anytime to adjust your appearance. And look like a clown, if you wish :p

• If you right-click on a dye color, it will save as favorite and be moved to the top of your dye panel.

• You can unlock new dye colors by finding dye seeds (loot drops). These can be turned in to a dye merchant who will give you a receipt. There’s one in your home instance, in case you don’t want to look around for one. Come back 24 real time hours later and you get a new random dye color. Some are common, some are not. Note: If you have plant food then he'll do it instantly.???

• You have RP-style town clothes. Click the top hat icon above your character on the Hero panel (default: 'H') to switch to them. These can be dyed also. Be sure and change back before you get into any fights. Unless you're REALLY hardcore.

• Due to popular request it is finally possible to preview an item (armor piece or weapon) before actually equipping it: right-click on it and select 'Preview'.

• Chat window options: bottom-left of the chat log, right next to the active [channel name], there's an arrow. Click on it and select the options 'gear' button. Available settings are explained in good detail here.

• Linking things in chat:  Shift+click (LMB) an item/waypoint/PoI will allow you to link it into the chat log. Doing so with a waypoint for example, will allow anyone that clicks on it through the chat log to pull up the map showing them its location and allowing them to travel there if they have unlocked it. Note: can also be used to link a skill!

• There is a high-res screenshot option that you can assign a key to (default is unbound). High-res screenshots automatically hide your UI.  To get a (normal, non-hi res) screenshot without the UI, use Ctrl+Shift+H.

• Want to get your character out of the screenshot? Zoom all the way in and type ‘/sleep’.

• Note: You can also convert the high res screenshots to the bmp format (avoiding the lossy jpeg format) by putting '-bmp' on the gw2.exe command line (dulfy.net: thanks to ‘lazjen’ on Reddit for the tip!)

• Stereoscopic 3D screenshot and rendering (in ‘Options’): it kind of creates an image where the UI lies on a different layer (foreground) than the main gameplay area (background).

• Waypoint travel:  hit 'M' to pull up your map. There are 3 levels (see bottom-right): Upper level, Surface, and Underground. You can click each of the levels to show a different map. Wherever you need to go, just find a waypoint near there and use that to fast travel to that location rather than getting lost or running all over the place trying to find it.

• You can teleport to ANY bind point you've unlocked from anywhere, even ones inside instanced areas. No need to port to the city gate and run in - you can just port straight to where you need to go in the city. This is one of the big reasons there are no mounts in the game. Note: waypoint travel inside city limits is free of charge! Only exception is when you’re traveling from/to a race’s home instance, as it is considered to be a different ‘zone’ than that of the city.

• There is an Asura gate in your home city that links directly with Lion's Arch. From Lion's Arch you can port to any other racial home city. This makes it possible for even the lowest level characters to meet up with their friends and play together, regardless of their race. ArenaNet just defeated racism :)

• ??? Respawning from a bindpoint when you're killed costs no money. If you're flat broke and absolutely have to port somewhere, try getting yourself killed. Be creative. There are many opportunities for spectacular death.

• If you're far away from a city and want to return there for free, just go into PvP (press 'H', second to last option on the left side of window) and enter the Mists.  Then do a couple of portal jumps and end up back into the town.

• Getting to WvWvW: from the Mists (see above on how to get there) there is a portal to the ‘Eternal Battleground’, which is the center map in WvW. But if you portal to Lion's Arch, there are portals that can take you to any of the Red/Green/Blue server maps.  So if there is a queue for the ‘Eternal Battleground’, try the others and you will still contribute to your home server.

• There is an auto-loot system actually - it's in ‘Options’. You still have to hit 'F' to search the fallen body, but it'll automatically pick up everything for you so you don't have to click each individual thing. It can still be somewhat annoying if there's an NPC near you since there is no dedicated loot button and you'll tend to "interact" with the NPC a lot by mistake, but it's worlds easier than clicking each item individually.

b] Weapon acquisition and Skill training

• Get weapons, learn skills. Well, if you have a little bit of money (something in the range of 50 copper or so) then you can head to your "home." It has all sorts of merchants in there. You can find an Armorsmith and Weaponsmith as well. Buy your weapon of choice and start swinging it around, killing a few mobs in the process, while you unlock the skills it grants you! If you’re also curious about which weapons you can wield and what they do, the answer is very simple. In your Hero window (default: ‘H’), under the ‘Skills and Traits’ tab, you’ll see your Weapon Skills. Here you can preview all of the weapons available to your class and all of the skills associated with them. Try them out in the Mists: there are plenty of training dummies and non-lethal opponents there for this purpose.

