1) As long as it doesn’t try to mod the game client and doesn’t give you an edge over other players then it’s usually OK. I can’t use Google, being in China, so can’t search for it effectively (difficult to tell if the search results Baidu come up are relevant). This link may be of help.
2) Large scale pvp is WvWvW, where 3 servers fight each other. Depending on the servers you face, fights can be as small as 5v5, 1v1, 2v2, or as kitten0v50v50. The most heavily populated servers sometimes field 90 man zergs. However, latency usually kicks in and you’ll end up in slideshow mode.
3) Exploration is broken up in to a few things. There is
(a) World exploration – finding waypoints, points of interest, skill points and vistas. This contributes to an exploration title and rewards
(b) Explorer titles – There are regions in every map that do not have any of the above. They nonetheless contribute to an exploration title and some have jumping puzzles, mini dungeons, secret treasures, diving points, mini boss fights, bits of history related to guild wars 1. Entries to these places can be under hidden rock overhangs, shrubs, waterfalls, holes in the ground
4. Linked before
5. Mesmer is the closest to a “spell sword”. Weapons have a fixed set of skills that they can use. For example, Warriors, Guardians,Thieves, Rangers and Mesmers can all use swords as main hand or off hand, or both, weapons but they all have a different set of skills tied to them. So for Warriors, main hand swords are focused around bleeding opponents and spike attacks, while an off hand sword is more defensive. In comparison, Rangers can only use sword as main hand weapons and is considered the best single target dps weapon you can use.
6. If you’re talking about in the world NPC, then yes the vast majority, if not all, NPCs have voice acted lines. So when you’re walking through a city, you’ll hear human females speaking about the fashion of a noble they’re interested in while in an asura town you’ll hear them talking about their inventions. If you hang around long enough, you’ll hear a full story chain between the NPC’s. Although the story chains loop, they do give a wonderful sense of environment.
7. As you play, you’ll find that the boosters that you can get from the gem store are only minimal 1 use time limited boosts. They’re not game breaking and most players don’t buy them as you can get them as rewards here and there. I’ve still got loads and barely use them. The rest of the things in the store are cosmetic or account upgrades like extra bank tabs, extra character inventory slots, extra character slots (you start with 5).
8. Anet’s model is to grant all players free access to the Living story chapters during the first 2 weeks of release. Logging in during the release gives you the content for free that you can access thereafter as much as you want whenever you want. If you want to get access to it after the 2 weeks, it costs 200 gems but will release it to all characters on your account permanently. Living story season 1 isn’t available yet.
9. “Quests” are not the traditional ones anymore. In each map there are “Renown hearts” which are part of map exploration. The rest are dynamic events or event chains. Event chains can be immensely fun. One of the biggest event chains spans a whole map. One of the most challenging ones is a long slog across a map escorting NPCs, losing them means you have to restart. Another short chain spawns an Elder Dragon Champion to fight.
10. It depends on class. The heavies will feel easier while the light classes may take longer as you may die more times
