Guild Wars 2

My best contribution I can think of: Map your center mouse key (usually the wheel) to the ‘1’ key. It will allow you to start the autoattack and usually autotarget as well. Might want to remap tab to autotarget closest instead of next, but that is all a style consideration.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with mouse speed too, it can make a difference.

And having a programmable mouse you will love having a button mapped to the ‘V’ key, it makes dodging so much more controllable (for me at least). Mapping a second one to the F1, and a third to the ‘6’ key also has shown promise but I’m still working through those options and not sold yet.

I move around a lot, way more even than most of the self-proclaimed PvP gurus, and this is part of what enables it. Maybe I’m just a natural, or maybe I move too much, I dunno. But I do avoid hits a lot more than most others, at least in PvE, which is where I enjoy playing.

I’ve got one that I think hasn’t been mentioned yet.

Use Map Filters to your advantage.

The little eye down at the bottom left of your map brings up filters. If you are struggling with map completion, turn off everything except completion. If you’re looking for crafting places, turn off everything except Crafting etc.

When out in the world, you’ll probably want them all on, but using them at specific times to find things is a life saver.

Cheers.

I never thought to look to see if you can keybind the weapon swap…. Totally gonna die a lot less now.

lanky, +rep for that i never even noticed the icon before!

Here’s another tip that might seem obvious to some people, but certainly caught me by surprise.

If you’re coming from WoW, you may assume that Blue gear is better than Green gear, because that’s the way it works in WoW.

Wrong. In GW2, it’s the opposite. Green gear is better than Blue gear. Especially important when buying from Heart vendors for Karma, because they usually offer Green and Blue versions of the same gear.

Cheers.

Lankybrit.4598:

Here’s another tip that might seem obvious to some people, but certainly caught me by surprise.

If you’re coming from WoW, you may assume that Blue gear is better than Green gear, because that’s the way it works in WoW.

Wrong. In GW2, it’s the opposite. Green gear is better than Blue gear. Especially important when buying from Heart vendors for Karma, because they usually offer Green and Blue versions of the same gear.

Cheers.

Just remember, GW2 actually does the rainbow color order correctly, something that used to bug me to no end in WoW:

Rainbow: White -> Yellow -> Orange -> Red -> Purple -> Blue -> Black -> (then back around to Grey -> White)

GW2: Grey -> White -> Blue -> Green -> Yellow -> Orange -> Red -> Purple (then back around to Blue, same order as Rainbow but shifted to start at Blue, with greys and whites being the only out-of-order parts)

WoW: Grey -> White -> Green -> Blue -> Purple -> Orange (Huh? Both Green/Blue and Purple/Orange out of order)

I already know a few of those tips. Thanks for the rest

Not sure if it was mentioned, and some of you more savvy players probably already know this but: If you are being overwhelmed by one type of mob you can run and drag it into another type of mob and they’ll start fighting each other and forget about you! Only works if it’s two different types of mobs that are typically “enemies” of each other.

Calling a target (ctrl+t default) locks the target too. Some people told me this in PvP and it works against an enemy mesmer also. Usually a mesmer will clone himself and you lose your target and you won’t ever be able to find the mesmer again because all he will do will keep cloning. With target calling it’s essentially a target lock because even if you do lose the target the mesmer will still have a giant reticle over his character.

I’m actually not sure if this was intended, probably not. But they need to add some sort of target lock otherwise call target is the only available lock for melee characters atm. Melee characters really need target lock and I’m pretty sure call target wasn’t intended to be a lock.

Also, with the OP’s post about how you should apply strafe to a+d keys, you’re going to have to use the right mouse button to turn with your mouse because the left mouse messes up your movement ’cause it “immobilizes you” (it locks your character sort of).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ash_Legion_Spy_Kit

Use this for if you get overwhelmed (drops aggros), or you want to mine something but there are hostile mobs, or in dungeons where you might want to fiddle with levers or whatevs without aggros from the boss.

If you are a mesmer, keep in mind that neither the world completion star, or titles, show up on your clones.

Big one for me:
You can change your major traits any time outside combat. And it’s free. However, you need to pay to respec if you want to change the amount of points you put into the different trait lines.

If you are looking for a group to do dungeons etc

gw2lfg.com

I have no clue what the +1 does but have one.

Great for everyone that wants to start on this game. Should almost be a sticky.

It is a sticky hon

greg.3792:

9. Don’t delete your first character without first sending your backpack,goggles to your new char

Can someone clarify this one? Does the first character you ever make get a backpack and goggles while your subsequent others don’t?
Or does he just mean, in general, its a good idea to empty you character’s entire inventory to another character before deleting?

All characters get a starter 20 slot backpack. You cannot, however, transfer that backpack to other toons if you decide to delete it — it’s soulbound to the character.

I believe what he was referring to was something at launch that allowed you to save the stuff. I tried the backpack thing the other day and can confirm it doesn’t not transfer to other toons.

Jam.4521:

Hold control highlights all enemies and yellows (including collectables) in the direction you are looking.

You can enable this all the time in the options menu. It’s great for seeing the text names of characters who are trying to hide behind obstructions in PVP

This was a very helpful list!

This thread is awesome. I didn’t know about a lot of this stuff.

Great tips but some are unreadable for beginners because of excessive abbreviation

Another tip: A “look back” key is available in the options. Great for quickly checking behind you and for cinematic viewing of your character running away from infernos.

crimlet.9872:

One tip that seemed pretty useful to me was switching q/e with a/d. So instead of using q/e to strafe or a/d while holding down r-click, you have a/d set to strafe.

