A few beginner questions

[Elrandir]

Hiya, I just picked up GW2 and am really loving the combat, graphics and atmosphere. I am a bit lost though concerning some stuff. Thanks in advance if you can answer me any of these questions.

Do I need to pick up a mining profession to be able to mine? I currently have armorsmithing and weaponsmithing but I can't make anything yet. Where do I pick up a mining pick? I haven't noticed the mining nodes yet ingame I read about online.

Is /say the "trade chat" like in wow? Or what is? Cause nobody is answering me, ever, anywhere even though I'm being nice and not pushy or anything.

How do I pvp? When I went to the lobby I went through a small tutorial, after that it's portal after portal and anywhere I arrive there is nobody. When I enter World vs World there is also nobody there?

How do you make any money? I've got like 6 silver and am level 8 and don't wanna waste it on any vendor weapons though I wanna try out new weapons to see what abilities they have. I currently am playing a warrior and really liking it.

Thanks for helping me on my way.

[Valeron]

Hi there, welcome to GW2

You don't need to pick up any gathering professions, everyone can do them. But you do need mining picks, logging axe, the scythe tool to use for the gathering professions. Any general merchant will have those available. There are different levels of those tools which allow you to gather higher level materials.

the general chat, which you use for trade as well, is the /map channel

To pvp you just go to the pvp lobby (for the structured pvp) and the enter the pvp portal after you have set what build you want, weapons and equipment that you want as well. You'll get a list of what arenas/battlegrounds are available and then just choose one.

For WvW, after you enter just travel to where the action is, sometimes there might not be any so just explore or whatever

For money, farming, map completions, and dungeon runs are the best avenues

[Elrandir]

Thanks a lot for your response!

Oh I can adjust my build and everything, nice. I haven't even seen any builds yet haha, I'll give that a go. Which one is the pvp portal?

For WvW how can I tell where the action is?

[Valeron]

Well there is a hot join portal and one for tournament play. I don't know off of the top of my head, but when are in the "lobby" just open your map and it should be marked out for you.

For WvW, open up your map and there will be battle indications on the map (two crossed swords I believe). That's where you go. The battles might be done by the time you get there as it is a huge map but there you go.

[Zilong]

Hiya, I just picked up GW2 and am really loving the combat, graphics and atmosphere. I am a bit lost though concerning some stuff. Thanks in advance if you can answer me any of these questions.

Do I need to pick up a mining profession to be able to mine? I currently have armorsmithing and weaponsmithing but I can't make anything yet. Where do I pick up a mining pick? I haven't noticed the mining nodes yet ingame I read about online.

As a complimentary info. I think Armorsmith and weaponsmith are a bad combo at start because they both use similar mats if I'm not mistaken. Going for maybe Jewel, Chef, Tailoring or Huntsman could be a good thing. If you chose to pursue this info but not sure how or why post again and I will explain more adequately. Also keep in mind that you are not stuck in 2 professions, you can have all 8, in fact you can each professions maxed gives you 10 levels meaning you can get to level 80 just by crafting. You can only have 2 active professions but you can change them around for little money and you won't lose progress of the one you left.

Is /say the "trade chat" like in wow? Or what is? Cause nobody is answering me, ever, anywhere even though I'm being nice and not pushy or anything.

How do I pvp? When I went to the lobby I went through a small tutorial, after that it's portal after portal and anywhere I arrive there is nobody. When I enter World vs World there is also nobody there?

After the tutorial there will be a big Norn to your left. He has a list of servers to join. There are 5v5 and 8v8. To your right should have a tournament npc that you can queue solo or make the grp yourself with /map chat. Ahead of those npcs there is the training grounds with "bosses" that you have to face on Pvp to train, some dummies to test builds, a lake for water combat training, and even the trebuchet (catapult) and cannons to train your aim.

There are also to the right kinda behind you, a pvp locker to preview armors and deposite the ones you get. And the "pvp merchants" with all weapons, amulets, sigils and runes for your builds, all for free. To the left kinda behind you there are the rank vendors. Rank 1 vendor, rank 10 and so on, they sell chests for glory, the pvp currency. Im sure you know all rewards all purely cosmetic, no enhance of power.

