Any tips for a new player to the GW Series, played wow for over 10 years, ff online for a bit, played GW 2 from 1-50 AGES ago but getting back into it.

assuming you only want tips for GW2 now and not for GW1

Some advice would depend on wether you want to enjoy the game more casually or if you want to full min-max tryhard endgame content or where in between those 2 options you see yourself
Im just gonna try to give a bit of advice for both for now

First ofc decide which class you want to play
All classes can be viable so most importantly you should pick a class that makes you want to play it
There is a meta but most roles can be filled by different classes so there is usually a role for your class ( if you plan on goind hard for the endgame content you will probably get a 2nd and 3rd character eventually to be able to fill different roles)
If you want to get a bit of a feel for a class you can create a character with that class and enter the PvP map to test it vs some npcs in the PvP lobby as a max lvl character with full traits and skills unlocked (there is also a weapons merchant that sells you each weapon so you can try them all out)

Some classes are more straight forward and a bit easier to pick up and play (especially when playing solo):
Warrior, Necromancer, Guardian, Ranger, Revenant
Thief isnt too complicated either but rather squishy so easier to die if you make mistakes or dont know the enemy moves yet

Other classes like
Elementalist, Engineer and Mesmer can harder to master (Ele for example is very squishy and has a lot of skills to use by swapping between 4 elements which requires more knowledge and memorization compared to other classes)

my personal recommendation for a first class is usually Guardian - its not too complicated but still one of the strongest and most versatile classes in the game in group and solo play
but like i said above - since its a game and you want to have fun it is more important is that you take the class that you want to try out and the game is rather alt friendly so you can easily lvl and gear up other characters to try out those classes

There are elite specializations that can rly change the playstyle of the core class (they can be unlocked after reaching lvl 80 - 1 elite spec for each class per expansion - so atm 2 extra specs per class and 1 on the way with next expansion)

When playing in organized group content you can rly specialize into a role even though the holy trinity of tank/dd/healer is not quite as defined as it is in WoW it definitly exists and at least in raids you see it a lot)
Every class has something to bring to a fight
Boon support (Boons are buffs that are the same for everyone and different classes are better at providing different boons and each class also usually has 2 or 3 class-specific unique buffs it can bring)
Damage (some classes are better at single target damage some more AoE focused ... some more direct dmg some more condi (dot) dmg
Utility (Things like reflecting enemy projectiles, blocking, stability to prevent CC, providing good CC vs enemies or specific CC like pulls to tactically move enemies etc...)
Healing (the original core classes didnt have a really good healer spec but with the elite specs there are multiple heal specs in the game now)

There definitly is a meta and you will see some classes be accepted into groups easier but it all depends on the content and usually different classes can fill the same role just playing a little bit differently

For PvE endgame content there are:

1) Raids - 10 man instanced Boss focused fights with some trash mobs in between - the hardest endgame content there is and some bosses have additional challenge modes if you seek that
2) Strikes - 10 man instanced Boss focused fights - a good amount easier than raids and good to learn about 10 man group compositions and reading enemy animations to learn timing your dodges
3) Fractals of the Mists - 5 man instanced content with a mix of fighting trash mobs and smaller Boss fights - it scales from lvl 1 to 100 and there are multiple challenge modes for the highest levels so it can provide a good challenge while also being playable casually
There is a Gear Gate to reach the higher levels though which will take you some time as a new player
4) Dungeons - 5 man instanced content with mostly trash mob fighting and a few smaller Boss fights - this was the original endgame pve instanced content on release and is rather easy to complete by now with the powercreep of new expansion builds - can provide a fun time though if you just want to slay through some enemies while delving deeper into these dungeons (8 different dungeons with 3-4 different paths to complete on each one)

There are also Story instances that you can play through and they get better with living story episodes (added after release) and expansions
There is a lot to explore in the open world map itsself and one of the first goals you can have is completing the core game world map 100%
The new maps from expansions were even better since the expansions introduced new movement bases abilities to unlock that allowed for a lot more interesting map design

the first expansion Heart of Thorns introduced gliding (you can use gliding in the core maps too once unlocked and it unlocks account wide so can also be used on lowlvl alt chars)
the 2nd expansion Path of Fire introduced Mounts which are probably the best designed Mounts of any MMO (you will agree once you fully unlocked them :D) - one of the things that ArenaNet definitly designed right
There are 8 different mounts which all move and control differently so they each have their purpose (mounts are also unlocked accountwide so they are very alt friendly)
There are also a lot of other smaller abilities added with each expansion that serve as a way of horizontal character progression after reaching lvl 80 (apart from gliding and mounts it is stuff like learning to use thermal openins in the ground in specific maps to boost yourself up and forward etc)

One of the first things you should do after creating your character is go over the ingame settings
There are a lot of quite useful or convenient options that are not enabled by default
and also a few potentially bad options that are enabled
May be a boring thing to do but definitly worth going over it before getting used to bad settings and missing out on a better gameplay experience
Stuff to enable would be:

- "AoE Loot on Interact" (lets you loot the area around you when pressing the key for it instead of having to walk to every single corpse)
- "Autoloot: Autopickup" (prevents you from having to confirm every single looted item - you still see what you loot on the right side of the screen)
- "Show All Useable Object Names" (helps to not miss stuff required for heartquests and just general exploration)
- "Show All Enemy Names" (again helps to not miss enemies/ easily spot them early)
- "Show Skill Recharge" (no idea why this isnt enabled by default)
- "Show target health percentage" (obviously useful info)
- move the "Field of View" slider all the way to the right to see more of the battlefield at once (you can still play further zoomed in then but you will always have the option to quickly zoom out when you want to see more with this option)
- "Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range" (makes aiming AoE skills a lot more convenient since you cant accidently aim too far where they would just become uncastable)
- "Allow Skill Retargeting" (allows you to redirect channeled skills while casting by selecting a new target)

Stuff to disable:

- "Double-Tap to Evade" (you rly want to get used to being able to dodge with just a single key press like V for example - it is more precise and you wont accidently waste dodges or fall to your death just because you wanted to make 2 small steps forward before jumping)
- "Autotargeting" (unless this is your first time gaming ever and you feel overwhelmed by the controls its far better to just assign 2 keys for "Target next enemy" and "Target nearest enemy" and use those 2 keys and maybe even your cursor+clicking sometimes - having autotarget on will often prevent you from using mobility skills effectively ... for example you want to use a charge attack skill outside of combat for the purpose of getting around faster but with autotargeting on it wont just charge forward to make you faster it will instead automatically target a nearby enemy and you actually become slower since you are put into combat mode)
- "Melee Attack Assist" (prevents you from walking through enemies you have in target which can be rly annoying ... any player even remotely used to 3rd person games will be able to stop where he wants without this option so its usually just harmful instead of helpful)

i also recommend not boosting your first character
you learn a lot of basic stuff about the game and ofc also learning your class during the leveling process and since you need world completion anyway to reach places you might aswell level while completing zones to 100%
and the best thing is that you can then still use your lvl 80 boost on a secondary character when you find out what each class can do and have decided for one

edit: if you want GW1 advice too lmk and if you have any specific questions just ask

This post was edited by Kartoffelgratin on Dec 11 2021 01:31pm