i'll explain you most useful things to know if you wish to begin the game The basics to get started What to buy to start the game? having at least one extension gets you out of F2P account limitation and IS a big multiplayer game feeling upgrade. for those with a serious budget, when it's on sale taking the 49,99 pack with the 3 first extensions + Living worlds episodes is the best value for money discount you can get. For a almost all in one premium start i'd take this pack + secret of the obscure, and in game i would purchase Infinite Teleport to a friend quality of life item and Mistlock Sanctuary Pass Key in the Shop. Second thing you need to know is .... How will i know if im going to enjoy the class im going to play in 50 hours of grind. To do so, create a character of the class of your choice and join the edge of the mist World versus World zone (its on the top menu of the game), you will be able to try out a fully leveled character for no time investment (all skills etc...). NEXT things to know. In guild wars 2 you do have basic housing, with the vanilla game you can add the Crystal quartz node to your personnal instance as the first thing you buy to exploit this personnal mining area (worth 1 gold/day). Some nodes to buy to add to your home instance cost laurel currency, for all laurel nodes you do need a total of 90 laurels (25 25 25 15 for krait obelysk), so you may wanna focus on saving your laurels and get some completing weeklies missions. Mind that you can get Ascended accessories amulet and rings from the Laurel Vendor, for a full set you need 180 Laurels, so you might prioritize this before nodes, also, try if you play alot even if it's not necessary the first thing to take in the Wizard Vault Daily/weekly completion board, the 150 laurels every semester for 1500 wizard vault currency, take them untill you fully geared with the ascended you can get from it, and untill you have all your nodes, then you can stop purchasing them. GETTING cheap Exotic gear (called exos) the best way to find cheapest exotic gear with specific lvl 80 stats is the honor badge seller in World versus World. you just need to play WvW a bit then you will have access to a active income of honor badges. you will save 100's of golds if you play several characters. take note that doing this method is a money saver only for specific traits of weapon and armor, like viper or Celestial which are expensive from PVE side. Also there are celestial weapons which are particulary cheap from PVE side, like Greatsword, Shortbow or mace. You can also buy Arms of the people box for around 3,8 gold for a Celestial weapon of your choice since the last extension. As Celestial builds are the king of soloing pve hard content, and are also the most expensive most of time, i would strongly recommand purchasing Celestial exotic gear from WvW vendor in prio, or Viper, just check which are real expensive on trading post, but for Berserker most of time there are 40 silver option from trading post PVE that will cost less than the WvW part purchase itself. World versus world is a main feature of endgame content, i'd even say if you don't enjoy it after 10-12 hours of WvW, i would quit guild wars 2 if i were you, because its like not liking 25% of the cake in the end of a long bake. Best things to invest your real money in. Except extensions there is also a utility type of features you can unlock for real money or ingame currency converter system (that will ask you to play alot to convert to the median currency , equivalent to real cash gems). the best things i would invest in in order are : - S tier - - infinite teleport to a friend (10 minutes cooldown) - mistlock sanctuary (infinite) pass key (not always available in shop, just wait for it). - The rest (highly optionnal)- - if you like being able to play all classes, character slots (it also works as storage, and you know... we are in Storage Wars 2). - the three cash shop unbreakable recyclers (copper fed for blue, the purple rune one for green, and the silver one for gold equipment and exotic gear recycling). - material storage bank expansion (makes your mats storage increase by +250 every time you pay once, paying once makes it increase from 250/250 to 500/500, then 750/750 , etc...) - Bank tabs storage expansions - a set of Unbreakable harvesting tools with 3 glyphs chests, in which you pick 3x glyph of volatility. - once you have chose a main character, eventually 1 bag inventory slot. -having 5 shared inventory slots for infinite teleport to friend, the three recyclers and your mistlock sanctuary pass key is a big upgrade compared to base game (but is not absolutely necessary). there is also living world chapters which are not properly extension but they are equivalent to it, so you might want to get them in the end, it unlocks features, maps , etc. there are several other utilities you can easily overwrite for exemple world boss portal device becomes really limited interest with a whole map discovered character and this : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event_timers Class choice. 