• Note: this is subject to change, but currently to unlock a skill you only need to deliver the killing blow on the mob with the weapon you want to unlock skills for.???

• Spend your Karma and get your gear upgrades early on! This will ensure that your power stays in line with the mobs you are fighting, since the “get quest, do quest, get reward” runaround in traditional MMOs has been condensed to the “participate, buy stuff with Karma earned” mission structure in GW2. Remember: You will accumulate Karma quickly and you get no interest from banking it. Earn it and spend it!

• Once you hit level 7 you can equip a second weapon set and swap between them at will (default: '`'). Note: Elementalists and Engineers are excluded. Generally it's a good idea to have one of these be ranged and one melee. Not necessarily, though. Whatever floats your boat. Weapon swapping effectively during combat is one of those things that separate the pros from the noobs.

• Your 7, 8, 9 skills unlock at level 5, 10, and 20 respectively. To get skills you need skill points. Do skill challenges for skill points. Additionally, every major city has a few skill points that you can just buy. Note: Vendors who sell skill points are marked on the map as blue arrows.

• Don't neglect your underwater weapon. It's worth the time to spend the effort committing fishicide to unlock your weapon skills. You'll be happy you did when you run across that veteran drake. Note: The best place to get really good underwater weapons/masks is looking for tasks that are underwater. The karma vendor there will usually have some nice underwater items.

• Sheathing weapons: again it is available, but not set to a hotkey by default.  Go into ‘Options’ > ‘Control Options’ and map a key to "Action: Stow/Draw Weapons".

c] Attacking and Defending

• ‘Tab’ key will jump from target to target, BUT there is also a "closest target selection" which is not mapped to any key by default.  Go into ‘Options’ > ‘Control Options’ and set "Target Foe - Nearest" to a key. Note: in the original GW, ‘C’ was the default.

• Call targeting: you can call out a target to your party by selecting the target and doing either CTRL+T or CTRL+SHIFT+T. I'm not sure exactly what your party members see, but I believe that if they hit ‘T’ at that point they will acquire the same target.

• You can set any skill to be your "auto-attack" skill by CTRL+click (LMB) on the skill.  When you click that skill, you will repeatedly execute that skill until you select another skill or the target dies. 

• Auto-targeting vs. extending the chain skill on the next mob when current target dies mid-chain. This method is a little harder in some ways and easier in others, but it's just a different way of going about it. Rather than disabling auto targeting altogether, instead we want to set a hotkey in ‘Options’ > ‘Control Options’. The option is “Targeting: Hold Lock”, which locks the auto-target while held down. So, you can set this to something like say... ‘Shift’, and then when you're about to kill something you hold down Shift (or whatever hotkey you chose) and it won't select a new target once your current one is dead. All you have to do is let off the "hold lock" key you designated to begin auto targeting again. Overall, the best all around solution I think. Very useful.

• On your skill bar, the number on the skill will change color based on whether the selected target is within range of player: Red number = out of range, White = in range. Note: a thorny circle around the skill’s number indicates AoE skill (i.e. ground targeting).

• Ground targeting skills – vs. Fast casting. You have many options for this:

     1. Press hotkey, aim ground reticule, cast by pressing left mouse button (LMB)
     2. Press hotkey, aim ground reticule, press hotkey again
     3. Move mouse to target area, and rapidly hit hotkey twice to simulate fast cast
     4. Go into ‘Options’ > enable "Fast Cast ground Targeting", then aim mouse at target area and tap hotkey for fast cast.

• Be on the lookout for circles on the ground: Red circles have a bad effect on you, Blue circles have a beneficial effect on you and White circles have no effect.

