Few starters I gave to my boyfriend, not sure if things have changed:
1. Pick up some gathering tools; gathering gives experience. To avoid full inventories: Deposit Materials in your bank with the clog in your inventory (deposit collectibles.) Also pick up a Salvage Kit (Crude, or Fine) so you can salvage and deposit materials or try to sell the items on the Trading Post (can be done from any place, right click, sell on the trading post.)
2. If things get rough, update your gear to blue/greens from the trading post, it’s often rather cheap. For an extra boost look for minor Runes with +10 power, it can greatly help in the early levels.
3. Try to reach every Vista (Red icons) Skillpoints (Blue) Hearts (Gold) and PoIs (Squares that colour white when discovered) in maps for experience, completing a whole map will give you decent experience. If a point is too difficult to find, you can use the i-net to cheat; Exploration-Guides Note: Skillpoints can be rather challanging, level up some more, or even better, ask map-chat for help.
4. Try out every weapon and pick your favourites (most classes can have 2 weaponsets) once you can use all 5 weaponskills. I’d recommend to find atleast 1 weapon or utility set-up that helps with your mobility, most classes have a 25% increased movement speed signet or some access to swiftness (33% increased movement speed) since there’s a lot of walking involved. (No mounts ^^") Note: Mobility skills only stack in duration (Swiftness) and the highest will take effect.
5. Once traits become available click on them to see what task you need to do to unlock them, wiki can be a great help. You can also buy them, but for a first toon unlocking them can be a nice goal in rather big world with no particular guidance.
6. Try to unlock as many waypoints as possible during your travels. If you get bored of a certain zone, move on to a different zone (press M to see level ranges.) Having at least 1 toon with access to most of the map will be helpful at level 80 for Dungeons, World Bosses, Guildmissions, Living Story.
7. Challenge yourself, try to melee (except big events) and dodge big attacks (they tend to have huge animations) and such, it will greatly help in high-end content.
8. Have a lot of fun, take your time and just enjoy the game.
And don’t delete toons as long as you’ve got free slots. A lot of classes change drastically as more traits unlock, you might regret deleting them. By simply picking a different race or a different story and travelling to a start zone you haven’t experienced yet, things can still stay fresh if a class really bores you and you can pick up the other one later if desired.
If traits overwhelm you a little and you want a referance you can find meta-builds here