1) if you like World vs World and plan being a commander in your 5 base character slots pick up at least : - a Mesmer - a Guardian 2) If you like to roam and be a solo star in pvp and roaming pick up at least : - a Rogue (best pvp mobility) (deadeye is also incredible PVE DPS) - a Ranger (soulbeast/untamed elite spec, soulbeast is king of 1v1) 3) If you want pet hunting minigame inside the game pick up at least : - a Ranger 4) If you like arena? well look what top players play in meta comps videos. 5) If you like easy PVE mode pick at least : - an engineer with mechanist elite spec (easiest class). - or a revenant for the vindicator elite spec (almost easiest class). - A mesmer for a Staff/staff Mirage build 6) if you like solo fight hard achievements completion pick up at least : a) at least 1 elite spec S tier - a Mesmer | - a Revenant | - an Engineer | b)at least 1 elite spec S/A tier - a necromancer | - a Ranger | - an elementalist | - a rogue | - a guardian | 6) everything is indicative /! everything is reliable classwise (or almost, depending on updates) /! and strongly depend on which extensions you got, for this kind of information i strongly recommand you to search for content creators doing tier lists, like Syrma or Lord Hizen. 7) if you want the unique ability to help other with puzzles and obstacles and teleport them you'll need to have a mesmer. If you got only HOT/POF extension and only one lvl 80 character boost, i strongly recommand you use it for a thief , a necromancer or a mesmer, or if you want to use it on the hardest class to level up then use it on an elementalist. with only Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, the two S tier elite specs are Reaper Necromancer, then Deadeye (Thief) . A tier is Mirage (mesmer), Berserker (warrior), and Scourge (necromancer). The class that will ask you to change the less gear for best result with a lvl 80 booster is the thief, you will only need to change the Relic for a absolute S tier build. The necromancer is also a good pick, weapons are good for both scourge and reaper, and the two hander celestial sword on trading post the cheapest is at less than 1 gold. for fulling your 5 character slots with only the 2 first extensions, making a mesmer a guardian a thief and a necromancer, and keeping the last slot for key farming, or make the one of your choice, is what i do recommand, if you got several other extensions, almost all classes gets a A/S tier PVE build for soloing content, as i said check content creators. The world wide vast field of web ressources ! FOR BUILD RESSOURCES. https://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki My go-to for browsing builds. https://hardstuck.gg/ Second place I look for builds https://snowcrows.com/ Try-hard raid builds. https://guildjen.com/builds/ More experimental builds FOR CRAFTING RESSOURCES. https://gw2efficiency.com/ https://gw2crafts.net/ https://www.gw2profits.com/ THE REST Most of these resources pull live data from the game through APIs. To some of these resources you can add your own personal API from: https://account.arena.net/applications. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/ OFFICIAL ARENANET WIKI CRAZY GOOD FOR MOST QUERIES. Part of my daily routine from official wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Faction_Provisioner https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pact_Supply_Network_Agent https://blishhud.com/ UI Overlay. I use it for in-game access for timetable, event notifications, trading post watcher, radial mount wheel, and then the big one called pathing where you can download map overlays that show achievement locations etc. https://gw2efficiency.com/ Account overview, crafting calculator, material storage listing price etc. https://fast.farming-community.eu/ Daily farming checklist, alt parking, currency/item conversions (with live data), guides to set up the most profitable farming builds etc. https://www.gw2lunchbox.com/ Material promotion cheat sheet. https://www.gw2craftgold.com/ Easy money, can do more advanced stuff but I haven’t gotten to that yet. https://www.gw2profits.com/ Crafting suggestions based on inventory. https://gw2crafts.net/ Crafting discipline levelling guides. https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/ Trading post overview. https://guildjen.com/ Guides! https://gw2timer.com/ Timer overview, inventory cleanup tool etc. This has kinda been replaced by blish hud. Getting cash shop items for free (up to 52 black lion chest free key / year) If you wish to optimize which cash shop items you can get for free. you must reserve an empty slot on your account, where there will be a character to recreate and raised to lvl 10 and the end on the first lvl 10 mission quest line (every week you can do it , reset on monday). The best race and specs is to take a human commoner (raised by common folks) to go fast. Once you'll be advanced into the game playing world versus world and stuff you'll get that many tome of knowledges / week that you'll can easily afford throwing 8 on your alt to lvl him up lvl 10 instantly. the chain quests takes 15 minutes max. So basicaly for 15 active minutes / week you got a maximum of 