• Knowing exactly how many seconds remain before a particular ability is useable again (cooldown timer) is an extremely important piece of information. Luckily, you can enable this option easily by going into ‘Options’ and enable “Show Skill Recharge”.

• Learn to watch opponent animations. These will indicate to you when you might want to think about dodging or stunning. If you run up to a mob, usually they will pause for a split second to punch you or to wind up a big attack. Use this to your advantage. If you do it successfully, you see an “Evaded!” text on the screen and avoid the damage completely. A single dodge will use up about 40% of your energy bar (endurance), allowing to dodge twice in rapid succession if needed. Note: getting out of line of sight (LoS) is a good strategy against ranged mobs.

• If you don't like the double tapping to dodge, you can map a single dodge button and you will dodge in the direction that you’re currently moving (or backwards if you’re not moving)

• Look at your skill tool tips and check for conditions. Conditions are fight changers. Sure you can just spam 1 and win, but proper use of conditions will greatly increase your survival and speed of killing. Note: you can greatly increase the effect of conditions and boons alike (duration and intensity) by investing points to respective Traits and enchanting your gear (adding runes, etc.)

• You don't need to visit a class trainer until level 11. Your class trainer will unlock your traits for you. After level 11 you will receive another trait point every level. Be sure and use these. They make a HUGE difference to your character strength.

d] PvP

• You can spend the glory you earned from PvPing to purchase new looks. These glory merchants will sell you rank 1 vanity PvP armor at 1500 glory and items costs around 500-1000 glory each.

• The most reliable way to get into WvWvW is NOT to go 'Into the Mists' (via the ‘H’ero panel) and the gate there to enter the ‘Eternal Battlegrounds’. Instead, go to Lion's Arch and use the gates there. There's a gate for each team and it will port you to your team's stronghold.

• The glowing square on the wall of the WvW fortresses is a gate that allows you to enter a fortress your team controls even when the gate is closed and the fortress is under siege. Attempting to sneak past the sieging army is another matter.

• In WvW ALWAYS try to have some supply with you. You can get supply from fortresses you control (supply caches have a barrel icon) or you can get it by killing supply caravan dolyaks. Supply is used for building siege equipment and no single player can carry enough to build one on their own. There is little more frustrating than a half built battering ram at the door of the fortress you're trying to take because not enough people were carrying supply.

• Based on each world’s war score, Power of the Mists, a special buff that is applied to everyone on that world in PvE and WvW environments is applied.  This means that if your world performs really well in WvW, everyone can reap the benefits! Note: You can see your world’s war score, buffs unlocked and other WvW info by pressing the ‘N’ key.

• Remember: quest-wise, in GW2 you have your personal story, renown hearts and dynamic events. XP-wise you also have mini-games (aka Activities), hidden area puzzles, achievements (daily/monthly), gathering and crafting. That’s all, assuming you’re just going for the PvE aspect of the game ;)

• Also remember: there’s no ‘kill steal’ here! Everyone participating in a fight gets credit. Always feel free to jump in and lend a hand to someone. People that need to be rezzed are marked on your map and mini-map.

a] Personal Story

• The glowing green star on your map is your personal story quest line. Recommended level for it is listed next to it in your quest log on the upper right corner of the screen. Your story quest will lead you to new areas as you progress in it.

• Feel free to bring friends on your story quest, even if they're the same class. If they're on the same stage of the quest they'll get the option to accept the quest results to complete their own quest as well. Note: Your story decisions you make during character creation determine what your personal story quest lines will be.

b] Renown hearts

• Talk to the guys marked on your map with a telescope icon (Scouts). Even if you don't bother listening to what they say the will still mark all of an area's heart quests and skill points for you. Each scout marks a different set of hearts.

• Mouse over hearts on your map and it will tell you their recommended level. This can give you a good feel for what area you should be heading to next.

• Pay attention to the event text on your quest tracker. You can spend a lot of time fighting endless enemies if you don't realize you're actually supposed to be defending the worker at the top of the hill who's currently lying dead in a bush.

c] Dynamic Events

• Since events are location based you never know just where you'll find one. Don't wait until you have a reason to go look in that cave-the reason to go there may very well be in the cave. Go look! There are adventures to be had!