About the Action in WvW. If the guy isn't being a jerk, there should be a Blue Icon that is a Commander title, those usually are a group of people doing stuff, you could try that. Problem is sometimes people leave it on even when soloing so it might not be a group after all. Asking on /team also helps. Not to mention what Dooz said about the crossed swords.

How do you make any money? I've got like 6 silver and am level 8 and don't wanna waste it on any vendor weapons though I wanna try out new weapons to see what abilities they have. I currently am playing a warrior and really liking it.

Thanks for helping me on my way.

Here is a good advice that its good (or was, someone would correct me Im sure) but most don't follow (I know I didn't xD). Crafting is usually not worth the money. You will be way richer at lvl 80 if you sell the materials you gather and specially VENDOR the items you don't use (Meaning don't salvage the items you get). Just by that you should really have a better gold.

I didn't listen to this so I always salvage and always crafted, I like it that way.

If you need anything else just ask.

[KelaniScar]

First thing to say about WvW is be patient with it, it's a large scale battle so getting places can take awhile, also an incentive not to die ;P. Don't worry too much about builds until later on, having fun with the game in your own time is the best way to play, remember there's no sub!

(Also drag any friends along that you can, playing with a group is so much more fun, and I usually play solo.)

[Valeron]

Indeed, WvW is best in about a group of 3-5. Following the zerg can be fun up to a point but I get much more out of it with a small group.

[nightshark]

Personally I didn't bother doing any WvW until I was decently equipped at level 80. You just can't really make any noticable impact before that point. In small scale battles the damage is just too low, incoming damage too high. You could help with CC if your build is very CC focused, but not much else. You can follow zerg for a bit of exp, but you feel more like you are just "tagging" things for exp than actually helping out. Get your PvP fix from some hot-join sPvP games until you gain a bit of PvP experience and your character is a bit stronger. I can solo cap camps on my 80-fully-exoticed-warrior (which is a waste of time btw), but I think at level 60 it would've taken 3 warriors of that strength to cap. So yeah, upscaling doesn't actually make you even close to the strength of an actual 80.

Would def recommend getting jewelcrafting as one of your starting professions. It's the best combination of cheap and easy. Very few of its mats cross over with the other professions at all. I think copper and mithril are the only ones that do crossover and both of them are cheap. Reason I don't recommend cooking is that it's expensive if you don't use the karma vendors and you're more likely to have to waste time googling and waypointing around to find the correct materials. Jewelcrafting, you should pick up most the required gems naturally for the most part (you need about 15 or so gems per tier).

All tailoring/leatherworker/huntsman/artificing/weaponsmithing/armorsmithing use the same type of mob-drop mats, so picking up 2 in combination means you will end up spending a lot of time grinding for mats or buying them from the trading post.

[Karizee]

/m = map chat (think zone chat)
/s = say (in a small area around you)
/p = party chat

Grab the sickles, picks & axes from a vendor so you can chop trees, mine ores and gather herbs and other growing things. Copper quality for the starting zones. These do not count as crafting disciplines.

You can learn all 8 crafting disciplines on one toon but only have 2 active at any time.

The pvp lobby area (crossed sword icon) is a great place to test builds, traits, skills, sigils, runes, etc. You are boosted to 80 there, all the gear is free. There is also a portal to Lion's Arch which is the main city hub with portals to other cities. (hint: free travel)

Best way to make gold as a beginner is to farm mats as you level. Very few crafting disciplines actually make gold, there aren't many unique recipes yet so there's millions of people learning the same disciplines & recipes. Mat farming also awards Xp.

A nice list of Dynamic Event chains good for leveling
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/c...nt_chain_list/

For WvW, Eternal Battlegrounds is the main map. When you go in, look at your map for the green dots, those are your server mates. The blue diamond icon is a commander, follow him for the zerg. Stay with a group if you can. You are boosted to 80 there as well but true 80s have all their skills and traits unlocked so underlevel can be at a disadvantage 1 v 1.

For Pve - look behind waterfalls and bushes, whole other maps open up

[Elrandir]

Thanks very much for all your replies! I'll change a profession too

[Deleted]

Welcome to Gw2 mate