Here’s how to unlock a utility skill (once you have the option):
Open your Hero Panel (hit H).
There are a series of icons down the upper left side. Click on the 2nd one down, the pair of … octagons? Some geometric shape.
That will give you three tabs on the left, Weapons, Skills, and Traits.
Click on Skills.
Now you will see a few tiers of skills to the right. The first tier costs one skill point per skill, the next is 3, the next 6, and then you get to the Elites at 10 followed by 30.
You cannot view locked tiers to see what they are (well, used to be you couldn’t, dunno if the NPE changed that). But unlocked ones you can mouse over to see their description. Click on one to buy it with your skill points (which you get at certain levels, or by doing skill challenges in the world once you are at a level that permits that).
You cannot undo a skill point purchase, but over time you will get more than enough skill points to unlock everything, so pick what looks fun or find a guide to the “best” ones.
Your hotkeys 7,8,9 are your utility skill slots. Once you have skills unlocked you can click the little arrow on the top of the slot to get a popup of available skills, and click on the one you want in that spot. You can assign any utility to any of the three slots.
Slot 6 is your heal, and you can buy other heals than the default starter one. Personally I save heal changes for later on unless on a profession that simply gets a better one.
Slot 10 is your Elite. It won’t open up for quite a while. Be advised that you will have profession elites and racial elites, and by design the racials are a tad weaker than the professions as ANet didn’t want anyone to feel they had to play a specific race.
I hope that all helps with basic mechanics. Those of us steeped in this game can forget that some things aren’t obvious.
