Getting Started in Guild Wars

Getting Started

Creating your character is pretty straightforward and basic. First you choose your name (make sure it has a space in the name) before you can customize your characters appearance and professions. Once you are happy with your character, press the play button. Its important to note that both the necromancer and mesmer professions are labeled as "advanced" professions, and as such are a little harder to play.

So you've just created your first character, zoned into the WPE starting city and are wondering what on earth you are going to do.

Firstly ignore everyone around you whilst you get a feel for the interface. For a list of the controls and some game play basics, read this thread here. It is handy to have a quick reference list as you learn the controls. Print it out if you wish.

Check out your Hero tab (H key). You'll notice that you are level 15 with a bunch of attributes (and refund points if you wish to respec your attributes). You'll notice you also have a bunch of extra skill points to learn new skills with. Next take a quick look at your skills (K key). You'll notice that you don't have much skills to start off with, but with a couple of Signet Of Captures and several skill points, it won't be too long until you have quite the selection of skills.

Now its time to take your bearings in town. Its a good bet that a lot of people will be running around talking, trading and having fun. Before you run off hold down the Alt key and you'll see a variety of NPC names and signposts. This is an easy method of finding that all important NPC. Its worth taking a few moments to acquaint yourself with the various NPCs to see what they offer. Some NPCs do not look it, but actually offer some services even if their name does not reveal what it is.

You can hold down Ctrl to see player (and henchmen) names. However in a busy town/outpost, it can be rather difficult to find a player by this method.

Now its time to find your way to the first mission. Press the M key to open up your map, and find the white icon. Left click on this icon to travel to the first map. If its not on screen, you can zoom the map out/in by left clicking, and you can drag the map by holding down the right mouse button and dragging the mouse. If the white icon is not there, you will have to unlock first it by finding the entrance to the outpost in town. Its a big gate with shimmering light, so its hard to miss. Make sure its the outpost and not an exploration zone.

Once your in the outpost, form a party (click on someone's name and press invite, or accept another's invitation) and enter the mission. Get a feel for the combat and how everything works.

Congratulations, you've now started your first mission and are on your way to fame, riches and glory.
Traveling

Each time you visit an outpost or town for the first time it becomes unlocked on your map. Once you have unlocked it, you can then use the world map to travel instantly to that location.
Henchmen

Henchmen are computer controlled party members. They have a decent AI and can fulfill their role (monk henchmen make decent healers for example). However, whilst they can get you pretty far, some battles are a bit too hard for the henchmen to finish and require human players in order to complete.

By Ctrl + attacking you can get the henchmen to attack a single target.

You can get aggro on the henchmen by Ctrl attacking, and then just before you attack cancel the attack (by pressing backwards or hit the Esc key). The result is that the henchmen will run forward and start fighting, but they will get aggro most of the time.
Exploration Zones

Exploration zones are free roaming areas that you can explore. If you have unlocked the various outposts you can actually walk from one outpost to the other. The path is filled with danger, and you will have to fight to get to your destination. Exploration zones are very useful to see the effects of various skills.

These zones also have various secrets and creatures in them, and finding these locations can be quite benificial.
Learning skills with the SoC

Capturing skills with the SoC requires you to pay attention. If you are not sure if you want to capture a skill, then keep your finger ready to press the Escape key to cancel the capture. It takes 2 seconds to capture a skill, so you must be alert if you do not want to capture a skill. Bosses all have a selection of skills that they use. Remember their names and what skills they have if you can. This information can then be traded to other players for additional skill and boss locations.
Know thy map

The world map is very useful - especially when zoomed in. Zoomed in gives you a view of everyplace you have walked, as well as showing the path you took to get to your location.
Guilds

Making a guild isn't necessarily cheap. 500 gold is what the Guild Register is asking for. With that amount of gold you could live happily for many years in Guild Wars. Gold is useful. You use it to learn skills, to craft skill charms, to buy equipment and dyes.

However 30-50 gold isn't much. A single person can collect that amount with some ease. It will take a little time - especially if you are buying skills and equipment along the way, but on the whole it isn't that difficult.

Thus if you want to make a guild, its an idea to get a group of people together who want to form the guild. 10 people and that's 50 gold each, 15 people and its roughly 34 gold each. The more people interested in making a guild, the easier and cheaper it is to make.
Obtaining gold and crafting gear

Gold and crafting gear go hand in hand. They are both required for a lot of things in the game. Obtaining them can be hard or easy - depending on what you want. Craft gear can be found from slaying creatures, or by salvaging various "salvage" materials. Most equipment can also be salvaged. Swords can be salvaged into iron, and bows can salvage into wood. Elemental type equipment can also be salvaged into weapon/armor upgrades as well. Most things can be salvaged into at least 2 different types of craft gear.

Gold is a little easier to come by. The reasoning is that you can sell craft items to the vendors. You can't buy them as that must be found - however you can sell it. Remember though, you still need craft items in order to upgrade your armor and sometimes your weapon, so you need to balance your spending between buying new skills and equipment and collecting craft items.
Camera Control

Learning to control the camera is quite important if you want to be fully aware of your surroundings (or to get that perfect action shot). If you use the mouse to move, holding down the right mouse button allows you to rotate the camera without affecting your movement. Handy if you want to look behind you, as pressing X will cause you to do a full 180 degree turn which possibly means you just started running back to the monsters you were running away from. Take some time at the start to move the camera around and see the different angles you can achieve.

- SonOfRah
RPG Stars http://www.theamazonbasin.com/gw/index.php?content=getting_started