So I just picked up Guild Wars 2 on a whim. Seeing how active the community is on it and the praise for the game convinced me in doing so, granted all the digital normal versions are sold out (which I don't get?) so I had to get the $80 limited edition.

Anyway, loving the graphics and the game so far, I picked a Charr Warrior and I'm digging it, but I need some help.

1) How exactly do combos work? I've done them by accident, but can't seem to figure out exactly how I'm doing it?

2) What's the best way to level? Sticking to my main story, or wandering into the random chaos groups going on, or doing both? Grinding on enemies seems to be pretty worthless, and I seem to be getting a lot of EXP for doing my main story line, but I always seem to be about a level behind the "recommended" level for the quest?

3) Where and how do I begin crafting? I'm assuming as a warrior, I'd want to do something to make armor and weapons, but I'm confused how to even get started?

4) How do I get money? I seem to be just getting a little copper at a time? I've also spent EXP points (the purple thingies I get for those giant group quest) to get some gear, but I'm just trying to figure out how to get better armor/weapons?

5) Also, is there a specific way to dodge? By that, does the game give a signal for when you should dodge, or just kind of watch attacks and double tap out of the way?

Any help would be much appreciated! I am a little out of my element here as this game is really nothing like WOW, so I would appreciate it!

1. The combo usually sets up an area of effect spell. Youll see, when you hover over your skills, that one of them starts a combo. Im a necro so I will go with what i know. Chillbains sets up the area affect http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chilblains and if i were to say, blow up my minion as a finisher http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Putrid_Explosion that would cause a poison blast finisher, which if you look at this chart http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo, casts an area weakness spell.

2. The best way to level is to explore. you get real decent experience for crafting but you get decent experience for everything and it all scales. So discover new areas(get exp for that) participate in the events that you come across while exploring (More exp) and do heart and story quests. Everything gets you exp and grinding is just going to bore you unless you are doign it for crafting materials. I still say take it slow through the game. You'll be the right level for what you need to do and if your storyline quest says you are underleveled go explore the world some more. PvP levels you to 80 so you dont actually have to be the correct level to play with your friends.

3. Crafting is in your default village. Just pick 2 things that interest you. (cooking will make you very poor. Take it from me. I love it but i have no money). if you go to the map you should see a small cluster of different colored icons (purple, green, tan) all with different shapes. Those are the crafting trainers. You talk to one of those to enable the skill. You can craft from recipies that you know or they have given you or you can go to the discovery pane and attempt to figure out new stuff (thats the best exp)

4. Money, Just do stuff. Like in #2 But MOST IMPORTANTLY when you complete a heart quest, check that mail that you get sent. Hatched is some number of copper pieces. Be sure to claim them. The purple thingies are karma. Monsters will drop better armor and weapons and so will quests. Btu karma is also a great source of gear from the karma vendors. Don't worry about it too much because your storyline will also funnel better armor to you.

5. Dodge when you think you need to. If you are going to die, it never hurts to dodge. I'm level 20ish and i just started seeing enemies winding up for big hits. Before that, its not as crucial but something you should play with. Just dodge and stuff.

Also, sorry dude, they totally stopped selling the game online while they battle with overcrowding. Hope you end up enjoying the digital delux version. The only way to get the game at normal price is from a physical store or another retailer outside of Arena Net.

1) Combo fields are more of what I'm familiar with, having chosen an Elementalist as my main. basically, an Ele can drop a combo field on the ground (ring of fire, for instance), and you can combo with it by charging through or something, thus gaining a fire shield effect. There are many different combos in the game, and not all of them as cut and dry as that. I'm definitely not the one to go deep in combos though, so maybe someone else can explain this one better.

2) Best way to level is to play the game. Your personal story is there as more of a supplement to the rest of the experience. You're absolutely not intended to mainline your story. The best thing to do is just follow the renown hearts (Golden hearts that act as static "quests" in this game), and participate in any and all dynamic events along the way (These are generally made apparent by being circled in orange, or having an orange drop off npc, or an orange shield, or something else orange on the map). Dynamic events net you a large chunk of experience and karma points (those purple points you mentioned in #4.