• If you see a different looking dynamic event box that has a background and stays active in a wide area, this is the zone’s meta-event and requires coordination over a wide area to progress. The finale of these events is usually really, really satisfying. For instance, in the human zone, there is a gigantic scary netherworld monster.

• Also sometimes NPCs will beckon to you or run up to you and say “hey jerky, help a bro”. Talk to these NPCs. They will reveal previously hidden dynamic events.

• Many different events can occur in the same area. Revisiting an area may provide a completely different experience. Events also can have long pass/fail event chains and you may come across them in many different stages. The further into the game you go the more complex these event chains get. Note: Stick around after completing an event. Often there will be a follow up event that triggers a minute later.

d] Hidden area puzzles

• Explore. There are hidden things all over the place, including hidden jumping puzzles that have treasure rewards. Some of these are keyboard smashingly hard. Many of them also have veteran level mobs that are placed in such a way as to make strafing and dodging very difficult. Bring a friend. Note: The Demongrub Pits are in southeast Queensdale (Human 1-15), the Shaman’s Rookery is on the west side of central Wayfarer’s Foothills (Norn 1-15), and the Charr have theirs at the Loreclaw Expanse in the Plains of Ashford (Charr 1-15). They are amazing, and should not be missed. They give decent loot too.

e] Achievements

• ‘Dailies’ are easy and pretty quick to complete and they reward with XP and influence points (for the Guild you're currently representing). Note: there are 3 Tiers per achievement, so don't stop 'till you had enough!

• Reviving other players is very important. You will get experience for reviving other players in addition to their gratitude (hey you just saved them a repair cost, they should be thankful!). Note: there’s also an achievement associated with reviving fallen comrades, so you get double the benefit ;)

f] Gathering and Crafting

• You want to gather. There is no gathering skill. If two people hit a node, both get full reward – materials and XP. You can get upgrades for your equipment in the form of crystals from gathering. Even if you don’t intend to craft you should gather for the crystals.

• You will need a consumable to gather. Axes are for logging, picks are for mining, sickles are for herbs and veggies. Most merchants sell these. Note: remember to buy the right tool! The cheap tools can not gather the higher level resources. Also, gathering tools come in various tiers, you will need to upgrade to the next tier while gathering items in a high level area or you will get nothing but junk.

• Crafting can be fun, and if you like to craft definitely check it out. I would recommend taking one of the “armor” professions, such as ‘Leatherworking’, so that you can craft bags for yourself. Be forewarned: ‘Cooking’ (which yields consumable buffs and the like) can be a lot of fun, but it is hardcore. Also make sure to look for tabs from the merchants near the crafting areas. Note: some materials can (only) be purchased from Karma vendors.

g] Level restriction? Not really!

• You can’t “out-level” a zone in GW2. The game will dynamically scale your level downwards, so the rat-dog you killed 10 levels ago can still kick your butt now. The rewards, however, remain relevant to your actual level.

• There is no reason why you have to go to a higher level zone. If you finish a 1-15 zone, consider going to another 1-15 zone. You will be automatically down-leveled for that area and get appropriate rewards. Note: remember there are 5 races and all have their own "1-15 zone"!

• An easier way to check your “alternative level” as pointed out by ‘Wolfhammer’ on the Gw2guru forums is that if you look at the left side of your XP bar, the effective level would be in green text with brackets with a downward pointing arrow, like "3↓ 7", where 3 is your effective and 7 is your actual level.

(Real level: 7, effective (scaled) level: 3)

• Footnote (with a wink): Use Gems to buy XP-boosts! Press 'O' (default) and spend 150 Gems per pack.

• Most of the things you’ll be doing in the game, from the most mundane ones, like moving around, to the most eclectic ones, like crafting, require money. Particularly in the first 12-15 levels, you will find yourself in tight spot many-a-times. So here’s a couple of ways to get out of such situations:

a] Exploring

• Both money and items (gear, mats, etc) are rewarded for getting that 100% exploration in a map area

b] Questing

• The mail you receive from completing (renown) heart tasks has money attached to it. This is easy to miss. Don’t forget to click on the Take All button in the mail body to take your rewards. Note: you can access your mail anywhere in the game. Just click on the mailbox icon in the upper-left corner.