Yep. Also, something like the Razer Nostromo gaming keypad with its thumbstick can make things a lot easier .

PopeUrban.2578:

Hold alt and click any spot on your map to place a personal waypoint. Alt-click it again to remove it.

Hold shift and click on the map to ping points for teammates or draw lines on the minimap like you did in Guild Wars.

Remember that you can combo with yourself!

awesome!

As a total noob to this game, I thank you for this list. bows head

I just read through this whole thread while waiting for the game to finish downloading. Thanks for all the great tips!

A great site to test out various builds for your class can be found here:

http://en.gw2codex.com/

If you get the sound bug (constant bonging noise) while in a zone with a high population (WvW, dragon events), close up GW2 and go to your GW2 folder (documents>GW2) and delete your local.dat file. This file should be only about 15 mb in total, but for some reason it grows daily (a friend checked his today and it was 15 gigs, lol).

This fix has also helped stop constant crashes in game, too …. But be warned, it houses your settings and will revert everything to default …. So you’ll have to go back in and readjust.

Cheers!

Been playing on and off for a few months and only now did I find out my mailbox was full. The heart event mail (which I don’t bother deleting) gives the impression your mailbox has a huge limit, but you can have only 9/10 mail from other players.

Guys if you don’t know already IF YOU GROUP WITH A FRIEND THEY CAN JUMP IN YOUR STORY. so if you have a hard story mission then ask your high level friend/guildie HEY! can you come help me please? Then you just group up, you go in the “instance” first and then your friend gets the option to jump in and help.

Thank you Sir! Arenanet should really evaluate their tutorials and online manual. The most important things are missing(like almost everything from the list)

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned already, but if you are finding it annoying having to travel back to a city every time you want to access your bank, you can head into WvW (join your server’s Borderlands map). There are a number of crafting stations not far from the starting position, and you can use those to access your bank. Once you’re done, log back out to the character selection screen, and login as the same character. You’ll find yourself back in the original map!

Take note that WvW has a limited population, so you may need to queue for a while to get in during peak hours. Likewise, if you are there only to do banking, try to keep your business quick so you don’t take up a spot from a player who genuinely wants to play WvW.

this is a great thread follow it to a tee if a new player in the game. thxs for the tips

awesome list greg. i been playing for weeks and never knew what the red bar on skills was

Awesome advice, thank you

Tips for beginners?

If you really hate PvP, but love exploring, be ready – you’ll be forced into WvW for the last few percent of the World Completion.

If you really hate being in PUGs (Pick-up-groups), the end of the personal story is really going to disappoint you.

lbryant.4329:

Tips for beginners?

If you really hate PvP, but love exploring, be ready – you’ll be forced into WvW for the last few percent of the World Completion.

If you really hate being in PUGs (Pick-up-groups), the end of the personal story is really going to disappoint you.

You could simply choose not to do map completion and still enjoy the game. I hate anything pvp, but was pleasantly surprised that I found myself enjoying WvW because of all the teamwork involved. That, plus the crazy xp and massive amounts of karma wasn’t bad either.

The only thing you get from map completion is A: personal satisfaction and B: a component toward making your legendary weapon….. But guess what? Another part of that recipe comes from kills in WvW …. So if you don’t want to WvW, there’s really no point in map completion anyhow. But honestly, if it managed to hook my pvp-hating butt, it might be worth giving it a go.

The legendary weapons don’t mean much to me…. I wanted the personal satisfaction (which, really, is the only reason to play any game).

I’m glad you like WvW – I hated it, and I wish someone had told me before I specifically started working on World Completion (I probably would have saved my money).

Woah, I didn’t know the /kneel emote had a purpose. xD

Thanks for this list! I’m already halfway to Lv. 80 and I didn’t know 40% of this.

Thought I would add even though I am only going on my forth week with the guild wars game.

For those new to guild wars remember that if you accept a guild and represent to do it again on secondary characters you are trying.

Unlike most mmos when you make a new character the secondary characters are added to that guild as well.

Did not know this until a nasty surprise yesterday while I was trying out a new character.

I’m new to GW2. How much does it take to get gold?

Wow, thanks for this awesome post. It helped a lot.

Add “Exploration Bonus experience is given when you kill an enemy that has been alive in the world for a long time” or however you would like to word that.

Here’s my thread on the bonus experience from kills : https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/For-those-that-don-t-know-Bonus-Killing-Exp/first#post1433178

I just started playing this week and this list will be a great help. Thanks

New player here, and I find this post extremely helpful. I’ll probably refer to it again later on. Not sure if this is common knowledge, but pressing “R” will have your character run forward, and then you can just control the direction with the right mouse clicker. I did this a lot in GW and am finding it useful here, too. (:

Thank you for the information everybody. I’m 31 and havn’t played PC games sense I was in college. This is an great start for getting reacquainted.

Very good information, lots of it I already know but really helps to remind me when I just started new character.

Thank you so much. Your post has been a big help.

I still have no idea what I am doing, but this is a great start nonetheless. Thanks for posting.

Just started GW2 a week ago, this thread has helped me a lot, thanks!

I have a helpful tip to add, map a key to holster/stow your weapon, you run a little bit faster when your weapons are holstered/stowed.

ClaraFee.2579:

Jam.4521:

Hold control highlights all enemies and yellows (including collectables) in the direction you are looking.

You can enable this all the time in the options menu. It’s great for seeing the text names of characters who are trying to hide behind obstructions in PVP

I’ve been looking for that option for days (just started)… I musta overlooked it in the options! Thank You!