52 Black lion chest keys / year . which is equivalent of 4300 gems ( 45 euros ) . Once you have finished the lvl 10 questline and earned your black lion key, transfer it to your bank, and then delete and recreate the character. What to do when you start (with a lvl 80 booster)? Okay so now you chose your class, you boosted it, you out of the test zone. Your character is ready. What to do? first i'd strongly recommand doing the Path of fire First mission, you will unlock raptor. then, once in the path of fire zone, get all the hero points of the first zone, and all the mastery points you can get (don't mind asking for help to get some you couldn't get that early, people can teleport you with mesmer portal, or you can jump on a turtle mount, etc...) the goal is to unlock the Canyon Jump Mastery and grab all mastery points and hero points of the first zone, then move to the second one, desert highlands. Once there, go to the Bunny mount village, and do the heart (only available if you unlocked canyon jump raptor mastery) and purchase the bunny mount. Okay so for now we are done with Path of fire. now, switch the story line, and do the first heart of Thorns mission, once done, you'll have to earn a bit of experience in first Heart of thorn map to unlock the first Glider mastery. Once done do the second mission. okay so now you should aim on getting your gliding skill to the use of updrafts (the second one), and then you should unlock itzel/nuloch/exhalted first masteries, then gliding 3. After this you have different options, if you want to get access to a gear vendor, get the itzel second mastery, or if you want to upgrade the fastest your glider, go directly to gliding 5th mastery. During this quite long process, you can also go sometimes to path of fire maps, to unlock the High vault third mastery of the bunny, it's a huge jump that will help you alot (in fact i would do it in parallel of doing the HoT masteries, just switch maps). to optimize your experience gain and participation to META events, use this : https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Event_timers when you got the 3rd mastery of the bunny and of the raptor, i would strongly recommand move to the third path of fire map, and unlock quickly the Skimmer mount, once done (it takes 10 minutes), just level up the masteries untill you reach the 3rd one (Ride the Wind). Okay so this is the end of the tutorial, if you get at least Glider 3 itzel/exalted/nuloch 1 Raptor/bunny 3 and Skimmer 3 you good with 85% of content. You should after that aim on doing your Vanilla story to lvl 80 to unlock masteries points and level up Vanilla masteries, first thing to aim in vanilla mastery is Pact Commander line at least to Supply line Management, i would recommand going all the way to Advanced Logistics for auto looting monsters everywhere in the game which is a game changer. Then you got two options, if you a fractal abuser get some Fractal masteries, if your goal is being a crafter and trying as soon as possible to have a Legendary set, unlock legendary crafting masteries (mind that for fully craft a legendary you need the last masterie of Legendary crafting, so i would start with this first, especialy if your a talented player, i would say you really may need only the 2 first masteries of the Fractal Attunement Line. Wizard Vault (milking it) There is a Daily/weekly quest board on the guild wars menu When you complete daily or weekly missions, you receive currency. if you complete the right amount of each you got a huge bonus reward. First thing i would do as a new player is instantly you get out of the test zone you go to wizard vault menu, and on top left you got a little wheel for parameters, here click, and set your missions preferences to PVE only. mind that for weeklies you'll have to wait the next monday for your mission list to permanently being modified to PVE only missions, that's why i would start on a Sunday Night! Don't forget to change the settings twice for both daily and weekly missions, they operate separately! This will be much easier and fast to complete all the missions this way. okay so now you have access to a large variety of rewards, from sellable expensive Mystic coins, to cheap bag of gold, to ascended gear, Laurels, cash Shop salvaging kits and upgrade extractors. There are things to absolutely avoid in this "shop" - essence of gold (this apply only on money dropped from mobs , which is absolutely marginal) - essence of luck - transmutation charges ( you can get alot quick from WvW) - vision crystals - black lion mastery coffers - essence of luck - the large T5 crafting bags (worthing 40 currency) - the obsidian shards, they are way overpriced all the other things are valuable, and you should prioritize the order you want to get them depending on your preferences and volume of hour played ( for a high volume of hour player unlocking everything won't be a problem if you play during the whole semester.). take in consideration the expensive gold bags costing 35 currency each only once you have milked absolutely all the rest, and you got more wizard vault currency than the one you can store.