User:Xmasreturns

Why play GW2?

<insert information here>

• Fast-paced action combat: moment-to-moment mastery of space and movement - it's about the player, not the character
• Highly customizable, player-defined builds:
• No subscription fee: leave and come back whenever you want
• Vibrant and lively open world: encounter
• Uniquely large-scale player battles: wage war alongside notorious player leaders or become one yourself in open-field, roaming, or objective-based conflicts

Starter tips

Settings

Investigate and adjust your Settings from the F11 menu. I recommend the following:

• General Options > User Interface > Show All Usable Object Names: Enable. This allows you to see interactable objects without constantly holding Alt.
• General Options > User Interface > Show Target Health Percent: Enable. Some enemies have mechanics that appear at health percentage thresholds.
• General Options > Combat/Movement > Melee Attack Assist: Disable. This prevents movement through enemies during combat.
• General Options > Combat/Movement > Double-Tap to Evade: Disable and set/use a keybind for Dodge instead. The double-tap shortcut can mess you up during fine movement in jumping puzzles.
• General Options > Combat/Movement > Autotargeting: Disable. This can make it difficult to stay focused on a target or to de-target an enemy when using skills intentionally without a target.
• General Options > Combat/Movement > Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range: Enable. This lets you move your mouse past the maximum distance of a skill to cast it at max distance.
• General Options > Combat/Movement > Allow Skill Retargeting: Enable. This lets you change your target to a new target during a channeled cast.
• Control Options > Movement > Swim down: Bind this key. Although underwater combat isn't common, binding this key lets you look not-down while moving downward.
• Control Options > Camera > Toggle Action Camera: Bind this key. Action Camera is an alternate camera control scheme that you can use to avoid holding down right click constantly while moving. It also allows you to move at full speed toward the camera while out of combat.

Chat window and /wiki

(emotes, chat settings and tabs)

Combine /wiki with item names (shift+click to link in chat directly), various things you see in the game, or things you want information about. Using this command in game opens a browser tab with that query/page in the GW2 wiki.

Some wiki pages I find particularly useful:

• /wiki et (Event timer)
• /wiki gu (Game updates)
• /wiki Category:Balance_updates

Notable UI elements

(on-item stuff like skin locked, level up popups, distance indicator on skills, equipment/build templates, build storage) (access bank from any crafting station)

Hero window and Wardrobe

(story tracker, hero points) (wardrobe tab at the bank)

Builds and rotations

(can ignore until 80, as that's when options open up and synergies make a noticeable difference)

Things to ignore/avoid

(red icons on items, until 80 or unless curious)

Gem store "traps":

• Boosters (e.g. experience booster)
• Repair canisters
• Transmutation charges
• Revive orbs
• Black lion keys and dye kits, unless you want to gamble

Content

(focus on open world, learning what your skills do, new msq every 10 levels as green stars) -high level explanation of the point of gathering/crafting -why would high level players come to lower level zones for dailies? What incentives do they have to help newbies -worthwhile "side content" to do while progressing through the msq (things like dungeons)

Managing inventory

Deposit materials, compact inventory, salvage Remember to sell junk (at vendor) regularly