So you decided to play Guild Wars 2… well done, welcome!
No? You are still thinking about it? Then watch this fan made video trailer.
Options
Before you start a new game, it’s always a good idea to have a look at the options, even if some of them could be obscure at the beginning. The Guild Wars 2’s option panel (default F11) allows players to modify language, graphics, sound, keyboard shortcuts, how you interact with objects, how you cast your skills and other stuff. At the bottom of the panel you can also check your frames per second (FPS) and network latency (ping), if you are curious.
Some general options that I suggest to enable are “Show Target Health Percentage” and “Show All Usable Object Names”(both disabled by default). Other useful options in Combat/Movement are: Double-tap to Evade and Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range. The first one might be better to untick it, since you may activate a dodge accidentaly, for example during a jumping puzzle, when you simply want to slightly move your character; if you have a gaming mouse (or at least a mouse with 1 extra button) it would be a very good idea to bind the dodge to it, since it’s a very important and common action. The second option (lock ground target) prevents you from moving the target area, when you are casting an AoE skill, to a location out of your range. By default you can move the target area everywhere (the circle will become red out of your skill’s range) but if you tick this option the ground target marker will reposition itself to be at maximum skill range when placed too far, making faster to cast AoE skills. In the key-mapping then, I suggest to assign a key to Next Ally: in this way you will be able to switch target when two or more objects (they count as allies) are placed very close to each other (sometimes players put banners one on top of the other, making impossible to select them manually).
A very well made tutorial about the game in general, the graphical user interface, the icons used on the map, map tooltips, dynamic events, NPCs, and some useful tips for new players, is the following one:
Since wall of texts are boring to read and the GW2’s player base is particularly helpful (but never ask “how do I…” in WvW or type… actually never write anything during a PvP match, even if they say “hi”), I will link another very well made video about the combat system in Guild Wars 2.
For more specific questions, the official wiki is a powerful tool. You can also open it while playing: simply type “/wiki ” (without quotation marks) in chat, followed by the argument or item you want to read about (Shift + left click on the item to add the link in chat. This also works for waypoints and Points of Interest).
If you like to check your skills (or other professions’ skills) and think about your future gear, this Build Editor is a very good tool as well. There are also a couple of specialized websites for “meta” builds, but I wouldn’t recommend new players to take them very seriously, especially if they play for the first time and with a F2P account. Just try and find yourself what you like the most; in the end, every build is viable and the main purpose is to explore and have fun, not to copy what the others say.
If you want to have a chat with someone, considering that you can’t post on the official forum, you can open the LFG (Looking For Group) with Y and check the second tab, under Mentoring: here you will find players willing to help you, answering your questions about the game and giving you tips. If it’s empty… just post your request, don’t be scared!