3) You can begin crafting by visiting one of the crafting masters in your capital city or Lion's Arch. The game does not do a good job of introducing crafting to the player at all, so its very easy to miss. Gathering can be done by everyone, and just requires you buy and equip the proper gathering tools (sickle for plants, pick for minerals, ax for wood). You can have up to 2 crafting professions at a time, but if you decide to swap one out for a different one, you retain all the progress you have unlocked in the previous one.

4) Money starts coming very slowly in GW2. You seem to get the most money from doing dynamic events and your personal story quests. Dungeons (once you hit level 30) are also pretty ok ways to get money, so long as you don't die too often and wrack up a large repair bill. On the subject of buying gear upgrades, the karma points (purple currency) are what you use to purchase new gear from the heart vendors once you have completed the heart quest. These are basically this game's version of quest rewards.

5) You basically want to look for tells. Any sort of wind up, flashing, or special animation is likely to mean the enemy is about to hit you with something hard, so you'd best get that dodge ready. I'd also suggest turning off double tap to dodge, and binding it to something else like ctrl or something. Double tap is ok at times, but when you get to one of this game's many jumping puzzles, you'll be glad you turned it off as you are constantly tapping directions to position yourself for your next jump.

6) Join us on mumble! If you have questions about the game, there are many of us on there pretty much all the time who have been playing since the beta weekends and can help you out with learning all the ins and outs of GW2. Even if you don't want to be in the guild, don't think you can hop on and hang with us and chat it up!

Can't really help on the warrior stuff but crafting here's couple tips playing an engineer :P

-pickup some salvage kits and burn whites and any gear you don't want or need, it will break down into mats that you can deposit into your bank from anywhere, make sure you,open all the bags that you loot to get mats from there too.

-you can dodge by double tapping a direction or by pressing v. Dodging out of the way isn't all that clear, there needs to be casting bars or something or someway to dell the difference between friendly aoe or bad aoe. Some enemies have tells like windups and emotes but others don't.

-I haven't found a great way to make money, but I could see that changing when the trade station goes up full time. It has the feature that other mmos have where you can post the price of stuff or the price your willing to pay for the mats, i was able to buy a full set of 10 slot bags for cheap last night when it finally opened up for me. the price of blues and greens were cheap to. Money does become easier to get but don't expect to be rolling in the gold like wow. I'm 38 and have 3g, but everything is pretty cheap still.

Edited format, posting from ipad runs everything together.

I'll go a bit deeper into the crafting parts, since the benefits of crafting really aren't clear in-game.

As a warrior, a solid choice of professions would be armorer and weaponsmith. A armorer can make some basic 8-slot bags, which should be the first thing you should make. Leveling up your professions requires a lot of materials which come from gathering nodes, salvaging items, and drops from mobs. It's a good idea to pick up gathering tools (you should get one tool from a early main story quest as a reward) and hit up the gathering nodes as you explore the world.

You don't need to necessarily level grind your professions early on, but leveling them up a bit does give you a nice chunk of experience (which will allow you to catch up in levels to where you should be) and more importantly allows you to make gear that you can use to hold you over till you get better gear from a drop/reward. Keep in mind that in this game, you will generally be more efficient early on if you focus on discovering new recipes than just grinding out a hundred of the same item.

To 'discover' new recipes (without buying them from karma vendors), simply use your refined materials to make various armor/weapon parts. Then go to the discovery tab of the crafting menu and drag the appropriate parts into the discovery area. Combine those armor/weapon parts with the various insignias (which are how you add stat bonuses to your gear) in the discovery tab to 'discover' the recipes for the basic bronze armor sets.

You will actually lose some money when crafting (e.g. buying the tin needed to smelt raw copper ore into bronze ingots), but in the end it's worth it thanks to the exp gains and the opportunity to keep yourself geared.