(image: GWInsider)

• The medal you receive when completing (dynamic) events also shows the XP, money and Karma you received. Note: Loot rewards are generally only from drops, (personal) story quests or major achievements.

• If you find yourself in an event with one of the mega-bosses be sure and stick around afterwards to get your share of loot from the treasure chest they drop.

c] Salvaging and Gathering

• Some items that are listed as crafting ingredients (particularly gems and crystals) can also be used by anyone as equipment upgrades. Be sure and read the item text before selling it. Most equipment has upgrade slots available.

• If you salvage old gear that has a full upgrade slot you have a chance of getting the upgrade back. The better your salvage kit the better the chance.

 

d] Gold for Gems and vice versa

• Go to the Gem Store (press “O”) and click “Buy more gems”. You may be asked for your credit card information, but you shouldn’t be charged for the 500 gems that will magically appear in your account. Cash them in for gold to fund your crafting, or get a trading business going. You can also spend them on stuff in the gem store, but you don’t get to keep purchased items after launch, obviously.

• In game money can be used to purchase gems for the gem store. Real money gems can be sold to other players for in-game money. Prices fluctuate and are determined entirely by supply and demand on your server.

e] Loot

• Naturally you can expect to have some profit from all the loot that will come your way. No matter its quality and whether you decide to sell it to a merchant NPC or to the Trading Post (default: ’O’), or to break it down for raw materials (see Salvaging above), there’s always money to be earned. Note: mouse-over the item in your inventory to know at once its value at the merchant NPC; right-click on it and select “Sell at Trading Post” to find out its current value on the broker. Easy to avoid regret and pain ;)

• Note: ‘normal’ quality items (armor and weapon) do not soul-bind when equipped. This way you can trade them or sell them when you no longer have a use for them. Otherwise, you can always break them down for raw materials. However, never forget about ‘transmutation’: it may be the case that the ‘obsolete’ weapon/armor has a nice skin. In this case you can either use it yourself or sell its skin to another player – for a fair price of course!

• Your bank is account wide so you can put items and cash in there and any character on your account can access them. This is great for the times you get a nice weapon you cannot use but an ‘alt’ may be able to.

• Right-clicking on crafting materials (“collectibles”) in your bag(s) will auto deposit them into your bank storage. Note: your bank has a separate, larger storage area for crafting materials and it automatically organizes them for you. However, do not forget to withdraw before hitting the crafting benches!

• Crafting materials irrelevant to the crafting workbench you are currently using are filtered out of view! This helps immensely to keep things really simple and easy to monitor.

• Each crafting material has a text description which identifies the crafting disciplines that require it. Names are color-coded (red: you have not learned the discipline, white: you have, white with red number in brackets: you've learned the discipline but you don't meet the level requirement for the craft).

• You can sell things at the ‘Trading Post’ from anywhere by right-clicking on the item and selecting the “Sell at Trading Post”.  But to buy things, or collect the money you’ve earned from sold items, you need to find a trading post NPC and collect.

• You can split a stack of items by ALT-clicking (LMB) and dragging the stack to open the split dialog panel.

• You can buy or craft bags that have sorting rules attached to them. For example, you can have a 'Do Not Sell' bag and anything you put in it will not be listed on the sell tab at vendors. Note: ‘Armorsmith’ (100) can craft 8-slot bags.

• During last BWE the Inventory UI got re-designed! One extremely useful option they added allows for ALL the crafting materials (“collectibles”) to be sent to their respective tab in your bank with just one click! I thought this was nothing sort of magic :) The entire inventory gets sorted with a mere 2 clicks now - the second being the compact option, obviously!

• Note that mini-pets (or 'minis') also count as "collectibles". So you can store them away in your bank's collectibles tab with a simple right-click, if you decide you don't want them taking up precious inventory slots.

• Additionally, one overlooked feature is the valuable "Search..." field: you can find that nugget or torch anywhere with this search-as-you-type feature!

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