Guild Wars 2

OK, I’m coming along nicely as a new player, got an Asura Engineer and a Human Warrior, and got both to level 7. I really like the game and am enjoying playing it.

But the whole crafting and gathering thing has me puzzled. I bought both characters the necessary items to gather with, but how and where do you find things to gather? I’ve acquired a few odd bits and pieces of crafting materials as loot and banked those, but are there no nodes to mine or plant-y things to gather or animals to skin? Do you perhaps have to select a profession and then these things appear? And I’m not sure how to fish. Can you buy fishing gear or is it a kind of drop?

Many thanks for any help.

Ore, wood and plant nodes in your proximity are noted on your mini map with little symbols (not your big map). You can also obtain those, as well as cloth and leather, by salvaging equipment and salvageable items, that drop as loot from mobs, with a salvage kit that you can get from a merchant.
Lootbags, that drop from enemies, also contain crafting materials, when you open them.

Fishing doesnt exist.

I found a pretty good screenshot on google to illustrate it:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oYfiOngCSSE/UElDxZ4QUlI/AAAAAAAABgI/c-pQ-VWCHH0/s1600/gw2.png
the red-circled icons are ore nodes. use a mining pick on them. You still have to find them (usually very easy, sometimes behind bushes or up a cliff) If you have the mini map zoomed in and you are not on the same level as them, the map will tell you if they are above or below you.
I found a picture of a node! http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/thumb/a/a3/Copper_Ore_(node).jpg/238px-Copper_Ore_(node).jpg
copper, in this case. They tend to stand out a bit from the background (each type of node will look slightly different)

ah, here’s a better picture: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uYW_r8KHH2Q/UD15_fkkiHI/AAAAAAAABc8/_uSjp1bwp9c/s1600/diablo.png
top left has 6 ore nodes, then one log and 3 plants.
top right has one ore and 2 logs
bottom has 5 logs, 2 ore, 3 plants

some people have a mission to clear-cut everything, “if I see it on the mini-map, it’s as good as harvested”. personally, I tend to gather it only if it’s on the way, or orichalcum or ancient wood or platinum or omnom or truffle (those are worth >2s)

you can also get materials by salvaging things. not everything is salvageable, but most is. If it’s an armor or weapon type you can’t use, it’s not a bad idea to salvage it. For rare/exotic items (level 68+ with a yellow or orange name), I recommend using a better salvaging kit (master or higher). crude kit is good to salvage white, blue, green, and salvageable items.

OK, thanks. I’d trundled both characters around the areas they’d so far explored and didn’t find anything. But…….. now, after looking at the pictures I have a better idea of what I should be looking for so will try again. I’d like to take up a couple of crafts on each. I played WoW previously and found many crafts available there (they call them ‘professions’) to be useful in all sorts of ways. So I’ll trudge off later and see what I can find. Thanks again!

Btw, these icons on the map show up whether you’ve gathered that material or not? I’d wondered if perhaps the icons didn’t show up until you’d actually found something and gathered it, sort of like a reminder to try that area again.

No the nodes show up but only if you are reasonably close to them. They vanish AFTER you gather them. When you are close on the map, hold down ctrl, that will bring up the yellow name tag on the node so you can see it better.

BUT – Be careful. There is a trap here.
Unlike WoW where you can make money crafting, here it’s a gold sink.

Crafting grants XP and is used as a quick way of levelling alts so it carries a cost penalty. For your first character, I would suggest collecting materials from nodes but instead of crafting, sell them on the trading post (do NOT vendor anything to merchants until you are absolutely certain it’s worthless).
You need to buy gathering tools (some merchants sell them – you’ll have to search around)

Again, many thanks. I’ll try the whole thing out later. Crafting on WoW is really more of a money sink too, but I liked having characters that could make items for alts or guildies. Haven’t tried selling on the Trading Post yet, but will – I assume you’d know from the price and the competition when you go to put it on just how valuable what you’re selling is. Got gathering equipment already on both, so am ready to try it. Another way to garner XP would be good with lower level characters.

yeah, the node (and map icon) disappears after you mine it. usually, ore (and logs) takes 3 swings and gives 3 ore (or logs) – possibly more. plants usually take 1 ‘swing’ and gives 1-5 plants (depending on the plant).
I say ‘usually’ because there is a chance that the node will give you another chance. This depends on how well your server is doing in World vs. World. You can read up on that here. There have been times I’ve mined from the same plant 4 times (max 20% chance to gather more; get lucky 3 times).
If you zoom the mini map in all the way (move the mouse over it and mouse-wheel up), you will be able to see all nodes in your area (that is a good approximation for the distance your mini map will show nodes).
Some place don’t have any harvesting nodes. such as Lion’s Arch, Rata Sum, Divinity’s Reach, Hoelbrak, The Grove, Black Citadel. The major cities. also a couple other places. in general, if there are enemies in the area, there are likely harvesting nodes.

crafting can be profitable, but generally isn’t (I make big profits crafting, but I pick and choose what I make carefully). There is almost no way you will be able to find enough materials to make yourself items that you want to use. Even if you gathered 100% of the time, you would still get more experience from gathering and map completion to gain more levels than those materials would let you make at crafting. It’s a little silly, but crafting is mostly end-game stuff, and things you can make for your alts.
You should know about crafting: you can have one character learn all the crafting professions, BUT you can only have 2 of those professions be active at any time. You can switch between them, but it costs coin to do so – relative to that profession’s level. at level 400, I think it costs 40 silver. Not so much for a one-time thing, but expensive if you want to craft once a day. Easier to just have each of your characters have 2 professions, then just have 4 characters.

Thanks, everybody, for all the helpful suggestions. I’m making sense now of the whole thing. Yesterday I mined some copper ore and cut down a tree in Metrica Province. Yay! I’m not yet sure what crafting things I will take up, but at least now I’m beginning to gather stuff.